4k GT86 Gets a Rocket Bunny Kit & LS3 V8 Swap!
Discussion
So another update, happy new year all!
However not wanting to go out with a whimper but a bang 2022 had one more nasty surprise for me in store when it comes to the progress of the project which requires a small bit of story time...
So I got the car back from Dynotorque on Christmas eve, thankfully Craig had a few people collecting cars that day so didn't mind coming in to let me collect mine. Although it wouldn't be a day in the life of Sam if it wasn't for some near-colossal F-up and I almost threw the car off the side of the flatbed when I meant to stop the winch and infact kept going, causing the car to ground out and start to rotate off the side of the flatbed... fun!
That drama aside and the 3 hour drive back from Birmingham made me arrive home around 5pm where it was a tad dark.
Normally this wouldn't be a problem but I needed to look for a block of wood to get the car off the truck without the aforementioned grounding and drama involved.
Looking around with a torch I found one and got the car off and back in to the unit successfully!
...Having said all that, the land-owner was clearly quite spooked by seeing someone look around his yard with a torch in the dark on his CCTV and sent me some very "fruity" and perhaps "fueled by Christmas-eve cheer" messages which could be summarised to "Get your s
t and fk off out of my yard!"
So that left me worried on Christmas eve about all the implications of this individual (who has access to the unit, its his land afterall) potentially just deciding to get nasty and bar my access etc and having to come up with a game plan of what i'm going to do going forward.
playing devil's advocate I do understand how "Dodgy" that scene might look but he clearly knew it was me to send me the messages within minutes so could've done without the wild over reaction, ohwell.. Fun fun for Christmas Eve!
I'm not really looking to get in to the Legalities of the arrangement of renting the space but it's very much all "spoken contract" cash in hand type deal. Perhaps silly on my part but considering how rare spaces like this are it was a neccessary evil, and I've had a feeling he's been wanting to get rid of me for months as "I could easily get double what you pay me for this space!" comes up in every conversation.
Fast Forward to the first week of Jan and and I still hadn't heard from him since that day (despite going to the unit a few times) which makes me think those messages were "Fueled by christmas-eve Cheer" and/or he was just in a bad mood but when serving my notice to say i'm leaving at the end of Jan the tune changed to "Don't feel like you have to leave!"... nice.
Either way it's left me understandably feeling as though the trust has been broken and with a sense that my Car/equipment/tools aren't particularly safe in that location anymore.
Thankfully the car is near to completion and I *should* be able to drive it out of there any day now, my parents have thankfully offered me their driveway to store the car and another family member has offered me some of their garage space to store my tools.
The brightside is i'll save money.. which might be needed with an impending remortgage this year!
Unfortunately it does remove a fantastic place to work on my car and could spell out a bit of an end to my youtube channel antics (although with <2000 subscribers and only making about enough money to afford a pint one a month It was hardly groundbreaking), in the long term i'll be looking for somewhere new, a bigger location I can share with like minded friends perhaps or similar but for now the driveway will do.
So with the rush of finishing the car and clearing out the unit that's taking up my whole january and why we probably won't see the car out on the road until atleast Febuary/March, that however gets me back to the actual main story.. the Car.
The work completed by Craig was great, the exhaust comes off the headers in to dual 3" pipes, a couple of sports cats (can't be bothered trying to get a dodgy MOT) and merging in to a single centre silencer. Going under the rear subframe which he notched and reinforced for me and then back out to two mufflers and tips.
There is one Caveat with all this in that the Mufflers (I ordered on his recommendation) are a bit long for the task.. so i'm very much going to have to cut down the tips, but that's hardly a priority right now and heck.. it probably appeals to someone, just not me!
Here's a few pics:
Sounds good though that's the main thing and the tips are easily rectified with the angry-end of an angle grinder!
I got a clip of it running here, excuse the phone audio and lack of exciting revs, it's having a few running issues which i'll get on to later.
I originally posted this in the GT86 owners group on facebook with the caption "My engine sounds a bit strange, what could be wrong with it?" Taking a little joking poke at the numerous people asking what XYZ strange noise is coming from the engine bay.
With that I had to get a few things sorted before I could drive out of there!
The first being to wrap the headers, I only bought enough heat-wrap for one side so far but only one side is a problem with one of the heater hoses pretty much touching the headers, the heater hose is wrapped but I figured wrapping the header would give it the best chance at survival (or swapping it out to an aluminium pipe some time)
The benefits of being single and living alone is you can do utterly rediculous things like wrap your headers on your kitchen worktop and no one has a go at you for it.. apart from your future self when you realise you have to clean up the mess you made after the fact! And I could only taste a hint of exhaust wrap in my following meal.. although it was a bit itchy on its way out!
With that reinstalled I moved on to the intake. I was advised that the one you see on the car previously isn't big enough for the task, as soon as that little seed of doubt was sewn in my mind it HAD to be fixed and so...
There we go, that should sort it!
and finally i got the car on the ground for the final time and put it back together for the first time since November 2021... wait a minute... IT WAS A GT86 THIS WHOLE TIME?!
and the finaly couple of issues oustanding are twofold:
Airbag light: Won't be able to get an MOT with this, I think as I powered the car up without the seats plugged in it registered a fault on the airbag module which won't clear. Probably need to use Toyota's techstream software to scan and clear it.
Tune issue: The car idles but it's mega rich. When giving it revs it seems to misfire or struggle and then stalls after the rev, hardly ideal! I didn't want to have to get it fully mapped before i've had a chance to test drive and run the engine in but that might have to be the end result. I'm hoping I can get it running to a point where it's happy before that.
However not wanting to go out with a whimper but a bang 2022 had one more nasty surprise for me in store when it comes to the progress of the project which requires a small bit of story time...
So I got the car back from Dynotorque on Christmas eve, thankfully Craig had a few people collecting cars that day so didn't mind coming in to let me collect mine. Although it wouldn't be a day in the life of Sam if it wasn't for some near-colossal F-up and I almost threw the car off the side of the flatbed when I meant to stop the winch and infact kept going, causing the car to ground out and start to rotate off the side of the flatbed... fun!
That drama aside and the 3 hour drive back from Birmingham made me arrive home around 5pm where it was a tad dark.
Normally this wouldn't be a problem but I needed to look for a block of wood to get the car off the truck without the aforementioned grounding and drama involved.
Looking around with a torch I found one and got the car off and back in to the unit successfully!
...Having said all that, the land-owner was clearly quite spooked by seeing someone look around his yard with a torch in the dark on his CCTV and sent me some very "fruity" and perhaps "fueled by Christmas-eve cheer" messages which could be summarised to "Get your s
t and fk off out of my yard!"So that left me worried on Christmas eve about all the implications of this individual (who has access to the unit, its his land afterall) potentially just deciding to get nasty and bar my access etc and having to come up with a game plan of what i'm going to do going forward.
playing devil's advocate I do understand how "Dodgy" that scene might look but he clearly knew it was me to send me the messages within minutes so could've done without the wild over reaction, ohwell.. Fun fun for Christmas Eve!
I'm not really looking to get in to the Legalities of the arrangement of renting the space but it's very much all "spoken contract" cash in hand type deal. Perhaps silly on my part but considering how rare spaces like this are it was a neccessary evil, and I've had a feeling he's been wanting to get rid of me for months as "I could easily get double what you pay me for this space!" comes up in every conversation.
Fast Forward to the first week of Jan and and I still hadn't heard from him since that day (despite going to the unit a few times) which makes me think those messages were "Fueled by christmas-eve Cheer" and/or he was just in a bad mood but when serving my notice to say i'm leaving at the end of Jan the tune changed to "Don't feel like you have to leave!"... nice.
Either way it's left me understandably feeling as though the trust has been broken and with a sense that my Car/equipment/tools aren't particularly safe in that location anymore.
Thankfully the car is near to completion and I *should* be able to drive it out of there any day now, my parents have thankfully offered me their driveway to store the car and another family member has offered me some of their garage space to store my tools.
The brightside is i'll save money.. which might be needed with an impending remortgage this year!
Unfortunately it does remove a fantastic place to work on my car and could spell out a bit of an end to my youtube channel antics (although with <2000 subscribers and only making about enough money to afford a pint one a month It was hardly groundbreaking), in the long term i'll be looking for somewhere new, a bigger location I can share with like minded friends perhaps or similar but for now the driveway will do.
So with the rush of finishing the car and clearing out the unit that's taking up my whole january and why we probably won't see the car out on the road until atleast Febuary/March, that however gets me back to the actual main story.. the Car.
The work completed by Craig was great, the exhaust comes off the headers in to dual 3" pipes, a couple of sports cats (can't be bothered trying to get a dodgy MOT) and merging in to a single centre silencer. Going under the rear subframe which he notched and reinforced for me and then back out to two mufflers and tips.
