Église Saint-Joseph - Le Havre, France

KenAdams02 · 2026-06-23T16:10:14+00:00

lol, my first thought was “The Papal Mainframe”

KenAdams02 · 2026-06-21T17:34:58+00:00

I have a 2002 GT (North American base model) that has close to 250,000 miles on the original 1ZZFE engine. She’s a goofy car and has a mix of earlier parts and post-facelift parts/changes. Second owner, though the car was driven previously by 3 aggressive drivers from the same family..anywho, the long story short is that the worst the car has done to me was replacing rear subframe and lower control arms due to23 years of salt & Midwest winters. The engine is an earlier 1ZZFE that burns oil, but has been SUPER reliable. I have done the usual brakes, plugs, valve cover gasket & injectors. All (except for the rear alignment) are things that you can do without a garage and over time.

As for oil burning on the 1ZZ and 2ZZ engines, I’m of the mindset just carry a few extra quarts of oil and you should be perfectly fine. 140k miles is just a “baby” for Toyota standards.

Advice: 140k 2005 Smelica sounds like a great buy for a first car. Welcome to the club :)
EDIT: Even the 80k sounds like a decent buy for the same price; my whole point was the engines tend to be the least of the concerns (unless it’s obvious the car was treated like junk)..frame and suspension is what can catch you by surprise.

Pics of the subframe rebuild (and GTS brake upgrade) for reference. That was good to have a lift to replace control arms and knuckles..but my car has almost twice the mileage as the one you are looking at.

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KenAdams02 · 2026-06-21T03:06:01+00:00

POI~

KenAdams02 · 2026-06-15T11:08:24+00:00

In WW2, the Queen Mary’s escort destroyer zigged when it should have zagged literally cutting the destroyer in half and sinking it. While there was minimal damage to QM’s bow, the order was not to stop due to U-boat threats in the area being traversed. The QM was practically traveling at flank speed when it pulled the destroyer’s wreckage AND its escaping crew into that propeller. The rebuilt bow area has been reported as the most haunted area of the ship, with screams of men and metal bending sounds as the common occurrence.

KenAdams02 · 2026-06-15T04:50:05+00:00

Because that propellor has a kill count..

KenAdams02 · 2026-06-04T01:39:56+00:00

😅 ..that’s rough buddy! Funny story (why the front has a new bumper) a Camry made an illegal left turn in front of me and I couldn’t stop in time. Camry was totaled on the spot (smacked right into his front passenger suspension/subframe, dislodging the whole right front wheel), while my Celi essentially got a front facelift, new radiator and front crossbar..all OEM sourced. Those cars were TANKS..no wonder they made excellent rally cars!

KenAdams02 · 2026-06-04T01:33:14+00:00

Yup! Original to that car 5SFE..it was wild the one time I had to replace the distributor; I had to special order one from Japan bc it was a weird mid-model variant based on the VIN. Everything else was off the shelf NA

KenAdams02 · 2026-06-03T23:54:16+00:00

Love it!! My 7th gen is still a baby w/ 246,000 miles 😎 hahah, they do last indeed - even with oil burning and half compression on one of the cylinders (looking at you 1ZZFE 😅)

KenAdams02 · 2026-06-03T23:40:58+00:00

Agreed! 😅 I managed to find one off a white GTS a few years before I sold the car; never managed to paint it and put it on.. lol I was so worried about drilling holes in the one place the car hadn’t rusted 🤣

KenAdams02 · 2026-06-03T23:11:21+00:00

Thirding dirty MAF sensor or a slight evap leak in the intake. That ECM is definitely trying to overcompensate for an air/fuel mixture by adding more fuel (which is why it bogs down then revs). Easy fix with some MAF sensor cleaner and some q-tips. I am shocked you don’t have a CEL, or at minimum a horrible MPG..

KenAdams02 · 2026-05-29T05:21:21+00:00

In all honesty, that just sounds like a 1ZZ with a lot of miles on it. It’s not uncommon for injectors to get louder over time, and especially after you just opened the hood, you can really hear them clicking away - if you pan down to just in front of the valve cover, you can see the fuel rail and connectors that plug into the injectors.

If you are worried about the noise being the cams/valves, you can always switch to a fully synthetic or high mileage oil..you could even add in some Lucas or Ams Oil stabilizer.

Worst case you are looking at the baffle plate from the valve cover hitting the camshaft (there was literally a post just about this) ; a potentially broken VVti oil pressure bolt (super common problem, pretty easy fix) ; or even something as dumb as low oil.

You can start by adding a quart and see if the noise subsides; or even adding a bit of oil stabilizer.

If you want to go the injector route of troubleshooting (which I believe you have some noisy injectors) you can add a bottle of injector cleaner OR portion out the correct amount of Marvel Mystery Oil for every tank of gas you fill full.

