Ade

Foliatec it was about the highest temp paint I could find! 300C. That was after a few trackdays. The issue of the floating bit of the caliper. It has a larger surface area that conducts heat from the pad very effectivley, so it gets very hot. You can see at the back where the piston is touching the pad, the paint survived. Also RIP to the red rubber grease used on the slider pins.

Oh nice

Its a proportional thing. The Cosworth Kit runs +15C over ambient on track. The cooling system is specified for 380hp, hence being so low iat. The smaller pulley adds 0.1bar boost, raising it to 0.6Bar of boost. ~20hp. Its so small that you are hard pressed to see the difference in intake temps. Running 380hp would mean 1bar boost and +30C intake temps, roughly doubling them over the normal stage 2 setup. On the whine, since adding the smaller pulley mine has a subtle whine. With the normal pulley that comes with the kit, it wasn't noticeable for me even with stock exhaust. The Edlebrock and Harrop spin slower and unlikely to whine. On the issue of rods. Even the few rods the guys at Cosworth tested would work at cylinder pressures that would be approaching 350hp, but then they used their data from OEMs to set the 280hp point to allow for manufacturing tolerance. In essence if you tested a large number of rods from multiple batches, you would get a normal distribution around the mean strength. The way you set the power, is such that the probability of one failing is within acceptable limits. e.g. had they set it at 320hp, they might have found 1 in 10 cars eventually would fail. Unacceptable and dial it back until the probability of failure is lower. On top of that, if they ran the car at the max pressure the rods could take and somehow it develops knock bye bye rods. So setting it at 280hp gives headroom taking into account all the variables in manufacture and possible failure modes when installing or tuning the kit. This is why OEMs make stock rods that a typically capable of much more than stock power... typically. A dodgy Friday afternoon batch with a massive crack inside might not handle 190hp... So yes you can take a gamble and run 350hp but there are plenty of blown FA20s on less power than that on the ft86club.

TD systems are made by JP exhausts

Id say so

Greenlight was expensive for me (£508 iirc) , but £45 trackday cover was nice. Now with A flux and costs about £300 So my 3 year old stock GT86 was £200 to insure for a year. When I added all the mods it when up to ~£300 Interestingly I added all the mods before adding the SC, so I added suspension, brakes, exhaust and engine changes. When I phoned up to add the SC it reduced the cost by about £30! The lady on the phone put me on hold to talk to her manager as she thought it was a bit odd too! So I got a refund 🤣

The state of my leaking caliper when I switch to BBK

Be warned with the HC800+ they can squeal. #becauseracecar I struggled to fade them but I got really fast wear. They lasted two trackdays for me and covered my OEM wheels with a nice sprinkle of iron particles which etched into the lacquer. They are good pads but if you a reasonably hard on brakes, you might be better having a set of track pads and a set of raod pads, which will be cheaper in the long run and give you a nice road experience. Edit Evidence: The white sulfur is from high wear/fade (though as mentioned the stopping power was always spretty good on a stock car with primacies)

This is shocking. I actually had no idea the oem brembos were bad. A few have used them without trouble. OEM will likely be one of the well know suppliers. My Merc it was Pagid OEM, which euro car parts sell for the GT86. Fensport have oem discs for £140 front and £120 rear. That's pretty cheap! I know what you meant mate I was just playing devils advocate

No it should have plenty of clearance. Its either not fitted correctly or its been made poorly. Not the best pick but my 2.75" system has about 30mm gap at least

I have the read subframe insert to remove some slop. I liked it as an upgrade it seemed to improve rear grip. I also installed the gearbox "positive shift" which was nice. It removed the sloppiness from when the gearbox mounts got hot on trackdays but be warned in the first two gears a fair amount of gearbox whine gets into the cabin, so if you have a stock exhaust it could be very annoying. I haven't done the diff bushes. Partly because I believe the slop helps reduce strain on the gearbox and partly because diff whine can be an issue after going in cars with them fitted. For once I agree with @church 😂 better gear oil is also helpful in making it feel more slick.

Sounds like they arnt OEM equivalent then!

Yes on thing I miss off my list of BBK pros was the brake feel. Although I am convinced you can make the stock sized brakes work even for Lewis Hamilton with the right discs/pads. One thing you wont have is the rock solid pedal you get with a BBK lap after lap. The stock floating caliper is prone to flex and also on a BBK with big discs, the pistons are much smaller meaning the pressure you actually put on the disc via the pad is lower, that plus the caliper is a two piece bolted and quite rigid. The result is rock hard pedal as long as the pads dont fade/melt. Even after 3 years mine still impress me so much. My advice with anyone starting out is to try the stock disc with a decent pad and see how you get on. It will become clear if the stock setup is limiting in some way. @church heat kills the piston seals too as well as the dust boots. As I said mine started leaking. Contis are one of my favorite road tyres, but they get hot and wear very quick at the track. I would have had them over the PS4 if I was certain I wouldn't use them on track.

I did some measurements a few years back on mine as the battery would be dead after a couple weeks from new and after a few years it would even last a week. Static current draw was less than 100mA after stopping the engine and after a while went down very low. I forget the actual numbers but the maths would suggest a 45Ah batter should last months. So I pulled the battery and did a capacity test. My 3 year old GT86 with about 12k miles the battery had a capacity of about 5Ah iirc. I believe, that the Panasonic batteries where low on capacity from the factory. I now have an 75Ah AGM battery due to having a high power stereo. I cost about £100

I really like the HKS Spec-L. Its very nicely engineered being one of very very few to incorporate a large Helmholtz resonator. to work at lower rpms. I didnt go for it because they are still a bit loud for my requirements.

