ThatGuyThere

After buying mine, the first time it rained heavily I thought my roof was going to cave-in!

Hi all,
Thanks for your replies and suggestions. In the end I've decided to sell the car 😞
Difficult decision but it's just proved too noisy and uncomfortable on a regular motorway journey. I considered different seats but there's no way to try them in the car before purchase, and even they wouldn't solve the problem of road noise on the M40.

Just be as gentle as you can when pulling the bumper off, and hope you're lucky. The tab furthest from the wheel arch seems to be the one that goes because there's very little to it. Mine all looked undamaged visually, but still sagged when re-fitted. I've seen people fit the metal reinforcements and it make next to no difference.
See how it goes, you'll know as soon as you clip it back in if it's right or not and it shouldn't damage the paint if you then have to put it on and off a few times as you tweak.
I'd send it to a skilled bodyshop who understand how to manipulate these things, and have them remove it and do whatever is required to make it fit perfectly.

I was waiting for the situation to be resolved to give an update, but given how people have started chipping in again I thought I'd share how things are going on my side:
Mike finally replied and told me the manifold was on it's way, but wasn't able to give a delivery company or tracking number the multiple times I asked, let alone an expected date of arrival.   After some back and forth I asked Mike for a refund, and to his credit he accepted and told me he would make a bank transfer the following day. That was 2 weeks ago, I still haven't gotten my money back and have sent 3 emails that received no reply. So yeah, not great.

I have one of these in white, red font but no STI etching.
It looks and feels great... except on a cold day! Reminds me of the original Puma which had a similar metal bulb, changing gear with my sleeve pulled down 😄

If the car is still under warranty get it booked in at the dealer, as you say yourself your not sure where the oil is coming from.

It's a cheap car to run as with any other Toyota really, apart from somewhat lower MPG than you may expect (32 from mixed driving). Parts and servicing are cheap.
As a daily, it's comfortable and reliable and easy to drive. Only potential con would be the speakers are shite - a £130 focal kit is well worth the money.
Owned mine for 4 years.
Hmu if you're wanting a red one.

You could strip every modification and the car would be worth that price. An absolute bargain.

There's no denying that a header and remap makes a massive difference which you would enjoy daily.

Right well.. it's been a little while since I last updated this post.. and that's not to say there hasn't been bits going on, i've just been so absurdly busy I keep forgetting to take photos!
 
For starters I finally moved out of my parent's house and got my first property, a decently sized little flat which has been an absolute rollercoaster of emotions and made and already very fast-moving year suddenly jump 3 months in the blink of an eye!
 
 
 
But getting back to the part you're all here for the car & engine although I have to pre-warn you as with alot of the recent engine-related posts it's quite nerdy!
 
After sprucing up the cylinder heads I wrapped those up and stuck them up on the shelf back in March and moved on to removing the pistons from the engine.
I flip flopped back and forth exactly what I was going to do with the internals of the engine and to what extent I was going to take it all apart - In the end I decided to not remove the crank & crank bearings down to a few factors, namely the fear of the main journals going out-of-round and replacing the main cap studs & bolts with ARP items which can get expensive already ontop of having shelled out for ARP head studs etc.
As well as this I decided on retaining the stock internals again because the rod journals are known to go out of round if you go with ARP rod bolts and there's so much drama when it comes to forged items if you're on a budget it's such a headache! - I'm glad I did this in the end because as I type this my lights might simply turn off at any moment due to the fact the flat didn't come with a pot to piss in!
 
With all of that I moved on to removing the Cam, lifters, etc and painting the engine block. All very easy and I made a couple of youtube videos covering the topics:
 
https://youtu.be/4Nu4iKF605k
https://youtu.be/1LR8d22JWXc
https://youtu.be/8iSihhg9jcA
 
 
And that neatly brings me on to where I am now, with freshly honed cylinder bores, measured tolerances & bearings and ready to assemble it all again, but as they always say - THIS THREAD IS USELESS WITHOUT PICTURES which was half my reason for a lack of update, i simply keep forgetting so lets see...
 
 
Nicely cleaned up & painted block:
 



 
 
Honed Cylinder bores:

 
Pistons ringed & ready to go!:

 
and the engine block again, this time featuring considerably more pistons!

 
 
 
As for the nerdy bits in regards to tolerances and clearances, here are my findings regarding the top & Middle compression rings and rod bearings:
 
OEM Top Ring clearances:
Production - 0.23‐0.44 mm
Service - 0.23‐0.5 mm
Mine - 0.5mm - so right on the upper edge of a "serviced" engine but It's not the end of the world.
 
