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The Evolution of BIGPHL

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BigPhil

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I posted this on the NZ Silvia Site, But a few people have asked for it to be reposted here too, So here we go..

The following is a break down of Modifications (As at Nov 06) and changes that I have made to My S15 From June 05 to Nov 06. Everything mentioned is Factual and correct..
The end Goal was a Street car that could be used every day but handle a good thrashing at the track. I was after the ?Complete Package? it had to handle well, have good power, Stop better than most and also look good, while still being a daily driver.

In the Beginning
What we started with was a Japanese Spec 1999 Nissan Silvia S15. Modifications that were on it when Purchased were Ohlin Coil Overs, Factory Aero Body Kit, Nismo Alloy?s, Cat back Exhaust and Trust Air Filter.
On the whole not a bad starting point, the car was purchased with a Cert making things easier when Warrant of Fitness time comes around. Compared to my old 1992 SR20DET S13 it felt slower, the extra weight of the S15 was very noticeable and while it probably had more power it still felt very restricted and ran about 0.5 bar of boost.
The Ohlin Suspension is height adjustable only and very stiff. It has to be some one best suspension I?ve used and makes the car handle fantastically, the only downside is no-one is prepared to rebuild them.
Things I didn?t like about it were : The body kit looked ugly, the alloys weren?t wide enough and once again it felt slow.



The First Year
Not much was planned in the first year, I was unbelievably busy at work and helping friends build their show cars. Most mods were done out of necessity more than anything else.
The first thing that was changed was the removal of the boost restrictor, this was a 30 second job and immediately saw an increase of boost to 0.8 bar and a noticeable increase in power.
Second change was a set of Mintex M1166 Pads. These made a drastic change to the power of the brakes, the only down side was the dust, But the dust is a small price to pay for Good brakes. One thing I?ve noticed about Mintex pads is after about a years use on a road car their braking ability seems to decrease, this happened with my S13 as well..

AutoSalon 2005
About 6 months had gone by and the car was going ok. I was asked to put the car in the AutoSalon by some friends at Onboost. I needed to make 2 changes before I was happy to do this, these were the addition of a Front mount Intercooler and a New Front Bar. A Vertex copy front bar was purchased and a Trust Front mount Intercooler was ordered, time was getting short with only 1 week to get everything done and it was soon discovered that the Copy front bar that ?Fits Well? doesn?t fit at all well, There were huge gaps under the lights and the sides didn?t meet with the Guards, the front bar was put at the back of the garage and forgotten about. The AutoSalon came about but the Intercooler didn?t, the Guaranteed 7 day delivery didn?t happen so I told the Supplier I didn?t want it..
It should be noted that the Intercooler and Front bar were ordered through people I don?t deal with anymore and are not mentioned anywhere in this post.

New Wheels
For the Autosalon I was lent some Work Emotion wheels, After seeing them on the car I decided to buy them then and there.. Sizes are 18x8.5 and 18x9.5.. But before I could have them on the car permanently the rear Guards needed rolling and pumped about 22mm each side. For this job I went and Spoke with Shane @ Prima Panel Beaters, I needed the guards repainted anyway after someone had backed into me in a car park, So a deal was done where the guards were rolled and Pumped at not cost but I just had to pay for panel and paint. I jumped at the deal and within a few days it was all done and the wheels were on. The pumping itself was quite easy, all that was done was a ?Porta Power? was placed between the Chassis and the inside of the guard. The Metal was slowly stretched a section at a time until the desired amount was reached, the rear guards were then repainted with a perfect color match.

