200sx stuff

2006-07-06T13:47:00.000+01:00

200sx stuff

Now Breaking !!

I have had enough of the SX, It has been a superb car but it is time to move on, the car owes me a lot more money than it is worth and the best way to get back some of that value is in parts so it will never be a car again...

if you want anything on it please see this thread on the SXOC..

http://www.sxoc.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=224455

Cheers
Steve

head time

2006-05-02T14:28:00.000+01:00

200sx stuff

Hi all,

Just a quick update, after changing the big ends and main bearings, we noticed it didn't sound too much like a 200sx on tickover, in fact it has always sounded more like a scooby, so the compression was tested revealing no compression on cylinders 1 & 4. this is quite a common occurence on CA engined cars of this year, the valves sink into the head letting gasses escape at low revs, and once you are pressing on there is sufficient compression for it to fire. however, there will be a drastic reduction in performance as a result and most of the time the car would be overfuelling horribly, no wonder I always stink of petrol after driving it !

so I removed the head, and gave it to my mate Ged to rebuild in his tea breaks. 3 days later it was all done and handed back to me to fit.

I have fooked something up here and the car will not run. I suspect I have fitted the timing belt a tooth out as we have fuel and spark so I can only assume that it is timing, even pull starting it wouldn't work.

I am getting married next weekend so it will be a while before I get chance to work on it again. I'm hoping it willbe sorted soon as I want to run it in and get out on track !!

200sx stuff

2006-03-11T09:54:00.000Z

200sx stuff

The car went into PTS for an MOT and to get the EManage fitted and mapped.
the results were simply stunning, the car feels so much stronger across the rev range off boost has improved immensely and running 1.25 bar through the BB turbo felt good.

unfortunaltely the exhaust manifold gasket failed towards the end of the day starting like a small exhaust blow but by the time we were back at the garage it sounded like a tractor.

so she is going in again for a big end/ main bearing refresh and a new gasket.

I was thinking about going all steel straight off but as I am geting married in 2 months it probably wouldn't be prudent;-)

more to follow but she is going well. Roll on April the 18th (track day at Brands)

undercar aerodynamics

2005-12-21T11:05:00.000Z

I wanted to make my car stick to the road or track, so after much consideration I came up with the following design for an undercar aero package.

The main criteria is that as I have no access to carbon fibre manufacturing or any kind of facilities for laying up fibreglass it had to be made from flat sheet material.

Flat undertrays are commonplace now on normal roadgoing saloons so this was a good starting point as any disturbance to the airflow under the car will slow it down, and we want air going under the car faster than it is travelling over it to give us some down force, or at least to eliminate lift.

looking at the production Nissan skyline R34 GTR it has a flat front and rear unertray. looking at more advanced race cars you can see the flay tray goes the full length of the car, but practically this posed a problem as the car was on axle stands in my garden and working on a car length sheet of metal would have proven impossible.

I settled on the flat front and rear tray. Now on the GTR owners club forum (www.gtr.co.uk) there was a rather long winded thread about undercar aerodynamics. so I gleaned info from this and any other scource that I could.

the basic idea is this.

As the car moves down the road air travels under the front of the car then more air rushes in around the wheels and under the sills generating a high pressure point roughly in the centre of the car, high pressure = lift. this can make a car unstable at high speed and in extreme cases cause accidents.

To stop this happening we can go for low side skirts, not practical on a road car but fine on track.
My car has to be road legal to be allowed on track days. (either mot'd or currently racing in a series with scrutineering) so as my car isn't in a race series, mot is the only way I can get it on a track day.

So really low side skirts are out. The thread on the GTR forum said about using a brush material like you see on the sides of industrial doors to keep draughts out. So I scourced 12 m of brush from a supplier of such things and then proceeded to bolt it to the bottom of the car.

