Build Thread: Adam's Nissan Stagea C34

[Run-It-Hard]

With my recent decision on parting out the Skyline, I’ve not got a chance to do what was destined for the Stagea many moons ago.

The original plan for the Stagea was to make it a cool street car that I could take to the track and flog. Thought out mods included manual conversion, ECU + tune and basic boltons … a set of wheels and a shit-ton of low.

I was half way there, cosmetically the car was perfect and I had all the parts ready to go for the manual conversion. Until I suddenly lost interest in it. I started looking around, finding a more “suitable” drift car. That’s when I saw the blue demon child that I ended up purchasing.

I ended up parting out the Stagea completely, and for a little while I even had it up for sale.

Moving on just over a years time and we are back at the beginning, so to speak. This time my original plan will be fulfilled.

Without wasting time, I started to hunt for parts. I found a set of Tein super flex wagon coilovers that look to be in great condition. I’m really hoping these will get me nice and low. Judging by the shock length and adjustablility I should be able to get the Stagea licking pavement.

While doing a small order, I figured I’d order another NA grille, these look so much better than the RS4/honeycomb grille.

I absolutely loved the clutch in my MX5 and that just happened to be a 409D made my Ogura (ORC). So I figured to get another ORC clutch for the Stagea, I picked this 409D at a very good price. It has plenty of meat too!

That’s all that’s coming from Japan at the moment. Though I do have my eye on a set of wheels that would suit the wagon to a tee.

My deadline of the November Matsuri still exists, and if anything it should be less hassle getting the Stagea there then the Skyline would have been.

Bring it on!

Rekindling old love

[KiwiRS4T]

Good to see! What wheels have you found now??

[Run-It-Hard]

Once upon a time, I never used to like dinner-plate type wheels. But over the years they have grown on me quite a bit. I remember before purchasing my own Stagea, there was one in Japan owned by Grant Wilson. Grant is from the US and was living in Japan at the time, and well he’s one crazy cat when it comes to cars.

Going through his build thread on SAU something triggered me to believe I’ve seen, or heard of this guy before. Turns out he is the same dude on CR.net that was building a rad NA Miata … small world!

Anyway, his Stagea was pretty much the deal-breaker for me. It determined me to find a DAYZ edition, zenki model.

For a short while, it used to run Work Euroline DH wheels.

The chunky, flat wheel design paired with the boxiness of the Nissan Stagea (and a shitload of low) is a perfect combo in my eyes.

So when Benny found a set on Yahoo, I knew they would be the new set of wheels for my own Stagea. The beauty of Eurolines is that they are fairly common wheel too, so hopefully I can find a few matching pairs as skidders.

Specs are 18×9 and 18×10, both with positive 20 offsets. It’s not fantastic but it’ll be made right with some small spacers.

Ugh, the wait begins.

DINNER PLATES

[dirtyRS4]

I figured I’d order another NA grille, these look so much better than the RS4/honeycomb grille.

my grille would look hawt with those eurolines.

just sayn

[Run-It-Hard]

Not a fan of that grille, put it up on Ebay. Stuff always sells on Ebay.

Edited August 16, 2012 by Run-It-Hard

[Run-It-Hard]

So the new brake setup and S14 rear subframe made it's way on the car over the weekend. I'll report my findings soon!

[Run-It-Hard]

Anyone who has driven my Stagea lately, would know that the brakes were complete buckets of shit, the pedal feel was shocking, and you’d basically use all the pedal travel just to get the boat to stop.

It needed to be rectified ASAP! Originally I was going to change the pads and do a fluid flush, but now that the Skyline is stripped bare I thought I’d salvage a few parts for the Stagea.

The brake setup consists of R33 calipers, RDA slotted rotors all round, Bendix ultimate pads all round, HEL braided lines and Motul RBF660 brake fluid.

Anthony was the man to do the install, while I tackled the rear subframe swap. I love working on my car at the Dahtone Racing workshop, but it’s daunting trying to find the right tool for the job haha.

