Cold is your friend!

One of the most important aspects of any race car is keeping all that energy under a constant and controlled temperature. Even with a large radiator, inter cooler, oil coolers and good room around working components of a race car sometimes you need a little more assistance!

I was approached last year before the 2012/13 season had begun ,by a company in Auckland, Evolution motorsports by the managing director/owner Alvin Hooi who had been watching my website and was very interested in the car and what I have achieved to date. Evolution Motorsports wanted to be a part of LJ Racing and a sponsorship arrangement was made in the form of a product called TSD, a boron nitride spray on coating which is heat dissipation cooling technology, in a can. As most people would think including myself, is that this is a product in a can so it won’t be any good at all, right?

SO! Knowing what it takes to build a car as reliable and competitive as possilble, I was very skeptical of it working even remotely well. After a few phone calls and emails plus a bit of research, I decided it was worth a try. Now I should point out at this stage I was managing to keep the car within a comfortable operating temperature or be it only just, with temperature creeping problems on hotter days I was facing having to modify the ducting and increase radiator sizes to help promote temperature stabilization.

As it turned out I needed to go back to SpeedTech Motorsport to dyno the car after a few changes, so I used this as an opportunity in conjunction with STM and Evolution Motorsports to run a few tests on the product. With the radiator already coated and a knowledge of what the water temperature was on previous dyno runs It was a simple case of tuning the car first then doing several power runs to establish a consistent figure. This is where it became very interesting! My tuner was very interested to note that the water temperature would not go above 83deg C, every run saw the water climb to 83 and stay there, even on the last run, it is quite normal to see water temps creep up under full power runs even on well sorted race cars. Factors to consider with this result are things like air flow through the radiator given this is on a dyno so a fan has to be used to provide the air flow for what is a static car, this represents an artificial environment as a true flow of air through and around a dynamic car on track makes for different results, aspects like the ambient air temperature on the day and the time spent at full power which is not as punishing as during a 15 minute race are some of the issues not seen on a dyno. This aside and taken into account, the results showed really good control of the water cooling system and will really be tested on track, on a 30deg C ambient day, I will reveal the results I experienced later.

After the car cooled down a bit I removed and coated the inter cooler with the TSD three times then allowed it a short time to dry before re fitting ready for testing phase two.

Now you don’t often hear products in a can providing proper HP gains, it’s one of those areas people know just does not work out. I would at this stage like to point out my reputation is on the line so the results are realistic and true, it is well worth investing in TSD if you are serious about getting every gain you can without having to resort to more boost, different cams, and in general a more stressed engine.

The dyno runs with out the coating produced a consistent 481.2hp atw, with the TSD coating we saw an increase to 485.3hp atw. That’s a 4.1hp increase on a 2ltr engine running 23.8psi boost at 6226rpm with a rpm limit of 8000. It must also be mentioned that the hp power potential is limited by the ignition coils at this stage so with a coil upgrade not only would the hp increase but the TSD would aid a power increase at the same time. TSD coating not only pulled up the hp but also had a small positive effect on bringing the boost on quicker, which is what you need in a race car.

Remember this was all gained from a spray can!

Other positive ramifications to take into account besides the hp increase, is that air intake temperature is down helping decrease the chance of detonation and helping to keep the water and oil temperatures lower at the same time, giving these radiators less work to do! The same applies to all the radiators I coated. Alvin also supplied me with enough to coat the gearbox, which has always been a very big problem with burning the oil jet black after just one round of racing. This was an area that had to be sorted. after the coating but taking in to account I had increased the gearbox tunnel size in the car during the off season, fitted an oil cooler, filter and pump the drained oil came out of the box nice and golden with a slight burnt look, but after two full rounds which showed I finally had good control over the temperature. I have also fitted an oil temp gauge as a monitor and on the hottest day I have raced so far, with track temps hitting 65deg C and ambient above 30deg C the gearbox oil never went above 90deg C, this means a big win as the gearbox now has good protection from it’s lubrication. Unfortunately even with the help it did not stop the end of the cluster shaft snapping clean off right behind 5th gear on the rear of the gearbox housing separation plate resulting in a 4 speed box with no reverse. SO MUCH FOR THESE R33 det boxes being strong! That’s two I have been through now with the first one cir-cumming to synchro failure and the second a breakage plus the synchros were on the way out. Admittedly the unfortunate thing with running road boxes is that you have no control over the history of the box or how it has been treated? For all I know this could have been behind a 700hp car? Then I purchased it and with the constant power, the slick tyres, and hard suspension plus a triple clutch could have helped finish off a fatigue crack that may have already existed? I’ll never know!

