What happened here

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jondee86
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Re: What happened here

Postby jondee86 » Mon Jun 29, 2020 5:38 pm

A few years ago a distant relative of ours in the US died without leaving a will. She had never
married and had no children or any immediate family. So the executors traced every living
relative in the world and divided up her estate between them. That was kind of interesting
as it threw up a few relatives that we had no idea existed :)

This woman lived in some tiny backwoods town and had inherited a house and a bit of cash
from her parents. What I found interesting is that in her assets were listed two houses, two
small rental homes and two blocks of bare land. When I used google earth to visit the town
and search for the blocks of land, one was like 8 or 10 acres of bare flat farm land with a
road frontage, and the other was similar but with trees and houses on the blocks either side.
I forget what the valuation of the land and other property was, but I do remember thinking
it was cheap !!!

The town looked to be small... maybe a couple of thousand people with just the basic stores
and service providers found in a rural area. I guess that would mean limited employment
opportunities which would keep property prices low. I don't know what kind of town planning
you have in the US ? Looks like you can buy a land and build a house more of less anywhere ?

Here in NZ the situation is very different. There are planning regulations that cover the whole
country. One cannot simply buy a block of land and build a house :P Not without complying
with a raft of planning laws. The regulators set the minimum block size for subdivision; want
to know what earthworks you plan to do, how you will treat and dispose of waste water,
where your driveway will connect to the road outside your block, what activities you are
planning for the land etc.

If you want mains electricity you will be raped by the power company. Then the County will
assess your property for land taxes, require engineers reports for any earthworks that changes
the profile of the land by more than 3 feet, require you to file plans for your proposed house
and charge you for inspecting and approving the plans.

It used to be nearly impossible to get a permit for a lifestyle block, now it's just difficult :D

Cheers... jondee86
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress
depends on the unreasonable man.

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Re: What happened here

Postby Nick94tt » Mon Jun 29, 2020 7:34 pm

It's similar here, but each state has counties, and each county has cities, townships, etc. Each one of those can apply rules and regs to building requirements. HOA's can be as small as a few homes or a whole town - homeowner associations (paid subscription to be in specific neighborhoods to make sure everyone belongs and your grass isn't too tall and blinds are the right color, no rusty cars...)

Typically the more rural you go the fewer the restrictions. Because we live a few hundred yards out of our "city", we can burn fallen trees openly. In the city, that's illegal and the fire department shows up, puts it out, and you get fined. :lol:

What's fun is that each locality can typically elect to follow different building codes, though the vast majority use the IBC (international builder's code), just not always the same year publishings. :lol:

Same here. Almost anything major requires a permit. Engineering plans for houses, larger retaining walls, etc. Especially septic since we're near the bay tributaries.

Fun fact about the single lane farm road I live on (recently upgraded to pavement!)...

One of my neighbors has a fully automatic rifle. (No idea, definitely an NFA weapon... pre-80somethings are grandfathered in as legal, but tons of paperwork. Ie - an uzi runs around $30kusd last time I looked. Have to set up a trust to own it. Paperwork takes about 6 months.. Same for supressors, which I believe are encouraged in your locale to protect hunter hearing and disturb fewer people / wildlife.)

Another one has an actual cannon. :lol: Fires beer cans filled with concrete, shot, or balls.

Next door neighbor hates guns, hunting, and wildlife. So of course they moved into the country between a bunch of hunters and farmers. :mrgreen:

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Re: What happened here

Postby jondee86 » Tue Jun 30, 2020 3:11 am

Sounds a lot like the country areas of NZ except we don't have home owners associations.
The nearest thing would be a new subdivision where the company that owns the land and
funds the development places certain restrictions on buyers. The houses will be built by
the developer to their plans and all will be to a uniformly high standard. In general this
puts the price of land and building out of the range of first home buyers and attracts folk
who are prepared to put in a bit more effort to keep the neighborhood looking nice.

I was born and raised on a farm until around age six and then moved to the nearest town
with my family. Stayed in that town for few years and then moved to the city aged around
ten years. Been in the city ever since so never got involved in huntin', fishin' or shootin'.
I do have a friend who has a small brass black powder cannon that he sometimes drags out
when we have been drinking for a few hours... makes a hugely impressive BOOM and on a
still night it will get every dog barking and wake every neighbor within 1/2 a mile :D

Over the years I have traveled around a bit and seen how people live in other countries.
Each country has its pluses and minuses. Each culture has been shaped by hundreds or
thousands of years of history... the food they eat, the clothes they wear, the architecture
and construction techniques are all adapted to something that works in their environment.
It is the height of arrogance for one country to impose its cultural standards on another.
But this is what has happened throughout history, and the seeds of dissention sown by
the colonial powers are now fruiting in abundance.

