Tuning the 1UZFE

Everywhere you go and everyone you ask will tell you that you can't get any significant amount of power modifying a naturally aspirated 1UZ-FE because there isn't much you can improve. I'm here to tell you that's wrong and I'm also here to tell you that maybe turbo or supercharging the thing would be easier depending on what you want.

I don't think that's NA unless the thing that looks like a turbo behind the intake isn't a turbo. Can someone enlighten me?

Let's stick our hands right into it. First, exhaust isn't going to give you power. The motor breathes extremely well already and the mods required to build a powerful NA 1UZFE are the more complicated type. I'm saying that it's the type you need a machinist for.

Actually, I take it back. With a Stage 1 and especially Stage 2 modifications, you can and will get more power from the proper exhaust.

I have to mention www.themotorhood.com because that is where I got most of my info. It's hard to find information on tuning NA 1UZ-FE motors so thank you guys.

Just like a turbo setup, an NA setup for power comes in stages. On the Motorhood website, I think they even go into stage 4 which is nuts. Stage 2 should have you putting down 350-400whp. That's wheel horsepower, the horsepower that actually makes it to the wheels. So that's maybe 450bhp. Similar torque.

The main thing is that this motor is actually pretty restricted when it comes to airflow. There's a few reasons for this and all of them will bring power out.

First of all, the engine is actually very small for a 4.0l V8. Especially the head. They did this to make it small, such as giving it a tiny head, so it would fit in their sedans and coupes. The ECU also has an airflow meter that is extremely restrictive. Who knows why but you're going to need a tuning program that plugs into your ECU to get rid of this restriction.

Let me hop back to the exhaust real quick and I will explain what you need to manage your ECU.

The Motorhood recommends this specific setup. Go to a reputable shop and ask them for four-into-one 63mm connectors mating to a 76mm exhaust system. This will give the car a nice rumble, too. They don't say you need to straight pipe it. If anything, if you need more sound, delete a muffler or two.

So how do you manage the ECU? There are programs that plug into the ECU and your phone or computer for easy tuning. The Motorhood recommends Xtreme ECU. There was another one they were talking about but that one only lets you mess with four cylinders. You might wanna look around for a different one, even, if Xtreme ECU is too expensive.

Tuning. See how in the first one, the power peaks and drops right off? In the image on the right, it just keeps going up while the torque is almost a perfect curve. This is why tuning is so important!

Having this is a Godsend though. It lets you see exactly what the car is doing and lets you modify many aspects. That's tuning. It makes it a lot easier to diagnose problems and the list can go on about why it's very useful.

Why so you need a program that directly plugs into the ECU?

The 1UZ-FE can't be chipped. That's why.

For Stage 1, you should get an aftermarket exhaust manifold. The stock ones were made to save space - not to perform well. That's one more thing that restricts air. Before this, I had no idea the engine was so restrictive with air! It also has restrictive cylinder heads. Dang.

When you finish Stage 1, your engine should be making about 250-260 to the WHEELS - this is whp not bhp (wheel horsepower versus brake horsepower - power is lost as it is transferred through the driveshaft and all that. Stage 2? Probably 350-380whp which is no joke - about 500bhp. I swear, if Lexus sold crate 1UZ-FEs with these mods, they would be used almost as much as LS1s.

You have to make a decision. If you want some extra power but you want the car to be reliable, stop there. If you go to Stage 2, the car will be harsh on the streets. At that point, you're building it to race.

1UZ-FE exhaust system (stock).

Stage 2 will cost you some money. You will be getting some parts modified, meaning machine work. The engine is popular because of its strength. I love to bring this fact up; somebody (you can Google this) wanted to see how much boost a 1UZ-FE can take before it blew. The answer? It blew just above 50psi at which point it had to have been making a LOT of power. That's stock internals!

Let's wrap this up. For Stage 2, there's a few things you can do. First, you can get high compression pistons. But let's stick to a "budget" build. If you skip that, you just need a good head and cam package. As I mentioned before, the original head is a little too small. That's so it would fit in a number of cars from Toyota's perspective and they were right to do it like this.

For the head, The Motorhood recommends sending it to Kelford Cams and CLS Cams. Considering the name, they should be able to do your cams too.

They will port the head, add heavy duty valve springs, add multi-angle valve seats, and create a more aggressive camshaft. With all of that, my friend, you will be whooping turbo cars.

