Intorducing 'Gaijin'

[gaijin]

Well, about time to tease those of you running carbs. (I will regret saying this)

- Turbo, exhaust,gate,water intercooler,radiator into position.
Pipework has more work to clear tight spots here and there.

Modified TB location on intake manifold, to clear inner gaurd. TB running 80 degree to usual install method.

Heat exchanger out front of radiator, pumped by bosch intercooler water pump (controlled by ECU)

My deadline for road going widow maker is late Jan, for a family wedding, and of course in Feb, for a (NZ) Z club Taupo track day, to gently roll around the track whilst smoking a cigar (probably not legal now).

Front end slowly coming together.
Arizona z car struts, camber tops, 70mm longer bottoms arms, lengthened and adjustable tension rods, 5 stud ally hubs, ally disc hat, heavy duty rotors (more cooling vanes, thicker meat) of around 12.4" ish rotors, 4 pot wilwoods, ally mount.
Roll bar and steering linkage needs sorting.

Power steering now in and done, MR2 rack. This is a toyo-ta type.

Found some ZG flares that will fit, extra wide front and rear. Thanks for the pics.

Secret fuel system hidden in back, bosch 700hp efi pump, lift pump, filters, tank increased in size (modified original to increase fuel vol, and house a surge tank), and it all looks completly stock. Beauty.

 

[gaijin]

Anyways,
checking out the exisiting front brake options, it started with the stock er34 (same as s14/15 r32/33/34 sumitomo 4 piston)

But Herberts had a neat looking disc and hat available cheap, which would mount to 4 stud s30 stock hub, using stock sumitomo's. Solid mounted hat to rotor.

But Id wanted a bigger disc, with an ally 5 stud hub, which was not gonna work as a combo, without breaking out the mill again
The disc was light for sure though. Club member may be keen?

But the Arizona Z car stuff, was the ticket. Bolts together, US/NZ rate at $0.87US, it would be very hard to beat it for the $ outlay. Probably too easy now.
Hat-rotor still solid mount, not floating. I Overspeced the rotor to HD, increasing the rotor thickness and number of internal cooling vanes. Increase heat soak potential.


- cage fully welded up now, and completed.

- car a roller, can push between the workshop and the bank manager.
- Neil Fraser has viewed the car, and more than happy with the efforts, with regard to engineering certification.


- Front end has steering arms attached, thanks to the donor skyline for compatibility (with steering arms)

- Front anitroll bar mocked up, will be sent away for manufacturing, two settings, forged ends.

- Camber plates re-made, to REDUCE the -ve camber from the lower arm lengthening (70mm+ each side)

- Camber plates pushed out to the max, without chopping up to much of the outer strut tower. Requires a beating to stop springs rubbin'

- Lower arms and steering arms are close to parallel, and are around horizontal at ride height. ie. -ve camber change on bump only.
Can make up some of these 'bump steer' spacers, but these would change the bump/camber change characteristics (for the better), and make the bump/steer worse. Steering arm - knuckle would require lowering to improve. Something to look at later, once susprog3D is up and running. Or more like I can be bothered, lazy git.

Car is being removed from Herberts Fabrication within a fortnight, for the next phase of works - or a break maybe.

Have asked Roland Miester (Pi Research/Development Pectel Manager) for sponsorship for the SQ6M Pi ECU for the car. A very cool and beefy ECU, dual motorolla processors, data logging, internal memory, fly by wire, traction control, and run dual lambda sensors for quick learning....go the UK!
Perhaps more plugs will see some results? Go Roly! Perhaps an opportunity for Pi to expand into the aftermarket ECU industry? Their usual fare is F1, V8 super's, WRC etc.

Super BAMF ZG flares are manufactured and on their way from the States (+1" wider at the front, 1.5" wider rear, than the standard ZGs seen out there)

- Better hurry up if Im going to make the Feb NZ Taupo track day eh?

The sustanability complex left over.
Avoid $1 reserve auctions for this stuff, what a waste of time packing it up for nothing...

 

[gaijin]

Look forward to the next phase of works, whenever they start.

The mock build up, before the panel beaters.

Overall, I have been happy with Herberts with the work they have done. Quick and good quality.

 

[gaijin]

Finally getting closer to obtaining some JDM wide spec zg flares.
This guy is doing moulds, producing in f.glass and carbon fibre.
Rears are 1.5" wider, front 1" wider.