I'm over all the protesting and conflict... if you want to change the status quo you need
to stop pissing around and have a revolution. A billion dollars ain't worth spit when there
is an armed mob at the door. Little bit of over the top rhetoric there to give the google
computers something to chew on when they read my mail :)

Going stir crazy... the weather has been total crap the last few days.

Cheers... jondee86
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress
depends on the unreasonable man.

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Re: What happened here

Postby Nick94tt » Tue Jun 30, 2020 11:30 am

We have similar situations here where a "developer" will buy and subdivide a large plot, offer standardized homes, and sell them. The running joke here is it's a complete crap shoot on quality. Generally they skate by at the bare minimum that'll pass inspection structurally and then you get the priviledge of over paying for finish work and appliances. Then there's usually an HOA just to finish things off... :lol:

I moved around a lot. Did the country, city, suburb, and places the local cops ask you to just roll through stop signs to lower your carjacking odds. :lol:

At 10 I was a country boy, at 15 I was teaching my friend's parents how to bulletproof their exterior walls. Used to add 2x6 framing and pack in ceramic tiles backed by sandbags or steel shot before replacing the sheetrock. Most folks in Detroit will grab their kids and dive into the old cast iron tubs or under beds when it jumped off. At least this way anything below a window was a whole lot safer.

Why I love the fact a lot of folks realized that yes, the world around you really is just watching you kill each other and waiting - so now there are whole crews that switched to paintball gear for the less serious grievances.

Granted, this is a failed industrial city they proposed bulldozing to farm trees. :lol:

They may eventually get there on the uprising, but the costs will be unfathomable.

I'd argue it might be going on already. Which demographics in the US is 2.5x more likely to get sick and die, go bankrupt, or get shot for walking home?

Which group of old white guys are stonewalling common sense medical decisions that would save tens of thousands? Most seem to think it's incompetence. I honestly wonder if they think they figured out a quasi legal way to slaughter folks and pretend they were trying to help or just couldn't figure it out in the mean time. History won't be kind, but they aren't exactly going to answer for it.

Solid plan tactically if you've got resources to wait out a pandemic.

Still waiting on the insurance company. Apparently the adjuster had some vacation days...

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Re: What happened here

Postby jondee86 » Tue Jun 30, 2020 4:31 pm

Yeah.... entrenched attitudes are difficult to explain. Why does a white man see black men,
brown men or yellow men, and immediately classify them as inferior species and treat them
accordingly ? The most likely explanation is that when the European countries were colonizing
the world, this is exactly how they behaved when encountering indigenous races. This is the
mindset that allowed them to slaughter and enslave native races, and it lingers on.

Education of native races is the greatest threat to their white masters, and typically colonial
powers would make it difficult or impossible for indigenous people to have access to anything
but the most basic schooling. By keeping them dumb the white folks made sure that they had
an endless source of cheap labor for doing the menial tasks beneath the dignity of whites.
If the natives did get restless at being treated as second class citizens, the white colonial
governments had no problem with using their armed forces to slaughter hundreds or thousands
of unarmed natives when they gathered to form a protest. Does this start to sound familiar ?

It seems that in some countries there are policies in place that seek to maintain a large and
mostly unskilled labor force. Just as it is clear that in some countries there is collusion
between major companies and government officials to allow price gouging and unethical
business practices to become entrenched in the economy. Greed is one basic trait of human
nature that will always be with us. Ethics and morals are learned values, developed over many
centuries to set the human race apart from animals who act on instinct alone.

Looking at the world today, it seems that ethics and morals have become an optional extra :(

Cold today with a wind that comes directly from the South Pole. If you listen carefully you
can hear Penguins discussing Global warming :)

Cheers... jondee86
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress
depends on the unreasonable man.

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Re: What happened here

Postby Nick94tt » Tue Jun 30, 2020 6:31 pm

jondee86 wrote:Cold today with a wind that comes directly from the South Pole. If you listen carefully you
can hear Penguins discussing Global warming :)

Cheers... jondee86


Only because they know we ruined thousands of years of hard work only to undo it by needing to transplant the last polar bears into their frozen paradise.

