Vortech 86 in Aus. SUP BRA Build

[BenArmstrong]

Current Status:

It's been a while since I updated my last build thread and thought after going FI in that time I might as well start a fresh one.
I'll use this section mainly for photos and info on the car in it's most current state.
Here it is -


















Parts fitted:

Engine:
Vortech Supercharger Kit
Perrin Lightweight Crank Pulley
Perrin Engine Oil Cooler
AVO Air/Oil Separator

Exhaust:
HKS Equal Length, Catted Header
HKS Catless, Stainless Front Pipe
HKS Spec-L System
Perrin Overpipe

Wheels & Tyres:
Enkei Fujin 18 x 8.0 +40 offset
Pirelli P Zero 225/40ZR18 Nitrogen filled

Misc:
TRD Front Strut Brace
TRDFender Fins
TRD Door Stabilisers
Perrin Shifter Bushing
Perrin Shorty 2" Antenna
P3cars OBD Integrated Gauge
Tune by @coyote at 999 Automotive using BRZedit

Just a quick note about the number plate: It seems to catch a bit of attention, not always good, so I thought I'd explain it. I used to own a Supra and in Australia its the done thing for all Supras to get personalised plates with SUP then whatever numbers they find relevant. But as it turns out my initials are BRA, so I put the two together and got a bit of a laugh out of it. I kept them for the 86 because they weren't cheap, and are still funny.

Introduction:

I had followed the developments of the 86 since the first concept and was always excited by it but more interested in my old supra (shown below).



When the production model 86 was announced, I came to a bit of a crossroads with the Supra, I was either going to spend a bunch of money making it a 700HP+ monster or sell it and go with something that would be a lot more reliable and pleasurable to drive. It's obvious which I chose.
So I placed the order for my 86 a couple weeks after they had been released in Aus and 6 months later (longest wait of my life), it arrived.



I didn't expect the 86 to be getting much track time, so when considering modifications I was more interested in going down a GT (Grand tourer) route. The majority of the cars miles are done on the highway between Rockhampton and Brisbane, a 650km drive, and it has done an occasional Brisbane to Airlie Beach (1,200km) in a day. So above all it had to stay comfortable on long drives, which also meant adding power.
So parts started arriving before the car did...

Aero-Kit:

I hadn't seen the aero kit in person before I ordered it but decided to go with it mainly because I could afford it and I'm a bit of a sucker for anything aero, especially if Toyota is behind it. I haven't ever regretted my decision to go with it either. Here's a bit of a closer look at it:













A few more photos of the kit here: http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41726


Wheels & Tyres:

Basically, when looking for wheels, I wanted something that resembled what the OEM wheel maybe should have been, something black, something with enough spokes to partially hide the ugly standard brakes, and something that looked relatively flush without any need for guard rolling etc.
I went with the Fujins because they ticked all those boxes and were reasonably cheap to boot.
(More pictures here: http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25424)





My first tyre choice was the Bridgestone Potenza RE050A 225/40.
I got them fairly cheap and hoped they would handle a bit more power nicely as well as still slide when you want them to. Which they did beautifully. Although after around 20,000 km's I got a puncture in one so decided to keep 3 spare and put a whole new set on.

For this set I basically got on tirerack.com and tried to find the most similar tyre if not the same as the RE050A's at the best price.
I liked the look of the Pirelli P Zero and the fact that its the mark they use in F1 added a novelty for me.
Ordered a set (same size as the potenzas) and got them fitted and Nitrogen filled (didn't cost much extra, thought I'd try it) and they are unreal. Even with the supercharger they are still super grippy. I think I'll end up going back to something a little less extreme in future just to get the slide factor back.

Exhaust:

While the whole system wasn't fitted in one go I'll discuss it as a whole here.