It was always between the cosworth/Nameless and the H&S for sound. H&S is a bit deeper.

Two piece bolted discs with aluminum bells seem to hold up fine. Many OEMs come with such discs such as Nissan GTR and AMG Mercedes ect..... but at all use calipers designed to run through the winter.... Not race calipers.

Here is my take on this. Firstly I believe it is a myth that inexperienced drivers that brake early are the one overheating their brakes. The faster you go the more kinetic energy goes into the brakes. If you over brake and take the corner slowly you'll be going slower at the end the straight ect. Some people are faster than other and that's a fact. Some will struggle to fade DS2500 others will fade them in one lap ect... Jeff is correct you don need a BBK to track a GT86. Proper race pads that work best when the disc is glowing will give you fade free performance for ~20min track sessions. TMG racecars used to run Project Mu999 then switched to carbotech for long disc life until they eventually fitted Alcon brake kits. I ran project Mu Racer 999 which are not the best race pad by any means but they didnt fade after 30minute at bedford on a supercharged car. However there are drawbacks: 1) Disc wear was high. I took 25% of the disc life in one trackday. 2) They are not road friendly at all; screeching, grinding and poor bite at low temp. So you have to switch pads out. 3) The high temperature can damage the piston seals in the caliper meaning they need rebuilding more often; one of my calipers was leaking after the bedford trackday 4) Even if the caliper doesnt leak, the dust boots will get burned up, exposing the steel piston to road salt leading to eventual seizing. 5) you might have to use race fluid which needs changing more often So I fitted a 355mm x 32mm 6 pot AP kit so I could run soft road friendly pads on road or track and never worry about reliability as the disc never goes much beyond 350C. Its a choice I made for convenience. Does it stop faster than stock caliper and Project mu 999? Not a chance. In the early 90s the 600+HP 230+mph Mclaren F1 came with 330mmx28mm discs. It also came with race pads and if you watch some of the youtube videos you will find they screech like buggery. They also dont hold up very long on track. Now you buy a £1M hypercar and they come with 400+mm ceramic brakes with 8 pot calipers and you can drive on road or track and never worry and they are super quiet and work in cold conditions. Racecars use race calipers and use the smallest, lightest disc they can get away with. Different kettle of fish and not recommend for UK winter driving. Yes Church lack of dust boot mean salt ingress and your steel pistons will eventually seize or become pitted and leak. A the end of the day it choice of convenience but my goal was a car I could drive on road or track and it will handle it in it stride.

+1 for Holts tyre weld. Its what I have had in the car since changing wheels/brakes and adding a sub in the boot. Never had to use it to say if its any good and reviews are mixed, but no other (realistic) option.

I designed the Helmholtz chambers to kill noise in the 2-4k region. My main issue was wot on the wotorway in 6th gear. They reduced noise at 3k by about 10dB. Regarding aero. I haven't got a sausage but I like the noise. A bigger bore cat back can gain you 10-15hp on a supercharged car. Stock one is quite restrictive with forced induction. It doesn't look very stock though with the big twin Y silencers on the back. Their standard prices are using the stock tips. You can spec your own if you want with H&S.

I wouldnt recommend K sport. I think both Keith's had issues with the K sport kits. Regarding BBK weight, even my 355x32mm discs and 6 piston calipers is lighter than the stock (though not much iirc).

Well the kit is put together and tested by Essex which are an america distributor for AP Racing. You cant buy a competition kit for the GT86 from AP in the UK as far as im aware. However Reyland would be able to make you one if you spec it out but then it wouldnt be a tried and tested setup, though risks are low if you know what you are donig with piston sizes and disc spec ect. Peter Collen can help with that.

Another thing to note about these BBKs, especially the ones moving bias forward; that may be a good thing. Stock suspension with Mitchellin primacies will not product the same forward weight transfer under braking as for example, my car with a supercharger (+20kg in the engine bay), Ohlins, and 235 wide AD08R tyres. Certainly @DanJ hasnt had a problem on the full impreza brembo setup and he is pretty quick on the track too.

Peter Collen (of AP racing) is a fountain of knowledge when it comes to picking AP racing parts. Thanks for acknowledging me @will300 I spoke to Martin Hadland about the CP9200 kit about 4 years ago before the CP9200 was out but I knew it was in development and a replacement to the CP5200. Ultimately I decided I wanted a bigger 355mm disc because I am supercharged and wanted to run soft street friendly pads. Otherwise the Reyland kit with the CP9200 is the best 330mm kit for the 86 if you want road and track use. The Essex parts kits are excellent competition kits but the calipers wont last very well in your winter road conditions. So if you want a 330mm disc for road and track: Reyland 330mm CP9200 If you want a racing brake setup that can handle race pads without killing the caliper, but not a good idea for the road; Essex Endurance kit.

It sounds like your cam is getting stuck or there is a problem with the sensor. Have you got an oil pressure gauge? The cams are controlled by oil pressure and an actuator that can fail.