Law of Murphy at Play for This Daily Driver BNR32

[louis110]

Schroth Clubman II harness showed up and the silver matches my Brides so well. I was able to use 3 out of the 4 supplied eyelet bolts onto the stock mounting points, and needed a snap on bracket for the tranny tunnel mounting position. I don't like the design of the bendable tab style brackets Takata sells as it seems to weak if some serious force was applied to it. Instead I opted for the Rennlist snap on bracket designed for Porsches. Way beefier, and I know this won't fail on me.







Also got some new inner door handles and ABS line brackets to refresh the tired old ones.


I also ordered black Alcantara door inserts from Redline goods. I originally just wanted plain black, but they way their order form worked was kind of hard to navigate, and it showed up with a red stitched pattern on it. I would've preferred something more subtle, but I don't mind the way they turned out. Matches my shift boot, steering wheel, and Nismo floor mats.

[louis110]

nice looking car. Glad that the issues you've had have not been devastating. Any plans to hit the track?

Thanks. hopefully the car still runs like a champ when I get back on the dyno. I'd like to hit up a few lapping days eventually but I'm moving to Ottawa this summer so we'll see how that all goes.

[Bruizer]

nice looking car. Glad that the issues you've had have not been devastating. Any plans to hit the track?

[louis110]

After all that work, I encountered an issue where my car was smoking significantly under vacuum. Anytime I would boost a little and let off the gas, I would leave behind a disgusting cloud of raw smelling smoke.

I ended up taking the car to Speedtech to get inspected and go in for a base tune with my Sard high impedance 550CC injectors, R35 MAFs, and Power FC. Jesse from Speedtech suspected that the turbos were causing the smoking, and after leaving the car with them he confirmed that the turbos were shot. Video below.

https://www.facebook.com/ron.louis.3...687441/?type=3

The "rebuilt" N1 turbos I bought off the forum years ago were garbage, and rendered not repairable. I ended up ordering brand new Garrett 2860R-5RS turbos. I wanted to get -9s for the faster spool qualities but found out they are discontinued. The actuators were upgraded with HKS units (not pictured). The engine was compression tested and was solid across the board (~150 psi).


With the new turbos in, it was time to hook up the electrical bits like the Innovate SCG-1 wideband/boost controller (pictured) and get the car on the dyno.



The car ran well on the dyno, making 300 whp at 10 psi on a base tune. On the test drive the car drove awesome, however I was getting a little bit of turbo surge at part throttle, and the BOVs needed to be tightened. Soon after we got back to the shop, I had the car idling and all of a sudden it died. The car was now hunting for idle. We ended up spending the rest of the day road tuning it and trouble shooting but for some reason either the Power FC was not working well with the R35 MAF setup, or the ECU was dumping the tune for whatever reason. After getting the car to a drivable point, I hit the highway to make the 3 hour drive back to Cold Lake. The car died multiple times on the highway; hitting 02 cut, then surging, then losing power. The drive ended up taking 4.5 hours through the middle of the night. Once I got the car home the next day it wouldn't turn on at all. I plugged in the OEM ECU and car fired up and idled with no problem. I bought a Vipec PNP ECU that will be installed, go to a MAP setup, and have the car retuned this Spring. I'm also planning on refreshing the interior up a bit. Have a Schroth harness on order, inner door panel Alcantara covers, new inner door lock levers, and a suede Personal steering wheel.

[louis110]

After getting the car back on the road I installed my DW300 fuel pump, which required some modding to the stock cradle.



Next I had my friend, Tim, help me with my NACA hood install since he was an auto body guy in a previous life. Turned out awesome.





Some random shots from this past summer while I had the car back on the road.

[louis110]

First start! The car fired up beautifully on the first crank, and sounded insane with the new exhaust setup. Unfortunately oil started pooling underneath the car, and was routed to a loose oil feed line to the rear turbo.

After an additional week of troubleshooting and trying to tighten the line without taking the whole turbo system apart, everything finally checked out. All in all the build took about 5 months. I learned a lot, and had tons of help along the way.

[louis110]

Big ass torque wrench I borrowed from work to torque down the crank pulley to 320 ft/lb. The string was jammed down one of the cylinders to stop the crank from turning.


Drivetrain all put back together!



Almost there! 16 hours straight of wrenching and the motor/tranny is back in the car.

