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Putting a stop on things!

I recently purchased and installed the Fastbrakes big brake kit on the 200SX. The kit uses Wilwood 4 piston forged billett dynalite calipers, two piece 11" vented and slotted rotors that are 1" thick, fastbrakes brackets, stainless lines, and Hawk HP Plus brake pads. I also upgraded the rear drums to Maxima rear disc brakes using the Fastbrakes conversion brackets and re-drilled Maxima rotors. I changed the master cylinder out to a U13 non-abs Altima unit. Here are the gory details....

Fastbrakes VS NX2000 brakes.

11" Two piece 1" thick vented rotor

Fastbrakes bracket installed, heat shield trimmed.

Installed!

Brakes, meaty race rubber, this thing means business.....

Rear Drum getting ready for removal.

Rear drum and hub assembly removed and Fastbrakes bracket installed

Rebuilt and painted Maxima Calipers

11" brakes out back!

After bedding in the new brake setup I am utterly amazed! The Altima Master Cylinder gives you such a rock solid pedal that after bleeding it felt as if the pedal was siezed in place it was so solid. After getting the bedding done and some heat in the brakes I was nearly put theough the windshield after a few good stops. I cannot WAIT to get this thing on the track with the new brake setup done. I thought the NX setup was awesome, but I realize that my setup had gotten tired after 4 years of hard use. Time to rebuild the calipers and sell the old setup off to someone else who can put it to good use.

While I had the car up on jack stands I decided to throw in the Custom Steel shifter stabilizer bracket. This custom piece replaces the stock rubber busing and removes all slop from the shifter. Not to mention that it is so beautiful it is nearly a sin to hide it underneath the car.

Nasty rubber piece seeing the last light....

Artwork installed!

Interior and exterior changes.

There were many things that I wanted to change in the exterior of the car to make it more of a dedicated track car and at the same time maintain the clean build quality that we have achieved thus far. We wanted to remove unwanted weight but not leave gaping holes and an unsightly mess.

We removed the carpet and stripped out the factory sound deadening material. We then put the carpet back in and rather than putting the stock seats back in we swapped in a pair of OEM B13 Sentra SE-R seats. The B13 seats have MUCH better leg and side bolstering. The rear seats were left out in favor of shedding pounds.

Next we removed the OEM steering wheel and airbag along with the passenger side airbag, wiring, and controller. We also removed the OEM radio and speakers and had Syndicate Kustomz custom make some carbon fiber radio and airbag delete panels.

All of this in the name of performance at the track which was finished off with a Steering Wheel and a pair of Carbon Fiber pedals from Sparco.

The difference the steering wheel and pedals made is nothing short of amazing. Pedal placement is now perfect for rev matching, and steering wheel inputs no longer resemble operating a means of public transportation.

I also have a general disdain for gauge pods on the a-pillar. We took this time to remove the center air vent to clear a space to install our auto meter gauges. I bent up a piece of sheet metal, cut holes for the gauges, and hit it with a coat of wrinkle black.

We also made a Becket for our Techtom MDM100 to float it in front of our new CF radio delete.

We also decided that we could save some more weight by swapping in the Syndicate Kustomz Carbon fiber trunk. Once we received the new CF trunk we confirmed this. The SK trunk weighs 14 lbs less than the OEM trunk.

We also decided to ditch the heavy Optima battery that we had previously been using in favor of a lightweight battery from Odyssey. Due to the fact that we have eliminated a TON of accessory 12V items we went with the PC545 battery. This saved us 33 lbs over the Optima unit! We ordered up th battery and aluminum hold down and mounted it in the passenger side fender well.

These were all small things that needed to be done to make the car just that much lighter and more suited for the track.

Radiator Ducting

After doing the 2007 SERCA track day I realized that I needed to make the cooling system more efficient. The car was rock solid all day but I noticed that after driving the car hard in traffic the water temps. would start to rise more than I would like. I already have the Koyo radiator so I thought that I should make it more efficient. The reality is that the only way the radiator works is if you actually get the air to flow THROUGH it. Noble concept I know, so I was asking myself why I had not blocked off the huge gaps around the radiator in an effort to improve cooling. Well I recently did just that!

