Build Thread: Adam's Nissan Stagea C34

[Run-It-Hard]

Controlled breathing - Part II - VIEW ON THE BLOG

With the recent fitting of the catch can to my Stagea, I feared the worst. I thought “how can a standard RB25 blow so much oil?!” So I took it to Dahtone and we preformed a compression test.

I was anxious to say the least, but the results came back consistent and not too far off the factory specs which is pretty damn good to me! So it just happens to be that my RB25 is pumping too much oil into the head, and cannot drain it back quick enough.

I didn’t want to go and pull apart a mint engine to fix this tedious issue that the RB is renowned for. So I did some research into the baffle design on RB25 cam covers.

As you can see there isn’t much going on with the standard setup, there is a big opening towards the back of the cover and only a small piece of mesh to slow the flow of oil before exiting out the cam cover.

The ultimate goal was to slow the oil down, to a point where a minimal amount would be able vacate the cam cover.

The first thing I noticed was how small the drain holes in the baffle plate were, I did some testing and under a medium flow of fluid, the drain would struggle to release it all and overflow.

I then opened the drain using a flat head screw driver, and tested again. The enlarged drains were more efficient and even handled a higher flow.

Next up I designed some metal plates to baffle the cam cover. I went for three in each , one was placed at the back to restrict and slow down the flow of oil entering the breather section.

The other two were welded in-between the standard mesh. Basically I wanted to reduce the oil entering past the mesh, and escaping out of the breather holes. The idea of the baffles was to keep any oil that enters in the drainage section of the OEM baffle plate.

to finish it off, I filled the cam cover with fuel cell foam, to further slow the oil. It’s super dense where the drain holes are to emphasise this.

For those keen on adding their own baffling, just a word of warning. You will need to drill out the plates as they are spot welded on. You’ll also need to tap the holes so you can use bolts to secure the plates.

While the covers were off the Stagea, I gave them a coat of paint … black as always.

The recent practice night was the test to see if the extra baffles have helped keep oil within the engine. Although the track is a lot shorter than Wakefield, I was still on or near limiter for roughly 30 seconds at a time.

Anyway I checked the catch can, plumbing and the intake pipe after the event and there is no oil to be found! It'll be interesting to see if it's the same senario next time I go to Wakefield, but so far so good and I think this'll do the trick.

[Run-It-Hard]

WEEKEND WALLPAPER - LOW DOWN STAGEA - VIEW ON THE BLOG

I haven’t done a Weekend wallpaper for quite a while now (Since August last year!) so I guess I better stop being lazy and get on it! Here’s some desktop goodness of My Stagea right before it when into my cramped garage to get pulled apart for the billionth time.

Download wallpaper.

Download wallpaper.

Download wallpaper.

[Run-It-Hard]

FROM JAPAN WITH LOVE - VIEW ON THE BLOG

So my latest order from Jesse Streeter showed up! It came in pretty cool packaging this time around, anyway let’s have a look at what I got.

I truly love how efficient EMS is compared to our local postal services. Australia needs to get with the program!

In the Cusco box are a pair of near new front upper camber arms, these are a much better design than my old 2 piece items, As these are adjustable without ripping everything apart.

In the Up Garage box, is a Nismo 2 way LSD to suit my new diff set-up, which I’ll talk more about in an upcoming post.

I also got some nifty receipts that I can’t read and an Up Garage envelope, interesting how their envelope format is opposite to ours.

I’ve got some juicy stuff to update, but I’ve just be too busy slaving away in the garage … or lazy, more-so the latter.

[Run-It-Hard]

CHILL OUT BRO - VIEW ON THE BLOG

With my latest tune I made considerably less power than the “norm” for the Kando TD06 on an RB25 engine. At first I thought I’d deal with it, but after a continuous beating the car would lose power rapidly. Intrigued I headed to the SAU Kando thread and posted up my dyno, specs etc. Everyone pointed straight to my intercooler setup. So I started to dig into how an intercooler works, limits, types and everything else.

