4k GT86 Gets a Rocket Bunny Kit & LS3 V8 Swap!
Discussion
Its Just Adz said:
I've just read this full topic, can't believe I hadn't seen it before!
Awesome project, I really love the fact you've not been afraid to do it all yourself.
Cheers! Glad to hear you've enjoyed the readAwesome project, I really love the fact you've not been afraid to do it all yourself.
And absolutely, Cars, much like computers
is one of those things that falls in to the category of really enjoying the process of doing it myself, learning and so on. Plus I wouldn't be able to afford half of what i've done to the GT86 if i was paying someone for labour costs!
Finally got a chance to spend more time on the car.
Last week was a bit of a write off after I took a small Weekend trip to Wales to go for a Phil Price Rally school experience - Ton of fun, highly recommended, tons of seat time and you can really chuck the cars about with no nanny-ing whatsoever!
It was a gift from my parents for my 30th back in April and did it alongside my Dad which added to the fun as he enjoyed it just as much
But back to the GT86!...
With the Engine now in it's time to start going through my boxes and boxes of new bits and turn them in to empty boxes.
Starting off with the Exhaust manifolds or "headers" if you swing that way :P
These came as part of the Sikky engine swap kit and they're a great bit of kit, decently long, nice spike collector inside, 1 7/8" Primaries in to a 3" vband, tons of room for spark plug wires and they come with some off-set concentric steering rack bushes to shift the rack over slightly to clear. There's probably some big reason you wouldn't want to move the rack slightly which can be made up for in the steering arm lengths to get the wheels back straight.
There's a couple of spots that need extra hammer treatment as they're touching but I was able to get them in and bolt them down fully without any dramas so I just want to give them a bit of breathing room.
My only gripe with them personally is being that theyr'e designed for both LHD and RHD with the rack bushes and designed to fit around fat Auto Gearboxes they're miles away from the gearbox where they could be so much tighter and of course be an easier run for a fabricator to make an exhaust for.
Ohwell! here's some pics!
Next up I dropped the intake manifold down after hacking off the brake booster vacuum take off. I Dare not show pictures of it just yet as it looked like a dog's dinner!
but will in due time once i've had a chance to finish it off and tidy it up
After that I finished off fitting the oil filter relocation. It all came with an absolutely gigantic filter but it's a really good spot for it here, nice and easy to access which was always a great thing about the old FA20 and I'm happy I could recreative that ease-of-use with the LS here.
And finally I got the new Drive / propshaft fitted. It's a single-piece Aluminium item compared to the original steel 2 piece part, it's considerably shorter than the original so there's no need for a centre bearing/brace.
This once again came with the engine swap kit as of course with their engine/gearbox mounts landing the Engine/gearbox in a specific location Sikky are able to work out the drive shaft length, etc.
It's splined on one end of the T56 and bolted on the other for the GT86 OEM Diff, nice and easy!
You can see in the pic here where the Centre bearing of the original shaft lived showing just how much shorter this one is thanks to having a longer gearbox
Also, tons of exhaust clearance (i'm hoping!)
Last week was a bit of a write off after I took a small Weekend trip to Wales to go for a Phil Price Rally school experience - Ton of fun, highly recommended, tons of seat time and you can really chuck the cars about with no nanny-ing whatsoever!
It was a gift from my parents for my 30th back in April and did it alongside my Dad which added to the fun as he enjoyed it just as much
But back to the GT86!...
With the Engine now in it's time to start going through my boxes and boxes of new bits and turn them in to empty boxes.
Starting off with the Exhaust manifolds or "headers" if you swing that way :P
These came as part of the Sikky engine swap kit and they're a great bit of kit, decently long, nice spike collector inside, 1 7/8" Primaries in to a 3" vband, tons of room for spark plug wires and they come with some off-set concentric steering rack bushes to shift the rack over slightly to clear. There's probably some big reason you wouldn't want to move the rack slightly which can be made up for in the steering arm lengths to get the wheels back straight.
There's a couple of spots that need extra hammer treatment as they're touching but I was able to get them in and bolt them down fully without any dramas so I just want to give them a bit of breathing room.
My only gripe with them personally is being that theyr'e designed for both LHD and RHD with the rack bushes and designed to fit around fat Auto Gearboxes they're miles away from the gearbox where they could be so much tighter and of course be an easier run for a fabricator to make an exhaust for.
Ohwell! here's some pics!
Next up I dropped the intake manifold down after hacking off the brake booster vacuum take off. I Dare not show pictures of it just yet as it looked like a dog's dinner!
but will in due time once i've had a chance to finish it off and tidy it upAfter that I finished off fitting the oil filter relocation. It all came with an absolutely gigantic filter but it's a really good spot for it here, nice and easy to access which was always a great thing about the old FA20 and I'm happy I could recreative that ease-of-use with the LS here.
