Romans 2005 Toyota Echo

[Roman 12,909]

A low kms (120k) RS model that looked like it crashed into a pole is/was at PIck a Part. 

Pinched the bucket seats out of it which after a scrub up look nearly brand new. I can now go around corners without feeling like I'm going to slide off a toad stool



Someone had taken the injectors out the motor so it filled up to the brim with rain water. So thats fucked. 

But it had a C56 gearbox which was worth grabbing. Open diff but my mate Ken was saying it's not too hard to swap over and he's got a torsen we can put in it. Cool



Also on the site Jauce.com which is a bidding and shipping site for Yahoo auctions Japan. 
A while back I bid on a NOS Carina tail light which is incredibly rare thing to stumble across. 
As even second hand facelift lights are super hard to find (I have no spares at all)
But at last minute I got sniped on the bid and I was working on site somewhere and couldnt check it.
Shit house! 

But I had to deposit a couple hundred bucks into my account on the site first to be able to bid for it, so after I lost the auction the money has still been sitting in there. 
So instead I found a brand new 4kg 1NZ chromoly flywheel for 200 bucks. Sweet deal!
It might be a while away as I think it's still sea based shipping for stuff from Japan.

It was a bit of a wanker getting the motor and box out, it will be more so when caring about preserving some of the lines and wiring etc in the engine bay. 
So although this gearbox would help significantly at the drags, probably more so than any further motor stuff.
I'm not going to bother till I've got a 1NZ ready to go in with it as it's too much work to just pull it out again a bit later.
So that's a while off. 

Also surprisingly my exhaust manifold is in the country with the courier already so I might get that tomorrow. Will be interesting to see how it goes.

[Bling 20,144]

59 minutes ago, Roman said:

It might be a while away as I think it's still sea based shipping for stuff from Japan.

I found the opposite recently, no sea shipping option on Buyee. I'd normally use someone for my Japan buys but the item popped up in short notice so had to go Buyee.

[Sambo 1,313]

The RS models have rear disc brakes..

[Roman 12,909]

Unless something miraculous happens it looks like I'm not gonna be able to take this to the drags or do anything else much fun with it for a while. 

Reason being, this happened to my Nissan work car coming up the Bombay hill yesterday:



With a BHG to match. So its off to scrap! 

Which now means I'm back to needing the Echo as a reliable and sensible driving appliance. For the meantime my job depends on it.
Good thing I didnt manage to blow it up already.
So I've gone back to the factory intake manifold so I can have an air filter back on it.
It will still be heaps more fun to drive though than before! as the better springs/wheels/etc still make it a lot more entertaining. 
I put the new exhaust manifold on but it didnt make any difference. I suspect it would once the rest of the exhaust flows a bit better though.

My printed ITB manifold was getting a bit tired looking with a few cracks starting to develop.
It was still holding together fine but the idle quality was starting to get worse.
I'm fairly amazed it lasted that long though, and the main cracks had just spread out from some areas that got damaged when I first tightened it up. 
A++ would prototype in this manner again but definitely not a long term solution.

Looked nice with the black trumpets on it though.




I'll still have the ECU and wideband in it though so I'll try wring some blood out of a stone in the economy stakes.

800km to a tank perhaps possible with lean burn strategy and some EGR? Usually around 650 on factory ECU. (from ~33 litres) which is 5l per 100km.

In the meantime I will keep slowly hoarding some bits for a prius motor swap.

[tortron 57,864]

 prius motor swap

 

its been a long strange trip on oldschool.co.nz these last 15 years. But here we are

[Roman 12,909]

Also I remember when I drove the Echo to Nats in Nelson and people thought it was new and awful

 

But now...

 

Its not new anymore 

[fuel 1,623]

I'm definitely looking back at the 9752 "is my car oldschool?" forum posts and having a mild chortle

[Truenotch 8,479]

That's sad news about drag day! Here's hoping your boss buys a new work car in the next couple of weeks? 

It's a shame, cause I won't be able to install your new windscreen banner now: 

[Roman 12,909]

Hahahaha fingers crossed! 

Holy shit that windscreen banner is fucking amazing