So, this is my first post here so I'll try and make it a good one! Warning, this is pretty long but it shoudl be a good read.
I've had my S15 for about 3 months or so now, and I've had chance to make a few of my own touches to it and use it a bit. It was B9NKO's old car - spec S auto converted to spec R manual (here: http://forum.s15oc.com/showthread.php?8197-B9NKO-s-Spec-S-to-Spec-R-Conversion) and I must say he did a fantastic job of it. My last car (a JZX100 Toyota Chaser) was an auto to manual swap done by a garage and it was nowhere near as complete and polished as this is, so props to you Tom!
So, the story goes like this. I was loving the Chaser, and then this happened!
I was rear ended by a 83 year old chap while stationary at a roundabout. It did some pretty significant structural damage inside the boot, and was written off. I was left with a choice - I could either roughly fix it up and use it as a missile, or move on with something else. I decided that I'd never be happy with it again, so thought I'd move on (as a side - the Chaser has now been fixed up by JDM Garage and looks awesome again).
After a bit of an insurance struggle to get what I wanted, I had to decide what to get next.
Also, I had an issue where I'd actually arranged to do my first trip to the Nurburgring for 3 days of Touristenfahrten with some friends the night before the Chaser got crashed into. I had to find something capable, and didn't have too much time.
I have always liked S15's. I do quite a lot of miles and whatever I buy also has to be a daily so I like cars with cool interiors, or which are big and spacious (hence the Chaser). I spotted an S15 for a very good price which had started life as a Spec S auto and had been converted to a Spec R, minus a couple of the rear braces which are normally weld in. My only reservation was the engine - I hated the SR20 5 speed in the old S14a I had a few years back so I was reluctant to go back to a 4 pot fart machine, but after driving it, the 6 speed actually made the whole road experience a lot better. I was sold.
So, here it is.
Chassis had done 55k, engine had done 60 and was out of an imported S14. Mod list, copy/pasted:
Apexi Power FC with electronic boost solenoid
S15 T28 BB turbo
Walbro fuel pump
blitz intercooler
HKS Silent Hi Power cat back system
Apex De-Cat
3" downpipe
Apex Turbo Elbow
H-Dev manifold
apex turbo braided lines
depo boost gauge
Apex rear Camber Arms
Tein Strut brace
Tegiwa engine damper
Tegiwa bmc Stopper
aluminium radiator
290mm rear brakes
HKS air filter
Racing Logic Coilovers
Exedy uprated clutch rated to 320 ftlb
Buddy Club P1 Wheels, Rear 17x9 et37 Fronts 17x8 et32
Aero rear spats
Aero Front bumper (fibreglass)
Toad ai606 alarm with tilt sensor
6 speed gearbox
Helical rear diff
genuine nissan wind deflectors
Factory HID's
The ride was initially atrocious - and upon checking, the springs had a couple of mm of preload on them, so I added some droop and lowered it a bit at the same time. This made things a bit better, but I'm still not happy with the coilovers. HSD's are on the list. The guy before me had done a really good job of taking care of it and converting stuff properly, you'd never know. He even went to the effort to buy original 'Spec R' badges from Nissan for crazy money in an invoice (lots of history, good stuff). There's lots of nice dress up bits in the engine bay too, not really my thing but it shows the guy cared and it looks quite pretty!
It still had the stock tail lights, which I think make S15's look really old. Other than that, I don't think they show their age at all - so I fitted some D-Max style tails.
So, at this point:
I can't go super low this time due to the amount of miles I do, and the inability to lower an S body without it scraping everything, everywhere.
Anyway, with the intention of 'ring ready'ing it, I had some jobs to do. First was to get some kind of aftermarket seat in there - I have a long back and always sit quite high in cars, and always have trouble getting a low seating position in S-bodies. I came accross a mint Recaro SPG (cheers Marc) which I bought and fitted on an Apex seat rail, which I modified to sit lower.
I also decided to pimp up the interior a little, so bought some mats :euge: and a Moonface gearknob to replace the terrible white plastic one which was on there before. I love the more stock look and I'm now really happy with the interior. It's a nice place for me to do my 400 miles a week. :thumbs:
Next up I decided to give it a little shakedown, with a drift session at Buxton. If you've not been before, it's a cool place with cool people and is really cheap. Just don't be scared of the walls.
I'm still getting used to the car, and the gear ratio's aren't really suited to the track. The handbrake also does nothing, as it the norm with the stock setup.
I did end up running into the Chaser again though!
Last thing to do on the list before the ring was to get the front brakes up to spec. I had a set of caliper spacing brackets with the car, I just needed the larger bits to make them work. So, I got a set of oversized Yellowstuff pads and a set of R33 GTR discs, 324mm.
I wasn't entirely happy with the pedal feel at this point, but anyway.
I also managed to get a quick dyno run to see how things were working before leaving for Germany.
