Home
> Project R33 GTS25-T Part 2
Project
Nissan Skyline GTS25T
The
Skyline was really starting to go hard now but warmer days were a worry
with the stock intercooler and the higher boost levels so I decided
to purchase a new one. After a bit of research I decided that a Hybrid
cooler would do nicely so I ordered a Super monster bar and plate intercooler
kit from Flynn Performance and it arrived about a week later.
It took a good day
to install a hole needed to cut into the chassis in order to fit the
return piping, the radiator blades needed to be trimmed, and the front
bar slightly modified. The new piping did not allow us to connect a
boost line so we had to fabricate a connection. A couple of good mates
helped me fit the cooler (well Shultz did most the work) which made
the job a lot easier.
Once on the road we had problems as soon as I gave it a boot full the
skyline would hesitate and miss badly. I checked all the hose clamps and
all everything seemed fine. I turned the boost back down to 5psi and the
problem stopped, it was very frustrating as I wanted to dial more boost
in. The car still went quiet well on 5psi so I go the impression once
the problem was sorted the mod would be worthwhile.
My first thoughts
were that the AFR's were out of wack I called ICE Performance who agreed
that it may be the problem. I booked the Skyline in and made the drive
to Melbourne the same week. Once I got there Gerald put the car straight
on the dyno for a run the car was breaking down badly when coming onto
boost Gerald thought it may be the coils so I left him to investigate
the problem. A couple of hours later I got a call to pick up the car.
Turns out the coils
were dirty and (get this) the spark plugs were gapped at the standard
1.1mm not 0.8 as I had told Gerald. Word of advice don’t take a performance
car to a ordinary mechanic when experiencing problems the original machanic
must have just banged the new plugs in and not re-gapped them as I instructed.
I was very angry at this because it may have fixed my previous problems
and saved me a lot of money.
The SAFC was retuned
and boost was set to 10.5psi the results where far beyond what I had
expected 195.7rwkw with heaps of midrange. Gerald explained to me that
this result was unusual for such a low boost setting and to keep the
car this way as it was a safe tune and anymore boost etc would have
many of the stock parts running at there limits.
Gerald also stated that the R33 GTS25T's are probably
one of the best value for many imports to tune to this level and if
I were to go any further things would start to get expensive. I highly
recommend ICE Performance to anyone who has a performance car their
expertise and customer service is fantastic. Many people have only had
small gains from this mod but in my case the results were amazing on
the road the car is scarily fast and I didn’t notice a decrease in throttle
response.
I was and still
am very happy with the results but there were a few minor things I wanted
to improve. One thing was the boost it came on fast but from 5000 rpm
onwards it would slowly tail back to 9psi by redline and I knew the
bleed valve was at fault. I didn’t want to pay a fortune for an electronic
boost controller so I did some research and once again found the answer
on the Skylines Australia forums it was said that the R32 Skyline's
waste-gate actuator is a direct bolt on and rated is rated at 10psi.
This was great news as a mate of mine had just put a
HKS 2530 on his R32 Skyline and had a spare actuator lying about, Luke
gave me the actuator and I installed it the same day. It was an easy
task, remove the heat shield, remove the two bolts and e-clip, take
the old one off and reverse the order to install the new one. On the
road the results were good 9.5psi is held to 5000rpm then boost jumps
to 10.5psi from here to redline. This mod made a very noticeable difference
to top end power and the car was nicer to drive with the bleed valve
removed.
With the new intercooler installed one of the pipes
did not allow me to install the air intake snorkel therefore the engine
was sucking hot air from the engine bay. A hole was also left were the
old return pipe used to be; this seemed like a perfect spot for a cold
air feed. So the plan was to use a pod filter partitioned from the engine
bay and to create a cold air feed from the front bar through the old
intercooler piping hole.
I ordered a Apexi
pod from Nengun as they are said to flow and filter the best. Installing
was easy it came with clear instructions, brackets, bolts, etc. Making
the partition was fiddly, first I used cardboard to create a template
then I traced the outline onto a sheet of aluminum, I stuck foam on
both sides of the aluminum to create a seal it all fitted up nicely.
I used rubber and heat ducting to make the CAI which rams cool air from
the front bar to the pod. (pics of CAI and Shielding soon)
The first thing
you notice with this setup is the induction noise it sounds great you
can really here the turbo spooling, its loud but not loud enough to
be an annoyance and performance was improved slightly especially on
hot days. This is as far as I was willing to go for now with engine
modifications it will cost be a good $5000 to upgrade the turbo and
other supporting systems. Traction is already a problem, so bigger,
better and more expensive tires would also need to be fitted.
Continue
to part 3 >>
© COPYRIGHT 2006 ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED NISSANSKYLINE.6TE.NET
