Intercooler & Fender Bar Part 2

Turbo --> 2 to 2.5 inch coupler (not included in the Ebay intercooler kit) --> L-knee pipe, shortened about 50mm on the turbo side --> straight coupler --> about 160mm section of straight pipe --> 2.5 inch 90 deg silicone elbow --> intercooler inlet

Intercooler outlet --> 2.5 inch 90 deg silicone elbow --> L-knee pipe with BOV flange prewelded --> 2.5 inch 90 deg silicone elbow (not yet delivered, kit only has two elbow hoses) --> TB inlet.

Intercooler and Fender Bar Installation

Just learned that the Ebay intercooler is too big. Just for the record, the intercooler is 31" in length (inlet to outlet, not core size), 11.5" wide and 3" inlet diameter. It's not impossible to be installed but it would take more effort to put in than smaller ones. I learned from d1davey's blog that the best size should be around 510mm in length but i believe this is core size, not inlet to outlet length. I bought one of 520 x 240mm core size with the actual total length being around 680mm and i believe it's a perfect fit. Tonight we'll start the actual installation. I'll update this post with how it goes.

Meanwhile, the Ultra Racing AE86 fender bars are in! They fit nicely with only minor modification required (enlarging the bolt holes a bit and some light hammering on the frame). For the front mount, the nuts had to be welded from the inside of the frame. Just be careful when installing the door hinge part, you don't want to have to realign the doors. This really confirms how similar AE86 frame to Charmant.

The workshop i got this done has some interesting line of cars there. Ford Capri coupe, VW Dakota bus and this stunning Holden Belmont Ute. Talk about slammed!

Custom 4-Links Installation and Wheel Alignment

Last weekend, The Dog had finally got full spherical rod-end suspension links on her rear-end. After the installation of the lateral rod a few weeks ago, the 4-links were in. Everything went smoothly as planned, a sign that i did my measurements correct.

I decided to keep the stock diff angle for now so the custom 4-links were set to have the same lengths as the stock ones. With the Dog now lower than stock height, a diff angle adjustment should be in order.

Here's a comparison of the stock and custom link. The red Prothane bushings were only a few kilometers old but i'm swapping them anyway.

Here's the lower link installed.

Verdict? Except for the extra noise in the cabin, can't say that i notice any difference on normal driving. My previous polyurethane bushings were still new so that's expected. I wasn't surprised with the extra noise as metal is worse than rubber in damping differential noise. Anyway, albeit small, improvements are improvements. Let's see how long those rod-ends last.

Next was the pending wheel alignment. I changed my steering links months ago so i've been driving without proper wheel alignment ever since.

Usually, we can only adjust the toe and caster on Charmants but with the T3 plates, cambers are also adjustable on mine. I did a search on wheel alignments settings used by most AE86 owners and based on that decided to have mine something like this:

Front Toe: 0 deg

Front Camber: -2 deg

Front Caster: 3.5 deg

I left the rears as they were although with the 4 links, i can at least adjust the toe.

I learned later that i can only get to 2 deg of caster on the front. I already ran out of the threads on my strut rods so it couldn't be shifted further for more caster. I don't know why but maybe my RCA prevents the extra Caster.

Confused with the terms? Here's good depiction taken from Hayne's manual.

So why did i choose the preferred settings? A zero toe would guarantee my tires last longer, a moderate negative camber would help on cornering while minimizing impact on inner tire wear and finally maximum caster helps on straight highway drive as it stabilizes the steering better. Compare a Harley Davidson with Suzuki Hayabusa. The extra rake angle on the Harley helps to minimize move on straight roads compared to the sporty Hayabusa right? Well that's just about what extra caster do on your steering.

Here's the comparison before and after the alignment.

Notice what it says on the upper right corner? Yup AE86 P/S. The wheel alignment computer had no database for Charmants so i told the aligner to set it as Power Steering equipped AE86. Should be the same right?

Other than those, finally found the culprit of my cranking problem. It was the battery all along. Changed to new battery and starting the engine has never been easier. With this solved, i am confident that i can take The Dog to my workplace so i'll get to see her everyday.

Other than that, i also get to install some Hella horns in and fixed the door lock. It's the small things that makes the car more enjoyable to drive. The more minor problems you fix compared to the major ones, the more it tells you that your car's doing great.

Last thing, how about a new look on my OG Axis Oldskool wheels? Yeah, the Equip cap certainly helped to improve the looks, i'd say!

Ultra Racing AE86 Fender Bars & Work Equip Caps

Apart from the SLC DIY Wideband, these are on their way home: Ultra Racing Fender Bars & Work Equip wheel caps.

