Serendipity's comprehensive AE86 J160 swap

[Serendipity]

STEP 7: FINAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR CHAPTER 1: FITMENT


Using a T50 Starter
DISCLAIMER: if you choose to use a T50 starter, then make sure you have it rebuilt before you install it. Once installed with the SQ adapter, it'll be impossible to remove without dropping the transmission. Have a look why. It’s bolted to the adapter from the bellhousing side toward the engine:


Intake side starter
As this option was impossible due to the waterline kit we've installed, we have no information for you on the ins and outs of this possibility.


Upgrade to a Honda starter
DISCLAIMER: If you want to use a Honda starter on LHD AE86s, you’ll need to have a manual steering rack, as there is not enough clearance otherwise. See below for more information.

Having to drop the transmission in order to service the starter is no fun, so we bought the SQ Honda starter adapter and sourced a brand new starter. With this setup, we’ll be able to service the starter anytime without a huge fuss. It’s also, smaller, lighter, and as a gear reduction unit (1.2kw), more powerful than the direct drive T50 starter (0.8kw). Win win. In the SQ tech article, it states the following Honda engine code compatibility for AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSIONS ONLY:

-F22A
-F22B
-F23A

After some digging, we found that the F22B and F23A are only found on RHD Honda models (correct us i we're wrong), so if you’re in North America, the F22A starter would be easier to get. We found that the part number Mitsuba SM42228, is interchangable with the 1997-98 Honda Prelude, under the number, Mitsuba SM16960.

As you can see, the Honda starter pinion comes out much further than the T50's, which is why the SQ adapter is so thick.



The area between the u-joint and the starter is as tight as a nun. Using a bolt with a smaller shoulder than the one supplied or an allen key bolt instead would do the trick. We were just able to slide a wrench over the bolt.


Now after seeing how little room there is with a manual rack, have a look at this next picture of my former power steering rack sitting next to my current manual rack. The size difference is why we believe it’s impossible to use the Honda starter setup with a power steering rack.



The final test was done with the flywheel in place. Look ma! It works!!

[Serendipity]

CHAPTER 2: FINISHING

INDEX OF STEPS
Step 1: Powder coating
Step 2: Anodizing and plating
Step 3: Painting


Finishing work is my favourite step, and I like making parts look as close to OEM as possible by choosing colours and finishes that look good and last. While some find it cool to get parts in loud colour schemes, I prefer something more classic and subtle.


Step 1: POWDER COATING
Powder coating is a great finish, and I’ve had some success with it on parts from other projects. It looks good and stands up to attack from road debris. Unfortunately, on some parts like the SQ adapter plate and dust shield, the added thickness of the coating would probably cause headaches during assembly, so I opted to have them painted instead.

Victoria Powder coating did a stellar job as usual. Here is the casing upon its arrival, through its metamorphosis and onto its finished appearance:



And here's a few project related parts from left to right: Driveshaft bearing shield, exhaust side engine to trans brace, J160 clutch fork, J160 and T50 output shaft dust shields, SQ trans crossmember

[Serendipity]

STEP 2: ANODIZING AND PLATING

PLATING:
Seeing as how the bolts were lying around, I decided to have them Cadmium plated. The result was quite good:




The corrosion cleaned up nicely:
Before plating:


After plating:




ANODIZING
Some of the parts are aluminum, which makes them ideal candidates for anodizing. No issues with added thickness here. Just raw beauty.

Warren is cool, not just because he's capable with welding, electronics, and mechanics, but because he puts up with my perfectionism. He put a lot of work into getting out the pins on the shifter housing, just so it could be anodized. Thanks man.

