Get Some
General => General Chat => Planes, Trains & Automobiles => Topic started by: Ares Helix on April 13, 2010, 11:53:27 am
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So building a nissan engine to scare the bejesus out of people is kinda a straight forward thing, hell even going out and
buying a GTR or Spec R S15 will get you good results, but how about the road less travelled?
Last year I found myself with a bit of spare change, so had the opportunity to retire my (now scrapped) well maintained
and much loved '92 Toyota Levin.
But what to get?
I'd narrowed the field down to four different coupe's:
First off; the Nissan 200sx Sylvia S15 R spec
A fantastic looking car, great engine and great spec, BUT...
when we think about it, how much time do we spend looking at our car, rather than being in it and driving? I was all
set to take one for a test drive when I had a look at the interior. To say it's bad isn't right, it's not bad, but it's not good either!
I found it bland and boring, so had to discount it!
On to option number two; Mazda RX7 series 6 on...
Truth be told, this was the car that made me sit up and take notice of cars! Low slung, great curves and an interior to match.
Of course, the downside imo is the rotary. Whilst I don't have a problem with the engine itself, as long as it hasn't been ruined
by porting, it's more the associated scene that goes along with the rotary engine. As I'm now needing to dye my hair out of
necessity, rather than for fun, I really don't wanna run with the rotor boys and their associates, so sadly the RX7 was a no go.
Numero tres: Toyota Supra Mk IV
The fact I almost bought a Supra as my first car speaks volumes about how I feel towards them. One of the most classic of
Japan's offerings, the Supra has always (since becoming a petrolhead at least) held a special place in my heart. The 2JZ
engine is as much a legend as the Supra, being highly sought after the world over by import tuning enthusiasts. Whilst I know
the engine is bulletproof in every way, sadly, I couldn't bring myself to spend a considerable amount of money on a car of that age.
So, that left one logical choice...
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And the logical choice was?! come on, don't leave us hanging :)
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Damn you! hahahaha
RX7 would be nice although too many rotors explode.
S15 would be teh sex.
You should get an R34 :P
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The Nissan Skyline is probably one of the most recognizable, even iconic, Japanese cars ever made.
It's a legend with the tuning scene over the ditch after kicking so much ass at Bathurst they had to
change the rules to stop it from competing!
This being said, I'd never been too fussed on the shape of them, until 1998's R34 came along. I
remember the first time I saw one in real life cruising along the motorway heading north from
Auckland to the shore. I guess for me the styling of it was the key, the fact that the R34 just
looks surly, yet athletic i guess.
So, where to? The debate was over the GTT or GTR. I love the R34 GTR's and whilst I had the money, I
just didn't want the hassles of owning a car that was on most car thieves top 10 list. After more
deliberation I decided to go with the GTR's lil brother, the GTT.
Unlike previous generations, the newer RB25DET Neo engine had a lot more down low torque and
drivability, and still retained the looks for the most part! The other big thing influencing me was
the fact I was after a rwd car. The GTR's ATESSA ETS system would mean that it would never be a true
RWD car, and if I disabled it, what was the point?
So it was settled, now where to find a non thrashed one?!?!?!
I guess non-thrashed is open to interpretation. I know that anyone buying a second hand sports car
has to have a certain amount of common sense about things. It's a car made to go fast, so it's resaonable
to assume that the one you buy has been driven fast! The things to look for I guess would be signs of
neglect or of dodgy modification. With this in mind, I hit the pavement...
Ok, ok, I logged into trademe...
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1. Don't use so many unnecessary line breaks.
2. Use paragraphs.
3. Get a Mitsubishi.
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3. Get a Mitsubishi.
Evo9 or die.
Tbh get an R34 though.
Just doit.
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Ahh Trademe, never a dull experience! My advice for anyone looking there, especially if you're
looking at cars, know what you're looking for!!! By this, I guess I mean that you need to check
out the specs and details of the item you're after before jumping on trademe and doubly so for
ebay, but we'll get to ebay later. Essentialy, learn everything there is to know about the car/
device/ person/ animal/ non-terrestrial item you're looking at buying, as you can NEVER trust a
product description. Well, after doing some Wiki-ing I found out enough to know what to look for
wear and tear wise, as well as the aforementioned dodgy mods. I found a white R34 GTT beastie in
West Auckland, gave the guy a text and arranged to have a look see and a drive. My wife and pet
mechanic (and flatmate) went on the mission out to that side of Auckland (always an experience!)
My flatmate runs a manual 2003 Legacy GT, in which he demonstrated one of the best features of a
car I've ever seen, just for sheer comic value, the 'ECO' button. Whilst most auto drivers may
be familiar with this lil guy, it's a bit of an enigma in a manual. When the button is pressed,
a light on the dash comes on to let you know you're driving economically. If you put the boot
in, it turns off again.
Thats. It.
It does nothing to the fuel mix, nothing to the intake or cam profiles, just lights up to tell
you you're not driving fast enough. Heh, I think it's main use would be on the track, where if
it comes on, you know you're not pushing hard enough! :p
Anyhow, got out to the place, met the owners father, pretty decent guy, selling the car on behalf
of his son who'd recently gone for a holiday in Aus and decided to stay.
The car, a white R34 GTT was in good nick, with a pretty nice aftermarket body kit and decent rims.
Interior was in pretty good condition too, but the aftermarket boost guage was cause for concern.
So, the only thing for it was to take it out on the road and see what it was like!
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Better have been a manual, what was the drive like? my mates sisters boyfriend (lol) has an R34 turbo'd with mags, carbon fiber spoiler, bodykit, all that shit, soooooo quick.
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Buy my silvia tbh
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This was to be my first time out in an R34, so decided not to go too crazy,
especially since the owner's dad was coming along with me (fair enough
really!) I was actually pretty nervous as I adjusted the seat, but they
say small things comfort! Over the last few years, I've really come to
appreciate orange as a colour, I guess it had something to do with a
favorite pari of pants I have, which are an Orange Camoflage pattern. I
know, not overly useful in everyday life, but I love them! Anyhow,
sitting there in someone elses R34 GTT and you start thinking "What if I
break it? What if I lose it around a corner? What if a Piano falls on
it?" it was a lot to take in! Not to mention it was dark out, so flipped
on the lights and was greeted by a bright orange dash. I've never been a
great believer in portents, signs from the universe or gods or powers
that be or whatever, that we're on the right track but lately, I've
started to wonder if there's more to that way of thinking. This was
definately one of those moments!
Handbrake down, gear in, clutch out and we were off. out of his drive,
hooked a left, down to a roundabout, another left then up into a 70km
zone.
To be honest, I played a lil bit! How could you not though. The inline
six was great down low very responsive and pulled cleanly into the
turbo's power band. I suppose the biggest shock for me was how similar in
handling the car was to my Levin, which is almost an absurd thought,
given the difference in drive train! The turn in was a little sharper and
crisper, but the overall feel of it was very similar, to this day, I
can't explain it! Whilst I was completely sold on the car, I had my
doubts about this particular one. Things felt a little sluggy for me,
like it was struggling to do the basics.
We got back to the sellers place and I gave the keys over to my flatmate,
who again, went for a wander around the block. He got back and we said
thanks and headed on our merry way home. During the trip, we had a
chat and all felt that something didn't add up. It didn't feel like the
thoroughbred sports car it should have been. To this day, I can't put my finger
on what was wrong, but the end result was that it wasn't the car I was after,
but it had given me enough info to make my mind up about them.
So it was back to Trademe that night to see if we could find one somewhere
that was more true to its original form...
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Good move bro, this is turning out to be an entertaining read.
Looking forward to the next installment, hopefully we are getting closer in the story to what you actually ended up with? I'm taking it this is all past tense?
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Should have got a Toyota. Your posts are painful to read, please use paragraphs.
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Blue Skidder.
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Skidline ftw
Are you a bot? I don't think so, but you make posts like a bot.
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I like this thread :)
S15's also have a weak 6speed so you'd have to swap it for a s14a ( facelift) 5 speeder as the 6s dont like being driven hard when they've done 150thou kms, that seems to be the only fault with them and after-market gear is easily attainable for them and lots of spares for them too!. And i know what your saying about the rotor boys, my first turbocharged ride was a series 5 RX7 and if your not wearing a NewEra cap, celtics/magic/bulls/heat singlet, nikes and cut off denim shorts and have a tattoo on your forearm you were made to feel like you werent meant to own one.
im currently searching for a pic of my uncles old r34 gtt, 132kms when he brought it, just had an HKS hard-pipe intake, wank valve and after-market front pipe and 3inch exhaust.... it was big and heavy plenty of torque for rolling burnouts on the motorway, but lacked the 'peppiness' of cars of smaller displacement, and for a newish car by boyracer standards, it got walked on by a few cars my mrs and I own/owned.
are you going for a balls out drivers car? japanese decent? have you considered something a little more classy that still has balls? maybe an aristo or soarer if you go toyota? luce or cosmo if you go wankel ? g35 fairlady or 350Z if you want to go nissan? they are all fast as far as jap tourers go and you get all the dope creature comforts too!
personally id go supra with the 6speed getrag box, purebreed true rwd sports car. need for speed road and track was my first time seeing a supra! loved them ever since...
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3. Get a Mitsubishi.
Like the 50000 other Evo owners in NZ.... haha
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Don't get a jzx100, they are shit.
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Don't get a jzx100, they are shit.
how so?
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Because they are too awesome for everyone to own.
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Whilst hitting up trademe the first time out, we'd actually found a really nice GTT down the line in New Plymouth but were
hesitant to check it out, due to the distance required, so had written it off. After taking the white one out for a test, I was
in a better mindset to contact the owner and look at his prices etc and so I flicked him a text. I've never really been a fan
of text messaging, it has its uses for sure, but there's the whole waiting, praying, hoping that the person at the other end
has read your message, or even recieved it! Then there's the whole tone thing, where you type one thing, and they read
it a different way, simply because they aren't you! YAY! Anyhow, after a day or so I got a message back and we arranged
a time to call.
