180sx Vh45

[farch]

i've got ross tuffbond making me a new perfromance balancer for it and we have make sure the valve trains fine, it's been making intermittent loud lifter noises of late, which why we have been relutant to run it. going to talk to mark at mrc about extending the key way for the oil sprocket. cars complete just little things that hopefully don't turn out to be massive. should just give to ross harmonic balancers and tell'em to fix the pulley system, that stop it sliping once and for all.

[R31 POWER]

This is really cool. Did you decide what gears to run?

[farch]

This is really cool. Did you decide what gears to run?

it's still stock, i want to keep the tomei t-trax 2 way thats in it. i'll leave it 4.363 until it's rego'd and see how i like it. i figure if i make the tires wide enough traction will no longer be an issue. i'm really hoping this oil problem doesn't turn out to be huge.

[farch]

This is an awesome build

Did you have to weigh your engine? It's one of the requirements here, such a nuisance!

actually because the engine is a replacing a cast iron 4 cylinder turbo, the weight difference isn't that great maybe 20-30 kg plus a bit for the larger 300zx transmission (when you factor in the turbo and inter-cooler piping). actually this even more significant in skylines. when a ls1 or another similar alloy v8 engine replaces the cast iron straight 6 rb26, the front axle weight will usually reduce. in most cases you'll have shorten your front suspension and springs. that yellow 32 with an ls1 (i think) has done this conversion, GTRsean said he saw it at one of the track days (the visual doesn't match the sound coming from it, an import that sounds like a v8 super car). very interesting concept, import handling lightweight high torque western v8. looking back i would love to do this to skyline one day, though i think Sean might have something to say about that, I'll just have to increase the money.

[ichizora]

Yeah it is a very light motor isn't it... I found the weight, it was around 220kg with accessories. Replacing my ~270kg cast iron VG, the wheel gap at the front is quite ridiculous at the moment. I've got some adjustable ZEALs to counter this issue though

I will be looking forward to seeing how my car handles with a more balanced F/R weight ratio

[farch]

Yeah it is a very light motor isn't it... I found the weight, it was around 220kg with accessories. Replacing my ~270kg cast iron VG, the wheel gap at the front is quite ridiculous at the moment. I've got some adjustable ZEALs to counter this issue though

I will be looking forward to seeing how my car handles with a more balanced F/R weight ratio

not to mention the awesome throttle response from the vh45, i couldn't believe it when first started mine. through i have the opposite problem i have raise the front of my a little because the front weight has increased slightly. that engine matches a 300zx perfectly high torque, high response, wide chassis and short length. racing car if i have ever heard it. the fact that it's lighter than the stock engine is just icing on the cake.

[GTRsean]

Update time!, since Farch hasn't bothered!

What has happened:

Wholesale suspension made up a custom front sway bar to clear the sump and that looked great.

Car was taken to MRC dyno to get fixed up up and finalised for engineering.

Before we had it taken to MRC, I made up an intake pipe to mount the blowby pipes and fitted up the new air filter canister. The AFM was faulty too so that was replaced with a good one too.

Rattle was timing chain tensioner not getting enough oil pressure, and that was found to be the slight dint in the sump blocking the oil pick up!

No harm done after getting bottom end checked and sump was fixed. This is mainly due to the engine being rested on the sump before we got it, as with most other second hand/ wrecker engines. Pays to check it over so this doesn't happen, as these seem to be very tight with the small gap to the sump bottom.

Also, the electrics were finished up, such as the o2 sensors, idle control valve and VVT not having any power going to them!!(my fault there).

Electric power steering pump was fitted and wow the car is a lot better for it!

Mark put it on the dyno to see how it went, and 140RWKW was the result. It was low due to running in the knock map?! The ecu was found to be faulty so that got changed to a working one.

One the dyno it then pulled 190RWKW (250)HP, with a stock ecu, just intake and full exhaust were the only mods. So much for 206KW at the crank!

We also got to have a quick test of the car and electric power steering in the premises and wow, throttle response much! I said that it could probably do with a 3.9:1 diff ratio. Will be great once it's on the road!

[farch]

can't wait ! can't believe that the VVT and ecu were buggered. after the they sorted the problems it feels great, very lively in first. it's not going to end with it rego'd though, after it's on the road i'm going to take my time and get a second engine and source a second set of the short in take runners. apparently if you replace the long runnners (because half are short and half are long to get that east west looking manifold- worst idea ever) under stock manifold all the short runners line up in two straight lines. perfect for individual throttle body's, also going to have get a box to contain the trumpets for legal issues. sean stop giving me ideas my wallet can't cope!

[ichizora]

It's not really the worst idea ever, since that intake manifold actually has equal length runners (though not tuned for high RPMs). Have you looked into Extrudabody's VK56 ITB kit? The VK motors have the same 112mm bore spacing as the VH so could be worth looking into.

