ichi's 86 Project

[ichitaka05]

Member always asks me my mods and what car I have, so thought to share it here my progress.

Current Mods:
Engine:
HKS intake filter
Radium Engineering oil catch can
FXT water to oil cooler (throttle body)

Trans:
Verus Engineering clutch fork
Verus Engineering clutch pivot
Motul 300 gear oil

Exhaust:
2.5" custom catback exhaust

Suspension:
Cusco Touring-A struts
Verus Engineer top hats
Eibach Pro springs
ST Suspension sway bar (front)
Whiteline end links (front)
ARP extended studs
SPC rear lower control arms
Gorilla forged steel racing open ended lug nuts
Perrin steering rack lockdown

Brakes:
Subaru 4/2 Piston Calipers (front)
Centric rotors
Project Mu Type NS pads
StopTech SS brake lines (front)
Grimmspeed Master Cylinder Brace
ITS Pedal Support Bracket

Chassis:
Cusco rear crossmember brace
AVO Turboworlds Dif bushings
Whiteline Positive Traction kit

Exterior:
Subaru OEM bolt covers
Beat-Sonic shark fin
Lamix headlight & fog light clear covers
Diode Dynamics Tail as Turn & Backup Module
Diode Dynamics LED lights (fogs, reverse, f&r side, door, turn signals)
SuperTEK Hood dampers
TRD style duckbill spoiler
GCS Door Hinge Covers
Subaru Door Bolt Head Covers
Bayson R kouki rear lip
Bayson R S style side skirts
Bayson R CS style front lip
Depo Taillights / Ninja Gaskets
Ceramic tint F:50% / R:35%

Interior:
Diode Dynamics LED lights (Dome, Door & trunk)
WeatherTech weather floor mats
Toyota Corolla Area86 custom neck cushion
Beastronic/86Nanny pedal dance + ABS disable
Gspeed Gas Pedal Kit
Cusco x Bride Digo II Type-R (dr) & Digo II (ps) seats
OEM Black Shifter Trim
OEM Black AC Vents (outer)
OEM MT Traction Control Buttons
Subaru BRZ tS EPS
Raceseng Stratose shift knob (nappa leather)
Toyota 860 Kouki Cluster Gauge
Gerald Project Cluster Gauge Controller



Daily Setup:
Suspension: Cusco Touring-A
Damper: Full soft (F/R:40)
Brakes: Project Mu
Specs: Type NS
Wheels: CMP Custom Forged Wheels
Spec: 17x8 +35
Tires: Michelin Pilot Sport All Season 4
Spec: 225/45-17



Winter Setup:
Suspension: Cusco Touring-A
Damper: Full soft (F/R:40)
Wheels: Enkei VR5
Spec: 17x8 +45
Tires: Hankook Winter iPike
Spec: 215/45-17
Brakes: Project Mu
Specs: Type NS


Yeah... it's not a lot much modification as other member here. Reason to this is, because I'M NOT RICH!!! lol Put the joke on the side, I need to know what mods do what and need to test em out. Result, it takes long time to mod my car. Philosophy and goal of my car is "Balance". Balance is everything, well balance car is hard to built than high power car.


Mods Reviews:
Winmax Brake Pads
RS-R Sports-i Moto-Spec Coilovers
Cusco Rear Power Brace & AVOturboworld Differential Anti-tramp Bushing
Lamin-X Headlight & Foglight Clear Films
Diode Dynamics LED Lights
Beastronix 86Nanny Pedal Dance + ABS off
GSpeed Gas Pedal Kit
Innovated Dynamics Exhaust Cover
ST Suspension Sway Bar
Enkei Raijin Wheels (18x8)
Custom Single-Exit Catback System
Ace Header & Over-Pipe
Wheelhaus 3rd Brake Light
TRD Style Duck Spoiler
Cusco x Bride Digo II seats
Kouki 86/BRZ EPS module
Raceseng Stratose shift knob
Bayson R Kouki 86 rear lip
Depo Taillights / Ninja Gasket
Cusco Touring-A Strut & Viofo A129Pro Duo Dash Cam

Thanks to all the sponsors for helping me and make things possible:

[ichitaka05]

Mods/DIY I wanna do & resources

Auris vents
Rear Seat Delete
DIY Rear Seat Delete
Lightest Brakes or BBK

[ichitaka05]

I drove over 10,000 miles in the hot weather as high as 110 degrees to cold as low as -1 degrees freezing condition, along with several autocross events on the weekend with these brake pads. It's time for me to make some review on these pads to my fellow twin owners.



These brake pads work as a double duty pad for daily driving and autocross and have exceed well over my expectation.
They work reliably well for everyday street driving, with added confidence in pedal feel, and resulting in better control.



The W2 provides excellent stopping power for street tires and with significantly less dust than most performance pads of this type. The pads don’t fade much in most casual sporting activities, and they lack any of the associated noises or dusting of other typical performance oriented pads. While it isn’t a fully geared competition brake pads for road racing circuits, what you get in exchange is all of the better characters of street car pads in terms of life expectancy, wear, reliability and huge operating range. I’ve tested them in variety of climates and conditions, and the W2 pads kept evenly, excellent feel and modulation, to delicately tread snow, or hard brake in the dry.