There is one Caveat with all this in that the Mufflers (I ordered on his recommendation) are a bit long for the task.. so i'm very much going to have to cut down the tips, but that's hardly a priority right now and heck.. it probably appeals to someone, just not me!
Here's a few pics:
Sounds good though that's the main thing and the tips are easily rectified with the angry-end of an angle grinder!
I got a clip of it running here, excuse the phone audio and lack of exciting revs, it's having a few running issues which i'll get on to later.
I originally posted this in the GT86 owners group on facebook with the caption "My engine sounds a bit strange, what could be wrong with it?" Taking a little joking poke at the numerous people asking what XYZ strange noise is coming from the engine bay.
With that I had to get a few things sorted before I could drive out of there!
The first being to wrap the headers, I only bought enough heat-wrap for one side so far but only one side is a problem with one of the heater hoses pretty much touching the headers, the heater hose is wrapped but I figured wrapping the header would give it the best chance at survival (or swapping it out to an aluminium pipe some time)
The benefits of being single and living alone is you can do utterly rediculous things like wrap your headers on your kitchen worktop and no one has a go at you for it.. apart from your future self when you realise you have to clean up the mess you made after the fact! And I could only taste a hint of exhaust wrap in my following meal.. although it was a bit itchy on its way out!
With that reinstalled I moved on to the intake. I was advised that the one you see on the car previously isn't big enough for the task, as soon as that little seed of doubt was sewn in my mind it HAD to be fixed and so...
There we go, that should sort it!
and finally i got the car on the ground for the final time and put it back together for the first time since November 2021... wait a minute... IT WAS A GT86 THIS WHOLE TIME?!
and the finaly couple of issues oustanding are twofold:
Airbag light: Won't be able to get an MOT with this, I think as I powered the car up without the seats plugged in it registered a fault on the airbag module which won't clear. Probably need to use Toyota's techstream software to scan and clear it.
Tune issue: The car idles but it's mega rich. When giving it revs it seems to misfire or struggle and then stalls after the rev, hardly ideal! I didn't want to have to get it fully mapped before i've had a chance to test drive and run the engine in but that might have to be the end result. I'm hoping I can get it running to a point where it's happy before that.
So it's been a few weeks and i've got another update!
The Car is back at my parents which is convenient and safe enough (I still need to buy it a decent car cover or carcoon or something!) but working out on a drive way is a bit of a pain when my jack is so bad, definitely need a new one!
Anyway so I finally got to the bottom of why the car was running so badly, stalling, failing to start, etc and it was all down to the MAP (manifold pressure) signal being unreliable.
It became quite apparent when I finally got my head around the Haltech logs and found this interesting area in the logs. Pictured here is when the car stalls totally on its own from an idle, you can see moments before the RPM's drop the Manifold pressure (And the fuel load, which is based on manifold pressure) just totally drop. The fact they're also a totally flatlined value is suspect as well but the bigger issue is of course the MAP value just falling off the face off the earth which pull fuel and the engine just dies.
Now how did we get in to this position... well.. previously I had to chop the MAP sensor connector off of the Haltech harness as it was for an LS2/Gen 3 style sensor rather than the LS3/Gen 4 style i'm using. I admit back then I didn't have my brightest moment as I wired up the new one purely guessing which wire goes where based entirely on the colours!
Eventually I got it the right way around but in the multiple attempts I had lost alot of the excess wire in the harness/pigtail I had and so even when it was correctly wired the ground signal was not good enough and would lead to this sort of tempremental and fluctuating behavior.
So I ordered a new Pigtail connected to re-do it all properly and solder it up from scratch!
While I was waiting on that to arrive I decided to take off the rear section of the exhaust to attack those exahust tips with an angle grinder. I was really quite worried about making a total hack-job of it and what sort of monstrosity i'd be left with but they simply had to go!
Making a line was quite simply running a set of calipers with a pen taped to one side around the existing edge copied the angle of the tips to the new line and then it was just a case of buzzing them off!
I cut off quite a bit but... i'm quite surprised to say the cuts weren't too bad, they needed alot of cleaning up but, i'll let the results speak for themselves!
I'm quite chuffed with that! they're straight, smooth and even symmetrical, a huge relief!
With that I sorted a small oil leak on from the passenger's side rocker cover which was causing quite a bit of smoke as it burnt off on the exhaust manifold, wrapped said exhaust manifold so they were atleast identical both sides, fitted a little catch can for the rocket cover breather and finished off by re-wiring that MAP sensor for hopefully the final time!
With this it feels like the project is "complete". Now all that's left is to take it out on a couple of test drives and get it tuned eventually. I'm going to drive it about before then as it's driveable enough but you have to drive around its low-RPM stutters or bucking, I'll be collecting logs and letting the tune self-learn to an extent to iron some of that out so with every mile it travels it should become nicer and nicer to drive hopefully!
Now we can just appreciate the completed (and cleaned!) engine bay.
Got my name down for the PHSS at MBW in March so fingers crossed i'll be there, in this!
The Car is back at my parents which is convenient and safe enough (I still need to buy it a decent car cover or carcoon or something!) but working out on a drive way is a bit of a pain when my jack is so bad, definitely need a new one!
Anyway so I finally got to the bottom of why the car was running so badly, stalling, failing to start, etc and it was all down to the MAP (manifold pressure) signal being unreliable.
It became quite apparent when I finally got my head around the Haltech logs and found this interesting area in the logs. Pictured here is when the car stalls totally on its own from an idle, you can see moments before the RPM's drop the Manifold pressure (And the fuel load, which is based on manifold pressure) just totally drop. The fact they're also a totally flatlined value is suspect as well but the bigger issue is of course the MAP value just falling off the face off the earth which pull fuel and the engine just dies.
Now how did we get in to this position... well.. previously I had to chop the MAP sensor connector off of the Haltech harness as it was for an LS2/Gen 3 style sensor rather than the LS3/Gen 4 style i'm using. I admit back then I didn't have my brightest moment as I wired up the new one purely guessing which wire goes where based entirely on the colours!
Eventually I got it the right way around but in the multiple attempts I had lost alot of the excess wire in the harness/pigtail I had and so even when it was correctly wired the ground signal was not good enough and would lead to this sort of tempremental and fluctuating behavior.
So I ordered a new Pigtail connected to re-do it all properly and solder it up from scratch!
While I was waiting on that to arrive I decided to take off the rear section of the exhaust to attack those exahust tips with an angle grinder. I was really quite worried about making a total hack-job of it and what sort of monstrosity i'd be left with but they simply had to go!
Making a line was quite simply running a set of calipers with a pen taped to one side around the existing edge copied the angle of the tips to the new line and then it was just a case of buzzing them off!
I cut off quite a bit but... i'm quite surprised to say the cuts weren't too bad, they needed alot of cleaning up but, i'll let the results speak for themselves!
I'm quite chuffed with that! they're straight, smooth and even symmetrical, a huge relief!
With that I sorted a small oil leak on from the passenger's side rocker cover which was causing quite a bit of smoke as it burnt off on the exhaust manifold, wrapped said exhaust manifold so they were atleast identical both sides, fitted a little catch can for the rocket cover breather and finished off by re-wiring that MAP sensor for hopefully the final time!
With this it feels like the project is "complete". Now all that's left is to take it out on a couple of test drives and get it tuned eventually. I'm going to drive it about before then as it's driveable enough but you have to drive around its low-RPM stutters or bucking, I'll be collecting logs and letting the tune self-learn to an extent to iron some of that out so with every mile it travels it should become nicer and nicer to drive hopefully!
Now we can just appreciate the completed (and cleaned!) engine bay.
Got my name down for the PHSS at MBW in March so fingers crossed i'll be there, in this!
Cheers for the kind words all! Very much hoping to show it off at the MBW PHSS but I would preface by saying don't expect too much 
it's booked in for Tuning in late april (on my birthday no less, being the earliest date available) so run's like a dog's dinner currently but i'm just chuffed enough it moves under it's own power!
it's booked in for Tuning in late april (on my birthday no less, being the earliest date available) so run's like a dog's dinner currently but i'm just chuffed enough it moves under it's own power!Ben Lowden said:
Woohoo, can't wait to see this now at MBW! Hopefully you're free on the 12th August to come to our 25th anniversary party in it too 
https://www.pistonheads.com/news/general-pistonhea...
Absolutely going to make it to the 25th Party! Actually held off holding my brother's stag do on that weekend just so i could attend https://www.pistonheads.com/news/general-pistonhea...So as I can't seem to take 2 steps forward without taking 1 back... more problems!