[Serendipity]

STEP 3: PAINTING

PAINTING

I wanted the adapter plate, splash guard, and shifter relocater to look OEM, so Chris V. came by and painted them for us.
Before:


After:

[Serendipity]

CHAPTER 3: PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

INDEX OF STEPS
Step 1: Facking Toyota
Step 2: Nissan S15 6th gear
Step 3: Reassembly
Step 4: Clutch and Flywheel
Step 5: Installation
Step 6: Driveshaft
Step 7: Other simple mods
Step 8: The final product


Step 1: FACKING TOYOTA

As the transmission was in good shape, we only needed to replace the input, output and shifter seals. All the bearings and synchros looked great. That was until we noticed that the rear countershaft bearing had some surface rust. No problem, let’s go to Toyota, right? Wrong...


First of all, I found the picture of the bearing in 33-05 of the Altezza parts diagram, but no part number was listed. Have a look, it tells you to go to diagram 33-02.
33-05 Transmission Gear (MTM)
http://www.toyodiy.com/parts/p_J_200...EFVF_3305.html

Do you see it here either? I don't:
33-02 Clutch Housing and Transmission Case (MTM)
http://www.toyodiy.com/parts/p_J_200...EFVF_3302.html

Well, as it turns out, you have to buy the entire case housing in order to get the bearing. According to Sam Q, it’s the same situation for the shifter end bushing and the middle shifter bushing.

Carrying on, I decided to try and buy the bearing, # NTN 7E-HR 0620, and contacted the manufacturer. They won’t have stock until the fall.

http://www.noc.ua/online-catalog-bea...7E-HR+0620+PX1

As a last measure, I sent the bearing dimensions to Neil at Bullfrog. His supplier in California found a Nachi equivalent and it’s on the way. Bullfrog, saving the day, one transmission at a time.

[Serendipity]

Step 2: Nissan S15 5th gear

Since I drive with a 4.778 Ring and Pinion, elevated highway RPM is an issue. With the second gen TeamMFactory 5th gear in my T50 (.737), I can cruise at around 3500RPM @110km/hr.

The J160 has an even shorter 6th gear (.869) than the factory T50 5th gear (.861), so highway cruising @110km/hr with the OEM J160 6th gear would mean about 4000RPM. I can imagine how loud it would be with open velocity stacks on a road trip. Not cool.

To make this transmission driveable on the highway, we sourced a set of used Nissan S15 6th gears (.767). This’ll bring our highway cruising @110km/hr down to about 3600RPM. A little higher than what we have now with the MFactory gear set, but a huge improvement over what would have been if we had done nothing (3rd conditional).

[Jeff Lange]

Step 1: FACKING TOYOTA

As the transmission was in good shape, we only needed to replace the input, output and shifter seals. All the bearings and synchros looked great. That was until we noticed that the rear countershaft bearing had some surface rust. No problem, let’s go to Toyota, right? Wrong...


First of all, I found the picture of the bearing in 33-05 of the Altezza parts diagram, but no part number was listed. Have a look, it tells you to go to diagram 33-02.
33-05 Transmission Gear (MTM)
http://www.toyodiy.com/parts/p_J_200...EFVF_3305.html

Do you see it here either? I don't:
33-02 Clutch Housing and Transmission Case (MTM)
http://www.toyodiy.com/parts/p_J_200...EFVF_3302.html

Well, as it turns out, you have to buy the entire case housing in order to get the bearing.

While it is an absolute pisser that Toyota doesn't supply the bearing separately, diagram 33-05 doesn't say the bearing will be in diagram 33-02, it says the bearing isn't sold separately, you need to order the case, which is in diagram 33-02. From past experience, in this case, I actually think Toyota was being nice, usually they wouldn't say anything and you'd need to figure it out on your own, haha. (In fact, in the European IS200 J160 parts catalog, that is exactly how it is).

Toyota/Subaru also don't list that bearing separately for the TL70, but I checked and Nissan does list it for the FS6R92A, part number is 32219-89F00. It sounds like you've got something coming that will likely work, but if not, this will probably get you sorted.

Jeff

[Serendipity]

While it is an absolute pisser that Toyota doesn't supply the bearing separately, diagram 33-05 doesn't say the bearing will be in diagram 33-02, it says the bearing isn't sold separately, you need to order the case, which is in diagram 33-02. From past experience, in this case, I actually think Toyota was being nice, usually they wouldn't say anything and you'd need to figure it out on your own, haha. (In fact, in the European IS200 J160 parts catalog, that is exactly how it is).

