Keep Drifting Cheap: turbo RB20 C35 Laurel for peanuts

Thanks for the positive words guys!

Having this thing to tinker on over the next few months is going to be a godsend tbh

 

So first few days of our countries lockdown has actually resulted in a little bit of free time to spend on Lunch Money

Pulled the cold side pipe, removed the fuel rail & piddly little injectors. Then pulled the throttle body & swapped in some fresh spark plugs



It;s a bit grimy in there, fresh plugs stand out



Then oiled up the 20DET injectors and slid them into the rail.



However, it was too tight to get them in with the rail on, so fitted the rail once they were all sitting in their ports. Seem to slide on easy enough so hopefully no pinched o-rings

Started the reassembly but dinner was calling soon after

Weather is unseasonably nice for us so hoping i can keep clocking half an hour/hour on it a day. Plenty to do, just need to keep wifey on side

 

Well this whole lockdown thing is playing into my hands nicely.

After a push on Saturday to get a bunch of chores done my son & I dove straight into Lunch Money on Sunday for pretty much the whole day

First up we fitted the wideband gauge using a magnetic phone mount and a steel bracket.



Then re-ran the wideband harness through the now unused air con overflow drain. Have some heat wrap to throw over it & the brake line. Then the blower motor went back in (note the block-off plate we sandwiched in where the air con was) and the cabin is now sealed from screamer fumes



After that we started tidying up the ECU harness. Previously I pulled the tape off to trace wires and spliced in a bunch for the VAFC. 35 cable ties, a couple feet of braided sheath and some electrical tape later and she was good as ever. As i was putting the glovebox back on I had the brainwave to avoid panic passenger foot braking and run the loom into the glovebox and mount the ECU in there.

And so it came to pass



Next was throwing in a couple of eyelet harness bolts into the rear seat points for the shoulder straps and bolted the side straps in. I'll be running the Racetech fixed back eventually, but leaving the comfy factory seat in there until it's first track day





Moved to the engine bay and tidied up some temp wiring, finished the inlet reinstall, rerouted some fuel lines and refitted the leads



I'm now at the point where all the interior & engine bay jobs are pretty much done and the car needs to go in the air for the underbody jobs. I need to add a brace for the muffler, trim the screamer pipe and mount the handbrake properly next (will space it up for more centre console clearance).

The muffler hangs a little low so I think I'll figure out how it needs to be adjusted then drop it to a mate round the corner and get it modified (fingers crossed he has enough gas in his welder).

I'm considering pulling the dizzy cap off and trying to fix the crack in it until the new one turns up. Then i can start it up and adjust for the bigger injectors

Otherwise once it's in the air we'll be swapping the 3.9 & 3x2's for the 4.1 & 5x1's, fit the coilovers, adjustable arms, big rear swaybar and lock spacers (all non-retune related jobs so not as urgent)

 

So another lockdown weekend and another bunch of progress

To my utter surprise I ordered a dizzy cap from Aussie and it turned up 3 days later! I had thought part of lockdown meant parcels weren't being delivered but apparently not. So that's now been swapped in and leads reinstalled. Yet to be tested

We got the car on ramps in anticipation of the underbody jobs



I found my mate fitted the trans crossmember backwards. Flipped it around and only 2 of the 4 holes line up, so i'll make up extension plates liek what is on the Silvia

While under there we found the front pipe hangs ~20mm under the chassis rails, but has ~35mm clearance to the body being a factory 2.25" front pipe. So decision has been made to pull it off and shorten the dump pipe by 25mm so i can run this thing on it's dick. Also marked out where i need to clearance the floor to fit the muffler

Next up was the handbrake. We used a bunch of unused exh manifold washers to space it up, a length of M8 rod and cut a section out of the shifter surround. With the shifter now in a more central spot and the handbrake spaced accordingly the centre console could go back on



Because the wideband is a temp measure the wiring will stay in a temporary state. Now to find a rubber shifter cap & shift boot

