Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Meh...

So I found a great parts website today from someone on the Nicoclub forums called Nismo Parts, unfortunately a day too late. They sell N1 pumps for more than $100 less than I paid at RHDJAPAN. Plus their shipping is cheaper for me because they are in the United States. Bummer, but I still got a decent price from RHD, about $200 less than anywhere else selling the N1's. Plus Nismo Parts does not carry the Tomei Baffle or oil restrictor.

But all that doesn't really matter, here's the important part: Nismo Parts carries OEM replacement parts for JDM vehicles. They actually sold me a Nissan OEM Timing Belt for $30!! Plus they had the OEM idler pulley and tensioner. All three things shipped 2 day air came to $105.51. I am so friggin glad I didn't give up and hand out $130 (minimum) for a Greddy Belt.

New Project Total: $17,702.28

These Pumps Are So Good You Can Actually See The Money Being Sucked Out Of My Bank Account Pie

First off let me just say that RHDJAPAN has been great to work with. I placed the order with them yesterday and it didn't go through Paypal properly so they called me (from Tokyo) as soon as they opened to work out the details by phone. They offer a variety of methods of payment, and their shipping rates are pretty reasonable. They also have the best price on new N1 pumps for the RB26, even better than Ebay! I should be recieving the order by Friday or early next week.

*All Prices include shipping from Japan EMS
N1 Oil Pump - $331
N1 Water Pump - $334.51
Tomei Oil Pan Baffle - $194.74
Tomei Oil Gallery Orifice 1.5mm - $14.68

Total - $864.77

I could have shaved a bit more off if I had requested the slower Surface shipping, but it wasn't enough to make the waiting worth it. RHD also sells interior and exterior parts, clutches, and all sorts of random stuff.

In other, less thrilling news, I recieved a pull type clutch instead of the push type that I ordered. So now Justin has to wrap it up and ship it back. No idea how long of a wait that will be, they supposedly have one in stock so hopefully I'll see it this weekend.

In slightly more thrilling (suicide inducing) news, Justin and I did some tear down to reveal the fact that my crank is "bad." If you take off the oil pump and the measured depth of the metal collar that contacts the inside of the pump is less than 16mm, well then you are fucked my friend. If your oil pump drive collar (also called crank collar) is the bad 7mm version, you have two options.

Option 1: Fix it. A perfect writeup on diagnoses and resolution can be found here.
Option 2: Act like you do around that drunk uncle who always tries to touch your ass, ignore it.

Of course since I don't have $1500-2000 to spend on fixing this problem (completely removing the crank and having the new collar machined on, rebalancing, new bearings, clearencing the new bearings...) or just buying a brand spankin new crank with a good collar and just clearencing bearings. Still a shit load of work, and for my purposes, slightly overkill. Of course it would be nice to know that my oil pump drive collar fully fucking connects with my oil pump drive, but for now I think I'll just throw on a new pump every 50k or so (the cheap fix).

I can't believe this design flaw even made it to the factory floor, I mean hell it doesn't take a genius to know that if a collar only connects with half of the drive it will wear unevenly and fail prematurely.

After reading many, many articles on this subject it is clear that how you fix the problem depends on your demands on the engine. If you are building the engine, or are looking for 500+ hp on stock internals then you will want to address this problem before the motor ever goes in your car. However there is a grey area below that number. I am only looking to see 450-475hp, and am not planning on beating the shit out of it, so I am hoping that changing the pump often will stave off the inevitable pop of the pump gear as it breaks at 9000rpm.

Some might call this a naive solution at best, but dammit I don't want to build this motor right now! The next time I'm idly wondering what to do with that $10k just laying around in my savings account gathering dust I'll consider building this motor with a turbo upgrade and fix that fucking collar!

New Project Total: $17,596.77

Monday, May 07, 2007

Jesus H. Christ

Spec is out because they don't offer a RB26 flywheel and couldn't get me my Stage 3+ until JUNE 1st! So proceed to Exedy where I ordered a twin plate clutch with lightweight flywheel package for $1280. I can only rationalize this purchase by convincing myself that this thing will last me more than 2 years, and could handle a large turbo upgrade. Figure I would have spent this much anyway with Spec if their non-existant flywheel ran me $400. Plus the Exedy can handle a lot more power (~700hp), however I'm thinking it's going to suck to drive!

I am relieved how this turned out, though. The whole reason it took so long to order from Spec was because I was concerned about their numbers, and I didn't want my $800 clutch to slip at the track. Even if it worked fine with the stock set-up, if I were to upgrade anytime soon that would mean a whole new clutch! So now I can rest assured that this puppy will carry me through any upgrade I could afford in the near future.

Ugh, there goes my paint job.

New project cost total: $16,732