Leaderboard

3600 miles when I put them on. Family commitments and being a carer mean I seem to spend more time looking at the car than driving it! So, because looking at it is so important, spacers to get the stance right were one of the first modifications. I am on 12500 miles now, and every time I get in it, it feels like a new car. So I have had what feels like a new car every year for 8 years. Maybe my wife will bury me in it?

It's not just cheap 95RON fuel. I've had the crickety fuel pump forever, and the car has been run on V-Power or Momemtum-99 almost exclusively - neither of which are cheap, nor 95RON. The only time it ever disappeared was when using Esso-97, which apparently how no ethanol. Now that Esso do a 99RON fuel to rival V-Power/Tesco Momentum, and my nearest fuel station is Esso, I've switched to using that. Since then, no crickets.

The Bilstein B8 dampers were installed today, to accompany my existing H&R Super Sport springs. If you wanted to do the whole shebang, you could buy the Bilstein B12 kit, which consists of B8s with Eibach lowering springs. At the same time, lower arm Superpro poly bushes front and rear were installed, as well as Superpro lower control arms, adjustable toe controls and Whiteline anti-roll bar drop links front and rear. It also got a full laser alignment. By the way, I ordered the Bilsteins last October and they only just arrived this week. Be prepared for a long wait. Abbey did the usual superb job and threw two technicians at it, so it was all completed by early afternoon. Ride quality is firm but fluid. You certainly know that you're no longer on stock dampers, but at the same time it remains supple and always in control. There is no bounce, especially over large undulations. There is certainly no crashing or harshness. It's just firm. But that leads to... Roadholding. Goodness me, this is different! In the damp conditions driving home, and off motorway as much as I could, the level of grip and control around bends and coming off corners and roundabouts is on a different planet. Being able to put down a goodly amount of supercharger power and not have it scrabbling for grip is amazing. No, I didn't sneak a set of 255s on the wheels, they're still 235 PS4s. However, I am not used to being able to give it so much pedal so early coming off a corner. It really is a new kind of fun. Was it worth it? I think so, as the investment in a good boosted setup is wasted if you don't pay as much attention to the chassis, and stopping, as it needs.

It's been interesting commuting to work on the motorway these last two weeks, in damp to fully wet and cold conditions. Dropping to 5th to overtake, I've several times heard it over-rev as traction breaks, just backing off the pedal a little to regain grip. It's actually done it in 6th a couple of times, too. The BRZ is incredibly stable and hasn't wagged its tail at all. The 235/40 PS4s are very predictable, too. Got to be careful with the supercharger sometimes!

Sump is £70 from Subaru. It’s in for 10 days for an exhaust tweak and whilst the headers go off to Zircotec for coating, so will have plenty of time to dry. Peculiar that you’re diff needs attention, mine’s totally clean back there. It seems to be the joins on the subframes that suffer.

Here you go, from the Subaru manual for a BRZ owner Sent from my SM-G970F using Tapatalk

I'm actually following you on YouTube now, would love to do a V8 swap myself!

Nothing wrong with wheel spacers if you install them correctly. I stand firmly by the fact that if a formula drift car can bump it's way down a banked circuit while going sideways at 80-100MPH with 1100hp with 50mm spacers fitted then you're never going to have an issue with them as long as the one's you bought don't say "Nestle" or "Cadbury's" on them. Just install them, Torque them to spec and re-torque them after 20-50 miles.