Why just the fender bars? I believe they're the most complicated and time consuming to fabricate on my own as they require me to remove the fenders before i can even start measuring to make the design. With very little time to work on The Dog, i prefer to buy pre-made fender bars. I will custom-made the other parts which would be the rear anti-roll bar, two-point front and three-point rear strut bars. Those should take just a day to fabricate and install, fender bars included. Heck, maybe i can even throw a front lower arm brace in. I think those should be enough to stiffen the front and rear parts. Contrary to what some believe, you can actually put too much bracings. Haven't decided what to use to strengthen the mid-section including the cabin. It could be a roll-cage or another set of bracings.

Anyway, i found a local distributor for Ultra Racing parts which gave me a good price on the fender bars. That's why i opted for the Malaysian-born chassis tuning parts. As can be seen below, they are actually for AE86, with part number UR-FD3-041.

but seeing that they fit KE70s..

i'm pretty sure also that they'll fit The Dog.

Not much to say about the Work Equip caps except that they're custom-made locally and will sit on top of my original Axis OG Oldskool wheel cap labels.

Drama on The Dog's First DCC Gathering

After two years since the project started on Mar 9th 2008, The Dog can finally come with me for her first gathering with fellow Daihatsu Charmant Community members! The gathering was held on a sunny Sunday, Mar 20th 2011 on Senayan Parking area. This was actually a small gathering to discuss the plans for DCC's 5th anniversary next month.

To be honest, The Dog seemed reluctant to join the gathering. She gave me all sorts of drama during the day. First, she refused to start after i stopped by an ATM. Starter motor seemed struggling hard to crank the engine. At first, i thought it was heat soak from the exhaust manifolds so i waited for it to cool off a bit. Crank it again, still struggling. Ffffffuu... Okay, this won't work. I won't bring The Dog to the gathering like this. I have to solve this first. Got a help from a few guys to push The Dog, shift to first gear with clutch on and once she had enough momentum, off with the clutch and there she goes. Definitely something with the power supply to the starter motor.

I quickly head off to the nearest auto-battery shop and told them the problem. They took their battery tester out, checked the voltage, told me to crank the starter, checked the voltage again and scratch their heads. "The battery's fine. Have you checked the starter?", they said. Well, it was the same starter i use on the old engine and it was fine before. So, i asked them if they have any ground cables. Luckily they do, well most battery shop has anyway, and i told them to put more ground cables to the engine block. Here's how the engine looks after.

Notice the bright green-yellow thick cables coming out from the battery? One goes attached to the front of the engine, near the cam gears cover and other one goes to the back. Once done, fingers crossed, turn the ignition key, crank and *vroom*. Wow it worked! I had been suspecting this for a while since i noticed the ground cables were too thin. I was focusing on other problems so didn't really find the time to fix it. Well, now that i have been forced to put the cables, i'm relieved that i did.

That's not the only problem she gave me. On the way to the gathering, i drove on a highway and she decided to act up again by giving me high temperature reading. This reallllyy started to piss me off as she never gave me this problem before. I tried to speed up hoping that the wind might cool off the radiator. It turned out making the matter worse. Fearing i might overheat the 4A-GE, i took the nearest exit and drove slowly to the gathering using alternate routes. Temperature refused to cool off but i decided to keep on going until i finally reached the gathering spot.

Let's stop the drama for a while and focus on the fun part, shall we? Obviously i was a bit late from the starting problem. A line up of beautiful Charmants had already parked on the gathering area. I quickly took my place and was greeted by the guys. Nourie told me to open the hood and took snapshots of my engine. "Finally you finished the car!", they said. Well, a project like this is never-ending but thanks guys! Here's some photos i took myself. Can you spot The Dog?

Quite a few interesting Charmants i saw on the gathering, some packing mods i wouldn't have thought of putting on The Dog but turned out quite well actually. Here's a taste.. How about an Autobot Police car?

or this internet/audio/GPS/Hello Kitty-packed Charmant?

I'll feature one of my favorites soon in another post.

As previously said, we discussed the plans for our next 5th anniversary next month. Some meeting spots have been selected and surveys will be done soon. Also we have some plans to make another batch of T-shirts. During the gathering, we also voted for the best Charmant in some categories like best engine, exterior, interior, etc. We aren't allowed to vote our own car so it should be fair, i guess. Winners will receive some goodies and parts for their Charmants and will be announced on the Anniversary gathering. After the discussion, we then continue to have lunch together before bidding farewell to each other.

Okay, back to the drama. During the gathering and also on the way home, the temperature remained high. I haven't installed my custom lateral rod so i decided to make a quick stop in an autoshop so that i can also check what's causing the high temperature. A quick analysis, i found out that the fan is not turning although the temperature is obviously above the thermoswitch threshold. I ruled out faulty thermoswitch as it's still new and working last week. Unplugged the cable going to the switch and the fan turned on instantly. Okay, fan is good also. Radiator is also brand new so that couldn't be the problem. Three things left to check: waterpump, faulty radiator cap and thermostat. I decided to replace the radiator cap in the shop and carry on to install the lateral rod. Here's the rod installed.

