25th November 2010

dropped the car off at unigroup for them to look over the car and touch up the tune after the new cam has been installed.

New shoes

Today i checked out the cams by removing the rocker cover and all looked OK after a few hundred klm's, also replaced the tie rods and fitted the new wheels to the car.

Not sure about the wheels but here are a few shots, would be interested in any feedback

tie rod ends fail

Well it looks like the special rod ends that John got for me have not cut the mustard and are in need of replacement.
Rather then go for something similar again i am have got my hands on a set of new tein tie rods and tie rod ends from Martin for a great price so i will replace the entire thing.

finishing of installing the replacement exhaust cam

Finished off the install this afternoon with Andrew,

Tightening the cam gear onto the cam

 Now putting the caps back on over the cam

Installing replacement cam

Picked up the replacement cam and rocker arm this afternoon and Andrew came round and pull the old one out.
Aim was to put the new one back in but we could not get the cam pin out so he has taken it home with him tonight and will remove it hopefully...

Here are a few photos

Cam out and caps off

Shot of the springs and hydraulic lifter

Rocker that was replaced, the wear is quiet bad and a deep groove is aross the face of the rocker

Here are the fauly cam and rocker, you can sort of see the groove on the rocker a bit better. These cams have done probally 250klm max since new

Close up of the damaged lobe, on the right you can see the lip that has developed.

Trying to get the cam pin out to no avail, we heated the cam to try and loosen.

Installing the rocker arm stoppers for good measure

Close up of the rocker arm stoppers

hopefully we will finish it off tomorrow and crank her up, fingers crossed everthing is ok

new rocker arm stoppers on there way

order a set of rocker stoppers on the weekend and recieved them today.
On track to pick up the new cam and rocker tomorrow hopefully

Faulty exhaust cam up close

Took some pictures today of the cams and the scouring that has occoured on the number 2 exhaust cam.

Here is the number 3 cylinder on the exhaust side

And here is the number 2 cylinder, notice across the face it is quiet poor but on the left there is a lip that has developed from uneven wear.

Quiet clearly in this shot you can see the differences, left is perfect as it should be considring they have only been in the car less then 500klm and on the right is the damaged lobe.

running on 3 cylinders

Pulled the car off the trailer at home and it sounded like a boxer engine, totally devastated!!!!
To add insult to injury the jerry car i put on the driver seat the cap was not put on properly and it leaked over my seat leaving a pool of E85 on the seat then my bum as i had to drive if off the trailer.
Called Andrew who was already at home and he came round to look at the problem to work out what it was. He used his Oscilloscope on the number 2 injector and it was pulsing so that was not the issue although it could be pulsing and not sending any fuel.

We checked the compression and it was 40psi down on number 2 cyl - my heart sank.

When we pulled the spark plug out it was wet (at the track day it was dry so something changed in that time) It looked like fuel was getting into the cylinder so either that injector was putting extra into the cylinder or we had cleaned the blockage.

The only other thing it could have been was a broken or misaligned rocker that had moved around so we took off the cam cover and found that the exhaust cam lobe on the number 2 cylinder was badly scored.
After a lengthy call to Unigroup the thought process is that it is a porous cam fault causing the wear as there is no wear on the other lobes which could be from a blockage on the oil squirters. They are going to gring down the cam and see if there are any air pockets in the metal.

They are sourcing a replacement cam and rocker and Andrew will put them in and we can take the car back to Unigroup for further fault finding.

1:04.2614 around Wakefield then engine fail

Well woke early in cold Goulburn this morning after making a late run down from picking up the car Friday night. Was fortunate enough that Michele's dad lives there so had free accommodation and a nice big bed to sleep in.Made my way out and was the second person to arrive and started to unload the car off the trailer and the tools and spares from the car.

Cold start was poor and it took a fair bit to get the car started and needed to press the accelerator pedal to get it to kick over. Idle was quiet poor with it hunting around a fair bit so will need to get Unigroup to work on this.
Had the wheels i borrowed from James on the back of the car so pulled these off, sorted out th rest of the car got it scruitenered and signed on for the day.

