[Bitter]

Thanks, I just finished a waterless wash wipe down after the automatic touchless wash on friday and put a fresh coat of Meg M27 wax on it.

The headlights are phenomenal at night, the high beams are just amazingly bright and light down farther than I can see, the low beams are very good too but I'm still getting used to the blue color band and sharp cutoff somewhat. The cheap Auxbeam LED pods I put on are invisible in the high beams now, but I left them on for the time being just to add some extra blinding to people who need a flash of high beam.

Next mod is probably going to be a pair of 3D printed socket adapters so I can run 7440 sockets in the 921 spots for the reverse lights and put in some brighter LED 7440 bulbs, the adapters will set the bulbs a little lower in the light so the focus will also be better than the tall 921 LED in there now. Should really increase the amount of reverse light behind the car, since it being a winter car I don't want to hang a light under it.

 

[Bitter]

Well. Those posted larger than anticipated. I'll fix that later...

 

[Bitter]

Washed, waxed, and in the sun.

The lights.

 

[FLiPMaRC]

:twothumb:

 

[Bitter]

My friend asked if I was searching for ICBMs with those search lights on the front of my car. I told him no but I bet I could find those bad hombres everyone is talking about.

:rofl:

 

[Bitter]

Well I think the trans is taking a shit. Acted up twice today in a row. Put some mechanic in a bottle in it to try to buy some time till the weather is nice enough to drive the Celica while I work on it. Shitty CD-4E almost made it to 150K miles, usually they shit the bed at 1/2 that.

 

[tHEpRINCE-GT]

Well I think the trans is taking a shit. Acted up twice today in a row. Put some mechanic in a bottle in it to try to buy some time till the weather is nice enough to drive the Celica while I work on it. Shitty CD-4E almost made it to 150K miles, usually they shit the bed at 1/2 that.

Well it's sounding like you couldn't be happier since I know how much you like both shit AND trannies


Sent from AutoGuide.com Free App

 

[Bitter]

Haha, sure. I'm real happy about plunking down $2500 for a trans.

I don't trust a $1500 bench rebuild at all since the trans is just failure prone when brand new, I'm going with a Jasper unit. I've got enough money in savings to cover it without wiping out the account, its more financially viable to fix the car than it is to take on a car payment on something comparable or to try to find a replacement for what the trans would cost. I might go for a spin tomorrow to grab some stuff at the store and see how it shifts and drives, just buy me some time till it's nice enough for the Celica, though a very kind soul here offered me to borrow his winter wheels since my Celica and his car share the same lug pattern. I don't think it'll come to that, then I'd have to let him borrow my summer tires for week this summer :lol: I'm not sure he'd give me back the StarSpec's!

 

[Bitter]

Exhaust seemed loud, the gasket between the muffler and midpipe I put on a few years ago is coming apart and making some noise, I'll have to see if I can fix that Monday but until then I can just turn the music up louder. I'm fairly confident that 600W RMS can drown out a partly absent gasket.

Then I got it on the rack at work after picking up a gasket and turns out the pipe rusted away at the flange, stupid aluminized pipe. I ordered a new one, same shit cause that's all there is, Walker junk. Then curiosity got the better of me and I googled the OEM part, buying two Walker in couple years or whatever I could have just bought the one OEM pipe assembly from the Mazda dealer and it would have lasted the next 150,000 miles probably. If this Walker pipe rusts out like the other one despite my best attempts to prevent it then I'll get an OEM one (and probably it'll be discontinued by then).

My exhaust pipe came, a day late from Amazon Prime but not actually a day late because tracking said it would be a day early. Anyway, came at the tail end of lunch on Friday, I managed to put one entirely too thick coat of VHT Flameproof flat aluminum color paint over all the welds and flanges. I'll put a second coat on Monday morning at work and try to put it on during lunch that day if there's a rack free. The pipe has broken away and it's pretty annoyingly loud, it sounds like a non vtec honda with a resonated straight pipe. I in fact CAN drown out the noise but I cannot drown out the vibration resonating from the broken exhaust. I did finally sit in my own back seat with the stereo up and a bass heavy song playing, there's some thump in my chest back there but it sounds alright from the back seat too, I'm surprised since I thought it would be all muddy bass sounding but I'm wrong.


