More Bits n Pieces

More parts for the upcoming build. Me Nismo LSD complete with Nismo certificate and user manual. Ony in Japanese. For a relatively small component the LSD is really heavy.

Brand new Nissan final drive/ring gear/crown wheel bolts. You will need eight for the RS5F70A final drive. Picture here should give you an idea of what I am talking about.

Water coolant channel plugs for the QG. Otherwise known in the US as "freeze" plugs.

Coolant drain plug on engine block. I'm taking the precaution to replace parts where I can. Makes no sense to run into issues later or blow my engine due to a failure of a part costing a couple ringgit.

 

Titanium fasteners for my brake caliper adapter. Got these from Racebolts which is much cheaper than what I was quoted by Pro-Bolt.

Couldn't quite managed to carry me driveshafts home. My arms are still aching. More on this later.

Original Nissan aluminium faced brake and clutch pedal pads from a Z33 for that sporty look. If my research is correct these are plug and pray.

Why no accelerator pedal pad? Well this is not plug and play for our "ancient" throttle cable N16. Picture below of the Z33 electronic accelerator pedal assembly. Picture courtesy of Greg/G-Spec.

I frankly have no idea if this works on newer N16/B15/G10s with an electronic throttle. Of course all MYDM N16s are throttle cable only regardless of Pre-FL, FL1, FL2, FL2+. If I can't find any matching accelerator these are probably going to be for sale while I get myself some Sparco carbon pedal pads.

More ARP stuff

Got more ARP fasteners when I was in the US. Picture below of shiny ARP 300 series stainless steel stud kit for exhaust/turbo manifold. The stud kit is rated to 170K psi tensile strength. Supplied nut is 12-point.

Next is the ARP Pro Series bolt kit to secure flywheel to crankshaft. The QG18 crank/flywheel uses 6 bolts. Picture below of ARP vs stock.

ARP offer two styles of flywheel bolts: High Performance and Pro Series. Both are forged from aerospace allow and heat treated prior to thread rolling and machining. Both feature an exclusive 12-point head design and larger than stock shank diameter for increased strength and improved flywheel register. The High Performance Series is rated at 180K psi tensile strength while the premium grade Pro Series, originally developed for Nascar competition has a 200K psi rating.

The Slowtra is very close to going in for its "oil change" job. Expect a dearth of articles then unless Toby and Chew Soon can take regular yummy pixs of the progress.

AIMing for the Icon

Was in the US a week back and collected my AIM MXL Strada Icon. I bought my MXL Strada from the good guys @ Apex Speed Technology. Look for Neel Vasavada or DJ Uithoven. The package arrived at my hotel even before I arrived. However upon opening the box I got a shock as I was sent the standrad MXL Strada rather than the MXL Strada Icon I ordered. Picture below of the "incorrect" MXL Strada. Pardon the lousy quality from my HTC Desire S. My camera ran out of batt and I forgot to bring the charger along with me. Bummer!

Apex Speed Tech owned up to the mistake and Neel even responded to my email late on Saturday night. Really truly excellent customer service. I was shipped the correct AIM MXL Strada Icon which arrived the day before I left. I then hand carried it back to Bolehland. Yes, personally hand carried. Can't trust it to be abused and damaged via checked in luggage. If you asking whether I came back with two AIM MXL Stradas the answer is No. I had first hand experience with a United States Postal Service post office and shipped back the unit to Apex Speed Tech. Picture below of what I brought back home.

Opening the box revealed a CD-ROM containing the interface software and the "manual" which is more a simple wiring diagram and brochure of other AIM products. You can download the actual user manual here.

The supplied wiring and connectors to ECU and to PC/laptop. Connection to PC is via USB.

The AIM MXL Strada Icon dash display itself. Notice the difference in the side warning LEDs compared to the regular MXL Strada.

Reverse "back" side showing the mounting bosses and RS-232 and CAN (Controller Area Network) connectors.

