dcreech0

Hello all. Sorry to the really delayed response. Hectic life and have been out of town. I have quite a few updates that I have done to the car that this thread does not reflect. I also have quite a few updates planned in the next couple weeks. I did bring the car to the first day of the import alliance meet in Atlanta if anyone had a chance to see it. So some new things on the car since I last posted include some brand new shoes. I decided to go with a genuine set of BBS wheels to keep the European look going on the outside. The are all 18x9.5. It is in dire need of a Full alignment to adjust the camber. I'm aware. The second thing I should note would be I ordered a genuine Vertex hells racing steering wheel from Vertex Japan, and it took around 4 months to get made and get here. I'm very happy with it, but am having trouble getting the horn button to fit and work with the nrg quick release. Third thing I have attempted to install are the carbon fiber side skirt extensions that were provided by DTM Fiberworks. I have installed one side and am waiting for some more time to install the drivers side. I will try and post pictures of it the best I can. Last but not least I did install a short shifter from enjuku and a Tomei shift knob. Next week I plan on spending some time to install a coolant swirl pot to help keep those coolant temps down a little more. And I also have ordered a new turbo exhaust housing that is a little bit smaller A/R size to help with turbo lag. The lag is something that is really killing me. You can tell in the videos it takes a while to get to boost but when it does it pulls soooo hard. This turbo was meant for top end. Will post an update when done. Sooo here I leave you with some current pictures I took of the car today after I washed it. I realized I never posted many interior pictures. The leather Vader seats are very nice for their age. I also took a couple videos s1208 [YT]pzFWCRkALXY[/YT] [YT]9SJ94s69dfg[/YT] [YT]rYMWH8LZ7UM[/YT]

The moment of truth you all. I got some time on the dyno this morning and ironed out the initial tune on the car. It made right at 600whp due to being limited at fuel. I am very excited to pick the car up.... I am trying to figure out a way to upload a video that Dynosty posted to their facebook page

One more update I got from Dynosty as of this morning.....

Sooo pumped!!!!!

So the long block has been completed minus the oil pan and manifolds. Man does this thing make me wanna drool.......

Got a quick picture from Dynosty yesterday of the completed short block. And also decided to pick up a set of Tomei Cam gears as well since the whole thing is apart.... I dont know if I will be able to force myself to put the front cover back on now

Thanks for all the kind words everyone!!!! Thumbs up. I have used this site quite a bit on my build and some purchases. Its a shame you all are so far away. This engine is anything but familiar to people in this part of the world. I hope my journey is all down hill from here and hope to have it on the road (street legal.... kind of). here is a picture just because with my new years beverage...... just turned midnight here

Ok guys...... Sorry this thread has not been updated in such a long time. Long story short, they car is still at Dynosty in pieces. #HATEMYLIFE. Here goes my long sob story. I would like to state for the record the purpose of this post is not to bash on Raw Brokerage by any means, but just to document my build and share my experience with others. So we last left off with my cylinder head being shipped back to Raw Brokerage to get looked over to find out what exactly happened. While at Raw Brokerage Ricky and company turned my Cylinder head around very quickly and I was grateful for that. While it was back apart we went ahead and has some Brian Crower Valve Springs installed along with some Brian Crower bronze valve guides for good measure. After about 3-4 weeks time, a box ended back up on the door step of Dynosty. Raw Brokerage even sent a brand new Tomei headgasket back with the second attempt on the Cylinder head. Needless to say I was feeling pretty good about this time around..... The RB tech at Dynosty made sure all deck surfaces were clean enough to eat off of, and torqued down the RAW Brokerage pre-assembled cylinder head to factory spec....... Ready for the kicker on this story?...... I get a call from Dynosty the day i knew they were going to start it again. I knew this couldn't be good..:picardfp: The crew at Dynosty advised that the initial start up went much better than before and the valve lash sounded to be in spec compared to the prior attempt..... They left it to idle on the dyno so that it could get up to operating temp. They said within 5 minutes of idle the whole shop echoed with a loud screech that made everyone stop what there were doing. I was advised that following the noise the motor locked up.... SMH SMH FML!!!!!!!!!!!! They had me drive up to look at the carnage for myself. They pulled the exhaust side rocker cover and found that the mechanical timing was off by 3 or so teeth and found the following under the rocker cover...... They found metal shavings all around a lifter bucket. Brock the RB tech advised that they believe that a lifter bucket tolerance was not in spec and was too tight. So when the motor started to warm up it caused interference. They actually came to the conclusion the head at this point was trash due to the damage in the casting around the lifter buckets. I had them to go ahead and disassemble further to asses the destruction and found the following.... :facepalm: So here I was feeling like I had been bent over as I was out a Cylinder head (not the easiest and cheapest to find a replacement), out a brand new set of $550 Tomei camshafts, and the new headgasket. Not to mention all those metal shavings would have been ingested by the bottom end as well. As much as I hated to do so, I had Dynosty schedule to pull the head yet again, and advised i was going to have them make this problem right as RAW brokerage couldn't seem to get the job done and was just costing me money. Needless to say I was left with this I went ahead and made the call to Raw Brokerage to see how they wanted to proceed in resolving this. Keep in mind the second cylinder head that failed was fully assembled by Raw Brokerage and was just set on the block and torqued to spec by Dynosty. Raw Brokerage asked me how I would like to proceed and came to the conclusion they would source me a brand new OEM casting, one more Tomei headgasket (they wanted the old one back?????), a partial refund on the machine work and assembly of the cylinder head, and asked to shake hands and part ways. I agreed to this knowing I wanted Dynosty to do all the work from here. 2 weeks later the box landed on the steps of dynosty. I was grateful that Ricky was able to source me a brand new OEM casting, due to them being on a backorder currently and may be harder and harder to get. I gave dynosty the go ahead and pull the rest of the motor so that they could go over every bolt and bearing to insure all was correct. I didnt want to take a risk of something else going wrong having this brand new head. Not to mention the track record with the assembly from Raw Brokerage has not had the best track record So here is where I am at to this date..... The motor is totally torn down. T machinist recieved the new cylinder head and the old one to trasfer all usable parts over along with getting a valve job done. I was advised the OEM valance had been cut past spec and could not be used again, so I was force to purchase all new Supertech valves to go with the prior installed Brian Crower goods. Another thing I should note, upon the careful disassembly of the short block, Brock took note that all the pitons rights were clocked incorrectly. ALL SIX pistons had the ring gaps stacked right over top of the ones below it. This would have cause major issues with blow by and compression. Brock advised that there was no way with 10 minutes total of idle time that all six cylinders would have coincidentally aligned that way. Another incorrect assembly point from the original build by Raw Brokerage. Anyway.... The block has been sent to get hot tanked to make sure all metal has been removed. New ACL bearing have been ordered and brand new piston rings are on order as well..... I promise to keep this updated from here forward as i will receive periodic pictures of the third and final build attempt. I feel that every single part at this point has been upgraded and replaced at this point. I have been assured by Dynosty this will be down hill from here and this motor will be able to support 750hp plus. I did decide to also purchase a Fluidampr to be installed upon reassmbly and TOMEI metal intake manifold and exhaust manifold gaskets...:2f2f:

Rb26 cylinder head needed Help..... I am in need of an rb26dett cylinder head. If anyone has a spare they would be willing to part ways with, shoot me a pm.

Ok. This is a sad/frustrating update for me. I have to say I normally don't post things like this, but my frustration with Raw Brokerage is pretty high at the moment. Ricky has been great with trying to resolve some issues, but I keep revealing more and more. The story goes something like this......:drama: I took the car to Hal at Dynosty in Louisville (could speak highly enough about this group) a couple weeks ago to get the initial startup, break in tune and dyno completed. I ended up having to leave the car with them due to some punctuality issues on my end. So later that next day I get a call from the guys at Dynosty and they have some good news and some bad news. They tell me that they got the car turned over, idles well, but the valve train was really noisy. They have a guy with some RB experience and guessed it sounded like valve lash clearance issues. They sent me a video and suggested that I have them pull the cam covers and measure out the clearances. Keep in mind this car has only idled and got up to operating temps two times total before this. There was even still assembly lube in the head when they pulled the covers. I mean we are talking still really fresh from Raw Brokerage's build. After I give the ok to measure out the clearances, they give me a call and a couple emails with what they found. They advised that every one of the lash measured between .019"-.022". They even sent pictures showing that this error on the build did damage to my camshafts and lifter buckets. Will attach pictures. Nothing that was detrimental by any means, but still frustrating to drop a huge coin on a build to only have these issues. After finding this, the guys at Dynosty suggested the whole head needed to be removed and gone through again just to make sure everything else was kosher. Not to mention took the opportunity to order a fresh set of Tomei poncams from Japan. This is where we contacted Ricky at Raw Brokerage. Great guy and was more than willing to try and figure out the issue. Raw Brokerage wants the head shipped back to them down in Florida to go over. Understandable, but geez. Now Dynosty has to get paid to remove and reinstall the cylinder head. Not to mention the headgasket and other associated cylinder head gasket would need to be replaced. Dynosty officially removed the Cylinder head this morning to prepare for shipment and found a couple more issues. First being the headgasket. This was supposed to be a brand new Tomei gasket. Clearly it was already failing after two short idle periods on the motor. The second issue being small scratches found in cylinder wall number one from the oil control ring. Again nothing that would cause the motor to crash and burn, but still unacceptable when dropping such large coin on a fresh build top to bottom. Bottom line frustrated and a major set back.

All the speedhut gauges came with their own sensors. So each sensor is stand alone. All except the wideband, and that is ran through the haltech.

Ok you all. I have slowly been making progress with the car. This weekend I attempted to battle all of the gauges in the car to include the Haltech wideband, the Defi boost gauge, and the speedhut oil pressure, water temp, and oil temp gauges. For the three speedhut gauges, I decided to purchase a BMW radio delete panel and cur three 52mm holes. The boost gauge and the wideband, I picked up a gauge pod from a place called rally road productions. Here are a couple pictures. Sorry the Defi is blurry in the picture, it is really bright. Lol. I have also been spending a ton of time wiring the whole damn project. Not much to show for it, but sure does take lots of time. Lol. 95 degree temps don't help either. Last bit of the puzzle I have yet to solve is the throttle cable.....

I hear ya. I am going to be a little cautious of that off the bat. I have a nice plump turbo blanket going over the hot side that picture doesn't show. I also may but a couple bits of gold reflective tape on the can as well.

Snapped a couple more quick pictures for you all tonight to explain some things I was trying to discuss earlier. Sorry for the crappy pictures. Did the best I could do with my cell phone at 11:30 at night. Here is a quick picture of where I am wanting the catch can to be placed at home. This picture doesn't show it bolted down, but close to where I want it. Bigger barb obviously will go to valve cover breather, and smaller barb will go to the vacuum source on turbo intake. Here is a quick picture showing the Haltech IAT sensor I installed. I had to tap and retread the OEM location to fit this better sensor. We all know the Nissan ones are junk basically the same sensor as the water temp sensor. The picture also shows where I installed the water temp sensor on the water outlet. This will send to my aftermarket gauge in the cabin. And last but not least, a quick couple pictures that show my space delimma I am having with the radiator fans and my belt drive system. The picture shows my 12 inch spal installed on the passenger side of the radiator. It's a tight squeeze, but works.

