Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

So after owning the stagea for almost two years now, and never really having any time to have the car off the road, or any spare cash to go crazy with the mods, i've decided its about time. over the next couple of months i've been told by work that i have too much annual leave saved up and i need to take some, so i thought, perfect opportunity to get some work done on the stagea.

i already have:

- Full 3" Exhaust

- Jaycar IEBC

- Pod Airfilter

- Rear Strut Brace

so very basic mods.

by the end of november/start of december i hope to have successfully added:

- Cooling Pro Stealth FMIC

- Fuel System Upgrade, Walbro intank pump, maybe injectors.

- Turbo Upgrade, GT35R

- Coilovers, and some adjustable control arms (to help with camber once lowered)

- Nistune

first to go on, this week, is the FMIC, the fuel pump, and the ecu is getting a Nistune chip. i already have these ready to go and its just a matter of getting to motivation to start the jobs lol.

as far as the turbo choice goes i dont want this turning into a discussion about turbo sizing, the reason i went with this turbo is purely because a mate was stripping down his engine and pritty much gave me the turbo setup. he had it on an unopened RB25 Neo that was producing 300kw at 21psi in a manual VL Calais, he saw full boost(21psi) around 4000rpm it was making 14psi around 3000rpm. the way i see it is, i have an auto, 4WD and a heavier car so with the extra load i should see boost abit earlier. i'm only planning on running about 12-14psi to start with until i can sort out other things like the auto trans.

i know the auto will need some work to handle the increase in power and it is on my list, but i only have enough funds and time off to do what i've listed, and why i'll be trying to keep power around the 200-220kw mark. the only thing i'm still chasing up is how i'm going to wastegate the turbo, because i'm going to use the stock manifold i have two options, getting an internal gated rear house for the turbo, or welding a external gate flange to the stock manifold or turbo rear housing. either way the setup will end up costing around the same.

thats the basic run down, i'll be posting up pics and progress of the mods as i do them. now off to get started.

Edited by QWK32
Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/292540-time-for-some-upgrades/
Share on other sites

  • Replies 47
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

Posted Images

How are you stock coilpacks travelling atm?

fine, they dont miss a beat, no break down, but it is something i have in the back of my mind.

just sent off the ecu to get chipped. hopefully have it back in a couple of days.

i would definately get a proper cooler put on there those cooling pro ones r shitouse

i've run them before without a problem and i'm sure others do to. i wanted a cooler that i could pick up off the stock piping so i got this one. the last cooling pro kit i got had cheap alloy piping, this one has stainless pipes so i though that was good.

i've run them before without a problem and i'm sure others do to. i wanted a cooler that i could pick up off the stock piping so i got this one. the last cooling pro kit i got had cheap alloy piping, this one has stainless pipes so i though that was good.

let me know how you go with the cooler. jo's got here the other day, but i have sfa time to put it on until the end of this semester (32 days and counting) :blink: we've moved in with my parents now too, so i also have sfa space to play with the stag haha.

you should make a guide, hint hint :cool:

Edited by pyro-ns

Don't go coilovers, and speak to TJ about a trans build...

I would go Bilstein/Eibach if you want coilover, or bilstein with tein s-tech springs if you want just comfy but improved. add swaybars and adjustable bushes all round and your set.

i've already got a set of coil-overs, one needs a rebuild though. if i pull my finger out i'll drop them in to get serviced and they'll be installed the last week of november when i'll have access to a hoist and wheel alignment machine. but yes, i will be looking at the trans not long after everything is had been installed. i dont have the time to have my car off the road anymore than what it is, its my daily driver. but will sort out some more annual leave start of next year and concentrate on the auto then.

the next week i have off i'm going to bundaberg, my hometown, where my brother is a mechanic, and where he works has an exhaust shop attached, so we'll have all the tools, hoists, welders etc to do the job. but we'll only really have enough time to get all that done before i need to have the car back on the road again. i'm just trying to work everything into the windows i have available, i've got the perfect opportunity to install the turbo so i'm going to take it. the auto can wait.

