Mistakes were made, my R34 Story

[Kinkstaah]

On 12/14/2021 at 8:47 PM, mlr said:

Excellent outcome

I'm sure the thing is a blast

I did this today



There were no problems, much great sound and really great handling. There's not a skyline on the planet I'd rather drive tbh.

I also did this with my IAT sensor:



You'd think this _really_ gets it out of the way of radiant heat, but the answer is "no, not really, kinda better but not really that much" which does make me think the pod itself is unsuprisingly getting a lot of hot air in there, though IAT's were really quite okay when beating the car to death for nigh on 8 hours (they were 32ish on a 22C day)

That said, I have contacted a fab company to see if they can extend the pipe into a 80mm/71mm section to go through the factory intercooler holes, and have the pods themselves sit in the guard on the passenger side.

_that_ should get them out of the engine bay heat!

... though they would be behind my oil cooler in that case...
But hey. This is what science is all about.

[Kinkstaah]

The above example actually showed air temps of about 35-40C at the top of Lake Mountain, when I got out of the car and it was about 10C by my uncalibrated... skin, with snapshots like this:

 

^--- This is well worth watching form the point I timestamped with regards to IAT and Naturally aspirated performance.

TLDR: 306 to 332kw by reducing IAT from 50C to 33C.

In short, I was pretty convinced the pod was sucking in hot air from the bay itself, as opposed to anything outside the car.

Can it take two months to make an airbox? Hell yes it can!

I did originally chase up many fabricators but the wait times are extreme. Then someone at work mentioned I technically have all the tools available to make the bits I had assembled into an airbox, as I was planning on changing this:

https://justjap.com/collections/cold-air-box-kits/products/sri-alloy-cold-airbox-kit-nissan-skyline-r33-r34-stagea-c34-rb25det

Into something that would fit my setup.

I had also purchased this kit -> https://www.heatshieldproducts.com/cold-intake-shield from the USA to aid in this as well, as I figured if I'm going all out, I'm going all out, and they also have a supporting video here with regards to how well this stuff works/doesn't work:
 

Below are my horrific home made install pictures.

"enjoy"

 

Note, this foam is utter shit, and did not hold up to anything.

t has since been replaced with door liner and coated in flashing tape (my god I love flashing tape) which is much MUCH more durable but there's no photos of this right now. I was very proud of relocating my charcoal canister, too.

All excited, I went to test it out!

$300 tow later, I cursed my alternator pulley which decided to not exactly be bolted on too well, 

Fun times.

With this pulley sorted out, and new belt on, and about 6 hours pulling bits of old belt out of my aircon compressor cover later... it is now spinning true.

However, my data from this drive was not really sufficient. I suspected that the holes in the bottom of the chassis weren't really doing great for pulling in cold air, given it's a low pressure area, one side is right next to the tyre/brakes which are quite hot, and the other side is directly behind my oil cooler.

Not really ideal.

I knew that this cooler used to be on the other side of the car, when the RB was still in it as the oil block is on that side in a RB, so I decided oh yes, it's time to move it on back and get ducting. This was much harder than I thought it was gonna be in my mind, but after some umm'ing and ahh'ing (pictured)

I realised it could be made to work, and set about buying some hose (for $120) and learning how to remove and refit AN fittings, and flipping my accusump around so it pointed the other way.

And voila, the oil cooler magically changed sides, right in time for me to forget how to make it actually clear the front bumper!

Pictured: Seconds before pain

Utterly confused, I consulted my own photos to see if I had any for how this thing used to be mounted before I did the swap, and found this photo:

 

...clearly showing some kind of 'spacer'

So I cut up an old TV Antenna that we had laying in the front yard to use as my new spacers. I also mangled the previously well made bracket to make it kind of all fit solid.



If it's stupid but it works.....

I then tightened the ever living shit out of the fittings, every single one of them put 8.5 liters of oil into the car (which was supposedly 'full, and I only lost 1.2 liters from taking the cooler off...) and started it up to find the tiniest weep from one of the fittings which was sorted by a bit more brute force.

