|
|
Show Posts
This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.
Messages - Ares Helix
1
« on: May 08, 2020, 03:58:28 pm »
After!
2
« on: May 08, 2020, 03:58:04 pm »
During:
3
« on: May 08, 2020, 03:57:44 pm »
(let's try again)
Before:
4
« on: May 05, 2020, 01:05:04 pm »
So 2020 huh?
Wow.
This year has been brutal.
Iran v US.
China v bats.
Global lockdowns and mayhem.
Information given about little green people with fancy vehicles.
I've heard tell that later in the year we can expect the discovery of a lost
continent teeming with plesiosaurs.
Regardless 2020 isn't taking any prisoners and all bets are off as to what's up next.
For me this year has seen the passing of my best lil buddy, shortly before lockdown.
Skittles got very very sick and we ended up having to say goodbye which was devastating
to our little family. Our two young lads miss their big sister and spend good amounts of
the day looking for her, truth be told, so do we.
Things with the R have not really progressed much though there's one small update for
you.
A while ago i began looking at options for a cooling plate for the front of the engine bay,
as a way to improve airflow through the intercooler, radiator and into the front of the block.
Cooling panels come in a fair few forms but most being aluminium or carbon fibre.
They're a simple beast to get your head around:
By blocking off the gap at the front of the engine bay, above and spanning across the IC
and rad, the panel creates a physical barrier to channel air more effectively through them,
improving cooling efficiency when moving.
The down side is that if sitting in traffic temps may rise a little as the heat radiating upwards
is trapped by the panel, which adds to the heat soak most forced induction vehicles are
naturally prone to.
A few months back i made contact with the team at J-Tune who actually had some old stock
of seibon CF cooling panels, including an option for the silly purple car.
It didn't take me long to pop down and grab it, along with an HKS circle Earth system to
strengthen the old lad's electrical systems.
I added a couple of new billet radiator mounts from Franklin engineering, for good measure
(with new bushes too!) so as not to detract from the CF beauty, the old ones were quite flogged!
I'll get some images up later - i took before and after pics for once! but for now, sit tight,
keep your bubble secure and look out for each other as best you can.
Hang in there guys, stay safe!
5
« on: November 01, 2019, 11:12:45 am »
In light of the above, have a pic post washy.
(though you'll likely need to log in to see it)
6
« on: November 01, 2019, 11:10:26 am »
I have an apology to make, one i've already made on social media recently but one i feel
should be echoed in as many places as i have access to.
If you have suffered or are suffering from toothache, I am truly sorry.
If i know you, i may have not fully understood the situation previous to recent events.
Hopefully i didn't come across as dismissive of your plight.
If i don't know you personally, i am still just as sorry and hope you can find relief and a
long term solution soon.
In case the above was a bit obscure, i've recently been struggling with near debilitating
pain from a tooth with a hole in it, thanks to a neighboring wisdom tooth growing into it.
It's now been extracted but i'm struggling to eat harder foods and still living off pain killers.
YAY!
With more dental work looming all plans for this year's upgrades and modifications are
very much on hold, which is enough to give me a whole other type of headache.
"Life is what happens when you're making other plans" and all that.
The real kicker (and believe me, i'm kicking my own arse hard about this) is that if i had
been more on to keeping my chompers clean and on top of dental appointments, i could
have potentially saved my toof and a lot of physical and financial pain.
The same can be said about the ridiculous paint on the silly purple car in the garage.
I've mentioned the Midnight Purple 3 paint previously. It gets quite a few comments (some
of them positive!) yet people don't realize that the paint itself can not be touched up or
blended. A scratch or stone chip means a whole panel will need to be repainted and, at
175,000km, my Skyline has many paint chips and scratches.
MANY.
Most were present before it was mine but a good number have popped up in the last six
years. I do wish the previous owner had taken care of things the way i should have taken
care of my teeth but i get it, life quite often takes us in different directions than we had
planned.
The money no object option would be to get the whole thing resprayed and ceramic coated,
with skirts, rear pods and a new set of non-UV-cracked headlight lenses to finish things off.
The money i have option is to try to keep things from getting worse.
As such, i've driven the car three times this year (This makes me a bit sad to be honest)
and have recently given the thing a full wash with a polymer coat kindly given to me by one
of my work's suppliers.
The stuff, Rejex from CorrosionX went on like wax and buffed up well, so so far, so good but
this really is a stop gap until i find money to get things sorted properly.
Or until the thing rusts.
Whichever happens first!
7
« on: July 19, 2019, 01:27:42 pm »
When I was a young Warthog,
(When HE was a young WartHOOOOOG)
I used to make things out of Lego. Lots of things.
