August Update - On its way

Apologies for the delay, alot has been happening. With photobucket becoming assholes, i have lost alot of project threads over the years which is very frustrating! Testing out imgur right now to see how it works with hosting on forums.

Check back shortly for a lot of project updates since the last one!

Stay Tuned!
SkylineSi

Update: 16/05/2017 - Brake Upgrade

Well my DBA(Disc Brakes Australia) front rotors finally arrived yesterday from Oz via Poland. Ordered them in early March but there were none in Europe so one set was sent from Oz and I snapped them up.

Apart from EBC, there are not alot of rotor options for the stock 296mm sized rotor.

To compliment the front CL RC5+ pads, I also picked up some RC5+ pads for the rears from MurrayMotorSport. Hopefully they will fit(same dimensions as my rear EBC red stuff pads). Will keep the EBC rear discs for the moment.

While I was at it, I picked up a sytec fuel filter from conceptua. The bosch one would fit however, I had a sytec in it before and as a result, the bracket for the stock sized bosch one had been stretched. For ease, I just went with the sytec filter again. That is on my to-do list over next few weeks. 

Car is running well, however I still have a gut feeling that my monstrous use of fuel is down to the lack of a recirclating bov. ECU fueling is all fine as per the AFRs so something is amiss. My stock one was leaking so replaced it wit a turbosmart one ages ago which is nice but cant recirc it without a specific pipe & bend. I was bored and kinda of missed the HKS chirp so bought a new HKS SQV w/recirc kit from RHDjapan to replace the practically new turbosmart one. Will see if I really do miss the signature HKS chirpy sound! The Link G4+ ecu & map sensor should be able handle the change & adjust accordingly.

Hopefully my theory is correct and stock turbo = stock elbow = recirc bov for smoothness. Will see!

Gave the car another clean. There has been alot of dust in the air lately plus I must have killed most of Ireland's fly population!

Things to do next:
HKS SSQv kit is about to be shipped from Japan so will fit that, fit new discs & pads, sytec fuel filter & replace my DW wheel nuts with titan ones which I picked up from Pro-Parts ages ago. Book myself in for the next Octane Track Day also.

As always, stay tuned

Update: 11/04/2017 - Pulling like a train!

So since start of March college has taken up a large amount of any free time I have had but have been out for a few blasts but discovered a slight knock from the front of the engine.

On closer inspection, it appears the washer on the crank bolt had collapsed and the pulley was having a wobble! Crank bolt was tight so no issue with it coming off.

Ordered some new parts from rhdjapan and kudosmotorsport to keep it running sweet. I noticed that the viscous fan had hairline cracks all over it so picked up a new one. Along with a new passo arch liner, new stock thermostat, AC pulley & bosch fuel filter.

Once it had all arrived, off down to TDP where they sorted out the crank pulley bolt/washer, fitted the new oem thermostat, new fan and AC pulley. When i went down to collect it, we went out and fine tuned the Link ecu. The engine was running much hotter now and the Link ecu was alot happier. Some extra fuel added in down low the lumpy idle has almost gone and boost tables tweaked she is pulling like a train now. much nicer to drive.

I guess the nismo low temp thermostat was making it run too cold for the Link ECU. Either way, it is alot better now!

I even did a 586km round trip to Cork on Friday and it ran perfectly. The oil temp sits just at 88c at 120kph and drops down nicely when you slow down thanks to the oil cooler.

Some pics from a evening spins now that it is getting brighter

Next steps is to just enjoy it for the moment. I need to get some paint correction done on it to get uber clean - badly needs a clay for that glass feeling. Have also ordered some DBA T3 4000series front discs to compliment my RC5+ pads. Will fit them all together when they arrive and get rid of the EBC discs & pads

As always, stay tuned....

Update: 26/03/2017 - Cleaning Day!

Gave it a good scrub today and tried out white fusso on the front and spoiler.

Products used: Bilt Hamber snow foam, fallout and wheel cleaner. AG body shampoo. Monster dry towels and Fusso followed by some AG tyre dressing.

#nissan #skyline #r33gtst #rb25det #nismo #skylinesi #bilthamber #autoglym #snowfoam #fusso

Update: 09/03/2017 - First outing

First outing tonight so had to wash it......In the dark. What could possibly go wrong #nissan #skyline #r33gtst #skylinesi #bilthamber #snowfoam #autoglym #sheepskin #wintergrime

Update: 01/12/2016 - Review of the year

With so much going on at the moment, I have not had a chance to update this thread as much as I wanted to so it might be a lengthy update.

Quite a lot of things happened during 2016. From getting the 4x new Goodyear Eagle F1 Assy2 tyres to getting the turrets and leaky boot sorted to a leaking heater matrix to getting out on track to melting & killing wideband wiring & sensors to passing the 140KM milestone to upgrades and not forgetting failing the dreaded NCT, not once but twice!. What a challenging year this year was.

Getting chased at #OTD28

Wicklow spin in the sun

Quick maintenance wash

Since the last update back in September, the passo side wheel arch decided to come slightly loose(common enough) and rub on the wheel and tear it apart. This is the 3rd one since I got the car. Ordered a brand new one from RHDjapan.com(cheaper than some 2nd hand prices from UK !) along with some additional Greddy OX-3 oil filters to keep me topped up for the next while. Also ordered some CL RC5+ front brake pads to replace the awful EBC Red Stuffs in there at the moment. They did me no favors out on track.

