I use a 1991 Previa All-Trac as my snow or bad weather vehicle. 295K miles on the engine. Mine is a little beaten and needs a windshield and paint.
Would not be so bad for a 26 year old car except there seems to be some in my area that look totally perfect as far as body and paint. I sort of feel like I have let mine down.
I have always found unique ways to blow stuff up.
I bought a 1973 Dodge Challenger that had been rebuilt by an "expert." The non original 440 CID engine had been honed with one of those "dingle ball" hones that you use in an electric drill. The kind that guarantees oval cylinders. The car came with a NOS bottle in the trunk and some 14 second timeslips in the glove box. A bone stock junkyard 440 should have done low 13's in that car.....out came the NOS, and the entire drivetrain for a real rebuild. Now, what do you do with a full bottle of NOS......kill a lawnmower, and.....
Right after the first Fast and Furious movie came out I did a nitrous PC spoof. "PC run slow, NOS is the answer. But every tweaker knows that NOS makes things run HOT." We stuffed an old PC full of fireworks and ran the braided steel NOS hose into the back of the cabinet. The bottle was nearly empty by then, mostly gas with a little liquid left. The PC and a video camera was set up in the street on New Years Eve. With the camera rolling we lit the fireworks, then cranked the valve on the NOS bottle. It did a good job of melting the PC cabinet, and making a mess, but we always entertained the neighborhood on New Years Eve and the 4th of July, the two days when the cops ignored the fireworks laws. In a bit of irony, a failed Compact Flash card ate our video.
The glow plug fuel of the day came in flavors from 1% nitromethane, up to 5% nitro. The cheap stuff was good for setting the lake on fire since it floats, and it was the "boost" I needed to have the fastest go kart in the neighborhood. The 5% juice did melt the exhaust valve in the Briggs and Stratton engine I had.
I've heard that non-genuine parts will cause problems too.
I'll be buying 100% genuine parts for it from now on.
Right now I'm concerned a bit about the two front tyres on the Camry. Both are about 1mm before they hit the wear indicators.
So I'm considering getting Michelin Primacy 3 ST tyres to go on it. Will have to finish my Japanese diet startup first though as I cannot allocate enough funds to both.
I'll be buying 100% genuine parts for it from now on.
Right now I'm concerned a bit about the two front tyres on the Camry. Both are about 1mm before they hit the wear indicators.
So I'm considering getting Michelin Primacy 3 ST tyres to go on it. Will have to finish my Japanese diet startup first though as I cannot allocate enough funds to both.
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I agree with you now. But It takes a bit of full throttle action to get it to warm up quickly. I suspect the reason being why my mums 4 banger Camry can do a burnout and mine can't is because her tyres are simply cheaper and mine are better quality. Simple as that.
Tonight after driving it for 20 minutes I just did a full throttle pull from a standing stop at some lights while coming back home and it kicked down into 1st gear and revved up to 6,000 rpm before it changed. The front of the bonnet went up in the air and the whole car lurched upwards as the power going to the front tyres was pushing against the suspension.
Which means that there is nothing wrong with the engine or transmission or the engine oil. After the 2nd pull the floor where I rest my foot (I don't use the foot rest, too far out from the firewall) was warm/hot so it was easily warmed up within just a few seconds.
I was just holding back, being a wuss. But I don't condone unsafe driving so it takes me a while to "test the waters" before I try something new. I won't be doing it again, the car has plenty of power for me and that is all that I wanted to know.
Now to keep it for the next 20 years or so in good shape and drive it like a granny with occasional 1/2 throttle starts off at the lights just to get up to speed for a bit of fun.
I bought the car for touring and occasional towing (so me and my brother can go fishing in a boat) not for doing quick starts off the line. 200 hp and 257nM in a car that weighs 1200 kg is quite fun
I've done the math and with twin turbos this engine can put out 300hp and 400nM of torque but I'll never need that much power.