"We swam to the opposite end of the friggin world just to avoid those CocaCola drinking douchebags, but no.... You had to ruin it...." - Penguins. :lol:

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Re: What happened here

Postby jondee86 » Wed Jul 01, 2020 12:50 am

We have been hearing about climate change and global warming for for a lot of years
now, and because it is not an overnight kind of thing, I haven't wasted too much time
listening to the arguments about whether it is real or not. Personally I have no doubt
that it is real. We have glaciers that have receded many hundreds of meters in the last
ten years, and there is a lot of solid evidence that the world does warm up and cool
down on a roughly 100,000 year cycle.

So if the scientists say the world is warming up I'll go along with that... in fact it can;t
happen too soon for me. I am tired of this cold weather and wouldn't mind if we could
be 10 degrees Centigrade warmer here all year round. Of course I'm not about to grab
my shorts and sunblock just yet :) I haven't done the research to see if we are coming
out of the last Ice Age, or if we are going into one and emissions have caused have
caused the trend to change slope. Either way average temperatures are rising.

But global warming will become more and more of a problem affecting future generations.
What we do now at the early stage of warming will have a profound effect on how soon
things change and how serious the changes in climate and ocean levels become. There
are a lot of major cities built beside the ocean and on tidal rivers. Some of these like
Venice are already suffering from increased flooding due to rising levels.

Penguins actually seem to be quite adaptable. I'm not sure why they like to live on the
ice ? Possibly because there are no dogs to bother them and only a few humans in the
Antarctic ? Or maybe that is where the food they like is most abundant ? Fortunately,
no-one found a way to turn Penguin skins into fashionable clothing... otherwise there
would be a lot less of them around :)

Cheers... jondee86
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress
depends on the unreasonable man.

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Re: What happened here

Postby Nick94tt » Wed Jul 01, 2020 4:34 pm

Also, per one of our old presidents that loved trophy hunting they taste like spoiled fish. Think it was Teddy. He liked slaughtering animals for lounge decorations.

I'd buy isolation as an adaptation. Not many other ways to cut out 80% of the predators while securing a monopoly on real estate.

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Re: What happened here

Postby jondee86 » Wed Jul 01, 2020 10:13 pm

Probably... evolved to fill an environmental niche that happened to be available. Being
a bird that can only fly underwater kind of shortens your food options but being able to
survive in temperatures that would kill most warm blooded critters is a plus. We get
Penguins nesting in the Southern part of NZ but the nesting sites have to be fenced off
and patrolled. Dogs running loose and good ol boys with a bit of liquor on board like to
shoot Penguins, Sea Lions and anything else that sits still long enough... just for fun :(

It seems that no matter where you go in the world there are always people who think
it is clever to trash the environment. City, country, desert or ocean... to some folk the
world is just a huge trash bin and it is their job to try and fill it with their waste. From
throwing litter out the car window to dumping city garbage at sea. The technology exists
to eliminate this kind of pollution... all it takes is a combined effort by regulators and
industry to raise awareness and encourage participation.

If everyone accepted that we should seek to leave the world in a better condition
than it was in when we came into it, then it would only take a couple of generations
to clean up the mess. The key word here is EVERYONE. If only a few countries commit
then it does not work. Developed countries are already aware of the issues and (most
of them) doing something. Under developed countries cannot be expected to reach
the same standards overnight, but if they start small and work their way up that will
make a big difference. The big boys should help the little guys out with cost effective
solutions rather than finger pointing and name calling.

Hey, but where is the fun (profit) in that ??? WTF is international aid for ? Oh, I know,
for getting someone to investigate your political rivals :roll:

Cheers... jondee86
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress
depends on the unreasonable man.

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Re: What happened here

Postby 24milespergallon » Fri Jul 03, 2020 5:39 am

I think ae86 owners without a turbo should put one. Makes it more fun. Also makes me people ask questions, share info more and ideas. Something to seed this forum.

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Re: What happened here

Postby jondee86 » Sat Jul 04, 2020 4:11 pm

Not a bad idea :) You could start a thread in the 4AGE Engine section where people
could pool their ideas/experience... make it the 4AGTE Conversion thread. Just slapping
a turbo on a stock 4AGE does not always have a happy outcome. To do the job properly
you have to get the fuel, ignition and charge cooling sorted.

