4G63 510

[jeffball610]

It's been a while since I've updated this. I've been fighting some issues. I've got the whole chassis rewired with Deutsch connectors. Swapped in a 7/8" MC with the booster, and then without the booster. I'm still fighting braking issues. None of that stops me from taking the car out to autocross and have fun. Here is a run from the May 19th session.
https://youtu.be/N8vES_FLiSE
I ran a 48.873 this run with a cone. I ran a 48.501 earlier in the day without video. My co driver ran a best of 45.483 and the top driver in an Alfa 4c had a 41.4 second run.

 

 

I'll be posting various "help" threads for specific issues I'm having. I've been posting inside of other's threads and I feel like I'm hijacking what the original topic is. If there is an issue with my multiple posts, please let me know.

[jeffball610]

After the Powerland show, I decided I should probably put together a list of the current parts. There were lots of discussions about how many cars parts my build is made up of. Not including the body, I think I'm up to about 28 different car models. Here's the list as it stands. I'll update this on occasion to make it current and accurate.

[Duncan]

I have a rather stock looking wagon, but have a LOT of other makes of parts on it other than Nissan, as well.  I also have a good selection of Sunbeam Alpine parts since I did most of the work on the car at an Alpine resto shop.  A lot of the British stuff bolted right on, and you'd never know otherwise.   Well done!  

[jeffball610]

I'm finally getting around to posting an update on my leaking head. It's not a major issue. It seems it's only one valve on cylinder #4. I presume this happened due to a bad valve guide. I bought the head with a bent valve and, if memory serves me, it was this exact valve. Looking at things, I think I could simply re lap this seat and valve and get it up and running, but I assume the issue would return so I bought a used head to rebuild.

You can't see much in the pictures because there isn't much to see. The most evident thing is just the lack of heat presence on the bad valve due to hot compression gasses not being present. The valve seat and face don't even look like they're bad until you really get in there. In any case, I have plans to rebuild a different head and do some upgrades and "while I'm in there" mods.

Cylinder #4

Cylinder #3

Valve seat

Valve face

[Trophy24]

Sometimes you have to look closely to figure it out. Nice find 👍

[slowlearner]

repairs = upgrades 😀

[jeffball610]

It's been a while since I updated anything. Lots to report, and I'll update it in several sections. First is just a recap. I took the long drive to the "Canby Make Up" event at Powerland near Portland, OR. The round trip drive was about 3,400 miles. I didn't take too many pics. I was busy enjoying the drive, but here's one at the column in Astoria, OR.

 

After returning from the trip, the car had a rough idle and turned out to be a bad valve. So a head refresh was in order. I decided to do a full rebuild on a spare head using quality parts from BC Racing.

 

"While I was in there", I decided to finally redo the wiring harness. The previous one worked fine, but used connectors and wires that were 30 years old and had been hacked and spliced to work. I used all new wires from Mil-spec and new connectors from Sheridan Engineering.

 

The harness (here shown on the old head) was "tucked" and hidden to keep things clean and neat.

 

After getting things back together, I managed to make it to the Route 66 JDM Classic and Nissfest in SoCal. Neither event was really my style, but it was nice to meet some people who appreciate the tin cans and recognize the work I've put in to make this my own car.

 

So, after nearly 1000 miles of proving the parts work, it was time to do more...

[jeffball610]

...performance upgrades. It started with cleaning up the lower coolant routing that always leaked and was simply not up to the task of what I've been asking it to do.

 

Here is a poor picture of the old set up. The grey tube comes out of the water pump makes a 180 degree turn to the lower radiator outlet. It also contains the coolant return for the turbo.

 

It was replaced with a new water pump with more direct fitting tubing. I'm not an aluminum welder, so my friend Trevor of Trevtec welded up the new outlet and coolant return fittings.

