Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

Only a few small updates, needed to block off the internal wastegate flap, managed to get this Cobb Racing part that looks pretty good! 

 

Having troubles getting the exhaust manifold back on. Both the original and my new one won't fit. I'm thinking the manifold studs may be warped, so have ordered some new ones and hopefully that fixes it!! It fits on the ends but not the centre studs for some reason.

20210116_201652.jpg

20210116_150925.jpg

Edited by Tobz

Was the original manifold tight to get off? You'll probably find your manifolds are warped slightly. I had 4 manis in my spare parts pile. 2 of them wouldn't fit when i tried them. 

If replacing the studs doesn't fix the problem, you could try enlarging the bolt holes that require it as a quick fix and hope it bolts down good and doesn't leak.

When i had asked an engineer at work about machining the face of the mani, he didn't recommend it and suggested heating it up and straightening it was the best solution, obviously requires special equipment. I ended up just binning it and using a good spare.

Another thing you can try is removing the studs that are fouling, put the mani on and see if you can thread the studs in from the outside. If that doesn't work, at least you'll see how far out the holes are and how much to relieve.

  • Like 1

Yer manifold was impossible to remove, used many breaker bars, however I have a replacement manifold from hypergear to go on. The new manifold may also be warped though as it's a stock manifold with an external gate welded on. I'll change the studs and see where that leaves me and then contact hypergear if there is an issue

New studs arrived and now the manifold fits perfect. Looks like the studs warped pretty badly, but the manifold didn't... Which works for me!

Just need my new turbo studs and a silicone joiner to arrive and then it should be all back together. 

Also does anyone know what the effect of swapping to a proper cooler from a return flow, and going from an iwg to ewg would have on the tune? I'm getting the car retuned either way, but just interested to know if I can take it for a bit of drive to test everything is bolted up right (and get it on boost to see if all the couplers and such are all holding fine).

20210124_195309.jpg

Edited by Tobz

Cooler? Nothing - Unless your IAT actually changes as a result of it. I've seen people spend big on an intercooler for an 0kw difference.

IWG to EWG will make a considerable difference as this actually changes boost. Presumably though if you're already MAP based going from say 16PSI IWG to 16 PSI EWG won't change much, you're more likely to notice that your 16PSI is actually holding rock solid to 7500RPM whereas it may not if 16PSI was your target on an IWG (i.e as hard as you could max it out).

You may notice something by holding boost better. Most people go EWG when they cant hit their desired target with IWG.

  • Like 1

Yeh just keep an eye on your boost levels, both mods have the potential to change how much boost and when it comes on, which can mean you run lean in certain areas of the map.

Intercooler doesn't necessarily have to change your IAT, a return flow is always going to be a fairly large restriction to flow. If you then change that and make it flow a lot better, you lower the potential for boost drop, and more importantly you allow the boost to come on earlier. Depending on how your car was tuned, that could be an issue if you have moved the boost graph to the left. If you have a good boost controller you should still have the peak boost level under control, but where it occurs on the map is potentially different. Couple that with the effects of changing to a EWG as well, which Kinkstaah nailed, and you have potentially given yourself quite a bit of extra range in the map where you are at peak boost. 

 

So just be aware. It's definitely one where you want to get your tune checked, because who wants to lunch a motor (especially in this day and age!) because their mods worked. I wouldn't be too scared to take it for a test drive and at least get it ramping up to full boost in 2nd gear, but I wouldn't be holding it on peak boost just for the sake of seeing if your couplers are holding. 

  • Like 1
  • 2 weeks later...

Finally got the car back together and took itmfor a drive. 

Changes to the intercooler and external wastegate have changed everything.

Before I was told the turbo was being restricted either by the intercooler or exhaust.

Having swapped out the return flow and also going to an external gate has released the restriction

It needs to be retuned as the power is defo coming on early, but also the ebc cannot control boost. Did a slow pull in second and the boost crept past 20psi which should be the limit.  It's a Mac valve and a 14psi spring on the gate. Looks like it may need some setup done on it

AFRs all looked good.

Trying to organise a time to get retuned now. But overall so far I'm very happy

Also added a 5inch body venom cat, installed some Sparco r100 seats and got the harness installed! 

 

20210207_135939.jpg

20210130_200545.jpg

20210207_140042.jpg

20210207_140109.jpg

Edited by Tobz

Thank you for posting a pic of Sparco R100's - I was thinking of putting those in.


What rails did you use? There's an ebay mob selling a kit, but I never got that far. I wanted the black leather ones 😛

How do they work/fit/comfort wise? Looks like enough clearance.

