Down Under Trackday NSX

[f1racr]

Well that day has finally come............... the wheels are here !!

So being a good car geek I went straight down to my friendly neighbourhood tyre shop and got some Hoosiers mounted up and then went to try them on the car for size !!! Shame is that I can't drop the car down and have them sit as they will once it's off the hoist, but I'm sure some photochop genius out there can magic something up to show us what it will look like when dropped right down ??

I'm also delighted to report than these wheels have much more space around the brakes than the spare Work CR KAI wheels I had for test fitment, so there's not more issues with brake clearance.......... Phew !!!

Obviously, rear wheels are just sat on the ground as there's no axle there

 

[TURBO2GO]

Does that pile of parts to the left belong to the car? LOL.... I am glad you are keeping it all organized...

 

[f1racr]

Mostly it's parts of the car yeah, looks messy as there's the main wiring loom thrown on top, but that isn't going back in.

Angle of photo makes it look worse than it is........ I hate not having things organised, but we have small boxes with all of the nuts, bolts and brackets for each area on the car, so we're all good

Hoping that next week it'll all be back in the car anyhow.....

 

[f1racr]

Although we've had some really good success with the aluminium brazing rods, we're not convinced we've got the experience to get the block perfect first time and don't want to keep heating it over and over again, so we decided to take it to a specialist and let him do it for us since the price was cheap and he's got some proven history in doing engine block fixes such as this...... I just didn't see the point in taking the risks to save a couple of hundred bucks.

So the good news is that the engine should have arrived back in the workshop today and we should be carrying on with the engine build tomorrow Fingers crossed for the engine and gearbox to be back in place by the weekend.

 

[f1racr]

Well it's good news ........ engine block is fixed.......... yay......

Finally got time to grind down the filled welds that had been done to rebuild the broken mounting holes. Then marked, drilled and tapped the holes to get the braket all mounting as it was meant to........ perfick !!!

The welds themselves look lumpy and I guess relatively speaking they are, but I didn't want to grind them down to make them look nice and take any strength away and the guy who welded it also suggested against anything like that, and considering it'll never be seen (other than a few thousand views on the net LOL) I didn't see any good reason to touch em.

So it's onwards and upwards tomorrow getting it all reassembled with the new bits and peices and back in the car (hopefully by the weekend).

 

[sparky]

nice work... !

 

[f1racr]

I was hoping to get some stuff done today and over the weekend, but unfortunately my dad was taken to hospital first thing this morning with chest pains and it turns out he's had a heart attack so I've spent the day today at the hospital and it's about 2 hours from my place each way so I'm going to have to put my plans back a bit so I can go and see my old man over the weekend instead........

We will get started on it next week.....

 

[sparky]

all the best for your Dad's health Fraser.

 

[TURBO2GO]

Yes, wishing him a speedy recovery.

 

[StmpoRaceProducts]

Best woshes to your Father Fraser

 

[Track Addict]

Our thoughts are with you man. Take care of your pops.

 

[f1racr]

Thanks very much guys, your thoughts are much appreciated.

It seems like things are coming right. It wasn't a big attack which we're all greatful for. He's got to meet with a cardiologist on Tuesday for a full assessment, but things are looking better since the attack so he'll be back up and giving me wise advice again in no time !!

Thanks again.

 

[LS7NSX]

Fraser, that's great news! Hope you & your family have a peaceful week!

Dale

 

[f1racr]

OK guys, well reasonably good news all round. My dad seems to be recovering well and is even getting a helicopter flight down to Wellington central hospital tomorrow for hopefully his final test and if all goes well he's going to get released so fingers crossed, but it's looking good.

On the car front things are also going well with the new cams installed as well as the Comptech adjustable cam gears as well as the new billet oil pump gears.

We're just waiting on a new seal so we can reinstall the oil pump tomorrow and then we'll reinstall all of the newly painted cam covers, the brace for the engine mount etc etc and finally get the gearbox and engine mated together and installed into the subframe.

I also got time to disassemble the intake system and remove the old VVIS system, clean up the intake and reassemble with the new VVIS delete plate in place ready for assembly back onto the engine tomorrow.

And last but not least I refitted the remote reservoirs for the brake system a little higher to be sure they would be OK and got the lines all connected up and tightened up.