Well let's talk about turbos and superchargers. I like NA motors with significant power. I also like turbos and superchargers. Now, if it was up to me, I think I would just run a turbo at 8psi most of the time and turn it up when I need it.

It's easier but it's nowhere near as cool.

If any of you have a modified NA 1UZ-FE, what kind of power are you making and what did you do to it? Contact me. Thanks for reading. Have a good day my friends.

New Chapter for Driving for Broke

In my last article, I went through a quick history of how I got to where I am. Over the course of this time, I've learned a lot. I've gotten a better sense of what kind of articles you guys and gals like, too. To make it easier for everybody, I will be breaking down articles into these categories:



1. Reviews    * Read note below.

2. Cheap Luxury, Cheap Speed, Cheap Economy cars, etc.

3. Car Reviews

4. Tutorials

5. Carporn. This was originally going to be for straggler pictures that I have of cars but will also sometimes include small features on interesting cars I ran into online or off.

6. Finally, Car Feature. This is where I feature people's cars and go through how they got there. You might also see Club Feature which would be about a car club and probably a few cars.

* Edit: As I started a draft of a new article, it didn't fit right away and I realized you can't put every topic in a neat box. You are smart enough to decipher what the thing is about from the title. Forget that concept! Read on my friends. 

Lexus fam!

The original inspiration for this website is still exactly the same. For me, it's to learn. Factually speaking, if you teach someone else, you will retain 85-90% of that information as opposed to just reading it for yourself, of which your mind might retain 60%. This is a real phenomena but my numbers may be off (but close).

Remember the original idea? I got a broken car that happened to be my dream car. You guys know but this whole thing started from my desire to not just acquire a daily driver but to teach myself. I've learned a lot since then.

If you don't want to read a few inspirational paragraphs that have nothing to do with cars, just scroll down to "Cars."

Song: Love and Ecstasy by Baby VOX

I just want to bring some inspiration to anyone that might take it. The name of the website came from the state that I am in to this day - broke! I am broke as heck because of health problems. I was really depressed when it happened. Any man that has been in the position where he can't physically work while his wife is working her butt off knows what I've been feeling like.

So I started a business! I took the knowledge I had acquired from fixing these things and I sell auto parts on eBay. Again, I'm not advertising it as this is not the place for that. I bring it up because if nothing had happened to me with my job, I probably still wouldn't have started yet.

My first week, I actually made more than I did at the job but every week isn't the same. It's growing slowly and I'm finally able to provide a little.

What the heck am I getting at? This is for the few people that need to hear it. If whatever you're doing isn't working out, just go for what you really want. Read into the Law of Attraction. Realize that you know yourself better than anybody else and that only you can make your decisions.

People, that has been weighing on me for a while. I felt like somebody needed to read that! But let's get back to cars.

Cars
Let's get back to it. I mentioned in my celebratory article - the one before this one - that I have my car looking like I want it. I get looks already but the car is definitely not done. Let's go over the next steps that I'm going to dive into.

The paint. I've been talking about this for a long time but it has been hard for me to find the time to do this. I'm going to rattle-can the car. For those who might not know the term, I'm going to be spray-painting my car.

Spray-painting your car, you say?! Doesn't that look like crap? It usually would 10 years ago when they didn't have spray paint specifically for cars. I'm not affiliated with them in any way (but if you want to support me, send me some paint!) but Duplicolor 2x Primer and Paint works amazing. It's a thicker paint and doesn't tend to run as much. It's true what the bottle says - you get twice the thickness from the spray.

Anyway, there's been many a time where I thought I was the first to think of it and then I would see it on another car. I had an idea for a roof spoiler and saw it on a car a month later. What I haven't seen yet is the bottom second tone connected all around the car with matching fender flares. The top color, I am going to re-do but leave it white.

Since I can't afford decent rims right now, the stock ones are going to be painted bronze. I want to do the lower tone in light gold. So light gold second tone, going around the wheels with the gold fender flares, and the rest of the body white. Bronze rims. If I don't like it, I'll do what I planned originally which was all white.

I have some fat tires that someone gave me. Of course I will always take care of any problems that may pop up on the car before anything else but this article is getting longer and longer so let me get into the other things I feel like I need to complete the car.

I just mentioned the rims. I also need to lower the front of the car 2-3 inches. From the previous owner, the car has different shocks in the back so it sits about an inch lower there. I want that stance where the front of the car is lower than the back. Also, I'm not ever going so low that I have to watch out for speedbumps. That's not for me.

