smudge

Apologies for the long absence! Been a funny old year personally, meaning the car has been put on the back burner slightly... Now back in action with lots of things happening, so I'll try and get as much of an update in this post as I can remember! First and foremost, I finally got the newly built engine back from Rogue Motorsport after MANY issues with parts 🙄 Matt, Patrick and the team have been amazing! This project has tested the limits of their patience, yet they've still gone above and beyond to deliver the end product. It was then back to Carson Performance to put it all back together, using the existing parts that it was fitted with last time. Piece of cake, right? WRONG! Even the engine mounts which were EXACTLY the same for the old engine that went pop, didn't want to play ball and needed slight modifications to fit the new engine in place. Literally cannot catch a break.... The new intercooler that sits in the intake manifold under the supercharger, is made by the same company that make the intake manifold. So should be made to fit perfectly, right? Wrong again! Yet more slight modifications required. So yet again, stupid little things holding us back from getting this running. Like the water outlets for the intercooler fowling on the heater matrix water pipes. REALLY?! 😓 But, as always, Carson Performance have overcome every issue this project throws at them and made up some custom water pipes that are slightly shorter than the ones supplied, meaning it all fits into place nicely. Hopefully not too much longer now, but who knows what else this thing come up with to test us?

Been playing around the the grille in the front bumper, as I hate how the OEM one looks. Simply unclips from the bumper, before I started cutting out the middle to leave the edge. This way, I can fix the new grille into the surround and clip it back into place. Bought a few different style of mesh off eBay, but decided to go for a plastic hexagon style as it looks best and will be easy to plastic weld into the remaining surround. Waiting on the final piece to be delivered before finishing it off.

Installed the 5500K HID kit for the VLAND headlights today. Very pleased with the light output which is easily on par, if not better, than the OEM setup.

Yep, exactly what I'll be doing with mine. Just one large piece of felt to cover the entire shelf

Nope, not a fan of BGW's

Installed the Intec roof mounted brake light the other day. Had this sitting around for about 2 years so figured I'd do something during lockdown. Gives much better rear visibility for both the driver put the rear window and those behind you when braking, as it's a much larger and brighter unit.

Need to state a price please.

I haven't driven it properly in over 4 years, so I don't really miss it anymore 🤷‍♂️

Been a while since I updated this, also cleared out a load of chat so hopefully people can post replies in here again. All in all, very slow progress. Matt and the team at Rogue Motorsport have had my engine for a few months and been nothing short of amazing. But as usual, it's been 1 step forward, 2 steps back... Originally, the block we had came back from the machine shop with pitting inside 3 of the bores. So was deemed scrap as it sat below the 1st oil ring. Another block was sourced, but was no good on the tolerances when we measured it up against the pistons. So I decided to stop trying to piece parts together and get ANOTHER complete engine. My 4th V8 in total! It was sold to me as only having 44k miles on it, and after stripping it down, that seemed to be true as everything inside looked brand new. Matt got measuring again and the internals that we'd already had balanced up were perfect fitment, so the bottom end is all looking good for once. Unfortunately, the work I had done on the heads was below par. The seats and valves had a lot of rough edges and it seems that the new guides are also not fitting properly for some reason. Waiting for Matt to give me a full breakdown when he gets a chance to go back into the workshop sometime next week, as Rogue have closed down during this quarantine period as many other businesses have. I'm the meantime, I've been researching the best setup for the VLAND headlights as I think they give the front end a much nicer look over the OEM lights. Only issue being, they are compatible with the OEM xenon setup, which means I need to swap over the OEM ballast and xenon system into the new VLAND headlights. After much deliberation, I decided I don't want to be left with just a shell of an OEM headlight, so I've opted for a separate xenon system specially designed for the GT86 with VLAND headlights. Coming all the way from Canada, I'll do a full write up on the system next week when it arrives. Test fitted the lights this morning to see how they look, and I'm very happy with the overall result and fitment! Gives the front end a more modern look with the black housing.

SOLD

SOLD pending collection

Priced reduced to £375

Pair of 1mm thick aluminium covers to hide the unsightly ABS system and fuse box cover in the engine bay. Fits all models of GT86 and BRZ with a simple clip to hold it in place and foam padding underneath to prevent any knocking or damage. Installation takes 2 minutes and gives the engine bay a much cleaner look. £90 collected (either from me directly or at any of the big shows such as Japfest) or £95 delivered to mainland UK for raw aluminium. Matte black and other colours are £20 extra to cover powder coating costs. Will soon be looking into getting lettering and logos laser cut if there's the market for that? Throw me some ideas as to what you'd want on your set and I can see what's doable 👍

Bump

Haven't got a ticket yet but I'll be there