May 5 Track Day at Fuji Speedway with SSCT

Well, it rained... hard. So did not get to try out the BFG R1s. Oh well, next time.

My friends Thomas and Alex joined me. Both were in the car during the warm up laps, and Alex took photos (see below) and video:


He then got video of me on my first lap, immediately before my engine suddenly lost power and stalled on the main straight, forcing me to sit out the entire rest of the track session on the grass aligning the main straight.


Luckily for me, after getting towed back (backwards) to the pits (I forgot my tow hook...again!), and with the help of everyone around - thanks SSCT guys - got the car into the covered pit area. The verdict was NOT a blown engine, but only a dislodged Intercooler hose... which the Nissan (ex-race) mechanics fixed for me in about 30 minutes. They took off the left wheel, the undercover, the inner lining, and got in there!
(and yes, it looks like there might be some rust issues in there...yikes!)


Here I am being silly, while the Nissan mechanics do their stuff!


I drove back home in convoy with Thomas and Alex - thanks again guys! - gingerly, I guess... and thinking about which hard piping kit to install at the earliest opportunity...

PS Here is a photo of the engine with its new "cold air intake" system. Note the rivets, it's a new and improved version of the one I had in before...has walls and the lip is longer, reaching to the bottom of the grill. Didn't seem to cause any problems on the track, although I wonder if somehow the increased air intake contributed to the hose coming off.



Next time, I hope Thomas and Alex can join me on the track!

S-Tires (Semi-slicks) and brake cooling

Check out these new BF Goodrich g-force R1s!
Will be mounting on my repainted rims, and then running with N2 at Fuji on the 5th.


Also, got this brake duct cooling, ordered from the US.
Trying to figure out, at the moment, the best way to mount this

yeah that's dirt on the under diffuser!

So it somewhat aims at the caliper...

Breathing Better

Some people remove the stock airbox and install the so-called "mushroom" type pod filters in an effort to get more air into the engine. The added intake sound is cool too... but is this the best solution to getting more air into the RB26?

Nismo Z-tune...uses the stock airbox - albeit with a special carbon fiber air scoop built into the hood directing air into the airbox - not like the standard "snorkel" which standard cars have. But other Nismo tuned cars (recently anyway - the 400R apparently came with dry pod filters) use the standard airbox, although with a high performance Nismo air filter. Mine's too - uses the standard airbox, although with their oiled "wet"-type air filter.

So - what do these tuners keep doing this? I think that, besides the reassurance that the filtering capacity is maintained (as various reports say the pods may not filter as well as they should, depending on who makes the pod filter), cold air might be the reason why.

Cold air, being denser than warm air, contains more oxygen, and therefore the potential to unleash more energy than warm air. Pod filters do all their sucking of air from air trapped in the engine bay (unless you have a vented hood - see the 400R), which suggests that this might be their main drawback.

So, there is an argument for cold air. What about any kind of "ram-air" effect? I'm still doing my research, but apparently turbo engines don't benefit from this, as the turbines suck in the air they need. However, it would seem that creating positive pressure in the intake system would allow the turbos to kick in that much earlier, if they don't have to overcome any negative pressure in the system.

So - I have the standard airbox. But when you look at the system closely, most of the air being sucked in through the airbox comes from the underside of the leading edge of the hood.

This means that I need to increase the flow of air into this area. Short of building a tube that funnels air into the box directly (like the R34 Z-tune), the best I can do is to get more air into the general area.

Two ideas come to mind: the "hood top molding" option that Nissan offered, and a modification to a radiator gril panel. The hood top molding is a slim piece of plastic that is attached to the leading edge of the hood, creating an area of positive pressure, which forces more air under the hood (otherwise these kinds of areas have negative air pressure - the leading edge is too slim, and the air gets split).

My idea is to take a cheap aluminum radiator panel, and cut a flap, bend the flap down and have air coming through the grill (where the GTR emblem is) be funneled up into the snorkel area.

Photos:

You can see the lines where we cut in the alum radiator panel, first line here.

Two lines as so

My friend Thomas at work using the saw

So finished - we reattached, bent the flap down, and then used
foam cushion to prevent air from leaking out

slightly better angle

You can somewhat see the snorkel we created.

And the result? Definitely not placebo, the engine DOES respond better. Always having air coming in means less or no hesitation when I step on the gas. Of course don't know if the car makes more power, but definitely more responsive.