It was time to get duct, now that the space was cleared:



This is 2x 100mm piece of ag pipe, courtesy of bunnings, just running up to the OG intercooler holes which feed the airbox from underneath. Yes I'm aware the holes are 82/72mm or so, and my actual intake tube is 100mm, but I figured I could overcome inefficiencies with brute force.

I also get a very nice intake sound now from inside (and outside lol) the car.

However, it clearly works - Tested yesterday with about 20C ambient temps, i.e not ontop of a mountain:



So the car is somewhat accidentally tuned rich now as the ECU now thinks the air is much colder (because it is), and oh man does the car feel much better at 20C than it does at 45C or 70C in traffic. 194kmh was recorded at the uh, private 1/4 mile strip I had access to... and 120MPH trap speed is really very high for what is a cam only LS1, take note @mlr :p, and there's probably more in it given the AFR is very fat indeed and should be at ~12.7 to 13.0 instead of 11.4.

So yeah. Massive DIY success!

Now to ... retune.

[The Bogan]

Excellent result

[soviet_merlin]

On 27/02/2022 at 1:04 PM, Kinkstaah said:

I also get a very nice intake sound now from inside (and outside lol) the car.

Somehow your link the recording of said nice intake sound doesn't work. Could you have a look?

Also, great work!

[Kinkstaah]

I know what you are referring to and no there is no intake. It sounds a little like a turbo in a weird way, if you can imagine a throttle 'echoing' as it opens (think honda VTEC style when you slam open the throttle). The gf was like "What is that weird whistling sound?" at idle, which is my intake coming in through the bumper vents.

It's not really that audible, the car as a whole sounds a lot more exhausty than before (but more growly, unsuprisingly similar to 'growler' intakes for LS1's) because the airbox is now sealed up effectively making it quieter.

In short it's more of a unified sound, instead of ENGINE BAY and EXHAUST sounds being two seperate things. It's nice.

[soviet_merlin]

Hah, it sounds good from your description! I wasn't questioning anything. My imagination is pretty bad, so I was just hoping you'd have a recording.

[No Crust Racing]

On 2/27/2022 at 2:51 PM, soviet_merlin said:

Hah, it sounds good from your description! I wasn't questioning anything. My imagination is pretty bad, so I was just hoping you'd have a recording.

No no, you asked the right question, Kinkstaah clearly made a mistake and didn't upload the video.... 

[Kinkstaah]

On 2/28/2022 at 7:20 AM, ActionDan said:

No no, you asked the right question, Kinkstaah clearly made a mistake and didn't upload the video.... 

You know, I do have a gopro with external mic and back in the day was going to do testing with regards to its location, right near the tailpipe just blows the mic out by maxxing it out when used. I was going to test it as a lapel mic to determine the 'in car sound'.

So maybe I'll get onto that... for... testing..

[soviet_merlin]

On 28/02/2022 at 9:17 AM, Kinkstaah said:

So maybe I'll get onto that... for... testing..

You are a legend, thank you!

[Kinkstaah]

On 2/28/2022 at 7:02 PM, soviet_merlin said:

You are a legend, thank you!

Turns out my lapel mic is not the best thing for capturing sound that is not directly in the mic.

It's this, but much louder and clearer.... so generally betterer-er

[Kinkstaah]

Due to the frustration of a mic, I have now gone to https://www.autoxandtrack.com/autocross-track-videos-sound-amazing-external-mic/ and literally purchased the exact microphone and wind sock used in that page for further testing.

Cheaper options may work, but yes I've spent $100+ to deliver better sound for your hearing pleasure (and mine)

[Kinkstaah]

On 3/8/2022 at 2:27 PM, Kinkstaah said:

Due to the frustration of a mic, I have now gone to https://www.autoxandtrack.com/autocross-track-videos-sound-amazing-external-mic/ and literally purchased the exact microphone and wind sock used in that page for further testing.