First session was a passenger session and was sliding around the track with under then over steer everywhere, after about 3 laps and some heat got into the tires it started to grip up and with Eddy in the car it felt reasonable good. There was some transient hesitation on the on-off throttle application that started and felt a little wrong

Next session was the first timed session and the car developed a miss in the engine that was on and off, got one good lap in and smashed my PB record.
Managed a 1:04.2614
http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?06/11/2010.WAKE.S3.Y

Next session it was even worse so bought the car in after a few laps and it sounded like it was running on 3 cyl - which it was.
I initially thought it was the fuel filter which we changed over and looked at the old one and there was nothing wrong with it.

Checked the num 2 cyl and pulled off the coil plug and it didn't make a difference so we quickly realised it was something else. Changed the coil packs - no difference, Changed the igniter and no difference.
Noticed the AFM was dirty so we cleaned that as well but no real difference.

Packed up the car and bought it home

Picked up the car - 261rwkw

Car was tuned today and a little disapointed.

Unigroup could not run more then 20psi on the car which i thought with the E85 you could run a lot higher boost. Similar cars are running increased boost and it is getting some hesitation when he try's to put more boost into it and we are not sure why.

I got there around 5pm and after talking to them we gapped the plugs down further to 0.7mm as it might be he boost pressure blowwing out the spark.

Got the bill and was asked to pay cash which i don't have that sort of money and i checked when i dropped the car off and i was going to use the credit card. All up $2650 but i remember before i worked out it was $2700 with the valve springs that we did not use on the car so might have to check the breakdown with them.

Here is the comporasion between the 98oct run with the vct problem and the final e85 run with the vct fixed. This is the lambada readings and there is quiet a dip at the start which Unigroup suggested the Power FC was a common fault, might have to investigate this further as it has not done it before and may be something else causing it.

Boost you can see i need to get a larger wastegate spring to hold higher boost and allow better control.



last minute running around - tune on E85 today

dropped car off this morning at Unigroup and we drained the rest of the 98 in the tank by disconecting the fuel return hose off the reg, plugging the hole and running the car pumping into a jerry can.
Once it ran out we put a little bit of E85 in the tank and cranked it up again to drain most of the 98 oct out.
Getting a tune today, cold start tune Friday morning then i will pick it up on Friday afternoon on the way down to wakefield.

Off now after dinner to pick up some E85 from Roselle (hopefully they are still open)

Nothing like leaving it to the last minute......

replacing VTC (VCT) cam gear s14 - s14a - s15

Installed the new VCT gear tonight with the help of Andrew

New VCT Gear

Old VCT Gear still on the cam

 Cleaning the head and removing the VCT gear

Installing the new VCT gear

The Old VCT gear



HKS Step 1 Vs Unigroup Cams - Back to Back

Posting up my results from the dyno run with the HKS cams compared to the Unigroup ones. These have my valve springs in them which are uprated.

HKS cams peak power is at 15.5psi and the Unigroup was only at 15psi so probally is the best comparison you could get.

THe HKS Cams the VCT comes on at about 4800rpm - 5000rpm (you can see the little wiggle in the power curve). The Unigroup cams around 6000 - 6200 rpm.

From about 3400rpm to 4000rpm the HKS cams make higher power but the Unigroup cams are higher through the remainder of the rev range.

step 1 hks and the unigroup are custom cams (252 intake 11.5mm, 259 exhaust 11.9mm), both had the same upgraded valve springs.
Both use the std vct gear.

The second graph is where the VCT started to crap itself and for me kind of gives an indication as to if the VCT is worth while or not.

Aiming to get a new VCT gear and tuned on E85 before the track day hopefully but not to promising.

New fuel rail, id1000 injectors and 98oct tune

Picked up the car this afternoon and drove it back home.

Took some happy snaps of the fuel rail, pressure regulator and injectors which have been installed.

The tune on 98 i am pretty happy with initially without seeing the final power figure due to the VCT cam gear failing. Idle is much better as is the transient throttle compared to what it was previously with a much crisper throttle. It was pissing down rain so could not give it a boot full but drove nicely in the wet on the way home.

Here are some photos

Fuel Rail and injector harness

 Close up of the injector and collar

 Fuel Pressure Reg

Fuel Rail End

VCT (VTC) Needs replacing

Well the car was on the dyno today getting the 98oct tune after the new fuel rail was installed and it looks like the vct gear has gotten worse and needs to be replaced.

When i dropped the car off the vct was starting to make some increased noise and i asked them if i should order a replacement then so they can fit it but it looked OK. As it's on the dyno you can see the difference so no i am trying to track down a new VCT.