I gave him a call about a day later and we had a chat about the car. It's kinda funny thinking about it now, but his main
concerns were that it was 'going to a good home' more than the money side of things. After selling my Levin I can completely
understand where he was coming from. When you're a petrolhead, your car becomes part of you, defining who you are and,
to a point, how people percieve you. You have feelings for it, you worry about it when it's in at the shop or parked in a dark
alley somewhere. Heh, I always say that the best part of a night on the town is getting back to your car and finding it still
there and in tact! People always smile or laugh when I say that, but I'm 100% serious! Anyhow, I could totally hear what he was
saying and after talking to me, I think he was a bit happier to go to the next step. I asked him to get an AA report done, which he
emailed through. I passed that on to the flatmate to check out and he said it all seemed ok, so did a background check with
Carjam to make sure the car was legit, no money owing etc. So with the fact finding done, We arranged to meet up at a cafe on
the main highway running through Te Kuiti, that Sunday, figuring it was about halfway for both of us.
So at a chipper 7am my two flatemates and I roared out of Auckland in the Legacy, straight to Pokeno for a bit of breakfast. Gotta
love GT cars, you can never appreciate them enough until you get out on the open roads outside the city! I have to say that again,
I was impressed by its grip and precision, and to be fair, it's got really nice guages too! We made good time after leaving Pokeno
(yeah, we bought some bacon too) heading away from the motorway somewhere around Hamilton. Now I guess I should point out
that I'm a great fan of 'B' roads, call them what you will, backroads, the 'alternative route' whatever, I love them! I guess you have
more freedom to play a little, as there are usually less people and traffic around. I'm not talking about speeding, but just a bit less
pressure about following distance etc. Anyhow, at around 10:15 we came in sight of the cafe and pulled in next to a bright blue GTT.
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There are few things in this world that actually give me pause. I've spent enough time
in the inner city to not get freaked out by drag queens or homeless people. In fact
it's kinda fun to stop and have a chat to society's more colourful people from time to
time! Likewise celerities don't give me the willies anymore, I guess when you get to a
certain age, you realise their just doing a job, like you or me, sitting at work at our
desks or respective other activities. Sure, their seen more publicly, but other than
that, their just well paid workers, so in my book, their no different to me. All that
goes out the window when I'm walking through a carpark or car yard.I honestly don't
know when it happened, but I've found more and more that I check out nice or
interesting cars parked nearby. I'm sure it looks pretty dodgy too, but there's nothing
in it, I'm just appreciating the machinery of the vehicle and the ideas of other
people, when looking at 'ricer' and tuned cars anyhow. It's getting worse too, since
I've started giving thumbs ups to and even chatting with people at traffic lights or
just whilst driving. It's a strange reality I find myself in, as my family aren't
really car people, with the exception being my wife...
The car we pulled in next to would have easily fallen into the "Hang on a minute I
wanna have a nosey" category. A completely stock 2000 R34 GTT. The first of the series
two shape, so a bit nicer interior and slightly different body. Either way, it had the
big round tail lights and a factory pearescent blue paint. We piled out of the Legacy
and my first thought was: It looks just like a matchbox car, made bigger!
Initial shock and awe subsiding, we started chatting with the owner. As on the phone,
he was a really great guy, very down to earth and I think more than a little sad to
think he might be selling the car. After having a chat about his reasons for selling
(upgrading to a new HSV clubsport!) and a bit about the cars (his and the flatmates)
We got in and went for a run.
I took it down the road, about a kilometer, then the mechanic/flatty took it back to the cafe.
This was what was missing from the previous. It came on power better, was much smoother
down low, had a nicer feel to it and just felt more solid. Oh yeah, did i mention the
exhaust? The only mod done to this beast was a Kakimoto N1 spec straight through
exhaust. I'd find out later the exact size was 3" leading to a whopping 4.25" tip. To
say it was loud would be like saying that it gets a bit cold in Antarctica. Still, this
felt right, I got that sense that this was the car I'd been looking for. We got back
and i had a brief pow wow with my flatties. Another chat to the owner later, a price
was agreed upon, a call to the bank, a call to the insurance company and done. We
waited with him til a mate picked him up. I really felt for him as he drove off,
staring out the window. He requested that I look after the car and believe me,
that's exactly what I intended to do.
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Oh shit yes good choice my friend, did you see it on saturday? because i was in new plymouth and we were in town, we rolled past a really shiny stock blue R34 heading out of town which was towards te kuiti.
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A completely stock 2000 R34 GTT. The first of the series
two shape, so a bit nicer interior and slightly different body. Either way, it had the
big round tail lights and a factory pearescent blue paint.
Blue Skidder.
OMG I PREDICT FUCHAZ
(http://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs127.snc3/17453_1336137758074_1070000222_1018476_3424275_n.jpg)
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We took a moment or two to take in the scene: A gorgeous yet crisp late autumn day,
outside the city. The mate's Legacy and of course, my brand new Skyline. Wow. Oh, I
forgot to mention: I've seen/worked on many imports in my time, as you do, from cursory
glances at an engines, to helping mates with various stuff running cables for amps etc.
So to see English written on fuse covers and other various stickers around the place
was crazy!
The moment over, I sat down and adjusted seat/mirrors/pants and started it up. So, to
sum up, brand new car (for me) and the drive ahead was Te-Kuiti to Auckland.
Hell freakin yeah!
You can say what you want about defensive driving courses, about instructional videos
or even copious laps of xyz circuit on your pc or favorite game console, nothing beats
the back roads for learning a cars personality. You learn its strengths and weakneses,
how it handles through long corners or short sharp ones, up-hill, down-hill, over
crests and along straights. You get to feel how it reacts to pretty much any situation
that may arise, barring peak traffic crawling perhaps. This drive more than anything
else, vindicated my choice of car. We pulled out and started the drive back.
We (flatmate two and I) decided to go first, leaving flatmate with Legacy to follow in
case sumin went wrong.
Out of Te-Kuiti, headed north to Otorohonga, where we hooked a left. As we were
approaching the turn, coming from the direction we were headeed were three police
cruisers. With the exhaust how it was, I nearly had a coronary! I guess though, with
their stereos blasting, they didn't notice the passing bass tone generator and didn't
spare us another thought. After the turn, over a bridge at 50, then back into highway
speed I thought it was a good opportunity to test the pickup. So I waited til the
hundred sign had past and Mr. Legacy was right on my bumper, before dropping a pair of
cogs into third and planting it. All of a sudden he wasn't right on our tail anymore!
It was an epic day, the first of many. I took it easy for the rest of the run back,
letting my flatmate charge ahead (he got carried away through some bends and developed
quite a lead, stopping to check out a church fair and wait for us, LOL) Got back into
Auckland and went to my wife's work to show her, parking next to her S2000. The smile
said it all really, the cars looked excellent together. She was really impressed by the
condition of the car, the Trademe pics didn't do it justice! Headed back to the flat
and spent the rest of the day buzzing that I'd got such a great ride (yup that one above!)
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Did you go see it on saturday? cause if you did then i saw it too and thats one sexy as hell ride man!
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Right, so shortly, I'll continue on, but for today, we'll do a Q&A...
So fire away!
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I don't have any questions so far myself, looks like you managed to score a tidy factory spec car, pretty much perfect platform for doing some work on, and doing it right.
Now we get into the interesting stuff of what you have done to it, to turn it into a baby Godzilla :D
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Pics!!!!
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The tuning bug. Oh what a bug it is...
Anyone bitten by it will tell you how dangerous it can be. You can try to fight it,
but, like any addiction, it comes back twice as hard.
Mine started with a simple conversation after reading about excess airflow. See, it
turns out that when the R34 was in production, the engineers decided that they didn't
want people to mess with their vision of perfection. They added code to the factory ECU
(engine control unit) that when excessive airflow was detected, either from an exhaust
or intake upgrade, the ECU would mess around with the timing and fuel mix, meaning the
car developed flat spots through the rev range and in general, didn't behave!
With this in mind, I contacted a few people about re-tuning the factory ECU and they
all told me there was only one guy in Auckland to talk to. I'll refer to him as Bob for
the sake of the story. I got in touch with Bob and he told me the best option would be
to outright replace the factory ECU. The two options reccomended, were the HKS F-Con or
the Apex'i Power FC. I've known and been a great fan of Apexi products for a good many
years, and decided to go with this brand over the F-Con. Another bonus, is that the HKS
is a piggyback unit, menaing that it sits between the Factory ECU and the car, acting
as an interpreter, where the Power FC was a full stand alone system. I was told I'd
need to order one through the net, as they weren't made for my car anymore! Not a
biggie, given I wanted to also get an Apex'i active tail silencer, for that damn
exhaust! Trademe was a no go for either item. Lookout EBAY, here I come!
In the meantime, my next biggest concerns were security and sounds. I'd already
cobbled together the gear I was after sound wise, being a car stereo fanatic from years
back. My last job was actually working in Car Audio at JBHifi in Manukau, so with a few
calls to some mates, I got my sounds squared away. A short call to Installer Services
in Manukau, I got them working on the install, with the car booked in for a full
service later that week at a nearby mechanics... The gear installed was a Pioneer DVD
unit, Earthquake 1.5 farad capacitor, Kicker 700.5 5 channel amp and alpine type R
speakers and Subs. For security's sake, i got the best alarm i could find, with as many
add ons as possible!
Service and sounds squared away, I got down to the wait for the parts from Japan...
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Lol what? silencer on a sexy exhaust?
Thats pretty lame...
Still want pics tho.
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Im really enjoying the read, waiting for the next parts !
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Ok I had a skim read, firstly not my cup of tea in japanese car choice for what you want but thats my opinion :) Am I correct in saying you bought an R34 GTT coupe or 4 door? What do you want out of the car? The tuning bug is hard to stop..
Jacob
EDIT
Very expensive but..
Ebay (http://cgi.ebay.com.au/APEXi-POWER-FC-COMMANDER-SKYLINE-R34-GTT-RB25DET-NEO-/310211930816?cmd=ViewItem&pt=AU_Car_Parts_Accessories&hash=item483a126ac0)
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Isn't it odd that the damndest things can set off child hood memories. I'm old,
so I remember collecting the points from the back of original Transformers and
GI Joes, sending them off with one of mum's cheques and a few weeks later,
getting a parcel in the mail. It was the best feeling ever and, correct me if I'm
wrong, but one of the only experiences that NEVER gets old or boring. When the
first box showed up at work with my apexi tail silencer, shortly followed by the
Power FC and boost control unit, I was totally stoaked.
