6 Boost manifolds and parts supply

Recently (seems long ago now!) I decided that a normal fast car just wasn't good enough, that what I really needed in my life was a huge hole in my bank account and a ballistic missile for a car.

After what some might consider a bit of a shaky start, I actually managed to get down to business talking to Wayne Taylor over at Auto Extreme. So the inevitable horse trading began, with what I thought I wanted and what he thought I should have, it was all quite an enjoyable experience and Wayne is very knowledgeable about all things turbo charged and not only is a supplier for Australian Plazmaman products but 6 boost as well. In fact when put to the test, there wasn't anything he could not lay his hands on at what were very reasonable prices.

Although not a 'new' thing 6 Boost mainfolds are still making a name for them selves in the market place. Certainly ideal for a top mount set up on a R33 Skyline they are fabulous high quality parts, heavy thick mandrel bent 'lumps' of metal with heafty tig welds and a manly shot blast finish. These are certainly not for the feint hearted or short on budget as they are reassuringly expensive. However for the performance inclined, they are the business, reducing spool time, increasing responsiveness and best of all not cracking like the majority of manifolds available out there.

Whilst I was trying to be cheap I spoke to a guy in New Zealand selling 'steam pipe' manifolds. He said his were good, not as good as a 6 boost though! With that high quality selling technique I decided to go with the 6 Boost for me.
It also helped confirm my decision when at Drift Street Imports I saw that they were pretty much using these exclusively on their competition drift cars.

In a quite timely manner I see that there is a large three page spread in this months Banzai Magazine highlighting 6 Boost and its benefits (open pictures in new tab, else text a bit small!).

There are two sets of folk, them that has one of these and them that want one (but hate to admit it).

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Every single drive I take now is an absolute joy, the car has taken a few trips to 'adapt' to it's new found powers and it can be difficult to live with a car trying to constantly 'tear your face off' (thank you MB Automotive). However it has such a good map and is so docile in traffic that I just can't stay out of it!

Exhaust'ing times

Yes, I have been to the exhaust manufacturers and no I could not resist the pun about it being 'exhausting'.
Apologies...

So I have this foo, foo 400R kit I will want to bolt onto the car at some point, although also there is the problem of my current system having moved back by a good 25mm pressing up and onto the current rear bumper, causing a mild bit of melting and general annoyance.
I have been told that it is never a good idea to have the exhaust system touching the car at any point and can confirm that this is especially no good when hot metal comes into contact with thin plastic. This seems to be a common ailment with Skylines though where I have seen countless bolt on heat shields and melted back bumpers. There was always the problem with my car that undoing the silenced CAT there would be an amount of adjustment, causing the system to swing upwards thereby resting on the bumper. Naturally this wouldn't be something that the garage would readily check, so it became an ongoing tiresome problem.

Something had to be done and that either meant chopping a bit off the existing back box or obtaining a new back box. Oddly it seemed easier to get a new back box and at least this way I could specify what I wanted. So I spoke to Matt at Fast Fit who supply custom made Long Life exhausts.

Matt doing his stuff

Keeping the bore exactly as it was I did elect to change the tail pipe for the Titanium burnt tip look. 

Finished product

Was feeling quite pleased with the result until my other half said 'you brought a blue exhaust!?' Mind you, it's all a bit subjective as who really studies an exhaust pipe that much (apart from me).  

Lifetime Guaranteed! 

I do like the fact that it has a guarantee for life or at least that is what I was told! Matt was great though, it probably helps that he already has a Skyline so could have probably done this with his eyes shut.

Car stuff - Boring.. But there's cake!

Yet another Birthday has sneaked past me and I had a delicious cake baked for me

Yum!

As for my actual Birthday treat I elected to work on the car all day. In fact for a present my girl super spoiled me with a 400R carbon rear blade set up. Can't be bad can it? I must be doing something right, although am perplexed if I know what it is!

400R Style rear blades

Just the tonic I needed really!

I recently managed to acquire an original set of 400R bits made specifically for a GTST by that little known style house 'NISMO'. Yep genuine original parts that I'm pretty certain the copy shops would have loved to get their hands on to make some molds! To be honest I wasn't aware that Nissan even made these parts for a GTST and only produced them for fat bottomed GTR, but I can't argue with my own eyes! 

So I have got as far as test fitting the bumper (got bored with sanding).

excellent fit! 

Happily as an original Nissan part it needs no fettling and looks pretty promising. The exhaust is due adjustment this week. In fact I am having a new one made (but that is for laters!). 

I also took the car to a scratch specialist

Chips Away are a franchise operation operating in the UK. I obviously can't speak for all of them, but would like to say a big thank you to Steve and his team in the Reading Berkshire branch. Usually Chips Away use mobile specialists, although in Reading it is a drop off service. This results in much more clean conditions, which therefore obviously means a much better chance of a good job! 

