Good Bye! It Was Fun While It Lasted...

So not to worry, this is not about my car... but about a part that I had on my car.  And frankly this part was something I actually enjoyed having and which I think is engineered very well... the only problem is it runs afoul of Japan's shaken (biannual compulsory inspection) rules.

I am talking about the Do-Luck Roll Center Adjusters.  I did a post on this before, where I was one of the first customers to install this.

In fact it was an easy install, but it turns out their one piece design is what would cause a car to fail the shaken inspection. As a result, each time I took the car in, I would have to pay for someone to remove them and then do a 4 wheel alignment, and then reinstall once the car passed shaken.

To review - most roll center adjusters work by restoring the angle of the lower arm in lowered cars.  This one however ALSO, and simultaneously, also restores the angle of the tie rods by replacing the tie rod portion on the wheel hub by its elongated design. This means steering feel is also restored to OEM lightness, making for a car that feels OEM in steering resistance but while lowered.

However, the reason it fails on the shaken side, is because this one piece design leaves the tie rod connector on the wheel side, disconnected from the tie rod:

So I found a small box, and packed both pieces away to be sent EMS.

Off to a good friend and thus a good home in a country where those shaken rules don't apply! Mr. V, enjoy and let me know how they work out for you.

Dropping My Car Off at Nismo Omori Factory!

Remember how I described in my last post how I had to get the paperwork fixed? Well, I figured I might as well for a reason that will be clear in an upcoming post, which has almost nothing to do with my car.  So I took the car to my go to guy, Ninomiya-san at BeAmbitious a few weeks after meeting with Takasu-san, and then 2 weeks later Ninomiya-san called me to tell me it was all done.

So, I called back Takasu-san about our previous conversation and he offered that his guys could take a close look at my car - do a complete shakedown by first replacing all the fluids, then test driving, after which Nismo technicians would come up with a list of things that could be improved, repaired or perfected.

HOW COULD I SAY NO?!

So, I took a morning off and picked up my car from BeAmbitious...

Damn this car looks good!

 And then drove over to Nismo. Found a spot open next to a classic:

 And then went inside where I met up with Takasu-san again - apparently Omori Factory is currently FULL with customer cars - they were doing me a favor to accommodate me.  After some pleasantries he had Ochiai-san, the guy who would probably actually work on my car, take me outside to inspect my car.

Here is Ochiai-san explaining my car's body rigidity to my friend Takashi who picked me up from Nismo

Ochiai-san had some interesting things to say about the choice of injectors on the Mine's engine - he immediately saw that the injector sizes were 600cc, and not the 555cc (pink color) ones he would have recommended.  Said that larger injectors might cause excessive gas to be injected - which yes I knew - and that too much could result in fouled exhaust gases leading to premature failure of the catalytic converter. Which is spot on - or at least the fact that the HKS cat didn't seem to last long, on both occasions I've installed one since the Mine's engine.

He also didn't like the Garage Defend panel, saying that it prevented the snorkel from getting enough air into the engine.  I explained this one was for looks only and that I had in fact, developed my own panel with ram-air. And that my friend Tom had also made a nicer version and actually recorded a difference in air temperature!

Along with this mod and the other things he saw I had done, he was impressed - it sounds like most R owners in Japan that bring their cars to Nismo don't work on them too much....

In any case, I am on pins and needles as I wait to get the phone call... and then hopefully some very good news and not much bad news... we shall see. I told them I was in no rush.

Which means people visiting Nismo Omori Factory over the next few weeks might see something like this:

Thanks to my friend Matt B who's visiting from the UK and dropped into Nismo! Will have to catch up in person next time!!

A Quick Visit to NISMO Omori Factory...

As long as I've owned my car, I've never had my car actually worked on or even inspected by the guys at Nismo Omori Factory. Granted, I've had many many different Nismo parts installed on my car over the years, and Nismo trained mechanics (the guys at Nissan Prince Tokyo Motorsports Factory (Yamada-san in particular) as well as Ninomiya-san at BeAmbitious) but maybe it's not quite the same? 