I would recommend to anyone seeking casual performance pads, which can retain the clean and quiet nature of OEM pads while seeking extended braking control and resistance to fade under mild sporting driving.
Winmax USA does make a very good product according to my needs.

Hope that helps anyone who's looking for new brake pads.

[ichitaka05]

Now, Everyone who read the mods saw that I've chosen RS-R Sports-i Moto-Spec coils. Some of you might be wondering "Why RS-R?" or "Why didn't you go with xxx?" (KW, Bilstein, RCE, Ohlins & so on)

Even 86/BRZ aftermarket development was booming, there were limited coil options. Sometimes manufacturers will try to impress you with the dozens of adjustability &/or features that can be changed... but realistically speaking, is it necessary? Are you gonna use em all? Simplicity can be better than complex. RS-R I-Shock series, specially RS-R Sports-i Moto spec was designed just for our car in street use plus light autox/track.

If you're wondering how well this coils perform in autox/track, harsh road, winter/snow. Tip of advice. Daily, have your coil dampers full soft (F36/R24), it'll absorb the dips and bumps enough that, it doesn't bug you too much. Autox/track, dial it to whatever you need. I usually have it F30/R15, which comes out very nicely in autox. Winter/snow time, I keep it same as daily full soft with snow tires, it's golden! No issue of salt getting in. performing wonderfully in the snow.

Don't want to bored you guys, so I'll post some before and after photos.




Thanks to Moto-san and RS-R crew, they have setup my coils before they shipped.

Here's before (OEM)

Here's after.


Here's front before

After

Rear before

After


Would I recommend it? Answer is Yes and No. If you're like me, daily drive your FRS/BRZ and once a while autox/track, then 200% recommend this. If you're making prepping for fully race then, no. You need Sports-i CR or better coils.

[ichitaka05]

Little side track, but @PST was very kind enough to listen to my request and making a kit to move the gas pedal bit closer to brake pedal. If you don't know, what I'm talking about, check here: Gas Pedal Kit. I can't wait to get a hands on one and test it out myself to see.

Reading their development journal is very interesting and educational as well. If you got time, worth reading (here)

Anyways, this isn't really a "journal", but more of "idea/thought" that some vendor/shop see and make it, just like PST did.


Some of you might notice (or some might not), but twin have issue of heating up, if you like to race. This have been on discussion from day one, specially for owner who put FI in their cars. Solution? Simple, install oil cooler. That'll drop enough to keep the temperature down to keep high comp, high revving boxer engine happy... which equals to happy driver. Jackson Racing, Mishimoto, Cusco, AVO, Perrin, Sard, PTUNING, HKS, GReddy and many other tuning shops who heard our cry and made oil cooler for our cars.


I, myself have looked into this as well. I do autox often and want to keep engine operating temperature is important. After several months of research, reading the reviews, testing & seeing the data from owners who owned them. I decided to go with water-to-oil cooler instead of air-to-oil cooler.


If you live in SoCal, AZ or TX prob air-to-oil is way to go. Air-to-oil is more efficient than water-to-oil, where I live in the winter time, temperature drop down to minus. Keeping the engine cool and keeping the engine in operating temperature is different, too cold/hot isn't a good thing. Water-to-oil will get the oil cool in the summer racing time, while it'll warm up the oil in the cold winter time quicker.


So my journey looking for Water-to-oil kit start. Most of water-to-oil kit now day have shiny pipes to make a "bling"... which for some owners, it's plus, but for me, I was aiming to make it OEM looks, so it was out of question.


I was looking around and saw this DIY and it looked nice! Kept OEM look, which is total plus. Don't need any bling showing off my car. Keep it "look" OEM, but different enough to make my "own" looks and performance to it.


Now, there's still an issue with this. Because this isn't technically direct bolt-on and need to do few light custom work. Example is FXT vs BRZ water pipe are different design, as you can see the pic above (longer FXT, shorter BRZ). If some shop can weld one extra pipe into one side of BRZ water pipe and have everything as a oil cooler package and sell it for say... $400~$500, isn't that a win-win for everyone?

What do you guys think? Or any shop interested? Cuz if really do come out, you have 1st buyer here

[ichitaka05]

After going to few local autox, I figured some stuff I wanted from my car. One of them was rear stiffness & less flex from the chassis. If that's the case, it gotta be sway right? I went different route. Yes, sway bar will reduce the unnecessary flex and plant the tires to the ground.

I would of went with Hotchiks sway bars... but I wanted to go different route to this, so I asked around and help of few experts, I got myself these.




What are these? First one is Cusco Rear Power Brace and second item is @AVOturboworld Differential Anti-tramp Bushing.

Where they go? Here


Sorry for the crappy pic. It was very cold night and wasn't really wanted to stay in freezing garage to take nice photos. Here are better pics I found in the web

Cusco Rear Power Brace


AVOturboworld Differential Anti-tramp Bushing


Reason I went with both upgrade (I did it different time installing them and testing) was there were unnecessary movement was happening from rear diff. The stock bushing was too soft and it was flexing around, result lost of traction and lost of steering response. I was talking with AVO about this concern, he recommended this. This reduces excess diff movement under power and eliminating wheel hop in the starting line.