The blue lines are the old Chaser, the red lines are the S15. Ignore the AFR for the S15, it's totally wrong. It made 232 WHP with 342 NM and 285 flywheel HP.
So, onto the ring!
After a bit of work, the brakes totally came alive. I never knew brakes could be so good, they just gave so much confidence without a hint of fade.
I ended up doing 9 laps and had one of the best times of my life, words cannot describe how amazing the track and everything around it is. After my 7th lap I noticed the dreaded wail from the engine bay of a blown exhaust manifold gasket. I managed a couple more laps with it gradually getting worse, before calling it a day after my 9th (and also my fastest) lap, which was a 8:57. Not bad for standard road tyres and the first time I've driven there!
(See below posts for ring lap videos, as the forum won't let me add more than 1 per post)
And the gasket damage?
Turns out the front 2 studs had snapped, causing the gasket to blow a section. One of the rear studs had also fell out, meaning I drove back from Germany with 1 stud holding the turbo and thus the exhaust in place. Awesome
.
After further analysis, the manifold to turbo flange was like a banana. This could have happened due to hot gasses passing by and warping it on the drive back from Germany, but I think it's more likely that it was actually the cause of the studs snapping after pinging the exhaust off something.
So, the to do list:
Sort manifold.
Fit flexi in the exhaust.
Get some HSD's.
Get bigger injectors.
Get Z32 AFM.
Remap as is for 350hp.
Different wheels for looks/drifting.
A set of semi-slicks for the Buddy Clubs for 'ring and track work.
Maybe add some extra chassis bracing.
Maybe look at an uprated diff - the standard torsen actually opened up a couple of times around the ring when one side of the car was getting unweighted.
An oil cooler - temp was at 140 degrees after my fastest lap.
Hope Mallory re-opens for drifting.
Go to the ring again.
I've thrown the standard manifold back on for now with an old gasket while I figure out what to do. Luckily I got the standard manifold with the car (as I'm a bit paranoid about stainless manifolds - and rightly so!) so this wasn't a problem. I might get it skimmed and re-fit it with some hanging support, or I may just throw it in the bin.
One thing I'm unsure of - I can't for the life of me seem to figure out what 18's to go for (fitment wise). Am I right in thinking that a 9J et30 or lower (ideally 25) will fit with inner clearance, with only some rolling and a bit of flare needed? I'm also hoping for something around 9.5/10J et30 or so for the back. I had 9.5J et20 all round on an old S14a which were no trouble, but this of course was with more arch clearance on the 14's.
Thanks for reading if you got this far!
I've had my S15 for about 3 months or so now, and I've had chance to make a few of my own touches to it and use it a bit. It was B9NKO's old car - spec S auto converted to spec R manual (here: http://forum.s15oc.com/showthread.php?8197-B9NKO-s-Spec-S-to-Spec-R-Conversion) and I must say he did a fantastic job of it. My last car (a JZX100 Toyota Chaser) was an auto to manual swap done by a garage and it was nowhere near as complete and polished as this is, so props to you Tom!
So, the story goes like this. I was loving the Chaser, and then this happened!
I was rear ended by a 83 year old chap while stationary at a roundabout. It did some pretty significant structural damage inside the boot, and was written off. I was left with a choice - I could either roughly fix it up and use it as a missile, or move on with something else. I decided that I'd never be happy with it again, so thought I'd move on (as a side - the Chaser has now been fixed up by JDM Garage and looks awesome again).
After a bit of an insurance struggle to get what I wanted, I had to decide what to get next.
Also, I had an issue where I'd actually arranged to do my first trip to the Nurburgring for 3 days of Touristenfahrten with some friends the night before the Chaser got crashed into. I had to find something capable, and didn't have too much time.
I have always liked S15's. I do quite a lot of miles and whatever I buy also has to be a daily so I like cars with cool interiors, or which are big and spacious (hence the Chaser). I spotted an S15 for a very good price which had started life as a Spec S auto and had been converted to a Spec R, minus a couple of the rear braces which are normally weld in. My only reservation was the engine - I hated the SR20 5 speed in the old S14a I had a few years back so I was reluctant to go back to a 4 pot fart machine, but after driving it, the 6 speed actually made the whole road experience a lot better. I was sold.
So, here it is.
