Last Chance

The last weekend to prep before Utah. I took the day off from my second job to take care of the maintenance for all the vehicles. And made some final adjustments on the car before Utah.
Picked up some tires from City Tire if you are in so cal, consider yourself lucky, a shop like this which caters to the drift community. For the larger events, they even bring out a truck and trailer equipped with tires and mounting equipment. If you can't bring enough tires to an event, pre order from them and they'll bring them out to you. Wow, that's service.

Just like an assembly line I did the maintenance on all the vehicles in the fleet. It really doesn't help when it's +90 deg out side and sweating like crazy. I want a bigger garage.

The oil I use for all vehicles. Motorcraft for the Ford, cause it's specifically blended for the Ford. Eventually, like all the other vehcles in the fleet, i'll be transitioning over to Rotella T, to make things less complicated.

Being a blistering hot weekend, just made things really difficult. By the end of the day my eyes felt like crap, I don't know if it was cause the sweat was running into my eyes or cause it was so bright out. But the neighbor had a nice bbq at the end of the day which made things much more nicer with an ice cold beer.

One Weekend

In three days I pulled the motor, slap together another one and dropped it. All while working my regular day job Monday – Friday and my second day job on Saturday. The only way I can even afford to participate in this expensive hobby. I even made time to give praise to the man up stairs. That’s church for all you atheists out there. So maybe it’s about 2 full days of work. I can’t say it’s a great motor, it’s just something I scraped together. Don’t ask specs cause you may just cringe. But for people who know the specs on the past motor, well this one is worse than that.

Probably the only redeeming thing about this motor is I used the made in Mexico TRD timing belt. Cause it’s hella stronger than stock and so all the Mexicans and Filipinos can jock the TRD. The life expectancy for this pile is probably 6 months. I’m just falling down the 4AG totem pole. But no matter, I’ll get it running with whatever parts I find.

As for the previous motor, here’s what it looks like. As I expected, number 1 and 4 cylinders were toast. “Catastrophic engine failure” as that guy from Pinks would say. It’s sad to see it go, but it lasted longer than I expected for an engine I just slapped together. BTW it lasted about a year and a half of hard track and drift days each month. No need for high dollar stuff here, when factory stuff works fine for what I do. For an engine that I actually was expecting to last no more than six months, this isn’t bad at all. I underestimated myself and the strengths of Toyota motors.

I only have one pic which was the pretty much when everything was already installed and I was taking a breather. I was busy just trying to get everything done this weekend. And wasn’t sure if I was going to finish on time. I’m busy during the week, 19-20 hour days sometimes, so I don’t have much time to work on it. But everything dropped in smoothly that it probably took ~ 2 hours to have everything running. So far it’s not bad, a bit on the smokey side, but that’s more points for them smokey drifts. Drives a bit strange, may be I’m not used to it. Who cares Utah here we come!

AE86 Tip #86-2: Clutch Install

I'm sure most people have seen this trick, but if not read closely. Loosening and tightening the flywheel bolts and pressure plate bolts can be a real pain if you don't have the correct tools to hold the flywheel. Rather than buy some trick tool from Snap-On or questionable from Harbor Freight, here's 2 i've used with good success.


One way is to use a transmission bolt and a 17mm socket. Setup as shown in the above picture. Note that the socket in this position will loose the bolts. Position the socket on the other side to tighten up the bolts.


Another method would require a custom part. What i used here was from an old 4AG flex plate. Cut a piece of it off and drill a hole.


Attach as shown above, you may need washers to space the flex plate correctly. Once properly position it works like a charm.
All these cost nothing and are very easy to setup.

The Aftermath

So begins the mission of replacing the engine for yet another ghetto faboulous build from yours truly, after blowing up the engine at the last Drift Day. Lately, I have been so busy with many things I haven't had much time to work on the car. Usually one day out of the week, for a couple of hours, I work on the car.


Right now i've been trying to source some used pistons to get another motor together. This has been no easy task. I thought everyone was like me and they just toss it in the back until it's ready for use. It seems everyone to throw this stuff away WTH?! If it's still good save it never know if a 4AG nerd will need them. I had a source that had some pistons, they were really dirty, I thought I can just clean them up and good to go. Unfortunately, as you can see above it has lived a miserable life. So goes the search.



Here is the block I am prepping for the next transplant.

You may ask why I don't upgrade to aftermarket forged pistons. It's like trying to make a 4AC fast. Sure you can make it fast it'll take a lot of money, but it still won't surpass the powers of 4AG. And since I have become addicted to power, I feel 4AG will just hold me back unless I have deep pockets. So i'll be looking for other options in my quest for more power. Please note, this is my opinion, you may or may not agree with this logic. And since I track the car a lot i'd rather spend it on seat time anyways.

At Musing's End

A short film made by Wongfu productions. I found this on Club4AG during my morning internet stroll. At first glance, I think chick flick. The only reason why I actually sat through it was because it had the Corolla in it. But afterwards I thought it was a really well made film. If i was a movie critic Wong Fu Productions gets thumbs up.

Camarillo revisited

It’s been a few years since I’ve been at Camarillo airport for a drift event. The last time I was here was probably around 2002 maybe 2001. Memory is fuzzy, but I guess that’s what tire smoke does to a brain. During that time, not many really knew what drifting was all about. Mainly enthusiasts who drove RWD vehicles from Japan could relate to you, more so if you were an AE86 driver. Now it’s 2008 and I had an opportunity to once again drive at one of the birthplaces of drifting in mainland U.S.A.
Photo courtesy of Wes H.

An early photo of me and Moto (Club4AG) gridding for some tsuiso practice at the first Camarillo Drift Day. Not really, at the time the art of tsuiso wasn’t utilized at the Drift Day events.

Not much has changed, this plane still sit in the same spot.

Drift Day staff checking on surface condition.

The surface itself has changed. It’s been repaved to be much smoother. Hence more tire friendly. If you’ve been here back then, you’ll know that the surface was really rough and consumed tires with a vengeance. To give you an idea, in my mild na corolla I had at the time, went through 4 tires with time to spare. Usually I’d go through 1 pair in a whole day at the old Irwindale parking lot.

Unfortunately my day was pretty much cut short, due to a blown engine. The gods have spoken with an iron fist. So it’s time to bust out the camera again and take some random shots.

No they didn't drift the Hertz Mustang. Though it would have been cool to see.



Many of the flying bill boards come from this airport. It's actually cool to watch how they actually attach the bill boards to the planes.

I even brought out the same helmet I used at the first event.

Even with my engine mishap, it turned out to be a great event. The low number or drivers, provided lots of seat time I wish my car ran right so I could have utilized the time. Thanks to Steve for letting borrow his car for a couple runs. Naoki and Drift Association staff for putting together another awesome event. If you're interested in drifting or even learning how to drift please visit the Drift Day website for more information.

For more pics, click here.