4k GT86 Gets a Rocket Bunny Kit & LS3 V8 Swap!
Discussion
Samjeev said:
Monkeylegend said:
That is very er.................challenging aesthetically 
Haha yeah his particular car has way too many canards for my liking but it's still one of the first that came to my attention and has stayed a favourite.Unless you mean the kit in general in which case
oppsIt is a little bit too busy for my tastes but each to their own and I have no doubt you will do a good job with it.
Monkeylegend said:
Does your kit include all the little aerodynamic addendum?
It is a little bit too busy for my tastes but each to their own and I have no doubt you will do a good job with it.
The standard kit comes as per the rendering of the orange car with just the splitter in the form of aero bits.It is a little bit too busy for my tastes but each to their own and I have no doubt you will do a good job with it.
Ooh, interesting.
I saw a Rocket Bunny FD3S at Tokyo Auto Salon, it was the one and only time my 'no body kits' principle wavered momentarily, looked great. Of course I never went for it, apart from anything else, as you say they're a lot of money (especially by the time you consider fitting, painting and wider wheels). So will look forward to seeing yours.
We Interrupt your regularly scheduled programming to bring you this Breaking News
So as a bit of a sudden change of pace I made another big purchase recently for the car..
People often ask me what I plan to do power-wise to make the "Go" as big as the up-coming "show" the car is going to have and I often always give a bit of a half assed answer as I don't want to either give too much away or sound like a bit of a dreamer who gets far too ahead of himself and likely won't follow up on those plans so recently I decided to cement those plans in place and purchased this..
So I imagine there's going to be a bit of confusion and some mixed reactions but I assure you, i've thought it all through!
so i'll do my best to explain
Just to keep the suspense and confusion building i'll start with my reasons first - I personally really love turbo cars as some of you can likely tell from my Subaru and the Vx220 but If i were to go down the turbo route on the 86 i'd want something a bit more than 300bhp, something like 350-400 and whereas this is very possible it's quite expensive being that you'd most likely need to build the engine with forged internals, buy the turbo unit, get a stand-alone ECU & tune it and then after all of that you're still left with a gearbox that will likely throw up its guts at the thought of all that power and torque. The FA20 is a fantastic engine in reality but I'm not a race team who has the funds to run a high powered boosted FA20 which is then left quite high strung and high maintenance.. which would also require another £3-10k to rebuild if it ever went pop and I kind of wanted to try something with a few more cylinders for once.
So i bought this, it's a v8 obviously and the reason why i started this post with the strange "interuption" notice is just to preface that this will likely not get anywhere near the 86 until Autumn 2020 at the earliest, that said I just wanted to commit to it, get my foot in the door and of course it gives me something to tinker with, clean up, paint & work on over the next year and also these engines are quite rare in the UK so it will easily hold it's value if things all went a bit pear shaped money wise for me for whatever reason next year... i dunno a meteor strike or something?
So to give a few details as to what you're seeing:
This is a 6.2L all aluminium L92 engine previously featured in great hits such as the 2008 Cadillac Escalade and Chevrolet Tahoe. It shares it's architecture with the LS series of engines, specifically the LS3 which often lives in the Corvette C6, Vaxhaull VXR8 (Holden Commodore) and Camaro. The similarity of these engines is so close that the Aluminium block and heads are identical featuring a nice desireable well flowing head with square intake ports and a chunky 6.2L displacement as well as the fact that almost every part for the LS3 or made for the LS3 will bolt straight on without any hassle including Cams, intakes, accesories, the lot.
The reason why the aluminium part is important is because this engine is essentially the exact same weight as an NA Fa20 With both engines being around 170-180kg in weight once fully dressed up meaning that unlike alot of popular 2JZ (230kg) swaps it won't ruin the weight of the car which was one of my biggest fears as I don't want to ruin what is an incredibly well handling car and a fantastic chassis.
So my plans with this over the next year are to of course clean it up, paint the block and heads to tart it up a bit. Swap out the cam to give a bit more power (should expect around 400bhp NA with this) and remove the VVT and Low-end torque focused cam designed for the big heavy trucks and SUV's this engine was previously in and eventually drop it in around this time next year. I'll find a T56 Manual gearbox to go along with it and should be able to easily fit with with some bolt in engine/gearbox mounts from the likes of Sikky Manufacturing and Motec M150 Plug & Play package from Pure Automotive in the states which will retain all factory functions including push-start, Speedometer/Rev Counter and I believe even Cruise control & AC!