I paid slightly under RM4K for the whole kit including tax. Had to pay tax as I was in California which is subjected to sales tax. Sales tax in the US is enforced at the state level. Need to get a prepreg carbon plate to mount the dash display and have Toby install and wire-in everything once the Slowtra goes in for its oil change.

Dash Display Options

With the Slowtra going the forced induction route there is a vital need to display turbo boost pressure as the last thing I want is to blow my expensive (to me) engine to engine heaven due to some unknown overboosting/boost creep issue. Was also thinking of having the ability to display oil pressure and temps too. I dunno bout you guys and gals but I find having a row of gauges on the dash both confusing and distracting. One could spend more time looking at the lovely row of gauges than doing the driving. The row of gauges have also proven to be a theft magnet.

Digital dash displays have come down a lot in price since the early days hence am in the lookout for one. Three to four traditional analogue dial gauges from the likes of Defi will come close to the price of an integrated digital dash display. I do not need datalogging since the ECU I will be going to has this option albeit limited. Dash displays with datalogging are pretty expensive still (to me) at easilly more than RM6K for the cheapest option once you add sensors and what nots. My search for a decent LCD "black over white" dash display (full colour TFT options from the likes of GEMS and DTA are still too cost prohibitive at this point). Don't even mention about the Bosch Motorsport DDU 7/8. Price is in excess of five figures just for the dash display!

My option narrowed down to two popular choices as both work fully with Autronic and Haltech ECUs with Toby comfortable with both and having no preference for either to install and set up. The first is the AIM MXL Strada. AIM hails from Italy and is a popular choice for many a race/rally car/bike. The Strada Icon is particularly attractive as it features build-in led warning lights for many common road car requirements such as hazard lights, high beam, etc. Picture below of the AIM MXL Strada Icon.

You can read the full spec and features here. The display is fully configurable via a laptop/PC. Price is a tad more than MYR 3.5K not including shipping and tax. The MXL connects to the Haltech Platinum Sport 1000 or Autronic SM4 via RS-232 interface protocol. Track day kakis can connect an optional GPS sensor to the MXL Strada for track timing duty. The s

The other choice is the Racepak IQ3. Racepak is from the US and equally popular with many a race/rally cars. Haltech even uses the IQ3 as its own dash display and likewise Tomei. Picture below of the IQ3 from Racepak website. You can read up the specs and compare here.

On first look the IQ3 seemed to be a much more economical solution @ around MYR2K not including shipping and tax for the dash display. Racepak however operate on Bolehland's favourite budget airline - Air Asia's business model. Where the AIM MXL Strada comes with everything one would need to connect to the ECU, the Racepak requires you to purchase the ECU interface (RM 1.2K) for whichever ECU you will be using and the cable that plugs the interface to the IQ3. The price for this cable depends on the length you will need (RM150 to 240). Once you add this all up the price difference between the AIM MXL Strada and the Racepak IQ-3 is only around one two hundred ringgit or so. There is no GPS option for the IQ3 dash display and to have GPS functionality one would have to get the IQ3 datalogger dash. Unfortunately both the MXL Strada and the IQ3 dash display cannot be upgraded to a datalogger. If you require datalogging please get the datalogger dash.

I have already made my decision and ordered the dash display. Blame it on the Chinese New Year mood and poisoning from Bro Mugil :P Oh and...

Happy Chinese New Year Everyone!!!

All will be revealed once I collect my dash display.

Assembly

Two pictures of my engine being put together. Pixs courtesy of Toby.

Entire bottom end rotating assembly (crank, rods, pistons, flywheel, clutch, etc) have been fully balanced. The cast iron block has been given a fresh coat of paint. Toby is totally against in lightweight crank pulleys hence I bought a stock new one. The ARP main and head studs fit just fine with no clearance issues. Good R&D eh? :) The torque specs are as follows:

• 8740 main studs - 60ft/lb
• ARP2000 head studs - 70ft/lb in 2 even steps

Will run with a stock head and cams first. Should be ready for install on the Slowtra post CNY.

