Author: sr20tuning

The 180 has hit the dyno again to the tune of 164.9rwkw, a solid 7.5kw gain from one modification. Thanks to Yavuz from Unigroup Engineering once again for his patience in looking after exactly what I wanted. The poor factory T25G is being pushed and pushed further, and so is the fuel system. The extra airflow created from the manifold has made the air fuel ratios a tad leaner, suggesting the injectors are reaching max duty cycle. Read all about it on the completed Exhaust Manifold page, and the graphs on the Results page.

I was previously going to get the HKS cams next, but I feel the addition capacity for swallowing air will not be met by the fuel system, resulting in a lean out. Therefore next stage will be the tuning of the car with the 550cc injectors and RB20 air flow meter in place. This should maybe give the car a crack at 170 rwkw, through the lessened intake restriction mainly. After that I will have brief tune done with the cams, to see the absolute max I can squeeze out the t25g before he hks turbo is used. Should be fun indeed.

I’m dying to hit the drag strip again, and will do so very soon after the new Western Sydney International Dragway is opened. The better surface combined with more power, better traction from better tyres and a lot more experience from myself in launching should see times tumble. I now seem to get consistent flat 6s for the 0-100kmh test, with only half decent launches, almost a second quicker than my best launches when I last raced. Therefore I won’t be happy if I don’t break straight into the 13s. Hopefully a low 13 second ET is available with some more practise. Time will tell.

I’m glad to report I had an awesome day on the skidpan and figure 8 track at Eastern Creek. The car performed faultlessly (except for an intercooler hose blowing off and giving me a scare) and really was beautiful to drive sideways. I started the day about average but by the end I could link almost all of the figure 8 course sideways. I highly recommend such a day to anyone with a rear wheel drive car. The track is very slippery, so not much power or even an LSD is required. Days like this are run regularly at Eastern Creek by MotoConcepts and Aaron McGill.

I’m hoping someone got some video footage of the car as my pics are useless. Already I have put my name down to drive in a full day of drift at Oran Park

This week I hope to install the fresh gearbox as well as have the car dynoed to test the effect of the new manifold. Expect updates for these very soon.

Today the manifold was installed with the help of friends Craig and Daniel. It took a fair few hours but in the end everything went on. I am pleased to announce it seems to have made a significant and positive difference. Read all about it on the Manifold page.

The car therefore is all set for the skidpan day at Eastern Creek on Saturday, when combined with the fresh tyres I picked up for it a few days ago. Hopefully I can get my gearbox in early next week, to make the car a true pleasure to drive. I will most likely devote a new page to detailing the procedure for changing a gearbox/clutch, with the usual step by step picture instructions.

I must thank all you viewers for making this site a great success. Any day now it will pass 30,000 page hits, it seems people are recognising the value of the content I have worked hard to provide. As the the car grows, so will the site, and hopefully so will the viewers.

This should be a great week for the 180. Firstly, my manifold has arrived, and therefore is ready to be put on midweek on a day off. This is excellent timing with the old turbo to manifold gasket recently expiring, now to the point of not being able to reach full boost in most gears. A new pic is on the Manifold page. Expect a detailed picture guide on the install towards the end of the week, and dyno testing very soon.

Secondly, I have secured purchase of another second hand gearbox to replace the extremely crunchy one in the 180. I will freshen the oil in it before it’s installed which I can hopefully do myself. I possibly won’t have the correct equipment and tools however. Either way i will finally get to see my mystery clutch for the first time.

Lastly, this Saturday I will be driving on the new Eastern Creek Raceway skidpan for a drift practise day. I finally have a chance to go nuts in my car in a safe environment. It will only get better too with Oran Park announcing they will be harbouring drift on their go kart track and north circuit in the future.

The 180 is now registered for another year which relieves me greatly. I have now moved onto stage 2 of the engine mods. Stage 1 was aiming to reach the limits of the factory T25G turbo and was as follows:

– full 3 inch exhaust sytem

– large FMIC

– raise boost to ~1 bar / 14 psi

– reprogram ecu

The aim for this stage was 160rwkw, and I have almost achieved that with 157.4rwkw minus the ecu remap. The reality is that there is very little top end gain to be had from this, as the air fuel ratio is already near where you would aim for and the car is apparently running detonation free. Therefore i’m starting stage 2 now and will have the ecu tuned to suit these mods instead. Stage 2 involves a larger aftermarket turbo and is as follows:

– 550cc straight fit injectors

– fitment of RB20 air flow meter or VG30 afm if needed

– aftermarket equal length stainless steel turbo manifold

– HKS step 1 camshafts

– HKS GT 2530 bolt on turbo (second hand)

– reprogram ecu suit all of this

The aim for this stage is around 220 rwkw. In the end though it makes what it makes and it’s assured it will be bloody fast with this package, so I won’t be too picky witha dyno number I hope. Internals will remain standard sans cams unless they break, which I hope they don’t as the engine seems to be running quite well in its current state.Tuning will be the key as well as regular maintenance, which I already undertake.