[farch]

It's not really the worst idea ever, since that intake manifold actually has equal length runners (though not tuned for high RPMs). Have you looked into Extrudabody's VK56 ITB kit? The VK motors have the same 112mm bore spacing as the VH so could be worth looking into.

didn't know about Extrudabody's kit, that will make things a little easier. there's still heaps i want to do with it, a extended range drop tank for one, since the 180 has a tiny 55 liter. still deciding if i want a half cage, since the rear seat won't be going back in.

[farch]

here"s some pics of the astra power steering pump installed and the front sway bar

[ichizora]

here"s some pics of the astra power steering pump installed and the front sway bar

Haha sweet! I've got an Astra electrohydraulic p/s pump as well, and installing it where my battery should be too

I'm gonna be getting an extrudabody kit sometime in the future as well, so I will be interested to read about your process in detail if you do go that route.

Also, are you planning to upgrade cams? (sorry haven't read through your thread for a while) This place offers regrinds for VH41/45 along with higher seat pressure valve springs.

[farch]

yeah mark put me on to them, not to keen on re-grinds seems to dodgy to me welding on more metal and all. I was going ask about re-grinds to see if there reliable or not. would love bigger cams since I'm keeping mine N/A. i'm gunning for approximately 230-240kw at the wheels, mark said it did 190kw few days ago with a stock ECU and a good exhaust, so hopefully a tune and cams will get me there in the future. going run it for a while stock though and iron out the bugs, then I'll start to think about cams and such.

[ichizora]

Yeah I will be running it stock for a while as well as I am anticipating oil surge problems. 230-240kW should be realistically achievable ay. Since Steven's zed made 200rwkW with Nistune and an auto box, I reckon with a manual, ITBs, cams & 8500+rpm it should easily make over 240kW.

[farch]

Yeah I will be running it stock for a while as well as I am anticipating oil surge problems. 230-240kW should be realistically achievable ay. Since Steven's zed made 200rwkW with Nistune and an auto box, I reckon with a manual, ITBs, cams & 8500+rpm it should easily make over 240kW.

oil surge? why's that, did you modify the sump or something when installed the engine?

[Rolls]

Yeah I will be running it stock for a while as well as I am anticipating oil surge problems. 230-240kW should be realistically achievable ay. Since Steven's zed made 200rwkW with Nistune and an auto box, I reckon with a manual, ITBs, cams & 8500+rpm it should easily make over 240kW.

Here is a 1UZ making 300kw at 9300rpm.

Should be able to get pretty close to that with the right cams and intake, I mean you have an extra half a litre of capacity as well.

Edited January 12, 2011 by Rolls

[farch]

Here is a 1UZ making 300kw at 9300rpm.

Should be able to get pretty close to that with the right cams and intake, I mean you have an extra half a litre of capacity as well.

I'll be happy with about 230-240kw don't want really rev it too hard, it's primarily a street car. I'm planning on buying a second engine so i can build right over a good amount time with out the car being off the road. I will do the usual's: cams, rod bolts, head studs, valve springs, see if i can get reducers for the pulley's, new intake manifold and another things that i come across. but all that's in the distant future at the moment not going to worry about that until the stock engine is on the road and given it some time to iron out the kinks. i probably just get it tuned in the mean time and hope for about 200kw that will suit me, these damn engines make a big bulk of torque at 2000rpm because of the VVT and make the same max torque as my 98 VT series one 5L SS commodore (400nm according to Nissan), hence why it needs to get like a 3.9 ratio diff to make use of it, because lets face it, it not going to live at a drag strip or race track and a diff ratio too short is bad for circuit racing anyway (well one as high my CA18 4.363 diff anyway).

[ichizora]

oil surge? why's that, did you modify the sump or something when installed the engine?

yup, I have a custom rear sump to clear the crossmember. Pretty much every build I read with a modified sump has oil pressure problems...

[farch]

yup, I have a custom rear sump to clear the crossmember. Pretty much every build I read with a modified sump has oil pressure problems...

that sucks, i had similar problem when i got the engine we noticed a small dint in the sump and didn't think of it. turned out that the sump was hard up against the oil pick up which explains the noisy engine, couldn't tighten the timing chain and and lifters such good thing we didn't drive. all fine now purrs like a kitten( on crack). we didn't have modify mine GTRsean moved the engine mount slightly forward to clear the standard sump, the payoff was that the standard CA18 gearbox mount bolt straight on to the 300sx box, and has made the engineers slightly easier.

how you going to fix the oil surge?

[ichizora]

that sucks, i had similar problem when i got the engine we noticed a small dint in the sump and didn't think of it. turned out that the sump was hard up against the oil pick up which explains the noisy engine, couldn't tighten the timing chain and and lifters such good thing we didn't drive. all fine now purrs like a kitten( on crack). we didn't have modify mine GTRsean moved the engine mount slightly forward to clear the standard sump, the payoff was that the standard CA18 gearbox mount bolt straight on to the 300sx box, and has made the engineers slightly easier.

how you going to fix the oil surge?

Yeah the pickup sits very close to the bottom of the sump... I've already got an oil cooler for more capacity, then I'll try an Accusump. If that fails too then I'll redesign a better sump with proper baffles.