Nismo Racing Radiator Cap Revisited

The bling Cosworth radiator cap I got is leaking with my Mishimoto radiator :( There was no leak with my 5+ year old well used Nismo radiator cap. I can confirm this with extensive testing. Excellent quality and durability for the Nismo but so much for the famed Cosworth quality. Anybody interested to further test the Cosworth radiator cap can contact me. Anybody interested in my old Nismo radiator cap can also contact me. I can guarantee it (the Nismo radiator cap) still has at least a couple more years of useful service life.

I ordered a new Nismo radiator cap from RHD Japan which arrived in less than a week. Picture below of me radiator cap installed. Unfortunately the "Nismo" logo and warning text on the radiator cap label do not appear horizontally aligned with the Mishi radiator. WTF! Same problem with the Cosworth. There is no alignment issue when the Mishi radiator cap is used.

You can read up on Nismo radiator cap details in my old post here.

Dietary Supplements Part 5 - Not All Titanium Fasteners are the Same

On the left is a M8 flange nut from Pro-Bolt. On the right an equivalent from Hyperbolt.

To my eyes the Pro-Bolt flange nut looks lighter while the Hyperbolt is beefier and cheaper. Is the Pro-Bolt engineered to be lighter or as Bro Mugil puts it "plain cost cutting"? Any comments/thoughts?

Anyway I went with a titanium full nut + washer for the fuel rail. Unfortunately there is no ti spring washer in the size I want.

"New" Ignition Coils

The ignition coils I've been using while looking dog worn have worked well and lasted me more than 800 km so I have been on the lookout for better condition replacements which me engineer in Penang, Tao managed to source for me. Tao was recommended by Toby and does excellent work. He helped me troubleshoot and isolate my oil pressure sensor failure. Having a good technician/engineer in Penang is critical with Toby @ GT Auto being so far away. Tao even does mapping work and is familiar with Haltechs.

Picture below of the superb condition latest spec used ignition coils. A brand new set will cost you bout 1K not including shipping direct from the US and more than that from Sushiland. This set cost me less than half the cost of a new US set and looked as good as new after cleaning.

The latest spec part number is 22448-6N015 as mentioned previously.

Fondling sorry installation took less than 20 minutes including cleaning the cam cover ignition coil valley. Picture below of the ignition coils installed together with some black anodized Pro-Bolt aluminium fasteners.

Close up.

The "new" coils are working fine though I am still experiencing some ignition breakup at high boost/high revs. Toby has promised me some development work with CDI ignition coils after the new year :)

Quaife ATB LSD Now Available for 32A and 70A Gearboxes

Thanks to some blokes Down Under Quaife now has a ATB (Automatic Torque Biasing) helical gear LSD for the RS5F32A series gearboxes. And as you know a LSD for that gearbox also fits the RS5F70A. The LSD is so new its no yet up on Quaife's website but the listing is available in Quaife's 2013 catalogue. You can download the catalogue here. Part number is QDF17L (Nissan Almera/Primera).

The N16 Files would like to

Wish Everyone a Very Happy and Prosperous Chinese New Year!!!

May the year of the snake bring you health, wealth and of course oil change, horsepower and track records! :)

Different Shades of Black - UR Room/ B-Pillar Floor Bar Revisited

The UR Room Bar on the Shark had been accumulating its fair share of scratches and scrapes after 1.5 years in use  hence I recently got it repainted.  The room bar was repainted matte black via a different painter hence the different shade. I prefer the newer shade as it looks more matte to my eyes. The re-install position of the room bar was also deemed to add more rigidity compared to the previous install. The carpet had to be trimmed though for the new install.

Original install

Latest re-install.

Picture of the room bar reinstalled.

My rear seats need to be black to complete the new look :)

Thermal Management Part 2: SPAL Fans

The stock fans do a decent job on a stock engine. They can even do a nearly decent job on a turbocharged engine. The biggest problem apart from the lack of blowing power is the amount of real estate space they occupy especially with a thicker radiator in place of the stock puny 16mm single core radiator. Couple that with the physically large (larger than an equivalent Garrett) BorgWarner EFR 6258 and the lack of space becomes a nightmare especially the proximity of the mostly plastic fan to the hot side of the turbine. Picture below shows the space (lack of) with my Mishimoto radiator and the stock fans fitted.

With the radiator pushed forward as much as possible. Too say I was worried would be an understatement.

