Newera Import's 200 bhp N/A AE86 - Progress Report!

[Miguel - Newera]

With the help of a friend, have been doing some lightening work and other stuff:

Header's now wrapped and starter motor also protected with a heat shield - was getting too much heat there, causing 3 new starter motors to fail in the last 2 years. Enough of that! The wrapping was a nasty job (Lots of tiny fibres floating in the air) and took 30m of wrap to complete properly. I sprayed it with some propective stuff that's meant to prolong the life of the wrap. It made a helluva lot of smoke at first as it heated up (Normal). I thought I had an engine fire at one point, lol. The bandage turns black at first, but the Japanese instructions from Billion state that at prolonged use over 450 Deg C it'll all turn white again! Here's hoping...If it doesn't I can live with that.

Replaced the dip stick and tube with an AE111 piece. Interestingly, the height of measurement is about half a litre more on the AE111 compared to AE86 original. Now shows max at 4 litres capacity (incl. oil cooler). Happy with that since I usually use a full 4 litres of oil for each change, to avoid starvation on hard corners.

Removed the entire A/C system, replacing the interior heat exchange unit for a bespoke plastic (lightweight) replacement. Heater, etc. all still work, but lost around 40kg - and will get better radiator cooling too (Not that
it needed it, but anyways...).

Also got the correct grommets & fan belt for A/C-less AE86 with power steering direct from Toyota.

Since it revs to over 9000 I wanted all pulleys oversized compared to originals, except the crank (That remains std. since it has a harmonic balancer and rubber damper. After market ones don't!!). They're all now fitted. Bonus is with an oversize PAS pulley I don't need the tensioner at all. A little more weight removed.

Removed the alloy under guard (It's for sale if anyone's interested) and will be making up a carbon shroud for the radiator underside in combination with a new original plastic under guard.

Removed the grille lights too - Don't need those, since it runs HID anyways (For sale soon if anybody wants them).

Fitted a new stainless steel towing eye. These are made by the same source for us as the pillow ball rear links. Excellent fit & quality

Fitted new rubber insulators for the steering rack & replaced the knuckles with new ones). Finished off by having a full Lazer allignment completed locally.

With full pillow ball linkages including the lateral rod it's fully adjustable, so geometry's 100% perfect. I had KTS set the castor at 1,28 and camber at -1,50 each side with zero toe and had rear adjusted to make geometry square.
It feels soooo solid and predictable on the limit!!

Took it out last night for a drive with a friend who is over visitting from UK... He liked it a LOT, hehehe

Had an E46 M3 want to play with us as we cruised through Tokyo. He followed us for a while, then overtook hard & weaved through some light traffic, so I let him lead for a while, then caught him just before going around a long fast corner on the C1... Took him round the outside as he made his attempt to lose me... Ha! Tango'd by a 20 year old Corolla... He looked a bit miffed as we passed him & smiled...

She's running puurfectly again with nothing needing doing except to make the carbon under guide when I get a chance...

Now the weather's cooler here in Japan we're planning to take it to a drift event sometime next week. I'll post some more pics of that next time.

Some pics of these recent changes.

[Dimitri]

wholly timing advance batman. (re the mod on the diz' body)

also who makes those leads up? i would be keen

[Allexz]

i sooooo ENVY UUUU!!!!!

[Conrad]

Nice one Miguel!

Consider a slimiline, lightweight Optima battery for even more weight loss

[Roku_trueno]

Kickin an M3's ass....
Do you have a viodeo of this?Iwould really like to see it.... :wink:

[Miguel - Newera]

Conrad, yeah I did consider it... decided against in the end. Optimas are sweet n'all, but there's only a couple of kilos weight saving and AFIK the Optimas don't hold a lot of charge...
Thought about also moving the battery to the back of the car (Long +ve cable + box adds weight + I use the back to carry tools & tyres, etc. to the track).. So left it as is.

Liked your other ideas you e-mailed over Conrad.. I'll look into that, cheers!

BTW Ignition leads are by Nology :wink:

I've kinda lost interest in making videos, etc. for a while now.
Only on the track nowadays, on some occasions.
Editting's boring & time consuming, lol. Dunno, I prefer photos myself... Maybe next time we'll make a short video clip...?

Was speaking with Mosqiton - He who works at Tomei... He mentioned a molybednium treatment (For the cylinders) that apparently helps improve top end power.
Gotta be worth trying, I guess. This came as a tip from an engineer / engine builder at Tomei. He builds 1.3 litre Sunny SOHC engines that make up to 170 bhp.
That sort of power from a Sunny race engine, the guy's gotta know his sh*t!! If it's good I'll detail it.

Mosqiton now get him to build you a new 4AGE!!

[MartinS]

Miguel can you make a soundfile of your car? Just wondering how your exhaust sounds

[Miguel - Newera]

One of our staff (Gareth) recently quit in the UK to go travelling for 6 months, so he visitted us here in Tokyo on his way to SE Asia.
He'd only known my AE86 3 years ago when I first got it, so was in for a surprise....
He'd spent a good 2 days doing some work, including a bit of spannering on the AE86 (More improvements ) and he's a good driver, so the least I could do was let him use it in Tokyo..
..and set him free on some country roads... !

Needless to say, he fell in love with it! .... bu I'm getting ahead of myself, lol.

First, went up to Fuji's mountain passes.
Gareth borrowed a friend's Fireblade, I took my VTR SP2 and lent the '86 to Thomas, who'd be shortly leaving Japan to work in France...
(His going away treat! ) We were joined by 3 other friends in their GT-R's.

Parked up for a break. Bikers approving the wear on my tyres
But being typically Japanese, they were being humble... The guy crounched down at the back of my bike rode the red 08 blade...
His tyres where chewed to fuck on the very edges











Gareth & Sean:

[Miguel - Newera]

This is the only action pic of the day... Everyone was too busy driving and having fun! The bike plates were in stealth mode... :wink:

[Miguel - Newera]

Another day, we spent some time going to collect an AE86 we'd bought for stock (Front lip removed during these pics as the car was delivered on a truck)

Fully restored with a brand new 20V blacktop. Seriously nice machine
I'd rather not sell it, but have no space... It looks like it may have already found a home in UK.... time will tell

(Full details here if anyone's interested in seeing a properly looked after 86 for sale : http://www.neweraimports.com/carDetails.jsp?carId=387)