FBM Stage 3 Shortblock or Outfront Closed Deck
 

Hi!

I am in the process of deciding what engine to use for my fully built GT86.

It will be a daily driver and a weekend track car, turbocharged with FBM Stage 2 kit for faster spooling and the goal is about 5-600WHP. Not a drag car though.


What engine would you recommend for long term reliability and power gains?

1. Outfront Motorsport Closed Deck
2. FBM Stage 3 2.2L big bore sleeved?


Heard good things about both.


Thank you

I’m not sure which will be best, but I am curious what your plans are for the transmission at that power level. Are you building it too?

Look at my build, you can achieve this with a stage 2 reliably

I plan on first runnning lower boost after the motor is installed + the turbo kit. Maybe 300-350whp.

As far as I could see it takes ages and lot of money to build a reliable transmission so it might going to be a Quaife Sequential Gearbox. Hollingers are damn expensive, and they are very noisy as I read.

That is a very impressive build congrats!

Why did you choose sleeved over closed deck?
Is the stage 2 kit spooling fast enough? Do you track the car?

Im going to Crawford

IAG (the big WRX/STI shop in Maryland) is building FA20’s now too

Outfront Motorsports... hmmm. I believe someone recently had an interesting experience with them on the Forums. Just food for thought...
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=131868

(I don't mean to be negative, just ironic I saw this thread and then read yours.)

Have fun daily driving with a Quaife sequential. It's a dream on the track, and somewhat tolerable on the street. I would hate to daily drive it..

Dayum. Good share. I'd avoid them for sure.

If I had to do a build right now, I'd be going with Element Tuning based on their experience in improving the oiling system and aiming for durability in a racing environment.

Thought I remembered that name from somewhere...

Part of the reason why I engine swapped, you can have a perfectly built motor (not saying this is the case, but it touches a bit on that), and you can still get a pesky CEL that might require replacing the ECU at any time, just random (P0018, P0016, and all of their friends...)

If I had to choose at gunpoint, I would choose FBM. They've been with the platform since day one and if I'm not mistaken, they are the first to offer a built block to the masses (Crawford I believe offered their first but it was a failure, and I didn't even considered them an option).

sportsguy83 - What did you swap to? LS or 2JZ? The reason why I want to avoid it is that it is much more complex, and the driving characteristics would change too much. I just love the cornering of the GT86.

I do not mind spending +15k than I'd do with engine swapping, I just want to do it the right way.

I also follow FBM, have a quote from them and they are my No.1 option now. I just read many closed deck info and reviews in the recent weeks so I though it worth asking. How much stronger they are etc...

But I never found anyone actually tracking an FBM build heavily

What do you hate about it? Is it noisy? Hard clutch?

It's noisy, the shifter rattles like crazy, upshifts are smooth only under load (part or full throttle), but jerky under low or no load, you'll want a standalone (ie moetc) so you can do clutchless upshift/downshift+autoblip. It's a race transmission and best suited for that. Rebuild interval also reflects that.

The handling changes way less than you would think. The biggest weight added compared to the FA20 and trans combo is in the huge transmission and that sits just below the center of the car. Yes, the engine is taller, but the turbo kit added a ton of weight upfront, and the weight penalty from LSs swapped compared to turbo is said to be V8 adds about 60lbs.

I did an LS swap. Definitely it’s more involved than just building the engine and you need either to be a craftsman, be super savvy DIY yourself or have a good trustworthy shop do it.

It’s pricey to do properly if you want oem dash and systems like AC, cruise control, ABS to work. I have them all working with Pure Automotive Motec package.