Repainting My Track Wheels

With the help of my friend Thomas (who has obviously been very kindly sponsoring me onto Camp Zama, where the Auto Shop is...) I have been working on repainting my track wheels. Also, we took the opportunity today to do a little mod to improve the air flow into the engine (see next post).

A little history. A few years ago, I bought the four wheel set - standard R33 GT-R alloy rims - off of Yahoo Auctions. Looked pretty good from the photos, but when I got them, well let's just say that the seller overestimated his painting skills. But no matter, they were my track wheels, so I really didn't care how they looked. But as they got dirtier and dirtier, it occured to me that I could probably do a better job painting (based on the excellent result from painting my front lip spoiler).

So, two weekends ago, we took the tires off two rims, and proceded to prep them.


We decided to sandblast, sandpaper and use a grinding wheel on one. After a few hours, we realized that 1) the sandblaster was working, but very slowly - too slowly, 2) the sandpaper was also inefficient, and 3) the grinding wheel caused too much damage.

Sandblaster


Grinding wheel


Then someone more experienced at the shop told us we should try using paint remover. Which we did, last weekend. While Thomas was indexing my plugs - see previous post - I managed to finish the two wheels. We also removed the tires from the other two rims.

Here is the prep:


Here's how they look when the paint remover begins working - see the bubbling?



After all the paint was removed, the wheel was sandblasted again, and then set on the "paint stand."



Almost forgot to tape up the valve stem.


And so here goes the first layer of paint - heat resistant black! (up to 600 degrees C - recall last time at Fuji Short Course the paint on my calipers melted?)









Stay tuned to see how well they turn out...finished removing the paint from the other two wheels, so they will be prepped and painted during my next visit. I wonder if I should put some red/orange/green pinstriping on the wheels? Just kidding.

Indexing Spark Plugs

I didn't really believe it, but it really works!

Don't have any good photos, but indexing works. Indexing is the concept of arranging the spark plugs to face the same direction - usually with the electrode gap facing towards the intake valves, or the exhaust valves. Although I was skeptical, I went ahead and ordered a copper washer kit designed specifically for this purpose, and gave it to my friend Thomas to try out on his engine (R33 GT-R as well), last week. He immediately reported pretty good results - but I remained skeptical.

So, while I prepped two of my alloy wheels for painting (see next post) Thomas indexed the plugs in my engine.





And guess what - just like he said, the engine DOES run better - a bit. A little bit smoother, a little more responsive - at idle, definitely smoother and the exhaust sounds a bit better. And on the road, the engine responds a bit more aggressively - making the car easier to drive on the road.

I posted my results onto the GTR forum, but no one seems to care. It's either the placebo effect for BOTH of us, or too subtle for most people. But any little bit, adds up, and the cumulative effect is well worth it!

Titanium Brake Shims

So another day at the Auto Shop at Zama. Today, decided to install the titanium brake pads that I got from the U.S. Made by a company called TiSpeed



The theory is - titanium is much worse at conducting heat than steel, so having titanium shims in between the brake pads - which get hot during braking - and the pistons means reduced heat transferred from brake rotor to pads to the rest of brake assembly and eventually to the drive boots.

As you may recall, last track day my brake use on the Fuji short course resulted in melted paint on the front calipers. There was slight fade at the end of the day too, signaling how hot the brakes got.

So, did some research - need to somehow block the heat, and provide ventilation and cooling. Already have the Nismo wind deflectors to the brakes, but I will be ordering air cooling hosing to supplement and ensure adequate cooling as well.

But first, titanium shims. Before installation - here is what the titanium shims look like:




Process to install is relatively straightforward. Remove wheels, take off clip holding brake pads in, unbolt the guide pins, squeeze down on pads to retract the pistons, remove pads, then reinsert with titanium shims. Bolt everything up, then make sure you pump the brakes before driving away... pedal went to the floor after I pulled out of the bay, luckily grabbed the parking brake to prevent from running into the wall behind me.

Fronts - before:


...and after:


Rears after.


Will report on how good the brakes are after the next track day at Fuji on May 5th. So far in daily traffic use, no real difference - maybe some more squealing, or is that the brake pads?

Thinking (still) about New Wheels

So, as most of my car friends know, I've been thinking about what wheel upgrade I should go for.