OEM Second Ring clearances:
Production - 0.44-0.7mm
Service - 0.44-0.76mm
Mine - 0.56mm - well within even production specs so i'm quite happy with this!
 
Piston Rod Bearing clearances:
Production - 0.023-0.065mm
Service - 0.023-0.076mm
Mine - 0.051mm - Only measured using plastigage but considering this is right in the middle of the range i'm quite happy with this
 
 
And with that the lower end of the engine block is all back together and i've got 95% of the new parts required to close up the engine too!
 


 
If you're a fan of shopping lists boy do I have a fun one for you, in the above pics you're looking at:
 
Brand new intake manifold - /w gaskets, fuel rails, injectors, throttle body & map sensor (purchased "used" but it's very much as fresh as a daisy!)
Head gaskets
LS7 Lifters /w new lifter trays
New Cam Timing gear, chain & guide (required for the removal of VVT)
New Sensors & plugs all over
New cam retainer plate
New Front Timing cover /w seal & Gasket
New Rear main cover /w main seal
More gaskets - Valley cover & Exhaust manifold
New front Pulley
ARP Cam Bolts
ARP Exhaust Manifold Bolts
ARP Head Studs
ARP Pulley bolt
& More bolts, brackets & otherwise as well as the bits I showed off in previous posts.
 
All that really leaves to close up the engine for good is a pair of new rocker covers as mine are rather nasty, a new valley cover simply because I want to and the new Sump pan & pickup tube which comes with the engine swap kit.
 
Next weekend I'm going to get the new Cam, lifters, timing bits and perhaps even the refurbed heads back on and in a way the engine build is then "done"

A year ago my car was worth circa 11k - right now they are selling for 13-14k and even wbac are offering 12k.
Anything sporty and in limited supply is seeing the same crazy increases.

@Mani I'm a little surprised that Sam Hardy has not approached the drivers club in the first instance. That would have been the easy way. There is no breakdown in communication. Sam at Cult 86 has simply not consulted us. Then people seem to be aking us why. If Sam wishes to combine Cult 86 with the DC then all he had to do is ask. Simple stuff you'd think?
Cult 86 has 66 FB members. GT86 BRZ DC has over 11,600 I cannot think why it would be my job to chase them? 

You bored my dude?
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=white knighting

You bored my dude?
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=white knighting

It's not defamation if its true. The HKS SC has a well known design flaw.
Another thing common on social media is white knighting. Perhaps mind your own?

Standard clutch, flywheel, gearbox, engine are all absolutely fine if you stay below 300bhp.

Yes agree they have a questionable reliability but my preference was a centrifugal charger with air-air intercooler so choices are quite limited, I also love the power delivery and think it really suits the car, but perhaps my mind will change when it come time to replace it

It's ok you will get used to him. Does it to every thread.

Totally normal behaviour, from a totally normal person, and that's a...

I was comparing to a MK1 TT remapped to 270ish BHP, which was the only other forced induction car I've owned. My opinion is entirely subjective and based on limited experience!
Yeah I understand the SC designs differ in power delivery and that's probably a big aspect.

Love that the company came back with the receipts showing the customer behaviour to to be that of an impatient asshole! I will buy from you if looking in the future!

Love that the company came back with the receipts showing the customer behaviour to to be that of an impatient asshole! I will buy from you if looking in the future!

Good that they're taking responsibility. Again, I stress - the help you get in this situation is 100% down to what you ask for, and how much you push. They want to give you nothing extra, and for you to suffer silently (nothing personal, it's just the way business works). I'd be calling daily, politely pointing out that I am without my sports car due to their error and that I am unhappy and would like a resolution ASAP. - MENTION the owners/drivers club forums. I would push for a GT86 courtesy car, personally. I would point out that the only acceptable alternative would be an immediate lumpsum to cover the market value of the car plus a fair daily charge for time without it to-date - so you can return yourself to the situation you were in prior to their mistake.

I feel happy enough now to not worry about a test drive before I pick it up.

It takes longer to remove the undertrays, than it does to replace the manifold and overpipe - half of which have to be removed anyway to do the recall!
I asked for the 5 year / 60k service to be done at the same time, and was originally quoted the fixed price rate. I complained, politely, even saying "When I mentioned this on the online forum everyone said it was obscene" and they dropped the price to merely the cost of sparkplugs.
I'd ask them to drop the price to a more reasonable one. Doesn't hurt to ask. I can't comment on the oil baffle.