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Samwise

Bringing an 86 back from the dead

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Thanks! :)

I've never actually heard of someone having to replace bags due to fatigue but I guess if you had a set of them which had sat for a few years in the sun they'd start to crack but it's not something i've heard of yet but I know they're not too expensive as of course if you install them without checking for clearance they can rub against things and pop so they're made to be replaceable.

I'm not sure if they have bump stops, I imagine they do as it is essentially exactly the same as a coilover just replace the coil spring with a "Air-spring" The bump stops may well be inside the bag. The struts themselves weigh alot less as Steel coil springs are heavy so the unsprung weight is lower but the Compressors and Air Lift Manifold weight a few kilo's each so overall its probably 2-4kg heavier but that weight is towards the rear anyway.

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So I've been driving the 86 around for a week or so now and have had a chance to adjust a few little bits and pieces here and there. The loud knocking noise I was experiencing was from a couple of bolts not being torqued down so that was easily rectified. There are still a few noises while driving but its mostly drivetrain/diff noises along with the clonking that you inherently get when going in to 1st and sometimes from 1st to 2nd is louder with the bushing inserts. It's nothing to be worried about and it isn't particularly jarring to hear either as i know the noises have always been there and are simply a bit louder now.
 
As for the feel itself, the fun part. It's definitely a little bit stiffer but not too much, the combo of air suspension + ARB's and bushing inserts definitely gives the car a slightly stiffer feel all over both from what the road conveys to you but also how it handles and how it reacts to being given power or leaning in to corners. Overall the easiest way to describe it is like a set of soft-ish coilovers but with faster reaction times.

Anyway so I lowered it a little more today just to even out the height front/rear without one having to be overly low pressure to achieve a matching height and took the chance to check out the new "aired out" height, although part of me wants to say this is "too low" knowing that the moment i get in and turn the ignition on the car will rise up just makes me really love this look, It's not for everyone but it does look a little mean being barely an inch from the ground.
 

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I find the whole air ride quite a technical challenge. Wheel fitment will be setup for stationary right? So what fitment that looks good stationary might look odd when your driving because of geometry changes. Do you have a bound and rebound adjustment at the touch of a button as well? 

Will you be at London cartel show at Ardingly? Would be cool to see the setup in the flesh. 

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Yeah depending on how much of a "flush" fitment you want you'd aim to set it up for how you want to show the car. Of course that does mean you gain a bit of gap and a few 0.0's of camber back as you air up to ride hide but I don't think you'd go from looking good to looking like a slideshow atleast on the 86 platform.

 

Compression and rebound is done from the to p of the shocks much like any coilover setup. The only thing you really change with the bags is the pressure of them and therefore the height, the lower the pressure the more the weight of the car compresses the struts and therefore you don't lower

I had not seen about the London cartel show but I might have to look at going. Currently the next show in going to is "for the love of cars" at hickstead.

 

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It's not dead yet! i'm bringing this topic back from the dead for another very big and very exciting update but I'll just let this do the talking...

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That's right, i've just ordered my Rocket Bunny V2 Kit for the Car. I have to say it was VERY expensive being that alot of sites online don't include the 20% import Tax or even Air-freight from japan costs in to their online listings for it but to me it's well worth it. To some this might sound silly but this kit was one of my reasons for getting a gt86 in the first place and was the primary reason i went for a write-off, afterall why cut up a perfectly good example?

Some of you might also be rolling your eyes and having lost interest (if you haven't already from the air lift) but im hoping that the 3 people who are still following (hi mum!) keep watching. This was a bit of a goal for me and i'm really pleased to make it a reality before the end of the year. I've purchased it through the official Rocket bunny EU supplier who are based over in Germany and rather than have them deliver it to me will be making a bit of a holiday/road trip for myself as I go over there to pick it up with a mate, should be fun!

Also just to finish thing's off seeing as i've always found the Greddy/Rocket Bunny renderings really lackluster here's one of my favourite cars with this kit belonging to Connor_lol

037ec60e83a1fb3c1cc804c66910a86a.jpg

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I'm sorry to say this but - yuk - what a total dog's breakfast he's made of that car.  All the beautiful lines are ruined, it looks like a cheap body kit badly installed.

It's all in the eye of the beholder, of course.

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18 minutes ago, MartinT said:

I'm sorry to say this but - yuk - what a total dog's breakfast he's made of that car.  All the beautiful lines are ruined, it looks like a cheap body kit badly installed.

It's all in the eye of the beholder, of course.

Haha yeah these things are always quite divisive and I agree that the aero attachments there are a bit too much for my liking. I should've linked one like this to be honest. 41691650_591309274621554_213076945174227

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I'd be interested to hear how you get on with this! I'm waiting for my V2 diffuser to arrive from Japan.

I ordered mine through Torqen - the UK distributor for GReddy / Rocket Bunny kits. In my opinion (other than the front bumper) the V2 actually compliments the GT86 lines quite nicely.

I'm still debating over the matching skirts... 

