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| Current best dyno power figure: |
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15.0 seconds @ 98mph |
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- Page 1 - Page 2 - Page 3 - Page 4 -
September 26 - 2003
I'm glad to say I have located an excellent set of wheels which should arrive from interstate next week. They are Keiichi Tsuchiya designed Modex rims, 16x7 inch at the front, and 16x8 inch at the rear. Specially designed by the drift king for the S13 they are in 4x114.3 PCD, with offsets that sit them right out in line with the guards without spacers. Apparently they weight only about 5kg each too without rubber. Will update with pics as soon as they are on the car.
They should give plenty of room for brake upgrades, which is planned in the near future. I will be retaining the 4 stud setup, with either redrilled S14 discs with calipers (4 spot vs stock 1 spot), or possibly new DBA blanks drilled to 4 stud and matched to something like a Z32 300zx front caliper (4sp spot also). I will cover the conversion in pictures on the site.
I have also added a new page to update interior developments. The Bride seat pictures have been moved to this more relevant page, check it out - Interior Evolution.
September 22 - 2003
Not much has changed, the 180 continues to rack up reliable kilometres testament to how strong theses cars really are. A few mods are planned in the near future, as well as some updates to the site. Firstly I plan to fix an exhaust leak from a crack in the dump pipe, and during that time I will add a bigger 3 inch high flow cat. This is the only part of the exhaust system that is still small so hopefully I'll get a bit more response and power from the upsize.
Also on the shopping list is a fresh set of wheels. I am after something in 16 or 17 inch diameter that is at least 7 inches wide, preferably 8 or 9. Therefore they will sit very wide out in line with the guard lip, and hopefully have enough room to clear larger brake calipers.
Soon I will be updating the ecu tuning sections with a specific guide to ROM editor, as I have come across some excellent websites of late.
August 12 - 2003
I must say I am enjoying my new black car immensely, even though many do not understand the thinking behind the colour choice. "So what colour are you going to spray it? It looks like its in primer....", is a common response. Oh well, such is the downfall of continuing the drift style of the car in a country almost oblivious to it. Enhancing this image however, is my latest aquisition, a Bride Ergo seat.Once again because its not a Recaro people don't understand the attraction but some of you out there will know how desirable a seat like this is. Purchased privately from NissanSilvia.com it is once again an example of how valuble interenet resources are.
I didn't know which page to put the pictures on so I just put them on the Exterior Evolution page.
July 25 - 2003
The painting is finished! Finally I am not embarrassed by the appearance of the car for the first time since ownership. Please visit the Paintjob page to see the entire process in pictures. Big thanks to friends David and Jesse for their assistance. If all goes to plan I will be servicing the car in the next few days, so it will have a complete mechancal and aesthetic freshen up all at once. A great time for the 180, the only problem now is finding a new nick name as Green Machine no longer applies.
July 21 - 2003
The painting has begun! Daily updates on the Paintjob page can be found.
July 19 - 2003
Good news for the 180 in that it will finally be painted starting next week. I have purchased a new spray gun and more black paint and thinners, so I have all the materials needed. This time around there is a much more realistic chance of actually getting it done, as I have taken the entire week off work, and I have a good friend coming over o stay for the duration. The only thing that can spoil the party is the weather, so fingers crossed.
I'd like to give a wrap to Auto West in Penrith for the paint supplies. Not only are they about half the price of the generic auto stores, but the staff actually seem to know about painting and the products they sell. A pleasure to deal with. I picked up my new spray gun, 8 litres of pre-thinners mixed matt black paint, 20 litres of thinners (for the primer) and a few little things for $150, which is fantastic. The spray gun is a much better product than the previous unit I was using, and has a nicely constructed reservoir attachment (the part which broke last time), so no dramas there. I have some fresh batteries for the camera too, so I hope to update regularly. Wish me luck!
July 8 - 2003
About time for an update I think, it's been a long while. Over the last month I've found myself incredibly busy and poor, but things are starting to turn around now. I'm finally on uni holidays, which means it's time to get down to business of doing some things I've been wanting for a while. These include:
- The biggy is to paint that damn ugly car. I'm sick of being embarrassed in it, and attracting the wrong attention just trying to drive around normally. Cant wait to have a car that has looks to back up its performance.
