To blower or not to blower…
 

So I’m in a bit of a quandary. I really love my 86 and it’s treated me well. I have a couple dozen track days under my belt… then I made the mistake of driving a friends A91 Supra at the track. Granted I could see that being something that I get down the road but for now I have so much time, money and effort into my practically new 86 that I want to hang onto it for a while longer. But I need more power at this point lol. (If we can just skip the “you just need more seat time, I know that side of the story I’m looking for more power.)

That being said, I’m thinking about getting the JR or the Edelbrock SC. Anyone have any feedback on how they did power and reliability wise for dedicated track duty? I very rarely street the car anymore just mostly HPDE3/Advanced.

My mods related to this are:
E85
Tomei UEL
Perrin oil cooler
Versus fuel door
17x9 with Falken 660’s
Brembo BBK still sitting in the box waiting to install (I know this isn’t directly related to the SC issue but I already bought it because I was cooking through pads so if I up the power that kit will be useful imo)

Thoughts?

Might be an unpopular opinion here, but non-FI car to reliable FI track car is generally a painfully expensive lesson.

Sounds…. Explosive.

I know somebody local who tracks his FRS with a JRSC. Car was reliable up to a point but recently has been giving him constant FA20 problems.

Cooling and tuning is a big part in keeping F.I cars reliable on track.


@CSG Mike has tracked a turbo BRZ for years and could provide insight on how to make it work.

Yeah I have a good oil cooler that's kept the temps from never peaking out over 230 even on hard track days. Radiator has done fine as well.

@CSG_mike I'd love to hear your feedback as well.

You're going to sink a lot more heat with FI. Mine had a ducted CSF radiator and a 25 row series 9 Setrab.

Keeping a transmission alive was my main worry other than popping a motor.

Why do you think you need more power?

Going faster and/or having faster lap times... OK, but you would only be getting this because of the car, not because you have become a better driver. To me it is about you improving as a driver, not going faster because you simply got a faster car.

I'll add that I went from a turbocharged & tuned BMW that was lowered and running RE71r's for track use to my 86 (with just a header & minor tune to address the torque dip and plain old performance summer tires). I'm also in Colorado at over 5000 feet in elevation. So I've seen a tremendous loss in power by going from turbo to NA. But ultimately the 86 will make me a better/faster driver as I no longer have the crutch of power to lean on.

Just my $0.02 :cheers:

Realistically, unless you're ready to sink 10-15k to make the FI work as intended, you're better off getting a faster car or spending that same money on driver mod.

The main reason my turbo BRZ works on track is because I spent far more money on supporting mods, than the power itself. Also, it wasn't my first rodeo, and I've directed many FI track builds before my own car, as well as after my own car.

You will never make A90/91 level torque on track, reliably, without dumping 20k+ into this car. Now imagine driving a 700whp A90 rather than a 350whp A90....

I completed 13 track days on my JRSC setup last year, and I am totally in love with how my brz drives on track with the extra power, combined with the brz's lightweight handling dynamics, which is a 'must keep' for me. Even the 3200lb cars i drive on track feel heavy and enormous to me, and I wouldn't and haven't traded for it even if it comes with much more power to "compensate". this is a personal call...more power isnt always more fun. remember we don't drive spec sheets. find what is most exciting for you.

as far as going FI on a brz, in my opinion, you need to enjoy working on your car to do it right and not eventually resent it. higher complexity and power beyond OEM intentions means higher maintenance requirements to care for it properly. lots of diligence. and more money than face value. So far I'm pleased to say my car hasn't given me any issues at all, and oil analysis' come back healthy. its a 2014 brz with 72k, and has been tracked most of its life.

i did the install and all the work myself, and i am financially and mentally prepared to deal with mechanical failures. i enjoy my project track car as a hobby, a creative outlet, and a really enjoyable challenge. i probably spent around 7-8k for the JRSC kit and supporting mods/tune. if you like driving mostly, and dont enjoy working on your car or being in the garage, and just want a faster car but dont really want to deal with it in the garage much, id advise you to avoid going FI and just get a faster car, that was designed to be that fast from the start. if you had planned on paying someone to install the FI kit, just look at newer cars.

I also constantly window shop and the 'what ifs' of newer, faster out of the box cars plague me, ha. I imagine this will never end. with so many great cars out there, how can it?

one thing i know is that the brz is paid off, consumables are dirt cheap compared to anything but miatas, and im not stressing about pushing hard out there like i would be with an newer expensive car. that peace of mind is worth a lot to me, i've found. i dont really believe owning a faster newer car would result in me having really any more fun at a track. the brz gets my adrenaline going just fine.

couple notes on the JRSC kit - heat soak and 250+ oil temps are a thing on 90+ dg days, ive had to end sessions early or take cooldown breaks mid session. these days are rare in michigan though. nonetheless ive made some ducting for the cooling stack and im excited to try it out and see if it helped. i think the JRSC kit is the best choice for FI on a track car, and all FI methods will suffer from heat issues in certain conditions.

i fuel starve horribly on e85 w/ FI. on NA the fuel door made it livable. i am working on an aux fueling solution to fix it. i was forced to run 93 all last year b/c of it.

@jacobe38

Do you have hood vents?

A simple secondary pump on the passenger side dumping into your main fuel tank can solve your issue, particularly since you're DIY friendly!

Yeah, I do have the verus hood vents. The 4 smaller ones. Maybe I need those large trackspec ones, if its not too late to add them. I'm hoping the ducting helps a lot. The overheating isn't really ruining my day, though. It was only an issue for maybe 3 days out of the year.

As for the fueling, thats exactly what I'm planning to do! It's certainly DIY heavy haha and not very well documented if at all, had issues finding good info. So far I've heard from folks that say yes, they made it work, briefly describe the broad strokes(which is probably enough for more experienced folks), and then stop responding. And the other half say 'just get a surge tank/fuel cell' haha.

If I pull it off I plan to create some sort of video/writeup with part links and how-to's, for folks like me who are used to just buying kits and following instructions, or just piecing together what we need from youtube vids, and don't have a ton of electric/fueling exp to improvise with just the broad strokes. This knowledge-based barrier to entry for this project kept me at bay for a long time. This is one of the few issues with any car I haven't just been able to google for an hour and basically have it figured out if not had a kit on order. I'm sure theres others like me who would benefit. I even thought about trying to make a kit to sell, because I would've bought one for sure if it had existed haha. But thats a whole other discussion

I've been piecing together info all winter and I'm just about ready to start the install. Last parts came in this week

Honestly that's alot of track time. I would look at aero mods before FI. Also suspension, and other tweaks. Max out the car prior on NA before boosting it. The money dumped into FI could be used towards a factory car with turbo. Honestly if this is not street driven I would drop an LS in it and go stand-alone before boosting the FA20. Same power levels and way better reliability

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So I went the easy route and just bought a Supra.

Probably the better choice anyways. Pictures or it did not happen [emoji6]

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