And finally I got the new Drive / propshaft fitted. It's a single-piece Aluminium item compared to the original steel 2 piece part, it's considerably shorter than the original so there's no need for a centre bearing/brace.
This once again came with the engine swap kit as of course with their engine/gearbox mounts landing the Engine/gearbox in a specific location Sikky are able to work out the drive shaft length, etc.
It's splined on one end of the T56 and bolted on the other for the GT86 OEM Diff, nice and easy!
You can see in the pic here where the Centre bearing of the original shaft lived showing just how much shorter this one is thanks to having a longer gearbox
Also, tons of exhaust clearance (i'm hoping!)
Looking good! (paint the dog's dinner with Eastwood Textured Underhood Matte Black, it looks just like the factory finish on the manifold and it'll hide it well)
Nice to not have the centre bearing in there, I need to replace mine on the wagon and not looking forward to trying to get the old one off!
I stuck a bit of red loctite on the prop bolts where they bolt to the diff as twice now I've had most of them work loose over time on the Monaro
Impressive to squeeze 1 7/8" headers (yes I swing that way!) in there, are you going with a twin 3" exhaust? It's going to sound goooooood
Nice to not have the centre bearing in there, I need to replace mine on the wagon and not looking forward to trying to get the old one off!
I stuck a bit of red loctite on the prop bolts where they bolt to the diff as twice now I've had most of them work loose over time on the Monaro
Impressive to squeeze 1 7/8" headers (yes I swing that way!) in there, are you going with a twin 3" exhaust? It's going to sound goooooood
SturdyHSV said:
Looking good! (paint the dog's dinner with Eastwood Textured Underhood Matte Black, it looks just like the factory finish on the manifold and it'll hide it well)
Nice to not have the centre bearing in there, I need to replace mine on the wagon and not looking forward to trying to get the old one off!
I stuck a bit of red loctite on the prop bolts where they bolt to the diff as twice now I've had most of them work loose over time on the Monaro
Impressive to squeeze 1 7/8" headers (yes I swing that way!) in there, are you going with a twin 3" exhaust? It's going to sound goooooood
yeah I used green on the Diff bolts, hopefully those buggers aren't coming out!Nice to not have the centre bearing in there, I need to replace mine on the wagon and not looking forward to trying to get the old one off!
I stuck a bit of red loctite on the prop bolts where they bolt to the diff as twice now I've had most of them work loose over time on the Monaro
Impressive to squeeze 1 7/8" headers (yes I swing that way!) in there, are you going with a twin 3" exhaust? It's going to sound goooooood
Hoping to stick wtih dual 3" as long as I can and then likely Merge under the rear subframe and back out to twin tips. you can see in that last picture how the tunnel has tons of clearance on the passenger's side for an exhaust so i'll speak to the fabricator I choose and just see how long they feel they can get away with dual 3's before the merge/X pipe and will probably get him to re-use the drive shaft bearing mount points as an extra exhaust hanger as that seems like a smart thing to do!
Not updated for a while.
progress has been moving along but it's hardly been the massive leaps and bounds i'd have liked, bit more of a rollercoaster if anything!
So buckle up and please keep all arms and legs inside the ride at all times!
Starting off our upwards journey I received an absolutely collosal shipment from the states, this *should* have been everything I needed to get plumbed up and running along with the haltech gear for wiring from a previously post... emphasis on the *should have*
However not wanting to derail his rollercoaster just yet lets dive in to what I got:
bunch of OEM ignition pars, Coils, Spark plug wires, etc
Deutchwerks Uprated 86/BRZ fuel pump
Sikky 4" Shifter relocation
Holley Ignition Coil harnesses
Holley Front Accessory drive kit
Holley AC kit
Holley Steam vent kit
Holley Valve cover kit
a few pics of that pile of loot here as they're rather lovely to look at!:
I started off with something I was worried about fitting which was the shifter relocation, with the Gearbox in place I was worried about how tight it was to try and sneak in this piece, I was thankfully able to do it however by lowering the box slightly, cutting the gearstick opening slightly wider (only 10mm either side, nothing massive and horrible) and slipping it in
Not fully bolted it down yet, managed to get 6 of the 5 bolts tight but one of them is going to require some particularly lithe hands to get to!
Although it doesn't really show it here one quirk of a brand new T56 Magnum gearbox from america is that they gear to be a "driver centric" gearbox.... so the stick leans over towards the Driver... for a LHD car.. obviously this means it leans away from a RHD driver.. frustrating however I was able to space it over ever so slightly and im sure I can do more in the future to return it to a more "Neutral" stance but i'm less worried about this for now, as long as I got a stick to waggle and gears change i'm happy!