today i managed to get the FMIC 99% installed, tomorrow i just have to trim the front bar to suit. i was fairly happy with the install, the most frustrating bit so far was removing the front bar, trying to find and get to all the clips and bolt holding it on was a mission. i didn't have any issues with the cooler hitting the a/c fan like others have had, the brackets that where supplied were no good so i had to make some up. reo bar only needed a slight touch with the grinder. the outside air temp sensor for the a/c was in the way so i had to move it. the cooler also sits on a slight angle, i'll have a better look at that tomorrow.

pics so far:

post-34711-1255940204_thumb.jpg

post-34711-1255940225_thumb.jpg

Edited by QWK32

shift kitting the Trans is cheap!

depending on workshop and workload they can have it done in 1-2days.

i got my whole gearbox rebuilt and upgraded in about 4-5days. plus testing. went back a few times cause he wasn't happy with how it was going. few more tweeks to do yet.

shift kitting is a good option, but then you may need to look at upgrading the trans cooler, cause of all that extra pressure and friction the box is now loading on the stock parts.

Yes shift kit & upgraded servo, definitely recommended. I just got my standard S2 cooler relocated to behind the driver's side wheel/under the headlight; according to the transmission place it was big enough for my ~195kw atw and high-stall convertor :D.

I am installing the self same fmic at the moment. Stock injectors and afm will get you over 200awkw easily with the bigger turbo but you will soon need 550 injectors and Z32 afm. I am currently running 16-17 psi with my unopened S1. i believe the neo has stronger rods but 21psi sounds a bit brave!

I am installing the self same fmic at the moment. Stock injectors and afm will get you over 200awkw easily with the bigger turbo but you will soon need 550 injectors and Z32 afm. I am currently running 16-17 psi with my unopened S1. i believe the neo has stronger rods but 21psi sounds a bit brave!

yeah i'm not going to be chasing big power atm, so the stock injectors and afm will do for now, something i'll eventually chase up is a Z32 or even a Q45 to get closer to the 4" mouth of the GT35R.

Hey mate you can run and external gate of the stock manifold, few guys over here do it, tight fit with something with ABS but is do-able.

yeah i'm looking into that, or mounting it off the turbo housing itself, thing is i can get an internal gated rear housing setup for a fraction more than a decent external gate setup.

How will you go with boost control though with an internal gate? People are having probs with boost creep arnt they with gt30's internally gated.

See im a lover of gate so im allways gonna say external and vented haha

It will cost more, but i think 6 boost make low mount manifolds, that with an external gate setup be awesome.

Yes shift kit & upgraded servo, definitely recommended. I just got my standard S2 cooler relocated to behind the driver's side wheel/under the headlight; according to the transmission place it was big enough for my ~195kw atw and high-stall convertor ;).

Yup, s2 coolers are bigger than s1, so I personally wouldn't replace unless told too by an industry expert.

How will you go with boost control though with an internal gate? People are having probs with boost creep arnt they with gt30's internally gated.

See im a lover of gate so im allways gonna say external and vented haha

It will cost more, but i think 6 boost make low mount manifolds, that with an external gate setup be awesome.

boost control is the main thing i'm concerned about, there are a lot of mixed stories with the internal gates. some setups are fine and others have problems. i think because to start with i want to run low boost i will probably have an issue with the internal gate.

lol even though i love the sound of a gate on full scream i'm trying to keep everything road legal, or close enough, so if i do run an external gate it will be plumbed to the exhaust. i've been looking at the 6boost manifolds, also the ETM manifolds, i'd say they would be the best option, most expensive too, but i'm just looking into the stock manifold setup first.