All of this will hopefully happen in the next few weeks before I go back to uni, so it should be an exciting time.
One thing that occurred to me is that people must assume that I have had an accident when they see the silver guard and primered bonnet. I have the proof in the pictures on the Exterior Evolution page and I will post up a picture of the old green guard accident free when I can be bothered.
June 4 - 2003
Boost controlled was ordered, sent, received and installed. All the details are on the Blitz SBC iD II page. Hopefully soon I'll be able to dyno the car and take it down the quarter mile, should be big improvements in both areas. I ave been practising launches now for a long time, and have slashed my 0-100km/h times from long ago, so if the night is cold then hopefully I'll run a 13 second pass.
Also got a new pair of wheels for the back of the 180. 16x7 inch and very Japanese. Unfortunately even with spacers the offset was incorrect for the front, the tyre was fouling the coilovers spring. Damn shame because they would have looked awesome on all sides. Check out the Exterior Evolution page for pics.
May 20 - 2003
Still in the market for the boost controller, hopefully it will be in the mail in the next few days, I can't wait to install it in a custom location for maximum visibilty.
Over the last couple of days I machined up a nice little aluminium billet handbrake buttonto complete the handbrake modifications. I have creatd a new page showing step by step how to create a Drift Spec Handbrake.
May 12 - 2003
Well what a mess up! I started getting into the paintjob quite enthusiasticly, and as soon as I had gotten the spray gun settings worked out and the front bar and side skirts completely done, the spray gun started to have issues. First the paint feed became very inconsistent, with long periods of time inbetween paint spraying. When fiddling with the resevoir a small washer that holds everything together sheared off forcing me to adapt other means of supplying paint. These worked intermittently until a blockage encouraged me to hook up a second positive pressure feed to the paint line, which not only freed the line but sprayed huge chunks over the bonnet. Needless to say I was not impressed and whilst contemplating pulling the car out of the Autosalon, I heard the news that SilviaNSW would only be competing in the Final Battle later in the year. Laziness set in and then the car has stayed since that moment the way it appears on the Exterior Evolution page.
My focus turned to performance again and I have been saving and looking for a boost controller since. I originally planned to build a cheap manual controller as seen on Autospeed but a few fruastrating hours on the pnuematics suppliers website left me empty handed. I turned my focus to Japanese electric controllers, starting with a Greddy Profec B, then considering a Blitz dual SBC spec R, Apexi AVC-R type, and now finally a Blitz SBC iD-II. This will be the next addition to the car and I hope to have it asap. I plan to test it on the dyno for maximum safety, so hopefully my dyno dramas are over now.
April 16 - 2003
Things are about to start happening very fast for the 180, as it is confirmed it will appear in the Silvia NSW Club Display at the 2003 Sydney Autosalon. The cars that appear at the Autosalon are really not my type of thing, so we will be attempting to entertain onlookers with something refreshing and different. All I can say is that the emphasis won't be on airbrushing and huge chrome wheels.
Therefore it is time to start painting the car is the matt black I had always planned. I will miss the green, but I am proud to say I am not beinmg weak and switching to a 'nice' colour. There is no way to describe a matt black paintjob except as drift. In the same spirit I refuse to remove all the imperfections in the body, the only change I will be making is a new right front guard as the current one has always been cracked and will no doubt rust at some stage.
The exterior evolution will cover the progress of the paintjob, which I am doing myself in true drift fashion. I have limited time also so the job will be completed within two weeks. Sure to be a crazy time that's for sure.
A you can see I have moved the welcoming disclaimer to the very first page so it is not so usless and also to improve the function of this page. I have also created a new page for the cars current Specifications. This will simply list everythig about the car concerning modifications.
I have commenced work on my cold air induction setup too now that the old factory intercooler is gone, loo out for that page shortly too.