It got to the point where I was actually thinking of blowing yet more of my fast depleting budget and have a custom radiator designed and made by the likes of PWR that would be thicker than the stock puny 16mm single core radiator but thinner than my Mishimoto's 36mm double core. A lot of ado and money for nothing :(

Luckily Toby came to the rescue and fitted a pair of SPAL fans. GT Auto has recently become a dealer for SPAL, an Italian manufacturer of automotive cooling fans. SPAL makes a wide range of fans and caters for both the OEM and aftermarket. SPAL has been designing and producing automotive cooling fans and centrifugal blowers since 1959 hence with more than 50 years of experience their products are quality and leading edge. Picture below of my fans. Both fans are still of the original puller type as per stock and have a diameter of 12" or 305mm. Each fan is individually balanced for long life. Motors and electrical connectors are waterproof.

The fan on the left in the picture above (nearer to the alternator) has a smaller motor and comes from SPAL's Medium Profile range. Part number is VA10-AP50. Fan weighs bout 1.5 kg and is capable of flowing 1097 CFM.

The fan with the larger deeper motor comes from SPAL's High Performance range and is capable of flowing double the VA10-AP50 or 2190 CFM. Part number is VA10-AP70. This fan serves as the primary cooling fan. Weight is approximately 2.33kg.

The big badass fan motor.

Curved aerodynamically designed fan blades for reduced noise and increased airflow.

Much more clearance and this is with the radiator back to stock position.

The SPAL fans really work a treat. Both are activated by the ECU and every time the fans activate, temps come down approx 3-5 degrees as indicated by my AIM dash. However even with the SPAL fans and Mishimoto radiator there are still cooling performance gains to be made. For one thing need to seal the big gap between the radiator and radiator top support beam. A fan shroud like the Mishimoto fan shroud kit with me SPAL fans in place of the crappy Mishi ones would also be nice but more fabrication work. The idea here is to force as much air as possible to travel through the radiator.

And.... as promised from Part 1, here's a pic of my Sikky Manufacturing Thermalnator high temperature shielding gasket installed. It's the orangey (looks pinkish in the picture) thing between the cylinder head and the inlet manifold.

AIM MXL Strada Icon Dash Display

Here's are some pixs of my dash with blue back lighting turned on. Pressing the "Menu" button turns off the backlighting. OP = Oil Pressure and AFR = Air Fuel Ratio. Everything else should be self explanatory. Gear is showing blank as the car is in neutral and idling.

TPS = Throttle Position and BST = Boost. Shift lights are programmed to turn on from 6K rpm onwards. Some of the engine parameters are supplied by ECU (example revs, thrrotle position, boost) and some car's own sensors (example fuel level), some via independent sensors (example oil pressure). Air fuel ratio reading comes from my Innovate LC-1 wideband. Looks simple but takes a lot of work to wire, install and configure everything.

With signal light blinker turned on. The other indicator/warning lights at each side of the display are for high water temp, low oil pressure, low battery voltage, low fuel and high beam.

The pictures are by no means comprehensive. Click here for a list of what my dash is configured to display.

Hello 2013! Year of the Shark?

Here's pixs of the Shark's cockpit and engine bay at the turn of the year.

I am not an automotive engineer and neither do I own a workshop hence would not have gotten to this point without all the help from me Brothers. Blood, sweat and tears and even money alone would not have been enough. Thank You!!!

• Toby
• Jack
• Mugil
• CP
• Ken
• Greg
• Chew Soon
• Peter
• Tiong

Oil Change Wrap - It's in the Details

As they say the work never stops but this post brings to a close 2012 and the 8 month plus build job which transformed the Slowtra into the Shark. Some of the work was completed before I drove the Shark home and some back home in Penang.

Toby got the ZeroOne oil catch tank powdercoated wrinkle black to match the intercooler piping. No more ricey logo :)

My AEM water/methanol injection filter has been installed.

Close up of the installed filter.

Turbosmart mechanical fuel pressure regulator gauge installed. Allows for easy troubleshooting should the fpr fail (touch wood) like what happened with the Tomei. I might have an electronic sensor and associated wiring installed in the future so my dash can display fuel pressure.

I replaced the bonnet switch as the rubber covering was torn and had come apart.

Picture of the new switch.

Install is simple DIY as the switch is secured via a Phillips bolt underneath the rubber cover.

