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Rant: Hybrid intercooler kitsHybrid cooler kits. Sure theyre cheap, but theyre not worth the alloy theyre made out of. None of the kit fits properly together. They sent me a kit that was supposed to be for 180SX and Silvia. Bullshit, the two have completely different headlight and bumper supports. So I made some brackets and fitted the cooler up (as high as possible, but the headlights restrict the height). Then I go to put the cold side pipes on, no good, cooler sits too low for the standard silicon hoses to fit, but theres no way you could possibly lift it an extra 5cm+, unless you ditch the headlights all together. So I go buy a longer one (to the tune of $25). Then Im reading the instructions. It says "cut a 80mm hole with a hole saw". Problem #1, pretty much no one sells a 80mm hole saw, 60mm yes, 80mm no... except bunnings and they cost about $80 once you get the arbor for it. But even if you did fork out $80 for it, it wouldnt do you any good anyway. You see, the pipes are 80mm big and with the silicon hose on them they wont fit through a 80mm hole. So your up for another $50 for a bigger hole saw or you could just try to enlarge it with a grinder or something.OK, so the cold side is on, not very well at that with the poor design. So I move over to the hot side. Now, I must admit I do have a non-standard turbo, but it puts the outlet pretty much where the standard T25 puts it. It still wont fit without buying more gear. So I buy a 15cm length of 2 inch silicon hose (that really should have come with the "kit", to the tune of an extra $25) to try and bridge the gap between the two. Still no joy. I can get it to fit, but the silicon kinks. And then theres another pair of hose clamps that are missing. The list goes on and on. The thing will probably struggle to make 200rwkw. The lesson is, buy a Trust V-SPL (~$1300), buy custom piping, just avoid the hybrid kits. Theres a reason the V-SPL costs $1300... Sun, Jan 15 2006 15:15:41 What a shit hot dayNo...literally...it was BLOODY hot. ~40 degrees celcius in the shade. WELL over 55 degrees in the sun. And just to top it off, dry westerly winds... Oh and dont forget the part about me being out of the office all day. Couldnt have picked a worse day for it.Ah well such is life... The Silvias getting closer and closer. Ive been doing little things that have been concerning me. One major thing for example was the sump. It had a couple of dents in it in places. My concern was that one of these dents had contacted the oil pump pickup and possibly cut the amount of oil able to be picked up by the pump. So I go to take the sump off. All the bolts come out fine. I expected the sump to come off fairly easy. Wrong. The guy who built my engine used a silicone sealant which tends to stick stuff together rather well. Too well. I tried tapping the sump off and a few other things. I looked up the net and found that there was special solvents that can remove the silicone. But will it remove it while the two surfaces are connected? I bought some but I wasnt game enough to use it around the alloy block, not to mention the fact that it strips paint in LESS THAN 5 SECONDS! I ended up getting it off by using the swaybar as a leverage point and using a screw driver on the lip of the sump. I cleaned it up and stripped the paint off the inside of the sump (seriously who paints the inside of a sump?). Had a good look up inside the engine, couldnt see alot (some baffling in the way) but what I could see was shiny and clean...good! I still need to get someone to do the wiring. I might consider doing it myself but I'll have to have a look at what needs to be done again. Might connect the tailshaft back up this weekend, might get some oil for the gearbox too . I guess time will tell. Sun, Jan 15 2006 15:15:48 It worksSo it seems! I should make a better blog entry...Mon, Nov 21 2005 18:10:36 |