The dyno is booked in under three hours 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.
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 newer images of the retrimmed front bar. So look out for this and the new front pipe and intercooler pages.
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.
It’s been a big 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.
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 132.7kw @ 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 it’s 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.
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 was 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.
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 already 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!
In the near future the website will be upgrading to a proper domain and server. This will be http://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.
SR20 TUNING 