A little interior tweek which I picked up from a member on the other forum - leather shift boot with 86 embroidery to replace the OEM vinyl one and a Type R style Duracon shift knob (to add to the far too many shift knobs I now own)

Congrats on the new car. Nice choice on the TRD. Look forward to seeing what you do with it

as you can see there was a couple of mods by the previous owner but nothing had been done performance wise just the vinyl and the rear spoiler. so I picked her up and it was lashing it down 🙃 so I waited till the shy uk sunshine reared its head and set to work getting those vinyls off the side before during (before getting to work removing left over adhesive and gunk) after all nice and clear looking 10 times cleaner I really wasnt a fan of the vinyl at all like the second it stopped raining it was off 😅

Been slowly moving ahead on tearing down and cleaning up the Internals of the LS ready to go back together with the shiny new parts. I'm having to be particularly thorough with it moreso than I was perhaps hoping for. As the engine was a core it's clearly sat for sometime and is just mega sludgy and crusty throughout. Definitely the kind of thing that should've been hot tanked but in my ignorance i assumed the cost would be fairly high and wanted to clean it out myself. I might still get the block hot tanked but for now.. on with the show! Following the removal of the valves and getting the rocker arms apart the next setp was to clean up the rocker arms, they were perfectly useable as is but i didn't fancy putting the oil-black (rocker arms in with the shiny new valves, valve springs etc and as well as that I had to get the new trunnion bearing upgrade install. The Bearing upgrade I went for was from the more expensive range of trunnion bearing upgrades as it features brass bearings rather than needle bearings once again but the reason i went for this particular one was it's ease of installation as it doesn't require the bearings to be pressed in and simply needs a pair of circlip pliers! Here's a before and after of the old grimey rocker arm compared to a lovely cleaned and polished up one. After cleaned up everything get chucked back in to a container of fresh oil to keep it from rusting and also to prepare it for the trunnion bearing upgrade install. Every component of the bearing has to be covered in oil or assembly lube when being put together so it's easier just to keep them chilling in the oil as they'll likely sit there for some time after until finally being installed in to the heads. Moving on to the bearing upgrade it was very easy for all 16 rocker arms, the hardest part is simply installing the circlips and making sure they don't launch themselves in to the stratosphere. Once done they look pretty smart! With all of that covered off in the above video I moved on to the next task. Wanting to get the heads all finished before moving on to the block, pistons and crank they were in a severe need of cleaning, muck like the block itself the insides of the heads are filled with gunky sludgy old oil and carbon, buildup from the coolant system, etc. At this stage i'm thinking it might be better to just bite the bullet and get a machine shop to clean it all but i've already bought the parts washer, degreaser and brake cleaner, etc so feel I may as well persevere for now! Armed with copious amounts of brake cleaner and elbow grease I was able to get one of the heads pretty darn clean if i say so myself. It took around 3 hours and only the most stubborn of oil stains and carbon buildup is left over, largely on the exhaust ports but i'm not overly fussed about that as it will soon build up again or come off after the engine's first "Italian tune up" All of this will be covered in my next video but I couldn't help showing it off as I have to say im rather proud of how they turned out, i wasn't so sure they were particularly salvagable by hand, i still might take the block itself to a machine shop to make sure all the oil passage ways and cylinder bores are cleaned thoroughly but the heads came out pretty well by hand! Check out the comparison of the old crusty state the heads were in and the new shiny cleaned up head!

Update for future reference: Lauren was right, it was the drop links. On inspection they looked fine, but as I had the car in the air anyway, I replaced them, and the noise has gone. Surprised (and annoyed), as the old links looked and felt fine after removal...no splits in the boot that I can see, and they didn't feel too loose. I may cut the boots open later and check the rose joints. And they are a pain in the arse to remove, even after only 6 months on the car. Still, preferable to having the strut assembly out.

I had a Custom Built Exhaust System made for my car and then took the car to Fensport, where Adrian worked his magic on mapping it. My GT86 was the 11th Auto he had mapped at the time and in total had mapped about 50 GT86's. The whole system gave me a power gain of between 25bhp - 30bhp approx and certainly noticed the difference [emoji14] Custom Exhaust System £2,200 Fitted by Bespoke Performance £400 Fensport Mapping License £160 Fensport Maps x3 £450 I would say money well spent [emoji1787] Mileage now 133,105

As with any tuning modification on an NA engine it is expensive for a little gain. Changes the power delivery and makes it much easier to drive which I like. Does it feel faster, not really. Would I do it again, probably as it does make for a nicer drive. I assume from your other comments you may have had a turbo car before. You will never get the cost vs performance gains you get with those cars with these unfortunately.