April 6 - 2003
The 180 is back with front mount installed, and driving very nicely. For the details, see the Intercooler page. Basically I am happy because many of the bad side effects of fitting a front mount have not happened to me. Firsty the car is not any laggier to drive, which is a big bonus. Secondly I have only lost a smidgen of boost, after hearing it would drop back to factory levels and drive slower. It definately doesn't drive slower, in fact it maybe even feels a little more eager to rev. Another bonus is that there is no difference at all without the BOV reagrding drivability. There is no lag between shifts, only a very nice flutter. The cooler is doing its job too, having driven the car hard enough the other nigh tto have the exhaust housing of the turbo glowing red, the core remaioned cold. The Inlet end tank was quite warm but the outlet end tank quite cold still. I eagerly await a hot day to see if performance will suffer as much as it did previously. Therfore the modification is a complete success thus far. I hope in the near future to build and install my boost controller to what power the standard turbo is good for at 12-14psi.
On another note I have changed the front bar back to the factory item. This is explained in the Exterior Evolutuion page.
March 31 - 2003
Through no fault of my own the intercooler installation was not completed on Friday, instead the car has had to be left at the workshop for the work to be completed. Therefore I will be unable to visually document the work on the car. Hopefully I will have the car back by the end of the week with lots of pictures. Due to pricing dramas it appears that I will not be running a BOV at the moment until I scrape up some extra cash to have a nice plumback system fitted. I originally wanted to reuse the factory BOV but apparently the labour involved would push the price past my limit. Anyways hopefullt good news to report in the next few days.
March 25 - 2003
Well the car made it on the dyno ok, but hte result was a quite disappointing. After trouncing the previous dyno run down low in terms of power and boost response, the top half of the rev range saw the power taper back to near the previous run with only a very minimal gain up top. Problem solving is about to go underway, and the problem and some possible solutions can be read in detail on the Dump Pipe page.
The car is still on track for its intercooler installation this Friday however so I look forward to that.
Also one day in the future I promise to stop being lazy and go through the site and fix up all my typos etc.
March 24 - 2003
The dyno is booked for under three hours away at Unigroup, so I will finally have a power figure post dump pipe. The bonus is that it is quite cool, unlike the first dyno performance. So at minimum I should get in one clean power run and hopefully break the 140kw @ wheels mark. With this colder weather maybe 145kw is realistic. Look for an update in the next few days with the latest power figure.
Also the car is booked in for Friday to have the intercooler installed so prepare for further updates.
March 18 - 2003
Modifications are finally happening to the 180sx, the first round of mechanical mods is starting to go ahead. Recently the fitment of an aftermarket dump/front pipe was undertaken, and the car is booked into having the front mount intercooler installed within the fortnight. I hope to have the car dynoed after every major step, to determine the effectiveness of each and every change. Therefore everything is documented to be used as a guide by others in their quest for increased performance. Hopefully in the next couple of days I'll have a new dyno figure.
A new page has also been added to follow any cosmetic changes to the car, and have newe images of the retrimmed front bar. So look out for this and the new front pipe and intercooler pages.
February 20 - 2003
A few minor changes have been made to the site, in terms of updates and cosmetics. The Tuning Theory and Parts Required page has had some extra link reinstated that were previously removed, namely various ROMs to be used with ROM Edit. All of the links have been changed to green as well to better match the design of the site.
The most important change is the addition of a new page that can be found by following the link in the top right hand box. This is a section devoted to pictures and videos concerning dyno and drag runs. Here proof of all performance claims will be available by way of timeslip or dyno graph, as well as additional media where possible.
February 18 - 2003
Its been a big last week for the 180sx. After running fine after repairs (costing ~$600 all up) for a few weeks, the opportunity came to have to car on the dyno and run down the quarter mile within a couple of days of each other.
My first drag meet was a lot of fun but ultimately frustrating. I have discovered that a stiffly sprung drift car is not a good launching drag car. After four runs on an average temperature night the best ET managed was 15.0. Traction in first gear was the culprit with the car simply lighting up both tyres the whole way until second. Positive however was my mph which was at a very nice 98 mph, faster than many cars running mid 14s. This hinted at the car's potential and its power output which would be known in a few days.
I will tackle the drags again soon, trying many old tricks to get some traction off the line and post the mid/low 14 second times the car should be doing. Tricks will be to soften the rear suspension, run less tyre pressure, more fuel, and to hopefully get some meatier rubber all together.