Time to find out! A few weeks ago I received an introduction to Takasu-san at Omori Factory, and went down to visit him. I show up at the appointed time, and had to park next to this very nice Nismo Z34. 

Cannot believe how small my car looks next to the Z! Maybe it's the angle?

After the pleasantries, I first made clear to the guys at Nismo that I was a regular working man with a growing family - i.e. I'm not going to be able to spend as much as some people and reproduce a Clubman Sport car. And in any case, I am not going to change the way my car looks  - I just want to see what they can do to fix/improve/modernize.

Master Mechanic Takasu-san checking out the Mine's engine...

I know my car intimately - both good and bad - and so what I thought was going to be a short conversation ("how about this?") turned into a long one.  Truth be told, to make the car perfect/brand new would simply cost too much. Basically anything Nismo Omori does is NOT cheap - whether engine work, body work, restorations, etc.  And apparently more and more owners throughout Japan (as well as a select few from overseas) are now contacting Nismo Omori with the same thing in mind - can you make my car better/newer/more special. So basically, Nismo has no incentive to give me a discount on anything...(time to start playing the lottery?).

Here is the view walking BACK to the public area. Love that R30, and that 33 is actually PURPLE, not black!

As a Nissan employee, even though they didn't give me a corporate discount (yet...), they DID let me walk around and check out some cars they were still working on (Ale's car, for example) as well as a very special R34 Z-Tune from Australia. And of course the cars shown above - most of which had come in for body work - except for the R30 which is being gradually rebuilt from the ground up (this time it was for an engine refresh, previously it was the body, maybe next the interior....??)

Just LOVE the way my car looks. Classic lines, smooth body, still looks fresh.

Unfortunately for me - Nismo Omori in the end told me that they could NOT work on my car - at least in its present state. You see, as an OEM manufacturer they apparently can't take any short cuts. Takasu-san had noticed that my shaken (registration) papers weren't quite up to par.  This is because when I got my GETRAG 6-speed installed, I had failed to properly re-register my car - technically it's no longer a "BCNR33" but a "BCNR33-kai" (BCNR33改).  At the time - it just didn't seem important and no one at the inspection center seemed to care.

Anyway - I guess if I really want Nismo to take a look I'll just have to fix the problem - take the car in and get the paperwork sorted and then see what Nismo believes they can do to improve the car...hopefully I can get this project started soon. It sure would be interesting to see what they suggest I do to improve my car.

Premature LED Burn Out?

So during the biannual shaken process back in June, Ninomiya-san at BeAmbitious (my go-to shop for all things non-OEM) noticed that the front right parking light bulb had burnt out. So, in order to pass shaken, he went ahead and replaced the burnt out LED bulb for a cheapo standard bulb.

Not pretty as you can see - but looks very OEM and period correct, actually

So much crisper and modern looking, no?

If you recall I did a lot of research for this post back in December 2016 where I upgraded the cheap LEDs I was using as front parking light bulbs to a pair of high power (130 lumens) units from Philips.

The T10s on the left I used for the parking lamps.

Of course, Murphy's law - these bulbs weren't cheap, but since I can't find the receipt, the 3 year warranty means nothing... 

So I went back on Rakuten and tried to look for the same bulbs. I was going to be sneaky and buy another set and then return the burnt out one (assuming the stock numbers were relatively close, etc...)

It seems Philips has outsmarted me, however. Because, I could no longer find the 6200K 130lm T10 bulbs. Instead I found these:

I went ahead and bought them, figuring that I might as well replace both sides and that 6000K from the LEDs would not be that much of a change from the 6200K of the early unit. 

Anyway, as you know it's not rocket science to replace these bulbs - you just need small hands like mine and it's relatively easy. Although admittedly this time I cheated and removed the airbox on the left and the washer tank on the right to get easier access.

And the end result (just in time for the GTR50 event):

Ahh...back to symmetry (and thus normal). Given that the headlights are rated at 6200K, I don't see any difference between them and the 6000K parking bulbs, do you? 

Öhlins DFV Rebuild (Part 2) and Factory Tour!

Note: The following began as a post for another site. Unfortunately, that fell through. So, please enjoy this "exclusive" post, which I've modified and added to provide more detail than what would have ended up on the other site.