You can just just do a bodge job with an adjustable FPR, retard the timing and hope.
This method often takes a couple of engine rebuilds to get it right :D

Or you can do your homework and learn what it takes to do a conversion the right way
first time. This is the information that needs to be pulled together in one place as a
guide/reference. I'm sure that if you started a 4AGTE Conversion thread there are folk
on the forum who would be happy to contribute their knowledge.

Cheers...jondee86
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress
depends on the unreasonable man.

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Re: What happened here

Postby Nick94tt » Sat Jul 04, 2020 6:14 pm

I think most 86 owners that want power might be better off with a K24. :lol:

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Re: What happened here

Postby jondee86 » Sun Jul 05, 2020 3:21 am

That K24 (2.4 liter4-cylinder Honda for people like me who had to look it up) seems like
a sturdy engine alright. My first problem would be that it's not a Toyota engine, and I think
it is better to stay with an engine from the same family. And then if I was going away from
Toyota why not a factory turbo engine like the Nissan SR20DET ?

There are many possibilities and they all have their good points... even a 3SGTE can put
on a good show with a determined driver :) https://youtu.be/NMcN6SQrtcw

Cheers... jondee86
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress
depends on the unreasonable man.

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Re: What happened here

Postby Nick94tt » Sun Jul 05, 2020 4:19 pm

jondee86 wrote:That K24 (2.4 liter4-cylinder Honda for people like me who had to look it up) seems like
a sturdy engine alright. My first problem would be that it's not a Toyota engine, and I think
it is better to stay with an engine from the same family. And then if I was going away from
Toyota why not a factory turbo engine like the Nissan SR20DET ?

There are many possibilities and they all have their good points... even a 3SGTE can put
on a good show with a determined driver :) https://youtu.be/NMcN6SQrtcw

Cheers... jondee86


20+ years of engine efficiency development. Giant aftermarket. Capable of making 400whp relatively effortlessly unopened with a bit of boost. Higher compression, much more area under the curve.

Does Formula Atlantic numbers with a stock block and some head work.

I'm all for brand loyalty if you're after a concours car or just really have a thing for everything matching.

Just a sucker for the better option. I'd swap the supra if there was a better powerplant for what I want it to do - there isn't, and that's why it came home. :lol:

I figure once you break the 200-250whp range you're swapping almost everything anyhow. Might as well stack the deck in your favor.

The SR's are available and viable, but they suffer the same aging and upkeep issues.

A built 2.3 Ford Lima would be hilarious and if I had a local circle track buddy with spare parts I'd almost do it for spite. :lol:

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Re: What happened here

Postby jondee86 » Sun Jul 05, 2020 7:32 pm

I'm all for finding production engines that have good performance potential. If I had
a car that was nothing special to me I wouldn't think twice about dropping in 1JZ or even
an old school SBC (just because I love the sound of a sweet running V8 :D ). But the AE86
is a car that I looked after and enjoyed for a long time, and I prefer to see them restored
and improved while keeping to the original spirit of a small sporty Corolla :)

I had a 1JZ Chaser for a while (N.A. and auto) and that would have been a good candidate
for a conversion to a UZ and manual box. Or even a UZ and auto as there were a lot of
1UZ powered Celsiors going cheap at the time. Basically I came to appreciate the reliability
of factory stock vehicles and got tired of forever troubleshooting and fixing small issues
with modified vehicles.

New regulations got introduced meaning that just about anything that was cut, welded or
modified to improve performance or handling has to be engineered and certified for use
on the road. Certification cost $400 and every time there was a significant change to the
specification of the vehicle it had to be re-certified for another $400. Stealth became
the name of the game

Otherwise, if you got caught without proper certification, your friendly traffic policeman
could give you an instant fine and order your vehicle off the road. It was fun for a while
but ultimately it became a hassle, and now I'm happy doing invisible ECU flashes :)

Cheers... jondee86
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress
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Re: What happened here

Postby Nick94tt » Mon Jul 06, 2020 11:51 am

Assuming you're not in California it's easier here. Varies by state, but generally if you can pass emissions and have the resemblance of catylitic converters (assuming you're playing with an OBD2 vehicle)...

