Run-It-Hard

They did some testing before on my first kando and it had a 2psi drop on low boost (I think under 10psi?) so I'd take it as the boost increases the drop will become worse. I got it off CJauto I think off ebay, can't remember. I found myself a HKS return flow setup to replace it so hopefully I get that extra 20-30kw ... the Stagea needs it lol.

decided to go the HKS, uses a 600x300 core and I can see the piping being a nightmare/more hassle then its worth lol. I need to get a welder =/ I want to go lower, so I'm figuring out how to do that at the moment. I'll need to cut and extend the inner guard on the rear for more clearance. The front is the tricky part, the upper control arm is hitting the chassis atm, so I dunno what I can do here. I'm going to adapt some S14/R33 KTS tie rods and ends to suit the Stagea too which should be cool and hopefully I wont bend any more tie rods. Oh and I've got a photoshoot on this weekend, some guy is keen as mustard to take pics of it so yeah lol.

No need for these anymore, went a stiffer setup. Good quality springs, made by Tein in Japan. OEM off the Super flex wagon coilovers to suit Stagea. Specs: 70mm ID 6kg spring rate 2x 225mm long 2x 250mm long $120 pair or $200 set Will ship Located in Liverpool region Cheers, Adam.

Alrighty I'm in need of a little help/advice on the "awesome" upper control arm layout on Skylines and Stageas. I tend to have a problem with mine hitting the chassis. Refer to picture below, red circle is where it hits. at the moment it hits on potholes and other major imperfections on the road, never hit it on the track (more-so coming off track). I'm currently running 2 piece adjustable camber arms as you can see, they measure 32mm wide. Pretty chunky (not as chunky as OEM though, coming in at 40mm). So I've been looking into ways to solve this problem, as I ultimately want to go another 30mm lower. I've noticed the Cusco camber arms look to be half the thickness of the 2 piece arms, would anyone have a set lying around that they could measure up for me? I'm keen on getting cusco just for the fact that you dont need to rip them apart to adjust the camber, these ones suck balls! Next question that's been on my mind. Is it possible to notch that section and re-enforce it ? I take it that section would be some what structual so I'm not so sure it's a good idea. Anyone experienced and overcome this problem before?

Well I've done a shitload of reading today! I wanted to learn everything about intercoolers, also wanted to compare the volume/effiency of what coolers I was deciding on etc. I've decided to go a 600x300x76 intercooler (just like the normal kits) but adapt it for return flow. I've measured up everything and with some further trimming of the reo, I should be able to get the piping to go behind the cooler. I figured that because I'm pushing the car hard at the track, I should try keep inlet temps as low as possible and reduce the chance of performance limiting heatsoak (was getting that quite a bit last event). Also realised my cooler is bar and plate, I should really be using a tube and fin for drifting haha. Oh well live and learn. The one part I didn't do extensive research on came back to bite me in the ass. Thanks for all your input guys

Found a pic of those XR6T upgrade coolers compared to a OEM one. Looks like a good option too. I wonder if I could mount it with the return facing towards the reo, hmm.

That's a good idea! Something like this eh? Can find anything in a decent size though. This is what I am running at the momment. I like the custom idea as you can get plenty of 600x300 cores cheap (theres a few on ebay for $50 new never used lol) the piping would probably cost $200 in material, and then get my mate to weld it all up. It's just effort doing it all I guess. I guess I know for a fact that a 600x300 intercooler won't be a restriction too. Just running the return pipe will be the tricky part.

I was thinking something along the lines of this, but with a 600x300 cooler. Just worried about the length of the return pipe, and the bend going into the intercooler. But considering some people setups like this: I should be ok, otherwise people wouldn't do it, right? I hate when I over-think things =/

I'm just worried that if I do go JJR and I run 20psi through it, it'll choke up like my current setup. How much boost have you run through yours? It's odd, some guys have problems with the JJR and others don't.

Thanks Dave! Yep most of the bugs are ironed out, so hopefully I can just enjoy it and focus on my driving for a while

Thank you for the kind words Sean! It has been a roller coaster with this Stagea, just like my R33 build previously ... I must be unlucky with Nissans or something lol.

@Jez I've been thinking about it HEAPS these past couple of days. I think that drop was at a low boost setting too, so higher could mean a bigger drop. Also thought, how can my 12cm rear housing make 230kw on 14psi, and the 10cm only make 235kw on 18psi. Obviously there should be a variance due to the rear housing size, but 4psi to make 5kw kinda tells me something is restricting it (ie intercooler). Makes me wonder why my mech or tuner didn't think anything of this =/ So I guess the setup I have now is good for around 220-230kw @ around 15psi. Anything more and it starts to choke. Then I came to the design of a new intercooler setup. I was thinking of going a normal cooler and putting in a bend like the HKS setup, but measured it all up and realised it wont fit without going under the cooler, and that means the pipe will be hanging super low. I'm really stumped at the moment, I'm thinking of just going the blitz or maybe the HKS (can get it pretty cheap) and be done with it. I'm worried that if I went JJR I'd have a similar problem with it causing a restriction. If I were running a bigger turbo (i.e Garret 3076) I would be able to make power on less boost and I don't think it'll be a problem then. But Ideally I want 20psi, if a JJR can handle that or not without causing a similar problem I don't know. Pros on the HKS/Blitz HKS uses 3 inch piping HKS has designed the core and fin layout specifically for return flow, as I'm sure blitz has aswell. Blitz uses 3 to 2.5 piping Blitz has been proven to handle over 300kw with ease Cons on the HKS/Blitz price to replace the core if/when I stack it at the track Not much info on the HKS in terms of people using it, but the design looks solid Pros on the JJR Price point, $400 for a full kit is cheap Would be easy to replace if I stack it at the track Cons on the JJR Seems that few people make big power with them, and others happen to have problems ... is it the boost they run or turbo size I don't know. Pros on super dooper custom shit (conventional cooler made for return flow) Cheap, can probably do it for $300 would be easy to replace the core if I stack it (and cheap) can design it how I want it cons on super dooper custom shit a lot of pipe work worried that the sharp 180 degree bend will hinder the intercoolers performance, and in turn cause a restriction. Need to figure out where to run the return pipe, going under will hang too low and behind looks like there isn't much room effort to fabricate, setup etc. Ideally I'd like to do the custom piece, but I'm just worried the bend will cause restrictions. Then I figured why don't I just do something like the XR6T/F6 coolers. Slightly smaller than a nomal core coming in at 500x260x65, and would allow room for a return pipe. Or, I could just get the HKS and ship it via sea (would be super cheap then) if I stack it, make a conventional cooler fit the piping. At the end of the day, I want the intercooler to be happy with 20ishpsi, and not cause a restriction to enable around 260-280kw like the TD06 should be making. So yeah that's where I'm at, at the moment. Been thinking about it a lot as you guys can see lol