Edited by QWK32

Got my ecu back from Nistune this morning, once i get the software licence code i'll have a play with it :) Yesterday i finished off trimming up the front bar to suit the intercooler. by the end of the day i had the front bar on and off about 50 times taking small amounts off the bar each time to get it to fit. the only thing i dont like is how much the Dayz bar covers up the intercooler, but it would be a shame to completely hack a dayz bar up to expose the intercooler anymore, i'm thinking of maybe getting some slots/openings in the bit of the front bar that has the reo behind it, the same style as what the R32 GTR front bar has.

heres the finished FMIC install, i havent got the blinker/foggies back in yet, i need to got get some new bulbs.

post-34711-1256174517_thumb.png

Edited by QWK32

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now



  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • I did end up getting it sorted, as GTSBoy said, there was a corroded connection and wire that needed to be replaced. I ended up taking out the light assembly, giving everything a good clean and re-soldered the old joints, and it came out good.
    • Wow, thanks for your help guys 🙏. I really appreciate it. Thanks @Rezz, if i fail finding any new or used, full or partial set of original Stage carpets i will come back to you for sure 😉 Explenation is right there, i just missed it 🤦‍♂️. Thanks for pointing out. @soviet_merlin in the meantime, I received a reply from nengun, and i quote: "Thanks for your message and interest in Nengun. KG4900 is for the full set of floor mats, while KG4911 is only the Driver's Floor Mat. FR, RH means Front Right Hand Side. All the Full Set options are now discontinued. However, the Driver's Floor Mat options are still available according to the latest information available to us. We do not know what the differences would be, but if you only want the one mat, we can certainly see what we can find out for you". Interesting. It seems they still have some "new old stock" that Duncan mentioned 🤔. I wonder if they can provide any photos......And i also just realized that amayama have G4900 sets. I'm tempted too. 
    • Any update on this one? did you manage to get it fixed?    i'm having the same issue with my r34 and i believe its to do with the smart entry (keyless) control module but cant be sure without forking out to get a replacement  
    • So this being my first contribution to the SAU forums, I'd like to present and show how I had to solve probably one of the most annoying fixes on any car I've owned: replacing a speedometer (or "speedo") sensor on my newly acquired Series 1 Stagea 260RS Autech Version. I'm simply documenting how I went about to fix this issue, and as I understand it is relatively rare to happen to this generation of cars, it is a gigantic PITA so I hope this helps serve as reference to anyone else who may encounter this issue. NOTE: Although I say this is meant for the 260RS, because the gearbox/drivetrain is shared with the R33 GTR with the 5-speed manual, the application should be exactly the same. Background So after driving my new-to-me Stagea for about 1500km, one night while driving home the speedometer and odometer suddenly stopped working. No clunking noise, no indication something was broken, the speedometer would just stop reading anything and the odometer stopped going up. This is a huge worry for me, because my car is relatively low mileage (only 45k km when purchased) so although I plan to own the car for a long time, a mismatched odometer reading would be hugely detrimental to resale should the day come to sell the car. Thankfully this only occurred a mile or two from home so it wasn't extremely significant. Also, the OCD part of me would be extremely irked if the numbers that showed on my dash doesn't match the actual ageing of the car. Diagnosing I had been in communication with the well renown GTR shop in the USA, U.P.garage up near University Point in Washington state. After some back and forth they said it could be one of two things: 1) The speedometer sensor that goes into the transfer case is broken 2) The actual cluster has a component that went kaput. They said this is common in older Nissan gauge clusters and that would indicate a rebuild is necessary. As I tried to figure out if it was problem #1, I resolved problem #2 by sending my cluster over to Relentless Motorsports in Dallas, TX, whom is local to me and does cluster and ECU rebuilds. He is a one man operation who meticulously replaces every chip, resistor, capacitor, and electronic component on the PCB's on a wide variety of classic and modern cars. His specialty is Lexus and Toyota, but he came highly recommended by Erik of U.P.garage since he does the rebuilds for them on GTR clusters.  For those that don't know, on R32 and R33 GTR gearboxes, the speedometer sensor is mounted in the transfer case and is purely an analog mini "generator" (opposite of an alternator essentially). Based on the speed the sensor spins it generates an AC sine wave voltage up to 5V, and sends that via two wires up to the cluster which then interprets it via the speedometer dial. The signal does NOT go to the ECU first, the wiring goes to the cluster first then the ECU after (or so I'm told).  