8/3/07:

Well, the shop that was suppose to install the head/shortblock still has yet to do so, it's been about a month now and I'm getting pretty irritated with the situation. They're backed up but are saying they'll have it done by the end of this coming week. I certainly would hope so. I currently have a shop waiting to tune the car once it's done. I'm interested to see how much power it puts down, although I'm sure the slushbox is going to make the numbers a little lower than they should be... which is another thing I need to work on, an e153 swap.

Right now, my immediate thoughts for things to do in the near future includes dyno tuning, e153 swap, oil-catch can, depo headlights/corners, an aeromotive FPR and rota slipstream 16"'s.

I'll probably post an update once the car's back from the shop.

7/11/07:

Just a quick update (although quite lengthy) on the progress of the car. I haven't posted (from the looks of things) in around 2 years, I suppose it's time for an update. ;)

9/14/05:

I just got done speaking with Ken from Oregon Camshaft and my grinds were a success. We used a different core than the 5S core, but the gearing and diameter stayed the same. We acheived a larger base circle to start with (pre-grind) and ended up with the specs we wanted and a near-stock base circle size. I couldn't be happier with the result! My cam specs are .370/.390 lift and 220/228 duration @ .050". The order is intake/exhaust, incase anyone is unaware. The cams are being sent to Chris at Engine Logics and once appropriate valve springs are found (I need to look at a couple sets specs again yet), we'll be ready for the oversized valves to be installed. Things are really starting to come together, as one of my biggest hurdles (cams) has been finished.

6/29/05:

Installed my Unorthodox Ultra S crankshaft pulley last night.

5/27/'05:

Ok, I just recently moved so I haven't been able to get new updates too quickly. I have a lot going on with the cam (as usual) and just completed a mod I've been wanting to do for a while. I light my center panel with a 20" streetglow chrome series neon... so at night, it illuminates "C A M R Y"
I'm adding pictures of that, my filtered PCV valve, my drop with the whiteline springs and sometime tonight I'll upload a picture of my converted white clock. Enjoy.

4/19/'05:

I just got my Tokico struts in the mail today. The installation process will begin tomorrow night after I get home from work, where I'll buy new bumpstops and so on. I'm anxious to see the drop my whitelines provide and feel the ride of everything.

4/18/'05:

Today I finally got around to tinkering with the ignition ring and completed swapping the halogen bulb in it to an LED. There's pics of my entire interior lighting scheme on page 3.

4/17/'05

I completed my white climate controls, and cigarette lighter today. There's pictures on page 3 of everything. I still need to do the ignition key ring. That's the last thing I really want to do. Anything else is just extra. :)

4/14/'05:

I just took some pics finally of my LED progress so far. I have some plans yet to be fully worked out for the tail-lights and a couple other things.
The pics are up on page 3 with the rest of the cosmetic stuff. I expect to have the climate controls done this coming week.

4/3/'05:

I just did my gauges last night but realized there are more bulbs to do. It looks good except if I turn the dimmer up a bit of green shows at around the 140mph mark. I ordered 8 74 white LED's to fix this problem and do the rest of my interior (finish gauges/climate controls/etc). My eventual plans are to even convert the clock and everything to glowing white as well. I've been thinking up a plan of changing the 'gear selected' light where it lights up the gear you're in on the dash to white when unselected and yellow when selected. We'll see about that though. I want to finish the rest before I dive into this.

The headunit is going in tonight, so I'll have some pics up of that.

4/2/'05:

Today my 6 white LED's from superbrightLEDs.com came in for my gauges and I should have 2 left over to try out in my corners to see how they work. They're wide-angled so they should have good unidirectional lighting. I also received my Blaupunkt Monte Carlo today. It's too late right now after work to put everything in, but I may toy around with the corners yet tonight. We'll see. I'll post pics when everything's done. :)

3/29/'05:

I just ordered some 194/168 equivlent LED's for the Cam's gauge cluster. I'm going to be doing white gauges to match my S-AFC II. I have a bit of free time this week so I'm thinking of painting my springs and installing them so the cam's dropped.

3/26/'05:

Ok, well the head is at Engine Logics however I am having Chris hold off on the valves, as I may be getting some cams to go with it, which he'll have to set valve depth to compensate for.

Another new thing is my poweramp in my car's headunit blew last night. I just ordered a Blaupunkt Monte Carlo. I'm pretty excited for it... the headunit I had was shit from day 1.

3/22/'05:

Well, I just received word that my new head was shipped to Engine Logics and should be received on the 24th of the month. I've also found that Engine Logics is nearly done moving into their new shop. So shortly Chris can begin work on installing my oversized valves.
I'm getting very excited to see what becomes of everything. As you may have noticed, I have again some new pictures up of my car now. I washed/waxed it tonight and took some pictures of the exterior to get some better quality pictures up (no more rock-salt!)
Updates will keep on coming.

3/16/'05:

Catback is DONE and on. well, for the most part, I still need to paint the exhaust black with exhaust paint and put the heatshielding on. There's pics on page 2 of it.

3/12/'05:

Ok, my purple hornie came in sooner than expect. A day after I ordered it, they changed the ETA from the 16th to being in stock. It got here Friday (surprisingly quick for ground). My hushpower II should be here Monday. I'm still needing a couple pieces. In related discoveries, my purple hornie didn't include a turndown (wtf?), so I'm going to mount things a little different, with the exhaust going straight into the purple hornie, then straight to the hushpower II straight to a mandrel bent 90 and to a borla turndown. I still need to get a final measurement, but I believe things will JUST fit. With this said, I've found a local dyno shop that I'll take the car to in a couple weeks or so and have a base map tuned out (and a preliminary dyno run). The heatshields and piping should hopefully be here midweek, ready for installation.

