S15 Spec R

[RP1421]

General update this time around 

Wheel faces are now in Sydney, to hopefully be completed. I would have liked  these completed last year, but here we are, due to various reasons. 

While fixing a dead battery in the JZX, I noticed somehow the oil cap has failed . I've never experienced this before, but easily fixed. Similarly, the coilpack connectors are in awful condition. Due to the design of the engine, but mostly the cover , a lot of heat is trapped in the coilpack area and with a car of this mileage, the plastic has become extremely brittle. With the most recent service and armed with a replacement kit from Goleby's, I set about replacing the three connectors. They were in such poor shape that the white retaining clip has come apart and even the retaining clips for the pins had failed. I'm glad I got on top of this when I did. It will be replaced with R35 coil kit once I go for more power. 

I also picked up a set of diff bushes for the JZX110, as they are a commonly worn item in these cars. These are made of Delrin, so it should be reasonable for street duties. Additionally, I'm planning to change to the 4.1 LSD out of the 86/BRZ, so a reasonable upgrade to do at once. 

The Silvia has been largely trouble free thankfully. The most eventful thing being a dead indicator bulb, which was not an easy 'bulb out, bulb in'  affair. This is an opportunity to show the oil cooler is setup in my car (being fed air through the fog light 'intake'. Additionally, a showcase of the fabwork done with the FMIC to avoid the foglights, oil system and not cut my front bar. The cooling package is very very effective in these car, almost too good for the street (oil is thermostat controlled, water is not). I had upgraded my FMIC to a Greddy item and a Koyorad Radiator (back in 2020 with the turbo upgrades). 

Otherwise, it's been raining a lot in Brisbane, but I've been out at any opportunity, so what better way to sign-off on this update but a glamour shot. Fingers crossed the next post will be my completed wheels. 

 

[RP1421]

A general update, mostly because I'd love to keep this forum thing going. I wish I could say I had better news, but it's been an interesting time, since my last update. 

The S15 has been off the road between approximately June 2022 to now February 2023. What should have been a simple swap of brake pads turned into an ordeal of sorts. I was negligent in checking the rear inner pads, so I had ran the pads down nearly to the backing plate (see image below). I picked this up when I noticed the pedal feel was very odd. I ordered a set of rotors for the rears, with new pads for all for corners (Eligs for the fronts and Forza FP3s for the rear). 

 

Upon reinstalling and servicing the brakes, I realised now I had a failed seal in the rear brakes. I was able to easily source a kit and passed the work onto a brake specialist nearby. Several weeks passed until I called up the shop myself and they told me they couldn't finish the job due needing new brake pistons, as the current ones were too far gone. They'd been trying to source it themselves to no avail. Fair enough, not exactly the easiest thing to source, except had they told me, I could also help in finding some. Same day, I was able to get some brand new from Japan (thanks as always for Jesse Streeter for this and all the other buys over the years), but now of course adds extra time for shipping etc. It's hard now to recall how long this took, but overall I'd estimate maybe 2 months to have my brakes refurbed (maybe more). Once they turned up, the shop was able to turn it around the same day, and I'd also organised for braided lines (GKTech) for the rears (fronts already had braided lines) as extra insurance. 

After reinstalling the brakes and new parts, I took it out for a test drive to bed in. This didn't go so well. Now my brakes were dragging, badly. To the point that I managed to ruin a set of rotors and bad enough that I needed to organise a tow home.

 

Life happened in between, I didn't really have time to work on the car and diagnose the issue, despite using the factory service manual to ensure it was done properly. If you're familiar with these brakes, the brake pistons have a specific pattern and you need to align the brake pad so that it basically 'indexes' properly and prevents dragging. Given I had already spent so much time & money trying to get the car back on the road and also having little time over the months to work on the car, I passed the work onto a trusted mechanic. Who was able to properly seat the pads in and get the car back on the road. 

That's not to say other things didn't happen in between. I've been slowly building up my collection of parts for the 110. I've been able to source a new intercooler, cam gears and 4.1 Toyota 86 LSD. I also managed to score a set of plates, which describe the car aptly. 

 

On top of all this, I've had quite the saga with the wheels for the 110. As you may have noted in previous posts, I had sent these to a workshop in Sydney. I will update this in the future with perhaps more detailed information, but the short story is that it's been close to 9 months, and I'm no closer to having my wheels completed. It's been difficult to get updates in a timely fashion, with most of my calls and messages going unresponded. It wasn't until I made a social media post, that garnered some attention that I received a response. Despite being told my wheels would be ready by end of 2022, I'm now being told this will not occur at a minimum until early June (pending other things falling into place). I'm extremely dissatisfied with this, as this is over a year from when I originally requested the work, and I may have mentioned this before, but I had already spent 2021 trying to have another workshop do this work, who could not. All in all, an incredibly frustrating exercise. 

