DIY Front Upper / "A" arm installation

ok... first take jack up the car and take off the wheels

then remove 3 nuts indicates with the red arrow. one in the middle, use 17mm (remove the safety pin first - straighten it and pull it out). and for the other 2 nuts, use 14mm... u have to use some sort of extention here and preferebly a round spanner... it will be hard coz it has 'locktite' from factory...


remember to jack the lower arm to release tension between upper arm and the brake knuckle. put WD40 and use rubber mallet if you need to...

fit the upper arm, after you set the desired degree... i set mine on 8mm... and dont tighten the 2 nuts of the 14mm first... make sure u align the center of the arm with the plastic inner fender lip (red dotted line). then you can tighten it... follow workshop manual for the torque spec (i didnt )


after that, you can push the brake knuckle to the upper arm, dont forget to put the black pastic cone that comes with it.... then tighten the 17mm bolts and put the safety pin after... follow workshop manual for the torque spec...


done and done.... the right one was hard for me, then when i did the left one, it was easier and alot faster...


moral of the story: WD40 fix everything

thx for kenny and jally for the help :)

EXE DYNO DAY

EXE DYNO DAY

did another dyno day with exe-crew last may.... forgot to post...

spec on dyno:
- VOLK GTN 18inch wheels with 265/35/18
- Megan DownPipe + APS catback 2.5 true twin
- K&N panel filter
current result - 165.9 KW ATW... (ToT)

the previous dyno was:
162.4 KW ATW (stock 18inch wheels with 245/45/18, Custom K&N pod filter + Custom heat shield)

graph:

power and torque (dont worry about torque numbers, just look at the curves/line)


Green is the previous dyno result with only pod filter. the red and blue is without pod filter, replaced with panel filter + catback and megan race pipe.

you can see there:
1. i lost abit of power before 4500rpm...
2. i gain big initial torque, then there is a big dips up to before 4500rpm, then gain abig jump after 4500rpm, before starting to drop again... so i got no torque gain from 2500 - 4000rpm...


and here is my AFR graph:

i ran good 14.0 AFR then drops to 12.0 which is abit rich isnt it? need a good tune...

oh well... still drives ok... besides, on the track, i rarely use below 3000rpm... so its not that bad....

BP midland sprint! new PB!!! :P 1:41.0

BP Midland, Pedders No Bull Winton Sprints Round 3 - 1/7/07



*thx to jason / Unco and celicaJim for the photos...

First i would like to thank Jason for standing in front of my door 5am in the morning and keep ringing my door bell till 5.30am, on 2degree C winter morning.... lol... i love you man... thx for the great photos, the 'V', and to help me carry 2 of my wheels and tools. and finally thx for sleeping in your car when i did my 'wet' run and going full sideway, thus resulting in me having no photo of sideways! *slap!* jk man

secondly, thx to kenny for the support, the bottle of water, helping me changing the wheels, and also for sleeping in jason car when i was having my 'wet' run.... (ToT) how dare you!!!

anyway... this is my first sprint day, i didnt know the rule till the end of the day... lol... basically they pick the fastest 'standing lap' of the day (start from grid) and the fastest 'flying lap' (your normal running lap) and they add 2 of them together. whoever got the fastest total won...

johnny (On the run motorsport) and me have the 1st and 2nd fastest flying lap (well... i was just hundredth of second faster than the porsche, while johnny is waaay ahead of anyone in our group) in our group.

we have been playing around on the standing lap.... *coz we never knew that they will take the standing lap into consideration... o_O

not until after the 3rd session, a marshall told me that the standing lap is actually counted... so then the 4th session, i told johnny about it, and we tried to push right from the start... but its still cant get good standing lap... maybe coz both of the porsche and the typhoon have better acceleration times from standing start.... anyway... the most important thing is that i got to fun on the 5th session!!! WET SESSION!!!!! only did 2 minute on the rain lol, but man!!! i slide on every corner... yeeeehaaaaaa....

here is the result of the day... my group is "Improved Production" / Group 2
http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?01/07/2007.WIN.S5.Y

UPDATE:
Lap Record for: Silas B. Andrianto - [MERAH] AKA Flameboy
350Z track -
wheels + tyres: Front - 245/40/18 RE55s, Rays 18x8.5 +33
performance mods: APS catback, Megan race pipe, 37kg weight reduction, Ti2000 spring
brake: RBF600, Project Mu HC+
other: DIY oil cooler

Winton 3KM
-----------------
01/07/2007: 1:41.0680 sec *New PB*
16/04/2007: 1:41.4970 sec
11/03/2007: 1:41.3410 sec
26/01/2007: 1:42.2420 sec
11/12/2006: 1:43.9470 sec

