Cefiro -> Laufiro

[SirRacer]

Im having a boring night so i thought id share a few pictures of my cefiros transformation and history.

A friend of mine has a Nissan Laurel and over a few drinks apparently i mentioned id love a cefiro to drive instead of driving my S14 to work (I dont remember this at all). The S14 has a new paint job etc and is asking to be stolen.

A few nights later 2 of my mates drove a nice rugged blue cefiro round to my house. We all jumped in and took it for a quick drive around. They mentioned they just saw it on the side of the road and asked the owner for a drive. I asked how much they wanted for it which was 1400. I remember saying thats a tad steep, 1k is more reasonable. Cool... didnt think any more of it.

A few days later my mate informs me im the new owner of said ugly rugged blue cefiro. I parted out the cash and she arrived. As below is the picture of her in the blue with the large dent.

After trying fruitlessly to get the tyres spinning i decided it needed to be lowered. A guy in town had some s13 struts with lowered springs. These were quickly purchased and within a week we had a lowish cefiro. (As shown in the second pic on the road)

She was now low and definitley cool and the lack of travel now led to some 7000rpm rb20e auto fury single spinner burnouts. This was ok for a while however as per usual we were starting to get bored.

The same mate who purchased the car for me informed me that a laurel front would fit on the cefiro. Coincidentally he had a stacked laurel sitting on his lawn. So over a crate of beers the cefiro suddenly turned into a laufiro. The guards didnt line up at all well and his car had a buggered bonnet so after a bit of paneling with a slegehammer it all fitted up. Im sometimes a bit of a fussy bugger so i went and scowered some wreckers for some tidier laurel parts. We later ended up with a new bumper and bonnet from one wrecker while another guy with a laurel parts car donated a guard for 30 bucks.

Another good mate (whos a mechanic) had an rb30e sitting around at his workshop that his ex boss was going to attempt to put into a Holden EH. It didnt fit so we scored this including trans for 180. The cefiro was swiftly taken into his garage and more power was on its way. The computers and intake are both different so we decided to just change the intake from the rb20e and put this on the rb30e. Cleaning the engine was horrid as the rb30 had an inch of junk built up on both the sump and rocker covers. With some ner fluids she fired into life and we were in business. Using the rb20e trans and rb20e inlet we had a torque monster. Putting down the accelerator with a bit of brake would let the back wheels run wild. Suprisingly we were now spinning 2.

We were now pimping rb30 laufiro style and the burnouts were amazing. Only one diff was harmed during this time. The gearbox wasnt quite spinning as it use to however taking the soft shift plug off got the tyres spinning again.

However with 7 different panel colours and the car covered with numerous dents a paint job was next on the cards. The paint choice was obvious due to us collectively having not touched a bog tin nor a paint gun. Matt Black it was. (Ive attached some pictures of the car during paint).

After numerous weeks sanding after work and getting the car down to metal in many places due to the current paint cracking we were ready to prime. Just as I was going to prime a guy stopped on the side of the road and came and checked out the car. Turns out he was a panelbeater/painter and wasn’t impressed with the fruits of my labour. Within a few hours he was back, sander in hand and really keen to lend a hand. He obviously wasn’t impressed with my panel skills as I was relegated to handing him sand paper and doing the occasional bit. He came back after work and even during the day when I was work and finished her off. Considering previously we had kicked the car in fun and jumped on the roof, together with the multiple dents I was rather stoked at how it came out.

Along the way I managed to pick up a set of Sparco Racing 17x7, 17x8.5 rims that were multi stud off an S14. Perfect in case I want to even go 5 stud. They featured multiple curb marks and I scored them for the sum of 650.

The trans was now starting to pack up big time and the idea of a manual cefiro now starting to entice me. At the time in NZ it was impossible to find a reasonably priced manual conversion. A r32GTS25 however came up smashed about an hour from where my folks lived. The initial plan was to get the manual conversion bits but by now I was starting to also having sick RB30Det cefiro thoughts.

The car was purchased complete with a stacked front end which needed to be cut off.

With the Cefiro now painted and looking pristine with its new 17’s and me having too many cars the decision was made to take her off the road and put the rego on hold. The manual conversion I longed for was put on the back burner.

The engine was removed and relegated to the depths of my garage while the trans was sent to the slushbox heaven in the sky (some dodgy bin at the back of a commercial yard). The loom was also relegated to the bin and a rb20de cefiro loom was purchased. A few engines were put in one mates shed and the laufiro was moved out to another mates Kiwifruit orchard to live amongst the vines.

At this time I was having evil dreams and having too much free time at work lead me to do a number of different engine combination figures. A 250kw engine wasn’t going to be that much cheaper than a 350kw engine (or so I thought) so my plans were moved up a notch.

The rb20det trans that came from the skyline parts car was parted to a mate for his laurel and a huge array of parts were acquired for the build. I still need a few key bits but aren’t to far away from having a stupidly fast Laufiro!

Specs when completed

Rb30det (r32 gts25 head with Performance Springs Value Springs)

Apexi Power Fc (ECR33 Modified to fit r32 head) with Q45 AFM

Sard Gtr 700cc Injectors running GTR resistor pack

Garrett Gt3540r running a top mount manifold and Tial Wastegate

R33 GTST trans with nismo twin plate clutch and nismo flywheel

Edited January 12, 2007 by SirRacer

[funkymonkey]

Nice one! lol you backyard pirates in NZ have it good. I only wish we could find cefrio's for $1800... mind you an RB20E cef is probably never gonna make it into australia, as it costs as much as importing a RB20DET one.

[WTF-33R]

nice project u have there. i much perfer the laurel front end.

[SirRacer]

bit of an update

i found an r33 that had been stacked and offered the guy 120nzd for the gearbox which had a smashed bellhousing. someone said the gtr bellhousing was interchangable so i brought one of them (280) and all the box needs is input shaft and a few bearings

also got a nismo twin plate with flywheel from trademe (nz's ebay) for 550 which is also a deal

[slo-a31]

did you end up putting an rb30det into it?

[D-limo]

Quite the mut. I like!.... Any footage with RB30?

[ColdHardHash]

sorry for the thread bump but,

I'm looking to swap an rb30e into my rb20e cef, are the manifolds the same/interchangeable?

[Simon-S14]

i would doubt it

[SirRacer]

yeah i think they are from memory

time flys especially when you have no cash.

turns out i needed a custom turbo manifold, and then ditched the idea of running a modified power fc as the unknown was cause for concern.

Watch this space as ill have some updates in the next few months when we try and get it going.

Cheers

[TAKUSHI]

Nice one! lol you backyard pirates in NZ have it good. I only wish we could find cefrio's for $1800... mind you an RB20E cef is probably never gonna make it into australia, as it costs as much as importing a RB20DET one.

haha funny you should say that as the one i own sez on the vin plate that it was an auto rb20e hahahaahhaah oh i laughed hard, but now its runs a 25 so its all good

[SirRacer]

Bit of an update. Things have taken so bloody long when your doing things bit by bit.

Engine is almost ready to fire. I still need to swap around some wires on the loom and mount the intercooler up, but otherwise we're almost there.

For the gearbox i brought a r33gtst box that was involved in a crash. Bellhousing was completely munted. Id previously heard they couldnt be changed, however had a suspicion they could. I then found a gtr bellhousing, spent ages trying to find a new input shaft + housing and then got it rebuilt. A friend donated me most of the bearings. New GTST box incl labour for around 1600 (paid 130 for box as crashed). While i was playing with the driveline i put in a new r200 LSD as my r180 in there was looser than a working girl.

I also decided to change my plans and run a Link G3 ECU with Mitsi Evo coils running in a wasted spark mode. Much cheaper than a PowerFC and i think the results will also be heaps better. Stumbled upon a dude who had run out of money on a project of his so i grabbed his cam gears for bugger all.

Pic here shows things a few weeks ago with the cooler pipes just sitting on the engine. I still need to make up a bracket to mount the pipes up a little higher and remount the bov flange but we're pretty close! I'll hopefully be getting the intercooler mounted in the next 2 weeks. Its a 600x300x100 one so should cool the system alright. Ive also put a surge tank in the boot, however dont have any descent pics as yet.

Have put a pic up of the turbo manifold. Really good quality number made here by a local guy Mike Sinclair. Im running a 44mm wastegate off it with 2.25 screamer and 3.5 inch exhaust.

Edited July 24, 2008 by SirRacer

[SirRacer]

Im pretty lucky ive got some good mates who have helped me through the process. Getting them to work on it has sometimes been a nightmare, however i think they are as keen to see it going as i am now. Heaps of other mates have helped with little things like sanding, masking and putting the car back together so cheers to them also!

Next on the list is to mount up some 300zx brakes (redrilled for 4 stud) and then send it to the tuner with instructions not to give it back to me until it puts out 350kws.

Edited July 24, 2008 by SirRacer

[daisu]

Nice, I'm about to embark on the RB30DET in my cefiro, lots of people are doing them but mainly to skylines I haven't seen one in a cefiro before. Are you having any issues with bonnet clearance? Because from what I read it is an issue with the skylines and they need to either space the crossmember down, cut the engine mounts, or chop some of the bonnet bracing.

[SirRacer]

ive got a laurel bonnet so really hard to say. on the stock laurel bonnet things fit perfectly with no modifications at all

[daisu]

I'd guess the cefiro bonnet would be the same...

[SirRacer]

they slope on more of an angle but i dont think you should have any problems. if you do just cut the inside of the bonnet support to bits.

[daisu]

Did you use the RB30 engine mounts? or the RB20 mounts?

[SirRacer]

The mounts are exactly the same from memory. I did need to cut a little out of the bonnet in the end as my intercooler pipes stuck up a bit high.

Bit of an update:

Its finally running! I brought a loom that i thought was compatible however it runs out after trying to rewire it that i got shafted good and proper. Managed to track another one down on trademe which seemed to do the trick, with a number of modifications to run different injectors, resistor pack etc.

I plugged in the Link ECU, played with all the settings and she ran first time.

A few more problems have surfaced since. Completely gutted but thats cars I guess. My radiator turned out to have nice big holes in it from being wacked around in the car for a while and my speedo doesnt want to read oil pressure. Have since found new bits to replace these.

Now that the cars at the tuners, he has found that the crank angle sensor doesnt seem to want to connect with the computer. The sensor was rubbish but the wiring is what is somewhat of concern. Estimate is that it will take a few hours to find the cause of the problem.

Alternator buggered (didnt know that one) so i now have a very expensive new one and the car is developing a misfire at anything over 4500rpm. Reason definitley unknown for that issue.

To compound this, on towing the car there we noticed a bit of a clunk coming from the back left. Suspect a buggered diff or CV's.

My $700 tune bill is very quickly morphing into a 1100/1200 dollar bill. Im not 100% whether im getting shafted good and proper (most likely) but i've

left it with the tuner and said to give me a call in a few weeks when it goes and produces a fair wack of horsepower. So far myself and friend have done the rest and its no use to me not going.

Bit dissapointed with this crowd as i was told it would be done on Tuesday and he didnt even look at it until Wednesday morning. Fingers crossed things get sorted and i have more positive news to report next time.

Edited October 31, 2008 by SirRacer

[SirRacer]

Thought a bit of an update is in order considering a little progress has been made.

Car made 310kws at around 19.* psi. My boost controller decided to fail so they used a manual bleed tap to control boost. As you can see the boost curve is a tad average. .

The diff problem turned out to be overtightened handbrake shoes. When i took them off they were busted beyond recognition so we replaced them with another set i had. I mounted my slicks MT 10.5's on some rims i had however didnt feel too confident using them so have borrowed a set off a mate that ive raced on before and are happy using. To do that we had to do a 5 stud conversion on the back which was reasonably easy.

Ive also replaced the back tyres with a set of Toyo Proxes T1r's and im pretty impressed with the quality and price. On spring pressure (12psi) the last set spun all through third gear, however these ones only sketch a little at 18psi.

I had an alignment done which told me what i already knew. The car has been in a bit of a bang and castor is out in a massive way. A mate was selling a set of castor and camber arms along with a Gizzmo Boost controller so i snapped up all three. Gizzmo controller im still coming to grips with and arms have been installed pending another alignment.

Dropped car in also to my trusty Fab guy Mike @ Sinco Customs in NZ who did a work of art in plumbing in the wastegate and remounting my ghetto install surge tank and mounting up my battery. Looks much better in real life. Im not a big show fan (as the car will show) so have yet to paint the boot or floor.

Last problem I have fixed was the 044 pump was overheating in the boot. This made the pump cavitate and the fuel supply either completely stop and the engine cut or just hesitate. It took an eternity to find, however ive now installed an oil cooler in front of the radiator with the fuel return plumbed in. Previously the surge tank was rather warm, now its almost as though the car hasnt been running.

Next mods are finishing the alignment process so the car runs straight, some panel work to fit the slicks (with my big hammer) and a small leak between the fuel pump filler.

After that im considering a retune (first was only my run-in) to around 24psi and perhaps a shot of Nitrous as i have a kit at home. I think money may prohibit that for a while however.

Edited January 6, 2009 by SirRacer

[SirRacer]

11.9 first time at the strip still on run in tune. Car would go faster (maybe 11.7), but im having a few issues controlling boost.

Back to the drawing board with that.

Turns out chassis wasnt bad at all and caster,camber is now perfectly in line. This makes such a massive difference to how the car handles!

Edited January 31, 2009 by SirRacer