I almost finished my outlet pipe:







now all I need to do is drill a hole and weld on the pipe that suits the thermostat bypass water. It turned out better than expected and fits on the engine real nice (pic soon). I cut the flange myself, used a peice of bent pipe from a truck mirror mount welded to a peice of exhaust that I machined grooves into to seal the water. The outlet on the head was an oval shape so I welded on one pipe and then used a second peice welded on on an angle to cover the hole and provide unrestricted water flow, this was not an easy job but turned out good enough.







Now a question for the ae-86 gurus who read this:

-What is the stock redline cutoff?

-whats a place that the body bends in an adverse way to handling? apart from the strut towers?

[Updated on: Thu, 17 November 2005 14:26]

I also finished my custom altrnator bracket:











I used the tensioner off a ST-141 Corona and used a 90 degree angle that bolts to the far left extractor mount bolt. The only mods I did to the tensioner is a welded nut to the end of it for easy adjustment. It looks a bit crude but is very light, simple, looks factory and should work really well. I also bolted the alternator up from the reverse side. When I made the lower mount I used a few washers to simulate the width of the engine mount that it would have to fit over, so when I put it together it should go together nicely.

[Updated on: Thu, 17 November 2005 14:30]

[Updated on: Mon, 21 March 2005 06:14]

Heres a pic of how I modified my diff housing. People before me have used bolt on "traction brackets" which I think is a bit of a dodgy and expensive pair of parts to add to a car. I instead did something that's still crude but lighter, stronger and more subtle, no rice. Heres a low quality pic:




Its not hard to see what I did, I cut the original mounts off my Sprinter diff and modified the new diff welding them on the bottom of the original brackets, basicly doubling them up. I admit it's really rough but it works. Although I will never be able to say for sure it certainly seems that it has made a big difference. Before I used to spin my wheels going out from the top of my street real easy and now it just grips. Awesome mod for anyone who is into handling (drifters excluded).


Right now I am considering moving the top mounts also and using a custom curved set of upper arms to stop it hitting the diff housing, I dont know if this will do anything though, anyone know?

[Updated on: Thu, 17 November 2005 14:40]

I managed to take some good pictures, this time a proper one of my custom diff housing:



here the extended brackets can be seen, I didnt grind the welds flush for strength reasons, this is one thing I can let go during a high speed corner. The braided line comes off the caliper and goes under the spring seat. The mounts are also visable and its obvious that I have just chopped the original corolla ones and welded them on. Also of note is how close the trailing arm goes to the handbrake mechinism. This is why I am going to have to put stroke limiting rods in before I refit my adjustable Commodor shocks.

[Updated on: Thu, 17 November 2005 14:44]

The other side and end of the diff showing how the braided line joins on the original metal line which was shortened.

[Updated on: Thu, 17 November 2005 14:47]

Managed install my custom king springs in the back, their a little low so I am going to fit some rubber spacers to lift it a little.

I also did do some work to my new exhuast with the help of Kev (phrostbyte), him holding the muffler in position made things increadibly easier. This time I did things even better there isn't a single burr, welding bubble, nick, pit or step in the whole system. Looking down inside it all that can be seen are lines where the pipes join and that's it, this is why I do this stuff myself. I also took to the inside edge near the exit of the stainless muffler because it had a burr and I took that right down, overkill maybe but hell I do it because I can. I took special care to make it hug the body really close and I made it so that if I took my springs and bump stops out the diff still can't hit the thing, well thats the plan anyway..


Heres a half way pic:



theres 8 peices right there and while it looks so simple it sure isn't. Anyhow I am happy with how it's turning out and how it sits in there. I had to stop because I didnt have a resonator to weld in and I needed it to continue. I will order the longest one I can because there's a suprisingly large amount of room under there for one and I will make sure that it's very close to the body because otherwise it will cop a bashing. I as for the flanges and mounts I will add them last.

[Updated on: Thu, 17 November 2005 14:56]

Here's another project from a while back:


What this is is a setup to have a fully modular rear sound system. This photo was taken when I had my passenger side parcel shelf removed just before I replaced it. The theory behind this one is that I want to have rear speakers and a small subbie but I want to be able to remove them in under a minute to fit my bike in if I want to do so. So I went for this system that uses plugs for everything. The Parcel shelf will unclip physically and the wires all unplug in moments, heres what I used to do it:



These are as follows:

[Power + ].........[]........[Power - ]
[R speaker]...[cables]...[L speaker]

In my hand is the connection for the RCA inputs into my amplifier and also the remote power on for it. The fork lug on the end of the remote wire stays in the amp and when I want uplug it it's done at the red RCA plug and socket in the middle of the lead. The Sub-box has the amp screwed to it and are obviously removed together. The amp has 2 short leads also permenently wired in for power and both of those have bannana plugs attached to the end so even the power is able to be unplugged, also bannana plugs by nature allow a decent amount of current to pass through them, I chose gold plated models to help further.



heres how it looks when its pulled out from the inside:




I did however end up shortening the ground wire and it was joined to the body as close as possible. I drilled a hole though the metal seat mount support and sanded it back to have good contact.

[Updated on: Thu, 17 November 2005 15:00]