Nardi Day! -beginning

Okay, what I had was this butt-ugly red leather steering wheel, which was hideous, impossible to have a good grip and generally just bad.

I've had a nice black Nardi steering wheel for two years, but no boss hub to attach it. So, I ordered one from Maladar and here it is :)

Ignore the Micra floor mats, I had to borrow those.

ARC Cooler cap

ARC cooler cap installed, it's giving 150 prancing horses (ponies) more and lots of street cred.

The spillage on the tubes was from the last time, when I opened the cap and spilled some coolant around the engine bay.

New parts and pictures

Aaaah, new plugs and new brake lines for MR2!

Maladar got me a set of NGK iridium plugs and WedsSport brake lines, and (as usual) I'm looking forward to install these.

Both sets should be for AW11, though I'm bit baffled with this plug heat range thing. N/A AW11 uses heat range 5, SC uses heat range 6 but HKS had heat range 7 plugs for SC.

Some kind of performance plug this HKS thing, I presume. I'll go with number 6, thats safe, at least :)

Present for myself

Last month, I visited the beercapital Dortmund in Ruhr, Germany.

Friend of mine, Mika, announced that he needed something for his son, and we found a small toy shop from downtown Dortmund, on Westenhellweg. I wasn't looking anything special, when I noticed a shelf full of metal Porsche models, and in the middle, this R34 Police model with Omiya plates.

(My MR2 had Omiya plates back in Japan) :)

The model was a 1:18 scale, a bit bigger than most metal models and bit more expensive, but after few minutes of intense thinking, I decided to buy the model.

Resurrection of March - first year of MR2

Maladar wanted to raise the dead today, so we headed to our underground hideout.

Resurrection started with open wound surgery, added with insane amounts of electricity and water!

More pictures and a short clip of once again living March (insert evil laughter here) in Forward March blog.

edit: I just noticed, that this post is kind of anniversary post, as I started this blog about a year ago.

It's been a joyride, I can't say anything else. Now I know a lot more about cars in general and even more about this little old car.

I have to thank Maladar, Widric and Beldin for every bit of help they gave me. Greetings go to Vili, Choppaa, Richardo of Ferrari, Setä & Täti Koponen and Masaki. Greets to JDM Kongo too ;)

Parts 2

Rest of the parts, waiting.

Hmm, the Blitz oil filter box should be empty, or did I put some screws in it?

And what is that box "handmade in GERMANY" doing there? :D

edit: as Maladar pointed out in the comments, the GERMANY box is for Rainbow Audio speakers

Parts 1

Parts waiting for installation:

The long-waited thermostat and seal. At last. I feel like a marathonrunner. It's finally there. I can install it anytime I want, and after that I'll have that unbeliveably nice engine sound all the time.

Then, ARC cooler cap, shiny shiny nice shiny and mine! Mine! Mine mine!

Can't wait.

Sakura (or spring)

Too cold! Way too cold! I couln't use the heater at all and I was freezing in the car... thermostat is sitting in the garage with the seal and waiting for installation.

-5C

Battery, resin polish and tools

I had some time to spare today, so I decided to go and check the car.

For fucks sake, the battery was flat!

Whatever. I wasn't going to drive around today... meh.

<- My small Kamasa wrench set.

Delivery of the goods

Yeah, it feels like christmas :)

Santa Cl... Maladar got me a box full of bits and parts. From top to down:

HKS timing belt, Power Enterprise MagPower2 oil filter and WedsSport racing lug nuts.

Pivot Compo-X

My Pivot Compo-X gauges.

Rainbow Audio SL100

	SL 100
	100 mm/4“
Part Number	231145
Peak power	60 Watt
Power rating	30 Watt
Minimum amplifier power	-
Sensitivity	90 dB 1W/1m
Frequency response	70 - 22.000 Hz
Impedance	4 Ohm
Slope	6 dB
Crossover frequency	4.800 Hz
Thermal protection	PTC
Acoustic volume w/o ferrofluid	-
Woofer	SL 100
Mounting depth w/o/w. Ring	48 / 48 mm
External Ø w/o/w. Ring	102 / 130 mm
External Ø w/o/w. Ring	129 mm
Installation Ø	92 mm
Fastening Ø	115 mm
Midrange	-
Mounting depth w/o/w. Ring	-
External Ø w/o/w. Ring	-
External Ø with edges	-
Installation Ø	-
Fastening Ø	-
Tweeter	CAL 20 Silk
Mounting depth	-
External Ø	-
Installation Ø	-
Fastening Ø	-

I found some info about my speakers. Made by Rainbow Audio in Germany. Fits perfectly in the AW11 dash.

