new parts: Leen AE86 6MT

We've been monitoring a great thead on ae86irl with interest for a while now, as some really tasty IS200/Altezza 6 speed gearbox to rwd 4AGE kits are being designed, developed, and built right here in Ireland! Time to share with the rest of you if you have not seen them already! The system uses this finely machined piece of 6082T6 Aluminium to mate the 6 speed J160 box found in the Altezza/IS200 directly to the 4AGE bell housing.

The first few units have been made, which I find amazing, many of these well thought projects never get off the ground, and we are looking forward to the initial results which should be soon as they are reported to be testing in car this month.

 

Leen Gearbox Conversions are behind all this magic and you should really check out his very good website with loads more pics and information. I especially like the very elegant solution for keeping the shifter position in the factory place, no butchering of the transmission tunnel here! GarageHachi is tempted, a tuned 4AGE + 6 speed with a 4.1 final drive for nice highway cruising sounds so good..

Leen Gearbox Conversions

Project Pictures

***Rare Find , 4ag Filters***

A friend of mine , who works in the Toyota garage I used to work in , 

came across these rare Toyota 4age oil filters! 

These filters date back to the 80's ,are unopened and still have the plastic seal over the pre-greased O-ring!

Of coarse I couldn't turn them down so they're now in stock for our future oil changes!!!

 I just love the old Toyota packaging!!!!!!

Random Snap, getting there...

After work today I put the front back together.We buffed up the bumper lenses and they now fit in well with the rest of the new lamp! I just love the combination of late and early parts on Levin's...

the bonnet still needs some adjusting.....

Instead of re-using the old philps head self tappers to hold on the early splitter I picked up 

a set of  black Anodized bike faring bolts/washers ,I reckon there a nice touch to the bumper, 

anywayz..... loads MoAr got done , I'll get some pic's up Saturday!

new parts: silicone heater hoses available

Its been a while since I bought anything for the Trueno, (though that will all change soon enough!) but I couldn't pass up a group buy kindly set up by jdm86gtz over on ae86irl.com. Thanks to him, Samco now make silicone heater hose kits for AE86! 

 

Had these been available last year it would have saved a few quid for a better quality item but I still have two old hoses to change so its still worth it. Now I just have to get the matching radiator hoses (and a clean new rad!) like the ones Kev got earlier.

Part numbers for anyone interested!

MoAR Lamp......

couldn't resist lols...........
body prep update tomorrow

Fresh Lamp !**

This one is especially for Dave , as he has a small fetish for Lamp!
New red lines and sidelights to complement the new paint on the Levin....

my 4age is dead. long live the 4age!

Well it has been an extremely quiet month (or two now) at Garage Hachi, mainly because not much has been happening with the cars! For me anyway I have just been daily driving the Trueno, as its nice to have a car that is on the road more than off it for once. Kev has a few things up his sleeve which I will let him blog about soon. Also the weather has driven us into the warmth and comfort of indoors and away from the hachis! But as we come into the better weather the enthusiasm (and some money!) returns and the projects resume again.

My longer term plans for my engine have jumped the queue a little with a tasty head gasket failure last weekend. The coolant in my car was never the cleanest despite many many attempts at flushing the system out, and my uprated temperature gauges revealed a water system that was not the most stable, quite often after a hard drive there would be a lovely mess in the engine bay after the expansion bottle got sick all over the chassis leg! Something that I knew needed addressing but finally has to be done. Now.

So, Kev and I drew up a few plans, keeping with the head-build that is already in progress, and added a few more items, to come up with what will be a very nice streetable but still track day capable (if I ever get there...) 16v T-Vis 4age for my Trueno. So, until the build pics start coming, all I can offer is the planning list so far:

• cleaned / skimmed big port head with port work by Kev
• HKS 256/8.3mm cams with HKS pulleys & HKS valve springs
• ARP head / main / big / flywheel bolt and stud sets
• TRD/Toda 0.8mm head gasket
• block cleaned / bored / decked, to make way for...
• Wiseco 81.5mm high comp. pistons
• new big / main / thrust / spigot bearings
• new Toyota oil pump
• all new Toyota gaskets 
• new timing belt & tensioner
• all new Samco coolant hoses (including new heater hoses soon available thanks to jdm86gtz on 86irl!)
• new standard radiator
• breathing through my full ARC intake system and Fujitsubo Super Ex 4-1
• all thoughts controlled by my AP Engineering Apexi Power FC

If funds allow I might get some bodywork repairs done while the engine is being build, and hopefully sometime soon I will have a pretty fresh hachi for 2011! So here last pic of her we'll see for a little while, turning another corner in the project life :)

worth a look: KSD eng

Another small shop I came across while net mining.

http://www.ksdengineering.com/Corolla-84-87-AE86_c_4.html

KDS sell KONI  short stroke inserts for ae86 dampers , which is something I haven't come across before and there very reasonably priced too @ 135 euro for one front s/s damper!!