The position of the stick however is now perfect i'll be able to re-fit the interior once that last bolt is done up and it'll look OEM!
you can't quite see the lean in this pic thanks to a smart bit of positioning on my part
After this I tackled the fuel system. The 86's fuel system is pretty tough from the factory as a single pump delivers fuel to both direct injection and port injection injectors so.. 8 injectors! as well as this it delivers it at a constant 58 psi which is regulated inside the fuel tank making it a returnless system... Well.. the LS3 from Standard uses a returnless system, 8 injectors and required 58 psi of fuel pressure.. you could say its a match made in heaven!
The OEM Direct/Port injection split is done by a T-piece back towards the fuel pump, some guys in the states simply T the lines back together and plumb them in to the OEM fuel rail, I decided for the sake of like.. £60 in parts i'd rather run a brand new AN fuel line as it was something i've never done before and it keeps things nice and simple, less points of failure and so on.
As well as this I updated the fuel pump to a 340/lph unit simply because again, these aren't particularly dear and means I won't run out of fuel pump any time soon when it comes to tuning.
No pictures of the Fuel pump assembly (although they are in my latest youtube vid!) but here's where the fuel line pops out, it runs via the original routing, takes a dive up around the gear box and pops out behind the engine, simple!
Finally... we've hit the peak of our rollercoaster ride and it's downhill from here before we come to a gentle rest..
So anyone that knows LS engines will know that there's a number of combinations of front drive accessories you can get, different spacings of the Crank pulley between Corvettes, Cars (camaro) and Trucks with Fuel pumps, pulleys, alternators to match.
Back during my research I was getting a bit confused trying to find a combo of OEM parts that would suit a non-power steering application (GT86 has an electric rack which is very good) and I simply gave up with my research opting to go for an "all in one" kit, very expensive, very fancy! and.... so... so wrong.
As stated above I went for a Holley Mid-mount kit, this would be the absolute pinnacle (for belt-driven setups) if you had a ton of space infront of your engine, such as having a truck etc, but in the GT86, although there is alot of room there's not THAT much room! As the holley kit spaces it's front pulley even further forward than the Truck pulley spacing it would not work in the chassis, nor with my existing Corvette style front pulley (Or the A/C kit from them in hindsight!)
As you can see the pulleys are miles apart, and granted the kit comes with its own pulley you can see that if i'd fit that, it would smash with the front core / bonnet latch support and i'd rather not go hacking bits up when the goal was to keep it all compact!
So off it all came again, back in to the box and i've listed it online praying that SOMEONE will purchase it from me so I can recooperate atleast some of my losses to fund the replacements which while being a fraction of the cost (thanks to SturdyHSV for being the voice of reason and pointing me in the right direction) i've ordered alongside this kit, so i'm doubly out of pocket!
With that damage to my ego done I decided to cheer myself up by fitting the new fancy valve covers and the A/C kit... it's good to have atleast one belt on the front of the car, glad it fits well and i've never actually had A/C in this car since i purchase it as... I was too cheap to bother filling up the original system after reparing the car.
I Also fitted the valve covers which although very tight to the brake booster (More RHD problems!) i've fettled the coil pack bracket slightly to fit (and given the brake booster a few wacks with a hammer, hopefully it still works!) finally i popped on some coil packs and i'm pleased to say it finally looks like a "Real engine"
Really hoping I can get the car running, driving, Exhaust made, Insurance sorted and MOT'd for my friends wedding in mid-november. It's a tall order, and i'm not going to cut corners but I think I might start leaving some "Refining" tasks for the winter, things like having the exhaust coated, tidying up lines, wiring, etc.
progress has been moving along but it's hardly been the massive leaps and bounds i'd have liked, bit more of a rollercoaster if anything!
So buckle up and please keep all arms and legs inside the ride at all times!
Starting off our upwards journey I received an absolutely collosal shipment from the states, this *should* have been everything I needed to get plumbed up and running along with the haltech gear for wiring from a previously post... emphasis on the *should have*
However not wanting to derail his rollercoaster just yet lets dive in to what I got:
bunch of OEM ignition pars, Coils, Spark plug wires, etc
Deutchwerks Uprated 86/BRZ fuel pump
Sikky 4" Shifter relocation
Holley Ignition Coil harnesses
Holley Front Accessory drive kit
Holley AC kit
Holley Steam vent kit
Holley Valve cover kit
a few pics of that pile of loot here as they're rather lovely to look at!:
I started off with something I was worried about fitting which was the shifter relocation, with the Gearbox in place I was worried about how tight it was to try and sneak in this piece, I was thankfully able to do it however by lowering the box slightly, cutting the gearstick opening slightly wider (only 10mm either side, nothing massive and horrible) and slipping it in
Not fully bolted it down yet, managed to get 6 of the 5 bolts tight but one of them is going to require some particularly lithe hands to get to!