One of the many flaws with the old setup, was that the core was a bar and plate setup. Which is good for keeping air temps cool initially, but tends to suffer from heat soak … taking a while to drop temperatures.

Another problem was that it’s super thick which reduces flow to the radiators (still have AC) which could be another reason why my water temp shoots up rather quick. Finally, the cooler is just too small for the power level I was hoping to achieve.

I really liked how the old setup looked factory and was return flow. So I wanted to keep it that way. The next problem was that most return flow kits hang rather low with the return pipe running under the intercooler. At first I was set on going a custom route, but after Benny had a quick look on Yahoo he found a HKS type S kit at a good price.

I did my research and found that it’s the same size core as conventional intercooler kits for the RB engines but return flow which was exactly want I wanted.

The kit came with most parts but I wanted to use T bolt clamps and new thick black silicone for the stealth/factory look. Blowing cooler pipes suck too so I want that shit to stay together.

After cleaning and painting the intercooler kit, it was time to fit it all up. My main goal was to get it sitting as high as possible. I ended up mounting the whole thing twice, as the first time just sat too low for my liking. Unfortunately that means I needed to make another set of brackets to suit, and find a way to bolt them to the chassis.

Another challenge was the pipes hitting the front bumper. Due to the Stagea’s OEM bumper design there isn’t much room to work with. So I had to modify them. This one was shortened and I used a 45 degree silicone joiner to attach it to the core. This worked out perfect.

The front reo had to be cut too to accommodate the bigger core, not something I originally wanted with the old setup but it’s gotta be done. Anyway after a lot of time and swearing, the HKS type S intercooler has finally made its way onto the Stagea.

Here’s hoping it unlocks the full potential of my TD06, and keeps the air temperatures cool when I’m giving the RB25 hell.

[Run-It-Hard]

THE QUEST FOR MORE - PART I - VIEW ON THE BLOG

Since the Stagea was going into hibernation until the next drift day, I decided it was time to rectify the front suspension. I was torn on how I could do this for a while, do I convert it to the typical RWD Stagea setup (which is based on a C35 Laurel platform), or something else?

Well after lots of time spent researching and thinking about it all, I came to the conclusion that converting to McPherson strut would be too costly, and a lot of work to do it properly.

My whole problem with the OEM 4WD Stagea setup was that the hub bearing within the knuckle, is secured by the driveshafts. So with the driveshafts in place, I’m unable to utilise any modified knuckles or what not. Also the link arm/upright was limiting the Stageas ride height.

So what have I decided on? R33 front suspension conversion! It’ll mean the Stagea will remain double wishbone but be setup similar to a R chassis. I can, gain more lock, use common tie rod ends and save some weight from removing driveshafts.

That still leaves me with the link arm height being an issue. I was stumped on this for a while until I had a chat to a bro named ‘Jimmy’ (he owns a rad 32 4 door you can see here). I figured if anyone has heard of this sort of thing, it would be him. Jimmy enlightened me on what the super low R32s in Japan do to overcome this problem. Which is either shortening their OEM link arms, or using GTR items and retro-fitting them.

I was fairly sure this would be the same with R33s so I compared my Stagea link arms with R33 items. The Stagea arms are roughly 40mm shorter than the R33 arms. The Stagea link arm is also identical to the R33 GTR. You can see the sway bar mounting points are different between link arms, and the angle the bearing carrier sits. The Stagea arm is much skinner in some sections compared the R33 arm too, which I found interesting. Anyway, moving on …

I had no choice but to get my current link arms modified. So basically the bearing carrier is being moved up the arm 40mm in order to allow full suspension travel, without the upper control arm hitting the chassis. It’ll also be re-enforced to ensure its strength. Which means I can run the Stagea as low as I desire. Once they come back from the fabricators, the bearings will need to be swapped over, as the taper is different on RWD and AWD knuckles.

The next task was to figure out exactly how I’m actually going to mount R33 knuckles to the chassis, As the 4WD front sub frame is vastly different to RWD. LCA mounts are different as are castor/tension rods (though I think I’ll be able to use my current castor/tension rods). 4WD and RWD LCAs are very different too as you can see. the 4WD LCA (right) is mounted to the chassis and knuckle via ball joints. Whereas the RWD LCA is essentially solid mounted to the chassis.

