My car tuning story/diary...

[Ares Helix]

Right, so shortly, I'll continue on, but for today, we'll do a Q&A...

So fire away!

[Apteryx]

I don't have any questions so far myself, looks like you managed to score a tidy factory spec car, pretty much perfect platform for doing some work on, and doing it right.

Now we get into the interesting stuff of what you have done to it, to turn it into a baby Godzilla

[Menial]

Pics!!!!

[Ares Helix]

 The tuning bug. Oh what a bug it is...
Anyone bitten by it will tell you how dangerous it can be. You can try to fight it,
but, like any addiction, it comes back twice as hard.

 Mine started with a simple conversation after reading about excess airflow. See, it
turns out that when the R34 was in production, the engineers decided that they didn't
want people to mess with their vision of perfection. They added code to the factory ECU
(engine control unit) that when excessive airflow was detected, either from an exhaust
or intake upgrade, the ECU would mess around with the timing and fuel mix, meaning the
car developed flat spots through the rev range and in general, didn't behave!

 With this in mind, I contacted a few people about re-tuning the factory ECU and they
all told me there was only one guy in Auckland to talk to. I'll refer to him as Bob for
the sake of the story. I got in touch with Bob and he told me the best option would be
to outright replace the factory ECU. The two options reccomended, were the HKS F-Con or
the Apex'i Power FC. I've known and been a great fan of Apexi products for a good many
years, and decided to go with this brand over the F-Con. Another bonus, is that the HKS
is a piggyback unit, menaing that it sits between the Factory ECU and the car, acting
as an interpreter, where the Power FC was a full stand alone system. I was told I'd
need to order one through the net, as they weren't made for my car anymore! Not a
biggie, given I wanted to also get an Apex'i active tail silencer, for that damn
exhaust! Trademe was a no go for either item. Lookout EBAY, here I come!

 In the meantime, my next biggest concerns were security and sounds. I'd already
cobbled together the gear I was after sound wise, being a car stereo fanatic from years
back. My last job was actually working in Car Audio at JBHifi in Manukau, so with a few
calls to some mates, I got my sounds squared away. A short call to Installer Services
in Manukau, I got them working on the install, with the car booked in for a full
service later that week at a nearby mechanics... The gear installed was a Pioneer DVD
unit, Earthquake 1.5 farad capacitor, Kicker 700.5 5 channel amp and alpine type R
speakers and Subs. For security's sake, i got the best alarm i could find, with as many
add ons as possible!

 Service and sounds squared away, I got down to the wait for the parts from Japan...

[Scorched_onion]

Lol what? silencer on a sexy exhaust?

Thats pretty lame...









Still want pics tho.

[Westi]

Im really enjoying the read, waiting for the next parts !

[foRsakEn]

Ok I had a skim read, firstly not my cup of tea in japanese car choice for what you want but thats my opinion Am I correct in saying you bought an R34 GTT coupe or 4 door? What do you want out of the car? The tuning bug is hard to stop..

Jacob

EDIT

Very expensive but..

Ebay

[Ares Helix]

 Isn't it odd that the damndest things can set off child hood memories. I'm old,
so I remember collecting the points from the back of original Transformers and
GI Joes, sending them off with one of mum's cheques and a few weeks later,
getting a parcel in the mail. It was the best feeling ever and, correct me if I'm
wrong, but one of the only experiences that NEVER gets old or boring. When the
first box showed up at work with my apexi tail silencer, shortly followed by the
Power FC and boost control unit, I was totally stoaked.

 Now, I know what you're thinking, why would anyone throw a silencer into a race
exhaust. To answer this, you need to know that this exhaust was the loudest exhaust
I've ever heard. My wife, on her Monday's off, could hear me coming about 3-4km away
and as much as i loved it when it got up high, the bass droning was too much. I went
in search of a silencer that would allow me to put it in and leave it in, without a
drastic effect on performance and that's exactly what i got. See the way the apex'i
active silencer works; it has a spring loaded plate that opens under high pressure exhaust,
meaning I get the howl, without the annoying low end rumble. My concerns about the
performance were releaved earlier this year on a dyno run, where removing it made a gain
of about fifty watts, not kilowatts, fifty watts.

 So a quick trip back to Bob's and we were sorted. Well Kinda.

