Law of Murphy at Play for This Daily Driver BNR32

[louis110]

When I was bored of engine stuff, I would move to some of the other parts of the car like installing this KTS solid steering adapter.


Finally got the head off last week, and dropped it off at Best Engines in Edmonton. The plan is to have them resurface the deck, port the exhaust manifold runners, inspect the seals and valve guides, clean everything out, and install my Jun/Tomei camshaft combo. With the head out of the way, I scrubbed off all the carbon build-up on the pistons and mating surface. Installed the Tomei oil restrictor pill as well.

[louis110]

When we took off my high flow cat, it really explained the stink my car was making hahah


Everything has been unbolting off the motor with ease. Nothing was seized and we only sheared a couple of small bolts that just held down some of the brackets. With everything out, I degreased the engine bay, and really wanted to control radiant heat under the engine bay. Last year I was running spacers under the hood hinges and it actually helped a bit. In addition to all the wrapping, I'm installing a carbon fiber NACA duct in the hood as well.


I also sent my intake manifold/throttle bodies/intake runners to one of the workshops at work and had it hot pressure washed in their parts washer. Perks of the job sometimes!

[louis110]

My laptop is toast and the new forum update isn't compatible with Tapatalk so I haven't been able to update this thread. Easter long weekend, I took the car out of storage and took it straight to the auto club on base to start on Operation Actually Make Decent Power. Dropped the engine in 6.5 hours, and the next couple of days was spent removing the turbos, manifolds, pumps, etc.

[louis110]

Update time:

Installed my ZLED taillight kit. Looks awesome and really makes the car stand out from the rest of the Skylines. I also made a DIY video if anyone is interested.

Annnd all dis will be going into the car. Will be dropping the motor and putting these good bits on:
- Kakimoto Regu 06&R exhaust + Fujitsubo EQ downpipe + test pipe + HPI dumps, everything wrapped in heat wrap
- KTS metal steering bushing, Nismo engine + tranny mounts, Nismo clutch slave cylinder
- Cosworth headgasket (1.1mm thickness, 87mm bore) + ARP head studs + HKS metal exhaust mani gaskets
- Deastshwerks 300 fuel pump + Sard high impedance 550CC injectors
- Nismo Lemans turbos + HKS wastegates + Cusco split pipe
- Tomei IN cam (260 deg, 9.15mm) + JUN EX cam (254 deg, 9.15mm)
- Tomei oil restrict or
- Innovate scg-1 boost controller/wideband combo gauge
- DEI Cool-Wrap for under hood and firewall
- Nismo rear lower arms and traction rods.

[louis110]

Also picked up a test pipe and Tomei 260°/9.15mm IN cam that should be in the mail shortly.



Took advantage of Right Drive ' s Black Friday sale and picked up a Deatschwerks 300 fuel pump ($180 for a pump with rave reviews), Tomei oil restrictor, CV boot kit, and a spare coupler.



Unfortunately the piping on the Fujitsubo downpipe is 15mm smaller than my HPI dump pipes.
HPI dumps on the exit side - 70mm inner diameter


Downpipe on the inlet side - 55mm inner diameter


Test fit of dump pipe and downpipe. Looking through the dump, you can see how much of the downpipe flange sticks into the exhaust flow.


I'll have to send the downpipe to a shop to have them weld on new flanges with reducers to ensure smooth flow.

[louis110]

I've got 160k on my motor. The head and Pistons haven't been touched. I did the oil pump, drive and bottom end bearings this year. Even after countless track days & TAs the oem pump looked very good.
All of the things you mentioned above won't make a significant difference to making your car go faster. In actuality it's going to make things much more difficult because of the countless adjustments you'll have to deal with. The KISS method applies very well wrt suspension set ups early on. The most important adjustment is made on the nut behind the steering wheel as they say.
With everything you mentioned you're overlooking two of the most critical components to making the car handle better. The oem rear diffs can't take much track abuse. They overheat, wear quickly and subsequently begin to slip. The most obvious component(s) is tires. Pick up a set of R33 wheels and a set of 255/40/17 stickies.
All of that said I understand that people spend big money on their cars and taking their investment to the track is scary. In my mind it makes no sense on having a car with huge potential and pissing around on the street with it. Much like dating a super model on not wanting to "sleep" with her.
Do you have an oil cooler fitted?

No oil cooler for now but I made space for it where the intake snorkel used to be. I never thought about a rear diff upgrade. I guess what I'm envisioning is a tighter chassis as opposed to racecar like handling. As much as I'd like to think it's a track car, it's not. It's a street car with occasional track/autoX use, where I have to drive 3.5 hours one way to get to the nearest track, and track days don't even occur on weekends.

I have an addiction problem though. I keep buying cheap parts from auction, but they're all things I need for my turbo swap. Got a lead on brand new HKS metal exhaust manifold gasket for $30 and a brand new JUN 256°/9.15mm exhaust cam for $100.

