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Smudge's supercharged V8 build

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2 minutes ago, smudge said:

You just lost yourself a frisbee buddy!

Don't be silly, nobody can resist the call of the Ultimate Frisbee! :P

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7 hours ago, smudge said:

First ECU didn't do what we wanted it to, so we switched to another brand and their first one was faulty...

The BRZ M150 seems the obvious choice for ease of use and designed connectivity with all the GT86 canbus systems. What are you guys trying to use? I based this off of Andre's HP Academy videos of Manji's swap.

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I feel an update is needed. Progress has been slow recently which has lead me to realise that I've been giving Nev a little bit too much of an easy ride and have put some pressure on him to get things finished

Whilst his work is absolutely top notch and he's a lovely guy, he's unfortunately a victim of his own success and has little projects popping up all the time which means he gets distracted from his larger projects like mine. Whilst I completely understand that he has to do these little bits to make money and keep his good reputation, I've made it clear that he needs to prioritise.

We agreed that he will make a list of what is left to do and also give me a deadline that he is comfortable with, which has been set for the end of October. If this deadline is missed, I have made it clear that I'll no longer be able to recommend his services and may even have to go as far as removing credit from him when it comes to the numerous magazine features which are lined up. He's recognised this and we're finally making some good progress again - fingers crossed for end of October!

One minor setback has been that we're using a 6 speed box from an E90 BMW instead of the typical 5 speed from an E46. Whilst the casing is almost identical, we've recently found that the flywheel is 10mm short of the clutch...10 sodding millimetres! So we need to jig up a new adapter plate linking the box and engine together, just 10mm thinner than before. Not a massive issue but still a small set back

Wiring is basically all done, so we're hoping to finally start the engine and commence testing in the next week or so

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15 minutes ago, smudge said:

I feel an update is needed. Progress has been slow recently which has lead me to realise that I've been giving Nev a little bit too much of an easy ride and have put some pressure on him to get things finished

Whilst his work is absolutely top notch and he's a lovely guy, he's unfortunately a victim of his own success and has little projects popping up all the time which means he gets distracted from his larger projects like mine. Whilst I completely understand that he has to do these little bits to make money and keep his good reputation, I've made it clear that he needs to prioritise.

We agreed that he will make a list of what is left to do and also give me a deadline that he is comfortable with, which has been set for the end of October. If this deadline is missed, I have made it clear that I'll no longer be able to recommend his services and may even have to go as far as removing credit from him when it comes to the numerous magazine features which are lined up. He's recognised this and we're finally making some good progress again - fingers crossed for end of October!

One minor setback has been that we're using a 6 speed box from an E90 BMW instead of the typical 5 speed from an E46. Whilst the casing is almost identical, we've recently found that the flywheel is 10mm short of the clutch...10 sodding millimetres! So we need to jig up a new adapter plate linking the box and engine together, just 10mm thinner than before. Not a massive issue but still a small set back

Wiring is basically all done, so we're hoping to finally start the engine and commence testing in the next week or so

Holy crap, an update. Rarer than a Blue Eyes White Pepe :lol:

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Wow what a build thread , just spent a good 50 mins or so going through all 37 pages of this thread, pure awesomeness!

So many nice wheels, I'm so jelly and thirsty, time for a drink. :lol:

Followed for more updates B)

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20 minutes ago, MrWoohoo said:

Wow what a build thread , just spent a good 50 mins or so going through all 37 pages of this thread, pure awesomeness!

So many nice wheels, I'm so jelly and thirsty, time for a drink. :lol:

Followed for more updates B)

Glad you enjoyed! I'm actually down the yard working on the car all of this week, so hope to post some big updates soon

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Blimey, haven't updated this for a while!

As some of you know, I finally had enough with being messed around and seeing little to no progress with the guy that's been doing the V8 swap since April 2016. I took the car from him a couple of weeks ago and I'm having a more trusted place called Carson Performance complete whatever is left to do.

At first glance, there wasn't a huge amount of work that needed doing. Just small, fiddly bits like fuel lines, oil system for the supercharger etc. However, on closer inspection, we've unfortunately had to backtrack and redo some of the substandard work from the previous garage in order to make sure things are done properly and to a standard both Carson and I are happy with. 

This means that we've spent 2 weeks essentially redoing work where corners have been cut. Not ideal, but at least we have peace of mind that everything is being checked to ensure we dont run into any problems once it is finally up and running...hopefully!

Timescales now? Probably another 4-6weeks I reckon, but know knows what else we'll come across that will stop us from progressing further. 

There's light at the end of the tunnel and I've begun to find some love for it again. The guys at Carson also have an 86 so there's a personal passion for the car and their enthusiasm shines through the fantastic work they do. I'm kept up to date almost daily, even when it's bad news so that we can agree on a solution. 

Will try and keep this updated, hopefully with some good news soon.

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1 hour ago, Paul said:

Glad to hear there's some progress, sad to hear we won't see it at Japfest this year. But I'm assuming it will be ready for Japfest Donington?

Yes mate should be there for that, along with many other shows this year too. Time to finally show it off wherever I can!

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42 minutes ago, smudge said:

Yes mate should be there for that, along with many other shows this year too. Time to finally show it off wherever I can!

