B
BigPhil
Guest
I posted this on the NZ Silvia Site, But a few people have asked for it to be reposted here too, So here we go..
The following is a break down of Modifications (As at Nov 06) and changes that I have made to My S15 From June 05 to Nov 06. Everything mentioned is Factual and correct..
The end Goal was a Street car that could be used every day but handle a good thrashing at the track. I was after the ?Complete Package? it had to handle well, have good power, Stop better than most and also look good, while still being a daily driver.
In the Beginning
What we started with was a Japanese Spec 1999 Nissan Silvia S15. Modifications that were on it when Purchased were Ohlin Coil Overs, Factory Aero Body Kit, Nismo Alloy?s, Cat back Exhaust and Trust Air Filter.
On the whole not a bad starting point, the car was purchased with a Cert making things easier when Warrant of Fitness time comes around. Compared to my old 1992 SR20DET S13 it felt slower, the extra weight of the S15 was very noticeable and while it probably had more power it still felt very restricted and ran about 0.5 bar of boost.
The Ohlin Suspension is height adjustable only and very stiff. It has to be some one best suspension I?ve used and makes the car handle fantastically, the only downside is no-one is prepared to rebuild them.
Things I didn?t like about it were : The body kit looked ugly, the alloys weren?t wide enough and once again it felt slow.
The First Year
Not much was planned in the first year, I was unbelievably busy at work and helping friends build their show cars. Most mods were done out of necessity more than anything else.
The first thing that was changed was the removal of the boost restrictor, this was a 30 second job and immediately saw an increase of boost to 0.8 bar and a noticeable increase in power.
Second change was a set of Mintex M1166 Pads. These made a drastic change to the power of the brakes, the only down side was the dust, But the dust is a small price to pay for Good brakes. One thing I?ve noticed about Mintex pads is after about a years use on a road car their braking ability seems to decrease, this happened with my S13 as well..
AutoSalon 2005
About 6 months had gone by and the car was going ok. I was asked to put the car in the AutoSalon by some friends at Onboost. I needed to make 2 changes before I was happy to do this, these were the addition of a Front mount Intercooler and a New Front Bar. A Vertex copy front bar was purchased and a Trust Front mount Intercooler was ordered, time was getting short with only 1 week to get everything done and it was soon discovered that the Copy front bar that ?Fits Well? doesn?t fit at all well, There were huge gaps under the lights and the sides didn?t meet with the Guards, the front bar was put at the back of the garage and forgotten about. The AutoSalon came about but the Intercooler didn?t, the Guaranteed 7 day delivery didn?t happen so I told the Supplier I didn?t want it..
It should be noted that the Intercooler and Front bar were ordered through people I don?t deal with anymore and are not mentioned anywhere in this post.
New Wheels
For the Autosalon I was lent some Work Emotion wheels, After seeing them on the car I decided to buy them then and there.. Sizes are 18x8.5 and 18x9.5.. But before I could have them on the car permanently the rear Guards needed rolling and pumped about 22mm each side. For this job I went and Spoke with Shane @ Prima Panel Beaters, I needed the guards repainted anyway after someone had backed into me in a car park, So a deal was done where the guards were rolled and Pumped at not cost but I just had to pay for panel and paint. I jumped at the deal and within a few days it was all done and the wheels were on. The pumping itself was quite easy, all that was done was a ?Porta Power? was placed between the Chassis and the inside of the guard. The Metal was slowly stretched a section at a time until the desired amount was reached, the rear guards were then repainted with a perfect color match.
Overheating
It was around this time that I started having over heating problems, Every time I went for a long drive at motorway speed the car would start to over heat, this was getting very irritating to say the least. Everyone had their theories but no one knew what the problem was, So I decided to get a new radiator, low temp thermostat and use a good coolant as I figured the problem must be one of those things. A Second hand Apexi Radiator was offered at a good price by Andy (DORIFT), this had supported over 240kw?s in his S14 so was perfect for the job. Thanks Andy !!
It took a day to take the old Radiator out and put the Apexi one in with new thermostat, Prestone Anti Freeze and some ?Water Wetter? additive.. The main reason it took so long is I got half way through and discovered I had no pliers to take the hoses off, so had to call around some friends to see if they could come over with some pliers. The New Apexi Radiator was twice as thick as the old one and on closer inspection I discovered the old one was blocked quite badly. Job done and it never over heated again.
