Cams AE85 build from NZ

[slacker.cam]

While all this was happening I bought a damaged AE101 Levin and grabbed the 20V Silvertop out of it. This was actually my old car so I knew that the motor was in good condition. The plan was (and still is) to get the car running with the NA motor and then build up a more powerful motor later. This would allow me to worry less about turbo manifolds, intercooler piping, and the like and more on actually getting the car running.

Because of these plans I wanted to lay a solid foundation in the gearbox, diff and brakes department. The natural choice (for NZers anyway) was to therefore use a W55 gearbox with a custom bellhousing and a hilux diff with the mounts swapped over. I got hold of a good condition gearbox and new bellhousing from a company called Reardrive. The bellhousing was expensive but this was offset somewhat as I was able to swap a T50 bellhousing that I already had. Once I had the gearbox I drilled/cut the approriate holes in the firewall to accept the clutch master cylinder and grabbed a manual pedal box from the parts car. From what I remember the clutch master and slave cylinders were surprisingly cheap.

Next on the todo list was to find a suitable clutch as the original gearbox was automatic. In keping with the bullet-proof driveline theme I got my hands on a late model 4AGZE 224mm flywheel with OEM friction and pressure plates. I got this from Karl Skewes - one of the original AE86 drifters in NZ. I now had enough parts to bolt the engine and gearbox together and test fit it in the car. While I was at it I installed the spigot bearing. Clutch fork is W55, can't remember what the release bearing is at this stage... This was a good day:





After test fitting the engine I found that the shifter location was slightly too far forward as the W55 I bought had a mid-mount shifter on it. I decided to enlarge the shifter hole in the body to make it fit (I now regret that slightly). The only painting I wanted to do was paint the engine bay so I wouldn't have to pull the engine out later on when I repainted the rest of the car. I spent days cleaning and prepping the engine bay. The first lot of paint got ruined as I was painting outside and it started to rain. I nailed it on the second try however. The engine bay was now a nice satin black:




This was in March 2006. While the front suspension was out while painting the engine bay I bought a set of D2 suspension for it. It was not great but it would be enough to get me on the track. It wouldn't be hard to upgrade later on when money allowed. I started putting things back together: