mynameisdaniel

Thanks guys - looks like I'll have to do some careful measuring as no one seems to have info on factory clearances... I will also be allowing room for rod stretch. As Dale said, carbon build up won't be an issue with E85 or the amount of use it gets.

RB25 with Thinner MLS Headgasket (0.76mm) I've done a lot of searching but haven't found anyone who has tried this before (possibly for a good reason?). My R33 is a track car and I'm rebuilding my RB25DET after cracking a piston ringland, I was running E17 but will be going E85 for the extra safety that offers. For the time being I will be continuing to use standard pistons (with a hone and new rings). I'm considering ARP head studs as I'm getting sick of buying single use OEM bolts (this is the third time the head has come off now) and I'm looking at a MLS head gasket for the same reason. My calculations seem to indicate that going from the stock head gasket (1.1mm compressed) to a 30 thou head gasket (0.76mm) will raise my compression ration to 9.3 which would be a nice bump with E85 use (standard turbo, with plans to go highflow later on). Has anyone attempted this before (or shaved the block for the same effect)? My main concern is the effects this will have on the quench area, I'm using standard cams so valve clearance should be okay.

I want to get the flex fuel running right as the car is at the moment with the stock injectors - even if this means only running up to 30% ethanol before the duty cycle gets too high. The next stage (hopefully mid next year) will be injectors and Z32 AFM with the stock turbo basically to see what that's capable of on E85 and perhaps pushing it to the 'safe' limits with the cooler E85 EGTs to see what happens. All in preparation for a high flow turbo on E85 which is looking like the best option at the moment. As far as suspension mods go I still feel some money needs to be spent on maintenance - replacing/upgrading bushings and perhaps replacing a few arms that are a bit smashed up from when the car was stupidly low. Beyond that MCA coilovers when I feel the suspension begins to become the bottle neck - which isn't the case as the car sits now. Outright plan is circuit days, hillclimbs, motorkhana and gymkhana. Basically everything apart from drifting and rallying. With the intentions of continually improving lap times and having a reliable car that I can fill up with petrol and take out for the day. At the moment it's me holding the lap times back - more track time is needed to get used to the car and its limits and set a solid bench mark to start improving on. Cheers! Hopefully that's the case from this point on!

I thought I'd start a thread seeing as this car will hopefully be seeing a lot more track time over the next year. Here's the story so far... After looking at a few R33s as possible candidates for a dedicated track car that would be cheaper to run and repair than my Subaru I finally came across this one. It had everything I hate in a car: -Fibreglass body kit -Cheap tail lights -Resprayed -Dangerously low -Cheap after market wheels -Even cheaper tyres -Stupidly loud cannon muffler But the price was right and overall it was a fairly clean base to start with. As well having a few goodies such as a GReddy FMIC and Nistune ECU. The day after I bought the car I found some standard (read 20 years old) suspension to get the car off of the bump stops so it would actually get up my notoriously steep driveway. Having no service history for the car I got to work doing the full 100k service as well as well as cleaning out everything basically. I got a bit carried away taking things apart and cleaning them... While stuff was apart, might as well paint it right? So I now felt safe taking the car out for a spin without fear of it killing me. Well, besides the fact it's my first RWD car and had some truly horrible tyres on it with a tune and boost control combination that seemed intent on hitting boost as violently as possible. Off to a Motorkhana I went - where I learnt why these things are referred to as boats. Overall the car went fairly well, I certainly learnt a lot about handling the car. It was a little hot so I didn't think much of coolant bubbling a bit in the overflow (more on this later). My hate for cheap wheels was further strengthened by how well these wheels held up without me hitting anything and no visible signs of impact from the previous owner. So the car was out of action while I sourced some new wheels and tyres. I found some GTR wheels and semi slick R compound tyres cheap to get the car back on the track as well as an assortment of other wheels for various purposes. Time to take on Collingrove Hillclimb. A few runs into the day, my AC belt decides to do its own thing - taking out the brilliantly placed CAS sensor wiring with it. With some help we were able dodgy up a temporary fix so I could drive the car home. Some R33 GTR front Brembo calipers came up cheap and with me already planning on running GTR rotors with adapters I put them on with some HEL braided brake lines. The car was now all ready to go out to Mallala. So I loaded it up and made it about 1km before one of those stupid worm drive hose clamps that someone has used on every single pipe on this car let go. Easy fix, but still a nuisance. The day went well - again it was hot - so I didn't think too much of the coolant being pushed out of the overflow bottle as I still had the original radiator in the car with no idea on its history. Not long after I had another day planned at Collingrove. After replacing the radiator with a new Koyo (OEM size) unit the day before I was up late at night trying to bleed the damn thing. Air just kept coming out until I finally concluded my head gasket was blown. I suspect this happened before I purchased the car, chemiweld or something had been used to patch it up and my thorough cleaning of the cooling system (for the second time) before installing the new radiator had finally dislodged the 'fix'. So the head was removed and I ordered something like 120 OEM Nissan parts including a VRS kit and various bolts and screws to freshen everything up while it was all apart. They took a while to get to me so the car was again off the road for quite some time. I had the head disassembled, cleaned, faced, reassembled (with new seals) and leak tested. Can you tell which cylinder was drinking coolant? Naturally, while everything was apart - it all got cleaned and painted. As well as installing some other bits and pieces - Blitz ID3 EBC (replacing a bleed valve), front bilstein struts with whiteline springs, catch can, 3" split dump pipe, wideband O2 sensor and an Evo 7 recaro to match my Evo 7 wheels. The car was back together. Running beautifully. This happened on a Friday. I spent all weekend driving the car in the heat without a single problem - feeling confident it will be ready for Mallala on Monday. Monday comes, I make it through a few sessions. And... My clutch decides it no longer wants to transmit any power whatsoever to the gearbox. I really shouldn't have been surprised by this point. So we trailer the car home and take the gearbox off. Luckily it was simply the friction material of the 'HD' clutch that seems to have disappeared on one side. So in went a nice new Extreme 6 puck ceramic button clutch. I've started looking into tuning this car as I wasn't happy with how it was running before the clutch went. So in went an RB20 Nistuned ECU with the latest feature pack so I can set up some flex fuel tuning. My Subaru is on E85 and it loves it! I had it tuned by Jaustech on an E17 mix so I have a solid starting point for my tweaks with an ethanol sensor input as well as other goodies like launch control. So a few weeks ago was another day at Collingrove. In the good part of a year. This was the first day where the car drove well, nothing broke and I left after having a fantastic day all round. I was using up some old tyres on the rear so my times were hilariously slow but that just added to the enjoyment. And that's where I'm at now. Another day at Mallala planned for a few weeks. Surely I'm running out of things to break?