Although it doesn't really show it here one quirk of a brand new T56 Magnum gearbox from america is that they gear to be a "driver centric" gearbox.... so the stick leans over towards the Driver... for a LHD car.. obviously this means it leans away from a RHD driver.. frustrating however I was able to space it over ever so slightly and im sure I can do more in the future to return it to a more "Neutral" stance but i'm less worried about this for now, as long as I got a stick to waggle and gears change i'm happy!
The position of the stick however is now perfect i'll be able to re-fit the interior once that last bolt is done up and it'll look OEM!
you can't quite see the lean in this pic thanks to a smart bit of positioning on my part
After this I tackled the fuel system. The 86's fuel system is pretty tough from the factory as a single pump delivers fuel to both direct injection and port injection injectors so.. 8 injectors! as well as this it delivers it at a constant 58 psi which is regulated inside the fuel tank making it a returnless system... Well.. the LS3 from Standard uses a returnless system, 8 injectors and required 58 psi of fuel pressure.. you could say its a match made in heaven!
The OEM Direct/Port injection split is done by a T-piece back towards the fuel pump, some guys in the states simply T the lines back together and plumb them in to the OEM fuel rail, I decided for the sake of like.. £60 in parts i'd rather run a brand new AN fuel line as it was something i've never done before and it keeps things nice and simple, less points of failure and so on.
As well as this I updated the fuel pump to a 340/lph unit simply because again, these aren't particularly dear and means I won't run out of fuel pump any time soon when it comes to tuning.
No pictures of the Fuel pump assembly (although they are in my latest youtube vid!) but here's where the fuel line pops out, it runs via the original routing, takes a dive up around the gear box and pops out behind the engine, simple!
Finally... we've hit the peak of our rollercoaster ride and it's downhill from here before we come to a gentle rest..
So anyone that knows LS engines will know that there's a number of combinations of front drive accessories you can get, different spacings of the Crank pulley between Corvettes, Cars (camaro) and Trucks with Fuel pumps, pulleys, alternators to match.
Back during my research I was getting a bit confused trying to find a combo of OEM parts that would suit a non-power steering application (GT86 has an electric rack which is very good) and I simply gave up with my research opting to go for an "all in one" kit, very expensive, very fancy! and.... so... so wrong.
As stated above I went for a Holley Mid-mount kit, this would be the absolute pinnacle (for belt-driven setups) if you had a ton of space infront of your engine, such as having a truck etc, but in the GT86, although there is alot of room there's not THAT much room! As the holley kit spaces it's front pulley even further forward than the Truck pulley spacing it would not work in the chassis, nor with my existing Corvette style front pulley (Or the A/C kit from them in hindsight!)
As you can see the pulleys are miles apart, and granted the kit comes with its own pulley you can see that if i'd fit that, it would smash with the front core / bonnet latch support and i'd rather not go hacking bits up when the goal was to keep it all compact!
So off it all came again, back in to the box and i've listed it online praying that SOMEONE will purchase it from me so I can recooperate atleast some of my losses to fund the replacements which while being a fraction of the cost (thanks to SturdyHSV for being the voice of reason and pointing me in the right direction) i've ordered alongside this kit, so i'm doubly out of pocket!
With that damage to my ego done I decided to cheer myself up by fitting the new fancy valve covers and the A/C kit... it's good to have atleast one belt on the front of the car, glad it fits well and i've never actually had A/C in this car since i purchase it as... I was too cheap to bother filling up the original system after reparing the car.
I Also fitted the valve covers which although very tight to the brake booster (More RHD problems!) i've fettled the coil pack bracket slightly to fit (and given the brake booster a few wacks with a hammer, hopefully it still works!) finally i popped on some coil packs and i'm pleased to say it finally looks like a "Real engine"
Really hoping I can get the car running, driving, Exhaust made, Insurance sorted and MOT'd for my friends wedding in mid-november. It's a tall order, and i'm not going to cut corners but I think I might start leaving some "Refining" tasks for the winter, things like having the exhaust coated, tidying up lines, wiring, etc.
Edited by Samjeev on Friday 9th September 23:59
Been crazy busy working away on the car over the past couple of weeks. Been trying to my hardest to make it for that early November deadline but I think i'm going to have to aim for late Nov instead realistically On paper things look like they're a key-turn away from running but there's a heap of tiny jobs to do that seem to take up most of the time!
Starting off with a another case of taking 2 steps forward and 1 step back... we return to the clutch master.
I finally got the old Vauxhall VXR8/Pontiac G8 OEM master mounted in the pedal assembly and although it looks pretty good it was clear to me that it wasn't going to work out as it was still sticking too far past the firewall.