I'll have to get a ticket then. :)

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Great build! 1UZ is a cracking engine.

I did the same swap into a MK2 Supra back in 2007 :)

Reading through your build thread, I feel your pain. I had the same issues with having to widen the transmission tunnel. I had massive issues with the steering column being in the way of the drivers side header. I had to actually rotate the rack back 90'deg to get enough space to reroute the exhaust.

Interesting BMW Gearbox conversion kit. When I did mine I was using the Castlemaine Rod Shop 1UZ to R154 MK3 Supra gearbox kit. Came with a Monaro clutch/flywheel and was probably the most expensive part of the conversion lol

Shame 2UR's are still so expensive as I love to follow some of the US guys and have an RCF powered 86 lol

Are you using the TRD 2UZ Charger?

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2 hours ago, Luke said:

Did this swap ever get finished?

Still underway. Carson Performance have been spot on but unfortunately we keep finding shit to put right or come across something missing from the previous knob-jockey

I won't go into details but had we started the engine up before finding countless issues, it would've lasted about 2 seconds.

Hope to have some more updates in the next couple of weeks.

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That's scary to think you might of lost the engine due to someone else's negligence. Is the engine and gearbox in the car or are you still sorting out issue before it can go in. It's funny how YouTube can make engine swaps easy in a 3 minute montage.

Anyway I look forward to the updates. I've not actually seen an 86 with an engine swap in the flesh yet.

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41 minutes ago, Luke said:

That's scary to think you might of lost the engine due to someone else's negligence. Is the engine and gearbox in the car or are you still sorting out issue before it can go in. It's funny how YouTube can make engine swaps easy in a 3 minute montage.

Anyway I look forward to the updates. I've not actually seen an 86 with an engine swap in the flesh yet.

Engine and box have remained in the car. 

If things were done properly 1st time, this probably should have taken around 6 months. But unfortunately was fucked around for 2 years by the 1st garage before I finally took it somewhere else, and it's just been 1 issue after another.

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Right. Let's give this a bit of a revival

After sorting out a load of the mechanical issues, we got a wiring specialist in to sort out the loom. In theory, the M150 takes care of all the CANBUS system so you just need to repin the engine loom into the OEM connector in the engine bay. Everything should then run as normal.

Unfortunately, the engine loom that was supplied as a "custom made" job for my car was nothing more than a cheap, Chinese, off-the-shelf piece of crap. The connectors barely stay together, the pigtails would simply fall out and nothing was the right length. So the wiring specialist had a hard time working with this and also didn't have much knowledge of the engine itself. So every visit became a torrent of questions, wasting further time and not really making any progress.

So I called up a guy called Chris from Phoenix Performance who specifically deals with wiring for 1UZ engines. After a 30mins chat on a Thursday night, Chris travelled up from Bristol to Surrey on Saturday morning to form a plan with us at Carson Performance. Within minutes, he had chucked the "custom" loom in the bin and had started on his own from scratch! So exciting to see someone finally make some real progress and be able to give us some expert advice on what's best. At the end of the day, we had the following tasks completed:

- new coil on plugs installed with proper OEM Denso connectors, all wired up properly

- alternator all wired into the battery and properly earthed

- flywheel trigger installed and sensor wired in

- cam sensors wired in

With a new list of what else is required before his next visits on 8th and 9th November:

- purchase new OEM injector connectors from Toyota

- purchase knock sensor mounting bolts from Toyota 

- re-install AC compressor as we don't have the original Rotrex taking up that space in the engine bay

- install flanges in exhaust for O2 sensors (which connect straight to the Motec)

- purchase return fuel system with external fuel regulator and fit

- complete radiator and cooling system fitment

So with everything crossed, Chris can return on 8th/9th Novemebr and put a full 2 days into finishing off the custom loom, all repinned into the OEM block for the M150 to work it's magic and get everything running!

After EVERYTHING that's happened, I'm not holding my breath. But with Simon at Carson taking care of the mechanical stuff and Chris from Phoenix taking care of the electrical, it finally feels like we have a proper plan of action to get this thing back on the road. Watch this space!

Today, I also changed the pulley on the Eaton M122 supercharger to a slightly smaller one to make around 1bar of boost when it's running, and also did a test fit of some Todoroki front wings I recently purchased. These keep an OEM look to the car but give an extra 30mm over the standard wings! 

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Rebuilding the loom from scratch is brave but probably the best decision all things considered. Glad things look like they could finally be coming to an end. The block does sit quite far back against the firewall but it looks so right sat in an 86.

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1 hour ago, Luke said:

Rebuilding the loom from scratch is brave but probably the best decision all things considered. Glad things look like they could finally be coming to an end. The block does sit quite far back against the firewall but it looks so right sat in an 86.

Means we know EXACTLY what's been done. It's a long winded and expensive route to take, but well worth it in the long run.

Sick of the previous garage cutting corners. Going all out to make sure this works as we want it to now.

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Out of curiosity what kind of power are you looking for once done?

I didn't think the internals of the 1uz were very happy much after 300-350 but I wasn't sure if you had addressed that already in an earlier post.

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