Happy Birthday 3

I have wicked friends. Ryan had some dyno time booked today for his broken piece. When he got about as far as he could, he told me to roll my ハチロク on for few runs. “Happy Birthday” he said. That plate as well… another gift from another friend, though not from the present year.

Getting the car on the dyno, was actually something I really wanted to do. That’s mostly because I wanted proof that the car was horribly slow… I’m not sure I found it. It’s true that 125whp is an embarrassing number by most standards, but in the AE86 world, I think that’s a pretty respectable number for an NA car. After all… this motor is rated at 130hp at the crank, and I managed to put most of that to the wheels with just a few bolt-ons. I’ve seen some seriously modded 4AGE’s put out similar numbers, and some 20V’s do even worse. Plus… I’m sure that there are a few more HP to be had with some basic tuning.

But what now?? I did say earlier in the year, that if I put my car on the dyno and it made more than 100hp I would give up on the naturally aspirated 4AGE forever. At that time, the car felt awful to me. I have since spent a lot of time working on it and trying to change the way it runs. I wonder if… I actually made it faster, or if I just lowered my standards. I actually find 125hp at this stage somewhat encouraging.

Afterall… 264 cams are pretty mild, I haven’t done any porting or even port matching, and I’m still running the stock computer with the reputably horrible flapping door AFM. If my goal is only 150whp I’d bet a lot of money that a guy like me could get himself there pretty easily. It sure would be nice to get there with the stock computer though.

I say that… because I feel like I have occasional lapses in concentration, and one of those lapses might lend me a broken motor. Broken cars are not fun. If my objective here is to drive and have fun, a broken car is the last thing I want. When I’m at an event, I’ve got enough to think about as is. In fact, I’m pretty sure that standalone is a gigantic step towards me being one of those guys who shows up with the slick ride, talk tonnes of bullshit, gets his ASSZ kicked by someone like me and then uses his car as an excuse. I already get walloped by enough people, and it’s a fact that NONE of them have standalone or even piggyback stuff on their cars.

Is that a decision?

Maybe…

In all my recent learning however, I have discovered, that in Japan at least there are fistfuls of AE111 4AGE’s making 190+hp, while only a select few manage to get that out of the 16V variations. In fact… making 200hp with a 20V in many cases seems to only require some more aggressive cams, and an alternate (note: pre-programmed) ECU unit like those from Freedom or tuners like Revolver.

But a 20V locks me into Street Mod, where a 4AGZE or 4AGTE makes a helluva lot more sense. No way I’m putting the mess of a GZE under my bonnet though, and a turbo just doesn’t seem moral, as fast as it may or may not be.

There is a dry nitrous kit and bottle in the garage now though too…