[louis110]

Wow, long overdue for an update! I successfully finished my build last Summer but not without some hiccups. Here's a quick and dirty since the last update:

My head was significantly delayed by Best Engines Edmonton. What originally was supposed to take a week ended up taking 2 months. Their poor communication resulted in massive delays with parts ordering and doing things on time. They snapped my Tomei intake camshaft upon installation and needed me to order another one. After a huge headache and some very pointed conversations, I eventually got my head back resurfaced, refreshed, exhaust runners ported, new valve stem seals, and upgraded cams (in Tomei 260 deg 9.15mm lift, ex JUN 256 deg 9.15mm lift)




While the head was at the shop, I took care of all the things I could get my hands on. This included:
- upgrading the oil pump gears to billet Reimax gears and shimming the relief valve for higher pressure
- relocating the washer bottle to the trunk
- GKTech slip in solid rear subframe collars
- GKTech HICAS cancel bar, with SPL toe rods and Energy Suspension bushings for a full HICAS delete including removal of the HICAS lines
- Installed Nismo rear arms
- A/C delete
- Nismo engine and tranny mounts

After removing the oil pump, the stock pump/gears looked pretty good still, and the crank snout looked in good shape as well.


Here's the OEM oil pump with new Reimax gears installed.





Some suspension upgrades and washer bottle relocate



Getting a bit closer with the head mated to the block.

[louis110]

I ordered the Reimax gears, and random gaskets from RD earlier last week and am still waiting for my head to get finished at the machine shop. Over the last week I prepped my turbos, installed my ARP headstuds

Ported my exhaust manifolds and polished the spots I grinder out. Enlarged the exits by about 9mm!



And completed a full hicas delete including all the hydraulic lines and front solenoid, and removed the PS impeller. It ended up being about 50lbs of stuff!



My subframe collars and hicas bar from GKTECH showed up today. Unfortunately they sent me some prototype hicas bar that they haven't even released yet lol. I ended up using this, but it meant buying rear toe rods to essentially make my own HICAS delete kit. I went with baller SPL rear toe rods. Also got a silicone heater hose kit to replace all the old rubbers.

[bobbo]

I was on the fence wrt whether or not to upgrade but mine was in excellent shape so opted not to. I kinda wish I had.
It's about $450 for a fluid damper. Your call if you want to add that to the budget. Many of these depend a whole lot on how long you plan on keeping the car.

[louis110]

I'm not sure. Daryl will know what you mean.
I would recommend while you have the engine out do all the PM your budget will allow.
I did the collar and reimax gears. Cheapest way to get that overrated oil pump paranoia out of the way.
Have a look at my build. You'll see what I did. Easier than retyping

I see you're using the N1 pump. I'm considering shimming the spring in the OEM pump but there isn't enough material online about doing that.

Out of curiousity, are you running the stock crank pulley? I knicked mine a bit when I was using the removal tool on it. The first 3 threads in 1 of the 2 tool insertion holes pulled right out along with the material around it. It's very minor, but it's making me want to replace it with an aftermarket one.

[bobbo]

I'm not sure. Daryl will know what you mean.
I would recommend while you have the engine out do all the PM your budget will allow.
I did the collar and reimax gears. Cheapest way to get that overrated oil pump paranoia out of the way.
Have a look at my build. You'll see what I did. Easier than retyping

[louis110]

That's some nice shopping you've been doing!
May I suggest replacing all of your cooling and vacuum lines while your engine is out?
I bought an Autobahn 88 kit from Daryl for a couple hundred $.
Your heart must've been in your throat cutting your hood for that NACA duct.
Nice work as always! I love the look of your car!

What was the kit called Rob? Heater hose kit?

I'm also contemplating getting the reimax gear set for my stock oil pump. What do you think? Not necessary?

Haven't cut the hood just yet! Going to see if any of my body shop friends are willing to give me a steady hand.

[bobbo]

That's some nice shopping you've been doing!
May I suggest replacing all of your cooling and vacuum lines while your engine is out?
I bought an Autobahn 88 kit from Daryl for a couple hundred $.
Your heart must've been in your throat cutting your hood for that NACA duct.
Nice work as always! I love the look of your car!

[grapejuice]

Looking good! I'm sort of at the same point with starting to get my car running with the power it should be at after fixing all the little things like leaks and cv boots.