Driver side headlight has a distinct double cutoff and is dimmer, some kind of shield issue, contacted the AliExpress seller with some photos to see if they'll warranty one and send a replacement or if I can just buy a single unit. I think I'm outside any warranty but it doesn't hurt to ask. I might end up blowing money I don't have on some MiniD2S 4.0 projectors now that I know they'll work (these are the Chinesium versions with a different cutoff shield, but same bowl and what not), they're a bit wider, the cutoff is aluminum so I can re-work the step if I want to to make it less huge cause it's huge and I'm not a fan of a huge cutoff step. It is kinder to other driver especially if I'm going to continue running them at 45W. With some low hour used Philips 85122+ in these projectors at 45W the light output is even more staggering than with the Yeaky and Morimoto bulbs. Almost halogen in color but just TONS of light, amazingly bright and I'm outshining anything driving along with me on the road by double or more.

The seller agreed, I bought a replacement for a 'discount' and faster DHL shipping for $44 total, it should be here today or Monday or something. I'll get that swapped out and rotational alignment fixed and horizontal aim set and be all done with the lights. They're bright as fuck on high beam.

 

[Bitter]

Got the replacement exhaust pipe installed, what a pain in the ass. Despite good torch heat I sheared a bolt in the converter flange but luckily I was able to unthread it with vice grips while it was still hot after I blasted the scale off with some extra oxygen. The other end sucked too since I can't use the torch due to the proximity of the gas tank, had to grind the heads off the bolts and hammer it apart, course the hardest one to get at was the hardest one to get apart. I got it done and it's quiet once again! Here's to hoping that the VHT exhaust paint helps stave off rust from the welds on the cheap exhaust pipe. I should have just painted the WHOLE thing but oh well. I can always toss some paint on what I can get to later on I guess. Whatever.

 

[Eclipse-GT]

Walker exhaust parts suck, as you know already. I had a 00 Civic DD and had to replace the entire exhaust prior to selling because of inspection. The old exhaust that came on the car was also Walker. It looks like dust from end to end. I replaced by, passed inspection and also sold the car. A friend whom bought it had to replace the entire thing again the following spring LOL but this time opted for a custom built one. Glad you got yours figured out.

 

[Bitter]

I did some top end cleaning, feels nice and smooth now but may just be placebo or I didn't get it fully heat soaked on my test drive.


I used some AC Delco/GM X-66 top end cleaner, sucked two ounces through the PCV which distributes perfectly to all 4 cylinders, then put 1/2 ounce into each cylinder, bumped it over a few times with plugs out to slosh it around. After sucking it in the plugs were nice and wet and there was a little puddled in the piston dishes but I wasn't sure if enough got onto the walls and down around the rings. Let it sit with plugs loosely in for about 3 or 4 hours, then purged it via cranking with plugs out and used my little hand vacuum pump and a length of hose with stiff wire inside to suck the rest out of the piston dishes, cranked some more, sucked again, cranked again, till there was no puddle on the pistons. Started easily with only a small blast of smoke, ran the heck out of it with a few good long WOT pulls on the street and highway, then came back home and parked it. I'll pull the plugs this morning and take a peek at the tops of the pistons to see if they look cleaner, but it honestly does feel like it's idling nice and smooth. I used to have this little rhythmic shudder at idle in park or gear once it was warmed up and as it was warming up, I didn't feel that at all last night while driving. It felt similar to when my friends Escort had low compression due to stuck rings on one cylinder, but mine wasn't as severe. This car has a history of carbon build up from it's former use as a short drive commuter mobile, train station and back 3 miles 5 days a week and low speed around town driving most of the time. It was seafoamed a number of years ago to cure carbon pinging and it worked but the idle wasn't ever as smooth as when it was younger.

The smell of the smoke from X-66 is NOTHING like seafoam, this stuff is a whole different class of top end cleaner with some actual science behind it, but that doesn't make it a miracle in a bottle, just better built snake oil.

The X-66 I sucked off the piston tops is NASTY looking, brown funky and has carbon grit suspended in it. I left it in the bottle to check it out this morning, there was a surprising amount of fluid left after cranking with the plugs out, it's about a 1.5 or 2 ounce bottle for the vacuum pump (like a might vac but chinese and cheap) and it was half full! Likely would have been OK starting it with that fluid on the piston dishes but better safe than sorry.

 

[Bitter]

Oh my yes, much much smoother while driving today, even feels smoother running at highway speeds and accelerating normally too. I don't think this is all in my head, it could be, I mean there is plenty of room between my ears.

