Firehawk's N2 racecar project

Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2005 12:37 am Post subject: Firehawk's N2 racecar project

Phew, after about 1200 kilometers of driving and a total of 16 hours on a ferry, I'm finally a happy owner of a 1986 AE86 Levin 3-door. Very Happy

Thanks to Widar for letting me buy one of his hachirokus - I promise to take really, really good care of it! Smile

Here's a few photos I took after we had finished loading the car onto the trailer, and one I took on the ferry's car deck;

http://paranoia.tuug.fi/gallery2/v/jh/ae86/nov19/

Anyway, the plan is to begin by reconditioning the bodywork, which should be started off by stripping all parts off the car, leaving a bare bodyshell. Getting all the soundproofing, underbody sealant and rusty bits off the car should provide me some entertainment for a while, after which it's time to replace the rear arches, patch any rust holes found and generally reinforce the body a bit by spot welding. Finally, I'll try to finish the exterior repairs by lead soldering to minimize the need for polyester body filler. Then - it's time for a few coats of primer and some 040 Super White II. Smile

I haven't yet decided on what to do after the body is finished, but the engine is probably the next in line. I have to decide on whether I should rebuild the current bluetop 4A-GE or go for a low-mileage japanese-import redtop. I'm quite certain that both 20v engines are illegal to swap into an AE86 in Finland so those are unfortunately out of the question as I want the car to stay street-legal. Sad

Yes, and as those sandblasted and powdercoated bits you guys have been flashing off here on the forum looked really impressive, I may have to jump on the bandwagon. Wink

Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2005 1:39 am Post subject: Re: Jani's Levin -project

Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2005 2:55 am Post subject:

Well Jani, VERY nice!

One more happy owner Cheerleader

I am sure you re gonna take care of her Wink

Shame the 20V isn't legal... Here neither. But here you can go pay and register it! Cant you do that in Finland?
Of course here, why bother register? You 'll just have to pay something to the MOT guy Evil or Very Mad

There is something LEGAL though: Only the first 4 numbers of the engine VIN are checked, so... 4ageuc... 4agzeuc... No difference here Evil or Very Mad

Why dont you check this out? Wink

Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2005 8:54 am Post subject:

Ahh Widar you did sell it in the end...well it's good to see it going to a good home. Thumbsup

Iketani Joined: 05 Nov 2005 Posts: 39

You lucky bastard, I made an offer of that car one day too late... Stupid

I bet you can register a hachi roku with 20valve blacktop in Finland, or at least I attend to... And a turbo engine is even easier, as you can take a dyno-paper of the car with less than the +20% allows, just lower the boost enough...

Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2005 12:02 pm Post subject:

Well, on paper the 20v engines make too much power (only 20% increase is allowed, stock is 124hp so up to 149hp is allowed) to be legal in an AE86, but one thought I had was telling them that only the head is from a 20v but the block+bottom end is stock - I'll be damned if any of the MOT guys can tell the difference between 3-rib and 7-rib blocks. Wink

This makes the engine a "home-made" one, and the power on paper is no longer valid and needs to be established with a dyno plot. Then just use an e-Manage or something to retard the ignition a bit at the top and set a rev-limiter to, say, 7200rpm and suddenly a blacktop makes a bit less power for the dyno run. Wink

Disabling the VVT-i for the dyno run might also do the trick.

If only the 20v cam covers looked the same as 16v - there wouldn't be any need to actually register the new engine.. Very Happy

Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2005 12:38 pm Post subject:

It seems that this car is a great base for a project - that's why I sent an offer to Widar some time ago (thanks for you patience, and sorry for the whole trouble I made). As a result, the Hachi went to Finland instead of Poland Very Happy

and I'm searching for another car.

It's a shame you need to do all these tricks to make the car roadlegal in FIN - here in Poland you only have to get a paper from the place that measures everything, like smog compliance, sound level, light alignment etc. (can't even call it MOT) and you're read legal! Fortunately there's no power limit, simply because there are no dynos in the whole country, except for those in tuning shops.

Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2005 12:42 pm Post subject:

Wonder how long you can use a car on Polish plates here in sweden.... Very Happy

Iketani Joined: 05 Nov 2005 Posts: 39

That was my point exactly, to lower the power enough to make it legal, but in a turbo engine it's a bit easier to do that, and in the 20 valve they might start to arque that the engine has had more power coming out of stock than it currently has.... But then again, there is a hachi in Finland having a 4A-GZE turbo converion, and made street-legal by taking a dyno paper at 0.3bar boost, as in real life, it's driven with 2.2bar...

And I have also thought of removing all text from the head covers, that way no one will know that it's a 20 valve, but then they might notest that the block number is different from the original, and request a dyno-run... It's a bit kinky, but with some imagination, everything is possible....

Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2005 1:41 pm Post subject:

Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2005 2:27 pm Post subject:

Good luck with the project! Thumbsup

Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2005 3:42 pm Post subject:

Widar, don't tell me there's a power limit in Sweden, like in Finland... Smile

SuperHessu, damn, what kind of turbo does you friend run?! 2.2bar?! Shocked

I think that we Polish guys are fortunate - a month ago the government introduced a new law that allows you to change engines freely, even without going to this MOT office, and you don't even have to change the numbers in your car's papers - that's because there's no place to put the engine number in!

Iketani Joined: 05 Nov 2005 Posts: 39

He's not a friend of mine, I've just read of his project in fintoys-forum, as I'm sure Jani has too... Don't remember/know his current turbo, but at some point he had a track-racing-truck turbo, don't remember if he ever installed it...

Jani, if all goes well, we'll have a race next summer on a fintoys-track-day..?

Wataru Joined: 13 Nov 2005 Posts: 104 Location: Japan

Why didn't you drive it home Shocked

Good luck with it dude. Looks like a solid project!

Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2005 9:45 pm Post subject:

SuperHessu, do you know if that turbo was a Holset? From what I know, it's quite popular in Scandinavia to use them in these crazy BMW turbo conversions, as they're available at a lower price than most of the well-known turbo brands. Smile

Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2005 11:06 pm Post subject:

its possible in poland to get papers for an 20old car without problems

Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2005 11:11 pm Post subject:

The guy actually lives in the same city as I do and I see his car occasionally in summertime (it's the other of the two coupés here - the other one being Ni-Go's). I think he's running a Holset HX40 turbo on it but I'm not absolutely sure - the rumor has it that the car made 426bhp when he dynoed it last year. Quite understandably, he doesn't really boast around with the dynoed power figures, given that the car is registered for 149bhp or less. Here's a photo of the engine bay, found on RMF's website.

Anyway, since Finland is apparently a heaven for bureaucrats, we have all these stupid laws which are pretty much made just to annoy us car enthusiasts. Sad

Still, from what I've heard, we're still better off than, say, californians.

Mr. Doricar - haha, I wonder what the law enforcement would've thought of seeing me driving it through Sweden. Very Happy

Superhessu - sure thing, given that I have the car up and running by that time. I'll do my best, though! Smile

I think, by the way, that the 20v block just says "4A" just like the 16v ones - the serial number is of course different but I'm not sure whether it's mentioned at all on the registration papers? Also, at least on a silvertop, just removing the center panel covering the spark plugs makes it look somewhat similar to a 16v. The throttle bodies may require a bit of explaining but adding them to a "16v" is not illegal. Smile

Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2005 11:37 am Post subject:

Well, I went to the garage yesterday just take a small peek under the carpets but ended up stripping most of the interior and chipping off about half of the sound deadening material on the floor. Smile

Found a bunch of rust spots already patched but no rust holes anywhere - for a 318000km car the body is surprisingly good! The corners underneath the rear bumper look a bit dubious but it seems to be all metal despite the fair amount of putty on top of it.

I've added some photos to my image gallery;

http://paranoia.tuug.fi/gallery2/v/jh/ae86/nov22/

Here's a photo of the current state of the interior;

Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2005 12:01 pm Post subject:

Keep up the good work, Jani! Smile

Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2005 6:01 pm Post subject:

Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2005 8:47 pm Post subject:

You're quick. Only three days in Finland and already busy on the car. Smile

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Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2005 11:44 pm Post subject: