RME1

Time to retire.

Thanks to all for the helpful advice throughout my travels!

Awesome build! Great work and determination!

Thanks mate, it was a great feeling driving her on the track and feeling how all our bush mechanic skills have put her together!

Hopefully my little brother will continue on with the track attacking.

In true Fast and Furial style, he has been 'dreaming' of owning a Supra. However, he first wants to experience a 'cheaper ' RWD, such as a S13 Silvia. This is great because we have experience in FF and AWD. I guess it is his turn to continue our 'track day education' biggrin.gif

The Starlet is still in my front yard unfortunately. It is currently on Ebay at the moment and it appears that there are heaps of tire kickers out there, which is a shame. The 'For sale' advertisement ends in 1 day, hopefully there will be something 'acceptable' that comes out of the 21 watchers on Ebay.

THanks for the warm comments guys!

Saturday 24 May 2009 - EXE & Circuit Club Winton Track Day

How exciting!

Pretty much smack bang on the 1 year mark, GGIII.T has been turbo. The Starlet finished her conversion May 20 2008 whilst I was undergoing placement in Newcastle.

Prior to that, however in the same year, the Tein coilovers were also installed.

To say that I was looking forward to this day is pretty much an understatement. The culmination of all our work had finally arrived!

Please see below for the results (in session order):

Passenger and Streets

02:01.9 01:57.7 01:58.8 02:00.5

Passenger and Streets

02:08.3 01:59.8 02:00.3 01:54.2 02:04.2

Passenger and Streets

01:55.4 01:54.2 01:53.9 01:52.9 01:53.6

Passenger and Streets *Fail*

02:00.1 02:00.8 02:12.1 02:05.0 02:14.4

Semis

01:59.1 01:52.2 01:51.2 01:56.7 01:51.3

Semis

02:12.1 01:56.0 01:56.8 ...Red Flag

Thoughts of the day:

- It was raining PB's!

- Passengers

- Semis ROCK

- Starlet rocked.

- EXE Track days will forever rock.

I guess that concludes the Project Starlet for me. At the end of the track day she started to blow a little bit of white smoke, which is indication that the turbo is getting old and probably needs to retire and tag team out.

The final tail was meant to be a Dyno run and finally a quarter Mile time, however due to the above condition I have decided to end her journey on a high.

I've placed her for sale on the Sister AU Starlet Club site, and am hoping that she will find a good home there - either as a project or a donation car for parts.

Maybe I'll find some excuse to track the next car....I don't think the track day bug has been completed deplenished yet :twisted:

Templates are easy to find...

Thanks to Dan for providing the foam action - the self adhesives are STRONG as!! ...

The templates were drawn on colour bond steel sheeting which was left over from our Patio installation a few years ago. Thanks to dad for hoarding random materials. - it must run in the family.

TMIC all covered :surrender:

Thanks mate. Here are some updates:

Project Scoop

In the midst of a track day, I bought a Nissan Patrol Bonnet Scoop. Heaps of props to the EXE Crew for offering me their insights and help for this install.

Highlights.

First drill hole = fail.

Drilled holes = Nuts not long enough = fail.

Bush Mechanic skills.

I was very determined to get this mod up and running before the weekend, luckily Bunnings is open until 8PM on sundays!!

Apologies for the bad photos - Camera phone on night mode = fail.

So - I ended up creating a splitter like function to cover/ block any excess air that would pass over the already pre-cut hole the good old reliable Bunnings spec grill was occuping.

Highlighted in the yellow box, i used the rear plastic from an S13 (Dez's shell) and cut it down to size. - This is pretty much to replicate a simplistic version of the WRX TMIC splitter

In the future, will probably raid Clarke Rubber to cover those edges as well. Further, will have to go there and buy Foam for the underside of the bonnet...

You can see that the Patrol Scoop Fibre glass is visible under neith the bonnet. In the future, this will be dremmelled out - more air into TMIC = win.

Whilst the bonnet was up, I did this as well. Quick 5 second mod - air hose to air filter.

Action night time shot - Part EP91 / Part EP82 / Part Nissan Patrol.

It looks alright at night time - hopefully the scoop won't be too visible with a MATTBLACK bonnet LOL :roll: Will get some day time pics up for reference soon

Update:

The Fuel gauge is fixed!!

I was just puttering around and thought to myself - why should i just fumble around with the wires if I know that the correct fuel wire is just linked to the 'empty fuel light' in the dash? Couldn't I just switch the dash wires around? ....So 1 year later...

Fuel Consumption

Seems to be going well these days, just as long as I don't fully boost her around town etc.

I managed 6.3 odd L/100 off the last tank whilst picking up the latest mod - A 2.5" Toyota Sportivo Muffler! Woot woot. Hopefully this baffled design will allow the Starlet to Idle more gingerly, even though she is still idling a little bit high (i.e. 1.1K RPM? )

Update:

Whilst in Melbourne...

