smooth1

Even on some motors we have worked on that raised the rpm's to 7500-8000 we stayed witht he Toyota belt. It held up fine.

actually the Toyota belt is better.

Yeah, since I got my Lexus my wife thinks I look ultra sexy. ;)

Maybe take a pic of the scratches so we can see how deep and seriuos we are talking about? Flitz makes a great product. Iv'e used that before with surprising results on plexiglas, and headlights.

Yeah, those were the days. We finished restoring a 1968 Shelby GT 500 KR. a couple years back. (That's my dad's pride and joy. His life was complete when we finished. LOL!!) We did a full body off restoration. When we pulled the motor, not a single bolt was left holding something together. All new internals, valves, blue printed and balanced, top to bottom. I put the motor on the bench when I was done and we moved on to body and interior. Whne the car was finally ready for the motor, we locked it down and test started it first. I pretty much eyed the initial timing to just get it started, and that thing fired right up. We never had to open the motor again, and dropped it right in, wired it up and it's ran perfectly ever since. He pulled a 12.85 in the 1/4 with it 6 months later. Heres some pics of my very first car when I was 16. My parents really loved me! ;) And then later I found this 72 Cuda for $2,200.00 off a friend. Before: After: Those were the good old days!!

Honda VTEC The original VTEC was a big step. Back in the dark ages, you had to sacrifice low RPM torque and drivability for high RPM power. Bigger cams mean more valve lift, and more valve overlap, but automakers couldn't do this, because the car would run really rough at low RPMS, and gas mileage would be horrible. Honda came up with the idea to add more lobes to the camshaft. The idea was to have the regular cam lobes for lower RPMS, but once you reached a certain RPM, the engine would switch to the other set of lobes on the cam, which were bigger and provided more lift, which keeps the valves open longer and open deeper into the cylinder. This allows for more air & fuel into the combustion chamber, thus making more power. Honda has 2 and even 3 stage VTEC systems. One thing to note, is that the original VTEC system, is not a variable valve timing system. It is a variable LIFT system. SOHC vs. DOHC VTEC SOHC VTEC = Applies the lobe changes to just the intake valves. DOHC VTEC = Applies the lobe changes to both the intake and the exhaust valves. The S2000 is a DOHC VTEC engine. I believe it is only a 2 stage and makes an impressive 120 HP per liter. (The original S2000 had a 2.0 liter engine and still made 240HP) i-VTEC i-VTEC was introduced to improve on the original VTEC system. It adds variable valve timing to the VTEC system. Now Honda not only has variable lift control, but also can adjust the timing of when the valves are opened. The addition of the VVT system to i-VTEC also smoothes the transition between lobes. It is also intelligent and can change valve timing depending on load, RPM and other environmental variables. Toyotas VVT-I system is a much simpler technology than VTEC. There is no lift control with VVT-i. All VVT-i does is change the timing on when the intake valves are opened. The "i" in VVT-i stands for "Intelligent." The system is intelligent because it varies the valves timing depending on load, engine temp, rpm, etc. By varying the valve timing, low end torque and high RPM horsepower are achieved. The intake valves are continuously variable throughout the RPM range. Meaning the VVT-i system can !Removed! or advance intake valve openings throughout the whole RPM range. Even though VVT-i doesn't have quite the same performance benefits as VTEC or i-VTEC, it is a cheaper system and has a much smoother power band than VTEC. The lines in the cam gears go straight up, the dots you see to will be slightly off the the right (let's say 2:00 position) The crank balancer will have 2 grooves. Mine has a yellow line painted in the 1st groove and white paint in the 2nd. The 2nd groove on the crank(white paint) will be TDC You can confirm this for yourself by taking out the #1 spark plug and checking with a clean poker of some kind that the piston is at the top of its travel. So long as your close, the Vvt will pull it in a adjust accordingly. I actually think you have another issue that is effecting the Vvti's ability to adjust. As for ignition timing, I have a base map I can show you, but your on the stock ECU, which OEM timing maps are based on IAT, coolant temp, knock, ect. The car has variuos timing curves that control ignition timing from the base timing curve.

Disconnect the negative battery terminal for about 10 minutes. Then jump in the driver seat and pump the brake pedal 10 times. Wait about another 10 minutes and then reattach the negative battery terminal. That should clear the cel. If it comes back, then you do have an issue yet.

So, maybe the timing is off, and the Vvt controller isn't adjusting.

Did you clear the ECU after you replaced the sensor?

I think he used red and green. ^_^

Hmm, it's hard to diagnose over the site like this. You may be stuck in the fail safe mode and your timing would be fixed at 5 degrees. Ignition timing advance for cylinder #1 should be -64 dgrees, max -63.5. Idling BTDC 6-16 degrees. A cel will come up if there is a difference of more than 5 degrees than target. Also, the Vvt system uses the oil controller valve and the Vvt system controller that all run on the same duty cycle. So you may want to look at the oil control valve as that regulates the oil pressure sent to the Vvt controller. It would help to know what the dtc codes you were getting are specifically. Maybe have your friend at the import tuner shop do a freeze frame data read to see what's really going on. Are you misfiring? How does the car run?