Problems/Roadblocks I first removed the part from the car on the underside of the transfer case (drain your transfer case fluid/ATF first, guess who found out that the hard way?), and noted the transfer case fluid was EXTREMELY black, most likely never changed on my car. When attempting to turn the gears it felt extremely gritty, as if something was binding the shaft from rotating properly. I got absolutely no voltage reading out of the sensor no matter how fast I turned the shaft. After having to reflow the solder on my AFM sensors based on another SAU guide here, I attempted to disassemble the silicone seal on the back of the sensor to see what happened inside the sensor; turns out, it basically disintegrated itself. Wonderful. Not only had the electrical components destroyed themselves, the magnetic portion on what I thought was on the shaft also chipped and was broken. Solution So solution: find a spare part right? Wrong. Nissan has long discontinued the proper sensor part number 32702-21U19, and it is no longer obtainable either through Nissan NSA or Nissan Japan. I was SOL without proper speed or mileage readings unless I figured out a way to replace this sensor. After tons of Googling and searching on SAU, I found that there IS however a sensor that looks almost exactly like the R33/260RS one: a sensor meant for the R33/R34 GTT and GTS-T with the 5 speed manual. The part number was 25010-21U00, and the body, plug, and shaft all looked exactly the same. The gear was different at the end, but knowing the sensor's gear is held on with a circlip, I figured I could just order the part and swap the gears. Cue me ordering a new part from JustJap down in Kirrawee, NSW, then waiting almost 3 weeks for shipping and customs clearing. The part finally arrives and what did I find? The freaking shaft lengths don't match. $&%* I discussed with Erik how to proceed, and figuring that I basically destroyed the sensor trying to get the shaft out of the damaged sensor from my car. we deemed it too dangerous to try and attempt to swap shafts to the correct length. I had to find a local CNC machinist to help me cut and notch down the shaft. After tons of frantic calling on a Friday afternoon, I managed to get hold of someone and he said he'd be able to do it over half a week. I sent him photos and had him take measurements to match not only the correct length and notch fitment, but also a groove to machine out to hold the retentive circlip. And the end result? *chef's kiss* Perfect. Since I didn't have pliers with me when I picked up the items, I tested the old gear and circlip on. Perfect fit. After that it was simply swapping out the plug bracket to the new sensor, mount it on the transfer case, refill with ATF/Nissan Matic Fluid D, then test out function. Thankfully with the rebuilt cluster and the new sensor, both the speedometer and odometer and now working properly!   And there you have it. About 5-6 weeks of headaches wrapped up in a 15 minute photo essay. As I was told it is rare for sensors of this generation to die so dramatically, but you never know what could go wrong with a 25+ year old car. I HOPE that no one else has to go through this problem like I did, so with my take on a solution I hope it helps others who may encounter this issue in the future. For the TL;DR: 1) Sensor breaks. 2) Find a replacement GTT/GTS-T sensor. 3) Find a CNC machinist to have you cut it down to proper specs. 4) Reinstall then pray to the JDM gods.   Hope this guide/story helps anyone else encountering this problem!
    • So this being my first contribution to the SAU forums, I'd like to present and show how I had to solve probably one of the most annoying fixes on any car I've owned: replacing a speedometer (or "speedo") sensor on my newly acquired Series 1 Stagea 260RS Autech Version. I'm simply documenting how I went about to fix this issue, and as I understand it is relatively rare to happen to this generation of cars, it is a gigantic PITA so I hope this helps serve as reference to anyone else who may encounter this issue. NOTE: Although I say this is meant for the 260RS, because the gearbox/drivetrain is shared with the R33 GTR with the 5-speed manual, the application should be exactly the same. Background So after driving my new-to-me Stagea for about 1500km, one night while driving home the speedometer and odometer suddenly stopped working. No clunking noise, no indication something was broken, the speedometer would just stop reading anything and the odometer stopped going up. This is a huge worry for me, because my car is relatively low mileage (only 45k km when purchased) so although I plan to own the car for a long time, a mismatched odometer reading would be hugely detrimental to resale should the day come to sell the car. Thankfully this only occurred a mile or two from home so it wasn't