Olly's 180sx Type X then JZX110 Mark II then JZX100 Mark II

Let's see how we go man/ how bored I get.

NZ is now in total lockdown, you can visit the doctor or the supermarket and that's about it. I am glad we got to this point sooner rather than later but at the same time I'm going a bit stir-crazy at home.

This weekend I decided to embark on a project with my old headlights, I split the lights by heating them in the oven to 100*c for 14 minutes.


Then wet sanded down the old chrome housings.


Some satin black paint


Mocked them up and deleted the yellow fog (will replace with white LED)


I then gave the interior plastic a really good clean and was surprised as to how much dirt was on the inside of the lense. Back into the oven for 14 minutes at 100*c and it's super easy to just push the plastic back into the housings. I gave the front of the plastic lenses a quick compound and this was how they came up






These look so clean now, like too clean almost for how average the rest of the car is. You may asked why I bothered, but the twin brick headlights have completely different plugs and run No HID, so you have to retrofit all this sh1t and I did most of it but it didn't really work that well. I want to use the factory HID, the factory fog lights and the factory headlight adjustment instead of having scattered light everywhere.

 

Thanks boys!

For anyone suffering from boredom - I re-activated the old blog - www.taupaki.net. Lots of good nostalgia and the entire 180sx build is in there.





And finally - my car isn't going to get any cleaner, I painted the grill satin black and then ran out of things to do.



My defi gauges don't have any sensors so I found some on ali-express and a genuine boost gauge from RHD Japan, I have no idea how long the ali-express ones will take to get here..

I also had too much to drink one night and bought a turbo. It's a Garrett GTX3076R GEN 2, but in bottom mount configuration, so it will bolt on to my Tomei manifold and I can use a Tomei dump pipe as well.. I think it's good for around 300kw, 350kw with cams.



I'm not going that nuts, I want 270kw at the wheels, with this I think it'll get there easily and not struggle, with the hi-flow I had it would be maxed to get there. Should be fun and I'll post up a few images when it gets here next week.


Stay safe everyone.

 

Here is a huge update covering the last 3 months.



The manifold came with instructions to run the factory heat shield so I'm not sure you're going to see it which sucks. I booked the car in to get tuned and the only thing I need to find now is an air filter.

More boring parts photos.


One thing I have picked up recently which I'm super stoked on is a Bride Ergo2. I loved my Brix2 in the 180, I was initially put off by the graduation on the Ergo but I've since discovered the middle cushions and lower seat are very easy to remove, so they're going to get recovered in a black perforated fabric asap.

I think the Zeta3/Ergo2 combo should look awesome.



Nobody wants more headlight photos but I found a pair of LED fog lights, so I now have LED/HID/LED combo.



I found a good auto upholstery place in Auckland and took the seat out last week. I didn't spend too much time on picking the colour, I just went with what looked right.



When the fabric came in, it actually looked way better than the above photo!



& Done:



So yeah, that worked well! I'm dropping off the centre console for him and I'm tempted to do the centre cushions of the Zeta later on as well.

All the parts also got installed. Please excuse the excessive amount of blue, after getting everything in I've realised there is a lot I want to change so will go about getting some black silicon and a decent alloy overflow / catch can later on.



Trust Elbow bonus!



Car is tuned, no major issues which was nice, it made 275kw on 18psi which it made on the 4th pull, I can't remember the torque figure, I think it was somewhere in the early 400's.

We could have put more boost in after we hit our target number but the exhaust side of my setup is restricting the turbo, I would have to go to a 3.5" system to not stress it, this is mainly due to the internal wastegate also dumping into the exhaust - so there is a lot going through a 3" system right now.

I love my Kakimoto Exhaust.. it was the reason i bought the car, so I'm not changing it for now.. plus I am very nervous about my clutch at a higher power level.

I had a small fuel leak on the SARD Rail around the bung in the middle of the rail, I got that fixed the next weekend. I did drive it home and it's a totally different car, it's very linear where before it would kick then fall off.. it's definitely got more lag but the turbo holds 18psi from 4000 - 7500 and the power does not fall off it just keeps going up haha.

Have been driving the car a bit since it got tuned - it used a bit of oil on the dyno which I was worried about but I topped it up and no drama, it's not using any oil or water. I had some trouble with the cold start on the Haltech (NZ being in the middle of winter) but my tuner came out and did some adjustments and it's all good now.

I also installed some Serial Nine subframe and diff mounts, wow - what a huge difference, the rear end seems so much more predictable now.

June is the busiest time of year for me at work and now that we're through it's time to go drifting, have a few days booked in July.. can't wait. Here's a photo from a recent weekend at Hampton Downs, the Mark II on the left has the same turbo but 350kw



Finally someone took some good photos of this thing.. not much to update, haven't had a chance to go drifting yet due to no track days but took the opportunity to replace the warn Zestino's with some NS2R semi's up front.

Had the front balljoints replaced and a few annoying rattles dealt too as well. Car feels great at the moment, probably the best it's ever been.

 

Pretty excited to find another pair of XT7, I have no idea why it's so hard to find car parts anymore in NZ.. but I now own a set of 18x9.5+12 and will get them refurbished, I've been itching to run a set of these for a while.