To make the car a better all round package there are still a few other things I would like to do:

– upgrade front brakes (just need brake pads now to bolt on S14 setup)

– half roll cage

– oil cooler and remote filter kit

Luckily for me many things came on the car which would certainly be required at this power level, things like an aftermarket fuel pump, a tough clutch and a thicker radiator.

The first of these items on the way is the exhaust manifold, which I have just found a good value item on NissanSilvia.com. Pics can be found on the new Exhaust Manifold page.

I have begun some editing of the site, by splitting this page into two to help loading times. Look for a lot of proofreading corrections and other small changes soon.

Something I’ve wanted to do for a long time is a reference guide to tyre sizing, which I have finally got around to. I think everyone will agree this is a fantastic resource when purchasing non standard size rims. The new page can found here: Tyre Selection.

I have started performing small tasks to tidy up the car for rego. As seen on the Interior Evolution page I have moved my ebc display and cleaned up the centre console. Other jobs include fitting a battery strap.

Most interestly I performed another important step in my quest for a quality cold air setup. The fuse box has been relocated and a small shield made to protect it. Step by step pictured instructions can be found on the Cold Air Induction page.

What a great day! Uni is now finished for the year allowing me a lot more time to work and earn money, and work on the car. Expect a lot of small updates as I fiddle with different areas of the car. Very soon I will have a good picture guide on how to relocate the headlight fuse box, making way for a decent cold air induction setup.

I will also take the time to go through and refine the site, including checking grammar and spelling (previously too lazy to check). I might consider some site altering to make it run faster too, such as making thumbnails for all the pictures.

Today as planned I redrilled and machined the S14 rotors in the uni workshop. I am pleased to reveal that I must have done the job well, as everything fits nicely on the car. All that remains for the conversion is for me to purchase some new brake pads for the front and maybe rear, and some fresh fluid. I will be onto this as soon as I have the car registered. See the progress on the S14 Front Brake Upgrade page.

I’m immensely enjoying the car at the moment, constantly taking it out for drives just for the hell of it. It is hard to enjoy it on public roads responsibly, therefore I am keen to get to the track in the near future. Which brings to back to the brake upgrade. Today I have removed one of the front discs from the car ready as a template to redrill the S14 discs at uni tomorrow. I will also see if I can give them a light skim to clean up the surface, but am unsure if the available lathe is suitable. Some comparison pictures of the old to new brakes is available on the S14 Front Brake Upgrade page.

Therefore, all I will need after that is brake pads for the new calipers and some fresh brake fluid, and the conversion is ready to take place. Can’t beat Nissan for inter-family parts fitment.

The car is due for re-registration within the month, which I plan to use to register the car as a two seater. This requires the removal of all the rear seat belts and seats (which I’ve already done). The advantage of this is that I should be able to legally fit a half-roll cage in the rear as long as it is padded.

What can I say? A very happy update indeed! The dyno day was yesterday and 180 pumped out a very strong 157.4kw at the rear wheels. Not only is this figure about as good as you get your an S13 SR20DET with my mods but also the way in which the car is running was very pleasing. For the first time I was able to pull a full run all the way until 7000 rpm without having to back off for detonation or a lean air fuel ratio. The car is running very near to the mixtures that would be aimed for if the ecu was being remapped, so doing this would only net a handful of additional kilowatts. Therefore in its safe state I’ll probably leave the daughterboard tune until I have both a bigger set of injectors and my RB20 air flow meter ready to go, to maximise value for money.

Dyno graphs and pics can be found on the Results page, and hopefully in the next few days I will have some videos to upload as well.

Also, yesterday I picked up a bargain set of S14 front brakes for $200. Including the calipers, rotors and some spare brake lines all now that is required as a redrill and clean up of the discs, and some pads. I will be documenting the exact process and have created a new page to do so: S14 Front Brake Upgrade.

The site by the time this is uploaded will have passed 25,000 page hits which I think is a tremendous achievement. This site contains nothing such as a message board to keep regular viewers returning and racking up mega hits. It is safe to assume that there might be at least 10-15,000 individual visitors.