OKAY, THIS WILL BE A BIG UPDATEIts been a little while, thought it best to update the thread. I'll try my best to cover everything I remember happening within the last 3 months.
CATCH CAN - PCV DELETE [LATE NOV 2020]As mentioned prior I had purchased 2 baffled and filtered cans for the car which I used for a few weeks before concluding that one of them was doing next to nothing and that I
had stumbled upon an opportunity to conduct some research and simplify the setup further.
I plugged the port on the inlet for the PCV can and got rid of the PCV Valve entirely, and removed the 2-port can originally used for the PCV system. The other can that remained was a 3-port can, with 2 inlets and 1 outlet.
1 Inlet was used to route the sump breather in, whilst the other was used for the hoses cut to equal length replacing the balancer pipe that ran to the head-breathers, and finally
the outlet ran back into the turbo inlet hose.
No issues so far. No signs of excessive crankcase pressure or build-up of oil in the inlet. Good result.
TURBO DIAGNOSIS AND TUNING - [LATE NOV 2020]On the 26th of November the car went over to GIR after around a month of the GCG turbocharger having issues... at least that was suspected to have been the problem at the time.
I also, with the help of Matt (Kido) re-flashed the ECU with the factory tune, allowing Warwick to tune the car from scratch. The car barely drove with the bigger turbo and stock tune
and so for safety sake, I had the car towed to GIR.
- Tune Day.JPG (45.93 KiB) Viewed 3066 times
I had put a .9mm restrictor in the oil feed to the Turbo with hopes that excessive oil pressure was the issue. This unit is Ball-bearing after all, and requires a small fraction of the oil needed to lubricate
journal bearing unit's or other. The plan was to get the car onto the Dyno, tune it, run it under load and hopefully clear any residual oil out of the turbine housing and the exhaust system.
Unfortunately, after tuning, the issue persisted, and so it was time for this Turbocharger to come off in order for me to inspect further and more closely.
The car drove away having made 172kw at the wheels on only 11 pounds of boost... stock boost pressure...
- Tune Day 02.JPG (52.3 KiB) Viewed 3066 times
ALSO, I was now able to hear the Equal Length PSR Header at full song and god I absolutely love it. No more UEL EJ dub-dub noises, just the clean, refined sound of efficiency.
I had also managed to get around to a New Clutch, Group N Engine and Transmission mounts, a brand new Radiator and Radiator hoses and a bunch of other things.
INVESTIGATING OIL ISSUES - [LATE NOV 2020]The turbo had been rebuilt once, and a restrictor went into the feed, but to no avail...
I got back into contact with GCG and was told that I should invest in an oil pressure regulator.... for a turbo supposedly designed to work with the stock configuration in terms of oil feed and return, and cooling. I would have entertained
the idea if I'd known it was a necessity from the beginning. It doesn't even out, stock turbo, no smoke anywhere. .. GTX goes on, smoke under boost...
They so generously offered to supply me with a Turbosmart OPR to solve the problem... a $100 part which would cost me more money to fit that what it was worth, once ofcourse you factor in AN fittings, lines, hose ends etc etc.
When they eventually got back to me they had this to say...
"Our offer to supply a free OPR is total at your discretion to accept or decline, but we would not be paying any further cost, as this is an assistance to your particular issue and not covering any sort of warranty issue...... Our offer is valid until the end of this
week 11/12/2020 and should you decide to take the OPR as a road to a solution then we will send one out, should you decline the offer this is where we part ways."Mind you, I had been in contact since the week after the report was written by GIR confirming the car had been exhibiting unusual behaviour (burning oil and smoking out the exhaust) since the installation of the turbocharger. GCG claimed that they could not return the unit because
they could not prove it was faulty and because it was "used".....
...the difference in odo reading between the turbo going in and the first email I sent to GCG was approximately 80km.... "used" they reckon....