1.     In the Beginning   2. Rebuild Time   3. Factory Tour.   4. Reinstall and Impressions

1. In the Beginning

Rolling on the S-Tunes...

Soon after I bought my BCNR33, seeking a more sporty ride and wedded to the idea of “close to OEM as possible,” I replaced the OEM (“GT-R” labeled!) shocks with Nismo’s street focused, steel bodied S-Tune shock absorbers, which looked great and had a slightly firmer, sportier ride. 

Like these

After a few years however, I found performance on the track to be a bit lacking.  At the same time, I began reading about rebuildable, customizable “proper coilovers” and then found that Öhlins had come out with their aluminum bodied “DFV” coilovers (incorporating their Dual Flow Valve system) for the BCNR33 and BNR34. 

Developed by Öhlins AB in Sweden, the DFV technology uses two sub-valves, one on the compression side and the other on the rebound side, to supplement the main piston.  These valves allow for high speed (not car velocity, but how quickly the dampers react to the road surface) damping, while the main piston handles low speed damping. This means, while maintaining the characteristics of the main piston (which can be paired with a fairly stiff spring, as is often the case for cars that might see the track), DFV equipped dampers respond almost immediately to minor road imperfections, thus maximizing tire traction while giving a smooth, compliant ride.

From: http://www.roadandtrackbyohlins.com

Despite the DFV coilovers being relatively new to the market back then, I managed to find and buy a used set online for a great price.  The seller claimed he had bought them new and then used them for a few thousand kilometers before switching back to something softer, only then to have his car stolen! Thus, he was divesting himself of all of his leftover GT-R parts.  Anyway, once installed they were indeed like new, and I immediately noticed the difference between the S-Tunes, with the ride being much firmer, but also, and quite paradoxically, extremely smooth.

2. Rebuild Time

Flash forward six years and several thousand kilometers later, the ride had gotten progressively worse, but I didn’t really think anything was off until on a recent journey to the back roads of Chiba Prefecture with Mr. Dalle Carbonare, when we both agreed that something seemed off, that the suspension seemed to not have enough rebound. It was a reminder that my gold DFV coilovers were long overdue for a rebuild.

Looks great, but the ride was actually not as good as it should have been.

As I don’t have the garage space to do a coilover removal and reinstall, I asked Ninomiya-san (my neighborhood mechanic) to do the work at his shop, “BeAmbitious.”  Once removed, the actual rebuild would take place at Öhlins’ authorized Japanese manufacturer and distributor, Labo Carrozzeria in Adachi Ward, Tokyo.  Turns out, as an ex-NISMO race team mechanic, Ninomiya-san has plenty of contacts in the industry, and so knowing I wanted to see how a rebuild was done, he called Labo Carrozzeria and arranged for me to visit them for a private tour of their operations.

3. Factory Tour

Outside Labo Carrozzeria, where Öhlins are built and serviced.

Upon my arrival, I was greeted by Hiroshi Shitakubo, Group Leader for the Sales Department.  After exchanging pleasantries (turns out we know people in common in the car world here!), he gave me a short history lesson on Öhlins AB and how they had begun in Sweden making shocks for 2 wheeled vehicles. He also discussed their current product line-up, including their racing, rally and offroad, and Build To Order (BTO) applications, their JDM-only models, and of course their DFV coilovers, now silver in color (due to environmental concerns) and sold worldwide as their “Road & Track” models.

One question I was curious about – the difference between the Road & Track models versus the Öhlins models with remote-reservoir tanks, such as the Flag-R series for GT-Rs.  Shitakubo-san explained that the remote-reservoir models do not have DFV technology, but they do have more fluid volume and adjustability, so in a nutshell, the Road & Tracks are more street (with the occasional track day) focused, while the external tank models are more track oriented, given their increased adjustability along with the smooth pavement of the race track. Plus, he mentioned that many GT-R owners love how the reservoir tank model “looks cool.”

Shitakubo-san then invited me to tour the factory/workshop floor with him.  On entry, he pointed out that most the workstations are dedicated to the automotive line-up, with the motorcycle section in a segregated space in back.

