HKS Copy AE86 Cast Turbo Exhaust Manifold

Finally ditched the idea of using 1NZ-FE manifold and went with something that will just work. I found out from the measurements that while the second and third 4A-GE exhaust ports matched with the 1NZ-FE's, the first and fourth ports are spaced so wide that about 10-15% of the area will be blocked. It could be solved by grinding the manifold ports about 5mm to the sides but decided it's not worth the trouble. Here's what i meant.

With 4A-GE cylinder head exhaust port being smaller than 1NZ-FE's manifold ports, 35 vs 40mm, there's a bit more tolerance for port-to-port spacing. However, it only goes to an extent and caused the 1st and 4th port to be slightly eclipsed by the manifold shown by the shaded areas.

Decided that it's not worth risking the flow of the exhaust gas with the 1NZ-FE, i went with one that is actually for 4A-GEs. Ebay went to the rescue once again and just today i bought the infamous HKS copy cast turbo manifold for AE86 there, pictured above. They come with T25 flange which should fit my turbo perfectly. Somebody already did a good review on it and so i will just shamelessly copy it here.

Pros: Fits pretty decent, cast manifold, brutally reliable.. Top mount so everyone can see your cool turbo in ya face!! If you got the guts for it, you can put on a t25/t3 adapter and bolt up a t3/t4 and it can stick out the hood and you can make a functional hood scoop. :)

Cons: Top mount causes turbine housing to be too close to the brake booster where eventually the heat will shred the diaphram and cook the fluid in your brake booster YAY. Also causes the downpipe to have a sharp angle and its difficult to route a big downpipe with this setup. These were made originally to be on a right hand drive JDM car. Forces the oil return line to be pretty much right on the exhaust manifold.

Improvements: Angle the turbo slightly with the compressor pointed away from the block to get the downpipe and the turbine housing a bit of room away from the brake assembly. Angle the pipes downward to allow larger turbos to be mounted up without cooking the paint off the hood.

Verdict: Its a buy, it does what its supposed to do, just needs some cleanup as far as spacing and such. Actually its reported that the HKS and knockoff cast exhaust manifolds make some of the best hp around if you can just get the thing fabbed in correctly. I know a considerable amount of people who just gave up on the darn thing because it was hard to make a downpipe fit.

Glad with the fact that The Dog is RHD so the cons mentioning brake booster doesn't apply to me. The sharp angle downpipe still applies though. I already imagined that those Megasquirt relays on my firewall will have to be relocated.

This pic that i got from here shows you the downpipe angle view. Yup.. those relays will have to move somewhere else.

Just how exactly do you execute the suggested improvements mentioned above? Here's one way to do it, also taken from the same page.

With that purchased, a Blow-off Valve, turbo MAP sensor, intercooler and plumbing are next on the shopping list. I wonder if those Ebay universal intercooler piping kit has enough pipes for my Charmant?

Non-exhaustive Exhaust System Build

Having only extractor flowing exhaust gas out of her revving 4A-GE, The Dog badly needed a full exhaust system. Last Sunday, i drove her to the exhaust workshop after having made an appointment the day before. My goal was to keep the extractor so the builder need only to make the extractor-back system. Told them i don't mind having a bit of noise as long as the exhaust flow are kept optimum. Hence, these are the stuff they will be putting in.
Two mini-mufflers, one flexible joint and a stainless steel tail pipe. I don't know much about exhaust systems so i may get the names wrong there. The mufflers don't look pretty also but i can't complain since i am only charged 100 bucks for the full build. Besides, they're willing to give a full year warranty for their work. Notice the slanted tip on the tail pipe? I decided to cut it down to a right-angle later.

Here's the builder earning his pay.

Seeing this guy at work is like watching an artwork in progress. He uses no measuring tapes, no angle ruler, all done only by memory and a piece of chalk to mark some spots. One thing i learned from the build work was how to bend pipes without flattening them out. Here's one sample of pipe bending using a roller.

Overall, the whole build process only took about two hours. Surprised that it was so quick considering that most of the work is done only by one guy. Anyway, here are the result pics. Notice that the tip on the tail pipe is no longer slanted. Just the way i like it!

I tried to make before-after build videos just so you can hear the difference but i don't think the sound quality is good enough. Maybe it's the mic on my phone. Nevertheless, here are the comparison video.

Before..

After..

Loving how she sounds now! She's somewhat subtle on idle yet roars on throttle.
After this, i need to get her back to the Megasquirt workshop to get her final tune.Will have to find some time to fly back to Jakarta again soon! By the way, i also just made the purchase for the technotoytuning suspension bits i planned earlier. I guess i am going short stroke conversion after all! All i am left to find for the suspension are the front and rear dampers. I am currently eyeing on a set of used TRD Blue rear shocks for sale locally. Maybe i'll go check the stuff later in Jakarta.

SHE'S ALIVE!

Never expected this day would come so soon but.. SHE'S ALIVE! Finally The Dog gets her first 4A-GE treatment!

Visited the workshop last night and honestly didn't expect to get to see the engine started and running but i first thing i saw last night was this..

Custom made fuel-system rig. You've got the mini tank, fuel filter and pump there along with the supply and return line. I'd like to make me one of those! It would surely make troubleshooting fuel system easier.

