Modifying a Skyline - An Honest Perspective

[inmaniac]

So, I got bored tonight and decided to attack inside the car.

I set about installing my china-spec headunit. It does the job for $60.

I also installed new LED lights behind the dash, however, they aren't wide-angle enough and one doesn't seem to be working. Whelp, lucky for me the dash is easy to get to  

Also attached an image of my Rockford Fosgate speakers that I installed compared to a stock one I pulled out. Huge difference. Speakers I got are Punch P1650 6.5in Coax

Lots of aesthetic stuff to do to the car but that all comes after a successful dyno xD 

[Girorostar]

Hi Josh. Nice thread. Hope it goes well on the dyno. 

Do you have a picture of the speakers installed? I'm looking for new speakers too. I bought pioneers for the front but they won't fit in the back. Did you have to modify for them to fit? 

[Duncan]

7 hours ago, inmaniac said:

....I also installed new LED lights behind the dash, however, they aren't wide-angle enough and one doesn't seem to be working. Whelp, lucky for me the dash is easy to get to  ....

unlike regular globes, LEDs generally have a polarity. So remove the one that isn't working, turn 180o and replace, it will probably do the trick

[inmaniac]

11 hours ago, Girorostar said:

Hi Josh. Nice thread. Hope it goes well on the dyno. 

Do you have a picture of the speakers installed? I'm looking for new speakers too. I bought pioneers for the front but they won't fit in the back. Did you have to modify for them to fit? 

Hi mate.

Yeah I had to do a bit. Because the new speakers had a larger basket and I wasn't using a spacer, the speakers are a little out of position of the originals. This meant new holes to screw the speaker into. Additionally, this also meant that I had to cut out the material from the inside of the parcel shelf as the speakers were no longer aligned with the holes. I'm sure there are cleaner methods for install but this is what worked for me.

I also couldn't put the child seat restraint brackets back in, which is a big no-no, but I'm not transporting kids anytime soon and I'll inform the new owner if I ever sell it.

[Girorostar]

Thanks mate! 

[33easy]

Great writeup Josh! Inspiring to see someone else starting out with not much knowledge and overcoming all the "speed bumps" as you say

You might hear from me again at some point as I'm going a similar route to get to ~250kW! With a nistune, 550cc sidefeeds and a highflow turbo. I even went for a blue dash haha.

Best of luck!!

[inmaniac]

3 hours ago, 33easy said:

Great writeup Josh! Inspiring to see someone else starting out with not much knowledge and overcoming all the "speed bumps" as you say

You might hear from me again at some point as I'm going a similar route to get to ~250kW! With a nistune, 550cc sidefeeds and a highflow turbo. I even went for a blue dash haha.

Best of luck!!

Good luck with it mate! As is the theme of my thread, don't cheap out on what you need

[inmaniac]

IT FINALLY HAPPENED! A SUCCESSFUL DYNO!

Big shout out to Johnny (Dosepipe) for the tune and extra time after hours helping me with the car.

Although not a perfect run (the wastegate wouldn't hold boost and would taper down to a mere 14psi) we made 230rwkw. Slightly below my goal of 250rwkw, but considering it was done on such low boost without very aggressive timing at all, I'm very happy. To be honest at this stage I'm just stoked to have a car that actually runs nice!

I'm going to enjoy the car for a couple months now and just tinker with aesthetics and touch ups. Big ticket will be new wheels, but then it's just headlight polishing, new trims, etc etc. After a couple of months I'll attack the actuator and at the same time likely switch to an E85 flex tune as it wouldn't be much work to do it and get some easy power.

I also fixed my LED issue (thanks Duncan, it was indeed just polarity) and dummy installed my wideband (no sensor bunged in yet) while I had the dash apart.

Extremely happy with where I'm at  I'll keep the updates coming as I progress.

[inmaniac]

Update time.

The aforementioned dyno tune went awesome, however, you may notice that it was only @ 14psi. This is because, as you may tell, the boost dropped off on the high end. This was because the wastegate couldn't hold the pressure.