Hopefully more progress tomorrow, but I've got other stuff on tomorrow most of the day so might not be an update till the weekend !!!

 

[sparky]

where did the VVIS delete come from, SoS? I assume you didn't leave it out altogether because reduced chamber size may have adversely affected torque ?

 

[f1racr]

VVIS delete was from STMPO........ awesome quality.

You're correct on not leaving it out completely.....

 

[f1racr]

OK, so sorry for the lack of updates recently, but I've had a lot of other family stuff crop up which has taken the focus away from the car, but things are getting back on track now and this is tonights progress.

Finally got the sump baffle welded in and recoated the sump. Also welded in a oil return pipe for the turbo once that happens, but for now we've just blanked it off...... may as well have done it whilst it's all out.

Then moved onto getting the engine all set back up, checked all of the valve clearances and cam setup which took a good couple of hours, but we're happy they're spot on now so hopefully that will pay off later with a sweet first startup........ fingers crossed eh !

I also had to machine up some adaptors for the new Bosch knock sensors for either side of the engine and Speedtech made up some nice wiring looms and plugs so we could put that in now as they're hidden down under the intake plenum so this will also save time wiring later on as they're already in there and wired.

Next was to put the rest together and put a new set of sparkies in there (old ones that were in the car from Japan were toasted to say the least), I actually honestly believe they are the factory plugs as they looked like they'd done 100,000kms which is what the car had on the clock !!

So yeah it's all coming together ! We're removed the EGR valve and a few other unneeded pipes and bits so it's really tidied things up nicely.

Tomorrow we're going to remount the gearbox and then get the whole lump back on the subframe and get it back in the car so will post more progress.

 

[sparky]

what's the reason for changing to Bosch knock sensors?

 

[f1racr]

Well the main reason is that we have a knock system from the ECU maker called knock block that uses the knock sensors in conjunction with firing order and some flash audio filtering to know exactly what cylinder is knocking and it can pull timing on each cylinder seperately.....pretty cool.

The factory ones were so brittle they fell apart when I touched them anyhow.....

 

[f1racr]

Got the gearbox all bolted up to the engine today and the engine back in the car, but didn't get time to take photo's of things in place so I'll take some on Monday and get them up......... but the lump is back where it belongs, just got a couple of brackets which don't fit properly even though I checked with a couple of people to make sure there wasn't anything different, so we're going to have to wait for bracket from Japan but it won't hold things up at it's a support bracket more than a main mount, but it's needed before it moves under it's own steam but is easily accessed to add it in when it shows up.

 

[whrdnsx]

Got the gearbox all bolted up to the engine today and the engine back in the car, but didn't get time to take photo's of things in place so I'll take some on Monday and get them up......... but the lump is back where it belongs, just got a couple of brackets which don't fit properly even though I checked with a couple of people to make sure there wasn't anything different, so we're going to have to wait for bracket from Japan but it won't hold things up at it's a support bracket more than a main mount, but it's needed before it moves under it's own steam but is easily accessed to add it in when it shows up.

Clear as Mud.

 

[sparky]

... but didn't get time to take photo's of things in place so I'll take some on Monday and get them up......... but ....

a picture is worth a thousand words ? :smile:

 

[f1racr]

Well it was another good day today. Got everything reinstalled and finally for the first time I was able to get all 4 wheels installed on the car and also all 4 calipers and brakes setup at once too which was awesome.

Still can't get a picture right on the ground, but did what I could to give you the idea.........

Tomorrow we've got someone coming to make up the braided brake lines so we can get the brakes all bled and clutch working on the new gearbox. Then in the afternoon it's off to Zac's place to get started on the bodywork hopefully !!

 

[f1racr]

Sorry for the average photo's in advance, but we were sooooo rushed to get the car done and to the fibreglass shop today that I couldn't even get the camera out.....

Without a word of exaggeration we literally got the brakes bled, said yep all good, dropped the hoist, rolled it back and straight onto the truck........... who had kindly waited for over an hour !!!!

Pictures simply do not do it justice !!! It's actually sitting a good 10cm higher than it will in the end, but I jacked it up as high as I could to make it easy to get on and off the truck and get jacks under it whilst we're working on it.

Zac from Carboglass was, as always........awesome and we even got started on some base work for the new dash even though we were running very late !! ........

 

[sparky]

... that wing is farquing huge !