More progress today

Wow what a productive day - FINALLY:

1. Raised suspension to maximum fully legal height.


2. Successfully completed battery relocation by securely mounting the charged positive wires and associated fuse boxes and electrical garbage in the engine bay. Came up reasonably tidy and very safe / short-circuit proof.


3. Finalised by non-ABS brake conversion. One of the brakes was still full of air and oil fluid. Found the culpurate and now the pedal feels great and the car actually stops.


4. Got up under the dash to the brake pedal offset adjuster thing, and adjusted some play out of the pedal movement. My stupid local brake shop never even told me about this adjustment, I found it when changing master cylinders recently. You can get rid of some of the play in pedal movement before the brakes really engage. Pedal feels really good now. Small amount of movement before the brakes engage solidly.


5. Completed the mounting of the intercooler. It wasn't really inline with where I wanted it and the bonnet wasn't closing properly. All fixed and sorted now, looking good. Now the grille actually fits back on so yay the grille is back on and it looks rad! Like a working car!


6. Found air/oil separator drain pipe has come lose, so slipped that back on and mega tightened mr hose clamp. This was causing the car to splutter and idle/drive like an absolute pig. Because air was being sucked back up through the separator into the engine, kind of bypassing the turbo and normal path of air. Really confused the ECU or something, anyway idles like a dream now.


7. Cleaned the rust of all 4 brakes that had appeared from sitting out the back of the exhaust shop in the rain on occasions.


8. Got up under the back of the car and removed the rear ABS sensor lines. Once you undo enough screws, you will actually eventually get to this beautifully tidy plug and you simply unclip it and both pairs of sensor wires come out in one big tangles octopus. This is up kind of above and next to the fuel tank. Yay for Nissan.

Gee I think that's about. Anyway, great feeling of the car actually being quite close to driving once again now..

Some of these crazy things, are things that I've been wanting to do for years. This latest downtime has really been a massive block of do absolutely everything, and the car doesn't drive again until its PERFECT. Will be a whole different car when its registered.

good to hear things are going forward...finally..hehe

Just be careful when adjusting the rod that runs from the pedal to the master cylinder, as it needs a small amount of freeplay. If it gets over adjusted you can cover up the compensator port in the master cylinder & run into all sorts of trouble with not being able to bleed the brakes. The compensator port allows the air to escape from the seal brake system & into the resivour.

It's great to hear your ironing out the bugs, its some much fun isn't it :P. Can't wait for it to get fully back on the road. It's the inspiration I need to finally get off my butt & turbo mine :)

how do you adjust the break pedal, would be nice to do a guide as when you put the bigger brakes on a lot of play is a common problem

Generally I adjust the rod so that it has about 1mm of freeplay before the pedal pushes the rod to the master cylinder. By that I mean 1mm between the rod & the back of the master cylinder. You do this to ensure that the rear piston seats back fully as the compensator port only opens when the piston is fully seated back.
I will see if I can dig up some old tafe text books which have a pic of how a master cylinder works. When you see how it works you will understand why that tiny bit of freeplay is important.

Went for a quick drive today, legally with a 1 day rego permit.

Got a 2nd resonator put into the exhaust. Now its a fraction quieter and sitting *just* on 90Db with the car popping a bit because of tuning etc. Without those pops it should come in just under 90Db and pass hopefully.

Sounds a bit quieter/smoother, so happy with it.

On the way in we were building zero boost. Then found out the wastegate actuator rod was a fraction too sloppy, not holding the gate COMPLETELY closed, so all boost was bypassing. Then I bent the rod and made it hold it tighter, and we built about 5psi, but still not perfect.

Then got home and coolant pissing out of the red hot turbo everywhere, something not OK with the coolant lines, either rubbing on something or burnt on something and now a leak. Perhaps a hose clamp come off. Anyway, will go and suss that out in a sec.

Anyway, getting there. Definately quite laggy in this form. But will go for another spin soon with the actuator fixed up to hold it firmly closed and see what it drives like then.

was it really red hot? damn that sucks..more little pissy issues to deal with..

hopefully they are all easy to sort out and you are back on the road soon

Ah ha all sussed out. Nah it wasn't actually glowing red, just lots of steam as the coolant bubbled out and boiled etc. Just the coolant it was..

Water feed line had drooped way too low and got caught into the alternator belt. Chewed up completely, not much coolant left.

Got fresh 13mm heater hose and ran a new turbo coolant feed line. Routed that a smarter way so it clears everything now. Topped the coolant back up (lots was gone, lucky I wasn't on a long drive) and now we're back in business.