12 hours ago, Kinkstaah said:

What rails did you use?

I used the crank motorsport seat subframes and just universal rails :)

 

clearance was more than fine. Seats are a little hard but more than fine, nice bolstering. Overall I really like them

Edited by Tobz
  • Like 1
  • 3 weeks later...
1 hour ago, Manuel Kasko said:

Oh man what a journey! I just read from start to finish and I'm stoked with what you've done with the car since I sold it. 

Keep the updates coming Tobz! 

It was a super solid base to work from! Love the little beast!

  • 3 weeks later...
5 hours ago, JarrettL said:

How does the X-Trail pedal fit up compared to the 350Z? I've read that the Z just bolts right up, but the pad position falls slightly too close to the brake pedal unless modified.

 

Can confirm on the 350Z pedal. It's super easy though, just throw it in the vice and bend it a little bit. Its a steel arm, so not going to break and you can manipulate it around to your liking. It only needs to move like an inch to the right, and fitment otherwise is perfect.

  • 2 months later...

Went to the dyno day today. Can now compare all dyno runs I know of.

First is from the previous owner when it was first tuned in Feb 2017 from DVS (287kw)

Second is from August 2019 (271kw) when I did a dyno day in Canberra at Autotech Services

Final one is from the SAU dyno day today (305kw) at JEM

I don't believe there was any changes to car between 2017 to 2019 other than an owner change :)

Changes from 2019 to now are basically Haltech, external gate and a proper intercooler. It is also now running a bit richer now (afr went from! low to mid 12's from 2019 to low to mid 11's now). This is due to the car doing a lot of track work now.

It isn't making as much power as I wanted, but I actually think this is fine, it comes on hard but stays super flat to redline. Very happy

 

 

 

16194869_10154375981131483_3091880825224997122_n.jpg.4189582d5c262027d0104079a280f6dd.jpg

Scan22052021170425_001.jpg

Scan22052021170546_001.jpg

Edited by Tobz
  • Like 5
  • 3 months later...

So car was running fine and then I went on a holiday before all of Australia locked down. The car sat all alone doing nothing for about 2 months.

Got home and took it for a spin and it started leaning out. Looks like the injectors may have clogged up while it was sitting as it was still on E85 and didn't have any fuel stabiliser in it before I went away. I assume this is a thing?

Anyway got the injectors out today and will be sending them to get cleaned and flow tested.

Not sure why but have also decided to swap to a Plazmaman front facing plenum. I know it doesn't really do anything, but I wanted to clean up the engine bay. Also the way my car was converted to DBW it meant I couldn't run a strut brace anymore, and I know it doesn't do a lot but I do miss it.

Put the order in today and looks like it's a 7 week wait! But I think it will clean up a lot and just make it easier if I need to do any troubleshooting trackside.

Super annoying that there was an issue with the car, but at least it happened when I can't use the car anyway!

It shouldn't really happen, we've got a couple of track cars on E85 that don't get used much and often don't get started for 18 months - 2 years, but they always start up and run ok. You obviously wouldn't do any full load stuff, the fuel won't be any good anymore, but that's more about its ability to prevent detonation than it is about clogging anything. 

 

That said, it's possible, and always worth doing a full check of the fuel system as you're doing.

  • Like 1

Consider your fuel filter. I had considerable issues with the R34 Ryco style fuel filter if I changed fuels, or let E85 sit around. It would clog to the point where making 300+kw would start to run lean.

Something to check if your injectors come back OK. Well worth checking the injectors first though/as well, as you don't want to be running rich on 4 cylinders, and lean on 2 etc!

  • Like 1

I pulled the filter and it seemed pretty clean, I'm going to give it a good clean later on (have an inline micron filter with the stainless steel mesh).

However I don't believe it is the filter as my FPR is on the return line and I get my fuel pressure from that and it didn't drop pressure... Was holding pressure really well.... So I'm hoping it's the injectors, as that's a super simple fix. They are currently off being cleaned and flow tested

