The Blue Monster is awakening - good progress

This latest round of monster upgrades are nearing completion.

Went and checked on the car today, and am extremely happy with the results so far! They are making excellent progress, and today in particular, I was extremely impressed with the work they have now completed. Its looking bloody fantastic.

They have now:
- Finished die-grinding and smoothing the manifold inside and out, it looks a lot smoother and very nice, just needs some HPC coating now.
- Mounted the intercooler in place, and make some very cool grommet things and this custom rail thing to attach it. Looks fantastic. Its rock solid and now acts at the support for the radiator support panel - i.e. replacing that factory skinny metal thing that runs vertically.
- Made this awesome custom made very smooth gradual charged air outlet for the turbo. Its bolted up, and ever so smoothly changes the turbo exit diameter up to the larger 2.5" inlet size of the intercooler. This is positioned so that you only need a single silicon 2.5inch: bend to join the turbo to the cooler now. Much simpler pipework than before, very happy with this.

Double-dump pipe is being made now, it will be a 2.5" main dump exit, a smaller wastegate exit, then both merging into the final 3" size as per my old dump pipe. This one though now has a much smoother clearer exit path, so it will be less tight of a bend, can't wait for that.
Also being made is the custom pipe to the air filter, with some metal needing to be removed from the frame that sits behind/around the headlight. This is so the pipe doesn't foul and can bend very smoothly. The Air Filter is going exactly where I always wanted it to be. I will quite easily be able to hook up a heat shield for the air filter now if I want to. They are also changing how the wastegate is mounted slightly so it suits the new rotation of the turbo. All of this completed by Friday, and then just the manifold and dump sent off to be HPC coated. So will have the car back end of next week. Then I just need to fill it up full of coolant, pump the brake linkes thoroughly, register it, screw on the number plates and drive down to a dyno to give it a run and have it tuned.

Here's some very ordinary photos that I took with a mobile phone. Should have taken my proper camera up, but when the car is back, I will get a pile of really decent ones, of the whole car in fact, as so much has changed during this latest round of changes.

New mounting position of the turbo, you can see the nice custom charged-air outlet cone and how simple the pipework is from it into the intercooler..

A closer view of the custom cone thing.

Intercooler centrally all mounted up, and the very tidy custom mounting rail that the guy made up on top of the intercooler. Complete with rubber grommets above and below the intercooler, so its very firm, but also cushioned and can't make an ounce of noise or have any harsh impacts etc.

A top view shot, showing the new offset position of the turbo relative to the engine and the direct pipework from that to the intercooler. Everything is so direct now, I'm loving it.

It also shows the large amount of space this setup now has coming out the back of the turbo where it will then descend vertically into that large 3" flange you can see there.

Note: The dump will actually come out across to the right horizontally further than that flange to give it the nicest curve possible. Then it will kick back in to end up where it meets the flange:

Final shot. This one better shows the new positon of the turbo. You can see where the pipe to the air filter is going to be, just right behind the headlight with just a slight bend being needed on that pipe.

Ahh T28BB long throw just sitting there all in place just waiting to be fired into action.

looks awesome cisco, can't wait to check it all out when its together..

w000, fantastic! on another note > I compared Tom's brake booster to how i remember my old one and the new one and his is a little squishy (definatly not firm like mine is) but hardly as bad as my old one was, i remember mattys was rock solid > After driving Tom's car i believe you'll definatly benefit from a SLX booster or getting yours looked at. Simply because i'm now running the smaller slx booster with N14 2.0l brakes and have a firmer pedal than a Super S with Std Brakes,

Alex

would that because the caliper pistons are larger?

I mean harder pedal feel as opposed to firmer feel (have to press harder for same braking performance to standard micra)? (I'm just about to put 2.0l brakes in, and would like to know)

did you know the the blue monster with prev tested kw and weight has a higher power to weight ratio to most sports cars... like the lotus elise.....by almost 50%.

That intercooler looks like its on anabolic steroids also.
Looking good Cisco and are you going to get it dynod ?
Would be VERY interesting.
Hmmm brake pedal pressure. After fitting the Pulsar front discs and leaving the rest stock standard pedal pressure was firmer. In fact it feels better than before. Certainly stops a lot better and while prssure is firmer pedal does not have to travel as far.
This is with rear drums. I am sure they do bugger all but I know I can outbrake, corner far better than most cars.