This should easily take care of wrapping up my wheels, and possibly leave some room for a spacer, increasing the track more.
Surely going more square on the wheelbase/track ratio wont help doing 720's on the motorway?
Go-kart handling for sure.

On a random point, ZGs were designed for an arcing movement of a Mcpherson strut, hence the angular shape.
The rears flares may need the extra width to take into account a relatively more up/down suspension movement (or certainley less camber change on bump)
We will see soon.

AsJustin makes these flares, there have been holds ups to say the least. A small timer doing it from home to start with, but they are getting out to customers, slowly but surely. Good on you Justin, famous for fat flares.

 

[gaijin]

The beast is out in the light, ready for the next round.

Mock build before the panelworks.

All wheels/tires stick outta gaurds.
Nice n low

Happy with that.

Tires are the same size as Porsche GT3 cup cars, great 2nd hand deals.
They are hard as rock, but for a 6 pack each, who cares.
More grip than any semi slick new.

 

[gaijin]

Its been a little slow, and I have no excuses. (Crays on Barrier...)
Front spoiler from Japan, fibreglass, and of poor quality and finish. Leave this one to the panelbeater.

Standard grill in, and attempting to figure out what the best setup and positions for the heat exchanger for the water/air cooler, and the radiator, thermo fans, powersteer cooling, and even the aircon heat exchanger. Not much then!

Originally had a HUGE filthy air-air, 600mm x 400mm x 125mm thick peice of drag racing ridiculous-ness, but wanted throttle response and quick spool up, and stealth looks as priorities.

Considering the intercooler sits behind the radiator (where the stock one lives), with around 40mm gap to allow some airflow through, the will be a redution in efficiency of the radiator. The heat exchanger for the cooler should sit in front of the radiator (similar to air-air). To compensate, Ill get some fans on the front of the radiator.

The problems with cooling will eventuate when;
- Im stuck in auckland traffic, no airflow, fans going hard. But, there will be little or no heat generated by the engine (above that of a standard Rb25). Probably will be fine.
- Going around a racetrack with lots of WOT, heat generated galore (circa proportional to power output), fans going, etc. This is where the problem will arise, if it does.

Anyway, enough pissing around, lets bolt the things in.

Clutch lines in, working. Nismo light flywheel and supercopper mix non sprung clutch plate, with HD pressure plate ready. Unsprung? Maybe too ugly for street. May even slip under the final grunt value. We will see.

Front arms xrayd OK, they are painted and to go back in.

Rear subframe out for once over before final install.

Spreadsheeting the brake setup to ensure the system will work well. Measure everything, chuck into spread, check outputs. Make changes. I will detail this further once completed.


SARD fuel rail supplied for er34, has different diameter injector holes than standard, so will require drilling out.

Headlight buckets, right one used in 10/10 nick from Japan, left one NEW from japan. They cost around $80 each. Import Monster. Exchange rate a little sore now, not as effective as it was. Cool parts available if you can decipher the 'engrish' as the Monster calls it.

 

[gaijin]

.Been 'servicing' all the parts, so should go well once started.
Rear discs new, standard items. Drum handbrake cleaned up, shoes look fine.

Now everything is covered in the engineers/fabricators enemy, the tar underseal, and 'never dry' gloss black paint.
It does look kinda stock. Once a little dirt is thrown in.

Underneath shot with everything removed, hard to tell whats been played with, or as some perhaps older types would say, BUTCHERING

Lots of new grade 8 bolts, high tensile. Using te old stuff is silly, most threads are stripped, damaged, rusted, even with plating them, hydrogen embrittlement could be an issue with stressed fasteners.

 

[gaijin]

As parts slowly go back on the car, it feels great.
Any welding has been x-rayd, on rear camber arms, front arms etc.
After a quick blast, they hit the powder coaters in black for a durable finish.

The front heat exchanger gets a home finally. Rubber mounted in 2 -axis.
Large air filter gets a vertical mount, with a 4" pipe to link this week.

Front sway bar mounts get a toughen up, with a plate welded to two sides of the frame rail. After restoring/wrecking my previous Papua New Guinea S30 (sold new), I found out the deficiencies in the S30 chassis design.

More works happen this weekend. Sweet!

As my sparky has mentioned, 'you'll blow the engine' is believable. Look forward to taking a trip to vegas to talk with Rob to sort the RB30 and turbine package to make this old bird fly. Spend the money wisely grass hopper.......for now perhaps...

 

[gaijin]

After using a few spreadsheets to work out what master cylinder size I could run, I quickly discovered the amount of 'fudging' these calculators require.

