More Mine's Parts! (Mine's Visit, Part 2)

So as I mentioned in the first of these Mine's visit posts, the Silence-VX Pro Titan III was not the only Mine's part I decided my car needed.

But before I show you what I got installed, how about I show you what was removed? The guys at Mine's were nice enough to pack up all my old parts into boxes for me.

Damn when did I get so hairy?

You can already tell that it contains "SBC" and "ESC" so:

And yes, not surprisingly, they made sure to wrap up the important pieces in plastic. So they don't get scratched up. Why? Because Japan...

So yes, they removed my old Blitz Dual-SBC boost controller for a newer unit by HKS, their EVC7:

Frankly, I'm not sure how this improves control of the turbos, except the interface seems to be much more user friendly.  Maybe more precise control? Although when I picked up the car I vaguely remember Nakayama-san saying something about setting up different boost settings and that he decided that at the maximum boost setting the car felt too fast and so he dialed it down one notch.(!) Actually I found this comparison chart but maybe one of you guys can sum it up for me.

Ok onto more removed parts.

Blitz E-ESC, electronic exhaust sound controller. This was the electric valve I referred to in my previous post.  

Note how even the controller is wrapped in plastic. Not good for the environment, Japan!

Looks like this unwrapped, according to the Blitz website:

Remember this? Here is my write-up when I got it installed back in late 2014/early 2015!

And here is a video of the effect it had on the sound of the Tomei.

Obviously, with the new Mine's exhaust, this is something I don't need anymore. Removal of this valve -quite heavy actually - saves me XXX grams - and maybe makes up for the difference of the slightly heavier Mine's exhaust vs the Tomei? Not sure what I will do with the E-ESC now - maybe save for the Lexus if I ever get an aftermarket exhaust for it? I see Blitz discontinued it, so it could be handy in the future.

Also, they gave me back all of the Tomei Expreme Titanium - in pieces (it is not a one piece design, like the Mine's is), all nicely wrapped up!

Not sure what to do with this - keep for future track days?

Ok so the exhaust and exhaust value were obvious, given my previous blog post. How about this - the engine bay, how it used to look:

To now, this:

I changed out the OEM plenum, complete with the Mine's crinkle coating, for a non-crinkle coated Nismo plenum. I've always thought this part looked great just the way it is, and by limiting the crinkle coating to the engine, I think it actually further emphasizes the engine itself although strangely maybe it makes the engine bay look a bit busy?

Of course, if the plenum is replaced, other stuff is going on too.

That's right, I decided to replace the old Nismo 600cc single hole injectors with modern OEM R35 12 hole injectors!  This necessitated a new fuel rail:

If you look at the Mine's website, you will see that they advertise this bit of kit showing all the fuel lines on the topside - Nakayama-san told me some owners like to be able to show off, when the hood/bonnet is opened, that they have this new set up installed and so opt to have the fuel lines routed as follows:

From Mine's website photo

Hmm. Just noticed the red O is different...argh!!!

Not me, I like the more subtle look of the fuel lines all tucked away.

Of course, with new injectors you should run new Air Flow Meters (some people may disagree, I am just letting Mine's and Nakayama-san install what they have perfected over the years) so these old Mine's units came off:

To be replaced by the modern and thus much more accurate R35 ones. OEM parts FTW, I say!

The black crinkle finish is a bonus!

And with new injectors and AFMs, Mine's installed a new custom VX-ROM for me (I know because Nakayama-san told me about he himself setting it up out on the road). So how does it all work together? 

First, I don't know why, but the engine starts up much easier. Even Ochiai-san at Nismo commented on this (yes another Nismo post coming soon!).  Second, throttle response with the new R35 injectors, along with more volume in the Nismo plenum, results in very crisp, instant response.  To be honest, it was very good before, but I feel like it's even more precise. Surgical?

Strangely, the exhaust still stinks, although not chokingly bad as before.  Maybe it can't be helped with these engines but I was hoping for cleaner fuel burning due to better fuel atomization from the 12 holes.

I will post a sound clip of the Mine's exhaust soon, but it is fairly quiet. Still loud compared to the Lexus or the average car, but much more refined and therefore tolerable.  

