S52 Brilliantrot 318is from Australia

[jsta1109]

A bit unexpected but I rocked up at a dyno day and put down 234hp/300nm (~220ft lb). I'll probably head back for a proper tune, this is a roughed in Nissan MAF with stock timing and untouched vanos. Big torque dip between 4k-5k so there's a bit in it still.

https://youtube.com/shorts/dvaXL37x44U?feature=share

[e30davie]

You've been a busy bee. lots of work there! outcome looks very nice.

[jsta1109]

Well just about wrapped up the exhaust job, not thrilled with the muffler hangers so will probably revisit those shortly. The improvement on sound is astronomical for me - next to no drone and a much more refined inline six sound.

[jsta1109]

Finally decided to tackle the headers. These were already chopped up when I purchased them but I would not recommend modifying S50 euro headers for RHD cars, it probably is easier if you start from scratch but I am happy with the end result. I was also disappointed with the volume with my previous 2.5" exhaust (stock headers > 100 cell cat > 14" hot dog > 4x9x14" muffler) and I've since purchased a 4x8x14" middle muffler and 6x10x16" rear muffler with dual 3 inch tips.

[jsta1109]

Well I went for a test drive with the new booster and initially I could sort of tell there was a vacuum leak. Pinching off the vac line to the booster made the car idle better. I purchased the booster and master from a wrecker and it came complete and assembled but for whatever reason the o-ring between the master and the booster was missing. Unfortunately for me that meant draining all the fluid and pulling the master off to get to it. I hate brake fluid... Anyway, I had a spare o-ring luckily, threw that on and went for a drive. These brakes are amazing. I highly recommend this over the 944/Clio booster.

[QuiqueUy]

Thanks. I haven't really driven the car since the last update but temps are stable where they are albeit a bit higher than I expected. Worst case scenario I have a new 80c thermostat in a box. Generic headers for LHD fit worse, your best option on a RHD is custom.

okay fair enough ! i figured . if that what's worked best maybe its good to go back to old setup yeah! i been told 80c is way cool for the engine since it original thermostat is like 92c so the rings could be affected , but .. your country is way hotter than mine so its good i guess !

keep it coming :D

[Tzantushka]

Good spot and fix on the ignition switch / lock.
I had similar issues tracking down a temperamental switch that was badly worn.
Best advice I received was checking & operating the starter via the diagnostic connector.
Started fine every time - it was the bloody switch that was worn.
Looks like were good to go for another few decades!

[jsta1109]

Nice updates on the car man ! long time i don't come in to peek this thread!

You still having those temp problems? you should try with a 80/88c temp switch with the 88c thermostat .

Car should work between 88 and 96c depending on how hard you going ! i think 100 its a bit onto the high's!

I wonder how the generic manifolds from eBay works RHD'S. I have equal lenghts , only downside on my side was that i had to do a custom downpipe because the front manifold would be very close from the engine mount!

Thanks. I haven't really driven the car since the last update but temps are stable where they are albeit a bit higher than I expected. Worst case scenario I have a new 80c thermostat in a box. Generic headers for LHD fit worse, your best option on a RHD is custom.

[QuiqueUy]

Nice updates on the car man ! long time i don't come in to peek this thread!

You still having those temp problems? you should try with a 80/88c temp switch with the 88c thermostat .

Car should work between 88 and 96c depending on how hard you going ! i think 100 its a bit onto the high's!

I wonder how the generic manifolds from eBay works RHD'S. I have equal lenghts , only downside on my side was that i had to do a custom downpipe because the front manifold would be very close from the engine mount!

[ba114]

...The reservoir is from an E60 and fits perfect (Thanks ba114). In my opinion it looks much nicer than the common 2002 solution.... ]

Yay, i'm glad people still check my thread and get benefit from it :)

[jsta1109]

Well I've been busy behind the scenes on non car related things but I've fit a few small jobs in where I can. After almost 2 years of waiting we've finally moved into our new house so that has taken most of my time.

I had a fun time trying to diagnose an intermittent no start issue. I sent my starter motor back for warranty which in the end was a mistake as the starter motor tested fine. I kept putting it off but since owning this car there has always been a trick with starting it and I've always had to push the key up slightly when turning it over. It turns out the lobe that engages the ignition switch had worn so much it was no longer able to move the ignition switch to the start position. Pulling the ignition switch off and using a screwdriver worked great.

The problem


Fitting a new steering lock housing



I've also switched to an E90 booster but I've yet to road test it. The pedal feels a lot nicer than the Clio did stationary so fingers crossed this improves the braking. Overall this was a pretty simple job for a RHD car. I made a new line for the rear brakes to the proportioning valve and I made a small line to an m10x1 T junction that retained the factory front lines. The reservoir is from an E60 and fits perfect (Thanks ba114). In my opinion it looks much nicer than the common 2002 solution. Also pictured is an M50 manifold. I decided to finally fit this and it is worth mentioning; the m50manifold.com kit is great!