...and I probably won't make it to the MBW PHSS, or atleast not in the 86
Went to get it MOT'd on Monday and thought i'd use it as an excuse to drive it around a bit, get some self-tuning done on the fuel map etc. This lead me to discover that the car is getting very hot when coming to a stand still.. issue #1
When I arrived and they got in to the bay it was running strangely lean on one side, decided to poke our head under to see if there was an exhaust leak or such and found a whole host of drippy oil spots both from the Engine issue #2 and Gearbox oil issue #3
Credit to my local garage they were fine with me having a nose around using their pit but decided not to test the car at the time understandably. Finally to rub salt in to the wound I found after all this that when re-starting the car the Oil pressure was reading 0 issue #4
So I really need to investigate a few of these issues. Having had a bit of time to think about, nose around and research I think most of them are down to heat, here's my thoughts:
Issue 1: Cooling issues - Car is fitted with an aftermarket Radiator & Fan shroud/Fans, normally this would be sufficient but the fan shroud unit in question is from Mishimoto which has been put in to question in regards to it's quality and effectiveness. I've never actually owned an OEM Fan shroud unit as when I got the car my original one was understandably damaged. My plan is to buy an original unit and fit this, usually these original pieces are more than sufficient compared to lackluster aftermarket units in most cases. Plus it's a potential cheap and easy fix!
Issue 2: Engine Oil - Not a clue honestly on this one and that worries me! Best case scenario my rocker covers are leaking again, or there's a slight leak from the sump mating surface or such. Worst case scenario it's coming from inside the bell housing/rear main seal and that would be a right fker!
Issue 3: Gearbox Oil leak - At first I thought this was leaking out of the Gear stick relocation as from below that appeared to be the highest point where oil was spotted but upon getting to the top of it from inside the car I found oil ontop of it as well! i've since read that when the T56 gets particularly hot it can lead to Oil leaking from the breathing hose further up the gearbox. I need to check this possibility out but if that's the case I should be able to resolve this by simply wrapping/coating the exhaust near the gearbox or perhaps making some heat shielding for the gearbox.
Issue 4: No Oil Pressure - I truly doubt I have no oil pressure at all even with the aforementioned leak as the Sump still has plenty of oil and the car still runs & drives (Drove it 5 miles home! Was not in the mood to mess about having it recovered :Laugh without any issues. I feel the sensor could have died or the wiring for the sensor may have got damaged or even fried! Hopefully this is the case as both are easy fixes and I have a spare sensor I can test this with.
This weekend i'll be diving in to each of these issues and hopefully be able to knock a few of them out but i'm not sure i'll really be able to get them all sorted and the car then MOT'd before next weekend.
...and I probably won't make it to the MBW PHSS, or atleast not in the 86
Went to get it MOT'd on Monday and thought i'd use it as an excuse to drive it around a bit, get some self-tuning done on the fuel map etc. This lead me to discover that the car is getting very hot when coming to a stand still.. issue #1
When I arrived and they got in to the bay it was running strangely lean on one side, decided to poke our head under to see if there was an exhaust leak or such and found a whole host of drippy oil spots both from the Engine issue #2 and Gearbox oil issue #3
Credit to my local garage they were fine with me having a nose around using their pit but decided not to test the car at the time understandably. Finally to rub salt in to the wound I found after all this that when re-starting the car the Oil pressure was reading 0 issue #4
So I really need to investigate a few of these issues. Having had a bit of time to think about, nose around and research I think most of them are down to heat, here's my thoughts:
Issue 1: Cooling issues - Car is fitted with an aftermarket Radiator & Fan shroud/Fans, normally this would be sufficient but the fan shroud unit in question is from Mishimoto which has been put in to question in regards to it's quality and effectiveness. I've never actually owned an OEM Fan shroud unit as when I got the car my original one was understandably damaged. My plan is to buy an original unit and fit this, usually these original pieces are more than sufficient compared to lackluster aftermarket units in most cases. Plus it's a potential cheap and easy fix!
Issue 2: Engine Oil - Not a clue honestly on this one and that worries me! Best case scenario my rocker covers are leaking again, or there's a slight leak from the sump mating surface or such. Worst case scenario it's coming from inside the bell housing/rear main seal and that would be a right f
ker!Issue 3: Gearbox Oil leak - At first I thought this was leaking out of the Gear stick relocation as from below that appeared to be the highest point where oil was spotted but upon getting to the top of it from inside the car I found oil ontop of it as well! i've since read that when the T56 gets particularly hot it can lead to Oil leaking from the breathing hose further up the gearbox. I need to check this possibility out but if that's the case I should be able to resolve this by simply wrapping/coating the exhaust near the gearbox or perhaps making some heat shielding for the gearbox.
Issue 4: No Oil Pressure - I truly doubt I have no oil pressure at all even with the aforementioned leak as the Sump still has plenty of oil and the car still runs & drives (Drove it 5 miles home! Was not in the mood to mess about having it recovered :Laugh
without any issues. I feel the sensor could have died or the wiring for the sensor may have got damaged or even fried! Hopefully this is the case as both are easy fixes and I have a spare sensor I can test this with.This weekend i'll be diving in to each of these issues and hopefully be able to knock a few of them out but i'm not sure i'll really be able to get them all sorted and the car then MOT'd before next weekend.
Right, considerably better news this weekend!
Lets back track and go through those issues I had, and a few bonus ones!
First things first, I wanted to make myself feel better and gave the car a much needed wash! something it's not had for over a year at this point!
Issue #1 - Cooling Issues: Despite the fact Mishimoto rate their fans at a particular CFM value which should be plentiful it's common belief that this rating is done in free-air rather than behind a radiator and thus in practice they're considerably lower performing than expected. I had a couple of options here, one was to replace the Mishimoto fans with a couple of similarly sized SPAL fans, these would likely do the trick but would set me back around £380 for the pair!
In the end I decided to actually pick up a set of OEM GT86 fans for £85, something the car has never had in my ownership and fit those, there's no data on these fans out there but they're plug and play, will fit nicely and most likely over-engineered so a GT86 can do hours of running even in the hottest climate.
Touch wood this seems to have resolved the issue, even when coming to a stop I don't see temps over 104c now before it starts to fall back down with the fans. Of course Summer may bare a different challenge but I may fit an oil cooler further down the line.
Issue #2 - Engine oil leak: Honestly as bad as it might sound this hasn't played on mind much, I can't see any visible leak and it doesn't leak enough that it's actively dripping to the ground when coming to a stop but a few bits just get coated in a light film of oil when driving. I did find one of the Oil filter relocation lines wasn't as tight as it could've been and with the concentration of Oil around this area elected to simply tighten it back up and monitor
Issue #3 - Gearbox Oil Leak: I've not fully gotten to the bottom of this one yet but I have a few theories from thinking it over, my initial response was that it was leaking from the gear shifter relocation as you can see the Red gearbox fluid beading around it here:
After getting to the top of this piece from inside the car I found oil even ontop of it which lead me to believe and further google that at times the T56 can simply weep oil out of its breather pipe which is located further up near the bellhousing and that perhaps heat was causing this.
I wrapped the exhaust that runs near the Gearbox to combat this heat and elected to monitor it.
Unfortunately I need to re-address this a bit probably with paint rather than wrap as i've already scraped and ruined part of it! but the gearbox is still leaking as well anyway, When filling up the lost oil it was still pretty much full so perhaps I thought I had simply over-filled it somehow but further theories and more googling finally lead me to believe it could even just be the rear seal on the gearbox, they can apparently leak from-factory which is pretty poor so for the sake of a £10 part i'll replace it some time soon but will simply monitor further.
Issue #4 - Oil pressure signal woes!: This one was really quite frustrating, after everything i'd faced previously I knew for a fact I didn't have 0 Oil pressure, afterall I could still drive the car and wasn't dropping pistons all over the road!
I first found that the Input wire I was using for the Oil pressure (which ran behind the head of the engine and under the exhaust manifold might've been a bit cooked, you can see it that it had gotten hot enough for the insulation to take on the texture of the wire sheathing!
However after trying a different input, a different sensor, re-wiring things 2 or 3 times just to be sure I still wasn't having much luck, it would simply die mid-drive after about 15 minutes.
In the end I solved the Bonus Issue which was the fact my alternator wasn't charging correctly, now getting a much healther 14v at the ECU rather than 12.6v before seems to have coindentally resolved the Pressure signal issue, it's now far more reliable! the Pressure sensor signal is only 5v so really shouldn't be affected by this but.. ohwell!
Finally with all that said and done it was time to get it MOT'd again, which wasn't without its challenges! The "first" MOT attempt didn't go to well, I took it for a good drive on the way there to get the Cat's nice and hot as I was quite worried about passing emissions - I even went as far as to put on a tune that made the car run a bit lean!
But when going to test it as they were struggling to get a good reading it got hotter and hotter which the car compensated for by chucking more fuel to run richer and safer.. in the end a fail!
After another little bit of driving to run in the self-learning of the tune and properly bleed the cooling system I had another crack and in the end that "MOT Map" was doing me no favours. I stuck back on my normal map and it passed!
