Pete's Nissan S13 Silvia - Build of the Month May 2017

 Pete's Nissan S13 Silvia Rapid Albury Wodonga

Name
Peter Ryder
Town
Albury
Car Make
Nissan
Model
S13 Silvia
Engine w/Mods
6ltr L98 Chev
Transmission
Tremec 6 Speed, Mal Wood billet steel flywheel, ACE clutch
Diff Type & Ratio
R200, 2 way locker, 3.9 ratio
Wheels & Tyres - Front
Lenso D1R, 18 x 9
Rear
Lenso D1R, 18 x 10
Brakes
Purchased and fitted a set of 356mm K-Sport rotors with 8 piston front calipers and 4 piston rear calipers
Exhaust
3” single
Aeroflow Products Used
All of the fuel system – Fuel cell, pumps, fuel rails, hose and fittings. Oil catch can, power steering reservoir and cooler, external oil filter and cooler, radiator overflow reservoir, short through gear shifter.
How long have you owned the vehicle
3 Years
Modifications

6Ltr L98 chev V8, 6 speed Tremec gearbox, ISC Coilovers, wide body kit, R34 GT-ST brakes, R33 lower control arm, S14 5 stud hubs, Nismo 2 way diff, adjustable rear toe arms, carbon fibre rear wing, Bond welded roll cage, Aeroflow fuel cell, Sikky adaptor engine mount kit c/w front anti sway bar and sump, Moroso accumulator, Bride carbon fibre race seats, hydraulic handbrake, Speedhut custom gauge set, Carbon Fibre bonnet. Extractors are modified commodore set. Cut out trans tunnel and modified, Front inner guards tubbed. Starter motor L/H side adaptor plate.

Businesses Used

Matt Webster (engine build and Dyno tune), Darcy Ewing (paint job), Dave Payne (body repair work, rear guard rolling lip), TAFE Motor Sport (corner weighting), Marshane Media, Wodonga Beaurepairs (Wheel alignments, suspension tuning), Shanes Transmissions (Diff rebuilds) Totally Exhausted (extractors), Trubody for sheet metal mods to car internals. North East Kustom (tub front inner guards)


The Car's Story

The car was originally imported from Japan by Scott Jackson about 7 years ago as a drift car; it was a dark metallic green with a bolt in roll cage. I believe it was owned by a well-known Japanese drifter. Scott campaigned in it briefly before blowing up the original engine. He then sold the car to his friend Adam Flanigan, who parted out the engine and gearbox, who then sold me the rolling chassis in 2013.

At the time Adam worked for me as our Automotive Performance Sales Rep, as did Scott Jackson as a service fitter. So I used Adams skill’s with cars to help me strip out the car and weld in a Bond roll cage kit, paint the interior of the cabin, boot and engine bay. We also fitted a Tilton 600 series overhung mount pedal box, doing away with the brake booster, this also helped to clean up the engine bay. We also fitted new fire wall bulkhead to seal off the boot.

Then we started the installation of the LS1 engine and Tremec 6 speed manual gearbox. To avoid the issues of having to move the steering rack, I bought a starter motor relocation kit to enable it to fit on the passenger side, this also helped with room for Totally Exhausted to be able to fit extractors down the driver’s side. We also cut out the top of the tunnel to make room for the gear box and to make future maintenance work easier. With the installation of the engine I used a Sikky kit out of the USA. This came with engine and gearbox mounts, swaybar and alloy sump. I had a custom drive shaft made with slip joint by Hardy Spicer. The diff was already a 2 way locker in original Silvia diff housing.

So with all the core drive line sorted we now started fitting it out with all the Aeroflow hose and fittings and accessories. Started with an Alloy fuel cell in the boot, we complimented that with a neat surge tank kit that we build with the lift pump and 044 pressure pump, reg with pressure gauge and filter all mounted on a matching powder coated base. We used all Aeroflow black fittings with black Teflon braid for the fuel lines.

