Murray_Calavera

You 100% could do that, would save money on a gym membership lol. But yeah, getting a cordless orbital sander will feel priceless coming from doing it manually. Good luck with it mate

I admire your efforts with the scuff pad. As a mere mortal, I use this for the baulk of my sanding work- https://sydneytools.com.au/product/milwaukee-m18bos125-0-18v-li-ion-cordless-125mm-5-random-orbital-sander-skin-only Yes you can easily create a low spot while sanding. There are 2 types of filler, 1 part of 2 part. The 2 part filler will get used for large corrections and the 1 part filler will get used for pin holes and areas that only need slight filling. Depending on how zealous you are with the sander (very easy to do with a power tool) or if you are chasing rust etc, yes those low spots will need to get filled or you will end up with a very obvious defects in the paint. Using the guide coat and large sanding block, high and low areas will be revealed (watch youtube videos for a good visual on this). Its up to you if you think its worth the effort to make the car completely flat before you spray it (you make it flat by filling the low areas). At the end of the day, it comes down to time. The end result comes from the level of prep put in to the car. If you want a perfect result, you have to put in the time during the prep stage or else it will be impossible to achieve a perfect result during the spraying process.

I would not be surprised if you are the only person on earth that has the interest/desire to do that lol. The Haltech base map is a really good starting point, the car will fire easily and drive very well, even on mild boost levels. To me, following your advice sounds like some sort of ancient Chinese water torcher lol (this is not an insult Josh, never change <3)

Haltech have a nice comparison table between the Elite and Nexus models - https://www.haltech.com/ecu-buyers-guide/ In general, the Nexus is better. Haltech have some nice product videos on their YouTube page, I'd have a look at those and if you're still not confident what way to go, I'd give them a call. They have the best customer support of any company I've dealt with, I'm sure they'll be able to help you out.

If you haven't bought the ECU yet, I would strongly consider buying a modern ECU. Yes it is very easy to setup and tune, however it is lacking many of the features of a modern ECU. The pro plug in is something like 10 or 12 years old now? Can't remember exactly but it is very dated now. In that time the Elite was released and now we have the Nexus platform. I would strongly consider not buying the ECU that is 3 generations old now (especially as it isn't a cheap ECU!).

Sorry I should have been more clear with the previous post. The block is a sanding block - picture something like this https://motorguard.com/product/motor-guard-bgr161-bgr16-1-rigid-psa-sanding-block-2-5-8-x-16/ The guide coat is the paint It's two separate things I was talking about, there is no "block guide coat".

Maybe more accurately, you aren't just dulling the existing paint, you are giving the new paint something to 'grab on to'. By sanding the existing paint, you're creating a bunch of pores for the new paint to hook on to. You can lay new paint over existing paint without sanding it, might last a year or two then sad times. The paint will peal/flake off in huge chunks. By sanding it, the new paint is able to hang onto it and won't flake off. Depends on the primer you are using. When you buy your paint, as the paint supplier what grit of sand paper to use before you lay down the primer. Use whatever you like as a guide coat. Pick a colour that really stands out in contrast to the paint. So say your sanding/painting a currently white car, using a black guide coat would work well. You very lightly lay the black guide coat down, then as you sand the car with the large block, all the high spots and low spots will stand out as the black paint is sanded off (or isn't sanded off). When you buy your paint, hit up your supplier for recommendations for what paint to use for a guide coat if you're unsure what would work well with your setup.

Sounds like you've started from the wrong base map. That image I posted above is from the base map for the RB25DET (this one, Pro_R32R33-113_RB25_VE.hr32r33-113). Maybe load that base map and import the data from your current tune if its otherwise good.

What Haltech ECU do you have?

Feels weird to me using the Honda VTEC setup, hoping that it will control the Nissan VCT. I would expect to see something like this -

What is already done to the car?

I'm confused. You said you want to "remove the clear coat from most panels" but it sounds like you are actually doing a full respray? Few random things to add - If you chase the blistered paint with 120 grit, I can almost guarantee you'll chase it down to bare metal (that's fine). But if you paint the car from here, you'll have nice little indents where ever the blistered paint was. The new paint won't magically level out the low areas, you need to fill them. Which leads me to the main point I wanted to add, make sure the whole car is flat before you paint it. All those areas with blistered paint you sanded out, make sure to fill them and triple check they are flat with a block guide coat. I'd also check the whole car is flat with a large block and guide coat but yeah up to you if you want to go that far.

A couple of things, firstly omg that turbo is expensive! $3,000 USD for dinosaur technology is robbery. You could buy a G series turbo and have a good amount of change instead. If you want a good budget option, have a look here - https://hypergearturbos.com/product/rb25dethighflow/ If you are keen to spend more, have look at the modern turbos, Garrett G series, Borgwarner EFR, etc. Have a look at the RB25 dyno results thread for inspiration. If you upgrade your turbo to something that will support the 300hp you want and only "probably" have Haltech ECU, your car will only "probably" run. Actually, no it won't run. You are going to need the ECU and injectors at the time you do the turbo upgrade. No thoughts on "this much boost" as you didn't say how much boost that actually is. Having said that, plenty of unopened RB25's making even more power then what you are chasing.

Agreed, another vote for the Haltech CAN wideband. No voltage offset errors is a beautiful thing.

You can still easily find running RB25's, they just tend to cost $5,000+

How to tell me you haven't raced a S or R chassis without telling me you haven't raced a S or R chassis.

Excuse for an epic road trip? I expect a few people would be thinking of doing that given the price.

Yes.

All of that material you found hard to remove is hard to remove for a reason. If the factory could get away with using paint I'm sure they would. If I was doing the repair, I'd be looking to replace the sealant I had just removed with something equitant or better.

So when you say painted, do you mean sealed with something like rhino lining or line-x?

This is not going to be a cheap exercise, even if you shoot for an OEM rebuild. I would strongly consider doing everything properly the first time... Get the big boy pump, get the baffled and extended sump, setup the breathers properly, etc etc.

What was the usage like with this car? Was it a track car? Did it see much time bouncing on the rev limiter?

Did the machinist give any indication as to why the head failed the way it did?

What was done to check it?

@ChrisW434 If tuning is new to you, this might be really useful - https://evansperformanceacademy.vhx.tv/ They run a subscription model, so for $50 USD you get access to 100% of the content. Turn it on, watch like crazy for a month and turn it off. The value is crazy. This is how I learnt to tune many years ago. Since then, I go back to the site every couple of years to catch up on new content. I wish HPA ran the same pricing, they are so expensive in comparison lol.