Evaluation:
this time, i managed to do 3rd gear on all of the corners (except on the long left sweeper, i did 4th). doing it on 3rd gear felt alot slower than doing it on 2nd then shift to 3rd... but as i found on wakefield few weeks ago, it sometimes give better exit speed... in result, i beat my PB by almost half a second, with no change in performance mods... (that could be coz i use the 3rd gear, or could be something else )

and i brake alot earlier this time, coz of the track wasnt fully dried... and some wet patch here and there... i used to brake just after i passed the '1' marker.... this time i brake before the '2' marker lol.... next time, if its completely dry, i will try brake like i used to...


oooooo santa come early this year... lol...

i set new PB at winton last sunday.... so its time for me to put new mods... a little reward for my self

Here it is!!! Cusco Front Upper 'A' Arm... i'm a very very happy man ^____^


coz i havent got coilover, this arm will allow me to put extra negative camber at the front without lowering the car's suspension... i'll put it on this weekend... -2.5 front here i come...

Nissan 18x8 Rays Forged! :P

bought this set of Rays forged wheel from sydney...

Front
Size: 18x8.0
Offset: +30mm
Weight: 18.19lbs

Rear
Size: 18x8.5
Offset: +33mm
Weight: 18.62lbs

they are factory option from nissan... i bought it secondhand... still in good nick tho...


on the car...

first time @ WAKEFIELD NSW - 1:12s

QUICK UPDATE

need to sleep soon... just got back from NSW... my butt is square now from sitting too long on that damn bucket seat...


Wakefield Track
PB: 1:12.4s
mod: 245/45/18 RE55s, RSR spring, APS catback, Megan Racepipe, K&N Panel filter (my pod filter is dirty... cbf cleaning lol), project Mu pads and RBF600 brakefluid...

first time there... still very2 messy... hope i can go back next time... what a fun track... i miss it already...

i need new front brake rotor soon (ToT)

UPSKIRT!!!! (ToT)

UPSKIRT!!!! (ToT)

finally it happened to me... (T_T) i was gonna put the bonnet pin after the bumper is done...

was on the way to pick up my new bumper from the paint shop my carbon fiber bonnet flaps open while i was driving... it hit my roof, broke the hinges, damaged the side guards and cracked the bonnet... (T_T) such bad luck... i better win some lotto after this...



ESPRIT BUMPER
not painted final yet, the colour not 100% match... will respray after trackday.

please dont mind the opened CF bonnet (ToT) photo was taken before i fix it....


Return to the Red
well... for now i returned the bonnet to stock one... and i've installed new hinges and bent back the left and right guard... thx to kenny and shaun.

EXE TRACKDAY - 1:41.4s still cant beat old PB :(

UPDATE:
Lap Record for: Silas B. Andrianto - [MERAH] AKA Flameboy
350Z track -
wheels + tyres: Front - 225/45/17 Dunlop Formula R, Back - 235/45/17 RE55s, BBS 17x8 +30
performance mods: APS catback, Megan race pipe, 37kg weight reduction
brake: RBF600, Project Mu HC+
other: DIY oil cooler

i also put 1mm toe out at the front and 4mm overall toe in at the back... just testing...

at the beginning of the day, the car feel really shit and it understeer everywhere... then i figure running 38 front and back (cold) wouldnt work coz i think the RE55 at the back has more grip than the dunlop at the front...

so i keep reducing the front pressure until 30psi warm, and i was happy with that... its starting to grip like i want it on the 4th session...

the 5th session i was out trying to drift i think... lol... but it was more like a bush bashing... and i heard something pop! then i decided to stop... cant do it... better luck next time...

then on the last session... the individual session, i'm getting really worried, i was following johnny (he was driving scott's EVO) and i can hear this same wobble sound like last time... pulsing annoying hitting wobbling sound... last time was only at the back... and now is at the back and front... i ignore it... when i came back to the pit after 3 laps, that sound turned out to be the loose rear left wheels and front right wheels!!! both of them only have 1 nuts left holding it, the other 4 nearly fall off...

so i was very lucky... i torque the wheels nut on 80Nm... probably its not enough... i will do 85 or 90 next time...

but yeah, now with spring, cooler weather and no improvement in the time.... feel stupid... but ah well, better luck next time...

Winton 3KM
-----------------
16/04/2007: 1:41.4970 sec (still cant beat my old PB )
11/03/2007: 1:41.3410 sec *PB*
26/01/2007: 1:42.2420 sec
11/12/2006: 1:43.9470 sec

here is the stats of my laps on the day:


Overall results: http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?16/04/2007.WIN.P1

Individual lap times: http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?16/04/2007.WIN.P1.I

and some photos of MERAH:


others photos on the trackday can be found here! http://www.exe-crew.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1507

video compilation by shaun!!!
Group F compilation

Link


Group A-E compilation (funny ending)

Link