Sydneykid

The PIC's are the same part number, but they have different programs loaded into them. One has a white dot painted on it, the other a white stripe, you can see them in the pictures. Hope that helps:cheers:

Yep, on the Stagea the hole was 1.25 mm, I measured it with my verniers. Having it in the hose from the intercooler pipe does nothing for boost limiting, it just slows down the air movement though the vacuum hose. That's why it is there, Nisssan use it for dampening the boost hits. The ECU tells the solenoid how much air pressure to bypass, the solenoid pulses (opens) at the programmed rate.

[/img] OK, this is the picture of the vacuum hoses. The boost pressure comes out of the intercooler return pipe (that's the big black one on the left) via the standard fitting. It travels down the vacuum hose to the standard T piece. The right hand side of the T piece goes to the wastegate actuator via another short piece of vacuum hose. It has 2 standard spring clamps on it. So that "some" of the boost pressure goes to the wastegate actuator. The left hand side of the T piece is connected to another (longer) piece of vacuum hose thaty goes to the standard fitting on the BOV return pipe. You can't see that fitting in the picture as it is hidden by the (big black) turbo to intercooler pipe. I squeezed the standard restrictor into that vacuum hose, it is tight fit, so be patient and use some lubricant (RP7 in my case). The restrictor limits the amount of boost pressure that is bled off, so that the "some" pressure that goes to the wastegate actuator is actually less than the boost pressure. This means you get more boost before the wastegate opens at its usual 4-5 psi. How much more depends on the size of the hole in the restrictor, the bigger the hole the more it bypasses and the higher the boost. The standard hole is ~1.25 mm and gave ~0.5 bar on my Stagea, which has standard everything else (no exhaust, no FMIC, std filter, etc). If you have mods, you may not get the same boost pressure, so you may have to adjust the size of the hole in the restrictor, it is brass so you can easily solder it up and redrill the hole smaller if necessary. Hope that clarifies:cheers:

It has been my experience that having the same tyres front and rear maintains the handling balance. So upgrading all four tyres will not improve the understeer, you may raise the limit, but eventually it will still display the same predispoition to understeer that it currently has. Much better to fix the problem (ie; adjust the balance) with suspension geometry correction.

We don't run ABS on race cars, far too dangerous. So the comparison I make is that the driver can lock the tyres up with either set of callipers fitted. That means the braking distance is purely relevant to the drivers ability to modulate the pedal (and avoid lock up) and the grip of the tyres. The braking ability of the standard 4 spot Nissan callipers exceeds the tyres grip, so I don't care what callipers I put on the car, it ain't gunna stop any better. What I find happens quite often at driving schools is that people stop faster if the pedal is lighter (ie; they don't have to push so hard). But that is not a reflection of the true maximum braking ability of the car. ABS just complicates this as the callibration of the ABS controller and its programmed logic can make even good brake callipers work below their efficiency. So disconnect the ABS, stick the same tyres on both, modulate for 20% lock up (supposedly the best level for max stopping power) and I'll bet there is diddly squat difference in the stopping distance. Allowing for vehicle mass of course. This is of course not the case with the standard, single piston Stagea callipers, at the moment I couldn't lock the tyres up after about 5 minutes of hard driving. They are simply goooone. Plus the warped disk shake is most disturbing.

The standard wastegate actuator spring is ~4 psi, as that is the lowest standard boost level. To get to ~7 psi, the solenoid bypasses airflow so that the pressure at the wastegate actuator is 4 psi. This is regulated by the ECU controlling the solenoid opening. If you electrically wire up the solenoid, so that it is always open, then the max boost is limited by the amount of pressure bypassed. If you leave the plumbing exactly as per standard that appears to be ~12 psi. The solenoid is a normally closed design, by wiring it so that it is fully open all the time you are puting it under load that it is not designed for. It will eventually overheat and fail. Since 12 psi is higher than I would recommend for a ceramic turbine (I like to stick to 10 psi) and I didn't want my solenoid failing (I needed to use it with the IEBC) I rerouted the vacuum hoses as per the picture (and words) a couple of pages back. Hope that makes sense:cheers:

Strange huh? We have 2 X R32GTR race cars, one with Brembos and one without and they both stop the same. The tyres always let go first, they are the weakest link. PS; it is worth mentioning that they are both maintained as you would expect a race car to be. The rotors are perfect, the fluid is renewed every meeting and the pads are high coeficient of friction Hawk Carbotics. As soon as the maintenance drops off, the braking quality dissappears. It seems to be more important than the brand of calliper.