Things I didn't even understand. Mainly out of spaceship Lego cos i'm a big
Sci-Fi geek. Giant space scorpion things, planetary bases, moon buggies
- i made a bunch of random crap.
When I look back on that i think that i had some amazing designs but
mechanically they didn't work well and would, in the instance of the ground
vehicles, lead to many trips to the chiropractor. I didn't understand that the
wheels were held on to the car through suspension, not just an axle. I couldn't
grasp things such as "engine bay" or interior layout. Looking back i guess they
were more drones or ai units and maybe i was ahead of my time (haha) or
more likely, i was a geeky little kid having fun with Lego.
Either way, my designs were cool (says me) but nowhere near perfect.
In the car world, engineers or designers will often come up with concept vehicles.
Flights of fancy brought to life by incredible, passionate people who often work
long hours outside of company time, on projects they WANT to see turned into
a reality. It's how some of the greats came into being; the Jaguar E-Type, Shelby
Cobra, various Ford GT's and more recently the Toyota FT1. It's even led to
Polyphony Digital's vision GT ideas in Gran Turismo games showing off some
seriously crazy ideas! This is where we get the term "Concept car" it's an idea,
a notion, an indication of not only what is possible but of things we can't even
conceive of, the cutting edge of motoring rendered into something tangible that
you can see, that you can touch, that you can experience.
In a world obsessed with SUV's and family motoring, i applaud any manufacturer
for daring to dream in this way.
The downside of this creative process is that, if the concept proof becomes a
manufacturing project at some point along the way physics will dictate the
shape will likely need changing to be more aerodynamic and potentially less
cool but it doesn't stop there.
Once physics has had its way, the accountants step in asking pesky things such
as: who will buy this? Does it really need all that? What about this stuff, could
we use this instead? It can be considered a bad thing BUT it's necessary to
make cars actually affordable in some sense. I point out the A90 Supra / BMW
Z4 fracas that's currently going on. Yes they're basically the same car but if
BMW and Toyota hadn't collaborated, we wouldn't have either of them which
to me is the bigger shame.
When the accountants got to the RB26 they really had a rough day. For all the
RB engines vaunted reliability, potential and the aftermarket support for them,
the engines have noticeable deficits when compared to other options.
I've previously mentioned the lack of variable timing that can be corrected by
aftermarket options only, there's also the oil pump's drive collar being a bit short
on first series R32's that had a nasty habit of stopping the oil pump, usually with
catastrophic results.
Less obvious is the CAS or Crank Angle Sensor which is responsible for providing
crankshaft position to the ECU to control ignition timing (making sure the spark
plugs fire when they're supposed to)
Nissan decided to base this information off a sensor mounted to the Exhaust
Camshaft which works well in theory, however as the Camshafts are run off belts
this can lead to issues.
Not only do belts stretch and deform over time but just in their operation they are
prone to movement both forward and back due to the belts being jerked suddenly
upon starting and shut down that can throw out their timing by a long way!
The long and the short - they aren't all that accurate.
Ross performance have the solution here, a new sensor setup that uses a timing
wheel installed on the crankshaft itself to more accurately control things.
It's one of those little things that improves efficiency and baseline accuracy, allowing
further improvements to be more effective.
So yeah, this is on the steadily lengthening modification list!
I can't wait to actually get things moving on these upgrades but first, a word from
our financial department!
"Oh, right, ahem, YOU BROKE"
Back to saving for me!
8
« on: April 15, 2019, 06:02:40 pm »
9
« on: April 10, 2019, 12:35:04 pm »
Our species, at least in more recent times, is obsessed with
the idea of time travel. It's a holy grail for science and a
cornerstone of science fiction writing.
Whether we need to know the future to predict the Weather or
the winning lottery numbers, to travelling back in time to
right wrongs, see past loved ones or MESS UP THE TIME STREAM,
as a race we're fascinated by it (causality be damned!)
What would you do given the chance?
Head back to the future to see what it's like?
Go ride a Dinosaur?
Flying deLorean?
Whilst time travel is out of reach for most of us, the team
at Nissan & more specifically, Nismo, have you covered in a
very specialized way.
Given the popularity of Nissan's RB engines - most notably the
Skyline GT-R's RB26-DETT - the aftermarket support has stayed
strong long after production of them finished in around 2002.
It's no secret that Japanese performance car enthusiasts put
the engine near the top of the food chain (if not at the top)
with Toyota's answer to it, the 2JZ-GTE, usually somewhere on
the same list!
"So if I want to time travel, i just use a Turbo straight six?"
"Well, kinda but not in the way you'd think"
If you went to a manufacturer of "things" and asked them to
make you a one off "thing" it will likely cost a lot.