And there we have the UK's first road-legal LS swapped GT86
Still going to go easy on it until i've got it to a dyno, much less because it's so uneconomical at the moment it costs me almost £1/Minute on fuel!
but OH BOY is it fun to drive! I'm going very easy with it so far with the fact i've not driven anything more than 100 bhp in over a year, much less anything with more than 300bhp in over 3 years! Having said that, the way the torque comes in though is immense, Torque-y V8 NA power is something else for sure!
Previous cars having been Turbo-charged you'd have to drop it down a gear or two, feel the boost shoot you in to the back of your seat and then you were going too fast but in this you can just roll in to it in 4th,5th or even 6th and it doesn't bog down in the slightest and it's actually shocking how it leaps past 70mph with no effort at all.
Lets back track and go through those issues I had, and a few bonus ones!
First things first, I wanted to make myself feel better and gave the car a much needed wash! something it's not had for over a year at this point!
Issue #1 - Cooling Issues: Despite the fact Mishimoto rate their fans at a particular CFM value which should be plentiful it's common belief that this rating is done in free-air rather than behind a radiator and thus in practice they're considerably lower performing than expected. I had a couple of options here, one was to replace the Mishimoto fans with a couple of similarly sized SPAL fans, these would likely do the trick but would set me back around £380 for the pair!
In the end I decided to actually pick up a set of OEM GT86 fans for £85, something the car has never had in my ownership and fit those, there's no data on these fans out there but they're plug and play, will fit nicely and most likely over-engineered so a GT86 can do hours of running even in the hottest climate.
Touch wood this seems to have resolved the issue, even when coming to a stop I don't see temps over 104c now before it starts to fall back down with the fans. Of course Summer may bare a different challenge but I may fit an oil cooler further down the line.
Issue #2 - Engine oil leak: Honestly as bad as it might sound this hasn't played on mind much, I can't see any visible leak and it doesn't leak enough that it's actively dripping to the ground when coming to a stop but a few bits just get coated in a light film of oil when driving. I did find one of the Oil filter relocation lines wasn't as tight as it could've been and with the concentration of Oil around this area elected to simply tighten it back up and monitor
Issue #3 - Gearbox Oil Leak: I've not fully gotten to the bottom of this one yet but I have a few theories from thinking it over, my initial response was that it was leaking from the gear shifter relocation as you can see the Red gearbox fluid beading around it here:
After getting to the top of this piece from inside the car I found oil even ontop of it which lead me to believe and further google that at times the T56 can simply weep oil out of its breather pipe which is located further up near the bellhousing and that perhaps heat was causing this.
I wrapped the exhaust that runs near the Gearbox to combat this heat and elected to monitor it.
Unfortunately I need to re-address this a bit probably with paint rather than wrap as i've already scraped and ruined part of it! but the gearbox is still leaking as well anyway, When filling up the lost oil it was still pretty much full so perhaps I thought I had simply over-filled it somehow but further theories and more googling finally lead me to believe it could even just be the rear seal on the gearbox, they can apparently leak from-factory which is pretty poor so for the sake of a £10 part i'll replace it some time soon but will simply monitor further.
Issue #4 - Oil pressure signal woes!: This one was really quite frustrating, after everything i'd faced previously I knew for a fact I didn't have 0 Oil pressure, afterall I could still drive the car and wasn't dropping pistons all over the road!
I first found that the Input wire I was using for the Oil pressure (which ran behind the head of the engine and under the exhaust manifold might've been a bit cooked, you can see it that it had gotten hot enough for the insulation to take on the texture of the wire sheathing!
However after trying a different input, a different sensor, re-wiring things 2 or 3 times just to be sure I still wasn't having much luck, it would simply die mid-drive after about 15 minutes.
In the end I solved the Bonus Issue which was the fact my alternator wasn't charging correctly, now getting a much healther 14v at the ECU rather than 12.6v before seems to have coindentally resolved the Pressure signal issue, it's now far more reliable! the Pressure sensor signal is only 5v so really shouldn't be affected by this but.. ohwell!
Finally with all that said and done it was time to get it MOT'd again, which wasn't without its challenges! The "first" MOT attempt didn't go to well, I took it for a good drive on the way there to get the Cat's nice and hot as I was quite worried about passing emissions - I even went as far as to put on a tune that made the car run a bit lean!
But when going to test it as they were struggling to get a good reading it got hotter and hotter which the car compensated for by chucking more fuel to run richer and safer.. in the end a fail!
After another little bit of driving to run in the self-learning of the tune and properly bleed the cooling system I had another crack and in the end that "MOT Map" was doing me no favours. I stuck back on my normal map and it passed!
And there we have the UK's first road-legal LS swapped GT86
Still going to go easy on it until i've got it to a dyno, much less because it's so uneconomical at the moment it costs me almost £1/Minute on fuel!
but OH BOY is it fun to drive! I'm going very easy with it so far with the fact i've not driven anything more than 100 bhp in over a year, much less anything with more than 300bhp in over 3 years! Having said that, the way the torque comes in though is immense, Torque-y V8 NA power is something else for sure!
Previous cars having been Turbo-charged you'd have to drop it down a gear or two, feel the boost shoot you in to the back of your seat and then you were going too fast but in this you can just roll in to it in 4th,5th or even 6th and it doesn't bog down in the slightest and it's actually shocking how it leaps past 70mph with no effort at all.
Ben Lowden said:
Fantastic news! I think we'll have to turn the PH25 event into something with live action for 2024 so people can hear this in action as well as seeing it.
Oh dear! So i can blow up my Diff attempting a skid infront of a crowd? I look forward to it! 
(if it even survives that long!)But in all seriousness i'm really looking forward to the PH25 event!
The first big outing for the car is tomorrow! Driving all the way up from Brighton-ish way to Warwick for a car show on Sunday at the British Motor museum! (Tucked at the museum if anyone here is going to be there but might be a bit Stance-y for the usual PH crowd) If you do spot me there feel free to come over, mention you've seen it on PH and be prepared to get shown every last detail of the car while I talk your ear off until you look for an excuse to politely leave!
Edited by Samjeev on Friday 31st March 19:37
ridds said:
Samjeev said:
Oh dear! So i can blow up my Diff attempting a skid infront of a crowd? I look forward to it! (if it even survives that long!)
But in all seriousness i'm really looking forward to the PH25 event!
The first big outing for the car is tomorrow! Driving all the way up from Brighton-ish way to Warwick for a car show on Sunday at the British Motor museum! (Tucked at the museum if anyone here is going to be there but might be a bit Stance-y for the usual PH crowd) If you do spot me there feel free to come over, mention you've seen it on PH and be prepared to get shown every last detail of the car while I talk your ear off until you look for an excuse to politely leave!
If you have any troubles while you're up there, give me a shout. I know a few fairly well qualified engineers in the area with tools and ramps. I'm also good pals with the GBG crew. I look forward to it! (if it even survives that long!)But in all seriousness i'm really looking forward to the PH25 event!
The first big outing for the car is tomorrow! Driving all the way up from Brighton-ish way to Warwick for a car show on Sunday at the British Motor museum! (Tucked at the museum if anyone here is going to be there but might be a bit Stance-y for the usual PH crowd) If you do spot me there feel free to come over, mention you've seen it on PH and be prepared to get shown every last detail of the car while I talk your ear off until you look for an excuse to politely leave!
Edited by Samjeev on Friday 31st March 19:37
Only got as far as Cobham when I believe one of my coil pack harnesses died leaving me on 4 cylinders.. got the car recovered home in the end. Not particularly how I wanted to blow a few hundred quid over the weekend..
I'm learning a bit of a hard lesson the more and more issues I have in that... everything aimed at these yank motors which is "aftermarket" can better be described as "Utter s
t".Which is a bitter pill to swallow when alot of the aftermarket bits are often more expensive than their OEM counterparts.
Right so where were we..
Ah yeah.. tried to go to a car show, ended in misery and an expensive bill getting the car recovered home.. Fun!
Understandably I didn't quite feel like doing a major project thread update until I had something fun to write about otherwise it would've been a post filled with angst and rambling.. (Moreso than usual atleast!)
So With regards to what let me down, it was unfortunately some dodgy connectors. I'm not sure if this is Gm's fault, Holley's fault or Haltech's fault, as essentially it was the connection where the Haltech Harness meets the Holley Coil pack harness but both design their harnesses with Connectors that GM use on their OEM harness.
A few people told me they were "known" to fail but I hadn't read waves of reports of it but honestly given my luck the past 6 months I wouldn't put it past me to be the one unlucky sod that has it fail.
When the connection failed it took all 4 Coil packs out of action so must've been the main 12v feed or ground, etc but of course limping the car to Cobham meant the injectors were still firing and flooded the plugs with fuel so even when getting it home I couldn't fix it without swapping/cleaning the spark plugs.
With that confirmed I bought some Deustch connectors and got choppy!
Ended off a job well done with a little noise clip of the car, honestly a bit disappointing with the microphone quality on my phone but you'll just have to hear it in person, trust me!