Definately going to get a dyno tune and run.
Yeah will be interesting. Will have to pick one of the cooler days, I don't want it on there at 30+degC heh.

Thanks a lot Alex. That's awesome. Brake boosters and larger brakes are a funny topic. Because if you put brakes that have larger pistons, it should mean that the pedal travels further, as it now has to push out more brake fluid to fill up the new bigger pistons with the same old master cyl. But maybe the 1.6 pulsar brakes have the same sized pistons as micra brakes, but because they have more surface area they are more effective. Interesting stuff.

The AD22VF brakes I'm sure have larger pistons. So they should make the pedal have to travel further, i.e. feel more spongier. Even though braking performance is improved, you just have to move your foot further in. But I'm impressed with your results Alex, because as you say, a rock hard pedal feel, that is exactly what I want. With the big brakes, that would be the killer setup.

I'll look into the performance of my booster when I get the car back. Got me so curious and keen to fix it now mate!

yeah worth a try, maybe give the white superS a brake fluid flush and swap its booster onto yours too try out, either way, im so impressed now :D

Alex

Allright some more progress.

This place is certainly on the ball aren't they.
Every time this guy has told me that he would have something done by a particular day, I have strolled up there and its actually been done. I've almost fainted each time, expecting "nah sorry mate, too busy etc.. like everywhere seems to be thesedays", but he's been really awesome! Can recommend the customer service for sure. But I'll do a write up at the end of all this work with proper photos etc.

So literally, the manifold and new double-dump pipe have gone off for HPC coating as of Monday. Should be all bolted back into the car as of about next Friday, when I get to tow it back home and prepare for starting the engine!

Just a couple of very minor things remaining. One is making a small bracket to support the turbo to take some load off the manifold. Another is to make the splitter in the double dump pipe better. Its going to be the same as what my old dump pipe had, that wasn't done yet.

Some photos of the progress:

This shows the new alloy intercooler piping in place between the intercooler exit and the side-entry plenum.

Its all 2.5" diameter alloy, and nice direct path now that the battery is out of the way. Relocating the battery is such a top move.

This is the cool custom turbo charged air exit that I spoke about previously in this thread..

How cool is it. Such a nicely smooth increase in diameter. The guy in there made this by hand by starting with a tube of the larger diameter, putting in a slice down it long ways, then folding it into a cone shape and then welding the seam closed. Very cool custom work. It ends up as 2.5" diameter at the large end.

Another..

They also modified and fixed up the mounting of my wastegate actuator. Very tidy job. Looks great, no ugly welding etc.. And located in a perfect position on top of the turbo for easy access.

A final image showing the turbo with the dump in place and a couple of the other pipes hanging off it.

Isn't that a phat dump.

You can see the new pipe from the turbo inlet to the air filter. Its alloy, starts off at 2" diameter (the same as the turbo's inlet diameter), and then expands to 2.5".

The reason it is a bend straight away is to bend behind the headight, then it can expand and meet to the air filter out of the way of everything. There's a couple of slight bends but its pretty almost straight considering the tight space constraint and its very short. So happy with this. It is going to look tidy once all installed.

I should also be able to remove that side headlight and plonk the filter right on the end of the turbo if I ever had the need, i.e. at a racing day or something. Haha.

That's it.. Next week, I'll have some really decent full size photos available when I get the car back, and everything has been HPC coated and installed.

Almost there, wow can't wait to kick her over once again and go for a spin.!

sweet!

"take her for a spin"

Isnt Blue Monster a boy?

:-P

Not long now mate, Should bring her for a strap to Willowbank (just outside of Brisbane).

It won't be long till winter hits.

Whered you relocate the battery to? Inside the centre console? Or some other mystical location?

Commodore drivers should fear the day that Monster hits the streets. :)

i think any car should fear when BLUE MONSTER hits the streets or anywhere lol.

looking good cisco

Napster

Hi cisco...may i check what intercooler are your using as they seem small and compact....just for march....I would like to check if S13 intercooler will be able to suitable for our k11 (enough space?)

really cool progress, cisco.... only thing is people will walk by your car with the bonnet up and say "looks stock" and walk off ........


