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Mine and Col-B's car, at the MR2 National day last Sunday

Engine porn from my Gen4

More engine porn,from Steve G's ST165. What you can really do with a BEAMS lump,lots of parts,a big turbo,and knowledge.(and a couple of quid!) 400+ bhp

took it down to our local farmshop ....

Right, you need to do a Jap vehicle check which is around £12 apparently. You then get an email back from them with all the info including the jap reg number. Then it’s a case of getting someone to make the plates up

While we were underneath the car today (fitting new rear ARB bushes & drop-links) i took a snap of how Alunox has cleaned up the original cat and neatly welded it onto the new stainless steel pipe. I think the golden colour maybe an effect of indoor lighting but makes it look a thing of exotic beauty!

Extract from the Esso website - I have been using their Esso Supreme 99 recently and my car certainly seems to like it. Ethanol free, except in some areas. Although our pumps have E5 labels on them, our Synergy Supreme+ 99 is actually ethanol free (except, due to technical supply reasons, in Devon, Cornwall, North Wales, North England and Scotland). Legislation requires us to place these E5 labels on pumps that dispense unleaded petrol with ‘up to 5% ethanol’, including those that contain no ethanol, which is why we display them on our Synergy Supreme+ 99 pumps.

A question popped up on one of the Celica FB pages asking if there is any way of finding the original registration of a JDM car before it was imported to the UK. This would be cool to find out as it could be a way of getting some show plates made up and be as original as possible rather than just having some random Japanese plates. Also it would be nice to find out the history of the car too as I am not the first UK owner so don't have any import papers. Does anyone know if this can be done and if so how to go about getting info.

I have my import papers back at home - don’t think it’s on there but will take a look when get back. Do like the idea of knowing it and getting show plates ! also my brother lives in Japan, wander if service over there to check vin number to find ref number

I've use a Toyota specialist in the past to fit a clutch and flywheel. Great guys, very quick and fair price. They are based in south woodham Ferris in Essex https://www.toyo-tech.co.uk/

A lot of sellers are middlemen. So they will create 1000s of listings of items that they dont personally have in stock but there suppliers have, when an item sells they then ship directly from manufacturer/supplier. This is why you might find the same item for sale by 10 - 20 different sellers but when you buy it, they are all out of stock - this happens with UK sellers as well. A member on here had it with ta22 shocks a few years ago. ebay doesnt give out email address's anymore to sellers, you get a forwarding email address instead.

I've heard good reports of Japex near Watford. I seem to remember someone from here tried them a few weeks back and was pleased.

Flywheels can be skimmed, which will help keep the cost down.

Bit of blasphemy but here's the Celica with the brother in-laws Sierra

In theory, they are legally obliged to show that the system does not leak before they refill it. That is because the gas is a powerful green house gas and there are tight restrictions on allowing it to get in to the atmosphere. So they put on a vacuum pump, pull out anything that's left in there and wait to see if they get a good vacuum showing no leaks. But quite how sensitive the test is to very small leaks is hard to say. The oil gets injected in to the system as the new gas goes in. In the past, AC specialists had a variety of kit, but increasingly they all seem to be using pretty much the same highly-automated units, but I'd still much rather have a specialist do the job than some bloke at one of the chains.

Yea on my gen 6 the air con has never worked while ive had it so well worth it to get it fixed. The leak on mine was the seals where the pipework connects to the rad or condenser. I bought a spare rad just in case but the existing one turned out to be fine. Think the common leak places are the seals I mentioned above, the rad itself or the compressor shats itself. The oil gets put in with the gas when they regas it, all done together

Odd iv had the gen7 for 8 years and when i first got it it waa 13 years old and ac did work but was never mega cold unless driving on motorway. Over time it lost its kick. Iv got various cars over 10 years old that have never been regassed and are still cold. Mums 2004 astra was regassed but didnt last a few months so has to be leaking. And leaks are usually from the condenser. Also that dryer thing may be like a silica gel packet you get in boxes that ship out electronic goods to absorb any moisture. Gonna get condenser sorted first before i go for a gas job. Dunno if they oil the system before or if i need to oil it up when condenser is fitted. Job looks easy like changing coolant rad. Probably easier since no bleeding etc needed. Bumper off job though. As mentioned above if nissens and valeo is oem then im gonna try and stick with them for a replacement.