And just in time as well as this weekend past I attempted take#2 on going to a car show! this time Japfest. Once again heading up towards the same part of the country and staying with Friends in Warwick, this was the mission agenda:
One small issue with the car (I believe, but don't wish to test it on the road) is that it struggles a bit under half a tank of fuel... oh and did I also mention I get about.. 13-15mpg on average? So needless to stay I had to stop off at both Cobham and Oxford services on the way, just to keep it topped up, thankfully it did indeed make it to Cobham this time and beyond without any issues!
And finally I arrived without any issues (apart from the growing fuel bill on my credit card!) so it was time to give the car a much needed wash ready for the show the next day.
And then on Sunday I attended my first Japfest, getting in was a bit of a nightmare for me and everyone behind me I imagine as the car doesn't really do "Crawling" in traffic particularly well currently without making me look like a knob revving it for no reason! :Laugh: but eventually we got in and I was in their "japfest select" section, a fancy name for the show and shine.
Didn't come home with any awards but that's not something I really care too much about (I just like being parked in a nice area most of the time :P ) but the bit that really made my day.. or my weekend... or practically my whole year up until this point and has really made the last 6 months of grief and issues worth it was seeing peoples reactions to the car, the engine, the swap, chatting away to people about the process and the work that's gone in to it, and finally the crowds that would suddenly flock over when I even so much as just started it up! :Laugh: big angry V8 noises aren't a familiar noise at a Japanese car show afterall!
Ah yeah.. tried to go to a car show, ended in misery and an expensive bill getting the car recovered home.. Fun!
Understandably I didn't quite feel like doing a major project thread update until I had something fun to write about otherwise it would've been a post filled with angst and rambling.. (Moreso than usual atleast!)
So With regards to what let me down, it was unfortunately some dodgy connectors. I'm not sure if this is Gm's fault, Holley's fault or Haltech's fault, as essentially it was the connection where the Haltech Harness meets the Holley Coil pack harness but both design their harnesses with Connectors that GM use on their OEM harness.
A few people told me they were "known" to fail but I hadn't read waves of reports of it but honestly given my luck the past 6 months I wouldn't put it past me to be the one unlucky sod that has it fail.
When the connection failed it took all 4 Coil packs out of action so must've been the main 12v feed or ground, etc but of course limping the car to Cobham meant the injectors were still firing and flooded the plugs with fuel so even when getting it home I couldn't fix it without swapping/cleaning the spark plugs.
With that confirmed I bought some Deustch connectors and got choppy!
Ended off a job well done with a little noise clip of the car, honestly a bit disappointing with the microphone quality on my phone but you'll just have to hear it in person, trust me!
And just in time as well as this weekend past I attempted take#2 on going to a car show! this time Japfest. Once again heading up towards the same part of the country and staying with Friends in Warwick, this was the mission agenda:
One small issue with the car (I believe, but don't wish to test it on the road) is that it struggles a bit under half a tank of fuel... oh and did I also mention I get about.. 13-15mpg on average? So needless to stay I had to stop off at both Cobham and Oxford services on the way, just to keep it topped up, thankfully it did indeed make it to Cobham this time and beyond without any issues!
And finally I arrived without any issues (apart from the growing fuel bill on my credit card!) so it was time to give the car a much needed wash ready for the show the next day.
And then on Sunday I attended my first Japfest, getting in was a bit of a nightmare for me and everyone behind me I imagine as the car doesn't really do "Crawling" in traffic particularly well currently without making me look like a knob revving it for no reason! :Laugh: but eventually we got in and I was in their "japfest select" section, a fancy name for the show and shine.
Didn't come home with any awards but that's not something I really care too much about (I just like being parked in a nice area most of the time :P ) but the bit that really made my day.. or my weekend... or practically my whole year up until this point and has really made the last 6 months of grief and issues worth it was seeing peoples reactions to the car, the engine, the swap, chatting away to people about the process and the work that's gone in to it, and finally the crowds that would suddenly flock over when I even so much as just started it up! :Laugh: big angry V8 noises aren't a familiar noise at a Japanese car show afterall!
DodgyGeezer said:
just a thought if you're not adverse to getting a garage involved... there's one based in Limpsfield near Oxted in Surrey, (TJ Motors) he's pretty much the go to guy for 5th Gen Camaros both standard and (VERY) modded.
Oh haha i'm not, the car's actually booked in to be tuned on Wednesday the 26th at Protuner in Coventry! i've just been waiting for the date to come around and there's no reason I couldn't really drive the car around on the base map until then to run the engine in and so on.Looking forward to it! should've finished my last post with that bit of info
Well here we are once again..
You can probably tell by that tone that this isn't the nice happily-ever-after conclusion I was looking for with this story and unfortunately it instead ends on a bit of a cliff hanger. I'd love to say I was milking it for content but that would imply there was any money to be made off this madness which would really help, trust me!
Anyway once again, buckle up and brace yourself. I don't take responsibility for any emotional whiplash this post may cause. Reader discretion is advised!
So following my last post I had finally taken the 86 on it's first successful long-trip up to Silverstone for Japfest, met a bunch of people, chatted about the car for hours and generally had a great time. The next steps were to do its first oil change since the engine "refresh" and take it to be tuned!
I dumped out the run-in Oil I had been using for the first 350-400 miles and chucked in some fresh fully synth stuff to run it properly on.
The change went well, there was a bit of fuzz on the magnetic sump plug but nothing I was overly worried about, afterall it's just had fresh new bearings, new piston rings and the engine block itself was by no means clinically spotless inside when I put it back together so overly this is just the sump plug also catchign a few bits of crud that have circulated about!
The forbidden dark chocolate milkshake didn't look too bad either, a slight shimmer but again, nothing alarming
With all that said and done the car even gained some oil pressure with the new load of 5w-40 flowing through it, bumping right up to 54psi at cold which is nice!
After that it was my birthday week and a little Pistonheads Reader's Cars collab ensued when I visited SturdyHSV with his Aussie Possie
After which the car was dropped off to be tuned in Coventry and unfortunately this is wear it starts to go down hill, gradually at first... then very rapidly.
Just for reminder's sake the engine is *basically* a stock LS3 with a Spicy cam installed, supporting valve-springs and a general refresh having been carried out with gaskets, head studs, rod bearings & Piston rings installed. It's by no means a built motor but pretty much *any* LS3 should be able to achieve a power figure beginning with the number 4... or so I thought.
Upon health checking the engine the tuner had spotted that the compression was mostly satisfactory, and even really good on one bank however with less stellar compression on Cylinder 7, overall the numbers were something like this (in bar):
1: 15.1
2: 13.9
3: 15.3
4: 13.7
5: 15.4
6: 13.9
7: 13.4 (The "bad" one)
8: 13.3
Overall you can see that Bank 1 (the odd cylinders) is quite consistant with the exception of Cyl7 (which he had carried out a lead down to confirm it was losing compression through the bottom end) and Bank 2 (The even Cylinders) very consistant throughout.
The fact that Banks 1 and 2 were off from each other didn't concern him as the cylinders within those banks were quite consistant with each other. He did show concern in regards to Cylinder 7 however considering I wasn't looking to set record power figures and was by no means going to tear down the engine to resolve it I advised to crack on and i'd monitor in the long run whether that compression continued to drop and drop as time went on!
Unfortunately however, the engine made some rather lackluster figures for an LS3, as mentioned above it should be quite simple for and LS3 (even my phony LS3) to make atleast 400hp however the figures were as follows:
Torque = 334.3ftlb @4981rpm
Power = 359.8hp @6063rpm (at the hubs - 10-12% drivetrain loss for T56 gearbox)
Of course these numbers aren't particularly stellar but.. having said that the car ran beautifully afterwards! The Low end bucking issues were partially fixed (there's no true resolution without going for ITB's or another similar Intake solution) and a number of other issues like a high end lean trip, returning to idle when coming to a stop and so on were all resolved, and I had the nice lumpy idle that i'd always wanted with this Cam!
Unfortunately this is where things take a further downwars spiral at a rate of knots.
On the morning of pickup engine Oil pressure was considerably low! around 15psi at idle and not increasing much when driving either! I perhaps should've taken this as a sign to get it recovered home here but I foolishly decided to press on, assuming I could nurse the car home keeping it under 2000rpm all the way but, just 70 miles after leaving disaster struck..
It began knocking about a mile before the M40 Oxford services, unfortunately having never experienced anything like this myself I wasn't quick to shut the car down and what was initially an infrequent knocking developed in to as you can hear, a very frequent full blown bottom end knocking.
Unfortunately not my finest hour and honestly, quite a heartbreaking conclusion to the whole saga. After spending a year carrying out the engine swap, not to mention the copious costs involved and the past 6 months battling numerous, tumultuous and frustrating issues it all came to an end like this, I was distraught.