With the exhaust bits waiting for a mate to make the adjustments to the dump pipe, I was searching down my list for anything to do. Decided it was time to do the locks

The car came with a key broken in the ignition and the ignition switch thingy dangling down and needing a flathead to turn it on. It also meant you couldn't lock the car either due to the broken key. I tracked down a full set of locks for it prior so jumped into it



Drilled & easy-outed the blank headed bolts on the old & new barrels and fitted that, then did the drivers door (remove door card, then 1x 10mm and a rod clip) then the boot lock (locking clip and rod clip) and it was done. Waaaay too easy.

So interiors looking pretty sweet now, especially for a practice car lol



Really want to test the Racetech in it. Tried to find an old gearknob my dad made me when i was 17 but no luck. Will try find something interesting, and maybe a wheel & boss kit

Finished off the weekend by fitting an old catch can to the rocker cover ports.

Plan for this week is to test fit the Racetech (and SR3 possibly), check for fuel leaks and try fire it up and check the mixtures.

Next weekend refit the modded dump pipe & rest of the exhaust, clearance the body for the muffler and start on the diff/axles/rack spacers/adj arms/coilovers. I want coilovers to be the last thing because as soon as it's slammed it'll become a pita to work on

Hope everyone else's lockdown is as much fun! I seriously am a pig in shit right now. Wish i couldn't work from home tho, then this thing would be getting some seeeerious progress

 

So Easter weekend resulted in a bunch of progress

We got the rear up in the air on axle stands and my son & I ripped the 3.9 & 3x2 axles out of it, then started swapping out the toe & camber arms for the adjustable units


Then swapping the backing plates between the 3x2 with the 5x1


Unbeknownst to me, my 5x1 locker is a 4.36. I thought it was a 4.111 but this is another great surprise and will help the little single cam nicely



Now I got this diff from a mate over 12 years ago. The pumpkin is a solid chunk of steel as it's been completely filled with weld. It's taken an absolute beeeeating over the years so there might be something in that....



Next, my mate helped me out by shortening up the stainless dump pipe, however the flange got a little tweaked to one side in the process. Lucky he insisted on tacking & test fitting!


That's where the muffler would like to sit, so a bit of movement to go to line up


And the gap to the exhaust mount



But the height is spot on




And this is one of the rear coilovers installed at full drop lol. All the exhaust clearance will be needed



So 4.3 diff & 5x1 axles are in, just need to tighten the axle nuts. The rear adjustable toe arms are in and one adjustable camber arm. As usual, the hardest to get at arm decided to spin a cam washer. Will have to figure out a way to get that out before the adjustable arm and coilover can go in on that side

The dump pipe has had another test fit and is ready for final welding. The front pipe needs a little adjusting (ie slotting the 3 bolt holes) to get the muffler sitting in the space the cat would normally sit.

I've been knocking out ~2hrs a night once my son goes to bed to try keep the momentum going. Throwing overalls on, head torch and a bunch of tools and lying on the ground outside

But the weather is starting to turn dicey so I'm wanting to get the rear suspension tidied off and the car on the ground again ASAP. Then I can swap it with the Silvia to finish off the exhaust and start on the front coilovers & lock spacers in the warmth of the garage

 

Thanks for the offer man. I'm after the rubber cap that goes over the shifter and the dust cover that bolts to the body so if you could help with either of those it'd be awesome. I've got a shift boot coming

Thanks man. Yeah I wanted to keep it as budget as possible but sometimes deals (ala the coilovers, toe arms and camber arms) pop up stupid cheap and you can't pass on them

I am tempted to get the knuckles moddified. I have a mate who does them and he isn't working right now because of C19. But i really need to keep this thing rolling for now

 

So not as much progress as last weekends but still nawt behd considering

Got the seized camber arm bolt out easy enough, then jammed the adj camber arm, LHS rear coilover, axle split pins and wheels on and the rear end has been mostly tidied off

That shits boring so here's a better shot of the rear at full droop, and the wing mirrors that my boy & I painted silver



The main thing i needed to get done before cracking on with the coilovers was getting the exhaust tidied away. My mate dropped off the dump pipe all welded up but i needed to slot the holes in the front pipe to line up the muffler in the right spot

The muffler is a 3" glasspack unit and a tad bulky for this application, but it was sitting around so the price was right

However it didn't fit. But that's why sledgehammers were invented right?