That's appealing, I will put a hold on the DBA discs. Then I might wait and see how you get on.

Hi Steve, I know nothing about Mazdas (well piston engined ones anyway). My only suggestion would be to get a mutimeter and check the AFM output voltages. If it has a steadily increasing (or decreasing) voltage with engine load then the DFA will work fine.

Yep, I have to have the Controller plugged in before I turn the ignition on. Which is a bugger actually because I have the DFA as well and I like to swap over to check/fine tune stuff. An example, coming down the freeway from Newcastle there are plenty of long uphill climbs to tune the load sensitive settings. (You can't do that very well on a flat road, as you get up to warp speed so easily.) I was sitting in the passengers side and I wanted to swap to the DFA to tune out a flattish spot. But we would have had to stop and turn the engine off, not a good idea on the freeway. My Controller works perfectly, since I turned up the contrast I have not had one problem. Your issue sounds like a dry solder joint, most likely on the connector pins (either the Controller or the DFA inself). I would have a close look around there for any suspect joints.

Warning... hang on, the following is a little complex .... The Stagea front and rear calipers are pretty much the same as the non M Spec R32 GTST. The R32 GTST M Spec callipers are the same as the R32GTR callipers. Except the fronts have longer ears to move the front callipers further out, this clears the drive shafts/cv's and give a larger diamter disc for more stopping leverage. But the pistons etc are the same. I have driven a non M Spec R32 GTST that had the M Spec callipers fitted, but still using the non M Spec master cylinder. The pedal feel was pretty much the same as my M Spec, in fact maybe even a little firmer. Let me say straight up I am not a hydraulics engineer. The logic is, there are 4 small pistons compared to one large piston and that large piston has to move twice as far (sliding calliper). So the calculation would be pretty simple, compare the area of the 2 small pistons with the area of the 1 large piston. Let's do the numbers, using my guess of the piston diameters.... Sliding calliper, 1 X 70 mm piston is 38.5 sq cm 4 Spot Calliper, 2 X 50 mm pistons are 39.3 sq cm It would appear to me that the the small difference in area is unlikely to affect the pedal movement to piston movement ratio. Hence the "feel" would be very similar. The next step would be to accurately measure the piston diameters and do the calculations properly. But knowing Nissan's love for using the same parts (over and over, from model to model) I would be surprised if the master cylinder bore diameters are much diiferent. Hope that made some sense:cheers: PS; our Stagea already has the brake shudders (warped disks), so I am going to try a set of DBA slotted disks and some Bendix Ultimate pads. If that doesn't improve the braking performance enough, then I will look around for a cheap set of R33GTR callipers (ones in need of rebuild would be good). First job is to check the DBA catalogue for the appropriate size rotors for the Stagea.

As it's a 4wd, I don't think you need snow chains. Maybe check with Parks and Wildlife, tell them its the same as a Forester (they won't know what a Stagea is). In Japan they appear to put snow chains on all 4 wheels on Stageas.

Suspension tune would be my first guess. What springs and shocks are you running? What is the spring rate? What toe do you have on the rear? Diff cradle bushes? Stabiliser bar?

Quite few questions there Burns, I will try and snwer them... Mine has the 24 mm adjustable front bar and 22 mm adjustable rear bar. The Whiteline codes; B = stabiliser bar N = Nissan F = Front R = Rear X = heavy duty XX = extra heavy duty Z = adjustable The diameter of the bar determines the rate, the material they are made off is all exactly the same (good quality Australian spring steel). The R33GTST rear Bilsteins seem to be perfectly OK on the Stagea. The front Bilsteins on mine are R33GTR, I don't think the R33GTST Bilsteins will handle the extra weight and spring rate of the Stagea. Give Heasmans a call and talk to Allan, they have valving specs and may be able to clarify. The Stagea rear springs are unique in free height and rate. I don't think R33GTST or GTR would be suitable. The front springs are the same as R33GTR, R33GTST springs are too soft and short and can't handle the weight. Extra caster makes a heap of difference, like a GTR, Stageas (being 4wd) have a different front subframe and location to GTST's (being 2wd). Due to drive shaft angles they don't have the same amount of caster as a GTST. Adjustable caster bushes are an inexpensive and good solution. They do make big difference in both static (on the wheel aligner) and dynamic (the bushes don't deform as much) caster. I was able to take out the excessive rear camber with the standard adjusters (refer previously posted pictures), but mine is only lowered to 365 mm (centre of wheeel to guard). If you go more than that, you will most likely need at least one set of rear adjustable upper control arm bushes. I hope that answered all of your questions:cheers:

