1st gen most people run +35. Second gen +42 for clearance issues.

Are you talking about wheel fitment in general or the Arc-8 ?

All the cars I saw were 1st gen and most ran the higher offset with the Arc-8

Both. +35 on the first gen is close to flush. The only situation you would run different is for brake fit, the RPF1 won't clear BBK in +35 due to spoke profile, or that is all the manufacturer offers. 57DR/CR +38, 949 +40, ect.

It would be the same for all wheels of that size unless one was concerned with brake clearance.

I haven't looked at wheels in a while (until now of course) but I think I recall +35 poking out/rubbing on fenders a bit unless you had a few degrees of camber, which I do have. I think you can also run a wider tire pinched on a +40 if you have coilovers with narrower springs.

I'll probably go with +35.

Just checking, you are talking about+35 on a 9" wide wheel with 245s right? Never looked at 9s until now so that's where some of my uncertainty is coming from.

Yes, that is what I figured you would be looking to run.

Here is how that looks on my car.

Well, +35 it is then.

Lol is that a transponder zip tied to your splitter support?

Yeah lol. It wasn't always picking up when on my grille.

Ordered some Apex Arc8s in black with 35 offset this week, along with their valve stems. They are supposedly arriving Tuesday. :happyanim:

Now, tires. Options and thoughts below.

1. A052 in 245/40. Every review says this should be the fastest and have the best road manners. I'm pretty sure all the local competitive STX folks are on them. They are also the lightest option as a bonus. Notionally they don't handle heat well, are pretty expensive, and feel a bit numb. Supposedly does really well with more camber, and I can probably get close to 4° up front if I really wanted it.

2. RT660 in 245/40. Also reportedly very good in the dry, much sharper steering and last longer. Cheaper than other competitive options. But worse road manners, not as good wet, and nearly 20% more inertia that the equivalent A052. Tread width is list as 10" on TR, but I think that might be a mistake?

3. RT660 in 235/40. I thought this might be a sweet spot in terms of sizing for these and apparently everyone else thinks so too as it's nearly the same cost per tire as the A052. I just thought sub-9" tread width seemed appropriate for a 9" wheel considering recent test reports by TR :iono:.

4. RT660 in 235/45. Cheapest size, but increases the rolling diameter an inch, which equates to 16% greater inertia of the tire. Does it matter, probably not, but I care lol.

5. RE71RS in 245/40. Also a very good tire, also expensive. New, but reviews place it high on the list, but less grippy than the other two. Does well in rain?

...

Edit: the more I look at it, the more I'm leaning towards the Bridgestones.

Yeah buddy!

I still have my worn 660's mounted to my track wheels. I can check the width for you tomorrow.

I really don't think you can go wrong with any of those tires.

I think someone noted tread width on the 245s as 9.3" on some forum that I can't remember. Might have been GRM. Falken only says section width of 10" on the official spec sheet so :iono:

Yeah, I think I'm going to order the RE71RS in 245/40R17. Tire Rack has a few promotions/rebates that reduce the final installed price quite a bit, and I think it winds up less expensive than the falkens in the same size.

I was just commenting in the other thread that not all tires measure the same regardless of what the spec sheet says. I want to say I measured them before and they were pretty close to 245mm wide, I have a metric tape. I know 225 Hoosiers are wider than 245 street tires lol.

Tires are ordered. Ouch, my wallet hurts lol.

FWIW: the stock TPS (from my 2013) won't work with the Arc8's even though their literature says they will.

Good to know, thanks! I wasn't planning on running tpms on these.

Alrighty, on to problem that I caused myself #234: Leaking double slip joints. Yes, I bought a used PTuning header with ceramic coating and it's of course leaking at the slip joints. I would be fine if they completely sealed when hot, but at least one doesn't, specifically at the bottom. I do really like the header design though. The internet has not offered particularly good solutions IMO.

My options:
A. Get a different header, this time without slip joints.
B. Get some slip fit band clamps and high temp putty.
C. Disassemble the headers and try to figure out what is going wrong.
D. Have someone else cut off the slip joints and attempt to weld new ones on or a solid pipe in their place (which is extra difficult because of the ceramic coating).
E: ??

I don't want to take them off/apart unless I have a good idea how I'm going to fix them...

Does PTuning themselves have any suggestions for fixing this?

I called them a few months ago asking for the exhaust table they offered in this post back in the day, but they seemed distinctly uninterested in helping me unless I wanted to go get a dyno tune.

https://www.ft86club.com/forums/show...7&postcount=12

I haven't paid them anything so I'm not really a customer, but it kind of put me off from becoming one. Not really into calling again asking for free support on a product they don't sell anymore. :iono:

Not quite taller than the car, but it's getting there...
Yes, I ordered these tires yesterday. TR is fast.

I’ve been unimpressed with PTuning. I had the gauge fail on my FF kit and sent it into them. Wasn’t really expecting anything but wanted to get it back to them to see if it was some kind of issue they weren’t aware of or possibly something I did. After they got it I called after a couple weeks and they were like “huh, what gauge?”

