Hey daze, where did you get your exhaust welded? I have similar issues as its a s15 exhaust on a 14a and want it extending to fit the mounts better
JC SX
Hey daze, where did you get your exhaust welded? I have similar issues as its a s15 exhaust on a 14a and want it extending to fit the mounts better
JC SX
Thanks! At the moment, I desperately just want to get behind the wheel and drive it moreOriginally Posted by dannyboi200sx
The exhaust was welded by a mate of mine who is a welder, fabricator & mechanic. Its worth doing dude
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Absolutely TONS of work & time spent on the car over the past week or so, so much to the point that I'm barely having time to take photos of what I'm doing with it! Haha
Last week almost every evening I was working on the car, as I had booked in for an MOT at a mates garage. This meant getting the final bits & bobs sorted for MOT, such as side lights, etc. I fixed all that stuff up, then gave the car a decent clean as it was pretty horrible
Lights were done & all working
Then Wednesday morning came around, time to drive it to MOT. I was pretty nervous, not only because its the first time I've really driven it, but also I was driving it a good half hour away to an MOT garage, so not the most local. Of course I had insurance, but no MOT or road tax on the car, so I was worried I would get pulled by police or something.
Luckily, however, it all went to plan. The drive there was interesting to say the least! I had a couple of "blips" on the loud pedal down the motorway, and the sheer power is INSANE. I honestly did not expect it to be quite as brutally fast as it is!! I couldn't stop smiling the whole journey!
I dropped the car off at the MOT, then a couple hours later, the car had past. Awesome
Once back home with me, we fixed the problem fairly easily. I was of course thinking it was a dead alternator, but infact it was a couple of hand-tight bolts in the fusebox! It looks like I forgot to tighten them, and they just so happened to be the main power & starting wires for the whole car, oops!
With that fixed, and with road tax bought, she's now fully legal! I went for a drive that evening. Again just WOW. Its absolutely brutal.
After a couple of evening drives, I got a little more used to the power, and one thing I was noticing is that I was hitting some kind of fuel cut issue, and my Apexi boost gauge was reading waaaaay above the 0.9 bar boost that Nispro had set. I wasn't sure if my gauge was reading incorrectly, or if indeed it was overboosting.
I rung Walton at Nispro to explain the problem, and he said straight away "you need a road map!". After a call with him, I made the decision to swap over the crappy restrictive back box for a better one I picked up for free a few days previous. As it's all welded together as one piece, I popped up to my mate to get him to do some welding
A couple hours later, it was all done. Its a LOT LOUDER! But its not too bad. Certainly not as loud as shotgun-style exhausts, which I don't really like anymore. I wanted to keep it looking the same as it did, and I think it does. The position of the backbox is almost exactly the same as before
Before I left his workshop too, we also swapped out gearbox oil for some Shockproof stuff. At a hope that it gives my SR gearbox a fighting chance
Then yesterday, I spent the day doing mostly interior stuff. I took no photos the whole day which sucks, but both door cards have been carefully cut & now fit around the rollcage quite neatly. I've also got the passenger seat in, harnesses in, and centre console.
And after a drive again last night, it feels a lot nicer having those small interior comforts in. I don't really like the complete stripped out race-car look & feel. I must be getting old!
So, with that all said and done, tonight I am off to Nispro for a road map! I can't wait!
Any scraping from the new exhaust mate? My zenki sits about the same sort of height and sometimes the camber in the road can be enough to make it catch the road.
Last edited by Big Dubs; 16-03-2015 at 17:06.
Yeah, the exhaust touches occasionally on the road, but with the flexi in place, scraping the exhaust shouldn't be a big issue reallyAny scraping from the new exhaust mate? My zenki sits about the same sort of height and sometimes the camber in the road can be enough to make it catch the road.
- - -
After posting yesterday that I had no photos of the door cards I cut at the weekend, I remembered I snapped one on my other camera
As I said in my previous post, quite pleased with how they've come out. I will be changing those 2 chrome bolts for black ones though, as that will look a little nicer. Other than that, I am pretty pleased with how the interior has turned out.
