Dyno time again

Of course I had to choose the coldest day of the winter so far for towing the car to dyno but all in all everything went OK. No blown hoses, no leaks of any kind but 790cc injectors were maxed out at 0.95 bar of boost. Fuel pressure regulator did not add pressure linearly with boost so I will have to change that and then add some more boost. Even with this power I will rip the r180 in no time so I guess there's no more excuses for not changing that as well.

Inlet air temps were showing -27c but there was something wrong with the calibration. Still it was cold enough to freeze the engine quite well.

And since I do not like dyno videos, here's one.

Rolling

Everything went like planned and I got to run the car on rolling road for a while. I will leave the overboost tuning to someone who actually knows how to tune cars but I suppose the car is now driveable on the road and I can test that everything works. Note to self: Tighten ALL the nuts and bolts before going to public roads. Driveshafts and wheel nuts were loose this time.

Service I got from Autotune.fi was superb. I can only recommed them and if I already didn't have Tatech ecu I would probably get one of theirs instead. And with this service level fully installed and tuned.

Exhaust in the making

Jani from Autotune is building the exhaust and he just sent me first pics of the "downpipe" or whatever it may be called. The rest will be ready today if all goes well and during the weekend we might be able to tune the car on the rolling road a little.

Fits really well.

Off she goes

This time to get the exhaust done. I finally found a place that has time, skills and will to do it so I immediately drove the car out of the cave and to the trailer. It is not exactly loud with just downpipes but I would not want to drive it like that around the suburbs. I wish I can still do some basic mapping on the streets before snow falls and then during winter get it properly mapped on the rollers.

I had a short drive in a bit newer Datsun and have to say it is one of the few modern cars I'd like to own. Any day. Feels so much more than "just" 545hp and incredible traction. Yet it still felt like normal family car while cruising along in normal traffic. Thank you Mika!

Summer's almost gone and I did nothing to Datsun. All my garage time went to my street bug and trying to get her in to 10's in the quarter. Now that's done and I can retire the whole car for a while and concentrate finishing this one. Plans for the rest of the year is to get the exhaust finally done, fix the brakes and get the car inspected for road use. This will be my check list. I'm also thinking about new wheels as Fuchs seem quite pale and a bit boring. At the moment I'm thinking Group4Wheels and their Campagnolo replicas. Or Image wheels LS Classic in 8 and 9.5 x 15"

 



 

 



Here's a small bad quality video of the car running. I had to use temporary intercooler as I couldn't get anyone to make a custom one for such a short notice. There's still no exhaust and I hope I can find someone to do that at least.

Link to video

Test drive

...on our garage floor. First few meters with the new engine and I have to say I'm quite excited. There's still no exhaust or intercooler, but now I suppose I could drive the car out from the garage to get them done.

Stance is just about right to my eye.

I also weighted the car and this is what scales say. Hood, exhaust, intercooler and some other bits and pieces are missing, but looks like the weight will be around 1000kg when ready. Not exactly a weight weenie but not knowing the original weight I still think it's in leagal limits. Weight distribution is 53/47 and with me on the driver's seat it's 50.3/49.7 so not bad at all.

Getting closer. Engine idles well and even starts easy with E85 when cold, much easier than my previous E85 cars. Brakes are allright, lights are working, etc. I'm still having some strange electric problems, none of the gauges, heater fan and radiator fan are working, but I suppose they are minor things. I'm thinking about getting a dash display for the ecu anyway, but it would still be nice if the original gauges are working.

I found original Nissan mirrors from Japan and they found their places on fenders. Much better looking than door mirrors.

Got the electrics done and ECU now communicates with the engine. Timing is now set and I also have a base map for RB26 so it should start easily. I ditched the Walbro fuel pump as it wouldn't have been big enough for E85 and ordered Aeromotive A1000 instead. So, now I'm eagerly waiting for the pump to get the engine running. It now looks like the car might get finished during spring/summer.

Aluminium pipes will be anonized black but otherwise the engine will look like this when finished. Shouldn't take too long anymore.

I got the electric diagram and now all the lights, blinkers, etc. are working. Starter motor also turns but I still have to do some tricks to get the alternator working. Engine electrics are also all done so I hope soon I'll be able to try if it fires up.

And I have no idea what have I been thinking all this time I've had the RB26. Thankfully I realized early enough that it just cannot be run with original turbos and swapped them with HKS GT-SS ones which I hope to create at least some kind of scare factor. 2kg / 1hp definitely is not a bad thing.

Big enough?

HKS kit was completely bolt-on and no additional modifications were needed.

I started the electric work and now all the sensors, injectors and coils have their own harnesses. Still waiting for the main harness for Tatech to connect these to. Quite a lot of work and it took me two nights to do all this. I still have no idea what to do with the cars original wiring, I just hope I can find a good electric diagram.

New vinyl for the transmission tunnel. All the other upholstery is original.

The dash has a new cover which still needs to be glued on. It's not perfect but a lot better than the original cracked dash top.