Heading back to the water and oil temperatures. The above mentioned 65deg C track day, which were the hottest conditions I have raced this car in, the water temp like the dyno never once climbed above 83deg C, where as before hand I would easily expect to see it climb to 93/5 deg C on a hot day, the engine oil stayed at 85deg C and gearbox gauge needle slightly above 90deg C. The same could not be said inside the car, I think I lost half my body weight during that session, resembling a 4 ft shrivelled up dried apricot after I got out of the car.

So in conclusion, now that I have had the chance to use TSD and I know what it is capable of, I would not hesitate to use TSD in an area which I am having trouble with or even if I was racing in a production series and I could gain a few hp simply from a spray can, then you can’t go wrong. You do however need to be very careful of copies and fakes. !!!  USE ONLY TSD BRAND BORON NITRIDE  !!!!

Manfeild Rd 3

Round three saw the cars first track showing for the race season, and the first time the car finished the entire weekend with no major problems at this track. So I guess you could say a successful weekend? Well actually no! The car handled like a goat with an inner ear infection making it very hard to get it to go even remotely quick, I found I had to brake very early turn in was OK, but had to drive slow through the mid corner and be very careful with the throttle application on exit. So a huge list of changes are required for the car to get it sorted before the next round. One thing the car certainly showed me was that when I get it sorted, it is going to be a very quick car easily capable of running at the breakout times for each track. With the help of Dave Thorneycroft from TSV Suspensions a suspension fabrication and setup specialist,  I am learning an awful lot about race car setup and boy is there a lot to it and with Dave’s help during last season, just a few minor changes to the tyres I was running, the geometry and spring settings along with ride heights, the car went from NZGT to the GT2 class before I knew it, I’m talking close to 5sec a lap faster at a 1:38 sec track. this year so far while the car is quicker than last year by around two seconds at Manfeild a 1:12sec track it is down to power increase mostly as I am now running 70hp more and 400ftlbs more torque at the axles up from last seasons 413hpATW and 1400ftlbs ATA. So once the handling is at least back to last years car and the breaking ability is back I will have a car that is a joy to drive and then I can really give the competition a run for their money.

Hey Presto It’s done!

Well, it has been a long time coming but the car is nearly almost done. I have laid low with the updates lately due to the ongoing pressure of getting the car done.

Basically I  had the car race ready for the first round other than the engine tune for the new E85 fuel I will be using this season, but kept having endless troubles on the dyno, it took three tries to end up with a stable engine that was ready for racing.

As it was a new engine for the season it first needed a run in tune and then running in which was all done on the dyno, this was a time and money saver, plus the engine could be monitored the whole time to look out for any problems that may occur. This went to plan and ran in nicely.

The next phase was to tune for racing, change the oil from the Penrite running in to a standard mineral oil to help aid any more bedding in the new engine needed, I will use the synthetic latter on once all the tuning is done and after a bit of track time as well. During the first few power runs the engine seamed to be fine although the water temperature would drop rapidly after the power run was complete. now this could have been because of the E85 fuel and the new electric water pump setup, or maybe the TSD heat dissipation coating on the radiator supplied by one of LJ Racings new sponsors, Evolution Motorsports NZ, I will introduce you to this company and TSD in my next update but for now will continue to share the problem at hand.

Once the tune was nearly done Chris My tuner from STM ( SpeedTech Motorsport ) was just in the throws of doing some full power runs when all of a sudden the radiator blew it’s water out through the overflow bottle, Chris immediately went back to idle and very carefully reviewed what had happened. The engine was idling fine and the water temperature was normal, after letting the engine settle he shut it down and we discussed doing a retorque to see what effect it would have. On the next start up and power run the exact same problem occurred so we pulled the plug and went along the lines of the head gasket possibly lifting.

