tool and die guy

Here's my 2 cents. I wanted stock tires too but it's now 2016 and the heard is thinning fast. I searched all over came to conclusion Nankangs were only choice. I bought 4 from tire rack but I think they discontinued this size. I liked the sipe pattern so I went with it again and got four more. I'm 60 so with eight brand new tires I'm probably good for a long time. I don't run my 85Se too hard ( well you know I gotta wind her and corner her here and there cause she likes it so much) And I never drive in rain so for me these tires are AOK. They look great and I have eight stock rims so I keep them rotated often for longevity. My first SE in the 80's came with Pirelli P6's. In 2016 you have to take what you can get. I saw Nexens but every review was disastrous. And the sipe pattern was more touring conventional van type while the Nankangs at least attempt to rate a performance touring spec. Price is right too. They shine up nice and fulfill the "stock look" very well. They're almost all gone so get em while you can but I wouldn't be racing on them.

tool and die guy

Oh yeah forgot to mention. I've tried Going to 215's in the 80's on stock suspension.. Forget it. Handles terrible, rubs front looks stupid. If you gotta for 14's on your stock rims and 205-14-60 Nankangs are gone go with 195's.. You might find another better brand but I doubt it. 14's are way passé. Good luck

Cameron38

iTrader: (2)

I ended up with Falken 195/60-14's.

ratboy

iTrader: (1)

Bump on an old thread but relevant.... I just picked up a set of Federal SS-595 205/60R14 off of ebay for my stock wheeled GSLSE <300$. Will let everyone know how they fit and feel once I get them mounted sometime next week. Not many choices out there!

tool and die guy

as an add on to my previous comments I'd like to say that the Nankangs I bought look great, handle decent in dry, suck in rain, and are the loudest noisiest tires ive ever experienced. I've got 7000 miles on them and they wear well. Choices are getting thin out there.

GSLSEforme

I was "lucky" to get a set of Nexen all season in 205/60R14 tires for my SE. Nowhere near as good as Yokohamas on there previously,those were 14 yrs. old,still had decent amount of tread but had cracks between tread ribs and eventually in sidewalls. Did not feel at all comfortable driving car at any speed,let alone hi speed, so car sat a lot while i searched for tires. Like others,have found next to nothing available except in 185-195/60/14. Having recently completed full suspension/brake upgrade, feel the car could easily overpower those tires. The Nexens on car now are "safe" to drive with, to be fair are all seasons but i hate them,car corners well but tires have no bite and at hi speed vibrate(90+)badly,road force ($$)balancing helped somewhat but car not smooth at speed like before. Only solution is to go 15" wheels which opens up lots of choices for tires. Tire selection will be easy & not too expensive-wheels however whole different story,have found many reasonably priced, proper pcd,offset,backspacing but too modern,"gangster" looking that don't appeal to me in the least. Want something period correct,had meshies on other RXs i owned,want to go with a spoke type wheel like Minilites,Panasports,Konig,Superlite etc... Konig is out they don't offer anything with proper offset for an SE-the 0 offset they do have is a perfect fit for all other 1st gens. Minilites also no go,no offerings for my cars specs,no plans to manufacture. Panasport has only their Z lite wheel which needs finish machining to spec and is a race only wheel,not suitable for street use,their FZ line of recognizable street wheels as of now also no stock and no plans for production...but did get a price quote of 1400.00+! Superlite also nothing to offer at the moment but possibly in future,found this out by corresponding with head of tech dept. of new manufacturer of these wheels after coming very close to being ripped off by another supplier(in this country) that changed the Insignia on the wheel and basically stole the design producing their not very good quality wheel in Thailand and ultimately importing them here.. this a story in itself. The real manufacturer would consider making a wheel to these specs if there were enough demand. They are now selling their wheels thru Summit Racing here. Maybe start a thread to see what type of interest among members here like iv'e seen for other products for 1st gens...

ratboy

iTrader: (1)

Stupid thing is I was planning on selling my SE, so I sold my 15" Riken mesh wheels. I later decided to let my girlfriend drive the car and put the $ into refreshing it but I could have had nicer, cheaper tires on the 15" rims. Oh well... at least It'll be running and legal again by Wednesday

tool and die guy

bought my five letter in 05 and it had Falken Zieks on it. Liked those a lot. Going to a 15 makes more sense but I bought two sets of Nankangs sensing the waning supply of 14's. if I had to do over again I'd go with 15" Koenig rewinds and search for a decent yokos or kumhos. I like the "pannasport" look on a First Gen and those rewinds look perfect IMHO. Honestly I'm old school and still like the look of the OEM's. my original wheels are in great shape as is the car. All original gents. A survivor w original paint @117k miles and running strong.

