AE86 Sprinter

[Eircamae86]

Hello everyone

Eircamae86 here, used to be a regular.

Have been out of the Corolla scene and off the forum for many years, time for a come back (hopefully).

I now have an Australian AE86 (essentially an AE85) project which I have dabbled with on/off over the years. The intention is to finish it in early 2025.
It will be a registered road car but also compete in a newly created sprint series call Group ND for replica touring cars to group A rules with a few minor exceptions including ITBs/ECU/Brakes to make it more accessible (N2 etc is not allowed).

The base, a barn find Australian 4ac Toyota Sprinter.



Very honest car, painted a Citroen colour which is bizarre for Australia.

[Eircamae86]

Sprinters have a 4ac and S-series Diff so all this had to go.

The following was immediately fitted to the car.

New JDM Fuel Tank and lines
Fuel pump
JDM drive shaft
JDM disk brake T-Series with OEM diff & new 4:7 cwp
T3 4 links
T3 traction brackets
T3 adj Panhard
TRD Blue adj shocks
Refresh T50 with excedy HD clutch
T3 Front Coilovers
T3 Camber tops
T3 LCA
T3 Tension rods
Whiteline anti roll bar T3 drop links
Brake/Clutch master
T3 booster delete
Willwood Brakes
Flos Quickrack
T3 Tie rods
T3 Strut brace

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Things got a bit silly at this point.

I needed a 4age.

A competition engine came onto the market and after a bit of research I bought it.
Its a FAT Performance USA 4age 16v (haven't made these for many years), these are an Atlantic style 4age for off road racing. O/S valves, pistons, crank, big cams.

The previous owner had serious competition results but ran it on race fuel.
I don't want to use figures as the do not tell the full story but the engine had allegedly made impressive power.

Probably a mistake but I bought it without the carbs and distributor as I had already purchased a basic haltech and had done the efi fuel tank conversion.



Pic above is not my engine, just a reference as to how these engines look.



After getting the engine it got a freshen up, It got a new exhaust cam as the cam had no dizzy gear :|and bottom end bearings. The head gasket was not redone as the compression was extremely high.

As it had run on race fuel I now had to retro fit e85 fuel pump and lines.

A loom was made to suit the engine and Haltech sprint 500 ecu.

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Long story made short.

I fitted BT ITBs, injectors, fake TRD exhaust, 16v distributor, loom & Haltech 500 ecu.

The reason for not going coil packs is the race series, ae86 must retain coil/dizzy so no Yaris coilpacks etc.




On E85

Immediately on the DYNO the engine made this noise and the tuner did not wish to continue.

https://youtube.com/shorts/mwmssVXlVVs?s...tYiUhR-F67

This happened years ago and I have not yet opened this engine to see whats wrong.

So please have a listen and make suggestions, I will open in the future to find out.

Again, this was a running engine when I bought it. I replaced the cam with an exact same grind cam & freshened the bottom end bearings, the engine was not split but the tops of the pistons etc looked good with the scope.
I cant remember the compression of the cylinders but it was extremely high, maybe up to 14:1 but my memory may not be correct.

To be continued........... lots more to come

[banpei]

Good to see you back Eanan!
That's an amazing project you have there! According to my research, the Corolla Sprinters are all AE86-es with a 4A-© engine and they should be similar in specifications to the Corolla SR5 in the US. The difference is that they feature the Levin body style and not the Sprinter. If my information is correct, the body is was made in Japan. The only thing I'm not sure about is whether the engine and gearbox were built locally in Australia to evade taxation.
I love the little detail of the Irish license plate!

[Dave W]

That is one hell of a nice project car!!! I will be watching this build. If you need to reduce the compression ratio, check Cosmetic for a thicker than stock MLS head gasket.

[Eircamae86]

Thanks guys and the thick head gasket is definitely a good suggestion.

I had enough of this big spec engine for the moment & decided to build something more sensible.

A Irish friend of mine got me a good deal on a new build Powertune competition rally head with cams, just a basic refreshed head with mild porting, rally cams, valve springs etc.

Just my luck, I dont know what happened to the head in transit, I think they dropped it from the plane

It arrived badly damaged, inc a bent cam.

I had to get a new cam and repair the head.

An Australian friend of mine sold me a rebuilt 3 rib so 40mm crank. Not ideal but stuff is hard to source.

At this point I had bought some bits from an overseas shop, wont bother mentioning the name as they seem to have disappeared (Good). I purchased CP pistons & rods to suit 40mm crank. The CP pistons arrived but the rods never did so I was stuck with 18mm pin CP pistons. This shop messed me around for about 18 months promising an 18/40 rod...... anyways, money lost, life goes on.

Eventually I gave up and bolted the Rally head to a stock 3 rib bottom end, I knew this was not a great idea but I just wanted to get this thing on the road.

I have recently found a shop in Europe who will do 18/40 rods for approx 700eu, so maybe in the future I will purchase these.





I fitted ST20v ITBs.
The adapter I had turned out to be a very old adapter which runs the throttles upside down,, no issue I thought until I went to install it and the TPS fowled on the water outlet.



I was actually parked again for a few months until Rob slpery86 in japan located a 4age water outlet for old carbs. I will find out the name if anyone needs one.

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Got the car tuned, not expecting much from the low comp pistons & total mismatch of I think 9mm cams.
It made like 133 bhp at the rear wheels but just didnt feel right on the drive home, like it was terrible.

Brought it home and flushed the tank, new e85 fuel filter and got the injectors checked.

Went for a drive to get a full tank of pump e85, and this happened.

Why is the pasteboard image so big?



I have a healthy respect for the law but this was bullshit, I wasnt speeding etc, they didnt like the look of the car, they were drawn to the camber on the front & how dangerous it was to have tyres showing past the metal arch, meanwhile in Australia like 20 4x4 drive past with mud tyres outside the bodywork. Cop didnt care, he was a revenue raising tool.
Car got defected. Total disaster, I had to remove all modifications.

A year later I got it registered again but had to source stuff like JDM brakes, brake servo etc etc, which is not easy now.