When I bought the HKS Spec-L kit it was relatively early in the aftermarket and there wasn't a whole lot of options within Aus and shipping something in could get expensive very quickly. But basically, this was one of my favourite looking and sounding systems, although relying on youtube videos for sound wasn't great. It could be sourced in Brisbane so I went ahead and ordered. Utilised a hoist and fitted it in no more than half an hour and have loved it ever since. The sound is great and not too droney for long drives which was a massive plus. Apparently, early on these systems had a habit of cracking but I've never had any problems with mine.




Note: This picture was taken after this exhaust had done nearly 25,000 km's, hence it not looking new.

Once I made the decision to go FI (more on that later), I felt it was necessary to free up the rest of the exhaust as much as possible. Forcing more air in, means more exhaust needs to come out, seems logical.

I wanted to keep as much of the car 'same brand' as possible and saw that HKS do a front pipe and header as well and after seeing the quality of what I already had it was a no-brainer. Keeping at least one cat was a goal as, knowing my luck, I'd get tested and fined for having none if I ran it. So I went with the Catted EL Header and Catless Front Pipe. Both were a breeze to fit.
Although, the header comes with an adapter thread for the second Cat sensor that needed to be welded into the Front pipe. I drilled a hole in the top of the front pipe just after its muffler and got a mate to TIG it in. The extension harness etc. all comes with the header.

As for the Overpipe, I had been getting a few other things through Perrin and loved their work so that was that. Fitting of the overpipe wasn't too difficult, although I had a hoist and transmission jack. Good luck to anyone doing it on their garage floor.

Wanting to keep the engine bay as cool as possible after going FI, I got the header and overpipe heat-coated by a place here in Brisbane. Can't comment on whether it has made much difference or not as I never ran them not coated but it seemed like a good idea.

Before:


After:


Fitted:







Perrin Flash Tune:

Before I got serious with engine mods, and after I had read through Perrin's 86 Blog a few times I decided to order an ECUtek kit from them along with their Flash Tune and panel filter. Super easy process and would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a bit more power as well as fun RaceRom features it comes with.

I did a couple Dyno Runs before and after the flash. Results below:

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvKsZjX_bpY"]SUP BRA Toyota 86 Dyno Run w/HKS Spec-L Exhaust - YouTube[/ame]




The Farm Video:

It was at this point that I decided to make a little video out at my parents farm. Fun was had by all.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRk28iESlFg"]Toyota 86 Rally Test - YouTube[/ame]

Vimeo link is

More info on the original post here: http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=31618


TRD Goodies:

Being the sucker for Aero that I am, I ordered some TRD Fender Fins. These certainly aren't cheap but they were worth every cent in my opinion. Highest quality carbon fibre I've ever seen.







While I was at it I fitted the TRD Strut Brace and Door Stabilisers. Again, unreal quality and, to my surprise, made a noticeable difference to the handling of the car, a good one at that.







Note: when installing the door stabilisers, you will need some form of impact driver as the torx head screws are loctite'd in.


P3Cars Vent Gauge:

Like nearly all of the parts I've bought, I found this one on these forums. The whole idea of these OBD Linked gauges for our cars is great. So much information at the press of a button. As I was starting to consider FI at this point I decided that I'd need something for monitoring temps and this is by far the cleanest looking gauge I've seen, still allows aircon flow through vent, simple to install and no cutting holes in anything.



Note: The boost reading on this is not accurate for me for some reason, I suspect it's something to do with the MAP sensor that Perrin Supply with the Vortech Kit, haven't looked into it much further as I was mainly concerned with temps.


Forced Induction:

Having a look around this forum it can easily be seen that Forced Induction on our cars is no longer out of the ordinary but I thought I would write a little about my experience and the decisions involved.

