mloo's Dayz WGNC34 - Stella

[mloo]

Hi SAU, 

First time Stagea owner but second time Nissan owner. Over the years I have owned a few vehicles: NA6 Miata, XE10 IS200, RPS13 Type X and finally my JZX100 Chaser. 

More recently I have picked up my (new to me) 1999 WGNC34.

Decided to write up a build thread to try document my journey and any stuff that I come across which could potentially help any other future Stagea owners.

I had been searching for a Stagea even though I loved my Chaser; but it wasn't big enough to hold my mountain bike. Mind you I do not have any kids so I wasn't exactly buying the Stagea to fit in baby seats or prams - just always kind of had a weird fetish/fascination with sports wagons. A few of the Stagea guys on the Facebook group advised me to check out a one GV1 Series II located in Adelaide. Previously I never had the balls to go interstate just in case it was a stinky pile of kangaroo crap and I'd have to organise flights to come back.

Prior to flying out I did check out a few Stageas here in VIC but they were either in piss-poor condition or were charging through the roof for a still piss-poor condition. (To be noted I was looking for one that already had a R34 GTR conversion done as I figured if I was ever to sell the Chaser it would be for a R34 GTR (queue cliche little boy's wet dream) but apparently the dealer was a little dodgey and the other private owner couldn't find any paperwork and was a little hard to deal with (had zero confidence in flying up to QLD for a potential shit-box

Decided to call the Adelaide owner and upon speaking to him I gained I'd say a bit more confidence. This Stagea had been a single Aus owner, loads of receipts for both servicing and parts plus he had owned it for about 4-5 years. [There were two or three that I was considering which were interstate as well however did not seem to have the paperwork that this one did.]

It was what I was looking for; factory manual Dayz edition with dual sunroof. My Chaser nor my 180SX never had a sunroof and I missed having one from my old XE10. 

She had originally been imported by Sinergy/Synergy in Adelaide and lived its entire life there. Further to the receipts it did come with a quite a few juicy fruits and tuned to 259awkw and 673NM. 

The following mods came with when I brought her back to VIC.

HKS 2835 GT PRO S Turbo

Custom Turbo Dump Pipe

3" Full Exhaust

Blitz FMIC - Return flow

Bosch 750cc EV14 Injectors (E85 compatible)

ARP 2000 Head Studs

Nistune ECU

Turbo-Smart BOV

Turbo-Smart Boost Gauge

Walbro 460 LPH E85 compatible

Nismo Adjustable Fuel Pressure 

Spitfire coilpack

HKS Pod Filter

Z32 AFM

Billet Catch Can

Modifications - Wheels

RAYS GT-7 2 Piece Forged 17" x 8.5"

235/45 Tyres

Modifications - Suspension

Bilstein

 

Apparently all servicing, tuning and installation had been carried out by JMS in Adelaide. 

Pro's:

Juicy fruit mods

Power is already more than enough for me - I tend to baby my cars

Con's:

Leaky (wind and water) from rear passenger window

Rust underneath passenger wind mirror (known issue with Stageas)

Rust on tailgate (known issue with Stageas)

Uses way too much fuel for the way I drive - this may be due to a rich tune.

Pictures to follow!

 

 

 

 

[Duncan]

welcome to Stagea ownership, I'm sure you'll enjoy it. I've had mine for more than 10 years and 300,000klm and it's been excellent. And odd.

BTW, I can correct one thing on your list above:

 

Uses way too much fuel for the way I drive - this may be due to a rich tune.(known issue with Stageas)

[GTSBoy]

3 hours ago, Duncan said:

Uses way too much fuel for the way I drive - this may be due to a rich tune.(known issue with Stageas)

Thirsty RB25 + boost + massive land barge <> economical operation!!!!!!

[mloo]

 

3 hours ago, Duncan said:

welcome to Stagea ownership, I'm sure you'll enjoy it. I've had mine for more than 10 years and 300,000klm and it's been excellent. And odd.

BTW, I can correct one thing on your list above:

 

Uses way too much fuel for the way I drive - this may be due to a rich tune.(known issue with Stageas)

 

@Duncan

Thank you

Yeah loving it even though I can only drive her on weekends. Haha I agree with your amendment!

[mloo]

Finally gotten around to adding some pictures: 

Parking Stella in her new home: 

Night time (amateur) shoot: Shot on the Samsung Galaxy S10

[KiwiRS4T]

Very good specs. Just tidy up the rust (properly) and you will have a great car!

[niZmO_Man]

And those headlights.

[mloo]

On 25/08/2019 at 9:41 AM, KiwiRS4T said:

Very good specs. Just tidy up the rust (properly) and you will have a great car!

Thanks @KiwiRS4T  yeah next steps is to get it road worthy and registered in VIC. Rust treatment, finally aesthetic stuffs. 

I have booked her in for a once over by RacePace here in VIC; have heard only good things about them and need to find a mech/workshop since moving from the JZX gang. After the once-over is done need to find a place to do my road worthy certificate. 

 

[mloo]

Small update - nothing major. 

Finally was able to around to bringing her in for a once-over by the boys at RacePace. Had to wait a little while due to a trip to Sydney and rescheduling due to work. 

Never heard of my exhaust brand before - anyone familiar? 

Noteables from Gareth: 

- One of the cleanest Stags that he's come across - GOOD

- No movement in the rear driveshafts which is apparently common in the ones that pass through RacePace - GOOD

- No major leaks - GOOD

- Drove well - GOOD

- All the work carried out by JMS in Adelaide was done well with no obvious short cuts - GOOD

- BOV is venting to atmos which is causing RPM's to spike; Gareth said to plumb it back in - BAD

- Gearbox mount has deteriorated but apparently very common and should not cause any issues - BAD

Also advised that my return flow cooler will be my bottle-neck which is unfortunate as I do not wish to go FMIC by cutting into my battery tray. Currently its running 259awkw and 673Nm for torque - 300awkw would probably be my glass ceiling if/when I go down the e85 route. 

It's currently ready for e85 but that would be on a dual map. Ideally I want to go flex-fuel which would allow me to avoid getting stranded on road trips so we'll have to save some cash and see how that goes.

I have also picked up the following for my GTR conversion: 

1. OEM GTR front bar 

2. OEM GTR front lip

3. GTR Xenon headlights

Just playing the waiting game for parts to pop up but at this stage I have two routes to go down:

a) Use as much OEM parts as possible

b) Get custom fabricated fibreglass parts

Next steps for the car is to get it rego'd under my name and in VIC as its currently only got 7 days left of SA rego and I still need to get a rwc

[mloo]

Small update but big news. 

Car passed rwc and was booked in for a Vicroads appointment on the day of expiry for the Adelaide Rego. She's finally under my name and has Victorian rego!

Gotta count the small wins. 

Will need help to revert the car to normal parts (pre-rwc) as it feels like I'm running on less than 50% normal power. It'll boost to 18psi but it feels like 2psi l4l. . .