Neil-h

Yeah you really do 👍

Think that’s an artefact of the HKS blower kit tbh. The Harrop kit pulls really nicely from 3k ish RPM in 5th (and is still reasonable in 6th) so overtaking stuff is no big deal. Also for what it’s worth (given your HKS blower is long dead), Cosworth/Harrop/Edelbrock all use off the shelf blowers from Eaton so the reliability is well proven across the automotive industry. Assuming it’s a factory turbo the TT is probably twin scroll, hence the nice response. Unfortunately (as far as I’m aware) there’s no one offering twin scroll kits for the GT86 at the moment as that could be a good way to go.

Sure the Harrop kit isn’t cheap but you can see where all the money goes in the quality of the engineering. I fitted mine myself and the ease it goes together shows just how much work Harrop put in during the design process. Then you’ve got the way it looks, as others have said already you honestly wouldn’t know it was after market. Going back to the OP, I’m getting around 33mpg on a gentle commute and down to 29 or so if making progress.

I’m using camber bolts as well. I did look at adjustable top mounts but they’re seriously expensive and only really necessary if you’re wanting more than 1-2 degrees of camber (or your going really low and want to get back to stock ish camber).

Hi Martin, nice to meet you to. It’s always good to put a face to a name, especially with the joys of lockdown. As for the Bilsteins, it’s hard to say too much from the run round the M25 but initial signs are promising. The ride is a bit firmer but not to the point of being uncomfortable, so that’s a good start. The other thing I’ve noticed is it feels a lot more focused now (the suspension that came off wasn’t hellishly worn but the new set feels tighter), so I’m really looking forward to going out for a proper drive to see what it’ll do.

That's good to hear Martin. I'm booked in in a couple of weeks to have a B12 kit fitted (plus the geometry bits etc you've listed) so hearing your throughts is reassuring. I wasn't to worried as reviews for other cars sounded promising but it's always nice to hear from someone with the same car. 👍

I'd echo this to be honest, i've got my car booked in for it's 5th year (minor) service and it's roughly half what you've been quoted by Toyota.

You can DIY the Harrop kit for a lot less if you’re half capable with a set of spanner’s. Have a look at the review I wrote at the end of lockdown 1 and see what you think (feel free to ask if you want more info on something).

Does anyone happen to know of a decent looking gauge pod for the GT86? I've been looking around for a while now and the best option i can find is the P3 vent gauge but I'd rather have analogue gauges if possible (I find they're better for spotting changes in measurments, i don't really need the accuracy/resolution of a numerical gauge). Ta.

Yeah i kinda crossed purposes slightly. Ultimately i'm looking for a complete gauge/pod setup but i can't find any decent looking gauge pods. The best looking solution i've found is the P3 vent gauge but at the same time i'm not really a fan of digital gauges.

Ah that'd be a problem, i'm one of the few strange creatures that doesn't have a facebook account. Have you got a link to somewhere that's not in a private facebook group?

Can you post a link? He’s got a website that turns up on Google but it doesn’t seem to work.

That’s a nice little mod, makes the third brake light look much neater. Where’d you buy it from?