With the car back home I striped the head off and had to pull the first race meeting as the team new we would not make it but that’s racing and when you have a very tight time line there is not much you can do except knuckle down and fix the problem. With the head removed carefully and the gasket and block/head faces inspected thoroughly we determined that it must have just gone between the water and oil jacket, we had used a Cometic head gasket which should have been fine with the ARP 2000 head studs, no one could see where the gasket had gone and there were no signs of any failure what so ever other than a small quantity of water had contaminated the oil.

So! New head gasket this time a Tomei cleaned down block/head faces till spotless then reassembled and back to the dyno. Again Chris attempted full power runs and managed a slight tweak to the tune, the temperatures were normal and again the radiator water blew? This was demoralising and some what head scratching. I all happened under exactly the same running conditions. So the car was pulled off the dyno and back home to remove the head. This time there was no water in the  oil and the gasket has stayed put perfectly!!! It was at this stage I knew it could not be a gasket or head problem, but to make sure I had the head off Friday night and ran my engine builder late Friday to discuss the issue I was having and rushed over first thing in the morning Saturday. We quickly learned the head was in perfect condition was not soft and was dead flat. Paul from Collier Motor Engineers gave the head a light dress and a bill of good health which was a big relief.

Back home I set about re-assembling the head after a thorough look over the rest of the engine while it was apart, all looked to be in very good nick. Just as I was about to fit the head I had a sudden flash of brilliance and looked at the electric water pump, this was the one significant change to the engine I had done during the off season with the aim of having an engine that was more thermally stable and could be cooled down once the engine was shut down to help prevent heat soak problems. It was then I realised I needed to look at how the Nissan factory cooling system was designed and fully understand the design to see how it worked.

With the R32 skyline the cooling system uses a bypass thermostat to aid fast warm up on cold engine starting, once the engine is getting close to running temperature the thermostat starts opening but at the same time the bypass port starts to close off. When the engine is at full running temperature the thermostat is fully open with the bypass port not quite fully closed, this is to allow a small percentage of radiator water to re-circulate around the engine and past the temperature sensor for the ECU and cabin gauge, it is vital that the water flows only a small amount through the bypass and not the full flow as I had it set up, Basically With the electric set up you do away with the thermostat and rely on the water pump and controller to regulate the flow. What I had done wrong was because there was no restriction through the bypass port I was sending a large percentage of cooled water right back to the radiator which was stuffing up the flow around the block and head, plus with the pump before the thermostat housing I was also blowing the water through the radiator rather than the factory suck through design, this meant that the water was flowing in the wrong direction through the bypass port and across the temperature sensors. This explained why the dyno did not show any problems, as far as the ECU and gauge showed it was running fine, but the reality was the water was boiling in the back of the block I would guess from about the rear half of cylinder No: 2 getting hotter as the water headed towards cylinder No: 6 As soon as I saw this mistake I banged my head against the wall a few times then when I regained consciousness I new the easiest and quickest way to fix the problem given the limited time left till the next round was to fit a factory mechanical pump all be it a race version with last seasons reduction pulley back on and get back to the dyno for take three!

The dyno run went perfectly with no hitch and the temperatures were much more stable and a constant 85 deg C. With this sorted and a new power figure of 485hp ATW and 1800ftlbs torque at the axles up from 413hp ATW and 1400ftlbs from last year I now have a car capable of running close to the front of GT2. the only limit to getting more power now are the coils which are pretty much at their limit, plus maybe bigger injectors, for now however this is a good amount to get used to.

2ltr Power plant ready to put 485 hp down at the wheels all season

It is a good idea to keep light color schemes to help bring light in to the engine bay.

Supply tank added to increase system volume for the E85 consumption

Rear mounted up sweep exhaust to aid diffuser

Coming together

Finally the car is in the assembly stage, rather than parts all over the workshop. It is a good feeling and a feeling of much needed progress to be at this stage with only two months before the season starts.

The engine is in at the machine shop getting a health check and light recon, along with a new triple plate clutch high volume oil pump and collar mod, new rings, bearings and gasket set and back together. Hopefully I will have the engine back within the next two weeks, During that time I will modify the gearbox and re-assembly it ready to bolt on.

The aerodynamic changes have come along very well and are starting to look purposefull.

A bonus of all the aero has been a much lighter door assembly. last seasons door weight was 14.9kg complete. Each door now weighs 7.5kg complete, inc window.