Now, I know what you're thinking, why would anyone throw a silencer into a race
exhaust. To answer this, you need to know that this exhaust was the loudest exhaust
I've ever heard. My wife, on her Monday's off, could hear me coming about 3-4km away
and as much as i loved it when it got up high, the bass droning was too much. I went
in search of a silencer that would allow me to put it in and leave it in, without a
drastic effect on performance and that's exactly what i got. See the way the apex'i
active silencer works; it has a spring loaded plate that opens under high pressure exhaust,
meaning I get the howl, without the annoying low end rumble. My concerns about the
performance were releaved earlier this year on a dyno run, where removing it made a gain
of about fifty watts, not kilowatts, fifty watts.
So a quick trip back to Bob's and we were sorted. Well Kinda.
The tune went well, but of course, there was a problem. There's ALWAYS a problem right?
Apparantly, he didn't want to push things too far, as the turbo was making a pretty audible
whine. He Reccomended I get it rebuilt and reccomended some guys on the shore. Still, i
couldn't complain about the results of the tune. The car was running much more smoothly with
more power as well, can't grumble about that!
So, now I had the car in a much happier state, it was on to a the footwork and looking
for a good price to get my huffer rebuilt. Bob reccomended a company on the shore so I
set out to give them a call, I'd also tracked down some Nismo suspension online that I
thought I'd look into. All up, things were looking good.
Heh.
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Bummer on the turbo rebuild, but at least you have peace of mind it's in good working order.
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I'm not too sure if I've mentioned this before, but I'm not a mechanic. I don't pretend to be a mechanic.
I don't want to be a mechanic. During this past year, i've learned a hell of a lot about how engines work
and what the main components are and what they do. Still, I'm a long way from being able to fumble my
way through things under the hood! the problem with this, and coming from an arty non mechanical family
(who're mostly dead now) is that you don't have the connections that allow you to maybe get a discount,
but more importantly, know you're not getting ripped off!
My first indication of things not being on the level, was when I called for the turbo rebuild quote. As I said,
I'm not a mechanic, but I'm not stupid either. When I was quoted $2,800 excluding GST. I was gob smacked.
I wasn't prepared to pay that much for a re-condition! I could have bought a full new turbo for that and had
change, so it didn't make much sense! Back to the drawing board, the drawing board in this case being google.
Is it me, or do tuning and performance parts stores in NZ go out of their way to be hard to find? The only
one that comes up regularly (and Kudos to them for it) are Moolight Racing! Whilst I've never ordered from
them, the guys there are really in the know with things. Anyhow, the other thing I was looking for at this stage
was the suspension and I decided to get some new coils as well, to help with top end stability.
In my quest to find these coils I came across the name 'Splitfire'. I read a couple of reviews and decided that
they were a good fit for me.
I made contact, after a week of searching, with a tuning parts store that could both get the turbo sorted,
through a well known chap, could also get the coil packs and to top it off, could sort out some fireworks (was
near guys fawkes...)
I went with this lot as I'd be paying less than half of the quoted price for the rebuild, in fact, I got him to
improve the flow and do a bit of an upgrade for me while it was in and it still cost less! WIN!
As previously mentioned, I'm no mechanic so I called on a mate, Ralph, to help me out with the pulling apart
of the engine. He'd house it at his place and throw it back together again, dropping the coils in and replacing
the turbo gaskets at the same time.
Phew!
Then it was a matter of squaring away another tune with Bob! YEESH!
Everything went smoothly though and I got my shiney new Turbo back and installed with the coils. The footwork
was next on the list of things to do, Nismo, here I come!
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There are lots of big names in auckland and wellington, I missed which city your in? Give me a list of what you spacificly need and I'm positive I can help you out :)
Jacob
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Ok I had a skim read.....
Just to fill you in, this is actually past tense. I'm lead to believe the car is as of current date completed. This is like a story telling of how it got there.
Sounds like you got a good deal on that rebuild.
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Performance versus style. A lot of people will go all out for style. Form over
function if you will. For me though this never made much sense and my Levin
was a testament to that. 15" Rims, lower profile wider tread tyres (205-50-R15)
stiffer suspension, lowering springs and a Pod Filter.
The same is true for my R34. After the first lot of mods and fix ups, an incident
in a carpark (a big thanks to the guys out at Botany that tried to steal my
car on my wife's birthday, couldn't, so stole her birthday presents instead)
I'd decided it was time to look at footwork.
As previously stated, I'd found a set of Nismo S-Tune suspension. It was
specifically designed for the GTT and looked great! I got Bob to order some
in for me and sat back to wait...
I hate waiting. I won't bore you with the psychological intricacies of why
I hate waiting. That is to say, I know why I hate waiting but it's one of those
things I've always struggled to overcome. About three weeks later I got a
call from Bob saying there'd be a delay of about six months for them.
Six months!
Given that was a stupid amount of time, i tried my parts sites in Japan, but
they came back with the same thing. This was a tad annoying, but as it turns
out, for the best.
After a bit of searching, I was put in touch with some suspension guys in
Mount Wellington. It turned out, once again, that things were falling into place
as was meant to be, as they were, literally, straight opposite my work's old
premises. Again, for the sake of the story, I'll change the names. I had a chat
to Sven about cars and things in general. He got a feel for what I was trying to
do and after a bit of careful erring and umming suggested a package of Tein
springs and Bilstein shocks.
Apparantly, these were waiting for another client of his, but the guy hadn't shown
up or returned any calls or emails. Sven quoted me a four figure sum and was a bit
taken back when I said: Is Wednesday good for you?
I guess I should feel bad that I snaked the poor guy's gear, but as Sven said: If he
wanted it, he'd have come back to him. Something to note, and I'm sure that I'll be
asked this, I'm not a fan of adjustable suspension for road cars, it's un-necessary
in 90% of cases and even Sven agreed with me. He said that he'd happily put it in
someones car if they insisted, but he usually found that most normal road vehicles
worked just as well with improved, non adjustables. Hell, he even told me he knows
a good many pro drivers that use non adjustables! Crazy!
The car was in and out in a day, the result being custom lowered and fitted, 25mm
lower at the front and 20mm at the rear. The handling response was improved hugely,
losing a lot of the body roll that was throwing me off in the corners. Absolutely
stoaked with the result and thoroughly reccomend Sven and his team...
Sadly, this is where things start to go downhill...
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Bastards! Botany is cursed, friend lost his Evo 4 there.... sad part was it was lined up to be handed over to the new owner in a few days and he had canceled the insurance!!! (Yeah dumb move) Sale price was agreed at $24,000. It was never seen again.
It's a good story man, time for the bad parts eh, it's like a drama novel now :)
-
It was around this time things were actually going well with my car. I should have
walked away, left it be with the healthy gains it had...
Yeah right!
Ok, so I mentioned above that the tuning site in Japan didn't have the suspension.
That didn't stop them taking my money though! So after a brief call to Japan (I
swear calling people is so much easier than emailing!) I was able to change the
order to a J's Racing rocker cover for my wife's S2000 and a full set of Endless
carbon-Ceramic, street brake pads.
By this time, it was getting into Summer, and I had cottoned on to the Cannonball
Run, a new NZ motor event that was modelled on the classic 80's, Burt Reynolds
movie. I'd registered for it, and wanted to nut out a few small things before I got
moving with it.
After another chat to Bob, the next suggestion to school up a bit more was a new
fuel pump. He did mention heat as an issue, and that moving to a front mount
intercooler would get me some good gains, but that wasn't the direction i wanted to
go with my ride. I suppose I should explain this some more, by saying I'm wanting to
keep the car, and its engine bay, as stock looking as possible.
So this in mind, the next upgrade was the Fuel pump. This was sourced through Nismo
and placed on order through Bob. Meantime, the pads had arrived and been installed,
thanks to my super handy flatmate. Went for a test drive and HOLY HELL they were
loud! Mad squeaking from the pads! Ran this past my mechanic who said there wasn't
much to do, apart from slotted rotors, which he sourced and installed for me. Plus
braking, minus squeaks, great result! All that was left was to wait for Bob to get back
to me about the fuel pump and tune required.
Have I mentioned my hatred of long waits?
I finally got a call from him on the second to last Monday of the year, with the
Cannonball run fast approaching. He said he'd might be able to fit me in for the fit
and tune on their last day, and to call to confirm.
I gave them a call on the day and they asked where I was... Never a good sign.
I rocked up, I left my car there to get the pump installed then tuned and, with a
mates help, made my way to my work. Five minutes after sitting down at my desk
I got a call saying: We can't install it, there's an amp in the way. They didn't want
to move it, so that was it, no dice!
I re-booked in for the first week of the year and arranged with my mechanic to
pull the amp out for them...
-
I love it when you forget about stuff. It seems, as you get older, your memory
disappears almost as fast as your size M gear. Sigh. I negleted t mention something
quite important regarding the rebuilt turbo and should mention that initially I was
looking at a DC 5 Integra.
Three things put me off the DC5: First the driving position being so low down,
meant visibility was very limited. Second, it was FF, not what I was after. Third
was price, same as a GTT. Sure it's a bit newer, but you do the math...
Next, the turbo. When I took her in to get re-tuned, Bob asked where I had it
rebuilt. When I mentioned the guy's name to Bob, he looked at me as if I'd just
taken a dump on his shop floor. This is the moment I realisedthat Bob may not be
100% on the level with me, as everyone I'd spoken to, reccomended the guy I
went through, except Bob.
Ok, re-cap over, let's get on with things...
-
So Christmas 2009 came and went without much drama. Whilst my wife slept
in on Christmas morning, I intsalled the new, bright blue, J's Racing cover on her
S2000. Yup, that's about the maximum of my technical know how...
Well I could do a Pod filter I suppose, probably car stereo too.
Shortly after new year, My car was back at Ralphs, getting stripped down for the
fuel pump install and final tuning run. I was really amped! I dropped her in to Bob's
handed the keys over and was told they could install the pump, but couldn't do
the tune as the guy who was going to do it, was in hospital. Fair enough, but a
call or something to let me know woulda been good! So, I went home and got
calling people, to try to find both someone who knew how to tune a Power FC and
someone that could book me in on such short notice!
A few hours later, I picked up the car from Bob's and headed back to Ralphs. Can
you say fuel pump! Even with the seats and other gear back in place you can hear
the thing! After calling nearly every tuning company in the greater Auckland area,
I finally found someone who could fit me in before the weekend's Cannonball run. He
mentioned that it may be a hike, as he was based out of the north shore. I don't get
this mentality. It's no reflection on him, but I mean i just don't find anywhere in
Auckland 'too far' to go for xyz reason. I guess having spent most of my life riding
busses (including heading from Torbay to a gf's place in Glen Eden on Christmas day)
being able to drive a car means that nowhere's really out of reach...
