My car is back on the road. The last few steps in putting it back together went about as easily as they can on a car of this age. There has been no love lost. I’m really lucky to have found such an example of 86. Several people have pointed out that despite all the work I’ve done, the car hasn’t really changed. That’s entirely true. It all really wasn’t for very much. Differences from last year are as follows:
- JDM bumpers
- Front end full stitch weld
- Rear STB and Tri-brace
- Front tri-brace
- Carbon hood
- Electric Fan
- Cusco Motor and Tranny mounts
- Adjustable Front Sway bar
- Removed PS
- Re-installed EGR
- Re-installed factory Exh. Mani
- 2.5″ Stainless Underaxle exhaust
For better or worse, that’s what has been done. Ryan and I together had large plans for this car, but we procrastinated horribly and most never happened. Now Ryan’s gone and it’s just me again, so we’ll see how well I do at pulling through. Despite such minor changes, I’m relatively happy with the car for the time being. The electric fan and removal of PS seemed to have added a lot of response to the motor. It’s a helluva lot quicker than I remember it, and a brief sprint alongside my AE92 indicates the small port motor really doesn’t hold anything over the early largeports. This AE86 just walked away, and it shows only 60psi in cylinder 3 on the compression test, compared to the AE92 which registers 185 across all four. Either little mods like exhaust, air filter, and the fan make that much difference, or there’s something else going on. Our old Toysport header and exhaust was removed because I sold the header when Ryan and I were still together and planning on the turbo. The old exhaust worked fine, but being muffler shop built, was a one piece welded together deal. I didn’t feel like it was worth spending $100 getting someone to weld it all back together when I could buy the Megan unit for only a couple hundred dollars more. It looks a lot nicer, and with a T3 test pipe in between it and the stock manifold I can take things apart easily in the future.
I still have my IHI Turbo and manifold despite several ebay attempts, so if I ever pull out of this debt just a little, I’ll continue working on that with the GZE block and MSNS. I have so much shit lying around and no time to even clean it up and organize, let alone build. We really did dog it all winter.
The stitch weld and additional braces make a lot of difference as well. There are a couple of bumps out by my place that used to make me cringe horribly, but the car now feels rock solid. Combined with the new sway bar up front, I have a massive desire to get some softer springs in the car. I got sick to my stomach over a somewhat rough section of road on the first day I had the car out. It’s really bad.
And so is the rear end whine that we had last year. Even after I pulled everything apart and put it to spec, it’s still deafening at neutral throttle which makes highway cruises absolutely miserable. The ring and pinion gear do show some unusual wear some I’m guessing the only way to solve the noise is going to be to get some new gears. The Cusco mounts are another negative. If your plan is to build a good streetable car, they are not a good mod. Bad vibrations.
I hit the alignment rack too, just to straighten things out after having it all apart. Caster is set at 3.1 degrees, camber at 3.3 and zero toe. Ride heights are set about 1/4″ higher than last year, just because I’m looking for a little more ground clearance. Evidence points to the fact that I’m only using about 2/3 of available suspension travel, even at the track, so I should certainly be fine with some softer springs.
I instructed at the solo 2 school on Wednesday and Thursday. My driving is certainly rusty… meaning I created some very questionable moments behind the wheel of student cars. I feel like everyone drives too timidly… but I seem to go overboard sometimes, trying to show that some aggression is good. A few laps in my AE86 showed things will be alright. I may end up adding a little more toe-in with the softer springs, and I’d certainly move the sway bar a notch softer if I end up running the stiff springs one more event. No power steering makes things a little more tough in the tight stuff. I threw on a fatter, larger diameter Momo wheel I had in place of the old CMR Chowini just for a little more leverage and grip. I have an even larger Nardi Classic (albeit without a horn button) if needed.
First AF event is this coming Thursday, I want to re-learn braking drift and other skills practical to fast driving. The solo school has gotten me excited about auto-x again and I want to impress all with my stock powered car on street tires with a sliding style. hehe. Hopefully my new shoes show up soon.
Stay tuned.