Shitakubo-san leading me onto the workshop floor...

Unfortunately, it turned out that they had already finished rebuilding my DFV coilovers so I wasn’t able to watch them do that.  However, I was able to witness various coilovers at different stages of overhaul, as well as new Road & Track sets being built.

The new silver colored Road & Tracks being assembled

For rebuilds, all the incoming coilovers are thoroughly cleaned, inspected and then disassembled.

Total concentration there...

All disassembled, ready to be rebuilt

Certain parts are always replaced, whether or not the wear is obvious or not.  Those parts include the various internal seals, and of course the oil. 

Where the DFV magic resides

On occasion, they will spot damage to the main piston, or other areas including the exterior, and when this affects performance they will change out those parts as well.  Never having seen the innards before, I was surprised to learn how many pieces make up the valve assembly:

Lots of pieces...

Close up of the valve

The coilovers are then reassembled to the customer’s order, which might include changed springs and compression/rebound rates, as well as the addition of optional features. Finally the coilover undergoes several QC checks before being shipped back to the customer. In my case, as you can see below, I chose to swap out the standard pillow ball mounts with rubber mounts, but kept everything else standard to the recommended Öhlin spec.

Here is a pair of newly rebuilt BTO DFVs for a Lexus IS-F (not mine unfortunately):

They really don't replace external parts for cosmetic reasons... this IS-F sees a lot of action I guess

And a close-up of new Road & Tracks ready to get shipped out.

So they no longer make the gold ones... hold onto them as collectibles!

4. Reinstall and Impressions

When my schedule finally cleared up a few weeks later, I dropped into BeAmbitious where I had the pleasure of removing my rebuilt DFV coilovers from their protective bubble wrap packaging.

The anticipation was too much...

I tore off that bubble wrap in no time!! Then starting drooling.

Interestingly, Labo Carrozzeria also sends back all the used parts, mainly to give picky owners peace of mind that they did the rebuild.

Obviously I can't tell what is worn out... but I've heard it's those rubber rings...

Here you can see how the top mounts are now rubber (compared to the old solid mounts).  Shitakubo-san told me these were developed in order to absorb the noise that normally gets transmitted via the solid mounts, even when new.  I've since learned that there might be a loss in feel but...

Old solid mount on left, coilover now hos the rubber mount.
This photo also reminded me that the set-up uses Eibach springs too... quality throughout!

Once re-installed on my GT-R, I could not believe how amazing the ride was. The ride was extremely smooth, quiet and comfortable but at the same time firm and stable, with no weird body movements, whether at low or high speed.  The entire car feels very tight, but without any harshness. Loss of feel due to the rubber mounts? None that I could detect, really!

Given that Öhlins markets the Road & Track series as improvements to the OEM suspensions on high performance German cars, I think that gives you an idea of the kind of performance I am trying to describe.  If you do a search on the web, I see so many comparisons between the DFVs and other very famous brands, and almost always the verdict is in favor of the DFVs. So I'm happy I stumbled onto them.

Oh, and now, after having driven the GT-R with these rebuilt, I know why Öhlins recommends a rebuild every 2 years or 20,000 kms.

What I saw when I went to pick up the GT-R...

"Anyway, now with these as-new DFV coilovers, along the stiffened chassis and NISMO suspension links, I’m pretty happy with the handling characteristics of the car.  However, I’m not done yet as I have several projects in mind, all aimed at seeking further refinement on various aspects of the car, and not just in the handling department.  Thanks for reading this and next time I hope to showcase one of those refinements."

And so with the quote above, I ended the original post... but it turned out that Ninomiya-san had spotted something odd on the car when he was doing the reinstall... stay tuned and I will post an update on that!

The Smallest, Quickest Mod Ever?

So of the 3 parts I got (as I mentioned in my last post), 2 require some disassembly of my car, so I will deal with them later; but one is a 15 second affair.

Just this one little piece...

If you recall I now have a brand new cowl piece, for some reason this part was missing.

A while back, I had replaced the cowl on my car, with a brand new part. Looks great, but I noticed one part that seemed to be missing. You can see in the photo above that it looked like there is supposed to be a square plug?