 The tune went well, but of course, there was a problem. There's ALWAYS a problem right?
Apparantly, he didn't want to push things too far, as the turbo was making a pretty audible
whine. He Reccomended I get it rebuilt and reccomended some guys on the shore. Still, i
couldn't complain about the results of the tune. The car was running much more smoothly with
more power as well, can't grumble about that!

 So, now I had the car in a much happier state, it was on to a the footwork and looking
for a good price to get my huffer rebuilt. Bob reccomended a company on the shore so I
set out to give them a call, I'd also tracked down some Nismo suspension online that I
thought I'd look into. All up, things were looking good.

 Heh.

[Apteryx]

Bummer on the turbo rebuild, but at least you have peace of mind it's in good working order.

[Ares Helix]

 I'm not too sure if I've mentioned this before, but I'm not a mechanic. I don't pretend to be a mechanic.
I don't want to be a mechanic. During this past year, i've learned a hell of a lot about how engines work
and what the main components are and what they do. Still, I'm a long way from being able to fumble my
way through things under the hood! the problem with this, and coming from an arty non mechanical family
(who're mostly dead now) is that you don't have the connections that allow you to maybe get a discount,
but more importantly, know you're not getting ripped off!
 My first indication of things not being on the level, was when I called for the turbo rebuild quote. As I said,
I'm not a mechanic, but I'm not stupid either. When I was quoted $2,800 excluding GST. I was gob smacked.
I wasn't prepared to pay that much for a re-condition! I could have bought a full new turbo for that and had
change, so it didn't make much sense! Back to the drawing board, the drawing board in this case being google.

 Is it me, or do tuning and performance parts stores in NZ go out of their way to be hard to find? The only
one that comes up regularly (and Kudos to them for it) are Moolight Racing! Whilst I've never ordered from
them, the guys there are really in the know with things. Anyhow, the other thing I was looking for at this stage
was the suspension and I decided to get some new coils as well, to help with top end stability.

In my quest to find these coils I came across the name 'Splitfire'. I read a couple of reviews and decided that
they were a good fit for me.
 I made contact, after a week of searching, with a tuning parts store that could both get the turbo sorted,
through a well known chap, could also get the coil packs and to top it off, could sort out some fireworks (was
near guys fawkes...)

 I went with this lot as I'd be paying less than half of the quoted price for the rebuild, in fact, I got him to
improve the flow and do a bit of an upgrade for me while it was in and it still cost less! WIN!
 As previously mentioned, I'm no mechanic so I called on a mate, Ralph, to help me out with the pulling apart
of the engine. He'd house it at his place and throw it back together again, dropping the coils in and replacing
the turbo gaskets at the same time.

Phew!

 Then it was a matter of squaring away another tune with Bob! YEESH!
 Everything went smoothly though and I got my shiney new Turbo back and installed with the coils. The footwork
was next on the list of things to do, Nismo, here I come!

[foRsakEn]

There are lots of big names in auckland and wellington, I missed which city your in? Give me a list of what you spacificly need and I'm positive I can help you out

Jacob

[Apteryx]

Ok I had a skim read.....

Just to fill you in, this is actually past tense. I'm lead to believe the car is as of current date completed. This is like a story telling of how it got there.

Sounds like you got a good deal on that rebuild.

[Ares Helix]

 Performance versus style. A lot of people will go all out for style. Form over
function if you will. For me though this never made much sense and my Levin
was a testament to that. 15" Rims, lower profile wider tread tyres (205-50-R15)
stiffer suspension, lowering springs and a Pod Filter.

 The same is true for my R34. After the first lot of mods and fix ups, an incident
in a carpark (a big thanks to the guys out at Botany that tried to steal my
car on my wife's birthday, couldn't, so stole her birthday presents instead)
I'd decided it was time to look at footwork.

 As previously stated, I'd found a set of Nismo S-Tune suspension. It was
specifically designed for the GTT and looked great! I got Bob to order some
in for me and sat back to wait...
 I hate waiting. I won't bore you with the psychological intricacies of why
I hate waiting. That is to say, I know why I hate waiting but it's one of those
things I've always struggled to overcome. About three weeks later I got a
call from Bob saying there'd be a delay of about six months for them.
 Six months!
 
Given that was a stupid amount of time, i tried my parts sites in Japan, but
they came back with the same thing. This was a tad annoying, but as it turns
out, for the best.

