180Sex Trackday Car- The Quest For Gtr Scalps!

[PN-Mad]

Hi All,

I decided to make a bit of a build thread for my 180sx. I sort of figured I'd tag it onto the end of my Stagea one, but nothing much gets done to the stagea these days, except carting a baby round and it seems a bit silly. So a dedicated build thread it is!

This is primarily a track car. While still rego'd, it pretty much only gets driven to and from the track, and around the block occasionally. So, I'm going to copy some stuff out of my Stagea thread, cause I've got about a year and a half to catch up on.

Well, I've been wanting something to have a bit of a crack at some motorsport in for a little while. Even though I had a ball in the stagea at the CAMS come and try day, it was clear to me that tracking this car regularly wasn't going to be possible. I was after something cheap, with plentiful parts, at I could tinker and work on in my spare time. Best of all, it meant if I broke it, I wouldn't be driving the Mrs around because we were down a car.
So I started the hunt. I intially thought I wanted a HCR32, that suited the bill. I looked through lots of adverts and still didn't find something that was in my price range, with the condition and mods I wanted.
It was then when a long time member of SAU NSW made a passing comment in a chat thread about selling a car. I was interested. The car was proven in motorsport events, had a lot of work done to it, and was at the top end of my price range. I went and drove it. It went like stink. Scared the shit out of me. There were a couple of little things I got the owner to fix up, but after agreeing to that, I put a deposit down. The deal was done.
I drove it back home and garaged it. I have been working on it since, fixing up little niggles here and there.


So here's the teaser.

[PN-Mad]

Ok, so you can see its a pretty serious bit of kit! Please forgive the copy paste, but its easier.

1994 180sx
S14 motor
Unigroup cams
Tomei cam gears
Rocker arm stoppers
6boost manifold
Tial 44mm wastegate
GTX3071r, .82 (later found to be 0.63)
Custom hard piping
Greedy copy plenum
Intercooler

780cc injectors
Braided oil and turbo lines
Z32 afm
Power Fc
S14 gearbox
Nismo single plate copper mix competition clutch
Kaaz 1.5 way diff
Tien monoflex coilovers
Whiteline sway bar front and gtr sway bar rear
Caster rods - adjustable

Some random upgraded bushes here and there.

Makes 285rwkw @ 24 psi on 98 pump poo

So far I have melted the turbo oil return after a couple of drives, thankfully it happened very close to home. I wanted to do it properly so I got a 45 degree fitting, and had motorsport connections make up a proflow fitting braided line, that gets the return well out of the way of the manifold and gate.

It came on a set of drifteks, with odd tyres (R888 semis on the back, shitters on the front). I didn't particularly like them, and I had a set of 17x8.5 +22 Gram Lights that I bought off Fatz sitting around. SAU NSW gets discounts on federal tyres, so I got a set of RS-Rs and got them mounted up. I haven't run them in yet, as it needs a little roll of the guards.

I changed the engine oil/filter, and Diff oil. Apparently the KAAZ diff needs pretty regular changes since its a mechanical clutch style diff.

So I have lots of little bits of tidying up to do basically, get it clean inside, outside, and underside.

So my list of things to do is:

Get PhillB to Roll the guards all round

Up the coast to Jez to put it on the Dyno and check the tune is good. ( Should be good, unigroup tuned it)

Repaint the front and rear bars, LHS Guard in Red

Repaint Roof in Black

Fit the 324mm 2 piece GTR rotors with spacers

A1RM pads all round

Upgraded Fan

Fit ARC oil cooler

Rear toe rods (one is bent)

Corner weight the car

Set the car up to handle - shock rates, adjustable camber arms etc.

Go and track the bloody thing!

So what are my goals for it? Well, firstly I want to improve my driving. Learn the technique of the track. While I can drive a track day, that doesn't make me a good driver. My skills and feeling need fine tuning. Secondly, dip below 1:10 at Wakefield. This car has done 1:11 before. I'm not sure if the RS-Rs are up to this, but we'll see. I really don't have to increase the power of this car any more - a bit under 300rwkw is plenty enough for a little RPS13, what needs improvement is the handling to make it a very fast car. Then go and rape a few GTRs on the track

[Daleo]

Great to see a dedicated build thread mate; the car deserves it.

I won't spoil anything, but I sorta know how this ends.

Looking forward to lots of updates!