Just need to find a matching intake cam now. I could either go with the same size or go with slightly longer duration on the intake side with 264°/9.15mm.

[bobbo]

I've got 160k on my motor. The head and Pistons haven't been touched. I did the oil pump, drive and bottom end bearings this year. Even after countless track days & TAs the oem pump looked very good.
All of the things you mentioned above won't make a significant difference to making your car go faster. In actuality it's going to make things much more difficult because of the countless adjustments you'll have to deal with. The KISS method applies very well wrt suspension set ups early on. The most important adjustment is made on the nut behind the steering wheel as they say.
With everything you mentioned you're overlooking two of the most critical components to making the car handle better. The oem rear diffs can't take much track abuse. They overheat, wear quickly and subsequently begin to slip. The most obvious component(s) is tires. Pick up a set of R33 wheels and a set of 255/40/17 stickies.
All of that said I understand that people spend big money on their cars and taking their investment to the track is scary. In my mind it makes no sense on having a car with huge potential and pissing around on the street with it. Much like dating a super model on not wanting to "sleep" with her.
Do you have an oil cooler fitted?

[louis110]

Very nice work as always!
You're not going to believe the difference the equal length dp will make to the sound of the car. It's amazing!
With all the effort you're putting into getting the car to handle I suggest getting it corner balanced. Not doing so is almost like bolting on new turbos and not getting a tune.
Wrt sway bars I found heavy in the rear and light in the front worked best to reduce understeer. I'm still using my oem front bar with the Cusco rear.
Also I found setting the front camber to less than -2 degrees (-2.3 in my case) makes a huge difference. Not just in feel but seen in my lap times. I got a proper alignment done and changed little else wrt power or handling and took about 1/2 a second off of my best lap time. 1:15.3 to 1:14.8. That time is 1/10 behind a '12 Alpha 6 Black Edition GTR on R888s.
So now that you've done all of this great work to your car it's time to stop parking and get to a track! You'll never know how freakin good these cars can be until you do.

Great advice Rob. What kind of downpipe are you currently running? WRT corner balancing I'll have to see who in Alberta does that. Guys are more about engine here than they are about balance. I don't want to track the car until I do the turbos/tune and refresh the head. I should be focused on getting the rest of my turbo swap parts but deals on suspension bits keep coming up. Ideally I'd like to complete my suspension setup 2 years from now with these additional items:
Adjustable rear upper camber arms, Ikeya adjustable traction rods, Ikeya front tension rods, underfloor bracing, fender braces, roll center adapters, metal steering rack bushing, Nismo/Yamaha dampers, and the Do-Luck Tarzan G-Box.

[bobbo]

Very nice work as always!
You're not going to believe the difference the equal length dp will make to the sound of the car. It's amazing!
With all the effort you're putting into getting the car to handle I suggest getting it corner balanced. Not doing so is almost like bolting on new turbos and not getting a tune.
Wrt sway bars I found heavy in the rear and light in the front worked best to reduce understeer. I'm still using my oem front bar with the Cusco rear.
Also I found setting the front camber to less than -2 degrees (-2.3 in my case) makes a huge difference. Not just in feel but seen in my lap times. I got a proper alignment done and changed little else wrt power or handling and took about 1/2 a second off of my best lap time. 1:15.3 to 1:14.8. That time is 1/10 behind a '12 Alpha 6 Black Edition GTR on R888s.
So now that you've done all of this great work to your car it's time to stop parking and get to a track! You'll never know how freakin good these cars can be until you do.

[louis110]

Haven't been doing much work on the car since last update but I did want to share some goodies I won on Yahoo Jp auctions that Adam Truesdale had been helping me with.

First I found a set of Nismo rear suspension links for a good price. A bit of an impulse buy so I'm not sure if I'm actually going to use the upper arm and traction rods since they're not adjustable.




Really excited about this item I won. Old school Cusco twin turbo/IC pipe and some maf delete intake pipes.



I'm also trying to bid on a set of brand new Nismo engine mounts for cheap and this beautiful RSR equal length downpipe.

[squirmos87]

i love your car!! it looks so clean. i totally want that Nismo trunk bar now! keep up the updates, i always look forward to them.

[louis110]

Update time!

Brake pads have been swapped out for Hawk HPS plus. Didn't take pics.

This I did take pics of! My rad hose had a pin hole the day before a car show and had sprayed coolant all over the engine bay. I swapped it with a generic 300ZX hose that my friend had laying around. Problem was the oem plastic was was starting to break up and had a couple of small cracks. After a breakdown from the rad hose popping off on the way home, a $360 tow, and a call to Right Drive Parts I was back on the road.




Look at this build up on the back of the old rad!


