Where to start? well its been a while... quite a while actually well quite a lot has been going on recently but this is the first thing that comes to mind as well.... blew up the motor in the Silvia on the weekend out at Queensland Raceway.
I Organized a lunch meet with happy laps around the circuit which is a big hit! as its cheap and we get a bit of track time! well eleven minutes in to the the half an hour session I noticed a few things going on, such as lack of power, oil temp being a little high, water temp being a little high and then the big end letting go!
I rationalized the fact the temps were high was because well it was a pretty warm day out at QR, but unfortunately its fate was already predetermined. To be entirely honest we expected the engine to let go last year but it was nice enough to hang on an extra twelve months :)
The engine wasn't the happiest of motors when I originally purchased it sight unseen from what I thought was a reputable company in Melbourne and had it shipped up to Brisbane and to its credit it was a pretty clean motor when I received it... but over time I started to realize it most likely had just been cleaned up.
I purchased it as a '96 Type-X Blacktop SR20DET with manual harness and a EPROM well when the motor turned up it had an auto harness with a standard auto ECU.. only really good little bit it had on it was the HKS 1 Bar actuator on the side of the standard T25G.. this all never really deterred me.
The Engine conversion was done by East Coast Customs, They removed the Silvertop SR20DE and installed the Blacktop SR20DET and was also all wired up by them.. well Nathan did.. that was was when I First met Nathan!
I was instantly in love! going from a SR20DE to a stock SR20DET with 14.7 PSI of boost is a huge step about 40-50kw difference and a completely different power and torque delivery system I was hooked! that said the car actually was a little bit sketchy... HAHAHA.. it had Non-turbo Brakes and still had an R180 Diff in it... and man did it make me shit myself a few times until I got use to it!
Looking back at this all from this point really makes me realise how far this car has actually come... The 180 we built in the space of 4 days and I love that car.. but Silvie.. its a different kind of love? we have been partners for.. god.. I don't know.. eight years now and its been a little bit of a love and hate relationship! but also an educational one to boot!
I literally knew nothing about cars when i first brought Silvie.. well.. I knew how to do an oil change and change brake pads.. check the coolant.. so all the normal stuff but when it came to in depth things like modifications, upgrades, pulling engines out.. I knew nothing!
Back before I knew Nathan or Scott or Dave and sometimes even then it was figuring out things on my own and stumbling along in the dark.. most of the time with Sean at my side and one of those first things that I did then was i replaced a water pump on the Silvertop.. well not such a big thing but back then I had no knowledge and it was all simply guess work! now I could do it a hundred times easier but that's experience for you.
I think the next biggest thing done to the motor after actually putting it in was i got a few different bolt on mods for it, it went from having stock injectors, turbo, computer and AFM to having an A'pexi Power FC ECU, Sard 550cc injectors, Sard Fuel reg, HKS GTSS turbo, Z32 AFM and a Walbro fuel pump. Drove it like that for a few months as the whole setup had come out of Nathans champagne rig and was already tuned for that specfic setup. A Few months down the road and we ended up having it re-tuned and it turned out a pretty responsive 206 RWKW @ 16PSI
Later on I swapped Nathan the GTSS for a Garrett GT2871r and re-tuned the car and went 220 kw @ 18 PSI
The motor lasted for three years making 220 kw, but in the end the inevitable occurred! it gave up. We honestly thought that it was going to happen last year but it lasted twelve months longer then we anticipated and it let go on a race track! what better way to go then in a blaze of glory? it was on a cool down lap -_- however Nathan did do a pretty good job of finishing it off so it wasn't a half arsed job!!
Video of the few laps I got around QR and the big end going
So knowing that the motor was Cactus at this stage we decided to drive it the 20km's home! well... we got maybe 10 kms down the road and that was it the motor had enough! Oil Tempurature and Water Temp went through the roof so we pulled over and called Nathans Dad who came to the rescue with the car trailer.. but the biggest problem was where we were it was going to be near impossible to load the car! so one last jolly jaunt to a better location 500m down the road! and it pretty near put a rod out the the block.
Since then we have built a motor and dropped it in. Stay tuned for the build posts!
Stay Safe
Bev
