Update: 7/3/2016 - All ok!

Clocked up a small 250km over the weekend. It seems so much quicker now with the new tyres on it. can pull strong to the redline without any hint of slippage.

Ordered a 200cel sports cat(last one was 100cel and wouldn't pass NCT). It promptly arrived during the week so will fit that as soon as I get a chance.

Dropping the car off to a body shop on tue to get the rear boot / rear lights resealed as they are a bit leaky and to get the air con re-gassed. Also a few other little bits fixed up that have been annoying me for a while.

It appears that she is using a bit more fuel when cold, especially as it looses all heat heading down the hill from the mountains but once fully warmed up, it pulls hard despite the aging turbo.

Brakes are all ok, checked the fluid with a tester and it appears to be still fresh-ish so all ok there. might check out some DBA 4000 T3 discs for the front with some CL RC5+ pads to replace the EBC red stuff.

Regarding the turbo, i have 2 options. 1) - replacement 400bhp hybrid to fit in stock location or option 2) is a Garrett GTX3076R w/.82 housing & vband with ext WG & 6boost manifold which is obviously alot more expensive but would make it mental. Will have to wait & see how the funds are. right now I am just going to enjoy it.

Anyway... some pics

200cel Sports Cat

Brake fluid test

As always, stay tuned......

Update: 02/03/2016 - Back on the road for 2016

Taxed today & back on the road finally. Been a long wait since 1st Dec!

Have a few things to take care off body wise then get Elite Auto Clean to work some magic on it during the month of March.

Japspeed 200cel sports cat on the way so will fit that once it arrives. Innovate LC2 will take care of the fine tune once the sports cat has been fitted.

Will be using it as a daily now also soon enough again.

Thinking towards a potential wheel color change as they will need a refurb at some point this year. They are Rota GTRs in bronze & the car is white. Dont want black as you can loose the design of the wheel.

Suggestions below in the comments section please! Either stay with the bronze & refurb or refurb and complete wheel color change.

Here is the car as it stands today

As always, stay tuned for more updates!

Update: 15/01/2016 - New Rubber!

no major updates as the car is off the road from 1st Dec until 1st March. May get it back on the road in Feb but will see how the weather is.

Had been looking at getting new tires for a while now & was waiting for a good deal in Discount Tyres in Dublin - recommend them.

so bit the bullet & took the 4 wheels off and dropped them over on Sat & picked them up on Thursday with 4 new Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2 rubber all round.

stayed with the previous sizes, 235/40/18 on the front with 255/35/18 on the rear. Decent bit of rim protector also. The threads look beefy as hell.

Technically there is a bit of life left on the Falken FK452s. While they were reasonable in the dry, they were completely useless in any form of damp/wet conditions and made the rear twitchy(which is fun dont get me wrong, just not at 120km on the motorway when over taking lol).

I did bring the old tyres home, will sell them to anyone who wants them.

Apart from that, just keeping the battery topped up by starting it every week and checking things over. Serious amount of wind/rain down our way recently so have stripped out the boot to keep on eye on any potential water pooling in the boot.

The plan in 2016 is to get out on track a few times. Got a new Sparco lid at christmas from the new wife so looking forward to using it. Will be using it as the daily as often as I can so will get some KMs on it. Got some roadtrips planned so will take it instead of the daysul.

Still doing alot of research on all the bits i need for the next power stage - injectors, turbo, downpipe, lines etc so starting to make a plan & possible purchase over the next while. Good deal on nismo 750cc injectors on RHDjapan at the mo.

Any, some pics

New Foam Lance to keep the snow foam flowing instead of leaking into my hand


Aerial Shot


New rubber


Serious thread


Love this pic of the rear lights


Stay tuned....