We started off by removing the support brace that runs from the lower radiator support to the hood latch mounting location, next we drilled out the spot welds and removed the hood latch bracket. We made sure the wiring was tucked underneath the tunnel and were ready to start making some diffusors.

All of them are made out of simple sheet metal and were bent using only hand tools. Unfortunately I did not have access to the metal break like I had hoped but we made do with what we had.

The top panel was bent at a 90 degree angle to be secured underneath the upper support, it was then bent upwards again so that it would sit flush against the grill. We also had to trim the difusor so that it would contour around the inside of the headlights, that was probably the hardest part in making this piece. This new diffusor will force air entering the grill to flow downward through the radiator. It can no longer blow up over the top and around the engine bay.

With the top panel bolted in place we started the sides. These were very tricky as we wanted them to contour around the headlights, bumper core support, and radiator. This meant a lot of test fitting and trimming. We started with a piece of sheet metal that was pre-bent for duct work. This means it already had a seam on one end that could be slipped on to another piece of metal, we used this end on the side of the radiator as the Koyo has a lip on either side. From there we traced and cut around any obstructions. Doing it this way allows the new panels to keep air from easily flowing around the radiator and again forces air through it.

We pre-drilled the side panels through the lip on the side of the radiator and riveted them in place. We then riveted the side panels to the top panel. Here are all three panels in place with the headlights bolted back up.

For those of you as detail oriented as me...The intercooler is only crooked because the core support is not in place. Once that is bolted up the IC mounts to brackets that hold it level and tight to the lower radiator support.

Here is a pic. of what you see with the hood open after everything was completely assembeled.

New Suspension

myspaceHere is a decently thorough write-up of the shortened Koni setup I built for my car. I could not have done this without the help of Steve Foltz, Lee at Koni, and Jon at O2 induction.

I chose the B15 Inserts and off the shelf rears for my project. I plan on starting with 350/300 spring rates and possibly going up from there. I will not run more than 450 though so that is why I chose the Spec V inserts. I also wanted to be able to use my OEM housings as well. I also chose to use the Koni sleeves and perches rather than thr fround control. I think they are better quality and actually are a smaller outer diameter which is nice.

Here is the donor housing looking a little worse for wear.

I drilled a small hole in the bottom to drain the fluid and then enlarged it with a step bit.

Next I measured and cut the end of the housing to remove the OEM strut rod assembly.

Nest I cut off the stock spring perch assembly and then ground off the welds.

Next up was a trip to O2 induction for some machine and welding work.

We machined the top of the Koni insert so that the Koni sleeve would be able to slide over. We did this so we could assemble the insert in to the OEM housing and then install the sleeve afterwards. This will also allow us to remove the sleeve if we ever have too.

We also took the rear spring perches that Koni provides and machined them down to use as perches for the Koni coilover sleeves. They are step machined to match the OD of the Koni sleeve and also match the inner step of the Koni sleeve.

Here we fit the sleeves for welding, the tape was used to hold the sleeve in place to level the perch for finish welding.

Welded Perch

Machined step for coilover sleeve.

Here is how the sleeve will fit once it is finally assembeled.

Next the housngs were powder coated flat black and paired with the inserts and necessary install parts.

Next I cut 12mm off the end of the insert.

Insert prepped with JB weld.

Insert fully seated.

Here is a closeup of the proper parts needed to finish the bottom off. Star washer, fender washer, and bolt provided by Koni. The black ring is a 1" x 5MM thick headset spacer I bought at a bike shop. I followed Steve's advice on this and it worked perfectly!

Assembly duct taped and ready for the install of the Koni sleeves.

Sleeves siliconed in place and ready for perches and springs.

Here is what we did with the rears. Again B15 Spec V rears with Koni sleeves and perches.

Here you can see the circlip on the rear that the Koni sleeves is designed to rest on.

The Koni sleeves are too long for the position of the circlip on the B14/15 rear setup.

We cut the sleeves down on the band saw.

Next we used some silicone to hold the sleeves in place.

Rears completely assembeled.

Here is the Rear suspension assembly. Koni coilover with 300# ERS and Motivational upper mount.

Latest turbo setup!

Last we left off we were in the process of upgrading the turbo and fuel system. That has been complete for some time but none the less I wanted to make sure that all of the details were posted for anyone wanting to duplicate the setup so here it is!