It is worth mentioning here that this type of installation can be extremely dangerous on a road car in high speed conrers, as road are not smooth like race circuits and if the side skirt is raised from the ground too much it will allow air to be sucked in and create lift, exactly when you don't want it this could cause a nasty crash.

there was some basic maths involved for positioning the brushes in the optimum positions this can be found on the aerodynamics thread on the gtr site.

I have done a trackday with the brushes and undertray on the car and I must admit the car performed very well. with coilover suspension maintaining the height of the car even in the tightest of bends body roll was tiny and the car felt really planted to the track.

next I will design some sort of rear diffuser so I can start to generate some proper down force..

stripping out inside.

2005-12-20T17:48:00.000Z

Ripping out the interior

This was an easy decision to make on paper but when it came to it I found it quite hard to deface such a nice car. having only done 65,000 miles it was mint inside, so you can imagine how I was feeling as I sliced the carpet down the middle so that I could remove it from the transmission tunnel.

then went the dash, doorcards, centre console, roof lining, arch trims, parcel shelf seats.. etc..

The following pictures show the death of a perfectly nice car and the rebirth of something with a little more sense of purpose...

Note, Stripping the btumen style glue on the arches and floors was done in winter and it came off fairly well, I found it did come off a little easier when I was finishing it off on a warm spring day, it was hot in the car and the stuff came off really well using a paint stripping tool, you know the sort of filling knife affairs .. another albeit messy way to do it was to use a wire brush on an electric drill, this was excellent and very fast, but really messy!

Seats

2005-12-20T17:43:00.000Z

Fitting seats

I bought some Cobra Imola seats from Demon-tweeks, I figured as I am not the skinniest of people that the GT width would be a better option.

The seats are in black with removable base cushions, this is useful if you are tall as a crash helmet will add a couple of inches to the height of the occupant.

Fitting these seats was not easy, I purchased some of the std side mounts for use with this seat and soon realised they would need some serious modification to even come close.

As the seat mounts are different heights on each side the mounts will have to be made so they are different heights, and hopefully the mounting holes will fit.

Step one was destroying the original fixings. I was originally going to cut out the cross brace that the front seat mounts connect to and then bolt the seat rails straight to the floor, but this was totally unfeasible on the passenger side due to the raised part of the floor for the gearbox bell housing.

So I decided to use the tabs that the original seats connected to the car with, out with the drill and a hammer!

After drilling out the welds and rivets holding the tabs on I was left with four mangled little brackets to try to fix to my new side frames. They were beaten into submission with a bloody great hammer until they were flat again.

Then I had to call on Stu to come and show me how to wield my welder in anger, as seats need to be firmly in place and my welding ability was “limited” I thought it best to ask for help. Once Stu had set the welder up it was straight forward enough to use and I did a few of the seams on the drivers seat and later I did all of the seams on the passenger side.

We stripped the paint from the side mounts and on the locating tabs to be welded on. I used the holes that I had previously drilled the welds out of and bolted them into position with the seats fitted. This would eliminate any problems, with fitting… hopefully.

The tabs were welded on and left to cool, and a test fit revealed it was fine!! that is a first. So the seat was pulled out again and the new sub frame painted with hammerite smooth to give a nice finish to my still slightly lumpy welds.

The passenger side presented a bit more of a problem, the plan was initially to use the original side frames and mount the seat mount part of the brackets to the std assembly, therefore keeping the original slider mechanism in the seat., this was not to be as the brackets supplied for the seats are too short once you cut the angled parts off the bottom. So now I couldn’t do what I’d planned originally and I’d cut the brackets up, preventing me from mounting them in the same way as the driver seat.

I decided to cut the tabs ff the original passenger side and get some 4mm plate steel to weld it all together with.

I live near an industrial estate and there is always scrap metal in the bins, so I had a word with a chap and he let me take a few bits of metal, enough to make a fair few more if it went wrong…

The sheet was cut down and welded to the side mounts and then the tabs were welded on in the same manner as the drivers side. There was a little bodge application and the seat fitted perfectly.