An hour with a sledgehammer and we're golden. This is a shot of it with the chassis rails lined up



The muffler ended up 15-20mm under the chassis rails at it's lowest point. Not the greatest, but a lot more low low friendly than it used to be




Just need to hook up the exhaust mount that bolts to the trans crossmember and it should be golden. I've got a D-shackle i can throw on the muffler tip and build something off that if need be. Ran out of time for any more progress due to dad life things so it didn't make it into the garage

Still need to do the front coilover/rack spacers/lock stop removals up front and give it a bit of a DIY alignment. Am tossing up doing that in the driveway as it's not a big list. Will be weather dependent mainly, and whether i can face wedging myself next to the fence again

 

Another weekend, another bit of progress

First thing was to see if it would run. We changed the dizzy cap, put bigger injectors in and wired in the VAFC to compensate for the injectors

First hit of the key and it fired right up



All i'm doing in this video is adjusting the correction percentage to change the air fuel on the wideband. You can see it starts off in the 12.8's with a value of -22%. It then goes to -25% and the air fuel goes to 13.4-13.5. It jumps around as i mess with the values of the 1000rpm and 1500rpm percentages as it's idling at ~1400rpm. I managed to drop that down to ~1200 and set it at -19% across the board for the Low throttle input up to 4000rpm

Next was getting off the ramps & axle stands. Front was fine, but the rear required a 4 stage process lol

This was all so i could swap Lunch Money with the Silvia as the weather is getting too cold to work outside at 9pm. So all 4 cars got fired up and moved, Lunch Money being the last.

It turns out either -19% was a bit fat, or there's a throttle enrichment in the ECU, or I've got different impedance injectors, or there's an injector leaking. As soon as i'd stab the throttle it would fall on it's face and go into the 9's, 8's or even 7's. If you used light throttle then it was fine, so a little more fettling to go. I logged the throttle input and it saw a touch over 22% so set the Low threshold to 25% and set the High throttle percentages to -19% as well but no real change.

I'll probably set the values to -22% or higher on both the Low and High throttle input and keep going until i see a difference. Otherwise I'll be pulling the injectors and rigging up something to check them - my existing injectors test rig only did sidefeeds but I've got an idea for the top feeds.

Too much text, not enough pics. So here's some of the rear on the ground with coilovers for the first time



During the final maneuver in the garage the clutch went bang and went to the floor. It felt like the pin in the clevis broke, which reminded of some janky fix we did during the build weekend. I'm yet to investigate lol

Anywho, first job was moving stuff away from the front of it as it's a full 30cm longer than the Silvia. Then up in the air in anticipation of the front end work

So with that all done we did musical drivers seats. Racetech out of the Silvia, S15 drivers seat in the Silvia, Laurel drivers seat out and Racetech in the Laurel



Only to find the rail is a decent amount off fitting and I'm not going to hack up a Bride Super Low rail. I had heard you could disassemble a factory C34 seat and use the rails but seems C35's aren't the same, so I'll be on the lookout for a Skyline sliding rail. It has plenty of head room so i can go cheap and still have headroom. Needs to be a slider as i definitely won't be the only person to drive this.

That took me to the end of Sunday, and Monday being ANZAC Day public holiday meant another chance for progress. This time the wife & boy headed to the inlaws for a a couple of hours (we've merged bubbles) so i ran into the garage, ripped off the wheels, popped the tie rod ends off and whipped off the lock stops & ground down the lock bump with the death wheel




Next the front coilovers. Test fitted one, threw a wheel on and jacked it up till it was lifted off the axle stand. Decided it needed more low, so 15mm was taken out, and replicated on the other strut.



