Time to get caught up!
Saturday I had to make 2 trips to Toyota for coolant. Car swallowed the 1st gallon and nearly all of the second one. Once the reservoir was sitting steady I moved on to the intake. Long story short, my combo of Celica, MR2, and Elise intake boots weren’t the right combo for my car but I couldn’t figure out why. Turns out my motor is from a Matrix, not a Celica... explains some of my random surprises I’ve had.
Wanting to feel somewhat accomplished, I hooked up the battery and figured I’d give it a shot and see what happens. Door gong ringing as soon as I opened the door was a nice surprise and with the turn of the key I heard the fuel pump turn on so I figured let’s give it a go and she was turning over..., and....an overwhelming fuel smell so I shut it down. The fuel line didn’t seat properly and promptly coated the garage floor in gasoline. That was when I called it a day haha
It was a hot day and quite frustating overall, so when I settled on the couch at night, I decided I had two options. Buy an intake setup piece by piece or just buy MonkeyWrenches setup. After pricing all the pieces I wasn’t really saving any money so I just ordered the MWR intake. That should finally arrive on Friday.
If you haven’t noticed I was still trying to decide on exhausts. Not having the grand for the titanium exhaust my heart desires, I shopped my other options. I like the Elise style and found one on Amazon (of all places) for just $175. DNA Motoring. Couldn’t find any reviews of it on the forums so I will be making a detailed one separately. The Amazon reviews weren’t good, but my $100 Amazon gift card, and some cash in my PayPal acct meant my out-of-pocket costs were going to be quite low. Being Amazon, I had my exhaust in hand on Monday. The reviews didn’t lie. To be fair, the welds looked good and the piping was mandrel bent. There was also the weight difference, another 10lbs dropped and this was from all the way in the tail... Here’s some pics.
The Good:
Shiny exhaust haha
The Bad:
Basically it just didn’t fit right with the hangers as delivered. It pulled the exhaust too far away from the downpipe, so the driverside one needed to be flipped and the angle of the pass side one needed to be changed because it was leaning the piping against the body and the muffler outlet was crooked... You get what you pay for!
So tonight I was back at it and knew the hangers were going to need to be cut and welded. I’m not that good at welding, but that’s no excuse not to use it, especially for this exhaust haha
Driverside mount before and then cut and flipped. Ready for my welding skills
Admire that welding lol... it’s strong and that’s all I cared about
and here is what my plan was for the pass side mount. Before and after
After welding this one the hanger still tilted down so I still didn’t fix the problem on the pass side. Almost there though, and more Importantly I wanted to fix the fuel line so I could give it another shot. Fuel line was easy so I figured let’s give it another shot, and sure enough SHE FIRED RIGHTUP!... however with no intake the CEL was on and idled kinda high so I shut it down. Figured I could basically putthe car back together which also meant making room in the bumper for the exhaust tips. That was fun and I just kept plugging away...
Ended the night with the car back on the ground.
Hope to have the inaugural drive this weekend once that intake arrives... stay tuned...
Saturday I had to make 2 trips to Toyota for coolant. Car swallowed the 1st gallon and nearly all of the second one. Once the reservoir was sitting steady I moved on to the intake. Long story short, my combo of Celica, MR2, and Elise intake boots weren’t the right combo for my car but I couldn’t figure out why. Turns out my motor is from a Matrix, not a Celica... explains some of my random surprises I’ve had.
Wanting to feel somewhat accomplished, I hooked up the battery and figured I’d give it a shot and see what happens. Door gong ringing as soon as I opened the door was a nice surprise and with the turn of the key I heard the fuel pump turn on so I figured let’s give it a go and she was turning over..., and....an overwhelming fuel smell so I shut it down. The fuel line didn’t seat properly and promptly coated the garage floor in gasoline. That was when I called it a day haha
It was a hot day and quite frustating overall, so when I settled on the couch at night, I decided I had two options. Buy an intake setup piece by piece or just buy MonkeyWrenches setup. After pricing all the pieces I wasn’t really saving any money so I just ordered the MWR intake. That should finally arrive on Friday.
If you haven’t noticed I was still trying to decide on exhausts. Not having the grand for the titanium exhaust my heart desires, I shopped my other options. I like the Elise style and found one on Amazon (of all places) for just $175. DNA Motoring. Couldn’t find any reviews of it on the forums so I will be making a detailed one separately. The Amazon reviews weren’t good, but my $100 Amazon gift card, and some cash in my PayPal acct meant my out-of-pocket costs were going to be quite low. Being Amazon, I had my exhaust in hand on Monday. The reviews didn’t lie. To be fair, the welds looked good and the piping was mandrel bent. There was also the weight difference, another 10lbs dropped and this was from all the way in the tail... Here’s some pics.
The Good:
Shiny exhaust haha
The Bad:
Basically it just didn’t fit right with the hangers as delivered. It pulled the exhaust too far away from the downpipe, so the driverside one needed to be flipped and the angle of the pass side one needed to be changed because it was leaning the piping against the body and the muffler outlet was crooked... You get what you pay for!
So tonight I was back at it and knew the hangers were going to need to be cut and welded. I’m not that good at welding, but that’s no excuse not to use it, especially for this exhaust haha
Driverside mount before and then cut and flipped. Ready for my welding skills
Admire that welding lol... it’s strong and that’s all I cared about
and here is what my plan was for the pass side mount. Before and after
After welding this one the hanger still tilted down so I still didn’t fix the problem on the pass side. Almost there though, and more Importantly I wanted to fix the fuel line so I could give it another shot. Fuel line was easy so I figured let’s give it another shot, and sure enough SHE FIRED RIGHTUP!... however with no intake the CEL was on and idled kinda high so I shut it down. Figured I could basically putthe car back together which also meant making room in the bumper for the exhaust tips. That was fun and I just kept plugging away...
Ended the night with the car back on the ground.
Hope to have the inaugural drive this weekend once that intake arrives... stay tuned...
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