Skyline Mk2

[Gambit]

Cheers for the offer Cpt Drift, but I think I got it covered


Just a quick update

In pieces again



Hopefully I should have more updates on it afer the weekend.

[Gambit]

Well, next mods are almost done and I've now just got a few bits left to sort then tweak the map to suit them

You may remember a few years ago I had a few mod's done to my last 33,



including this shiny lump.



Well, I thought it would look better here




I managed to buy back my old turbo (HKS 3037) for a bargain price and got straight onto organising getting it fitted. Thankfully I'd kept a few bits from the last one which made it easier. Spent more time and money on eBay/Turbo dynamics getting in some bits and bob's including exhaust manifold gasket, exhaust gasket, oil drain flange, screamer pipe flange.

Loaded up and drove over to SP on the 11th, and set about breaking the car.

First job was stripping out all the old bits, so drained the water (most of it into buckets ), removed the downpipe, all the cooler pipes and with some persuasion from a very large pry bar off cam the manifold+turbo+elbow. I know the studs were only replaced 18months ago but I was still very surprised that none of them snapped.



Next step was removing the IAC valve and throttle body so I could get to the fuel rail. One of the things I kept from the old car was the lower half of the inlet manifold, with fuel rail and, quite handily, 740cc injectors. Took a few minutes and a bit of contortionism but it was a relatively straightforward swap over. Except for the two bolts holding the fuel pressure regulator on, they decided they were quite happy where they were. The chisel showed them the error of there ways.

But the biggest problem was the bolt at the back of the head holding on the water line. I thought Andy was exaggerating how bad it was but, no, he wasn't.

Anyway, with everything stripped off I left the car at SP for the week, giving Andy plenty of time to make up the oil and water lines for me ready for next Saturday.

[Gambit]

Went back today and made quite a bit of progress, going from...



to...



Though that wasn't easy. Due to the fitment I had to fit the turbo to the manifold first and then try and squeeze everything into the engine bay. In the end I took off the nut on top of the engine mount and attached an engine hoist. Lifted it up an inch and it eventually slotted into place. This was great until I realised the shield on the engine mount had to be trimmed down.... and so did the mount.



Bit of a tight fit but it's in there



One air sawing later and a lot of spanner work resulted in...





Big thanks to Andy W for letting me use his workshop and tools, Al Star for helping get the manifold+turbo in the engine bay, Kriss for the scissor Jack and Becks for the chocolate. Though I hear I need to have words with you about some free dessert

Next parts will be the custom elbow/downpipe that Mad Dog is sorting out for me, along with the oil drain. Then tighten up all the oil and water line and re-fill all the coolant. Not sure how yet but the intercooler pipework needs some attention so I can fit the inlet pipe and AFM back on. Fit the screamer, plumb in the boost controller and sort out the E-Manage.

Hoping to have all that done next Saturday, and I have the next mods lined up ready for while she's sat there

[Al_Star]

i really thought it wasnt going to fit

[Gambit]

It had got to the stage where it was going to fit even if I had to perform a minor technical adjustment to the chassis with a big hammer

[Gambit]

Well it's nearly finished

Got to SP this morning and started off with a pressure test on the cooling system, which resulted in a litre of coolant on the floor thanks to a hose going hard. It just had to be the one at the back of the head though.
Got that fixed nice and quickly and cracked on with the rear diffuser while Mad Dog got on with making me a new front pipe.





and the end result...



To say I'm happy is an understatement, perfect fit and has made the exhaust note at idle a little deeper too.

While that was being done, I concocted this little project




Bit of a sod to put together but I think the overall effect works very nicely, just need to attach the sides properly and spray it black to match the bottom of the spats.

So what's left? Not much. Just need to fit some heat proof matting around the aircon pipes and on the chassis rail by the screamer pipe. I'll be going back to SP at the end of the week to take care of these bits and hopefully change the gearbox oil. Then it's a fun drive home re-mapping the fuelling as I go. Should be done before I hit Southwick tunnel

[Captain Drift]

Any more news on this?

