Poll: How many of you sold your swapped 86 vs are still happy with it today?
 

Let me get this issue out of the way first - I realize that some who have sold their 86 post swap may no longer be on the forum, so the poll stats themselves may not reflect that...hopefully some of you that know of x person who sold their swapped 86 can chime in.

I'm looking to see how many of you have stuck with and are happy with your swapped 86 vs those that are still here that weren't happy with their swapped 86 and chose to sell it...in addition to a few other variables. If you think I should change/add a poll question, feel free to respond.

Why? I'm just curious to see everyone's opinion of what engine swapping did for them in conjunction with their goals, and if they sold their swapped 86, why did they? Project over, onto the next? changed the way their 86 drove too drastically (cough RB26 AWD swap cough)? etc.

You have to either be obsessed with the platform or with wrenching to do a swap, otherwise it makes zero sense. I also think it helps if you have plans to make it a dedicated track/drift/whatever you're into car at some point. I am still sorting out my car and I might get hate for this comment but there's no car out there new or used for less than 100K (excluding things like radicals, ariel atoms etc.) that I'd rather be driving. If you offered me the keys to a McLaren or GT3 I would take it! Before the swap I drove 911's, Corvettes, Caymans and Evoras and trust me I wanted to like them more but every time I left feeling like I prefer the ergonomics in the 86, I know I'm crazy...

Last thing I'll say is I never would of swapped the engine if I hadn't wasted so much damn money on "built FA20's". If you can accept the fact that 300-350WHP is going to be the max you can have and you will need E85 to do it then you will like the car with FI. I still think the car completely stock on the Prius tires is a riot on the right tight back road in 2nd gear, it was whenever I had to shift into 3rd when the fun factor would go down with limited power. Drove the car completely stock for 2 years and loved it! Wish I didn't get the power bug to begin with...

At the end of the day I was left with a car that I loved driving and had already thrown a ton of quality parts at but was at a point where I couldn't spend another dime on an FA20 and if I was going to stay with the platform the engine and trans had to go. So it didn't even feel like a choice to me if I'm being honest!

Note: I am still in the honeymoon phase, ask me again in a year.

No sports coupe in it's price point, ND RF is close though.

I may swap for the next gen, or MX5 RF, maybe if a S16 turns up and is priced competitively.

Needs to be:

1. RWD

2. Manual

Not saying that I'm currently looking for a replacement though, at this stage I'm waiting, and getting a laugh at all the rumours and innuendo.

What engine swap did you go with on your 86?

I went with an LS3 swap after my FA20 let go. I've kept the car as I absolutely love the platform, but I have had nothing but issues with my swap. Mostly because of my Texas Speed built engine that has had issues since day one. Was rebuilt within 8000 miles, and is ready for it's 2nd rebuild already (~10,000 miles on this one, I just keep driving it lol). I LOVE the car when I ignore the issues and drive it like it's meant to be driven.

Once I can get my engine squared away, It will be significantly better. I really want to collect a few more shells to start some other swaps, mostly a K swap, and either a B58 or LV3 swap. I also want an AWD swap eventually as well.

I'm sorry to hear you've had so many issues.

Mind if I ask what was wrong with the engine post-rebuild? I'd like to think that a rebuilt engine wouldn't have failure issues within 10k miles unless your 'drive it like it's meant to be driven' = racing...but even then there's a couple of LS swapped 86's here that race and from what I know, aren't having engine issues.

No swap, just a AVO running 8 psi.

270 hpatw is plenty for the little girl, plus reliability has been faultless.

It is a 418ci Stroker LS3, it was built to be raced haha, but I had oil pressure issue and eventually bearing failure even after Texas Speed said it was fine.

They fought me on rebuilding it until I took it to a machine shop to have it rebuilt myself and then they wanted it back... They rebuilt it, sent it back, and I had somewhat better oil pressure but not what I felt comfortable with (peaking at high 4Xpsi oil pressure with recommended oil) and I have had large amounts of metal in every oil change. I have to run 15w50/20w50 oil to get decent oil pressure.

Working on getting everything to rebuild it with a mid 12:1 to low 13:1 compression ratio. :burnrubber:

It seems like one of the biggest things that people underestimate is the tune. OEMs spend a huge amount of time dialing in their tune relative to the average dyno tune that a person might do on a FI kit or for a swap. For example, $10k on dyno tuning an engine seems ridiculous for a single person, but for a manufacture who sells 100,000 cars or more, the tune equates to pennies per car. The point is that if you want drivability, spend some decent coin on a tune.

