S15 Grip/Street/Track build thread

[Revver 0]

Hey guys, thought I'd start a build thread more for myself to keep track of my progress with the car and post results of mods verified at the track with times, dyno sheets etc.

 

On the weekend I picked up a 100% stock (down to the headunit) S15 Spec S Silvia. I had a few specifications for the car when looking and they was that it had to be Blue, stock or as close to as possible, non-sunroof and straight.

 

The car I picked is a one owner Blue, Spec S, automatic, Australian delivered 2002 S15. It has 180,000kms, the interior is in very good condition, the engine seems in good condition and the exterior is in average/good condition. I paid $8000 for the car however it is in Perth and I am in Adelaide so the car is currently on a truck on it's way here. The flights to Perth were $500 and the truck to get it here was $400. I bought the car from a 65 year old lady who was the first owner in 2002 and bought it as a midlife crisis (her explaination).

 

I don't have any great photos of it but I will upload some as soon as it gets here and try to keep the thread updated as I do things to the car or as the car goes to the track.

 

My plan for the car is to run a basic setup and try to get as much time out at the track as possible, the car will be used for grip and not drift so progress should be easy to see in the form of track times at my local track, Mallala.

 

For now, here are some photos I have of the car that I got sent before I flew to Perth to view it.

Edited July 20, 2016 by Revver

[Revver 0]

Since I flew over on the weekend I have started to collect some parts to go on the S15. Now keep in mind this is my first Nissan so I'm a bit of a rookie (have owned and modded other cars though so know my way around pretty well).

 

First thing I bought were a full set of Ohlins PCV Coilovers. I actually bought these a few days before I bought the car cause they came up and I knew I was going to buy an S15 anyway. I paid $1050 inc. shipping which I think it a fair price considering they are around $4000 new.

 

Secondly I need to sort the major issue with the car. THE TRANSMISSION!!! Manual swap is on the cards within the first few weeks of the car arriving in Adelaide so I've started to collect some parts already. Having heard bad things about the 6 speed I've decided to go straight to the 5 speed from an S14.

 

The parts I have already bought are: 5 speed S14 box (needs to be inspected before I actually pay but picked it up today and getting it professionally inspected tomorrow)

Clutch pedal

S15 6 speed tailshaft

Master cylinder

Slave cylinder

Gear boot and interior surround

Manual spec R diff

Manual ECU

S14 gearbox mount - came with the box (Can anyone specify what gearbox mount is used when putting a 5 speed in an S15?)

S15 tailshaft to suit 5 speed (S15 rear with S14 front)

5 Speed shifter

Clutch lines

 

So I still need: Clutch, flywheel, flywheel bolts, bellhousing bolts, gearbox mount?

 

Now to just wait for the car to arrive!

 

Edited July 20, 2016 by Revver

[Revver 0]

Quick little update, not too much happening until the car arrives.

 

Went and bought some Bellhousing bolts today. I believe these are the right bolts I need to bolt the 5 speed to my SR.

 

EDIT: Some of these don't work but alot of the automatic ones do so between these and the auto bolts there were the right bolts for the 5 speed

 

2 M12x1.75 - 70mm

3 M12x1.75 - 65mm

2 M10x1.5 - 75mm (starter motor)

3 M10x1.5 - 60mm

1 M10x1.5 - 30mm

 

The M12 bolts go into the block and the M10 go into the sump from what I believe. All bolts are a grade 10.9

 

There was some conflicting information online about which bolts to use however I think these are right. If they aren't then they were only $11 so I can just get more.

 

Also ordered some ARP Flywheel bolts online so they should arrive from Queensland in about a week.

 

Also got the gearbox checked out by 1110 engineering and it looks to be all good. Rich is a great guy and I can highly recommend for any gearbox needs.

 

Edited July 20, 2016 by Revver

[Revver 0]

Just picked up the clutch and flywheel. $150 for a used Xtreme Heavy Duty clutch and flywheel with pretty good meat left. Might give the flywheel a quick machine before I put it in though, we'll see what my mechanic reckons.

 

Now I believe all I need is some clutch bolts as I didn't get any with the clutch/flywheel but they shouldn't be hard to find/too expensive.

 

Edited July 20, 2016 by Revver

[ichi-go 7]

Might want to change to a different final drive to suit your 5spd, the stock 6spd (close ratio) is matched with 3.6 so if you use 5spd with 3.6, it's going to feel sluggish (in a sense)

 

You will need to swap to a 4.11 or 4.3 (if you want to retain abs, that will have to be source from r33 gtst s2 as they come with abs) manual r33 is 4.11, auto r33 is 4.3

 

Quite hard to come by but just keep an eye out on gumtree for people wrecking r33s, most of them are s1 (non abs) but there are s2 every now and then

[Revver 0]

Might want to change to a different final drive to suit your 5spd, the stock 6spd (close ratio) is matched with 3.6 so if you use 5spd with 3.6, it's going to feel sluggish (in a sense)

 

You will need to swap to a 4.11 or 4.3 (if you want to retain abs, that will have to be source from r33 gtst s2 as they come with abs) manual r33 is 4.11, auto r33 is 4.3

 

Quite hard to come by but just keep an eye out on gumtree for people wrecking r33s, most of them are s1 (non abs) but there are s2 every now and then

 

Cheers man, I'll look into it. At the moment my major concern is making it manual and I'll sort out the best diff ratio for my application when I've got that sorted and properly work out what I want. I'm not super fussed about retaining ABS however would I be able to retain a speedo because the S15 speedo reading comes from the ABS module in the diff if I'm not mistaken? Sorry I'm a bit of a Nissan rookie

Edited May 16, 2016 by Revver

[Revver 0]

So the car arrived today two days earlier than I was told it would!

 

Went and picked it up today and have been absolutely loving it. Can't get over how well it has kept for a 14 year old car. No squeaks or rattles that I've heard yet! This is probably due to the fact it is completely stock haha.

 

Only thing I had time to quickly do today was to quickly polish the headlights as they were pretty cloudy. I've attached a before and after photo of the headlights (drivers side shows before and passenger shows after).

 

Need to try and roll through Vehicle ID inspection some time this week so I can rego it in SA and start modding!

 

 

Also, forgot to put up some photos of my previous rig so my aswell now. Here's my old Turbo, forged mx5 with a huge list of rare and fruity parts. Was an insane car and will be missed.

 

Edited July 20, 2016 by Revver

[ichi-go 7]

Cheers man, I'll look into it. At the moment my major concern is making it manual and I'll sort out the best diff ratio for my application when I've got that sorted and properly work out what I want. I'm not super fussed about retaining ABS however would I be able to retain a speedo because the S15 speedo reading comes from the ABS module in the diff if I'm not mistaken? Sorry I'm a bit of a Nissan rookie

 

You're not entirely a rookie as you know the speedo runs off the abs sensor on the diff

 

Good job on the headlight, looks good

 

Previous rig looks solid too, good luck getting it inspected!

[andhey 0]

auto s15 sr20det comes with a 3.9 ratio diff from memory so it won't be too bad till he finds a higher ratio

[ichi-go 7]

auto s15 sr20det comes with a 3.9 ratio diff from memory so it won't be too bad till he finds a higher ratio

 

Yes you're totally right! Hang on to 3.9 ratio as they are hard to come by as well, been looking for one for ages

[Revver 0]

Little while since I've made a post but here's a bit of an update.

 

Had everything prepared for the manual swap when I was out playing around in the wet at night and a weird noise started coming from the rear of the car. Narrowed it down to one of the brake pads having worn super weirdly, I think the rotor was warped and caused it to wear at an angle and then seized on due to this.

 

Figured it was as good a time as ever to upgrade the brakes for track duties so I went with EBC slotted and drilled rotors and project mu HC800 track/street pads all around. $600 later and the Silvia has new brakes that should be awesome out on the track. Still need to upgrade the fluid but that shouldn't take long.

 

After that was sorted I booked it in for the manual swap at a mates workshop. Usually it's the sort of thing I would do myself but I'm pretty busy with Uni at the moment and didn't want the car to be off the road for too long.

 

Took the car in on Wednesday morning at 9am and hung around all day and drove it out of there Wednesday night fully manual. Sooooo much better manual, heaps nicer to drive around and I actually enjoy taking it for a boot through the hills now.

 

Finding the limits of the bullshit tyres the previous owner put on though so definitely need to upgrade them soon. Here are a few photos of what's been happening recently and hopefully I'll get into some more interesting mods soon!

Edited July 20, 2016 by Revver

[Revver 0]

A couple of interesting things I forgot to mention previously about the auto to manual swap.

 

1. The auto ECU had to be used as it didn't start off the manual ECU.

 

2. The bellhousing bolts that I posted above were wrong and only a few suit the 5 speed SR20 box, most of the auto ones were re-used though.

 

3. The auto and manual have the same rear section of the tailshaft so if you you only actually need the front section of an S15 6 speed tailshaft if going 6 speed and front section of S14 tailshaft if going 5 speed.

 

4. Even after trimming the plastic interior surround the 5 speed shifter still hits the interior console. Trimmed as far as I could under the shift boot and it hits the silver plastic that you can see still so a short shifter is needed.

 

5. Auto and manual sandwich plate is the same so you don't need a new one for the swap

 

 

Now I have a question about the Auto S15 ECU. Does anyone know if the Auto ECU runs a different map in Neutral as it does in drive? I ask this because my brother has run into issues with the same sort of thing before and the S15 feels different to drive now in manual, the engine does not seem as smooth and seems to run a little rough around the 2000rpm mark. It still runs fine but just seems a little rougher. So because the neutral wires were shorted to make the ECU think it's in neutral so that it can start, does this effect the tune in the ECU at all?!?!?!?!???

Edited June 15, 2016 by Revver

[Revver 0]

So yesterday my short shifter arrived. I ordered a Cube short shifter last week from the advice of a friend who says hers is awesome.

 

Opening the box it's obvious that it's a very well made piece and all the parts for install are there aswell as a well detailed installation manual.

Installed it this morning, was super simple and straight forward, took about 15-20 minutes.

 

 

I can safely say that the difference is night and day between the two shifter feels. So much notchier and satisfying changing geas and coming from an MX5 background which has a great feel from factory I couldn't stand the Silvia gearshift. I 10/10 recommend this to anyone as I've driven a bunch of silvias and this makes it feel so much more complete to drive and like a much better put together car.

 

Not heaps planned for the car for a little while, tax time is coming up soon so saving for some wheels then I'll put the wheels and coilovers in after I've done atleast one track day stock to get a baseline laptime. There's a track day on the 17th of July that I'm looking to make it out to. Only thing I want to do before then is new brake fluid to try and stop brake fade as Mallala is harsh on brakes and there's alot of time to be made there.

Edited June 15, 2016 by Revver

[Revver 0]

Needed new wheels badly but nothing I liked has come up for sale yet so I thought I'd get a temporary upgrade on the 15.

 

Picked up some R34 GTT stockies which are a 17x7.5 +40.

 

 

The tyres on them are cooked but for $70 I can't complain. Test fitted them this afternoon to see how they'd look and safe to say I'm actually surprised with how much I like it. For a temporary upgrade I couldn't be happier with how they sit on the car. Makes it need some low though for sure.

 

 

Also gave the car a full service with ULX110 oil, new oil filter, fuel filter, checked everything over and cleaned the cabin filter.

 

The car always smelt a little with the airconditioning turned on so I knew the cabin filter was a little dirty but holy shit it was so much worse than I thought when I took it out and cleaned it. Here's a photo if it midway through being cleaned. Look how black it made the water.

Edited June 28, 2016 by Revver

[Scotties15 14]

u know you can buy those bad boys new from nissan for like 80 bux or something. dunno if taarks stocks them.

[S15 sxytime 31]

Looks like my twin! Mines the same colour with the same wheels!

[Varvs 29]

u know you can buy those bad boys new from nissan for like 80 bux or something. dunno if taarks stocks them.

 

pretty sure he does now.

[Scotties15 14]

u know you can buy those bad boys new from nissan for like 80 bux or something. dunno if taarks stocks them.

 

pretty sure he does now.

 

http://www.taarks.com/product_p/nis-cabinfilter-s15.htm

 

HEY Would you look at that. almost half the price i paid all those years ago for a replacement.

[Revver 0]

So my front bumper had pretty stuffed paint and I decided to give it a crack fixing it myself cause I had most of the stuff I needed sitting around at home.