It also showed me that attempting to use a single master for both front and rear circuits (and a proportioning valve for the rear) would be a poor solution.

Calling around, most people just said install and test. Z club members have given me some guidance. I have purchased a 3/4 for the front, and a 5/8 for the rear, and a wilwood balance bar for under the pedal, and raised the peadl ratio to 6:1.
This will be an un-assisted brake setup using two master cylinders and a balance bar to adjust the setup depending on raod or track use.

Attached is the spreadsheet calcs. I have worked backwards in some areas to acheive what looks like a solution, using some numbers which are very hard to accuratly determine.
I.e. co-efficient of friction for the pads-discs, and tires (which will change greatly from slicks to street tires etc).
The rest is straightforward-ish.

Wilwood superlight 4 pot fronts, er34 2 pot rears (same as almost all R series turbo rears, Z32's and 200sx's).
Discs as measured (taken as 2/3rd's the way up the pad contact face, not total outside radius)
COG height guessed
Wheelbase as standard
Max deceleration = race best effort

Otherwise, if it doesnt work, Ill swap masters (at $45 each, thats OK)
Balance bar = $90

Car into brake shop for new hard brake lines as we speak.

 

[gaijin]

To continue from the brake spreadsheet guesstimation;

- brake pedal ratio changed to 6:1, see the old small hole, and the new large cylinder welded in higher up, which will house the brake balance bar.

- twin masters (these are wilwoods, not the trusty trojans as first purchased). New plate brazed to the front of the exisitng firewall plate and an additional plate welded to the inside of the firewall for more rigidity. If this is insufficient, a brace can be added to the front of the masters later.

- wilwood superlight 4 pot front callipers. 18" wheels make the discs look small. From the spreadsheet (mostly car mass as dominant factor), they are overkill. The track will tell.

Have braided front hoses and rears ready.
Hard piping of brake lines as we speak, 'P' clipped to chassis.

Transmission tunnel Braided lines are for the fuel back and forth

 

[gaijin]

Right, more detail shots.

- Petrol tank. Standard unit modified. Pic has details. Welds have sealed tank. Will add POR15 type tank sealant internally. Carter lift pump pushes fuel through low pressure filter into surge tank. Not shown.
Then EFI bosch pump draws from surge tank, through high pressure filter to fuel rail up the braided lines. When the tank is in the car, it looks completely standard. Access through the existing spare tire wheel bay, with a flat cover over the top. No spare tire then.
So the surge tank is not connected to the main tank, and the extra vol is. Just testing...

- PS rack/cross member mods, in case your interested. Pic shows the mods, new mount for the bottom seat of the rack, a braced top mount, and a cut out for one of the PS lines. Rack is a Toyota MR2 job, so not exactly a limo turner. Similar car weights, so shouldnt be too over assisted, can change the PS pump revs through new pulley, will adjust this a little way.

- Rear tire/brakes completed. Rebuilt, new discs, calliper seals, hoses, project mu drift pads and plenty of BBQ black to hide the crud.
not exciting unless its making smoke...eh

 

[gaijin]

Some progress of late.

stock er34 injectors replaced with Bosch 550cc x 6, which will cover me for some way over 400hp's at the wheels, turbo/engine strength permitting.

Gaijin back from the brake hose crew, and it looks neat. Wilwood master cylinders have replaced the Trojans, only due to difficulty in finding the resevoirs for them. Groan.

Just for luxury sake, a rear proportioning valve position is included in the rear pipe line inside the cabin. Ignore the interior sound deadening, efforts from the past require restarting.

The engine bay completion continues...

 

[gaijin]

Totally unexciting long range shot of a now race ready weight passenger, and a car shell.
all these detailed pics, arent we building a car?

Showed my Misses the project recently, she had some concerns over the 'attitude' of the vehicle.
Suggested she show concern over the attitiude of the mad driving, little sympathy showing owner.

 

[gaijin]

rb26 N1 'style' water pump. Actually, its rubbish stock version.hmmmm

Should have gone and bought a Davies electric pump instead. Focus....

 

[gaijin]

Ricky, thanks for the shots, your S30 work looks exemplary as usual. The consumate proffesional!

Right then,

This is a boring post.

Firstly, with the plans for a daily driver, think about things I like in a car.
- Clean windscreen!

The squirters are from unknown jap donor car. 4 sprays.