 After a bit of searching, I was put in touch with some suspension guys in
Mount Wellington. It turned out, once again, that things were falling into place
as was meant to be, as they were, literally, straight opposite my work's old
premises. Again, for the sake of the story, I'll change the names. I had a chat
to Sven about cars and things in general. He got a feel for what I was trying to
do and after a bit of careful erring and umming suggested a package of Tein
springs and Bilstein shocks.
Apparantly, these were waiting for another client of his, but the guy hadn't shown
up or returned any calls or emails. Sven quoted me a four figure sum and was a bit
taken back when I said: Is Wednesday good for you?

 I guess I should feel bad that I snaked the poor guy's gear, but as Sven said: If he
wanted it, he'd have come back to him. Something to note, and I'm sure that I'll be
asked this, I'm not a fan of adjustable suspension for road cars, it's un-necessary
in 90% of cases and even Sven agreed with me. He said that he'd happily put it in
someones car if they insisted, but he usually found that most normal road vehicles
worked just as well with improved, non adjustables. Hell, he even told me he knows
a good many pro drivers that use non adjustables! Crazy!

 The car was in and out in a day, the result being custom lowered and fitted, 25mm
lower at the front and 20mm at the rear. The handling response was improved hugely,
losing a lot of the body roll that was throwing me off in the corners. Absolutely
stoaked with the result and thoroughly reccomend Sven and his team...

 Sadly, this is where things start to go downhill...

[Apteryx]

Bastards! Botany is cursed, friend lost his Evo 4 there.... sad part was it was lined up to be handed over to the new owner in a few days and he had canceled the insurance!!! (Yeah dumb move) Sale price was agreed at $24,000. It was never seen again.

It's a good story man, time for the bad parts eh, it's like a drama novel now

[Ares Helix]

 It was around this time things were actually going well with my car. I should have
walked away, left it be with the healthy gains it had...
 Yeah right!
 Ok, so I mentioned above that the tuning site in Japan didn't have the suspension.
That didn't stop them taking my money though! So after a brief call to Japan (I
swear calling people is so much easier than emailing!) I was able to change the
order to a J's Racing rocker cover for my wife's S2000 and a full set of Endless
carbon-Ceramic, street brake pads.

 By this time, it was getting into Summer, and I had cottoned on to the Cannonball
Run, a new NZ motor event that was modelled on the classic 80's, Burt Reynolds
movie. I'd registered for it, and wanted to nut out a few small things before I got
moving with it.

 After another chat to Bob, the next suggestion to school up a bit more was a new
fuel pump. He did mention heat as an issue, and that moving to a front mount
intercooler would get me some good gains, but that wasn't the direction i wanted to
go with my ride. I suppose I should explain this some more, by saying I'm wanting to
keep the car, and its engine bay, as stock looking as possible.
 So this in mind, the next upgrade was the Fuel pump. This was sourced through Nismo
and placed on order through Bob. Meantime, the pads had arrived and been installed,
thanks to my super handy flatmate. Went for a test drive and HOLY HELL they were
loud! Mad squeaking from the pads! Ran this past my mechanic who said there wasn't
much to do, apart from slotted rotors, which he sourced and installed for me. Plus
braking, minus squeaks, great result! All that was left was to wait for Bob to get back
to me about the fuel pump and tune required.

 Have I mentioned my hatred of long waits?

 I finally got a call from him on the second to last Monday of the year, with the
Cannonball run fast approaching. He said he'd might be able to fit me in for the fit
and tune on their last day, and to call to confirm.

 I gave them a call on the day and they asked where I was... Never a good sign.
I rocked up, I left my car there to get the pump installed then tuned and, with a
mates help, made my way to my work. Five minutes after sitting down at my desk
I got a call saying: We can't install it, there's an amp in the way. They didn't want
to move it, so that was it, no dice!

 I re-booked in for the first week of the year and arranged with my mechanic to
pull the amp out for them...

[Ares Helix]

 I love it when you forget about stuff. It seems, as you get older, your memory
disappears almost as fast as your size M gear. Sigh. I negleted t mention something
quite important regarding the rebuilt turbo and should mention that initially I was
looking at a DC 5 Integra.

 Three things put me off the DC5: First the driving position being so low down,
meant visibility was very limited. Second, it was FF, not what I was after. Third
was price, same as a GTT. Sure it's a bit newer, but you do the math...

 Next, the turbo. When I took her in to get re-tuned, Bob asked where I had it
rebuilt. When I mentioned the guy's name to Bob, he looked at me as if I'd just
taken a dump on his shop floor. This is the moment I realisedthat Bob may not be
100% on the level with me, as everyone I'd spoken to, reccomended the guy I
went through, except Bob.