Some more shots i made last night. Click to enlarge. First is the Megasquirt.

Second pic is another good news, the extractor fits! 35 bucks and it fits. Sure have saved some money there. Now, i only got the extractor there. No downpipes, muffler, tail pipes etc so she's a bit loud but i decided to get the exhaust in another workshop so she'll have to hang on to that for now.

I finally got to peek under the car clearly for the first time as she was on the car lift. Here you can see how very close my extractor is to the clutch slave cylinder. The clutch line needs some tidying up. Last thing i want is to boil the clutch hydraulics while i am cruising. If you're confused with the picture, i took it from under the passenger's floor facing front. You can identify the PS rack too under the extractor there.

And finally here's the money shot. Be warned though, as i mentioned in my earlier post, this workshop only works at night so you have to excuse the lack of proper lighting on the video. By the way, this would be the first video of The Dog on the blog!

Still got some tidying up to do before she can finally hit the road and move to the exhaust workshop. By the way, the workshop decided to pull a new bigger diameter fuel supply line. They thought it was too small and would risk starving the engine. As for the return line, they would use the original supply line. So i would left with one line unused, the original return line. I am glad that they made the decision. Who knows i would upgrade the engine one day. This way, i would always be certain that the fuel lines are up to the job. Here's the pipe they'll be using for the new line.

So what's next? Obviously the exhaust system. I also need to start hunting for the short-stroke conversion suspension parts and find me someone that can put the T-series axle in.

Jumpstarting The Project

Finally, after months of hibernating, this project gets its long awaited jumpstart. My reason of neglecting this project is classic cliché: busy with work. Hey, if you can pay someone else to do the job while saving a little extra cash for you, why not?

Anyway, as it was last year, i get to go back home for Christmas last week. With work easing up a bit, i decided that it's time get the project rolling again. The project halted when i was working on the ECU and engine wiring. Now realizing that it's impossible for me to wire them myself and finish in time before i get bored, i decided to let the expert do the work. Only this time, i add a little twist..

Meet Megasquirt. Megasquirt is basically a DIY fully-programmable standalone ECU system developed by Bruce Bowling and Al Grippo. I won't bore you with the details but the i can tell you that Megasquirt obeys the "DIY equals cheap" golden rule. You'll pay only a fraction of any other branded aftermarket standalone ECUs not unlike AEM, Haltech, EMS, etc. But in my case, it won't be DIY by me. I am paying someone else to do it. I don't want to repeat the same mistake of neglecting the project due to business.

(image courtesy of Bowling and Grippo)

There were two options for me when i wanted to kick start the project again. First one is to get someone to wire the stock ECU and the second is of course Megasquirt. First option is much cheaper but then i thought why not shell-out extra money and future-proof The Dog. By future-proof i mean that if someday i want to upgrade the engine performance, Megasquirt is there to fine tune to my needs, be it N/A or Forced Induction upgrade.

The workshop where The Dog hibernated previously had no experience building Megasquirt so it was necessary for me to move it to some place else. If you're an Indonesian car lover and familiar with Megasquirt, surely you know where my destination was. I won't disclose the new workshop name yet until i can say that i am satisfied with their work.

Anyway, here's some pics of The Dog moving to the new workshop. Final payments were made to the old workshop and using their towing service, The Dog was moved.

The workshop seems unappealing to me at first but then i smack myself on the head and realized that this workshop belongs to a guy who has installed dozens of self-built Megasquirt himself. Not only that, the workshop is known by turbocharger freaks and the likes as usually this is where they go when they have forced-induction problem.

So there you go. The Dog project is rolling again now and hopefully progress will be much faster now that its in the hands of someone with better knowledge of injection systems.

Another thing i did for The Dog during my Christmas holiday is extractor hunt. As you know, i am still short of 4AGE RWD exhaust system for The Dog and with Megasquirt coming in soon, i will too need to get an exhaust system so that the engine can be started.

There were three options for me. First, the new workshop can built me a full exhaust system themselves. However, they're charging me premium for it since they're using full stainless steel pipes. These pipes will last forever hence the premium price behind them. Second option would be just to get me a set of extractors first. That way i can get the engine running, albeit with loud noise, and move the car to a cheaper exhaust system workshop. Third option would be to hire a towing service (again), move it to the exhaust workshop, tow it again and put it back to the Megasquire workshop. Doesn't sound to efficient for me.

I saw an ad for used RWD-mounted 4AGE extractors a few months ago but didn't get the chance to see the stuff myself. Luckily, the item was still available when i asked the seller a few days ago and it's cheap! However, it's built for KE70 so i can't be 100% sure if it'll fit my Charmant. My biggest worry would be from firewall and starter motor clearance. But since it's very cheap, i decided to buy it anyway. Here it is.

It turned out that the KE70's 4AGE had a similar transmission as mine which is the T50 coming from a Charmant. What this means is that the starter motor is placed on the same position. One less thing to worry about. Now as for the firewall clearance, i have yet to find out as i didn't get the chance to deliver the extractors to the new workshop. Dad will have to help me get it there. Crossing my finger here.

Anyway, i have decided that if the extractors don't fit, i'll pay the premium and let the workshop built me a custom stainless steel exhaust system.

So there you go.. The project's now running again with a slight change of direction but it's nearing the end nevertheless. Wish me luck!