I met up with Juan on the Friday and did some runs. When I first took delivery of the
GTT, it was making about 171kw at the wheels.
After ther ECU replacement, at Bob's, it jumped up to around 207kw. Now we were
looking at about 220. I was happy with that!
So after some pokes and prods she was ready. As previously mentioned, this is where
I found out how little a difference the active silencer made, as they removed it for the
final few runs. Should also say, without it in, the whole building was shaking!
Dyno complete and tuning done enough to get me from a to z the next day...
-
I thought something mechanical was going to go wrong, just hassles with getting things sorted in time eh? So was there anything wrong with the turbo rebuilder or just 'Bob' didn't like him?
220kw at the wheels sounds like things are going well, interested to hear if you made the cannonball :)
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The ninth of January, 2010 will always stand out as a great day in my life.
On a par with playing my first set as a dj, or getting any of my licences. I'd
been looking forward to the Cannonball run for a while now and today was
the day. I'd mentioned it to my Father-in-law and he'd signed up for it too,
taking their bright yellow MR-S. So it was, my flatmate, Drew, and cousin-in
law, Cameron, all woke up at quater to dot in in the morning and headed out.
The start/finish of the run was at the Albany Pub, on the north shore, so
was a bit of a hike to get there, but at that time of the morning, it was plain
sailing. I swear, nothing beats an empty mototrway, should say, wasn't speeding,
just so nice to have a clean run without all the muppets...:)
We arrived sometime around 7:20ish to a sight that will stay with me for the
rest of my life. Pulling into the carpark we were greeted by a massive collection
of petrolheads and their beloved rides. Everything was represented, American
Muscle, European penache, Aussie GT cars and of course, Japanese tuners. I've
been to car shows before but this was different, I suppose because we were
going to be driving them, rather than just stand around looking at them! You could
feel the anticipation of the event and above all, a sort of comaraderie if you like,
of people united in the love of internal combustion...
Ok ok, I'm getting a little wooly here, but it's hard to express the impact of the
day. After a safety brief from the event organizers, we returned to our cars and
started them up. I've heard few things as epic as a hundred odd pperformance
cars starting their engines at once!
We were one of the last to set off and, after a brief Pit Stop at the local Albany
mall, we were on our way.
-
The first leg of the epic journey took us from the Albany pub to the newly constructed,
Hampton downs Raceway park, just south of the Meremere drag strip. Touted as the new
home for all things motorsport, everyone I'd spoken to at the initial meeting point, were
mad keen to check the place out. The trip was pretty straight forward, with most of
Auckland's police force out to wave us on our way, ok, ok, they were looking grumpy
and manning their laser detectors. I'd never seen so many police! They were everywhere!
That aside, the day was shaping up to be spectacular, not a cloud in the sky, good mates,
very loud beats and a fantastic sports GT to drive! I tell you, life doesn't get much better.
We made good time to the track, and didn't speed once, not even when a Holden clubsport,
not part of the event, driven by (as far as I could tell) a drunk twelve year old in a peak cap,
decided it'd be fun to "take on the GTR!" next to him, bro, au, fulla.
What a dick.
I was restrained and didn't put the boot in, time and a place and all that...
I can't say I've ever liked V8's from US based cars. V8 Ferrari's, astons and Mercs are fantastic,
hell even the Nissan and Toyota V8's haul ass. I guess I look at the figures of Fords and Holdens
and think; Well that's great, but, given the size of your engines, should those numbers be bigger?
Anyhow, during this leg of the trip I noticed something in the tuning. The Power FC is linked
through to provide various info to the driver. Most of this is through the Hand Held 'Commander'
but engine 'knocking' is linked through to the dash's 'Check Engine' light. Now for those new to the
term, as I was when I heard it, knocking, or detonation, occurs when the fuel air mix detonates
before it's supposed to, which in turn forces the piston down before it's completed its full cycle.
Think of it like coming up for air and having a wave land right on top of you, not good. I got a couple
of these warnings flash up when i was overtaking a few cars, so decided it was best to drop the
boost back a bit to allow for *slightly* slower accelleration, but much safer running. Car seemed
happy with this and off we went!
We arrived at the park, and Cameron, our group elected photographer began snapping pictures like
mad! The day had many events and challenges set out, some of which were picture based, some
of which were time related. He got some amazing shots of not only the cannonballers in all our glory
(for the day, we all had vinyl stickers applied, my Father-in-Law still has some on their MR-s) but also
the D1NZ cars that were there for one of the first drift sessions of the year.
After about half an hour, we began to break ranks and headed for the next stop, Tauranga!
-
tl;dr
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And rex gets 1 more post to add to his mass number of shitty spam.
Btw post pics.
-
We left the Raceway park, and headed for our next stop, Tauranga. This wasn't
a timed stage, something we'd be thankful for later! After consulting the map, we
decided to head south on State Highway one to Ohinewai, then cut across to State
Highway 27. Again, this is where the Skyline shone, slicing through corners and
barrelling down straights. The only thing that broke our flow was a stop for a photos
of specific buildings on our list, which usually induced a quick U turn, snap, then back
on our way.
We found ourselves following a Kitset Shelby Cobra, another one of the CannonBallers,
who I'd had a chat to earlier on during the day. At the time, he was getting to work
on the car, as he'd had a mishap with the front brakes on the way to the starting point.
This had forced him to remove them and change the balance of the brakes to the rear.
I'd asked if that would be a problem and his reply had been:
Not really, the front brakes don't do that much anyway...
Fark!
We headed through Matamata, then changed course to take us out to the coast via
the Kaimai ranges. As we reached the foot of them, it almost felt like the Skyline was
grinning, with the looming uphill passing lane. The cobra indicated and began to make
its way up the hill in the passing lane. With a smirk and a muttered, "Anything you can
do" I dropped a cog and we began our ascent!
Now I'll give you this, it's not a pleasent stretch of road, but as mountain passes go,
it's not as bad as some! Still for your average family sedan or van, I can understand
the need to take things at a relatively sedate pace. The cobra and I, pressed up the
hill at a steady 100-110kph easily passing most of the others on the road. About half
way up we came across a pair of Subaru Impreza's that were overtaking at about 90ish.
A gap opened on the left and I followed the Cobra around them, and carried on to the
top, where we were joined by a Porsche, from memory, a Cayman S, not participating
in the run. He gallantly tried to keep up with the two of us for the downhill leg of the trip,
but given the lack of a permanent passing lane, he couldn't seem to get past the caravan
and light truck we encountered on the way down. Luck of the draw I guess, but the Cobra
and I were able to get past when they pulled into slow vehicle lanes.
We both eased off after the run through the hills, and pitted for Fuel in Tauranga. We
had a brief catch up chat whilst grabbing some gas, and then headed towards the marina
to find a boat...
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Lol, "the front brakes don't do that much"
-
Fucking dodgy old cars man, sounds like my mini. Some times the brake pedal would just go right down to the floor and provide almost no braking. Had to keep readjusting the handbrake as they were linked :S
-
After a wrong turn took us through central Tauranga on a Saturday morning, we
lost touch with the Cobra, who'd go on to be one of the first back, we headed over
the Harbour and found berth C69 and had a picture taken with the captain. We had
a brief chat and, to our astonishment, he had no clue what was going on! After
completing the challenge at the marina, we headed to the mount, not one of my
favorite places if I'm honest and even less so after the cannonball.
Our mission was to find a particular person on the beach, complete the task he had
for us, answer his questions and get on our way. Unbeknownst so both us and the
organizers, was the surf life-saving competition on that weekend, meaning most of
the beach was shut off and even worse was the lack of parks. The lads piled out of
the car whilst I drove in circles for the better part of an hour and a half.
The guys eventually tracked him down and waited in the line only to be told the driver
needed to be present, they found me, and in turn I found a park about 20 minutes
away from the beach. I sprinted up the road, getting a lot of odd looks as i did so, I
suppose not too many people are used to seeing a guy sprinting up the road in orange
camo pants and combat boots, especially with blue purple and orange hair...
We waited in line for another fifteen minutes or so, and then headed off to complete
the challenges at a rocky outcrop on the eastern beach. Steps counted, pump house
identified and photographs taken, we made our way back to the car. Our next stop was
plumbing world in Rotorua for lunch. We were all a little hungry though, so we decided
to pit in at BK to grab something to eat. After a short chow, we were back on the road.
Sadly, pretty much as soon as we headed out, Drew started feeling really ill. We got a
tad lost and lost a lot of time trying to find our way back on course.
After some of the most fierce roads I've ever had the chance to play on we arrived in
Rotorua. Drew was really bad by this stage, so we sat him down in the shade and got
him some drinks. I decided after a rest of about half an hour that the three of us should
call it and head back to Auckland. The guys were dissapointed, but at the end of the
day, the lads are more important than the adventure.
We charged up state highway one with a couple of brief stops along the way and rolled
into auckland around 7:30 dropped off our downed team mate, then headed back to
Albany to the start finish line. We weren't the last team to get back, but again, because
we'd forfeited already there wasn't much point to the meeting, though my wife was waiting
for us/being hit on by the sponsors. Her S2000 looked the part in the car park with the
rest of the cannonballers and a huge smile and hug waited for us when we arrived. Cam
and I handed in our mission pack, such as it was, and grabbed a drink (non alcoholic as I
was driving and he was under age) and had a chat and relaxed for a few minutes before
heading home. All up it was a great day, even with a few small mishaps along the way.
I guess that's the thing about runs like these, it's the things you don't expect that shape
the day.
So the big question was: how did the car perform?
Aside from the aforementioned engine knocking, the biggest concern was my oil temperature
guage. 80% of the time it was fine, and whilst it didn't ever rise above half way, on the
uphills, it did get to about 100 to 110 degrees, not good. As well as that, whislt on boost,
I noticed a more pronounced 'flutter' from the turbo, usually on higher boost levels. Still the
car had done well and I was certain that I was 90% of the way to my goal...
So Where to next?
-
If you've asked me at any stage of this build, what's next, you'll know by now when I
say: "Yep, my new xyz just arrived and it's the last part of the build" I'm lying to your
face. I mentioned earlier that the tuning bug is infectious and I really wasn't joking.