The choice of what spec and size I should select has been easy. In order to easily pass shaken, the wheels/tires cannot protude beyond the fenders. For the stock wheels, this is not a problem - in fact, I would say that the wheels are located too much inboard, with lots of fender overhang. Talking with various Nissan technical people (including Tamura-san as well as Honda-san/Koyama-san at NPT Motorsports) the recommended size has been 18 inch diameter, 9.5 inch width, and offset of 10~15 (I think the stock offset is 38mm!). From what Tamura-san told me, the R33 was from the beginning designed for 18inch wheel fitment - however due to cost considerations at the time of release, Nissan stuck with 17inches. I think Koyama-san told me the same thing. So size is a given.

Next would be what manufacturing process. Although forging is expensive, I think it's worth it. There are semi-forging processes out there with high strength and light weight - for example the WedsSport TC105N - but in the end, even the Weds people I talked to at TAS2009 had to admit that a forged wheel was going to be stronger at the racetrack. Plus, the "titanium" color unfortunately did not look as good in person as it did in photos.



Lesson Learned - find an actual example of the wheel and the color before any decision making...

So, forged wheels in 18x9.5 with 10-15 offset is ideal for the RB26 GT-Rs. Not hard to believe, in Japan this is known as the "GT-R size" when shopping for wheels - and this commands a price premium as well. Damn. Well in that case, should get the lightest and strongest forged wheel I can find...which led me, not surprisingly, to Rays Wheels. And of their sport oriented models, 3 choices were readily apparent as the best one for my car. The TE37 (6 wide spokes), CE28N (10 even thin spokes), and the RE30 (14 doubled think spokes). The problem here was not one of price, but in my quest to be different - I didn't want to put on a wheel commonly found on GT-Rs, especially 33s. So from the beginning, I wasn't that interested in the TE37 (or the 5 spoke Nismo LM-GT4s, made by Rays - look good on the Nismo cars/replica cars, but I don't have a replica car...). So this meant, either CE28Ns, known as one of the lightest forged wheels out there, or the RE30. I have seen CE28Ns on other R33s, and looks OK I think.


Then, a few months ago I was at SuperAutobacs Shinonome Bay and saw an R33 with the RE30s, regular silver color (car was silver like mine too, except I think it was the lighter silver). And looked pretty good - especially the lip. So that got me thinking...

Along the way, I was also looking at the Pro-Drive series of wheels - like the GC010G and GC06H (and the new for 2009 GC05K) but these are even more expensive and furthermore, couldn't figure out their weights (for the GT-R size, about 8.3-8.8kgs, I have found/guessed from various sources). These wheels are gorgeous, especially in their "British Black" color - and in fact these wheels are made by Rays.



The CE28Ns in this size are 7.5-7.7kgs, depending on source (for reference, the stock R33 GT-R wheel is 10.6kg). The RE30s, are about 100-200g heavier than the CE28Ns, according to a tuning shop I visited - Cockpit Wako in Wako City, Saitama - http://www.cockpit-wako.com

Also, what was interesting is that the assistant shop manager there - Takeda-san - had told me he felt that the TE37, despite its reputation as the most solid of the 3 Rays wheels (and heaviest) did not feel as rigid in hard driving as the RE30 (I guess that's why the shop's tuning car runs on RE30s...). So - almost as light as the CE28Ns, and more rigid than the TE37s. Appears that my decision has been made, purely on technical grounds!

Ok well then what color? Besides the bronze that Rays offers as above, there is the soon to be disconinuted standard Chrome Silver, and for 2008, there was the limited edition Formula Silver (slightly darker silver) with the rims Diamond Cut (no paint, just polished metal). There are also the special order Rays colors - like gunmetal, black, etc. I wanted the Formula Silver, but was not sure about the DCR (diamond cut rim). Looks cool in the photos, but - one, I had seen reports on Minkara that the contrasting colors made the wheel look small, and also I was concerned about brake dust from the PFC brake pads becoming a real hassle to remove (if they got burnt on, say) - if it was possible at all. What do you think?

As a bonus - check out these two photos. I lined up 2 wheels (Formula Silver, but NO DCR) in front of my car. Unfortunately, a photoshop would have been better, because the tires are hidden, but at least you can get an idea of how the colors (body color and wheel color) look next to each other.

Front

Rear

Well -send me a message or email, what wheel?