Sorry everyone for the sparce updates here as of late. I have been overwhelmed with trying to move into this new house. I have spent some time with the car though. Nothing too impressive to post pictures on. I have been working with the wiring specalties harness and the haltech wideband wiring. I will be sure to post pictures of finished products for sure. I did get a couple goodies in the mail as well to include a custom Saikou Michi catch can. These things are legit, and are commonly used in the lotus community. I had mr. Michi make a custom one for me to use in my situation. Also requested it be powder coated white. I decided to use a closed loop system so that the system will still have vacuum unlike an atmosphere setup. More pictures of it installed shortly. I also spent a little time working on fans. I ordered a total of 2 12" spal fans that flow 1200cfm each. Come to find out, it's a very tight fit. One of these will work on the passenger side of the radiator, but in no way will fit on the drivers side with power steering. My plan as of now is to use the one 12" fan as a primary cooking source powered by the haltech and then install a smaller 9 inch fan on the other side as a secondary also run by the haltech. Smaller one will kick on if water temps get to high. Anyway...... More later. CHEERS!

I have some spare reflective gold tape laying around I may use to wrap the reservoir. Hopefully that combines with the heat wrap and turbo blanket should work.

The car got to come back home to its new home today. Still moving into the new house, and the garage was quite empty without the car. Just a couple new pictures for you all.

Exhaust got finished and buttoned up tonight and I am pretty pumped. I will let the pictures speak for themselves. We did decide to use an oval tip on the rear to avoid giving the car a huge cannon exhaust look.

Good evening all. Very exciting day for me. Spent all day at work bored as hell, and the. Got to come home to my new house and install an over the range microwave. Finally got time to sit down and open a package I got today. It made me very happy to say the least. These puppy's are on a 2 month back order at the moment. Will get the car back this Saturday and get to wire it all in.

ETA will be this Saturday June 4th. My fab guy will be crossing his t's and dotting his I's and hope to get my car loaded up and back home Saturday. He did snap a couple quick pictures of his progress on the tail end of the exhaust.

Went by the Fab shop this morning to bring some exhaust wrap to throw on the downpipe before we bolted it in for good. He hopes to finish the exhaust this afternoon, but I snapped a few pictures while I was there.... A better shot of the Charge pipes from underneath And a good underneath shot of how the wastegate will be placed

Just a small update. Stopped by the Haltech location close to me (My fab guy actually is an employee there) to talk about my build and ended up paying them a ton of money..... :ugh: Keep in mind my actual ECU from Haltech is still in transit from Australia. I ended up picking up the WBC1 kit while I was there along with the display gauge that apparently is a newer release. They also convinced me to go ahead and get a boost control solenoid and a good IAT sensor since I will convert to MAP on the tune..... Anyway, just a quick shot.

Ok, got another update from my fab guy today. he was able to get the majority of the downpipe finished up. The piece really had to snake quite a bit to get around everything on its way down to the ground. Quite a few hours went into this piece. Once under the car, we still had some concerns on ground clearance using 3.5 pipe. Especially going under the transmission crossmember. Andrew, my fab guy suggested we use a small transition to an oval stainless steel portion go travel under said crossmember. I think the piece cam out great, and looks really good in person. The last picture makes the outlet of the downpipe look a little off center, but its just an illusion. The heat shield above the pipe is not secured and is a little offcenter causing this...... anyway.... :2f2f:

Just a small update. I know I posted already today, but just got an update from my fabrication guy. He was able to totally finish up the charge pipes. He sent me some pictures of the lower portion of them that attach to the intercooler. Just thought I would share. And an update on the downpipe.

Ok guys, Just a small update with the car in the shop still getting some fabrication work done. While the car has been at the shop I have decided to consider some heat management around the turbo and the manifold. I picked up a PTP turbo blanket, DEI fire sleeve for the turbo oil feed, A fire sleeve from Heatshield Products to protect the -10an turbo drain, some DEI titanium wrap for the down pipe, and some DEI gold tape that I plan on placing on the turbo intake and the cold side of the charge pipes. I also have picked up some Aluminum sheath from DEI that has yet to come in, for the protection on the fuel lines. I wont bore you all with much pictures on this post. Most of the charge pipes were completed today. It is straight 3" aluminum from the turbo to the opening of the inlet manifold. I This the placement of the Tial BOV is ideal as close to the Throttle bodies as I could get. The one in the picture was just used for mock up. It was a spare the shop had laying. Mine will be in black. On a side note, I hope to pick up my Haltech ECU this next week...... Cheers until next time....:2f2f: