Natemarian

OK guys time for another short update. Once again not much has really been happening but out of impulse I did decide to buy something from Japan and from my favourite JDM brand no less So what could be in the box????......... Wahlah, A HKS 'Super Turbo' cat back exhaust. I made the decision some time ago that this was the exhaust I wanted to run...although I never managed to hear one in person All I've heard of them from anyone is they are quite as below 3000rpm but get really pitchy in the higher RPM which is what I am after. It gets put on tomorrow just in time for PCM next weekend so there will be plenty of videos from that to have a listen to. It also came with this niffty little badge Not sure where I will put it but it will go somewhere. Maybe the interior somewhere. Anyway that is all the update I have for you guys. Stay safe.

Thanks for the kind words mate. Yeah exactly my point about the oil. In the end it was a good thing the 4wd wasn't working i guess

Thanks mate The filter relocation is a grex/greddy item and i honestly can't say about the mess as i haven't yet changed the filter

Sorry for the lack of updates fellas. I have been holding off buying anything in hopes that I would recieve some money off Brett.......needless to say that didn't happen. The result of this is that I have had to purchase another ETS-Pro out of my own pocket, and what is worse is that the exchange rate has gone back to shit since I bought the first one so I ended up having to pay an extra $300. Anyway back to the car. So I ordered the ETS-Pro...again, and I was in disbelief when it arrived on my doorstep from Arizona in less than ONE WEEK!! Fedex are so much quicker than Auspost. I was really hoping that this would be the end of my 4wd woes. We were unsure as so much stuff was wrong when we got it back from Brett it was highly possible something else was wrong. So Matt got on with fitting the ETS-Pro. As Matt was pulling the old broken G sensor out he noticed it was barely bolted on at all leading us to believe Brett may have swapped my good one out with a broken one knowing that it was going to be replaced anyway...... Regardless once Matt finished installing the ETS-Pro he bled it all up on the hoist.......HAPPY DAYS! we have 4wd again! Of course being a GT-R nothing is ever as it seems and the Brett curse struck again. As Matt reversed it off the hoist it began making a terrible cluncking noise and was binding like a biatch, imagine driving a FWD with a welded diff and you'll understand. Matt had a look through everything and noticed the oil looked a bit average so the choice was made to drop the fluids.......this is what came out from the front diff. It litterally looked like river water, any wonder the diff was binding. Matt also found that Brett had used regular gear oil in the transfer case. Fresh oil has since been added as well as an additive to help the front diff get a bit more slip. It is improving but we are planning to get it out this weekend for a data log and work some of the additive through the clutch packs Here is a picture of the ETS-Pro controls. Matt found a great spot to mount them (Apologies for the filthy center console) Other than that there hasn't been a huge amount going on. I Started the very minimal amount of prep I have to do before Performance Car Mania here at Winton by removing some of the boot trim, carpet and spare tire. Debating on what else to do before PCM. Possibly rear lower camber arms and a HKS Super Turbo exhaust. Anyway I will leave you guys with these pictures a friend of mine took see ya guys stay tuned for lots of videos after PCM.

I'll let you guys know what I think once it's in. To be honest though I think on the street the difference will be very little. I think the main time it will be useful (other than warm up burnouts) will be turn 5 at Winton (the big sweeper). I'm hoping to have more control over under steer there, unfortunately I won't have a base for comparison as I never got to the track beforehand. However I have been told it makes bleeding the attessa system much easier

Heard from Brett today as well. Ets pro gets posted tomorrow so there is more good news then I just need my money! Haha

