It has been a busy year for me personally and whilst still writing the blog most of the posts have been confined to the draft folder, awaiting pictures or project completions.

So what have I been up to? 

Toucan display 

The biggest project this year was fitting a Toucan display to the car. It required a lot more effort than at first thought, I unexpectedly found that I needed to fit oil pressure and temperature sensors. Not only for the Toucan to show the details, but also for the Link ECU to monitor them correctly. I brought into the Link selling razzmatazz, with them blowing the trumpet for all the safety features incorporated and assumed that the Link already monitored these two quite important aspects, well yes it can, but no not without sensors. 

Oil Pressure and Temperature sensors

The advantage of fitting sensors did mean that I could relocate the oil filter, which to say the least being buried under everything else was difficult to get to! The unit now resides at the front of the car with the work being done at Bells Auto Services in Ropley (near Winchester) UK. 

Bells also helped set up the Toucan (My Link knowledge being little to non existent). A word of warning here though, the Toucan needs an unlocked map to function correctly. A lot of mappers will lock and password protect their maps these days. You need to check with your mapper before purchasing a Toucan or other display. 

Traction Coil overs, Differentials and Tyres

Traction in a 600hp rear wheel drive car can be just a bit of an issue.
Just how do you convert the power and torque into something a bit more useful than spinning wheels? It seemed everything I did just knocked the problem on a step. The car was running standard shocks and Tein springs poly bushed all round.
The Auto diff I had been running (which was great when at 350 hp) had to go, for drifting it would be great but for driving it was a liability. 

So the diff ratio was changed to a 4.1 and a Kaaz 1.5 way locking differential fitted. The shocks and springs were changed to MeisterR CRDs and the wheel widths were changed from 8.5 to 9.5 for good measure.

MeisterR

Kaaz 1.5 way fitted

Traction was greatly improved although the car was still on 'normal' road going tyres. So I then upgraded these as well to Yokohama Advan AD08r's.
Although buying the exact same size as what was already fitted to the car, the contact between the tyre and the road is a lot squarer (the road going tyres having a chamfered edge) and this meant that the new tyres were rubbing on the wheel arch lip at the rear (who knew!). So this also meant that I either had to have the arches rolled or buy new tyres. I opted for rolling the arches (arch enemy UK). Again I found myself working on something completely different when wrongly assuming it was a straight forward task! 

Yokohama AD08R

Wheel Arches rolled by 'Arch Enemy'

Am confident that wheel spin from this point on is more the fault of the driver (me) rather than anything mechanical that can be added to the car! (in it's current configuration). 

Associated yearly problems.

After a very hot summer in the UK I was finding it alarming to have an alarm, with the engine light flickering after a run and restarting the car.Turns out that this was heat soak in the bay and the Link ECU warning me about ambient temperatures! Solution.. turn up the setting! 

Had some issues with the gearbox thrust bearing that got progressively worse. Annoyingly the car still worked fine but now and again the box/clutch would make a terrific grinding noise. Being on the gearbox this would go all the way through the car and rattle my fillings. So had the box removed and the bearing replaced at Bells Auto Services. 

Small water leak. Had to replace a Nissan clip on a hose near the cold side inlet. Still have no idea where the hose actually goes or why it is there! On start up the car would leak a little fluid (only on start!) and leave a small puddle on the floor. I had been puzzling over this for ages and having to top up the expansion tank until I caught the culprit at it! I actually had to go to Bells and asked them to take a look. Pressure testing the system they found no leaks, however they changed the clip for me (I couldn't get the darn thing off!) and the problem was solved. Nothing made sense about this, am convinced Bells Autos thought I was making it up and just wanted the attention!

Thanks

It would be a disservice to Richard at Bells Auto Services not to take a moment to thank them not only for their patience with me this year but also the fantastic work and assistance offered to me. Find them on Facebook here https://www.facebook.com/bellsautoservices.co.uk/

What's next?

A Nismo short shifter is winging it's way to my door. 

I am currently looking at changing the front end of the old girl and giving her a face lift in favour of an East Bear Masterpiece front bumper. Communication can be laboured with both parties being fluent in other languages! However at the time of writing I believe they are preparing an invoice, I just hope it is not taking time because the figures are so large! 

Assembly is the reverse of installation - Left overs and a start up

Post after post of major works and dreamy excellence, just like the building of Lego one part slotting into the next, in almost perfect in design. 

Naturally this isn't so and there are a few items that caused some small difficulty along the way. 

MGT are not big fans of the Plazmaman inlet complaining about the restricted access once it is in place. Which could explain why the previous outfit Drift Street Imports left bolts off. One of the other things which didn't get put back on last time was the undertray. I somehow didn't think it would go back on this time either, as now have the RIPs extended sump, although Mark at MGT was messaging me the other day, saying he was cutting lumps out of it so it would fit!  

I think I will need a new turbo blanket, judging by the look of the other it appears a bit mishapen now and as I think they effectively 'bake' into place am not sure it is a reusable item. 

Below: This is the gearbox backplate. This needed some work as was 'clattering' against the new clutch. MGT thought that it seemed odd as some of the holes were elongated. However the car did start out as an Automatic and this would have been changed many moons ago.  

Below:  This is an image of the right hand boost pipe from throttle body. The clamp isn't really working there and it offers a potential for boost leaks. This pipe is being replaced. 

Below: Innovate LC-2 Wideband Sensor installed.  

If like me you ask, what exactly is a wideband? Broadly speaking there are two different types of O2 sensor available, wideband and narrowband. Both sensors have their place in tuning an engine, narrowband sensors are designed to be used in conjunction with a catalytic converter.

In brief a catalytic converter works on a saturate/starve principal where the fuel injection system saturates the converter then starves the converter, i.e. it runs rich of 14.7:1 (saturate) then lean of 14.7:1 (starve) and as such a narrowband O2 sensor only reads rich of 14.7:1 or lean of 14.7:1.

Narrowband O2 sensor are unable to determine exactly how rich or exactly how lean the engine is running making it useless for full power engine calibration (as under full power we need to run the engine much richer that 14.7:1 so we don’t melt pistons!).

A wideband O2 sensor on the other hand is designed to read a much broader spectrum of air to fuel ratios which makes it the ideal tool for engine calibration.

Below: One of the best ECU's available now. Sure there are others but this is pretty proven technology, mapped in the right hands can be highly effective and benefits from built in safety features.  

The Link G4 only comes as a circuit board and needs to utilize the original ecu case. As I had an Apexi Power FC which is still a desirable choice for upto 500 HP (so desirable) I had to dig out my old Automatic ECU (Mapped at Bells auto) which I originally had mapped to 320HP at the fly! 

Below: A picture of everything finally coming together. I could not resist this picture and sneaked it onto my Facebook page. Soon regretted it with the all the questions. People just do not understand 'art'. Although maybe I should understand the Facebook isn't private and it feels so ugly boasting. Am in this for me not the applause.  

Below: I would like to say this is the first fire up, it is actually the second (see rattling back plate). From here the next chapter starts. 

Thanks go to MGT Motorsport for the photos and constant technical explanations.