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

    • Hey Dave, welcome aboard! Good to see another soon-to-be Stagea owner here. The wagons are awesome — plenty of space, still got that Skyline DNA, and loads of potential if you’re into mods. Definitely post up pics when you get it, everyone here loves seeing new builds. What model/year are you looking at?
    • See if you can thermal epoxy a heatsink or two onto it?
    • The other problem was one of those "oh shit we are going to die moments". Basically the high spec Q50s have a full electric steering rack, and the povo ones had a regular hydraulic rack with an electric pump.  So couple of laps into session 5 as I came into turn 2 (big run off now, happily), the dash turned into a christmas tree and the steering became super heavy and I went well off. I assumed it was a tyre failure so limped to the pits, but everything was OK. But....the master warning light was still on so I checked the DTCs and saw – C13E6 “Heat Protection”. Yes, that bloody steering rack computer sitting where the oil cooler should be has its own sensors and error logic, and decided I was using the steering wheel too much. I really appreciated the helpful information in the manual (my bold) POSSIBLE CAUSE • Continuing the overloading steering (Sports driving in the circuit etc,) “DATA MONITOR” >> “C/M TEMPERATURE”. The rise of steering force motor internal temperature caused the protection function to operate. This is not a system malfunction. INSPECTION END So, basically the electric motor in the steering rack got to 150c, and it decided to shut down without warning for my safety. Didn't feel safe. Short term I'll see if I can duct some air to that motor (the engine bay is sealed pretty tight). Long term, depending on how often this happens, I'll look into swapping the povo spec electric/hydraulic rack in. While the rack should be fine the power supply to the pump will be a pain and might be best to deal with it when I add a PDM.
    • And finally, 2 problems I really need to sort.  Firstly as Matt said the auto trans is not happy as it gets hot - I couldn't log the temps but the gauge showed 90o. On the first day I took it out back in Feb, because the coolant was getting hot I never got to any auto trans issues; but on this day by late session 3 and then really clearly in 4 and 5 as it got hotter it just would not shift up. You can hear the issue really clearly at 12:55 and 16:20 on the vid. So the good news is, literally this week Ecutek finally released tuning for the jatco 7 speed. I'll have a chat to Racebox and see what they can do electrically to keep it cooler and to get the gears, if anything. That will likely take some R&D and can only really happen on track as it never gets even warm with road use. I've also picked up some eye wateringly expensive Redline D6 ATF to try, it had the highest viscosity I could find at 100o so we will see if that helps (just waiting for some oil pan gaskets so I can change it properly). If neither of those work I need to remove the coolant/trans interwarmer and the radiator cooler and go to an external cooler....somewhere.....(goodbye washer reservoir?), and if that fails give up on this mad idea and wait for Nissan to release the manual 400R
    • So, what else.... Power. I don't know what it is making because I haven't done a post tune dyno run yet; I will when I get a chance. It was 240rwkw dead stock. Conclusion from the day....it does not need a single kw more until I sort some other stuff. It comes on so hard that I could hear the twin N1 turbos on the R32 crying, and I just can't use what it has around a tight track with the current setup. Brakes. They are perfect. Hit them hard all day and they never felt like having an issue; you can see in the video we were making ground on much lighter cars on better tyres under brakes. They are standard (red sport) calipers, standard size discs in DBA5000 2 piece, Winmax pads and Motul RBF600 fluid, all from Matty at Racebrakes Sydney. Keeping in mind the car is more powerful than my R32 and weighs 1780, he clearly knows his shit. Suspension. This is one of the first areas I need to change. It has electronically controlled dampers from factory, but everything is just way too soft for track work even on the hardest setting (it is nice when hustling on country roads though). In particular it rolls into oversteer mid corner and pitches too much under hard braking so it becomes unstable eg in the turn 1 kink I need to brake early, turn through the kink then brake again so I don't pirouette like an AE86. I need to get some decent shocks with matched springs and sway bars ASAP, even if it is just a v1 setup until I work out a proper race/rally setup later. Tyres. I am running Yoko A052 in 235/45/18 all round, because that was what I could get in approximately the right height on wheels I had in the shed (Rays/Nismo 18x8 off the old Leaf actually!). As track tyres they are pretty poor; I note GTSBoy recently posted a porker comparo video including them where they were about the same as AD09.....that is nothing like a top line track tyre. I'll start getting that sorted but realistically I should get proper sized wheels first (likely 9.5 +38 front and 11 +55 at the rear, so a custom order, and I can't rotate them like the R32), then work out what the best tyre option is. BTW on that, Targa Tas had gone to road tyres instead of semi slicks now so that is a whole other world of choices to sort. Diff. This is the other thing that urgently needs to be addressed. It left massive 1s out of the fish hook all day, even when I was trying not too (you can also hear it reving on the video, and see the RPM rising too fast compared to speed in the data). It has an open diff that Infiniti optimistically called a B-LSD for "Brake Limited Slip Diff". It does good straight line standing start 11s but it is woeful on the track. Nismo seem to make a 2 way for it.
×
×
  • Create New...