[JohnnyTSi]

Finally got my car to the point where I could get it on the dyno for a real tune, not bad for an amature:

Drove 3 hours down to English Racing, flogged the heck out of the car and drove it home.

• SBD900 g25-660 kit (don't beat me up too bad)
• Home Built 3.8 stock crank, Manley rods/pistons
• Home Built heads ferrea valve train & Kelford 231a cams
• Visconti 12 injector manifold ported by Curt Brown
• id1050 primary and id1300 secondary injectors
• SBD/Rampage Race Intercooler kit
• 3.5" Intakes
• Radium fuel system, Asnu 340 primary and Ti BKS1000 brushless secondary pump(s)
• Radium Fuel Rails with pulse dampers, mechanical gauge and pressure sensor
• Visconti Flex Fuel kit
• OmniPower SD conversion
• 3.5" MAP muffled exhaust with a resonated mid-pipe (no cats)
• Brad Jepson Front Diff
• Jacks built transmission with a 1-6 Linney gearset and 18 plate clutches.
• Cobb ATR for tuning

Conditions in the Dyno room were really bad, happy with the results anyways.
Engine Build: New OEM Block/Crank drop-in build Discoveries and...
Head Build: Next round of parts for my build showed up today
Fuel Basket: Radium Fuel Hanger kit impressions
Fuel Lines: DIY Fuel Line Upgrade

There are also lots of other mini projects along the way I never posted about, the engine/transmission swaps flex fuel kit, Intercooler install, SD conversion etc etc. Most of these projects are well documented so I never bothered posting a DIY. If anyone is really interested in how I did one of those projects, let me know as I usually took lots of pictures and can write a recap.

Of note:
This is my daily driver
Man did I have fun on the drive back home

John-

 

[JohnnyTSi]

Sweet! Impressive build and results. I am guessing you are getting close to maxing out those turbos at 1020 awhp?

Wish I could see shaft speed to tell! - I was told low 30s boost would be spinning these baby turbos as fast as they should ever go. I'm there - and a bit more.

Nice work and especially like the DIY. How do you like the Linney gearset and how much louder vs stock?

They are a bit noisy, not horrible, but you definitely know they are there.

John-

 

[JohnnyTSi]

Great stuff, thanks for sharing !!!

How did it do at Englishtown? Trap speeds ?

Looks like you're going to hurt some feelings around town

I haven't yet been to a track to see what it will trap - I suspect I'll only get one shot before the boot!

with the likes of English Racing, Rampage, and ETS within a few hours of my house, this GT-R build is not that impressive! In the area, I can think of 5 local GT-Rs that are all 1200-1500 wheel.

John-

 

[JohnnyTSi]

Took my car to IFO Kent yesterday, first time really launching the car, man these GT-Rs are not easy to drag race, So many little things to remember! This outing was just a comedy of driver errors, one after another! I managed to bumble my way through though and get all the way to the final, where I finally made a fatal error on the launch and got taken out by one of the local DSMs, I did manage to do a 9.7 at 146 with a 1.48 60' on a buy run.

 

[JohnnyTSi]

Not bad! What was the DA?

It was a great day for racing, the tracks DA calculator said 1657

John-

 

[JohnnyTSi]

My .02 is that the stock ecu and cobb almost get in the way more than it helps. I kind of miss the throttle plates being directly controlled by my foot instead of the ECU!

Finding the right ECU settings to get the car to launch was an adventure. I went through a couple iterations before settling on

Trans = Race
Suspension = Comfort mode
ATR = Disabled

There is a narrow set of rpm and boost parameters where the car will launch correctly, anything outside of that and it either spins, bogs horribly or spins, then bogs! To make it even funner, they are a moving target based on track prep and temperature.

On one of my runs, I found an un-tuned VE cell in my tune, the car hit 120 STFT and went into limp/safety, fortunately I was able to reset the safety (pedal to 10%) and drive around the other car. I really should have lost that race, but was able to power around him. A quick look at my log and 10 mins with the laptop fixed my lean spot for the next run.

Overall the GT-R just feels lazy out of the hole compared to other platforms I've raced. I'm sure some of it is just me still learning how to launch the car, some of it is the nearly 4k curb weight, and some is the Drive by wire stuff doing what it thinks best.

Oh Yeah - don't forget to start your logging
O Yeah - make sure your go-pro is recording
Dragy - argh! the dang thing won't connect

Despite all of the mess ups and drama I had an absolute blast, drove the car 50 miles to the track, aired down my tires, made a 9.7 second run (and a bunch of low 10s), aired my tires back up and drove home.