Starting with Turbo Vs. Supercharger. I felt as though keeping the power curve as linear as possible was important for staying true to the design of the 86. I also wanted to be keeping engine bay temps as reliable as possible.
While I loved my turbo Supra, supercharging this platform just felt right. I never wanted to be going for massive power figures and just wanted to keep things simple.
After that decision was made, for me, it was a pretty easy to narrow down which unit I would go with. Vortech have produced, and from what I understand, are still constantly improving their kit. The reliability of which has been proved for a while now, being one of the older kits on the market now. And to top it off, in my opinion, its one of, if not, the best looking FI solution out there. Which at the end of the day is more important than some of us would admit. The engineering involved in making this kit so compact must have been phenomenal and what they've created is something that could even be said looks OEM. This was a big plus in my eyes.

And so, the decision was made. I ordered the kit and set aside a good few days to fit it. I also painted over the Vortech logo on the intercooler, purely because there would be an oil cooler covering the majority but not all of it.



As soon as the kit got here I checked it over for any missing pieces or bent pipes, was all there and in perfect condition. Also made sure to read through the instructions completely a few times before doing anything else. They are slightly vague in some aspects so again, some creativity may be required. Here's a couple spots throughout the installation that I thought we worth noting.

The bracket for this little sensor needed to be slotted out a little so the sensor could still fit there behind the intercooler.



This is how the area behind the headlight ended up for me. As you can see, I needed to space down the spout of the wiper reservoir a bit further with some washers. The rubber hose between the spout and reservoir will also need to be shortened as needed, starting big and working your way shorter until the right fit is achieved. Also note how all those little electrical boxes are mounted on the wiper reservoir bracket.


Note: for anyone with an Australian GTS spec, you're most likely going to have to get rid of your headlight squirters. I couldnt come up with a way of making them fit so got rid of them. Removed the outer cover from the assembly and just double sided taped them back onto the bumper to cover the holes.

Note: I didn't a photo of it but the hose for the BOV will also need to be shortened. I left mine a little to long and the BOV ended up rubbing on the engine. Noticed it before and serious damage was done though.

Apart from that, as far as fitting aftermarket kits goes, this was not overly hard. Although, I am a mechanic by trade so that definitely helped. But if you have the right tools and a little know-how, this kit is doable. The most important tool is patience. This took me nearly 3 full days to do. Given I was fitted a lot of other parts at the same time but still, give yourself enough time. This isn't something you want to rush as that will only lead to frustration and is probably the cause of some of the bad reviews of the installation process getting around on these forums.

Also, my kit was supplied nearly a year ago now. One of Vortech's strengths is their commitment to improving the kit. Some of the few complaints I had have most likely already been resolved in the current kit.

So there it is, I flashed the ECU with the perrin tune and was on my way to the dyno. Results below:



250whp was the goal I had in mind and it reached that so I was stoked. However, after I fitted the AVO breather kit (shown later on), performance went kind of weird. Had a code pop up a few times and idle just went to the dogs.
I made the decision at the time to just get a local Brisbane shop to do a tune for me. After some time they resolved all of the issues but I still felt the tune wasn't as good as it could be. The car was very jerky at low throttle and there was a bit of a flat spot around 3000rpm that shouldn't have been there. Mercury Motorsport didn't have any experience in tuning for the vortech kit and I think the MAP sensor that Perrin uses maybe threw them a bit.

I have since been dealing with 999 Automotive, another tuner in Brisbane that has a lot more experience in tuning FI twins, after they were suggested by a number of people on the local 86/BRZ facebook group.
Tony at 999 was able to get an extra 20% peak power out of it as well as take it back to OEM level's of smooth at lower rpm and get rid of the flat spot. These guys use BRZedit instead of ECUtek

Although since dealing with a few different tuners and dyno's now I have accepted that the numbers aren't really comparable, especially from the U.S to Aus. General consensus over here is that a US 250whp is closer to 180whp over here. Not sure why this is and I don't actually care that much. 999 did comparison runs of the Mercury tune before they started to what they ended up with and that where I got the 20% increase from. But at the end of the day, it comes down to how it feels to drive and I can say that since getting the new tune, the car feels better than it ever has!
At a rough approximation though I would say its around the 270whp mark by US standards, for what its worth.