I have a lot to organize this week to make it to the track day as time has run out which is disappointing. I had started with plenty of time in advance but after Unigroup talked me into getting the cams then it took another week to receive them it has sort of run on a bit and i don't have much time left.

Things to do 

• pick up car on Monday night from Unigroup
• Organize the VCT gear from hopefully Uniqueauto
• Remove VCT and Fit new VCT
• Fix oil leak in turbo line
• Fix oil temp sensor problem
• strip tyres from rims and fit semi slicks to all 8 wheels
• fit new temp sensors into rims for orange TPMS
• get wheel alignment
• take car back to Unigroup and get car tuned
• fill up jerry cans and car with E85 @ Roselle
• Load up car and trailer ready for Wakefield Thursday night

lots to do!!!!!

Fuel Rail and Id1000 injector pictures

Here are some shots of the fuel rail Unigroup have made along with the injectors for the E85 kit on the s14/15. Becasue of the low clearence the rail and injkectors need to have a lower profile where as with the s13 type plenium you have a lot more room.
They are ID1000cc injectors giving a very good spray pattern and the flow needed for the extra fueling requirments of the E85.

Here is some photos of the different parts, also have a Sard fuel reg to go with it

Trial fit some 10in wheels - Buddy Club

these are not my wheels but some we tried from someone elses car. These are 10inch +18 with a 15mm and 20mm spacer, the back of the rim is machined flat so with the spacers the bolts stick out about a further 10-15mm and you can only get a few turns on the wheel nuts. We were just playing around with what the rims look like and they are not to bad.

dropped the car off at unigroup

Dropped the car of to Unigroup today to instal fuel rail, ID1000 injectors, Sard pressure regulator.
Tune on 98oct, E85 then also a emmisions tune on the E85

Will switch between the tunes when needed

Eastern Creek PB - 1:46.3749

Managed a PB around Eastern Creek which was nice but only got 5 laps in before the diff dropped out

http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?11/07/2010.EAST.S2.Y

World Time Attack - NSCC Club Display

We went to superlap with the club (nscc) and we put a few of our cars on display, it was not something we would normally think of doing but we all actually had a lot of fun and the event was awsome.
Was talking to so many people from different states and was blown away by the amount of people, bring on next year and a feeder series i say.

Here is a photo with the CF bit's installed

Was quiet surprised i actually won two trophys - Best Bodykit and Just JDM.

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1:05.96 at Wakefield Park

Managed a 1:05.96 at Wakefield Park today which i was pretty happy about
http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?15/05/2010.WAKE.S2.Y

PIARC Phillip Island Sprint - PB - 1:48.9590

Went down in feb and had a crack at PI,

Fist lap was my fastest in this session with a 1.48 just as it started raining. This is from a Go-Pro hero HD and with the in cabin video sound put over it as the Go-Pro sound was no good.

Phillip Island - 1min 48sec

Got a little sideways through Turn 1 which was fun.... this is what happens when you are too busy looking at your speedo rather then the turning point.

Turn 1 Phillip Island - A Little Sideways

Guy in a commadore nearly cleans me up

Commadore Nearly Cleans Me Up

Carbon Fibre Canards

Picked up some cool CF canards or side spliters for the front bar, have to pull my finger out and install them. (there are two of them just didn't take a photo of the other one)

Wrong Rod Ends and DL1 Sensors

Bit of an update, the rod bearings were the wrong thread size so have to take them back and get the right thread size. Quiet frustrating but hopefully will be ok except for another wheel alignment being then needed but will set it up for the next track day at the same time rather then doing it twice.
Andrew made a better mount for the DL1 for me and added in TPS and brake switch which will be handy to see throttle control through the corners and combined with the G sensors pick under/over steer up easier.
Need some new discs as the rotors are about stuffed, went to Tony @ V-Sport who no longer works there but aparently DBA don't make the curved vein rotors and only have the kangaroo paw. Not sure about these as have had some previous bad reports on the design but becasue i have the hats it means i need to either suck it up or buy another brand and pay the extra money for the hats and donunts.

Rod Ends and Dyno Day

Have not done much since the Oran Park track day but have a few things to try and sort out, has been difficult with work and EOFY.

Have to fit the rod ends which Unique Autosports got for me, they are a chrome moly 14mm teflon coated type used in motorsport. I am hoping they will do the job and i won't have any issues like with the Kazama ones, John sorted out some good prices as well considering some of the other places wanted close to $200 each for them.