To overcome this, I’ve gone with RWD LCAs converted to a rose joint end. The reason for this is because the OEM setup is too wide to utilise with the AWD sub frame. While the LCA is getting the chop, I’ve also went with a boxed under-side and modified bump stop (actually going scalloped now). The arm needs to be shortened too, similar to 4WD LCA spec. The rose joint will offer adjustability if I ever want/need more front track. So it’s win win!

So the LCA is all good and well, but how am I going to mount it to the chassis? well thankfully there is enough room for me to make an adaptor plate. Which will use the 4 bolts that hold the ball joint for the 4WD LCA. It’s a rather simple piece that is completely reversible. I didn’t mention thickness or plate dimensions for holes on the shoddy diagram I made, but it’s basically mimicking the 4WD LCA mount with two vertical plates attached. I’m opting to go for 10mm steel folded in one piece. We’ll see what happens.

The knuckles are fairly simple. They are just cut/shuts that’ll offer more lock and reduce Ackerman. But I’ve requested them to be re-enforced between the LCA point and tie rod point (as above). It isn’t necessary but I have a knack for over-engineering things. The Stagea is heavy so it definitely can’t hurt.

Everything is currently getting modified at JDI Fabrication in Melbourne, they take pride in their modified knuckles and not one has broken yet, Stewy Bryant used them before going McPherson strut … good enough for me! They also gave me an awesome price.

I should see everything sometime this week, and then we’ll see how well my theory’s have worked out.

[Jezboosted]

I can only sit back and be jelly.

Great idea's and well thought out. Can't wait to see finished results etc.

[Run-It-Hard]

Late February I was approached by Aleks from All Stars. He wanted to do a feature on the Stagea. So we teed up to do it at Dahtone Racing, a few days after the SMP practice night.

Anyway, it’s been released on their blog today, so have a read and look at the pretty pictures.

[Run-It-Hard]

I can only sit back and be jelly.

Great idea's and well thought out. Can't wait to see finished results etc.

Cheers dude

I should get all the gear back tomorrow, so it should be interesting to see how it all goes back on the car.

[Run-It-Hard]

WHAT'S THE DIFF? - VIEW ON THE BLOG

Well my Stagea’s rear end is finally sorted, but ‘the plan’ has changed more times than I care to remember. For a few weeks I was glued to the computer trying to decipher the “perfect” setup for the Stagea. I wanted a 4.3 final drive, 5 bolt shafts and a 2 way LSD. Sounds simple right?

The R200 diff happens to have a lot of variances behind the pumpkin. The bolts are different size, half shafts are different lengths and splines and figuring out what will work with what is a nightmare! I was on the hunt for something already had a 4.3 crown and pinion and ABS.

I also wanted a Nismo 2 way LSD as I had one in my old R33 and it was awesome. So I spent quite a while figuring out what I could use by comparing part numbers. I discovered that the BNR32/BNR33 and BNR34 Nismo LSD centre matched up to an ER34 GT part number, only to replace an open diff from factory.

I ended up finding a R34 NA being wrecked so I bought the diff setup.

The LSD arrived and I got it installed the next day, whilst I did that I started to think that the splines will be different between GTR and 5 bolt, so why are the part numbers the same? This was reading into diffs further though, after I had already bought the LSD from Japan.

Another problem I didn’t notice earlier is that the R34 has the ABS sensor at the front of the diff, making the whole setup roughly 50mm longer. Which means my tail shaft wouldn’t work. I was cool with swapping it over to the more common RWD tail shaft (Stagea uses GTR) but I couldn’t confirm if they were interchangeable. I didn’t want to fork out more cash for a custom tail shaft either as I still needed to source GTR hubs and drive shafts.

Anyway, I decided to put it up for sale. Probably within 30 minutes Jack aka Best Guy got in touch with me and gave me an offer I couldn’t refuse. If you’ve been reading his build thread you’ll know he’s putting the almighty 1J in his 180SX. Which means he’ll need to upgrade his diff to handle the extra awesomeness.