Again out with the seat and a coat of hammerite to hide all the misdemeanours! My welding is getting far better now.

So unfortunately neither seat is adjustable, but I did mount the passenger seat quite a way back from the normal position so the passenger is out of my way a bit more and also nearer the centre of gravity of the car.

The cage down bars make getting in and out a tad awkward but it isn’t too bad, and the new seats really give a business like feeling to the car.

The harness was then refitted and adjusted to length. Job done! Thanks for the help Stu !!

Stevec

Stage 3 mods

2005-12-20T17:37:00.000Z

I dont have any photos for this one but there are a few things to bear in mind when embarking on this job. All the other things I have done to this point have been reversible to sort them out but this job requires fitting a new ECU chip, Injectors and Air Flow Meter. Fine if it goes ok but if I cock it up then I am in trouble.

Firstly I fitted the chip, as I already had the chip holder soldered into place it was just a case of removing the old chip and refiting the new one in it’s place.

Next came the AFM old one removed instantly a problem presented itself. AFM will not bolt onto the Apexi fitting for the air filter. solution was to remove the pipe part of the apexi kit and just fit 2 screws into the filter. I then soldered the wires onto the AFM socket according to the instructions on the SXOC site and documentation available from Horsham developments.

Still no way to test the job though, wrong injectors are fitted, so get on with it.

To change the injectors over you need to first release fuel pressure, start the car and remove the fuel pump fuse. then crank it for about half a minute to remove all fuel.

then get a copy of the manual and look at the page related to this job. You basically have to remove all of the bolts that are in the way also I have to remove the valve on the side of the plenum.

there is a small bolt hidden under the fuel pressure regulator which is a right biatch to get to so make sure you get that one undone.

Once the fuel rail is removed you then need to pull the injectors out and carefully swap them, avoid contact with the tips as they are extremely sensitive and contact and ruin them.

Then reassemble the fuel rail and connect back up your fuel pipes.

reconnect the fuse and fire her up.

TIP: if you leave the car for any length of time then you must release the pressure in the fuel tank if the weather is hot, I left mine all day while I was waiting for a part and when I got in from work fuel was bubbling up the pipe and spitting all over the road, after 6 hours there was quite a lot of it !! This was done in November so it wasn’t that warm but the sun was out.

good luck.

Coilovers

2005-12-20T17:36:00.000Z

Fitting coil over suspension

I found some Jic Magic coilovers model FLT-1 on ebay for £560 delivered so I had to have them.

So before my wallet could even groan I’d set up a payment to the chap in Kuala Lumpur. 4 days later …. Yes 4 days! They were at my house. The condition was top notch, the set had the following features, pre load setting, height setting, adjustable front mounts, only other adjustment that would have been nice was damping, but beggars can’t be choosers. Would have been nice to have got a spanner with them, but that isn’t the end of the world.

Fitting the units was fairly straightforward, it was basically, remove the wheel, unbolt the bottom bolt/bolts (depending if it was front or rear) then undo the top bolts and drop the damper assembly out.

Then the new one was put into it’s place, I plan to get the car corner weighted and set up properly so I just made sure the amount of thread sticking out of the damper was roughly right. And fitted them.

The tops were put through the holes making sure the fronts were aligned correctly, the camber adjuster have to go the right way round!

I found I had to jack the hubs up with a trolley jack as holding it all together was well awkward and I was on my own, but a spare pair of handle could be enlisted at this point.

Once jacked up then fitting the hub to the damper is as easy as removing them. You will notice the hub is now a lot higher in the arch when jacked up.

As you can see from the pictures there is still a long way left for me to lower it, but I think it looks ok now. No need to go lower just yet.

As you can see from the pics below, the first is the std damper.. 13 inches from top of disk to arch.

The next is with the coilovers on... 10.5inches and that is just spring length !!

is this low enough for you ?

My dad nearly got his foot stuck !!!