Thus, a new one was needed! It took a little...adjustment...as you can see from the picture, it didn't exactly line up. However I eventually had it in and now I've got the car happily boosting at 18psi all the way to redline. Still only running 98RON but the timing is anything but aggressive. Feels like a different car compared to 14psi. Very happy! My ass dyno says I should be in the 240-250rwkw realm now

Edit: Forgot to mention, I took the car for a 900km round trip to Tamworth NSW from Sydney, ran beautifully, and I got exactly 10L/100km - not bloody bad considering I have a heavy foot at times! Also of note is that this is without an O2 connected! A credit to @Dose Pipe Sutututu (Johnny's) tuning.

 

Edited August 6, 2017 by inmaniac

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

WOOHOO!!

Can't wait till we put it back on the rollers on flex

 

[admS15]

Flex will wake it up big time. How's it idleing now on 98 with the 740's?

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

I got it to about 13.5:1, any leaner and it stumbles a little. Will play more with it once he feeds his wideband's simulated narrowband channel back into the ECU.

His stock O2 was cactus, voltages were between 0.02 to 0.05 and the short term and long term fuel trims were off their chops - so I just disabled the feedback for now.

Someone may comment why the tune is dead shit rich, it's because the tune isn't finished yet - rest assure once everything is kicking it will be a tiny bit leaner (just a tiny bit).

[inmaniac]

21 minutes ago, Dose Pipe Sutututu said:

WOOHOO!!

Can't wait till we put it back on the rollers on flex

 

Yeah mate, can't wait! I think it'll be a few months which sucks but oh well, good things to those who wait. Rad upgrade and going anal on maintenance items will keep me busy for a while  As well as the wideband and other misc interior bits and bobs.

19 minutes ago, admS15 said:

Flex will wake it up big time. How's it idleing now on 98 with the 740's?

The cold idle is pretty lumpy, but this is due to the not quite finished tune as Johnny just pointed out. He also hasn't had as much time with it as he probably wants. After she's warmed up it idles really nicely. Sounds a weeeeee bit lumpy as I would say, but I kinda like it haha. Idles around 800rpm with no issues.

[admS15]

18 minutes ago, inmaniac said:

The cold idle is pretty lumpy, but this is due to the not quite finished tune as Johnny just pointed out. He also hasn't had as much time with it as he probably wants. After she's warmed up it idles really nicely. Sounds a weeeeee bit lumpy as I would say, but I kinda like it haha. Idles around 800rpm with no issues.

Mine's the other way, smooth on cold start and then sort of lumpy stumbley when at full temp. I do run mine quite lean for 740's,around 15.2:1 in a bid to get some sort of economy out of it. On e85 it idles like a purring kitten, silky smooth. 

[inmaniac]

Got bored tonight, so attacked one of those minor things that have bugged me.

Got my Glassylite headlight restore kit in the mail today so I put it to use. I really wish I did it sooner, the results are awesome. $35 and an hour of work later and they're beaut!

 

 

[niZmO_Man]

Plus your light output improved, along with less glare.

[inmaniac]

Time for another update.

I set about installing a 42mm ASI ebay special radiator in preparation for my first track day with the car coming up Sep 18th. It was definitely a tight squeeze whilst keeping the stock shroud, no wonder I was advised not to go over 42mm. It was a little annoying just because of the squeeze, and I had to take the clutch fan off, then lower in back into position along with the shroud simultaneously. Much easier if you know how to juggle.

I also installed my Dorifto Numba Wun catch can and finally made my pod filter legal (ish?) with a very hacked together air box. Don't judge lol. All in all I think the engine bay looks stock-ish which is what I want. Uploaded an old pic for comparison.

[Birds]

Whilst a cop may not pull you up for the airbox on their own interpretation that it's not an exposed pod, technically the EPA only allow one intake modification (assuming you've already used it on an intercooler), so yes you can still be done for the pod!

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

12 minutes ago, Birds said:

Whilst a cop may not pull you up for the airbox on their own interpretation that it's not an exposed pod, technically the EPA only allow one intake modification (assuming you've already used it on an intercooler), so yes you can still be done for the pod!

that rule applies to VIC only.

In NSW any mod is a defect.

[inmaniac]

11 minutes ago, Dose Pipe Sutututu said:

that rule applies to VIC only.

In NSW any mod is a defect.

This is also my understanding.

It's always a gamble modifying cars, the point of the airbox really is just to show that I've at least made an effort to conform to the rules, not be outlandish or brazenly break the law. Would take a real asshole of a cop to ping me for it, but yeah as I said, that's the gamble right.