Also a quick snap of the engine bay in its current form, just because I had my camera out
Then last night, I popped up to Nispro Performance for the road map. As I said in my previous post, I had been experiencing some issues with overboosting and/or fuel cut issues. It seemed to be related with the crisp cold air running through the intercooler/engine bay, and my turbo seeming to be somewhat more prone than normal to overboosting in changing weather conditions.
Anyway, the 2 hour drive up was fairly uneventful. A quick check over the car, and myself and Walton of Nispro climbed into the car and we set off. Not first before he ran some checks on his laptop and perfected the cold start & cold idle.
The things he could do with that laptop were crazy, really impressive stuff. Not that I understood any of it!
Then we got onto the road mapping. After about an hour of driving around, all was perfect! The power delivery now is a lot more progressive and controllable! Its still brutally fast, but it doesn't have quite the same punch-in-the-face impact that it did before, which is good! Also the off boost & low down power is really impressive as well.
A fuel & stack stop on the way back, had to grab a couple of photos
I'm stoked with how well the car drives now. I will get some videos ASAP! Overall though, just amazing to drive, I love it! A huge thanks to Nispro for making this thing fly!
Next up will be swapping out the current oil cooler and the fittings attached to it, as its leaking oil for some reason. Somewhat annoying since the hose, fittings & cooler are all brand new, but perhaps its because the cooler & fittings were cheap eBay items.
That should solve all those issues - Torques AN10 forged fittings & a 10 row Mishimoto cooler. Fitting this, along with an oil catch can & a nut/bolt check throughout, and I'm basically ready to hit Santa Pod drift day on the 25th! I cannot wait
Just keep an eye on those afrs. ......... ☺
Well, my first drift day of 2015 was last week, I suppose I should update this a little!
Before I get onto the talks about Santa Pod, a few days before I swapped out the old oil cooler for the new Mishimoto cooler & new AN10 fittings. It wasn't too much of a problem, even doing the AN10 fittings in-situ rather than on a bench. About an hour later, it was all done.
I also finally got round to installing a proper catch can, along with AN10 fittings on that too
Then went for a bit of a drive, and got the car washed & detailed by my sponsors Clarity Automotive (clarityautomotive.com)
A couple days before the drift day, I did an overall spanner check, along with filling both inner & outer driveshaft CV's with a little more grease, as they're starting to knock & clunk a little. Hopefully doing this will preserve their life a little longer before I replace them both.
In the evening I popped down to a local vehicle wrapping, t-shirt printing & sticker company Customised Graphics (customisedgraphics.co.uk) and got a couple stickers added on the door to rep' Clarity Automotive a little better. Really pleased with the outcome
If you might notice, the drivers side has the logo reversed, so the logo reads from the front to the back of the car on both sides - just like a lot of drift car graphics read in Japan. Also, the stickers are in chrome for that extra snazz
Then, onto the drifting last Wednesday! What can I say? The car is ULTIMATE to drive! Its so nice having that little bit more power, and the TD06 turbo doesn't seem to have anywhere near as much lag as what I was expecting! Its just unbelievable.
Here's a collection of photos from Blackett Photography (Ian)
I think I must have hit one of the "Pod bumps" right at the perfect second on this photo, as the car looks slammed here! Suspension rebound just a split second after a bump I guess!
...
... (continued)
Almost straight away too, I got into some twinning with my fellow Throwdown driver, Adam, in his BMW e36. It was a blast to drive with him again
And here's some more photos from my buddy Dan Martin, who was also there shooting for most of the day. Again - fantastic photos
And finally, I also did some twinning with Dave Knowles in his 500bhp+ SR powered s15. Car sounds insane!
All in all, the car was basically faultless the entire day, which I am so stoked about. I really enjoyed it, and got pretty used to the new power by the end of the day.
The only issue that started to arise was it seems either my downpipe or my wastegate gasket is blowing slightly, which is a real pain. I've yet to investigate further, but I'm hoping its not a huge job to fix either way!
And of course, videos!
Solo driving 2 laps
...
Some twinning with Dave Knowles in the s15 and Rich Dalby-Smith in the s13
And finally, some twinning with Adam in his e36
looks brilliant man, glad your managing ok with the power! is this on nistune? what gearknob do you have? your interior is badass, i think i might change mine up a little!
Interested to know if the QTP valve made any difference in noise?
this thing is beautiful! I'm not a spoiler fan personally but love the rest. I think the lows have a lot to do with it!
