Evo The Evo has had a fairly substantial amount of work done over the last 2 years, and I’m still sorting out all of the upgrades that were made. I don’t like to change a lot between racing the car, but with how scheduling has been, it was fairly inevitable. I’m back on track now,…
This is a how-to for the second-gen Toyota Venza (USDM) oil change. If you are a DIYer, want to do more oil changes than Toyota recommends (you should), or have just run out of Toyotacare’s maintenance, this is a very simple, straight-forward job. See below for a detailed step-by-step and a slideshow of important steps.…
After getting the fender braces & crossmember brace on, I decided it was time to do an alignment. It has been a while, and I wanted to make sure everything was on straight. It wasn’t too far off, just a little bit of toe to adjust. I’m running about -3.5front, -3.5rear, with 0 toe all…
The next part of upgrades made for the Evo are the Nagisa Fender Braces. These braces reinforce the next weakest part of the chassis, connecting the body of the car to the front support structure. These have been well documented as far as making a difference in terms of how the car turns in. Obviously…
This is a chromoly piece that is fully tig welded. I ordered mine with the wrinkle black option & jack point. The piece weighed in at 4.5lbs, which should save 7.5lbs over stock. This is fortunate, as the two Nagisa fender braces I ordered add 2.9lbs each, in a similar area, albeit higher up in…
There’s a process involved when it comes to running the dual map tune that I currently run. First of all, when I want to run pump or E85, I need to drain the tank down as best as I can. Then, after filling up, I need to switch the key to “On,” and hold the…
Finally doing another event in the Evo. This year’s looking like it’s going to be a lot more active, so I’m back to test n tuning the car. Unfortunately, the battery for the GoPro died after a year of not using any of them, so I was unable to record any runs. First off, I…
I think this was a long time coming, but I’ve finally installed the half-roll bar in the Evo. Half, as I’m keeping the car as streetable as possible. The back seats are basically not usable anymore, but still capable of holding a good amount of stuff. That said, a huge disadvantage is that I can…
A few things as I get ready for a retune on the Evo…
Every once in a while, I get an updated head unit for the Evo. I do this to make sure I get the latest CPU, with the most up-to-date operating system. Sometimes with these head units, they don’t update properly, and it’s easier to get a new one, especially if there’s been a hardware update.…
Following a night drive with the new headlights, I quickly realized the Morimotos were not as good as I’d hoped. The output was not well focused, and while part of that could have been down to adjustment, I primarily blamed the reflector technology, which, at least in this guise, was just not as well focused…
I had been experiencing a coolant leak for over a year now on the Evo. The coolant level on the overflow tank would drop, and sometimes I would spot drops of coolant pooling on the top of the transmission or transfer case. This didn’t immediately begin after the motor build, so I figured there was…
Given my awful experience with the Ferodo 3.12 pads, I opted for a street set for my dailying and autox (and maybe even a track day or two). These are the Ferodo DS2500s, which I have run before in the past in my Brembos. Hoping they will stop much quicker in the cold, and looking…
I’ve gone back-and-forth on batteries so, so many times on the Evo. I really hope this is the last. The AGM battery was a dud, eventually losing so much power that it couldn’t be recharged, even with the gimmicky power button for restart. To be fair, it did sit for months and months without a…
The Racefab is a good wet sump pan. The InfiniteEvo pan is a great wet sump pan. The InfiniteEvo pan is very similar to the Racefab, but it adds one crucial component – an oil pressure regulator. The oil pressure regulator is connected to a feed from the oil filter housing. The difference is how…
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