I am going to start a project thread for my Daily Drive I still kick my self that I didn't do this correctly with my SX to track the improvements as the car changed over the years ,I bought the car from a Friend for a steal at only R20-000 the car stood for 1 year killing the battery the car came 17 inch rim's, Sony MP3 front loader,sony 200watt fronts, Audiobank 1800 watt amp and pioneer 500watt DVC Sub.
That was the good but the car does have a few problems first off is the mileage 260-000KM both side's Steering rack boots are shot, All four wheel bearing are shot because of the 17 inch rims (Yes rims kill bearings) it sounds like the left hand side CV's are toast the front crank case seal is shot and needs to be replaced also paint is heavily faded and last but no least it looks like the timing chain and valve stem seals are on there way out and need to be replaced damn Nissans
But I'm not to worried about the mileages as the GA16DE have been know to last to around 300-000KM also Import Ga16DE seem to very cheap being the unliked brother of the SR20 strangely also cheaper then the Toyota 1300cc motor go figure.
Its nice to be rid of the carb fueled car. Plus being a 93 ECCS ECU, I have all the fueling maps plus the license needed so all I need is a nistune board. I told myself when I got the car I was not going to modify her and was going to return her to stock that lasted around 30 seconds.
Here are some pictures of the car as I received it
The big clean
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The first thing I wanted to do when I got the car was a MAJOR service including cap, Rotor, Leads, wiper blade's... ect but I didn't have the cash in my budget will need around R800 so I did a minor service this included cleaning the AFM with a ear bud and a full throttle body clean these two things help the Idle and performance but fuel economy was bad and I think its related to the cone filter.
Rim Swap
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The first thing to go was the rim's the rid was way to hard and the car was way to twitchy also the massive loss of acceleration because of them also the car looked like a 4x4
So here is a picture of the new rim's, I don't think they look amazing but they are lighter and cheaper to replace rubber on.
Timing Bump
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Hillbilly I know and I'm sure to get flak from this by the people I respect but I bumped the timing by 5 degrees from 10 to 15, It was done by Import tuner a few years back and showed good gains in mid range torque and has been shown not the cause Knock on 91 Ron fuel and it didn't cause any knocking on 93 Ron that I could hear.
Grounding Kit
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Next I Installed a grounding kit, Having installed grounding kits on a number of motors including B18,B16,CA18DET and a 2E long block with the drivers reporting good results plus me experiencing an increase in smoothness on my ca18det I thought it would be a good Idea.
Before installing the kit I measured the voltage on the ECU grounds located on the intake of all Nissan ECCS cars , I got 12.2 Volts after installing the kit I got 12.6 the same across the battery I forgot to measure Ohm. But it does make sense that possibly after 13 years the grounds could have corroded
The car felt smoother and more willing to rev after the modification
Picture:
CAI Intake
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Next I couldn't take the fact that the car was sucking heated air from the engine bay, I had built a CAI for the SX to help lower intake temps and increase efficacy also after it was installed on the SX the butt dyno said there was an increase in off boost performance and there was a decrease in fuel consumption.So I built a Beta Intake that I ran for 5 days taking cold air from the fender.
Pictures of the build:
I wasn't impressed with the intake because of the amount of bends and the fact that it used the stock AFM to TB pipe with a resonator, Also the car seem more sluggish to rev when compared to the open Cone filter.
So I built the beta 2 Intake , I changed the AFM to TB pipe plus made a shorter and smoother path for the air to travel from the fender also I wrapped the piping to insulate from radiated heat in the engine bay and heat soak when stuck in traffic a lot of people don't like how it looks but I don't give a damn its been proven to work well.
Now when driving the car she feels a lot stronger, She sounds better at WOT and is returning better mileage also when popping the bonnet the AFM is cold to the touch and the intake is ambient thanks to the bypassed Throttle body cooling.
Picture:
Throttle body
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I have bought a SR20 old spec throttle body from what i hear its a direct bolt on for the GA16DE including TPS. The stock GA16DE throttle body is 50mm and the SR20 is 60mm. I have done this same mod on my CA18DET and really enjoyed the increase throttle response
Unfortunately I haven't received the item yet so keep post for the install