Removed the ABS sensor while i was in there and got both sides bolted up.

Next phase is the transmission cross member extension plates, exhaust mount(s), rear swaybar & steering rack spacers (waiting on Loctite for this). With it in the garage now I'm knocking half an hour to an hour a night once the rest of the family is in bed which is sooooo convenient.

One thing that I regret with this is not water blasting the underside as the amount of dirt/stones/dried mud is ridiculous. I tried spraying the rear with a hose during the diff swap, but it barely made an impact.

Anywho, another step closer!

 

Here's some pictures i took during the above process

RHS rail, front side mount position relation to holes on the rail:




The slider rod on the RHS rail sitting proud of the top of the rail



LHS rail bracket that connected the rail to the back of the stock seat. You can see the hole on the Racetech where the rear side mount is. I drilled out the rivets holding this bracket on so i could use the rivet holes for this mount




And the alloy sheet templates for the brackets on the LHS rail, minus the previous bracket. Both the seat mounting holes will need to be offset from the rail mounting holes on the brackets, but the flatstock i have is 50mm wide so won't be an issue



Going to work on the RHS rail brackets this evening/weekend plus all the other jobs

 

Weekly update time

After the usual garage clean up from the last work session we knocked off a couple of quick jobs, like swapping the passenger side door lock (now all locks & ignition are off the same key), put the pin back in the clevis on the clutch pedal and eyeligned the rear adjustable arms.

This seat rail mini project has ended up being a little more involved than first imagined but it's almost done. This will be the final resting position as it's centered on the wheel, level and the slider works. The rear can come down ~10mm but that's just a matter of a second set of holes in the brackets, so no biggy




The LHS rear bracket bolt is fouling the seat stopping said 10mm drop, so I'll mount the bracket using the next rearmost hole instead as well as put the bracket on the other side of the rail lip



Then transferred the brackets onto the 5mm flatstock and cut them out. Final drilling & bending still to come but the left-front bracket has it's pilot holes drilled. I'll take them all out to 10mm to allow for adjustments on the M8 bolts



Then I jacked up the gearbox and made a template for the extension brackets via CAD and cut them out of the same 5mm flatstock

(for reference @josh3880)



I drilled the pilot holes for the 4 end holes on the extension plates to check fitment and all good so far. Will recheck the placement of the centre hole and get those pilot holes done, then open them up to 12mm (M10 bolts so a couple extra mm for wiggle room)

I did note the mount & the body mounting surfaces are identical left to right, so the plates are a mirror image

What i have also realised is the gearbox will now sit 5mm lower with these plates installed, meaning the driveshaft will get closer to the exhaust. So there may be a a little more clearancing required on the old glasspack

The list is getting shorter & shorter. Rear swaybar install, front rack spacers & the aforementioned brackets/plates are the only real projects left. I do have an ABS delete kit ready to go in, but the desire to see this thing on the deck at the new ride height is waaaaaay too much of a priority

 

It's Monday morning here, so to avoid being productive here's another update of the weeks progress

First off was installing the rack spacers. Now the below was taken after eyeligning the toe to as straight as possible, then letting it flop onto full lock whilst in the air.

Yet with all those proviso's i think you can all agree a 5.5mm steering rack spacer & lock stop removal is mighty impressive!



Then it was time to see this thing on all 4, so grabbed a pair of the shitter wheels it came on as i still needed it in the air for other jobs



After the above photos were taken i realised i had the top bolt on the bottom strut mount full-positive camber, and the RHS full negative. So back up in the air, wheels off and set both sides bottom strut bolts to full negative (for max contact patch on lock) and the camber tops to full positive (fitment). It has 30mm of spacers on the front as it is, but to run full negative front camber I'll be needing to increase that. Weighing up my options at the moment

Next was drill the holes in the trans cross member extension plates, which I somehow fucked up royally so redrilled & reamed. A lick of primer and slipped in place. As expected driveshaft & muffler are now rubbing shoulders, so one of the last jobs will be to get the.............