KDS sell a few nice bits like Beatrush and some other cooling goodies.
One Different piece they sell, is this IACV ( idle air control valve) block off plate! I dunno though??! why not just repair or replace the iacv , but anyways pic and vid below!!! ( be sure to turn the sound down
on the vid ;) )

*** Fujitsubo installed!

This weekend Kev and I installed the FGK goodies that arrived a few weeks ago. Once again my Trueno was on the ramps of GH heavy lift division and we started dismantling my old Apexi N1 Evolution catback, old mild steel 4-1 manifold, and the horrible decat/ECV pipe monstrosity!
 

 

With the exception of two rusted bolts on the catback, everything came out easily. The strut brace and distributor cap were moved to swap manifolds. Here is the shiny new Super Ex in its virgin stainless steel colour. It has since turned a lovely shade of gold in its new home!

 

FGK thought of and supplied everything we needed, and I mean everything, down to the last gasket and washer. Here is the nice bracket that supports the lower end of the collector where it joins the next section. The bracket bolts to the bellhousing and then a U clamp and support secure the collector to it . You can also see the spring loaded bolts that hold the next section against that tough donut type joint. It gives a perfect seal but still a little flexibility (not tightened up yet in this shot).

Things started to shape up very nicely as we added all of the sections. It was such a pleasure working with brand new parts and clean nuts and bolts. Everything just fits together so easily! The FGK system follows a neater line under the car and is higher up off the ground than the old system. I haven't scraped it off anything, yet.. I will probably cry when I do but still will not raise up the car haha. At least the down pipe has a part number etched into it so can be ordered separately if I ever kill it during full compression on a some nasty bit of Irish road...

 

 

You can see the new location of the O2 sensor just after the collector, the factory sensor is retained, using a cable extension kit, new gasket, and more new bolts supplied with the kit. 

Final tightening of all the bolts was left until everything was lined up and in place. The only unexpected thing was having to disconnect the rear coilovers to the fit the muffler over the axle, as the "S" section is a bit longer than on the N1 and joins the midsection in front of the diff rather above it....

...which brought us nicely to the muffler! My measurements worked out just right and the twin tips fill the exhaust space perfectly! I'm very pleased with the slash cut tips too, very nice quality..

The coilovers were then reconnected, strut brace and distributor cap reset, and the car quickly put back on the ground so we could finally start it up to hear it....and get that lovely new exhaust smell. It certainly has a much quieter idle than the old system, but has a suprisingly sharp clean sound when revved hard, the Super Ex and stainless decat making themselves well known through the back box. Some flames were even coaxed from it with enthusiastic revving, and I discovered that when you get back on the throttle after a high rev lift off there are some lovely pops out of it. Its the best of both worlds, quiet and calm for normal driving but it still comes to life when you drop a gear or two.

Another nice job complete and Fujitsubo is GarageHachi approved :)

GRP4 fab

Group4 Fabrications are deffo worth a bump here! They have some nice parts for 86's and some good universal gear that would suit any kind of track car!

Link to there ae86 specific list :  http://www.grp4fabrications.com/index.php?cPath=42

I'm liking there new alloy front hub for increased track width by 10mm and I imagine a saving in unsprung weight too, which would improve handling as well......

http://www.grp4fabrications.com/product_info.php?cPath=42&products_id=635

Main site link http://www.grp4fabrications.com/index.php

A worth while site if your building any kind of track car!

  

***Fujitsubo Super Ex and Legalis R...

Having enjoyed my raspy Apexi N1 Evolution singing its 4age song for nearly 18 months now, I really wanted a change. I wanted something a lot more subtle and quiet, stealthy even, but still wanted the extra power, torque, and responsiveness provided by an aftermarket exhaust. Enter Fujitsubo. With big thanks to RHDJapan and Fedex, 69 hours later this awaited me after work!

What we have here is, a Fujitsubo Super Ex 4-1 manifold, and a full Legalis R cat back system. The Super Ex has two versions, the Super Ex pictured above, and the Super Ex basic. As far as I could tell, both are stainless but the Basic is just a non-shiny version, and one of these actually lives in the engine bay of Kevs 20v '86 Levin. I wanted the shiny, and the Basic version is no longer in production I believe, so Super Ex p/n 620-22454 it was. It is an absolute work of art. The laser cut flange has been finished really nicely, and the welding is just impeccable. There are even mounts for a factory heat shield which I might just have to locate and fit for completeness lol.

 The 4-1 header mates to the down pipe with this really tough looking donut joint, which I am really looking forward to seeing how it works, as a low hanging universal flexi joint is just no good on a slammed '86.. I went through one on standard suspension and holed the second one a week into having my coilovers! Irish backroads are fun but tough.. FGK also included a tidy O2 sensor bung, along with an extension cable and fittings for the factory sensor.

 As for the catback, FGK's Legalis R comes in 3 versions for AE86. Two have a long silencer, available in single and twin tip, and the third has a roughly half length silencer with twin tips, and is a fair bit louder than the other two. I wanted stealth, and also the tidy slash cut twin tips to fill up the exhaust space in my Runfree rear bumper, so Legalis p/n 750-22455 was chosen.

