Project Ugly Duckling. SR86. 'Haters gunna hate, Tyres gunna bake'

[maxhag]

^^ SR is the same Matt.

[ae8zn6]

yeah not sure guys, the guy that wired my loom just warned that if the sense line wasn't connected via a relay it could 'sense' the battery right the way until it was flat (if given enough time). I have no background in SR engines so I chose to believe him and wire in the relay, especially given that I had one just lying around

[ae8zn6]

OK, got a bit more done over the weekend in between doing shite around the house...

It was back to wiring to sort out all of these gauges and get the dash organised. So as a result most of the work isn't actually visible.

First up I made a mounting board for the dash cluster and stuck the gauges in, so no more cardboard. The previous owner had been kind enough to completely butcher the white backing of the original dash cluster for their conversion, so rather than destroy another I decided to use it. Luckily enough, in the cutting they had done they had missed the two prongs that support the factory fuel gauge. I am nearly 100% sure this was not by design, but it saved me figuring out a way to custom mount it.



Anyway, once that was done a spent a bunch of time sitting by the drivers footwell tinning and soldering and heat-wrapping a bunch of connections. I have wired up pretty much everything except the fuel gauge, charge and check engine lights and the RPM feed to both the tacho and eboost. As for the RPM signal I didn't want to solder that in until I had a chance to check the resistor I am planning to use will work as a step up for the signal.

Then I mounted the gauge mounts on the side of the dash and started fitting gauges. I wasn't too worried about drilling holes as the dash is pretty cracked/modified anyway (and because racecar)

This lead me to this point:



Only a little bit of fiddling later and I had connected up the battery and was testing the illumination







I am really happy with how the gauges look, they are pretty much what I was picturing and look similar to the tacho, but are different enough that the eye is drawn to it.

It also meant that I got to see the pivot gauge showing off with it's little opening ceremony again, first time in a LONG time... probably around 8 years 0.o

Just in case you want to share in the (very short) moment:



So now that all the gauges are connected (and to the best of my knowledge working) I really just need to connect the inlet pipework up, bang on a dump pipe and I *Should* be able to start her up. Admittedly once that is done I still need to get the exhaust modified, fit a new LSD centre, get the car tuned, fit some harnesses, wheel alignment, sort out the rear brakes... the list goes on. So it's not exactly about to see the track for the first time any time in the next couple of weeks. To add to that there will be visits from both sets of parentals in the near future, so I am unlikely to be spending a bunch of time in the garage over the next few weeks as well. On the bright side, hopefully that will help me save up for more bits

[ae8zn6]

This little digital plotter I bought continues to surprise me with its capabilities...

I just thought it would be nice to have factoryish CEL and Charge light decals for the new dash.

So I measured the gap I had left in the dash and thought, 'oh crap. this is going to be WAY too small to do it'

Anyway, I thought I might as well give it a try, nek minit:



5c coin for scale. I mean, this is going against my 'because racecar' thing that I am supposed to be sticking to, but still, I was impressed... and its not like it was heaps more work

PS the white bits are the bits that the light will shine through

[drift kid]

That is really cool man!

[ae8zn6]

OK, Drumroll....

[maxhag]

Best thing I've seen all day, and I've seen alot of good things today. For example, Steve drifting the Hillclimb in his 86

All coming together now..

[ae8zn6]

OK, time for another update...

I am fairly sure after all the work done I would have forgotten to tighten a vaccum or boost line somewhere, so I am re-visiting my old nissan standard operating checks and I made myself a boost leak down check valve:



For those who are unfamiliar you basically use an air compressor to pump the system to around 5PSI and then track down any hissing... using soapy water if required... to find the source of any leaks. Then you plug them up so that the system is all measured by the AFM. In systems using the (far superior) MAP sensor this test would be almost completely unnecessary, but that isn't how Mr Nissan likes to run his show

In other news I had a highly satisfactory piece of mail this week







There has been a small delay in being able to get the car moving out to the exhaust shoppe' so I figured that I should remove the pumpkin and get the new internals installed



Yes, the pumpkin already had an LSD in it, but it is a stock MA61 LSD and lets be honest given this is a race car it was either a KAAZ or a weldie... I chose KAAZ because I have had first hand reports of driving the same car on the same day on the same track with a weldie and LSD and that transitions were MUCH more predictable with the LSD.

Other than that I installed my new check engine and charge light decals and made a little box out of MDF to insure that only orange light (amber whatever) gets to the charge light, and only red light to the CEL. It looks pretty rad if I do say so myself.

That means the only thing left to do on the instrumentation side of things is to rig up a wire for the remote warning light so that I get a bright red light in the face if anything needs me to look down mid-slide. (Think shift light)

[drift kid]

I don't see how you could possibly make it more predictable than a welded diff, you KNOW that every time it will dual up

[ae8zn6]

More predictable in the transition, ie off power flicking from one side to the other. If we were talking about a burnout car I would agree with you, and to be honest I definitely considered just getting an open center and welding it. In the end I am fairly sure I will be happier with this and given it is a KAAZ center and we know that KAAZ's are among the most aggressive centers I can say with confidence that I know it will dual every time. And being a 2-way I know it will lock every time under both accel and compression.