The stock top radiator brackets were previously re-drilled to move the radiator further forward in the engine bay for more room with the stock cooling fans. Big mild steel washers were used to try and cover up the unused stock hole. Very unsightly (to me).

Moving the radiator further forward was also creating a problem as the front edge of the radiator cap would occasionally come into contact with the underside of the bonnet during engine movement. I did not measure the height of the Mishimoto and stock radiator but suspect the Mishi could be very slightly taller in height when compared to the stock radiator. Also suspect with the smaller profile of the Mishi radiator cap this might not be a problem but then again I don't dig the Mishi radiator cap.

With the SPAL fans giving more clearance this is no longer required so I took the opportunity to purchase a pair of new top radiator brackets from TCEAS. Cost me RM90+ for a pair after a measly 5% discount.



Left hand side (passenger) bracket installed. Used black anodized fasteners this time. Looks more sinister. Will not try my Cosworth radiator cap till I am absolutely sure there are no contact issues.

Also took the opportunity to replace the stock rubber coolant overflow hose with a bling blue Samco silicone item. Will do my windscreen wiper nozzle hoses when time permits. Need to look at heat shielding for the alternator.

Speaking of blue here's the only blue bolt in my engine bay. Blue for air mah! Where's the MAF sensor?

My bottom intercooler piping is very close to both the radiator and front lower engine mount with the occasional contact. No amount of adjustment is going to resolve this issue so I will just soldier on for the time being with a redesign/mod of the bottom intercooler piping on a list of things to upgrade for the future. This list is getting longer by the week. Sigh.. With the lower intercooler piping of for inspection I took the opportunity to wrap it with the unused downpipe wrap from my Design Engineering (DEI) Titanium Turbo Shield turbo blanket. I will try the DEI Reflect-A-Gold in the future in place of the downpipe wrap.

This is my last post of the year btw. Bye bye 2012...

Development Issues

With the amount of customization, one-offs and R&D going on with the Shark, issues are unavoidable. I already mentioned the COP failures and the Tomei fuel pressure regulator failure but there were two more to-date.

First my intercooler piping detached itself resulting in zero boost. But wait a minute? Am I not using trick Turbosmart Murray constant tension clamps? The detachment still happened so it's either the clamp was not sufficient tightened or it's a possible design issue :( Simple fix to just bolt everything back but if the piping detaches itself again a support bracket might be required to minimize movement of the piping. Picture below of the culprit.

Next my oil pressure sensor failed in a most interesting way. It failed by consistently showing a low reading of 0 to 0.6 bar max oil pressure causing the low oil pressure warning led on my AIM MXL Strada Icon  to go into a fit. The really bright led caused a heart attack as I initially thought my oil pump had failed. A test with a mechanical pump confirmed the issue to be with the oil pressure sensor. Toby promptly sent a replacement and Thank God it was only the sensor. Picture below of the faulty oil pressure sensor (top) and the replacement (bottom).

I reused the o-ring during installation of the replacement sensor but that failed too and was caught during post install testing. Don't save a couple ringgit and get a yourself brand new o-ring. Sharkie has now done 900++ km to-date according to the odo on my AIM MXL Strada Icon dash and I hope to get more consistent kilometres in to fully and thoroughly run-in the engine.

Pedal Pad-igree

Here's a shot of the Shark's upgraded pedal pads.

As mentioned in previous posts the pads are Nissan Z33 for brake and clutch (part number: 46531-AB000) which are plug and play and Ultimate Pedals for accelerator which will require removal of your plastic accelerator pedal pad and some drilling. Countersunk bolts on the accelerator pedal pad are titanium.

Autronic SM4 Glam Shots

I had a chance recently to take some pictures of my Autronic SM4 full standalone ECU with latest 1.09 firmware. ECU casing is anodized aluminium. Pictures below.

Specs located here. It's amazing how compact the SM4 is considering its multitude of features and famed capability. Dimensions are 130mm x 124mm x 48mm (Length x Width x Height). Both the SM4 and stock ECU can comfortably fit on a magazine as shown in the picture below. Weight of the SM4 is only 0.5 kg.

Contact Toby Lee @ GT Auto if you're interested in the Autronic SM4. An ECU no matter how capable is only as good as the person doing the installing/mapping/tuning and this is where Toby makes the difference! For example, how many people will send my stock throttle body's IACV (Idle Air Control Valve) to Autronic Down Under for a better idle map to improve idle quality? Price is not cheap though in the low five figure range for a new unit. This ain't no E-Manage though..