Oh yeah! There's still an oil leak. The other day I realized that it might actually be the oil pan gasket. Not only does it look funky but valve cover gaskets wouldn't continue leaking with the car parked. I'm gonna see if that's it and if so, I can do that job easily. I hope it IS the oil pan gasket.

The other thing which, sadly, will come last is a modified exhaust. I just want the two mufflers in the back taken off and some nice exhaust pipe tips to go with that rumbly sound. I can't wait for THAT!

There's a couple small things in the interior. For example, the front seats are ripped up. Um... That's it though, actually. I will get lucky one day and find pristine LS400 seats at the junkyard one day.

Now you guys know my plans for the website and for the car. Follow me on this journey. Now instead of seeing a beat up car being restored, you will be seeing a nice one really being restored. Especially when my situation in life is a little better, it's on! If there is a writer out there that would like to join me, you can email me at norgin@gmail.com. Have a good one, people.

Full Circle: My Chariot is Ready

This whole website began because of my endeavor to fix up a very cheap, very broken LS400. It was a long road, really. That first car was sold because it had too many problems. Lexi II then came in, the '96, and finally I had a good LS400 to restore - which I did.

The most recent picture. Lexi II now sports a decal of this website.

Guys, this is going to be a long one. I'm going to go through most of the things that happened along the way. I'm going to show you how my car is right now. I got it to the point I wanted to get it to - to where it runs right and I can start making it my own. Today it hit me - why haven't I written this article yet? The reason is, I haven't had many good things in life (not that material things matter) but I have something to be proud of now and I'm astounded. I reached a big goal of mine. The goal was to just get a beater daily driver. I ended up with this Lexus.

In all her glory minus a wash.

The second car turned out to be amazing for me. It had just been serviced for an oil leak and I paid pennies for it, again. I suppose I was lucky in the fact that it drove pretty bad and sounded like crap. That's probably why no one was buying it and this lady needed money for her medicine so that's why I got it so cheap. Anyway, my intuition was telling me there was a misfire and the scraping noise was coming from the brakes. Two easy things. I was lucky that was it.

Whoever did the brake job last didn't replace the rotors so there was a groove worn into them that would make a scraping noise every time the car's nose lifted a little. It still does but I'm not doing the brakes for another couple months. They're okay.

The first thing I did was change the coil pack and spark plugs and right away, the car was behaving much better. You see, within the 40 to 60 mph range (and higher, I'm sure), the car would buck on you if you were giving it a little too much gas.

There was certain throttle positions where the car would misfire and others where it wouldn't so I learned to daily drive it like that until I got it fixed. If it started misfiring, I would either give it a little more or a little less throttle.

Another problem was that the car needed spark plug wires but also a new fuel pump and filter. You see, I was getting a random misfire and it wasn't evident if the cause was lack of fuel pressure from a bad pump or just the wires. Since this car had just passed 200k miles, they were both due to be replaced. Despite the problems it had, it felt so much different from Lexi, my first LS400. It felt much more sturdy and rigid. That's the best way to describe it.

So what I did was all of it. I did the fuel pump and filter first to see and it helped but the problem was still there until I changed all of the spark plug wires. It was at this point I also noticed that a distributor cap had some corrosion on the wires that connect to the two coil packs. No wonder it was so bad!

I have a set of new rotor caps sitting in the room I'm in. It will take 20 minutes to change out. Thing is, just cleaning up the corrosion a little and changing out all those old wires fixed everything except the code. The code is p0300 - a random misfire. The car drives amazing. I'm gonna get off my butt and go ahead and change the cap but like I said, there isn't an effect besides the CEL so it's not a priority. Just next time I'm under the hood.

I'm joking here but apparently a car wash isn't a priority either. I haven't washed this car since I got it and shame on me! I just figured that the paint was shite anyway and it was going to be painted soon (I plan on it). But it's getting bad and I'm going to give it a nice, loving wash. Hehe.

In order for the first car's spirit to live on, so to speak, I took one small part and changed it out on Lexi II. So the first car is actually a part of the second one.

I should have mentioned that I had my timing belt and water pump done sometime between all of this. I believe part of the first car's death began when the timing belt slipped (I don't know for sure). Anyway, I had the parts already so when I had the money, I went ahead and got that job done. I'm super glad I did it. Lexi II surprises me every day with how well she runs.