Update: 18/11/2015 - Sports Cat & Emissions

Got the car back 2 weeks ago and its been going like a hot snot ever since

The wideband was installed & setup and will need a 2nd calibration soon also(after reading up on it, this is normal), also got a new battery, Link G4+ firmware update & rear wheel bearing re-grease & tighten(seemed to fix brake pedal feel)

Innovate LC-2 Wideband box

Innovate LC-2 Wideband installed

NCT(Ireland's National Car Test) was last friday but it failed on the emissions with the sports cat. They need a good bit of heat in them but was left waiting for a while so it got cold and they couldn't get it to pass.

NCT Exhaust emissions with sports cat

NCT#1

NCT#2

Beady!

New fat bastard draper 2tonne low profile jack - 35kg!!!

Sports cat removed for the moment, stock cat back in, retest on the 25th Nov

Picked up a CTEK MXs 5.0 Battery Charger to keep battery topped up over winter

Some underside shots - in relativity good nick to be fair

Clean HICAS / Diff

Underside of turbo with slight weepy return line(nothing major) - yes I know I am missing a turbo nut, will get that sorted, no impact anyway

Next steps: Car comes off the road for the winter at the end of Nov & i'll tinker with it over that time and put some money away for that elusive hybrid kit with ext wastegate

Stay tuned......

Update: 04/09/2015 - Engine Management Light

Still waiting on my wideband sensor / controller but in the meantime, I have been out for a few hoons and it is running better once you are over 3500rpm, below that still a bit lumpy etc

But once its fully warm, it goes like a hot snot, instant response. Can only imagine what an hybrid turbo would be like in it

Anyways, on my way back from a spin on Tue night, I came round a bend and the EML started to flicker in a sequence then I lost all power and pulled over & the engine died. Tried a restart but kept dying. Shit, limited mobile batt power, no torches & on the darkest road possible

EML sequence before the car batt died
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeYR-mlvGmA

shortly after that the duff car battery gave up & I was left with no power at all

Got it recovered(Thanks to Gem!) & typical it started fine coming off the trailer after I had attached my power pack to it

Next day I hooked up the notebook to it and discovered

Link ECU Fault Code

ECU Fault Code 26: An volt 6 below Error Low value
ECU Fault Code 74: Analog 5v Supply Error

An6 - NB Oxy(V) = 0.74 going up to 0.82

Link ECU Fault Code 26 & 74
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk_wCCydLEY

Spoke with TDP & Robbie was able to remotely connect to the ECU(once i plugged in my notebook) and check everything over and it was all ok. Error code was down to the duff lambda sensor & 74 was more than likely when the battery died on me

Cleared the fault codes and let it warm up with no faults. ECU & sensors are all getting all the power/ground they need. TDP reckon the fuel pump relay and/or the clifford immob might have caused it to cut the fuel pump

Will drop it down(was planning it anyway) to TDP next week to get the wide band in & calibrated, idle control cleaned and check the fuel electrical system.

Just after taxing it too!

Stay tuned.....

Update: 19/08/2015 - Time for a wideband!

Overdue update

Got the car back from TDP after nearly a month. They had to replace the VCT pulley with my original one as the 2nd hand unit was causing it to run like crap. TDP fitted it & made a few adjustments to the fueling, idle and boost map and it ran a good bit better but not 100%.

It was also discovered that my stock oem recirculating dump valve was also leaking(prob down to age) which was contributing to the overfueling. That has been partially blocked now which results in some awesome "chatter"

Had the car back 1 week and i gave it back to them as it wasn't running right at all I just wasn't happy with it. It was diagnosed as a faulty lambda(outside of normal spec) causing it to overfuel low down the revs. Once you were over 4K rpm it went like hell but ran like shit under that.

So I bit the bullet and have ordered an Innovate Wideband sensor & LC-1 controller that will work with the Link G4+ ECU to give me super smooth power, hopefully once its all setup & calibrated. put it this way, it better!