I got a cheapo set of wannabe wantanabes! :twisted:

Mazda

14X5.5 +45. 12.3lb

Also, I'm going to try to create an under body tray in the pursuit of science and cheap entrainment.

Using flute board from bunnings at $7 each for a 2 x 2 m (i think) - it is a relatively cheap experiment.

This should provide/test the following:

1. Give me better economy due to reduced turbulent under body air flow

2. Give me a higher top speed on the track.

Here is the basic picture for the aero under tray:

Might just do the front first, and then see what happens

Also will trial this as well...

Shame I'll need spacers...the offset is 45. Will probably need a 5mm spacer (probably floating) in order to bring the offset to managable levels.

Fuel Economy Update: 6.4L per 100km. Not too bad. Will do a few more tanks to get a bare base line prior to the flute board experiment.

Awesome work Joz! This build is truely an inspiration!!

Thanks mate. I'm pretty sure we ( My little bro and I ) can rack in the GC8 time - primarily due to little/ no fear. The starlet doesn't really suffer from chronic understeer as much as the GC8 does, and I'm in a fairly good finanical position as opposed to the good old 'ohh my god!! I can't really afford to crash this car' days.

The Autobahn88 dump pipe seems to open up the turbo a little bit more. She sounds more keen to boost ;) Good work Ebay !

u]Head Gasket Change & Dump Pipe Install @ 1013xx km

So I've booked the Starletto into Kmart once again to this time replace the head gasket. It's taken a while to get her fixed, but I've been told that today she is being put back together.

The Kmart dude that I have used to work at a Turbo place, so he knows a thing or two about snails (i.e. CT9 Turbo).

The Engine was pretty much pulled apart and the heads + head gaskets were sent to a local place for analysis. It took all of yesterday, which meant the Box was idle at Kmart

Results came back and it was definately a failed head gasket. Lucky we got onto that problem quick smart. Kmart dude is also going to install the Ebay Spec turbo dump pipe-a-matronic - apparently the stock dump is very restrictive, so I paid $100 delivered from the US for an ebay jobbie!! $_$ =

Unfortunately, I do not actually know the damage of the whole gasket change - but considering there is a lot of labour involved, I was given an estimate of about $1500 - 1600. OMFG. - Oh well. It seems I have fallen in love with this heap of crap and am willing to see her through her days.

Quick review of what has happened so far:

Nov: Purchase the BOX in N/A Form. $4000

Dec: Tracked the BOX in N/A form @ Winton (2.01 mins in stock form. Reference Grey Goose (1zzfe) @ 1.58 with coils + Cai)

Feb: Moved to Newy

April: Purchase and installed Tein's & Random strut bars

May: Engine Swap $3000

Present: All this random maintence - 100,000km service & Head gasket = est. $2500 (#_#)

So luckily I got some tax back in time

-ALSO: Finally got back in contact with Ken @ Kenlowe.com.au about Naca ducts I purchased 2 months ago. Apparently he foudn the transaction and I should be getting the NACA duct in the post soon.

I've given up on the Air Filter Mushroom - it is way too annoying to hear "WHOOOOOSH" everytime i change gears. The novaltiy wears off very quickly. I'll just cut out another make shift hole in the bonnet and arrange a duct to go towards the air box. I tell you what, the Bonnet is coping a mutiliation this year LOL!!

Future Tests:

- Dyno

- Winton Track attack (sub 2min (aka. 1:50 - 1:55) Reference GGII: Gamera WRX GC8 = 1:53 )

GGIII.T @ Kmart Tire and Auto.

GGIII.T @ The 100,000km Service

Got the box taken to Kmart Tire and Auto in Newy - they also were the people who helped pick the lock of the car when I accidentally locked the keys in there . So they are automatically champions.

Whilst burning down time at the shopping center, I get a call from the Kmart dudes.

"Yo dude. Bad news. We found the following...." *Deep breath.

1. There is Oil in your cooling system

2. Diff oil seal is leaking

3. One of your tires has a puncture

4. The water pump is DEAD

5. You require to replace the engine seals. Leaking badly.

Me: Can you fix them?

Dude: Yes.

Me: Sweet.

Kmart people are cool. Ranga's FTW!

The Kmart dude that worked on the Starlet used to work at a turbo performance shop and mentioned that "She's a neat little thing to drive around...could probably use an FMIC and a bigger turbo LOL" ... I put her on Low Boost. Didn't want her to be abused.

Total Damage:

$-663.85

I probably should of replaced the water pump, and seals when the engine was out....but in our haste didn't.

'Engine oil in the coolant system = HEAPS uncool'. Could be because the Seals weren't changed prior? Now that they are, hopefully the Engine Oil in Coolant System doesn't rear it's ugly head again...

GGIII.T @ 100,800km in Newy.

Craig, the Rays look mad. Any type of wheels on your car would look mad! Keep up the good work. Looking forward to more pics.