The Cannonball had got me thinking. Why was my car knocking? Why was it heating up?
It was the third week of January when Bob finally called me and asked how things were
and if I'd like to come in for the tune that didn't happen, due to the guy being in hospital.
I rocked up with the flatmate the following Saturday and was thrown straight on the dyno.
The results were less than the previous two tunes, way less. The curves matched up
pretty well to the initial tune, but with the turbo coming in almost a grand later in the rev
range. Again, the turbo rebuild was blamed, and Bob refused to believe I'd been quoted
$2700 excluding GST by the guys he reccomended. On his reccomendation, I placed an
order for a Trust Oil cooler kit, an HKS wastegate actuator and exhaust Cam gear, hoping
that these would alleviate the lag from the new turbine. It was also at this point I enquired
about guages and monitoring gear capable of plugging into my car's head deck. He advised
me that for what I was after, an HKS Camp 2, system, with additional sensors, would do
the trick, and said that if I ordered one online they'd install it for me.
I left a bit crest fallen and waited for the call from Bob.
Ok, I need to put in here a reminder, I HATE waiting.
Three months later, still no call from Bob. I decided to take matters into my own paws
and began to search for a supplier preferably NZ.I decided to go local again, for a number
of reasons.
First off, I'd ordered a Blitz R-VIT DS online and asked: will this work with my gtt which has
a Power FC, the response being absolutely. Yeah, it didn't. I asked if I could return it and
they said they'd give me 50% back, due to 're-stocking fees'.
Fail.
So it's sitting at home if anyone wants to buy it.
I then hit up ebay and got a full Camp 2 kit, with the Nissan CONSULT port adapter. Whilst
this connected, it didn't give any readings, as it wasn't able to interface with the ECU.
Double fail.
I went in to Bob's the week I got it and he looked at me with shock:
"That won't work with your ECU"
"You told me to get it!"
So with the extra sensors I got, it would work, BUT to install them, I'd need to remove
the sensors used by the ECU.
Fail on so many levels.
So I've got an HKS Camp 2 guage system sitting at home too...
I was totally over it, I work in customer service and I know that saying no to a
customer isn't all that nice, but it's better than giving them incorrect advice that leads
them to lose a tonne of money!
By this stage I was totally over everything and didn't know who to talk to about things.
The whole experience had left me ver disillusioned with the people I was dealing with and
I was even considering selling the car and going back to something less tunable...
-
It was about here when I got an MSN message one morning from Dave, the guy who
tuend my car before the Cannonball run. He was checking up to see how things were
and offered to go for a drive to do some tinkering. I explained everything that had
happened with Bob and he was astonished and agreed that I'd been treated unfaily.
We set dowwn a plan to grab some gear through a local parts company, which I'd have
installed by Ralph, then get Dave to do a re-tune whilst driving.
Dave also tracked down an intake cam gear as well as an exhaust gear from a parts
site in Australia. I ordered both of these and a replacement 'superspark' coil pack, which
all arrived in short order. It's interesting to note that Bob mentioned that there were no
cam gears for the intake side of the engine, due to the variable cam system (NVCS).
This was in fact incorrect! Dave had tracked down a timing gear that bolts on to the
existing 'NVCS' hub, allowing for better fitment of the timing belt and for small
adjustments to the timing to be made.
Meanwhile, I managed to place a massive order with a parts company in Wellington.
I'd say next to Dave, they've been the biggest help with things so far, not only sourcing
hard to find parts, but also putting up with my stream of emails and odd requests! I'm
not sure if they're wanting to be named through this forum thread, but I'll be happy to
recommend them to anyone who's after a good parts supplier (just PM me and I'll give
you the details).
The order was for two 260 degree Tomei Camshafts (intake and exhaust), as well as
the previously mentioned Oil cooler kit and wastegate actuator. I decided to get the
cam's after talking to a friends friends who builds GTR engines and mentioned that I'd
see some good improvements from a new set of mild cams.On Ralph's advice, I decided
to get the valve lifters replaced with new factory spec hydraulic lifters, and of course,
we'll be needing new belts as well. The Michelen tyres on the car are looking a little
knackered, but I'm booked in next week, for a wof and a new set of bridgestones.
As of today, I'm still waiting for the Cams and actuator to arrive. Once they're here,
it'll be a matter of throwing it all at the car and seeing what the result is. I'm pretty
nervous about it to tell the truth!
Once that's squared away, I'll maybe look at a front mount and/or induction kit, but
again, as my original brief was a stock looking monster, I guess we'll need to see what
happens after it's all been tuned up.
That brings us up to date! Crazy!
I'll post some conclusions shortly and my thoughts on the process, I'll also see if i can
find some (more) pictures somewhere for ya too.
For now, maybe we can go to Q&A again?
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More pictures? You haven't posted any.
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Page one, mate!
(http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs001.snc1/4394_1159191174520_1070000222_471487_5009870_n.jpg)
(http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs127.snc3/17453_1336137798075_1070000222_1018477_1008117_n.jpg)
Yep, that's the one!
There's a shot of me on the cannonball I'm after from a mate, i'll post it up when I get :)
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Sounds like a lot of highs and lows, bro I would be soo put off after those sensor hassles. I know that exact feeling where you feel like giving up and going to something hassle free would be the best choice.
Keep us updated, I would imagine changing the cams should indeed give some nice performance inprovements.
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Seeing this lot all written down in hindsight makes me regret that I didn't keep better
track of things I did when I did them. You can always re-trace steps and most people will
know what they've put in their car, but from writing this, it's much easier to tell the tale
as you go. I guess that'd be the biggest thing I'd do differently if I went through this
again.
So conclusions? (part 1!)
Firstly, and I can't stress this enough, find someone who you know and trust to work with.
Generally I reccomend to most people that having a mechanic you have a working relationship
with is a very good idea. As you get to know them, and they you, they'll begin to get a feel
for you as a client of theirs and will start to reccomend things to try/look at. I was lucky
with my flatmate and with Ralph, as I met them by chance whilst working at JBHiFi! They both
now know me as a mate and have a solid handle on where I want things to go and what I mean
when I say stuff or describe a problem. Once you've got someone like this on board, it's a
good idea to have them on hand when dealing with an outside party. Remember, tuning and
performance places don't do the job simply for the love of it, it's a job for them, so they
aim to make money! By having someone, mechanically minded, that you know and trust in
meetings with performance people, you'll not only have someone there who can translate what
they're talking about, but someone who'll be able ask the questions you might not know to
ask and also who can query prices and parts quoted. They can also interpret data from dyno
runs on a more technical level, so are good to have on hand.
This leads neatly to the next point. Dyno's are a useful tool to be sure, BUT don't rely on
them to show you every last thing about the vehicle. first off, as I experienced with the
tune for the cannonball, dyno's can provide 'too perfect' an environment. By this, I mean
that a dyno usually incorporates a wind tunnel-esque fan system, to simulate air rushing
past the car. However, this also means that the dyno will be a lot colder in most
circumstances than reality so the tune may be set incorrectly for driving conditions.
lso to note; dyno's can be scaled to show you all sorts of info in very different ways, meaning
the output can be 'coloured' to show what they want you to see! Again, having an expert
there can help you understand this...
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Conclusions part 2 (no this isn't going to turn into an Usher song...)
Through the above process, I guess the one thing that's been constant is my instincts.
Whilst I've been taught to respect trade professionals and hold them with high regard, at
certain points during this lot, my instincts told me that I was being played for a fool. I
can't say this loud enough, if you don't like how something sounds, walk away and find a
second/third opinion. Again, having contact in the mechanical world helps in this area.
Finally I'd say my biggest failing was not doing enough resaerch into what's available for
tuning for your prospective car. Don't lie to yourself, if you're buying a car and have a
notion to tune it, be honest and try to set a budget. To add to this, don't be afraid to
question things and ask questions about what's being done or about parts etc. It's how
I've learned a lot about what various parts and components do and it also keeps you in
the loop!
Heh, hind-sight eh, where would we be without it? (a damn site happier I bet!)
All up, I guess that's us. I've got a few more updates about where to next, which i'll put
up soon but that's my story. I'd like to thank the academy... wait, wrong speech... I'd like
to thank Ralph and Dave especially for their input and advice (also their engine work and
tuning!) the guys in Wellington for again, putting up with my 'million questions a day
before buying one part' policy, you guys rock and I'd never have learned so much without you
all. I'd also like to thank Bob for his efforts...
...I'd like to thank him...
My flatmates and friends for putting up with my concerns and my incessant prattling on
about my car. Yep I love my car, but I also love you guys for the support and enthusiasm
you've shown me throughout this project.
My beautiful wife, for always being there and that 'oh god, not more' smile and shake of
the head whenever I start the "I've been thinking about..." conversations. I'm so lucky to
have an understanding, petrolhead wife who gets where I'm coming from with things...
...you know the S2000's next right :P
Finally, you guys too, being able to vent about /reflect on /set down what's happened has
been a huge help for me, and your support has been really great, thanks all!
Two more posts for this story/blog/whatever it is :
The before and after of my final build...
...With pics!
It'll be a while coming, but we'll get it done for you, as a way to say thanks for
following! :)
Cheers all.
-Ares-
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Nice man, a good read
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Well, here we are.
It's been the better part of four months and whilst the car hasn't changed too much
in that time, things have ceratinly progressed!
First off, I've had the opportunity to drive on three tracks. Last week I had the opportunity
to take my beastie around Hampton Downs for a lil belt, thanks to the BMW driver
training school. Was a lot of fun, but again, highlighted the need for better cooling
(oil temp 130 degrees...) Previously I did a course with BMW driver training at Pukekohe,
but sadly this was using their 5 series diesels, not my boy blue. The course focused on
advanced accident evasion techniques and the basics of track driving.
The other track is nothing of importance, but was the reason I did the driver training in
the first place. After heading over to the UK on our honeymoon, my wife and i caught
the eurostar to France where we caught up with some family friends. After a whirlwind
tour of Paris on the Friday we arrived, we hired a car and drove from Paris to a little out
of the way town in Germany called Adenau. We arrived late in the day on Saturday afternoon
and had some forms to sign. The next morning we arrived at the car hire place and
picked up our second hire car and set off with an instructor in the front passenger seat.
Drove down to the end of the lane, turned right. Drove down a hill to a round-about
and turned right, then down a road/drive between two car parks and again another right.
