Perfect Balance's cars | Small update| 05/03/14

[homeforsummer]

And here was me thinking it's only the UK that rains at completely inappropriate times...

Hopefully the weather clears up for you soon.

 

[Perfect Balance]

And here was me thinking it's only the UK that rains at completely inappropriate times...

Hopefully the weather clears up for you soon.

Nope, not just you. Yesterday was a good day but my piping wasn't done so I couldn't do anything. Today the piping was done, and it was nice and sunny all day until right before I left work, it started pouring. I went over there later put the piping on, so that's all done. I'm kind of at a point where it would be a good idea to do a bit of wiring for my battery relocation, but with everything wet, it's not a good idea, not to mention it gets muddy around the car.

I'm kind of frustrated. The car should have started this week, and all I've managed to do is mount my intercooler.

I'll be busy all weekend, so hopefully next week is dry.

This is the current state of the car.

Redrilled my old maf adapter to fit the 300zx maf, but I still need to make some kind of an intake for it. I can buy one, but I'm not paying $100 for an S shaped aluminum tube.

 

[nizmo_bro]

Loving the car. Makes me jealous and now I can't wait to swap a new motor in mine.

 

[Thatman]

Well its almost there. Looking good though!

 

[Perfect Balance]

Well, the car lives, it started today. Started on the first attempt too.

That being said, it still needs a lot of work. Someone on facebook asked me what I still need to do, so I'm just going to copy and paste it from there.

It still needs the Gauges and fans wired up, wideband welded in and installed, walbro 255 needs to be installed, hood supports cut to clear intercooler piping, lower mounting brackets for the intercooler, bumpers cut to clear, battery relocation completed, power steering pump bracket fabricated, need to make a throttle cable bracket, and general re-assembly. Also it sounds like maybe my water pump is no good, something is making a bunch of noise.



So that's where I'm at. But it runs!

 

[Punknoodle]

Success! Daunting list is ok if you break it down

 

[Perfect Balance]

Success! Daunting list is ok if you break it down

It's not bad, just time consuming. Also traced my noise down to my water pump today, so I'll be ordering one of those in the next few days.


Got my aem wideband bung welded onto my downpipe today, and went to fit everything, and surprise! Cheap manifold + cheap elbow + cheap downpipe + cheap exhaust = stuff doesn't line up. I was able to sort of attach the exhaust without any gaskets or anything for now, just so the car is drivable, but once it's driving I need to get the exhaust cut and rewelded to fit properly.

Still working on a throttle cable bracket, I might be able to modify the SR one to work by some bending and cutting, so I might be ok there, but basically the plan is to make it movable and then drive it out of where it's parked onto a driveway and wash it, and then start on all my wiring an ect where I've got more space to work.

This was the state of the car today when I stopped working on it.

Here's a video of our first attempt to start the car, during which it fired right up. It's a facebook video on a relative's page so I'm not sure if you will be able to watch it. Also you can hear the bearing noise from the water pump when he walks around to the front of the car. I should mention in this video it's running an open downpipe as well.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=4256028018194

 

[Punknoodle]

I'm surprised the bonnet is still attached, thought you would have removed it for ease of working on the car.

 

[Perfect Balance]

I'm surprised the bonnet is still attached, thought you would have removed it for ease of working on the car.

I did remove it, I put it back on since I'm not doing anything major anymore.

 

[eiriksmil]

I second that notion. Helps on motivation by having a progressivly more complete car A couple of days work and you're done!

 

[Cano]

Getting there, bud. The to-do list isn't so bad, at least it looks like a car again, and sounds like it too. Well, loud, but you get me.

 

[Perfect Balance]

Well, the bearing noise I heard turned out to be a loose water pump pulley. I'd left it loose because I was going to install the clutch fan on it, which I didn't end up using, and therefore left it loose and forgot to tighten it. Sucks, because I've already bought one from someone online and it will be here Monday.

I've ran cables for my battery relocation, but I still need to make the hole in the firewall bigger so I can install a rubber grommet, and it needs to be big enough for the battery cable, and wiring for 3 gauges, so the battery wiring is ready, but I can't quite run it yet.

Fuel pump will also be getting installed Monday, as well as probably making brackets for my electric fans. Once that's done, I just need a bunch of wiring and I'm good to go, minus my lack of power steering at the moment. I drove the car out of the hole it was in a few days ago, so this is the current state of things.