The extent of it isn't quite apparent given the perspective of the image but it would be sticking out a good 40mm past the firewall which although isn't much is simply too much in this case!
I thought about spacing back the assembly and bending the pedal back in to it's original location but when I spoke to a couple of guys from Australia they advised that the pedal swing isn't quite enough with that master to ever fully engage or disengage the clutch.. bummer!
So in the end I once again had to bite the bullet and shell out for a Tilton 75 master cylinder, not exactly breaking the bank but about 3 times the cost of the OEM kit above but it should prove to be perfect for the application.
I made up a rudimentary bracket to hold it and was quite chuffed that hammering a chunk of metal in the vice actually turned out to fit pretty much perfectly first time, result!
I also opted to mount the MC upside down to retain the helper spring on the clutch pedal incase it's needed. In theory it should still work absolutely fine but might just prove difficult to bleed, i'll cross that bridge when I get to it!
With all that said and done you'll notice that it barely peeks out past the firewall and fits in the car beautifully!
I'm probably going to pull it out once more to chuck a couple of washers in to give myself and extra 1-2mm clearance to get a banjo fitting on the end of it as well as repalce the hose leading to the reservoir with something longer and more pliable, but overall im really pleased with that! Definitely the biggest challenge i've faced so far honestly.
Heading back in to the engine bay i fitted up my new front accessories and they also fit much much better than the old oversized holley stuff, result again!
Following that I cracked out the hole saw set and wacked a chuffing great big hole in the firewall to run the new Haltech Harness through and then had a friend help me pull it through. If only it was as simple as getting this far and calling it "done" but alas there's plenty of cable tidying and plugging in to do.
However wanting a change of scenery I decided to take up a new hobby of being a contortionist and get to crawling around in the footwell and behind the dash of the interior to get the cables routed, connections for the ingnition power & throttle signal wires connected and to hide away the ECU, fuse box and Wideband O2 Controller.
I'm actually quite pleased with how it turned out all really accessible but hidden away from looking like a mess.. atleast externally. Sure I lose a bit of my glove box but honestly I never used it anyway in this car.
To finish off the interior a friend 3d printed me this little air vent insert to mount a gauge. There's no decent gauge mounting solutions for the 86 that are actually in the driver's field of vision that aren't big A pillow F&F mounts this is small, subtle and still allows air to blow around the gauge the only draw back is I can no longer aim or close the vent but it's a fair trade for a smart little gauge location i feel!
Next steps are going to be to start configuring the ECU, sorting out collant pipes, clutch line, intake pipe, etc... etc.. the list is seemingly endless!
On paper things look like they're a key-turn away from running but there's a heap of tiny jobs to do that seem to take up most of the time!Starting off with a another case of taking 2 steps forward and 1 step back... we return to the clutch master.
I finally got the old Vauxhall VXR8/Pontiac G8 OEM master mounted in the pedal assembly and although it looks pretty good it was clear to me that it wasn't going to work out as it was still sticking too far past the firewall.
The extent of it isn't quite apparent given the perspective of the image but it would be sticking out a good 40mm past the firewall which although isn't much is simply too much in this case!
I thought about spacing back the assembly and bending the pedal back in to it's original location but when I spoke to a couple of guys from Australia they advised that the pedal swing isn't quite enough with that master to ever fully engage or disengage the clutch.. bummer!
So in the end I once again had to bite the bullet and shell out for a Tilton 75 master cylinder, not exactly breaking the bank but about 3 times the cost of the OEM kit above but it should prove to be perfect for the application.
I made up a rudimentary bracket to hold it and was quite chuffed that hammering a chunk of metal in the vice actually turned out to fit pretty much perfectly first time, result!
I also opted to mount the MC upside down to retain the helper spring on the clutch pedal incase it's needed. In theory it should still work absolutely fine but might just prove difficult to bleed, i'll cross that bridge when I get to it!
With all that said and done you'll notice that it barely peeks out past the firewall and fits in the car beautifully!
I'm probably going to pull it out once more to chuck a couple of washers in to give myself and extra 1-2mm clearance to get a banjo fitting on the end of it as well as repalce the hose leading to the reservoir with something longer and more pliable, but overall im really pleased with that! Definitely the biggest challenge i've faced so far honestly.
Heading back in to the engine bay i fitted up my new front accessories and they also fit much much better than the old oversized holley stuff, result again!
Following that I cracked out the hole saw set and wacked a chuffing great big hole in the firewall to run the new Haltech Harness through and then had a friend help me pull it through. If only it was as simple as getting this far and calling it "done" but alas there's plenty of cable tidying and plugging in to do.