We came to a stop at a barrier arm and swiped a card. The arm went up, and we drove
on to the Nurburgring.
We did a single lap with the instructor fropm RSR Nurburg giving us a run through of
the corners, then dropped him back and headed back for another four laps. What
an amazing experience it was! Similar to the track you'd play on the xbox but a bit
wider and, truth be told, a bit easier to handle!
After our laps we jumped back into our lil hire car, back down the autobhan to France
and back to our friends place for dinner and the World Cup final.
Given this is more about the Skyline, I'll keep things about the Nurburgring brief, suffice
it to say that if you're into cars, it's worth the trip over.
Now, the R34...
Where were we... :)
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How about sum pics! :)
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How about sum pics! :)
Somehow I get the feeling you're on his ignore list. :O
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Hahahah
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Lol, I've put pics up! Honest! See page two!!!
I've got a few from Germany, but the ring runs a very strict 'no camera' policy. Given we were in one of RSR's cars (and a bit hung over), we didn't think it'd be a good idea to take pics on the track...
(http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs425.snc4/46810_479274246608_748451608_6936317_713178_n.jpg)
This be the lil clio cup we took round. May not look like much, but it'll destroy 'tegs without thinking twice. Good lil FF.
(http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs397.snc4/45983_479273891608_748451608_6936285_4292648_n.jpg)
And this be the view from our hotel, which you can actually see in Forza 3.
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Some nice metal in that RSR Garage
http://www.rsrnurburg.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&id=5&Itemid=65
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Yeah, fully. I'd have take a Lotus around if we'd had the cash, but you pay a lot for the experience. All up, the Clio we were in, insurance, fuel and laps came to about $800-1000 but again, imho it was money well spent.
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Wow that looks awesome, I literally have a new entry into my bucket list :)
My brother lives in france, so when I visit him, I will visit the ring too :D
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RSR (http://"http://www.rsrnurburg.com/")
John from RSR was an amazing instructor. Gave us some great tips and then left us to it. Nurburgring instructors are allowed in the car with you for more than one lap but cost a lot more.
Heh, if money wasn't an option, I think the Lotus two eleven they had would have been amazing...
The drive from Paris to Adenau took about four to five hours and was actually pretty easy thanks to the GPS we had been loaned. Open road limit in france once we were out of Paris was 130km then after luxembourg we were on unrestricted autobhan for a good chunk of it. TBH though the ring was so much better than the Autobhan!
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Unbeknownst to most of the world, but knownst to a lot of us here at home, New Zealand
has a very rich and proud history where motorsports are concerned. Be it the Rally
skills of the late Possum Bourne or the high tech genius of Bruce McClaren, for our
size, NZ certainly has contributed and still contributes to motorsports.
Fans of all forms of racing will be aware of the superb new track being laid out just
south of Auckland, Hampton Downs raceway park. It's location is ideally situated close
to the Meremere drag-way and is only about a half hour trip over the Bombay hills from
Auckland. Designed to an international standard, and built privately to accomodate all
forms of motorsport, it's really something else.
I could go on, about it, but I'll leave things with it's definately a world class
track.
My first time there, was merely as the first stop of last year's aforementioned
cannonball run.Whilst there were a fair few NZD1 cars present, we didn't get onto the
track at all, due to the time constraints of the day and out of courtesy for the drift
lads, which was a little dissapointing for all, but understandable.
Skipping forward nine months, I found myself with an email invite from the BMW driver
training team, to an open track day at Hampton Downs. Without a second thought I
sorted the day off, paid for my entrance and gave Cameron, my cousin-in-law, a yell
and we were off. Well, the morning of the track day we were off...
After a safety brief and a dividing of cars between crazy and insane, we went out for
a sighting lap. No Dramas here, but after the experts/crazy fast people had their
first play, our 'novice' group headed out to have a belt. We weren't out to break
records, just to have a good time and that we did. Over the course of the morning we
got many laps in and i was actually moved class wise to the expert group after our
first run.
The car was excellent, but lacked the power of the GTR's and GT3's we were in with,
also i didn't want to push things too far as My oil temp kept shooting for 130
degrees. After a good play we said our thanks and headed home with HUGE grins
plastered all over our mugs. Over the course of the drive back we let the car unwind
and take a breather.
I was happy with the results, and glad I'd got the chance to see what sort of feel
the car had on the track before the next build...
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My oil temp kept shooting for 130
degrees.
Thats not really that bad on the track. I had a VW Golf that would regularly hit 125 degrees at Pukekohe and Taupo, a turbo charged car would probably run a bit hotter.
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So, with the build fast approaching let's first review, then facepalm.
I'm wanting a bit more in the way of power and also to try to make my car better
utilize its current mods, so with that in mind here's the parts list:
First off, cooling. I've been running a little warm for my liking. I've picked up a little
knocking on higher boost levels which could be attributed to in-effcient cooling post
turbo. So I've sourced a new blitz front mount intercooler to aid in this. Also on the
cooling tip A trust/Greddy oil cooler kit, to replace the stock sandwitch plate.
Overall I feel that this should give me a more solid platform for the performance improvements.
Speaking of which, i was sold a pack of 'splitfire' spark coils, which I'm pretty sure have
turned out to be fakes (black coils, not blue...). So, a new pack of bright red coils courtesy
of superspark are ready to go in, to help with top end. Also to help the top end stuff, a
new wastegate actuator to make sure that the turbo's working better and not flapping
around so much on boost.
Taking a leaf from the N/A tuning book, I've decided to upgrade my cams and injectors too,
getting more power from the engine itself, meaning less reliance on Mr. Turbo and also a
shorter spool time. Along with the new 800cc injectors a nice new tomei fuel pressure
regulator to keep the flow from the nismo pump nice and even. The cams picked for the
job are Tomei type b, 260 degree procams, which will be matched up to trust/greddy timing
gears.
Phew! Once all this is done, it'll be back to the Dyno and a re-install of my ECU, which I
messed up the settings of recently due to user error (at the moment i'm running my factory
ecu) To be fair, bob's team didn't do the best job on the install, but I do think i managed
to stuff a setting somewhere.
Must learn not to tootu so much!
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Im jizzing...
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I think upgrading the cams and injectors is going to be a very good move, coupling that with uprating all the cooling systems also, you are going to be able to get some solid endurance going.
This is going to be a damned solid track vehicle, I'll be expecting to see some track times when this latest round of work is done :P
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Latest and last! lol
I'm quite nervous about it tbh, not 100% sure why, but I guess it's always the same when you're getting mods done and aren't sure about the end result. Might need to look at new solid lifters too depending on their condition, might chat to my mechanic about that tonight. And I'm dying to get the ecu back in, the car is a pig to drive on the factory system (though to be fair, i think it's just because it's not what I'm used to)
I've got a mate lined up to take some before and after pics, as well as some pics of the gear before it goes in too, so should have some good snaps for you guys.will also see if I can find some dyno charts to post up :)
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Sometimes life takes us in a direction we thought we didn't want to go. Sometimes
we're somewhat cornered into situations, we think may not be all that flash. Weather
you believe in a higher power or karma or fate, we can all admit that, when we're
cornered and have to get out of our comfort zone and think differently, we learn.
So it is that, the story now up to date, we find ourselves at Labour weekend, 2010.
After a run in with the dentists yesterday, I came up with a plan that, all going
well, will allow me to have the car, 'Big Blue' as we've come to know him, up and
running for the 2011 Cannonball run.
My mechanic, Ralph, has a backlog of other vehicles that will stop him from working
on mine til mid November. After a moment of inspiration, a few phone calls and a big
chunk of luck I was able to contact another guru of Auckland (and NZ's) motorsport
scene. Guru Raj is very secretive however, so as such, I've done the usual and Guru
Raj he shall be! Having a few chats on and off, over the last few weeks, he wasn't
surprised at all; as I called him when he was picking up the phone to call me! He
mentioned that he had some time free over the weekend or early next week. A few
calls later, a trip to Ralphs to pick up some parts and we're getting our build on!
So, as Ralph is busy til November, I'm getting Guru Raj to sort the injectors, fuel
pressure regulator, new spark coils, camshafts and gears. He's also going to double
check seals and gaskets and finish off with a nice new kevlar belt. During this process
he'll assess some of the finer points of the valve train and also have a look at my
pesky traction control and ecu.
WIN!
After it's up and running again, I'll get it down to Ralphs, where he'll install the
wastegate actuator, inter-cooler and oil cooler. Then back to Raj's and a final dyno
tune.
Excitement and nervous in double measure here at the moment! Wahoo!
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Cams and injectors is an interesting route? I 'spose it depends on your plans for the car but if the injectors weren't running at too high a duty cycle (i.e. you weren't running crazy boost => more fuel) I'm not sure they would be worth the price?
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My factory injectors were getting to up to 75-80% duty. With the 800cc injectors, the nismo fuel pump and tomei regulator, i should be well covered for injection.
Not to mention, they were the same price across the board, be it 550, 660 or 800...
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Noob reporting in...
Cant remember if you have mentioned it but have you got forged pistons? or does it not really need looking at?
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Hey man.
The internals are forged but still if I could afford better...
Something to look at if/when rebuild happens. As it stands, I'm not going nuts over boost, mainly mechanical tuning rather than just upping the blow, so it's been deemed as un-necessary by the people i'm dealing/working with.
:)
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Ah ok sweeet...
Car sounds super sexy mate.
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Ok, time for a quick question:
How much in the way of rkw (rear kilowatts) do we think she'll make?
Pre-upgrades, my boy blue was putting up 196kw at the rear wheels, not too bad all up!
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197kw.
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That's just mean!
:(
Was gonna say the winner or person who gets close might get a prize if I can find sumin worht finding a home for!
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Ok, quick update;
So, work is progressing well. Just after some new valve shims then we'll be squared away.
Will post up the last lot of dramas when everything's done, lol!
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Does it have vtec?
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our mechanic at work has a skyline, his is putting out about 502hp @ 15psi at the wheels. He has a big arse turbo on his but naff all else (he has upgraded injectors and fuel pump however which is recommended).
I am very jealous of your adventures at Nurburgring! Keep the updates coming, its a good read. :P
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Does it have vtec?
Technically, yes. NVCS is Nissan's equivalent.
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v8 or go home tbh......
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I love my V8s, I'm named 'Hemi' after Dad's obsession with Mopars. But you have to be appreciate the brilliance of Nissan's engineering.
