- Engine swaps are one of the easiest ways to extract more power from a certain chassis
but when it comes to performing an engine swap on a late model car, sometimes things
aren't quite as easy as you first think.
We're here with Brian from Unicorn Garage and behind me is Ryan Tuerk's Toyota 86,
fitted with a Ferrari 458 engine, the 4586.
So we're going to find out a little bit more about what's involved in this engine swap.
So Brian for a start, putting a 458 engine into a Toyota 86, not the most common
engine swap probably fair to say.
What was the sort of impetus behind that decision?
- It was about doing something unique and different in the industry and we wanted
something to showcase our abilities.
And we thought why not put something so rare into a chassis that Ryan's
so familiar with?
- Well there's no doubt it's certainly stood out and it's made a big impact on
social media.
Also fair to say the thing does sound pretty amazing, particularly with those
open headers.
Now one of the things with drifting we have seen over the last few years though
is the power figures that the professional drifters are using is continuing to climb.
And around that 1000 horsepower mark seems pretty normal along with Ryan's
pro drift car, you're not going to get anywhere near that with a 4.5 litre V8
naturally aspirated, what is is currently making give or take?
- It makes about 500 horsepower at the wheels.
- Now is that a problem for Ryan when he's used to more like double that power?
- No we set the car up for the horsepower and he manages 'cause, professional driver.
- Now obviously fitting the engine, the mechanical side of that is just
what it is, you've got to fit the engine into the chassis.
There's some problems with the 458 engine, particularly with that inlet
manifold being so large but aside from that, once you've actually got the engine fitted,
I just want to talk about the electronics side of things there.
So the complexity with late model cars is a lot of their electronics modules in the car
rely on communications between the factory ECU, so we remove that and all of a
sudden that communication isn't there.
So for example air conditioning, ABS, maybe the gauge cluster doesn't work
anymore so how is it possible to get around that?
Obviously in a purpose built drift car, not such an issue but if you were doing
this swap for a daily driven road car, how can that be dealt with?
- You're going to have to get into the CAN bus of the system and modern electronics
in cars rely on CAN bus to deliver the communication between the different
systems as you mentioned, power steering, ABS, gauge cluster, ECU,
to have everything working in harmony with less wires and things like that to get the
job done.
- So in this case that CAN bus you've mentioned there, it's a two wire bus
that basically runs around the car and all of the messages between those different
electronic modules are included on that CAN bus so as soon as we remove the
factory Toyota ECU to do an engine swap, some of those messages are interrupted.
So can you tell us about the ECU fitted to the car first of all?
- It has a MoTeC M142.
- OK so that ECU is one of MoTeC's newer M1 range, the 142 is designed for
direct injection but the tricky part with this is that it's possible for the M1 ECU to
replicate those CAN messages and in particular using a slightly modified
package here, this isn't a MoTeC package, can you tell us about the firmware that
the ECU is running?
- Yeah it has a John Reed Racing firmware package.
I built the looms for this car and I've known John for many years and actually worked
out of the same facility as him and we were able to work together and get everything
done that we needed to do and in the process of him making the firmware,
he made it where you could swap this into a stock 86 and have the A/C
and power steering and ABS and everything work even though it's probably not an
engine swap you'll see every day.
- So that's basically, within his custom firmware here, he's just replicated all
of those CAN messages that would keep all of those factory electronic components happy
and functioning as normal?
- Yes that's correct.
- Now let's talk about the rest of the package in this car.
So what's the gearbox backing that engine?
- It is a Fortin five speed sequential.
- With sequential gearboxes, often incorporate their flat shift with a dog
engagement gearbox, you don't necessarily have to use the clutch to upshift,
you can stay flat on the throttle, but in order to do that,
that requires some intervention from the ECU to let the dogs unload.
So can you tell us how that's being done in the Fortin transmission?
- The Fortin transmission has a remote shifter and it actually has a potentiometer
on the shifter that notices the rotation of the shifter, it's a little bit of a different
solution that we're used to, I'm usually using a strain gauge that will feel the
weight of the shifter pull by the driver and then implement a cut in the ECU to unload
the dogs and make the shift happen.
- So do you see the potentiometer being an advantage or an improvement over a strain
gauge or is it a bit of a disadvantage in this car?
- It's not how we normally would do it and it seems a little slow so in a
competition format we would put a proper strain gauge in, for what this thing
does, it works OK and it came with the shifter that we purchased so we just
moved forward.
- And again this isn't Ryan's pro competition car so it's close enough to get the job done?
- Yeah it's more for him to sound cool on the way in.
Same thing that we have anti lag on the car but it's an NA car just so it does a lot of pops
and bangs and things off throttle.
I think it's fair to say that that is all part of the spectacle of drifting,
it's what everyone's come to expect.
Now just coming back to the power level of the engine, again we've mentioned 4.5 litre
V8, not the most powerful engine in the world and you have added nitrous to
the engine, can you talk us through that nitrous system?
- So being a five speed, the torque band of the engine was fairly narrow.
So he'd find himself in a position on the engine that it wouldn't want to blow the
tires off so easily so we decided to fit a nitrous kit just to fill the middle of the
engine to make it feel like it has more torque than it really does or add the
torque that we needed in some places.
We ran it to the top but it makes such good power from seven to nine that we didn't
really need it there.
- So you could really refer to it as anti lag for a naturally aspirated engine?
- Sure, we kind of put it in for the spool even though it doesn't have a turbo.
Just made it feel fuller.
- I guess the other aspect is it's more a case of just that instant hit of torque to actually
get the car to initially wheel spin and once it is wheel spinning, we don't need so much
torque to continue that momentum, is that fair to say?
- Sure when you clutch out you need the car to be drivable and if it's loaded up
and doesn't want to spin the tires, you can't pedal it and then you'll be
using the clutch a lot and then you wear out the clutch quicker.
So it makes the car more drivable and more reliable on the clutch in.
- Alright so Ryan's obviously no stranger to the 86 chassis, can you talk us through
the rest of the modifications that you need to make to an 86 to turn it into something
that is competitive as a drift car?
Talking about the suspension front and rear, maybe the differential setup that you're
using as well?
- So starting at the front it's all Wisefab.
It works fairly well, there's some things we do with the steering rack position that is
different from the kit that you buy to get the Ackerman and the way it needs to work
and self steer and things that keep him happy.
Moving to the back of the car, also just Wisefab.
Regular GT86 subframe but we use a Toyota Supra diff that trickled down
from the pro car program.
It is the same eight inch ring gear 'cause we use the NA diff in the U.S.
But the design of the case has some different wings and we found that it
stays together.
We get them new from Toyota and there's a few ring and pinion options so we're able
to put it where it works well with this five speed and narrow torque band and so on.
- We're seeing in most of the pro drift cars now the quick change Winters rear end
is really the go to, allowing you to make very fast changes to final drive ratio,
just not necessary for a demonstration car like this?
- No, I mean, we make it work.
- Brian thanks for some insight there, it's been great to find out a little bit more
about the integration of that 458 engine, it is definitely a crowd favourite with the
way it sounds and we wish you all the best for the rest of the weekend.
- Thank you.
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