My car tuning story/diary...

[timmo]

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?

[Ares Helix]

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...

[Scorched_onion]

Noob reporting in...

Cant remember if you have mentioned it but have you got forged pistons? or does it not really need looking at?

[Ares Helix]

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.

[Scorched_onion]

Ah ok sweeet...

Car sounds super sexy mate.

[Ares Helix]

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!

[Donkey]

197kw.

[Ares Helix]

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!

[Ares Helix]

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!

[Scorched_onion]

Does it have vtec?

[frankytanky]

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.

[Ares Helix]

Does it have vtec?

Technically, yes. NVCS is Nissan's equivalent.

[broncos]

v8 or go home tbh......

[Tandoori]

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.

[Ares Helix]

v8 or go home tbh......

Each to their own mate.

[Apteryx]

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.

[Ares Helix]

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...

[Ares Helix]

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

So that's where we are now!

[frankytanky]

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!

[Ares Helix]

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!

[Scorched_onion]

Please, for the love of god...

Record and upload the dyno session.

[Ares Helix]

Will see if I'm allowed :p

[Ares Helix]

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.

[frankytanky]

what are the shim measurements? diameter and thickness required?

[Ares Helix]

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!