The cat back is of the same top quality as the manifold, and comes in two sections. The flanges are all reinforced, and the hangers are hollow for weight saving, as well as being welded in many places for strength. The whole set up weighs in at just 18kgs! All I need now is a nice stainless decat pipe to match this clean system, but these seem readily available in the correct 315x50.8mm dimensions on the auctions so Ill order one soon..

 

..and hopefully it won't be long until I'm hearing more intake than exhaust with a subtle purr from these guys out back!

Its nice to have some proven specs measured by Fujitsubo during development. I'm still amazed that companies are making such good parts for 23+ year old cars. They have my support anyway!

Legalis R W 750-22455	Standard	FGK
Volume idling	60dB	60dB
Adjacent exhaust noise (4950rpm)	85dB	88dB
3000rpm	75dB	82dB
5000rpm	85dB	85dB
4000rpm ~ 6000rpm Response	100dB	100dB

It will be interesting to see the dyno figures for the full exhaust system with the ARC chamber setup on the intake side on my otherwise standard engine. Watch this space!

My Levin refresh ^^^

My "daily" Levin has been off the road for about 3/4 months now so it's about time to get back driving it! I miss the fun of driving/drifting my hachi every day.A few small jobs built up over time on it so I gave it a rest as I planned and saved for a few parts.
The weekend just gone I push started it and got it down to my daily work garage and got started on it.
First off was to charge the battery and strip it down for a timing belt kit and vvt cam gear change.

Along with the (hopefully good ) used vvt gear and timing belt it got a new Toyota tensioner and idler pulley.The old cam gear was rattling away like mad and this is my 2nd time to change it so I hope I got lucky with this gear as Toyota want 350+ euro for a new one!!

  

It all went back together then with a full cooling system full of fresh coolant for the winter!

As it was sitting up for a few months , the starter finally gave up on me, it was starting to go even before I let it sit up idle.So now was the right time to pull it out and get it re-con'd .So thats where I left it Sunday, I should have the starter back tomorrow. 

 I'm REALLY looking forward to getting back into my Recaro for a bit a drifting over the winter, even the short trip to the garage had me excited again!!!!

So that's my timing belt , battery and starter motor sorted now, next in line is a good boot lid, which I just picked up tonight , and a big thanks to the mega cage builder Roco Ronan for that, not a spot of rust on it!!!! 

Along with the boot lid , I have found two small patches of rust under the boot seal , which is causing a leak so that will be sorted when the boot lid is getting done very soon hopefully. I'll update with some pic's as soon as possible.

I love lamp 2.0 **

 
4 days from Japan to my door. The postage cost more than the lights but it was worth it. By the time I got the shipping confirmation email after the weekend, my Redlines were already in the country, sweet! Thank you JAA and EMS! They are in very good condition for a 23+ year old car part, just a few scratches here and there. Even came with working bulbs. I dont know is it Redlines in general (probably) or just this set but they have an odd panel for mounting the bulbs, it looks like it has space for two stop/tails like my old lights, but when you open it up it just holds one.

Weird but either way everything still works and the connectors on the wiring were the same. The single bulb look is much cleaner anyway I think. Before I installed them I gave them a good clean, and polish with Autoglym super resin polish (as I have no money left for Megiuars Plast-RX!) to buff out the light scratches, and they came out quite well for the time being.

Unpolished and polished

good as new

The number plate surround also had to come out for the ultimate in whiteline delete. A quick light sanding and a clean....

 ...and a few coast of satin black rattle later it was looking good as new. For any 2 door owner out there I highly recommend satin black for the surround and that plastic trim piece along the boot lid, it really freshens up the back end.

 

Anyway I got the lights in, but my camera sucks and its too dark to take a pic of them fitted, so the car will have to wait for a random snap after wash to show off her new back end, but they look awesome and suit the Trueno body a lot better than the whiteline lights. Yahoo auctions conquered! ;)

whiteline vs redline

more stuff in the post!

Two packets of long awaited parts have arrive from around the globe! 


Firstly, from my friends in RHDJapan, we have some genuine Rays sticker repair kits for TE37's, black & white for my bronze set, and blue and white for Kevs set.. I'm so chuffed with these I didn't think I would ever find them, my wheels are going to be like new when I put them on! BIG thanks again to RHD for getting these for me :)

Secondly, from Australia, we have two beefy T6 6061 aluminium 40mm RCA's by AJPS. I chose these as they were similar in price to T3 but were 40mm thick rather than 30mm for better correction if I go very low, and also its nice to support all of the independent tuners making aftermarket AE86 parts! Also anodized black is a big plus for me lol. 

Also supplied by AJPS were two sets of polyurethane steering rack mount bushings and they will eventually go into my Trueno and one of Kevs '86s. They should really improve the steering feedback on our manual racks so that is one mod I am quite looking forward to. Results will be posted.

This weekend might see the start of assembling the new coilovers for my Trueno so stay tuned!