Overheating
It was around this time that I started having over heating problems, Every time I went for a long drive at motorway speed the car would start to over heat, this was getting very irritating to say the least. Everyone had their theories but no one knew what the problem was, So I decided to get a new radiator, low temp thermostat and use a good coolant as I figured the problem must be one of those things. A Second hand Apexi Radiator was offered at a good price by Andy (DORIFT), this had supported over 240kw?s in his S14 so was perfect for the job. Thanks Andy !!
It took a day to take the old Radiator out and put the Apexi one in with new thermostat, Prestone Anti Freeze and some ?Water Wetter? additive.. The main reason it took so long is I got half way through and discovered I had no pliers to take the hoses off, so had to call around some friends to see if they could come over with some pliers. The New Apexi Radiator was twice as thick as the old one and on closer inspection I discovered the old one was blocked quite badly. Job done and it never over heated again.
The radiator is often an overlooked modification, but I now highly recommend a radiator upgrade to everyone, especially with the Alloy SR20.

Front Bar Again
Some time had passed and I still had that Ugly Aero front on the car and a bad Vertex copy front sitting in the garage. After the great job Shane @ Prima had done with the guards I went back and talked to him to see what was involved in getting it on the car and Perfect. He was keen to do it and thought a few days would be enough to sort it out, So I left the car with him and the instructions to make it fit ?Perfectly?. A few days passed and he called to say it was ready to pick up. I couldn?t believe it when I first saw it, the fit was perfect and the color match was unbelievable. It turns out he actually cut it into 3 bits and fiber glassed it back together, a total of 16+ hours of work, it should be noted that this is what happens when you buy a cheap copy !! Anyway the front was on and looking great, except for that big gap at the front where an Intercooler should be.



The Boost Up, Part 1
Explanation
I?m not sure what it was that set me down the boost up path, But in a short period of time I managed to spend a lot of money on the S15.
Before anything was done the car was put on Soichi?s Dyno to get a base Power figure before any parts were added, I estimated the cars power at about 160kw?s and the Dyno proved me correct, 164 Kw?s @ 5887 Rpm on just under 1 bar of boost.

The first part of the process consisted of a Nismo Fuel pump and a HKS S-Type Intercooler with Aluminum piping kit.
It only took 2 weeks for these to arrive and after a day at Soichi?s they were installed and ready to go. It turns out the Expensive Odyssey battery I had brought was too big so a smaller Exide item was installed at the same time.

Impressions
First thing I noticed was the noise the Fuel pump makes, its actually quite noisy when you first start the car and it primes, But at the end of the day it?s a fuel pump and so long as it does its job that?s all that matters
The Intercooler immediately made a difference, The car was a lot more responsive through the rev range but the boost was lower and the top end had lost a bit of power..

Conclusion
The car is in need of a good Tune !!
The basis of these 2 mods were as a starting point for Part 2, I never expected these mods alone to make any difference to the power, but they were required for what was coming in Part 2.
A lot of people say the car becomes more Laggy when you add a Front Mount Intercooler, I found the complete opposite.. The car was more responsive, it was the top end that suffered, probably from over fueling..

Continued..
 
B

BigPhil

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The Boost Up, Part 2
Explanation
The goal here was to get 200+kws, the shopping list had : Power FC with Hand Controller and Boost Controller, Front Pipe, Dump Pipe, Fuel pressure Regulator and a tune.
Also included in this section were some ?Non Engine? parts. The first was the Infamous ?Laufen? rear wing, but it turns out that they don?t make them any more so a similar item from ?US Racing Sports? was ordered. The other was a brake upgrade and I was lucky enough to find a Set of R34 GTR front Brembo?s with 330mm Brembo disks for sale from James @ JDM. To match these a set of Rear R34 GTT hubs and brakes with everything on them were purchased from Sjoerd @ Nissan King.
So Back to Soichi it goes and while there it got new Spark Plugs, Oil and Filter change and Braided Fuel lines added to the new Regulator.

Impressions
Lets just say it, 203kws @ 5781 Rpm on 1.2 Bar of boost.. The difference was phenomenal, below 3000rpm it feels normal but when you put your foot down it just gets up and goes, both the acceleration and response were greatly improved.
The only let down was the brakes they are probably slightly better than the standard S15 Brakes with Mintex Pads (The Brembo?s have Standard Pads) and they made a terrible noise squealing every time I used them. I made a visit to Race Brakes and they gave me some material to put on the back of the pad and this fixed the Squealing but made the brakes a bit more spongy.
Another boot lid without a spoiler was found as we agreed this was easier than taking the Aero spoiler off the current boot lid, However when the boot lid arrived it had a big dent right in the middle of it, so the car was sent back to Shane @ Prima to fix the new boot lid add the new rear wing, and re-spray the front bar that had taken a beating.