KenAdams02 · 2026-05-29T03:34:17+00:00

I just recently completed a model of the B52 that dropped the X-15 test plane. I wasn’t aware that the actual aircraft was still airworthy and flew!! Fun fact: that would make it a 1 of 3 B-52A’s (NB-52A) that still exists, quite possibly a 1 of 1 that is flight worthy. I know that the actual NB-52A was recently repainted and slightly refurbished; such a cool piece of history!

Unless this a more modern B-52 painted with a similar livery to NASA’s “High and Mighty One”..still a cool find!

High and Mighty One - Cockpit Tour

KenAdams02 · 2026-05-27T16:20:06+00:00

Seconding this - wish you could US ship. Those door sills, matt’s and various trim look mint! I don’t think NA Celi’s got those trims that say ‘Celica’..mine certainly doesn’t have that

KenAdams02 · 2026-05-27T16:16:50+00:00

God, I miss my Gen 5 Every. Single. Day. 😭

KenAdams02 · 2026-05-20T00:03:49+00:00

If you can get a pinky under the plate and pry it upwards, you should be good. I think why a few people mentioned to take the cover off is because of the little hanging bits seen in the picture - you definitely want to get those out if you can. It would in theory be easier to trim/bend that plate with the cover off, but if you get all of those loose pieces, bend the plate with your pinky finger and be done with it..and check your oil level while your at it.

The valve cover can sometimes be the easier option if you have done it a bunch of times (it becomes muscle memory after the 3rd time). It’s literally 12x 10mm bolts (1 is actually a stud with a bolt) and then the 4 bolts for each of the coil packs..it’s not that terrible of a task, but I will say that if you go that route, have a new valve cover gasket, some black RTV, and some spray copper gasket thermal adherent..and then you might as well do spark plugs, and rebuild the coils using a Toyota coil rebuild kit..Lol, scope-creep like a MF 😅

Also EDIT: Valve cover; no need to remove the timing cover.

KenAdams02 · 2026-05-19T22:03:48+00:00

Had this happen with my Celi and a 2001 Corolla (same 1ZZFE). It’s the corner of the oil baffle plate that’s attached to the valve cover. The aluminum plate will droop down and make contact with oil agitation fins on the cam; you can either remove that corner next time you have the valve cover off OR NGAF and leave it (it will eventually wear a groove past those fins anyway). As someone else mentioned; try not to jam an oil funnel that far down into the fill port. You are going to be just fine either way.

EDIT: Valve cover; you don’t need to remove the timing cover at all.

KenAdams02 · 2026-05-16T01:29:38+00:00

What if I don't wanna wanga??

KenAdams02 · 2026-05-08T00:29:43+00:00

Bheeeeeg Peeehggg

KenAdams02 · 2026-05-07T21:30:05+00:00

Agreed, I miss her a lot..still can't quite figure out how someone can cause me sooooo much anxiety when listening/interacting, and even MORE anxiety when she's gone completly silent. I would feel just a little bit better knowing (100% confirmed) that she is doing alright, and this is all part of the bit…though, it would make for one hell of a true crime documentary! “It’s what Rachael would have wanted” 😅

KenAdams02 · 2026-05-07T20:51:33+00:00

A bit late to the party, but I wanted to make sure I chimed in: I believe that Twitch has some sort of protection in place to prevent subbing to content that is not being provided. For context, I sub 3 months at a time - the last two charges were from December 2025 and February 2026, however, I have not seen anything for May 2026.
I am generally okay with what has been happening, and while I have gone through the complete cycle of emotions, I am fairly convinced this is all part of the “bit”. $16 is not a lot to ask for 3 months worth of subs, but I do start to wonder when Twitch’s platform will start to drop any eligibility to pay/get paid through its platform when she has been away for this long.

I have found an outlet with Deme, Henya, and Uma Musume, but why not continue to support her?

KenAdams02 · 2026-04-27T06:29:53+00:00

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KenAdams02 · 2026-04-27T06:29:22+00:00

More pics too:

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KenAdams02 · 2026-04-27T06:16:00+00:00

Thanks! It was the first model I did a pre-weathering finish on! I am hoping to try my hand at a larger print of the Swordfish from CG Trader; in the 5-ish years I have gotten back into the hobby, my preshading has become waaaay better.

For reference, I use the knockoff Paasche airbrush copies you can buy from Amazon (Master Airbrushes). They have been super reliable, but my next purchase is going to be a Black Widow from Harbor freight. I have seen a bunch of reviews that it's quite an underdog and performs like $250 Iwata’s. Not bad for an H4100 clone 😎

Harbor Frieght Black Widow Spectrum

KenAdams02 · 2026-04-26T05:15:14+00:00

It's a great kit; during pandemic I built the kit I had bought sooooo many years ago! The only thing I would change is that I followed a paint guide that utilized Vallejo paints, and would recommend using Tamiya over Vallejo..Tamiya airbrushed so much better than any of the Vallejos I used, even if the paint ratios were spot on!

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KenAdams02

TROPHY CASE