Took this thing to the big track.. results were mixed.. tried 3rd gear through the section, ended up in the gravel... no damage just the kit scratched to hell which it kinda was beforehand anyway so a good opportunity to get it tidied up and re-glassed in a few spots.

Went back to 3rd entry, 2nd for the rest of the section and all good.





Side project - XT7 MGS Resto - Matte Grey Silver from Work is my favourite wheel colour.. There is something about how it reflects light and works so well on silver cars that does it for me.



Trying to get the MGS colour code was next to impossible, Work wouldn't release it and I had a pair of white XT7 at the time in good condition and started hunting for another pair, I thought I found a pair in the original colour but they were resprayed, however the owner was kind enough to let me borrow a 3rd wheel and we colour-match that one.. I would say its 95% the same and stoked with the outcome!





NZ is about to head into Summer, the car is at the painters getting the entire Kit resprayed, and the front and rear bumpers.


The kit also got fixed up as the ends of the skirts and some small parts of the front lip had a few issues

 

...And back from paint, so stoked at how it came out, I ended up getting full bumpers, side mouldings and kit repainted.. and I replaced the side door chrome with some stuff off ebay which worked well. It was 8mm chrome for anyone interested in doing the same.

 

Random update - ordered brand new front and rear chrome trim from Toyota for the bumpers, to me they made a huge difference, to everyone else... they can't tell haha.



Some other random shots a mate took.. summer in NZ now so car's good to go and wanted to get some photos before the stone chips let rip again.

 

Finally uploaded an old video from the last track day I did.

Snuck into a skid pad day with a good friend in his SR20 Laurel. Boyce hadn't drifted it before and it was awesome to see him progress through the day.





I did a little bit of tandem with this guy before his oil cooler fitting let go which was a shame as he was super consistent. Then I took Boyce for a drive after we changed the track to a big figure 8 setup. I was pretty hung over and tired and you can tell with my driving in this clip haha. Still great fun and absolutely no stress at these days. Enjoy the kiwi slang:

I've picked up a Cusco cage for this thing as well, I haven't seen it yet but apparently it's a 'full interior' job where you can leave the rear seats in completely. I'm going to get it stripped and powdercoated shortly.

My rear sub-frame bushes are also toast so I'm trying to find a separate sub-frame to restore and weld in a reinforcement kit.

Few random shots from a road trip up North





Hope you guys in the UK are keeping safe.

 

Collecting a few bits for this, have full serial nine subframe kit now and just waiting for the reinforcement stuff to show up. Also ended up painting the 57C6 again, in MGS.



Picked up a Cusco 6 point

 

Subfame is getting there, GP Sports Style Reinforcement Kit, Serial nine subframe and diff bushes. I'm probably going to get some new Kazama arms as well for it as I don't want to throw in the old ones.

 

Subframe is finished and installed. Looking at these photos, I wish I could get under the car and clean it. I've inquired about dry ice blasting in NZ, let's see if it's even doable... if not I might try get the car on axle stands and give it a steam clean.





Have also spent the last year building a simulator.. it's been a huge rabbit hole to say the least.

 

Some updates; Kazama F1 Manifold (which I had polished) new stainless 3"exhaust, new front pipe, I didn't really do this for power, just sound & looks. The tomei log manifold did nothing for me.. it left the hotside of the engine bay kinda bland and empty.






ST Garage Carbon Surround

Few random shots

 

Here is the dyno run, made 290kw on 20psi, up from 275kw on 20psi. The sound however is VERY different haha.

 

Had the car made in Assetto Corsa!, should have another update soon on the real one.

 

My car is currently in bits and will have an update on the engine side of things soon... it's going to be a bit lumpy

Here are some other things I've done / are in the process of being done:

Vapourblasted a few things.


More 57C6 , these are currently getting stripped to be painted Luminous Yellow.




Cusco 1.5Way / 4.3 Ratio


Sim stuff is getting serious

 

Update time,

When the car was on the dyno last the tuner said there was a touch of valve float at high rpm, so I thought I would fix that, install some cams, and have some other maintenance things done.

So the engine was stripped down, Kelford 264/272 cams, springs and retainers installed. All timing components were replaced by new OEM parts and the valve stem seals were replaced.

We also did a new alternator, water pump and a billet timing tensioner and as above; got a heap of stuff vapour blasted.

Everything came out so good, the engine basically looks new now.



We then put it on the dyno and the car made 40kw more and 50nm more at the same boost (20psi) which is insane for just cams, it's now a genuine 450hp car which cracks me up .

The car makes peak torque at over 1,000rpm earlier as well. I'm really stoked with this result, it's way more than I was thinking it would make. The tuner mentioned that the internal gate setup on the turbo as well as the Kakimoto muffler were choking it (yes, more exhaust choking stuff) and that if I wanted more power I would have to change those things. The clutch is also at the absolute limit.

So yeah.. I guess now all the engine stuff is done.. one thing I've learned is that if you want a big power JZX, say 370kw + then this setup isn't for you, go with a traditional top mount / external gate / sinco type setup. They really are tried and true.

This however is deffo the setup for me, the sound is perfect and I'm happy with the power. The idle is ummm... interesting now

I also finished the wheels and chucked them on