Washed out the coolant tank, and had to trim the OEM shroud to fit the new Mishi rad




Oil pressure was reading a bit low on occasion. Since I was driving 7 hours to calgary for HIN and illmotion I didn't want to chance it and swapped out the oil pressure sender.



Polished and show ready

[louis110]

Nismo trunk bar installed. Bolts into existing points in the trunk, you just need to cut holes in the carpet. This bar actually helped the rigidity in the rear end a lot. It takes more effort to get the rear end to come around in corners but it's a good solid feeling that makes the chassis feel more connected when entering the turn. Combined with the swaybars, the car handles like an absolute champ now. Also noticed that the rear end feels more stable when going over bumps and potholes too.


So this past weekend was the 780Tuners opener meet, which is one of the larger car events in Edmonton. I lined up my 3M appointment for Friday at 9:30 am and took the day off so I could make the 3 hour drive down to Ed from Cold Lake. The night before my car started stalling and blowing black smoke. Pulled over and it took me a while before I discovered the I/C hot pipe had popped off behind the bumper. There was no way to get to the pipe without taking the bumper off, so a friend and I sealed the pipe as best as we could with duct tape (imagine trying to fit your hands through the bumper vents to do this). Limped the car to the base auto club and worked until 3am to get the car all sorted. Went home, packed a bag, cut my hair, grabbed a couple hours of sleep and drove down. The car was still running funny on the way down but was fixed when I replaced spark plug #1.


The guy did an awesome job on the 3M. He started with a clean sheet and had to custom cut everything by hand which took him 4 hours (usually takes 30-45 min for pre-cut sheet). Got a great deal on it too so I'm super happy with how it turned out.

Pics from the meet.

[louis110]

Almost ready for 2015

I've been working quite a bit to get the car ready for this season.

Replaced a torn steering rack boot, but as I was changing it I noticed that the inner CV boot was torn as well. ARGH!


Up next, I tackled the swaybars. Whiteline provides rear droplinks with the rear bar. Fairly straight forward job, but it took a little bit of work to wiggle the rear bar between the exhaust and subframe. Have both front and rear set to the stiffest setting. Steering feel is a lot heavier now (in a good way), and I've noticed that the load is more evenly distributed to the coilovers in corners now.



HKS IC pipes from Feast. The hot pipe between the turbo collector and the intercooler was designed too short. I extended the couplers as far as I could but they still barely joined the two sides of the pipe. Massive boost leak ensued, so I had that one pipe back to stock. Painted them crinkle black, washed off those gross ass looking couplers, and wrapped them in bad ass tape.



Installed the pipes along with the Synapse DV's (set to pull mode), and boost response is now so much better.


Also put in the Nissan aluminum pedal set, along with the Carbing dead pedal. The bushing that gets inserted into the gas pedal to attach it to the rod had too large of an inner diameter for a secure fit. I ended up wrapping the rod with electrical tape to pad it a bit. Worked like a charm.




I dropped off my front end (bumper, lip, grill, N1 vents) at the bodyshop 2 months ago. I told them, "use Nissan 732 paintcode, I'd like the bumper and lip clear bra'd, and take your time to do it right".


So before I left for vacation at the beginning of April, I called them and told them that if they needed to get a hold of me just e-mail me. "OK, it should be done for when you get back," they tell me. I email them/call them upon my return to tell them I'm picking up the following weekend. That's when they say to me, "so we couldn't find 732 in our system, but we have 532 so we used that. Also, we can't 3M the pieces until they're mounted on the car". I almost lost my $hit. Well they ended up repainting everything in 732 in time for me to pick up (overall decent job but a couple of runs in hard to see places, and broken tabs on my grill), and I have to head down Friday for my 3M appointment. Anyway after a long day of driving (3 hours to Edmonton + 3 hours in Edmonton + 3 hours back to Cold Lake + 5 hours for work) I immediately got to work when I got home and started mounting my Rocket Dancer flap to my rear wing. The next day I put all the body work back on, oil change, injector swap, taped up the front end, and detailed the car.




All that's left is to put my grill back in, and take care of my 3M. The car intermittently runs funny though, probably electrical related. It'll be running fine, then all of a sudden drop in power, the accelerator pedal doesn't do anything, car won't rev past 1500 rpm, can only go as fast as 20kph, idles at 150rpm but won't stall, and 5 minutes later the car starts running normal again. Very frustrating, and I have no idea what it is.

[louis110]

How'd you paint the headlights after you took the covers off? Any pictures? How'd you mask it, what you used etc? High temp paint or..? Love how clean the car is, esp. that engine bay. Wow.

The chromed section is snapped into the assembly from the back so you just tug on it carefully to get it off. Once off sand down all the chrome and paint with the highest temp paint you can get. No masking needed. There's a separate chrome ring that goes around the projector. It doesn't do anything so I took it out as well.