Anyway, took what - exactly 1 second to push it in...excuse the dirt there...

So I am guessing that, this might prevent some water from getting in there, but remind me to go back and ask the guys at Nissan if it's supposed to be round like this. Little things like this bother me.

Although from a far, you really can't tell anyway...

You may have noticed that these photos seem a bit different than those I usually post here. That's because these were taken not with my usual iPhone, but this time with my Nikon D90 DSLR, and with a fixed, non-zoom 35 mm Nikkor lens (can you tell I have very little experience with photography?...)

Anyway, with my car now being featured on Speedhunters, I've been told that I need to use a proper camera and also learn about "bokeh" and such to take the photos in a way that I focus on the subject. So was told to fool around with the camera, set it on Aperture mode, etc.  And so this is what I've been doing. Any tips?

By the way - it turned out the Ohlins had been done for a few weeks, and have already been sent back to BeAmbitious for reinstallation. However both myself and Ninomiya-san have been too busy to deal with this, but we finally did last week. My next post WILL be about the Ohlins, and very soon...

(Temporarily) Back on the S-Tunes! My Impressions...

So as I mentioned in my last post, I had my old NISMO S-Tunes shock absorbers temporarily re-installed by Ninomiya-san at BeAmbitious onto my car while the Ohlins DFVs usually on the car are being re-built at Labo Carrozzeria, the Ohlins distributor/service factory here in Japan.

The Ohlins Japan service factory. From: http://ohlins.czj.jp/service/

When I went to pick up the car after Ninomiya-san had gotten the GT-R successfully registered for another 2 years, the first thing I noticed was that the front of the car seemed lower than before. But, as he had told me that the car did not pass shaken until he put the S-Tunes on, I assumed that the ground clearance was better with the NISMOs than with the Ohlins.

Anyway, on my short drive home, I immediately could tell the difference - after driving around for a while on the stiffer sprung Ohlins (which were probably more stiff than usual because it was long overdue for a rebuild), the S-Tunes felt amazingly smooth and supple. Still very sporty, and in fact, they responded very well to the dips and bumps in the road.  In short, the car feels very close to OEM, in that most people might be satisfied with level of firmness combined with good ride comfort.

Although these S-Tunes are sporty enough that I went to several track days such as at Fuji Speedway, as you can see in the photo below (sorry for the low-def), hard braking meant that the car would literally scrape the front lip. So, one impetus for switching to the DFVs was a higher (stiffer) spring rate. Although, as I mentioned in my previous post, the DFV technology also results in a very smooth ride.

As you can see from this old photo, at full braking my front lip was scraping the ground!
http://www.r33gt-r.com/2008/07/photos-from-sunako-juku-last-lesson-at.html

Then, pulling into the garage, the front lip scraped... meaning that in fact, the car WAS lower than before.  So I don't quite understand how the car could pass the shaken rules with the S-Tunes when it was lower than the Ohlins, but oh well.  When I called Ninomiya-san about it, he thinks it might be due to the Do-Luck Roll Center Adjusters, and while that makes sense about the height, I'm still a bit confused about how it could pass Shaken...

You can see how close to the fender the tire/wheel is.

In any case, the car needs a proper alignment so I'm not driving it until I get the Ohlins re-installed and the alignment done.  Of course meanwhile I will simply have to have other projects to keep me busy, although I expect the Ohlins to be rebuilt and ready to go fairly soon. I'm really looking forward to experiencing the DFVs when as good as new!

Biannual "Shaken" and Öhlins DFV Rebuild, Part 1

So the same Sunday I visited Nissan Prince to pick up some parts and replace the under bonnet insulation, afterwards I drove over to drop off my car with Ninomiya-san at his shop, BeAmbitious, in Yokohama near my house.  He is the only tuner/mechanic I've found who's been willing to do stuff most shops here in Japan won't.  For example, he had no problems (and even fixed an issue with the UK made brackets) installing the R35 brakes on my car (this was after Nissan Prince, Three-H, and even Mine's refused to install them), as well as the BNR34 diffuser install (again coming up with custom brackets).