JDL 4-2-1 EL is what I would replace them with and sell these

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk

Part 2! Now I just gotta install valve stems and find somewhere to mount tires.

Pretty.

I might be ignorant here but is it not possible to just weld the slip joints?

As far as another headers JDL EL as mentioned is about all I can think of that's quality and will get you similar power. Hard smack to the wallet but worth it if you like EL sound. pairs nicely with a CSG touring if you want a mellow tone without the tinny OEM CBE.

Not really weldable I think, but I'm not an expert on welding. Ceramic coating aside, these are right before the collector and arranged in a square format so after the first 3 are on, it's going to be difficult to get the inside of the 4th.

Right now, the joints seal up pretty quickly except for the bottom of the lower joints. I think there's some minor misalignment, or there's a difference in thermal expansion between the top springs and the bottom. One of the bottom springs apparently broke on the previous owner and was replaced, so that might have something to do with it. I'm going to take a closer look next time I am under the car and try some things.

lol it looks like skunk2 made a knock off of the ptuning design but with welds there instead of slip fittings: https://www.ebay.com/itm/391366387168

Those wheels look great ! I will be copying you for sure lol. I am on the fence about if I want TPMS or not though

My current DD summer set of wheels don't have TPMS. The only time I really wished I had it was when I saw 5 or 6 cars pulled over with flat tires in the space of 2 miles and became concerned about what caused such misfortune. I check pressures all the time so it's only a puncture on a long trip that TPMS would help with.

its a requirement here to pass inspection and my plan is to get a BBK then my stock wheels won't fit anymore. Having two sets of wheels both with TPMS might make things easy in the long run. IDK.... Need to see how much work is needed beside just buying the sensors lol

Yeah, in that case I would plan for TPMS if I were you.

As long as it is cleaned up well and the proper filler rod is used, it can be welded. Probably be best to media blast and then degrease. Looks like PTuning likes to use 304 for their stainless exhaust components.

/sigh. Thought I could try fixing the header with it still on the car by removing the clips at the double slip joints and the v-band, then reseating the merge piece. The bottoms were annoying, but there is no way I'm getting the top clips off without pulling the header.

Should have saved my original header gaskets to test with. They seemed to be a design that would leak less on reuse than the new ones lol. Next question is whether it's worth fixing or if I just get something else. Wife is starting to ask how much this all costs.

Next autocross in 2 weekends...

:mad0259: :bonk:

Edit: To relieve my frustration with the header, I added more negative front camber. What does that have to do with the header? Absolutely nothing. But for some reason it makes me feel better. Need more camber

Second edit plus picture. On second thought, maybe there is something to the whole replace the clips idea...

Personally I'd put about another hour or two of work into trying to fix it, and if it doesn't work I'd just order that welded Tsudo version I linked.

But I hope you can fix it somehow, those clips/clamps look like they've seen better days.

Header shenanigans
 

Well, I tried just putting an hour or two into fixing the header. Took the header off at the v-band, which is actually pretty easy once I figured out how it all worked. Demounted the retaining clips and discovered that the top set of pipes had somehow fused to the collector, which made sense as to why the bottom was leaking I guess, with thermal expansion and all that jazz. Anyway, got everything pulled apart, inspected everything and it looked fine outside of a broken clip and the top pipes needing some percussion, I mean persuasion. Put everything back together again and proceeded to seize a lock nut to the header stud. The local Toyota dealership got me the part in time to replace it today and was the only place able to get it next day, but almost ordered the wrong part. Damn near cried from joy when I saw the parts guy come out with the right part lol. It's a good thing I ordered extra studs because I got another nut stuck pulling the header off again. Got everything sorted out and back together.
The best part is all that did not completely fix the leaks. :D

New header time... Maybe...

Figured I'd try some grimmspeed gaskets. These things are quite thick. Not sure that's much of an advantage over OEM. OEM seems to have worked just fine for my purposes though. Might even be able to reuse the ones I put on earlier this year. Pic doesn't do the difference justice. GS has like 6 layers of metal to the oem's 2.

New wheels on. I think I'm going to need mud flaps, and maybe go a bit lower...

:bonk::clap:


I bet it still leaks from the v-banded joint. They can be real bitches. They suck at overcoming any force holding the faces out of parallel. Order of tightening operations can take that into account. If it was mine, I'd have loosely installed the collector to the overpipe and played with all the parts relative to each other. Have any grooves formed on the inside faces of the band?

It's definitely the double slips. I checked with a handy dandy smoke pen.

Specifically it's the bottoms of the lower primaries. Might seal a bit better when really hot but I let the engine get up to temperature before testing. Vband seemed fine all around.

Order of fastening: header to engine, vband, front pipe to mid pipe.

Ride height looks good to me, I would leave it just like that. Congrats on the new wheels, they look stunning on red! Great color combo. :wub: