don corleone

checking the gas tank is easy. in your trunk there are some small screws that hold the carpet to the back. if you look on the top and unscrew the screws you can see the gas tank and probly see if or where it is leaking from

if you view the file i've uploaded you can see an exploded view of both the 90 and 91 front brake systems. the only difference is the single to dual piston change but the dual piston caliper uses the same amount of space as the single. do you see the torque plate. exactly the same. I completely agree that the single and maybe the dual piston calipers suck seeing as most honda civics of the era have single piston calipers (much lighter car). the main thing that SS brake lines do from the reviews ive read is that it firms up the brake pedal by removing the expandable rubber lines. there is a full tutorial and review on lexls.com. i've been planing to upgrade my brake system also i just haven't had the time. you can go to irotors.com and purchase brand new cross drilled and slotted brembo rotors for about 200. should help improve stopping power also. also remember that brake calipers can be fully rebuilt with factory parts so junkyard calipers are always a good option. brake_system.pdf

the timing belt has four marks on it. the crank sprocket is half the diameter of the cam sprockets, meaning on two crank rotations the cam rotates once. this is TDC (top dead center) and is used to time your engine. your crank, cams and a fourth mark on belt should line up when the crank is at TDC. if the marks do not line up correctly then your belt has skipped a tooth and the engine timing is slightly retarded. you should have a CEL (check engine light). if not then you have another problem. you can check to see if any engine codes are stored using the tutorial on lexls.com. your car will run with the timing belt timing being off. sounds like you've got another problem. what causes the problem? are you driving fast? turning? hitting the brakes? does it happen at night? did your mechanic use OEM parts or bosch (which is considered inferior quality) can you restart the car? how many miles? does the engine die or does the car die (big difference). please provide more details and we should be able to help you figure it out.

the belt can skip a tooth happened to me recently while i was replacing the cam seals. the belt was off maybe two teeth but it caused a CEL and the car was running strangly. i when in and fixed it and the car is fine now.

you should be able to get a IACV for very cheap on ebay. look up ebay power seller alpine john. i think it part costs about 30 from him compared to over $500+ from the dealer.

a 90 LS has single piston caliper all around. not a good idea as Lexus promptly chaged them to dual piston for the 91 year model. that being said the 91-94 dual piston calipers will bolt on a 90 without any mods and gives you increased stopping power. you can also upgrade to stainless steel brake lines. the 95+ LS's use 4 piston claipers just like the Supra TT but those are very different than the 1st gen. most painless upgrade is the dual pistons which you can either purchase new or find them at a junk yard

CEL code 71 is for the EGR pipe and it is only available on cali vehicles. the name is EGR system malfunction. 1st you wanna check for air leakage around the EGR valve on the engine. 2) then check the EGR vacuum modulator. 3) check VSV with cold engine. then check EGR and VSV with warm engine. 4) check EGR valve. 5) check VSV for EGR. 6) check voltage between terminal EGR of engine and ECT ECU connector and body ground. ask for more details. the other steps require checking voltage on the Engine and ECT ECU if those above steps dont work then ask and i'll give you details on the rest or if you want i can send you the repair article but it's too big to post on here.

during maintence yesterdy i dropped the rotor and the side chipped. will this affect the engine function greatly? anyone expirenced this before. should i just go ahead and replace the rotor? probly will. engine timing seems off. i also changed the cam seals but forgot to set the timing belt at TDC. then i had to take the crank puley off to retrieve a bolt and then set everything to TDC. the timing belt lines were off just a little but i dont want to break the engine down again. think it's the rotor or should i just break the engine down and reset the tiing belt.

mine too. odo stopped in 2001 w 189k. this is according to carfax. car hit 90k in 98 and when i changed the tb/wp last year the wp had the numbers "98" on them. 90k service. my new one has "06" . and the car is still rollin. whenever anyone asks me how many miles are on her i just tell them 300k. a member on here had a 90 ls and the odo stopped at 200k. he replaced it and hit 200k+ on the new one. but about your problem when i took off my throttle body any broke the gasket my car did that on the way to the dealer to get a new gasket. so it sounds like a vacuum leak. just buy some vacuum hose from autozone or toyota (lexus costs more) and then move on to the hoses on the pwr steer pump.

srk i dont know everything about engines (too much to know if you ask me) but i know the basics, charging system basics, engine function basics, etc. and i am not a noob i used to go by ko90ls but i forgot my password. recently i've been studying the honda b18a/b (stock integra engine) + vtech (any honda B series vtech head) mod and in my research there have been numerous warnings about the compression change if you add a vtech head with higher cylinder roofs then the stock unit. basically the stock Integra LS compression is 9.6:1 or something around that. the GSR and Type-R engines with vtech have higher compression 10.5:1+ (dont quote my numbers check yourself) but the lower compression engine (LS) can run fine on 87. the GSR is recommended on 91. if you add the vtech head on the LS block then you would need to either use higher octane fuel or upgrade the pistons to the stock GSR pistons, which are slightly longer than stock, to correct the compression diff. if not the you can blow your engine. but regular honda b16's can run fine on 87. i tend to agree with import tuner and like the way they preview parts run dynos and show the latest and greatest builds on exclusive cars.

i read that car wheels should be used on cars and truck wheels should be used on trucks. something about the construction method and planned tire. i also read that fwd wheels should be used on fwd and rwd on rwd. dont know if this is all true but if you look at lexus wheels on ebay and they have a fitment chart normally there is all cars. but that is ebay...