2 weeks later you'll drive away from them and they will have that emu look on their face. :)

Manifold and Dump pipe are coated now.

Were posted back on Friday, haven't arrived yet. So awaiting that crap to show up, then the car can be re-assembled.

End of the week now.

Hurry up you piece of shit car!

I dropped in and checked out all the coated parts yesterday.

I must say, the coating came up brilliantly.

Better than the last black coating which had some small crow's feet on it. Very happy, it makes the parts look really great.

I *should* be towing the car home tomorrow. We'll see..

Yeah I reckon..hurry up already man :)

Yeah the car's home now. All done.

I have a pile of things to do to it now.

Its absarlutely filthy, needs a big wash.

A whole pile of stuff I will do to it this weekend, oil change, tip in some coolant, tighten some random bolts up, needs a new pod filter now, fit the oil feed and return linkes.. Blow away the cobwebs etc.

It only has a factory T28BB wastegate actuator on it now, so it won't be making big boost until that gets changed and dyno tuned etc. But will be good enough just to cruise even at 7psi for a while again.

Ahh. This car runs my life.

Oh happy days!!
Soooo close now Cisco. Get Bluey 100% fired up and looking forward to a dyno read out.

Hehe.

Got it running. Battery absolutely dead flat. Its just running right now in the garage, just idling over etc..

Good old HUGE current AC Delco battery from the white super s did the trick with jumper leads.

I hooked all the oil and coolant lines up, installed the intercooler and air pipes, installed the wastegate actuator, tipped in some coolant hmm what else - some other crap..

Its good to hear all those familiar old sounds.

I still have no air filter, but I'm about to just whip down my street and back up again (no number plates doh!) just to see if it makes any spooling noises.

No air filter, so not the best thing to do, but just very quickly, i.e. ONCE about 50m.

Also installed the Japanese console cover that I'd had waiting here from a friend in Japan. Its the proper factory cover that sits snug around the cup holder unit. Looks much better than the hacked up one that I'd cut myself.

Tomorrow I'll install the sparco pedals, and see what I can work out re:air filter.

sounds good cisco, although i don't condone all the driving with no plates or filter!

lol

but without a filter its gonna go like a rocket!!

can't you just jack the front wheels up? did that with my motorbike and a couple of bricks... well dodgy lol.

i hope the beast is back on the road soon :)

did you track down what drained the battery or was it just lack of use?

Bahahah!

I actually remembered that I had my battery unplugged, because its now under the seat. Just totally forgot about that and connecting it again. Any wonder it wasn't holding any charge even after running for 15 minutes! Teeheh.

Also forgot this car had an alarm, the reason why the engine wouldn't start first go until I disabled the alarm.

Man I am so out of touch.

Yeah went for a spin just very quickly, only in my street down 50m, then turned around and came back. The wastegate actuator is not hooked up properly, I need a little outlet fitting from the compressor to hook up to it with some rubber hose.. But I accelerated a tad up my street and *just* heard the blow off valve vent a tiny amount of boost.

Definately straight off the bat seemed laggier than before, but because its not really sorted yet, I don't know if that's only temporary. My gut feeling is that this turbo will be laggier like that even once the car is sorted. Top end long throw!

So when are you ordering the dry sump kit?

http://www.micra.com.au/community/message.php?messageid=11880#latest

:P


On the topic of evil alarms I want to upgrade my existing one. I don't think I'd be able to cope with charlotte being stolen. And it just happens when you least expect it too. :(

have you got the boost controller hooked up?

Evade, well its hooked up, but there's no outlet fitting for the rubber tube from the compressor to feed the charged air into the wastegate actuator, so no its not really hooked up heh. But apart from that it all is. So the wastegate controller is not working effectively. But that will be easy to sort..

A few minor things to do, but at least I can give it a real nice clean up and get it ready to take to a dyno place and have the wastegate actuator setup properly for the boost levels I want to run.

Hey woohoo, should be able to run some nice top end boost now.

Can't wait Cisco, can't wait. What will the Monster churn out now?
What you reckon Cisco ??

Nothing with a deadflat battery! haha.

The odyssey is DEAD FLAT.

This is what happens when idiots have your car for 3 months at a time. Oh well.

I have the battery charger onto it now, see what that does.
Letting it idle and using the alternator was certainly not doing any good at all.