If get together with a few people who also want that "thing"
and get a group buy going, it will likely cost less. Scale of
economy - the manufacturer can spread the costs of their work
across the units made, bringing the per unit cost down and
making the whole process more economical.
With this in mind, in 2017 Nissan announced the creation of the
Nismo Heritage Parts program - whereby Nissan would dust off the
original molds and get to making RB's again!
":O"
"IKR!!!"
The initial roll-out of the program just covered the original
Godzilla, the BNR32 (1989 - 1994) and in broad sweeps, covers
things like body panels, wiring looms and main engine components.
In short, they've had a look at what most people need but can't
get from aftermarket suppliers.
Following on from this, in 2018 they found some more of the old
dies and announced that they were expanding the lineup to the
R33 & 34.
Included in the list are two engine block options; Either the
standard block or the somewhat legendary N1 block (for significantly
more dinero!)
The N1, having been built specifically for race environments,
is significantly tougher than the standard block and is widely
regarded as the go to block for any really serious modification.
Surprisingly (especially to me) the pricing of these heritage parts
is in line with where other companies prices are for similar
parts. The difference? These are brand new and in terms of engines,
that's a massive bonus, as you never know the condition something
that's been sitting in the back of a storage room for years.
Whilst still too expensive for my meager earnings, it's heartening
to see large companies recognizing their own customers and a great
tip of the hat to the glories of the RB's illustrious history.
So if you're up for some time travel, check out the link below to
be transported back to the Mid-Nineties, non-translated webpage!
(yep, non-translated. Told you time travel was involved)
10
« on: March 07, 2019, 09:17:43 am »
Gather 'round team, it's time for a story!
*GASP*
"A story within a story?!? How meta of you Ares!"
"Heh it's an inception kinda moment..."
Ok maybe not but pay attention, there's money to be made!
Back in the distant past of the 1990's the good people in charge of the
US of A changed some laws to help the environment - good call I say,
the environment needs some lovin'!
One of the laws they passed was to do with vehicle emissions, if you're
gonna save the environment may as well do it one exhaust at a time!
(being fair, this was many exhausts at a time) This law doesn't impact
us in lil ol NZ so i hope you'll forgive me for being a bit light on the
definitions but one part in particular would spell disaster for stateside
lovers of Datsun's. You see, in order to check the vehicle in question an
emission test device needed to be plugged in to the internal diagnostic
port, commonly called an OBD2 port. "Pretty straight forward - let's get
cracking!" i hear you shout but hold your hand-grenade there chief...
You see, by the 1990's most car manufacturers had agreed that OBD2
was THE standard to use moving forward. It would make it easier for
all automotive manufacturers and mechanics moving forward...
Nissan agreed to this as well but got there a bit late as they used their
own proprietary plug type (CONSULT) until about 2004.
This meant that, according to the new import laws in the USA and as no
adaptors were allowed to be used, Skyline GT-R's could not be emission
tested and were therefore not allowed to be imported to the states.
So those are the facts.
The supposition starts with the follow up to a small indie documentary
called The Fast And The Furious aptly titled;
2 Fast 2 Furious.
:p
Whilst later iterations of these movies have grown to an out of proportion
action movie, allbeit featuring some amazing vehicles, the first three had
a real focus on street racing and in so, brought the Skyline GT-R back into
the limelight 'states-side (if it was ever out of it).
The iconic circuit race from the beginning of the sequel featured some of
the greats from Japan; Toyota's MkIV Supra, Honda's S2000 with a supercharger
strapped to the FC20 motor, Mazda's RX7 (the same car used in the first
film if legend holds) and Nissan's R34 Gt-R (it was a GT-t with a kit, but hey,
it's a movie, hush!)
The race ending with Paul Walker sliding up to the crowd grinning like a cheshire
cat and that was that, the R34 was an instant icon.
"We know this, what about it"
Well, to explain that - have you heard about supply and demand? Countries the
world over have access to these cars, EXCEPT the USA who, let's face it, have
a fair few car collectors that have a lot of spare change.
My point?
If you have some spare money and want a good return on investment;
1: Hit up Trademe
2: buy a Skyline GT-R (preferably about six years ago)
3: ? ? ? ? ? ? (wait a few years)
4: export it to the USA
5: PROFIT!
Prices have risen in some instances by 100% some more than that!
So what are you waiting for, go go go!
Oh wait, the price rises are happening here too?
Well f**k.
11
« on: February 15, 2019, 07:47:46 am »
So, should i stop posting?
Maybe I should start blog - are those still a thing?