Toyota/Subaru also don't list that bearing separately for the TL70, but I checked and Nissan does list it for the FS6R92A, part number is 32219-89F00. It sounds like you've got something coming that will likely work, but if not, this will probably get you sorted.

Jeff

Jeff, thank you very much for this info. I'm going to look into the Nissan part numbers you supplied to corroborate. This is very much appreciated!

[Serendipity]

STEP 4: REASSEMBLY

Well, it's been almost two months, but I finally have an update. We were able to source our rear counter shaft bearing from Mazda of all places...


Now that that's settled and the hardware has come back from plating, it was time to start reassembly. Neil at Bullfrog was kind enough to take some pictures of the trans, mid assembly:


Once assembled, it seemed like all the effort was worth it:


Kobe The Kind Helper Cat, snapped this last picture for us. The Toyota badge looks great:



The bad news is that the OEM J160 6th gears didn't survive removal, but the good news is that the Nissan S15 6th gear set was installed successfully! Can't wait to try them out.

[Jeff Lange]

Glad you were able to get the bearing, Mazda was a good option as well.

Jeff

[church]

STEP 4: THE FINAL RESULT
Well, it's been almost two months, but I finally have an update. We were able to source our rear counter shaft bearing from Mazda of all places...

May i ask, what is Mazda's part number for this? I guess it's on sticker that is put on edge of box, but there seems only part of it readable. In search for NTN 7E-HR 0620 (for GT86 gearbox though. Same story with bearing listed by Toyota & Subaru (BRZ) only together with gearbox casing) ordered mentioned here Nissan part number 32219-89F00 (IIRC from Silvia S15 gearbox), but if it turns out for different bearing or takes too long, would love to find & order in parallel for known & tried alternative.

[church]

Seems i found right one by googling for mazda and last two complete portions of partnumber and finding for which found parts first portion ends with 2.
So this countershaft bearing in my GT86 MT (probably same as BRZ/FR-S) differs from others only by it's 2-letter code of PU.
Nissan's 32219-89F00 (which currently running in my gearbox) - WS. Mazda's Y602-17-306 - WU. To my uneducated eye all these NTN 7E-HR 0620 bearings seem same/interchangeable.
Local mazda & nissan dealerships quoted no guaranteed delivery time and at tripple the prices for googled by part numbers, so it might be worth to buy online if no local stock (eg. i recieved very quickly for cheap Nissan's from amayama.com)

[Serendipity]

May i ask, what is Mazda's part number for this? I guess it's on sticker that is put on edge of box, but there seems only part of it readable. In search for NTN 7E-HR 0620 (for GT86 gearbox though. Same story with bearing listed by Toyota & Subaru (BRZ) only together with gearbox casing) ordered mentioned here Nissan part number 32219-89F00 (IIRC from Silvia S15 gearbox), but if it turns out for different bearing or takes too long, would love to find & order in parallel for known & tried alternative.

Hi there. I’m sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner, I was checking with Bullfrog. They were just waiting for confirmation from their supplier on the part number. Looks like you beat me to the punch. Thanks very much!

[Serendipity]

Step 4: Clutch and Flywheel

A little more time has passed, and now the car is back inside for its final stages of the project. I've updated the finishing steps, so you can scroll back up to enjoy them. They took a bit more time, but I'm glad we decided to go ahead with them. The results were spectacular.

The pilot/spigot bearing supplied by SQEngineering was pretty interesting. It's basically a housing designed to put the bearing at the correct distance for the input shaft. As opposed to the OEM position, The SQ setup puts the pilot bearing in the flywheel, although it still physically sits in the crankshaft as per usual.



Here, Warren is measuring to see if there will be any interference:


As I was using an AE92 flywheel (dont ask, it's a long story), I wanted to get something lighter to reduce inertia, and wake up my unmodified engine a little. I went ahead and picked up a TODA 215mm chromoly flywheel from Jesse Streeter in Japan. The best price available and quick service. 7.5kg down to 4.4kg. This should be really fun to drive!


