The Silvia

[irokin]

I really love the design, its just it feels like no one at moroso ever actually tried to fit one up to a car with the hardware they supply. I might replace the stud/nut combo at the rear of the sump with allen bolts. Should have a much smaller head and wont clash with the side of the sump.

[irokin]

Phew! Looks like the leak may not be what I first suspected. I need to wait for my brother to get home so I can get a jack under it (car has to be pushed onto ramps before I can get my 'low profile' jack under it) but it's looking like it's just a sensor bung that's leaking. Bit of teflon tape should sort that out.

 

 

BM44 15/16 master (and a booster, but I dunno if I'll use that yet) off an R32 GTSt arrived today so I can look forward to more normal brake balance and get some much needed pedal feel back. This goes in my "after tune" pile of parts. Essentially the entire brake system will get an overhaul before I go back to the track. New brake master, new pads all round, reconditioned calipers all round, slightly used rotors on the front and brand new ones (which arrived from RDA on Friday) on the rear. Stoked :D

[BUZ440]

They do look really trick those Moroso sumps, bling bling, haha

 

I have the trust type on mine, and it has the vanes to help cooling, the ally unit would look good to match my bumpers, hmmm :hmm:

[irokin]

Fixed the leaky sump on the weekend. It was just the sensor bung, teflon taped up all nicely now. Added a bead of RTV in a couple of spots around the flange that I was questioning a little just as insurance.

 

Went to start it with whatever charge was left in the battery (enough to turn it over happily) but the volts were dropping enough for the haltech to shut itself down. Charged the battery up overnight and fired up easily enough this afternoon. Drove it out of the garage just to check the clutch/gearbox/diff still work (lol), forgot how much like a light switch that clutch is :|

 

Car goes to the mechanics on Wednesday, the list has grown a bit for him. Thinking about relocating the radiator overflow to where the battery normally is with a combination oil catch can, hopefully around the 2L capacity (Cams spec, yay). Just need to make room for the remote oil filter/thermostat somewhere. Could run it under the guard maybe, where the washer bottle currently is, then again not so much fun if a filter/fitting comes loose. Also going to get an alloy sheet made up to cover where the glove box was in order to mount the ECU somewhere safe.

 

Annnd the last of my brake setup finally shipped from Japan. Good times :D

[irokin]

Dropped the sil off at the mechanics this afternoon. Hilux tows like a trooper even with a trashy rental trailer. Gotta drop back down on Friday to discuss the finer points of some of the work to be done. Also diff should hopefully be here by then and I can drop that off too. Ended up buying a Kaaz 1.5 way because apparently Nismo don't make LSDs for CA18DET diffs anymore. I'm a little bit skeptical about that but the Kaaz should do fine.

 

Also mechanics talking about possibly rewiring the whole engine loom with highly shielded cable to ensure I don't have any future issues with aftermarket ECUs. Given the Haltech E8 is out of production now I'm not entirely sure I want it wired up for that. It looks like the new models have the same connectors and similar pinouts though. The problem then is reports that haltech's support is less than impressive of late. And I think Halwin is HORRID software. If it comes to rewiring I may just go back to a Wolf. I'm still reasonably confident that low voltage causing the ECU to cycle on and off while cranking is whats corrupted the map.

 

Reading about EEPROMs corrupting I found this (not an ECU but I think the principle will apply):

 

http://www.atmel.com/dyn/resources/prod_documents/doc2467.pdf

During periods of low VCC, the EEPROM data can be corrupted because the supply voltage is too low for the CPU and the EEPROM to operate properly. These issues are the same as for board level systems using EEPROM, and the same design solutions should be applied.

 

An EEPROM data corruption can be caused by two situations when the voltage is too low. First, a regular write sequence to the EEPROM requires a minimum voltage to operate correctly. Secondly, the CPU itself can execute instructions incorrectly, if the supply voltage is too low.

 

Scenario: Low battery charge, car starts cranking, voltage drops below 10v every time a cylinder goes to TDC (E8 shutoff voltage I'm told), repeat for a little bit and you have multiple opportunities for corruption.

 

That's my theory anyway. I'd appreciate feedback from people more knowledgeable than me :)

[TOMsGPTurbo]

holy crap that's maddness Ben!! shot gun a ride on a track day!

I was reading your mods and thinking they were future mods or dream mods, that's one hell of a car

[irokin]

Its not much to look at, I've just tried to concentrate on going fast, keeping it alive and staying away from gimmicky parts. More than happy to take you for a ride sometime next year, I usually can only do one per track day though.

