4AGE engine tuning discussion

[Miguel - Newera]

Building a genuine 200 bhp N/A 4AGE isn't just a matter of putting together a pile of bits collected from Ebay, etc. To get a reliable 125 bhp / litre takes years of 4AGE race & engine building experience...

If this weren't the case, there would be more than just a handful of specialists in Japan that can produce such engines... How many AE86's with genuine 200 bhp N/A tuning have you ever seen for sale?

If you want relatively easy 4AGE N/A power get a 20V blacktop, put 304 11mm cams & race springs in, uprate the injectors, get a very high quality exhaust manifold, open throttles and get some decent mapping done with a good ECU and you may get a maximum of around 180 bhp at 9,500 rpm. But it's far from simple to do... Having a colleague who has recently completed his own blacktop 20V swap, I can confirm in his experience it wasn't that easy... Chosing the wrong parts water cooling / ignition / wiring loom modifications it quickly becomes a fairly expensive affair....

From the last 2-3 years of seeing 100's of AE86's tuned here in Japan - If I were trying to get relatively cheap & reliable power I'd go for a 20V blacktop..
But to get say 180 bhp as very briefly detailed above I'd expect to spend at least 6,000 Euros - including exhaust manifold, exhaust and a decent ECU.

As for engine swaps, etc. again it's also nowhere near as easy as it looks. People have run into all sorts of fitment / handling (Costly) headaches before even going into resolving other challenges of breaking drive shafts, etc. from power far beyond what the components were designed to take.. It's never a matter of just "dropping" a bigger (heavier) & powerful engine in.... To think that's the best solution is completely missing the point of what can make an AE86 a very special car... It can be a pretty good way of going about ruining an AE86 IMHO unless done right.

An unreliable high power car's far less useful than a reliable lower powered one...