S15 Silvia Mods

Wednesday, 29 July 2015

Repairing Gutter Rash

So I couldn't take it any longer and my OCD kicked in and I had to repair and repaint my rims.

Both passenger side wheels had some decent gutter rash.

Below picture is a poor example (forgot to take before pics)

So I took of both wheels and sanded them back.

Time for new tyres - no traction (especially in the wet). Got some Potenza RE002 - much better than the brand the previous owner had fitted (Hero - Australian brand).

Tape the wheel - spend as much time on this step as it will effect the final finish.

Next was to use several coats of filler primer and sanding in-between.

Add a few black coats and a few clear coats and you're done.

Before and after comparison.

NB: Wheels are Rota Grid's.

Monday, 27 July 2015

S15 Front Lip Installation (Rhino Lip)

This is a nice and easy weekend job which I believe made a subtle difference to my S15. I have never been into body kits and crazy spoilers, but this was a nice compromise.

I originally wanted a hard, fibreglass lip, but they proved to be either very expensive (~$400) or non-existent. So I thought a $35 Rhino Lip of eBay would be worth a shot. Besides if I didn't like it, it was only $35. Turned out to look quite good.

What you'll need; drill, Rhino Lip and some self tapping screws - preferably stainless steel, galvanised if not available (due to rust), washers, and scissors.

It comes in a roll and does look like its going to stick out at an odd angle, but you just have to trust it.

Start by finding the middle of the Rhino Lip, make a mark. This way you wont sell yourself short when you don't have enough on one side and too much on the other.

Begin by attaching the middle of the Rhino Lip to the middle of the bumper and then I chose every 100mm thereafter to add a screw and washer.

When you come to curves in your bumper you will have to cut notches in the Rhino Lip to accommodate for the bunching which occurs when it is bent.

Trim away the excess carefully, and you're done.

I'll post a better picture of the finished product later.

Silvia Gear Boot Replacement

So my leather gear boot was getting very tatty and I took it into a leather repairman who said he would be able to fix it. He was going to put some patches on it and make it look like brand new. Great, I thought to myself, this guy knows what he is doing.

I pick it up 5 days later. The repairman asks for $25 - to my alarm I was expecting to pay much much more. As I open this plastic bag he hands me my heart drops. The above picture demonstrates what he has done - added a crappy patch (not even straight) to the bottom of the gear boot to cover the holes, added some glue and stitches and called it a day.

I was NOT putting this thing in my car. So I set to work to make a new one.

After un-stitching the gear boot and removing all the padding (I assume for sound-deadening) I was left with the leather. Below is the template (each side is a mirror of the other) of the leather which I removed - I have scanned them with a ruler beside so that you may also reprint the template at the correct size.

Went down to Spotlight and grabbed some pleather (plastic leather) and a metal push button to join them and got to work on the sewing machine.

This is the final result. Not bad I must say. After a couple days of being fitted it moulded into place.

Final product.

NB: next time I will use proper leather and add the padding to reduce the sound.

Also I have a PDF of the template if people are interested.

EDIT 03/08/15 - Added links to PDF files below:

Template 1

Template 2

Template 3

Upcoming Addition to the Silvia

I have finally found a used Greddy SMIC! I plan to install this on my car in the coming months. Picked it up off Hardtuned. Here are some teasers from the seller (see pictures below).

It's only the SMIC, no piping, so I will have to do some simple joins. Haven't quite sussed it out what I will need.

Thinking of powdercoating it black (or anodising black) for some extra stealth and better cooling - black radiates heat better.

I am not keen on a FMIC, mainly because the return-flow's are difficult to find (GKtech stopped making theirs and haven't seen an ARC one in ages), and as I don't want to drill a hole in my battery tray. Trying to make this as legal as possible. Just Jap had a return flow for a Skyline but on contacting them they didn't believe it would fit a S15 - despite it being a similar size to a Greddy FMIC for an S15.

So for convenience, stealth, legality and it matches my power gains, this is the perfect one for me.

Friday, 16 May 2014

How to Remove a Nissan S15 Silvia Exhaust from Turbo Back - Part 3

Part 3 - Removal of the Dump Pipe

The dump pipe connects to the turbo by 3 bolts and 2 nuts. It is rather "fiddly" to remove, but not particularly difficult. You need to remove a few components to access it.

The above image you will only need to worry about the blow-by hose (1), heat shield (11) and dump pipe (13). We will refer to this later.

First, remove the heat shield from the manifold along with the O2 sensor. I'd suggest removing the blow-by hose. The below picture doesn't show it but I completely removed the hose as it made it difficult to access the bolts and sensor (just use a pair of pliers to squeeze the clamp off the top and bottom).

The heat shield has four bolts on the top and one on the side near the ABS system. Be cautious, I broke off a bolt in removing the heat shield (I couldn't remove it despite my efforts with easy-outs).

You will need to use the 22mm O2 sensor socket for this step. Depending on the age of your O2 sensor, you may wish to replace for approx $100.

Begin to loosen the bolts/nuts around the turbo/dump pipe. You may need to be inventive with the spanner and socket set you use. I used a ratcheting spanner and a combination of sockets and adaptors/joints.

The above picture is from underneath the car. There is another heat shield that needs to be removed along with the nuts/bolts that hold the dump pipe to the turbo.

After the dump pipe is removed, clean up the area, add a new gasket and fit it all back together.

Fit the new dump pipe to the turbo, put on one or two nuts (loosely) then while supporting the dump pipe (as not to put the full weight of it on the turbo) you will need to shift backwards and fix the bracket to the car. The easiest way I found was to attach the bracket first and then you only have one bolt to attach.

Then slowly tighten all the nuts and bolts, in an opposing fashion to give an even fixture onto the turbo and bracket.

Now it is just a simple process of adding the cat and muffler (opposite as you took them out) and tightening up some bolts, and you're done.

Thanks for reading, any questions please feel free to leave as a comment below.

How to Remove a Nissan S15 Silvia Exhaust from Turbo Back - Part 2

Part 2 - Removal from Dump Pipe Back

As I only had two jack stands I had to first jack up the passenger side to remove the muffler and resonator and then I jacked up the front to remove the cat and dump pipe. The reason for this was due to me not trusting the wheel chocks that I had so I wanted at least one of the back wheels on the ground (with handbrake applied and in gear - as it is a RWD).

Please see the below images to familiarise yourself with the layout of the exhaust.

The next image details the layout of the exhaust from dump pipe back.

Now that the car is jacked up, start by removing the muffler.

Once under the car there are two nuts which attach the resonator pipe to the muffler - remove them. There is also another bolt which attaches the hanger to the underside of the car - remove this too.

You will need plenty of WD-40 and/or Loctite Freeze and Release to assist this.

Once the bolts are removed you will need to remove the rubber hangers. The above image shows the location of all three.

Applying some WD-40 to the hanger will help slide it off.

Now moving down the resonator pipe you will come to the next flange. This connects the catalytic converter to the resonator.

As you can see this was extremely rusted and took a bit of effort to remove. Once these two nuts are removed there is another hanger that needs to be taken off towards the rear of the car. After the hanger has been removed you will need to support the pipe as you lower it to the ground.

The most difficult part to remove was the nuts which attach to the dump pipe.

There are 3 nuts to remove which attach to the dump pipe. You will need a lot of Freeze and Release to remove these. You may also require a universal joint for your socket set, or stubby/short spanners or ratcheting spanner. I used a combination of these to remove it.

Before you remove it completely, you must leave the bolts attached, but loose.

Next step is to remove the support bracket. This attaches via two bolts off towards the drivers side and attaches to the cat as pictured. Once you have removed these bolts you then need to support the pipe while you remove the 3 bolts from the dump pipe. Careful, it can be awkward to lower gently with only one hand.

You have now removed the exhaust system from dump pipe back. Next we will remove the dump pipe in Part 3.