The SBC is a constant source of drama for car guys that love to rooster measure and argue about why a 302 or Hemi would be better. :lol:

If I had to deal with the engineering nonsense I'd likely stick with what I had, assuming i could hit my numbers at 50-75% of what the driveline would reliably take.

So the 4-6-8 order here stays at k24, 2j, lsx.

Can't say I have any need for more cylinders. :lol:

Smaller diesels eventually, lol.

Missus wants a 53-56 Ford F100 eventually, so there'll be all kinds of chopping, welding, and a motor that doesn't "belong"... :lol:

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Re: What happened here

Postby jondee86 » Mon Jul 06, 2020 2:42 pm

Image
https://www.hotrod.com/articles/this-sl ... eId=579454

Yeah, those old wellside pickups have got some style... your partner has good taste ;)
And with a vehicle like that I don't think I would ever feel the need to exceed the speed
limit. To me that kind of truck is for cruising with the window down and just enjoying
the drive. You need to do that sometimes to stay sane.

Cheers... jondee86
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress
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Re: What happened here

Postby Nick94tt » Mon Jul 06, 2020 4:15 pm

What the Corolla was partially for. Once I get ahold of a tig setup the plan was to do sheetmetal and tubing. So, body work, metal flares, and probably a tube front. Then I'd be pretty much ready to start on said truck. Was just working on a shop building before things 180'd in the last few months.

Leaning towards something like a ford EcoBoost driveline out of a wrecked mustang or something similar. She previously had a Ford Fusion with a 2.0 ecotec. Hard to turn down 300lb ft stock on regular unleaded.

Right transmission and gearing, I'd expect 30+mpg.

Was going to completely redo a box tube frame with a one off independent suspension. Retrofit ac, sound deaden and heat shield the interior, and the wood bed is a "must have",:lol:

She gets protective when I offer to toss in a junkyard 4.8 or 5.3 iron block lsx with a snail. :mrgreen:

Geared low with a built auto, it's just about highway cruise at idle.

Easier to tune the honda and chevy setups if you can use HP Tuners with the right chevy ecu or a more recent hondata setup - plus you're still on an oem ecu for the rest of the functions.

Still dealing with the family and insurance fallouts, so that's probably a year off at this point. :lol:

Supra is still sitting outside collecting rainwater waiting on the insurance company. Pretty soon I'm going to throw some goldfish in the spare tire well and call it a water feature. :lol:

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Re: What happened here

Postby jondee86 » Mon Jul 06, 2020 5:55 pm

Now that the hp race is on again between manufacturers, modern vehicles don't leave
a lot of scope for tweaking the ECU for more power unless you are willing to give up
something in exchange... easy starting, smooth idle, economy etc.

Aftermarket ECU's are having to get smarter and more complex to integrate with factory
stuff like air con, immobilizer and keyless ignition. They have to be able to work with
CAN bus for the fly by wire, stability and other safety systems. Otherwise you can only
use them as a piggyback for a few functions.

I'm not interested in messing with that s**t or being forced to go to a top dollar tuner
to get it installed and maintained. If I ever get interested in building another car it will
have to either run on a factory ECU, or a simple easy to program (non-CAN bus) stand
alone ECU, or carbs :)

Image

This philosophy also applies to bikes... if I decide to buy another one it might well be
an old Matchless 350 single... kick start, carb and magneto :D

Cheers... jondee86
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress
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Re: What happened here

Postby Nick94tt » Tue Jul 07, 2020 2:20 pm

Truth. The hondata and hp tuners setups are extremely simple to use with a bit of learning time. Plus they're still factory ecus. The Kpro does boost/timing by gear/speeds/wheelspeeds - honestly as much as some standalone setups eased to and more. Just a bit of rewiring to connect the proper sensors to the pin out. This is all for cable throttle setups, though dbw is possible with the right setup. The Haltech Elites have an option for that, though I have no interest either - though the Elite 2500T has my eye for the supra eventually. I'd get torque management like you do. They also just put out a new monster "VCU" that is looking pretty all inclusive - but only partially CAN co.patible with a handful of applications so far. Not surprising. It's all proprietary nonsense.

I'm all for carbs again, now that wideband setups are dirt cheap. Lol. Hour or two of dyno time or a few weekends street tuning driveability are pretty straightforward there.