4A-GZ ECU

Pictures of 4A-GZU's ECU.

I took these pictures, so Maladar could check the possibility of same connectors/terminals between old MA70 Supra (86-88) and my MR2. The idea behind this is, that the AEM EMS might have the same connectors and there would be only minimum amount of wire-hassle to get the AEM box working with my car.

I googled for days to get even a half-decent picture of the ECU, but nothing. I don't know if had bad searchwords or something, but I got nothing. Even japanese pages were dead end.

So, here are the pictures of the ECU. Pins, bottom side, top side and everything. I had to leave the ECU hanging in the boot, because my utility shop didn't have the needed toolkit available. I really hope, that the Kamasa set I ordered is ready tomorrow.

My camera was in Copenhagen, so I had to borrow my mom's Sony. Turned out, that the Sony is a really nice camera. The EXIF says that it was a Sony DSC-W120.

Garage life

Toyota and March in the garage.

BBS RAII

Left: BBS RAII on Volkswagen something. I'm not that good with those.

Below: Old BBS catalog showing the RAII.

BBS RAII

"A set of 14 inch 38 offset 6.5 inches wide style 332 OEM Toyota rim option Gold BBS rims.

Remeber, these are SUPER RARE this was an wheel option when your purchased a Toyota These were from the early 90's and while bbs made the ra2's the silver and gold was only painted per Toyota's request"


Well, this is what I found. Strikingly similar as my rims, but super rare? Yeah right. Gazillion old Jettas have same rims.

My BBS rims

It seems, that Toyota offered BBS RAII wheels as a option back in late '80s and early '90s. The design is almost same as in the old Jetta GLX, except Jetta had 5x bolt pattern.

I'll upload some pictures after I google around a bit.

Ok, I have RAII (RA2) wheels, but I still wonder, why I had that sticker inside the rim is saying BBS RG...

What next?

Right now I'm using some Honda plugs on AW11. The reason behind this is me being klutz as usual. AW11 was parked on a slope, which managed to be too steep to pump gas from the tank to the engine. We pulled a lot of parts off the car and installed Honda plugs before Maladar asked if we could roll the car on flat. On the flat, AW11 started normally. I was pissed, relieved and embarassed at the same time.

So, next:

Spark plugs. Iridium ones.

Front wing needs some love and care too, clearly a job for Mr. Mikkonen. Also, thermostat needs to be changed, timing belt, water pump, cooling fluid, cooling system cap, steering wheel, air filter and whatnot.

I have two new Pivot Compo-X gauges sitting in the garage, waiting for installation. I "borrowed" this picture from the net:



Lots to do. Can't wait.

Pictures from 2008 - Belt change

Well, this belt change was made on 18th of August. 95 thou and something on the odo.

Is the tension right? Any squealing? Smells funny? Everything running normally?

Lower picture has a dead whale under the car.

Upper picture shows how the modern technology is used in car maintenance (the tool is made of same high quality materials as the SST earlier)

New Belts!

New belts!

Pictures from 2008 - Belt change

Beginning of the belt change. My plan was to change both belts, one running alternator and AC, and second one running water pump and supercharger.

Everything went as planned, except one of the pulleys was stuck.

Pictures from 2008 - Aligning the lights

That's me.

Poking things with screwdriver.

Rims are BBS RG 15 x 6.5 +40, tires 195/50 Bridgestone SZ80.

Thanks Maladar!

Pictures from 2008 - Happy Funtime

Nighttime turns people into
Animals
Madmen
Dope fiends
Trippers
Pleasure seekers

Nighttime turns people into
Animals
Madmen
Dope fiends
Trippers
Pleasure seekers
Hustlers
Obsessives
Subverters
Pimpers
Hookers
Loners
Overdosers
Sirens

Nighttime turns people into
Animals
Madmen
Dope fiends
Trippers
Pleasure seekers
Hustlers
Perverters
Subverters
Pimpers
Posers
Voyeurs
Pleasure seekers
Zoo keepers

Pictures from 2008 - Gauges, Spares and parking

Water pump and other stuff. Water pump part no. is 16100-19155.

Pictures from 2008 - Trip to Turku 19.07.2006

Wintertime - three months of garage

This is how we spend time with Maladar. Ghost Eleven and Forward MARCH in the undisclosed location, some levels below streetlevel.

The winter sucks royally, I haven't had time and this blogsoftware isn't the best for this kind blogging. Everything has been against this.