The driers are full of beads or small pellets of what are called molecular sieve and these filter out water vapour from the system. Water gets in because it can diffuse in through the rubber hoses, then it can start and corrode from the inside out. Except for the Gen7, the cars I've had all had a sealed unit drier with the sieve inside, but the 7 must use some kind of re-fill pack? An AC system in good condition needs a regas about every 4 years and I take the view that I'm happy to use a good professional, usually charging ~£50(?) to do it. A pro will take 30-45 minutes to do the job (anything less is worrying). Be sure to check that you get leak-indicating dye added.

Just realised today it's also on the sainsbury's pumps too

E10 is on the Tesco pumps here now !

Had a reply back from the seller who said he cancelled it because it was the wrong part for my vehicle. So the cancellation was caused by incompatibility with the VIN number. I replied back saying it's a LHD part and this should be clearly pointing out in the listing!

Just been googling about these cancelled purchases, and came across this: "Another increasingly common tactic is for foreign "sellers" to use eBay to collect personal information. You buy from a fake listing, pay, then seller cancels the order with a lame excuse. Once they have your paypal user name, then they can narrow down the amount of tries to hack it, needing only a password, not both data. I even had this occur with the same "seller" twice in a row. I reported it, but like many other problems, eBay employees are too busy tooting their own horn to care." Might be worth increasing the strength of your paypal pw just for safety...?

Nissens lists two versions of condenser. 94740 - LHD, with dryer, corrosion protected. 940710 - RHD, with dryer. I guess you'll need the Right Hand Drive version. https://catalogue.nissens.com/FrontPage https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/303480494346

It had been resprayed "Rover Nightfire Red", just before I bought it.

found another pic of it.

I'd hazzard a guess that coping with E10 was made a legal requirement in Europe in 98, therefore a blanket statement.

Id question it. Iv been doing a lot of reading up on this and seen a lot of youtube vids now and it seems to be that pipe bending is a lot harder and expensive to do since decent computer controlled mandrel benders cost over 25k and price goes up sharply from that if wanting a unit than can do 3 inch or larger pipes. Various forums and blogs i checked (yes got a lot of free time) say welded joints are areas where there can be a restriction in flow due to the weld not being smooth inside the pipe and also being failure points where corrosion can start at. Generally it seems to be that exhaust builders that dont want to outlay the cash for a cnc mandrel bender go with welding which is a cheaper option for the shop. Im surprised since a shop that does so much exhaust work hasnt invested in a proper mandrel bending machine. The sharper bends are done with machines that fill pipe with sand or real expensive ones use liquid like water called hydroforming. Interesting videos to watch on YouTube.

The chrome tip on mine is held on by a clamp, they said it has some adjustment in or out, and also rotate adjust. They set it slightly offset so it contours with the angle of the Celica bumper. The big fat tail pipe tip on the left [ in the photo above ] is really for an Aston Martin Vanquish, it's a bit of a whopper, and the Vanquish has two of them!

yeah i think also its where its change from a baffle system to a better gas flowing system ....thats a nice tailpipe , i can change mine anytime i want for about £65 from the place i had it done custom but at the moment i like the 4" angle type

There must be some strangling of the engine breathing when the OEM exhaust becomes an old and crusty age. <> I think the way they firstly fashioned the tailpipe is sort of trendy these days, but i thought it looked a bit too much like the baked bean tin without the wrapper I had a choice from the bunch below, and choose the one in the middle:

I, personally, would not question Alunox craftsmanship. Their workshop is full of race cars and they only use the very best materials. I'm sure there is a reason. I had mine from Alunox and I'm as happy as a pig in wotsits. These guys know what they are doing

My cousin managed to get hold of the original Jap Reg number for his Evo and had plates made up. Il ask him how he went about it

now im not sure on what car is in the pic but thats me sitting on the car. pic was taken over 35 years ago. my dad says it was his celica but im not sure if it is a celica or something else. its deffo a toyota. gov.uk check on the numberplate just comes up with a toyoa of year 1973:

Early morning in the New Forest.

Plastics too which is most of the interior in jap cars.