LSD Slips

No I'm not suffering from cold turkey and need the LSD (Lysergic Acid Diethylamide) drug but I do need a Limited Slip Differential. As you know making more than 300hp with equivalent big torque is going to be useless if one cannot properly put the power to the ground. Wheelspin is only good enough to put on a smoke show. This led me to sending emails to popular limited slip differential manufacturers to see if they have one for my RS5F70A gearbox.

The first to reply to my email was Yasu from ATS/PPI - "I am very sorry but ATS does not have an LSD for RS5F70A. We do have one for Primera P11 but it is for Primera with SR18DE and stock viscous LSD". Yasu told me that for ATS to design and manufacture a custom LSD would require 30 unit order quantity.

This was followed by Yu from Across - "Thank you  for your inquire. Unfortunately we don't have LSD for your vehicle".

Wavetrac and Cusco Japan/International/Malaysia did not even bother to respond.

Cusco USA did and was very helpful. A lady by the name of Yuki concluded our email chain with the following - "Dear Andrew, bad news for you.... :( Our LSD won't fit your transmission. The size of the LSD for SR motor is little bigger than one for your transmission. In addition, we don't set up the LSD for your application. Sorry..... when you swap the motor to SR, let me know. we have LSD for SR".

The response from Quaife was also the same "unfortunately No".

I did not bother to try Kaaz or OS Giken because there is no listing for anything similar on their website. OK, I basically gave up.

My last option would be Drexler but boy are they expensive. Really expensive like more than twice the cost of a Cusco! So this leaves my only viable "economical" LSD option as the Nismo Mechanical LSD, part number 38420-RS360. But this was discontinued circa 2008-2009. I went ahead and emailed the whole world anyway with the hope to secure one from some left over inventory or Aladdin's cave somewhere. My search led me to a popular speed part mail order service based in Japan as recommended by Bro Jack - RHD Japan whom initially told me they had the LSD in stock. Unfortunately after payment they told me the LSD had been discontinued. "WTF!!!" To their credit RHD fully refunded me though I lost some ringgits in the currency conversion :(

In the end Greg from GSpec found me one but did it cost me. Lets just say the Nismo LSD cost me more than five big ones! Super Ouch! My excuse would be desperate people take desperate measures. The other excuse would be the Nismo is till cheaper than the Drexler. Per Greg, this might be the last brand new Nismo LSD for 32A/70A gearbox left in the world! Pictures below courtesy of Greg.

Hopefully the LSD will drop right into my gearbox without the need to change the final/ring gear/crown wheel and side gear. Here's how the complete assembly looks like.

More details to follow once I arrange for delivery back home.

Oil Pump

Picture below of the QG18's gerotor oil pump and housing cover.

The oil pump assy and gears are behind the cover with the phillips countersunk bolts. I am so tempted to try the oil pump blueprinting suggested by MotoIQ and send the gears, cover and housing for WPC treatment. Should I?

Coilover Dampers for the Slowtra - The Euros Part 1 (The Germans)

Happy New Year Everyone!!! Let's start 2012 with the long awaited post on Euro coilovers for the Slowtra beginning with the Germans. Achtung!

AP
AP Sportfahrwerke GmbH is not the same as the famed AP Racing brake manufacturer and supposedly hails from Germany. "Sportfahrwerke" literally translates to "Sport Suspension" in Engrish. AP claim in their website to have been selling superior quality suspension kits for the last ten years. AP make a range of suspension including springs and non-coilover shocks for the Euro N16 the "Almera" but for this post will only be on the coilover range simply called the "AP coilover suspension kit. There is a newer independent height and rebound adjustable coilover known as the "APX" but I cannot confirm if this is available for the N16. I also cannot confirm if the coilovers are mono or twin tube though from pictures shown it looks to be twin tube. AP's website is not very helpful at all and is lacking in technical details.