To give you an idea how far the camry can be pushed: YouTube
And this is a top speed run with a "production" or stock engine in an MR2: YouTube
Description translated:
First: There is always one who is even faster ... ... and for the lawn, I'm probably too old ;-) This video I have just made to a forum colleague to offer a comparison to their V6, probably in upper speed range from 6000rpm has to contend with a power loss. It is a 3VZ-FE in production condition. Only the OEM ESD was replaced with a supersprint. The gearbox is the standard suction gear. With a turbo gearbox more top speed would be possible. At the first run, the acceleration stagnated a bit because the track had a slight incline. On the second try the track was relatively straight. The V6 makes in the low to medium speed range just the most fun! (Sorry for the bad quality - was done on the fast with the iPhone
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I used to use 20/50 in a German Opel, had chrome rings so the thicker oil helped there. I recall the cold mornings when using that stuff, and how it takes a while to thin out.
The air-cooled engines like it too, with all the hot spots they can have. Kendall had a 70 weight that I think is/was called nitro 70.
Sounds like your Camry is running fine, and those tires would be perfect for the summertime...
The air-cooled engines like it too, with all the hot spots they can have. Kendall had a 70 weight that I think is/was called nitro 70.
Sounds like your Camry is running fine, and those tires would be perfect for the summertime...
I recently bought 4x cans of Septone Sound Deadener, 2 cans for the drivers side, 2 cans to do the passengers side in the future. Just added two 2/3rds of a can of Septone Sound Deadener to the interior of the front drivers side door. I used the left over 1/3rd of both cans to do the front wheel wells which back up against the compartment of the car.
It has made a definite improvement in the road noise levels. I cannot even hear the road from the drivers side door or floor pan anymore infact if I go up to 80km/'h the noise from the currently untreated passengers side door and wheel well overpowers all over noises in the car whereas the drivers side remains silent! and that test was done when I had only applied 1 can, I've now applied 2 cans over the same area to thicken the layers up and I have yet to test things again.
Highly recommended mod to do to any car and because its a spray you can put it anywhere inside of small nooks and crannies that most pad-based sound deadener can never hope to cover.
It has made a definite improvement in the road noise levels. I cannot even hear the road from the drivers side door or floor pan anymore infact if I go up to 80km/'h the noise from the currently untreated passengers side door and wheel well overpowers all over noises in the car whereas the drivers side remains silent! and that test was done when I had only applied 1 can, I've now applied 2 cans over the same area to thicken the layers up and I have yet to test things again.
Highly recommended mod to do to any car and because its a spray you can put it anywhere inside of small nooks and crannies that most pad-based sound deadener can never hope to cover.
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The fumes go away after a few hours. I did the first coat yesterday and that is pretty much gone. I did the second coat today and that dissipated once I drove around for half an hour with the windows down. Don't get me wrong the fumes do make you feel weak in the legs and hallucinate about bunny rabbits but it goes away after a while. The trick is to simply don't give into their demands to go to the pet shop and buy a hundred pounds of bunny food and don't forget to catch all of the micro bunnies that they produce. They certainly do breed like rabbits.
I "finished" the drivers side door driver installation today. I used some white spirits to clean off the paint of any residue and glue then I used the silicone monster to seal up any perceivable leaks around the crappy plastic speaker basket (in some areas its only 1mm thick so some padding was required) but I have no choice and cannot use an MDF bracket because the speaker is installed at an angle and the plastic door cover works with the factory angle of the speaker and the plastic speaker basket.
Once I laid down about half a tube of silicone and test fitted the plastic basket up against the door frame I pulled the basket back off and went back over the area with some additional silicone to make sure it was well and truly sealed up against the door frame. I did try and fit up some weather stripping to the area but there were leaks galore.
I routed some of the prepackaged wires for the speaker driver behind the basket through the mounting hole so I can access them later and solder in an extension lead to go to the factory speaker wiring harness, its not ideal, I would have preferred all new speaker cabling going directly from the amp to the speakers however routing wires through a 97 toyota camry wiring loom is impossible without drilling some holes in the door frame to route a new wire just for the speaker wires. The factory speaker wires are high gauge anyway.
There is no room left at all in the toyota factory wiring harness rubber grommet or wiring assembly to route new wire, I've tried and tried and even if you do get it through it it comes out inside of the kick panel inside the body of the car at a mysterious location that I cannot access. Truly a pain in the ****, but the factory wiring loom is high gauge so I'm not worried.