Power-wise, because of the more accurate throttle play, I feel like the car is more lively, and even with the new exhaust, which may be slightly more restrictive, I never felt like the car was down on power.  So with better response and no perceptible change in power, (Nakayama-san grinned knowingly when I told him this), I am VERY satisfied at how this upgrade turned out!  Although come next year sometime, Nakayama-san is promising me another powertrain upgrade which he thinks will make the engine even more responsive!

There is however one more pre-arranged modification I had Mine's do.  I will publish that as soon as the Speedhunters article (working title - Return of Project 33) comes out, which now appears to be next month. If I do not see it get published by then, then I will go ahead and update the blog accordingly - you guys should not have to wait for that to find out what is really going on!

Long Overdue Visit to Mine's... oh and yes does the Nismo Airbox give performance gains?...

So after I installed the Nismo Carbon Fiber Airbox, I was looking for an excuse to drive the car to see if I could feel any difference - after all, if Nismo is recommending an ECU rewrite, this is not simply a cosmetic add-on, right? (YES! See my analysis below).

Because it's too much of a hassle to get a new ECU (even though I've been meaning to actually - someone send me one!) I decided to simply unplug the battery and let the Mine's VX-ROM reset itself to learning mode - I figured that the velocity stacks would increase airflow, which means that the ECU would adjust fuel and spark accordingly - in theory having the air flow in more quickly would be similar to the effect I had when I experimented with creating an air inlet that gave a ram-air effect.  So hopefully, even if the VX-ROM wasn't able to take full advantage of the increased airflow, it should still result in a noticeable difference. 

So last Saturday, after having called ahead a week before (highly recommended during these crazy times), I drove down for my appointment at Mine's at 1pm.  You see, every summer Mine's has their Summer Sale where they offer some parts on sale as well as zero percent financing for their more expensive items - such as engines.  That's how I was able to afford my Mine's engine way back in 2007 - I'm not rich like some people! Anyway, I had been promising Nakayama-san (the engine Takumi) and Takayanagi-san for years (when meeting up with them at Nismo Festival) that I was over due for a visit and a few new Mine's parts.

Flash forward 14 years, and I figured it was time to have Nakayama-san take a look at my car and make sure everything was still up to their high spec.  I unfortunately once let someone who didn't know how to drive very well take a quick spin in my car, and the engine's quickness surprised him - meaning he did not shift quickly enough, causing the engine to redline. So at the very least I need to get that checked out (hopefully the Mine's engine is over-built and thus idiot proof...)

Anyway, despite the traffic it was a quick drive down to Yokosuka, where Mine's is. After having endured a summer of very mediocre rental cars on my trips - Kia Optima, Toyota Corolla (JDM), Toyota Corolla (USDM) and Mitsubishi Mirage (JDM), it was SIMPLY AWESOME to take the GT-R for an extended drive. They simply do not make cars like this anymore, I felt so connected to the car and the road, and with the rebuilt suspension thanks to the Omori Factory chassis refresh, it was like driving a new car.  The super responsive Mine's engine coupled to the Getrag is icing on the cake.

Walking into Mine's, it seemed not much had changed since my last visit. I think this engine has been displayed in the same spot for the last 20 years...

But actually, they did have a few new items on the shelves:

Actually these are officially Nissan licensed items... maybe except for that shift knob

Surfboard not for sale

Who wears these in public?

Very nice, except iPhone models only...

So after the usual pleasantries and a quick discussion with Nakayama-san and Takayanagi-san about what I was concerned with, as well the possible future upgrades I wanted, Nakayama-san had one of the techs clear out space in their workshop for my car. He jumped in my car...

And drove it over to their garage workshop: 

Once parked, he revved up the engine a few times.

This was apparently enough for him to get a general sense of how healthy the engine is.  The verdict - given how little I have driven over the past years - probably around a bit over 30,000km since the engine was built - he believes that the engine is probably fine, despite my stupidity in letting an incompetent redline the engine.  He also examined the engine compartment and noted nothing amiss, no leaks or imminent failures, which of course is always a relief.

Nakayama-san did point out a few areas which can now be improved - technology and techniques have improved in the last 14 years so likely I will be doing what I can to upgrade over the next few months.

After a few more discussions on upcoming parts - most notably Mine's is finally releasing a titanium Silence VX exhaust system for the R33 GT-R - due to customer demand! - I drove back home, enjoying every minute of it and wondering how the upgrades will further improve this car.