However wanting a change of scenery I decided to take up a new hobby of being a contortionist and get to crawling around in the footwell and behind the dash of the interior to get the cables routed, connections for the ingnition power & throttle signal wires connected and to hide away the ECU, fuse box and Wideband O2 Controller.
I'm actually quite pleased with how it turned out all really accessible but hidden away from looking like a mess.. atleast externally. Sure I lose a bit of my glove box but honestly I never used it anyway in this car.
To finish off the interior a friend 3d printed me this little air vent insert to mount a gauge. There's no decent gauge mounting solutions for the 86 that are actually in the driver's field of vision that aren't big A pillow F&F mounts this is small, subtle and still allows air to blow around the gauge the only draw back is I can no longer aim or close the vent but it's a fair trade for a smart little gauge location i feel!
Next steps are going to be to start configuring the ECU, sorting out collant pipes, clutch line, intake pipe, etc... etc.. the list is seemingly endless!
Edited by Samjeev on Saturday 24th September 21:59
I don't mean to tease you lot but... i'll start off by saying I'm planning to get the car running this weekend, so stay tuned for a second update this weekend..
But in the calm before the storm it's been a bit of 1 step forward 2 steps back.
First of all I finally got the Clutch master "buttoned down" had to space the pedal back a tiny but and with that I was able to finally install the clutch line, valve covers and inlet manifold as well as the remainder of the wiring.
Truthfully I think the reservoir line might be a bit pinched against the firewall, might just yank it out and smash a dedicated hole in the firewall for it, maybe one day update it to a bulkhead fitting.. thats an idea!
And then there was just a ton of small odd jobs to do..
I also had to redo the clutch pedal wiring as I had got the 5v feed and Signal inputs mixed up which was giving me all kinds of errors.
Have to re-pin/wire the Map sensor connector as well as the one on the Haltech harness is just... wrong, for some reason. Quite bizarre but managed to source a LS3 MAP sensor connector so going to snip the Haltech one off and solder the new one in it's place.
I then started to tidy and re-assemble the interior, filled the gearbox with ATF (just what the T56's call for) and pop on a few exterior panels (it's going to be heading off to have an exhaust made soon and if it's pouring down while its on a trailer I want it to be water proof somewhat.
As well as that I had to extend the alternator charge cable around to the Alternator and fit a new battery as mine was very knackered.
Finally I popped the radiator on and made some radiator hoses, miscalculated my joining piece on the lower one and I very much need to order a new piece (plus some jubilee clips) but I bodged it for the first start so atleast it might hold a bit of fluid! (I was planning to drop the coolant fairly swiftly anyway to flush out the system.
And this is where it sits for now.. Tomorrow i'm getting a hand to bleed the brakes and clutch and a couple more 2-man jobs and then hopefully later on Sunday i'll be pressing the start button and letting it explode in to life (hopefully not literally!)
All fingers crossed, wish me luck!
But in the calm before the storm it's been a bit of 1 step forward 2 steps back.
First of all I finally got the Clutch master "buttoned down" had to space the pedal back a tiny but and with that I was able to finally install the clutch line, valve covers and inlet manifold as well as the remainder of the wiring.
Truthfully I think the reservoir line might be a bit pinched against the firewall, might just yank it out and smash a dedicated hole in the firewall for it, maybe one day update it to a bulkhead fitting.. thats an idea!
And then there was just a ton of small odd jobs to do..
I also had to redo the clutch pedal wiring as I had got the 5v feed and Signal inputs mixed up which was giving me all kinds of errors.
Have to re-pin/wire the Map sensor connector as well as the one on the Haltech harness is just... wrong, for some reason. Quite bizarre but managed to source a LS3 MAP sensor connector so going to snip the Haltech one off and solder the new one in it's place.
I then started to tidy and re-assemble the interior, filled the gearbox with ATF (just what the T56's call for) and pop on a few exterior panels (it's going to be heading off to have an exhaust made soon and if it's pouring down while its on a trailer I want it to be water proof somewhat.
As well as that I had to extend the alternator charge cable around to the Alternator and fit a new battery as mine was very knackered.
Finally I popped the radiator on and made some radiator hoses, miscalculated my joining piece on the lower one and I very much need to order a new piece (plus some jubilee clips) but I bodged it for the first start so atleast it might hold a bit of fluid! (I was planning to drop the coolant fairly swiftly anyway to flush out the system.
And this is where it sits for now.. Tomorrow i'm getting a hand to bleed the brakes and clutch and a couple more 2-man jobs and then hopefully later on Sunday i'll be pressing the start button and letting it explode in to life (hopefully not literally!)
All fingers crossed, wish me luck!
Edited by Samjeev on Saturday 8th October 00:38
So about that second update... yeah...
So since the last update i've been battling two major issues - The first being that the darn clutch wouldn't bleed! and another being I couldn't trigger the starter motor!