This was the main reason for picking something as common (In the states atleast) as the LS rather than the more readily available 1UZ/3UZ Lexus engines we have over here as like most things I plan to do pretty much all of the work myself so it has to be something that doesn't really require alot of welding and fabrication or making an entire wiring loom.
Of course this all sounds very expensive but from what i've planned for it should work out roughly similar if not actually cheaper than a 2jz swap or High power FA20 turbo build.. plus i get to make v8 noises!
So that's all i can really think of to say so far, this'll be something i'll update slowly over time as I work on the engine and of course the next big posts will likely be the receiving and fitting on my rocket bunny kit.
So as a bit of a sudden change of pace I made another big purchase recently for the car..
People often ask me what I plan to do power-wise to make the "Go" as big as the up-coming "show" the car is going to have and I often always give a bit of a half assed answer as I don't want to either give too much away or sound like a bit of a dreamer who gets far too ahead of himself and likely won't follow up on those plans so recently I decided to cement those plans in place and purchased this..
So I imagine there's going to be a bit of confusion and some mixed reactions but I assure you, i've thought it all through!
so i'll do my best to explainJust to keep the suspense and confusion building i'll start with my reasons first - I personally really love turbo cars as some of you can likely tell from my Subaru and the Vx220 but If i were to go down the turbo route on the 86 i'd want something a bit more than 300bhp, something like 350-400 and whereas this is very possible it's quite expensive being that you'd most likely need to build the engine with forged internals, buy the turbo unit, get a stand-alone ECU & tune it and then after all of that you're still left with a gearbox that will likely throw up its guts at the thought of all that power and torque. The FA20 is a fantastic engine in reality but I'm not a race team who has the funds to run a high powered boosted FA20 which is then left quite high strung and high maintenance.. which would also require another £3-10k to rebuild if it ever went pop and I kind of wanted to try something with a few more cylinders for once.
So i bought this, it's a v8 obviously and the reason why i started this post with the strange "interuption" notice is just to preface that this will likely not get anywhere near the 86 until Autumn 2020 at the earliest, that said I just wanted to commit to it, get my foot in the door and of course it gives me something to tinker with, clean up, paint & work on over the next year and also these engines are quite rare in the UK so it will easily hold it's value if things all went a bit pear shaped money wise for me for whatever reason next year... i dunno a meteor strike or something?
So to give a few details as to what you're seeing:
This is a 6.2L all aluminium L92 engine previously featured in great hits such as the 2008 Cadillac Escalade and Chevrolet Tahoe. It shares it's architecture with the LS series of engines, specifically the LS3 which often lives in the Corvette C6, Vaxhaull VXR8 (Holden Commodore) and Camaro. The similarity of these engines is so close that the Aluminium block and heads are identical featuring a nice desireable well flowing head with square intake ports and a chunky 6.2L displacement as well as the fact that almost every part for the LS3 or made for the LS3 will bolt straight on without any hassle including Cams, intakes, accesories, the lot.
The reason why the aluminium part is important is because this engine is essentially the exact same weight as an NA Fa20 With both engines being around 170-180kg in weight once fully dressed up meaning that unlike alot of popular 2JZ (230kg) swaps it won't ruin the weight of the car which was one of my biggest fears as I don't want to ruin what is an incredibly well handling car and a fantastic chassis.
So my plans with this over the next year are to of course clean it up, paint the block and heads to tart it up a bit. Swap out the cam to give a bit more power (should expect around 400bhp NA with this) and remove the VVT and Low-end torque focused cam designed for the big heavy trucks and SUV's this engine was previously in and eventually drop it in around this time next year. I'll find a T56 Manual gearbox to go along with it and should be able to easily fit with with some bolt in engine/gearbox mounts from the likes of Sikky Manufacturing and Motec M150 Plug & Play package from Pure Automotive in the states which will retain all factory functions including push-start, Speedometer/Rev Counter and I believe even Cruise control & AC!
This was the main reason for picking something as common (In the states atleast) as the LS rather than the more readily available 1UZ/3UZ Lexus engines we have over here as like most things I plan to do pretty much all of the work myself so it has to be something that doesn't really require alot of welding and fabrication or making an entire wiring loom.