As for the Nismo Carbon Fiber Airbox - I do believe it ACTUALLY MAKES A DIFFERENCE!  At high speed engine response was slightly more immediate - exactly how it was with the ram-air system, as well as how the car responded when I first installed the Tomei Expreme titanium exhaust (without any sound deadening inserts like I have in now - to keep the peace in my neighborhood).  A slight push on the throttle is immediately translated into an increase in revs, and the car thus seemed slightly more eager and alive.  However - I did not notice a difference at low speed, so if all you do is drive around in the city, this is simply pure bling.

So then, is it worth the price?  Hard to say - a homemade ram-air system is probably just as effective, and if you couple that with a completely free breathing exhaust like the Tomei (without baffles) then you might get the same effect, a more responsive engine.  But, we all know that many of us like to buy things on HOW THEY LOOK - and yeah it looks great. So in the end, I think you have to ask your wallet...

NISMO Omori Factory Chassis Refresh

So as we saw in my last post, I took the opportunity while my car was at NISMO Omori Factory to have them remove all the worn out, rusted and otherwise ugly suspension links and related parts off my car and replace with new.  Of particular interest to me was the rear suspension member - usually the bushes there harden or deteriorate with age and then the traditional easy solution is to add solid collars between the body and the member - I have not had that done yet so can't opine on whether that is the right solution, but certainly for most owners who don't want to bother removing everything to get to that rear member in order to replace the bushes, the solid mount solution is probably adequate, eliminating any weird flex.

One of my first upgrades to the car, before installing the Mine's engine, was to begin upgrading the suspension and chassis with the full Nismo suspension link set. I remember how the car immediately felt much more controllable and stable when I had the work done back in 2006 and 2007.  That means that for the past 13 years - longer than the time when the car ran on its OEM links and bushes from 1997 to 2006 (9 years) the car has been on the Nismo link set.  I don't know what the common wisdom is for when suspension link rubber bushes need to be replaced, but new ones should definitely give the car a "new car feel." I am looking forward to experiencing the brand new car feel!

Incidentally, I also have a full set of the SuperPro poly bushes, but never got around to installing them. Of course, now that I have a spare (used) set of the Nismo links...

Anyway, let's take a look underneath.

I get excited every time...

Left rear - silver is new, black is repainted

Right rear wheel - check out that beautiful "new" driveshaft!

This may be easier to see the extent of new goodness..

Of course the front is also looking great! Nice and clean...

Left front wheel 

Left front wheel, different angle - looks like I need to steam clean the oil pan!

 So a few things. One, they removed the plastic brake air guides - they were broken as the upper fin parts had snapped off.  These original Nismo ones, no longer available, cost about 19,000 yen per pair but the new dry carbon ones Nismo offers cost about ten times more! Not sure if I want to pay for parts my car probably doesn't need, given the oversize R35 brakes I now have. I guess I COULD go aftermarket here...

But damn they look good

So this adds about 150,000 yen to the price. What fool has these installed? (Thanks to Ale$$andro for the photos) 

Two, you may have noticed Omori Factory removed the Do-Luck floor support bars. The mechanics didn't really care for them not because they don't work, but because they interfere with their car lifts.  I will have to think about how to get them back on.  More importantly, I wonder how the car drives without them on. Maybe not go for them any more but look into spot welding around the door frames...They also removed, I think, the Spoon Rigid Collars (at least in the rear) - these will be an easy fix.

Three, yeah my tires are old. Will have to replace them soon.  And yes they look huge, very meaty. NISMO is pushing me to replace with the Michelin Pilot Sport 4s, but I don't know. Doesn't feel right to put on French tires on a Japanese car...And what is the current best Japanese tire out there?

Four, yes there are still many parts that need to be refreshed. Financially speaking, this is all I could afford at this time. Plus, most parts can be cleaned up or replaced at home, so I intend to do that as much as possible. To me that's part of the fun of ownership.

Fifth, I did mention in a previous post that Omori Factory did a few special extras - that's for the next post!

This device kept the peace in my neighborhood...

As I mentioned in my last post, I am going to take a break about fixing the issues caused by WORX Auto Alarm and instead, talk about a mod I made right after I got the car back.

As long time readers know, my car served as the rig for the Tomei Expreme Ti titanium exhaust.  One nice thing about offering my car was, I became one of the first (if not the first period) to have the commercial product installed on my car.