The multimeter says she's putting out a huge 2.5v hah.

Charging, charging..



Hmm well say it was all tuned up etc etc. I reckon it would crack 150kw@wheels this time around. But we'll see. It might be a lot laggier too, but the good thing is that this turbo will handle any kind of reasonable boost and it will just last forever.

Still haven't washed it, first job tomorrow, hopefully if the battery works, it can drive out to the driveway and back for a wash!

If anything, it will be great to truly compare a T25 and T28BB setup. I'll know how they both drive from first hand experience, no more of this reading all these threads and trying to have a guess etc..

If the T25 is better, easy for me to pull out this turbo and bolt a T25 back in, but if this one is better, then we're laughing.

150kw. Zoiks that is Godzilla stuff.
Could not imagine a Micra pumpimg that sort power.
Buckle up and hang on.
Yeah be interesting to see if any diff between the 2 turbos.
Anyway when it does kick in you had better have a neck brace on. ( If I ever get to sit in the passangers seat remind me to take the false teeth out)

hello 12 second quarter miles..

Hey cisco!

Don't worry, the turbo's only lag-city because the controller isn't hooked up yet. The more boost you run, the less response time there is...

Dude! Fly by my house when you're done I wanna see it again...

Mighty would have killed it... :(

Sean

after this is done have you any idea of what 'psi' you will be running on max. interested because ive alot of people over here that think micra's will never be able to 'out do' other cars performance wise. i have told them about blue monster presentley at 17psi, what will it be after you have completed what you are doing know, estimate obviously.

Sean, I don't even know if its lag city yet, I literally drove 50m down my street and back with no number plates on at midnight, haha.

No, with the boost controller not hooked up, my wastegate is closed, which means zero boost gets vented, so it would be just like running maximum open boost. But again, I wasn't even driving fast enough to even know heh.

Overnight, yay the batteyr charged. I woke up this morning with some good news from the battery charger, all LEDs lit up! So that meant the car was able to drive out to the driveway and back..

Yay the car is washed now. Looks slightly more presentable, needs a good polish though.

A bit of SO-EASY on the tyres, and away you go.

Have to check everything, like tyre pressures, just been so long since its been on the road. Gee the clutch and lightweight flywheel bite a lot harder more suddenly than the white super s, really noticed that again. I.e. stalled it a coupla times before getting used to it again.

Before I can come for a drive Sean, I need:
- Air filter
- Rego
- Dyno tune and wastegate hooked up

But keen to soon!

Mate, mighty doesn't stand a chance, get your head out of the clouds, and besides you sold it anyway.



Hey an awesome thing I just noticed about this turbo..

I had it idling in the garage.. Then the turbo timer turned the car off, I could hear the turbo spinning gradually slowing down for like 10-15 seconds after power was cut.!! I shoved my head down to look up the compressor inlet, and sure enough, the thing is still spinning very fast.

That was awesome, just from idling.. This is ball bearing!

Allright. Just fixed a problem that car has had for so long. And so damn simple..

Previously, occasionally, the throttle would get stuck, like a bad stiction.. It would get stuck basically at idle rpm.. So when you put your foot back down, you would feel the pedal stuck, so then you would have to jab it to free it up, but that would then make the car jerk badly!

It was the butterfly at the start of its travel kind of biting into the side of the throttle body if it was released sharply, like slap throttle-off etc.. then the butterfly gets stuck..

All it needed was this tiny screw that was missing in my throttle body that sets a bottom limit to its travel. I found a spare screw that was perfect and wacked it in there and adjusted it perfectly. Now I can't even make it get stuck deliberately with my hands. Perfect!!!

Also polished up all the alloy pipework, fuel rail, intercooler and strut brace. We're getting there.

Man the stereo pumps. I've never had it turned on with the engine running, I installed it last time when the car was already off the road.. Only have front splits in there with an amp so far, but the clarity and supporting bass is really awesome. Can't wait to get the rears put in.

sounds awesome..then you can come for a cruise down melb lol

i'd love to see some lil video's of blue monster, boosting arond Canberra when its all sorted (in the day time:P). i hope the road runs smoother for you as you finalise everything.

Yeah defo keen to cruise down to melb.!

Ahh I won't know myself. Be so great to have a nice stereo pumping and smooth delivery of power to boot.