Once again SturdyHSV came to the rescue with a few tools to help diagnosed that Yes, it is indeed fked and more importantly with a Strong Whiskey to help sooth my pain (afterall, I wouldn't be driving home!) and i'm still thankful for it! it would've been a very long time alone to get caught up in that sorrowful headspace otherwise.
On that evening I finally got the car recovered home by 1am (thankfully this time with breakdown cover) where it will likely rest atleast for a few weeks.
Obviously there's a few questions to come out of this such as:
What Failed?
What Caused the Failure?
What Caused the low Oil pressure?
etc etc..
And eventually I might find answers to a few of these but for now i'll probably not touch a spanner on the car for a few weeks If i can help myself, as I should probably take a break from it, not to mention that right now I don't immediately have the funds nor space to fix it or do something as drastic as take the engine out of the car although I am exploring options, atleast for the latter of those issues.
I'll have to cancel plans and hotels to attend a bunch of car events and shows with one of those potentially being the Pistonheads 25th Anniversary Unless I can fix it in time but I don't think that's a realistic nor healthy goal to rush towards given my track record so far.
In hindsight there were perhaps a few warning signs, even on the way up to Japfest I had noticed a slightly tapping noise from inside the car, it wasn't audible from the engine bay and so I chalked it down to being just a bit of vibration against the firewall or break booster now that things have heated up, loosened up a bit and so on such as engine mounts but ohwell, knowing these thing doesn't change the results.
Obviously the plan will be (when I get round to it) to initially take off the heads in situ which should hopefully allow me to take the engine out without having to pull the gearbox with it. Fingers crossed the damage to the block & cylinder walls is minimal and the block can atleast be re-used with a bit of machine work and a rebore.
To try and finish off with a positive spin on the whole thing, if the above does turn out to be true and the block is re-usable with just a toast rotating assembly i'll potentially look to install a stroker kit for more displacement, more bald eagles, and more power.
You can probably tell by that tone that this isn't the nice happily-ever-after conclusion I was looking for with this story and unfortunately it instead ends on a bit of a cliff hanger. I'd love to say I was milking it for content but that would imply there was any money to be made off this madness which would really help, trust me!
Anyway once again, buckle up and brace yourself. I don't take responsibility for any emotional whiplash this post may cause. Reader discretion is advised!
So following my last post I had finally taken the 86 on it's first successful long-trip up to Silverstone for Japfest, met a bunch of people, chatted about the car for hours and generally had a great time. The next steps were to do its first oil change since the engine "refresh" and take it to be tuned!
I dumped out the run-in Oil I had been using for the first 350-400 miles and chucked in some fresh fully synth stuff to run it properly on.
The change went well, there was a bit of fuzz on the magnetic sump plug but nothing I was overly worried about, afterall it's just had fresh new bearings, new piston rings and the engine block itself was by no means clinically spotless inside when I put it back together so overly this is just the sump plug also catchign a few bits of crud that have circulated about!
The forbidden dark chocolate milkshake didn't look too bad either, a slight shimmer but again, nothing alarming
With all that said and done the car even gained some oil pressure with the new load of 5w-40 flowing through it, bumping right up to 54psi at cold which is nice!
After that it was my birthday week and a little Pistonheads Reader's Cars collab ensued when I visited SturdyHSV with his Aussie Possie
After which the car was dropped off to be tuned in Coventry and unfortunately this is wear it starts to go down hill, gradually at first... then very rapidly.
Just for reminder's sake the engine is *basically* a stock LS3 with a Spicy cam installed, supporting valve-springs and a general refresh having been carried out with gaskets, head studs, rod bearings & Piston rings installed. It's by no means a built motor but pretty much *any* LS3 should be able to achieve a power figure beginning with the number 4... or so I thought.
Upon health checking the engine the tuner had spotted that the compression was mostly satisfactory, and even really good on one bank however with less stellar compression on Cylinder 7, overall the numbers were something like this (in bar):
1: 15.1
2: 13.9
3: 15.3
4: 13.7
5: 15.4
6: 13.9
7: 13.4 (The "bad" one)
8: 13.3
Overall you can see that Bank 1 (the odd cylinders) is quite consistant with the exception of Cyl7 (which he had carried out a lead down to confirm it was losing compression through the bottom end) and Bank 2 (The even Cylinders) very consistant throughout.
The fact that Banks 1 and 2 were off from each other didn't concern him as the cylinders within those banks were quite consistant with each other. He did show concern in regards to Cylinder 7 however considering I wasn't looking to set record power figures and was by no means going to tear down the engine to resolve it I advised to crack on and i'd monitor in the long run whether that compression continued to drop and drop as time went on!
Unfortunately however, the engine made some rather lackluster figures for an LS3, as mentioned above it should be quite simple for and LS3 (even my phony LS3) to make atleast 400hp however the figures were as follows:
Torque = 334.3ftlb @4981rpm
Power = 359.8hp @6063rpm (at the hubs - 10-12% drivetrain loss for T56 gearbox)
Of course these numbers aren't particularly stellar but.. having said that the car ran beautifully afterwards! The Low end bucking issues were partially fixed (there's no true resolution without going for ITB's or another similar Intake solution) and a number of other issues like a high end lean trip, returning to idle when coming to a stop and so on were all resolved, and I had the nice lumpy idle that i'd always wanted with this Cam!
Unfortunately this is where things take a further downwars spiral at a rate of knots.
On the morning of pickup engine Oil pressure was considerably low! around 15psi at idle and not increasing much when driving either! I perhaps should've taken this as a sign to get it recovered home here but I foolishly decided to press on, assuming I could nurse the car home keeping it under 2000rpm all the way but, just 70 miles after leaving disaster struck..
It began knocking about a mile before the M40 Oxford services, unfortunately having never experienced anything like this myself I wasn't quick to shut the car down and what was initially an infrequent knocking developed in to as you can hear, a very frequent full blown bottom end knocking.
Unfortunately not my finest hour and honestly, quite a heartbreaking conclusion to the whole saga. After spending a year carrying out the engine swap, not to mention the copious costs involved and the past 6 months battling numerous, tumultuous and frustrating issues it all came to an end like this, I was distraught.
Once again SturdyHSV came to the rescue with a few tools to help diagnosed that Yes, it is indeed f
ked and more importantly with a Strong Whiskey to help sooth my pain (afterall, I wouldn't be driving home!) and i'm still thankful for it! it would've been a very long time alone to get caught up in that sorrowful headspace otherwise.On that evening I finally got the car recovered home by 1am (thankfully this time with breakdown cover) where it will likely rest atleast for a few weeks.
Obviously there's a few questions to come out of this such as:
What Failed?
What Caused the Failure?
What Caused the low Oil pressure?
etc etc..
And eventually I might find answers to a few of these but for now i'll probably not touch a spanner on the car for a few weeks If i can help myself, as I should probably take a break from it, not to mention that right now I don't immediately have the funds nor space to fix it or do something as drastic as take the engine out of the car although I am exploring options, atleast for the latter of those issues.
I'll have to cancel plans and hotels to attend a bunch of car events and shows with one of those potentially being the Pistonheads 25th Anniversary
Unless I can fix it in time but I don't think that's a realistic nor healthy goal to rush towards given my track record so far.In hindsight there were perhaps a few warning signs, even on the way up to Japfest I had noticed a slightly tapping noise from inside the car, it wasn't audible from the engine bay and so I chalked it down to being just a bit of vibration against the firewall or break booster now that things have heated up, loosened up a bit and so on such as engine mounts but ohwell, knowing these thing doesn't change the results.
Obviously the plan will be (when I get round to it) to initially take off the heads in situ which should hopefully allow me to take the engine out without having to pull the gearbox with it. Fingers crossed the damage to the block & cylinder walls is minimal and the block can atleast be re-used with a bit of machine work and a rebore.
To try and finish off with a positive spin on the whole thing, if the above does turn out to be true and the block is re-usable with just a toast rotating assembly i'll potentially look to install a stroker kit for more displacement, more bald eagles, and more power.
Cheers all!
I do really need to stop exclaiming how bad my luck is lately as it always seems to 1-up itself and shock me that one bit further! Perhaps I wronged someone in a past life or maybe it was that ladder I walked under 12 months ago..
Anyway as has been said i'm going to take a few weeks off spannering on the car, i'll probably start off by looking for somewhere new to store/work on it as my parent's driveway in a sleepy little village is no place to properly remove and then rebuild an engine!
I'd really like to do some other improvements while the engine's out once again like finally fit the Air conditioning parts I have as well as try and source a solution for a smaller brake booster as the current one is just too large and comes in to contact with the valve cover but i'm not sure what options there are out there for that.
Hopefully (and i really REALLY don't want to Jinx it) this should be the last time the engine ever has to come out the car as i'll leave no stone left unturned when it comes to "finalising" the install. Atleast the limited running it had proved and highlighted a few areas for improvement such as various clearances, extra heat management and sound deadening for example!