GSLSEforme

Very nice car,what exhaust do you have on it? From that angle the exhaust tips look like those of a RB streetport muffler,i know they're not original SE..

tool and die guy

spent nearly a grand on an entire RB header, presilencer exhaust system all the way back to the muffler. It added noticeable increase in hp and extended my high rpm shift point. The original exhaust had three cat converters on it and didn't let the car breath. I still need to advance the timing 5 degrees to take advantage of the extra breathing capacity. The engine is still stock as the day it left Hiroshima in May if 1985.

GSLSEforme

Probably a good bet one or more of those cats was partially clogged. MySE had just about 120k when began to notice it getting flat around 5k rpm. Friend of mine has a muffler shop,we talked about it & ended up getting a monolith cat for a 6.0 GM truck and a downpipe made to accomodate the cat. Big difference in breathing/power. Last winter did a full suspension/brake restoration/upgrade & RB Streetport system, removed air pump,ACV delete,hi-flow air filter. Engine responded well to those mods,now 137k on odo,runs well. Keeping all removed parts in event i wish to reinstall them some day. Noted you said you'd go with Konig Rewinds if decided to go 15". That was my original plan too,they're a perfect fit on 1st gens.. except SE,so you'd need to go a different direction. I'm still working that problem.

tool and die guy

Wish list but as you say the offset probably wouldn't work.

GSLSEforme

Thanks for the response,look closely at the specs on that wheel,the +0mm part. Perfect fit for all non SE 1st gens. Because our suspension is different,better,more desirable our wheels are a +40mm offset. Next time you're rotating your tires,turn the wheel around & look at the stamping. It will say 5 1/2x14-40 . That's 5.5"x 14" 40 mm offset. That 0 offset rim will have the tire protruding out of the fenderwell..a lot. There was a member here on this site that bought four of those,had tires mounted and installed and when car put back on the ground,could not turn front wheels at all due to wheel offset/fender contact. He took pics,they're on here somewhere. He had to put old wheels/tires back on to drive car home & put tires/wheels up for sale. He wanted to make sure no one else made same mistake he did. A lot of places that sell wheels look at pcd only and tell you they will fit your car. I wish it was as easy as that..done a lot and still ongoing research for that type of wheel,know exact measurements of backspacing & offset to fit 15x7 wheel with no spacers and no tire/fender contact. Just not a lot of options for a wheel like that that won't blow the budget.

tool and die guy

yep!! I'm very aware. No forgiveness in an SE wheel well for the wrong offset. I just like the look of that wheel on a black FB.

tool and die guy

Obtw. Mine was underwent a mild restoration at 110k. @ 117k now. Pretty much brand new stem to stern. Short shift, four corner suspension, bearings, bushings, slotted rotors,hawk pads, braided lines, clutch, pressure plate, throw out bearing, slave, Mc all braided, RB drive shaft, trans seals, dif seals, Lucas purple, cap, rotor, RB red wires, plugs, intake mod, and much more!! Runs pretty f&$@ing good. !!

tool and die guy

rxtasy3

iTrader: (2)

lookin' mighty fine there paul. wished mine looked half that good.

Pele

iTrader: (28)

Did you mean to report your own post?

tool and die guy

no I must've pushed the wrong buttons. Sorry. I wondered where that post went.

GSLSEforme

Very nice car! I'm second owner of mine,bought from original owner in 1993 with just under 70k miles. Essentially done same things to it & some more,nothing that couldn't be returned to original if i wanted to. I feel it runs,turns,stops better than new,everything works. Use it for fun rides, other half & i take it for weekend trips,occasionally she drives it. It's currently getting a spa day( body work & repaint in original color). Have owned several 1st gens,keeping this one for the rest of my life,or such time i can no longer drive it. Noticed couple things in your underhood pics,air pump still there, ACV looks to be there. Do you have header,presilencer,muffler or full streetport system?

GSLSEforme

PS,what's intake mod that you've done?

tool and die guy

RB header presilencer muffler. No street porting. Engine original. Intake just a simple removal of the pipe/tube that stretched across to air box, got a another lid for my air filter box and cut it open on the top and inserted a K&n air filter and opened up the front of the air filter box. Just tried to give a cold intake affect without removing the originality. Had the air pump off at one time but it affected the 5th-6th ports from opening properly at 4000 rpm. So I put it back on. I'd kinda like to do a S4 intake conversion since I've read that it improves flow that the dynamic chamber interrupts. Supposed to be 30% more air and hooks up with the stick ecu nicely. Just never did it since it runs so well as is.

madmen

Check Toyo tires.

JKM

September 2017 bump!

Seems my tires are dry rotted, I'm going to need a new set before too long. Has anyone found anything else decent in the stock size? I usually do Falken Ziex tires on my cars but they have dried up in the stock size. The best I seem to find are the Federal 595s, but I have no experience with them whatsoever.

As someone suggested earlier, there are plenty of sizes available in 195, including Falken Azenis. How does using the slightly smaller size on the stock rims affect the car?

tallbozo

iTrader: (5)

I have that exact setup (Falken Azenis) and they work great on my GSLSE. What are you concerned with? Any difference in tire size from stock can contribute to speedo differences which can be measured on many websites.