trd exhaust pics

vroom vroom

finally its installed... the first part of the day i looked for a place to get this exhaust installed. i went to the local midas to get a quote but they wanted 130 for the job, which is way passed my budget. 130 installing a bolt on exhaust is simply crazy. although they seem like a reputable company, im not sure if they ever worked on a supra before. so decided not to go with them. i called up my bobby from elite image, but his shop was booked. so elite image out. so i was thinkin about whether i should do it at pann auto. a lot of people on supraforums have been dissing this shop. however, i heard there is this one guy who specializes in high end cars and has worked on supras before. so i called up pann and asked for tim. i talked to tim for a bit and got to know him and what his work. so i agreed to go to pann and get installed by tim. so i get to pann around 2pm and ask for tim. tim greeted me. i found him to be very approachable and friendly. some people who work on cars usually just want to do a half ass job but tim seems different.

as i walked into the garage, i noticed people working on cars. but what caught my eye was the surpa near the corner. tim told me that the dude messed up his engine and was rebuilding it. tim cleared his area up before driving my car into the building (a good sign of a good quality mechanic). he then lifted my car up on the lifter and started the job. tim allowed me to watch him in action. he seemed like he has done this before. his work was quick and flawless. we talked off and on about supras and how he has a passion for toyotas, while in the background u can hear the turbo civic on the dyno.

when he was all done he turned on the car and reved it. wow i must say it sounds awesome. not super loud and not super quite. perfect. i dont want to be overly annoying to attract cops and ricers. we fitted the stock exhaust and piping in my truck and headed off... im totally going back to tim for future performance upgrades!

so if you have a supra ask for Tim, he'll take good care of you! look for pictures of the newly installed exhaust soon!

TRD exhaust has arrived!

i finally got my trd exhaust in the mail today! the box was well packaged by the previous owner. can't wait to get it installed.

suspension upgrade...

the cusco bar is finally installed. it arrived thursday at noon. it seemed like a simple install. i removed all the screws and metal plates and placed the bar. the bar clears the intake manifold and the intake pipe fine... however after installing it and driving it around the car made a weird noise. it seemed like when i accelerated there was this metal rubbing noise. after driving it around, i checked the bar and it was indeed resting on some metal part piece that i didn't notice in the beginning. so i removed the bar and there was a scratch on it, since it was rubbing against the metal part. Good thing its not noticable since it's on the back of the bar.

the plan was to remove the black metal cover so the bar can clear. I tried removing the screws that were on the bar but the electronic screw driver messed up the thread on the screw which it made it more difficult to remove the screw. jarv made an attempy to remove the screw but wasn't successful. so i went to ARD, a local car shop to ask if they can help. they tried and failed. i gave a call to elite image, a shop where i used to hang out back in the early college days to help. bobby the owner told me to bring it by. so on saturday i swung by and he was able to remove the metal cover. having the bar on the car is quite is great. now i can hug the corners like a mad man. but gotta watch for the tires though... i dont wanna wear them out. tires are expensive on the supra. i can recall driving my corolla back in the days, and totally wore out the tread corner like crazy with the strut bar. all in all it's a decent upgrade. next on the list TRD exhaust! stay tuned for pics of the cusco strut tower bar.

strut bar on order

just placed an order for a cusco strut bar... pics will be up when i finish the install.

more air please...

jarv and i were talkin' the other day about adding the old monsterflow intake from the corolla into the supra. after looking at how the airbox was connected, it seemed like it was a simple install. we spent a good hour or so removing the stock airbox. then we placed the monsterflow right into the stock rubber pipe. i took the supra for a test drive after the install and it seems faster through all rpms. it's nice hand me down upgrade, and i didn't have to spend any money.