This is what we use; Engine oil = Castrol Formula R Synthetic 10W60 or 0W40. Brake Fluid = Castrol SRF 4WD Transfer = Castrol Transmax Z Auto Gearbox= Castrol Transmax Z Radiator = Castrol Anit-Freeze Anti-Boil Diffs = Castrol SAF-XA 75W140

Start at 28 psi, check after your first run, probably a bit high, but it is easier to let down than pump up. We wear out a set of "R's" in a weekend. That's 1 practise (15 minutes), one qualifying (15 minutes) and 4 races (20 minutes each). That's around 200 k's. A nice quiet drive in the country for 600 k's is nothing compared to that sort of wear. In NSW, we have a guy that supersprints an MR2 and he carries his "R's" on specially made roof racks. An MR2 looks quite strange with rood racks, let alone 4 race one them. He simply takes the racks off and swaps the tyre while racing. You shouldn't have to do that though, one in the spare tyre spot, one in the boot itself and two in the back seat. Hang onto the plastic bags that the "R's" come in and stick them back into them to keep the car clean. It also helps the tyres from aging while sitting around in the garage.

The Stagea had a brass T piece standard, so I used that. I plumbed the vent back into the inlet, it goes via a fitting on the BOV return pipe. That way I have nothing open to atmosphere. didn't havre to block anything off. The main reason I did it was so that all of the air that went in via the AFM stays in. It was already running rich, so no sense it letting even a small amount of air escape. By maps I mean the solenoid openings you have chosen at the various load points to maintain the boost levels that you have selected. They won't transfer to mine as you have a different size vent. But it would be interesting to compare nonetheless. I have all of the load points available, you may have to adjust the trim (as per the instructions) to fine tune the input from the injector pulse signal.

Hi, my 20 cents worth... Remove rear seat, 4 X 17 X 8 with 245's fit easily. Target pressure hot is 34 to 36 psi. We run them for 3 to 4 laps and then let them cool. Then get into it. Watch the pressure, they don't like it too high, blisters will happen. I have done over 5,000 k's on the road using "R" tyres, so don't stress over 300 k's.

I vote for R33/R34GTR intercooler, better than many aftermaket ones (YES even the Jap brands)

The reason why it is not standard is Apexi don't think it needs it. They believe (and I agree) that there are enough maps/correction tables to cover the circumstances, let me try and look at your examples; Water temp, I have my water temp correction starting at 5 degrees above normal running. Anything less than that would have no effect on knock levels, so you gain no extra protection from having knock retard. Air temp, the inlet air temp correction table has multiple points, so you can start protection at any temp you like, as little as 2 degrees if you want. That is way less than would have any effect on knock, so you gain no extra protection from knock retard. Even if I add the two together (say 4 degrees water temp and 2 degree inlet temp) the knock would not increase enough to trip the knock protection. Plus it is worth mentioning that the standard ECU will only retard the ignition, the PFC will add fuel AND retard the ignition. So I could easily argue I have SUPERIOR protection for my engine. Knock retard won't do much for you with a single dud injector, there are plenty of standard ECU RB20/25/26's around with holes in pistons and the knock protection didn't help them. Fuel bad enough to trip the standard ECU knock protection is so bloody obvious from the driver seat, you would stop driving long before the standard ecu did anything. Plus the dash warning light is going to warn you and you can see what is going on via the Commander. As for tuning, well you are always in the hands of your tuner. If he stuffs up or tunes it too hard (zero safety margin) then knock protection isn't going to save you. I srongly suggest you establish a relationship with your tuner and discuss what it is that you expect/want from your engine. None of what I have posted here should be foreign to any decent engine tuner. If you talk to your tuner and he doesn't display sufficient knowledge and/or understanding in response to your questions, then I respectfully suggest you find another tuner. I think I have given you enough ammunition to ask sensible question and audition your tuner, if not please feel free to send me a PM and ask any question you want. I will do my best to answer them. The bottom line is, there are plenty of people around who will confirm that the standard ecu (with knock protection) is not going to help you in most circumstances on a highly tuned/worked engine. It works OK on a stock standard one. But Apexi have designed a better system for your purposes, because it is designed for modified/tuned engines. I can assure that I feel far safer driving my RB31DET with a Power FC looking after it, than the RB25DET with a standard ECU. My 20 cents worth:cheers:

The Power FC gives me control over everything, so as well as the ignition maps (that you mentioned) there is no speed limiter, I can move the rev limit, adjust idle speeds, cold start and run, temp compensation, boost maps, adjust the dash warning levels etc etc. Power FC's have all of those same as standard ECU does and they are all programmed, it's one of their big advantages. The car drives as nice, in all conditions, as it did with the standard computer. So I would never bother with an SAFC on a manual. The DFA is so cheap, it is attractive though for people on a tight budget. Since I have only leaned out the A/F ratios with the DFA, I have no doubt it would surpass the EPA tests results that a standard one would achieve. I have not richened any load points at this stage as it simply didn't need it. Maybe after the turbo, intercooler and exhaust upgrades it might.

Hi Burns, I will be using a GCG ball bearing hi flow on our Stagea. With a split dump/engine pipe combo, hi flow cat, 3.25" exhaust and an adjustable exhaust camshaft pulley, I reckon I can tune it for ~0.5 bar at torque converter stall. That's using the Jaycar DFA for fuel tuning and the IEBC to keep the wastegate firmly closed. The power target is 200 4wkw at 1.1-1.2 bar. PS; on the 4wd dyno the Stagea seems to loose around 15 rwkw more than a manual R33GTST does on the same dyno in 2wd. The Stagea was in second with the Snow and 4wd buttons on, as without them the ATTESSA kept moving the power from front to rear on the rollers.

Nope I still haven't found one that is rated high enough, I need 1500 kgs minimum, preferably 1750 kgs. The closest so far is Karasel at 1 tonne. Time is running out, so I might just get them to do it and then I will add some strengthening myself. It's not hard, the chassis rails are very accessible and quite long, plus there is the advantage of the separate rear subframe carrying the suspension loadings. So there is plenty of opportunity to spread the tow bar load. If I do go that way, I will cetainly post up some pictures:cheers:

There are whole pile of little issues that I can see, not one big one. I have read back through this thread and I can't see the rear height measurements. I know the front is 380/350 (L/R) but what is the rear? With that information, I will write up what I suggest you do and what settings you need.

Hi madmoomoo, great to see another person having a go. OK on the vent size, I am still using the standard 1.25 mm which is slightly too big. This means highish duty cycles on the solenoid. I have left it that size as I will be changing from the standard exhaust and upgrading the turbo (to a GCG ball bearing hi flow) shortly. So I figured I would wait until that was finished before I optimised the vent size. I have a couple of questions. Did you use the standard restrictor as the vent? Did you plumb the vent back into the inlet to the turbo? Have you tuned the boost curve yet? I would be interested in seeing your map if you want to post it up or PM me. If you are talking about the Programmable Ignition Kit KC5202, I was under the impression that it only worked on cars with distributors. It was designed by Sillycoon Chump about 10 years ago and it doesn't feature in their book High Performance Electronics for Cars (the IEBC and DFA do). Maybe there is an update that I am unaware of that enables it to work with multiple coils. As for differences with aftermarket ECU's/Boost Controllers, I picked the Jaycar IEBC because of the unique design of having the solenoid in series with the wastegate actuator. I have always considered that to be a superior method of prevent premature wastegate opening. I haven't found an aftermarket boost controller that is designed that way. The unexpected bonus was how well the source data (injector duration) enables me to program the maps to maintain the target boost high in the rpm range. The MAP sensor driven boost controllers always have some problems combining the two desirables, being earliest possible boost and maintain to redline. As for the DFA, it works exactly the same as an SAFC and I have successfully used them in the past. The DFA has many more load points, so I had no doubt I could achieve as good (if not better) result. For 1/5th the cost of an SAFC it was an easy decision. Don't get me wrong, these two kits are very good, work well and are so damn cost effective. But (there is always a but) I would always choose a replacement ECU (generally a Power FC) for a manual. The Stagea is an auto, so that option wasn't viable as I wanted to retain the standard shift logic. The bottom line for me is I got a 30% power increase for ~$200 in parts, less than a day of my time and ~20 minutes tuning on the dyno. With ZERO mechanical changes, the exhaust is still standard, the compliance cat is still in place, so was the airfilter, the turbo etc. That's what I call good value for my money and time.