I'll keep you posted with any updates but could be a while yet!
I do really need to stop exclaiming how bad my luck is lately as it always seems to 1-up itself and shock me that one bit further! Perhaps I wronged someone in a past life or maybe it was that ladder I walked under 12 months ago..
Anyway as has been said i'm going to take a few weeks off spannering on the car, i'll probably start off by looking for somewhere new to store/work on it as my parent's driveway in a sleepy little village is no place to properly remove and then rebuild an engine!
I'd really like to do some other improvements while the engine's out once again like finally fit the Air conditioning parts I have as well as try and source a solution for a smaller brake booster as the current one is just too large and comes in to contact with the valve cover but i'm not sure what options there are out there for that.
Hopefully (and i really REALLY don't want to Jinx it) this should be the last time the engine ever has to come out the car as i'll leave no stone left unturned when it comes to "finalising" the install. Atleast the limited running it had proved and highlighted a few areas for improvement such as various clearances, extra heat management and sound deadening for example!
I'll keep you posted with any updates but could be a while yet!
Time to blow the cobwebs off his old tome..
I haven't really been working on the car much since the engine went, as you can imagine it was quite a blow mentally that I just preferred to leave for a while as I turned my attention to other things over the summer.
I did however have to move the car, of course I previously lost the unit I used to store and work on the car in and there was no way I was going to pull the engine out on my parent's driveway.
Thankfully through word of mouth I got put in touch with a local farmer who was willing to rent out a space in one of his barns for me. It's hardly the most clean or dust-free environment nor the most secure but it's cheap, within walking distance of my flat and off the beaten path.
I actually had help moving the 86 to it's new home at the end of may, moved a few tools and setup a basic workbench and it really was starting to look like a proper barnfind!
As i said, hardly glamorours but beggers can't be choosers, its a decent spot to keep the car dry, turn a spanner once in a while and eventually swing an engine crane around.
It then sat there for a couple of months until recently when I decided to finally start cracking on with it. With no real plan on when I want it back on the road (although aiming to order bits and try and save some money via black friday sales in the states sounds sensible).
Taking things slow and steady however I eventually got the front end back apart and on the most recent bank holiday got a hand to pull the engine out, thankfully it was relatively easy and do-able in the barn which means it should be able to go back together.. hopefully!
Brand new clutch anyone?
And that's how it sits for now. I've not bothered taking the sump off yet or the heads off to investigate exactly what happened but I did take the opportunity to inspect the cam lobes from the Valley as I was a bit worried my cam would be toast. They look.. "used" but hardly toast, i'll ofcourse inspect it far more closely when I can to see if there's any deep scratches in the lobes or the bearings
Perhaps a bit of a cliffhanger ending for some seeing as i didn't actually crack open the engine properly but it's very much a case of trying to find the motivation at times so that'll do for now
Having had plenty of time to think about it, about what might have gone wrong, etc here's my guestimate and thoughts on where i'll go with it..
I'm guessing that one of the rod bearings spun, likely rod #7 near the brake booster. This might've happened due to me incorrectly torqing the rod bolts or the fact I re-used them (despite researching that it was okay to do so) was a bad move. Either way the rod bearing spun causing the low Oil pressure and the knocking sound is the rod rattling around against the crank journal after it finally disintegrated away.
Although it might be easy enough to re-grind the crank, fit a new rod with an oversized bearing etc I want to make it a bit more "Special" now that i'm in this position and I think my current plan would be to over-bore the cylinders, and get a stroker kit taking the engine out to 6.8L
The engine needs some machine work anyway as I feel the head/block mating surface isn't flat as it was also consuming coolant (evidenced by the rusty water pump inlet). When the time comes to have it machined and re-built I may even look to have an engine builder put together short-block/rotating assembly as really at that point i'd want it to be perfect rather than just "okay" as was the goal for my previous rebuild.
While thats all happening i'll also sort out a few small issues such as the gearbox oil leak and perhaps converting to manual brakes as that brake booster is just way too big and in the way making spark plug changes or compression tests on that cylinder #7 impossible.
I haven't really been working on the car much since the engine went, as you can imagine it was quite a blow mentally that I just preferred to leave for a while as I turned my attention to other things over the summer.
I did however have to move the car, of course I previously lost the unit I used to store and work on the car in and there was no way I was going to pull the engine out on my parent's driveway.
Thankfully through word of mouth I got put in touch with a local farmer who was willing to rent out a space in one of his barns for me. It's hardly the most clean or dust-free environment nor the most secure but it's cheap, within walking distance of my flat and off the beaten path.
I actually had help moving the 86 to it's new home at the end of may, moved a few tools and setup a basic workbench and it really was starting to look like a proper barnfind!
As i said, hardly glamorours but beggers can't be choosers, its a decent spot to keep the car dry, turn a spanner once in a while and eventually swing an engine crane around.
It then sat there for a couple of months until recently when I decided to finally start cracking on with it. With no real plan on when I want it back on the road (although aiming to order bits and try and save some money via black friday sales in the states sounds sensible).
Taking things slow and steady however I eventually got the front end back apart and on the most recent bank holiday got a hand to pull the engine out, thankfully it was relatively easy and do-able in the barn which means it should be able to go back together.. hopefully!
Brand new clutch anyone?
And that's how it sits for now. I've not bothered taking the sump off yet or the heads off to investigate exactly what happened but I did take the opportunity to inspect the cam lobes from the Valley as I was a bit worried my cam would be toast. They look.. "used" but hardly toast, i'll ofcourse inspect it far more closely when I can to see if there's any deep scratches in the lobes or the bearings
Perhaps a bit of a cliffhanger ending for some seeing as i didn't actually crack open the engine properly but it's very much a case of trying to find the motivation at times so that'll do for now
Having had plenty of time to think about it, about what might have gone wrong, etc here's my guestimate and thoughts on where i'll go with it..
I'm guessing that one of the rod bearings spun, likely rod #7 near the brake booster. This might've happened due to me incorrectly torqing the rod bolts or the fact I re-used them (despite researching that it was okay to do so) was a bad move. Either way the rod bearing spun causing the low Oil pressure and the knocking sound is the rod rattling around against the crank journal after it finally disintegrated away.
Although it might be easy enough to re-grind the crank, fit a new rod with an oversized bearing etc I want to make it a bit more "Special" now that i'm in this position and I think my current plan would be to over-bore the cylinders, and get a stroker kit taking the engine out to 6.8L
The engine needs some machine work anyway as I feel the head/block mating surface isn't flat as it was also consuming coolant (evidenced by the rusty water pump inlet). When the time comes to have it machined and re-built I may even look to have an engine builder put together short-block/rotating assembly as really at that point i'd want it to be perfect rather than just "okay" as was the goal for my previous rebuild.
While thats all happening i'll also sort out a few small issues such as the gearbox oil leak and perhaps converting to manual brakes as that brake booster is just way too big and in the way making spark plug changes or compression tests on that cylinder #7 impossible.
I seem to be in the habit of letting quite a thick layer of dust settle on this thread between every up date lately..
But happy late new year everyone and believe it or not I've got a few updates for anyone still listening!
I cracked open the engine a bit further since my last check in, taking off the sump and heads and removing the rods and pistons to get to the bottom of what actually happened and (un)fortunately it was rather obvious.
The engine experienced a major rod bearing failure on rods #5 and #6 which share a crank journal with other bearings not being much better.
Various glittery pictures and even a video to follow:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/M6W7xxiu6iw
But my next question was where to go from here? As you know I want to buy a stroker kit but obviously the farm is no place to build an engine and so that lead me to suck it up and pay someone to build the engine this time round (A recent job change with a better salary definitely helped this decision!).
I say suck it up but this is probably for the best as clearly my engine building record isn't particularly clean and if i'm going to spend all the extra money on a stroker kit I'd want an engine that doesn't "Just work" as was the previous goal but instead makes a decent chunk of power.
A friend pointed me in the direction of Hurley Race Engineers based outside Cambridge, not exactly local to me but I took the LS up to them and needless to say amongst a slew of race engines, Ex-f1 Engines and the like my rinky dink yank lump should be a piece of cake.
During my chat with them their thoughts on the failure were that I've unfortunately been a bit of an unlucky one when it comes to a "simple" rebuild, advising that electing to replace the rod bearings without polishing the crank means that the crank surface was likely crowned which when paired with brand new bearings lead to premature failure. This was a very basic diagnosis on their part based purely on my previous description of the engine history.
I then ordered the Stroker kit itself. Not wanting to fly to close to the sun I opted for the marginally safer 416ci/6.8L displacement over a massive 427/7.0L which i'm sure is pleeenty for a little 2 door Japanese coupe and landed on going for this kit from CNC Motorsports in the states:
https://cnc-motorsports.com/compstar-416-ls3-strok...
I specced it out with a 4.070 bore, giving us room to take the bores out slightly and start from a clean slate and with the original head combustion chambers this should give a nice 11:3:1 compression, or a bit more if the heads need skimming down.
