SO sick dude.

She'll be up and runnin in no time...

what alternator did you use on your swap?
how did you run the headers? left or right of the steering column?
subscribed. great build. would like to know more about the fuel system, maybe better pics! lol

Alright making progress. To answer NOKsk8er's questions, I am running a Toyota Yaris alternator using the SQ engineering slimline alternator swap kit. As for the headers, I posted a pic so you can see below.


IAT sensor tapped into the Velocity stack and wired into the ECU.

Had to drill some holes in the factory ECU case for the new ECU. Pretty easy to do just had to make sure there was no pieces of metal hanging around to short my ECU.

Here is the engine with everything installed and ready to go. I was surprised that the strut bar actually fit with this build.

And here is a pic of the header routing for NOKsk8er. It was a tight fit so I had to pull out the whole steering column and reinsert it after the headers were hooked up. Also I had to extend the shaft since the engine sits a bit lower.

So now for the big news. After running through the initial setup of the ECU I came across a few issues. Mostly because the software is new to me since I am used to running tunerstudio with megasquirt. It generally has the same concepts but is way more in depth than tunerstudio is. So after some tinkering I present you this..

https://youtu.be/9XAYgN48dvQ

First run wasn't really expecting it to fire up so technically this is the 2nd startup. Now just need some fine tuning and should be good to go.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VcmmfuP0rA

Got the idle pretty decent. Left the throttles open at about 3% which seems to be what the engine wants. Still have a few things to sort out. Have a nice coolant leak in the back of the engine that will be fixed today. Also for those of you that noticed, the AFR gauge differs from what the ECU shows. Will have to correct that as well. I am still getting used to this new software so that might take some time. Getting close to being able to drive her around!

Looks amazing

So I fixed the coolant leak in the back of the engine and confirmed that the clutch engages and disengages as it should. I am running the AE86 master with the j160 slave and it works fine. the only problem is that there is a little bit of play before the clutch will engage. Just another issue I will have to fix later. Might try the ae86 slave to see if that works better but for now it works well. Going to put the front bumper back on tonight and hopefully get it "smogged" next weekend.

What was the coolant leak? Freeze plug? not sure if it has one..

The coolant leak was the old heater core routing along the coolant line. I had originally plugged it but the plug was leaking a bit. So I took it out of the garage yesterday to test the clutch function and I don't really like how it feels. I might try swapping the old T-50 slave cylinder in to see if that feels better. Right now I am running the stock AE86 master and the J160 slave. There is too much play in the pedal but it does function, there is just too much pedal play for my liking. So I have to fix that and get the AFR gauge and computer reading the same output then I can take it to the dyno.

Have you messed with the pedals at all? Maybe you can adjust pedal freeplay/engagement height..

No but that is the plan. The engagement/disengagement point of the clutch is really low, almost at the point where the pedal hits the floor. I will try to extend the CMC rod and see if that makes a difference but I can't imagine that the Aisin CMC's have much adjustment in them, if at all. Well, time for trial and error.

First, verify that there isn't any M/C leaks, which could indicate air in the system. You can made a longer push rod out of a metric bolt. Grind down the hex head so the radius matches the stock push rod end. Take your time when making the balled end on the rod. You do not want offset loads going into the cylinder piston. Set the new push rod up with 1mm clearance before the rod contacts the piston. Davew7

Thats not a bad idea, I might have to try that. Thank you for that one Davew7.

Any updates?

Yeah, so I ended up just swapping the slave cylinder with the stock 86 one and it works a lot better. For the time being I will keep this setup and maybe eventually play with it some more. All in all, the original 86 master and slave work pretty well with this swap and I don't see an immediate reason to try a different route.

On a side note, I have a dyno tune scheduled with Church's on Friday that I might have to cancel due to my Innovate LC-2 still not working properly. I have to swap the Innovate for an AEM x series setup so the dyno might not happen until next week.

Okay well a lot has happened since my last post. For starters, thanks to Amazon's same day shipping I was able to swap the LC-2 with an AEM X series wideband. The AEM wideband worked perfectly in sync with the Link G4+ ECU right out the box. Needless to say, I was able to make my appointment at Church's Auto Friday morning.


Here is a pic of it first setup on the Dyno. The guys there are really cool and highly recommend them if you are in the area.


This is the Dyno printout that they gave me after the 2 hour tuning session. I had them limit the RPM to 7100 and the highest I saw it make on the Dyno was 193hp (which wasn't the pull from this printout).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5flw4kLsCSk

Here is a vid I took of one of the more mild Dyno pulls. Sorry I didn't take anymore, I got distracted by one of the guys that works there with his crazy GTR.