 

Considering I only had to buy $15 worth of paint and everything else I already had I figured why not.

 

Here's the bumper before I started. Had hundreds of paint chips all through it and a hole from where it looks like a towball had gone through it.

 

 

Using a heatgun I warmed the bumper and pushed out the hole to try and make it look a little better. I then got a soldering iron on the backside of it and melted the bits together so it wouldn't come apart again. I sanded the whole bumper and knew the finish around the hole wasn't going to be great but I plan on getting an Aero kit so wasn't too fussed with how this came out as I was happy with any improvement over how stuffed it was before.

 

 

Gave it a lick of paint just out of a colour matched rattle can because it was easier then setting up the paint gun and again, wasn't going for perfection here. Pretty happy with how it came out though, can still see the damage but a massive improvement over what it used to be.

 

Here are some photos of how it turned out

 

 

The finish on the clear is a little different to the rest of the car. I think with a good buff though it should come up fine though as it seems to just be heavy orange peel. Definately stoked with how it turned out though for the minimal effort and money it cost me

Edited July 11, 2016 by Revver

[Revver 0]

First track day in the Silvia 16/7/16

 

Car ran fully stock except for the R34 wheels with some Federal 595 SS tyres (not bad but nothing great) and good brakes (as above and running Motul RBF600 fluid)

 

Was a great day out and had no mechanical issues! Ran every minute of every session and the only thing I'm worried about is the brakes cooking as they were smoking after coming in every session but never actually had fade so should be fine.

 

Fastest time of the day was in the last session when I was getting some clear track because most cars didn't last the whole day and I ran a 1:30.2 which I'm super happy about for a full stock car.

 

I decided not to mod the car before the first track day as I wanted to set down a base time to work from.

 

Here are some of the better photos from the day:

 

 

Sunday the day after the track day I put the coilovers in and realised I had an issue fitting the R34 wheels with the coilovers. I had to run spacers so put some 8mm slip on spacers on for the day cause I had some floating around. Went and bought some 20mm bolt on spacers on Monday cause I find slip on spacers dodgy and don't like driving with them on. Got a pair of 20mm GKtech for $110 and some wheel nuts to suit for $35. Makes the front fitment with the R34 wheels awesome and I actually really like how the car is sitting at the moment. Also rolled the guards today in preperation for some new wheels I'm looking at on the weekend!

 

Edited July 20, 2016 by Revver

[180MikE 4]

Not sure if you figured it out when you were replacing pads, but that rear pad wear is caused by a stuck slider (piston pushes on one side, and pulls, via two sliders, the opposite side toward the rotor). With one stuck, the pad twists and get munched on an angle like that. The slider will need cleaning and re-greasing.

 

Cheers

[Revver 0]

Not sure if you figured it out when you were replacing pads, but that rear pad wear is caused by a stuck slider (piston pushes on one side, and pulls, via two sliders, the opposite side toward the rotor). With one stuck, the pad twists and get munched on an angle like that. The slider will need cleaning and re-greasing.

 

Cheers

 

Yeah looked at that but all the sliders were well greased and not stuck at all, re-greased them regardless but I believe it was due to a warped rotor in this situation as I had been feeling brake shudder prior to changing them.

[Revver 0]

So been a while since I've updated this and a bit has happened.

 

First thing that happened since last update was that I got new wheels.

 

Picked up a set of Volk Racing CE28N that were originally on an Integra Type R so the offset was a bit fucked but with the 20mm spacers they sit pretty well in the front and the rears are also pretty good really.

 

The sizing is Front: 17x7.5 +42 (and a 20mm spacer so effective offset +22)

Rear: 17x8.5 +30 (I think around 30 but I might be wrong)

 

 

 

After the wheels I started looking for some more power so first things first was to get it breathing better. Bought a second hand 3" turbo back exhaust but it didn't fit properly so had to hack it up and extend it and then this is how it sat hahahaha!

 

 

Definitely had to get that cannon out of there so I made up some stainless blast pipes and put them on but it was then straight piped and stupid loud.

 

 

 

Took it for a drive to go and see what it sounded like anyway regardless of how stupidly loud it was and guess what.... undercover cop pulls out behind me and pulls me over. Got defected for exhaust and wheel spacers on literally the first time I drove it with an aftermarket exhaust hahahahaha. Just my luck!