• Part Number: GF85-001
• Damping Adjustable: No. Damping is fixed at factory and claimed to be 25% stiffer than stock but as there are no rates nor damper dyno plots available I'll take this with a pinch of salt.
• Ride height adjustable: Yes. AP claim you can lower by as much as 30-55mm, Independent Ride height adjustable: No so if you lower too much you will alter spring preload and damping.
• Rebuildable: Not stated
• Front Spring Rate: Not known, Rear Spring Rate: Not known. AP specs the coilovers according to vehicle weight which for the N16 is 1010kg front axle load and 970kg rear axle load.
• Top Mounts: Use back the stock rubber top mounts
• Other Notable Features:  TÜV certified according to AP. Looks to be a conventional threaded steel body coilover damper with an aluminium spring collar perch. From the pictures on their website AP utilises helper springs.
• Price is relatively cheap at around 500 or so British Pounds or around RM2.5K not including shipping and tax. AP claim to offer quality and performance comparable to another popular German aftermarket suspension manufacturer Weitec a lower price. However looking at the specs and the lack of any local distributor/support I would recommend the Taiwanese or Japanese coilovers if you do track days rather than car shows

KW
KW Automotive GmbH also from Germany is currently one of the most popular race/performance/track day suspension manufacturer and produce a range of coilover dampers from the simple non-adjustable Variant 1 coilover to really serious motorsport stuff with equally serious price tags. For the N16 and USDM B15 it's either the top of the range or the bottom. An email enquiry to KW on whether they would make a Variant 3 or Clubsport for the N16 as resulted in an expected "No" reply. At least KW responded to my email. Let's start with the bottom of the range Variant 1 twin tube coilover damper.

• Part Number: 05285001 (not stated in KW's catalogue but I got the same part number from several websites selling the KW Variant 1 for N16 so this should be correct. Pls note that this is chap Saw and if you order pls state your car's chassis code, manufacturer and model which should be Nissan Almera N16)
• Damping Adjustable: No. Damping is fixed at factory.
• Ride height adjustable: Yes, Independent Ride height adjustable: No so if you lower too much you will alter spring preload and damping.
• Rebuildable: I should think so. There is no distributor listed for MY in KW's website. Only Singapore Indonesia and Thailand. Duh!
• Front Spring Rate: Not known, Rear Spring Rate: Not known.
• Top Mounts: Use back the stock rubber top mounts
• Other Notable Features: TÜV certified. Available in two different damper body material - galvanised steel and "Inox" or stainless steel. Composite spring collar perch.
• Price is not cheap at close to 1000 Euros (RM4.1K) for the Variant 1 Inox line not including shipping and tax. KW command a price premium over AP and Weitec due to their reputation and quality.

Thanks to Mike Kojima and the Dog III Time Attack race car we have the 3-way adjustable motorsport race coilover damper. These are high pressure nitrogen gas monotube configuration with separate remote reservoir. Front dampers are inverted with linear ball bearings to minimise friction. Aluminium is used for the damper bodies to minimise weight.

• Part Number: Contact KW.
• Damping Adjustable: Yes. 3-way adjustable for high and low speed compression damping and rebound damping.
• Ride height adjustable: Yes, Independent Ride height adjustable: No. This is a professional motorsport coilover damper hence optimum ride heigh is customised to your specs.
• Rebuildable: Definitely Yes.
• Front Spring Rate: 700 in/lb (12.5 kg/mm) with helper spring on the Dog III, Rear Spring Rate: 900 in/lb (16 kg/mm) with helper spring on the Dog III. In reality KW can build the damper to your range of preferred spring rates.
• Top Mounts: To your specifications. The Dog III uses Ground Control front spherical bearing top mounts adjustable for camber and caster. To install such top mounts you first have to chop off the front suspension turret/tower tops and reweld back metal plate allowing for the adjustment. Rears are non-adjustable spherical bearing and are "plug and play".
• Other Notable Features: The dampers have a very short body resulting in a very low ride height (4 inches or 101.6mm lower than stock). This is a proper race car damper after all. Full technical details can be found in MotoIQ. I also have a write up for the Dog III's suspension. This is really serious stuff.
• Price is equally serious @ > 24K RM for Dog 3 spec not including shipping and tax. Yes that's right. Twenty four thousand ringgit! Shocks at motorsport pro-level are all around these region or even significantly more once you progress to factory "works" level. Just ask how much WRC spec Reiger cost. So are you willing to pay?