Both have been causing me no end of constant head scratching over the last couple of weeks and honestly it feels like i've not updated this thread in atleast a month when in reality it was only a little over a week ago!
In Regards to the clutch as soon as I had issues I first jumped to paniced conclusions that because I had't measured the spacing of my Clutch Release bearing that I'd have to take the gearbox off, shim the bearing out and refit, hardly an easy excercise given the total lack of space around the gearbox.
Thankfully the bellhousing has a few holes in it and that allowed me to take a decent picture of the release bearing, here it was. Able to bleed fluid through from Reservoir to Bleeder valve and yet not building pressure or budging in the slightest.
but when you really take time to look at the image you'll realise it's not "Fully extended and still not pressing the clutch fingers" like I initially panic-thought but infact fully compressed, and simply not building any pressure to actually apply force to the clutch fingers.
That along with an OEM clutch and OEM release bearing there really was no need for any shims.
Running off to the LS Swap facebook group I got a load of info and various bits of advice to back-feed the system with a big syringe, jack the car up, etc which as I've not had to fit and bleed many clutches in my time didn't come to me initially, as well as this as I hadn't bench-bled the totally dry master cylinder and mounted it upside down I really just made it difficult for myself!
After hours and hours, jacking front of the car up, the back up, back feeding it, bleeding it back into itself, going through what must've been an entire litre of brake fluid on such a small system my dad finally came around to give me a hand as as if by magic.. it began to finally bleed, Huzzah!
With that finally bled and able to confirm it engages and dis-engages the clutch properly (by turning the prop under the car etc.) I moved on to the electronics, specifically the starter motor.
I Was a bit naive with my wiring of the starter motor originally and totally neglected the wire in the cabin that litterally went to nothing, doh!
I instead elected to use the Car's OEM Starter motor signal wire and relay, etc However that in itself is far easier said than done for you see, if you own a poverty spec GT86 or say.. a Scion FRS, etc then your Starter Motor wiring diagram is a whole.. 2 pages long!
Whereas if you own a UK spec GT86, BRZ, etc with Push-Start, Keyless entry and so on... the wiring diagram for this system is an entire 25 pages long with everything talking to each other via canbus, a right nightmare!
Now in my total lack of electrical knowledge I first tried winging it and managed to get the starter to kick in when pressing the clutch, by grounding the other end of the starter relay. However strangely in doing so I wasn't then able to turn off the car at all! So clearly not ideal all around as the clutch pedal itself really shouldn't trigger the starter
As well as that I got the feeling the Clutch-switch Input and Push-start button input which were meant to work via Haltech's Canbus programming didn't quite work out as a couple of other features such as the fuel pump unit have been proven not to.
After a number of restless nights thinking about it, wishing that there was just a tiny bit more info available online for the Starter wiring for a Push-start GT86 swap I finally was able to discuss with Tom from Fensport who is an absolute wealth of knowledge on these cars!
I finally got the solution by hard-wiring the Clutch and Press-start input in to the haltech, enabling it so that when the Clutch is pressed and Starter button pressed it Grounds the Starter Motor relay, triggering the starter motor. I also wired up the Starter-cut relay to be grounded when over 750rpm meaning there won't be any accidental starter motor while driving and meaning I can successfully park the car in-gear which is something I like to do.
Anyway that's a whole lot of waffle to say, it works! and is quite the trial-by-fire of learning how a load of electrical bits work.
Now with a few congratulatory pictures we'll get on to the reason there's no video of the car running..
So with all that said and done all that's left is to re-enable the injectors and press the start button, right?
Well I did that.. and it would cough and splutter a bit but no real inkling that it was going to start. At first I thought it was just a lack of voltage as the battery although new has never been in a running car and therefore is already quite flat!
So after charging it a load i tried again and again and again with no luck.
I know the car's getting air, the rail is getting fuel for sure, so need to check whether the injectors are perhaps stuck or whether my coil packs are getting power.
As well as this doing a whole load more thinking I was once again a bit naive to think that the base-map of the car would run as is, I hold my hands up and admit that i've yet to verify the timing and confirm TDC of the engine so have no idea whether it's firing on the correct timing or a whole 360 degrees out, etc.
My plan this coming weekend is to whip the spark plugs out, confirm TDC and the timing and hope that gets it running! at the very least I need to do this if anyone is to have any hope of tuning the car anyway!
With all that said I don't think i'll reach my mini deadline to have the car ready for a friend's wedding but hopefully mid-late November I can get it out, test it, run it in and let it stretch it legs a bit with a few meets before it goes back away for hibernation over the winter.
Fingers crossed there's another update this weekend with a video to prove the good news!