Hang on

I just saw in that pic i can unbolt the mount from the cross member and slide some 5mm washers/plate on those studs to get the gearbox sitting up where it was

Genius!



Next, the seat rail brackets. Earlier in the week i made relief cuts in the RHS brackets for bending. Then heated them up and gave them a few smacks with the sledgehammer and we were golden.

Final piece was drilling all the holes. Now i did say i was going to use 2x bolts between the bracket & rail but 1 seems fine




After a couple hours of adjusting on Saturday night we had success



Then last night i checked the front toe with these lovely Slip Toe Plates. Half a mm toe out is ideal, just need to nip up the locking nuts



Glam shot lol


Then it was the turn of the rear swaybar. The 4 threaded holes in the subframe had never been used and were full of schmutz & rust. So copious amounts of CRC (WD40) and an M10x1.0 tap and 45 min of struggle they were ready to receive the bolts. The rest of the mounts & end links went on fine, i just need to rob a couple of bushes off an another swaybar and it can be ticked off

So the list is getting seriously short now. Finishing off the swaybar & nipping up the tie rod end lock nuts will be done tonight, then sort the trans mount-cross member spacer so I can start on the exhaust mount.

Once the front is done it's onto the rear - swapping the rear wheels for the other Advans, flattening the rear arch lips, fixing the RHS camber arm install, adding the bolt on spacers and checking the rear toe

All going to plan I'll be able to take it for another punt up the road & play with mixtures. Then it's time for a session on the rollers!

 

Guess what day it is.....Update Day!

And holy crap, a lot to talk about

Now after spotting the fix for the gearbox hanging 5mm lower due to the extension plates I slid some huge 4mm x 50mm washers in between the mount and the cross member. Clearance achieved, job jobbed

Next on the list was the dust boot. A mate gave me the skinny on a cheaper option than the $90 new/$50 secondhand factory dust boots - roof pipe flashing. Measured it up and the factory holes are 120mm left to right & front to back, so the 139mm flashing looked to be the right size

4 holes and trimmed the top to slide over the shifter and another item ticked off (yes 100% fake shift knob btw - PSM replacement on the way)





Another job was insulating the wideband wire with some velcro heat wrap stuff i had for brake lines





Next was the rear end jobs. After putting it in the air I got the RHS camber mount corrected, then set about flattening the arch lip.

The steel on these arches is seriously thick, so normal hammers were out of the question. Thankfully the mini sledgehammer was keen for some action.

Then on with some 15mm bolt on spacers and the other pair of Advan's, this time with 215/45 burners. It could do with 5mm more space/less camber but it'll do for now





Next was the front. I measured the bottom of the sideskirt at the front and rear, and the middle of the front and rear hubs to the ground and found the front was ~10mm higher.

So before it reached the ground another 10mm was taken out of the coilovers. Naka-who?



At this point i was fizzing

Once it was on the ground i realised that the LHS guard hadn't had the lip flattened & still had the inner guard. So back in the air, ripped the plastic out, hammered the lip flat, trimmed any protruding bolts, hammered up the usual lips and clearanced the rear of the wheel well

Back on the ground, wheel nuts tightened & number plates on. Time to go visit a mate round the corner





Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu it's long. Looks like an absolutely slab lol

It ran like an absolute pig, steering was heeeavy and good lord it was loud. But I was smiling like an idiot!

Now the issue i had with it going pig rich & running on 5 came back again. It revved fine when you eased the throttle on slowly, or if you matted it. However if you were stabbing it, for parking or low speed maneuvering, as the revs fell down it would run on 5 and go rich until it cleared and idled ok-ish, with the odd pop & fart.