I didn’t realise how small the OEM brake setup was, check out the “modified” cover behind the rear brake setup. Anth had to chop and bend the crap out of it just so the new rotors would fit without interference. Some massaging was required up front too, but not as drastic as the rears.

Upon bleeding the brakes, we heard a loud pressurised sound. Anth had a look over to the front passenger side and saw brake fluid sprayed everywhere … the braided line had burst!

Reason for this was that some knob in the HEL factory didn’t crimp the fitting onto the hose!

HEL have taken responsibility for it and are sending me out another line. Be carefull when you buy braided lines ladies and gents. Check that all the fittings have been crimped before install or you could be in a world of pain.

So how does it stop? Freaking amazing! pedal feel is a little lousy but if you need to stop, it’ll pull the 2 tonne boat up with ease!

DEPLOY THE ANCHORS

[Troppo]

Adam, where did you get the grill from? I have the same one but the chrome is all peeling off...

[Run-It-Hard]

Adam, where did you get the grill from? I have the same one but the chrome is all peeling off...

I get most of my parts from Japan mate. Easy to source a new grille for you, shoot me a PM and we can go from there if you like

[Run-It-Hard]

Have you ever looked at your Automatic Stagea and wondered why the rear wheels sit closer to the guard than the fronts? Well on the automatic versions the rear subframe is wider than the manual model Stagea.

This can complicate things when trying to fit aftermarket wheels, and will force you to run spacers up front if you want to have similar fitment all round.

There is a lot of information floating around on how wide the automatic subframe is compared to a manual version. So I was curious to know what it actually is.

Above is the length of the Stagea rear subframe, and below is the new subframe length.

The new subframe is 40mm shorter in total, which means it’s 20mm shorter each side. This evens out the track perfectly.

Another thing that got me thinking was, what happens to the shock clearance when the shorter subframe has been installed?

As you can see in the first image, shock clearance from the back of a OEM S14/R33 wheel (16×6.5 +40) is roughly 50mm.

It’s safe to say that the shorter subframe has effected inner clearance in the same way, roughly 20mm has been lost from shock to rear wheel clearance. Although this was measured straight after the subframe swap, so I am unsure if there has been a change in camber.

For those wondering what the limit on inner clearance is before your wheels make love to the shocks, I’d say 25-30mm is the lowest you could have.

My old setup (18×10 +21) used to touch the shock on things like driveways. I then added a 5mm spacer and all was well.

The subframe I used was out of an S14 Silvia, which is identical to the subframe found in a factory manual Stagea. If your Stagea has HICAS you could use an R33 Skyline rear subframe (or if you wanted to be clever, you could eliminate HICAS by using an S14 subframe, instead of running a lock bar).

While I was at it, I made my subframe completely solid and installed some diff mounts I’ve had for a while (I did subframe risers while this subframe was in the Skyline).

It would be a good idea to swap out the OEM bushes for something new if you do plan to do such a swap, how often do you pull apart a rear end of the car?

Oh and if you’re worried about the half shafts or sway bar being too long to fit the shorter subframe, don’t be. All my OEM items fitted up fine.

If the track difference on your Auto Stagea annoys you as much as it did me, this is the perfect way to rectify it.

HOW TO: REDUCE REAR TRACK ON A NISSAN STAGEA

[adey88]

Brake setup looks good man, did a similar setup on my stag... Problem with the rda rotors is they rust like a mofo... U might want to spray the hats (hi temp black) before they do

[Run-It-Hard]

doesn't really bother me to be honest dude

[Run-It-Hard]

Last week I did a blog entry about finding a set of Work Euroline wheels for my Nissan Stagea. The idea of purchasing those wheels was to run them until something with “ideal” sizes came along.

Funnily enough a day after writing that blog entry, Benny hit the jackpot! He found a set of SSR Viennas in sizes that would be perfect for the Stagea.

Soon enough I contacted Jesse and put a outragous bid on them, I was not going to let these go anywhere!