Of course this all sounds very expensive but from what i've planned for it should work out roughly similar if not actually cheaper than a 2jz swap or High power FA20 turbo build.. plus i get to make v8 noises!
So that's all i can really think of to say so far, this'll be something i'll update slowly over time as I work on the engine and of course the next big posts will likely be the receiving and fitting on my rocket bunny kit.
Great idea & it makes perfect sense I do believe you can buy the engine/Gearbox mount kits for these thus saving time & money on fabricating stuff.
https://shop.weaponsgradeperformance.com/products/...
https://vorshlag-store.com/collections/brz-fr-s-ls...
https://shop.weaponsgradeperformance.com/products/...
https://vorshlag-store.com/collections/brz-fr-s-ls...
Thanks for the replies guys im as excited as you are.
https://www.sikky.com/product/scion-frs-toyota-86-...
im as excited as you are.ZX10R NIN said:
Great idea & it makes perfect sense I do believe you can buy the engine/Gearbox mount kits for these thus saving time & money on fabricating stuff.
https://shop.weaponsgradeperformance.com/products/...
https://vorshlag-store.com/collections/brz-fr-s-ls...
The Vorshlag stuff is well made but apparently you have to run it without a front antiroll bar to use their engine mounts. I was going to go with Sikky Because they have the option to get mounts with RHD in mind (maybe to help with the steering column being so close to the starter motor + Mount and they also make a front sump for the engine which is a neccessity to fit with the subframe in the 86https://shop.weaponsgradeperformance.com/products/...
https://vorshlag-store.com/collections/brz-fr-s-ls...
https://www.sikky.com/product/scion-frs-toyota-86-...
It's been a rather long time since I updated this but I wasn't expecting things to drag on thiiiiiiiiiiis long!
I clearly have some sort of ill-omen when it comes to ordering expensive car parts as it never seems to go smoothly for me. The more I spend, the bigger the drama it is, whereas if i buy something for £5 I get it in a couple of days.
So my wheel order is hopefully going without hiccup, there were a few funny oddities when it came to ordering a set of 3 piece "Custom" wheels only to be told they don't actually make them to ANY offset and it seems to go in stages jumping from -8 offset to -21 with nowhere in the middle and that some offsets aren't available in some bolt patterns, etc etc. A small drama but once I sorted out my options hopefully they should be coming eventually and should fit fairly well.
But the biggest drama has by far been my rocket bunny kit. It hasn't helped that rather than get it delivered to my house I had planned to book a little road trip to pick it up from germany, go to bruges, etc along the way and do a couple of rental ring laps at the Nurburgring but clearly I just have the worst luck ever - don't ever ask me to come to a casino with you!
Having ordered the kit back in September (and paid for it!) the first trouble came in October when parts of the kit had to be re-made due to the moulds for the parts going bad. No big deal really as this happens with glassfibre parts and it just means my kit will come from a nice fresh new mould rather than one that's been through the ringer but at this stage I had already started booking and paying for things like eurotunnel, Nurburgring rental etc and annoyingly these things can't be cancelled so having to reschedule them is a pain.
Go on a couple of weeks and I hear that the kit is made and has been shipped from japan - Happy days!
So I had rescheduled my roadtrip for the end of November (next week) and would expect 3 weeks would be plenty for it to arrive via plane, get through customs and arrive at the Seller in Germany but back luck strikes again as the kit was routed to Brussels instead and customs there simply decided to Seize it due to a lack of paperwork either on the Sender's (Greddy in Japan) side or the receipient (seller in Germany's) Side. Having spent all week worrying about it I finally heard late last night that it's not looking good and they would have to speak to Japan to get them to produce and send another kit. Bummer..
So now i'm expecting i'll be lucky to see it this side of 2020. It's a real disappointment but i'm surprisingly mellow about it at the moment, I think with things leading up to Christmas and the fact that I don't actually have anywhere with sufficient space to work on the car currently it's dampened my urgency for things.
I guess the last update of the year will probably be a picture of the car sat on some rather rediculously wide looking wheels with no arches to cover them at this rate!