The radiator is often an overlooked modification, but I now highly recommend a radiator upgrade to everyone, especially with the Alloy SR20.
Front Bar Again
Some time had passed and I still had that Ugly Aero front on the car and a bad Vertex copy front sitting in the garage. After the great job Shane @ Prima had done with the guards I went back and talked to him to see what was involved in getting it on the car and Perfect. He was keen to do it and thought a few days would be enough to sort it out, So I left the car with him and the instructions to make it fit ?Perfectly?. A few days passed and he called to say it was ready to pick up. I couldn?t believe it when I first saw it, the fit was perfect and the color match was unbelievable. It turns out he actually cut it into 3 bits and fiber glassed it back together, a total of 16+ hours of work, it should be noted that this is what happens when you buy a cheap copy !! Anyway the front was on and looking great, except for that big gap at the front where an Intercooler should be.
The Boost Up, Part 1
Explanation
I?m not sure what it was that set me down the boost up path, But in a short period of time I managed to spend a lot of money on the S15.
Before anything was done the car was put on Soichi?s Dyno to get a base Power figure before any parts were added, I estimated the cars power at about 160kw?s and the Dyno proved me correct, 164 Kw?s @ 5887 Rpm on just under 1 bar of boost.
The first part of the process consisted of a Nismo Fuel pump and a HKS S-Type Intercooler with Aluminum piping kit.
It only took 2 weeks for these to arrive and after a day at Soichi?s they were installed and ready to go. It turns out the Expensive Odyssey battery I had brought was too big so a smaller Exide item was installed at the same time.
Impressions
First thing I noticed was the noise the Fuel pump makes, its actually quite noisy when you first start the car and it primes, But at the end of the day it?s a fuel pump and so long as it does its job that?s all that matters
The Intercooler immediately made a difference, The car was a lot more responsive through the rev range but the boost was lower and the top end had lost a bit of power..
Conclusion
The car is in need of a good Tune !!
The basis of these 2 mods were as a starting point for Part 2, I never expected these mods alone to make any difference to the power, but they were required for what was coming in Part 2.
A lot of people say the car becomes more Laggy when you add a Front Mount Intercooler, I found the complete opposite.. The car was more responsive, it was the top end that suffered, probably from over fueling..
Continued..
The following is a break down of Modifications (As at Nov 06) and changes that I have made to My S15 From June 05 to Nov 06. Everything mentioned is Factual and correct..
The end Goal was a Street car that could be used every day but handle a good thrashing at the track. I was after the ?Complete Package? it had to handle well, have good power, Stop better than most and also look good, while still being a daily driver.
In the Beginning
What we started with was a Japanese Spec 1999 Nissan Silvia S15. Modifications that were on it when Purchased were Ohlin Coil Overs, Factory Aero Body Kit, Nismo Alloy?s, Cat back Exhaust and Trust Air Filter.
On the whole not a bad starting point, the car was purchased with a Cert making things easier when Warrant of Fitness time comes around. Compared to my old 1992 SR20DET S13 it felt slower, the extra weight of the S15 was very noticeable and while it probably had more power it still felt very restricted and ran about 0.5 bar of boost.
The Ohlin Suspension is height adjustable only and very stiff. It has to be some one best suspension I?ve used and makes the car handle fantastically, the only downside is no-one is prepared to rebuild them.
Things I didn?t like about it were : The body kit looked ugly, the alloys weren?t wide enough and once again it felt slow.
The First Year
Not much was planned in the first year, I was unbelievably busy at work and helping friends build their show cars. Most mods were done out of necessity more than anything else.
The first thing that was changed was the removal of the boost restrictor, this was a 30 second job and immediately saw an increase of boost to 0.8 bar and a noticeable increase in power.
Second change was a set of Mintex M1166 Pads. These made a drastic change to the power of the brakes, the only down side was the dust, But the dust is a small price to pay for Good brakes. One thing I?ve noticed about Mintex pads is after about a years use on a road car their braking ability seems to decrease, this happened with my S13 as well..
AutoSalon 2005
About 6 months had gone by and the car was going ok. I was asked to put the car in the AutoSalon by some friends at Onboost. I needed to make 2 changes before I was happy to do this, these were the addition of a Front mount Intercooler and a New Front Bar. A Vertex copy front bar was purchased and a Trust Front mount Intercooler was ordered, time was getting short with only 1 week to get everything done and it was soon discovered that the Copy front bar that ?Fits Well? doesn?t fit at all well, There were huge gaps under the lights and the sides didn?t meet with the Guards, the front bar was put at the back of the garage and forgotten about. The AutoSalon came about but the Intercooler didn?t, the Guaranteed 7 day delivery didn?t happen so I told the Supplier I didn?t want it..