Supporting Modifications:

While nearly all of the FI suppliers will say that their kits contain everything the car needs to support it, I'm a firm believer that if you want real piece-of-mind you should be prepared to spend a little more and make some supporting mods. At least, this was the case for me. The two main components I saw as necessary are shown below.

Engine Oil Cooler:

It should be fairly common sense for anyone that has decided to go FI that boosting an engine makes things run hotter, and as plenty of research shows, these engines start cutting power when engine oil temp gets too high. So in order to keep it in check you will need a cooler. I went with Perrin's solution as it had been shown to fit nicely with the Vortech intercooler while maintaining a reasonably stealthy look in all black.





I fitted this at the same time as the Vortech kit (which I would recommend) and it was relatively straight forward although you may have to get creative with the back of the headlight and the wiper fluid bottle. But I can guarantee it does fit. I did have to shave a little un-needed plastic of the headlight housing.

Air/Oil Separator:

Another side effect of boosting an engine is the increased blow-by which results in oily air getting recirculated into the intake. There are a few solutions to this problem out there so for me it came down to finding a kit that didn't require too much custom fitting and something that looked fairly tidy. So I went with the AVO Turboworld kit shown below.





Ease of installation wasn't great, replacing the fitting in the top rear of the block under the intake manifold was not fun but is possible. It's coming up on a year since I got this kit though so some changes may have been made.


Final Thoughts:

After being FI for nearly 10,000 km's and a year now there has been plenty of time to reflect on my decision. But even after this time it is still hard to say, if given my time over, if I would go down the FI road or stay only slightly modified. While I love the extra power and the speed it brings, I don't know if I would say the car is more fun than it was before. And the issue of decreased reliability is still a concern (however small), you're a little naive if it isn't.
Basically, I'm happy with the kit because I'm happy to be vigilant and check nearly EVERYTHING over on a fortnightly basis. Making sure there is no leaks, no rubbing belts or pulleys, etc. etc. If that doesn't sound like something you want to be doing then maybe don't go down this route. Even though the process is common and downplayed on the forums, you are making a very significant change to your engine and it needs to be treated that way.

With all that being said, I am thoroughly enjoying this car and don't regret a thing. Just thought I would share my experience in this thread. Any questions, just post them and I'll do my best to answer. Thanks for reading!




Suppliers:

Big thanks to all of the suppliers that have popped up and created an amazing aftermarket for the twins so quickly but in particular to the ones I dealt with:

CarMods Australia - Got my breather kit and a few of the perrin parts through them and they were always great to deal with. Based in the Gold Coast so postage on parts to anyone in Brisbane is great.

HKS Australia - Based in Brisbane, got all my HKS parts through these guys and they always provided a great price and good service

Perrin - To me these guys are still the most impressive company in the aftermarket for the 86. Open with all of their R&D and always super helpful to me even though they're on the other side of the world.

CAPA Performance - This is who I sourced the Vortech kit through in Aus. Were great to deal with and prompt with their delivery of the kit

North Shore Toyota (NZ) - I can't remember who it was there that I dealt with in particular but for anyone in Aus wanting TRD parts, these guys are the way to go. Just shoot them an email and go from there.


The Future:

Due to my student status, any further mods have been put on hold as I can't really justify spending the money that I'm not making. But I still have a little wish list:

Tom's Clear JDM Tail lights
AP Racing Brake setup (either Sprint or BBK)
Bonnet Struts

[Killerbee]

Like what you've done to the car. (except that steering is on the wrong side ;-)
Any plans on lowering it? (or do you need the clearance for rallying)

Sad however to see that you had to sell the MKIV. Always wanted one myself, but never got past MKIII :-(

[GC GTS Aero Kit]

Nice choice of model bro.......Needs more lowering perhaps some MCA Coilovers

[BenArmstrong]

Originally Posted by Killerbee

Like what you've done to the car. (except that steering is on the wrong side ;-)
Any plans on lowering it? (or do you need the clearance for rallying)

Sad however to see that you had to sell the MKIV. Always wanted one myself, but never got past MKIII :-(

on the rallying comment haha.