A friend of mine has a 2000 Lexus LS400 with 130k miles and he told me that my car runs better than that one! That truly surprised me.

I feel so thankful for the car. I thank God for it to be honest! It has been my dream sedan for a long time - 10 years plus - so to have one sitting there in good condition feels unreal.

Needs wide tires.

I want all of you to know that you can get yourself the same thing. You just have to focus on it and not give up. Trust me, there were times where the car (the black one, mainly) was having so many problems at once that it was extremely stressful, considering it was me and my wife's only car and we didn't live by a bus stop.

That goes to show you that the car deserves its reputation for reliability. It might crap itself but it will usually get you home.

What was my motivation and reasoning from the beginning?
Between the two cars, I know I've paid out probably about $3,500. I bought both cars for $350 each, actually. So why do that when $2,000 alone could get me a nice example?

The two reasons, both just as important to my decision, was 1. I only had $500 or so to spend in the first place and 2. I honestly wanted to learn to work on cars. I wanted to teach myself.

See, the first car that I bought was involved in a low speed crash. The radiator was damaged along with the hood and some other stuff. Well long story short, that car basically taught me how all of the systems in a car work together because I had to work on all of them! The original idea was to restore it but it came to a point where fixing one thing would make three other things break.

Lexi the First!

I changed out so many parts and sensors and vacuum and fuel lines that it was crazy. I was working on the interior too so I got to break a couple things before I learned in that car and not my current one.

Truly, it was worth the price. I had a lot of headaches with that first car but at the same time, it reminded me that I wanted an LS400, taught me so much about working on cars, and actually led to me starting a business which I've been running for only a few months now.

I'm not talking about this website but this website also isn't the place to advertise it.

Long story short - and it's a very long story - I reached "Phase 1" which was getting the car running good. I told myself I had to fix it before I would work on the aesthetics.

At this point, I have the car looking how I want it. There's not a lot more that I want on it. Just an exhaust, a bit of a drop (not a big one), and better wheels. It needs a paint job, too, but overall I'm really satisfied with how it looks.

I put some fender flares on it to make it wider, got a carbon fiber wing (a small one), tinted my headlights yellow, and installed blue fog lights. I'm also starting to put stickers on the back windshield but I want them lined up aesthetically. You guys know the look.

By the way, that's an invitation to send me sticker(s) if you want to promote your shop or anything car related. Contact me on my Instagram which is @rokask1.

That's what you guys don't see! The paint is bad. Luckily, I really just need some time to do it but I'm going to paint it myself like almost everything else on this car.

By the way, I've even doodled with upholstery and I can do it but lately I've been giving it a break of sorts.

These are the types of skills you learn when you're restoring a car. Ofcourse you're going to learn the mechanical aspects but if you do it yourself you can learn to do bodywork, interior work, how to paint a car, how to install tint, and all of these different things that can be applied to actually make money if you get good enough! It's not just about creating an amazing car.

I will obviously be posting a tutorial but when I'm ready, I'm going to rattle-can the car. This means spray painting it. But have no worries. I remember almost ten years ago, there was almost no way to do a good spray job.

There is now. There are new products out specifically for cars. Of course you have Plastidip and also wraps but you have things such as Duplicolor 2x Primer and Paint. It's a thicker spray paint so it covers more area and also tends to drip less (even though if you're creating drips, you need to slow down). Then you use Duplicolor Clearcoat - the exact name of which I will mention in the article - goes on top and you have yourself a pro paint job. Better than Maaco.

Guys, is there anything you would like to ask? Want to send me a supercharger kit? Just want to talk to me about cars? Want your car featured if you live in Central Florida? All you have to do is contact me, again, on Instagram which is @rokask1 or you can email me at norgin@gmail.com. Thank you so much for reading and following along.

What's next? Now the fun stuff comes! I wasn't joking about the supercharger... Well kinda. I need to patch up any weak spots and there are actually some things I may be able to do NA for power but that remains to be decided. I don't want to sacrifice reliability. You best believe, however, it will have the best parts I can manage to throw on it being BROKE! Man, I need that exhaust. Take it easy people and drive safe.

Like I mentioned, expect that paint job that I literally just changed my mind on for the last time. Just above, I think I mentioned I want it all white. Sometimes it be like that. But then a neuron managed to fire and I mustered a thought. Don't rip me off now but I'm going to do a paintjob no one has quite done yet.