Nah go for it! The RPM signal is just a minor part of my project so I have plenty to keep me busy. If it's different to my approach I'll try it anyway and compare methods

Just looked into the calibration some more and it can be redone so I'll give that a shot and see how it goes. Failing that, is there some way of knowing for sure when the car is in closed loop or not?

The LC-2 doesn't have any air calibration like the LC-1 did. It supposedly does it itself when you first power it. I thought it was the problem initially myself but the fact it reads 14.7 with higher revs and then maxes out on deceleration (no fuel) have me thinking it isn't. Plus the car is definitely running rich based on exhaust smell/residue on bar (car has a cat still). The sensor is brand new, 30 minutes of use and correctly positioned.

In the process of getting my car running 100% before starting to tune/track it. The head gasket has just been replaced with everything cleaned out very well. Car is an R33 GTS-T Series 2 manual with the standard ECU plugged back in (also have Z32 and RB20 Nistuned ECUs for it). Has full 3/3.5" exhaust, FMIC, fuel pump with everything else standard (including fuel rail, injectors and FPR). Base timing set to 15 degrees correctly and I have it idling at 800rpm in base timing mode (ConZult). I've installed a wideband (LC-2) and have been monitoring AFRs and have found after startup while warming it has an AFR of about 5. When the car is well and truly up to temp the AFR sits on about 7 varying slightly but no higher than 8.0. When I hit the throttle revving to 2.5/3k it approaches closer to 14.7. I assume the car shouldn't be idling this rich? But I'm not sure what is causing it - the standard O2 sensor could be dead but would the ECU have enough correction to run it this rich based on O2 feedback?

Thanks all! Will be giving it a crack over the next week. I'll update this thread with my results

Cheers, I had a dig through the service manual and the RB25DET output is shown as a rising edge 5V signal so I'll give it a shot. The signal seems to have a 25ms gap at 1k rpm and a 9ms gap between rises at 2.5k rpm so I'm not sure how well the arduino will pick it up at that speed but we'll see...

Cheers. It is - I mainly needed to know if it was 5V or not. Otherwise I need voltage reducers so I don't kill the Arduino

I've read a lot of contradicting information about the format of the RPM signal from the R33 ECU etc. I'm looking to build an Arduino project and I need to know the electronic format of the signal from pin #7 on the ECU. Is it a rising/falling 5/12V square signal? To complicate things further I'm using the standard ECU and also an RB20 Nistuned ECU (I also have a Z32 one handy). All work fine with the tacho so I'm hoping they all output in an identical fashion. If anyone can assist that'd be fantastic - or even if you can point me in the direction of someone who will know for sure.

The ethanol content is the same, the difference is the 15% petrol used is now premium 98 octane petrol over the lower grade they used to use. Raising the octane rating from 105 to 107. Theoretically even more knock resistance which is a bit redundant on E85

Thanks. I saw the 40mm ones fit well but they're significantly more expensive as far as I can find and my understanding is standard length EV14s (48mm) will just squeeze under the intake manifold with the right rail. Cheers for the tip on the FPR! That'll save some money as I won't need to run more than the standard pressure anyway. Cheers. If I can confirm this will fit under the standard plenum with 3/4 length injectors (and obviously shortened spacers) I'll send you a PM.