RS Tom-Hundred

Have you got any recent photos of the car and the turbo conversion please?

What condition is it in now? If half decent then myself and mates would be up for buying this off you! :)

I went for the 13" x 6" plate size in the end mate and got a local sign company to make them up with full size letters on (they had done me some a few years back that were good). Should also be fixings in the front bumper too but mine werent perfect so i just used screws straight into the plastic in the end. i made a bracket up for the rear one but that was because I didnt want the screw holes to be on the letters. They look like this on mine (my car looks so different now I've painted headlights black and partially tinted thew rear lights! LOL):

Sorry for the delay with this! Only took a couple of snaps on my phone but here they are :)

Haha! Brilliant :P

Great photos guys :) I took a few too and will pop them up later. I completely forgot to take a photo of my car though, so thanks for getting one of it, Mike :) Thanks for blanking the plate just in case, I did used to do the same but generally don't bother now because 1) I figured dodgey people could just see the car out in public with plate and clone it anyway and 2) lazyness! LOL Nice one for organising this, Stu and glad the location worked out well - the car park was bigger than I even remembered it actually! :P Definitely agree that a summer meet here with food outside would be cool :)

Great to meet you all and look forward to future meets too :-)

Shame some of you can't make it now. We are leaving Bedford soon so see the rest of you in a bit :-)

Haha! Ill see what I can do about the nails but 13 hour days working on the car may have made it engrained! :P Not sure how much I can advise on this Suggestible, as I'm new to Toyotas but I can talk you through what is involved in getting engine out of an Altezza and wouldn't think its much different fro the 3SGE as it is for your 1GFE (apart from a bit tighter cos your engine is longer :)

Just noticed it says 11.30am in OP - sorry for my lack of reading skill! :P

All this talk of washing cars and merely fitting a bonnet, I'll raise that! LOL http://vid10.photobucket.com/albums/a138/Tom-P10/Altezza/MOV_0642.mp4 Only kidding of course and I will be washing mine tonight! My engine rebuild is (hopefully) all sorted and my Altezza is running now! :) Did my first journey this morning and got me to work with no issues, so fingers crossed that I don't get any teething problems between now and then. I should be all set to go to my mates in near Bedford tomorrow evening and then head over to from there on Sunday morning! Peoples getting there about noon right? Please excuse my scabby wheels - was part way through starting refurbing them and haven't had time to look at them since for obvious reason! :P

Cheers :) Haha, tell me about it - still got a radiator to seal up, speakers to put up, bath seal to re do, build my garage, convert the loft and sort the small room into a nursery (wife is expecting in October)! So once the car is done, it's still going to be a busy 6 months! :P

Enough with the "Not Long Now!" guys please! LOL Hopefully will be all good though! Got everything bolted back together and the engine dropped into the car over the Easter break :) Just got to finish cleaning up ancillary parts and fit them (might as well while at this stage) - then hopefully all will be ready to turn the key and hope for the best in the next couple of days! :)

Cool, good idea Peter. Maybe best for people to book separate tables or chance it on the day then rather than organise a massive table for lots of us :) I'll put it up on the Lexus IS200 page then as well, shall I? Dont say "Not long to go!" Peter - my crank is only just ready to pick up and still got to fit it, plus a load of other bits and then get the engine back in etc! LOL

Cool :) Only a month today but at least I now know what the issue with my Altezza engine: http://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/forum/topic/96806-3s-ge-engine-knockingrattle/ So fingers crossed it will be sorted or I might be turning up in my wife's Kia Rio :P Is it worth starting a list of names for this so we know where we are and how many. That way we can book a table for the food :) Think this is where we are with who has commented in her so far: 1. Stuno1 2. wendle 3. SiM22 4. Peter P18 5. Sully-K 6. Rey521 7. Dean8788 8. RS Tom-Hundred (+1) 9. RichS11 10. Connoisseur 11. Seafarer 12. suggestable Just need people to confirm and add any extra people/family joining them onto the list for the table number so we can book it, I reckon. Let me know if you're happy to sort this closer to the time Stuno or if you want me to ring them :)

UPDATE!!! On Saturday we got the engine out. bit annoying as it came out pretty easy but spent a while trying to get the angle brackets on the balance beam chains to mount somewhere on the engine and wasted a lot of time cos it just wasnt going to go anywhere and unfortunately the chains were fixed (couldnt remove from the brackets to use other eyes that Dad had with him) So in the end we bolted on two of these said eyes and used a few lashings of nylon rope between and then straight onto the hook of the crane! Then we couldnt get a good combo to mount points on the engine stand to mount to the bell housing of the engine so we craned it onto my workbench and then manhandled it through the gate to the back garden (few metres) so could wrap it up and make it water proof overnight as unfortunately, I had to leave off for Nottingham for a gig on Saturday afternoon. Next day we realised that we needed some longer fine thread bolts (M10 x 1.25) that would screw into the bell housing and probably some M10 threaded rod or long standard bolts that would pass through the other holes to clamp the engine to the stand via the flywheel end but after a bit of head scratching and few ideas, we realised we could clamp it on the side of the block straight to the engine stand plate without the adjuster tube bits, so we did that and swivelled it around so that the engine was upside down at an angle to work on After struggling with the main sump section on the bottom of the engine (first with the sealant and then realising we had missed two bots which were hidden down a couple of tube bits of casting! Whoops! [that will explain why it wont come off then!]) we got it off so we could see the big end bearings, main bearings and crank etc. Had a little look and then touched the big end bearing for cylinder one where we thought the issue might be and its safe to say that is deffo the issue and there is a lot of movement there that there shouldnt be! Here's a quick video I took (excuse my Dad asking me where the 14mm socket is) Ouch! :( Unfortunately, at that point it started to rain so we had to quickly cover up the engine and stand and go inside. But got out there again later when it stopped and whipped the cap off to get the bearings shells out. Not surprisingly looking really bad but annoyingly the rain came back and then it got dark so no more time to get any further! Feel relieved to have found something but no idea whether its just bearings or crank regrind will be needed or if damage to the caps or rod or anything else yet! Need to get some threaded rod and/or longer M10 x 1.25 fine thread bolts so can get it mounted properly and when I next have some time off in daylight we need to get the crank out to measure everything and see the extent that is needed to get it sorted. Im crossing my fingers but deep down knowing that this could be a lot of work and a big headache/expense around the corner! Wish me luck! (and let me know if you have any bolts of that pitch that are longer than 100mm please! LOL)

Yeah its not bad at all is it? :) I must have been mixing it up with somewhere else as I remember it being more than twice that! LOL That time is all good by me :)

Not too sure what "gastro pub" means to be honest! LOL But its a decent pub that's nice and serves good food but I couldn't remember how pricey it was! Here's the page with the menus on though if you want to have a look :) http://www.theploughfenditton.co.uk/food/

Cool :) I'll definitely pop over to visit the stand and say hello :) Hopefully meet a few of you guys in Cambridge in April too :)

I know a few pubs as my wife works in Cambridge. I'll have a think but The Plough in Fen Ditton was the one that sprung to mind first really. might be a bit pricey though so maybe worth checking if they have a menu on website. The Granchester pubs are nice but their car parks can fill up at weekend. i'll ask the missus and her mates for advice too :)

Oh ok, I will be attending with another club but was interested to view the specific event page to see what cars were attending and where to look out for you guys etc so I could swing by and say hello :) Any other Altezzas confirmed? :)

Cheers Chris :) That link seems to just take me to (an extra wide version of) the main page - is therea link to the specific Japfest event? Couldnt see it on the events page and seemed to only have stuff from 2013 on there.

So do you guys or no other Lexus forums do Japfest? I will be there (for my 10th year) and probably on the stand of my old club (Nissan Primera Owners Club) but would be good to see and chat to some owners of Lexus' and Altezzas :) Im up for the Cambridge meet though too as its only 25miles from me :)

I should be up for this one :) The Altezza is still off the road and will be hopefully lifting the engine out this weekend, so fingers crossed it will all be all up and running well before April! :) Which pub you guys thinking of? Might be easier on the outskirts of Cambridge for parking etc maybe? Grantchester is nice and has two or three pubs but can be busy on Sundays? Or The Plough at Fen Ditton is decent?

Thanks for the reply :) Oil level has dropped a bit since when I bought it in the middle of November but it was at about half way then and it is still at about 3rd up from bottom mark. Funnily enough, I ordered some oil yesterday which should be delivered next week cos I am planning on doing an oil change this month. There has always been a bit of a leak of oil coming from somewhere though. Not enough to ever leave any on the ground but can be seen in these photos I took last night. Some down the bottom at the front: And at top round the back: (I understand the cam cover gaskets can weep a bit on these engines though - is that right?) The oil in there doesn't look old from the stick and was supposedly changed under 4k ago (I planned to do the first change next week at about 4k) That sounds interesting about the separate oil filter - didn't know about that! Where abouts is it located please and what is it like to change? Can they be got hold of easily? That would certainly explain why the noise is coming from where it seems to be coming from if the actuators were starved of oil. Thanks Steve :)