Most cars with fender flares are one color. I wanted the same thing. However it just hit me - no one has used the second tone to paint those fender flares, creating a clean look where the undertone goes all around the car!

Get this. Light gold bottom with gloss white top. Fender flares, yes, same light gold. And as for the wheels, those are going to be bronze. Actually it was those two factors that changed my mind. And you know what? I might do it again! Just not for a while. Brain getting tired. Must sleep. Thank you my friends. Thank you especially to those who have left comments of support or helped in any way (which a couple people did). Until next time.

- Rokas Kirvelis

What is Involved in an Engine Swap?

I currently have never done such a thing nor seen it done but I feel like I understand just enough to where you give me two cars and it's a straightforward swap, and I could do it (just give me a month). I thought I would give you a glimpse into how my amateur mechanic mind works. I'll come back in a year and see how much I've learned. My goal is to rebuild a small motor if I can get my hands on one cheap within a year from now. (2JZ?)

Man those Turbobricks with LS motors, you gotta love them! 

The hardest thing for me would be the wiring harness. Although truly, you should be getting a kit with a conversion wire harness too so you can hook it up to the new car. It should have directions or at the very least, diagrams to help you hook everything up. To me, this would be the true test. I do believe that eventually, everything would be plugged in the right place. Electrical diagrams aren't super hard to read. You just have to understand what the symbols mean. I know, however, that they get harder to read the more tired you get. Maybe take a break if you're having problems.

Take a nap to refresh your mind and come back to it. You will make less errors.

If I was swapping out the same engine, like taking out a blown 1UZFE and putting a good 1UZFE back in, the job would be much, much easier. The way I would do it if I was getting the motor myself is to keep everything plugged in and cut the wires sticking out. This way, I could simply compare the connectors and get 90% of the engine hooked up just like that. Don't cut your wires when taking out your old engine unless the job requires it for a swap. You want to keep all of your original electrical connectors on your car.

So again - if you're taking an engine from a donor car, leave the wires connected and cut them to leave them attached to the motor. Taking out your own engine, disconnect the wires normally.

There is a number of things that go into a swap. Some motors and cars, you can just forget it. You need to find a similar-enough car to fit your motor. Although LS1 swaps have been done on probably every brand of car, typically similar brands' motors are easiest to swap.

For example, a Toyota Camry V6 motor into a first gen Toyota MR2. They're both Toyotas. Except the MR2 has, what, 130 bhp? The V6 has about 200 bhp and a market for mods. This is a pretty straightforward swap except for one issue. There is very little room. You have to wiggle the tranny and the engine into the MR2 as one unit, I believe. That setup there leaves you with practically no more room in the engine bay. Remember, they could only fit a 4-banger initially.

You can always cut holes for turbos.

That's a Porsche 944 with an LS2, I believe. 

You're going to need new engine mounts (probably machined custom unless they make them for the swap you're doing), probably headers, exhaust. And you need a transmission that will not only bolt onto the motor but the driveshaft. Sometimes it's best to get a car with a strong transmission and put the motor in it. The more horsepower you have also, the stronger the tranny has to be.

You can adapt some trannies to some motors but everything is individual. Don't forget that nowadays they have adapters that allow you to mate engines with trannies that wouldn't have been possible 20 years ago.

Keep in mind that I'm talking about a swap. Putting one car's motor into a different car. I just want to mention this because, as I said earlier, changing out the same engine is much easier.

Now let me just say something. I would do this if I had a place to do it, no questions asked. Why? Because when it comes to building cars, it doesn't really get any sweeter than a good engine swap. And doing one connects all the bits of knowledge in your head creating a concrete system to go by.

Mmm, diagrams. Learn to love them.

And if you are up to the task and can actually pull it off, you must know a great deal about every system on that damn car. This puts you in the position to build the car you really want. At that point, roads open for you so let's leave it at that. Doing this as an amateur will skyrocket your skills, as I said.

If you're young and maybe you want to be a mechanic, then do it but always keep a vision for yourself for the future and follow it. Does your future include a lot of pain? Maybe there's something drastic that you need to change. I was told this in my early 20s and it went in one ear and out the other. Someone told me to use my trade to start a business. At the time, I thought that wasn't for me but years later I'm doing exactly that.