[levinboy]

What a nugget hahaha

So much fun on track with this thing

[PN-Mad]

So, had the lil nugget on the Dyno up at DVS JEZ tuning today (5/3/2013) to check the tune out, and make sure everything was nice and safe. Also to see what powerz we make. So quick recap - S14 SR20det, GTX3071 6Boost mani, tial 44mm ext gate. 98 pump gas

dyno vid:

http://www.flickr.co...N07/8529131921/

[PN-Mad]

180sx update:

So I found this magical store called GKTech that sell all kinds of goodies cheap Its a pleasure us stagea owners don't really get, having access to plentiful supply of reasonably priced decent quality parts.

Anyway, ordered their caliper brackets, a upgraded engine fan, and some adjustable rear toe arms to replaced the one that is bent.

I went about replacing the very tired brakes with these new items. The pads that were in it were shot. They were once Bendix ultimates (0-550 degrees), but they had been turned into powder. I'll upload a pic later. So bendix ultimates as a track pad - NO!

I phoned up GSL rallysport and put an order in for A1RM (0-780 degrees)pads all round, and a bottle of TRW GP600 fluid. As usual, great service by these guys, and it was on my doorstep in less than 24hrs.

New billet caliper extenders bolted up, 2 piece rotors on, and pads in, it was time for the Mrs to be called up to do some bleeding. Bled the Clutch too for good measure. Took them for a quick drive to bed in, and the results are amazing. Great pedal feel, and good stopping without having to heave on the pedal to get results. Time will tell if they hold up on the circuit.

Still have to install the toe arms and rad fan, and get it aligned. I'd really like to find out some good suspension alignment specs from some of these track guys and see what I have to get to make it all work.

I may have a lead on an oil cooler, so I will chat about that later, and I'll chuck up some photos for effect tomorrow

The new 324mm GTR spec rotors- sit nicely behind the 17"s

[PN-Mad]

Well, bit of an update. I forgot the other day to show you what I picked up!

As part of my work we get a "health lifestyle" reimbursement. I shot an email off, and after receiving confirmation it was NEW HELMET TIME!!! Daleo recommended a trip out to MCA at Auburn. A very helpful lady out there steered me through the process, and I settled on the Bell RS-1. What I love about it is its really well ventilated for sweaty dream boats like me, and although it is full face, it has heaps of room round the mouth so that it doesn't feel as closed in. I also got some Alpinestars Gloves, which while they are pricey, are super comfortable and nice to be in.

Yesterday I took a trip down to Wollongong, to pick up this little kit. I'm not going to have it fitted in time for the track, but will give me something to do after if it doesn't break something else. So its a brand new GKTech adaptor place- I got warned off the sammich style because they break off the thread regularly on SR20s. Not only that, but the way they have to sit means the lines are really crimped up, so this unit is stacks betterer. Along with a oil filter re-locator, and a 19 row core.

The only thing is I also have this brand new ARC core. I think I will use the one in the kit I bought, because the ARC one is just so pretty. I'd hate to bash it up..... maybe it'll go on later.

I also had the adjustable rear toe arms put in, cause I don't have a rattle gun, I couldn't for the life of me undo the bolts! So I just gave it to a place that was going to do the alignment.

So the alignment specs are:

Front:

-2mm toe in

-2.2 degrees camber (max I could get front the strut tops)

6.5 degrees castor (as much as he said it could get)

Rear:

-2 degrees camber

-2 toe in

So we'll see how it goes at Wakefield!

[BakemonoRicer]

Great to see a build thread for this.

Once my car is fixed will need to battle you at wakefield =P

[gtr jet]

What's this thing like with wheel spin on the track?

[PN-Mad]

It's interesting. You need to use a lot of throttle control to get the power down. Awd cars have a great advantage in tracks with sharp low speed corners. I've got some in car vids that will show what it's like coming up.

[Trex]

This is great!

[34GeeTeeTee]

Good to see a McNugget thread finally!

[PN-Mad]

more updates

(9/4/2013)

So, I completed my first Wakefield day, and made it home! Couple of guys didn't - NC MX5 blew up a clutch, and more dramatically, a new Renault Megane RS 265 rolled at T3. That put a stop to proceedings for a while. Car was totalled. Driver walked away without a scratch. There was a lot of traffic throughout the day, couple of fast cars- WRX and a Emo. Fark you and your awd! So much grips.