Cheaper options may work, but yes I've spent $100+ to deliver better sound for your hearing pleasure (and mine)

I purchased these, but due to a wedding which necessitated a road trip to Adelaide, a pet emergency (which cost $10k, but some things are worth this coin) and a house extension, I didn't get around to this until today.

I tested on the bumper, inside the car, and inside the boot. Other than hearing mysteriously diffy noises from inside the car and inside the boot, the ones on the bumper are here for review, in the location that old mate in the previous link said.

[Kinkstaah]

And for the diff lovers or haters out there, here is some of the diff noise (???) I found when the mic was either inside the car, or inside the boot.

The sound gets louder as it's different clips smashed together, two instances in each file. At all times I was pretty much cruising along in 5-6th gear at 80-100kmh where it is most noticeable. I would have _thought_ I would hear this with the mic outside the car on the rear bumper but apparently not. It disappears or strongly dissipates when clutched/off throttle in and appears to be speed dependent, i.e there's next to no noise at 60kmh or under.
 

   

Diff? Clutching in does stop the noise, but that is also disconnecting load from it. At higher RPM I can't be sure, as the engine drowns out the noise. It could also be T56 gear rollover. tbh I have nfi whatsoever.

FWIW, first file is from the back seats, second file is with the mic inside the boot.

Edit: 5 seconds of googling I found this:
 

In other words, I'm pretty confident my OEM Helical diff's bearings have the same problem as shown in the above video lol.

[No Crust Racing]

The exhaust sounds great, diff not so much =\ 

Cheap/easy fix? 

Does it even need to be messed with? 

 

[GTSBoy]

Just do the pinion bearing. Well, obviously also do the side bearings if it looks like they'd need it when it's apart. Get an expert to do it, as the (pinion) crush tube is a bit fiddly.

[Kinkstaah]

Yep that's the plan, though I personally don't _know_ if it needs to be dealt with. There's a very local very mobile diff guy right near me whom other people have had great reviews on, so it may get a look there at some point given every other drivetrain piece is literally completely new, or under 15,000kms for things like ... lifelong bushes.

Given it's a R34 Series 2 Helical diff though, I'm hesitant to buy parts yet as I'm sure it's all mysteriously different and slightly unusual compared to any other R200 - Either that or it's exactly the same.... decent forwarning will be made to said diff man.

[Kinkstaah]

Car still going entirely the same. One thing I noticed is mysterious diff sound disappears at 100kmh.

Reminds me of all the other times I suspected diff/bearings/something weird when my semi slicks reached end of life, for me to replace them and go OHH LOLZ IT WAS THE TYRES. This has happened three times.

Like all skyline users, I carry tools with me in the car.
I used to keep them behind the driver and passenger seat, but this became lame when I had people in the back. So I thought I should make a place in the boot for them.

I experimented by bolting bits of wood to my boot floor/pan/thing (which itself is a piece of wood I got made ages ago). Unfortunately these weren't high enough and one toolbox kept on sliding around.

I explained this issue to my mate who had a boxed section of aluminium and this is what happened after we moved the boxes to the left, for better weight distribution obviously.

 

I then found a use for all those stickers one gets after many years of car modding:



Figured gotta put them somewhere..

Also this happened:



So I guess that pro company that rebuilt these for me and treated them didn't quite hold up. We tried to dry it out with hairdryers for hours hoping that whatever hole was in there would let the vapor out. It didn't.

I am now searching for a dehydrator oven to put this thing into, then sealing it up...

[Kinkstaah]

So, that adventure with hairdryers didn't quite work. It also gave me COVID.

So I thought I got a brain cell and remembered to pull a bulb out this time, so the vapor could escape before using a heat gun to get the moisture out. Unfortunately in doing so I melted/marred the lens.

_f**k_

So I got a brain cell and took it out of the car, removing the bulbs and let it actually evaporate, and decided to try my best to sand down the headlight to remove the marring.