 

 

Once again, "while I was in there", I replaced the stock oil pressure diverter in the head with a unit from Kiggly. The 4G63 has a "dummy" valve in the head that doesn't regulate oil pressure in the head very well. In heavy race conditions, oil can build up in the head and starve the oil pick up. It can also cause the hydraulic lifters to tick. This unit regulates this pressure to keep that from happening instead of simply bleeding off the oil.

Ignore the braided line there. This was so I could remote mount the oil pressure sensor. I've heard that mounting it to the engine can cause erratic readings and it should be "shock mounted". There's a few other dress pieces there from STM Tuned in there too.

 

Next on the upgrade path were some better tires. The 320 tread wear Firestone Firehawk Indy 500s did well enough, but my plans to make more power and turn harder necessitated an update to the contact patch. So I went to Gummy Grip, a local performance shop that sponsors our local SCCA autocross region, and got some Bridgestone Potenza RE-71Rs installed. These are 205/45/16s.

 

I didn't notice too much difference on my first autocross in over 5 months, but the course was rough and I was told these needed a heat cycle to break in. I'll get another shot to test them out on November 30th at an open track day hosted by the local SCCA. And yes, that is a dyno you see...

[jeffball610]

So #4G63510 made its first dyno session over a month later than expected and its first ever. Right out of the gate on the street tune at 10psi it made 285whp.

 

We were trying to get the stock boost solenoid controller to make some extra boost, but it appears my Synapse waste gate is not set up for tuning like that. I have a Tial unit on the way, but we increased boost using the port combinations Synapse has. At 14psi it made 345whp. The dyno wasn't able to load the turbo correctly in my opinion and we were fighting phantom knock, but it still worked out. Ignore the torque readings, as there was intermittent RPM signal loss to the dyno and it wasn't reading correctly either.

 

Proof that the dyno was not working right for me (he has several cars making 800+whp) I accidentally made 17psi on the way home and almost wet myself when the tires spun in 3rd gear. That should equal around 400+whp and I let off around 5500rpm before I ended both mine and the car's lives.

 

I'll have some videos up eventually 🙂

[banzai510(hainz)]

Crap I got I straight trunklid your color

[slowlearner]

8 hours ago, banzai510(hainz) said:

Crap I got I straight trunklid your color

 

Keh? 😕

[jeffball610]

Here's a quick video of the wheel spin I discovered in 3rd gear 😜

 

Wheel Spin :-)

[Icehouse]

Beast power for such low boost levels.  

[edekalil]

Nice car!

[jeffball610]

So a thing happened a couple of weeks ago. Of course, it was 6 days before a road course event and during Thanksgiving week. I changed my oil, and this is what I find.

Ignore the squiggly things. That's just RTV or something. The small flakes aren't that big of a concern, but I did find a couple of larger ones.

 

So of course, I pull the motor and order bearings knowing they won't arrive in time.

But to my surprise, STM Tuning got them to me in record time and I had a chance.

This is what I found on the main bearings. Almost nothing. Typical wear from dry starts. There is one small piece out of the #1 main bearing, but still not that concerning.

The initial thought was "crankwalk", but the thrust bearing looked fine.

The crank had typical wear. There were a couple of rough spots I could feel with a fingernail, so I gave it a DIY polish.

The rod bearings looked about the same. Nothing too unusual.

So I tossed it all back together. If I pulled an all nighter, I could have made the road course event, but I chose to take my time. Sadly, I still don't know if it all worked. My wideband O2 sensor readings are all over the place, so I don't have much run time on the motor with the new bearings. I'd like to get a good heat cycle and some miles on it before I change the oil. Things are just fighting me right now. Thankfully winter break is coming up and I'll have some time to really dig in, but I'd like to get this thing back on the road (and the track) so I can really enjoy it.

This is what a good O2 sensor signal should look like.

This is what it looks like now.

It only reads full rich and full lean. Mostly full lean, not matter how much fuel I add. I did jostle the wires a bit and remount the ECU when I pulled the motor. I'm not getting any error codes from the Innovate LC2 unit, so I'm at a loss.