[Gambit]

Not much in this weather lol

I've finished the fuel and ignition maps for stock boost (.7bar) next step is to do low boost (1bar) and hi boost (1.2bar) but that's gonna have to wait until it's dry as I'm road mapping. May have to wait until I sort out a replacement gearbox too as I have a horrible crunch going from 3rd to 4th at pretty much any rev's. Have had some Heavy ShockProof put in which has eased it so the car's now driveable but the synchro is gone. It came out with the gear oil

Though I have encountered a couple of glitches with the new setup. Well, one glitch really. The rain diverter I made up (yes the guttering) has a slight issue with the the external gate melting it. So I'm looking for a replacement for that, probably a metal plate bolted to the strut brace or some polyboard attached to the bonnet somehow.

The good parts are the the front undertray and rear splitter work brilliantly together, the car has never felt so stable at xxxxxxmph
Also, the turbo comes on nice and early, need to do some proper runs with the boost controller on but I'd say a bar before 3000rpm should be easy and thats on stock cams.

And I realised how much I missed a scremer pipe when I went through southwick tunnel chuckling as everything moved over

[Gambit]

Well, as I'm waiting for some better weather before carrying on with this project, I thought I'd put up some other project related things I did at the weekend. Think they came out alright in the end.

[Gambit]

Right then, nearly finished the interior now, just need to sort out some camera's and I'm there.


New stereo's in, gave up on fixing the original and this was an absolute steal on good old ebay. Fitted a cover panel above it to hide all the cables and to finish it off theres a USB port to the left of the ashtray for memory sticks etc.





Not forgetting the wireless networking dongle.



As my emanage is hidden behind the glovebox I've moved the indicator LED from inside it to the top of the instrument panel.
Quite handy as now I can see when it's throwing a strop, or flashing due to rev limit/knock etc etc.




I've finished setting up the interface for the pc as well, all touch screen controlled and provides access to the emanage software, clifford alarm control, Blatz software, wireless internet, around 2gig of MP3's and a few other accessories. I know I said I wasn't going to use it for MP3's etc but I figured I might as well as I'm fitting a new stereo.



With that all taken care of it was time for the lighting.




They go rather well with twin HID's




6000k for the main beam and 4300k for low beam. Might sound odd having two different ones but I have found the 4300k is a closer match for the colour of halogen and doesn't annoy anyone on the road in front of me.

I finally got hold of an apexi intake for sensible money. Having seen them going for £90 I think £50 including delivery from Australia was a good deal. As I was doing the lights it made sense to get it fitted. Seems to have freed up the intake as the revs now pull a lot smoother and with much better response. I've also noticed the car is much quieter with the Apexi compared to the HKS.

[Gambit]

While I was sorting the outside I decided to spray the diffuser black as I wasn't happy with how much it stood out stuck under the back end. So off came the diffuser,still attached to the spats to find she was running a tad rich, well I think it was I'm not 100% certain




One can of satin black paint later.




Adjusted the support bar as well as it had a habit of rattling against the exhaust when pulling away.





With all this extra electrical load and the cold weather I was having a few starting issues. As I'd already fitted a larger battery the only thing I could do was fit a 2nd one.



It's earthed straight to the chassis and the positive terminal is connected to the original battery though a 60amp fuse and 70 amp relay. Relay is triggered by the fuel pump switch so the two batteries are only connected when the ignition is in the ON position. This gives me a total of 104 amp hours and 1030 cranking amps, certainly spins the starter a bit quicker.

[Gambit]

Had a good drive out at the weekend to the Hampshire meet, starting the day like this...






And finished up with this...







The rear shots show the diffuser's having some effect.

And this picture show's it better, as it's trying to pull the spat down off the car. At least now it's settled in position I can bond and fill it properly now.




Also meant I had a good chance to tweak the maps, ignition timing and fuelling are now done until I can get on the dyno and do the full boost runs. After reading up on the Aussie forums I've tweaked the nvcs settings too to get some more top end torque. No figures to back it up but she certainly feels a LOT more responsive having it turned off at more than 25% throttle and permanently off after 4000rpm. Having it switched off at closed throttle has also given me a much more stable idle and got rid of a random stalling issue I had when parking.

[Trev]

She is looking great!

Where did you get the sidelights from?

[Gambit]

Cheers mate, as with most bits they came from ebay

eBay UK Shop - Green AUTO LED Light Bulb Specialist- Gxxled UK Center: Sports perfomance car lighting replacement

and the apexi filter came from

eBay UK Shop - JDM Tune:

[Chester Elegante]

Cracking project, just read it right the way through. Theres been a lot of thought gone in to it all.