 

 

So yeah, there she sits at the moment, not much I need to do to get it through regency though so should be off defect in a week or two. Current list is put a muffler or 2 in the exhaust, swap back in the standard suspension and just a bit of small stuff like globes, cut down the blast pipes, fix my starter motor etc. Nothing major and shouldn't take too long.

 

 

[Revver 0]

Quick update. Failed regency.

 

Failed for worn castor arm bushes, exhaust upswept (kept the blast pipes and he didn't like them), steering wheel foam not properly secured, worn rear uni joint on tailshaft.

 

 

Fixed the exhaust that night. Made a new catback system for it cause I cbf trying to keep modifying my old one. turned out pretty well.

 

 

 

 

 

Also got some weather shields cause why not.

 

 

 

And finally, my old key has been ripped since I got the car but Nissan quoted $345 for a new one cut and coded.

 

Bought one off eBay for $18.20, got it cut for $8.50, pulled my old transponder out and put it in the new key. Done. Saves $318.30 and took about 5 minute work. Ridiculous haha.

 

 

 

[Scotties15 14]

looks good mate ! wanna post that ebay link here? lol

 

my key has the exact same problem !!!!!

[Revver 0]

looks good mate ! wanna post that ebay link here? lol

 

my key has the exact same problem !!!!!

 

Yeah a mate recently picked up an S15 and has the same problem as well which made me think it was a common thing. Here's the eBay link I bought from: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/NISSAN-TRANSPONDER-KEY-FOR-PATHFINDER-SKYLINE-S15-X-TRAIL-PATROL-PULSAR-NAVARA-/301335992657?hash=item4629065951&_uhb=1

[Scotties15 14]

looks good mate ! wanna post that ebay link here? lol

 

my key has the exact same problem !!!!!

 

Yeah a mate recently picked up an S15 and has the same problem as well which made me think it was a common thing. Here's the eBay link I bought from: http://www.ebay.com....29065951&_uhb=1

 

Cheers mate ! legend. must admit, being lazy but hte few i found look gaids lol.

[Scotties15 14]

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/KEY-CHIP-NISSAN-A33-4D60-NEW-TRANSPONDER-/181120637824?hash=item2a2ba19b80:g:~18AAMXQnXFRZ0go

 

ns wont let me edit... anyways. is this the transponder??? do you recall if hte numbers are the same mate?

[Revver 0]

http://www.ebay.com....18AAMXQnXFRZ0go

 

ns wont let me edit... anyways. is this the transponder??? do you recall if hte numbers are the same mate?

 

I pulled the transponder out of my old key and put it in the non-ripped one

[Revver 0]

So. Passed regency the second time easily.

 

Cost a bit to fix some of the things on the list they gave me though. After the exhaust I went about replacing the worn bushes which all went smoothly.

 

 

 

 

Then I went about fixing the steering wheel. As opposed to trying to fix my ADM steering wheel I had always wanted the JDM wheel so found one for $80 in pretty ratty condition and got it re-upholstered in brand new leather which looks absolutely amazing. So happy with the outcome, has really made the interior a nice place to be.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Took the car round to my mates workshop and had a look at the "worn rear universal joint" on the tailshaft according to regency. Was 100% mint. Decided to simply paint it with a fresh coat of black paint and get a paint pen writing "S15" on the side of it so it'd look like I'd been to a wrecker and got a second hand one. Worked perfectly, the guy at regency the second time didn't even bat an eyelid at it hahahha.

 

Then it was just the brake clips for $1.80 from Nissan and bam. Done and dusted at regency, car is back on the road!!

 

 

So, what do you do the day you get through regency? Take the car off the road and start putting the fun bits back on. First up was taking the baffle plate out of the exhaust that made it quiet enough to pass regency haha.

 

 

 

Then I swapped intercoolers with a mate cause he was putting an S15 back to stock to daily it. So front mount and battery relocation kit time!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry I'm being so in depth with my thread but I want a recollection of everything I've done to the car so I don't forget anything. I know it's all stuff thats been done before and it's probably not all that interesting but I'm using this as a sort of personal record of the car.