Given that the 240SX MAF was maxed and the 370CC injectors were VERY close we had to think about what we were going to do next. After some research we decided to use the Ford Cobra MAF, MSD 50 Lb Injectors, A JGY fuel rail, and a Nismo FPR. These upgrades were chosen because they would easily support the amount of power we want the project to make and then some. This is the point where you plan for things down the road and should we ever decide to build the bottom end these upgrades will no doubt support that as well.

JGY Fuel Rail                               

Installed Rail

Rail and FPR

The Cobra MAF was chosen for it's resistance to turbulence, and because if we ever get close to its max JWT can add a subtractor circuit to allow it to support more HP. To install the Cobra MAF it requires you to solder the Cobra Harness in place of the stock MAF harness.                                             

We chose the MSD and JGY rail combo as it is a more cost effective solution than the Nismo injectors. We are also pleased to announce that this upgrade has opened doors for others in that JGY developed top feed fuel rails for both the B13 and B14 GA16 motors. The B13 rail is a one piece design and the B14 is a two piece design that remotely locates the FPR, this two piece design worked perfectly in our application as without it the Nismo FPR would not clear the throttle body. The JGY rail represents fine craftsmanship and has performed flawlessly. The use of the MSD 50LB injectors requires the soldering of new connectors, we chose to cut the factory connectors off and solder the MSD connectors in. This is fairly straight forward and polarity of wiring does not mater as long as all of the connections are made in the same order.
MSD Clip vs Stock

 
Finished harness

With the MAF and Injectors addressed the turbo was next. We chose to upgrade from the T28 to the GT28RS disco potato turbo. We knew that this would require some modifications to the piping as we were running the original Hot Shot T28 kit. This will not be an issue for people who purchase the Hot Shot kit   now as they have upgraded to the GT28RS turbo and changed the overall layout of the kit itself. Given that we were also installing a Koyo radiator at the same time as the rest of these parts, a decision had to be made about how to route the turbo outlet. Given that the Koyo is much thicker than the stock core and the new turbo configuration has the turbo outlet pointing downward we knew it was going to be a tight fit. With this we decided to have Jon at www.o2induction.com modify the turbo outlet. Jon cut the original coupler fitting off of the end of the compressor housing and welded a cast aluminum elbow in its place. Jon took the time to do it right, cutting the elbow and machining a new coupler fitting for the elbow. He also machined the inside of the elbow so that it is essentially one large flowing piece coming out of the turbo. Once this was done the turbo was assembled. Given that the wastegate is set to about 14 PSI right out of the box we modified the actuator to get it to open at 11 PSI. We than clocked and installed the newly modified turbo. With this done we could now cut and re-weld the original Hot Shot IC piping and also fabricate a new turbo inlet.                  

Welded outlet Internal

Welded Outlet                                           

The hot side of the Hot Shot piping was simply trimmed and the original bead rolled end that we cut off was angled and re-welded back on the pipe. This new piping configuration removed almost 30" of intercooler piping when compared to the original layout. The cold side of the Hot Shot piping needed no modification, nor did the down pipe. As for the turbo outlet (commonly called a J-Pipe) it simply needed to have one of the bolt holes enlarged. The turbo inlet required a 3" 90 degree bend and a 3" cast aluminum elbow. We also welded in fittings for the Bypass Valve recirculation hose and the crankcase breather hose. We also upgraded the turbo coolant lines from our previous setup and changed the oil restrictor from a .060 fitting to a .035 fitting; this was done because ball bearing turbo's require less oil than conventional journal bearing turbo's.         

New turbo inlet pipe

   
Modified Charge Pipe             

As stated the Hot Shot Performance kit eliminates the need to perform any of these steps, however given that our car was upgraded after the fact you can follow these steps if you are in a similar situation.

While everything was torn apart we installed a Koyo Radiator and pusher fans.
Koyo vs Stock        

Push Fans             

We can't forget to mention that in order to run these upgrades you will need a JWT ecu reprogrammed specifically for these modifications. Given that no one had previously done this we put JWT to the test. We called and worked out the details and JWT went to work on a custom program, sight unseen. Given that the SR20 community has ran this Injector and MAF combo for years they had a good basis for a program. We shipped JWT the computer and they worked their magic. Not only did the car actually fire on the first try but it ran great. Drivability is great and tooling around town there is no hint of anything other than the stock motor. Off boost gas mileage is great as well, I hate to say it but the car runs better under normal conditions than the previous setup. With the car running properly it was time to strap the car down to the dyno.