The rod went in easily so my measurements were correct after all. I didn't get to install the 4-links as the shop's about to close.

Anyway, new radiator cap. Let's see if this works. It's was only one or two kilometers drive to my house but it was definitely nerve-wrecking. Temperature's still hot! Arrived at home, turned the engine off, opened the bonnet and waited for the engine to cool off a bit. Opened the radiator cap and turned the engine on again, with ease this time thanks to the new ground cables. Peeked through the radiator cap hole and saw no water flow. Hmm.. this could be either the pump or the thermostat. Pump is less likely as it was okay last week. Decided to open up my remote thermostat housing, 10mm wrench should do it, and took the thermostat off. Went inside the house, mom helped me boil some water over the stove, throw the thermostat in and waited. Hmm.. boiling bubbles started to appear and thermostat remained closed. Waited another minute and still the same. Gotcha! Faulty thermostat! This explains also why my fan didn't turn on. If you checked my writeup previously, you'll see that water flows like this:

radiator --> thermoswitch --> thermostat --> engine

If the thermostat refused to open, thermoswitch will always be exposed to cool water and will never turn the fan on. It's only when the thermostat opens will the switch get hot water and activate the fan!

I was afraid that i have bent my cylinder head from overheating but seeing that there was no water bubbles coming from cylinder compression after i run the engine with no thermostat, it seems my 4A-GE is doing okay. This just goes to show how reliable 4A-GEs are. It ran for a day under high temperature and yet still smiling. I don't want to speak too soon so let's see later if it's still running well.

RX7 Brake Upgrade and Short Stroke Conversion Completed

Took a chance last weekend to fit all the stuff i've been fabricating for the last two weeks. Took only about three hours to fit them in as that's all the time i have. I did the conversion on Saturday and with my bus arriving in Jakarta late, the work's done in the afternoon. Sunday is out of the question as i had to bring The Dog to her very first gathering with Daihatsu Charmant Community members!

Everything went smoothly as planned. The only minor setback came from the short stroke strut hubs that was decided to be replaced with the old ones from the car. Since the short stroke hubs had already been machined fit the Civic rotor, the old hubs underwent the same treatment.

Some pics of the work in progress.. Comparison of the rear dampers..

Fitment of the rear RS*R springs and KYB Gas-A-Just dampers.

Preparing the "HKS purple" front struts for installation.

Installed.. You can reuse your old brake lines for the RX7 calipers. I will find time to upgrade the lines to steel braided ones later.

This one shows you how the spacers will later help clear the wheels from fouling the calipers.

Who's hiding in there.. Oh it's just you, my silly awesome FD caliper!

The 80 series Land Cruiser brake master cylinder upgrade comes next. Bench-bleed the BMC, bend some brake lines, check for air in the brake lines and you're done. This pic should give you an idea of how to bend the lines.

As you can see, you need to bend them quite a bit. Also, although the fluid reservoir is bigger than stock, you don't have to worry about space as the LC BMC is shorter. This will help you give the needed space to clear the strut tower. Here's the finished work. Looks sweet paired with my T3 camber plates.

Money shot. Comparison of the stance, before..

and after..

Sorry for the muddy tires but that's around 30-40mm lower. Not really shakotan-low but just perfect for me.

Comments after conversion? First thing i'd like to point out is the ride stiffness. I'm running 6kg front springs and 4.5kg rears and it's already stiff. I can't imagine how it feels for guys running higher combination like 8/6 or even 9/6. You guys must have kidneys made of steel! Anyway, let's see later how my combination serves my purpose.

As for the brake, they felt great. I'm not experiencing any off-balance between front and rear, squishy pedal nor unpredictability from it. It does feel a bit like the brake booster needs to be upgraded to cope with the larger cylinder diameter but it'll hold just fine for now.

With that done, The Dog has officially been pimped by..

LoL, i think i'm the first guy running Techno Toy Tuning parts here in Indonesia. Am i Gabe?

Custom 4-Links

Measurements will be shared later once i'm sure they fit. Being made from steel, i believe they're heavier than your aftermarket products but should do the job fine.

Spray-painting The Front Struts

Front struts + Metallic Violet Blue + Sandpaper + Bunch of help from co-workers = Instant sweet-looking suspension setup..

Pics don't do judge on how awesome my struts look now! Thanks guys!

I decided not to paint the calipers. Too risky. Might go with one of these poser covers instead.

or not..