The exhaust is a masterpiece. And, if I owned my car out in the countryside with the closest neighbor a good kilometer or so away, it would cause no problems.

Unfortunately I live in a Yokohama suburb where I have neighbors to my left, right and across the (Japanese sized narrow) street. This means that every time I start up my GT-R, people notice. It also means that, if the Tomei is unbaffled, the noise is loud enough to wake the neighbors in the early morning or at night.

Clearly, I needed a solution, fast.  Initially, I simply used the bung that came with the Tomei. That, along with the Blitz E-ESC electronic exhaust valve, worked for awhile, until that eventful trip to WORX where somehow that bung came loose and was lost somewhere in Chiba.

So when I got the car back, I managed to park the car with the Blitz valve fully closed, but herein lies the problem. First, the valve is designed to close only when the engine is warmed up. That means that normally, starting from cold results in huge noise (ok, music :).  Second, I have to remember to manually close the valve to override the initial programming, which is probably not good for the engine.  In other words, a bung should be used, with the Blitz valve being a back up when ultra-silent running is needed.  While I could simply re-order the Tomei bung, I recalled a conversation with the guys at Nissan Prince Tokyo Motorsports about a superior product that was available from a third party.

A bit of research and I found this guy. Mr. Suganuma and his company, "SFC" (Suganuma Future Creation) - dumb sounding name, but very nice products, mostly all exhaust related.  I was interested in his "inner silencer" products like this one.



They come in different diameters to fit different aftermarket exhaust tips, and two color choices - the silver as above or anodized black. What's nice is that you can order the component parts separately, so if you lose a part or a part (like the muffling part) gets burnt/worn out, you can bring it back to "like new" condition quickly and inexpensively.

So I placed an order for a black anodized one in 112mm size (product number 117BK), and a few days later...

Cute, I guess? 

 So I unpacked it right away and found a thin steel tube covered by what appeared to be a thick fiberglass or similar sound baffling material. Presumably heat proof too.

The packing material is covered by silver colored paper (to protect during shipping I guess)

Of course, me being me, I have to clean out the inside of the exhaust tip before installing.

As you can see, it's a bit of a snug fit.

But of course, like most things Japanese, quality engineering means it fits perfectly!

Comes with these bits.

And the result? AWESOME! The car still sounds superb, but it's like everything was taken down 30-40%.  Yes of course for track days and Hakone touge runs I will remove, but for around town this is simply perfect.  In fact, it's so good I find myself not using the Blitz E-ESC, and I may end up removing it... we will see...

Ok next post will also be about a non-WORX issue, something I've been tinkering with for the past few years actually... stay tuned!

First Post for 2015: Sound Clip of the Blitz E-ESC

First, Happy New Year Everyone! 2015 will be a good year for mods, I have lots planned so whether I have the time to do stuff will be the main problem! 

Second, I had gotten some requests for a video/sound clip of the Blitz E-ESC electronic exhaust valve in action.  Unfortunately it may be a bit hard to tell the difference due to the limited sound recording capabilities of my iPhone, but I think you can somewhat tell the difference. Incidentally, it seems MUCH more quiet from INSIDE the car, but that's probably because one gets used to the drone of the Tomei exhaust at engine speeds above 1200 (so basically all the time) and then all of a sudden when the car is at a light and the revs drop to 1000... silence (ok so it's relative but heck the wife was surprised...)

You will see from the video that what Ninomiya-san (who installed the E-ESC) told me is correct - basically there is no difference in sound from about 20% open all the way to 100%. There is a drastic difference however once the valve closes to 15% or less... here in the video you can hear, when the valve is open at only 5%, the engine sounds that remain at idle, and additionally you can also see that the exhaust smoke (it was really cold outside when I shot the video) diminishes as well.

Enjoy!

Mini Aero Project - OK So That Didn't Work... What Was I Thinking?

So in my quest to modernize the car, in addition to mechanical and electrical items, I stumbled upon this:

Courtesy: http://parisworkingforart.wordpress.com/2010/06/06/lexus-lfa/

This is the driver side rear view mirror from the Lexus LFA - note it has the horizontal strakes built in, presumably to better manage airflow going around the car.  So I began to wonder if there might not be an easy to way to replicate this on one's existing mirror?

