The Quarky Engineer

Transmission work complete. New clutch and clutch valve body installed and the transmission back in the car. Thanks to Chris Fogg for the expertise and speed. Love these GR6s.

I love my tshirt folding machine.

Getting ready to drop the transmission of the R35 GT-R with the help of super mechanic Chris Fogg.

I swapped out the downpipes and mid pipe in the R32, and at wastegate boost (~10psi) it now looks like this… Boost creep to 14.9psi before I lifted at 6300rpm (redline at 7500). Fortunately I also went ahead and swapped in a W460 fuel pump and set the higher boost fueling super rich. This car has R34 turbochargers, so you really don’t want to push much above 14.5 psi as the ceramic turbine wheels have a tendency to explode. Of course one mans boost creep is another mans boost control, so I’ll pop in a set of ID1300 injectors and see how it rips. I think a pair of 3071s is in order next.

Like any good calibrator, I have been twitchy thinking about the stock ECU in my 1990 R32 GTR. It is 25 years old, based on a 6502 CPU, and has an 8k EPROM. There are a few tuning solutions that can use this ECU, but it is still 25 year old technology. I decided to get a Link NGTR+, which is basically a Vipec V44 in a single board factor that fits in the factory ECU case. The stock configuration is MAF based, but I’m switching to speed density. I plumbed a vacuum/boost reference to the MAP sensor and the car fired right up. I dropped in a wideband and started working on a calibration. It is an interesting motor owing in part to the 6 throttle bodies. A simple 3D fueling map (rpm vs map vs fuel) isn’t sufficient because even with a reference from post throttle body the cylinder filling varies a great deal based on throttle angle at a fixed MAP point. Interesting to tune!

As part of my restoration/make it safe of my newly imported R32 I rebuilt the brake calipers, added new pads and rotors, and replaced the seats. Next up is Hicas removal.

As part of my restoration/make it safe of my newly imported R32 I rebuilt the brake calipers, added new pads and rotors, and replaced the seats. Next up is Hicas removal.

Today I used my last container of actual blue Super Blue brake fluid. The feds (with great incompetence I might add) made them change the color from blue to yellow. The blue was nice because you could tell when you had a complete bleed. At least my last can went into my JDM R32.

You know things are going good when the Valet parking looks like this, and the lowly LFA, LaFerrari, and Mclaren don’t even make the front row cut!

Audrey approves of this color, and says I can get this for her on her third birthday.