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On 7/15/2019 at 1:59 PM, Samwise said:

Yeah depending on how much of a "flush" fitment you want you'd aim to set it up for how you want to show the car. Of course that does mean you gain a bit of gap and a few 0.0's of camber back as you air up to ride hide but I don't think you'd go from looking good to looking like a slideshow atleast on the 86 platform.

 

Compression and rebound is done from the to p of the shocks much like any coilover setup. The only thing you really change with the bags is the pressure of them and therefore the height, the lower the pressure the more the weight of the car compresses the struts and therefore you don't lower

I had not seen about the London cartel show but I might have to look at going. Currently the next show in going to is "for the love of cars" at hickstead.

 

Lower it. Love it! See you at the event at Hickstead  :D

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7 hours ago, Rocket Panda said:

Lower it. Love it! See you at the event at Hickstead  :D

Oh you won’t see me there now I’m afraid, that was referring to before it was cancelled back in August 

but I believe you’re going to the meet at the Fuel coffee house tomorrow? In which case you’ll see me there!

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I'm enjoying the journey your documenting for us all to ponder. I expect heavy detail on trying to smuggle a body kit back across the English channel. Followed by hours of sticky tape and laser levels to line up the arches correctly. What are you plans for cutting the wheel arches out? Will you hide the rivets or leave them exposed? 

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Well the trick will be to fit the Body kit to the hire van before bringing it back in to the country! 😂

Plans for the wheel arches will be to cut them likely with a Nibbler attachment for a drill as they're cheap and far more accuracte/safe than using a rotary or saw tool. Once they've been cut i'll employ the help of my fabricator friend for a few beers and we'll make a new bit of sheet metal and he'll weld it in to seal up the rears then we'll run seam sealer just ot be sure and i'll likely use some cavity wax on the inside of the arches.

For the fronts i'll even stick with the normal arch liners and work them a bit to make them fit the new shape of the inner arches or i might just employ his skills again to weld up the gaps on the inside of the engine bay looking in to the wheel arches.

Going to keep the bolt/rivet on look. Hoping to do as much of it myself and i don't really want to deal with cracks between the panels in the future, and personally I don't mind seeing the bolts poking out :)

 

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58 minutes ago, James18 said:

It's going to be really impressive to see how this turns out being fitted yourself!

Do you have a lead time for the RB kit delivery schedule?

Around 3-4 weeks. I'll be taking a road trip to germany to pick it up just because I fancy a bit of a holiday this year :P

It was always on my mind to fit it myself, as you can probably tell I very much enjoy doing 99% of the work myself. It's half the fun of owning the car to me!

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Am I right in thinking that you only have to cut the original arches to prevent the extra wide wheels from rubbing on them. Can I also request a video liken to RWB porsche builds? If you're taking a van perhaps you could pick up some other German 86 parts as well. 

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2 hours ago, Luke said:

Am I right in thinking that you only have to cut the original arches to prevent the extra wide wheels from rubbing on them. Can I also request a video liken to RWB porsche builds? If you're taking a van perhaps you could pick up some other German 86 parts as well. 

Well yeah the idea of fitting any wider arches is to fit wider wheels under them. therefore you have to cut away the existing arches so you don't just destroy them with your new wide wheels.

Not sure about a video haha, the M23 isn't as picturesque as some of the highways and coastal roads of Australia 🤣

What german 86 parts are there? Not that I have the money for it anymore

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On 9/15/2019 at 6:22 AM, Luke said:

What width wheel do you have to run to fill out the new arches? 

I'll be going 18x9.5 ET0 on the front (hoping to move out the track width by around 20mm on the front and 18x11 ET-20 on the rear :)

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We Interrupt your regularly scheduled programming to bring you this Breaking News
 
 
So as a bit of a sudden change of pace I made another big purchase recently for the car..
People often ask me what I plan to do power-wise to make the "Go" as big as the up-coming "show" the car is going to have and I often always give a bit of a half assed answer as I don't want to either give too much away or sound like a bit of a dreamer who gets far too ahead of himself and likely won't follow up on those plans so recently I decided to cement those plans in place and purchased this..
 
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So I imagine there's going to be a bit of confusion, alot of questions and so on so i'll do my best to explain tango_face_grin.png
Just to keep the suspense and confusion building i'll start with my reasons first - I personally really love turbo cars as some of you can likely tell from my Subaru and the Vx220 but If i were to go down the turbo route on the 86 i'd want something a bit more than 300bhp, something like 350-400 and whereas this is very possible it's quite expensive being that you'd most likely need to build the engine with forged internals, buy the turbo unit, get a stand-alone ECU & tune it and then after all of that you're still left with a gearbox that will likely throw up its guts at the thought of all that power and torque. The FA20 is a fantastic engine in reality but I'm not a race team who has the funds to run a high powered boosted FA20 which is then left quite high strung and high maintenance.. which would also require another £3-10k to rebuild if it ever went pop and I kind of wanted to try something with a few more cylinders for once.
 