As I usually like to do, I'll close out with a nice picture.

 

[RP1421]

Update time! 

The 110 had its diff upgrade done, alongside diff bushes (from Serialnine). Diffs from the 86 swap right in and since installing the diff, the car feels much better to drive. I also threw in a new set of brake pads (from Intima) at the same time. I should also have a rear lip on the way soon, which will need paint but this will mean I can start getting towards an exhaust made for the car. 

 

As a sidenote, I'm not sure if many users here have seen these new type of fire extinguishers. I won't bother rewording what is already a great explanation, but the space saving is quite significant. Though these cost more than a traditional bottle, the space is important to me and you also don't have the messy powder to clean up (in the worst case event). Added a picture to show the size difference. 

Quote

Firestryker is a manual, portable aerosol inhibitor with remarkable extinguishing capability. It has very low toxicity and is environmentally safe. The device is a small, compact, lightweight cylinder: the upper part of the device is a metal tube containing the extinguishing charge. The lower part of the device is composed of plastic and serves as a support handle.

The use of a potassium powder jet – a unique method among fire extinguishers – involves
the vaporization of the powder in the environment followed by the condensation of its
extinguishing substance. The product works by interrupting a fire’s chain of reaction (the “auto­catalyst” of the fire). The device is composed of stable, solid minerals; it does not contain gas and is not pressurized. The aerosol­like jet is only produced when the charger is stricken with its base. The produced aerosol jet is essentially an inert salt that emits gas already present in the atmosphere.

This process allows Firestryker to extinguish all types of fires through saturation. Its slow bio­degradation in the environment furthers the prevention of subsequent fires. The extinguishing process involves two different reactions: one is physical and the other, chemical. The physical reaction relates to potassium’s tendency to oxidize rapidly in air. When in contact with air, alkaline salts consume great quantities of oxygen, thus depriving fires of oxygen. The chemical reaction is created through the stable link between potassium particles and the fire’s combustion particles. Through the two reactions, a quick oxidation process takes place, immediately transforming the jet from a solid state into a gaseous state which frees the potassium particles. These atoms are able to intercept and interrupt any other free particles produced by the fire’s chain reaction combustion process. Potassium has strong inhibitor qualities, due to its weak ionization energies. 

Around April of this year, I also made the decision to make an upgrade to the S15s engine management system. I chose to go with a Link G4X plug and play unit, with all the associated sensors. This would do away with the Apexi PowerFC + HKS EVC combination and bring the car into 2023. Additionally, I saw the availability of some new trigger kits, and I thought what better time to add this. The 5-0 ignite unit is great unit and works with the factory wiring perfectly.

Again, I won't reword the sales pitch 

Quote

Nissan motors with optical crank angle sensor mounted on the camshaft (RB, VG, SR etc.) are notorious for ignition timing drift especially at high load, high power and high rpm. This is often caused by a combination of worn out OEM CAS unit, fine 360 trigger slits and backlash from the SR20 CAS gear.

 I got the car back recently from the tuner and suffice to say, the car feels great and more lively. The entire package feels really responsive and everything works really well. I didn't make any more power, but for those interested, I made 230kw at 19psi. Which is two psi than the previous setup on the PowerFC.  Added some pictures of the added parts

I should also have my wheel faces for the 110 back shortly, they're finally done! The chrome job looks fantastic but I haven't got them in hand to take nicer pictures yet. 

As always, closing out with a nice picture. 

 

Edited July 2, 2023 by RP1421

[RP1421]

I forgot to add this to my previous post, but it may serve useful as a separate guide. I don't believe they are compatible with Skylines, so the following applies to S15s (sorry). 

My washer pumps started shooting a fairly weak stream. Turns out that the Nissan Patrol pumps are compatible with Silvias. See the image for part number and for a side-by-side. Can be purchased for ~$60 off eBay or similar. 

Removing the pumps were a pretty basic affair, though the hoses tended to want to not come loose. I couldn't be bothered removing the front bar so my leverage was limited, I resorted to cutting the hose off (plenty of slack in the line anyway). Do note however I did have to swap out the brown tab on the old connector, as the new pumps I received, had the open slot on the other side. So don't throw away your old pump immediately, as you may need to swap in the tabs from the old to the new, to match the plug.

Next step is to find a washer nozzle that provides a better spray pattern. I did find this in relation to an R33 with a fluidic nozzle upgrade, but the fitment looks not great. Honda seems to have made some too (P/N 76810-TK8-A01), which I might try to obtain and try. 

http://www.r33gt-r.com/2013/04/another-modern-upgrade-fluidic.html?m=1&fbclid=IwAR3e0_1DTDtPNV3UrnbGHZKGlidzjDQNV33rLBKeFr-Hx8bzOZZHelkIi7o

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

With the S15 rear calipers, did you compress the piston to install the pads or did you wind them in?