I had a couple of offs- both were T2. First I dropped into second to go through, where I was using 3rd all day, powered out, kept my foot in it, and ran out of talent ending up spinning onto the infield. Second was at the end of a fast lap where I totally lost my braking marker into T2, and squirmed locked the rears, and made me spin off in that awesome fashion that you see cars go off there. Ended up in the gravel, and drove out the other side. Marked up the tyres pretty bad but meh. I was laughing so hard when I got back to the pits.

So I was on Federal RS-R tyres, so some of you know what they are like. Not a real semi, but quite sticky. Certainly made them work.

Best time : 1:10.56

After the first session I was lapping 1:14s, so I gained 4 secs throughout the day.

To back it up I did 1:11.3, and 1:11.5 laps as well.

Few things to sort out- Final session I managed to rip some wiring out of the drivers side guard and lose power to my indicators - lol! Secondly, the motor was pushing a lot of coolant around, so maybe its a problem with the neck, or maybe it has lifted the head. Dunno, will check it out.

[PN-Mad]

I'm hoping to have a bit better vid once someone who knows what they are doing messes round with the GoPro and data logging footage. So hang in there- something better will come along.

Turns out the indicators were just a fuse. Looks like the wire the wheel decided to pull out was something indicator related, and it shorted blowing the fuse. Still don't have hazard lights, so might check that out too.

I have had another thought about the head, and am going to try something else first before resorting to the head gasket. It has a intermittent leak from the neck of the china spec radiator. My thoughts are if the motor is getting hot, pushing coolant out to the overflow bottle, and then instead of drawing it back in, its drawing air from the leaking neck, that will cause the issues. So I'm going to rip the rad out, and get it welded, fill/bleed, and then chuck it on a dyno to load it up and see what happens. There is no way I can get it hot enough on the road and keep out of gaol at the same time- so a dyno is going to be it.

[PN-Mad]

So the new radiator neck is on, and its night a day difference for the cooling system. It pressurises nicely (not gas) and actually stays cooler- sif it had a overheating prob anyway, but now hot at idle it sits at 68-69 degrees. Hoping that was the issue and its not the gasket, but we'll find out.AND it draws back in!!!!!

With much thanks to Pezhead, I now have my GoPro vids and Data overlay. We couldn't match up every many things, as the sessions were interupted with the roll and that clutch, but we match two. Just so happens the two are the two "offs" I had, so you can all see how much of a hack driver I am! I'm not sure what happened in the second video, but in transferring it seems to have moved the Beacon of the start finish line to the 3 sector marker, but data is there anyway (there is a bit of difference swapping between programs for some reason). Looking back on the data, on my 1:11 laps I lost about 3 seconds through T2. So If I can get that right and put all the sectors together it's good for a 1.08 which is pleasing. Example.... Comparing best laps (overall time- sector 1 split, sect 2, sect 3)

Lap5(best) 01:10.453 00:22.064 00:25.399 00:22.990 (+00.490)

Lap3 01:11.589 (+00:00.278) 00:26.151 (+00.975) 00:24.545 00:20.893

Anyway- Enjoy.

(These are pretty shitty vids. Only putting it up for a lol. My driving is terrible; first ever trackday. Foward to 6:40 for ploughing lolz.)

[PN-Mad]

So Monday the public holiday SAU NSW is holding on of their Texikhana days. I've been volunteering at them for a while now, but now its time to compete!

I have been doing a few little things to the 180sexytimes to get it ready.

After the wakefield track day, I noticed that my oil was toast. The SR20det doesn't have any oil cooling. Not even one of those stock coolant to oil transfers. While the motor has a Greddy winged sump pan to hold some more oil, it was clear that it had gotten way hot and was toast; all within 400kms!

So I went about installing the oil cooler! It was a bit of a pain to get to the block attachment, having to remove the rad, fan, and alternator, but nothing overly difficult. I installed one of these GKTech things instead of the typical Greddy plate, because the lines are much easier to route. I got it brand new in that kit I bought a while ago. http://www.gktech.co...wich-plate.html

Put the core in the front drivers side guard.

I later added some stainless Mesh to the rear side to protect it from rocks slung from the wheel, and covered all the rubby parts of the braided line with plastic conduit stuff. The kit came with a remote oil filter mount, which I placed on the Strut tower.

Now, what good is it if you don't know what the temps are doing???