Weitec
Weitec Fahrwertechnik offer the Hicon GT, GTN  and TX "Plus" coilover dampers but only the lower end Hicon GT twin tube coilover damper is available for the N16.

• Part Number: 13285001
• Damping Adjustable: No. Damping is fixed at factory.
• Ride height adjustable: Yes. Weitec claim you can lower by as much as 30-55mm, Independent Ride height adjustable: No so if you lower too much you will alter spring preload and damping.
• Rebuildable: Not stated
• Front Spring Rate: Not known, Rear Spring Rate: Not known. Like AP, Weitec specs the coilovers according to vehicle weight which for the N16 is 1010kg front axle load and 970kg rear axle load.
• Top Mounts: Use back the stock rubber top mounts
• Other Notable Features: TÜV certified. Looks to be a conventional threaded galvanised steel body coilover damper with an aluminium spring collar perch. From the pictures on their website Weitec utilises helper springs for the Hicon GT. Also like AP, technical details are rather lacking from their catalogue and website.
• Price is higher than AP coilover dampers at around 700 or so British Pounds or around RM3.5K not including shipping and tax. However looking at the specs and the lack of any local distributor/support I would recommend the Taiwanese or Japanese coilovers if you do track days rather than car shows.

New Blog Address

I've bought my very first own domain hence if you are reading this you can also view this blog @ http://www.then16files.com/

The old blogspot address is still valid and will redirect to this new address. Thanks.

ARP Main Studs

Like my head studs I purchased stock QG18DE main bolts and had Greg measure them for the closest ARP equivalent. Picture below of the stock main bolts

Here's how the main bolt measure up. Pix courtesy of Greg.

I must be lucky as there are two possible ARP main stud options. Picture below summarizes the two options.

Per Greg, "the stock bolt threads 1.325" (33.655mm) into the engine block, 1.75" (44.45mm) inside the mains and only approximately 0.5" (12.75mm) of bolt head outside. The 4.125" (104.775mm) stud option has more threads at the bottom , assuming it bottoms out equally with the bolt, it has a shorter section of unthreaded partand you would tighten the nut down and there would be threads inside the main. Not the end of the world but there would be approximately 0.625" (16mm) left above the nut as exposed thread. I don't think there will be clearance issues but I'm not familiar with the QG18 motor (engine). The 3.75" (95.25mm) stud has less engagement thread in the block, though at 60 ft/lbs torque, 1" of thread is fine per ARP. This leaves you an equal to the bolt unthreaded section in the main and will only leave you with 0.5" (13mm) exposed"

Per Toby's advice I decided on the 4.125" (104.775mm) main stud option.  Unlike me ARP head studs the main studs were in stock and duly arrived in about two weeks. Greg included a nice ARP box for me this time round.

Opening the box revealed the following contents - main studs, 12-point nuts, washers and a sachet of ARP fastener assembly lubricant. Nice!

Here's how my main studs compare with the stock main bolts.

These are 8740 chromoly alloy rather than the stronger ARP2000 as ARP doesn't have the stronger material for said main stud. Still loads stronger than the stock main bolts though. You can read up about how 8740 chromoly alloy measures up to ARP2000 here. I'll update what application the main studs were originally designed for when and if I get the info from Greg. Am still not done with ARP as I now have their stainless steel manifold studs on order.

Cleaned

Pictures of me cylinder head and engine block after degreasing, cleaning, honing and light skimming. Lovely job I must say. Looks like brand new especially where it matters.

Pictures courtesy of Bro Chew Soon as I'm more than 330 km away. Thanks Bro! I will be repainting the cast iron block black.The dayglo orange suggested by Bro Jack just won't cut it. BTW Congrats Bro on the birth of your son!