All I Want for Christmas is a More Reliable COP

I have had the stock ignition coil over plugs (COPs) failed twice now. Once on the dyno and Toby got second hand replacements. The second time when I was back in Penang. Every time this happens the Shark sounded like a Subaru Impreza WRX wannabee minus the power as the engine was only running on three cylinders. Imagine not being able to exceed 2000rpm in fourth with a top speed of 60km/h :(

The QG18DE runs a distributorless ignition coil over plug setup which Nissan calls NDIS or Nissan Direct Ignition System. This means that the ignition signal is directly sent from the ECU to the inductive ignition COPs which are responsible for igniting/firing the spark plugs. The signal is carried via three very thin wires so don't bother about fatter spark plug cables because a direct ignition system does NOT USE ONE. The COPs that come with all MYDM Nissan Sentra N16s with Series 1 QG15, 16 and 18DEs are of the pencil coil type and are made by Hitachi. Pencil coils have a compact "head" because the coil's magnetic windings are all located in the tube that forms the length of the coil. This results in a neater sleeker looking cylinder head top.

Picture below of the stock Hitachi pencil coils installed.

To date I am not sure why the stock coils are failing on my engine. It could be due to one or a combination of two reasons:
1. A much hotter turbocharged engine/engine bay. Having the coil windings deep into a much hotter engine ain't gonna help and pencil coils are notoriously prone to failing because of this.
2. The ECU will know in advance when it wants the spark from the coil. The target is to start the dwell period (coil charging time) enough in advance of spark event for the primary coil current to reach full energy storage. On a stock engine with stock compression this is not a problem. However a turbocharged engine results in higher cylinder pressure and is more difficult to ignite. A common trick if you are running a programmable ECU like the Autronic SM4 is to increase the dwell period so that the coils have sufficient charge but I believe the dwell tolerance of the stock coils is crap. Increasing it just eventually burns out the windings in the coil creating a short in the circuit. The dwell period is reduced in my Autronic ECU to a very low 2 milliseconds. Anything less and there will not be sufficient charge to ignite the combustion mixture when Sharkie is on boost. Dwell is controlled via software for the SM4.

I believe Nissan also realized this and went for a conventional coil on top of plug type COP on later Series 1 QGs and eventually becoming standard on Series 2 QGs which never made it to Bolehland. The newer coils have the windings in the head versus the tube. Every centimetre farther away from the heat helps. Illustration extracted from Hitachi's website shows both type of ignition COPs.

Picture below of my stock and "newer" ignition coils. Stock COP is at the bottom. Both fits your QG.

Disregard the perspective from my camera making the stock coil appear bigger than the newer type coil. Here's a picture with the newer coil at the bottom if you don't believe me.

I am currently testing the "newer" type COPs which are from the engine I bought. The coils look like crap externally but the important parts inside are in good nick and seem to be holding out fine at this point. A brand new set of 4 newer type ignition coils will be around RM 1.1K-1.3K original Nissan without shipping depending if you purchase from Greg or my Jap supplier Nakahara-san. Picture of the newer type COPs installed. Kinda reminds me of the stock pencil coils being fed the same gamma ray as what turns Bruce Banner into the Incredible Hulk.

The original part number of the newer type COP - 22448-6N001. These are made by Hanshin which is a subsidary of Hitachi. 22448-6N000 is also used. Hitachi's excellent website lists compatible coils. Nissan also uses another oem supplier for JDM QG10 Bluebird Sylphys. The other supplier is Bosch. I am not sure if Bosch COPs fit as I have yet to get my hands on one.

22448-6N001 has been superseeded by 22448-6N015. Use this part number if you have the intention to order some new ones for testing. Below is the part number of all MYDM N16 COPs - 22448-4M500. It's like our N16s are caught in a time warp and have never progressed beyond first gen apart from looks :( I think this is a common Bolehland issue as another example would be the Toyota Camry for its engine and gearbox. If it makes you feel better 22448-6N015 is also used by the Latio/Tiida with HR15/16 engine if I'm not mistaken.

So what is my upgrade plan? I am going to persevere with the newer type stock COPs for the moment as all my upgrade options are expensive and I'm still undecided if to retain the stock inductive ignition or go CDI. More research required. Of course if the newer type COPs also fail prematurely (touch wood) it will then force the decision. Will see how things play out.