[RP1421]

3 hours ago, Dose Pipe Sutututu said:

With the S15 rear calipers, did you compress the piston to install the pads or did you wind them in?

I wound them in. Many many years ago, when I first did the brakes, I wasted a lot of time trying to compress them in (silly me didn't read the service manual). This time around, it seems I didn't line up the notch properly (not sure how because I did keep this in mind specifically).

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

I have a solution, just convert the lot to R33 GTS-t or R34 GT-t brakes.

OEM+ 

[RP1421]

My new wheel centres have arrived back from chrome. I've been waiting to have these done for nearly three years! After going through multiple vendors, I found the right person who had them done in under two months and for nearly half the price of others. 

Now to get these built, throw some tyres on and add some upgraded coilovers. 

 

[DaymoR32]

On 7/15/2023 at 2:02 PM, RP1421 said:

My new wheel centres have arrived back from chrome. I've been waiting to have these done for nearly three years! After going through multiple vendors, I found the right person who had them done in under two months and for nearly half the price of others. 

Now to get these built, throw some tyres on and add some upgraded coilovers. 

 

who did you use? im tempted to get my LM centres chromed

[RP1421]

7 hours ago, DaymoR32 said:

who did you use? im tempted to get my LM centres chromed

Nick, hit him up via Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/nickthefourdoorfreak

[RP1421]

I'm sure I'd posted this in a previous post, but I'd purchased a rear bumper for the 110. It's been sitting in my storage, whilst I've focused on all the stuff you've seen in the content since. In talks with another owner, we ended up trading parts, so he got the rear bar and I got an OEM rear lip. I always prefer OEM stuff and this should (hopefully) not cost as much to paint and fit. I might actually end up putting an exhaust on this car finally (which will require making a cutout)

Whilst not the most interesting update, useful to post this for future JZX110 owners. I updated the failing bonnet struts. Repco RGS14695 is what you need +  4 x 10mm ball stud WITH 14mm long M8 thread + 4 x M8 washers. Don't even bother trying to lever the stock arms off the balljoints, especially when the ball studs cost you <$15 for 4 (work smarter, not harder). 

Also shoutout to Costco for having some useful kit. This light is $50 and has been pretty solid 

• Rechargeable via USB C 
• Has hooks on either end 
• Has magnets on both ends with swivelling ends (see picture)
• Centre body can rotate
• Plenty bright! 

Luceco 10W LED Rechargeable Inspection Light

Racked up some miles on the 110 over the past few weeks. I've dropped off the centres to be reunited with the barrels, new lips and hardware. Very excited to have these complete in the next few weeks. 

 

[RP1421]

Good news and bad news for this post. 

Returning from a cars and coffee event, whilst cruising at ~60km/h, the S15 went into limp mode. To cut a long story short, for reasons still unknown, I lost all oil pressure. Pulled the car over and all the oil was dumped onto the bash plate. I've checked visually to date, but can't figure out where/how it occurred. Suffice to say, losing all your oil is likely going to be a major failure of some description. Update on this topic once I've got things pulled apart and diagnosed the cause. 

In better news, I received my new coilovers and wheels for the JZX110. I opted to purchase from Shockworks and had them built to focus on comfort above all else, 20/14kg spring rates. The wheels came out incredible, and I'm glad I went the way I did. I opted to go with gold hardware, which will tie in with some gold accents on the car. I ended up replacing all the lips, as they were in various states needing some love and I ended sizing up the rears half an inch. 

Details: Leon Hardirrit Bugels - 19x8.5 +25 & 19x10 +26

After 2.5 years of going through various vendors, extremely glad to finish these. The plan is to have these on before the end of the year. I do need to find some tyres to suit. Happy to take some recommendations! Michelin PilotSports seem overkill for this car (for the moment at least).

Picture about 1hr before all my oil said goodbye

[RP1421]

Good news (relative to the last post)! 

The S15 still lives! The cause was found to be a loose oil line fitting on my filter relocation. ECU did it's job, fingers crossed no major damage. Having it driven it, seems to run and drive just fine. Got lucky this time, touch wood. 

Wheels are on the 110! Had to play around a little with heights, rolling guards and adjusting the overall geometry without having to fork out big money for adjustable arms. I've got it somewhere reasonable, I think at least that balances daily driving. I do a decent bit of driving in this car to and from work, on mostly okay Brisbane roads. I think once I get the rear lip put on, it should "balance" the look of the car. 

Ordered some centre caps to finish off the look. In the few weeks of driving, it's definitely an effort to keep these wheels clean (even with a ceramic coat applied). 

Pictures, of course.