CMR's S15 Spec R Aero

[CMR]

Thought I had better post this here too, as I know not all of you visit SXOC.

Stay with me whilst I copy the first few posts over, then the new stuff will be added!


Where to start, wanted an S14a or S15 back in 2008/2009 but couldn't find the right 14 and couldn't afford a S15. Few cars later I bought a 350Z and owned that for 18 months.

As much as the 350Z is a nice car, there was always something missing. It felt too.. grown up, refined and of course didn't have boost. Regularly seeing my friend's S14a and taking it for a few drives made me really re-consider getting rid of the 350Z for something with boost. I looked around for S15's for about a year before I decided that importing one was the only way I'd get the car I wanted.

Got in touch with Mike at Torque GT after speaking to a few importers who hadn't really made me feel like using them. Highly recommend Mike and Torque GT as a whole, after a fair bit of a searching managed to find a Spec R S15 with full aero that was a grade 4.5 and ticked all the boxes.

After a lot of bidding, the car didn't sell as the owner wouldn't budge his price despite me being the highest bidder. A few weeks passed and it was re-listed at different auctions across Japan and the same thing happened, I was the highest bidder until the 4th listing when he was willing to negotiate

A long wait then ensued and the car was put onto the boat near the end of October, arrived into the UK just before Christmas and finally picked it up the other day.

Few pictures for now until I can get some decent ones:

Full Spec

Full Aero with De-Spoilered Boot
Factory Xenon Headlights
Desmond Regamaster Alloys, 8j x ET35 all round
Nismo Front and Rear Strut braces
Apexi Cat back Exhaust


Got a lot of parts to fit gradually so will update this as I go, as will be keeping it for quite awhile hopefully. Already met a few of you when I had the Z but hopefully meet a fair few more this year :thumbs:

First step is to under seal it, as the underneath is immaculate and want to keep it that way.

 

[CMR]

First thing I've done is get rid of the standard Mini-disk Radio Unit. After driving all the way back up to Yorkshire from Exeter I got fed up fast of only being able to listen to Radio 2 due to the Japanese bandwidths :no:

Gear knob and Gaiter off

Main Surround and Stereo out

Alpine with full iPod/iPhone support fitted, after a lot of messing about before I realised the S15 loom has no ground :wack:

Somehow crawled into the 3rd Brake light and died, quite a big bug/fly. Not sure how to get access to it without stripping all the rear down just for a bug!

 

[CMR]

Small update

Fitted my D-Max LED lights I've had sat in the cupboard for awhile today. Not really done much else as just been driving it in this great weather we are having at the moment. Soon as the weather gets better will get cracking fitting some more things.

Surprisingly not that bad in the snow, hell of a lot better than my old Z anyway.

Lights Mid change:

Done:

Cleans up the rear, although I'm not 100% convinced about the LED's yet at night but we'll see.

Then Pulled my finger out and got the Nardi wheel and HKB boss fitted that I've had sitting around. Need to take the boss off at some point as the steering is off centre by a few splines, not the end of the world at the moment though.

 

[CMR]

Well it appears I'm **** at updating project threads :wack:

Quite a big update this one, but I'll try and stick to regular updates from now on.

Things done since last update:

• A few Oil changes, plus Spark Plug change for Grade 7 NGK's
• Walbro Fuel Pump Fitted
• Apexi Intake and APEX Stainless Intake Fitted
• HKS EVC-S Boost Controller Fitted
• Kakimoto Hyper Full Mega N1+ Exhaust Imported from Japan and fitted
• R33 GTR Front Brembos bought, refurbed with new Seals and fitted
• R33 GTS Rear Brake Setup bought from Skinz's old 200SX (RIP :wack and fitted
• Blitz Front Pipe and Japspeed Decat fitted
• HSD HR Coilovers fitted

Probably something I've missed, but those are the main changes.

Next things to be done soon are:

• Get centre Silencer cut out and replaced with 3" Stainless
• Find a working BM57 Master Cylinder
• Underseal before Winter
• Fit Autobahn88 FMIC
• Solve my strange boost issue
• Fit adjustable arms and get the car aligned
• Hardwire my Airbag light resistor, as it's been flashing for the last 4000 miles

Few pictures of the changes above, hopefully in some sort of order:


Originally thought the Fuel Pump was under the rear seats as it was in my old Glanza, realised my error and started taking the old one out:

Was all going so well, then for some stupid reason I had left a small screwdriver right near the tank hole, and just as I was lifting the cradle out, the screwdriver dropped into the tank in slow motion :wack:
After 10 minutes of being above elbow deep in VPower I found it right in the corner of the tank:

Fitted:

Next up was the Apexi Intake I had bought whilst the car was still in the docks, bought a Stainless Intake from Apex to go with it:

Fitted nicely apart from not being able to connect one of the brackets, not the end of the world.

Around the same time as fitting the Apexi I noticed I had some strange boost issues, I can accelerate and hit 0.6 bar fast due to the BB turbo, but from 4.5k upwards the boost will rise to 0.8 bar and stay there.
I bought a HKS EVC S to try and solve this as I thought it was the standard boost controller playing up:

Whilst fitting for some reason I thought it would be best to tighten the solenoid fittings as tight as **** and... well I'll let the picture do the talking. Let's just say it was so tight it couldn't be easy-out'ed, so had to buy a new solenoid.. Expensive mistake!

Fitted in the end:

 

[CMR]

Got fed up with the massive backbox the Apexi exhaust that came with the car from Japan had, so ordered a Kakimoto Hyper Full Mega N1+ exhaust from RHDJapan, because it looked good and only the Japs can call an exhaust Hyper Full Mega

Arrived, old exhaust off, new one fitted.