The engine has been cleaned up by remote mounting the coils packs on Aeroflow mounting brackets and mounted under the dash inside the car away from the heat. This allowed us to use nice polished alloy rocker covers, which also helps highlight the Aeroflow black fuel rails. The upgraded 4”Aeroflow throttle body also looks so much nicer than the factory unit, then attached to it is Aeroflow silicon and alloy pipe that has been custom fabricated to a Aeroflow pod filter mounted in behind the bumper. Then we have wrapped the alloy pipe work in Aeroflow heat wrap to keep it cool.

The power steering is improved with the Aeroflow alloy reservoir and Aeroflow oil cooler and black braided hose and fittings. As is the engine oil system, improved with a remote mounted Aeroflow filter with washable mesh element and a Aeroflow oil cooler. We have mounted both the engine oil and power steering oil coolers together and have an Aeroflow fan pulling cooling air through both. These are mounted neatly behind the bumper on the passenger side. There is a Aeroflow oil catch can with Aeroflow breather and a Aeroflow check valve allowing it to be plumbed back into the sump, making it a completely maintenance free catch can.

Other random Aeroflow product used is silicon radiator hoses and clamps, serpentine belt tensioner, gearbox short shifter assembly, drycell battery and battery mounting kit, radiator thermo fan.

To finish of the build I put brand new red Bride fixed race seats in, fitted out with 5 point race harnesses. A hydraulic hand brake, bought on Ebay, to finish of the brakes which are R33 skyline rotors and calipers, fitted out with Brakequip braided lines throughout. The pedal box has a mechanical bias adjuster fitted as well.

One of my favorite parts of this build is the gauges; I brought them from speed hut out of the USA. From their website you can customize your own gauges with colour font size and bezel types etc, so I naturally chose orange as the color.

I have had the car painted in Rapid Orange by Darcy Ewing and the rear guards have been rolled and the fuel filler recess filled, the front guards are 40mm wide Origin Labo fiberglass, as is the rest of the body kit. Corner weighting done by TAFE Motorsport Training. Matt DeKoke has tubbed the front inner guards and painted my new front fenders. This has been to allow bigger front wheels and tyres. So I am now running ROTA, GRID R, 18 x 9.5” fronts and 18 x 10” rears.

After running with the LS1 for the first season, at the last sprint meeting of that year at Logic centre track we spun a big end bearing. We put this down to oil pressure issue, created by a slight drop in oil level exacerbated by the catch can and hard cornering. This resulted in replacing the LS1 with a L98 6ltr second hand engine that I had Websters Dyno do a complete freshen up on before we fitted it into the Silvia. Matt Webster also fitted it out with a VCM camshaft and pushrods and valve springs to give her a bit extra. On the Dyno we are putting out approximately 290Kw at the wheels. To gain an extra 30 or so Kw’s Matt says we need to up the size of our exhaust system.

To ensure we don’t have any more issues with oil pressure, we have now fitted a Moroso Accumulator to the oil system. This ensures that you maintain oil pressure even if your oil pickup momentarily runs dry. Have now run for the last year and half and now issues.

The latest upgrade, hot off the press, (to date untested), is a new set of K-Sport brakes. With 356mm rotors all round and 8 piston front calipers and 4 piston rear calipers in matching RAPID Orange of course. Hoping this will take some of the “oh shit” moments out of the track days.

Externally I have finished of the appearance with an Origin Labo Carbon GT Wing, and a Carbon Fibre bonnet and Rapid sign writing has been done by Marshane Media.

So this is now my third season racing the car in sprint racing, I have learned so much about building and racing cars. I have met a great new bunch of guys through the Albury Wodonga and District Car Club, all with a common interest. This all ties in so well with the business. Plus it allows me a great outlet from the business, a time to wind down and think about other things outside of business. To date it has given me the opportunity to race on legendary tracks such as Winton, Wakefield, Sandown and Phillip Island. My plans for the future now are to get to Sydney Motorsport Park and Bathurst. I am planning to run this year in the Cams Victorian SuperSprint Series to build on my experience behind the wheel and then intend to have a crack at the Tin-Top series at Winton next year.