extremely significant. Also, the OCD part of me would be extremely irked if the numbers that showed on my dash doesn't match the actual ageing of the car. Diagnosing I had been in communication with the well renown GTR shop in the USA, U.P.garage up near University Point in Washington state. After some back and forth they said it could be one of two things: 1) The speedometer sensor that goes into the transfer case is broken 2) The actual cluster has a component that went kaput. They said this is common in older Nissan gauge clusters and that would indicate a rebuild is necessary. As I tried to figure out if it was problem #1, I resolved problem #2 by sending my cluster over to Relentless Motorsports in Dallas, TX, whom is local to me and does cluster and ECU rebuilds. He is a one man operation who meticulously replaces every chip, resistor, capacitor, and electronic component on the PCB's on a wide variety of classic and modern cars. His specialty is Lexus and Toyota, but he came highly recommended by Erik of U.P.garage since he does the rebuilds for them on GTR clusters.  For those that don't know, on R32 and R33 GTR gearboxes, the speedometer sensor is mounted in the transfer case and is purely an analog mini "generator" (opposite of an alternator essentially). Based on the speed the sensor spins it generates an AC sine wave voltage up to 5V, and sends that via two wires up to the cluster which then interprets it via the speedometer dial. The signal does NOT go to the ECU first, the wiring goes to the cluster first then the ECU after (or so I'm told).  Problems/Roadblocks I first removed the part from the car on the underside of the transfer case (drain your transfer case fluid/ATF first, guess who found out that the hard way?), and noted the transfer case fluid was EXTREMELY black, most likely never changed on my car. When attempting to turn the gears it felt extremely gritty, as if shttps://imgur.com/6TQCG3xomething was binding the shaft from rotating properly. After having to reflow the solder on my AFM sensors based on another SAU guide here, I attempted to disassemble the silicone seal on the back of the sensor to see what happened inside the sensor; turns out, it basically disintegrated itself. Wonderful. Not only had the electrical components destroyed themselves, the magnetic portion on what I thought was on the shaft also chipped and was broken. Solution So solution: find a spare part right? Wrong. Nissan has long discontinued the proper sensor part number 32702-21U19, and it is no longer obtainable either through Nissan NSA or Nissan Japan. I was SOL without proper speed or mileage readings unless I figured out a way to replace this sensor. After tons of Googling and searching on SAU, I found that there IS however a sensor that looks almost exactly like the R33/260RS one: a sensor meant for the R33/R34 GTT and GTS-T with the 5 speed manual. The part number was 25010-21U00, and the body, plug, and shaft all looked exactly the same. The gear was different at the end, but knowing the sensor's gear is held on with a circlip, I figured I could just order the part and swap the gears. Cue me ordering a new part from JustJap down in Kirrawee, NSW, then waiting almost 3 weeks for shipping and customs clearing. The part finally arrives and what did I find? The freaking shaft lengths don't match. $&%* I discussed with Erik how to proceed, and figuring that I basically destroyed the sensor trying to get the shaft out of the damaged sensor from my car. we deemed it too dangerous to try and attempt to swap shafts to the correct length. I had to find a local CNC machinist to help me cut and notch down the shaft. After tons of frantic calling on a Friday afternoon, I managed to get hold of someone and he said he'd be able to do it over half a week. I sent him photos and had him take measurements to match not only the correct length and notch fitment, but also a groove to machine out to hold the retentive circlip. And the end result? *chef's kiss* Perfect. Since I didn't have pliers with me when I picked up the items, I tested the old gear and circlip on. Perfect fit. After that it was simply swapping out the plug bracket to the new sensor, mount it on the transfer case, refill with ATF/Nissan Matic Fluid D, then test out function. Thankfully with the rebuilt cluster and the new sensor, both the speedometer and odometer and now working properly!   And there you have it. About 5-6 weeks of headaches wrapped up in a 15 minute photo essay. As I was told it is rare for sensors of this generation to die so dramatically, but you never know what could go wrong with a 25+ year old car. I HOPE that no one else has to go through this problem like I did, so with my take on a solution I hope it helps others who may encounter this issue in the future. For the TL;DR: 1) Sensor breaks. 2) Find a replacement GTT/GTS-T sensor. 3) Find a CNC machinist to have you cut it down to proper specs. 4) Reinstall then pray to the JDM gods.   Hope this guide/story helps anyone else encountering this problem!
×
×
  • Create New...