Actually scanning through bikes of late. Realized a while back the right cruiser actually helps my back, plus added core strength. Oddly the missus is all for it, despite me having nowhere to go on a day to day basis. :lol:

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Re: What happened here

Postby jondee86 » Tue Jul 07, 2020 5:01 pm

Interesting. I only ever bought two ECU's and they were both basic DIY units from
a small Australian maker called Adaptronic. The founder of Adaptronic and designer
of all their ECU's was Andy Wyatt. About 20 years ago he actually built and sold his
first fully programmable "super ECU" called the e1280. This achieved limited success
with Australian car enthusiasts but was picked up by a company in the Netherlands
that used it to control diesel engines in pulling trucks, racing trucks and Dakar Rally
trucks. If you have a bit of time to kill you can see what RV Engineering could do
with Adaptronic ECU's here... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8q7E0aAS4aY

The specs for the e1280 are listed here and you can see it was way ahead of anything
else at the time... https://www.aftermarketecushop.com/adap ... opment-ecu

The reason I bring this up is that Haltech purchased Adaptronic a couple of years
back. I think that they most likely wanted Andy but had to buy his company to get
him. Now I can see that he must have had a fair bit of input on the design of the
NEXUS as it incorporates a lot of the ideas that Andy was working on before the
takeover. Cool ECU but waaaaaay beyond anything I will ever need.

And to be honest, with the way the world is being turned upside down by this virus,
I'm just going to hunker down, conserve resources and wait until the future is clear.
I don't want any half finished projects if things go wrong.

Cheers... jondee86
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress
depends on the unreasonable man.

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Re: What happened here

Postby Nick94tt » Wed Jul 08, 2020 9:26 am

Agreed. It's about 500% more ecu than I'd ever need, but still a really cool evolution. I'm familiar with adaptronic. Anything that can make it through Dakar had my vote.

Looks like the insurance is finally going to start on the supra. Expecting the 86 to be totaled. Need to decide if I'm going to bother trying to get it back or just argue over what they think it's worth. Probably going to throw the old Honda wheels and adapters back on it before they tow it. :lol:
New all seasons on some undamaged Drag wheels on it they dont need to keep. Lol

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Re: What happened here

Postby jondee86 » Wed Jul 08, 2020 2:36 pm

When you have a passion about something... a hobby or sport, it is easy to become so
involved with that special interest that it becomes an obsession. In particular, when dealing
with cars, your hobby can take over a large part of your spare time life. You think that you
own the car but in reality the car owns you :) It demands your attention, money and love.

I spent 30 years wrapped up in a love affair with a car until one day I realised that my car
didn't thrill me the way she used to do... and I started finding faults with her. I was tired of
spending all my spare time trying to please her... the thrill was gone. She had taken the best
years of my life but now she wanted someone new :( That was the moment that the scales
fell from my eyes and I could see that that my asset was actually a liability and the world
would not end if I let that car go. So I did... and felt better when it was gone :)

The moral of this story is don't let your hobby become an obsession.

Cheers... jondee86
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress
depends on the unreasonable man.

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Re: What happened here

Postby Nick94tt » Fri Jul 10, 2020 4:35 pm

Occupies about 5% of my time. I drive around... 750-1500 miles a year.

Rest of the time is spent hurting, and in between that yard/house/kitchen work.

:lol:

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Re: What happened here

Postby jondee86 » Sat Jul 11, 2020 5:59 pm

Gonna go out on a limb here and guess you meant "hunting" and not "hurting" :P

Yeah... I didn't spend a lot of time working on my AE but I did spend a lot of time plotting,
dreaming and researching the next modification. I don't watch TV so I have a lot of time in
the evenings. Truth is the AE sat in the garage most of its life getting very little road time
while I spent 20 years having fun on dirt bikes and going adventure riding.

Got one dead O2 sensor on the BM. Looked at the price of genuine replacements and found
that I could get a full set of four (2 x wideband and 2 x narrowband) from China for less than
the price of one genuine narrowband. And since they are not critical safety items I figured
that it was worth a punt to try the China made ones.

BTW there should be a bung in the bottom of the spare tire well if you feel like letting
your goldfish out for a walk :)

Cheers... jondee86
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress
depends on the unreasonable man.

Nick94tt
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Posts: 253
Joined: Mon Jan 13, 2014 9:43 am

Re: What happened here

Postby Nick94tt » Sun Jul 12, 2020 11:00 pm

jondee86 wrote:Gonna go out on a limb here and guess you meant "hunting" and not "hurting" :P


Lol. No.