So the car is back guys!! There were heaps more issues that needed to be fixed . Issues that Matt found were: A split hose that looked fine when at idle but once under pressure spewed coolant everywhere. All the belts were loose. The intake pipes (turbo side) were all loose. Power steering line wasn't bolted on at all it was just sat there. Virtually no oil in Gearbox. Virtually no oil in transfercase. Very little oil in motor. It's just one thing after another. The car is still in RWD due to a failed G-sensor, the good news is that my ETS-Pro replaces the G-Sensor.......the bad news is that Brett still has my ETS-Pro. Now on to the good parts!!!!! :woot: Matt put a 4000rpm rev limit on the ecu when it's cold (Best thing ever lol) It runs heaps smoother now, Matt took me for a drive (and can he drive!) and it is so much better everywhere in the rev range. The power felt really progressive and smooth though it was hard to tell as it was in RWD so it broke the rear loose in 1st, 2nd and 3rd, the real test will be that low 2nd gear pull once it is in AWD. :yes: . The dash looks great (I'll get some photos this arvo) I don't know what these people were on about telling me the visibility is poor in direct sunlight, I was in the passenger seat and it had direct sunlight on it and i could still see everything and my eyesight is terrible!! In the end I am stoaked with how the car has came back to me and I would highly reccomend Matt to anyone.

Hey guys just a short update. Matt is nearly finished the car (not bad for just spending an hour or so after hours each night). He sent me these pictures the other night of the sensors fitted. Then last night I was having a chat to him about the tune. Matt said he just threw the tune in the bin, he said he took it for a spin around the block with the original tune to test the sensors and all he wanted to do was get out of it, all the slow speed stuff was terrible haha. Anyway Matt finished off the tune and this is the final power run. The red is the old tune. It's worth mentioning that the old tune made 329kw on the same dyno. It is also worth mentioning that this runs a bit more boost than the old too, spiking to 22psi then back down to 20psi. Needless to say so far I'm pretty happy with the result. I'm going down tonight before i go to the gym to check it all out. All thats left now is to wire in the buttons for the dash and sort out this AWD system so we're hoping to have it done by the weekend

Haha yeah it is quite common but he did actually explain the issues to me in depth I just don't feel it's my place to plaster them all over here. I just went down to discuss mounting positions for the racepak with Matt and he had ran it up on the dyno this morning. The car made 329kw on his dyno which is pretty consistent allowing for variation in dyno setups in my opinion and he thinks witha bit of fiddling it will see 350kw easily. He actually said at WOT the tune is actually pretty good it's just all the other aspects that make it not chew fuel when you're cruising around that are a bit crap so that's a good thing

Haha well I'm pretty sure bc have actually closed now. It all went to downhill for them after dean Lilley went back to ravage Motorsport I think. If I go back to Melbourne it will be racepace without a doubt

Thanks mate. It's funny cause I actually went with BC because they are known to do pretty big jobs, when I dropped my car off they were finishing off a spastic 450kw r32 gtr with crazy aero for a bloke over in the middle east and did a lot of racecars. But all is good now, as long as I get my $700, paperwork and my ETS-Pro back I'll be happy.

Part 3 - The final chapter....well sort of. Ok so as you guys read the car needed a host of sensors to be installed. Also I got a chance to check out the Haltech Racepak dash that is on Matt's 9 second VL turbo (video below, pretty sure the car has gone a whole lot faster since then but I never asked) and I found that the visibility issues people had talked about weren't that bad so decided to save myself over $1k and order a Haltech Racepak at the same time as the sensors. Matt ordered the parts on Monday and then sent me this on Wednesday. Super keen to get the ol' girl finished and reliable(ish) Anway Matt came and picked the car up tonight before I went to the gym and 15 mins later just as I'm starting he sends me these. Obviously it is just sat in there with power connected but I think it looks great! So far all my dealings with Matt have been great and it would be great to not only find a reliable mechanic but one that is local (a large amount of the mechanics here I wouldn't trust to service a camry) So you guys are now up to date. The car is at Matt's and is getting the sensors installed along with the Racepak dash and a retune, he is going to run the car up on the dyno tomorrow so we have a base of comparrison. Hopefully smooth sailing from now on and I will get out to Winton for a shakedown!! Have a good one guys!