So the final diff setup for the Stagea is a Cusco 2 Way with 4.36 final drive, and 5 bolt shafts. It’s not suited for ABS but I don’t really care … it hasn’t been working since the Haltech went in. So now I’ve got a proper diff, and I’ve gotten rid of the 3×2 shafts the Stagea originally came with.

The new diff went in without much fuss, I had to change over my tail shaft snout/flange/whatever you want to call it, and that was it. Seeing that I’m never going back to 4WD I made sure I ditched the ATTESA pump too. This big sucker sits above the diff, and has been an absolute pain in my ass previously. Trying to bolt it to the diff is a mission.

Initial drive with the new setup, it’s amazing! the shorter gears have really woken up the RB25 so I’m happy I was persistent with getting 4.3 gearing. Feels good driving a car that can turn at low speeds and doesn’t want to stall too.

I was curious to see what happened to my welded diff, you can see the sump plug further up indicating there was a party. So I expected shit to be f**ked up when I opened the rear cover. But all I found were the bolts that Adan welded in last year, can you believe all of them came off? everything else looked sweet … so bizarre!

While everything was out I managed to get a better pic of my surge tank setup, good to see it’s all going strong.

So there you have it my cool story about the new diff in the Stagea, bro.

[stageaharts]

Read the allstars blog post mate, looks good! Nice job keeping it stanced, clean and quick hopefully she'll be back on the Tarmac soon

[Run-It-Hard]

Video – SMP drift practice 12/04/13 - View on the blog

Another South circuit event was held last Friday. This time they ran two separate sessions, morning and afternoon. Benny, Paulie and I hit up both. Here’s a short vid of how we went on, enjoy!

[stageaharts]

Awesome video! :-D

[Jezboosted]

Love it Adam.

[pipster11]

Your in here too!

Also, what the hell is that black s13 running? sounds awesome!

[Run-It-Hard]

HOW IT ALL WENT DOWN - VIEW ON THE BLOG

As you all know, the team headed out to Sydney Motorsport park to do some drifting. It was rad, plenty of track time and everyone was super chilled out (even the ARDC). But that didn’t mean the Stagea didn’t give me any grief, I guess that would be an impossible thing right?

This practice day was two separate sessions, morning and afternoon. Benny Paulie and I headed out to get a full days worth. Seeing that the Stagea has no rego I needed to tow it with my mums trusty Rodeo. I’ve never towed anything before so it was good to learn within a short destination. Easier than I had imagined too.

Anyways most of the morning session was rather good I got in a few solid runs and started gaining confidence and consistency in the car (something I have been missing for a while) but then the Stagea decided it was time to play games.

Midway through the morning session I could notice that something wasn’t right. I thought maybe I forgot to tighten something in the rear end, so I had a look and all was well. It wasn’t until I went back out and attempted to mash the throttle to get enough speed I noticed my clutch had, had the dick. As soon as boost had come on it would free rev and it even got to the point where I completely lost pedal feel.

I was a little bummed as I really wanted to focus on nailing that first corner, but instead I worked on getting to know my hand brake as I don’t use it often. I ended up turning the boost down to around 15psi and the clutch didn’t give a shit. So yeah I guess it’s time for a new one.

The transition from morning to afternoon session, the Stagea decided to start popping intercooler pipes. There is a reducer in the setup that is too short for my liking but had never caused grief, now every second run the pipe would come off … it was super frustrating.

Finally, my front tyres went flat and popped off the bead somewhere towards the late afternoon. That and the cooler pipe was coming off every run so I called it quits.

All in all I still had a rad day, the Stagea is near its full potential and I’m finally getting comfortable with it. The new diff setup works a treat too, the 4.3 gearing is a perfect match for my heavy Stagea.

Next event is Raceline’s Wakefield matsuri which is just under a month away. I’ll need to change the clutch and get some new front tyres before then, I’d love to get my R33 front end and an alignment too but we’ll see what happens.