I have yet to install the closed cell foam insulation on the door frame, as I haven't yet finished the wiring harness going to the speaker from the factory speaker wire harness, so I cannot button it up just yet, another day perhaps.
Once I laid down about half a tube of silicone and test fitted the plastic basket up against the door frame I pulled the basket back off and went back over the area with some additional silicone to make sure it was well and truly sealed up against the door frame. I did try and fit up some weather stripping to the area but there were leaks galore.
I routed some of the prepackaged wires for the speaker driver behind the basket through the mounting hole so I can access them later and solder in an extension lead to go to the factory speaker wiring harness, its not ideal, I would have preferred all new speaker cabling going directly from the amp to the speakers however routing wires through a 97 toyota camry wiring loom is impossible without drilling some holes in the door frame to route a new wire just for the speaker wires. The factory speaker wires are high gauge anyway.
There is no room left at all in the toyota factory wiring harness rubber grommet or wiring assembly to route new wire, I've tried and tried and even if you do get it through it it comes out inside of the kick panel inside the body of the car at a mysterious location that I cannot access. Truly a pain in the ****, but the factory wiring loom is high gauge so I'm not worried.
I have yet to install the closed cell foam insulation on the door frame, as I haven't yet finished the wiring harness going to the speaker from the factory speaker wire harness, so I cannot button it up just yet, another day perhaps.
Attachments
This is spooky. I cannot hear my engine anymore. I guess the butyl spray has finally cured. Spraying that entire wheel well and the floor pan underneath the drivers seat on the drivers side has really improved the vibration performance of that area. I have read online that it can take up to 30 days for the butyl to cure, mine has done it fairly quickly I would hazard to guess. The speed of the curing might be related to the ambient temperature.
There is by no means no noise in the car, there is still significant noise levels however the vibration from the engine (and suspension for that matter!) (which is very slight to begin with) has been removed from the drivers side.
Just the first step in improving things overall.
I will consider now getting some open cell foam and closed cell foam mats so that I can improve things further by placing these mats over the butyl foam layers inside of the doors. Then I will add a further additional layer of closed cell foam to the service opening of the door frame then I can finally button it up and move on with the passengers side door.
When I close the drivers side door there is a slight decrease in the higher frequencies that the door jam makes when closing it, however it is not significant like that on a rolls royce or mercedes. It is still an improvement none the less. The door still makes a loud noise when closing it it is just that the higher frequencies of the door jam making contact are gone and the lower frequencies are left intact with the same sound level that they were before. If I were to make a golden ear guess I would have to say that frequencies above 150Hz are gone but lower frequencies are left intact.
So further improvement necessary. Spray on Butyl rubber is certainly not a miracle cure for all noises, it just deals with vibration and prevents those panels from producing frequencies by themselves. Its a "sound deadening" product, not a "sound absorbing or reflecting" product.
There is by no means no noise in the car, there is still significant noise levels however the vibration from the engine (and suspension for that matter!) (which is very slight to begin with) has been removed from the drivers side.
Just the first step in improving things overall.
I will consider now getting some open cell foam and closed cell foam mats so that I can improve things further by placing these mats over the butyl foam layers inside of the doors. Then I will add a further additional layer of closed cell foam to the service opening of the door frame then I can finally button it up and move on with the passengers side door.
When I close the drivers side door there is a slight decrease in the higher frequencies that the door jam makes when closing it, however it is not significant like that on a rolls royce or mercedes. It is still an improvement none the less. The door still makes a loud noise when closing it it is just that the higher frequencies of the door jam making contact are gone and the lower frequencies are left intact with the same sound level that they were before. If I were to make a golden ear guess I would have to say that frequencies above 150Hz are gone but lower frequencies are left intact.
So further improvement necessary. Spray on Butyl rubber is certainly not a miracle cure for all noises, it just deals with vibration and prevents those panels from producing frequencies by themselves. Its a "sound deadening" product, not a "sound absorbing or reflecting" product.
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Just built a stand for the boot for a battery box to sit on out of fence pailings that I had left over from rebuilding my bed slats and a piece of plywood cut to shape.