So I bought a oil temp gauge! Its a shadow something or other, a stepper gauge with sensors and looms for $99 from Just Jap. Pretty easy to install, even I managed it, being hopeless at electronics! It has all the effective stuff, like peak recall, adjustable dimming, and some other features I won't ever use. I was easy to wire in partially because I just ripped out the stereo, and the cables on the back of that were still labelled! Winnah!

I didn't want to mount it on the dash, don't know why, but anyway.

Next up for some treatment was the 4 point cage. It was always in bare metal, which made it look a little untidy and scruffy. So I hit it with some Matte Black.

Turned out really good IMO, It was a pain to mask - I'm not the smallest bloke, and crawling round trying to get paper behind things was a right PITA. I gave up, and took the seat out so I didn't need to spend 2 weeks going to physio.

Now for Texi, unfortunately because it is close to residential areas, we cannot GAAAAATTTTTTTTEEEEEEEEE so I needed the plumb back. Thankfully the old owner was clearing out the garage and found it. So I installed it with some new bolts.

by PNM35, on Flickr

Lastly, as I suspected the tune was off since cleaning up the AFM, and wanted to check that the coolant dramas had been fixed, I called up my trusty tuna - DVS Jez. He was flat out, but being the awesome bloke he is, we sorted out a morning to run it up and check it. Good thing we did. Turns out idle was 11.2AFR.... lol. It was fouling plugs!So Jez sorted out the low load stuff, and then we ran it up to temp. We tried and tried to get it hot, but it ended up heating the intercooler before we could make it bubble. That means headgasket is fine! YAY!

We ran it up with the plumb back- these are the results. Nothing changed - same boost / tune, and I used the same wheels and tyres. For some reason, it comes on slightly earlier, but then doesn't like producing as much power up top. Still enough power do do a skid at texi

After getting paid out by Jez and Jetwreck was to paint the plenum black. the chrome china finish was starting to corrode, so I dremmeled the corroded stuff off, gave it a bit of primer, and then the same matte black. I also did the A-pillars and tops of the doors. Had to make my own throttle body gasket, and took the opportunity to give everything a thorough de-greasing and clean. I also took the time to re-route the turbo oil and water lines away from hot stuff, and re-insulate some of the close lines. One piece really needs a 45 degree bend fitting, but it can wait.

Finally, I installed some GKTech locking subframe collars. The pineapple thingos in there looked a bit suspect, so I thought I might just get a set of these in there. Worked well - easy to install, and tightened up the rear end nicely. http://www.gktech.co...in-collars.html

Hopefully I'll be able to update Tuesday with some successful skid pics/stories. Should be fun times.

[PN-Mad]

Joely snapped this at Texi.

Many skiiiidddsss were had. This one was 3rd gear

Oh, yeah, and I spun a bearing at Texi... on the AC compressor
Good enough excuse to rip all the AC shit outta the car

Here is another Wakefield Track day- This time with new rear semis, and some rooted R888 fronts. Chronic understeer was had. Still can't steer...

Still did a 1:10

[PN-Mad]

Now quite a few things have been going on with the 180sex too. I had terrible understeer issues at wakefield the last time I went out, so I set about improving this, and adding in some extra bits, and improving reliability.

On the track, I had a turn where the power cut out, and I got swamped coming out. The motor cut out all together, and then re-started. When I got back to the pits, we had a look in the bay and saw that part of the Loom travelling down the passenger side of the car had got rather toasty. After the track day, I re-wrapped the loom, and then wrapped it up in protective heat tape. Should be fine now.

I bought a second hand Greddy Profec B Spec II boost controller. I wanted some adjust-ability to the power levels so I could learn to drive it better on the track. I wired/plumbed this in before we went on holidays and booked a Dyno date with Jez to get it setup. I hate electronics, but honestly it wasn't that hard, just crawling round under the bloody dash was a right PITA!

So, back from holidays, and off to Jez. Since it was running a boost Tee, and I never touched it, I had no idea what gate pressure was. Turns out its 10psi... hahahah. Anyway, a morning on the dyno saw the unit set up, and the mapping reconfigured to run in the low end of the map too. So now I have 3 power levels - 230kw @10psi, 270kw@16psi, and 289kw@18psi. So good result. We tried to push a little more boost, but have pretty much reached the limit of a track tune 98 oct fuel. If I want more, then e85 is the way forward. Doesn't bother me too much, as it has plenty of power.