This time also clamped the wastegate thing into proper position and put on the little circlip that was missing and now we're in business. Building very decent boost off the T28BB without any form of boost control at this stage.

Air filter pipe, air gaskets still not sorted, but those are minor things to come, so its kind of sucking air in through a bad pipe and also from around the temporary pipe seal to the turbo - again fixed soon.

Anyway, even at this early stage, it feels a bit laggier than the T25. But to be expected I think. But its not HUGELY different, just a bit and you can notice it. But at the same time I also have 2.5" diameter full intake pipe and big intercooler now, so there would be more lag from filling those up aswell heh.

Now the big difference, when it does come on boost, wow its down to business. A whole new non-linear feel. I was flooring it along around 4000rpm pulling about 10psi, but then it really came on and flew up to 16+ psi or something and wam the whole thing hyperdrived into the future - zoom.

This thing has some big top end once it gets going.

No more coolant leaks.

Haven't put it on a dyno yet, so only did that once. But I reckon mixtures should be pretty safe though, its been tuned with MAP sensor up to handle 17psi etc, should be not all that different. Drove completely smooth the whole way, mixture meter looked pretty happy.

Some terrible resonance from the exhaust still at 3000rpm, shakes the whole car. Used to do that also. HAVE TO get that fixed, its enough to kill you. Exhaust a bit quieter than before, but still vibrating around a bit.

Also, I started on my wooden rear floor last night, its halfway there, going to finish that tonight. Its different to ghetto's design.

Car has the potential to make the big top end power now I'm sure, feels pretty crazy once it gets moving, and I have only been mucking around so far too.

Booked in on 1 March with a performance guy who is going to finish off the air filter details and run it over the dyno. Then we'll be almost off to attempt to pass inspection from rego.

Great news Cisco, nearly there. Hang in there.
Bluey now has an afterburner.Man what a monster.
Whitey on the dyno tomorrow !!!

Sounds great Cisco everything almost complete and comming together nicely.

Just wanting to no where did you go to find out the db reading? and what does it cost? Have tryed to find out before but with no luck,From memory the limit for a car of that era the db limit is about 85.

Also what psi boost are you hopeing to run when all sorted?

What ever it runs it sounds like it will be bloody quick.

Most good exhaust shops will have a decibel sound meter thing. Make sure you stick it right up the end of the tail pipe, that's what the guys at the inspection station do!

Not sure re:desired psi boost. My goal is to make good power and drivability, with the turbo pushing out reasonably cool air and being efficient. If I can make really great power without going berzerk on the psi, that would be ideal. I.e. if 15psi could make the same power as what the T25 made on 17psi, then I would love that, because it means the car is running very safe and reliable with nice cool air. Could pump it up to 18-20 or something for special occasions perhaps heh.

Good luck whitey, go get 'em.

haha thats awesome mate, the whole wizzing up to 16psi is awesome.

is that just bypassing the boost controller for now? it'll boost a whole lot better once its on there.

also thats the great thing about having a MAP setup..since its tuned based on what pressure you are sensing it should still be pretty close! although depends, if its pressure vs revs there might be a few differences since it is going to be boosting in a different range compared to the old turbo.

get it on a dyno and have the a/f's checked asap!

Yeah defo agree heh. Dyno is critical. Still not registered, so next time it drives will be to the dyno. Yay!

Need an air filter pipe like your factory looking one in the manifold thread. That's an awesome pipe. My current one is a shocker!

Hey almost finished my rear cargo tray this evening.
Looking hot! Complete with flip-flop flap to hide all your tools, sunshields and various other crap underneath.

its AWESOME. Thanks to ghetto for ideas and inspiration. Mine is a bit different though, but I'll finish it off tomorrow and take some pics.. Got some fine tuning to do plus carpeting it tomorrow.

Cisco, maybe you should sell up and settle for a Tiida? *JOKES*

What is the general reaction to the Tiida finally arriving in Oz?
MR18DE 93kW 6spd man AU$19,990
How long before people start fitting the MR20DE, or for that matter, when is Nissan going to fit it?
At least the MR18DE is an improvement over the QG18DE.

I guess if you guys were ever going to get Primera or Micra it would have happened by now.

Tiida ikk..

Well they truly tried to market it by paying that Kim bird $1 mil to market the car with her legs hanging out all over the place..

They kinda look reasonable I think, I really don't know much about them. But I would just say, for someone like me, I basically ignore any of these cars that are brand new and make less power than a 1992 pulsar 2.0. I know the emissions and torque (vvt) have gotten much better, but peak power has really gone backwards hasn't it. Well, just not gone forward anyway.. They need to give these smaller cars a bit more grunt in my opinion. What about a 1.6T or a 2.0litre etc etc.