The Silvia NSW dyno day was a much happier event, even though the temperature was very warm and not ideal for turbo cars. The car made 132.7 kW @ rear wheels in fourth gear, a great figure for a car with only a cat back exhaust and $26 POD filter. Remembering that the stock flywheel output is 153kw and a stock car will normally make around 110kw @ rear wheels, it is reasonable to assume the car is now making approximately 180-190 kW using this same ratio. Of course the only way to know the engine power output is to use an engine dyno so its best to just stick to chassis dyno figures.
Next to come is a new high quality dump pipe, and then a very large front mount intercooler that is already purchased and waiting to go on. It seems the target of 160kw @ rear wheels may not be so hard to achieve at all. :)
January 29 - 2003
On the day that the wonderful club Silvia NSW turns one year old, they are kind enough to host this site as a sub-domain to get around all of the bandwidth problems with Geocities. Many thanks to the generous Mayhem for setting me up. Hopefully now I will be inspired to update constantly, and make the site something worth checking back on.
In 180sx land a breakdown was had the other night. What could have been major turned out to maybe be a blessing in disguise, still costing ~$500 but hopefully setting up the car for a long period of boosting to come. In short the keyway that spins the harmonic balancer had completely worn away from not being tightened properly in the past. This stopped the balancer from turning in time with the crank and therefore the alternator, power steering pump, air con compressor and water pump from turning. I stopped the car when I noticed it was overheating, and found that oil was leaking from the engine, Inspection showed that the balancer mating surface had been machined away and had created a cavity for oil to leak from near the end of the crank. As the engine as turned off immediately no damage was done so repairs should see the engine fighting fit. Hopefully I will have the car back at the end of the week. Thanks to too_much_boost for providing the parts needed for the repairs.
January 25 - 2003
Apologies for such a delay between updates, but on the brighter side this means that there is a lot to tell since last time. The biggest new is that of a new car! An opportunity arose to swap the non turbo Silvia plus cash for a SR20DET 180sx, in manual of course. Not just any 180sx, but a kermit green beaten up old drifter from Japan. Nicknamed the 'Green Machine', it has lived a hard life in Japan going sideways, but it sure to receive some more stick from myself hopefully going sideways again. I have big plans for the car which are allready in motion. Check out the page on the New Car for all of the details.
Some may be worried that the content of the site may shift, but it will be very similar still. The daughterboard is already in the new car and will be tuned after the front mount intercooler, front/dump pipe and boost controller go on. I am aiming for ~160kw @ wheels @ 12-14psi, which will be almost double the power of the old Silvia. The RB20 afm and other things intended for the Silvia will go on as well.
With this update I will upload the Chip Burning Process page, sorry to all those waiting to see how to use Progstudio. The ROM editor tutorial will go up as soon as the 180sx is tuned on the dyno, as well as the Tuning Theory page.
The new daughterboard spoken of in the last update is still in progress but very slowly, as it is not an official work project for the designer. Either way it will be here eventually and so will information on it and how it works.
As for Badbiki he has just released an Emulator, which unfortunately I am unsure of the details of, so give him a bell at: badbiki@bigpond.net.au. This update will also end the period in which I have been organising the daughterboard orders on his behalf. I have changed the link for the ordering to his email, all else is the same.
Anyways an exciting time, so watch this space!
November 9 - 2002
In the near future the website will be upgrading to a proper domain and server. This will be www.s13silviatuning.com. This is due to the success of the site constantly maxing Yahoo GeoCities' data transfer limits. Several big things are on the horizon, the least important a site redesign, now that I have a little more time on my hands. Much more effort will be put into the look of the site in total this time. A linking page will be placed here when the new site is launched.
More ECU and daughterboard pages will appear, as now more people have installed and tuned the boards on the dyno. In this regard the most exciting development is that of a new daughterboard from a new source. This daughterboard will use onboard RAM as opposed to EPROM chips. This means that the map data is stored electronically, with a small battery involved to prevent data loss should the car's power be disconnected.
The best thing about the new board is that it interfaces directly with a laptop for excellent ease of tuning. Hopefully the new daughterboard will be able to be configured for S14s and S15s as well, as I have had many inquiries about daughterboards for these cars. Overall it should be a great product that will be available from this site on completion. As for the price it should be very similar to the Badbiki daughterboard.
- THE BEGINNING! -
