Ryan's 86 car journal

[RToyo86]

Swung by FT86MS and picked up whiteline trans bushing insert and Mtec shift springs.


Installed them after work. Both were much easier to install than I anticipated. Probably took me 2 hours from jacking the car up to bringing it down. 20-30 was fighting with a jack that didn't like being used with the lever arm at 70° while I was attempting to lift the transmission to slide the bushing in.
The 27mm bolt on the transmission was more difficult than it needed to be as I borrowed a shallow 27mm and needed to use a swivel which made it an awkward angle.
I used a drill wire brush to clean the loctite off the threads and the bolts went back in without issues.

[RToyo86]

Had a proper drive now with the whiteline trans insert(KDT926) and shift springs. Seems like the perfect one and done to get the transmission feeling tight without feeling obviously modified.
I felt a friend's setup on a 2017 brz with a shifter bushing, springs, and short throw and it feels like a bolt action rifle going gear to gear. Just the springs leaves a a small bit of left and right slop in gear and some slop if you push hard forward in gear.

Honestly it might be the best $90CAD I've spent on the car period. the insert transforms driveability for me, and overall feels was more direct without adding NVH. All of the noises I heard where at night when it was quiet outside and the windows are up with no music. you can hear feintest of gear whine under specific throttle inputs. On a cold start you can hear the input shaft in neutral, and the shifter has a small amount of added vibration. All and all extremely livable for how well it cleans up slop on/off throttle.

[saltywetman]

Very good job doing the ceramic coating yourself! was that single syringe all it took for the entire car?

[RToyo86]

Originally Posted by saltywetman

Very good job doing the ceramic coating yourself! was that single syringe all it took for the entire car?

The syringe actually isn't even full. It was 10cc which was more than enough.
I had enough to coat the entire car, waste a tiny bit by accident and coat two sets of wheels.

[RToyo86]

My door stabilizers showed up early. Slapped them on in about 10 minutes. I had zero issues with the striker bolts.

Door has a nice satisfying thunk to it now. Main thing I noticed is that the window doesn't rattle when you close the door a bit harder like it would before.

In terms of tightening up steering feel I could have sworn the first few adjustments of the wheel felt different but I am 90% it's a placebo effect. The only way to get more solid answer would be to install them and test feel, uninstall them and test, then reinstall them again.

The window now rattles a lot less when it is cracked or partially down on rough roads or bigger bumps. Without the stabilizers they would rattle often in those situations when the door flexed in and out.

Thunk test

[RToyo86]

Had a nice Friday meet and greet with the local club. 14 cars showed up. Lots of spooly Bois joining the ranks the last season. I think In total there were 6-7 boosted cars out of the group.

Then grounded performance widebody 2J BRZ made a appearance which was nice to see. I haven't see the car in person but it looks well done.
It would be nice to see the FT86MS 2J widebody BRZ alongside it but couldn't make it out this evening.

[RToyo86]

Couple of items showed up. Door pad kicker and forester oil cooler.

Ended up ordering vibrant heater hose after the install. Locally sourced heater hose is cheap and not happy with it.

[RToyo86]

Picked up a TRD exhaust used from a local FT86 Facebook club member. It was to good a deal to pass up. Cleaned it up a bit and tossed it on with softer JDM hangers.

It sounds great but is on the too loud end of the spectrum for me. I need to replace the donut gasket before final judgement.

One of few places I felt comfortable opening it up.

[StraightOuttaCanadaEh]

Yeah that's a bit loud. If I were to get a header, I'd probably just put the OEM catback back on. I feel like with the engine mounts there is so much noise in the cabin now that I don't even need an aftermarket catback haha. Really starts to wear you down after a few years

[RToyo86]

Originally Posted by StraightOuttaCanadaEh

Yeah that's a bit loud. If I were to get a header, I'd probably just put the OEM catback back on. I feel like with the engine mounts there is so much noise in the cabin now that I don't even need an aftermarket catback haha. Really starts to wear you down after a few years

I get that, I had stiff mounts on my integra that I daily drove.

The Corsa is about perfect on its own.
The stock exhaust with a header is about perfect. I'd like maybe 10% more volume and a different tone. The fujitsubo should be a lot more tame.


Still waiting on the new gasket. I actually drove to work with ear plugs in this morning .

[villainous_frx]

I had a TRD with stock everything and even with AS3+ tires on the highway it was brutal for me. Can't imagine it with a cat removed! Hope you find a solution for it, the D shaped tips are quite good looking.

[RToyo86]

I took the exhaust back off to replace the midpipe gasket. Took a Dremel sand disk to the whole flange to clean it up, then added some copper RTV. Hoping that seals everything. Going to let the car sit overnight to let the RTV cure and see how it goes tomorrow




Also stripped a spring bolt when I put it together the last time. Managed to get the nut to catch by prying on the other end.

[RToyo86]

Originally Posted by villainous_frx

I had a TRD with stock everything and even with AS3+ tires on the highway it was brutal for me. Can't imagine it with a cat removed! Hope you find a solution for it, the D shaped tips are quite good looking.

I suspect I've had a mid pipe leak with the old gasket. The springs also didn't seem to be applying much pressure. I ended up sticking a washer behind it to add pressure to keep it from moving.

Axleback hardware and gasket were replaced as well. Watching that this week to see if I need to add some RTV to seal things off.

[RToyo86]

Sealed everything up. Still gives me a headache.

Tossing the stock exhaust back on. TRD will be up for sale shortly if anyone is interested.


Exhaust off. Asking $490obo.
Will make a classified when I can stick my forum name next to it.
https://i.imgur.com/FCh7CMl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/NXT4KVD.jpg