Did you get mad Excedy clutch install directions as well Joz?

Looking forward to this epic build! ;)

I fink u need to see a doctor... WTF...

Before every mod a person makes, they must have some sort of criteria before doing it. For example this guy:

I believe that every car enthusiast can understand each other. This is in terms of modding style - i.e. Street Creed, track spec, daily driver etc. etc. With the example above, I definately do not understand his/her modding style.

Tops to Sicaln for understanding my logic ;)

If I wanted a Starlet GT/Glanza Scoop I would of purchased the entire bonnet istead. Then I'd have to fork out $400 for a bonnet (min) then another $200 for lights... $600+ or spend $120 to get the scoop itself, mould it on and respray.

$12 will do the the "same" thing.

If I did get a GT/Glanza scoop. It would no longer be uniquely EP91. Merely a copy of glanza/Starlet Gt. Can't have that now - obviously this mod is quite contentious as for some, it rides the line between form and function....I dig this:

Initially I wanted to go GTR styles, but I don't think the EP91 stance is wide enough to take on 2 Naca ducts? It would of looked cramped.

The base theme of modding the car is 'ninja' and 'Elcheapo' spec. i.e. low key and on a budget. This mod required no cutting of the bonnet support structure, allowed air to be ducted directly into the TMIC and is low profile enough to not take any notice in the distance.

Come the day an FMIC maybe in order, I can merely reverse the lourve and use it to depense heat. Raising the bonnet has been proven ineffective with regards to air pressure for the radiator.

In this essence, I believe the choice of method for directing cold air to the TMIC has appealed to my criteria.

Each to their own I guess.....All I know is that I want to be as far away from this guy as possible:

Update:

I've been pretty lazy/busy with regards to getting the 100,000km service done.

Since installing the mushroom Filter, i've noticed that there is some retarding in acceleration on cold nights? ....hmmm. Quite annoying. Could be that Fuel Cut / Boost Creep or what ever issue that has been touched on many times. Will return air intake system to stock.

I've missed so much of this project! its LUSH!

Phil.

Haha. I'd like to think it's entertaining LOL .

Update:

EP91 Blue Spec: THE BOX @ 99,920 Km

Time since Engine swap: 5 months

Fuel Consumption Best: 6.4L/100km

Fuel Consumption Worst: 8.8L/100km

Fuel Consumption Average: 7.7L/100km

Mods since Engine swap:

- Replaced Silicone Hoses to TMIC

- Went to Bunnings for bonnet mod

- Air filter mushroom

Required:

- 100,000km service

- Engine Oil Pressure Switch Replacement.

Amazing! Thumbs up!

Got to be one of the cleanest conversions going around!

How's your economy going with the FMIC + Induction?

Attack an EG Civic and get one of their lips!

Question: Has the rear sway bar made a massive difference with regards to ride quality vs performance?

Thanks for the kind comments, I hope the DIY inspires more people!!

DIY TMIC Scoop (NINJA SPEC)

Powered by Bunnings....

The end choice was to select the bottom right vent. It is made of alluminium, as opposed to the other one which was plasticish with some mesh. There was a massive alluminium vent, but all I wanted was a vent large enough to ensure air goes to the TMIC (A4 size paper)

We didn't end up cutting the skeleton bracing for the bonnet, instead we only took the skin off. If you look carefully, you can see the middle support beam, yes? The Lourves are pointing face forward in order to direct air towards the TMIC. Should an FMIC come later on, I'll just reversre the setup and the hot air can be directed out.

Driving to work today, I think there is more spool when you floor it? Not too sure whether or not this is true as it could be subjective. However, I feel more comfortable giving the Box a bit of a boot now that I know that there is some air 'ramming' (if only slightly) into the TMIC.

The vent itself was given a coat of gloss black, and then clear coated. At night time, it is very difficult to make out whether or not it is an addition to the bonnet :twisted: Much success!

During the day, it seems to work alright as well....It sort of highlights the need for me to clear coat the roof now :oops:

Apologies for the bad photos. Total cost: $12

Hopefully The Box is still associated with the "Ninja" catergory, as opposed to "Excel/Lancer" territory....however I strongly suspect that I'm starting to hit the border... We must stay in the dark side!

Naca ducts could be on the agenda next...

Hello all!

Just wondering if any of you know the part number for a 4EFTE Engine Oil pressure sensor. Reason is that I strongly suspect that the Oil pressure sensor has given up the ghost. I drive for about 10 mins and then the engine oil light comes on.

On cold days, it might not even turn on for 20 mins.

The engine oil sensor generic number is TPS001. However, these connector clips do not match

The engine oil pressure sensor is located near the battery, on the passenger side - It is accessable via the engine bay through a 22mm (i think) socket. If you look where the spark plugs connect, and then slightly beyond that - you will find the engine oil pressure sensor.

Please help and thanks in advance.

Jules

awesome. Track beast + Daily car !