While not fast and furious, parts are arriving and the build is progressing slowly but surely. Here's an upskirt teaser pix of my piston. Sexy hand belongs to Bro Chew Soon :)

More to follow.

Ouch!

The bolts holding my brake caliper adapter to the wheel upright/knuckle are begining to rust to fastener heaven after only 5 months hence I recently made an enquiry with Pro-Bolt on some titanium equivalents. Below is the price quotation they sent me.

Total quotation cost after discount and including shipment came up to 128.06 GBP or MYR633 depending on the exchange for a grand total of 16 pieces of bolt, washer and nut. I don't like to whine and I know modding cars is an expensive hobby but this is still very very stupendously outrageously expensive to me! Now you know why F1 teams have an annual budget larger than the GDP of some countries...

Yummy Yummy!!!

Was following up on the delivery status of my K1 conrods with Toby when he sent me this gem with the same subject as this blog post :)

You're in trouble if I need to tell you which is the stock and which is the forgie (forged piston). Pistons are from Ross Racing Pistons and are forged from 2618 billet bar stock and have been heat treated and aged to T61 condition (2618-T61). Per Ross, 2618-T61 is the material that is used when fatigue resistance and durability are of prime importance by all premium racing piston manufacturers. This material has less than 1% silicon particulate content. High silicon content pistons (eg. forged from 4032 or MS75) will not stand up to the most extreme stress placed on many racing pistons. If a crack starts to form in a high silicon piston it will continue until the piston experiences a catastrophic failure. This is because adding sand to the aluminium only makes it more brittle. A crack on a 2618-T61 piston will continue to an area where the stress is not that great and will then stop.

As usual with engineering there are compromises. High silicon content pistons have a lower coefficient of thermal expansion allowing the engine builder to specify much tighter tolerance between the piston and the cylinder wall to ensure excellent ring seal and minimize cylinder bore wear. The larger piston to cylinder wall tolerances on a low silicon content piston will lead to characteristics such as a "rattly" sound when the engine is cold and has not warmed up. While this sound is undesirable to the majority of people it is no issue for what I'm building the Slowtra's engine for. I'll take the much improved piston strength over some additional noise any time any day. Care will also need to be taken to ensure during engine warm up to minimize wear. Even with bone stock QGs one should not rev and thrash the engine when it is cold anyway.

Compression is Toby GT Auto spec which is a tad under 9.0:1. Should result in a very responsive engine. Rings are the excellent Total Seal according to Toby. Now please excuse me while I go clean my pants. More details and pictures to follow...

K1 Technologies Connecting Rods Here!

While it might have taken more than eight months for me to get my K1 conrods, the rods were with me for less than 96 hours before being sent to GT Auto. Took some pixs before sending the package to Pos Laju. Picture below of the packaging. Four connecting rods are in this box.

Thanks to something called "globalization" many famous brands are now made in the PRC including K1 Technologies. The next time you laugh at "Cina Mari" parts think twice as your branded part could actually be made there! K1 rods are designed and finished machined in the United States though.

Labelling and details of my rods. "5.531" in the top row is the connecting rod center distance (ie. length). The numbers in the bottom row mean that total weight is 474.8g (grams), big end weight is 342.2g and small end weight is 132.6g. Interesting K1 uses metric for weight while length is still in imperial. "ARP2000" is self explanatory but if you are still not sure you can continue reading a bit to understand what it is.

Opening the packaging. The dark coloured liquid thingy is probably assembly lube. Not K1 gel though :)

The K1 Nissan QG18DE conrod. More pixs from Greg can be found in my earlier post.

The big (crank) end. As mentioned in my earlier post, the big end bolts are ARP2000 for their high tensile strength and excellent notch toughness.

The small (piston) end. The two holes are oiling holes that get the oil on the wrist pin. The K1 connecting rod features fruction reducing fully floating wrist pin design.

