resonance

SK: Yeah, crabbing was something I also use, and makes sense, my rear end does seem to be off to one side (right wheel hangs out wider than left wheel which is more 'buried'). Is this correctable (spacers)?

Hey All. I have a couple of questions. I have a 180sx and recently put some ISC adjustable toe rods on, as my rear-right had a fair bit of toe-in. Donnellans had fixed it to an extent (without cutting/welding as they said) when I got my new tyres put on about 12 months ago but it still causing the tyre to wear a bit and it kicks to the side a bit when I go over potholes with the left wheel. Anyway I have adjusted the toe of the wheel by eye and corrected the noticeable toe-in. But I want to get it finely tuned (an alignment at a tyre/susp joint). I just got off the phone from some loud, fast speaking bloke from Pedders in Mitcham. He told me a few wierd things which smelled of fish, one being that I have to get the fronts aligned at the same time or the front/rear will be out of line. Then I said, nah I just put on some adjustable toe rods so I want just the rear toe adjusted, and he said nah we don't do the rears. Wtf? Anyway he said its $110 to do both, and quickly said 'so you want to book your car in tomorrow?'. I said I'm not entirely convinced and he basically said ok and hung up on me. Apart from the pathetic customer service, I felt like he kind of changed when I said that I drive a 180sx and wanted to take me for some kind of idiot, but maybe I'm being a bit sensitive. Is this true, do I need to get the fronts aligned at the same time? Am I railroaded into getting all the wheels aligned at the same time? I'm happy to, I just didn't want to be taken for a ride. Does anyone know any good reputable suspension/wheel places near Nunawading/Forest Hill as I'm pretty turned off this place now? Cheers.

Just rang up Donnellans in Box Hill, they quoted me for 255/50R16: Front: $165/tyre Rear: $175/tyre Probably take car (180SX) in today or tomorrow and get them fitted. Originally they quoted me 175/185 (front/rear) but I said heaps of people are paying that for 17" - and he said it's because they sell more 17" than 16" these days, which I can see lots of truth to (looking at this tread). Then he dropped $10/each so that's cool. Currently I'm running Federals 225s rear and Simex 205s front - ew. Rears are bald as a badger. I do drive like an old granny most of the time though. :-) I'd had a bit of trouble getting quotes out of places too. Rang up 2 Jax's and both wanted to call back (had to call their supplier), and only one did, and he said you can't get K104 in 16" 225s??? (according to their website, you certainly can). And I also rang a Beaurepairs who said they cant quote me anything until they see the car. Had to do with legalities of liabilities etc.. blah blah. I've learned to just go with the smaller places at least.

This setup will not give correct readings, because although as you said, it reads 0-1V, the mapping of A/F Ratio-to-voltage is very different between std O2 and wide-band O2 sensors. The standard one gives a voltage output that looks like an s-bend, whilst the wide-band'er gives a straightish round curve (as A/F goes from 7:1 - 17:1 or so).

How much it would cost on average for a tuner to dyno-tune the DFA? Maybe about $80-100? I'm finding it difficult to blindly tune it I need a wide-band O2 sensor Also, can someone whose tuned it well, post up their DFA adjustment value for each load opint? I'm just after a bit of a very rough guide. I have a S13 SR20DET with full exhaust so anyone with similar hardware would be desired but not required

I was just reading the below article on drive.com.au, about the new limited Nismo R34 Skyline 'Z-Tune'. What a car! Power of 368KW from a 2.8L bored RB26DETT. Just if I had $220k in the bank. I bet all 20 will sell like hotcakes too. http://www.drive.com.au/editorial/article.aspx?id=9821