It was a tough decision but I think it was the right one. The MKIV could have easily turned into a money pit.

Originally Posted by GC GTS Aero Kit

Nice choice of model bro.......Needs more lowering perhaps some MCA Coilovers

I do plan on lowering it. Still trying to decide on what suspension to go with. Also I live in Central Queensland and it has been raining a lot lately (not great conditions for low cars)
But hopefully relocating to Brisbane soon (which also means track time ) so maybe I'll order some then.

[JiB]

Niicee
I am of the same Perrin persuasion, heh... I have enough Perrin sticker to stickerbomb a panel, might do it for LOLs at the megameet this month.

[Khazzy]

Car is beautiful, did not expect to like the Wing as much as i like it on white.

[PERRIN_Jeff]

Originally Posted by BenArmstrong

One thing the guy who did the dyno run pointed out was the reasonably rich afr and he seems to think there may be more power there if it was leaned up to the 12.5 mark however the ratio is nearly perfectly flat through the rev range which is great. If any of the guys at Perrin see this post and would like to comment that would be great

Ben,
Glad you are super happy!
During all our testing. we played with super lean, super rich and found that there was ZERO HP gained from going to 11.5 to 12.5 or even 13.5. The DI engine is super efficient and that is my guess as to why it makes no difference or at least not enough to make the car run hotter or closer to the edge detonation. Just so everyone knows, our tunes are set for a true 12.0 -11.7 AFR reading. Keep in mind that probes in the tail pipe can read leaner versus in the header.

[BenArmstrong]

Originally Posted by PERRIN_Jeff

Ben,
Glad you are super happy!
During all our testing. we played with super lean, super rich and found that there was ZERO HP gained from going to 11.5 to 12.5 or even 13.5. The DI engine is super efficient and that is my guess as to why it makes no difference or at least not enough to make the car run hotter or closer to the edge detonation. Just so everyone knows, our tunes are set for a true 12.0 -11.7 AFR reading. Keep in mind that probes in the tail pipe can read leaner versus in the header.

Thanks for that Jeff
I assumed you would have tried a fairly big range of AFR's, just thought I'd check.

[Nardi330]

Nice car.

I have also got a lot of Perrin stuff too. When the time comes ill also get their tune.

Do u just PM Jeff to order the tune as I can't find anything on their website.

Thx

[PERRIN_Mladen]

Originally Posted by Nardi330

Nice car.

I have also got a lot of Perrin stuff too. When the time comes ill also get their tune.

Do u just PM Jeff to order the tune as I can't find anything on their website.

Thx

When you want to purchase the tune, you can either give us a call (503-693-1702) and ask for Chris, or you can shoot Chris a PM and he will get you taken care of!

[JiB]

Here is a video i took today with my Gopro, inside and outside car with lotsa perrin goodies
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gD2ivh1g50w"]Toyota 86 Exaust Sound Test - YouTube[/ame]

[BenArmstrong]

Originally Posted by JiB

Here is a video i took today with my Gopro, inside and outside car with lotsa perrin goodies

Hey is this my thread or yours haha. Thanks though, hopefully I'll have a little gopro vid of said "rallying" after the weekend

Until then here is a couple more happy snaps:
I was in Brisbane the other day and came across a white AE86 and couldn't resist the photo opp (Even if I had to park illegaly for a couple minutes)





I'm not sure about the US but the ae86's are reasonably rare is Aus so its nice to see a tidy one every now and then

[JiB]

Lols, sorry

[BenArmstrong]

Here's a little teaser of what I got up to on the weekend. Video should be up in the next few days.