12
« on: February 14, 2019, 11:46:00 am »
"Life is what happens when you're making other plans" - Allen Saunders, 1957 - John Lennon, 1980 (ish) So after a whirlwind of 2018 I find myself in a new job with a new company, working hard to make a difference and to help out those clients who depend on me and my new company. Whilst the road ahead will be challenging I'm pretty lucky to finally work somewhere that not only values its customers but also its staff. That said, as I mentioned 2018 was a hell of a busy year. Starting off with a new kitten, a second Marriage and a visitor from the States. A few medical dramas, a few financial dramas, i turned 40 and a whole bunch of selling tools to amazing clients in Auckland as a mobile tools salesperson. I learned a bunch from my time at that company, it wasn't all sunshine and roses but at least it's lead me to the place where I am now. "But what about the caaaaaarrrrrrr?" Well, last year I think I drove the GT-R about 5 times in total. Of those 5 times I was pulled over twice, once for a 110km offence just before Christmas (my fault, but i was being overtaken at the time?) the other instacce I was pulled over for an expired warrant - whilst on my way to renew it and actually making me miss the appointment. Now I'll admit that driving a bright purple Skyline is a giant kick me sign to the boys in blue, however it shouldn't be, as they should be fighting actual crime rather than harassing motorists. So where does that leave things for 2019 and the GT-R? Last year, in spite of a new job and a some great contacts in the auto industry, my finances didn't allow for more than maintenance so I'm definitely wanting to push on with the build this year. I'll fill you in on where to next in the next few weeks and, as I acknowledge how slack I've been, I'll make an effort to do a few more updates. In fact, we need to talk about a fabulous investment opportunity. Have some capital? Want some financial gains? Just ask me how 
13
« on: December 13, 2017, 12:41:09 pm »
Heading into another Christmas - some 3 years after the aforementioned highway 16 run,
(yeah, i got the year wrong, was 2014, the perils of writing in retrospect right?) - and once
again i find myself getting nostalgic and somewhat wistful...
Could be the fake snow...
Could be the Christmas music played everywhere...
Or maybe it's PTSD from a few too many Christmas carols as a Chorister all those years ago...
*SHUDDERS*
No matter the cause, this time of year is always one for reflection, not only for me but for many
in our (fast becoming non-secular) wee corner of the world.
The last year in particular has been a literal pain in the ass (yes, literal, no you don't want details)
and I've found very few chances to get out into the silly purple car and just drive. Fewer still to
find money for upgrades and modifications!
The new Ohlins DFV suspension has now settled and the brakes have bedded in well.
I'm contemplating slightly softer springs as the car rides a little hard at the moment, though i've
not made any further setting changes after my initial tweaks. I'm contemplating different springs
to complement the shocks if i cant get the balance between filling loosening stiffness vs sticky
date pudding softness quite right. At the moment my partner is reticent to come for drives as her
girl pillows get mighty sore mighty fast when we're out on runs!
I've started getting ready for a few things which will need to be attended to in 2018 as well.
Primarily a belt, seal and water-pump change. Once that's sorted i imagine i'll be needing new
Tyres as well - if the charity drive over the weekend was anything to go by!
The other thing on my immediate list comes from an acquaintance in Hong Kong.
A few years ago i replaced the cracked and UV damaged Multi-Function Display the 34's interior
was renown for. The new unit arrived only about two days after ordering and thanks to his
friendly instructions, took me, a muppet with tools by any standard, only about half an hour
to install and was a massive positive change to the interior.
The clever cookie he is has been working with the displays from 34's and 35's making kits to
retrofit them into older 32's and 33's, complete with custom trim to match. The thought of a
35 display in my 34 is tempting, what's of more interest is the plug in kit he does to give my
beastie a much needed reversing camera! As the rear window from factory is stupidly dark,
this little plug in unit will add a whole bunch more usability, especially for parking and reversing
at night, which is a total PITA even in well lit areas!
Once i've got those not so little bits sorted then it'll be the biggie.
As the RB26DETT is getting quite long in the tooth it's due for some freshening up. If money
were no object, a new single turbo setup would be on the cards, with the Borg Warner EFR
range leading the charge. Also on the cards would be an engine rebuild featuring HKS forged
pistons, crank, rods, cylinder sleeves and pins, all correctly balanced and blueprinted - yum!
More realistically, i'm looking at a refresh of the valve train featuring the HKS VCam system,
new valves/springs/retainers etc...
This is definitely a long term goal but is something I'm quite serious about.
The step beyond this involves lightening the bodywork - The 34r V-Spec is the second heaviest
in the entire RB powered GT-R series, outweighed only by the M-Spec (heated leather seats
anyone?) A point made clear by the fact the M & V-Spec II both featured carbon fibre bonnets
and several other clever weight reduction techniques.