       

We contacted SpeedQuest performance and told them we needed some time on their dyno to document our progress. We made a few passes with the boost controller off to check out the AF ratio and make sure all was well. The car felt very strong at 14 PSI and the dyno proved our suspicions were correct. At the same boost level as the previous dyno we made 252 WHP and 219 WTQ. We were extremely pleased with the results! 

  Honestly we did not expect this as this was the first tune JWT had done with this program and they did it sight unseen on a car that is 2000 miles away from their shop. If this doesn't speak to JWT's tuning ability, sell your Nissan now and put on the ass-hat. We decided not to push our luck and crank up the boost just yet.

Finally!!!!!!!

After nearly 2 years of no updates on the old site we have turned a new leaf. This is the new space in which we will continue on with our GA16DE 200SX project. We have changed lots of stuff since our last installment and our first order of business is to get everything up to date. So go ahead and subscribe to the blog so you know when new stuff has hit...

The new NOTNSER.COM

This is the new 'blog-style' notnser.com

ENJOY!

ENGINE

Since our project car is located in Wisconsin, we sourced someone local to perform the work. LAM engines in Kenosha, Wisconsin are locally known for their outstanding work on MANY different race engines. While they primarily work on larger displacement motors, they have all the right tools to perform the job correctly. They also have some experience with a few other Nissan motors and other miscellaneous 4 cylinder's. After talking with a few shops in the area we chose LAM because they were VERY interested in working on this project. While this sort of tuning is popular on the west coast, here in Dodge land, most shops laugh when you mention the words four cylinder. LAM was very informative and helpful from the beginning; Russ was quick to answer any and all questions we had. With a machine shop located, it was time to dive in to the cylinder head.

This is what we have in store for the top-half: Ported and polished cylinder head featuring a multi angle valve job, Swain TBC coated combustion chambers, exhaust ports, and valve faces along with Jim Wolf Technology Camshafts. After looking at the design of the stock cylinder head, it seems as if porting the intake and exhaust ports will be very beneficial. Robert Legere found that the exhaust side of the motor only flowed about 60% of what the intake side flowed. Typically this percentage should be closer to 80. This means that porting the exhaust side to flow closer to 80% of the intake could be very beneficial to performance. Porting and shaping the intake ports is also beneficial, as is blending the valve bowls. A multi-angle valve job is another area where significant gains can be realized. This is a process where three different angles are cut into the area where the valve seats into the bowl. This is about as in depth as we are going to get with the mechanics of cylinder head work. If you find yourself looking for more, please visit Kojima's Revenge of the Nerds's Column, Mike does a far better job explaining the mechanics involved in a project like this, you'll be more informed after reading his article.

With the shop sourced and a core cylinder head obtained, the project began. LAM was provided with a gasket kit (including new valve seals) as well as the lift and duration numbers of the JWT camshafts. The stock cams were measured to determine the changes in lift and duration between the Stock cams and the JWT cams. With those numbers in mind Russ went to work on the cylinder head first attacking the intake and exhaust ports. The intake manifold gasket was mounted to the intake ports to determine the boundaries of porting. The ports were opened up significantly with an emphasis being placed on the shape of the intake port. It is vital to maintain intake velocity so the ports were shaped in a manner that would help to maintain velocity. You can see the results in the before and after photos of the intake ports.

Intake port before:                                    Intake port after:

While beginning the work, the intake manifold gasket was attached to the cylinder head so that it would be matched to the new port profile. Next the exhaust ports were worked on. Given that the exhaust side flows much less than the intake side, the major removal of material was done on the exhaust ports. They were opened up significantly in comparison to the stock exhaust ports. With an emphasis on shape the ports wound up being more of an oval shape, when compared to the stock exhaust gaskets you can see the difference in size and shape of the ports.

