Kaihatsu Factory S14 Silvia

[Riekert]

haha awesome man!!

[djtreble]

Sorry for the delay in updating, been running around getting things sorted and running the car in.

Anyway, before the motor went in, we found the sleeve that the release bearing slides on had snapped off the casing and the ball that the clutch fork swivels on had snapped....this is what happens after 2 years of clutch kicking on a ACT heavy duty clutch:




So we replaced it with a CA box one, why?....well the SR one is aluminium and the CA one is cast....stronger


And some crappy photos but it's on the road, here is running the car in on Sunday:



Wish we had a proper camera for this photo....it would have been mental in good quality:


I promise to get better photos soon, but it is currently back at Redline as it was smoking. It's believed to be the new pump being too strong for the turbo oil seals so we are making a plan for that.

[Bunta]

Chapmans peak FTMFW!!!

[djtreble]

That whole coastline is wicked! Such a good drive....well not in my hard as rock suspension but still good fun!

[djtreble]

OK so it turns out the oil return was blocking up and the oil had nowhere else to go but through the rear turbo seals, so we sorted that out, torqued down the head and a few other bits and put some more mineral oil in for a further 500 km's running in. We believe to much fuel got into the initial oil due to the major overfueling from the bigger injectors and the amount of time it took us to tune it properly on the Nistune (mostly due to learning new parts of the system, it is such a complex and amazing system when you know it). So after this 500km's with hopefully no issues we should be onto a winner. This coming week it will be tuned and then driven hard just as it was designed and built for.

In the mean time I snapped up some pics of the engine bay:





Also fitted a bigger battery cable as it was battling with the one that was installed previously.

And here she sits now on 17x9 ET25 front and 17x9.5 ET20 rear ROTA Grids in Matt Bronze with Bridgestone Potenza RE55 Semi-Slicks on as I will be doing track days with it alongside my drifting. The wheel choice was more performance related over the looks but I do think they look hotter than the 18's (MOAR LOW!!!):







Fitted a snap-off boss for the steering wheel to make getting in and out easier:


Also test fitted the wing that will be going on for downforce on the rear as now without the wing on the back it starts getting loose at 130km's p/h on the rear:






Then the next planned upgrades are:
- Fit new front bumper (FINALLY) that we now sell for the 14
- Add front diffuser and tunneling to force air to the intercoolers, radiator and potentially some brake ducting
- Fit an oil cooler
- Fit the custom Air Filter housing from Flat Four Racing to keep hot air away
- Raise rear of bonnet to keep temps down
- Wrap the manifold to keep temps down
- Fit Hydro handbrake (still to be decided as the stock one works so well for me, but I do have a D2 one spare now)
- Fit Racing fuel tank with blank off plate (need to keep the tank seperate from driver) from Flat Four Racing (retaining stock fuel cage, level sensor and walbro fuel pump setup)
- Fit passenger 4 point harness from 1st Race
- Fit DW Polybush Rear LCA Bushes to get rid of the axle tramp
- Fit Water temp gauge and sender
- Full 350Z brake setup with better pads
- 350Z gearbox when the SR gearbox gives up, which it will do as it has never been known to handle anything over 350bhp.

[SonOfAnarchy ZA]

mmmm yes that looks really sexy

[Riekert]

Very nice man!!!

[djtreble]

Thanks guys

[djtreble]

500km's, a service and final tune later...she is done!!! Well apart from only boosting 1.2 bar due to the boost controller not being able to bleed off enough air to get to 1.5.....but at 1.2 bar it's a MONSTER! We will be putting it onto a Dyno soon to see where we are power wise but this car just cannot stop spinning those semi's in 2nd and 3rd is just holding onto grip.

When I get my hands on a dual boost controller that can handle more it will go for a tune for two maps, one on pump fuel at lower boost and the other on a higher boost setting and race fuel or avgas....but much later when I have money. I just want to drift and race now!

A couple of other things is I started the installation of the water temp guage, raised the bonnet and permanently fitted the spoiler....I love the new look:



Also something that may be en-route soon is my replacement front bumper that is a rep of the Final Konnexion front bumper I use to have. After that I do a front diffuser and tunneling to target air to the important parts. Need to also build and install a heat shield around the turbo.

Also coming soon is the new livery, but I still can't make my mind up on what colour to paint the bronze ROTA Grids:


I stuck to the old design as it stands out so much in these colours, and added a camo of the sponsoring companies to the rear.

Thanks goes out to Redline for doing an amazing job on the engine rebuild and tune up, Liqui-Moly for sorting me out again with all the fluids and more needed to keep this car on top form and Calvin for helping out again!

Now let's go drift it!

[djtreble]

....so I went and drifted it.

Sunday 24 June was a D1S practice but with the rain and wet pitch not many guys came so I used it as a bit of a tester to see if there are any issues when drifting the car. It was all 1st gear stuff in the wet but we had a jol (except for the fact that I had MINIMAL grip on the front with the semi's!)!

There was one issue and that was the car was leaking something pretty badly, so the car went back to Redline to get it checked out and rectified. It turned out to be the new front cover wasnt sealing properly and on top of that I cracked that one too after 1 drift day. So I bought another one and we strengthened it up as we found the weak spot. We sealed it all up now and it's no longer leaking.

Anyway here are some pics:










And a vid:

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Brenton there in his S13:







Then almost took out my car:

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Ray in his 350Z:






Then I got to drift his 350Z:


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A sneaky skid from Noer:


And this was the best part of the day, Jason from BoostSA suggested I go play in the big water puddle that everyone else was avoiding due to their air-filter locations. I had mine in a good place so off I went and played.....we never grow up, our toys just get more expensive!







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Yesterday we went on a bit of a breakfast run to Grotto bay with Nisan Owners Club, we went the coastal route between Gordon's Bay and Hermanus. The car was VERY quick but I wasn't confident in the front end handling as it wasn't as sharp as I'm use to. We have picked up one Castor arm moves as it can't be locked and the front right ball joint is also on it's way out.

Next I have to do a suspension refresh, they are a bit dirty and rubbers are starting to go, so slowly I will replace the rubber bushes with poly ones (not too many as most is rose jointed) and replace the ball joints.

Another big thing coming up for us is the 23rd July at Monstermob Raceway, 3 days of unlimited drifting and tuition. This will be the stepping stone for me for national drifting and some big dates coming up in the next 12 months!

[godzilla]

Damn man looks like i really missed out wile i was away. yours S14 looking sweet. sorry to see the s13 in pieces in the back . i missed the last 2 street2strip secssions.but the next one im there. so hows the s14 compared to the s13? i so need to burn some rubber. see your next week.

[djtreble]

I wasn't at the last two either bud don't worry.
The S14 and S13 are incomparable as one is turbo with high power and the other is NA with good power. Like comparing chalk and cheese. I prefer the S14 as I've built it from the ground up to my driving style so I'm more at home in the 14.

[Bunta]

Interesting intercooler setup!
Does it reduce lag? Or is it purely for cosmetic purposes?

[djtreble]

Its multi-purpose actually, it was intended for and achieved:
- reduced lag
- keep radiator air flow free to avoid cooling issues found with front mount intercoolers

And un-intended but found by doing it:
- linear power delivery
- early low spool for drivability when cruising (starts spooling at just before 2k with a 64 exh housing)

[Bunta]

Its multi-purpose actually, it was intended for and achieved:
- reduced lag
- keep radiator air flow free to avoid cooling issues found with front mount intercoolers

And un-intended but found by doing it:
- linear power delivery
- early low spool for drivability when cruising (starts spooling at just before 2k with a 64 exh housing)

Very interesting! thanks for the info!