 

[Bitter]

My KDC-X689 stopped working, might be a bad ribbon cable. Bought a KDC-X701 to replace it, wanted some better features. I'll probably replace the ribbon cable anyway to see if that fixes it cause it's such a cool head unit that I'm not throwing it out ever.

 

[Bitter]

Long time no update. Installing a reman trans from Jasper, new front struts, new left axle, new control arms with ball joints, new front sway bar links, new standalone trans cooler with thermostat (comes with the trans), new rear main seal, new front pipe with flex section, new left side engine bay plastic shield, and new fuel tank. I think that's all the parts. Here's some photos showing how I rescued and repaired the gas tank heat shield.

Fabricobbled some heat shield repairs on the Mazda today, bit of a time suck but worth it.

She's tight like prom night, nary a wiggle or rattle in sight. It'll stay on. Used some 3/16th (or was it 1/8th?) by 1 inch anodized aluminum stock and just eyeballed everything except two parts which I roughly measured just so they wouldn't end up too long and have wasted material. Drill the holes down a couple sizes and just ram the bolts through, they make their own threads, saves a step for having to fiddle with nuts on the backsides. The last one was the hardest one, I had to take a threaded clip thing and knock off half the clip part so it was just a threaded fastener with a tab hanging off to lock into the frame when it turned inside the hole, pain in the butt. The aluminum I just bowed a bit so when it was tightened it would just push onto the shield and hold the end from rattling around.

 

[Chad]

It still lives. :lol:

 

[Bitter]

For a while longer it will live! I've got winter to drive through with it, can't have the trans taking a shit on me. I can't remember if I mentioned about the trans acting up but the trans was starting to act up worse. 150K miles on a CD4E is pretty good, most shit the bed at 100K or less. It had been having a hard time for a while though, hard shifts for about the last 70K miles, then earlier this year it had a sticky valve in the trans and was shifting worse for a bit, I put in some magic elixir that seemed to make it a little better but I didn't trust it anymore, it was mechanically worn out inside.

 

[Bitter]

https://imgur.com/gallery/tbipaZL I did some cleaning.

 

[Bitter]

172K miles on it, had to replace the transmission range sensor after a couple weird shifts and then a code a week later.

I got some Buff and Shine Uro-fiber cutting/polishing combo pads to try out and make it shiny for the fall/winter. It's got rust on some places showing now but the rest can at least look good, right? I'm in the process of claying it with my medium grade Speedy Prep towel, if you clay your cars then get a Speedy Prep clay towel (or similar). Fine grade for soft paints and medium for hard paints, so so so much faster than traditional clay bar and much much more economical in the long run.

I'm not expecting a show room shine but a smoother car will shed winter time funk better and look nicer for longer. I'll probably top it with some Rejex, might try out my Chemical guys Blacklight filler/sealer under the Rejex as well for some additional pop and shine if the cutting and polishing doesn't knock down to high gloss as well as I hope. I got two pads, one I'll use with my sample of 'The Last Cut' diminishing compound and the other I'll use with something that's straight up harsher like 3M rubbing compound or maybe grab some M100 compound. I'm for sure hitting the glass with the harsher stuff so I can get better water repellency all winter after I treat them with Rejex, even after claying with the medium grade cloth they're still not quite 100% cleaned. The windshield looks terrible going into the sun, no fixing that but replacing it and that's $200 I don't want to spend unless I have to.

 

[Bitter]

Damnit Amazon, my buffing pads came 12 hours late. I was hoping to get some of the bigger panels started or done yesterday.

Package came today at 9AM promptly while I'm at work so that's cool. I really like these pads, they have some cut but they're not overly aggressive and are easy to control. I haven't gone hard at anything yet but I've taken out A LOT of the lighter and some moderate scratches on the hood, I may go back over some of the worst ones to see if I can pull them out more but meh. I did one section with TLC and it sure is as close to an all in one step as you can get, especially with this combo pad. I ended up doing the whole hood with Ultimate Compound because I needed a little heavier cut so I'll go back over with TLC to get the last bit of haze out that UC has left behind. I'll probably do the rest of the car with TLC except the few spots that need a heavier cut I'll use UC or 3M rubbing compound. I need to be done buffing soon though, it's supposed to rain and I'm not too keen on seeing how the Z3 do in cold rain just yet.