Looks like you've been hogging up the whole driveway with the new Honda!! People are parking on the front lawn! J/k!! The blue looks great. While you had the tires off, doing all that painting why didn't you paint the brake hubs? Like black or something to clean up all the rust? Just spray it with rust remover first. Then tape off the brake surface and spray the hub, looks really clean and finished then. The debadge looks good, I would find a chrome tip for the exhaust pipe though, and a bumber sticker that says "My other car is a Lexus."

Bartkat and I answered this for ya in the IS 300 forum. ;)

You can order one here: http://www.o2simulator.com/ It says for model year 04 + but they are all the same dual output.

Yeah, I think you'll have alot more fun that way. I hate it when they scare the heck out of you while you set up a drift turn with a quick steer, and e-brake tug, as the tires brake loose with a full on shreiking scream while death gripping the door and OS handle. Man that's distracting!! LOL!

That's some nasty stuff. I'm thinkin it might be better to live with the little spot, then using even more acidic and harsh chemicals to get it off. Your hand on the steering wheel will probably wear it off over time, as your body oils and persperation have a high alkaline ph. In a couple of weeks you'll get over it.

Yeah man!!, that's pretty close to the image I carry around of my childhood truckster. :) I don't remember the wood panels, I think ours was all that green color.

We had a Plymouth Grand Fury III, that olive puke green, and the vinyl interior to match. That thing was huge! I used to just stick my hand out the window and act like it was a wing flap on a fighter jet. I remember being like 6 years old and not being able to keep my arm down when I tilted my hand up. And would perform assault manouvers. LOL!! I used to also play this game where I would pretend I was on a motorcycle and I was riding on the side of the highway we were on, and whatever the terrain would dictate, is what I would imagine my motorcycle would do, like if there was a ditch and then a driveway, well that was a huge jump, or if there was alot of water, then I would go hydroplaning across it. I died smacking directly into walls and fences often. LOL!!!!

Yeah, I wouldn't be thinking Landcruiser's or other large SUV's for awhile anyway. I mean with gas being what it is in price, it catches up to you quick! We have 3 cars right now.(That are not project cars in the garage.) I have the IS350, it gets about 22 mpg, we have the Volvo S40, that gets about 28 mpg, ( Less if she keeps the turbo spooled alot), and I got a Nissan Sentra GXE as a beater car for when I do alot of work on one of our cars, we have a back up til it's ready for the road again. The Nissan gets 36 mpg. That car has been a god send! We drive that thing to the grocery store, and all over on errand day. People door ding it, and carts roll into it, we don't care. It only has a 10 gallon tank on it, so filling it up is cheap, and I do that maybe once a month. Best $1500 I've spent. And it keeps the wear and tear down on our nice cars. Insurance on it is cheap, and it really is a piece of mind. I leave for the shop before my wife goes to work during the week. She came out and the Volve had gotten a flat tire on the passenger side. She called me and said she had some important stuff to get done that morning, so she just jumped in the Nissan and went to work, when I got home I fixed the flat before she even got home that evening.

Great story! I can picture that as I read it, you and the cop facing each other while you were reeling in the kite must have felt very akward and the fear of your parents finding out! But still, the vision of a Vista Cruiser rolling down the highway with a kite out the back is hilarious!!!

It's like a string mop with some wax impregnated into the fibers. You only use it when there's a light coating of dust on the car, not when there's caked on dirt or mud or whatever. You just lightly stroke it over the car in one direction and occassionally shake the dust out of the mop. Done correctly it's not going to put any pressure on the paint. The dust clings to the mop and comes off the car. Of course it's assumed that underneath the dust the car surface is clean and preferably waxed. Like anything else, common sense applies. Does common sense get applied before or after the coat of wax? And where do I get some? Is it expensive? :)

Sorry, I miss typed, it's an R154, and it's from the older turbo Supra's.

Yes it will fit. It's not a direct bolt in, but the GTE swaps are done all the time. You will have to swap the ECU and tranny, driver shaft and rearend gearing as well, if your gonna do it right. Most just opt to use a stand alone ECU like AEM or Haltech. And you'll need the getrag manual tranny, which is why you'll need to change the driveshaft and rearend gearing.

I don't like being bullied. Which is what the gas companies are doing. I think the whole gas price issue has been way out of hand, and I want to do "something" about it, but it would take a world effort. I think we need to effect a big business conglomerate to apply the pressure for us. Like if all the smokers would say I have to give up ciggerrettes in order to afford gas, then the big tabbacco industry would get involved and "Vinnie two tone" the lawyer would assemble a meet, we would see gas prices plummet for sure then.

I guess I got confused. Your not using the E3 spark plugs?