Stevec

Kit

2005-12-20T17:33:00.000Z

Fitting a BN sports style bodykit

I was after a kit for my S13 and decided to give Bren a ring, he happened to be

organising some S14 kits and added a couple of S13 ones so I could buy one.

I also got wide front wings and rear over arch extensions.

Having never embarked on fitting a kit the next 2 months were a period of

anticipation and dread !

when the box was delivered the chap driving the lorry declared it to be the

biggest box he'd ever delivered!

The box was opened and all the items laid out on the grass so

I could have a good look at them.

I then trial fitted the front wing and sort of got carried away, within 2 days

the kit was on and the first few coats of filler primer had been applied.

follows a series of pictures showing the progress.

Then it was off to be sprayed. A friend of a friend charged

me £80 including masking it up !!

Now all I need to do is get it sign written !!

SteveC

Front mount intercooler

2005-12-20T17:29:00.000Z

Fitting a GTR front mount intercooler

I found a GTR fmic for sale and decided to mount it on my S13 200SX.

Step one... Making space

The intercooler is only about 5 cm narrower than the gap between the headlights so there isn't much room for it. I removed the front bumper in preparation. This was fairly straightforward, if a little awkward.

When offered up it became obvious that the battery and washer bottle had to be moved out of the way to give access for the outlet side of the IC.

The battery will now sit on the nearside wall in the boot.

The battery live feed is a really chunky high spec cable which should be able to handle around 180 amps (plenty for the sx, which draws around 80 amps.)

I ran the cable from the battery box, into the offside wing. Over the wheel and into the grommet, routing over the steering column and into the centre console. Then using the centre console to guide the cable to the back seats, under the carpet and into the boot, where it was tucked under the nearside rear trim.

The battery will now sit where the jack access panel was inside the boot.

I was planning to route a cable for the earth but was advised against this due to possible noise induction from having two long lengths of thick gauge cable running all over the place.

So with this in mind I'll try a short earth going onto the body of the car in the boot.

I made a box for the battery out of half inch plywood and this'll be secured in the boot by some large size M12 bolts. The box will be covered in carpet to conceal it.

The next problem was that the windscreen washer bottle sits directly beneath the battery, so this also had to go.

I found a small bottle which will fit in the gap.

I had some aluminium stock sitting about at home so this is going to be made into some brackets to hold the Ic in place.

Photo of front end

Bren of Apex performance came through with the goods and got hold of all of the samco hoses that I needed.

I also bought a dump valve.

New and old picture the std one is in front !! DOH

The brackets were mounted as the picture below shows using existing bolt holes from the front under tray.

The front bumper brace is going to cover almost half of the face of the Ic so some modifications need to be carried out on this. These mods were carried out using a delicate adjustment tool otherwise known as an angle grinder. The result was a much straighter line than I could have cut with a saw.

The bumper was then test fitted, to see where adjustments would have to be made. The bumper is made from soft plastic like a washing up bottle and is easy to cut.

The intercooler itself is secured by 3 mounts made from aluminium with the outer mounts secured on the bolt fixings for the undertray. The centre fixing is by means of the bonnet mount and bent to form a support.

The bumper brace, having now been cut to allow for more airflow, sits level with the top of the ic and a support has been made on this to pin the ic into position.

I already had some samco hoses in 80mm bore that would get the pipes into the engine bay so a chat with Bren of apex performance was called for. He managed to get me all of the hoses I needed so in just 1 day I had the pipes ready for me to work out what hardpipes I required to complete the installation. I also ordered one of the pipes with a take off for the dump valve and an outlet for the vacuum hose which regulates idle running.

fitting upgraded brakes

2005-12-20T17:26:00.000Z

Fitting 300zx brakes.

Matt S of Sileighty fame advertised some disks and calipers from a z32 300zx. The disks were already drilled for 200sx fitment, and they came with some brand new red stuff pads.

I ordered some braided hoses from apex performance parts. These goodridge items come with the correct fittings to connect the odd parts together.

