Corolla Sound's 97 DX AE101 On-Going Project

edited 2 of the pics, hope you dont mind david

No worries, kind of glad you did. Looks awesome. Hopefully the trees will be in full colour for next week and I will take some better pics (gotta get my rims cleaned up though, havnt cleaned them in a month lol)

Thanks Ish, they look cool

I made my own photshoped pics... well, not photoshopped, but edited in photobucket lol. still kinda look cool

Nice, they do look cool!

though I would recommend some kind of basic photo editing program, so that you can adjust the contrast and color saturation at least!

gold94corolla wrote:

And I agree that a valve cover job is in order! Polishing that and the intake will make it like none other!

i agree. but if you do polish it be patient cause it takes forever! ive polished the one on my car, the one on my brothers LE and i even did the manifold on it as well. looks good

Thanks for the tip, I always try to be patient and take my time to get the best results. Problem is, I would be to nervous to remove the intake without asistance. I would definetly break or loose something, or forget how it goes back together. I was just going to wait until I can afford to take it to a buddy and get some help with it. Plus paint the valve cover black....Id have a 4A-FE Blacktop hehe

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i agree. but if you do polish it be patient cause it takes forever! ive polished the one on my car, the one on my brothers LE and i even did the manifold on it as well. looks good

wait....you didn't by chance do a DIY write up did you? lol

no, but i can make one for you though if you would like.

hmm, sure if you dont mind. no rush though. I want to make sure I am well educated before I try anything like that. Im nervous about taking something off improperly and/or screwing up the idle (theres so many sensor things). Maybe I should just take it somewhere to have it done properly, which is also risky because you dont know if they are doing it properly. but then again, maybe its easier then I think.

Sure, if you could do a DIY on how to remove the intake manifold (complete manifold, not just opened up for interior cleaning) so I can clean it. Do you think it would be safe to sandblast?

but like I said, no rush. Thanks man

I'm not 100% sure why you would want to take the entire manifold off the car but if thats what you want than I can make it happen. Would you prefer that i show you how to do it with the engine in the car or with it out? It would be easier to show you with it out so you can see everything (nuts, bolts, etc). It's up to you.

I was thinking if I took it completely off, I could completely clean it much easier then working around all the connections. but..
ummm, better hold that thought. Im not sure if it would be worth it. Sure it would look sweet, but so would replacing the entire engine for a 4A-GE or 3S-GE which I will probably end up doing soon as I have the funds (which wont be anytime soon lol).

...unless, did you polish your intake while it was still connected?

Some new pics:

Nice pictures! It's nice to see your car with all that scenery And the green car goes well with it.

At first I thought your car suspension was seriously broken in those first couple of pics lol.

^^^^^^^lol

cars coming along nice broo
pics are also looking good all that green makes your car look like a camo army car

great looking car m8 coming along really well

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At first I thought your car suspension was seriously broken in those first couple of pics lol.

lol No, the ground is all rocky n uneven.

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cars coming along nice broo
pics are also looking good all that green makes your car look like a camo army car

Thank you... Green seems to be the most rare of corollas. and the Toyota green (6PF) just looks BEAUTIFUL in the sun!

some awesome scenes there david. looks very nice

Thanks, Im really trying this month for pic of the month lol

Corolla Sound wrote:

did you polish your intake while it was still connected?

i only polished the intake top half because thats the only part people can see.

sorry for the dirty engine bay, my brother is too lazy to clean it and he wont buy the splash shields that go underneath the car.

is that alans car?

yep!

Cool, that actually looks really good. If I could get mine polished like that, Id be a happy camper. ...What did you use to clean and polish it?

and ive seen dirtier engine bays. I imagine mines probably due for another cleaning. especially after all the dirt roads I just drove today.

more pics to come

well its a pretty long drawn out time consuming process. first you need to hand sand out all the pitting from the mould but do it in straight lines as they're easier to polish out, then buy the aluminum polishing kit from eastwood. i used an pneumatic angle grinder to put my bits on as it has a higher RPM than a drill. i used the brown clay bar first and worked my way into using the white bar. cleaned it up really well and got all the clay residue off of it and then hand cleaned/buffed it with eagle one's never dull. i'm going to start on another valve cover soon (to sell) if you're interested.

here is my engine bay before i cleaned it. its pretty rough. lol

wow that was not clean was it