Also no progress on the engine I'm afraid, I was never really planning to do any work on it until next year as i'd rather order any parts I need from the US or such in one go
I clearly have some sort of ill-omen when it comes to ordering expensive car parts as it never seems to go smoothly for me. The more I spend, the bigger the drama it is, whereas if i buy something for £5 I get it in a couple of days.
So my wheel order is hopefully going without hiccup, there were a few funny oddities when it came to ordering a set of 3 piece "Custom" wheels only to be told they don't actually make them to ANY offset and it seems to go in stages jumping from -8 offset to -21 with nowhere in the middle and that some offsets aren't available in some bolt patterns, etc etc. A small drama but once I sorted out my options hopefully they should be coming eventually and should fit fairly well.
But the biggest drama has by far been my rocket bunny kit. It hasn't helped that rather than get it delivered to my house I had planned to book a little road trip to pick it up from germany, go to bruges, etc along the way and do a couple of rental ring laps at the Nurburgring but clearly I just have the worst luck ever - don't ever ask me to come to a casino with you!
Having ordered the kit back in September (and paid for it!) the first trouble came in October when parts of the kit had to be re-made due to the moulds for the parts going bad. No big deal really as this happens with glassfibre parts and it just means my kit will come from a nice fresh new mould rather than one that's been through the ringer but at this stage I had already started booking and paying for things like eurotunnel, Nurburgring rental etc and annoyingly these things can't be cancelled so having to reschedule them is a pain.
Go on a couple of weeks and I hear that the kit is made and has been shipped from japan - Happy days!
So I had rescheduled my roadtrip for the end of November (next week) and would expect 3 weeks would be plenty for it to arrive via plane, get through customs and arrive at the Seller in Germany but back luck strikes again as the kit was routed to Brussels instead and customs there simply decided to Seize it due to a lack of paperwork either on the Sender's (Greddy in Japan) side or the receipient (seller in Germany's) Side. Having spent all week worrying about it I finally heard late last night that it's not looking good and they would have to speak to Japan to get them to produce and send another kit. Bummer..
So now i'm expecting i'll be lucky to see it this side of 2020. It's a real disappointment but i'm surprisingly mellow about it at the moment, I think with things leading up to Christmas and the fact that I don't actually have anywhere with sufficient space to work on the car currently it's dampened my urgency for things.
I guess the last update of the year will probably be a picture of the car sat on some rather rediculously wide looking wheels with no arches to cover them at this rate!
Also no progress on the engine I'm afraid, I was never really planning to do any work on it until next year as i'd rather order any parts I need from the US or such in one go
Merry Christmas to me!
Just received my wheels and I couldn't be happier with them! They're a set of Work Meister M1 in 18x9.5 on the front and 18x11 on the rear.
Struggling to bring myself to put them away in the boxes for now but I haven't really got much else to say about them, I think I'll let the pictures speak for themselves really!
Just received my wheels and I couldn't be happier with them! They're a set of Work Meister M1 in 18x9.5 on the front and 18x11 on the rear.
Struggling to bring myself to put them away in the boxes for now but I haven't really got much else to say about them, I think I'll let the pictures speak for themselves really!
Haha cheers guys 
should be getting tyres for them on Monday and then i'll get those mounted between christmas and the new year but until I get my RB kit and start taking the angry tools to the arches of my 86 they won't fit but atleast they'll be wrapped up nice and warm for the winter!
Going to Ceramic coat them too, never done it before so not sure how well it'll last but for the sake of £25 or so for the product I figured it'll be good to give them atleast that little bit extra protection and ease of cleaning.
Sikky manufacturing have recently released more swap parts for the LS/86 Including headers, drive shaft and gearbox adapter plates so it'll be interesting to see how their developement comes along before I dive head first in to the deep end of starting my swap next year. The headers they've designed even fit both LHD and RHD cars with a small offset shim for the steering rack included and not much fuss and they're one of the few companies that are really giving consideration to RHD Chassis users.
should be getting tyres for them on Monday and then i'll get those mounted between christmas and the new year but until I get my RB kit and start taking the angry tools to the arches of my 86 they won't fit but atleast they'll be wrapped up nice and warm for the winter!
Going to Ceramic coat them too, never done it before so not sure how well it'll last but for the sake of £25 or so for the product I figured it'll be good to give them atleast that little bit extra protection and ease of cleaning.
