'93 VR4 State of the Union

[AdamVR4]

I’ve taken my car for a couple joy rides now and I’m planning to dyno & race again November 10th at the Texas Gathering here in Austin & San Antonio Raceway.

The first joy ride wasn’t necessarily supposed to turn into that, but I invited an STi buddy over so I wasn't going to hold back… It drove well and didn’t leak so I turned it down to waste gate boost and made a couple pulls at ~13 psi. Already bored, I cranked up the boost on old 93 octane. Like always, my VR4 takes it and likes it. I didn't care what boost it went to as long as it didn't knock, so I turned the knob on my DSBC-R and stared at the scanmaster right in front of me. I saw 2, maybe 4 counts of knock deep in 3rd (steering wheel was slightly in the way for this pull) and felt a little hesitation. It felt like minor spark blow-out, but it was only 19.5 psi. It was strong, probably 480-500 AWHP. I made a couple more clean 2nd gear pulls and drove around to cool off the engine before pulling into the garage. I then discovered the full overflow and a tiny puddle of coolant beneath the car.

It's gotta be coolant push / head lift, right? It must've happened the last time I drove it, months ago @ 22 psi on this same tank of 93 octane.

So this past weekend, I changed the coolant and cleaned up the overflow system, it had been kind of neglected over the years so it took some time. I finished it up by throwing an elbow on the end of the overflow tube and plumbing it to dump in the center of the underbody instead of relatively close to the passenger side tire.

I decided to take it out tonight after work and invited a 370Z buddy. I turned onto the frontage and punched it in 1st @ 17 psi. My old BFG DR's still bite hard, and all I heard from the passenger seat was childish giggling until well after I let off at the top of 2nd. I turned the boost back up to the 19.5 psi that seemed to pressurize my coolant system last time. It was cooler tonight, and I made a couple pulls deep into 3rd without any knock or hesitation.

Pulled it into the garage and the coolant level in the reservoir was completely unchanged... Nice.

I need to pressure test and adjust my greddy type-r BOV because it flutters, kind of hilariously, at part throttle. I also really need to set up my logger to collect WBO2 data rather than just staring at NBO2 voltage and knock on the scanmaster, hahaha… This car has had kind of a unique life. I got it with 99K and put ~10K on it BPU. The last ~7K have been spread over nearly 10 years with various TD05's. I replaced the composite head gaskets with MLS in 2004 and they've stayed down that whole time. In spite of some hellish 1100 deg C EGT's.

The typical life cycle has been allowed to degrade to:
very slowly build for months on end > beat like a red headed step child > break > repeat

Brief history of my car since it's been a while.

2002 - BPU - 12.78 @ 107.1
2003 - small 16G's - didn't push them
2004 - 14B's - 11.10 @ 127.3, 488+ AWHP
2005 - E16G’s – 10.9x, 131+
2006 - E16G's - 10.56 @ 135.01 on C16
(put aside the car and got my BSME)
2009 - E16G's - awoke from slumber to immediately make 585 AWHP, no clean ¼ mile pull

I’ve broken some stuff: multiple 2nd gear synchronizers, a 3rd gear synchro, a 25 spline output shaft, 2 t-case housings, 1 t-case mid housing, 2 rear axles… Everything other than synchros broke while I used a welded center differential. The only upside is I’ve now got a decent inventory of useable transmission components.

Today though, the drive line is finally pretty stout -

new OEM 5 speed (~100 miles old, not braced)
Quadco X/R output shaft
NoCar 7075 main housing
LSE/3SX SS mid housing
Rebuilt RPS C/C (~100 miles old)
PST Aluminum drive shaft
Ray's 300m rear axles
hoosier QTP's for the track or skinny bfg DR's for the street

Other important stuff -

~116K original stock engine; I've inspected and replaced bearings on it several times out of parranoia. It's loose (15 psi oil pressure @ hot 1000 rpm idle) but healthy.
stock valved heads with mild port job
5-point roll bar, corbeau seats & harnesses
E16G's surrounded by DR parts - headers, O2's, & downpipe
4" exhaust,
2.5" short intake system
24" x 12" x 3" ducted FMIC
big ass front mounted oil cooler
msd wires
ngk plugs @ .022"
dual walbro, aeromotive AFPR @ 50 psi
the same PTE780's that have been sitting in my car since 2005 (which I'm planning to replace ASAP with 1000cc's at least)
emanage blue + maf-t v1.x + overclocked ECU + LT1 MAF in blow thru

waiting to be installed -
A1 head studs
billet oil pump gears
ray's trans brace
stm fuel system
active aero simulator
predrilled stock cam gears
The car has a lot of stuff removed from my quest for 10’s, but I’ve been slowly reinstalling much of it but I still expect it to weigh ~3350 lbs.

I was hoping to wait until Christmas, but what GoPro camera(s) and set-ups would people recommend to me for interior mounting? Regardless, my next posts will have a lot of pictures.

Adam