CL RC5+ Front Pads(4047)

During October, Few spins down the country went well, plenty of power and got maybe around 330km to a tank when cruising. I took the car back down to TDP as when it was cold, it wasnt running very smooth and being a bit of a pig. TDP reckon that with the Nismo thermostat in(been in for years) it makes it run too cold and the Link ECU doesn't like it and dumps more fuel in so over winter, I'll need to put stock one back in and see how it goes. Also, the AC pulley bearing had gone so its now removed awaiting a new one & belt.

Sid the horse, I mean dog in TDP

As for November, the NCT was due at the end of the month, but with alot of college work and travelling for work, I didn't have alot of time but booked it in early. It passed on every single thing apart from missing drivers airbag and misaligned drivers headlight. I was shocked at the missing airbag as it has never failed on that before. I did get the hardest tester which didn't help. Anyways, I challenged him to show me where in the regs does it state I must have one but they kept pointing to "modification" section.

I put it through again without doing anything to the wheel with the hope of getting another tester. But they are now crafty, there are notes on the system so once he didnt see the airbag, instant fail once again. Oh and the drivers light failed again despite it looking perfect.

I dug out my stock wheel from my parent's attic and pulled off the Momo Race one and fitted stock again. It is awful to drive with it. Really miss the Momo Race wheel. Really changes how chuckable the car is. Had to get some aluminium paper and bend it to force the bulb to recenter(bent clip causing it to be mis-aligned).

Not perfect but got it to pass on the 3rd time. Complete pain in the hole. Means I now have to change the wheel every year. Quick job though with a hub pullers.

NCT - Nov2016 Emissions

Momo Race Steering wheel coming off with help of a hub puller

Had to find my Daikei Hicas / Airbag Hub & put stock one back on

Stock Steering Wheel back on for NCT - awful!

Took it out for one final blast last night and put some juice in it & now its wrapped away for the winter. Will give it a good scrub on Saturday, potentially clay it. Wifey got me me a DA6 Pro for Christmas so will give it a good going over after then aswell.

Some DetailingShed.com goodies

Winter jobs planned: Fit passo wheel arch, fit fresh fuel filter & 8mm line, try source a HKS exhaust hanger for mid section, get another AC pulley/belt & fit, fit new CL RC5+ front brake pads, swap back the steering wheel and pop in the stock thermostat.

Final KM Check for 2016

Drove a total of 3,319kms in 2016. Hopefully 2017 will be more! As always stay tuned.....

Update: 6/9/2016 - Multiple issues resolved & new Link Crank & Cam Trigger Kit

Large update so bear with me.....

Well after the faulty TPS(Throttle Position Sensor) was replaced, I drove the car but being a picky git I knew something wasn't right & still wasn't happy with the reduction in power and crap fuel consumption(90km only to 1/2 a tank) & smelt very rich so went back to TDP.ie once again. Advised to fully diagnose it and figure it out & I went on my holidays.

Here is the story of what they found and/or work carried out......

• The BKR7EIX sparkplugs, which had just over 12,000km on them, were dead from fuel contamination so where replaced with new BKR8EIX - they showed marks of the spark going out the side of them - probably just old, however last set lasted over 20K.
• My original VVT sprocket(Nissan's vtec basically) was doing funny things when oil temp was over 80c resulting in a torque reduction.
• When a known good VVT sprocket was put on, they discovered that the inlet cam was very tough to turn by hand and/or spanner.
• Inlet rocker cover was taken off to find that the #6 inlet cam cap was nearly seized, apparently due to lack of oil film coating - debatable
• Both inlet cam & cap were removed & polished and reassembled.
• Then came the question of the oil being used. I had been using Millers CFS Nanodrive 10w50 but TDP.ie only recommend Mobil1 10w60 for the RB engines due to its "stickyness" as in it leaves a much better protective oil film on the parts especially on older engines.
• Probably nothing wrong with the Millers apart from the film of oil coating is not thick enough. Again debatable but cant argue with pictures of lack of oil in the head in certain areas. Unfortunately I didn't get a sample of the Millers to get tested.
• I questioned head blockage but oil pressure is rock stable at all temps / speeds so no issues there.
• Millers oil was dropped and Mobil1 10w60 with new greddy OX-3 filter went back on.
• The heat from the blowing cat on track melted the wideband sensor wiring & ruined the actual sensor so sensor was replaced and wiring repaired and protected with additional heat shielding. #hero
• Then after all that, while it was all apart, I suggested looking at the full trigger kit to replace the old RB CAS sensor. Bearing in mind when the Link ECU was installed, there was a new trigger disc installed but that still relies on the old LED in the CAS to get a signal - causing scatter in the signal
• So a new custom Crank & Cam trigger with Hall Effect Sensors were installed & wired up - signal is 100% perfect and gives a perfect wave on the test equipment
• As the rad was out, all new coolant was put in and the gearbox & diff were flushed and filled back up with Mobil1 80w90 GL-5 spec oil
• Back on the dyno and mapped with the new trigger kit back on & the result of all of that is....

Performance Details:

306.9BHP at the Wheels @ 5962RPM

353BHP at the Fly @ 5962RPM

351.3lbft of Torque @ 4829RPM

Peak of 0.9Bar of Boost @ 4872RPM

It had dropped down to 326BHP at the fly with the previous issues so was good to be back up to the previous before power levels albeit only slightly lower but the power now comes in full whack at lower RPM now.

Need to drive it a bit more but fuel consumption is nearly right and boost control needs a further tweak so a quick map check is required but only as I am a fussy git.

As always, stay tuned for next update

Some pics for you

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....