Each K1 connecting rod is CNC machined from 4340 steel forging and then undergoes core hardening and shot peening process to improve its strength. Each K1 rod is also magnetic particle inspected (MPI). During this inspection process the connecting rod is magnetized and then a magnetic flux such as iron particles is applied to its surface. This attraction helps reveal any surface imperfections or flaws on the conrod's surface.

This should now lead to some nice Ross forgies. I also have ACL engine bearings (crank/main, rod and thrust) on order and plan to WPC treat them. The ACLs are on back order though as the main bearings will only be avail end December. Everything should hopefully be ready for engine assembly some time early next year...

Bits n Pieces

Picture below of the stock QG18DE crank pulley and water pump pulley. It's the same as the QG16DE. The QG15 supposedly runs a narrower accessory - power steering and alternator belt (3 belt ribs) compared to the QG16/18. Main crank/power steering belt is 6 ribs. Let's call this 6/3pk belt for the QG15 and 6/4 pk belt for the QG16/18 belt. Now having said this the pulleys on my QG18 looks more like a 6/3 pk arrangement. Bro Fooyc what say you? Anyway be it 3 or 4 pk is no big cause for concern as one would just have to change the accessory belt.

Currently from what I know there are two manufacturers for lightweight aluminium same diameter as stock QG16/18 crank pulley. Alutec and Redline Motorsports which looks pretty similar to the Alutec cept the name. Who ripped who you decide. The Redline is bout 330 bucks or so plur or minus RM10 depending on how you bargain. You can also read up on the Redline crank pulley in the Malaysian N16 forum here. Both (Redline and Alutec) are in the 800+ grammes range which is around or less than half the weight of the stock crank pulley The Alutec is made from 7075 grade aluminium which is stronger than the more common 6061 grade aluminium used on the Redline crank pulley. I previously bought the more expensive Alutec crank pulley and you can read about it here. Never got around to installing it though. The Alutec is only avail down south in Singapore while the Redline is widely avail in the Klang Valley. In addition I also have another project to custom manufacture the crank pulley. More details to follow :)

In addition Unorthodox Racing from the US also make an underdrive (smaller diameter) crank pulley for the QG18. Basically an underdrive pulley is designed to drive the vehicle's accesories at a slower rate than stock. This increases engine horsepower by reducing parasitic drag caused by belt driven accessories such as the aircond and power steering. However too much of a good thing or underdrive will lead to decreased performance from said accessories. Whether that concerns you varies from driver to driver and car to car but IMHO I personally prefer stock diameter for a daily driver.

On a completely different topic, the gearbox mount for my RS5F70A gearbox has arrived. Picture below. The smaller part is the support rod bracket which I ordered just for kicks. Price came up to quite a bit including shipping (bout RM400 or so). These are brand new Nissan items though.

My gearbox is basically ready to go in at this point but I have not decided if I wanna mod my stock puny driveshafts or get Nissan or oem QG18/RS5F70A items or custom some performance ones. Price will be pretty massive for Nissan driveshafts or performance ones though. If you need to know it's in excess of two thousand smackers and possibly more.

K1 Rods Ready and For Sale!

After some eight months my custom K1 Technologies billet h-beam conrods are ready. Pictures courtesy of Greg V while I arrange for shipment.

Those of you following this blog will know that I had the rods custom manufactured as no performance conrod manufacturer with the exception of Pauter has off the shelf rods for the Nissan QG18DE. The K1 conrod is forged and strong enough to withstand the power I am expecting to make (~300bhp). Unless you are crazier than me and plan a >600hp QG18 these conrods are going to be all that you will ever need. Specs of the QG18 K1 conrod can be found here. Material is forged 4340 steel. Finishing is top quality.

The even better news is that my set is not the only set of K1 QG18 conrods in existence. Yes, there is another (only one more set) and these are for sale @ USD675.00 for a set of four. Price does not include shipping and any tax. Lead time is NOT eight months but the amount of time it takes to deliver the rods to your doorstep once you place the order and pay. Serious enquiries only pls contact me. The conrods will also fit the Nissan GA16DE.