Chassis had done 55k, engine had done 60 and was out of an imported S14. Mod list, copy/pasted:
Apexi Power FC with electronic boost solenoid
S15 T28 BB turbo
Walbro fuel pump
blitz intercooler
HKS Silent Hi Power cat back system
Apex De-Cat
3" downpipe
Apex Turbo Elbow
H-Dev manifold
apex turbo braided lines
depo boost gauge
Apex rear Camber Arms
Tein Strut brace
Tegiwa engine damper
Tegiwa bmc Stopper
aluminium radiator
290mm rear brakes
HKS air filter
Racing Logic Coilovers
Exedy uprated clutch rated to 320 ftlb
Buddy Club P1 Wheels, Rear 17x9 et37 Fronts 17x8 et32
Aero rear spats
Aero Front bumper (fibreglass)
Toad ai606 alarm with tilt sensor
6 speed gearbox
Helical rear diff
genuine nissan wind deflectors
Factory HID's
The ride was initially atrocious - and upon checking, the springs had a couple of mm of preload on them, so I added some droop and lowered it a bit at the same time. This made things a bit better, but I'm still not happy with the coilovers. HSD's are on the list. The guy before me had done a really good job of taking care of it and converting stuff properly, you'd never know. He even went to the effort to buy original 'Spec R' badges from Nissan for crazy money in an invoice (lots of history, good stuff). There's lots of nice dress up bits in the engine bay too, not really my thing but it shows the guy cared and it looks quite pretty!
It still had the stock tail lights, which I think make S15's look really old. Other than that, I don't think they show their age at all - so I fitted some D-Max style tails.
So, at this point:
I can't go super low this time due to the amount of miles I do, and the inability to lower an S body without it scraping everything, everywhere.
Anyway, with the intention of 'ring ready'ing it, I had some jobs to do. First was to get some kind of aftermarket seat in there - I have a long back and always sit quite high in cars, and always have trouble getting a low seating position in S-bodies. I came accross a mint Recaro SPG (cheers Marc) which I bought and fitted on an Apex seat rail, which I modified to sit lower.
I also decided to pimp up the interior a little, so bought some mats :euge: and a Moonface gearknob to replace the terrible white plastic one which was on there before. I love the more stock look and I'm now really happy with the interior. It's a nice place for me to do my 400 miles a week. :thumbs:
Next up I decided to give it a little shakedown, with a drift session at Buxton. If you've not been before, it's a cool place with cool people and is really cheap. Just don't be scared of the walls.
I'm still getting used to the car, and the gear ratio's aren't really suited to the track. The handbrake also does nothing, as it the norm with the stock setup.
I did end up running into the Chaser again though!
Last thing to do on the list before the ring was to get the front brakes up to spec. I had a set of caliper spacing brackets with the car, I just needed the larger bits to make them work. So, I got a set of oversized Yellowstuff pads and a set of R33 GTR discs, 324mm.
I wasn't entirely happy with the pedal feel at this point, but anyway.
I also managed to get a quick dyno run to see how things were working before leaving for Germany.
The blue lines are the old Chaser, the red lines are the S15. Ignore the AFR for the S15, it's totally wrong. It made 232 WHP with 342 NM and 285 flywheel HP.
So, onto the ring!
After a bit of work, the brakes totally came alive. I never knew brakes could be so good, they just gave so much confidence without a hint of fade.
I ended up doing 9 laps and had one of the best times of my life, words cannot describe how amazing the track and everything around it is. After my 7th lap I noticed the dreaded wail from the engine bay of a blown exhaust manifold gasket. I managed a couple more laps with it gradually getting worse, before calling it a day after my 9th (and also my fastest) lap, which was a 8:57. Not bad for standard road tyres and the first time I've driven there!
(See below posts for ring lap videos, as the forum won't let me add more than 1 per post)
And the gasket damage?
Turns out the front 2 studs had snapped, causing the gasket to blow a section. One of the rear studs had also fell out, meaning I drove back from Germany with 1 stud holding the turbo and thus the exhaust in place. Awesome
.After further analysis, the manifold to turbo flange was like a banana. This could have happened due to hot gasses passing by and warping it on the drive back from Germany, but I think it's more likely that it was actually the cause of the studs snapping after pinging the exhaust off something.
So, the to do list:
Sort manifold.
Fit flexi in the exhaust.
Get some HSD's.
Get bigger injectors.
Get Z32 AFM.
Remap as is for 350hp.
Different wheels for looks/drifting.
A set of semi-slicks for the Buddy Clubs for 'ring and track work.
Maybe add some extra chassis bracing.
Maybe look at an uprated diff - the standard torsen actually opened up a couple of times around the ring when one side of the car was getting unweighted.
An oil cooler - temp was at 140 degrees after my fastest lap.
Hope Mallory re-opens for drifting.
Go to the ring again.
I've thrown the standard manifold back on for now with an old gasket while I figure out what to do. Luckily I got the standard manifold with the car (as I'm a bit paranoid about stainless manifolds - and rightly so!) so this wasn't a problem. I might get it skimmed and re-fit it with some hanging support, or I may just throw it in the bin.
One thing I'm unsure of - I can't for the life of me seem to figure out what 18's to go for (fitment wise). Am I right in thinking that a 9J et30 or lower (ideally 25) will fit with inner clearance, with only some rolling and a bit of flare needed? I'm also hoping for something around 9.5/10J et30 or so for the back. I had 9.5J et20 all round on an old S14a which were no trouble, but this of course was with more arch clearance on the 14's.
Thanks for reading if you got this far!