Ofcourse hindsight is 20/20 but when I had the opportunity to do it when I was younger, I should have. Instead I was partying and getting wasted. It was fun at the time but ehh... I wouldn't say it was worth it.

That's a 1UZFE in a something. All I know is it looks amazing. 

Swapping Same Motor
Since we're talking about taking out engines, here's a very basic rundown of swapping out the same motor and what you need to do. This may help you get a better idea of how to do a swap. The info goes hand in hand.

You need to isolate the engine. This requires you to unplug every electrical connector, hose, fuel lines, transmission (remove the bolts), and other stuff. Take a picture of how the motor looks before you take it apart. Take a few pictures from different angles. It's a very useful trick to help you remember where everything goes later.

Before you do that, you should drain all of your fluids. That's an annoying part of this. Nonetheless, you have to get all of the liquid out of the engine before you hoist it out.

Once everything is disconnected including the transmission, the last thing is the engine mounts. Don't take those off until you set up something under the engine to hold it up! It should also be connected to the chain at this point.

Go ahead and undo the bolts for the engine mounts and pull the engine out and up. You might notice a wire or two you missed. Go slow and have a partner watching if you can. Set the old engine down somewhere.

Now is when you want to clean your engine bay. It won't be this empty again for a long time if ever. When you're ready, position the new engine and lower it into place. Then push it onto the transmission, get it supported with something, and it should also be lined up with the engine mounts. Put the nuts and bolts back on and your new engine is ready to be hooked up! Some people will put both the tranny and engine in at the same time. Just depends on what you're trying to do.

Sounds pretty easy, doesn't it? It's really not that hard if you know about cars and have even just decent knowledge of how all of the systems work together. No, it's not "easy" but yes, you can do it. It's really a matter of knowledge that you can gather over time very easily. Today we have the internet packed with tutorials and we also have books. Shop manuals are the best tool. If you can get one for your car, do it. The problem is that they run about $3-400.

Keep turning those wrenches, people. I have much love for everybody. Come back every couple of days for a new article.

- Rokas Kirvelis

Cheap Speed: 4th Gen Ford Mustang

Strange things are happening; Ford is going to stop selling all cars except the Mustang (will still sell trucks of course) and they're going to add a four door version. I knew there was a reason I like the older ones better.

I think it's a Bullit GT. Proper picture.

The fourth generation of the Mustang ran from 1994 to 2004. You can now find convertibles, V8s, and even GTs for under $3,000. Just don't get a six cylinder unless you're a mother, please. The fourth generation started with the same motor as the generation before it and upgraded within a few years. Originally, it was a styling change.

This is it. Now, I really hope I got a picture of the good engine cause I can't tell! I don't see distributor wires, nothing. Anyway, pretend that's a V8 if not.

Anyway, so a 2000 Mustang GT can be bought for less than $3,000 like I said and comes with 260 bhp. That's quite a bit for cheap. Keep in mind; the GT only had about 200 bhp before 1999. At that point, it got a bigger head. At the same time, Ford's V6 models started making 190 bhp so they're actually no worse than the older V8s... Hmm... Never knew that.

In 1996, Ford abandoned the small block in the Foxbody Mustangs for a 4.6l SOHC engine they put in the GTs. These made 215 or 225 bhp in latter years. As I mentioned, the Mustang GTs got the biggest boost in 1999. I would look for a 1999 to 2004 Mustang GT with 175k miles or less if I was to buy one. Just saying. And when I say boost, no, there's no turbo version (check out the Foxbody for that).

Loving this interior. Nice and red. 

I can say from personal experience that some of these things won't die at all. An acquaintence of mine has a 200k+ mile Mustang that has a misfire, the whole side is smashed, oil hasn't been changed in a good 20k miles, and his radiator coolant wasn't water or antifreeze. I would say it was majority rust. Yes, it had not been changed for so long - to this day, I'm sure - that you can not see past half an inch down into the rust-water.

His alternator is going out. But it's been going out for like a year now, sending only 11.4v sometimes.

And he drives it like he's racing it yet the thing keeps going and going. Mustangs aren't really known for reliability but this one sure was. But it was such a piece of dookie. Atleast it was a GT.

I believe this is pre-1999 styling change.

This is a pretty quick car and has a roomy interior if you're talking strictly about the front. You can forget the back. As an adult, I had to kinda sit in the middle with both legs contorted in a weird position. One leg in the driver's side footspace and the other in the opposite side. Yes, the floor in the back has enough space for one adult foot. On each side.