I have been running the DFA in my 180 (SR20DET) for a few weeks now. I've recently put in a Greddy boost gauge; I hooked up between the plenum and fuel pressure regulator (I think thats what it was). I just have a few questions. Firstly, the only mods I have is a 'very breathable' exhaust and a (old dirty) K/N pod filter. The exhaust is breathable because it's a 3" CES dump/front pipe + high flow cat + N1-style 3" catback which has barely any bends in it at all. It's kinda loud at full throttle too but not as loud as some. Anyway, with my boost gauge - because it's on the plenum side of the throttle, it shows about -500mm Hg vacuum on idle, and upon pushing the accelerator, goes down (up) to about atmospheric pressure (0 on the gauge), as you'd expect. Is where I connected it the best place? or is it better on the other side of the throttle? I'd guess not because then it'd read pressures seen by the BOV and would not be as useful. I ask because, I have no boost mods and it's reading about 0.85 bar. This is stock (seems to spike to about 0.9 then settle at 0.8 or just a bee's dick over). That's about 12-13 psi. It doesn't feel really that powerful too, though I haven't had it dynoed or anything. Is this an inaccurate reading or has my exhaust really added 5 psi to my boost? I'm a bit saddened now because I don't want to increase the boost any more with the IEBC when I install it - I'll only just try to get more boost down low. So no more power until I one day get a FMIC The other question I have is for those using the DFA. Like I said, I've had it in for a while and I have currently no way of reading or knowing what the AFR is, so I'm doing it by feel. I've pretty much set it to -7 for all points (starting at around 36 or 38, my car idles at about 40) until about 100 when I set it down on a slope to about -20 or so by load point 128 (at full boost it reaches about 123 or so). I had it at -6 for a while then changed it today to -7 and it has helped a few things - low end (off boost) response, the 'burbling' (backfiring) I get when slowing down completely off throttle at sub-2000rpm, and backfiring when changing gears up whilst at full throttle at high revs. I still do get burbling though, but what I'm not sure about is how far to lean it generally. Is -10 a lot? or a little? Is -20 a better choice? I've been adjusting it by 1, I started at -3 then went to -4 and now I'm at -7. I know that at cruising and idling, the ECU uses the closed loop feedback from the oxygen sensor, so it would ignore my settings for this, but like I said, the adjustments to -7 I've made for load points ~38 - 100 have helped (though not the hugest). Also, should I expect an improvement in power with the DFA? I haven't noticed any at all on full throttle to be honest. Just down low rpm its a tiny bit more grunty and less sloppy. Thanks

Cool, well done This is on a SR20DET yeah? I'm going to install the IEBC on my 180 soon now that I got my boost gauge (which is showing 0.8-0.9 peak bar on stock boost with turbo back exhaust + pod at ~3500rpm). I'm looking forward to reducing the turbo lag

<180sx purist>Why do this? The SR20DET is capable of assloads of power if you want, especially with the cost of a RB26 conversion. With some internal mods, you could pull over 500rwkw from it. See Theo's S15 drag car - does 9's with an S13 SR20DET. And I saw 2 180's at Autosalon doing 333rwkw, one with just a HKS 3030something turbo and FMIC (not that it would last every day at that boost). Besides, the added weight of the RB26 will wreck the balance of the car, and overall make it heavier (thus requiring more power). < /180sx purist> But if you want to do it, do it. It will be interesting!

Yeah, mine's [email protected], yours?

I am at Monash (Clayton) on Mondays - I was thinking of going to the NS meet as well, but after a long day at uni I just wanna go home and eat food :b I have a 180 and yeah, I'd be in on a joint SAU/NS meet I been bumping into pinoi_boi at uni anyway

Yeah, pretty much you can go and buy any of the replacement parts for this project from Jaycar, if you bust or lose any. The only ones I think might be hard would be the PIC chips because they have software burnt on them -- you could buy them but they won't be programmed as required.

Congratulations mate, you fried a component Anyway, I looked at your pics and it looks like all yoru diodes are the right way around and same with transistors. The reason why it's fried is becasue it was passing much more current than it normally would, because of either a short circuit or a busted transistor or wrong values of nearby components (like resistors). I can't see any problems with the placement of your components or your soldering, but the soldering pic is a bit unclear. Check all your soldering points and make sure no points touch eachother. This is the kind of thing that would cause a short usually. Check the value of the resistor that failed, the colour should be brown, black, black, gold, brown. Check other resistors nearby too. That's about all I can suggest at this stage Hopefully you get it going soon.