We decided to get an Exedy clutch kit, as the local drift guys can attest to their durability, and because I wanted something slightly more aggressive than OEM. The drawings on the back of the box were funny, but reminded us of some of the more common errors people make when installing clutches. Food for thought.





TODA was even cool enough to supply hardware for the clutch cover. JDM for the win!

[Serendipity]

Chapter 2: Light Refreshments

While none of this chapter was essential for the J160 swap, we thought it was necessary to address some of the minor tweaks and repairs that have been on my mind. We decided that pulling the motor would be the easiest way to address everything.

Step 1: Fix the shifter hole

Ever since we tossed out the automatic transmission and installed the T50, I’ve never been happy with the tuna can shifter hole. This is where Warren stepped in.

You can see the shape of the shift boot bezel; it doesn’t match at all. Moreover, there's a large gap at the at the bottom that needs to be closed to seal the cabin from the elements.


Warren made a template out of some spare cardboard and then cut it out from sheet steel.


Tack welded in place.


Now you can see the final desired shape. Guess how we’re going to cut it?


Holes made for deez Rivnuts.


Primered then painted.


Tuna Can obsolete.

[Serendipity]

Step 2: Set up the fuel system

The ‘temporary” rubber fuel send line was replaced with a proper metal line.


All rubber hoses and clamps in the entire system were replaced.


Installed a proper banjo on the fuel rail inlet


Replaced the fuel filter
Yikes...

[Serendipity]

Step 3: Engine Refresh

The engine is still low mileage, hovering at around 80,000km, but taking cues from the aerospace industry, it’s not just kilometres, but also time that decides when maintenance needs to be done. Some of the pieces were original.

Goodies waiting to do their job:


New timing kit, including belt, idler pulley and hydraulic tensioner


New water pump


Rebuilt 20V alternator, powdercoated


New spark plugs.


Oil pan resealed.


20V oil plate replaced with SQ Oil-filter Spacer Elimination Union.


Iron Phosphate treatment of brackets then to powder coating.


We decided that the heat from the powdercoating oven might compromise the rubber damper in the crank pulley, so we just used a rattle can on her.


The thermostat wasn’t replaced as it looked good. It’s a SARD 65°C unit (smaller too) rather than the 82°C OEM one. We would have used the OEM unit, but it didn't fit the waterline kit.

New SAMCO heater hoses.

Vacuum lines replaced.

Throttle bodies cleaned. New hardware installed. Thanks Sam Q!
Eww...


SQ throttle linkage installed with new and longer KE70 throttle cable. This linkage kit cleans up the area by routing the cable behind the engine and under the trottles instead of keeping it in the stock position over the cam cover.


IACV mounted to the engine. It used to just hang freely...


JSP Intake plenum test fitted.


BC WORKS intake brace. Another @bcworksdrift custom. Everyone has a gift and this man’s is welding.


Looking good!

[Serendipity]

Step 4: Baby gets a new ECU

Now that the engine is out, we thought it a good time to install the Haltech ECU and harness we got from Battle Garage.

Coil on plug (COP) conversion with SQ COP plate and distributor cap.


New OEM DENSO 1ZZ COPS. They needed to be sanded down a bit to fit the plug tubes.


Haltech Elite 750

Battle Garage Plug & Pray Haltech Harness


Ready to go back in!

[Serendipity]

Step 5: Steering column adjustments

Once the engine was back in, we still felt that there was too little space between the steering column and starter. As you can see, there's a possibility the u-joint could interfere with the starter during rotation. Keep in mind that the engine can also move to increase this interference.


A small engine mount spacer helped a little


In the end, we decided to modify the intermediate shaft and joint. Now there's much better clearance, AND we no longer have a ****ty looking intermediate shaft!

[davew]

Nice write up! Are you going to have to fab a custom exhaust header to over come clearance issues?
davew