John-

 

[JohnnyTSi]

My Saturday evening entertainment:

Upgrading to 300m rods and a bigger turbo kit (I have a line on a Elite Prime kit) If that falls through, I'll probably buy a new omega 13 or maybe a Cicio Xenith 58mm kit. I also picked up some bigger cams and matching springs for this go-round:

I had put a little over 4000 miles on the SBD900 kit and my block looked perfect when it came apart. For those trying to figure out where to land on bearing clearances, .0025 for main/rods seems to work well, at least for me at the 1k awhp level. I put it back together using a new set of the same King STDX bearings I used last time and ended up with the exact same oil clearances.

I'm now stuck waiting on the Manley 300m rods which are on backorder. Hope they get shipped soon.

John-

 

[JohnnyTSi]

What a miserable time-consuming task!

 

[JohnnyTSi]

More upgrades while waiting for my rods to arrive! I just got back from English Racing for their Head O-Ring package. As always, they did an outstanding job and delivered on time.

 

[JohnnyTSi]

I found a set of the Manley 300m rods 15424-6 in stock and I have an inbound tracking# fyi - MAPerformance had 3 sets (now 2) on the shelf.

AND - I just talked to Robert at FP - my turbos will be done and on their way back to me first of next week! Finally some forward progress!

 

[JohnnyTSi]

whoot whoot! My rods showed up yesterday, both pistons and rods are a bit lighter than my old set. That's going to result in a slight overbalance on my rotating assembly (I was at 50% before). Gonna send it!

 

[JohnnyTSi]

This sucks! - no matter how many of these I have, I always seem to need a size I don't have - Back to waiting on Nissan to ship me the 2 lifter sizes I need!

 

[JohnnyTSi]

Fedex delivered my FP rebuilt turbos today:

My lifters are due Monday, Can't wait to get this car running again.

 

[JohnnyTSi]

Making Progress - valve train assembled and inner front timing case torqued down.

 

[JohnnyTSi]

I am excited for this build, very similar setup to mine so I want to see where you take it. I feel your pain on back order parts, I waited almost 4 months for a gearset to get my trans back together, hopefully shipping this week. What Rods did you have in before the standard t-tuff 4340's? If so just wondering while you had both in hands if there was a way to differentiate them while they were in the car, change in rod bolt or color or marking or something, I see the new ones say 300m on the side, but that would be impossible to see in the motor.

yes - I did the original build with a set of the Manley 4340 TurboTuff rods. Seemed like a good fit given the turbo kit choice. Definitely not enough safety margin for the Elite Prime capabilities though!

The 300M rods are embossed with 300M - you can see these markings in the picture I posted above. Not sure if the marks will stay in place given an agitated oil bath.

John-

 

[JohnnyTSi]

Wish my after-work projects could go faster! Between long work hours, Family Time, Honey-Dos and Yard work this project feels like it is dragging along way too slow!

 

[JohnnyTSi]

Sure is nice to hear that first engine start after a serious upgrade project! Stronger internals, bigger cams and a Cicio Elite Prime 58mm turbo kit. The tune is still a bit ragged, initial impression is this is going to be a fun combination after the breakin and final tune.

 

[JohnnyTSi]

Yesterday I drove to English Racing (3 hours each way) and had Aaron there dial in my tune - To recap, these are the changes I've made to the car since removing the SBD900 turbo kit:

Upgraded the 4340 Manley Rods to a set of 300m Manley rods
changed from Manley to Wiseco pistons
changed valve springs from Tomei to GSC street springs
changed from Kelford 231a cams to GSC S2
Had the heads O-Ringed and a brace bolt installed (Thanks ER)
Installed a set of 3.5" downpipes to help backpressure given the new internally gated turbo kit
Installed a set of BDE poly motor mounts.
And of course the Cicio/TSM Elite Prime 58mm Xona turbo kit. (fresh rebuild curtesy of Forced Performance)

Comparing this setup to the g25-660 kit, looks like I am giving up about 400rpm spool (comparing each to 20psi) The new kit obviously pulls MUCH harder up top!

I'm pretty happy with the results of my home garage project. I think I've put together a street car combination that should hold together for a good long time. I have one more component I need - a set of DSS rear axles, I think I'll get a set on order Monday!

John-

 

[JohnnyTSi]

T1R on point as usual - These got to me in record time! Hopefully this is the last upgrade I'll need for a while:

 

[JohnnyTSi]

My DSS Pro Axle install adventures documented here: DSS NI69 Pro Axle Install -> Sunday Community Support...