I also bought some AP racing dot 5.1 brake fluid.

I had never played around with brakes before so it was with some trepidation that i started unscrewing the wheel nuts.

I loosened the nuts on both sides before jacking the car up, to reduce the difficulty of uncracking the wheelnuts.

The trolley jack held the car up while i fitted axle stands under the chassis rail that runs down the length of the car on each side.

With the car firmly off the ground and the trolley jack just let down enough to put the load on the axle stands it was time to remove the wheels.

On the back of the calipers there are 2 19mm bolts connecting to the carriers. These were undone, after much swearing and physical abuse, by using a breaker bar.

Next I undid the clip which holds the brake pipe to the suspension and a similar clip on the bodywork up in the wheel arch. Then using a 10mm spanner undid the brakeline on the nearside this came off easily but on the offside it took a lot more encouragement and wd40 !

This leaves us with loose calipers and brake fluid dripping from the newly opened joint. Some newspaper or a can might be an idea here as it is nasty stuff which can remove paint.

I was lucky and someone had obviously already changed the disks as the silly little screw that often welds itself in place wasn't there so the disks just pulled straight off.

Now the hub looks rather bare with just the dust shield left on the back.

A test fit of the new disks showed me the amount of rubbing on the shield and where it obscured the calipers location. In the end a test drive revealed that in my case it was best to remove them so after putting the lot together it was promptly removed and cut off with an angle grinder.

When bolting the new calipers in it makes life a bit easier if you use the caliper with the bleed nipple at the top on each side, for bleeding them later.

The goodridge hoses screw straight into the caliper and the other end is connected in the wheel arch with a 10mm spanner. Then the clip was replaced in the wheelarch connection point to firm it all up. The mounting on the suspension was ignored as the braided lines have no fitting at this point.

The disk being already drilled made this a quick job. But the caliper needs to be on the disk before you fit it.

The 19mm bolts are then replaced and tightened, the hub should now rotate without snagging too much on the unbled brakes.

I also fitted the new pads at this point. I just pulled out the locking wire and the pins slid out easily the old pads removed and push the pistons back in with a spanner levering against the disk, it is worth putting a couple of wheel nuts on at this point to stop the disk moving about as you lever the pistons back in.

Copper slip was then smeared on the back of the pads and the shims put onto the back with further copper slip added to them. The pads were then slid back into position and the whole lot pinned back in.

Time to bleed them,

With the new brake fluid i needed to flush the whole system rather than simply top up so starting with the caliper furthest from the master cylinder (near side rear)the brakes were flushed and then bled.over a litre was pushed out in all before signs of fresh fluid became apparent. To do the rears i also removed the wheels for easier access.

Bleeding brakes is a two man job requiring someone to sit in the car while you open and close the bleed nipple, for those who don't know, you open the nipple,push the brake pedal and hold then still holding the pedal down you do the nipple back up then raise the pedal. This is done over and over until all air bubbles are removed and the pedal feels firm.

It is easy to make a brake bleeder with some silicone hose and an old bottle. You need to weigh the end in tge bottle down so it is under the surface of the fluid in case you pull fluid back in.

Put the wheels back on and go for a drive to make sure it is all ok.

Hope this helps. I was amazed how easy it was. But they do keep you alive so if you are not sure then pay someone who is your life could well depend on it.

Fitting a six point bolt in rollcage

2005-12-20T16:04:00.000Z

Fitting a 6 point rollcage

Firstly lay out all the parts you have received and make sure they correspond to your order.

These instructions are for sitting the full cage with fixed diagonal and door braces.

Tools

17mm spanners/ socket etc..

Rubber mallet (for delicate adjustment)

Tape measure and marking stuff

Welding set

Wire brush, wire brush on drill bit, Chisels and scraper

Drill plus large drill, dependant on size of bolts

Some oil to cool the drill bit.