Ok, re-cap over, let's get on with things...

[Ares Helix]

 So Christmas 2009 came and went without much drama. Whilst my wife slept
in on Christmas morning, I intsalled the new, bright blue, J's Racing cover on her
S2000. Yup, that's about the maximum of my technical know how...
Well I could do a Pod filter I suppose, probably car stereo too.
Shortly after new year, My car was back at Ralphs, getting stripped down for the
fuel pump install and final tuning run. I was really amped! I dropped her in to Bob's
handed the keys over and was told they could install the pump, but couldn't do
the tune as the guy who was going to do it, was in hospital. Fair enough, but a
call or something to let me know woulda been good! So, I went home and got
calling people, to try to find both someone who knew how to tune a Power FC and
someone that could book me in on such short notice!

 A few hours later, I picked up the car from Bob's and headed back to Ralphs. Can
you say fuel pump! Even with the seats and other gear back in place you can hear
the thing! After calling nearly every tuning company in the greater Auckland area,
I finally found someone who could fit me in before the weekend's Cannonball run. He
mentioned that it may be a hike, as he was based out of the north shore. I don't get
this mentality. It's no reflection on him, but I mean i just don't find anywhere in
Auckland 'too far' to go for xyz reason. I guess having spent most of my life riding
busses (including heading from Torbay to a gf's place in Glen Eden on Christmas day)
being able to drive a car means that nowhere's really out of reach...

 I met up with Juan on the Friday and did some runs. When I first took delivery of the
GTT, it was making about 171kw at the wheels.
 After ther ECU replacement, at Bob's, it jumped up to around 207kw. Now we were
looking at about 220. I was happy with that!
 So after some pokes and prods she was ready. As previously mentioned, this is where
I found out how little a difference the active silencer made, as they removed it for the
final few runs. Should also say, without it in, the whole building was shaking!

 Dyno complete and tuning done enough to get me from a to z the next day...

[Apteryx]

I thought something mechanical was going to go wrong, just hassles with getting things sorted in time eh? So was there anything wrong with the turbo rebuilder or just 'Bob' didn't like him?

220kw at the wheels sounds like things are going well, interested to hear if you made the cannonball

[Ares Helix]

 The ninth of January, 2010 will always stand out as a great day in my life.
On a par with playing my first set as a dj, or getting any of my licences. I'd
been looking forward to the Cannonball run for a while now and today was
the day. I'd mentioned it to my Father-in-law and he'd signed up for it too,
taking their bright yellow MR-S. So it was, my flatmate, Drew, and cousin-in
law, Cameron, all woke up at quater to dot in in the morning and headed out.
The start/finish of the run was at the Albany Pub, on the north shore, so
was a bit of a hike to get there, but at that time of the morning, it was plain
sailing. I swear, nothing beats an empty mototrway, should say, wasn't speeding,
just so nice to have a clean run without all the muppets...

 We arrived sometime around 7:20ish to a sight that will stay with me for the
rest of my life. Pulling into the carpark we were greeted by a massive collection
of petrolheads and their beloved rides. Everything was represented, American
Muscle, European penache, Aussie GT cars and of course, Japanese tuners. I've
been to car shows before but this was different, I suppose because we were
going to be driving them, rather than just stand around looking at them! You could
feel the anticipation of the event and above all, a sort of comaraderie if you like,
of people united in the love of internal combustion...

 Ok ok, I'm getting a little wooly here, but it's hard to express the impact of the
day. After a safety brief from the event organizers, we returned to our cars and
started them up. I've heard few things as epic as a hundred odd pperformance
cars starting their engines at once!

 We were one of the last to set off and, after a brief Pit Stop at the local Albany
mall, we were on our way.

[Ares Helix]

 The first leg of the epic journey took us from the Albany pub to the newly constructed,
Hampton downs Raceway park, just south of the Meremere drag strip. Touted as the new
home for all things motorsport, everyone I'd spoken to at the initial meeting point, were
mad keen to check the place out. The trip was pretty straight forward, with most of
Auckland's police force out to wave us on our way, ok, ok, they were looking grumpy
and manning their laser detectors. I'd never seen so many police! They were everywhere!
That aside, the day was shaping up to be spectacular, not a cloud in the sky, good mates,
very loud beats and a fantastic sports GT to drive! I tell you, life doesn't get much better.