Of course all of this comes with very hefty price tags - not eased by the fact Nismo have started
a heritage parts program, where they've started to manufacture new parts for older R's. Whilst
many thought this would ease the prices of parts, the opposite is true with part prices beginning
to head the way of NZ's 98 octane fuel (OUCH!)
Anyhow, i hope this post finds you all well and please, do remember to take care on the roads
over Christmas and New Year! I hope it's an epic summer for you all! XD
PS:
Just a random thought:
Do Atheists and Agnostics work through the break? :p
14
« on: September 15, 2017, 02:00:25 pm »
I should update this... Wonder if anyone's still reading it... hmmmmmm.........
15
« on: May 06, 2017, 06:07:13 pm »
Life in all its glory teaches us that, by and large, victory requires sacrifice. Staying away from the lofty heights of this weeks Hollywood blockbuster or endless other pop-culture tropes, we can see examples of this in every day life; Yeah, i want to stay home, watching shows and playing PC games all day but if i do that i won't be able to pay the rent/ get a new graphics card/pay off the car/ eat so i suppose i better go to work. I suppose if Descent Freespace's mission designer taught me anything (rather than just giving me headaches) i believe we can call this a boolean statement of types - no real point here, i just like the term boolean, it's also fun to say - yay for algebra! To get to a point, this is a theory you always consider with any performance modification; This exhaust will help my car go faster but it'll be really loud... This bigger turbo will make more power up top but i'll lose some down low response... I really like these chrome spinners but can i be bothered cleaning them? I finally took delivery of the long awaited brakes and got the car into a workshop on the shore to get things on the go. First off was the trade up from the squishy Tein Comfort Sport shocks. As previously mentioned, i was never able to set them to a stiffness that worked for the car. When set at their hardest, the bump steer was terrible and at their softest the car seemed to wobble around the corners, not to mention that regardless of the setting the car would bottom out, scraping the bolts holding the rear diffuser. The Ohlins DFV shocks are recognised globally as top tier suspension and off the shelf they provide a kit specifically for the 34r aptly named "Road and Track" The shocks themselves have a unique twin valve system and are height and damper adjustable, which the car is already complied for as you know  I chose to add Cusco adjustable upper camber arms front and rear as well, replacing the fixed factory arms. This would allow for better alignments, meaning more Tyre on the road through corners or massive negative camber should i ever go insane. Though cheaper options were available here, nightmares abound of issues caused by cheap suspension. Though not considered grade a product, i couldn't fault the combination of DBA rotors and Endless pads that worked so well on Blue. If i had to knitpick they would sometimes get squeaky when hot, not something i cared about. The setup i'd be running in the GT-r was the same paring, though newer generations; Endless MX72 brake pads and DBA 4000 series rotors with the factory fitted Brembo calipers. Combine these with a Cusco brake stopper, to reduce the brake master cylinder moving under pressure, brand new steel braided Goodrich brake lines and new Motul high performance fluid and i was expecting to see some real improvements! Once again the car's ability to highlight the results of work done were evident when i picked it up a few days later. For a start the car was sitting slightly higher than previously; at my request we went with about 2 mm lower than Ohlins' recommendations. The gearbox felt a bit tighter with the fresh oil and the re-alignment was noticeable straight away. The first big wow moment came in applying the brake at the top of the garage's drive. WOW. The pedal was much more firm and even under light braking the car pulled up in a much shorter distance. I was stoked! The new coilovers were also on point, though they'd need some tweaking over the following months, they were far better suited to harder driving than the Tein but as i mentioned, there's a trade off here. Whilst amazing whilst rolling on the motorway and for giving it the beans on a track, but down a couple of ill maintained side streets the ride could be considered too hard. So i made the choice to sacrifice a bit of comfort in the pursuit of better handling into and out of corners. And i'm damn glad i did.
