Update: 28/07/2016 - Blown cat gaskets

Following on from my last blog post - the cat gaskets started to blow after the track day. The physical cat started to came loose on track lol.

Turns out I had melted the gaskets on both ends of the cats. #hero. Both replaced and have resolved the blowy / loud exhaust noise

Also the source of the lump-ness down low has been diagnosed to a failing or failed TPS sensor(Throttle Position Sensor). It has also been replaced & tested by TDP and all found to be driving fine once again.

Am off to collect the car later on today so fingers crossed all ok!

As always, stay tuned....

Update: 26/07/2016 - Track time!

Stock cat back on as I wasn't happy with the 200cel sports cat(on dyno it was robbing power & drinking fuel), oil/filter change & Link G4+ ecu tweak in prep for trackday.

Was out on track on the 22nd July in Mondello, Ireland's only track, for the first time in about 1.5/2 years. great fun all day. 45 laps over the course of the day. car ran well all day(even popped a few flames), no major issues. Down on power slightly to keep it safe.

It was the first time to be able to test things like the oil cooler / Nismo S-Tunes etc on track.

Greddy/Mocal 19row Oil Cooler: hottest the oil(Millers NanoDrive CFS 10w50 - freshly changed) got was 110c when hammering it. cooled down quickly on cool down laps back down to 90c ish.

EBC red stuff pads & ebc disks: were questionable - deffo needs to be upgrade for next time, even just the pads. nasty pedal feel which didn't inspire confidence.

Nismo S-Tune Suspension: when stiffened up on the fronts, they performed well. inside the car it felt like it was leaning a good bit but from pics it doesn't look too bad.

Goodyear Eagle F1 Assy2: excellent tyre, well scrubbed in by now. little or no slippage even when squealing. ran at 30psi. when heated up on track was around the 34psi mark. was constantly checking the pressures.

@PeeSpeed photography (great pics, thank you) were on hand to capture some great pics & some of my own

Car is lumpy down low since map tweak(didn't experience on track as mostly high revs) and it now has a blown cat gasket so getting sorted in TDP.

Looking forward to next track day when possible

As always, stay tuned....

Update: 23/06/2016 - Heater Matrix Replaced

Big update since last time

Was all going fine since last update, was all ready for track day on the 29th April until 21st April when this happened....

Noticed that the car got very hot very quickly but never over heated. Got back to work and spotted this....

Steamy windows & a wet passo floor can only mean one thing....

....A leaky heater matrix...

Nursed the car back to my folks house not too far away after dumping water into the rad to keep it going. As we were right in the middle of moving house and I was about to travel with work for a few weeks, I left the car in my folks for a while. Needed to dry out anyways.

After researching what was needed when I got back, I ordered a new replacement heater matrix from Conceptua in the UK and some new black coolant & breather hoses from Boostjunkies to match the black turbosmart kompact recirc valve which was replacing a leaky OEM recirc valve.

Conceptua Heater Matrix & new hoses

Here is the kicker, I got the AC all re-gassed when the bodywork was getting done. With a heater matrix it all has to be de-gassed again! Very annoying and waste of money but what can you do. Found a mobile AC guy to come out and remove the gas safely.

AC de-gas

After that was done, I now had to get the car from my folks to our new place so I could replace the heater matrix. Rang AA and got a flat bed out at no cost to me with my membership which was handy

AA serious flatbed

Got it home & after a few days of the various parts arriving, I went to start on it on the one free day I had and what happened?

Started chucking down rain of course with thunder & lightening thrown in for the crack

Drained remaining coolant then started the tear down

Some pics(in no particular order) of tear down & putting it all back together again - no bits left over either!

Dont worry, the AC evap box / rad got all cleaned up

Old vs New. Old one had burst bottom right corner

Start of re-assemble. pretty tight space to tighten up these 8 screws. Thanks to Gus for hand here

While I was at it, popped on the new rad hoses & turbosmart kompact recirc valve(now have new mikalor clamps to go on)

Rad was then filled up and whole system was checked for leaks - no signs so happy camper. Bled it several times over the course of a few short drives. think all of the air is out of the system now.

Since changing a few of the breather / IC pipes, I seem to have a boost leak only on low boost. High boost is ok. So next will be to diagnose where its coming from and sort it. Then get it down to TDP for remap and check over in prep for upcoming trackday.

At this stage, I think I have been unlucky & had all the common things go wrong in a short space of time. Hopefully I can get some decent KMs on her this year & enjoy it. Turbo / injector plan is still in the pipe work at some stage. All when funds allow.....

That is all for now, stay tuned for next update....

21/04/2016 - Leaky Heater Matrix.....

More to come.....

Update: 08/04/2016 - Bodywork TLC

Over the winter when it was off the road, I was finding puddles of water in the boot. Over time the boot / lights seals crack with age and allow rain to get in so this had to get sorted with priority to avoid any potential damage/rust etc. So organised with Armstrongs to drop the car down in early March to get the following done.

However, things quickly escalated. As you are probably aware, just like most JDM cars, Nissan's suffer from rust if not looked after in very specific places. On the R34 it is around the boot lid brake light for example. On the R33s the suspension turrets can get it bad as multiple layers of sheet metal get moisture in them and they start to bubble and in some cases can be very much rotten all the way through the turret.

It was only in the last 2 years really that I noticed the turrets starting to rust but I didnt want to let it get any worse so decided to get them sorted, along with aircon regas(not been filled in years), front lights cleaned up, few stone chips sorted on the roof, rear arches protected, boot / lights sealed up and protected, wind deflectors stuck down & some sticker removal.

Highly highly recommend Armstrongs in Wicklow. The father & son combo have worked on quite a lot of skylines in the past so I knew she was in good hands.

All totaling 18 hours of work, but it is worth it.....

Got the car back but wasnt running very well but figured out that the LINK ECU didn't like that the AC had been re-gassed. Basically with the heater on and AC on I would get rock solid idle but no cold air. With the heater on but AC off, i would get dire idle and run like shit and the AC clutch was kicking in and out.

Onto the LINK ECU forums for support to discover that the AC clutch AUX output#3 needed to be switched from low to high polarity. Did this via the PClink software(cool bit of software) and now with AC off, i get rock solid idle but with AC on, i get cold air but not as solid idle that i would like so need to get TDP to check out the map.

I picked up a 200cel sports cat that I need to fit and do the 2nd calibration of the wideband(basically wave it around in clean fresh air lol) to keep things all happy. So hopefully will get to that over the next few weeks(in between another house move).

Will be out on track on the 29th April so really looking forward to that & seeing how the Nismo S-Tunes & Goodyear Eagle F1s handle Mondello.

Oh & I picked up a spare stock turbo.....Owen Developments now do an RB25 hybrid with all new MTX technology so trying to get a price as it is all bolt on which will help keep the price down-ish...... or go with my tuners turbo option. Still to be discussed

Anyway, less talk, more pictures. Some before, during & after pics along with some shots of Link ecu software in no particular order.

Stay tuned.....