@Jay Bamrah just to close the loop on the top thread, the EcuTek packages are as follows: ECU License: Usually around £250, this is to allow the ECU to take an EcuTek ROM. The ECU only needs this the 1st time it's flashed, so there may be 2nd hand cars that have this already. Programming Kit (or the BT EVI Kit) with Dongle: The Dongle is the part that allows use of the ProECU software on your PC/Laptop. This is used to flash and log files to the ECU. You do not need this if you're getting tuned by someone else. Needed if you're remote mapping or logging. Can be used to make basic maps for your car and can be used to flash OTS maps if you want. The cable or BT EVI is just the device to connect laptop to the OBD port. RaceROM Upgrade: This is basically a Tuner License lite. It's applied to the dongle and is there to give you greater access to maps, including the custom and RaceROM maps, for self tuning. So this allows you to create better maps, but makes zero difference if you are flashng someone else's maps. https://www.ecutek.com/Products/Retail/ProECU-Programming-Kit/Features/ProECU-BRZ

I bought the Tuning Developments UEL Manifold when there was a sale and had it shipped to me, then fitted the manifold myself (Not an overly difficult job to be honest), and took it to Abbey Motorsports for the EcuTek license + dyno tune. It does save money and is also a good option if you live many many hours away from Tuning Developments.

I just wish Waze added a route without speed bumps option!

I know theirs 1000 posts on this but I think the more people that post on it the better. Each post might have something of value to someone so I wanted to as well. first rattle is here this is what it looks like exposed... The plastic clips rattle here so I used adhesive foam on the bottom of them(link at bottom to cheap foam) Next rattle is this ... the exposed part is made of plastic and so I put adhesive foam here (this is the bottom of the back seat) next is here ... This corner piece on both ends rattles against the glass window, I filled behind it with foam. The hole here is what hole you need to push foam through to fill it, i recommend you put your finger in first to feel where it needs to go, photo of hole is below... next is here... (at the top of the window that plastic piece) the roof liner is lose you can easily get small chunks of foam and push them in there hidden... next place ... this area in general, I know it looks ugly how I did it but it’s all invisible when the seats are back so I don’t care, I just made it tight as hell, no movement.. next... this is where the break light is... that piece, I put foam on the edge where it sits against the back seats as it was plastic on metal and had movement... next... next is all of the holes in the boot, this pushes the third break light up so it can’t vibrate on the glass window. I filled every hole and put duck tape there to make sure it doesn’t pop out. Also every cable here I made tight so they can’t move about here is one extra photo Next part... this is the obvious part, I put foam where the wheel arches are and then I put adhesive 3m foam EVERYWHERE after that, im sorry I have no photo of that but you know what I mean, the entire boot is covered in 3m adhesive foam. Hope I had some stuff useful to you. THIS IS THE FINAL LOOK FROM BOOT...oh I also did that part on the boot door I just took that off and put foam underneath, makes opening and closing the boot feel nicer too hope I can help someone ADHESIVE FOAM - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3M-6mm-Car-Sound-Proofing-Deadening-Camper-Van-Insulation-Closed-Cell-Foam-Sheet/184106555361?pageci=20637d0f-8686-41bb-9ca2-a8a4cfb8a525 REGULAR FOAM - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FOAM-SHEETS-CUT-TO-70-x20-x1-TO-5-IN-DEPTH-DENSITY-HARD-MED-SOFT-/264125917402?pageci=c327efe7-12b0-4865-a00d-33d9dedbcdb8 ——————————-THE END——————————

Quick trip to the shops for me too

Had a James Bond-esque gadget fitted to slow down faster cars..

While out to Sainsburys

One from the other week. y

Not in my ownership and I can't imagine the PO would have, just to put it back on again for sale. Can't really see what advantage there would be to running with it off, it's not like it weighs much.