Conclusion
Well worth it, the car is now a great street car with good power and it still gets 11Km?s per Liter fuel mileage.. I?m happy with how it looks and how it performs..
The knock figure hardly goes over 20 but the Injector duty gets up to 90%, so it?s now at the limit of the injectors.

While at the 4 & Rotor nationals 2 trips down the strip were made, the first being a 13.7 @ 167kph the second was a 14.4 @ 162.. The first run had a shocking reaction time while on the second run I had a great reaction time but forgot to change out of 3rd gear.



What?s Next ??
As little as possible really.. But the following will make it on the car shortly : Nismo Injectors (Already Purchased), 60mm Throttle Body (currently looking for one), HKS Actuator (ordered), Fujitsubo Exhaust, Endless Brake Pads and a new Clutch.

Thanks Must go to :
Soichi @ http://www.sthitec.co.nz/
Shane @ Prima Panel Beaters
Sjoerd @ Nissan King
Andy (RH9_GTR)
 
B

BigPhil

Guest
Phaze 3 (As at June 07)
Explanation
Well those that have been paying attention will remember that after the last bunch of mods I said that was enough, Well it wasn?t..
The goal this time is to see what a Garrett GT2871R can do. But the original goals still remain, it must still be a daily driven car.
Why a GT2871R you may ask, well there has been a lot of speculation about this particular turbo. It is very similar to the HKS GTRS and a few people were interested to see what it can do, while others were saying it?s useless and doesn?t do well at all.

To get the most out of it the following Shopping list was made :
-Garrett GT2871R Turbine
-Z32 AFM + Wiring Harness
-SR20DE Throttle Body
-NISMO Super Copper Mix Clutch Kit
-TOMEI EXPREME Exhaust Manifold
-TOMEI PonCams 256/256 In/Ex
-TOMEI 1.2mm Head Gasket Set
-HKS Cam Gear
-TRUST 16Row Oil Cooler Kit
-APEXI Power Intake

The Plan was to run over 1.2 bar, so a Metal Head Gasket was a must and while the head was off we decided to do the Cams and Cam Gears. The reason why a Z32 AFM was chosen over a D-Jetro Power FC was purely because I already had an AFM Power FC and didn?t really want to buy a new one.
The TOMEI Expreme Exhaust manifold was chosen again because there was a lot of talk about it and most was really positive.
The Standard clutch was struggling with the 203Kw tune, so there was no way it was going to handle any more than that, The Nismo Coppermix was chosen because it is known to be strong but not too heavy meaning it was still ok for street use.
A Trust Oil cooler was chosen over the similar HKS item because it was easier to install.

So once all the parts arrived it was off to Soichi at St-Hitec for him to work his magic.

Progress
All the Parts awaiting their new home.


The Turbo, Manifold and AFM. The TOMEI Manifold comes as a complete kit with Heat Wrap, Gaskets etc


The Nismo Coppermix Clutch. Once again a complete kit with Clutch Plate, Flywheel, Pressure Plate and new bolts etc as well


Old Manifold Vs New Manifold


The Standard Turbo on the right with the new GT2871R on the left


Cams and Cam Gears


Oil Cooler


Oil Filter Relocation



Impressions
A Figure of 252Kw?s on 1.4 Bar was achieved in the end..

This thing is stupid !! It happily smokes up the 265 SO3?s on the back in 1st, 2nd and 3rd Gears.. Response is not much different to the standard turbo, with no more noticeable amount of lag. The clutch is firm but not heavy and is easy to use in traffic and on hill starts, there is a bit more noise from the gearbox but that was expected..
The exhaust note has also changed both on idle and normal driving, most probably from a combination of the Cams and Exhaust Manifold.
The car is still used as a Daily driver to drive to and from work.