 

 

[Duke]

I understand the frustration.  I think I pulled the engine/trans 6 times to deal with small problems before I got my KA swap to where it is now.  That being said, once everything is dialed in, it's totally worth it.

 

On the Innovate issue, did you happen to power up the unit without the sensor plugged in?  This happened to me a couple of months back and I had similar readings to what you are seeing.  I re calibrated the unit and all was good again.

[jeffball610]

On 12/13/2019 at 9:16 AM, Duke said:

On the Innovate issue, did you happen to power up the unit without the sensor plugged in?  This happened to me a couple of months back and I had similar readings to what you are seeing.  I re calibrated the unit and all was good again.

I did a calibration for the third time. Apparently the third time is the charm. It's working correctly, but the tune is still off a bit. I just need to put some miles on it. Too bad I don't have a heater in the car so I can drive it when it's cold out.

[Burabuda]

i mentioned your engine issue to my mitsu guru and his response:

 

Very odd. I have to wonder if they did porting on the oil pressure bypass?  Second I'd look at the cylinder walls and make sure a piston pin hasn't walked (uncommon but I've seen it). Another thing is the balance shaft delete. If they didn't use the oenophile 1.6 style stub shaft it can cause issues. The oem style has and oiling groove the knock offs don't have.

[jeffball610]

I'm still up and running. I haven't seen any issues recently and it seems to run fine. Here's a quick video of my best autocross time from last weekend.

Edited January 31, 2020 by jeffball610

[bilzbobaggins]

1 hour ago, jeffball610 said:

I'm still up and running. I haven't seen any issues recently and it seems to run fine. Here's a quick video of my best autocross time from last weekend.

 

Just shows a parts list?  Or am I doing it wrong?

[jeffball610]

On 1/23/2020 at 10:28 PM, bilzbobaggins said:

 

Just shows a parts list?  Or am I doing it wrong?

Whoops. That was the link in YouTube to my mod list. It should work now.

[jeffball610]

After that last autocross, I started shopping for new suspension parts. I've discovered that my front end is running out of suspension travel and bottoming out giving me understeer with the grip level I'm currently experiencing. My current set up is full length S12 struts with stock 280Z KYB inserts and T3 coil overs up front. Out back is Specialty Engineering springs and KYB shocks (probably Camero units). I would love to run Troy Ermish's stuff, but I think my set up is quite different from what he deals with. He's a smart guy and I'm sure he can cook something up, but I've gone another route.

For the price, I'm not sure I can do better. I just purchased a complete set of coilovers from Silver Mine Motorsports. The fronts are adjustable for height, spring preload, and dampening. The rears are just height and spring preload adjustable. My biggest selling point is the modularity of the units. Several other companies have similar styles of coilovers and I'm sure they all use the same threaded tubes making it easy to run someone else's stuff in the future if the need arises. But for $800 shipped for a set of 4, it's tough to argue against it.

I haven't seen too many people running them, but a YouTuber I follow, CZero Media, runs them on his Z and likes them. My uses will be different than his, but there are several "sponsored racers" on the Silver Mine site, so they might work out okay.

I'll update this thread when I put them together and give some initial feedback. The next autocross event is March 8th and I'll give them a full thrashing :-)

 

I'll post a short video from last weekend's autocross soon. I only made 3 runs and left before the afternoon session due to weather. I finished mid pack and at least 3 seconds slower than I think I can run. Oh well.

[jeffball610]

Here's a short video of me on the highway coming home from autocross. I found myself without traction rolling into 3rd gear.

 

[jeffball610]

Autocross February 9, 2020. The car still had understeer due to lack of front end suspension travel. I have changed suspension set ups to the Silver Mine Motorsports since this event. I'm getting an alignment this week and the next event is soon, so I'll get a chance to provide some feedback.

 

 

Edited February 23, 2020 by jeffball610

[jeffball610]

Here's a video that's way too long about my Silver Mine Motorsports coilover install. I'll update with another video in about 2 weeks with my feedback and impressions from the next autocross event on March 8th.