Build Thread: Adam's Nissan Stagea C34

[wolverine]

Some have tried to fit GTR bars on the rear but due to the widened subframe (Auto only), most have not been successful. Now that my Stagea has a S14 rear subframe I could theoretically run a Silvia or GTR item. But I decided I will go with what has been tried and tested from fellow Stagea owners.

Alright so the proven formula is a 22mm soild swaybar up front, and a 24mm solid swaybar in the rear end. Reports state that body roll is nearly diminished, among other things. Sounds good!

The rear is 20mm thick, and is also hollow. So going to a 24mm solid bar is a big difference. There is a lot of weight in the Stagea’s rear end, and the general consensus is that Nissan put an undersized swaybar in. That big boaty feeling when turning corners is generally from this little guy being too thin.

From memory the front sway bar rate is about 40% higher going from hollow to solid of the same diameter (after talking to the guys at Whiteline all those years ago...happy to be corrected if this is wrong), so it is a bit of an upgrade. The rear bar on the RS4S is a hollow 24mm bar and is identical to R33 GTR bars.

[pipster11]

Ah sweet let us know with the arms when they are ready!

I try too haha but just open wheels. I got a s2 rs4s in rwd mode when I'm keen needs a LSD bad. My ke70 failed me hard this year also. Engine gone so time for a newy!

pretty sure rs4s should be lsd from factory

so if its loose you should be able to shim it up tighter pretty easily

From memory the front sway bar rate is about 40% higher going from hollow to solid of the same diameter (after talking to the guys at Whiteline all those years ago...happy to be corrected if this is wrong), so it is a bit of an upgrade. The rear bar on the RS4S is a hollow 24mm bar and is identical to R33 GTR bars.

sweet, i was wondering what sort of an upgrade the front swaybar offered

please tell me 33 gtr ones are the same up front, i may have found one cheap

Edited September 25, 2012 by pipster11

[C34S2STAG]

Yea it does twin from a standstill but at speed she open wheels. Fast drift is the only drift haha same shim style as gtst?

Adam what diff bushes did you use? S1 and s2 the same? Ah wait you're rwd so I would have a gtr diff no?

[Daleo]

sweet, i was wondering what sort of an upgrade the front swaybar offered

please tell me 33 gtr ones are the same up front, i may have found one cheap

The Whiteline upgrade bar (BNF27Z) is the same for a Stagea as an R32/33/34GTR, so an OEM GTR front bar should go on the Stagea. Whether it is much larger in Dia.; I don't know.

Hollow Versus Solid, read this; http://www.whiteline.com.au/docs/bulletins/Hollow%20vs%20Solid%20Swaybar.pdf

[Run-It-Hard]

nice work Adam, good to see your up specking the stag again

Cheers Ian! I think you sent me a SMS and I didn't reply =/ Sold those camber arms dude, sorry.

[Run-It-Hard]

From memory the front sway bar rate is about 40% higher going from hollow to solid of the same diameter (after talking to the guys at Whiteline all those years ago...happy to be corrected if this is wrong), so it is a bit of an upgrade. The rear bar on the RS4S is a hollow 24mm bar and is identical to R33 GTR bars.

Oh don't get me wrong there's an upgrade all round. I was more reffering to the diffence from front to back on my Stagea which has the 20mm hollow rear bar.

Yea it does twin from a standstill but at speed she open wheels. Fast drift is the only drift haha same shim style as gtst?

Adam what diff bushes did you use? S1 and s2 the same? Ah wait you're rwd so I would have a gtr diff no?

I've got solid subframe risers and solid diff mounts. I've got an S14 rear subframe in my car now too, mounting points are the same on Stagea subframes though so could could use Silvia items.

Mines originally a 4WD but the front shaft has been pulled. I'm going to put the Nismo 2 way centre out of my Skyline, into the Stagea's housing so I can keep the same ratio if I ever want/need to go back to 4WD. I don't see any problems doing it this way, they are both R200 diffs, just the Stagea has a few brackets on top if it for the ATTESA and all that jazz.

[wolverine]

Hollow Versus Solid, read this; http://www.whiteline...d%20Swaybar.pdf

Thanks. It was years ago when John?!?? told me the increase in rate and he stressed it was a best guess. I was surprised at the increase he quoted from my understanding I have of biomechanics (and bone function) the diameter shouldn't make much difference to rates.

I didn't notice a huge change to the car when I upgraded the front and read bars over stock but then again (as it turns out) the bars were much closer to factory RS4S bars. This was so many years ago my memory is shaky.

[Daleo]

Thanks. It was years ago when John?!?? told me the increase in rate and he stressed it was a best guess. I was surprised at the increase he quoted from my understanding I have of biomechanics (and bone function) the diameter shouldn't make much difference to rates. I didn't notice a huge change to the car when I upgraded the front and read bars over stock but then again (as it turns out) the bars were much closer to factory RS4S bars. This was so many years ago my memory is shaky.

The rate increase issue would mostly centre around the wall thickness of the tube used to make the hollow bar; the thicker the wall, the closer in rate to a solid bar.