So since the last update i've been battling two major issues - The first being that the darn clutch wouldn't bleed! and another being I couldn't trigger the starter motor!
Both have been causing me no end of constant head scratching over the last couple of weeks and honestly it feels like i've not updated this thread in atleast a month when in reality it was only a little over a week ago!
In Regards to the clutch as soon as I had issues I first jumped to paniced conclusions that because I had't measured the spacing of my Clutch Release bearing that I'd have to take the gearbox off, shim the bearing out and refit, hardly an easy excercise given the total lack of space around the gearbox.
Thankfully the bellhousing has a few holes in it and that allowed me to take a decent picture of the release bearing, here it was. Able to bleed fluid through from Reservoir to Bleeder valve and yet not building pressure or budging in the slightest.
but when you really take time to look at the image you'll realise it's not "Fully extended and still not pressing the clutch fingers" like I initially panic-thought but infact fully compressed, and simply not building any pressure to actually apply force to the clutch fingers.
That along with an OEM clutch and OEM release bearing there really was no need for any shims.
Running off to the LS Swap facebook group I got a load of info and various bits of advice to back-feed the system with a big syringe, jack the car up, etc which as I've not had to fit and bleed many clutches in my time didn't come to me initially, as well as this as I hadn't bench-bled the totally dry master cylinder and mounted it upside down I really just made it difficult for myself!
After hours and hours, jacking front of the car up, the back up, back feeding it, bleeding it back into itself, going through what must've been an entire litre of brake fluid on such a small system my dad finally came around to give me a hand as as if by magic.. it began to finally bleed, Huzzah!
With that finally bled and able to confirm it engages and dis-engages the clutch properly (by turning the prop under the car etc.) I moved on to the electronics, specifically the starter motor.
I Was a bit naive with my wiring of the starter motor originally and totally neglected the wire in the cabin that litterally went to nothing, doh!
I instead elected to use the Car's OEM Starter motor signal wire and relay, etc However that in itself is far easier said than done for you see, if you own a poverty spec GT86 or say.. a Scion FRS, etc then your Starter Motor wiring diagram is a whole.. 2 pages long!
Whereas if you own a UK spec GT86, BRZ, etc with Push-Start, Keyless entry and so on... the wiring diagram for this system is an entire 25 pages long with everything talking to each other via canbus, a right nightmare!
Now in my total lack of electrical knowledge I first tried winging it and managed to get the starter to kick in when pressing the clutch, by grounding the other end of the starter relay. However strangely in doing so I wasn't then able to turn off the car at all! So clearly not ideal all around as the clutch pedal itself really shouldn't trigger the starter
As well as that I got the feeling the Clutch-switch Input and Push-start button input which were meant to work via Haltech's Canbus programming didn't quite work out as a couple of other features such as the fuel pump unit have been proven not to.
After a number of restless nights thinking about it, wishing that there was just a tiny bit more info available online for the Starter wiring for a Push-start GT86 swap I finally was able to discuss with Tom from Fensport who is an absolute wealth of knowledge on these cars!
I finally got the solution by hard-wiring the Clutch and Press-start input in to the haltech, enabling it so that when the Clutch is pressed and Starter button pressed it Grounds the Starter Motor relay, triggering the starter motor. I also wired up the Starter-cut relay to be grounded when over 750rpm meaning there won't be any accidental starter motor while driving and meaning I can successfully park the car in-gear which is something I like to do.
Anyway that's a whole lot of waffle to say, it works! and is quite the trial-by-fire of learning how a load of electrical bits work.
Now with a few congratulatory pictures we'll get on to the reason there's no video of the car running..
So with all that said and done all that's left is to re-enable the injectors and press the start button, right?
Well I did that.. and it would cough and splutter a bit but no real inkling that it was going to start. At first I thought it was just a lack of voltage as the battery although new has never been in a running car and therefore is already quite flat!
So after charging it a load i tried again and again and again with no luck.
I know the car's getting air, the rail is getting fuel for sure, so need to check whether the injectors are perhaps stuck or whether my coil packs are getting power.
As well as this doing a whole load more thinking I was once again a bit naive to think that the base-map of the car would run as is, I hold my hands up and admit that i've yet to verify the timing and confirm TDC of the engine so have no idea whether it's firing on the correct timing or a whole 360 degrees out, etc.
My plan this coming weekend is to whip the spark plugs out, confirm TDC and the timing and hope that gets it running! at the very least I need to do this if anyone is to have any hope of tuning the car anyway!
With all that said I don't think i'll reach my mini deadline to have the car ready for a friend's wedding but hopefully mid-late November I can get it out, test it, run it in and let it stretch it legs a bit with a few meets before it goes back away for hibernation over the winter.
Fingers crossed there's another update this weekend with a video to prove the good news!
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