7+ discs bulging, bursting, or otherwise out of place.

Pain is life... :lol:

(It's what everyone from the head docs to the pysch docs to the body docs say....)

jondee86 wrote:Yeah... I didn't spend a lot of time working on my AE but I did spend a lot of time plotting,
dreaming and researching the next modification. I don't watch TV so I have a lot of time in
the evenings. Truth is the AE sat in the garage most of its life getting very little road time
while I spent 20 years having fun on dirt bikes and going adventure riding.


For where I used to live the fact that I don't have a history with 2 strokes comes down to a failure in my upbringing. :lol:

jondee86 wrote:Got one dead O2 sensor on the BM. Looked at the price of genuine replacements and found
that I could get a full set of four (2 x wideband and 2 x narrowband) from China for less than
the price of one genuine narrowband. And since they are not critical safety items I figured
that it was worth a punt to try the China made ones.

BTW there should be a bung in the bottom of the spare tire well if you feel like letting
your goldfish out for a walk :)

Cheers... jondee86


At 25% for the set considering the ecu will tell you if they vary I'd do the same.

Rockauto does ship internationally tho. ^_^

If not, I will. Lol.

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Re: What happened here

Postby Nick94tt » Sun Jul 12, 2020 11:15 pm

jondee86 wrote:BTW there should be a bung in the bottom of the spare tire well if you feel like letting
your goldfish out for a walk :)

Cheers... jondee86


I upgraded to killifish and pond plants. :mrgreen:

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Re: What happened here

Postby jondee86 » Mon Jul 13, 2020 4:41 am

Yeah... a lot of people throw off at anything made in China. But when you consider that
half the world is getting their goods from China already packaged in a box with their own
well known local brand name on the outside, that is kind of laughable :) Some of the
biggest brand names in the world outsource manufacture of parts to China including
Tesler. Several European car manufacturers actually have joint venture plants in China
so make no mistake, the Chinese can make good quality stuff.

Problem is they also make mountains of cheap crap for the buyers who have low price
as their main purchasing criteria. But if you want quality engineering products you have
to pay the going rate... doesn't matter where you outsource your manufacture. Buying
direct from China cuts out all the middlemen so there are some great bargains to be had
if you take your time to do a bit of research. I got four brand new 1NZ coils delivered
to my door for less than $100 when the local Toyota dealership was asking $130 for one !!!
And they worked fine... just as good as OEM.

I'm hoping that the O2 sensors work as they should, and if they do I shall be encouraged
to try getting other BM service items from China... OEM parts are over the top pricewise.

That's tough about the bad back. You get two of most other body parts but only one back
so there is no easy work around. My wife had a spinal fusion op quite a few years ago to
correct a disc that was extruding inwards and pressing on the nerves. Got a Titanium
brace in there now and it has been holding up pretty well.

Cheers... jondee86
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress
depends on the unreasonable man.

Nick94tt
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Posts: 253
Joined: Mon Jan 13, 2014 9:43 am

Re: What happened here

Postby Nick94tt » Mon Jul 13, 2020 10:35 am

Simple truth there. If you put in the oversight time and demand (and pay for) quality you can get it pretty easily - you may have to physically be there and learn some Mandarin though. On things like solid state sensors the doa rate is pretty low, and has to be. Big box stores wouldn't put up with it otherwise.

I've got a few from each set on permanent vacation... C's, T's, and L's... :lol:

Constantly hear "try not to overdo it"... >_>

In their defense when I do and things swell up enough to pinch nerves i occasionally lose my legs. :lol:

Best one is getting stuck on the toilet because they just won't work. No pain, just nada for function. Fortunately we accidentally bought a house with a handicapped bathroom.

Is what it is. Also why the shop we were planning was getting said 2 post lift and a beam for a chain hoist. Wonderful world of mechanical advantage.

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Re: What happened here

Postby Nick94tt » Mon Jul 13, 2020 10:38 am

Oh, they may have to ship a windshield from a daewoo nexia for the Corolla. :lol:

A lot of the supra bits are probably going to magically transform into carbon fiber due to the lack of parts. Not really wild on that, I like the stock body. (Also dont trust composite doors or a hatch replacement without a cage, so they're holding things up looking for oem replacements...)