So posts have been very few, even though we have being traveling and entering in different events. Our most recent venture was to the local ADGP round in Sydney. Unfortuantely we did not qualify for battles but had a good time sliding around the track.
We also have a couple of new cars and updates on our existing ones. We are also planning to make a quick video of our battle cars soon. In the mean time, please enjoy our video from the 2013 Japan trip.
After the first false start with the coolant leak the car was running like a dream. I was able to get about 1200 pain staking slow and gentle kilometres up on the engine which should be more than enough to run it in. At this stage I thought it is time to bite the bullet and get it tuned, as this is my first engine rebuild I have done I figured if it hasn’t failed by now it should be okay.
So late on a Monday night, new oil, new oil filter, new plugs and I took out the stock cams and dropped in the new BC step 2’s ready for tuning the next morning. Finished at about midnight took it for a quick test drive and everything was sweet.
Off to Autotech in Hume to get her tuned, about half way there smoke started pouring out from under the bonnet, quickly pulled over to see what has gone wrong and was thinking the worst. It turns out in my haste to put the cams back in I had crimped the rocker cover gasket and oil was spraying onto he exhaust. I was closer to the tuner than home so decided to press on and get them to sort it out. Got the call a couple of days later from the guys at Autotech that everything went well and she has made 249.5rwkw @ 18psi. ( A modest 35kw gain, from a fresh engine and new set of cams) pretty stoked. This was alot more than what I was expecting, especially from only 18psi.
If you own a Nissan S14 or 15, and you have fitted tougher valve springs while retaining the factory VTC gear then you will by now be familiar with the VTC rattle that everyone on internet forums speak of.
So it has been almost 6 months since my last post on the rebuild. During the latter half of 2012 I was too busy going out a drifting rather than fixing my engine (first world problems I know) During January I finished off the majority of the Engine Assembly starting off with attaching the sump oil and water pumps .
Yes, it has been a while and we know we haven’t been updating this blog as much as we should have. With the increase in events we now have this year, and we will endeavour to post a lot more frequently than what was done in the past year. Look out for a post in the next few days which will recap what we have been up to. I (Eiji) am going to try to use the mobile app to write some posts, with this being the first.
Last weekend was the first public drifting event at the new Eastern Creek/Sydney Motorspot Park South circuit. I was fortunate to gain a spot to drift the day. Overall it was a fun experience and gained some insight about ADGP.
The Track:
The course was kind of fun. I don’t think I would have enjoyed it if I had much less power than I did. The drift section reminded me a lot of Ebisu North/Kita Course. The difference of the course was the length of radius of the first corner and, the radius & increased elevation of the esses. The track was wide, you could probably drift four cars side, which was good and bad as there were a large number of lines you could take. The surface didn’t feel very even in grip level. There were sections were I felt grip washed off, while other parts felt much like other tracks. Although I never came off into the sand trap, other cars were easily bogged. Visibility was good, but I never really noticed the flag marshals. Apparently I passed a few yellow flags without even noticing.
So it has been a month since my last update and alot has happened.
I finally received all the parts I needed so was able to get the machining work completed so I could pick up the engine and get started.
So I already had plans to be down the coast to visit some friends and didn’t have anything to on Saturday night. Turns out Drift NSW were going to hold their inaugural event at Eastern Creek that night. So i thought why not and put an entry.
So it has been a month and I thought it was time for a bit of an update. I have been busy ordering parts but not much building going on, still waiting on last bits and pieces before I can really get going.
I sent the block, crankshaft and head off to the machinist and it turns out that overall the engine is in good nick but there are a few problems.
Despite the fact that the bores look immaculate, down the bottom they are out of tolerance so it is going to need a rebore. The machinist also strongly recommended that the crankshaft get a re-grind as there was a fair bit of bearing material deposited on the surface. Just to top it off the exhaust valve guides are also worn out and will need replacing. So that kind of sucked, but such is life.
Un-deterred I decided to press on start collecting parts.
So whilst some members of Team Red Stage are currently in Japan honing their drift skills I am back here in Australian starting a rebuild on my old SR20DET.
About 12 months ago the original motor finally let go after running at about 240rwkw with a basically stock engine with a GT2871 bolted on running 18psi and supporting mods. I didn’t have time to mess around as it was my daily driver so I got hold of another long motor for pretty cheap and did an engine swap.
Ever since the old motor has been sitting in the corner of the shed gathering dust and I have been tossing up what to do. The current set up works great and I am really happy with it but it turns out the replacement motor is also pretty sad and chews a bit of oil and has a lot of top end blowby indicating worn valve stem seals. I don’t know if the engine is going to last 500km or 50,000km so every time I go to the track I worry the engine is gonna throw a rod or something.
So, I finally pulled my finger out and decided to do a rebuild. I looked at getting a mechanic to rebuild it for me but was pretty surprised at how expensive it was. So I have decided to go it on my own. I started stripping down the engine to find out exactly what happened. The first thing I noticed was that the interior of the engine was immaculate! Everything in the head seems to be in good nick, cams looked spotless not a score mark or a scratch.
Team Red Stage - Canberra Drifters 