All the calcs in the white paper, were made using known I.D and O.D measurements; if someone wants to cut an OEM bar; it would be fairly easy to calculate the rate increase.

[pipster11]

if the ID of the stock bar is 16mm and the OD is 24 it should be about 50% stiffer

thats if the same mounting points were used, but the adjustable points give you more stiffness there too

just a note, i was lazy, i didn't measure anything or even do my own calculations, i just bunged some numbers into an online calculator

Edited September 26, 2012 by pipster11

[Run-It-Hard]

NOTHING GOES TO PLAN

Most people look forward to having time off work. Generally when I take leave, I have a shitload of stuff to do, or there’s some sort of deadline or something dramatic. So most times by the end of it all I’m pretty knackered and look forward to getting back to work!

This weeks leave is no exception. On Tuesday I got one of many shipments from Jesse Streeter, it consisted of Tein Superflex Wagon coilovers, a new grille, a new tail light, and the ORC 409D.

Originally I wanted to get just the coilovers in. Here I was planning to have a relaxed couple of days off, coilovers aren’t a hard job right?

Everything was going quite smooth until I went to tighten up one of the shocks lower mounts. I was busy talking to Julie and next thing you know I got that “oh f**k” feeling when a nut suddenly gets loose.

I was shitting bricks! After I calmed down from raging I ripped apart the R33 (which is chilling at the front in a million pieces) to see if the A arms were the same. Unfortunately they are not.

I started freaking out again, but I managed to dodge it up so I could get the car out of the garage. I looked around the net, praying someone was wrecking a Stagea. Thankfully Ebay came to the rescue, a bloke in Bathurst was wrecking one and had the part I needed at a cheap price (it actually came as a whole front end assembly, I bought both sides … always good to have spares). Luckily for me he headed down to Sydney for the long weekend, cheering!

So I thought while I’m ripping out the dodgy A-arm off the Stagea, I might as well put my adjustable camber arms in. Then I thought about it some more and decided to put every arm I had into the Stagea.

Again, ment to be an easy enough job but it took me some time to complete. The Stagea is starting to play games with me … it’s driving me mad!

Anyway, All the arms are in, as well as the coilovers. Naturally I wound them down to the lowest setting to see how low they’d actually go. I must say I’m impressed, much MUCH lower than what my previous coilovers went (BC).

The Stagea is off to get an alignment now and then I might work on it some more, fun stuff!

Oh, you might be wondering why my Stagea isn’t at Dahtone yet? Well Paulie’s R33 had a slight mishap and now Benny’s Stagea has had some big dramas (I’ll let Benny tell the story). So I’m trying to take on as much as I can at home, to meet the November deadline!

Edited September 28, 2012 by Run-It-Hard

[Run-It-Hard]

AE86DC - RALEIGH DRIFT FEST!

A few weeks ago, Adan told me about an event that Joel from the AE86DC forum was organizing.

Being held 3rd and 4th of November, it’s a 2 day (weekend) event at Raleigh international raceway. Roughly 20km from Coffs Harbour.

I’ve been keen to try out this track, and after reading all the info I frantically tried to get a spot. I’ve convinced Benny into going up too.

With only one month remaining, there are still spots left! So I’m putting it out there for fellow drifters. Drifting over two days, with a max of 25 cars this is an event you don’t want to miss!

You can find all the information on the event, and how to enter here.

Edited October 2, 2012 by Run-It-Hard

[Run-It-Hard]

TYING LOOSE ENDS

With Benny’s Stagea being close to completion, it ment that my Stagea would be heading to Dahtone Racing shortly. So I had a few more things I wanted to knock over before it was left in Anthony’s hands.

Benny was willing to help out and keep me company on Labour day too. Man this guy can squat anywhere. He got comfortable with the space-saver while tinkering with the fuel pump.

The Stagea’s fuel pump is a weird setup. It’s housed in a plastic box at the bottom of the shallow fuel tank. It is held in by a lid and this plastic cradle.

On the Series 2 Stagea, the Walbro 255LPH fuel pump is a direct replacement for the factory item. This isn’t the case with the Series 1, the S1 pump is a lot larger, infact it’s nearly identical to an R33 item.

What I’ve done is removed the top cradle holding in the fuel pump and secured it with a stainless steel hose clamp. When you put the pump back into its housing, the lid helps secure it from moving around.

We needed to do some re-wiring too, as the Walbro terminals are different to OEM.

We also fitted the oil cooler setup. Originally I wanted to run to run the oil cooler without a filter relocator. But I was un-able to due to the front sump setup.

Anyway I knocked up a few mounts and got everything sitting pretty. It’ll need to come off again for a few minor changes though.

The Stagea has finally made it to Dahtone Racing, the fun really begins now!

[RS4-S]

Hey mate, when you fitted the 33 brakes what hel brake line kit did u use? 33gtr? And were the fitting at the body end sweet or did you need to modify them?

[Run-It-Hard]

I used a R33 GTS-T brake line kit, no mods needed to it.

[Run-It-Hard]

VISITING AN OLD FRIEND

Sunday morning I headed out to visit an old friend to chill out, talk shit and get my Stagea’s diff welded up.