After a number of weeks the stroker kit showed up, unfortunately these are the only pics I have as I didn't want to take it out of the packaging but i'm set to take it up to Hurley on the 22nd Jan so might be able to get some more pics/info from them then!
Aside from that i'm going to spend this winter downtime to get a couple of other bits sorted on the car, the first and simplest one is sorting out the melted look to the paint on the chassis rails. Once upon a time I considered getting the exhaust parts coated but with the costs involved I compromised by wrapping them, eventually the un-wrapped parts melted the paint on the chassis rails so those exposed parts have been sprayed with DEI exhaust paint and the chassis rails heat protected.
Another is that I want to get the A/C Lines sorted as i've had an Air conditioning kit for the longest time but never fitted it originally! and that slightly ties in to the other thing to fix which is removing the brake booster to go back to manual brakes, reason being that the original brake booster is so massive and space is as a premium around the LS so for want of changing the spark plugs one day as well as better line/hose routing I want this gone!
There is a couple of fairly expensive kits from the states to do this, at first I thought with enough time I could find a suitable master cylinder from an OEM application but I figured i'd simply pull the trigger and purchase the "bolt on" kit instead. It's quite a simple setup featuring a firewall adapter, an appropriately sized tandem Wilwood master cylinder and a pedal linkage adapter which has a couple of options for pedal ratio.
My plan is to fit the new master and while i'm messing about with all of this also change the brake line setup to be hidden in the wiper motor cowl to tidy up the engine bay a bit and save some extra space around the back of the engine.
But happy late new year everyone and believe it or not I've got a few updates for anyone still listening!
I cracked open the engine a bit further since my last check in, taking off the sump and heads and removing the rods and pistons to get to the bottom of what actually happened and (un)fortunately it was rather obvious.
The engine experienced a major rod bearing failure on rods #5 and #6 which share a crank journal with other bearings not being much better.
Various glittery pictures and even a video to follow:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/M6W7xxiu6iw
But my next question was where to go from here? As you know I want to buy a stroker kit but obviously the farm is no place to build an engine and so that lead me to suck it up and pay someone to build the engine this time round (A recent job change with a better salary definitely helped this decision!).
I say suck it up but this is probably for the best as clearly my engine building record isn't particularly clean and if i'm going to spend all the extra money on a stroker kit I'd want an engine that doesn't "Just work" as was the previous goal but instead makes a decent chunk of power.
A friend pointed me in the direction of Hurley Race Engineers based outside Cambridge, not exactly local to me but I took the LS up to them and needless to say amongst a slew of race engines, Ex-f1 Engines and the like my rinky dink yank lump should be a piece of cake.
During my chat with them their thoughts on the failure were that I've unfortunately been a bit of an unlucky one when it comes to a "simple" rebuild, advising that electing to replace the rod bearings without polishing the crank means that the crank surface was likely crowned which when paired with brand new bearings lead to premature failure. This was a very basic diagnosis on their part based purely on my previous description of the engine history.
I then ordered the Stroker kit itself. Not wanting to fly to close to the sun I opted for the marginally safer 416ci/6.8L displacement over a massive 427/7.0L which i'm sure is pleeenty for a little 2 door Japanese coupe and landed on going for this kit from CNC Motorsports in the states:
https://cnc-motorsports.com/compstar-416-ls3-strok...
I specced it out with a 4.070 bore, giving us room to take the bores out slightly and start from a clean slate and with the original head combustion chambers this should give a nice 11:3:1 compression, or a bit more if the heads need skimming down.
After a number of weeks the stroker kit showed up, unfortunately these are the only pics I have as I didn't want to take it out of the packaging but i'm set to take it up to Hurley on the 22nd Jan so might be able to get some more pics/info from them then!
Aside from that i'm going to spend this winter downtime to get a couple of other bits sorted on the car, the first and simplest one is sorting out the melted look to the paint on the chassis rails. Once upon a time I considered getting the exhaust parts coated but with the costs involved I compromised by wrapping them, eventually the un-wrapped parts melted the paint on the chassis rails so those exposed parts have been sprayed with DEI exhaust paint and the chassis rails heat protected.
Another is that I want to get the A/C Lines sorted as i've had an Air conditioning kit for the longest time but never fitted it originally! and that slightly ties in to the other thing to fix which is removing the brake booster to go back to manual brakes, reason being that the original brake booster is so massive and space is as a premium around the LS so for want of changing the spark plugs one day as well as better line/hose routing I want this gone!
There is a couple of fairly expensive kits from the states to do this, at first I thought with enough time I could find a suitable master cylinder from an OEM application but I figured i'd simply pull the trigger and purchase the "bolt on" kit instead. It's quite a simple setup featuring a firewall adapter, an appropriately sized tandem Wilwood master cylinder and a pedal linkage adapter which has a couple of options for pedal ratio.
My plan is to fit the new master and while i'm messing about with all of this also change the brake line setup to be hidden in the wiper motor cowl to tidy up the engine bay a bit and save some extra space around the back of the engine.
Completed this install last week but never got a chance to write it up!
Finished the brake lines to go along with the new brake booster delete unit.
Used AN-3 lines throughout, Teflon steel braided hose with Stainless steel fittings as recommended to put up with Braking pressures.
Originally started with plastic coated line which i've used before for my fuel and clutch master line without any problems but for some reason due to the smaller form factor or perhaps with the stainless lines I just found it impossible to work with and get the fittings over the hose despite plenty of swearing and lubricant!
That's 4m of AN-3 hose wasted..
Once I ordered the naked stainless braided hose it all went together far easier, managed to make up all 6 lines in a matter of a couple of hours.
So what we have is:
2x Lines from Master to wiper cowl bulkhead fitting
2x Lines from bulkhead fitting to bulkhead fitting within the wiper cowl
2x line from Wiper cowl to ABS unit.
Once fitted I filled the reservoir, dropped the lines going to the ABS unit in to the reservoir and pumped some fluid through to get the whole system pre-bled.
Once I plumbed the lines back in to the ABS unit the brakes felt great right away! might even get away without having to bleed them too much but i've got a bottle of fluid left over so it wouldn't hurt to do!
Excuse the messy pics... do I class this car as a barn find yet?..
Quite pleased I managed to complete this, only been completing small jobs on the car over the past few months while I wait for the engine work and this was one that very much "completes" the improved engine swap for me, i'll have more room for the coolant lines, to swap spark plugs and so on!
Speaking of the engine build i've not been pestering for updates too often as I'm not keen on rushing people but I heard from Hurley race engineering a little while ago and there's a few extra bits and tasks needed:
Unfortunately the Sump face wasn't flat, likely leading to an oil leak, good to catch and sort this now
The Cam bearings are past tolerance so need to be replaced
The Oil pump and front belt pulley weren't suited to the Crank timing sprocket and therefore all 3 are damaged and need to be replaced.
All add time to the build sadly but hopefully being an LS some of these parts can be quite cheap.
Finished the brake lines to go along with the new brake booster delete unit.
Used AN-3 lines throughout, Teflon steel braided hose with Stainless steel fittings as recommended to put up with Braking pressures.
Originally started with plastic coated line which i've used before for my fuel and clutch master line without any problems but for some reason due to the smaller form factor or perhaps with the stainless lines I just found it impossible to work with and get the fittings over the hose despite plenty of swearing and lubricant!
That's 4m of AN-3 hose wasted..
Once I ordered the naked stainless braided hose it all went together far easier, managed to make up all 6 lines in a matter of a couple of hours.
So what we have is:
2x Lines from Master to wiper cowl bulkhead fitting
2x Lines from bulkhead fitting to bulkhead fitting within the wiper cowl
2x line from Wiper cowl to ABS unit.
Once fitted I filled the reservoir, dropped the lines going to the ABS unit in to the reservoir and pumped some fluid through to get the whole system pre-bled.
Once I plumbed the lines back in to the ABS unit the brakes felt great right away! might even get away without having to bleed them too much but i've got a bottle of fluid left over so it wouldn't hurt to do!
Excuse the messy pics... do I class this car as a barn find yet?..
Quite pleased I managed to complete this, only been completing small jobs on the car over the past few months while I wait for the engine work and this was one that very much "completes" the improved engine swap for me, i'll have more room for the coolant lines, to swap spark plugs and so on!
Speaking of the engine build i've not been pestering for updates too often as I'm not keen on rushing people but I heard from Hurley race engineering a little while ago and there's a few extra bits and tasks needed:
Unfortunately the Sump face wasn't flat, likely leading to an oil leak, good to catch and sort this now
The Cam bearings are past tolerance so need to be replaced
The Oil pump and front belt pulley weren't suited to the Crank timing sprocket and therefore all 3 are damaged and need to be replaced.
All add time to the build sadly but hopefully being an LS some of these parts can be quite cheap.
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