Hi guys,

My name is Seamus, from brisvegas. I’m 22, and this is my AE86.

History: I bought the car 3 or so years ago as a basic 4AGTE AE86. After 12 months or so (and various turbo changes/gearbox and diff breakages) I decided to take it off the road and change some things. I think I wanted to upgrade injectors and that was it, but shit got way out of hand. I went from an HKS GT2540, to a Greddy T517Z, then finally to a hybrid TD05/TD06. In its prime it was probably making 210-220rwkw, I only ever got it dyno'd with the T517Z (at summernats, 191rwkw on 15-17psi). It also did a 13.1 at 110mph, with an open diff and third-world tyres. Overall, I was very happy with what was just a ‘stock GZE’ with a turbo. Since then, it’s been sitting around collecting dust.

As it sits currently, the nicest thing you could say about the car is that it's a bomb - it even makes children nearby cry because it looks like it's haunted. Hopefully all of this will change in the next few months as I get my act together. This particular AE86 (despite its horrid appearance) does have some positives though: it's brilliantly straight, and now has absolutely zero rust, the only two things that *really* matter. It's always depressing to see that my fridge has a better paint-job than my car though.

I 'properly started' this project as of a couple of days ago, and I will be doing EVERYTHING (from paint, to engine building, to welding, to anything else you can probably think of) in my garage, at home. I don't have the cash for cheque book racing, plus building the car yourself is half the fun right?

Oh, and I might also add, unlike most who do builds of this kind of caliber, I like to think I DON'T have the hektik ‘I’m too good for you, I’ll kill your mother’ ego problems associated; if you have any questions, or feel like correcting me on anything I say, go for gold, I genuinely would like to hear, especially since it's my first time doing most things on this car too, I appreciate the help/suggestions.

Anyway, enough of the talking, I like pictures to do the talking, and I apologise in advance for your internet connection failing upon trying to read any of my posts, I really do like pictures.




I used to have a wide-body kit on it, didn't like it. Unfortunately it meant 30 or so rivet holes needed to be welded up.. Keen eyes might also notice the rear flares are not from an AE86



A HEAP of holes in the engine bay have been welded up, but it's hard to tell under all the paint-stripper-attacked paint. I’ll be going for the ‘shaved engine bay’ look that seems to be more popular with Honda/Hot-rod fans.


Ah yes, my motor. I basically just want something fun, relatively lag-friendly, and able to chase after far superior cars at circuit/drift days .. all while looking fairly standard. 7AGTE it shall be.

I found a wrecker 7AFE block ‘suit reco’ for bugger all, stripped it down and threw away the pistons/rods, and sent the lot to PLR Brendale (my engine machinists)

I’ll make sure I do a fairly big write-up as I put the motor together.




Most of what will make up my (hopefully) super-strong bottom end.



ARP Head-studs, ARP Main-studs, ACL Rod/Main/Thrust Bearings, and a super-special single-belt harmonic balancer (I really don't believe in the all-alloy version of lightweight "balancers")



BELFAB H-Beam Forged Conrods and 8.5:1 ACL Forged Pistons. I had the machine shop hone the small-end of the conrods to make the whole setup full-floating.



ACL Piston close-up. I REALLY don't see how these are 8.5:1, more like 8:1 when you compare them to the two different variants of GZE pistons. I will work out an exact measurement using a burette and such when the whole lot is assembled.



I had the machine shop balance EVERYTHING. You can see on the bottom of the pistons where material was removed (rough area)



And again on the side of the rod



For interest’s sake, my little scales say that every rod/piston combination came within a gram of 841.5 grams. Belfab list their rods as weighing 460g, ACL list their pistons as 270g and pins as 75g. I'm guessing the other ~36.5g is the rod-bolts and pin circlips? I'll weigh them individually in due time.



The crank. As you *might* be able to see, I spent a dozen (or more) hours removing every little casting flash, I must've taken off almost half a kilo of steel. "Smooth as eggs"



Something seem a little .. different here?



Box of goodies from Toyota



Yeah, exciting stuff like a dipstick, oil strainer, and gaskets and gaskets and ga..



Brand-new RWD water-pump/rear housing/thermostat housing, costs a bomb, but necessary.



New welsh-plugs from repco. As far as I remember, 6 x 35mm and 1 x 40mm plugs will do your whole 7A bottom-end.