For all those who are having issues with their kits and have already gone and checked all their solder points, you'll be best to go back and check that you've build it according to instructions exactly. But don't fret too much because most of the time you will find a problem and it will magically start working. Electronics is not for the impatient, so if you feel you're getting jacked off at it, just leave it and come back to it tomorrow. 1) Check all the links you have installed are as per the instructions. A missing link can be the difference between it working and not. I found looking at the back of the PCB for unsoldered 'pads' was useful, because pretty much there shouldn't be any ('cept for 1 or 2 unused ones). But look for the white printed lines on the top of the PCB, they show where the links go. The DFA is more straight forward when it comes to this because the IEBC has a few links which are 'configuration options' - read the 'The Links' section of the article to understand where they go. 2. Check you have put in the jumpers (little black things which connect up 2 of the jumper pins). These are as important as links, the article text explains exactly where these go. 3. Check you have no leftover bits. Pretty much I found all I had leftover were maybe some screws and wire and solder. Even the black jumper pins and stuff were all used up. 4. Check you have the diodes in the right places and in the correct orientation. Diodes are little tubular components with pins out each end, and always have a single little white band towards one end and their model printed on them. It is very important that these are both the correct ones in the correct spots, and that they are the right way around. This is because diodes only conduct electricity in one direction (indicated by the band), so if they are the wrong way around, it is as if they aren't there at all. The 'band end' is shown on the PCB in the white print. From memory, the 1N4004/1N4148 (power) diodes are black and have sharp ends. The zener and signal diodes are a reddish/orange/brownish or a silvery/grey colour. 5. Check transistors, ICs, polarised capacitors are in the right way. The two PIC ICs on the IEBC are marked with white paint - one has a stripe and one has a dot. That's how they are differentiated and the black/white printed instructions show where each goes. The transistors are like a [) shape, they are pretty straight forward because the board shows which way they go, just make sure you put in the correct model where it belongs. Capacitors come in many different varieties and the polarised ones are (in these kits) the Electrolytic ones, which are tubular shaped and have lot more text printed on the side than other capacitors. They usually state the actual value (eg. 10uF) rather than an abbreviated value (eg. 104K = 0.1uF). It is not vital, but quite important (hence make sure of this) that they are the right way around. It has been known of electrolytics to explode when connected the wrong way around. Most other components don't just explode but these can I hear. One side of these (on their 'tube') has a marking like - > -. This is basically a pointer to the pin on that side (on the bottom of the 'tube') saying it's the negative pin, thus the other pin is the +, and so should be soldered onto the board that way. 6. If you still have problems, check all your resistors and solder connections. OMG WTF check all the resistors?!, I hear you say? Yeah, it is tedious, but it is again, very important that these are the correct values. Incorrect values can mean that a transistor doesn't 'turn on' and this can result in the whole circuit not being powered up, or not functioning anywhere near correct. The instructions show how to read these resistors - they are 1% ones with 5 bands. There is a tiny, but larger than others, gap between one of the end colour bands and the next one on these resistors. This means that it is the 'tolerance' band and it's always brown on these resistors. Basically just ignore that band, and read the resistor from the other side towards the 'larger gap'. Eg it will be: -(_|_|_|_|__|_)- the right-most band is the 'tolerance' band, so read it from left to right. Get me? Phew. Anyway, I hope this has helped. And I just decided what may be a help is for me to take nice big clear and colourful photos of my (working) IEBC board so you can use it to help with where components go and their orientations. I've already put up closeup photos of the DFA board earlier, so check that as well. Here's the top and bottom: But well done guys, it's rewarding to know 'you built it yourself and saved a shitload of money'.