16
« on: July 26, 2016, 12:28:49 pm »
With the Winter months here it can sometimes get difficult to remember that we live in one of the most beautiful places on Earth. Sure, those of us born here do tend to take it for granted and yes, there are amazing sights to be seen all over the globe but that shouldn't diminish lil ol NZ. It saddens me a little to think that when people do talk about our country's scenery they generally tend to overlook the North Island in favour of the South when truthfully, both have their good and bad qualities. Heading into Christmas 2015, with a busy year behind me of selling a house, moving house twice, changing jobs, developing a new relationship, fighting off what escalated to be a very nasty divorce and dealing with a company who, after taking my money were making every excuse to not deliver the parts i'd ordered, i was in dire need of blowing off some steam. I got together with some friends for a bit of a shakedown cruise and catch up meet. I met up with Buddy, a friend of mine with a fairly worked 32, at my place near central Auckland and we cruised out to Westgate to "collect" another friend, Rider and his 650cc sport Bike. From there we headed across to the North Shore to meet our friends at the Park and Ride carpark, Silverdale. On our way we came across a Legacy Wagon who decided to take us on, so we each had a go, from a rolling start, lining up and putting the boot in. Sadly for the Legacy, it wasn't even a contest and though he kept up with us at motorway speeds, he wasn't able to when we let rip, poor chap! It wasn't until Silverdale, where we met up with some more of our group, that Buddy and Rider told me about the fireball that emerged from the exhaust when I downshifted. "Dude, your exhaust was glowing afterwards!" So seems the de-Cat had already paid dividends (i always wanted a fire breathing exhaust!) We were joined on our journey by a 350z and RX7 (series six) both in various states of non-stock but incomplete tune. We headed through Silverdale and up over the hill heading north via the old coast road, eventually joining up with highway 1 at Puhoi. Our plan was a nice quiet drive up to Welsford where we'd grab a bite and catch up. We made good time and soon we pulled in and hunkered around a table to shoot the breeze and chow down on some Maccas. With food in our stomaches and fuel in the tank, we headed back south via the almost deserted state highway 16. Heading out from Welsford, it starts out as a section of 70km ridgeline running before an uphill right hander launches into about 45km of roller-coaster like highway. Taking point, I flicked on to high boost, dropped a couple of cogs and thundered down the road. After a few turns and straights I lost sight of my group but I didn't have time to think about it. Corner, brake, turn, feed on throttle whilst straightening the wheel, nail it, repeat. By the time the 50km at Kaukapakapa came into view i was running solo, so decided to pull over at the Hotel/Pub to regroup with the team, who arrived a few minutes later. We took a breather for a moment or three, letting brakes and engines cool for a few minutes before we continued on our way. We carried on South through Kaukap, continuing on to head along Peak and the Old North Roads. After a blast through the hills we then connected up to Riverhead Highway, where the group split up, the RX7 and 350z both heading East to get home whilst we headed west to link back up to the North-western motorway back through town which we took at a leisurely pace. The run had really given me a taste of the potential of the car, which was still hampered somewhat by its less than ideal suspension and brakes. Here's a pic of us at Silverdale
17
« on: July 14, 2016, 12:28:05 pm »
Here's some Dyno charts! Additional - Sorry, been a crazy week and wanted to put these up for you guys. The two Dyno charts show the initial tune on the Link G4+ ECU - Will have a look to see if we did a print of the initial run, pretty sure we did, will be in a box somewhere Page two, by comparison, is after the work done to where we're up to in the story. The date states the 31st of July (though a little hard to read!) almost exactly a year after the previous tune. Whilst the step up of power wasn't huge, notice that it's all happening to a bigger scale but more importantly, lower down the rev range - not to mention a decent chunk of bottom end torque on low boost! Engine wise I'm calling stage one complete - i'm almost exactly where i wanted to be HP wise and the car's engine is running really well. If only the damn suspension and brakes would show up...
18
« on: July 14, 2016, 08:14:06 am »
Many years ago, someone from Electronic Arts went to the movies.
Maybe they were wanting a Soap Opera and didn't read the title?
Maybe they went along fully aware of 'car culture' as it's now termed?
Maybe the took the left turn at Albequerky?
For whatever reason, EA shortly released Need For Speed: Underground.
It was a colossal success and as we've seen with so many IP's,
spawned Underground 2 - to this day still considered one of the
best underground racing and street culture games of all time.
My tricked out Miata was awesome!
Since then, EA's efforts have been met with mixed success and
criticism, with the likes of NFS Shift and Pro street. With fans
of the franchise the world over crying out for a re-make of the
classic NFSU2, EA has to date, tried several times to get back
to this winning formula in all but re-skinning the original, but
has consistantly fallen short with the dismal Need For Speed (2015)
and the addictive but still lacking No Limits on iOS and Android.
Friends of mine ask - why don't you stop wasting your time with
NFS, GT (PS) and Forza (XBox) and play some real stuff like Corsa Asetti etc?
I still by and large find them fun enjoy the package of gameplay
and music offered by the more arcadey sims with less of the headaches
continually losing by 0.000002 of a second.
Really not my bag.
(Readers: For a car build thread this guy talks a lot of...)
In Forza, GT or NFS (to a lesser extent i suppose) before opening
the hood and trying to get more ponies from your straight six,
flat four, V10 or EV, i will generally up the Tyre quality and
look to the suspension for gains.
Better brakes mean braking later.
Better suspension means sharper turn ins and early apexes.
Less weight allows factory power to be brought to its full potential.
Amongst the engine side of things i had been able to squirrel
away some mods in these areas - with many more on their way.
It's an area of the vehicle that i always consider vital as far
as performance goes and it's staggering the number of vehicles
i've seen where every dollar has been spent in the pursuit of
power, with no thought to how to translate that to the road.