Seeing that I’ve been buying so much gear from Japan I’ve run into a problem of shipping things to my selected adress. The way I’m going customs will think I am running a business and will start charging me taxes and all that jazz.

So I took my chances and advertised the Eurolines on a few forums. Within a few hours they were sold, talk about luck!

The only thing that is slightly worrying about the Viennas is that the rears are 10 and a half inches wide. I haven’t come across any Stageas running anything wider than a 10 inch wheel at the back.

I have a few ideas to help me get some more clearance though, It’ll be interesting to see how it’ll go.

Benny was on a roll! He is the master at finding wheels on Yahoo auctions, I kid you not he will sit there for hours on end, looking at every wheel on offer until he finds something interesting.

He also came across of a pair Work Euroline N2 wheels. These were an absolute bargain and aggressive in sizing too (18×10 -10). They will make a great pair of skidders and have almost identical fitment to the Viennas.

Best of all, they should all arrive right before Wakefield Matsuri.

Hopefully this will quench my thirst for wheels … for a while.

DINNER PLATES - TAKE 2

[Run-It-Hard]

One of the major downfalls of the Stagea is that it’s a really “boaty” ride. Ok fair enough it’s a big car, but c’mon! Even with the first setup (10/8 spring rates) it had less than desirable body roll. With the new build I am focusing on having a great all round package. So it’s time to look into the suspension department.

While the Tein Super flex wagon coilovers are halfway to Australia, I ordered a few other parts to get the suspension side of things down pat. One part just happens to be a Cusco rear strut brace. For a while I was under the impression that rear strut braces were no longer in production for the Nissan Stagea (Trust/Greddy ceased production some time ago), until I dug a little deeper.

I came across RHD Japan being mentioned on some very old threads. So I had a browse around and there they were. The Cusco Type OS strut bar (which happen to be on special), with the Stagea listed to still be in production.

I placed an order and patiently waited for the Cusco brace to land in Australia, turn around time was roughly 1 week (gotta love EMS).

It made quite a bit of difference too, the rear of the car feels nice, responsive and more stable. Where-as the front of the car feels more “floaty” than it did before the brace was installed.

A STIFFER REAR END

Edited August 29, 2012 by Run-It-Hard

[J O S H]

Love this thread man.ton of useful info.

Awesome work bud

[shane344]

Nice find on the brace.

My car came with the blue strut top bits poking out through the carpet in the boot.

but without the cross bar

[KiwiRS4T]

Nice find on the brace.

My car came with the blue strut top bits poking out through the carpet in the boot.

but without the cross bar

My Greddy rear strut brace has identical looking blue bits that go through the tower and it looks just like the Cusco one.

[KiwiRS4T]

Adam... Psymin ( the 550kw Stagea) had welded steel bulges made to accommodate extra wide track/wheels.

[Run-It-Hard]

Love this thread man.ton of useful info.

Awesome work bud

Thanks Josh!

Nice find on the brace.

My car came with the blue strut top bits poking out through the carpet in the boot.

but without the cross bar

Offt that sucks! Only way would be to buy the cusco one or make up a custom length bar to suit I guess?

My Greddy rear strut brace has identical looking blue bits that go through the tower and it looks just like the Cusco one.

It wouldn't suprise me if they are the same design tbh.

Adam... Psymin ( the 550kw Stagea) had welded steel bulges made to accommodate extra wide track/wheels.

Interesting, I'm thinking of a more reversable mod. Should be able to get away with adding some spacers behind the eyelet adding another threaded section to accommodate the loss of thread, then using a longer bolt to fasten it down.

I'll worry about it if/when I need to though

[Run-It-Hard]

Oh and some more news, seeing Wakefield Matsuri is in 9 weeks. Anth (Dahtone Racing) and I thought we'd better get a move on. So the Stagea will be going to the shop on the 20th of September.

Lots of parts are coming and lots of updates will be flying through too, stay tuned!