Sikky manufacturing have recently released more swap parts for the LS/86 Including headers, drive shaft and gearbox adapter plates so it'll be interesting to see how their developement comes along before I dive head first in to the deep end of starting my swap next year. The headers they've designed even fit both LHD and RHD cars with a small offset shim for the steering rack included and not much fuss and they're one of the few companies that are really giving consideration to RHD Chassis users.
Samjeev said:
Merry Christmas to me!
Just received my wheels and I couldn't be happier with them! They're a set of Work Meister M1 in 18x9.5 on the front and 18x11 on the rear.
Struggling to bring myself to put them away in the boxes for now but I haven't really got much else to say about them, I think I'll let the pictures speak for themselves really!
Yummy yum yum Just received my wheels and I couldn't be happier with them! They're a set of Work Meister M1 in 18x9.5 on the front and 18x11 on the rear.
Struggling to bring myself to put them away in the boxes for now but I haven't really got much else to say about them, I think I'll let the pictures speak for themselves really!
A few more goodies I got recently but i'll save the best for last! 
Along with my wheels I got a full set of rear adjustable Camber, Toe and Trailing arms from Driftworks. There are loads of these on the market but some can be pretty wildly expensive as they're likely made from all sorts of billet aluminium or titanium and others come in some rather funky colours which im not fond of. These arms are made of Steel so a bit heavier than the various billet options but also a fraction of the price and are finished in a nice subtle black powdercoating.
If anyone's wondering why the need for these when the car's not likely to be slid about when i've got awfully expensive wheels or body kit fitted it's actually due to the fact that the rear suspension gains loads of negative camber when lowering it. Of course being on air means i'm not totally slammed in to the ground all the time when driving about but my normal driving height is a good inch or so lower than standard. There's no OEM rear camber adjustment so had to pick up some adjustable arms to sort that out and wanted to get the whole set!
The rear also gains a load of toe changes when you lower so it's good to have some more accurate adjustment in that, once it's all fitted i'll get a full alignment done as i'm definitely no alignment wiz!
As well as this to go along with my new wheels I picked up some tyres. it was quite tricky to find the exact combo I was looking for without breaking the bank but the Federal 595 RS-R's were the perfect size and an incredible price.
I wanted to go with 245/34/18 on the front and 285/30/18 on the rear to keep the rolling radius of the wheels almost exactly the same as stock and exactly the same front/back. The rear size is quite rare with any form of performance tyre as most are made for 20 inch porsche wheels, etc and being able to find these Federals at £400 for all 4 corners was a great price for so much rubber. They're also a light semi-slick track tyre in essence as well and i've always heard incredible things about them along with the Nankang NS2R's when searching the web for good track tyres as they always come up in conversations as a good budget alternative to tyres such as the Toyo R888 and Yokohama AD08R's which we previous ran on our VX220. I Don't really plan to do loads of track days in the 86 but it should be good to see how these handles and later down the line i'll most likely need the extra grip when i've got a few extra cylinder's up front!
Another small one as it was a Christmas present was a set of TGR Motorsports wheel nuts.
I had met these guys previously last year (2019) at JAE Festival and it was good to have a chat with the owner and check out his products. I've always quite liked fancy wheel nuts but i've never been fond of their price tag. Alot of lesser wheel nuts can rust pretty quickly after use or even be made from Aluminium (definitely not what you want!) and previously i've used Muteki SR48 which are a high quality, well priced product from japan however these TGR nuts are made of a durable steel construction finished in gunmetal with an internal drive and a small aluminium beauty cap to finish them off, i went for black in this case to keep things subtle but they come in all kinds of colours. One of my favourite bits about them as well is they also feature a free sprinning collar at the bottom of each nut which should prevent any damage to the wheel nut seats in the wheels, this is quickly becoming quite a big feature of alot of wheel nuts brands but i've not found any so easily available in the UK or at this price (£45) with this little feature.
And finally.. but by no means (or all means!) least..
Another christmas present, this time modelled wonderfully by Yours truly
My brother bought me a set of Overalls for christmas to wear when working on the car and kitted them out with a few custom patches, i particularly like the custom name tag! (my username on other forums and part of my instagram username)
Along with my wheels I got a full set of rear adjustable Camber, Toe and Trailing arms from Driftworks. There are loads of these on the market but some can be pretty wildly expensive as they're likely made from all sorts of billet aluminium or titanium and others come in some rather funky colours which im not fond of. These arms are made of Steel so a bit heavier than the various billet options but also a fraction of the price and are finished in a nice subtle black powdercoating.