This was reasonably great, and the internet said I could spray some clear over this and get a nice UV resistant protective shine. Sweet. What could go wrong?

Above ^-- what can go wrong. This happens if you spray like a retard on a too cold day. For bonus points, the above photo is AFTER it has been sanded down. The cracks are actually embedded into the plastic because it would appear that Acrylic clear actually chemically reacts to the plastic in R34 headlights?

f**kin major sads.

I then decided to pull the headlight apart, aided by my heat gun, and figured well, it's time to REALLY get sanding.

I used these tools for multiple hours, multiple sheets, ranging from 40 grit (yes!!!!! on a power tool) to 2000 grit. Over the course of a few days it resulted in this....

Eventually this actually did work, once I exhausted my sanding I used a Cerakote headlight restoral kit, which came up pretty damn excellent, and by "Excellent" I mean it looked like my other un-molested headlight.

But then... the moisture retuuuurned.

This time I used science to get the moisture out, as it didn't come out over time by just leaving the headlight open, or as I had hoped - Driving the car with the bulbs removed. Given this opens into my airbox, I would think THE ENGINE would suck the moisture out. Nope.

Once dry, I used black sikaflex in the mouldings in an effort to make the damn thing seal, with a lot of tape to protect my ... somewhat usable headlights. It has not since misted/monsooned up. I think I may have sealed it right the first time, but not have actually got the moisture out, or sealed it all in a warm area then it would condense when cold. In any case, now it does not condense on its own while cold, and should be damn sealed with sickaflex everywhere, given I am now very intimate with how these things go together and come apart.

Onto the next issue with moisture. My OEM oil pressure sensor seemed to do impossible things. At hot idle it would show 2-3 bar, and then at the next stop it would show... 1 bar. It also didn't really correspond to higher RPM properly. Because oil pressure shouldn't really behave like that I was somewhat confused. I checked my other oil pressure gauge on the other end of the Accusump and this behaved properly when revving the car, and was holding between 45 and 60psi (phew).

Still this gauge made me sad. So I looked to how it was installed, my power steering leak causing issues in the past, I wondered if there was a leak that was messing with the reading of the sender.

The sender grounds to the block and is 1/8 BSPT. The hole in the oil adapter is a 1/8 NPT. There was an adaptor already in there, and after messing with it, it looks to be the same thread as my oil temp sensor which is drilled into the oil block at the top, which VDO state is 1/8 NPTF. These were definitely all different from one another as I fiddled with them by hand. It looked as though the adapter in there with tape was a 1/8 NPTF extension.

In any case, what I needed was a 1/8 NPT Male to 1/8 BSPT female extension. So I ordered that, and received an Aeroflow 1/8 BSPT Male to 1/8 NPT female. Which threaded together pretty easily until I did this to it.

Yes, it snapped off inside the oil block adapter. Yes, I had to remove it from the car and drill/unthread it out. I then realized I got sent the wrong product, and the company that I bought it from sent me the correct product. My car sat on a 45 degree angle in the driveway with the oil block removed so oil wouldn't drain out in the interim.

I received the correct part and now

1) I do not have any leaks
2) Oil pressure shows 45psi at idle, and increases with revs correctly in the OEM cluster (the 34 one responds very quickly) and I now get 60psi+ at 3-4k. Likely more past that but I didn't go redlining like a hoon.
3) It may be a placebo but less tapping from the engine while driving it around. In any case I have no leaks and very stout oil pressure.

I have also ordered my bodykit parts for my ugly tetris block. The ETA on that is 11 weeks. I fully expect to annihilate the lip multiple times, so I am going to raise the car 20mm to get back to those mythical sydneykid specs at 360/350mm as I realised my car actually sits 340/340.

Yes I bought a bodykit and will raise the car. I do strange things.

 

[GTSBoy]

Greg will become a verb. As in, to "Greg" something. Where Gregging involves taking the very very very long way to make something that was OK before slightly worse than it was.

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

lol... man you like to Greg the shit out of things.