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v8 or go home tbh......
Each to their own mate.
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Ignore the cubic inch addict, give us some updates on how this build is going man, it's about the only thing worth visiting in the car forums here.
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Ignore the cubic inch addict, give us some updates on how this build is going man, it's about the only thing worth visiting in the car forums here.
I didn't know my wife posted here...
OH right...
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Ok, so where we're at...
The build was progressing well...
- Front Mount Intercooler: Check!
- Oil Cooler Kit: Check!
- Wastegate Actuator: Check!
- Camshafts: Check (ish)
- Cam timing gears: Check!
- Fuel Pressure regulator: Check!
- Injectors: FAIL!
- Coil packs: Waiting for delivery
- Front Bumper: away for painting
Ok, so that's the in brief. Guru raj has really outdone himself with the fitting up of everything involved. The oil cooler and intercooler have been fitted up and look great. Sadly we needed to get some speedflow 90 degree connectors to replace the 45 degree ones that came with the kit, but once he got those we were ok. Intercooler had no troubles in mounting whatsoever.
The wastegate actuator has been installed and whilst it limits me to one bar (14.5 lbs), tbh, that's more than i was running before and it will be a more constant pressure across more of the rev range.
The fuel pressure regulator fitted up, but again needed a few little speedflow bits to help it connect up.
Now the fun stuff. The old camshafts were removed and measured and new ones ftted, but sadly, they're a different diameter to the GTR, so i needed to order 14 valve shims from Nissan. No drama really, but they're about a week out from arrival. The cams themselves have been fitted though, along with the timing gears.
The front bumper i'm expecting to hear back about today or early next week. Turns out it had been re-painted before, so looking forward to seeing the results of a decent coat of paint.
So, the injectors. Sadly, the Sard reccomended injectors turned out to be the correct Ohm rating, but were way to big to fit my fuel rail, even with a lot of modification, it wasn't looking good! I contacted the supplier (being local really helps out here!) and explained the situation. The fact that last time it took about four months to get the injectors he's agreed to give me a refund. Meanwhile, Guru Raj sourced some siemens 680cc injectors and they should be going in today.
Aside from that, I'm waiting on a set of Splitfire coils from Aussie to arrive, which I caved and decided to get as they were on special :P
So that's where we are now! :D
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sweet! With the cams, I take it the Base circle diameters were different? Thats annoying eh!, When I did my bike they were practicably identicle so there were no big dramas. Are you degreeing the cams or just banging them in, cos that can make quite a difference. Takes a bit of time but it is well worth it.
I noticed the difference in the cams particularly not with out right grunt, but with pick up of corners, it was just like the power was "fatter". Also, is you drop the idle it sounds awesome haah!
keep up the updates!
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Yup, different base diameter's. He's got a tonne of GTR shims, but none would fit mine. Still Nissan has them on the way for me.
If by degreeing you mean timing them correctly, yep definately. The timing gears were a 'mare to track down cos i wanted to retain nvcs (nissan's vtech) They'll be tuned up prior to and during the final dyno runs :)
The ECU settings will also need to be tweaked as the fuel/air mix is up the wazoo at the moment, again, that's what the dyno is for! :D
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Please, for the love of god...
Record and upload the dyno session.
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Will see if I'm allowed :p
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So, here i sit, pretty much heartbroken.
Decided to stop by the Nissan parts department after work, on the off chance the valve shims I'd ordered had arrived.
They let me know that the ETA had been pushed back as there were none in stock in Japan.
Sadly, this means that they won't be ready until the 27th of Jan at the earliest.
After sopping in to see my wife on the way home for some moral support, I came home and called up, a few places to
see if they could machine some for me but at this point it's not looking likely.
Meaning no Cannonball Run and no car until February next year at the earliest.
I'm so, so gutted. :(
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what are the shim measurements? diameter and thickness required?
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Ok, so New year and Cannonball have been and gone. Holiday non-events and bad mood from lack of car aside, The last week has been mad for car stuff!
The only new part to the build was an afterthought:
"Will my transmission be ok?"
"Is it stock?"
"Yep..."
"Nope..."
"Rats..."
I looked around for an ACT clutch and flywheel for my somewhat problematic car, but to no avail, settling on a sprung twin plate from Exedy. I'm not a fan of twin plate clutches, especially in a road car, but I've been told it's light and the springs make it less bitchy...We'll see though!
During the last week of last year, I picked up the newly painted bumper, and that's now on the car looking fantastic. The Sard Injectors were replaced with Siemens 680cc injectors and the Fuel Pressure regulator is squared away nicely.
All shims arrived (finally) from Nissan yesterday and I was able to get them up to the Guru's shortly after. When I arrived, the gearbox was out, new clutch was in and so without too much waiting around I headed back to work.
I got a call from the Guru later that day, asking me to grab gear box a seal off Nissan, which I ordered, picked up and dropped off this morning.
When I got there, again, car was on the hoist...BUT:
Camshafts installed with the new shims. Cam Gears Installed and the Gear Box is back in, presumably getting to know the new clutch in a non working environment...
At this point we're agreeing that the two areas that will be holding me back power wise are the turbo, being a tad on the small size and possibly the intake. We've decided to do a dyno with no filter on to see if it helps things. If it does, we'll look at a different intake for it, rather than the stock one.
Phew! It's been an emotional few weeks, but looks like the final dynos should be this week or next.
Fingers crossed! :)
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You know when you're really racing to meet a deadline but things keep popping up that keep you from it?
Like the last few weeks of work or school before a holiday?
That time that drags and drags and you're continually thinkin: Geez, when is this xyz thing going to roll around?
Well, if you've ever been in this situation, you may have also been in the one I was in last week, where,
for some reason, when Raj called and said: "I've got MOST of the car assembled, but I've got two drivers side
gaskets and I need one for the drivers side, and one for the passenger side..."
I cracked up laughing.
After all the dramas, after the missed deadlines and all the other little things that had come along, honestly,
this was so inconsequential that I couldn't help it. Thankfully, it was an overnight order at Nissan, and my
wife in her S2000 to the rescue. She starts work at mid-day so was able to run it up to him.
Of course, that left me sitting here at my work desk wondering where things were with the car, but on Tuesday
night, Raj called and confirmed:
"I'll work on it and get the timing and initial tuning sorted on Wednesday, then we'll get these dyno runs and
final tweaks done on Thursday."
"OK!"
To say a hectic week got worse is an understatement! We were moving out of our flat and into our own home
last week, and to compound things, I was booked in for Lasik eye surgery on Friday morning.Still, I wasn't
wanting to wait any longer and thankfully, my boss knows all about my car dramas!
My wife ran me up to Raj's and after a couple of power runs on the dyno, with a few tweaks of the ecu, we
decided to put her s2000 on the dyno too, just to see what sort of power it had and yes, I'll post up some pics
of the results!
After she'd headed off to work we took the car out for a run and my god did it do that!
So happy with the result I headed off to get a warrant and head home to rest up before I had Lasik the next day...
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There are few things in life that give you a feeling of real, solid relief. Getting home after a night out on the town,
at a place where the bathrooms are too dodgy to enter, is defiantely one! As is that feeling of, wow, asking the
boss for a payrise wasn't all that hard, even if he said no!
As I drove back from the Guru's, that Thursday, it was defiantely one of those moments! The car was running
flawlessly. The upped power and more solid cooling had definately given the car a more solid feel, not to mention
the lumpy rotary-ish sound coming from the engine bay at idle! The new clutch was proving to be interesting down
low, but amazing for changes whilst rolling.
All up, things were pretty sweet.
I decided I had time to grab a warrant before heading into Remuera for a pre-Lasik discussion with the doctor
performing the proceedure. I caught up with a mate who's a mechanic and he arranged it.
Took it to the place he'd recommended, parked up and jumped out to wait for a bit.
When it was started by the mechanic, is where my sense of relief ran screaming.
He turned on the lights and the engine started surging at idle.
Not good.
The warrant was passed however, as my mechanic buddy was present and explained what
I'd just had done.
From there it was into Remuera for the eye check.
That night the surging returned when my lights were on, so I called the Guru and arranged
to head back up on that coming Saturday.
Friday was a non event due to moving house and the lasik proceedure I'd just had that morning.
Might I just say, ow, followed by thank Christ for sedatives...
Saturday morning rolled around and with a great nights sleep behind me, I headed out to my
checkup appointment, then to the Oakley store who swapped out my perscription lenses for regular
ones. A bit later that day I headed up to the guru's. A few tests later, the Guru decided to check
an RB25DET wiring diagram he had handy. After disconnecting the rear demister and headlights from
the ECU loom and checked they were still working, we had one little tweak to the engine map to do.
Things were going pretty well, I'd been there for about 20 minutes all up, when we decided to update
the ECU automatically, rather than just changing the few little tweaks needed, think of it like flashing and
updating the bios on your pc.
Got that pictured?
Good, now think about what happens when the bios errors half way through updating.
Turned the key.
Nothing Happened.
...
FUCK!
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Craaaaap. You'll get it dont worry too much.
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So to recap:
- Eyes sore from Lasik
- Moving house with people waiting on me
- Car not starting about an hours drive from home
- yay!
To the tune of: I've heard of this happenning with Power FC's but never seen it! We swung/stumbled into action.
The first job came in re-entering in several tables worth of fuel air ratio and timing degrees. Sounds straight forward,
but it was slow progress. For the second and third tables, we grabbed another laptop and took screenshots of the correct tables,
entering everything manually to be sure things were correct. After getting the basics in, we then made a few more tweaks,
re-attached a sensor module and went for a final test drive. This time, I was in the passenger seat hanging on to the laptop
for dear life, as I took in the marvel of the Guru's driving.
To be fair, I felt completely at ease; compared to the monsters he was used to my GTT is very tame indeed! This didn't stop
us, er, reaching 100km/h quite quickly, perhaps a little too quickly for a bird hanging out in the middle of the road.
Why do they always hang out on the road? I swear that's not a normal place for a bird to be...
Sadly it wasn't able to move out of the way in time, and the Guru apologised to both me and the bird.
He then set about testing the limits of my cars braking; pushed into seat, pushed into seat, pushed into seat, pushed int- thrown
forward!
Fun times!