If anyone's wondering why the need for these when the car's not likely to be slid about when i've got awfully expensive wheels or body kit fitted it's actually due to the fact that the rear suspension gains loads of negative camber when lowering it. Of course being on air means i'm not totally slammed in to the ground all the time when driving about but my normal driving height is a good inch or so lower than standard. There's no OEM rear camber adjustment so had to pick up some adjustable arms to sort that out and wanted to get the whole set!
The rear also gains a load of toe changes when you lower so it's good to have some more accurate adjustment in that, once it's all fitted i'll get a full alignment done as i'm definitely no alignment wiz!
As well as this to go along with my new wheels I picked up some tyres. it was quite tricky to find the exact combo I was looking for without breaking the bank but the Federal 595 RS-R's were the perfect size and an incredible price.
I wanted to go with 245/34/18 on the front and 285/30/18 on the rear to keep the rolling radius of the wheels almost exactly the same as stock and exactly the same front/back. The rear size is quite rare with any form of performance tyre as most are made for 20 inch porsche wheels, etc and being able to find these Federals at £400 for all 4 corners was a great price for so much rubber. They're also a light semi-slick track tyre in essence as well and i've always heard incredible things about them along with the Nankang NS2R's when searching the web for good track tyres as they always come up in conversations as a good budget alternative to tyres such as the Toyo R888 and Yokohama AD08R's which we previous ran on our VX220. I Don't really plan to do loads of track days in the 86 but it should be good to see how these handles and later down the line i'll most likely need the extra grip when i've got a few extra cylinder's up front!
Another small one as it was a Christmas present was a set of TGR Motorsports wheel nuts.
I had met these guys previously last year (2019) at JAE Festival and it was good to have a chat with the owner and check out his products. I've always quite liked fancy wheel nuts but i've never been fond of their price tag. Alot of lesser wheel nuts can rust pretty quickly after use or even be made from Aluminium (definitely not what you want!) and previously i've used Muteki SR48 which are a high quality, well priced product from japan however these TGR nuts are made of a durable steel construction finished in gunmetal with an internal drive and a small aluminium beauty cap to finish them off, i went for black in this case to keep things subtle but they come in all kinds of colours. One of my favourite bits about them as well is they also feature a free sprinning collar at the bottom of each nut which should prevent any damage to the wheel nut seats in the wheels, this is quickly becoming quite a big feature of alot of wheel nuts brands but i've not found any so easily available in the UK or at this price (£45) with this little feature.
And finally.. but by no means (or all means!) least..
Another christmas present, this time modelled wonderfully by Yours truly
My brother bought me a set of Overalls for christmas to wear when working on the car and kitted them out with a few custom patches, i particularly like the custom name tag! (my username on other forums and part of my instagram username
)Those Federals are great tyres for the money in the dry, a little less good in the wet. Though my experience is pretty much strictly track mileage, I don’t know if I’d really call them a road tyre. This is a really interesting project, don’t we all have a yearning for a GT86 with some proper grunt. Is it going to be trackable on air ride? Or 11” width rims? 
CanoeSniffer said:
Those Federals are great tyres for the money in the dry, a little less good in the wet. Though my experience is pretty much strictly track mileage, I don’t know if I’d really call them a road tyre. This is a really interesting project, don’t we all have a yearning for a GT86 with some proper grunt. Is it going to be trackable on air ride? Or 11” width rims?
It'll be interesting to see how they work. I can imagine in the wet they might be a bit tragic but the AD08R's I used previously on the Vx220 were actually really good even in pretty torential motorway driving as long as you were sensible on the throttle.I've always been one to want a gt86 with more power as you can tell
For me they were probably the most recent car that really captured my inspiration and also kept that older "Japanese tuner car" feel that i'm a big fan of.It should be plenty trackable on air but it's really not going to be a track car for me, in the future maybe when the world's moved on from GT86's and im too stubborn to part with it but for not it's going to primarily be a show/fast road car as i've kind of had my fill of purpose built track cars for the time being.
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