Adjustable Coilover suspension has become a standard on most
performance cars out there but when mated to a poor set of Tyres
the results can be, at best, lack lustre and at worst, outright
dangerous.
With all this weighing in heavily in the back of my mind, here i
was at the Temple, yet again to fix the on-going tuning issue.
Dyno runs are a mixed bag of emotions. It's cool to see what your
car can do but you need to be working with someone who knows their
stuff as a few wrong numbers in the wrong area of the fuel map and
things start going very wrong.
Thankfully the Guru produced the goods.
With the new pipes in, the Tomei fuel pressure regulator installed
and the boost leak fixed, we now had a GT-r on our hands.
We reset the system to the correct pressures (9psi low, 15psi high)
and saw a gain of a massive 24kw power and 18lbft torque gained.
The main bonus was the fact boost pressures were now holding up better
later in the rev range allowing the car more solid feel at higher
RPM.
All up it was a massive result!
Now to get on with the handling!
19
« on: July 04, 2016, 02:20:57 pm »
I struggle with mathematics, fractions, integers quadratics (SHUDDER)
can't stand it.
It's useful to know some of the basics though and, as much as people
will tell you it's largely a waste of time, not a day has gone by in
my career where i haven't used some form of basic maths to solve a given
problem.
Whether it's a raw calculation we consciously make: if my customer orders
72 units of something and there are 12 in a box how many boxezzzzz...
Or more obscure uses like the on the fly vector calculations we all make
when driving but aren't consciously aware we're doing so.
As far as anything performance car wise goes, maths is key to almost
every step of the way, especially when it comes to working out what's
gone wrong and where.
In my case; i'd expected a shift of about 15% up in power by selecting
high boost over low. As previously mentioned, my boost gauge had shown
far more than that, but in the back of my head i knew the gauge was
somewhat inaccurate with a tendency to show more boost than the car is
actually generating.
Regardless of this, the resulting 22 or so PSI (about a 40-50% increase)
was definitely not something i'd been expecting.
So the main fault had been found but now I needed yet another re-tune.
The Guru had a busy schedule but I managed to get a time squared away
and at least this time would be a faster turn around.
So I sat back and waited to get the re-tune squared away. Not one to spend
time idly, i formulated a plan to make the most of the dyno time. With
the lack of restrictions due to the Special Interest Vehicle permit, i
decided to open the exhaust and intake a bit.
Firtly i found a second-hand Apex'i front pipe on Trademe for a very reasonable
$250.00 which I picked up quickly from Cambridge, the owner having recently
upgraded his Turbos and to a new Trust/Greddy pipe for his R32 GT-r rebuild
project. The new Apexi pipe is a fair way larger than the stock item and as
such, allows more air flow out of the Turbo's and into the exhaust. Enlarging
it should allow more flow up top and a slight increase of initial torque,
not to mention a subtle change in exhaust note.
Second, when i swapped to the Link G4+ ECU the car was converted from the
factory twin air flow meter (AFM) system to a manifold absolute pressure
(MAP) system. In doing so it rendered the factory AFM's useless and causing
a minor blockage on the intake side of things. After some digging around,
i contacted RIPS in Rotorua and was able to get two AFM delete pipes made
and shipped up to me for another $250.00
I attempted to install the AFM delete pipes on my lonesome, corrected by
Dave, who kindly installed the new front pipe for me as well, since i don't
trust myself when it comes to mechanical work and we were working in my
garage with very limited facilities.
With the new (and used) parts installed it was time for yet another trip
to see the Guru, hopefully for the last time for this phase of my end goal.
20
« on: July 02, 2016, 07:42:06 pm »
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOICE!
21
« on: July 02, 2016, 03:17:36 pm »
NICE!!!
How many KM?
22
« on: June 27, 2016, 12:37:24 pm »
Sometimes life throws us curve balls.
Usually when we're at our most comfortable and complacent life/God/The Universe seems
all too ready with a snowball to our metaphorical faces.
It can come in many forms.
Your wife of many years up and leaving you for a Toilet salesman.
Getting to work on a Monday to find your operations manager has resigned.
Going to a New Year party last minute, when you're down and out, and meeting someone
amazing.
The main thing in these situations is to accept that this is your new reality.
Make the adjustments you need to, get used to the new way of being, change what you're
able to and learn accept the parts you can't.
This isn't a revelation, we've all been through this in some form or other; regardless of the
circumstances and scale of the issue, it's the surprise that has the potential to catch us off
guard.
So it was that, within a minute of leaving the Temple i was in for a game changing surprise.
I've said on multiple occasions that, so far, whilst every step of the way the car was feeling
more and more like a GT-r, there was still something missing.
