The other 2 jobs resulted from the Phillip Island trackday - fitting a surge tank and Accusump to combat fuel and oil surge.

The Accusump is an oil accumulator and is basically a poor man's dry sump. The diagrams to the right from the Accusump website shows how the Accusump accumulates oil under pressure during normal operation, and then discharges the oil when pressure from the oil pump drops. A check valve stops the oil going back towards the sump to ensure it goes where it's needed.

There's some good info on the Accusump site along with explanations of exactly how it works here: http://www.accusump.com/acc_tech_how.html.

The surge tank is something I'd been putting off for a while as there is a decent bucket around the fuel pump pickup to keep it submerged. Also some other Soarer owners seem to be able to run a much lower fuel level without getting surge so I thought it might have been the filter or pump, both of which have been changed with no success. Time to just bit the bullet and do it properly so I don't have to carry a full tank on the track.

I didn't notice any loss of power above 5000rpm as indicated on the latest dyno chart so I'm not sure what the story is there. Now that I have a lighter flywheel I'll proceed with fitting the new heads and cams.

Details, photos and further developments are in the latest Trackdays article.

The gearbox is out at the moment while I wait for a lightened flywheel to arrive as the one from CRS is really too heavy at 11kg. I need a lighter one so the revs actually drop between quick upshifts as there is a fair amount of shock going through the drivetrain at the moment. This is apparent in the Wakefield video where you can hear the revs drop only as the clutch engages. Some enhanced engine response wouldn't go astray either so we're aiming for around 7kg which should keep it well behaved in traffic.

Another weekend at Phillip Island is coming up on the 11th/12th of November so it's a bit of a mad rush to get it all back together in time. I also need to fit some of these Aerocatch bonnet pins (black of course) for safety and to stop the corners of the bonnet lifting over 150km/h. The oil cooler is definitely helping but really needs some shrouding around it to force more air through it instead of slipping underneath so that's on the to do list as well.

Heads and cams will go on after Phillip Island as everything blew out time-wise, but it's back on track now.

There does seem to be something amiss though when looking at the shape of the graph as the power is dropping right off from 4800 (click the image for a larger view in a new window). We don't think this is from the tuning as Andy tried advancing the timing further but didn't produce any real gain and the fuelling is very similar to before (although a bit safer now).

We suspect blocked cats which are only cheapy local ones so that will be looked at next week. I hope that is the cause as we'll put in some good hi-flow metal cats and retune to see what we can wring out of it.

I had some time to potter about just after the Wakefield trackday last month so I made a brake master cylinder brace to help with brake feel at the track. Turned out pretty well for something that cost next to nothing.

Full write up of how I made it is right here.

I've reported the day in the Trackdays section with some photos and video clips - includes in-car footage so check it out!

Lots happening in the next month with the Adaptronic being fitted followed by the heads and cams. I'll be getting dynos done at each stage to quantify the improvements so interesting times ahead.

The top photo shows the profile of the stock 1UZ cam from a spare set of heads that I borrowed from a mate (hence the gunge in there), whereas the bottom one shows the profile of the new cams which I ordered from Bullet Cars. It's quite obvious to see how much further the Bullet ones will open the valve and for a longer duration.

These are 265 degree cams (intake and exhaust) with 8.88mm lift, and along with the ported heads are designed to produce peak power around 7000rpm whereas stock cams produce peak power around 5500rpm. The goal is to break 200rwkw with this setup which is no mean feat for an NA 4L engine.

I'll be employing an Adaptronic to look after the fuel and spark and this is a standalone ECU so the stock ECU won't have anything to do with engine control. The stock ECU will remain to look after all the other functions such as the dash, aircon etc but it will meddle no further with the engine! We'll be using a combination of TPS and MAP for load input and this work will start in the next week or so.

I'll be at another trackday with the Toymods guys this Friday which always brings out some interesting cars. Pics will be forthcoming soon afterwards...

In a nutshell it was wet but bloody awesome and I can't wait to hit it again in the dry! Check out the article for more.

One of the guys on the forum at www.v-eight.com came across these helical couplings from TEA Transmissions. They're a cylinder of aluminium with a spiral cut out so the middle part is effectively a spring. With these fitted the throttle action is smoother and requires less spring effort to close the butterflies.

I've also been preparing to go to Phillip Island in Melbourne this weekend, weather permitting, but considering rain was forecast last time and it was fine I'm just going to go anyway. To prepare I've had an oil cooler with thermostat fitted and also changed the rear springs from 6kg/mm to 7kg/mm - it's still quite forgiving but the rear end is much less marshmallow-like in corners. If the weather holds out I should have a stack of photos and some video footage to post next week.

As a bit of an update on the Adaptronic, Neil Griffiths has had one fitted to his blown, manual V8 Soarer and picked up 16rwkw and more midrange torque so we'll be going to the drags at Calder Park on Friday night while we're in Melbourne.

Neil was getting 178rwkw with the auto gearbox but after swapping to the 5 speed manual it pulled 196rwkw and now with the Adaptronic he's getting 212rwkw! If he can get the power down he should see some decent times on the 1/4 mile...

For the track I have a set of stock Supra 17x8 front and 17x9 rear rims and the tyres are Falken Azenis RT215 semi-slicks which have seen 3 track days now and are holding up to the abuse well.

The suspension setup is Buddy Club coilovers with 12kg/mm front springs and 6kg/mm rears plus Whiteline swaybars front and rear. Overall I'm very happy with it, however the rear end squats a bit too much under power which is then unloading the front slightly. There's a right-hand sweeper at Wakefield Park which I should be able to take with the throttle nailed but the soft rear springs are causing understeer unless I momentarily lift off to get weight back over the front.

I've ordered a set of 7kg/mm springs for the rear to see how it goes. Hopefully this will improve the balance seeing as I've removed about 45kg from the front of the car. No need to go too stiff as it's all about controlling the wheel and keeping it on the ground. Too stiff and it'll just skip off bumps and as you can see from the photo the body roll is quite acceptable for a car that is mainly driven on the road.

Stage 1 will be standalone engine management to take full control of the fuel and ignition without having to tip-toe around the stock ECU. This is only necessary when the engine is operating outside the bounds that the ECU was programmed to deal with but the stock ECU will still be retained to look after the dash, EMV, air-con etc. I was seriously looking at the Autronic which sells for AU$2000 - AU$2500 depending on the model, but fitting and tuning would have pushed it up to a AU$4000 proposition....

I was referred to the Adaptronic which is another Australian ECU growing a strong user base. A quick flick through the specs shows it'll do what I need plus it makes tuning much quicker and easier as it can read the output of a wideband O2 sensor and pretty much tune itself! Once it's fitted I'll do a full article as it should be very interesting. And the price? Only AU$990 and tuning should be a lot quicker and therefore cheaper making it much more palatable.

Stage 2 is to improve the overall breathing of the 1UZ with head porting and camshafts which explains the need for the standalone engine management. We'll have to use a combination of MAP (vacuum) and TPS for load input as the new cams will have a larger overlap than the stock 9 degrees so it'll produce a lot less vacuum making MAP unsuitable on its own.

The details for the heads and cams are still being nailed down but the goal is to exceed 200rwkw.... exciting times!

I haven't done a track day in close to a year but last Friday I was down at Wakefield Park near Goulburn and I'm glad I had the Defi gear fitted. It was a cool day - only 11 ºC - but in the space of 4 or 5 laps the warning went off. I initially had oil pressure and water temp displaying and they were fine so I pulled into the pits and before I made it back to the garages the alarm had stopped (it's just a high-pitched tone). I rearranged the display to show water and oil temp, let the car cool down for 15 minutes and headed out again. Sure enough after another 4 or 5 laps the warning went off with the oil temperature exceeding the 120 ºC threshold and it kept going up to 125 until I slowed and went back to the pits.

I'm being a bit lazy these days after spending so many weekends in the garage fitting the ITB's, so my car is with my mechanic getting an oil cooler fitted with a thermostat in the sandwich plate so it only directs oil to the cooler after it reaches operating temperature. Considering the cool ambient conditions at the track, anyone who takes their V8 Soarer for circuit work would be advised to do the same. Speco looks like they do decent gear so I'll post some photos when it's all fitted.

If you're achieving similar figures or more and have a dyno chart to show off, let me know so I can add it to the list. Check it out in the Engine section.

Oh, and that wet weather forecast for last weekend in Melbourne? Never happened.... blue sky for 2 days so I missed out...

To prepare for the weekend I've installed my new Cobra fixed back race seat which fits like a glove (and actually isn't too awkward to get in and out) along with a 4-point 3" harness which will be 5 point when I fit the centre strap. I also had my mechanic do the more boring maintenance stuff like oil change, fit a brake seal kit to the front callipers (which were bought 2nd hand a year ago), fit slotted rotors for the rear brakes as one of them had a slight warp, along with a couple of other things.

So now it's all dressed up and I'm ready to go but the weather forecast is for rain in Melbourne for the next 3 days! No point in taking time off work to drive down and back for a washed out event so I'll have to do some local circuits in the next few weeks instead. There's another trackday at Philllip Island in July so fingers crossed!

Drivability in heavy traffic is still very tame and it'll idle along in 3rd gear at 25km/h and still accelerate smoothly. I've also hooked up the cruise control so there are no sacrifices when driving which was one of my main aims with this project.

The article isn't a step-by-step as most of it was written after the installation but if you're interested in pursuing this type of intake system you will pick up some handy tips and won't repeat the same mistakes I did... or at least you'll find the solution quicker.

I'm yet to get any decent footage of the engine running as I've wanted to be behind the wheel and not under the bonnet, however it sounds AMAZING!

After I bolted it back together and fired up the engine it purred away at 600rpm which rose to 800rpm when it warmed up - perfect! It also felt much smoother everywhere and it wasn't missing like it was last week when the idle was much higher. I think that because the idle speed is now within the "normal" range, the ECU isn't interfering. I picked up a mate and went for a quick lap and the responsiveness had markedly improved.

Back to UAS today for the final tune-up and here's the result - 178.7rwkw and a much fatter midrange which feels awesome on the road. Click on the graph for a large version. I think that initial rich dip is from the accelerator enrichment when he stomped on it but it pulls clean and hard pretty much from idle.

As a comparison, this is the same power as a V8 Soarer fitted with an M90 blower pushing 5psi.... not bad!

Now I can finish the rest of the ITB article as I know what works and what doesn't. Time to enjoy the car and get in some good lap times at the track.

Something I've had constant issues with is a high idle speed caused by the butterflies not sealing well enough. I mentioned this to John Penlington at UAS when I arrived for the dyno and he said I needed some of this Loctite stuff. Apparently air leaks can also happen to GTR's if an over-zealous novice "cleans" the throttlebodies too well, removing the coating on the bore and this moly dry film lubricant is very similar to what's used by the factory. John had been trying to get it for months and as luck would have it he had a can ready for me when I came back to pick up my car. That alone was worth the visit so we'll see how it goes.

But what of the dyno? The good news is that it pulled 180rwkw on stock timing which is up from the 165rwkw on the same dyno just before I started the ITB conversion. The bad news is that the stock ECU was interfering far too much and was pulling timing and adding fuel all over the place making it impossible to tune the fuel table with any consistency. The upshot is that in this case, piggybacks probably aren't going to cut it so I'll be handing the car back to John to have an Autronic fitted and tuned in the next couple of weeks.... time to get serious.

I was hoping to have Part 2 of the ITB setup complete by now, and in a perfect world I'd be spending my days tinkering with my car and the nights writing articles, but unfortunately the pressures of the employment monster have kept me out of the garage. I was booked in to have the car dynoed last week but I'm still working through some issues with a high idle and hopefully (fingers crossed) it'll be sorted when I bolt it all back together tonight.

When I do hit the dyno I'll also be able to have some more timing advance wound in as I've fitted an SMT6 piggyback which does fuel and ignition. When I've had more time to play around with it I'll put together some  info but this would be a great unit for JDM V8 Soarers or USDM SC400's to help unleash the potential of the 1UZ.

For more info about Stevo and Naz click here.

I took a few people for a run but I was still tuning the fuel map as the consumption on the way down was pretty poor. As soon as I can get some of the photos and videos from the weekend I'll post them up.

I'm still fine tuning a few things then it will be dyno time. For now I'm just running a custom air filter which I got from Unifilter until the cold air intake can be fabricated. Not ideal to be sucking in hot engine air, but it's better than dirty hot engine air!

Part 2 covering the actual installation and the various problems and fixes I encountered will be online soon so keep checking back!

Part 1 is an introduction to ITB's, design, planning and specific issues that need addressing apart form the throttle bodies themselves. If you're thinking of going this way hopefully this info will help save you some time.

This is a bit of a primer to Part 1 of the Individual Throttle Body conversion which is almost ready to post. Expect to see regular additions to this section.

Alan and Nazim are both quadriplegics and I think it's an inspiration that they continue to chase their dreams. The event runs from the 25th to the 30th of April and including all the PR stops before and after, they will have covered 2000km by the time they get home for a good rest.

More info will be forthcoming about the car, preparation and the event.

The major project underway right now is the removal of the standard intake and installation of Individual Throttle Bodies (ITB's) which has taken much longer than expected... but isn't that always the way? The write up will be online in April after I sort out the last couple of issues with the conversion.

In the meantime have a look around and if you have any questions feel free to email me.