Goggles and ear defenders (the steel plate was hard and screeched like a banshee

Spare pair of hands to help with the awkward bits.

Strip the interior away from the points of contact that the feet of the cage will have. The general areas are the area of the floor directly under the wiper stork, same place on the passenger side.

Rear floor just below seat on the outer walls. Both sides and on the rear wheel arches.

Really this would mean, trims out and carpets pulled well back out of the way, remove the driver and passenger seats.

The cage should consist of the rear cage. 2 sidebars with floor mounts on them, and 3 shorter bars. There will be 4 15cm plates and 2 5x15com plates that are pre drilled.

Then you will have a selection of nuts bolts and washers all 17mm.

Once you have the interior stripped put the rear cage into the car be careful on the centre console if your car isn’t stripped out fully as I’d imagine it being tight.

Once you have the cage wiggled to the rear of the car you can see where the mount positions need to go.

The first thing I did was bend 2 of the 15cm square plates into shape ready to be welded into position.

The shape required is a rather loose shaped S the top of the plate is level and the bottom follows the contour of the floor pan.

Once you have got the right shape the feet of the rear cage should slip over the plate nd allow you to mark the rear wheel arches for the plates. Bolt on the sides of the cage loosely and mark the floor where the front feet sit on the floor.

Now remove the rear cage and weld the plates into position. You will need to clear the area around the feet of the chewing gum sound insulation and clean it all back before you can weld it. I found a wire brush on a drill works a treat but makes a right mess.

If you are going to weld it then fine if not this is where you want your mate with a welder to step in. I just tack welded it into place then went along the seams in a really pathetic attempt to make it look nice. See pictures.. if you know someone who can weld get them to do it!

Once you have the plates all welded into position then it is time to assemble it for real.

Put the rear section and make sure it all lines up. If it does then drill out the holes on the rear arches. Then put the rear section into position.

Now install the sides and the overhead front cross brace, this can be a bit tricky and was an absolute sod on my one! This is why we have not bolted anything in yet .

Once you have the sides and the cross brace in you can jiggle the cage into position and finally start bolting things in don’t forget to add the door bars now .

The rear positions that are already drilled should go in easily if you have lined everything up. You will need someone to help this bit as the bolts are difficult to hold while you are doing up the nuts inside the wheel arch.

I lined up all of the bolts so they dropped though the chassis and had a nut on the underside, the reason for this is if anything does come undone there will be more chance of the bolt staying put than if it was pushed through from under the car. I also made the nuts on the outside of the cage so that any sharp bits are eliminated from the interior of the “safety cell”.

Once you have the bolts installed on the rear section you can gradually work forwards drilling out the holes through the plates. I did this with the cage in position as I am a lazy git and on the basis that I would be bound to put a hole in the wrong place. A couple of the holes meant holding the drill at some funny angles but I got through it all in the end.

The front feet need to be as close to the sills as you can get them, this increases the clearance on the indicator stalk.

Once the bolts are all in the floor you can go round the cage tightening up all the nuts and bolts. When you have done that simply put back the interior and if applicable trim the carpet around the new protrusions re install the seats and then walk to the pub for a well earned pint.

The job took me about 6 hours to do but would have been quicker if I’d had instructions and decent welding ability! But then my car was already stripped out. If you are removing and replacing interior and trying to make it look nice then I’d budget a day for the job.

I have now padded the cage in various areas with padding from Demon tweeks.

Let me know if you find any inaccuracies in this guide..

SteveC

Track day Brands GP circuit

2005-12-20T15:32:00.000Z

Brands Hatch, just coming out of druids.. I like this picture a lot..

The circuit was nice and dry and it was the full GP track. Excellent fun was had by all.

A few pictures

About my 200sx

2005-12-20T15:28:00.000Z

My 200sx started life like this, totally standard.

The original plan was to have this car for a while and save for a Skyline R32 GTR, but the addition of an airfilter and exhaust stopped all that.. it was just so good to drive.

Then I started modding it !!