1999+ and someone correct me PLEASE! Google is down...

But I like it. It's a big, rumbly V8 car that happens to be rear wheel drive. They're super cheap right now and I say you should get one. Gas mileage? Who cares? It's $2,000!

Have a great day fellas and gals (Yeah right! A female on this site? Doubtful).

- Rokas Kirvelis

Good Buy: 3rd Gen Toyota Camry

If you're looking for a daily driver with some power, check out the V6 3rd generation Toyota Camry which ran from 1991 to 1996. A frickin' Camry, you say? Have I gone nuts?

Well, sort of. You see, you can get a Lexus ES300 which is a much better Camry. It's barely a Camry at all. However, the Camry is a car that you can buy for $800 without a check engine light on. They're also just different cars. The Lexus is more luxurious while the Camry is more raw. 

They are dirt cheap (I know, I was a dirt salesman) and actually have decent specs. The first V6 engine they used made 185 bhp and 195 lb-ft of torque. It got an engine for the 1994 year and onward that made something like 195 bhp and 203 lb-ft of torque (the 1MZ-FE). These numbers are not very bad. It's kind of torque-y (turkey?). And this engine is aluminum so it's preferred for NA builds.

I should mention that the Camry comes in two doors just in case you missed it in a picture above. Those make much better sports cars for obvious reasons.

This aluminum engine was codenamed 1MZ-FE while the standard V6 is 3VZ-FE. The latter is actually more widely used because it handles turbos better. The 1MZ-FE is obviously lighter but weaker. Strangely, the aluminum engine has mods more widely available. 

The thing that surprised me most about this car, though, is the fact that it is possible to make it look good. I am not lying.

Yep, that's a Camry. In recent months, I've seen a nice one driving around where I live. That coupled with the fact that I did a burnout in my ex's Camry when she asked me to "Just move it and don't do anything stupid!" Yeah right. I did a neutral drop and was surprised it spun the wheels!

There's more than one!

So I looked into it today and you know what, this isn't a bad beater. You can absolutely make it look nice but you can also just beat it to crap doing fun stuff at the track. Actually, I take back calling it a beater. It's only a beater if you make it one. My ex's was a beater but so was she. 

But the gist of this car is that it's quick (not fast), easy to work on, and it's reliable. I think it's a great starter car actually. While I, of course, didn't crash my first car, I'm sure many do. Might aswell be a Camry - they only made about 8,000,000.

Despite the jokes, I do think this is a solid car. For years I associated it with the ex-girlfriend I mentioned but I gotta say - she never put oil in hers, actually never did anything for the year and a half I knew her, and the car drove fine. I checked her oil a couple times (no more) and the first time, there was none. 

Whatever you do, get out there, just pick a car, and wrench away. I will talk to you car people again soon.

- Rokas Kirvelis

Hardest and Best Exterior Mods

When I saw a front end conversion for the first time, I told myself, "Wow, the potential of that!" I remember it to this day. It was a Mazda Miata with an RX-7 front end. The way it came together was beautiful. It was a whole different car after that.

Ofcourse I tried to find a picture but I found something even better.

At first, I didn't realize that was even a Miata until I read the description and looked at the back. Yep, it's a Miata with the front end of a... Volga? If somebody knows, share some knowledge with a brother because besides that Russian car (Volga), I don't know what that front end came off of.

What is striking about this build is the quality. If you didn't know and didn't notice the Miata part, you would probably ask what type of car that is, right? I don't see anything that looks wrong. I asked my wife if she knew what car that was and she said Porsche. It does kinda look like a Porsche. Good job, wifey.

When I was looking for the RX-7 Miata, I stumbled across something interesting or weird, however you look at it. Apparently there are now body panels you can buy for your Miata that makes it look like it kinda has the RX-7 front end...

Does that look bad? I couldn't convince myself that it doesn't. Sorry to anyone who might be running this 'kit.' One thing it might be good for and I believe is the reason that Miata has it is to be able to put a big intercooler for your turbo and have it fit. It gives you extra room for that. If I'm not mistaken and that's not the radiator, the car above might be running one.

Another striking mod when you see it has to do with either shaving down or adding to a body part to either fill in a dip like where the license plate goes in the front or shaving something down to create a cleaner look.