[TOMsGPTurbo]

I totally agree, performance is where it's at, I don't know what you're talking about, it doesn't look that bad

[kickn5k]

Its not much to look at, I've just tried to concentrate on going fast, keeping it alive and staying away from gimmicky parts. More than happy to take you for a ride sometime next year, I usually can only do one per track day though.

 

Yeah that's the stuff!! "how does making it look nicer make it go better". That's my reply when people ask when I'm painting or doing the interior on my 11.

 

The s13 's make a nice cheap(ish) track car. Plenty of good priced aftermarket parts helps too.

Hhmm I might have to do a rides thread for the 1600.

 

Stu.

[irokin]

I'd like to tidy it up eventually, but it's always going to be a track hack so I'm never going to be after show car quality. There's one big dent in the passenger side just behind the door that bothers me the most. Other than that and the front bar it's pretty good. I've got an idea in my head for a new front bar with an integral undertray with camlocks so it can be removed quickly. Probably use something like the vertex front bar as the base.

 

Something along the lines of this:

 

 

 

I got to work stripping down, cleaning and painting my rear calipers today

 

Bare rear R33 GTS-t Sumitomo Caliper

 

Caliper less piston seals and snap rings, standard pistons. 1459 grams. Please note that the cake was delicious.

 

Same caliper with aluminium pistons. 1250 grams.

 

 

I painted them flat black with VHT fireproof so I needed to cure it. Having been shooed from the kitchen for weighing calipers I wasn't allowed back in to use the oven for curing so I made my own.

 

Behold, my brake caliper curing oven!

 

 

Peak temperature was about 160degC on the calipers themselves. Not as hot as recommended by VHT but after a bit over 2 hours of baking it seems to have cured the paint very well. Calipers look great, just have to put the new seals and pistons in and they're ready to go.

 

 

Next mission, front caliper rebuild.

[carbonboy]

Didn't you know it's easier to steal the scales from the kitchen rather than do your work there? :P

 

Nice work with the curing oven, basic but effective. If the paints not fully cured, your first trackday session should solve that! :yes:

 

Make it fast, then make it look nice. :y: Erm...maybe I should do a bit of that? :blush:

[irokin]

Yep, lesson learnt :P

 

The paints gone pretty hard feels almost ceramic. I'm happy with how it turned out on one caliper. The first one I did I laid the paint on too thick and its gone a bit funny in a couple of places. I might hit it with some fine sand paper and see if I can tidy it up.

 

 

Haha, at least you're not afraid to do your own panel work. Mine will all be at a panel beaters and I'll have to pay through the nose. My biggest fear then would be smashing the car up having spent all this cash to fix it. I wish you were closer, I'd love to learn some CF or even half decent fiberglass fab skills. Maybe I should find somewhere I can do a course.

[ke70dave]

don't be scared of fibreglass. what you want to fibreglass? its not that hard to get remotely decent results.

 

just bloody itchy.

[irokin]

Just the undertray on the front. If I could do it in CF I'd look at making up a plug to do the whole front bar/splitter as one piece.

 

 

Finished rebuilding one of the fronts this afternoon. Decided not to paint them as the original paint is still in good condition. They desperately needed a rebuild. Pistons were rather stiff in the bore. I had to remove each piston individually, grease it up and put it back in the caliper before I could get all of the pistons far enough out to pull out. There's also what looks like molten bits Ferodo DS2500 stuck to the calipers at the bottom. Might go some way to explaining why they struggled to pull up a 1600kg GTR before brushing the tyre wall at Lakeside (also explains why these calipers are no longer attached to that car).

 

Snuck back into the kitchen while no one was looking for some weights.

 

Stock R32 GTR caliper.

 

And with alloy pistons.

 

Trying to find some weights on the GTR Brembos to see how they compare.

 

 

I'm quite enjoying rebuilding calipers, I'm a little bit sad I've only got one left to go. Need to go grab some more brake cleaner though.

[kickn5k]

Wow your really getting involved in all that "unsprung weight versus stopping power" head f&@k aren't you.

Got into a massive discussion with a mates housemate who works for a V8 supertaxi team the other week about it. Both sides have their pros and cons and in a perfect world(money no object) I'd use the biggest stoppers I could and just get a set of magnesium wheels.

What brakes were you thinking of using? Are the gtr calipers bolt up?

 

Stu.