PHOTO DUMP: CURSED SUNDAYS DRIFT DAY - VIEW ON THE BLOG! Pictures from Cursed Sunday’s private day have just emerged from Streamline Media and they managed to get quite a few pics of the Stagea and Skyline. Most of these were taken early on in the day, you can see that my front lip is already mangled though haha. Benny baking hard. Stagea following suit. Putting on a show My week old lip demolished, nothing a few cable ties didn’t fix! Benny has a knack for loosing his side skirts, he rolled up next to me on the straight and I could hear something scrapping, I’m like “uhh bro, you ran over your sideskirt”. Funnily enough it was still mostly intact and went back on the car. Blurry Stagea is blurry. Benny is so happy that the R33 pumps out smoke now, we made a switch to Rotalla tyres … they are pretty rad for the price, grip right to the belts, don't delam and smoke up. What more could you want? Ah, it was a good day. We are doing it all again on the 27th on the new EC South circuit. Can’t wait!

PHOTO DUMP: CURSED SUNDAYS DRIFT DAY - VIEW ON THE BLOG! Pictures from Cursed Sunday’s private day have just emerged from Streamline Media and they managed to get quite a few pics of the Stagea and Skyline. Most of these were taken early on in the day, you can see that my front lip is already mangled though haha. Benny baking hard. Stagea following suit. Putting on a show My week old lip demolished, nothing a few cable ties didn’t fix! Benny has a knack for loosing his side skirts, he rolled up next to me on the straight and I could hear something scrapping, I’m like “uhh bro, you ran over your sideskirt”. Funnily enough it was still mostly intact and went back on the car. Blurry Stagea is blurry. Benny is so happy that the R33 pumps out smoke now, we made a switch to Rotalla tyres … they are pretty rad for the price, grip right to the belts, don't delam and smoke up. What more could you want? Ah, it was a good day. We are doing it all again on the 27th on the new EC South circuit. Can’t wait!

It was tested with the first TD06, I had a 2psi drop I think, I've been told "that's not too bad" but yeah who knows. I'm going to try out a mates JJR return flow and see if there is any noticable difference. I really want to stick to return flow to keep it all looking stock. I've found a used HKS type S kit in Japan which I'm contemplating on getting too, they look like a normal core and have the piping come back to the OEM position. Can't find much info on them though I doubt they'd be restrictive.

Got a mate with a normal return flow intercooler kit, I'll swap with him for a few days and see if anything happens eh (and see if I could actually run such a setup at my height). Cheers for the advice guys

The reason why I went with that type is because I'd smack the shit out of the bottom pipe due to the cars height. I'll probably go conventional setup. Could an intercooler restrict the amount of boost a turbo can make, or limit power at a certian point?

But then again, I'm not using the JJR/Blitz type cooler, I'm using the 2 outlet on one side type. Shall do some digging I think.

Another thing Mick mentioned is that the turbo didn't want to make any more boost, maybe the intercooler is a restriction after all. I think I'll sort it out after Eastern creek next week.

This is the kinda core I'm using lads. I get where your coming from Scott. I guess I need to decide whether I want the car to look stock and have average power, or put in a conventional cooler kit and gain the missing power I should have, if thats the problem.

It feels like and sounds like mine opens up half way sometimes. The screamer is quieter sometimes than other times it's really wierd. But yeah will deffinately be going back to Tial next time. The more I think of it, the more silly the idea on it being the cooler sounds. I've seen/heard of Skylines pumping out plenty of power with them. Meh, it'll do for now. Just was expecting quite a bit more. Pretty shitty how all this shit happened with the turbos injectors, only to put down a dissmal power figure, should of just left the turbo stock lol.

Sorry man, if I would have known I would of sent the shit back to him

Nothing major. Turbosmart wastegate was being a c*nt apparently but the tuner sorted that out. A few guys are thinking it could be the return flow intercooler, but I'm not to sure at this stage. Was pretty disapointed when they told me what it made. It drives alright but needs that little more oomph ... like it should have seeing the turbos are ment to be good for 260-280kw.

I sold you a intercooler kit? was it brand new? if so you might want to talk to Darren Spencer (as that's who I got it from) about it, he had been importing them and assured they'd be a good fit.

I'm not using a justjap kit, we made our own using a core with inlet/outlet on the one side. But still, kinda don't want to spend any more money on it until I know for certian, this whole kando ordeal I've had ... I probably could of bought a 3076 or something with the cash wasted I'll do some digging on the return flow cooler problems though while I'm at it, anyone else had problems with return flow intercoolers?