I got home, and the rear end of the car was bugging me. There has been a knock somewhere in there for a while, and I just wanted to get everything checked over. So I dropped the rear subframe out the next day. Checking over the bushes, everything was fine, unis and shafts fine. So I popped the diff out and got Award Gearbox and Diff at Seven Hills to check it out. This gave me time to degrease and clean up the subframe. It was annoying me how dirty it was, so I pressure washed it clean! Turns out the Diff was in great condition, so they sealed it back up, and gave it back. Good insurance to know. Didn't get a picture of this unfortunately. Reinstalled the subframe, bled the brakes, and while the diff is still noisy (this is normal for the type of diff), whatever clonk was there before was gone !

Now, with the 4 point cage, the rear of the car was quite stiff, but the front was not as rigid as I'd hoped. This manifested itself in the front end being a bit hard to handle on the track. So some Stiff was in order! I couldn't fit the Tomei 3 way strut tower brace because it fouled the turbo, so I went looking for a CA18 unit - Found and bought a Cusco Steel unit on the eGhey. Fits up good, should do the job well.

Then I got recommended the Nismo power brace, which is basically the equilviant of a strut brace for the power part of the suspension. This ties the quite flexible front arms together and boxes them. Thought it would be a good addition, and who can resist some Nismo part whoring! So I'm installing that today

This came from RHDJapan... slower than expected, but I got a Nismo Sticker that's going on the M35

Last, I got some cheap Bridgestone RE55S semis to try out instead of the R888s on the front. They were quite hard, but still had some life left in them. Mounted them up on the track wheels, and put them on the rear of the 180 to ***ahem*** clean the up a little. After the surface layer was taken off I removed them, and treated them with Grip tyre softener. Pretty awesome stuff. Stinks to high heaven, but works well. They sucked up the mixture, and feel much better. They are now curing before the track day which is late October.

Also ordered a new Radiator hose, as mine had cracked internally and was slowly leaking, and some adjustable upper rear camber arms, hopefully to take some of the neg camber out of the rear for a bigger contact patch.

[PN-Mad]

14/12/2013

The track has been good to me lately, as I have got two track days, both at SMSP (Eastern Creek renamed).

The First day was the SAU NSW Trackday, which was held on the "South" circuit. Its a tight technical little course, that doesn't really let powerful rwd cars wind up too much. It is part of the extension of the circuit, and the previous weekend they held the WTAC Drift comp on it. That meant shitloads of rubber down on the track leading to lots of rubber pick up issues. Anyway, I had a great time with mates out on the circuit, harassing the GTRs and Evos. Fastest time on the day was a 1:07.6, which was the second fastest rwd.

Next up I did a Twilight trackday, with the Formula Company, on the GP circuit - the one most of you would be used for WTAC. There was a few of us from SAU there, 2 R33 GTRs, a R34 GT-T and a turbo'd BRZ who was a mates mate. I was pretty nervous about it tbh, because Turn one is a pretty daunting prospect. Anyway, on the track there was a big mix of cars, 911 gt3s, All kinds of V8 Commodores, Some guys from BYP were there with Turbo'd honda Civics, S2000s, BMW M5s, R35 GTR etc.

For the money, it was a fantastic arvo/night. it really is a low cost way to get on the main track, and the track itself is just so much different to playing around on the tight twisty stuff like Wakefield and the south circuit. I really enjoyed it, there were a few hairy moments, but I was very satisfied with my driving and how the car performed.

The third session I chucked a timer in the car, and pulled a 1:52.8, which I know doesn't sound like much with the WTAC cars, but for me it was pretty magic- defiantly moving. Top Speed on the GPS down the straight was 220km/h

So here is my fastest lap:

[PN-Mad]

And here is session two, with Dave going off the outside of T1, and holding it (to give you an idea, its at about 160km/h), me having issues coming out of T2 after overtaking Fatz down the straight into T1.

I have one more session to add, with a kamikaze BMW M5, and a Commodore driver that couldn't believe that he was getting overtaken by one of those little turbo cars

In the mean time, the Stagea has turned into a true family car, with the birth of our first Child! He was born on Remembrance day, 11th November, and is doing well. Loves trips in the Stagea already.

Here is the last session - featuring some pork chop in a BMW M5 that wouldn't know a racing line if it bit him on the asshole. Almost managed to drive it into the grass around T1. Also - the drivers brief was clear, if a car drives up the inside of you on the main straight (on the left) you roll off and let them pass. I guess he didn't like the fact that some late 80s Datsun was faster than his $250k dollar sports sedan. One thing, I'm impressed with the stability control in them!