As part of this change I also decided to fit the braided lines for the rear brake lines above the subframe. This actually wasn't overly difficult. Crows feet spanners and a long 11mm spanner go a long way here.

I don't have any great pictures but I've been modifying a set of euro S50 headers to fit. Turns out for a RHD car these are a nightmare and I wouldn't recommend chopping a factory set up to fit. Cyl 1-3 foul the steering rack and cyl 6 fouls on the steering joint at the rack and the firewall. I'm persisting with making these fit as I purchased them cheap having already been cut up.






Once the headers are complete I plan on going back to a single 2.5" exhaust, I've purchased enough material to complete this but I want to wait for the headers to be complete. The dual 2" is just too loud for me and I struggle to find any larger mufflers. I doubt the dual 2" offers much performance over a single 2.5"/3". I did think of moving to a single 3" but again it probably offers a few HP up top while being too loud for me.

One final bit. My Koni shocks started leaking from the adjuster. I priced up new Koni front shocks from Ground Control but I couldn't justify the expense and shipping to Aus. A friend put me onto running a common AE86 setup using MR2 rear shocks. I went with KYB AGX 765016. I had to remove a very small amount of material in a lathe but all fits up okay. I haven't run them yet as I'm planning to weld some sway bar end link tabs on the strut. I decided to also add a 1kg helper spring to help keep the main spring captive. I'm not a suspension guru but I'm hoping this rides nicely.

[bmwfan52]

most of the issues you mentioned are normal are you using you m42 radiator?

My second gear grinds still, I likely have to keep bleeding clutch if I ever manage to get a helper.
At one point it was poping out of gear but that was just my leather boot pulling it out lo.

my header pipes are a 1/4 in away from trans I think a muffler shop can bend and make grooves past certain spots. gl finding a muffler shop thats down to help you out.

pedals wise I had to bend the stops until I got them right, play with the throttle cable while your in the process of tuning your build quickest way to see change imo.

You did it my boy congrats.
You will reep the benefits soon enough.

[ba114]

nice work mate. be thankful you werent dragging the brakes the whole cruise though!

[jsta1109]

First proper drive went well, spent half a day cruising with friends around some of the mountain roads here.



Made it home without a tow truck.



I forgot to mention it above but I spent a bit of time chasing the o-rings for the coolant overflow pipe, couldn't work out why even with new o-rings it still leaked. Pulled the pipe out and compared to a spare I had, clearly ovalised. Not sure how this happened, but I threw the spare in and I was leak free.

A few negatives from the first proper drive. I had a moment where it popped out of gear going uphill. I can't really recall what came first but it felt like the car cut out momentarily and popped out of gear. Not sure if the cutting out was because it popped out or the engine actually cut out. Either way, only happened once. Speaking of, the shifter is garbage. I'm running the same Z3 1.9 shifter I had with the G240 and the shift throw feels twice as long. I need to pull the linkage apart and take a look. I would prefer to stay away from a tunnel mount setup but I'd be keen on sourcing something different if I get improved shifter feel.

Headers are also touching the steering linkage on left hand turns. I've had this before but my previous headers were 'notched'. I switched to RevShift 95a engine mounts and while they fit great, I didn't want the added vibration. I think what I might do here is make some equal length headers that fit better than the OBD2 style ones.

Exhaust seems to expand and touch the rear subframe on bumps. It is also a bit raspy down low, I may fix this later by adjusting the pipe work and adding some resonators.

Coolant temp is a weird one. I used to run an 80c thermostat, I decided to run an 88c this time around and I'm not too sure if it is a concern. I seem to be running at around 95c - 100c. I swapped out to a 91c/99c fan switch and the low speed seems to kick on at 99c-102c. I did test it with a heat gun and both low and high do kick on in the correct order, so maybe it reads a bit lower on the cooler side of the rad? I also got the wrong VDO sender for my second coolant temp gauge, it is the oil temp sender. It ended up being about 20c off. To get the factory temp gauge reading correctly I had to add a 10ohm resistor inline.

Brake lights were also stuck on most of the trip, my pedal decided to drop after swapping the pedal box back in. I fixed it up at home but was a bit concerning having lights stuck on.



Positives, it pulls hard. The graph above is the load reading on my M52 vs S52. Even with the S52 intake I'm 100 - 150mg/s higher in most of the rev range. I'm looking forward to throwing the M50 intake on and building some headers and comparing again.

[jsta1109]

power wise its night and day when you compare the two. I meant to ask about the overall fun factor.

How long did you drive the m42 before starting on the project?

Had the M42 in for about 2 - 3 years, was a daily for most of that time and drove great.