It should be noted that the Intercooler and Front bar were ordered through people I don?t deal with anymore and are not mentioned anywhere in this post.
New Wheels
For the Autosalon I was lent some Work Emotion wheels, After seeing them on the car I decided to buy them then and there.. Sizes are 18x8.5 and 18x9.5.. But before I could have them on the car permanently the rear Guards needed rolling and pumped about 22mm each side. For this job I went and Spoke with Shane @ Prima Panel Beaters, I needed the guards repainted anyway after someone had backed into me in a car park, So a deal was done where the guards were rolled and Pumped at not cost but I just had to pay for panel and paint. I jumped at the deal and within a few days it was all done and the wheels were on. The pumping itself was quite easy, all that was done was a ?Porta Power? was placed between the Chassis and the inside of the guard. The Metal was slowly stretched a section at a time until the desired amount was reached, the rear guards were then repainted with a perfect color match.
Overheating
It was around this time that I started having over heating problems, Every time I went for a long drive at motorway speed the car would start to over heat, this was getting very irritating to say the least. Everyone had their theories but no one knew what the problem was, So I decided to get a new radiator, low temp thermostat and use a good coolant as I figured the problem must be one of those things. A Second hand Apexi Radiator was offered at a good price by Andy (DORIFT), this had supported over 240kw?s in his S14 so was perfect for the job. Thanks Andy !!
It took a day to take the old Radiator out and put the Apexi one in with new thermostat, Prestone Anti Freeze and some ?Water Wetter? additive.. The main reason it took so long is I got half way through and discovered I had no pliers to take the hoses off, so had to call around some friends to see if they could come over with some pliers. The New Apexi Radiator was twice as thick as the old one and on closer inspection I discovered the old one was blocked quite badly. Job done and it never over heated again.
The radiator is often an overlooked modification, but I now highly recommend a radiator upgrade to everyone, especially with the Alloy SR20.
Front Bar Again
Some time had passed and I still had that Ugly Aero front on the car and a bad Vertex copy front sitting in the garage. After the great job Shane @ Prima had done with the guards I went back and talked to him to see what was involved in getting it on the car and Perfect. He was keen to do it and thought a few days would be enough to sort it out, So I left the car with him and the instructions to make it fit ?Perfectly?. A few days passed and he called to say it was ready to pick up. I couldn?t believe it when I first saw it, the fit was perfect and the color match was unbelievable. It turns out he actually cut it into 3 bits and fiber glassed it back together, a total of 16+ hours of work, it should be noted that this is what happens when you buy a cheap copy !! Anyway the front was on and looking great, except for that big gap at the front where an Intercooler should be.
The Boost Up, Part 1
Explanation
I?m not sure what it was that set me down the boost up path, But in a short period of time I managed to spend a lot of money on the S15.
Before anything was done the car was put on Soichi?s Dyno to get a base Power figure before any parts were added, I estimated the cars power at about 160kw?s and the Dyno proved me correct, 164 Kw?s @ 5887 Rpm on just under 1 bar of boost.
The first part of the process consisted of a Nismo Fuel pump and a HKS S-Type Intercooler with Aluminum piping kit.
It only took 2 weeks for these to arrive and after a day at Soichi?s they were installed and ready to go. It turns out the Expensive Odyssey battery I had brought was too big so a smaller Exide item was installed at the same time.
Impressions
First thing I noticed was the noise the Fuel pump makes, its actually quite noisy when you first start the car and it primes, But at the end of the day it?s a fuel pump and so long as it does its job that?s all that matters
The Intercooler immediately made a difference, The car was a lot more responsive through the rev range but the boost was lower and the top end had lost a bit of power..
Conclusion
The car is in need of a good Tune !!
The basis of these 2 mods were as a starting point for Part 2, I never expected these mods alone to make any difference to the power, but they were required for what was coming in Part 2.
A lot of people say the car becomes more Laggy when you add a Front Mount Intercooler, I found the complete opposite.. The car was more responsive, it was the top end that suffered, probably from over fueling..
Continued..