 We made good time to the track, and didn't speed once, not even when a Holden clubsport,
not part of the event, driven by (as far as I could tell) a drunk twelve year old in a peak cap,
decided it'd be fun to "take on the GTR!" next to him, bro, au, fulla.
 What a dick.
 I was restrained and didn't put the boot in, time and a place and all that...

 I can't say I've ever liked V8's from US based cars. V8 Ferrari's, astons and Mercs are fantastic,
hell even the Nissan and Toyota V8's haul ass. I guess I look at the figures of Fords and Holdens
and think; Well that's great, but, given the size of your engines, should those numbers be bigger?

 Anyhow, during this leg of the trip I noticed something in the tuning. The Power FC is linked
through to provide various info to the driver. Most of this is through the Hand Held 'Commander'
but engine 'knocking' is linked through to the dash's 'Check Engine' light. Now for those new to the
term, as I was when I heard it, knocking, or detonation, occurs when the fuel air mix detonates
before it's supposed to, which in turn forces the piston down before it's completed its full cycle.
Think of it like coming up for air and having a wave land right on top of you, not good. I got a couple
of these warnings flash up when i was overtaking a few cars, so decided it was best to drop the
boost back a bit to allow for *slightly* slower accelleration, but much safer running. Car seemed
happy with this and off we went!
 We arrived at the park, and Cameron, our group elected photographer began snapping pictures like
mad! The day had many events and challenges set out, some of which were picture based, some
of which were time related. He got some amazing shots of not only the cannonballers in all our glory
(for the day, we all had vinyl stickers applied, my Father-in-Law still has some on their MR-s) but also
the D1NZ cars that were there for one of the first drift sessions of the year.

 After about half an hour, we began to break ranks and headed for the next stop, Tauranga!

[Obbles]

tl;dr

[Scorched_onion]

And rex gets 1 more post to add to his mass number of shitty spam.



Btw post pics.

[Ares Helix]

 We left the Raceway park, and headed for our next stop, Tauranga. This wasn't
a timed stage, something we'd be thankful for later! After consulting the map, we
decided to head south on State Highway one to Ohinewai, then cut across to State
Highway 27. Again, this is where the Skyline shone, slicing through corners and
barrelling down straights. The only thing that broke our flow was a stop for a photos
of specific buildings on our list, which usually induced a quick U turn, snap, then back
on our way.

 We found ourselves following a Kitset Shelby Cobra, another one of the CannonBallers,
who I'd had a chat to earlier on during the day. At the time, he was getting to work
on the car, as he'd had a mishap with the front brakes on the way to the starting point.
This had forced him to remove them and change the balance of the brakes to the rear.
I'd asked if that would be a problem and his reply had been:
Not really, the front brakes don't do that much anyway...

 Fark!

 We headed through Matamata, then changed course to take us out to the coast via
the Kaimai ranges. As we reached the foot of them, it almost felt like the Skyline was
grinning, with the looming uphill passing lane. The cobra indicated and began to make
its way up the hill in the passing lane. With a smirk and a muttered, "Anything you can
do" I dropped a cog and we began our ascent!

 Now I'll give you this, it's not a pleasent stretch of road, but as mountain passes go,
it's not as bad as some! Still for your average family sedan or van, I can understand
the need to take things at a relatively sedate pace. The cobra and I, pressed up the
hill at a steady 100-110kph easily passing most of the others on the road. About half
way up we came across a pair of Subaru Impreza's that were overtaking at about 90ish.
A gap opened on the left and I followed the Cobra around them, and carried on to the
top, where we were joined by a Porsche, from memory, a Cayman S, not participating
in the run. He gallantly tried to keep up with the two of us for the downhill leg of the trip,
but given the lack of a permanent passing lane, he couldn't seem to get past the caravan
and light truck we encountered on the way down. Luck of the draw I guess, but the Cobra
and I were able to get past when they pulled into slow vehicle lanes.

 We both eased off after the run through the hills, and pitted for Fuel in Tauranga. We
had a brief catch up chat whilst grabbing some gas, and then headed towards the marina
to find a boat...

[mattnz]

Lol, "the front brakes don't do that much"

[Apteryx]

Fucking dodgy old cars man, sounds like my mini. Some times the brake pedal would just go right down to the floor and provide almost no braking. Had to keep readjusting the handbrake as they were linked :S