3/9/'05:

I just ordered my flowtech purple hornie as a turndown/resonator for the catback. Next step is to order the mandrel bends and mock up the piping so I can have it all welded up. The flowtech will be on backorder until the 16th, so it'll put a bit of a twist into my plans. I still need to order a heatshield too though, so I don't melt the carpet glue.

3/8/'05:

Just finally convinced myself to get my catback done, so I just ordered the centerpiece for it... a Flowmaster hushpower II in 2.25" in/out. Friday I'll order the mandrel bends to make the rest of the system happen shortly.
I'm getting very excited for this. It'll probably give me more sound than performance, but with the headwork I'm doing, I think I deserve a little bit of flash to go with the performance. This muffler (from the sound clips I've heard) has the meanest sound ever.

3/6/'05:

The cosmetics page has been brought back up with some more current pictures. A lot of them are of my car while it's rather dirty, so sorry for the quality.
There are a few things still missing yet from the cosmetics page (pedals, and headlight pictures) but those will come in due time.

There is also 2 new pictures for my main page, a new thumbnail and some new pictures for my performance page.

3/5/'05:

The "cosemtics" page is down for now. I accidentally deleted it, but I'm going to retake the pictures so it's all up to speed (rather than seeing old emblems and redded out tails in one pic and new emblems in another).

3/4/'05:

Well, the battle continues with me vs the 2 bolts holding my stock downpipe to the catlyctic converter. This is a battle spanning a couple days (in fact, 2 so far).
I've tried cutting it, I've tried vice grips, I've tried everything. I'm trying some PB Blaster now and if that doesn't work, I just picked up a nut cracker to destroy the nut with.

In other news with the Cam, my head has been paid for, which should ideally be received on Monday, where it should get shipped out to Engine Logics to be worked on from there. I'm hoping for a month turn-around. That's it for now, but the cam is far from done, so check back...

3/1/'05:

The specs the new head will be worked to are under my 'performance' mods. I currently have pictures of the head without the machining work that's being planned to be done with it. I'm waiting until the head comes back fully done before any pictures will be posted.

2/28/'05:

Camry just came back and passed inspection but will need a tranny flush. Tranny flush will be done next week along with a wheel alignment.

Head payment and so forth are scheduled for 3/4 still. Time will tell the tale.
There's a huge-ass noreaster coming, or so the weather channel has said. The header installation will be put on hold until weather is permitting.

2/26/'05:

Ok, here's the deal. The cam goes in for inspection Monday. After it's done, the next nice day I'm off, the header and dp is going on.

On 3/4 the head is going into the shop to be worked on. Plans are to have it back by 4/4, but we'll see how that pans out. Keep checking back, these updates may keep coming, maybe not... I'm a lazy-ass, so we'll see.

My mechanical/performance mods are as follows:

-Bypassed TB Coolant line
-Filtered PCV Valve
-CSF Double Wide Radiator (solid metal)
-Custom Cold Air Intake
-Rippmods Header and Downpipe
-Flowmaster Hushpower II -catback
-Flowtech Purple Hornie ^^
-Borla Turndown ^^
-Heddman Hedders 2.25" Mandrel bent 90 ^^
-Apex'i S-AFC II Limited Edition
-Unorthodox Ultra S crankshaft pulley
-Crower custom 55/165 lb valve springs
-New valve stem seals
-33.5 mm intake valves
-Multi Angle Valve Job
-TRD Shimless bucket swap
-Milled head to 10-1CR
-Ported and Polished (All valvetrain work done by Chris @ Engine Logics.com)
-Modified 3sgte ARP head studs
-3S-FE rav4 cams reground to .370/.390 lift and 220/228 duration (cams done by Ken @ Oregeon Camshaft.com)
-Rebuilt shortblock with balance shafts removed / journals plugged
-Comectic MLS Headgasket
-Toga gasket set
-'97-99 Oil pump swap
-NGK Iridium Plugs
-NGK Wire Set
-16 degree advanced timing (full mechanical advance - 93 octane)
-Arospeed Strut Tower Bar
-Whiteline Rear Sway Bar
-Whiteline Springs (1 coil cut.)
-Hawk HP+ Brake pads

Owned/Ordered/or in GB of (but uninstalled):

-Tokico Struts (Still need to source housings)

My cosmetic mods are as follows:

-Depo (Clear) headlights/corners
-9006 Polarg Spec-R HIR's for low beams.
-9005 Sylvania Silverstars for high beams.
-20" StreetGlow Chrome series Neon lighting center-panel
-White LED corner lights
-White LED shifter base
-Orange ECT button
-White LED gauges
-White LED climate controls
-White LED cigarette lighter ring
-White LED ignition ring
-White LED parking lights
-White LED license plate lights
-White LED dome light
-Custom grille
-Redded out tails
-Custom (black) 2.2l 5SFE emblem
-Painted (black) Emblems
-Razo Pedals
-Custom Fiberglass eyelids
-Custom Lexan S-AFC II DIN mount
-Blaupunkt Monte Carlo head unit

The goal of this car cosmetically is to maintain a near-stock appearance but still improving the way it looks. The goal performance-wise is to end up with somewhere in the neighborhood of 160whp or more NA, maintaining streetability.
The performance side is about half way done, still needing a MT swap, the struts to be installed, an FPR, 7mge / 2nd gen 3sge injectors, a MSD 6AL, blaster SS coil, digital timing controller and custom intake manifold.
Cosmetically, only a new paint job, new rims/tires and depo lights are in the workings, beyond completing my LED swap conversion (which will be done very soon).

Page 2 is performance.
Page 3 is cosmetics.
Page 4 is some pictures of the valvetrain.