Dat (lack of) ground clearance.

 

[speed junkie]

Lol look at its face.

 

[Rotary Junkie]

Is that a purple Maxima I see?

I want it.

 

[Perfect Balance]

Is that a purple Maxima I see?

I want it.

Yep, brickyard red Maxima with a turbo vq35. Makes right about 400whp. Fun car.

 

[JrDarknes]

So weird when the intercooler gets put on. I do not see how the bumper fits with it on.

 

[Perfect Balance]

So weird when the intercooler gets put on. I do not see how the bumper fits with it on.

The front bumper gets cut to clear, but the reinforcement bumper doesn't clear entirely so usually the entire center section gets cut out or you get an aftermarket bar made to clear the intercooler.

 

[Cano]

Yep, brickyard red Maxima with a turbo vq35. Makes right about 400whp. Fun car.

:0 cool, too 👍

 

[Perfect Balance]

Well, in the past week I've been doing a lot of finishing little things up on the car, and got it back together and running. Today I finally set the ignition timing, the TPS, and fixed my exhaust leaks. Unfortunately my AFRs are in the 13s at wide open throttle, which is far too lean, they should be in the 11s. I'm not sure what the issue is but I've contacted RS Enthalpy who did my rom tune to see what he says. Idle, cruising, and part throttle AFRs are all good, just WOT is lean.

Here's a few pictures.

 

[Punknoodle]

That looks great!! And yeah, 13 AFR is pretty scary. Injectors running out of duty cycle?

 

[Perfect Balance]

That looks great!! And yeah, 13 AFR is pretty scary. Injectors running out of duty cycle?

Thanks, and no they shouldn't be. 480cc oem Silvia S15 injectors, should be goo for 350ish whp. Definitely shouldn't have any issues on a stock t25 turbo at 7psi. Part throttle I'm getting 12.5 or so, which is great, but as soon as I put my foot down they jump to 13.5 and above.

I've been talking back and forth with the guy at RS Enthalpy trying to get it figured out. So far I've wired the fuel pump straight from battery, which didn't help. No boost leaks or vacuum leaks (which would make it run rich at wot, not lean) no exhaust leaks that I can find, fuel pressure is good, FPR is working, timing is set, MAF is reading correctly, TPS is set properly...Kinda thinking it's the tune at this point but he's having me go through and check everything.

Car drives and runs and does everything well, short of having no power steering and high speed isnt wired up on the fans (car hasn't had any overheating issues) and the WOT afr problem.

 

[Perfect Balance]

So while I haven't done anything visual to the car, I figured I'd post an update. So I finally found out what my AFR issue was. The maf was dirty apparently, causing a slightly incorrect voltage reading at wot, just enough to throw the afr off a bit. Got that figured out.

Also got my boost gauge and was planning on cranking the boost to 12 psi, but something happened and the illuminations on both gauges stopped working, so I sent them out for warranty repair, still waiting to get those back. Today a made a bracket for my power steering pump, so I finally have power steering (man it's so nice). Otherwise the car just needs to be cleaned up a bit, and a few odds and ends finished up. Drives fine otherwise, and I can't wait to get out there and drift again.

 

[Punknoodle]

Really good to hear, when are you taking it out next? How much faster does it feel?

 

[Perfect Balance]

Really good to hear, when are you taking it out next? How much faster does it feel?

Next event is July 20th. And it's significantly quicker than before, though I can't really say how much.

Unfortunately, while driving yesterday it randomly popped the front crank seal out and spewed oil everywhere. Typically this is caused by excessive crank case pressure, but the pcv system is working fine, and I've got a massive 5/8 hole in the valve cover for the breather setup, which you'd think would be sufficient. Unless I had really bad blowby from the rings. Compression numbers are good, although not as good as I'd hoped, they are within spec and for all I know the gauge could have been off. But they were consistent with each other, and the car runs good.

I'm not sure what caused the issue at the moment, but I'm kind of paranoid of driving it now. Definitely not going anywhere until I get my oil pressure gauge back.

 

[Perfect Balance]

Well, I haven't been driving the car much since I'm sort of scared to drive the car without an oil pressure gauge after the front seal came out. Don't want to be driving somewhere and lose my oil and not know about it. Gauges should be here tomorrow, but in an attempt to possibly fix a potential issue that caused my front seal to pop out, I've deleted the PCV system on the car, blocked off the port on the manifold and replaced the valve with a fitting on the valve cover, and I'm got them both run to a catch can, that will eventually be re-routed back into the intake.