I'm an LS400 guy and since most of my knowledge relates to that car, I know that some people shave down the part of the trunk at the very back that goes up maybe 3/4 of an inch.  Not having done this, I don't know if there's enough metal there to make it flat with the rest of the trunk or you use Bondo.

To fill in gaps, you definitely use Bondo.

The Lexus LS400 has an indentation on the bumper for the front license plate. In the picture above, you can see there is no such thing. Just a flat surface. Actually, if you look hard enough, you can tell where they did it. That's not to say it detracts from the quality. The quality of work is very good here.

What you can sand or fill will depend on what car you drive. Some cars don't have a single thing you can do that with. But if you can and particularly want a clean look, something like filling that indentation on the LS400 makes a huge difference.

One thing that I have never seen although I have heard mentioned about being put on the Lexus I'm so in love with is a chop top. Yes, the hot-rod thing where they chop some length of the pillars to bring the roofline down lower. They always tend to look amazing and it would look doubly amazing on a VIP car. Just picture it for a second. I'll give you a moment.

Oi mate, this Mini wasn't small enough so I cut some of the top off, eh?

Jokes aside, this is one of my favorite modifications altogether. Chop half a foot off the top of the right car, put it back correctly, and if you used the right car, will look mean as hell.

There's a video floating around on YouTube that shows an LS400 with the roof cut off doing donuts. Looking at it, even though he just chopped it off, the LS400 makes a mean convertible!

A convertible conversion, though, sounds like a nightmare and I have also never heard of anybody doing it. Probably with good reason. Actually, I have a vague memory of one so I suppose they're out there. However, if you can fabricate a roof that folds over and down, you may be able to pull this off.

To be honest with you, the convertible LS400 I saw stuck with me like Gorilla Glue because it looked so great. If you're an engineer and have the right skills or can do this with a team, you can probably use the dimensions of the roof you cut off to create a convertible roof. Making it seal onto the windows will probably be 1 of 10 annoying things. There has to be room in the trunk or wherever to put the drop-top, an electric motor to move it, and hours of design.

I don't curse on here for the children but if I did, I would. Man! I recommend you watch this two minute video!

A removable hard-top could be easier to make but taking it off would require two people, at least. That roof is heavy. Again, you would probably have to fabricate a new one out of lighter materials.

That's a good list but what else is there? Well, the mods actually stop at your imagination but somebody already thought of...

Wide-body kits, man! One of the most appreciated, beautiful productions in the automotive world. Not only does a wide-body car look amazing for some reason but it handles better. The reason these cars need a wide-body kit is because the wheelbase has been extended. This makes the car much more stable.

Imagine a go-kart which has the wheels in almost a square while a limousine has them in a very long rectangle. The go-kart would turn much more easily if everything else was equal.

Okay that's too wide buddy, bring it back some. (Please don't.)

In life, there's good and bad. That's the Yin and the Yang. There are great widebodies like the Lambo above but there are also very horrible ones.

If you can't create or buy a wide-body kit then wait until you can. There's a reason this is in an article about the hardest things to do to a car! Don't even think of Bondo.

As you might imagine, creating a wide-body car is very difficult. I wrote that last sentence in that way for a reason. There are fabricators who create wide-body cars and there are others who add wide-body kits. Both are good and both look great. The Honda pictured above looks great with a kit. In that car's case, that was the way to go.

Creating a wide-body car consists of taking off and re-doing all or most of the body panels. These mechanics are either modifying them or creating completely new panels. This takes extensive knowledge of engineering and very expensive tools.

There are many more things I could list. You have diffusers and spoilers. Those are more on the easy side unless you're doing something special. I do plan on releasing a similar article to this where I can list some easier mods.

As always, take care everybody and be safe. Especially on the road. Thank you for reading. If you like these articles, sharing the website means more to me than gold at this point.

News: You might see this at the end of some articles. I will be posting news when I have an update or something in the works. What I want to share with you guys is something exciting.

I have been invited to sort of an underground car meet at an undisclosed location some time soon. There are a few drivers who want to show you guys their cars and give you their background. These people have been at it every Saturday for years.

It's definitely going to be exciting, especially since my baby is running great!

Wide-body Ferrari 328.

No, that's not my baby pictured above.

Hopefully StereoRob will be coming with me to some of these meets. That way we can roll up in two or more LS400s. I'm very excited and I can't wait, actually. Thanks for reading, my friends.

- Rokas Kirvelis