LOVE this dude...still looks mega!
love all the updates! and great to see the car in such a good shape
Thanks! Yeah, the power is fantastic, so much easier & nicer to drive & drift with. Its on a Link G4
The exhaust flap/valve? Yes it does! I need to grab some videos of it perhaps, but it certainly helps when I park up to not annoy neighbours lol
Haha, thanks dude! I'm not a huge spoiler fan either, but factory Kouki spoiler works well I think! Gotta be all the low
Thanks
Thanks!love all the updates! and great to see the car in such a good shape
- - -
Since drifting last month (has it been that long already!?), I've mostly been pretty damn busy with other things, other than the car. But over the past week or so, things have started to pick up with it again and I've got some progress to share at last!
One thing I was noticing straight away after drifting was the smell of gearbox oil, I suspected the gearbox output oil seal was knackered, so I order a couple from Nissan (spares), and set about replacing that. My buddy Stu did all the work, as usual haha.
Cleanest gearbox output/prop ever? I wonder how long this'll stay like this... lol
Another thing that we found was the sump was leaking from the back edge. The issue seemed to be with how the baffled sump was sitting in relation to the lower splash guard(?). While on the ramps we had the idea that we could remove it and fold down 1 of the edges to make it fit snug in the baffled sump, so we did this and re-fitted.
Good to see the pickup still 100% spot on
Cleaned up the mating surface of the sump
Then re-fit
Along with a new oil filter & new oil, she was up & running again, not smelling of oil & not leaking any either! Winner.
This weekend just gone I've put some miles on her and really enjoyed driving the car around again. Really great fun! Of course, gave it a bit of a clean as well
On Sunday, fellow Throwdown driver Ryan, finally got his s14 Zenki up & running as well, and we went for a bit of a drive together. Was great having both cars working again after a long winter indeed
Then yesterday, back to my mate Stu's workshop to do something I've wanted for quite some time now - a hydro handbrake! In around 5 years of drifting, I've never had a hydro, so this is all new to me. The position I'd decided on for the hydro meant that the stock handbrake had to be shifted out of the way, so this was the 1st job
Before
Captive nuts welded in the tunnel
Done
Then, along with quite a lot of faffing around, we finally got the bracket in place, welded it to the tunnel & got the lines done. I didn't really take any photos of the bracket itself which is a shame as its pretty sexy, but the position of the hydro itself is the important part.
I'm stoked with how it feels in the car. It doesn't hit anything at all, even with the seat moving back & forward on the runner, and with the steering column adjusted up & down, and with the wiper stalk on & off, it still has plenty of room around it for a hand to grab onto!
It'll certainly take me some getting used to, having a handbrake in an upright position instead of horizontal, but its worth me getting used to it as its a lot easier to go between gearstick > hydro > wheel & back with it positioned like this.
Another worry of mine is if the hydro will actually work. I've read & heard of so many people saying their hydro's don't do anything, so I was a little apprehensive. That feeling disappeared immediately on the first pull of it! It locks up incredibly easily & very well indeed.
Now I can't wait to get on track! Bring on Driftcup Round 1!
Be awesome if you could get a vid of the noise difference! Running a nismo pro spec at the moment and it's only 2.5" bore. looking to upgrade but would be murdered by all the people in the village.
Love this car. Really well built
I love how you switched the handbrake and the hydro.
I have it set up in the exact opposite, which I find quiet funny now haha
and I think I have the exact same hydro too
Such a sick car man, only thing that lets it down is the rear arches
Ok, so huge news!! Driftcup Round 1 at Norfolk Arena has been & gone, and what a weekend it was!
Before I begin with the write up of that, a few days before the event I spotted one of my CV boots had split. This sucks, as this is the first time this has happened since installing Skyline shafts with the 15mm spacer. From the look of it though, the CV split failure was due to just age/wear rather than the pot itself exploding like all the others have done.
Anyway, an hour later, I swapped the whole shaft over with a spare I had
Tom, one of my sponsors at Clarity Automotive, had the car for a few hours and detailed it completely. The car was looking absolutely stunning once he had finished with it
Then onto Saturday morning, we left at the ungodly hour of 2.30am for the almost 5 hour drive to Norfolk Arena. The drive up was pretty uneventful, just boring & long! After unloading, Tom gave the car another once over to get the grime off, and I was ready for practice.