So after the tuning session, I started to drive it home and noticed that the alignment was way off. I did the alignment prior to the engine swap and lowering the subframe about an inch threw it all off. So I headed to a nearby alignment shop to fix that issue. After that I drove it the rest of the way home and had quite a bit of fun with it on the way. The car is extremely fun to drive and just takes off at WOT. I am very happy with the outcome so far of the build. The car is more fun to drive than any of my previous builds with the car, including the s/c build. Still have a few more things to do like the rear diff, rear axle upgrade and eventually I want to redo the whole exhaust system.

Nice work Mate

Looking your gearbox mount, you didn`t install the spacers, do you think with those spacers can we avoid to hammering the trans tunnel and arround the shifter zone??

I have seen that you have chosen the rear position of mounts kit (I know is the best position to weight distribution, but...) did you have to hammering the firewall in this position?? (i want to buy the SQ Engineering Slimline rear housing too)

The kit I got from JSPFab didn't have gearbox mount spacers. If you wanted to add them yourself then yea i guess you can get by without hammering the tunnel near the shifter. With the engine in the rear position with this kit I did not have to hammer the firewall.

Bro, you are looking so good! You're pretty quick too man..

Yeah removing/lowering the subframe throws everything out of whack. Wonder how that felt driving lol.

Home stretch dude. I'm trying to figure out what I'm doing for the rear as well.. I don't have torque limits like you will deal with though, so I might just keep it stock for the time being. But I've been thinking a lot about a 4.77 rear end. I'd probably go weir axles and rear diff. Not a fan of having a big ford rear on my 86... lol

Yeah I'm thinking the same, weir axles and then I can buy your rear brake kit lol. Those ford rears are pretty heavy too.

Dooo ittt. I would buy the Weir setup but I spent a good chunk of change on changing the wheel bearings.

I just hate how this car makes you go all in or nothing for every maintenance item lol.

Any other updates. Driving vids?

Not really, I just wired in a tach adapter so I have a dash rpm signal now. I am waiting for an adapter to hook up the dash water temp gauge as well. I still am tossing around ideas for the rear axle but right now but it drives fine just has an open diff. I can post a driving video over the weekend if you are interested.

Yessir very interested.

Why did you limit to 7100? Stock makes peak at 7800. I'm surprised you made 193 not even revving it all the way, interesting. You have a healthy one.

I had them limit it to 7100 because I didn't want to stress the motor too much on its first dyno session. I still plan to swap out the rear and redo the whole exhaust system then I will take it back to the dyno and raise the limit.

Alright, so I have been a bit busy. I decided to redo the rear axle and put in an LSD unit since the car had an open diff. I figured I might as well paint the rear axle while I wait for a few parts. Here are some before and after pics.





This sucker came in yesterday and is waiting for the install.



More to come shortly in about a week!

I know it's been longer than a week but I came across a few issues here and there but most of it is sorted out.

So first of all, I just got the differential back today. I didn't have the tools to measure pinion depth so it was cheaper for me to outsource that to a diff shop. If you are in the area, JS gear in Huntington Beach does amazing work. Also, I stuck with the 4.3 ring gear because it was still in great condition and the Altezza RS200 has a 4.1 ring gear stock. I might decide to change it later but for now it should be good.


Next up is the Weir Performance Axles and spider gears. Weir Performance also supplied me with the rebuild kit for the diff, complete with bearings and even oil seals for the housing.




Last but not least is the Quaife QSR.



I figured since the car was on stands and I would need alignment, I might as well do this too. This one gave me a bit of trouble since I didn't have the right bearing puller to pull the old bearing off the old pinion shaft. Needless to say, I broke the bearing and apparently only 5 exist in the US (4 now) so it took a while to come in. The bearing slipped right on the Quaife pinion without even tools. I put the rack together last night but I still need to tighten it down to spec.

So the plan tonight is to fit the diff to the housing and install the axles. Then let the RTV set overnight and install the rear back in the car tomorrow evening. I am still waiting on the new rotors but they should be in on Saturday but Saturday is formula D so I wont be around. Anyhow, I will take more pictures later to show the progress!

great progress.

Is your rack an aw11 or an original ae86 manual rack?

So tempted to go beams vs 20V arghh

It's the aw11 manual rack. Here are some pics of the progress I made last night. It should be ready to go back in the car tonight.