Hi All, Back at the start of the lockdown I decided I needed a project to look forward to whilst working from home and I'd been toying with the idea fitting a turbo/supercharger for a while. Only problem was a i really fancied doing the installation work myself, so after some research (and a test drive in the Abbey demo car) I settled on ordering the Harrop supercharger kit from @Mark@Abbey M/S . Now it turns out that Abbey don't sell many of these kits for DIY fitment, so i figured I'd write up a bit of a review in the hope others might find it useful and may even have a go themselves in the future. Existing mods Prior to fitting the supercharger I'd had a TD manifold fitted and a remap by Abbey which took the car up to about 180bhp at the hubs and around 140ibft of torque. I’ve also fitted several cat backs ultimately settling on the TD super res. What's included? So for the money you get Harrops custom built manifold mated to an Eaton TVS1320 blower plus all the bits and pieces required to make it work on the car (including a special tool for reforming the A/C pipe around the supercharger). I have to say on unboxing the kit i was really quite impressed, it includes just about everything you need to get the job done. Complete with a signed off opy of the picking sheet when the kit was put together at Harrop so you can see someone's taken the time to put it all together and you can easily check it's all there. The only bit that wasn't included was the coolant for the charge cooler but that's not the end of the world as it's a standard GM coolant so you can get the anywhere. In addition Mark also provided; the loan of an EcuTEK programming cable and dongle, a base map to get the car running, distance mapping (more on that later) and a session on the dyno for final map tuning and a power run. The fitting process This is the bit i'd imagine will be most of interest to other as there's not an awful lot of info online about it. Now the first thing I must stress is much in the style of the Pirates code (see one of the Pirates of the Caribean films for the full reference), the instructions are really for guidance only. They'll point you in the right direction (usually getting you 95% of the way there) but there will be times where a little bit of thinking is required. Most of those moments centred more around the removal of the OEM items rather than the refitting of the new bits, which in all honest I kinda expected and it wasn't really that difficult. That being said Mark was always at the end of phone when I had bits i wasn't sure of. In terms of what was required to fit the kit, i did it over the course of a week with the front end in the air on a set of drive on ramps. If you're going to this way it's worth considering fitting the chargecooler/chargecooler pump/pipe work first (the instructions have it last). That way all the work from underneath is done before you start removing things like the fuel rails. Also it's worth following a bit of advice from one of the American forums and remove the undertray all the way back to the footwell, it's sods law you'll drop something and it will almost certainly land on that under tray. As for tools, the only specialist tools required were the former for bending the A/C pipe out of the way and that was included in the kit (it's worth making sure you have a substantial G clamp though as bending that pipe is hard work). Just about everything else can be done using a socket set and the odd screwdriver/allan key. The only minor issue i did find was that clearance between the TD manifold and the crank pulley was a bit tight, so we had to grind a little bit off the flange to fit the auxilliary belt. That and getting the fusebox apart to fit the chargecooler pump wiring but that's simply a case of trusting that it's more solid than you think. Once you're happy leavering things knowing what you can get away it comes apart fairly easily. Mapping Now the mapping process is something I've never really been involved in before so it was quite interesting. So Mark talked me through the initial process of connecting the EcuTEK software to the car and querying the ECU. He then sent over a base map which allowed me to get the car running and. From there it was a case of going out taking data logs starting keeping the car at low load/rpm initially then gradually increasing load/rpm as Mark tweaked the mapping till we got to a point where i could run it all through the rev range. This was the first point where the supercharger relay began to put a smile on my face, running it all the way through the rev range in third is really quite addictive. The way the torque just builds and builds is fantastic. After that i got the car booked in on the dyno for the final tune and a power run (the results of which are attached), the headline figures being approximately 240bhp (up 60bhp) and 200ibft or torque (also up around 60ibft). Conclusions to wrap up, i have to say i don't regret going down the DIY fitment route and i'd highly reccomend it to anyone that's half decent with a set of spanners. Fitting this kit really isn't all that complicated and the feeling of pride when you fire it up for the first time is just fantastic. That and of course you get a car at the end of it with some serious performance, the bit where it really comes alive is the the way it pulls through third/fourth/fifth. Where it used to run out of steam the car now just pulls like a train. With the added bonus that the fuel consumption hasn't taken to much of a hit, granted if you really press on then it drops quite quickly but on a gentle cruise i can still get 32-33mpg. I'd also just like to say a big thanks to Mark and the team at Abbey Motorsport. They were really helpful through out the process (Mark even delivered the kit personally after Parcel Force decided it was to heavy but didn't bother calling him to say so) and it was good to know that Mark was at the end of the phone should i need some advice. If anyone has any questions then fire away, i'm more than happy to help.

That sub box looks good. I’ll be interested to hear how you get in with it once it’s all up and running. I’m half tempted to do something similar with mine but I’m concerned it’ll end up costing a fortune in sounded deadening to stop the car rattling too much 😂

So I figured I’d do a little update on this given I’ve just collected the car from its first MOT after fitting the supercharger and it’s good news. It flew threw without a problem, even the emissions were well below the required level (which is impressive given its only got the main cat). A real credit to @Mark@Abbey M/S and his mapping skills.

What’s the quality of the Wisefab kit like? I’ve frequently found myself looking at the wide steering angle kit wishing I could justify the cost 😂

Think you’ll be surprised how little difference it makes tbh, especially in terms of the overall CoG of the vehicle. There was a bit of an argument on Pistonheads about it earlier in the week and one of the more knowledgeable posters made quite a good point. Although the boxer engine has a low CoG, the engine has to sit quite high in the bay to clear the chassis rails. So the overall CoG of the vehicle isn’t much lower than any other vehicle. By sticking a V8 In you should be able to get the engine lower and the Ls doesn’t have an awful lot of weight high up. So with any luck the overall CoG will be basically the same as when you started.

Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your outlook) I was working from home most of this week, so it’s hard to say but it doesn’t seem to run any warmer than it did before. Tbh I’d like to hope it’ll be fine given the kit was developed in Australia.

Fair enough. It’s just something to think about. I bought the Cobra non res catback on the same basis but in the long run I could’ve saved myself 4 or 500 quid quid just by going straight to the TD super res. The Cobra backbox is very small (and largely empty), so it starts It will always be a very loud system.

Are you planning on fitting an aftermarket manifold at any point? If so I’d highly recommend the TD resonated or super resonated system. On the factory manifold the non-resonated Cobra is fine (all be it a bit raspy) but if you go for a primary decat then it’s absurdly loud. Tbh even the resonated Cobra cat back is to loud if you do a lot of motorway driving, you get a really nasty resonance at around 3k rpm which becomes quite unpleasant over time.

It was actually one of the exhaust flanges that needed a bit grinding off. The TD manifold has a pipe that loops up at the front of the engine bay and it was the flange where that pipe meets the headers that was the problem.

Cheers Martin. To be honest it’s a testament to the design and the quality of the Harrop kit that it just bolts straight on so easily.

Indeed, I’m pretty sure you’re correct. Still find it surprising that I’ve added around 70ish bhp and can still get 32mpg.

On a related note, did you find that the original mapping made blipping the throttle difficult on downshifts?