So on to part 2 - This one will involve some reading and little to no pictures. Now that the car was back home I got a chance to start looking over the car in greater detail and as I am pulling the old parts out of the boot (BTW if anyone is interested in a Power FC with hand controller and some Nismo AFM's mine will be for sale) I noticed that I could not find the accumulator for the Accusump setup. Naturally I went in to search mode and searched the whole car and alas no Accusump to be found, no oil lines, no accumulator, nothing. Obviously i was not happy. THEN I continue looking through my stuff and find that he still has my original paperwork for all the previous mods i.e. built bottom end, turbos, cams, etc. By this stage communication had broken down and I was becoming increasingly unhappy not only for the current situation but also that my ETS-Pro had been sent back to the USA because the transcoder? (I think thats what it was) was faulty and he also was still to refund me my $700 deposit for the Motec C125. HOWEVER I am still giving him benefit of the doubt as he did go through some personal issues during this time and I understand things have been rough for him. Next set back. while we were driving home from Melbourne we noticed the AWD had stopped working, once we had got home I noticed the Attessa oil was low and probably needed a bleed. I had aranged for a local bloke here Matt Sims from Sims Performance to sort out the remainder of the stuff. He has a fair share of knowlege when it comes to RB's and built a local bloke Jason Ruby's s13 which runs 9sec quaters and is still street driven (video below) so I figure he is qualified So I was reversing the car out of the garage to take it to Matt to get the AWD bled and I managed to stall it, no big deal.....except it would not start again.......WHAT NOW?!?! I got Matt to come around and plug in the laptop since his workshop is 5 mins down the road. Low and behold the tune is 'pretty rough' in his words and was running 35% too rich through the whole fuel map which pointed towards spark plugs being the issue causing it not to start, he was dead right. He pulled the plugs and not only were they black as charcoal but they weren't even the right plug! we found a correct set of plugs in the boot, cleaned them and dropped them in and it started first try. Also while Matt was looking through the tune he noticed that all the engine protection was turned off which was odd because the car was meant to have had 0-150psi sensors fitted throughout for the pure purpose of being able to have engine protection. A bit of digging around pointed out that none of the sensors were installed.....more money to be sent. That is it for the doom and gloom side known as part 2. Expect a return to the usual pictures and happieness in part 3!!

Ok guys so I am back! I know it has been a long hiatus but there were a lot of hiccups. I'm not going to sit here and bad-mouth anyone but long story short I picked up the car without the dash or ETS-Pro installed. I only picked it up a few weeks ago so the car had sat at BC for over 6 months. There is a bit to get through so i am going to break it up in to sections. Anyway I went down to pick the car up, Brett had sent me some pictures at the workshop and here is the final dyno run. He also sent me a picture of the car back together, it was nice to see it look like a car again. Anyway here is the part you all want to see THE ENGINE BAY!!!! Honestly after all the f@ck arounds, headaches and waiting it was all worth it just for how good that engine bay came up. Still have a few little things to do like change the oil cap and what not but that can come later. So I had paid months in advance so off we headed making the 3.5hr journey North back home to Albury/Wodonga, here are some snaps my Mrs took in the 'support car' lol. As you can see the weather was perfect, sunny and clear.........not. This is my favourite shot of the car. So we made it safe and sound back home. Stay tuned for part 2!!.

No pictures yet guys just a quick update from my phone since I've got a spare moment on Easter morning (happy Easter everyone) The guys ran the car up on the dyno the other week and all was good until they started to put boost in to it, it made a small noise from the head so they stopped immediately and pulled the valve covers off (glad a took it to people who know what they are doing). After an inspection they noticed the mines cam baffles were sitting hard on the cam bolts, they rectified this and the car is now back together and the plan is to get the final power run done this week then they just need to install the ets-pro and motec c125 dash and it's finished.......but since its been so long i might get them to throw on some whiteline sway bars as well Happy Easter everyone