I found this:

From the manufacturer's description, this appears to be just what I was looking for!

Apparently, with the strategic application of these double stick tape rubber pieces, you can straighten out the flow of air around your car, and in the process, reduce wind noise!

For less than US$8.50 (JPY 830), this was too good not to try.

So while June is rainy season in Japan, on a sunny day I broke out the can of KR4 spray paint (which I still have left over from the fluidic nozzle mod) and spray painted the two pieces for the mirror in the hopes that they would blend in fairly decently.

Then on a trip to Chiba prefecture just today (to implement Step 1 of my long awaited audio upgrade... stay tuned, pun intended) I had the opportunity to try these pieces out.  Mounting was as simple of finding a place to put them, peeling off the double stick tape, and sticking them on:

On the B Pillar

This was the only place this piece would stick on the door sail

You can see the knob sticking out off the bottom of the mirror

And then it was a matter of driving to see what the difference was.

The verdict?

Uh... well... I could NOT tell the difference - not because these don't work - maybe they do - but because the road noise and engine noise coming in from the firewall area, plus the sound of the exhaust, basically made it too loud for me to hear any wind noise. For my audio upgrade, while I did lay down sound deadening as well as undercoating looks like I will have to do the firewall...

I even drove (a bit ?? lol) over the speed limit, in the hopes that at really fast speed wind noise would be more apparent - but no difference.  The only thing I DID notice, however, was that my BNR34 rear diffuser was working quite nicely - sending up a rooster tail of water at speed (it was raining quite hard by the time I was driving back home today).

Thankfully, again this aero mod cost me less than 850 yen to try.... maybe I can find a Prius to try it out on...

Sacrilege??

Over a year ago, when I embarked on the sound deadening project I had bought several spray cans of this:

Looking at reviews online in Japan, this product (the "Beat-Sonic Noise Reducer") was generally acknowledged as the best, not only in sound dampening ability, but also as a general undercoating (to prevent rust) in cars.

Luckily, as they don’t use salt on the roads in the winter, and also because I frequently wash my car, there are very, very few spots of rust on my car.  The few spots that I have spotted were surface rust on the car when I first bought it (mostly easily removed), and I haven’t seen any new spots since.  So really, there really is no need to apply an undercoating, so long as the car is in Japan and relatively well maintained.

Here is the worst of the rust.

I was hesitant to spray this on for a few reasons – one obviously is weight, but the other was, would this material be removable in case there was a spot of rust that got out of hand and that panel had to be repaired?  Again, is it really necessary for me to do so?  Sacrilege to unnecessarily paint my car??

In any case, I thought I reached a happy compromise by deciding that I was going to spray ONLY on the inside of the fenderwells, behind the wheels, where I suspect most of the road noise was getting through (because the floor had been lined with the sound deadening material already, on the inside) AND because I planned to spray the stuff ONLY on the plastic fender liners.

So, I jacked up the car, took the wheels off, then liberally sprayed on some Simple Green to break down any dirt there.

And yes, I also took the opportunity to clean the wheels, especially on the insides where there was some brake dust.

Hard to clean as those calipers leave only a few millimeters of space

Oh, and yes, what a great opportunity to clean the R35 brembo calipers!

This dirt had been bothering me for a long , long time...

Ahhhhhh....

I then used my trusty Vapamore steam machine to REALLY get things clean.

Before:

After (and after I started wrapping with newspaper):

I then covered up all the important components with newspaper, and began to spray on the undercoating.  But then realized that, I might as well go for the metal too (which, I believe, already has a CLEAR looking (but now yellowish) factory undercoat in some places)

So here is how it looked after spraying on the undercoating.  In addition to rust protection and sound deadening, I realized then of another advantage – of making the inside of the wheelwells look dark, thus enhancing how the wheels look.

And the result? Nice and CLEAN and BLACK....lol.  Oh, and also as the pitted plastic liners are now covered with the deadening, hopefully they will be easy to keep clean now.

As to whether the coating had an effect on road noise, in my judgment, "yes" but only slightly. Then again with the Tomei Expreme exhaust uncorked, it was a bit hard to "hear" the difference over the exhaust note, but during the Izu Skyline run, it just seemed that under some circumstances, the car DID seem to have a bit less road noise...

The background is all black....