That's right. I'm considering moving the battery to the boot to gain easy access to lots of current and to redistribute the weight on the car (currently front drivers side heavy because the engine is on the drivers side (right side in aus) and because of the driver) from the front to the rear left/passengers side.
It will give me easy access to a hefty amount of current for the subwoofer amplifier (yet to be purchased) and so I can run an additional 35mmSQ cable to the 2 channel pioneer amplifier underneath the front passengers seat. Its easier to do it this way on this car because there are just far too many brake lines and fuel lines right up against the firewall where I wanted to drill.
I will be getting an auto electrician to run 70mmSQ cable underneath the car to the boot where the battery box will be placed. Its going to cost me $235 for him to do that and I have to buy all of the parts in advance. The alternator is rated at 80 amps and 70mmSQ cable will do that just fine over 6 meters.
There is no way that I can do it myself, I cannot figure out how to attach the cable to the frame easily and getting underneath the car is difficult enough during an oil change. I also want to get this done before I start on replacing the struts/shocks so that when it comes time to do a wheel alignment everything (including the heavy subwoofer) will be at the right distribution on all four wheels.
That's right. I'm considering moving the battery to the boot to gain easy access to lots of current and to redistribute the weight on the car (currently front drivers side heavy because the engine is on the drivers side (right side in aus) and because of the driver) from the front to the rear left/passengers side.
It will give me easy access to a hefty amount of current for the subwoofer amplifier (yet to be purchased) and so I can run an additional 35mmSQ cable to the 2 channel pioneer amplifier underneath the front passengers seat. Its easier to do it this way on this car because there are just far too many brake lines and fuel lines right up against the firewall where I wanted to drill.
I will be getting an auto electrician to run 70mmSQ cable underneath the car to the boot where the battery box will be placed. Its going to cost me $235 for him to do that and I have to buy all of the parts in advance. The alternator is rated at 80 amps and 70mmSQ cable will do that just fine over 6 meters.
There is no way that I can do it myself, I cannot figure out how to attach the cable to the frame easily and getting underneath the car is difficult enough during an oil change. I also want to get this done before I start on replacing the struts/shocks so that when it comes time to do a wheel alignment everything (including the heavy subwoofer) will be at the right distribution on all four wheels.
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I'd recommend reconsidering that battery relocation. I know some of the newer American musclecars have rear mounted batteries and I don't know the details of those cars. Back in the old days having a large diameter live wire running the length of the car was considered dangerous and the better kits had a relay to disconnect it when the car wasn't running.
Okay then. I haven't yet bought the components so I can abort the plan if I want to. I can always simply run 70mmSQ cable to the back and fuse it at the battery in the engine bay with a 150 amp fuse. I can then use the 70mmSQ cable to power the subwoofer amp and the 2 channel amp underneath the passengers side front seat.
That way starter current isn't going to need to make the distance from the boot to the engine and if the cable makes contact with the chassis it will simply blow the fuse.
The subwoofer amp is fused at 80 amps and the 2 channel amp is fused at 25 amps. I am thinking of running the 70mmSQ cable to where I was going to put the battery in the boot and then run a 35mmSQ cable from a terminal to the subwoofer amp and another 35mmSQ cable to the amp underneath the passengers side seat.
Simply running a cable from the battery in the engine bay to the amp underneath the passengers side seat is not possible, just too many lines running along the firewall, you would need to remove the gearbox to get a good spot for a hole too.
Thanks for the tip!
That way starter current isn't going to need to make the distance from the boot to the engine and if the cable makes contact with the chassis it will simply blow the fuse.
The subwoofer amp is fused at 80 amps and the 2 channel amp is fused at 25 amps. I am thinking of running the 70mmSQ cable to where I was going to put the battery in the boot and then run a 35mmSQ cable from a terminal to the subwoofer amp and another 35mmSQ cable to the amp underneath the passengers side seat.
Simply running a cable from the battery in the engine bay to the amp underneath the passengers side seat is not possible, just too many lines running along the firewall, you would need to remove the gearbox to get a good spot for a hole too.
Thanks for the tip!
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BMW have done this since the 80's and I have not heard of any issues with it. They run the cable inside the cabin.
I suggest installing it with fuses in both ends of the cable so that both battery and alternator is protected in case of a short circuit.