There are other problems too with harshness after installing hard mounts for the engine and tranny. Sometimes people omit the front sway bar, or they modify the front suspension without getting the car dialed in by a proper suspension tuner.

Often the modifications and add-ons get out of control, quickly spiraling into deeper levels of cost for the build and into areas beyond what is ideal. Case in point, there is the typical 2jz swap: too often people don't rebuild these 25 year old engines and just drop them in the car only to find many problems down the road. Then they start out with the idea of going small, but the stock twins get replaced for a single, but instead of a reasonable single, the turbo gets upgraded to something with huge lag and a useless and unenjoyable (for most people) level of power that inevitably requires more upgrades, which makes the car less streetable and more obnoxious. All this is great for a track car, but it quickly makes street driving far less enjoyable.

Of course, all these things can be solved with money and time and patience, as well as, with having a conservative mindset and/or with having a good shop to do the build, but this is often not the case.

OEM tune is majorly comprised, AKA crap.

NA, after the base tune was loaded my car had 14 revisions, dyno tuning cost was about $1k AUD (power was so much better)

FI, after the base tune was loaded my car had 33 revisions, dyno tuning cost was about $2k AUD (power is just on perfect for the size and use of the car, plus reliability is not a issue)

Differences pre and post tune:

NA tune results were 115 kwatw to 148 kwatw (full decat, snorkel mod)

FI was 205 kwatw (AVO, 8 psi, 2.5" overpipe, 2.5" resonated front pipe, OEM cat back)

I acknowledge dyno plots are wank plots, but, they are good for added power, NA tune added 33 kwatw, FI tune added 57 kwatw over NA tune and 90 kwatw over stock.

Winner winner chicken dinner.

My car is far from laggy, on the contrary, the power is smooth and constant.

First plot is OEM tune to Pulse tune

Second is OEM to FI Pulse tune

Dyno tuning with someone who actually knows what they are doing is key.

I think you meant compromised, but I gotcha, and that is awesome you don't have lag. Obviously my statements wouldn't apply to everybody or even to the majority of swaps. I was just giving some context of why some builds and swaps get abandoned, get sold off shortly after completion or become a fail all together. There are other common reasons like the project going too far over budget, or wiring gremlins that plague the car, or balancing all the different aftermarket components, so they work as a cohesive system. It appears as if the OP is trying to determine if a swap is worth it, and/or if he can learn what to do or what not to do to make his swap successful. I was just hoping to add my experiences, as potential complications to consider.

Even a crap aftermarket tune will likely have more power and can smooth out the power/torque curves compared to OEM, so the metrics you mentioned don't qualify as a quality tune. OEMs are not trying to maximize power. They want to be conservative, so that the car lasts 200k miles, or so the car has less issues inside the warranty period. These engineers are designing a tune that will meet strict vehicle emission standards at all vehicle loads under a variety of conditions.

What most tuners do is play with timing and fuel tables under WOT in a single gear at highway speeds, but what about sub maximal throttle, or what about during transition speeds or at all gears, or what about during 0 degrees Celsius versus 40 degrees, what about cruising around the parking lot? These engineers spend hundreds of hours on a dyno under a variety of conditions to dial the tune--for their emission, fuel-economy goals, yes--but it is the smoothness, reliability and consistency that makes it a quality tune.

Most people spend sub $500 on a remote or dyno tune. Maybe a few break $1000 like you did, but few drop much more to dial it in like OEMs. For many owners, the tune is good enough and the satisfaction of having more power is worth the compromise, yet there are also many that find the lack of refinement to be annoying. I've seen many completed projects get sold off because the car isn't "streetable" by their standards, and it is too race car, as if they were expecting an experience akin to owning a manufactured, high-horsepower car. For instance, many LS swapped Miatas, RX7s, etc may go fast like their Corvette counterparts, but few feel and drive like a Camaro or Corvette from a daily, streetability perspective, even if they share the same engine. That is all I am trying to clarify.

I plan to get mine sorted out a bit more, finish tuning, and posting it for sale. After 1.5 years of building it and spending entirely too much money, the project is already annoying me. This car borderline made me not want to work on cars anymore lol. 2JZ w/ a CD009 FYI. Not worth doing the swap!

Which is an interesting contrast as I want to do more swaps into the 86 chassis. Eventually I will have an AWD swapped one haha

Missed a poll question:
How many swap projects are sitting in the garage untouched after several years because it wasn't as simple or cheap as people seem to think it is?