I didn't think it was spark related due to it only doing it in a particular throttle scenario, and that it has new plugs, leads & dizzy cap. However I had no idea on the condition of the injectors so my spidey sense says one is leaking

So out with the plugs



All of them were a little white on the tips except number 6. As i poked it through the cardboard some of the carbon rubbed off, but ignoring the tips, the buildup below the tip & electrode indicated it had a lot of extra fuel. After a little searching I've found it isn't unheard of for these top feed injectors to crack around the pintle & leak. Below you can see how much darker number 6 is to number 5



So I've put the call out for another set of injectors & got started on pulling the rail. This time I'll test the replacement injector to see if it leaks before i fit it.

Final thing was the front bar. I'm going to need good airflow and the main opening has this abortion in the middle



10min with the angle grinder & a lick of paint:



It ain't great, but it's better and more functional. I'll bend the number plate up to fit in that slot to hide the ugly recess

I've cleaned & reinstalled the plugs and have the throttle body off in anticipation of the injector swap. Once i replace the injector i'll take it for another jaunt up the road and rough in the low throttle correction values before booking the dyno session

And to finish this off, on the way back from its outing i squeezed on the throttle and got to hear wooshy noises for the first time. Instant grin material

Until next Monday

 

Another Monday, another update

After the test drive there were 3 things i wanted to sort:

the front bumper cut out
get the wipers going
replace injector 6

Front bumper done, so moved onto the wipers. Found the bit of the engine loom that was supposed to plug into the body harness but the pins were all wonky. Repinned it but lost intermittent and the washer bottle override, which was fortunate (foreshadowing)

Next injectors. After a mate hunted all week for me & fell through I grabbed a set of mint S0 RB25DE for $40. Threw them in on Friday then buttoned everything up for another drive.



Ran a bit better but still stumbled when stabbing the throttle. Had the boost gauge tee'd off the PFR vacuum line so stopped that and got another improvement.

Roughed in some low throttle correction factors and popped over to a quiet road to run it through to redline on light throttle. That sorted i roughed in some high throttle correction factors and rolled into boost for the first time in 2nd. Tickled up the values as it rolled into boost then gave it a run through a wide open throttle in 2nd.

Instant smiles, but it's damn loud so had to dip before i overstayed my welcome. Made 5psi all the way through, but that won't be for long. Waiting to hear back on a dyno booking now

Other bits done were a PSM shifter and woodgrain wheel turning up (waiting on a bosskit)



And rigged up some sprayers. 2 on the radiator and 1 on the intercooler running off the washer bottle. Had a play with check valves but ended up splitting the line, one to the sprayers the other to the windscreen, and having a tap on each. I can trigger the pump using the factory stalk but can only have sprayers or windscreen jets



Spent last night fiddling with the catch can and have it sitting next to the battery now. Just waiting on my tap set to come in so i can drill a second hole and run the second breather to it

Also have the wire run to the brake pedal switch so the a-frame harness is good to go

Need to see if i can get an oil pressure gauge working. Have had two cheapies fail on me and I'd like a functioning one in there before we lean on it. Also going to see if the Recaro has a shot of fitting, and if so will chuck one of my spare harnesses in as well

That's all. See you in a week

 

Missed the Monday update due to some old bag having a birthday

Got the call back and dyno is booked for this afternoon, so spent the last week prepping

After thinking about the oil pressure reading problem a little more I came to the conclusion it could be because of it's location - T'd into the oil feed. Now the oil feed has no restrictor until the banjo on the turbo, the line is a good metre long and OP6 turbos need 2x oil restrictors. I'd noticed the turbo spitting a bit of smoke/residue and thought it was just unburnt fuel, when in fact it was probably oil pushing past the seals due to too much oil

So made up a 2mm oil restrictor that goes between the oil feed & the T-piece (made from a 1/8 NPT fitting on a fuel pressure gauge). Have wound the engine over and still have good oil supply at the turbo