Have been out in it this week a few times while I wait for the wideband & it goes alot better but still lumpy down low(good bit louder with the sports cat in it now also). I can see the lambda on the Link software going out of spec so hopefully this will sort it all out as the wideband will work with the Link G4+ to self adjust

Not alot else has happened, have to get a few bodywork bits sorted out and get Elite Auto Clean(Ian) to work their magic on it when the above all gets sorted

Current Wishlist:

• Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2 tires
• Hybrid turbo kit or HKS 2835pro s kit
• Larger injectors
• Nismo 1.5way diff
• Either Nismo or Exedy single plate clutch

I do love this view though, great place to be

As always, stay tuned....

Update: 03/07/2015 - Still not charging!

So we managed to fit the recon'd R33 alternator with little or no problems last Thursday, deffo do-able on axle stands but would be so much easier on a ramp

extra pair of hands is essential though!

Anyways, all in, jumped the car and it started with 14.0v on the multi-meter, thought I was sorted so went for a spin but the volts kept dropping but balanced out around 13.5v but the car runs like a dog with mis-fires etc, just like before so no change!

However, i stuck with it, checked all the fuses and wiring, all seemed above board. After running out of ideas, I had to give in so contacted TDP & dropped it down on Tuesday for them to work their magic

It is nothing obvious but hopefully its something simple

While all of this is going on, myself & herself are in the process of moving to another rented property(wedding first in September then will buy) so am fine for TDP to keep the car & sort it out

However, the new house has this so it makes me happy. Will actually be able to wash the car, work on it & give it some attention. Living in an apartment sucks when you are a petrol head!

New man cave

Will update once I hear what is causing the car not to charge, can't be much as I have replaced the alternator with a new one & a new battery.

As always, stay tuned.....

Update: 24/06/2015 - Recon'd R33 Alternator

Got my recon'd stock R33 alternator back last night. Fitting on Thursday hopefully.

Great service by Balfes in Dublin, would recommend them

Fingers crossed, fitting goes smooth. Cant wait to hear my RB sing again

Update: 21/06/2015 - Will I be 3rd time lucky with the Alternator???

Got the R34 alternator back but with the R33 case & pulley on it as all the measurements are identical fitting apart from the front case - different sized mounts

Spent the guts of 2 hours trying to fit it & get that dam spacer in & not going in at all

we took out the alt one last time & checked the bolt......

It was never going to fit!

Thanks to Carlo & Mike for the extra pair of hands

So for future reference for anybody reading this thread looking for help on alternators, an R34 alternator will not fit a R33 RB25DET engine as the mounts are different, even if you swap the cases

Father in law will drop the 2 alternators back down to Balfes today for them to swap back the case/pulley onto the R33 alternator & then recon that one

It has to fit then!

3rd time lucky!

Update: 16/06/2015 - Alternator saga!

So after discovering my alternator was dying, i thought it would be a smart to get a 2nd unit & get that recon'd letting me still tootle to work & back but my stock alternator had other ideas and just let go & wouldn't maintain the charge at all

Managed to get a 2nd hand replacement unit, nothing showed up after a week & then finally it was sent.

I sent it over to Balfes who had it recon'd & painted in stealthy black within a day.

Went to remove stock one last Saturday. nothing too difficult, just need to take it out from the bottom with an extra pair of hands as it can't come out from the top. Side by side comparison showed I had been sent an R34 alternator & not an R33

To say i was fuming is an understatement after buying it & then getting it recon'd(all in about 205euro). not impressed

Anyways, right now Balfes have the 2 alternators & will try to swap over the case & pullies as the R34 case wont fit in the R33 as the flanges are bigger. The cases physically look like they will fit

Risk is that the R34 alt is 150amps vs the R33 alt is approx 80amps - hopefully i wont start blowing stuff???

Should have it back this week to fit at the weekend & back on the road once again. Never ending but at least its done now

In hindsight, i should have just taken my one out & got that recon'd instead of messing about with a 2nd hand unit - lesson learnt

Any, some pics of the alternators for comparison

Stock R33 Alternator

Reconn'd R34 Alternator

Side by side comparison

As always, stay tuned.....