The results speak for themselves, another 50 Kw?s at the wheels with no real increase in lag from the turbo.

Thanks Must go to :
Soichi @ St-Hitec http://www.sthitec.co.nz/
Chris @ Alltech http://www.turbo.co.nz/alltech/
Andy (RH9_GTR)
Andy (DORIFT)
 

Topper

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Good write up, quite a read, love the wheels choice, used to have a set myself. Only thing i'd do is put the Aero wing back on :D
 
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Nice upgrades, I am just waiting on my power FC and turbo to complete my setup. Did you opt for ARPs head studs when you installed the headgasket? I want to keep the stock bottom end but at the same time upgrade the sump and the rod bolts and, do some porting and polishing and put a set of BC stage 3 cams with BC springs and Titanium retainers and solids with a Greddy Twinscroll manifold and Garrett twinscroll GT3076R. For no I am gonna do the boost mod, I have upgraded my j-pipe to a Greddy, down pipe is an HKS, Kakimoto exhaust and Megan exhaust manifold already with a FMIC setup. I think it needs a good tune so I am getting the power FC first and gonna play with it to fine tune everything. Will also get the boost kit as well and I have an AEM wideband already so hopfully things go well. Still need to order a good clutch setup and an oil cooler with filter relocator.
 
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sscotty

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yaay i finally get to see all the photo's! Not sure why but they never worked on my comp in SNZ. Oh and mint car man, the inspiration for my s15!
 
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gunner93

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Hi Big Phil,

Good project!

Whats the difference between a DE throttle body vs DET?
 
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sillbeers15

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Strangly, Nissan makes the NA throttle body (60mm in dia.) bigger than the SR20DET's throttle body (50 or 55mm in dia.).

Alternatively, U can jump to the Nissan N15 (Pulsar) 70mm throttle body which I am using.

Just don't ask me why less powerful engines get bigger throtle body in Nissan range....I don't have the answer!
 
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Endless

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Very good write up! I got similar process too, at one point I have decided the power is enough for me, then suddenly I want to add one more mod, then few other mods need to go together to make it works well....so ends up spending more and more....the love of turbo car
 
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gunner93

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Strangly, Nissan makes the NA throttle body (60mm in dia.) bigger than the SR20DET's throttle body (50 or 55mm in dia.).

Alternatively, U can jump to the Nissan N15 (Pulsar) 70mm throttle body which I am using.

Just don't ask me why less powerful engines get bigger throtle body in Nissan range....I don't have the answer!
This is also new to me... seems like the DE has higher lift on the cams than the DET as well...
 
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BigPhil

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Thanks for the comments..
Sorry for the lack of updates, I've been busy..

As far as the Kit goes, I'm looking at another kit completly now.. The Vertex (copy) is a nice clean front, but its just getting way too common.. Haven't decided what I'm going to yet..

A quick update on recent changes..
- I've brought a GT3071 turbo which should go on in a month or so..
- Also an HPI/Nismo Gearbox went in last month, This really is a fantastic gearbox..
- I've also got some Advan A048 Semi Slicks
- Project Mu 999 Pads Installed

Some other small things have changed to, like some Suspension arms etc.. I'm getting the car ready for a track day in March, so everything is going towards that now..
 
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BigPhil

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Well firstly it uses the Nismo Gearset, so its a Close Ratio:
Standard - Nismo
1st: 3.626 - 2.9071
2nd: 2.200 - 1.9888
3rd: 1.541 - 1.5373
4th: 1.213 - 1.2179
5th: 1.000 - 1.0000
6th: 0.767 - 0.8624

Its also stronger, the gears themselves are stronger and also HPI tested it in their D1 car for a year while they were developing it..
Its rated at 300Kw's..
 
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more like, where can we get one? lol

i've managed to find the Nismo box, they're roughly $4800 (USD)
 
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that's a very good price. i had a quick look on that site, but i usually get bored of waiting for it to load.... for some reason, just that one site takes ages for me!
 
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