So i bought this, it's a v8 obviously and the reason why i started this post with the strange "interuption" notice is just to preface that this will likely not get anywhere near the 86 until Autumn 2020 at the earliest that said, I just wanted to commit to it, get my foot in the door and of course it gives me something to tinker with, clean up, paint & work on over the next year and also these engines are quite rare in the UK so it will easily hold it's value if things all went a bit pear shaped money wise for me for whatever reason next year... i dunno a meteor strike or something?
 
So to give a few details as to what you're seeing:
 
This is a 6.2L all aluminium L92 engine previously featured in great hits such as the 2008 Cadillac Escalade and Chevrolet Tahoe. It shares it's architecture with the LS series of engines, specifically the LS3 which often lives in the Corvette C6, Vaxhaull VXR8 (Holden Commodore) and Camaro. The similarity of these engines is so close that the Aluminium block and heads are identical featuring a nice desireable well flowing head with square intake ports and a chunky 6.2L displacement as well as the fact that almost every part for the LS3 or made for the LS3 will bolt straight on without any hassle including Cams, intakes, accesories, the lot.
 
The reason why the aluminium part is important is because this engine is essentially the exact same weight as an NA Fa20 With both engines being around 170-180kg in weight once fully dressed up meaning that unlike alot of popular 2JZ (230kg) swaps it won't ruin the weight of the car which was one of my biggest fears as I don't want to ruin what is an incredibly well handling car and a fantastic chassis.
 
So my plans with this over the next year are to of course clean it up, paint the block and heads to tart it up a bit. Swap out the cam to give a bit more power (should expect around 400bhp NA with this) and remove the VVT and Low-end torque focused cam designed for the big heavy trucks and SUV's this engine was previously in and eventually drop it in around this time next year. I'll find a T56 Manual gearbox to go along with it and should be able to easily fit with with some bolt in engine/gearbox mounts from the likes of Sikky Manufacturing and Motec M150 Plug & Play package from Pure Automotive in the states which will retain all factory functions including push-start, Speedometer/Rev Counter and I believe even Cruise control & AC!
This was the main reason for picking something as common (In the states atleast) as the LS rather than the more readily available 1UZ/3UZ Lexus engines we have over here as like most things I plan to do pretty much all of the work myself so it has to be something that doesn't really require alot of welding and fabrication or making an entire wiring loom.
Of course this all sounds very expensive but from what i've planned for it should work out roughly similar if not actually cheaper than a 2jz swap or High power FA20 turbo build.. plus i get to make v8 noises!
 
So that's all i can really think of to say so far, this'll be something i'll update slowly over time as I work on the engine and of course the next big posts will likely be the receiving and fitting on my rocket bunny kit.

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You have my attention. I thought your knowledge of gm v8's was a bit detailed. I look forward to hearing progress, are you going to have to smash the transmission tunnel in and modify the steering rack to get it to fit without it poking out the bonnet? I've just recently discovered who pure automotive are after looking up k24 swaps. 

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2 hours ago, Luke said:

You have my attention. I thought your knowledge of gm v8's was a bit detailed. I look forward to hearing progress, are you going to have to smash the transmission tunnel in and modify the steering rack to get it to fit without it poking out the bonnet? I've just recently discovered who pure automotive are after looking up k24 swaps. 

Haha yeah i've been doing my research quite a bit.

The Transmission tunnel will require me to remove the OEM gearbox mount which is just a folded piece of sheet steal spot welded in to the tunnel and give it some gentle "Massaging" with a mallet but thats fairly common amongst alot of swaps like fitting a 1J/2J in to a Silvia chassis, etc

Shouldn't have any issues with the bonnet, might even be able to fit it under a strut bar.

brzlsx.jpg

 

The K24 swap looks really enticing too as its such a common and well documented/strong engine but im adamant to go V8 at this stage :P

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2 hours ago, MartinT said:

Such a shame to lose the Subaru personality, though. Did you consider a dirty great WRX turbo implementation at all?

Sent from my LG-Q6 using Tapatalk
 

Personally I don't get alot of Subaru Personality from the FA20 seeing as it doesn't rumble from the factory and isn't fitted with a turbo, and I still own a Subaru WRX for both of those things :P

I've looked at turbos but like i said to get big power from them is so much money and to take 2 steps back and fit an EJ20 would just be a bit of a headache considering they themselves aren't particularly bulletproof engines and no one's really done it so you'd run in to the problems with wiring and tuning it to work with the 86's Canbus systems. I think the only "easy" Swap (no swaps are easy) would be the Fa20DIT from the 2015 WRX but that would be a load of money for no real improvement over a bolt on turbo kit.

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9 hours ago, Samwise said:

I've looked at turbos but like i said to get big power from them is so much money and to take 2 steps back and fit an EJ20 would just be a bit of a headache considering they themselves aren't particularly bulletproof engines and no one's really done it so you'd run in to the problems with wiring and tuning it to work with the 86's Canbus systems. I think the only "easy" Swap (no swaps are easy) would be the Fa20DIT from the 2015 WRX but that would be a load of money for no real improvement over a bolt on turbo kit.

Roger Clarke Motorsport will do you a forged/decked EJ20 short block for far less than you’d have expected. 👍

Cool project though, that Pure automotive ECU kit looks really quite impressive. Though you do pay for it.

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