[Run-It-Hard]

http://run-it-hard.com/2013/04/video-dump-drifting-the-creek

Time for a video dump! Over the weekend I compiled some footage of just the Stagea, there was plenty of content so I figured why not.

After I had uploaded it to YouTube, I noticed in the recommended to watch section there was some outside footage recorded of the day, by MPN Digital.

So I decided to watch it and saw the Stagea pop up straight away. I was chuffed. It looks and sounds the business from outside haha.

I continued to watch and there was some tandem action with Benny too, yeah buddy!

Here’s a vid I came across from Kinetic imagery, looks to be last months practice day I went too. Super cool seeing outside footage.

Last but certainly not least, is Scott Mitchell’s latest vid covering the day, as always a good watch!

There’s a photo dump coming up next, then time to get the cars ready for Matsuri.

[REEOWW]

So you managed to convert the 4WD to RWD? Would your setup be ok for a daily driver?

Here is what happened to my poor Stagea http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/topic/423750-stop-sign-runners-and-new-project/ . My new one is 4WD but i'm very interested in converting it if possible. My partner works at a wreckers yard so I have access to parts if I need them.

[Run-It-Hard]

You can run it in RWD by pulling out the front drive shaft it's only 4 bolts. I've removed the ATTESSA pump because I am running a S13 R200 pumpkin, it doesn't have mounting points for the pump.

[Run-It-Hard]

A PAIR OF WINNING - VIEW ON THE BLOG

A month or so ago I asked Benny to keep an eye out for some Euroline N2s every time he went wheel hunting. A few days ago he stumbled across a pair in epic sizes, and crazy cheap BIY (buy it now) price. I had to have them so I promptly contacted Jesse and now they are on their way to Australia.

I’ve been craving to have a set of N2s for a while now, they aren’t a common wheel (Work only made them for a year) and the rear pair look pretty rad on the Stagea. I love my Viennas but the downfall with them is that I need to run a 15mm spacer up front to clear brakes.

Anyway the specs on these puppies are 18×9 -23. Absolutely perfect for the Stagea, they are R disk too which means I don’t need to worry if I ever go bigger brakes in the future.

The whole set is in need for a referb, fortunately the lips are all in decent condition so it’s just the faces that need some work. I’m thinking body colour with added flake and some black highlights would look pretty rad. I’ve got a set of mint Euroline centre caps on their way too.

[Run-It-Hard]

Photo dump: Full day drifts at South Circuit - VIEW ON THE BLOG

So weeks have passed and pictures have trickled through from various photographers, covering the last South circuit practice day. There was a heap of coverage on both the Stagea and Skyline too which is pretty cool! Lets go through the pics.

As soon as we had arrived, we were greeted by Krista from Kinetic imagery and Mitch from MPN Digital.

Here’s Benny doing what he loves, looks like he is enjoying himself to haha!

It was Paulie’s first time out on the South circuit, going over the vids he kept improving throughout the day.

I like this pic that was taken by Seb from Slow & Serious, I think this was taken in the Morning session when the Stagea wasn’t acting up.

Throughout the day Benny and I were getting some tandems happening, such a shame I couldn’t keep up out of the pits (clutch slipping under power). Was so much fun though, good to finally do some close driving with him again.

If you were at the last South Circuit day, you would have seen the Stagea in this pose for most of it. I can’t remember how many times I came into the pits to fix shit.

Another pic of Paulie’s R33. He let me have a drive of it in the arvo because nice guy. Had a crazy amount of rear end grip! was like learning to drive all over again haha.

Benny was a maniac last event, but he always is. It’s the quiet ones you’ve got to watch out for as they say. Oh and he lost his side skirts as usual..

The Stagea was so good to drive for the brief moments that it worked properly. I started gaining confidence and the Stagea started smoking tyres..

As did Benny, ARDC let us drift turn 10, which makes for epic bakes.

Sammy is a wizard with the Camera, always gets great shots.

Thanks to Kinetic imagery, MPN Digital, Slow & Serious photography and StreetFans.net for the awesome photos!