Motor Trend made us a very nice maintenance / build guide
 

Watching Motor Trend's feature on their BRZ build and they made a nice thorough video guide on installing stuff like spark plugs, clutch, coils, brakes, exhaust, bushings, etc! And a vortech supercharger. Great watch. Personally I was most interested in their spark plug job which didn't seem so bad. Thanks Motor Trend!

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aj2zpVy9mGs[/ame]

Well it took them 45mins per plug. I dread the day I have to Change my plugs.


And They didn't use blue antifreeze. Hopefully they completely drained it all out first

Tell me about it. I just did three plugs without lifting engine, it was fine. But no way I can get the driver side rear. So I have to decide to let a shop do one plug or loosen motor mounts and lift engine.

Trust me on this: Unbolt the engine mount nuts on the bottom, jack up one side of the engine at a time. I changed mine in ~30 mins before throwing the turbo on. Way easier this way.

Thanks. I will give it a try.

I watched this when it came out, and at first I was excited, but honestly there's a bunch of cringe moments here. It's pretty obvious that they chose parts based on who gave them free stuff for marketing purposes, not based on a proper analysis of what is available on the market overall. Additionally, there's several things they did that are obviously rushed.



The coolant is a great example, because they didn't use Asian-formula organic coolant, which is what is specced for these engines. You /can/ change over coolant, it's not going to instantly destroy something. But it's not really recommended due to the various metals and metal coatings involved, the chemistry of the coolant is specifically formulated for how Toyota/Subaru/Nissan motors are manufactured.


It was still enjoyable to watch... but it's basically just one really long product placement advertisement. They also spent very minimal time on suspension/alignment and didn't do any of the necessary supporting things to get it right. This is actually one of the most critical areas for performance on this platform and I'd take good suspension and stock power over power adders and sloppy suspension work any day of the week. Also they had to bring in Vortech to do the install... partly because a lot of cutting was involved... a Harrop SC or Jackson Racing SC would have been a far superior choice.

Those were my thoughts too. A lot of it was unnecessary or not well thought out. As well, I find the need to change the clutch for a vortech kit to be overkill. The comments though are still golden to read. Someone even went as far as to suggesting swapping an STI motor in, as if it's an easy feat. lol

I did the same thing, took off maybe 8-10 bolts cuz I'm paranoid.
Lowered the car onto 1" wooden boards, used floor jack with a 2x4 wooden board to lift the engine one each side (between the engine and header).

Did it in 45 per side cuz I got sausage fingers and being overly cautious. I think I can do it hour overall now.

I have sausage fingers too and I usually drop a bolt which adds 30 min somehow. Waiting for a nice warm day to do the last plug.

Using an impact to install parts makes me cringe...I made it to the 8:10 mark where they were driving home those 14mm bolts :(


There's something to be said for hand tools and torque wrenches. It's like doing wood working with a chain saw!

It can be done however..






https://thumbs.gfycat.com/MistyDelec...restricted.gif

Touche, I saw that one coming ;)

now let's see the same artwork with a logging saw!

https://i.pinimg.com/236x/91/14/a1/9...-equipment.jpg

If I remember correctly, they mentioned the car "seeing track use." Then they installed Falken FK510?
They changed the radiator, but didn't add an oil cooler to a boosted track 86?
Those were the two glaring faults I noticed.