Originally I was going to run my Nismo 2 way LSD out of the R33. But the diff shop insisted that it wasn’t compatible. Although the LSD centre part numbers are the same between R33 and WGNC34, I took this as a oppurtinity to save some cash for other parts and run a welded diff for a while.

This AE86 probably doesn’t look familiar to anyone, probably because Adan hasn’t been on the blog for quite some time. I started drifting with him at Eastern Creek back in 2010 … I still had my MX-5 and he had just got this Sprinter. Although back then it was quite different … it was red too.

It’s been a while since Adan has gotten his Hachiroku sideways and many things have been changed in between. It’ll be at the Raleigh drift fest ripping it up!

[4bidn1]

Ha ha welded my diff on the weekend too ( was not fun putting over 300kw through an open wheeler and no 4wd ) after doing it still no traction at at any thing near half throttle and at 1800kgs welded diff and 6puk clutch the thing was like turning the titanic from astand still. but wired up my ETS Pro 4wd controler today chucked my front shaft back in and cant even tell its welded diff now except in reverse and grip hell yeah " freight train on steroids lol"

[XRATED]

Just for future info, my deautschwerks fuel pump was a straight drop in and plug in... (s2 c34)

Cheers

Justin

[Run-It-Hard]

Hey Justin,

The Walbro is also a direct drop in on the S2, for some reason Nissan changed the fuel pump setup on the S1 and S2 =/

2 weeks from today we'll be heading up to Raleigh! my car is still in a million pieces though

[Run-It-Hard]

Should prob post in Skyline thread but meh

A NEW LEASE ON LIFE

It’s been months since my decision to “scrap” my beloved R33 skyline in favour for the Stagea. But as you can see I still do have the Skyline, although not much is left of it.

I recently received a impound notice from my local council about the R33 … in a nut shell it said “move your shit or we’ll take it and charge you $500 for doing so”. I found this a good enough reason to finally get rid of it, so I listed every detachable part off it on Ebay for stupid cheap prices. With the intention of sending it to the scrap yard tomorrow.

A Ebayer won a few auctions I had up on Friday night. His intentions were to keep them spare for a rainy day.

Now I’m sure most of you heard about that dog act at the Royal National Park last night. For those who haven’t some sick f**k laid down a shitload of oil mid-corner in the heart of RNP.

This led to a convoy of enthusiasts writing their cars off, and some put in serious injury.

This Ebayer was involved in the incident, and his R33 is looking worse for wear to say the least. He told me what he needed to get his car back to what it was … it was an extensive list just by looking at the pictures. At that point he wanted to take the shell off my hands.

It’s incredible how this all went down, just one of those things where the stars aligned and this pile of metal I had sitting at my front yard, is a chance for John to give his Skyline a new lease on life.

[Run-It-Hard]

WORK HORSES

I’ve been slack on the Stagea updates, so I’m just going to smash though it in one big post! LOLVO has been at Dahtone for nearly two weeks now, and while we’ve had a few set backs, we are still kinda on schedule to get it finished off this week.

One setback was my injectors, here I was thinking the Sard items I had purchased were a direct fit. I found out the hard way that they weren’t, so with our tight deadline and plenty of other shit to get done, I was on the hunt for some direct replacements.

It then clicked to me that Paulie had a set of Deatschwerks injectors he bought a while ago for his car. So I’ve stolen them off him to get me out of trouble.

There were a few more problems we were faced with, but I’ll talk some junk about it later. Moving on.

The manual conversion is pretty much complete, with a few nick-knacks left with it. This went down rather smoothly except the automatic spigot bush, that gave Anth hell!

Most of the fab work has been knocked over, again with a few minor details to be finished off.

e manifold has been modified for my Turbosmart Comp gate, Anth and I were tossing up whether to mount off the turbo’s rear housing or not for a while, but I’m happy with the final decision.

You might notice that the turbo mounted up isn’t my big ass Holset item. Well after playing around with it we’ve deemed it too big to fit in a low-mount position without major work. As you could imagine this was a major setback but I resolved this problem swiftly.

I noticed a Kando TD06 turbo for sale on SAU at a good price, it was originally off a RB20 (very common turbo for them) but this particular one was super laggy on it. It turns out the rear turbine is a lot bigger than the norm. So I’m hoping it’ll shine on my RB25.

Jeff and Anth designed the Stagea’s exhaust piping with the focus of minimal bends and maximum ground clearance. It has turned out great! It’s also been designed so I can still use my optional extra NISMO rear muffler, which should help me pass noise tests and restrictions if I am ever faced with them.

As for the dump pipe, I scored the custom-made item for the TD06 I purchased. While it’s not perfect it has saved us a stack of time not needing to make one up.

I played around with the cooling system last week, changing the thermostat, hoses and radiator core. The radiator looks awesome in black!

Believe it or not, there is an intercooler hiding behind the DAYZ front bumper. Anth sent me this photo and I was like “what the f**k am I looking at, are you trolling me?!”.

Anthony knocked up some mounts and needed to slightly trim the reo to get the intercooler sitting perfectly. As for piping, we are using a 90 degree and 45 degree silicone joiner with some alloy piping to plumb into the OEM stuff.

More updates soon!