For practice, they split the field up into 2 groups with about 25 drivers in each group. They then sent group A out on track first for their 2 hour practice session. I was in the 2nd group, so I got to chill for a while & to watch how the first group were doing.
2 hours later, along came my practice session, and it basically went awful! I sucked, or at least I think I did. I just couldn't get to grips with Clip 1, the track surface sucked, and I just wasn't really enjoying it. I came in a few times to adjust pressures & to check on the car, but nothing much seemed to help!
After that, came qualifying. I wasn't nervous really at all, as I had it in my head that I was almost certain doomed to not qualify, but I set out anyway. My 1st was was "average" I thought, but my 2nd run was much better. That was, all up until I spun it! Here's a video
Everyone came in for the results, and to my surprise my name was called out for 5th position! Amazing!! Straight after, I jumped into my car and I was the 1st battle of the day. I was paired with Seb Scott in his pink R34. Seb drove well and wasn't far away, I don't think he made any mistakes on his chase, but my chase was closer & I was given the win to proceed to the Top 16!
After everyone else did their Top 32 battles, my Top 16 battle came along and I was against Charles Funnell in his R33. Charles drove so well considering he didn't even have his car running 24hr before! However he made a couple mistakes, so I was told on his chase, and my chase & lead were on point, so I was lucky enough to push through the Top 8!
Things were really starting to flow now, getting into the swing of it. The car was absolutely on point, faultless & was running great. My driving had improved massively and I was now pretty comfortable with the circuit & how my car was driving.
Onto the Top 8, I was going against a great looking Rocket Bunny s13 piloted by Shay Kavanagh. It was a great battle, Shay drove really well. I shallowed quite badly on my chase at clip 5, and luckily for me, the judges called an OMT. I didn't make the same mistake twice and pushed hard, luckily to proceed onto the Final 4 battle!
I was getting pretty tired by this point, and also had to do a very quick tyre change, and I think my driving suffered because of this. My Final 4 battle I was paired up with 2nd place qualifier Matt Walker who had been dominating all day in his BMW E30. I got extremely close at some points during my chase, but unfortunately I overrotated on my lead, handing the win to Matt. Was a great battle for the crowd though, and Matt sure can pedal that E30! Hats off!
Then, without barely time to catch my breath, I was up for my last battle of the day - 3rd and 4th place battle with Rich Dalby-Smith in his CA powered s13. I've driven with Rich on a number of occasions, so it was great to battle with him in a competition. We both pushed hard & both made little to no mistakes, so I wasn’t sure who would take the 3rd place on the podium
Myself and the other Top 4 finishers lined up on the track with the crowd clapping! It was a surreal moment to take my helmet off, step out of my car & for the crowd to be taking photos, videos & to hear my name over the PA system! I had no idea what to do or say, and I was absolutely knackered, so I probably looked a little strange!!
A few minutes later, the crowd & us lot made our way down the front, and Ian Waddington (the commentator for the day) started chatting about the amazing driving that everyone laid down. I was stoked to have gotten this far, but was my last chase good enough to take that 3rd spot? As I was thinking this, Ian called out my name for 3rd place!! So happy with that result, and hats off to my friends, team & sponsors that came down to help & support me!
I said a couple words (I also had no idea what to say lol), the other guys were placed with Matt Walker (E30 driver) in 2nd, and a very well deserved 1st place to Jamie Owen who absolutely dominated all day in his s14a. We all got the obligatory champaign and of course sprayed it everywhere!
Such an amazing experience & a really great day out. What started off with something I was not enjoying ended on such a high, it was a mixed day of emotions for sure! The drive home seemed to take weeks, and I eventually got my head down on my own bed again at about 4.30am, so 26 hours of being awake! Phew!
What’s even more exciting now is that the Top 4 finishers of Driftcup Round 1 get the chance to drive in BDC Pro-Am for Round 2 up at Knockhill! Driftcup is now the feeder-series into the BDC, so I’m really pumped for that! The car (and myself) needs some extra safety equipment, but its nothing too major! BRING IT!
I couldn't post more than 1 video in the post, soooo..
Here’s a video of my Top 32 battle with Seb Scott
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