Next pulled the hot side pipe off and drilled & tapped a source for the wastegate


My mild OCD is pleased by the symmetry of hose & pipe


Then fitted my SR3

And to make it more racecar fitted harness. Will swap the black set for my other matching blue set down the track


Then dummied up the a-frame. Fiddled with the wiring harness and all is well there too, now the C35's lights run off the MarkX's when towing


And because the rear advans had ~1mm of tread left and this thing was going to be towed on the road I've thrown the RP01's on with the NS1 semi's. Took the chance to clearance the inner wheel wells while i was there and removed the spacers to ensure no rubbing

Packed some spares & tools and as of last night it's ready to be hitched up and towed to the dyno in an half an hour

 

Dyno day deserves it's own update as it was a biggy. Lots of words sorry

Hooked up to the a-frame just before midday & dragged it over to the dyno, grabbing 40L of 98 octane on the way



Had to wait an extra hour as there was a 13B 808 wagon on there



Strapped down, sensors on, warmed up & first pull on wastegate (5psi) netted ~120kw and rich. A bit of noise from the head started after the first pull, which we believe was due to a lifter. Brent threw in a cup of some special oil and it quietened it right up

Instead of trimming fuel we just added boost as there was no detonation on the cans yet. Ended up getting to 8psi before getting a bit of a rich patch as it rolled into boost. With that slightly improved on the VAFC we maxed the bleed valve and found it would only go as far as 10psi as back pressure is pushing the gate open.



At this point the knock was a bit too high so Brent retarded the base timing (ie rotated the dizzy ~5mm) and made another pull and was happy. At 10psi the AFR's were spiking going into the 13's at around 5000 then dipping back down no matter what we did with the VAFC

Decision was that it was running out of fuel pressure. I had brought a couple of adjustable FPR's just in case this happened. Put one on to find it leaked but thankfully the other one was fine.



After giving it all the base pressure it showed 0 on the fuel pressure gauge, saying the fuel pump was opening a relief valve and was not up to the task. Being a rotary specialist they had old Mazda in tank pumps everywhere, and an FD RX7 in tank was sitting on the bench. It was either that, or the Aliexpress $30 special i had toted along. I opted for the RX7 one.

I jumped into the boot, undid the lines & plugs, pulled the fuel pump cradle out, pulled off the stock pump, put the FD pump into the cradle (after a bit of customisation) and threw it back in. Not a fun job being constantly up to your elbows in fuel but all done in 45min so not bad considering. We now had plenty of fuel

We set base fuel pressure then found we were pig rich up top and no adjustment on the VAFC would work. I spent another 15min digging through the VAFC and found the VTEC switch rpm not logged, so entered those and reset the rpm points to mirror it. No big improvement so it'll take a bit of research i think. To get around this just lowered base fuel pressure until the rich spot (5000-6500) was in the 10's and the lean patch (4000-5000) was in the 12's

End result was 144kw on 10psi. Full boost just before 3500 and stock limiter is 6500. Most importantly, safe timing and no knock. Afternoon on the dyno cost me a tickle under $400



Over a dozen pulls and the clutch didn't slip, driveshaft was fine, didn't spit any oil, didn't overheat and the rods stayed in the block. I call that a success

With a stiffer wastegate we could get to 14psi but I need to figure out what's going on with the VAFC first. I might just tune it on the low cam map but will check the user manual's and my old notes to see if i missed something

If 5psi netted us 25kw another 4psi would put us around 165-170kw, which is what my RB25 used to make on the factory ECU

But that can wait until after Winter Matsuri. Last jobs are getting the seat brackets welded where i cut reliefs when bending them, fit the steering hub (once it arrives) so i can fit the woodgrain wheel, adjust the handbrake, get it aligned, load it with the gold set of Advans and all my part worn tyres so it's ready to hitch up & go

Towing it was ok, but don't want to put too much weight in the arse of it so will probably only fill the boot with tyres and put the wheels on the back seat