Looking at gauge options, they are suprisingly few.
Autometer, usual fare, but are rather typical?
Autogauge, but unsure of longevity of them
Looked at plenty of American units, but they are oldschool, check out the Cyberdynes, WTF!
Would love some DEFI, but yikes, rather not sell the real daily driver to get 'em.

Need 2 5/8" for centre console, and 5" for dash.

Dash installed and cut outs made for the roll cage around the pillars.

Will look around some more before purchasing.

Hmmm whats going on here.
Decided to ditch a mechanical driven water pump and go electric. ECU will run this. Will gain hp's, more so when its not running at full effort.
Davies Craig 110lt/min arriving soon.
So will have 2 water pumps for sale, one being underdriven (new 'N1 type' one), using a larger pulley. Takers?

 

[gaijin]

Getting back onto the engine bay completion,

plenty of the fiddly bits to go.

Firstly, its biffed back in, the cam covers have been given a rub'n'polish and the coil cover some nasty never dry gloss black. Perfect then.

The new wastegate position (Tial 38mm - hopefully its big enough), which was changed from an underneath pick up on the ex manifold to a top position for flow reasons.
Had heard that boost creep would be gauranteed from some dyno tuners, on the same engine and similar turbo.
Moving it up means gas flow doesnt need to do a 180 to get to the gate, just an easy? 90 deg change. Bottom hole TIG'd up.

90 deg elbow welded to the comp housing outlet, clearance ok to ex man, but will require some heat sheilding to help intercooler do its job.

Comp housing clearance to bonnet?
Dunno yet, have tried and seemed ok, but once gaskets etc are all on it may start a rubbin'.

Oil catch can arrived after waiting a few MONTHS for it to turn up from kazakstan...hmmmm
Quality looks good though, solid, 2l capacity (right for track racing then according to Motorsport
NZ). This will also get hot, being on the , er, hot side. More heat reflection required then.
Squirter bottle pinched from a mates car, and chucked into the corner.

Well hello, the flares have just turned up, surely not from Kazakstan as well?
Better get over and do some trial fitments....finally!

 

[gaijin]

More engine bay stuff;

Got a GREX/Greddy oil filter re-locator from JP off Import Monster (which does cars, motorbikes, 2nd hand, vintage stuff etc, just recently, got a Z432 for sale with 85km, going for $135kAu - yeehaa, and a nice,clean ZG a snip at circa $80k au. The market sure lives on strong in JP.

NISMO clucth also a jp 2nd hand item, about half the weight of stock flyw.

Ill kill the water pump and blank this part off, pull the thermo out and run elec pump & controller.
Biff on a cam gear for the exh.?

Hello, f.glass 1" wider front zg flare, sitting rough.

This gaurds ok, but the other will be the bog sculpture. Rickys f.glass gaurds sure look tidy, especially that the arch is 75mm forward, great for big castor angles....

and for the rear this what we got

Better get back in and finish this flare install , get mr suspension in to measure up.

 

[gaijin]

To gauge the clearance between ground/lowest parts, exhaust back up.
its a 3" SS mandrel tack TIGed into posi for now. Centre muffler lowest part but will sit about 30mm higher than as unsupported here mind

Rear Sus arms are shooting for the stars, thats enough bump


Cut away the lovely quarter I welded in a few years back, and some cables. oops

wheel in at max squish

(smaller temporary) cap screw the gaurds into place, and hey presto,

Full bump including er, bump stop

and at about ride height

and same

Can move this around a bit with coilover heights, but looks about right. Comments please

oh yeah, 125mm total vert wheel travel

 

[gaijin]

Getting exhausted,

another mention of the existing wastgate point, welded up.

Wastegate dump 38mm enters into main exhaust after 1 + metre. Gas flow less turbulant there = less back pressure = more power
The castor arm is a stock unit modified, using energy suspension bushes. I have some tougher alternatives for track. Better get them in then.

Keep it tight boss

could wrap it in heat wrap or get some coating on.

 

[gaijin]

Thought best to get some panels on to work out some colours for the car.

Got the right front gaurd roughly on, prob a little low. Steel gaurd will be sold, and a fibreglass one in place.

Chucked the spoiler on,

Rolled it back for a rough ride height = ok.

New bumper arriving from santa- thanks Mulderghini!

We sprayed up the gaurds in primer to get less contrast with Photoshopping when doing colour schemes. Or probably just my wobbly eyes.

cant ignore the left side.

Ive picked up a full nolathane bush kit for the rear including more adjustment opportunities, on all sus arms and subframe to chassis mounts. Sway bar adjustments also provided for.

Ill get these in once im out of bed.