We headed back to the garage and the Guru started pulling the sensors off the car and re-installing in the ECU in its correct place
(as opposed to in the passenger seat footwell where it had been all afternoon!) Re-installing the hand controller and checking /
tweaking things as he went. The Hand Controller was locked off to only allow me limited access to things (not that I hadn't
learned my lesson from last time!) Wilst the Guru was sorting this, I was given the important task of getting the bird out of my
intercooler.
It was squidgy.
*shudders*
We'd got everything back together, the Guru apologised once again for the inconvenience and we had a bit
of a chat over a well deserved glass of orange juice, as neither of us had eaten since I'd arrived at 1pm
and it was now about 7pm.
I decided to get going back home pretty sharpish, given the moving day bits and pieces, thanking the Guru
again for his time, hospitality and technical know-how.
The drive home in the sunset was perfect. The only things missing were my mates!
The car is now safe and sound, running so well and not missing a beat (aside from me not being used to the new clutch!)
Next update: Final conclusion! (complete with some dyno sheets!)
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I want a vid of the dyno session :(
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Have some vids of the dyno, but need to remove the plates from them, plus I suck as a cameraman! :p
For now I'll try to link in my before/after dynos :)
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First Power runs, after it'd had the first work at Bob's:
(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22270160/Power%20runs%202009%20web.jpg)
And boost pressure:
(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22270160/Boost%20Pressures%202009%20web.jpg)
Ok, should mention the torque on the above is counted at the flywheel, so divide it by the diff ratio (4.111) to get the power at the wheels.
Net gain of about 100 nm (sorry they're measured differently!)
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Final completed runs:
(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22270160/Final%20Power%20runs%2010-02-11%20web.jpg)
Final boost pressures:
(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22270160/Final%20Boost%20Pressures%2010-02-11%20web.jpg)
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What happened to the final conclusion?
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What do you do for a job? im sure this has cost you a fortune.
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In Answer to your questions.
I'd initially planned for the dyno results to be the conclusion. Course now...
I work in web design, and it doesn't pay particularly well, however I came into some money, and just got a tad carried away
with the build (initially, I was going to leave it once the Power FC was installed)
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Fair enough haha sounds like a hell of a nice car man.
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To paraphrase...
Ask the partner of any racer, of any real racer and they'll tell you one thing:
When a petrolhead says that they've finished their car, THEY ARE LYING!
You can forget any other mumbo jumbo about cubic capacity. Discount anything about the rivalry
between naturally aspirated and forced induction fans, lay to rest any FF/FR/MR/RR purists, it
simply does not matter.
Ask the ever loving partners of anyone into performance tuning and they'll all tell you:
"He/She said they were finished with the last lot of upgrades, but here we are again..."
I've literally lost track of how many times i've said to friends and family:
"Yep, just ordered the last parts for Blue, will get these in and then we'll be done..."
I believe the translation sounds more like:
"Right now I'm happy with the car, but i've got some ideas kicking around which will cause me to
re-evaluate things, somewhere in the next thirty seconds."
Well, I prefer that to:
"I'm LYING! Take my credit card offa me!"
Confused yet? Heh.
After a few months of driving the car in the guise above, I noticed the surging returning here and
there. I also noticed a lack of low end torque and the clutch was really driving me mad!
I Spoke to the Guru and took the car up to see him. He ended up pulling some of the timing out
of the setup, which lost me about 20 horse power and 20 foot pounds of torque. To be fair, I could
live with that, but with the check engine light still winking at me every so often, we decided to
re-evaluate things...
...in the form of a new ECU.
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Ok, so who knows this story:
Pc is working MINT.
It's running all your favorite games, perfectly, full res, anti-aliasing even V-sync to make it
just that little bit smoother...
Then Nvidia go and release a new card and you decide, yeah, I could do with that...
Uninstall the old card, install new card...
Everything is worse.
FML
We know that it's usually because the other parts of your build haven't kept up with the new
doo-dad that's been added. So we either tweak settings or replace the weak spot, right?
Well, for me, it was same thing. The Power FC ECU was great, right up until the new cam shafts
went in, which is where it started to struggle.
After talking things over with the Guru, we settled on a GTTLink ECU, one of the Link G4 series.
The unit would allow more levels of control, and handy things like anti-stall tables and limiting the
RPM based on engine temp, as well as greater tune-ability across the whole car, without going
to the crazy extremes of a Motec ECU.
We were able to find one and set about planning the build. The Link runs a MAP sensor, as opposed
to the factory air flow metre, so first thing would be to plumb that in. Next up would be making a
new wiring Loom, from the ECU through the firewall to both the MAP sensor and the boost controller.
Finally, the Power FC's hand controller would be going, meaning that I'd have no boost selection; an
issue solved by the addition of a high low toggle switch.
Planning done, my last request was that we get together, so I could learn a bit more about how it
was all done. Then to coin a phrase: It was time to roll up our sleeves and queue the music!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MVonyVSQoM
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You know, after the great shim fiasco of 2010, you think I would have learned my lessons about
doing performance work at the end of the year! Still, with the Cannonball in Jan and the days swiftly
whittling down before Christmas and New Year, I decided to go all out to get the car running well.
...
Famous last words much?
The build would see my whole ethos of 'leave the engine bay as stock as possible' take a bit of a
left turn.
Our first day of work on the car to get it ready involved making the new ECU loom, which would
connect the ECU to the newly mounted MAP sensor, air temp sensor and to the Link boost control.
A friend of the Guru's was able to make a bracket for us to mount between the new Pod filter and
the intake from the cold air box and delivered it to us (talk about service!) and another contact was
able to cut a hole in the intake pipe to weld in a boss for the air temp sensor, which we then fitted
up. With the map and air temp sensor mounted and in place, we threw the factory air box back in
after a quick test fit of the pod.
The next trip up, we got to work with a hiss and a roar, first changing to oil out, as it was overdue
for it's last oil change, since we were holding off til we got the re-tuning done.
Whilst draining, we finalised the loom and fitted everything up. This involved both pulling out part
of the old ECU loom and getting the new one through the firewall.
From there, we mounted the boost controller and Pod, with its bracket, in place. Removing a few
extra little things here and there that were no longer needed.
With the engine bay looking a bit less cluttered but still largely factory, it was back on the dyno.
I left the car there, as there needed to be some cold starts and some bug hunting to be done
over a couple of days.
Then it'd be a matter of picking it up and seeing if I could notice a difference!
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Really?
I never finished?
Huh...
Anwhoooooooooooo,
Just FYI team - this car is up for sale. I'm askin 25k or near offer, so if you're keen, or know someone who might be, drop me a line...
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Should have gone with the Supra.
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Should have gone with the Supra.
Love Supra's but they're too old and too heavy!
-
And too desirable.
Some cunt tried to steal mine.
Saved by the lack of warrant (stale fuel, wouldn't start).
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i still want a supra...
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Once upon a time, in a land full of Stubbie's shorts, Swan-Dri's, mutton chops and mo's,
tuning your HQ Holden, Mark One Escort, KE Corolla or Nissan 1200 was a much simpler
affair.
A few bolt on bits here and there, adjust the intake on the carburettor and no drama,
more power. Due to the nature of how carburettors work, delivering a fuel air mix that
was in the correct ball park, of what the engine needed was a lot more straight forward.
Computer controlled fuel injection provided many improvements to fuel efficiency, more
power could be gained whilst providing substantially better economy.
“Witchcraft and sorcery” people cried, but the fact of the matter was that Engine Control
Units were able to calculate things far more accurately than a man with a screwdriver could.
However, there are limits to what can be done. A factory produced car is built for reliability
and fuel economy, all rolled up into an affordable budget. Indeed, it was this very issue
that led me to where I am today. The factory ECU simply could not handle the simple modification
to the exhaust and thus, needed to be replaced.
It still amazes me that certain, un-named friends of mine insist on bolting every modification
under the sun to their vehicles and expect to see increases in performance, without the
enhancing the brains behind it all. They spend so much time and money on these projects
and are almost always disappointed with the results.
As Guru Raj says;
"A car is only as good as its tune"
With the Link installed and tuned the GT-T had become the car i knew it could be. The
difference was instantly noticeable. Whilst the pure kilowatt power hadn't increased all that
much, now sitting around 290kw at the rear wheels, the torque had definitely improved.
The clutch is still temperamental at cold temperatures, but when rolling, gear changes
are immediate and solid.
Combined with the lightweight frame and transmission upgrades, high lift cam-shafts and
the still small and spooly turbo, the car's acceleration for passing is astonishing, so much so
that it still catches me off guard sometimes, not to mention those same friends with their 2jz's!
After having it in its current form for the better part of two years, it will be a shame to see my
mate go - hopefully to a good home - but i know that whoever buys this car will be amazed by it,
as i am every time i drive it.
Though it's time to say goodbye, tomorrow is a new chapter...
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ares, having worked as a dyno tuner, i could not agree more, heres an example, a guy i know turb'd an integra, expects to see an extra 50HP. He got zero and blew up his engine... this is because the factory AFM and tune did not recognize postive pressures, so the car leans out, overheats and explodes, basically any EFI car, the biggest increase you will ever find will come in the form of a proper programmable ECU
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Also reliability has gone up with Japanese makes, coupled with efficiency they are able to already put out a high amount of power for the engine size, etc.
But this also means that they're about at their comfortable limit.
In the days of simple old school engine mods gaining one a noticable improvement in performance; one need not a huge budget, could perform the mods themselves with the right know how, and still have a reasonably reliable drive at the end of it.
Now a days one spends heaps to get all the flash kit with a far less noticable improvment & huge expense in reliability, even when tuned right.
Fact is that engines are that much better there is less room for massive improvement unless you go all out, which costs a lot often in more ways than one.
And often it doesn't end up going to much use other than brag factor.
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soz pyro actually have to call you on that a little bit, for a lot of engines you're correct and everything u said makes sense, the exceptions are generally the 2L and up turbo beasts the japs were making in the 90's, toyota's 3SGTE and 2JZGTE, nissan's, RB25DET and SR20DET, Subaru's EJ20T and Mitsti's 4G63, all of these engines are capable of far far more than they put out from factory, they were all limited to 280ps by the japanese "gentlemans agreement" take my car for example, claimed factory HP is 255, however everything in the engine is rated to at least 350, just putting a link G4 in my car would make it able to hit 360 Flywheel HP all day (as long as the turbo is steel not ceramic) most of these engines are only held back by a tune and their injectors.
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Dunno if this was me or not ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mx1Kfv5QAWE