ichi's 86 Project

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by ichitaka05

My favorite part of nuts and bolts is this.



How am I gonna tight that bolt? Their quality control is failing badly.

Those are cam head bolts. They are supposed to twist into slots that lock the head or are frequently molded right into a part. They act more like studs and you only tighten the nut. That is a totally wrong application for those. Probably had a bunch around from some other parts that they would have been locked or molded into.

[finch1750]

I have the FT86SF one myself. I would say it depends on preference. It could be that I didnt get mine direct from FT86SF (their shipping is crazy imo - $15 for that light thing) but when I got it it was bent; both the mount points and the curve of the cover itself. I adjusted the mounts fins and the cover a bit but it isnt perfect still. So Id say you deal with getting your own hardwear and redoing the finish (wrinkle black or plastidip) for the flush look or a nice matched finish that does a decent job at covering the hole

[ichitaka05]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

Those are cam head bolts. They are supposed to twist into slots that lock the head or are frequently molded right into a part. They act more like studs and you only tighten the nut. That is a totally wrong application for those. Probably had a bunch around from some other parts that they would have been locked or molded into.

That's why I said, quality control is horrible

Originally Posted by finch1750

I have the FT86SF one myself. I would say it depends on preference. It could be that I didnt get mine direct from FT86SF (their shipping is crazy imo - $15 for that light thing) but when I got it it was bent; both the mount points and the curve of the cover itself. I adjusted the mounts fins and the cover a bit but it isnt perfect still. So Id say you deal with getting your own hardwear and redoing the finish (wrinkle black or plastidip) for the flush look or a nice matched finish that does a decent job at covering the hole

One of local guy bought one directly from FT86SF & no issue on his cover. Fit nicely, maybe see tiny space... but again, that steel isn't molded like this cover.

I guess, you win some & loose some

[ZOMFGAARON]

Good review on the cover. I was thinking about buying it for my drop exhaust as well. But luckily I was able to find a used ft86sf one on here loving it no issues at all.


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[ichitaka05]

Originally Posted by ZOMFGAARON

Good review on the cover. I was thinking about buying it for my drop exhaust as well. But luckily I was able to find a used ft86sf one on here loving it no issues at all.

Oh sure sure rub it in while at it lol FT86SF's cover is pretty solid & fair price imo.

[ZOMFGAARON]

Originally Posted by ichitaka05

Oh sure sure rub it in while at it lol FT86SF's cover is pretty solid & fair price imo.

Lol didn't mean to rub it in.
How you liking the depo?


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[ichitaka05]

Originally Posted by ZOMFGAARON

Lol didn't mean to rub it in.
How you liking the depo?


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I know, I was joking.

Not a fan of fartcannon muffler, but they had the 2.5" piping single exit exhaust setup. I'll be cutting off the muffler and putting different muffler to make it a bit more different.

[ZOMFGAARON]

Originally Posted by ichitaka05

I know, I was joking.

Not a fan of fartcannon muffler, but they had the 2.5" piping single exit exhaust setup. I'll be cutting off the muffler and putting different muffler to make it a bit more different.

To be honest for the price I've been thinking of doing the same or just converting it to a straight pipe. Let me know how it comes out!


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[ichitaka05]

Originally Posted by ZOMFGAARON

To be honest for the price I've been thinking of doing the same or just converting it to a straight pipe. Let me know how it comes out!

There's always pros and cons to this though. You can make the exhaust you like... but never know what it sounds like til finish. But <$400 total, it's not a bad deal imo

& hopefully I'll get the exhaust thing done by April~May.

[ichitaka05]

Still my fav photo (photos) of me autox'ing.

[ichitaka05]

Thank you @FT-86 SpeedFactory for fast shipment.

Now question is, they wrote that all over the box... or Ms. ichi got a hold of it before me.

[ichitaka05]

While that huge box car parts getting installed later, I had a chance to install few goodies this weekend.


Autocross season is near... well, technically it's already started since last month, but it was too cold to work on my car, so I waited til now.


Winmax brake pads are my current favorite brake pads. I used to run W1 in front, which did good job for daily and little bit of autocross... but I need it something more toward autocross than daily, so I've update the front pads to W3. They're dustier than W1 for sure, but initial bite is amazing! Which is important for stop go stop go race like autox. No noise is a big plus, specially I'm planning to use my car for daily driving as well. If you're thinking bout getting new brake pads, look into Winmax.


I kinda wanted DBA rotors... but few members recommended look into Centric plain rotors. I heard a lot of good things and almost no negative review. Price is very fair is pretty good. Initial impression is, look just like OEM rotors. I'll be testing out in autocross soon for more detail review.


A local guy was selling this Whiteline front end links for $50! I couldn't say no to that. I have RS-R sports-i coils and I needed adjustable end links to get proper height for sway bar to work, so this was perfect upgrade.

Bonus - As you can see from last photo, I have adjustable sway bar installed. I bought ST Suspension sway bar kits. Due to few issues, I only have front installed, so when I have rear installed with autocross and few drivers, I'll do the review.

Now bad news is, I was going to install ARP extended wheel studs... but somehow it wasn't working with my aftermarket open end lug nuts. So I'll installing that later.

[ichitaka05]

Alright, few updates. I had a chance to install ST Suspension front & rear sway bars, Stoptech ss brakelines & ARP extended wheel studs.

ST Suspension Sway Bars

Installed the front without any flaws... rear had a bit of hiccups. What was the issue? See the parts I've circled in red? It was missing that, plus instruction for the rear. Result, I couldn't install the rear sway bar. Now, big thanks to @FT-86 SpeedFactory, I've emailed them and they fixed it ASAP by contacting ST Suspension and sending me the parts! I cannot thank them enough for all the help. After receiving the parts & instruction, I was able to install the rear sway bar without any hiccups.

Reasons

Now why I went with ST Suspension instead of say... Cusco, Whiteline, Perrin or other brands? Few reasons, but major reason was their sway bar sizes. I didn't want anything too big. Having too big/stiff sway isn't always the answer. My car is not only for autocrossing, drift or track, but also for daily driving, specially in the winter time, I cannot have too stiff of suspension!

Stock vs ST Suspension

Stocks - front:18mm / rear:14mm
ST - front:19mm / rear:17mm
Front sway was pretty stiff as is, so didn't want to stiffen up much vs rear, I wanted 15mm~16mm, which Whiteline and Cusco have, but I was interested to see why ST went with 17mm.

Rear sway bar

As you can see, top is ST 17mm vs bottom stock 14mm have a huge difference in size. It was a bit questionable, if 17mm was too stiff. But I was surprised with how car responded after the installation.

Note
You can install the rear sway bar without taking off the exhaust (axleback)... but I would encourage you guys to take it off. It's not worth the hassle and several swearing and screaming. Rear chassis brace can get in the way as well, so keep that in mind when you're installing the rear sway bar.

Side note
Keep in mind, if you have aftermarket catback/axleback, sway bar might get REALLY close. Mine is about 1/2"~3/4" from touching the pipe.

I'll be doing more driving to see the difference between stock and ST sway bars as well as testing them out autocrossing (April 10th). I'm interested to see how it'll perform.

[nikitopo]

They are nice because they look stock (black color). Let us know how the car behaves. Especially the rear end where there is the biggest difference. More rear end happy?