yeah sorry for hijacking the thread. gas is strange though. i always noticed that premium Lasts longer even in cars not designed for premium. does it improve performance, i think so too. i read import tuner, SCC etc. and on the power pages when they dyno cars with bolt-on parts they list fuel octane along with outside temp etc. octane is fuel's ability to resist knock, right. and knock is also known as pre-detonation where the gas spontaneously combusts and can throw piston timing off. and high compression engines require high octane fuel, so a low compression engine should be able to use less fuel to get the same amount of compression. is this correct, shouldn't the ecu be able to tweak the air/fuel ratio for optimum performance with gas that can withstand more pressure? even though an engine uses x amount of air adding more air faster via a larger intake increases power and maybe mpg so upgrading fuel via octane should do the same. just thoughts based on my knowledge of engines.

i would suggest having your valves adjusted. your car probly has a slight tick because the oil doesn't lube the last two valves on the drivers side very well. if you checked them they might be out of spec. easy to check difficult to figure out. while you are in there you wanna change the valve cover gaskets also. you can find the valve adjustment instructions on lextreme.com and the valve cover tutorial on lexls.com

no engine code without CEL. didn't you just have your car fixed? what was done? sounds either directly or indirectly related. like something you fixed revealed another flaw or something was broke during repairs. what you could do is swap the dist caps and if the problems switch then you know it is the dist. you might wanna look under the hood with the car running to see if the header is red hot.

if the head gaskets are blown.. there is a chance the the head is warped... you can have the head machined but i personally wouldn't bother... if the head isn't warped you can just change the gasket and buy you some more time with the vehicle... or you can probably get a good used engine if the car is worth the work... http://www.aa1car.com/library/2005/ic010532.htm I'd look into different gasket materials... the gasket is a common issue with that engine so i would hope someone devised a more permanent fix for it. when i checked the price of new gaskets the site mentioned a new design which fixed the original flaw. can i use a straight edge to see if the head is warped? dont wanna bother getting the head machined or block corrected. is there any way to tell if the block is warped without pulling the head? before i buy the car i was gonna perform a compression test. any thing i should do other than this?

i was thinking about getting a toyota 4runner which the owner says has a bad engine. i know that the head gaskets are known to blow and even the toyota replaced gaskets can blow. if the head gasket has blown what is the likelyhood off the engine actually being totaled. would a gasket replacement fix the car? does anyone have any knowledge on the 2nd gen (90-95) 4runner. thanks.

might wanna clean your throttle body. mine had as much guck as the one in the tutorial. here it is. http://www.lexls.com/tutorials/EFI/throttlebody.html might just take it off and see if it is dirty. make sure you buy a new gasket too.

I was saying go obama because since the election the gas price fell and that was what sk was saying that since the price dropped who cares.

you should be able to find double din kits on ebay. also check out the ebay audio stores, i often use sonixelecoronix. cheap prices on brand new stuff. not many choices for 8" sub. i got a jbl for 60. had to use a dremel and sand bit to make it fit though so you might wanna consider the 10 but it wasn't much just a lil off the sides.

the 1uzfe has no bleeder valve for the engine as some honda's etc do. the air is purged thru the overflow tank cap and the sensor on it that goes bad and leaks coolant. notice how radiator cap is on overflow tank. most ppl with 1st gens jb weld or use some other king of sealant. i used oil/crank FIPG. more than likely your coolant is low. My car had coolant in the overflow tank but blew cold air. I mixed 1 cup coolant w/ 1cup water and if brought the level on the tank to the stock level and heat blows hot ever since. but over time my coolant would leak from the sensor. if anyone has stick sweet smelling gunk on your overflow sensor the it need replacing/removal. some replace most see it as unnessary and remove it. some Sc400 owners even install a tank w/o the sensor/leak area. just some things to consider...

yeah the trans mount is very easy to change. 4 14mm nuts and 4 12mm bolts. you can but do not need to support the trans, the engine and driveshaft will keep the trans connected to the car although the back of the trans will drop some (where mount is) swap mount and bolt up the mount bracket and u are done. and while you are down there look toward the front on the engine around the wheels and you can easily see the motor mounts to determine if you can change them yourself. YOU CAN DO THE TRANS MOUNT YOURSELF. for more info/pics view Lexls.com trans tutorial

Why mess with 17 year old technology. if you look oon ebay you can find the mount kits for aftermarket head units also SFXaudio.com has them but be patient with them it will take longer than you would reasonably expect. you also can find tutorials on Lexls.com on replacing the Subwoofer and Door speakers. I just replaced my door speakers with JBL 4" full range and the highs are a lot clearer but the stock pioneer (mine, your maybe Nak) had more bass. thinking about upgrading to Infinity Kappas for the component setup again. Also if you want to hook up a aftermarket amp there is a wiring harness on the pass side that has a rubber boot and is easy you enter cabin through this hole. do a search for more info on running the power wire

Well hey maybe GM cars are the POS that i thought they were. thanks for clearing that up!

Everyone with 95 Ls's should do a search for the 95/96 engine thread. happens to alot of ppl and couldn't hurt to check it out. Also a Mod should Make that a Sticky so future members can have easy access to it.

yeah gas prices are great now. cant convince everyone but i only use 91+. a friend of mine used 89 in his 1990 cutlass purchased off the lot brand new and had to buy new injectors because the old ones were clogged from the lower octane fuel. also if you go to jiffylube.com and click on how cars work and see the pistons and rods it shows what happens when using lower octane fuel Go Obama!