Now, diff issue been solved, I needed to get unnecessary movement gone on the rear. I solved this by adding on Cusco Rear Power Brace. This was of trying out to see if it works like sway bar or just a bling. Amazingly, it worked well! Not well as sway, but enough to see the difference.

I would recommend both for people who wish for small upgrade that doesn't change the car's dynamic, but want to reduce the unnecessary movement of the car and sharpen the steering response.

[ichitaka05]

Now this one isn't really a performance upgrade... more like maintenance upgrade.

Recently car's headlight cover have made by plastic, result is foggy headlights. To avoid this, I bought this.


Lamin-X Headlight and foglight covers. I could of got few different color, but I went with simple clear coat.


Whole kit came with:

• Headlight film x2
• Foglight film x2
• Spray bottle
• x acto knife
• Rubber squeezer
• Lamin-X sticker

This is first time, doing vinyl/clear coating my headlight, so I'm no pro at this... but I think, it came out pretty good. What do you think?


Film itself was very nice and very flexible to work with. I screwed up several times and had to peel them out, but I think it came out well.

Now, there are few cons about this kit. First is foglight cover film is WAY TOO BIG! As you can see from pic below, it's almost 1.5 of the size and I had to cut them out.


Another issue was, headlight film didn't cover the whole thing. I tried several time to perfectly fit. I wish, they gave extra to cover the whole headlights.


After using for, lets see... over an year going through hard winter (with snow and salt) and extreme hot summer days, it's still working perfect.

It's not for everyone, but if you're worry about headlight becoming foggy or rock hitting the headlights and get chipped, it worth looking into.

[ichitaka05]

If anyone having heel & toe issue with twins. Well, check this kit out by PST/GSpeed.


What it does is bring the pedal forward and bring it closer to the brake pedal to do h&t easier.

...but do to my selfish reason, I had to make few custom work on it.



I'll be testing out in Autox & full review later on.

[N234]

Originally Posted by ichitaka05

If anyone having heel & toe issue with twins. Well, check this kit out by PST/GSpeed.


What it does is bring the pedal forward and bring it closer to the brake pedal to do h&t easier.

...but do to my selfish reason, I had to make few custom work on it.



I'll be testing out in Autox & full review later on.

Awesome! I've been looking for a review. Sub'd for selfish reasons.

[NyC Zn6]

Originally Posted by ichitaka05

I drove over 10,000 miles in the hot weather as high as 110 degrees to cold as low as -1 degrees freezing condition, along with several autocross events on the weekend with these brake pads. It's time for me to make some review on these pads to my fellow twin owners.



These brake pads work as a double duty pad for daily driving and autocross and have exceed well over my expectation.
They work reliably well for everyday street driving, with added confidence in pedal feel, and resulting in better control.



The W2 provides excellent stopping power for street tires and with significantly less dust than most performance pads of this type. The pads don’t fade much in most casual sporting activities, and they lack any of the associated noises or dusting of other typical performance oriented pads. While it isn’t a fully geared competition brake pads for road racing circuits, what you get in exchange is all of the better characters of street car pads in terms of life expectancy, wear, reliability and huge operating range. I’ve tested them in variety of climates and conditions, and the W2 pads kept evenly, excellent feel and modulation, to delicately tread snow, or hard brake in the dry.

I would recommend to anyone seeking casual performance pads, which can retain the clean and quiet nature of OEM pads while seeking extended braking control and resistance to fade under mild sporting driving.
Winmax USA does make a very good product according to my needs.

Hope that helps anyone who's looking for new brake pads.

Did you change the fluid as well or is that oem fluid?

[ichitaka05]

Originally Posted by NyC Zn6

Did you change the fluid as well or is that oem fluid?

I kept OEM. I wanted to see the difference between OEM vs upgraded brake fluid.

Is there a difference in upgraded fluids? If you're just daily drive it or autox, no. If you track it, yes, there's a difference.

[nikitopo]

Originally Posted by ichitaka05

Twins are built amazingly, but there are not perfect and several weak spots can be found. Rear chassis flex is one of them. Have unnecessary flex somethings causing delay of the next movement, specially if you're planning to autox or track. You can get full chassis brace, but this car is meant for mainly autox (& lil bit of track), so I want it to be light as I can. Out of all the braces, cross member brace was parts that I need to fix the unnecessary rear chassis flex.

Did the rear chassis flex appear with the upgraded coilovers or was it also there with the factory suspension?

[vroom4]

WArning, STX illegal mods contained within.

[ichitaka05]

Originally Posted by nikitopo

Did the rear chassis flex appear with the upgraded coilovers or was it also there with the factory suspension?

There's chassis flex from stock, but you won't notice as much... til you upgrade your suspension, you'll notice more.

Originally Posted by vroom4

WArning, STX illegal mods contained within.

Which one? Chassis brace or pedal kit?