Few pictures of the car after fitting the exhaust and a clean:

Next I decided that I really needed to sort the brakes out, after a lot of thinking I chose to run R33 GTR Brembos up front and R33 GTS Rears.

I found some Brembo's, stripped them down and set about trying to find a seal kit to refurb them before getting them fitted to the car.

Got the pistons out thanks to help from a good mate, then set about doing the seals. Once I figured out how much lubrication the pistons needed they all went in with no problem lol.

Oh, also bought some DBA Rotor's and DS2500 pads for the new setup:

Got all the brakes fitted by SlideMotorsport whilst I was away on holiday, and they make such a difference even running on the standard S15 Master Cylinder, I bought a BM57 but unfortunately the seals have gone. Need to find another as the brakes are very front biased at the moment.

Next Job was Coilovers with help from my mate, decided I finally needed to sort my ride height issue out:

Shock Out (note to self, need to paint those hubs!)

New HSD's sprayed with anti-seize

 

[CMR]

Fitted... Hmm, maybe a touch too low :nod:

Then did the fronts, good view of the new Brembos too:

Ride Height set and back on it's wheels:

My issue at the moment is this:

The centre silencer is catching on pretty much anything, going to get it replaced with a bit of straight pipe. May have to run a decat silencer if it's too loud but will see:


Will get some better pictures of the new ride height tomorrow hopefully.

Apologies for the long update, hope you made it this far and not got bored.

Unfortunately I still have the boost issue, no matter what boost I run it will raise around 4.5k....HKS EVC set to 0.7 bar it will go to 0.9...even running just a 6mm hose from the Intercooler to the Actuator I get 0.45 bar then from 4.5k upwards it will go to 0.65 and stay there. It's very strange, and doesn't seem like boost creep as it doesn't keep rising but maybe I'm wrong. Anyone have any ideas?

Comments welcome :thumbs:

 

[~X~]

Wow that's low! Would love to know how those HSD Coilovers handle and feel to drive on a daily basis. Thinking of getting a set for mine as oppose to Tein or BC

 

[Mike]

First time I've read this tread through, love when cars have a little history in the bidding! Had a good snoop round it when was down with Mike at torque and car look nice then but it looks quality now! Some tidy mods there to.

I had a tragic stereo in mine just wouldn't pick up anything, luckily only had a hour ish drive though, I found some mad leads in mine to when removing it all, VGA leads and all sorts under the carpet! God knows what the Japanese fella was running.

How loud is the kakimoto bud? I had one on my dc5 and it was bonkers loud for just a cat back.

 

[pegliobaglio]

Car looks great dude!
I have a kakimoto on my car ( different mid section to you though) and it sounds epic!!!
how you finding the DNA disks!? Was looking to get a set for mine as have heard good things about them.
Some really choice parts going onto this! Hope you sort your boost issue soon mate

 

[CMR]

First time I've read this tread through, love when cars have a little history in the bidding! Had a good snoop round it when was down with Mike at torque and car look nice then but it looks quality now! Some tidy mods there to.

I had a tragic stereo in mine just wouldn't pick up anything, luckily only had a hour ish drive though, I found some mad leads in mine to when removing it all, VGA leads and all sorts under the carpet! God knows what the Japanese fella was running.

How loud is the kakimoto bud? I had one on my dc5 and it was bonkers loud for just a cat back.

Cheers Mike, Yeah it was almost never meant to be with all the auction failures. Mike at Torque was sure the car was immaculate due to the seller not wanting to budge on his price and obviously paying for re-auctions across Japan every week... Then finally I won, and credit to the owner in Japan the car was exactly as the pictures suggested.
I still have the stereo issue, I think it might be the aerial in the rear screen though. I have it correctly wired in so the antenna has power etc but I can still only pickup Radio 2 on the Alpine unit. Bit of a strange one.

The Kakimoto is nice actually, it's a bit louder now with the front pipe and decat but as standard it was quiet cruising and idle then roared when accelerating.

Basically from reading on Jap websites the old version was Hyper Mega N1 and was loud as hell, but the new one which I have is Hyper Mega N1 Rev + which is Jasma approved so under the DB limit that the Silent Power etc fall under.
I just hope when I get the centre silencer cut out it isn't stupidly loud

Car looks great dude!

I have a kakimoto on my car ( different mid section to you though) and it sounds epic!!!
how you finding the DNA disks!? Was looking to get a set for mine as have heard good things about them.
Some really choice parts going onto this! Hope you sort your boost issue soon mate​

Cheers
The discs are DBA4000 from Aus, and are amazing to be honest. I have used EBC and CRN in the past which are 'cheap' discs and with the DBA you can definitely tell the price difference in quality. They have thermal paint on the rotor too so you can see how hot you have got them on track which is a nice feature. Hopefully get the car on the track next year to see how they perform.

Yeah my idea is always to buy good quality parts, modded a few cars now and made a few mistakes with copy/cheap parts and ended up having to buy genuine ones later so with the S15 I decided on quality parts from the beginning.

The boost issue, after reading Mint's old S15 thread last night that it could be a boost leak or multiple leaks. As there is a rolling road printout when he got his car and it shows the car boosting so far, then higher in the revs boosting to where it should be so it could be the turbo is overcoming the leak high in the rev range if that makes sense to anybody? Correct me if i'm wrong.

 

[ali619]

BEAUTIFUL,

just amazing

credit to you and mike from Torque GT

 

[fez06]

Just read you thread pal its a lovely car you've got love the exhaust. Will have to meet up in the new year when weather picks up.

 

[CMR]

Cheers, needs a few updates does this though.. I'll see if I have time this weekend