Exhaust ports before:                                Exhaust ports after:

   

The valve bowls were smoothed and blended with the new ports, leading to the newly cut valve job. A multi angle valve job was performed on a Serdi machine. This is a machine that ensures the utmost accuracy with respect to the angles being cut into the cylinder head. Three angles are cut into the surface to make a more efficient transition for the air moving around the opened valve. In the pictures you can see the three distinct angles on the port opening, notice the small cut into the side of the combustion chamber; this maintains the angle throughout the port opening.

Valve bowls before:                                    Valve bowls after:

Another area of improvement in the cylinder head is the valves themselves. Valves are typically back cut to assist in the transition of air around the opened valves; however a larger back cut can improve flow. The valves were back cut to 30 degrees; the back cut coupled with the multi angle valve job should greatly improve flow. Another trick with respect to valves is un-shrouding; this entails removing material from around the base of the valve where the shaft transitions into the valve face. This translates into a smaller restriction when the valves are open and the valve stem is placed into the intake stream. Given the small diameter of the valve stems, we decided not to test the integrity of the valves, as we felt the decreased shaft diameter could weaken them.

Once the cylinder head work was done, the head was packaged and shipped to Swain coatings. Being that this engine will be turbocharged, we opted to have Swain apply their Thermal Barrier Coating applied to the combustion chambers, valve faces, and exhaust ports. This coating helps to reduce temperatures within the chamber and will help to maintain temperature of the exhaust gasses; this should help to assist in scavenging within the exhaust system as well as increase the response of the turbo. For more information on Swain coatings please visit their site, www.swaintech.com. Here are a few pictures of the coated cylinder head.

Coated Chamber Valves:

TBC coated ports:                             TBC coated chamber:

 

We are also installing the JWT cams. These cams have already been tested on project sweet 16, for more details please visit Kojima's Garage.

JWT Cams:

A cylinder head installation is not a simple bolt-on procedure. There is a good write up on a cylinder head install in a previous issue of NPM. The intake manifold and TB must be removed. The cams, timing chain, idler sprocket all need to be removed, as do many other small items. Remember you should always use new cylinder head bolts when installing a new cylinder head. Here are a few pictures from the cylinder head installation.

Old Head:

Here is the old head just prior to removal; all of the necessary parts have been removed.

Block Side Shot:

In this shot the head has been removed and the piston tops are exposed. Notice cylinder 1 at TDC, this is  vital before beginning the head install!

This is a picture of the new head with the JWT cams in place. This is taken from the intake side.

Here Russ from LAM engines is porting our Hot Shot header to match the new exhaust ports.

Just before we fired it up!

After putting 100 shakedown miles on the car we opened it up. The car feels VERY different from 3500 on up. It pulls hard all the way to redline! With the cams and headwork we dynoed 113 HP and 109 LB FT of torque to the front wheels. This is up from our previous dyno. of 103.9 HP and 104 Torque. This is a gain of 9 HP and 5 LB FT. We suspect that the intake manifold and throttle body are now the bottleneck and will probably see nice gains when we address those. This goes to show that there is power to be had out of the cylinder head. It may not be the first modification to make but once the other bolt-on's are installed it is definately a dyno proven way to free up some HP.                        

These items have been added since the headwork was performed:                        

• O2 Induction bored throttle body

            

• Bored over 5MM with a new throttle plate

COSMETIC

Given that I am not a huge fan of aggressive body kits and flashy paint jobs I chose simple understated mods. I feel the body mods. have given the car an aggressive yet understated appearance.                     

Exterior:

Nis-Knacks Black housing projector lights and corners                                  

OEM Nissan 1998 Front and rear bumper covers

Fiber Images Carbon Fiber hood       

Stillen GTR Grill

Stillen GR Front Fascia, Used only on track days

Interior:

Nissan OEM SE-R leather shift boot                                  

Nismo Black Aluminum Shift Knob                              

Schroth Rallye 3 point harness,
Driver & Passenger

Wheel and Tires:

Street:                       

16 x 7 Enkei RPF 1’s                         

Toyo Proxes T1S 215 40 16                      

Autocross:

         OEM NX2000 wheels

Kumho Victoracer 205 55 14                       

Track:                                                

          Kosei K1 Racing 16 x 7.5
          Custom Powder Coated

         Toyo Proxes RA1’s