I wonder if that tickles?

Both the scratches in the rear quarter panel were touched in. This isn't perfect 'but will do' for now and are only really visible if you tilt your head and screw up your eyes (in the right light conditions). As for the larger scratch in the front bumper.. It is gone! Chips Away doing one of their 100% repairs to the affected area.

As to the engine bay, it looks this good!

Taking the car for a drive has become a very entertaining experience now and I really can't fault Drift Street Imports Build or MB Motorsports map. In fact I feel like a stake holder now in the BDC where Drift Street and MB compete in the Pro events. 

This is something else! 

So what a muddle this post is although it sums up the eclectic mix of mini posts that I have been too busy/idol/indifferent to write lately! 

This weekend there is Japfest, a celebration of all motors Japanese, although most of my readers are overseas and it looks like a very wet one, I am looking forwards to saying Hi... 

Trials and tribulations

It was supposed to be the grand finale of car modification, it would have been as well had it not been for amateur errors which have already cost and will continue to cost me to put right.

So we can break this down into two areas.

Things people got wrong.

1. No gasket on the cam angle sensor
2. The world’s worst map

Things no one will admit to.

1. Damage to the front pulley cover paintwork
2. Damage to the car paint work
3. Damage to the rear bumper
4. Exhaust badly adjusted in wrong position
5. Rear number plate deep scratch (how the hell did they do this!)

The camera never lies 

Melted Rear Bumper from badly adjusted exhaust

Front wing scratch

Rear Quarter Scratch

Rear Quarter Scratch

Initially I am going to try and have the rear quarter body panel 'touched up', as there is no magic repair short of a respray that can be done. The front bumper (for which the scratch is legendary) I will have sprayed.

The rear bumper is obviously knackered. However before I can replace this I will need to go to a specialist exhaust center to have the overall length of the back box shortened by about 20/25mm and lowered by the same. It could be that there is adjustment for lowering on the de cat silencer, however this will not shorten the overall pipe length which was probably affected when the new down pipe was made up. 

Funnily enough I was already working on the replacement for the rear bumper and side skirts before this, so do have replacements. However I was planning on enjoying working on the body in my own time and not having to make it a top priority (let alone the expense of spray work).

I am not in the mood to comment on Abbey Motorsport, Drift Street Imports and Auto Extreme at the moment. Although am sure that each will get a mention as I cover various parts of the correction and look at the actual results of the engine work.

R33 Skyline after supply and fit of new parts!

Here she is in all her glory (well the revised engine bay). Note no mapping has been done yet, so not revving the hell out of her!

Injectors are a go go

The will they, won't they battle is at an end (or at least this chapter of it) and the injectors have now been fitted to the car!

This was done still by fitting larger adaptors to the 11 mm injectors, however this time the difference is that the adaptors were made from rubber rather than a machined part.
It is easy to be wise after the event but it turns out that tolerances are more like guide lines when it comes to this kind of thing. The fuel rail diameters are undersized for a tight fit, as were the adaptors for that matter (just not enough).
The last little fight the fuel rail put up was that the spacers were around 4mm too long and needed to be modified, but now the the injectors sit nice and tight as they should.

Fuel rail and fitted injectors! 

I am just happy that this block on progress has been lifted and we are back under way with the good stuff. I particularly like how the injectors match the rocker covers, its all in the detail for me!

The lower inlet is actually from a Spec one R33 polished and then painted black. It is one of the few original parts that I polished and finished that will remain on the car, so it is amusing that it is also one of the oldest parts in the engine bay! There are a couple of connecting holes along the top of it for the spec one fuel rail (I assume), which when I painted the part I carefully masked and cleaned up after. Funny thing is that these have never been connected to anything.. I will do my best to ignore this bit of unfinished business!

It's been a real learning process this one. But its getting there and the car should be back to a running condition by this Friday (at least that is the plan!). 

Plazmaman fuel rail

Today feels like the morning after the night before and the realisation that a growing dark cloud exists over the project that sometimes I'm beginning to wish I had never started. Less of this defeatist talk, it's all part of the game!

So to follow on from yesterdays post. I took a call from my supplier here in the UK for the Plazmaman parts. It turns out that the fuel rail of all things is the culprit for the injectors plus the adaptors not fitting and that the injector bore size has simply been made too small.

My first thought was that this not only means that my injector adaptors won't fit but even a specific 14mm injector won't fit either. However Plazmaman say it is normal for their 14mm injector rail to have holes of 13.4mm to get a "snug" fit with the O-ring.
So my supplier is off to a UK firm with 14mm ID injectors in stock to physically test them in the rail.

Will it or won't it fit! 

So there is a possible solution. It maybe that it will be a costly one but at this stage I don't care and will clutch at any straw offered!