I was trying to be the honest consumer, supplying invoices where needed, keeping regular contact, but these guys did nothing more than make it known all they wanted was to get rid of me... which wasn't going to happen.
TURBO COMES OUT - [EARLY JAN 2021]Here is a photo of the inside of the turbine housing...
- turbine housing.JPG (57.73 KiB) Viewed 3066 times
The up pipe was bone dry.
OPR GOES IN - [EARLY JAN 2021]I was due to go away for the summer and was hoping to take the car with me, however this was looking like it wasn't going to happen.
I continued asking GCG for a refund, and got back onto CMA to ask if they'd be happy to do a swap-over for another unit in their inventory. I was told it was up to GCG first, and so I decided to give the OPR a shot.
An absolute Legend by the name of PJ whom I had heard about through the JZX community, was able to make up a couple of -4AN lines all cut to length, and supply fittings for the OPR. There weren't any speed shops local to me that were open
at the end of December where I could get this stuff, thankfully PJ had previously worked for a few of them out South-East of Melbourne, and came through for me like an absolute champion.
- OPR and fittings.JPG (68.92 KiB) Viewed 3066 times
- lines.JPG (33.75 KiB) Viewed 3066 times
I tapped into the Oil Filler neck
for the OPR return/drain for the time being, purely because if this didn't work/fix my issues with the turbo, I didn't want to have gone through the effort of welding any fittings onto a rocker cover or something more invasive and time consuming.
- oil filler neck.JPG (37.31 KiB) Viewed 3066 times
As fate would have it, the OPR did make a fair difference, but did NOT fix my problems all together. Instead of smoking constantly under load, it would now smoke for 4-5mins of regular driving after taking off, and then none at all... UNTIL the
car came to a stop and was allowed to sit at idle. Once I took off again, it would smoke out the exhaust for another 5 mins before clearing. And on and on and on....
This lead me to conclude that the turbo was in fact not leaking under load, but leaking at idle... As far as my fairly crude knowledge of Turbochargers goes, the faster the turbine spins, the greater aid on the seal of the CHRA. My hypothesis made sense.
I sent out an email just after the new year to Car Mods Australia (whom I had bought the unit from) to give this swap/refund one last try... otherwise I was going to have been $2000 out of pocket with a dodgey turbo.
SUSPENSION // 9K +12K SPRINGS - ALIGNMENT AND ADJUSTING HEIGHT - [MID JAN 2021]I though it best to address other parts of the car in my spare time during time off work, because the car was grounded and I couldn't do anything until coming to a solution with CMA anyway, with regards to the turbo.
- coil disassembled.JPG (52.48 KiB) Viewed 3066 times
- front springs.JPG (50.47 KiB) Viewed 3066 times
I purchased a set of 9K front springs for my Cusco Coilovers after learning quickly that 10K was a little too much... I installed 12K springs out back, and subsequently sacked the car as low as I could get it for a bit of a laugh... and ended up keeping it
that way.
- height adjusted - car lower.JPG (66.63 KiB) Viewed 3066 times
I then took the car to Reid at Hakon Suspension, who gave the car a much needed alignment, and was able to give me a heap of advice on how to set up the car for track if ever that was something I'd be interested in for the future.
- HAKON.JPG (114.27 KiB) Viewed 3066 times
All round awesome service, could not be happier. Definitely recommend! Reid primarily deals with Nissans (GTR's of all gen's in particular) as well as a smattering of other vehicles. Be sure to check them out if you should need his services.
The new spring setup rides incredibly well... and surprisingly the car handles on a dime. Has the correct amount of roll, stiffness and travel, and doesn't understeer anymore... oh and its not back-breakingly stiff either....
Remember all, this is a street car that I want to look good, and handle as well as it could without compromising on too much. I also wanted to go slightly lower without the 9.5" Rays smacking the shit out of the guards on every bump in the road.
It feels like its always ready to boogie, has a great amount of grip and feels awesome.
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