This time, I asked him to take care of the bi-annual "shaken" - the road-worthiness "inspection" + plus tax payment required for all street legal cars in Japan and then, as Dino had agreed with me when he drove my car, to have the Öhlins DFV coil-overs rebuilt.

The shaken is something that HAS to be done, by law... unfortunately, the stringent rules means that, for any car that is moderately tuned, unless you leave your car with someone who knows a few tricks, or is required to be scrupulously honest and "by the book" (i.e. a dealership), your car will fail and be "mandated" to have expensive repairs done to make it "roadworthy" again.

Because Ninomiya-san has a long history of working on race and drift cars, he knows how to "massage" them to get them road legal.  For example, I'm pretty sure (and he agrees) the Tomei ExPreme titanium exhaust, as fitted on my car, is too loud to be road legal. And yet he apparently has a special exhaust insert which he uses to muffle the sound to legal levels. For cars that are lowered, there are ways from setting coil-overs to their highest setting, to over-inflating the tires, etc., to ensure the car has 9cm between its lowest point and the road. In any case, I can trust him to get the car to pass shaken with minimum hassle and fuss.

Also, I figured that, since the car would be with him, I would leave my old Nismo S-Tunes shocks with him (that I did not throw out), so he could put those on the car while he sent the Öhlins in to be rebuilt. Even though I don't drive my GT-R as much as I used to, as I have mentioned earlier I had recently begun noticing that the ride seemed a bit too stiff, with the coil overs not responding quickly enough.

As a refresher, here is the link to when I first had these Öhlins installed, as well as the propaganda from Öhlins  (Japan) as to what makes them better than the average aftermarket coilover. And here is what Öhlins (Sweden) says (they are now called their "Road & Track" model).  These following two diagrams, both taken from the English language website, demonstrate the difference:

 From the Öhlins website -  "Without DFV, the oil cannot flow through the piston quickly enough on the rebound stroke after a bump, so the tyre is not able to stay in contact with the road.

From the Öhlins website: "The DFV valve opens, letting the oil flow quicker though the piston on the rebound stroke after hitting a bump, enabling the tyre to stay in contact with the road."

When I first had the DFVs installed, even though they were pre-used the car would glide over small imperfections... and now, on the same settings, I seem to feel imperfections more, and at speed sometimes the rebound clearly doesn't react as quickly as it should, meaning the car bounces fairly hard.

Also, since the model I have was released, there have been some improvements Öhlins has made to the DFV model. Or rather, it appears that they now offer a "rubber bushing upper mount" model in addition to the standard "pillow ball upper mount" model which is what mine are.

So I left the car with Ninomiya-san asking him to take care of everything, the shaken as well as getting the Öhlins rebuilt with those rubber bushings...

The following Friday, Ninomiya-san called me, with the shaken already done!

Another customer car that was there... a race ready Chaser.

But when I went to pick up the car, he had some stories:

First, my car on the height adjustable Öhlins, set at their highest setting, only resulted in 8.5+cm off the ground.  So, he had to install the S-Tunes, which apparently cleared 9.0cm.

Second, my car was failed because the window film on the driver's side window was not clear enough(!) When I had the rear window and quarters tinted with dark film, I also had anti-UV film applied to the passenger and driver's side windows.  I did not recall what percentage of light they let in but compared to the rears the sides were relatively clear.  It turns out that the legal limit is 70%... that is 70% or more of the light has to be let through.  For some reason, the passenger side film DID let in exactly 70% and is thus legal... but the driver's side film let in only 69.5%!!!  Ninomiya-san thinks this is probably from all the usage (opening/closing) that the driver's side window which may have added minute scratches which then caused the difference.  The solution was to have the tint stripped off at the inspections center.  This however is a blessing in disguise as I will explain in an upcoming post.

Otherwise, he had no problems at the shaken center with the Tomei exhaust, or the Getrag conversion, or even the darkly tinted rear windows.

So, I paid the fees (about $1000 US for the shaken process), and drove home with the car temporarily on the S-Tunes... and it was weird... I'll blog about that in my next post.