I'm nearly certified except for this one thing

[martyn]

Hi Justin,
Firstly thanks for the activation today.

Ok, so my car restoration is being certified by Hamish Munro up here in Auckland.
So basically I have an AE85 Toyota Trueno which I am converting into an AE86 Trueno. The two cars share the same body/chassis, mounting points, family of engine etc. Even the engine mounts are the same. If you were to look at the drive train of my converted AE85 and a factory original AE86 there is no difference. So the diff and 5 link rear mount to the same points, sway bars, driveshaft, gearbox, engine, everything to the original factory points with factory cross members.
I must reiterate that the body/chassis's are identical so are made to handle both power trains and drive lines.
The original 1500cc 3AU to the new 1600cc 4AGE is not a major power upgrade but to be true to the restoration it is a necessary swap.
Now onto my problem. Hamish is telling me he cannot get a straight answer as to whether or not I need to install driveshaft loops. He agrees with me that this should not be necessary but wants me to seek a final answer from you.
As all the cross members, mounting points and parts are OE. I cant see why this should need to be done. All the tolerances are as per AE86 factory original and obviously driveshaft loops were not issued on these vehicles new.
The conversion has been done with care and I have only used quality parts throughout.
If you could give this some thought and get back to me it would be greatly appreciated
Cheers!
Martyn

[Justin]

Hi Martyn

If Hamish can determine that there is no significant power increase between the AE85's OE engine and the new 4AGE engine, and that there has been no welding to the drive-shaft then a drive-shaft safety loop is not required.

It's pretty easy to work out Toyota power figures from Wikipedia:

- 3A-U - 61 kW
- 4A-GE - 84 to 100 kW (depending on version and assuming that the engine is stock).

If it were the 100 kW version (red-top), then this would be considered a significant power increase (64% power increase) and must be fitted with a drive-shaft safety loop.

As 'significant' can be interpreted differently, the lesser kW version may not require a drive-shaft loop, however most LVV Certifiers seem to use 30 to 50% as their 'threshold'.

I hope this helps.

[martyn]

I actually thought mine was the 86kw version but it is the 100kw version instead. The chassis is identical to an AE86 in everyway and all the drivetrain components are AE86 which is 86Kw. Being that both the car and related parts are also designed for 86kw is 100kw a big enough increase in power to justify loops?

[Justin]

Hi Martyn

I covered this above - If it were the 100 kW version (red-top), then this would be considered a significant power increase (64% power increase) and must be fitted with a drive-shaft safety loop.