I bought a ebay catch can and redrilled it for larger fittings, and added two more, so basically I can have two hoses coming in and two coming out. I still need to add some kind of steel mesh material inside the can to help pull the oil out of the air, but I didn't have anything on hand. It kind of made the bay a bit more messy, but there's not much I can do about it. I'll take another picture once the whole setup is done, but that's the current status of the car.

This picture was taken shortly before the front seal came out and oil went everywhere. Oh well.

 

[Perfect Balance]

Alright, update once again. So far the new crank seal has been ok, and I haven't had any oil in my catch can, or even in the lines, so I think I'm ok now.

I had a small issue with the car idling kind of rich, but otherwise running fine. I was shipped another set of chips for the rom tune and they were way off. After some conversation back and forth it seemed my original file was overwritten and he lost my original tune, so I ended up shipping my ecu out and just got it back today. Idle is 14-15 afr, cruising is 14-15, part throttle is 12s, and wot is 11s. Perfect.

July 20th is the next drift event, which I'm gonna try to make as the first outing with the SR. If it doesn't blow up then I'll know it's gonna last a while I guess. Only issue is the left rear caliper seized up a week ago or so, which I've replaced, but I'm not sure if my front tires are going to make it through the event, but I can't really afford to buy new ones. :/ I'm not sure what to do..

This is the current state of the bay. If you can see, instead of the line from the top of the valve cover running back to the intake, I've got it running to the passenger side, along with another line that replaced the factory PCV, running to a catch can which is currently vented. Not quite sure what I'm going to do with that yet.

So basically, in the next two weeks, I need to put as much miles as possible on the car, then change the oil before the event, maybe change the tires, and hopefully align the vehicle. I've got a pair of LCA I want to extend, as well as spacers for my tie rods, and some steering rack bushings. If I've got enough time I want to replace all these things and do a proper alignment on the car for once, it's been eyeballed for the past 2 years or so.

 

[Anna+Reece]

How is it so far?

 

[Perfect Balance]

Well I mean I'm always watching my gauges like a hawk, hoping nothing breaks. I've only put 150 or so miles on it so I haven't driven it enough to have full trust in it, but the power is awesome. It's definitely quick. I can't say how it compares to before since it's an entirely different type of power delivery and whatnot, but its a lot faster than it was before.

 

[speed junkie]

Wait, how will you get it up on the alignment rack?

 

[Perfect Balance]

Well, figured it's time for another update. There's a drift event coming up this Saturday, so I've done a good bit of work in preparation for the event.

Starting off, I had some spare lower control arms laying around, and I've always wanted to extend them. After hitting the bank at the last drift event and rubbing the writing off my sidewalls, I knew I needed some mad tyte drifter camber to prevent that, but not so much that I attracted unwanted attention. Not that I don't already, but sitting at a stoplight with -7 degrees of camber is just asking to get pulled over.

Sooo, I got some new ball joints for the control arms and had my dad extend them 15mm. Just a mild extension, most drift only cars are going 30mm extended.

While I was in there, I also replaced my steering rack bushings:

And installed some PBM tie rod spacers I've had laying around for over a year. Essentially they increase the rack travel by a few millimeters on each time.

Horrible picture I know. Didn't care, hands were covered in grease.

Now my steering is limited by the tie rods hitting the control arms. Oh well. Enough for me. I didn't particularly want more angle, it's just both these mods cost me less than 20 bucks together.

Steering angle after. Was in a hurry and forgot to take a before pic.

The I proceeded to align the car for the first time in a few years. The picture should explain why I don't do this often.

I didn't go crazy with the camber, like I said I wanted a pretty streetable setup that didn't attract extra attention, so I went from about -2 degrees.

Doesn't look like much I know. I also kinda angled the picture the wrong way so it looked even more straight.

And now with -3.9 degrees. Going for -4 would require loosening the suspension on the driver side, so I just adjusted the passenger side to -3.9 to match the driver side. The different -.1 will make for a drift car is negligible.

And the car is finally aligned as well! Driving straight feels pretty good now, ironically.

Also, on a somewhat related but unrelated note, a while back I picked up an old Shoei helmet for 30 bucks, and have been turning it into my "drift car" helmet to wear at events.

Before is on the top left.