Leaving the Temple we headed along the sweeping left hand corner along the edge of his
property, into a tightening right hander up to and over the crest of a small ridge, then down
the other side onto a decent little straight where I decided to flex the car's muscle.
I switched the display to boost level and front torque and flicked on to high boost at the top
of the ridge, just as we were straightening out, putting the foot down, expecting 15psi.
The engine roared and the car shot forward accellerating far faster than i'd expected as the
boost meter instantly read close to 2 bar (29psi) and ATTESA desperately shunted power
forward to keep us heading in the same direction.
I instantly backed off the gas and switched to the main display to show temperatures,
throttle usage and more importantly injector duty (in a percentage of maximum).
Thankfully everything was in the green - a welcome sight as GT-r turbos do very bad things
when overboosted.
The upgraded fuel system had also helped, ensuring that even though the car was was
overboosting in a big way, at least the injectors had been able to keep up with the fuel
demand.
I flicked over to low boost and we cruised home but even low pressure was a good five
or six psi over where it should have been.
As soon as we got in i called the Guru and booked in for a re-tune at earliest convenience
and had a wee bit of a sit-down to calm my nerves.
23
« on: June 24, 2016, 03:50:09 pm »
Do you participate in any kind of show or competition yourself?
Or do you find the tuning process and the road driving does enough for you?
I'm itching to get back to Pukekohe again, now the car's in a much better state - just
finding the money is difficult at the moment.
In general though I'm more than happy to go for a run on quiet evenings and early
mornings but usually on back roads.
As for shows and competitions - not really entered in anything major, though was at
big boys toys with it in 2014 (McGuiars car products) but it's not something i'd do
regularly.
The attached pic was taken just after we'd left BBT.
So looks like i might be attending the Greenlane Speed Show. I'll update you guys regarding this as soon as everything's confirmed
24
« on: June 22, 2016, 11:21:03 am »
When we were young we were often warned of peer pressure and how perilous it can be to bow down to its influence. Whilst it's great advice for young and more impressionable minds, it's something, that i personally think, a lot of adults would do well to remember too. It's a fine line to draw between tagging along to try something new and substituting someone else's values/lifestyle for your own. Oddly enough, i've seen this happen in some of the strongest people i've met, where those, seemingly more inclined to follow other's leads have stood fast to what they believe. Regardless of any personal feeling on the subject, it can be a good thing to get out of your comfort zone from time to time as long as we don't allow this to re-shape our own dreams or goals and we learn from the experience... Well, you get the idea So with the parts ordered whe wait began. The first to arrive, about six weeks later, were the new mounts for the engine and gearbox, which were shipped straight to the Temple. With my aim to freshen things up and improve the feel of the car overall, the new, stiffer Nismo mounts would help keep the engine in place and translate more power (albeit not much more) through to the drivetrain. The improved gearbox mount would also help to relieve some of the nasty gear stick wobble. I found some time (and money) to get the car back up to the Guru in the first few months of 2015 and left it with him for a day to get the mounts sorted, which went very smoothly at his end of things but did lead to a revelation. When I picked up the car in the evening of the next day the Guru advised me that, during their installation, he'd found an issue with the Intercooler outlet pipe. For those not familiar with Turbo setups, they use exhaust gasses to spin one end of an impeller. This is linked to a turbine on the intake side of the unit, via a (usually) steel shaft. Simple principle really - exhaust gas spins one end on its way out of the engine which in turn spins the turbine on the intake side, which forces more air into the engine (aka BOOOOOOOOST) Because the Turbo is being fed by HOT exhaust the charged air gets very hot as well, which isn't good for combustion! So in between the turbo and intake manifold we usually find an Intercooler which is designed to dissipate some of this heat. Phew, techy talk done! The Guru informed me that the outlet pipe from the Intercooler was mis-aligned and had been all along! This meant that whilst on low pressure (9psi) there hadn't been any noticeable difference, on high boost (15psi) it had been enough to cause a boost leak. I didn't think much of it at the time and given we were cutting into his rare and valuable family time, we said our goodbyes and went on our way, prepared for an uneventful drive home...
25
« on: June 20, 2016, 10:23:52 pm »
Do you participate in any kind of show or competition yourself?
Or do you find the tuning process and the road driving does enough for you?
I'm itching to get back to Pukekohe again, now the car's in a much better state - just finding the money is difficult at the moment. In general though I'm more than happy to go for a run on quiet evenings and early mornings but usually on back roads. As for shows and competitions - not really entered in anything major, though was at big boys toys with it in 2014 (McGuiars car products) but it's not something i'd do regularly. The attached pic was taken just after we'd left BBT.
|
|
|
