Way to go! 225whp! Nice improvement over before, and look at that flat torque curve! That thing must pull really nice... Interesting you ended up lowering the boost to gain timing... Now if there were only a way to turn the boost back up... Water/meth injection?

 

It does pull quite nice yes lol.

Its not a matter of just turning the boost back up at this point... the turbo is running out of its efficiency range bigtime. We tried turning it up more and it just results in hotter air which brought us to the threshold of knock/detonation using 94octane pump gas. Water/meth might allow for a slightly more gains, but the real solution for more power is a bigger turbo that isn't choking and dying by 5800rpm lol

 

You make us Forenza and Optra owners proud! I enjoyed the video and I like what you have done with your Optra! Nice work!

 

Yeah, it sounds like a bigger turbo is needed then... From what I understood in the beginning of the thread, you were sticking with the CT12B though? From what I understand, you are near the limit on what the F28 trans can take?

 

Well yes the intention two years ago when I put that turbo on was to stay with it... butttt... now that I have a proper management system... I'm tempted to go for something a little bigger again LOL ... we shall see.

As for the F28, the generally accepted reliable torque rating would be about 280lb ft ... so I still have a ways to go.

 

If you were closer I would sell you my turbo parts... Enough of them to nearly build two...

 

nice numbers! cars back up running where its happy lol. id love to see you throw a bigger turbo on and see what numbers you come up with. just remember sometimes it hard to upgrade one part without upgrading a few more lol

 

Yeah, then you would be looking at a new intercooler, bigger injectors, etc... But you could really go for big power...

 

it really depends on what HP his other components are rated for. he might not need to replace anything else

 

Finally had a chance to fabricate a bracket/holder for the new coils

Now they are nice and secure..

 

Ahh! Looks very nice. Like the harness and mount nice and clean.

 

Needing a clutch...

Sooo... My clutch is not doing so well - it seems like a spring or something has broke internally... the car can still drive but it makes a strange noise on engagement and grabs overly harsh. Granted it has had a fairly long life now in the car for ~4 years. It was purchased from Garrett/GSE Turbo - 6 puck ceramic to work with OEM "Pot" style flywheel. So I've tried contacting Garrett again to get another one, and we had some dialog back and forth in which he was going to sell me a replacement. Now he has totally dropped off the planet and isn't reachable. So I'm thinking I'll have to remove it and bring it to a local shop which specializes in customizing/rebuilding clutches.. Unless anyone has a better idea?

 

whats up!! i read your post over on the other forum and was going to reply but im already here so.... i did a search for clutches and it seems there are a few available but there over seas. i even found a dutch company that has parts for the f28 i was going to post the link for you to check out. heres the link for the dutch co. you might like to have a look
STARTSEITE / Dorfbrunnen-Garage Walter Hürlimann
they ship worldwide and have an English version of the site. there was another company but i forget the name right now maybe helix motorworks? i think the guys over at migweb had mentioned it so theyll know the name.

 

Thanks for the reply.. I actually have come across that site before... Its pretty cool because I know hardly anyone offers parts now for the F28. Altho they are super expensive...

 

yeah they seem to be up there in price. i read somewhere that maybe courtney(or one of the other big companies) has the servos for the box but not cheap either. if i come across anything else ill let you know

 

So I recently blew up the oil pump in my IS300 at the track and it took my bearings along with it... Motor will be coming apart for a full rebuild :O It's not entirely a surprise since it was an original OEM pump 12 years old and 250,000km on it lol. Also I've discovered there is a significant difference in strength between the GTE (turbo version) and GE (non turbo) pump - lesson learned for the rebuild.

That said, I'm wanting to get the Optra back on the road and I can't wait any longer for a reply from Garrett about the clutch he was going to sell me. Decided I'm going to give these local guys a shot - hopefully they can repair whatever happened to my clutch. I haven't removed the clutch/trans yet so I haven't even seen what the damage is ...

Eurodrive

 

Wow that's rough!! Sorry man. Any news in the optra trans yet? Hope they can figure something out. If not I can take another look for you

 

Ya it sucks for the IS.... doing a complete rebuild now lol.

As for the Optra.. the transmission isn't the issue - it is the clutch. I'm planning to have the clutch fixed/rebuilt from a local shop that specializes in that stuff. I still haven't got the clutch out out of the car yet.. been too busy with work and the IS.. Soon I'm hoping.

 

Hope you can get it up and running soon

 

what up? hope the car is back on the road or at least close to it. have a question for you. did you ever get the haltech emulator in and working?

 

Nope its still being stored at the moment... been working hard on the IS lol.

As for that emulator, no I haven't spent the time to wire it in and test - maybe over this winter tho.

 

Finnnnnnallly had some time to take the clutch out and investigate... Car has been sitting for quite some time due to clutch issue. The ceramic pads have worn down to the rivets and that's what was causing the strange engagement and noise. Also scored up the pressure plate and flywheel..

Clutch & flywheel are being sent out to a local shop which does rebuilds/machining... If Garrett was still around I would have just bought a new one lol

 

Clutch and F28 Transmission refreshed!

Got the clutch back - everything looks pretty good. They machined down the friction surface of the pressure plate and then shimmed it to keep the clearances the same. Disc has a new hub (apparently the splines were slightly worn) and also new ceramic pads. Flywheel has been machined to match again.

While I have been waiting on the clutch, I took the opportunity to clean/re-fresh the linkages and the appearance of the F28 gearbox + custom mount. They were all very corroded and oily/dirty after 7 years of service.

Tranmission is now installed back in the car and the clutch seems to work (tested on the hoist). Now to finish up with the rest of the maintenance...

 

Looking good

 

glad they were able to get the job done. trans looks brand new! mines in the shop now. a piece broke off an intake or exhaust valve, forget which. luckily I pretty much have all the parts for the rebuild/upgrade so cant wait to get it back

 

A Sleeve?! Lucky, I don't think our's are non-interference engines like my Z34 was(one guess why the Z's was).

 

Crank/Cam trigger change

With the clutch/transmission maintenance done last year, I wanted to tackle another issue I had been having. Occasionally the Haltech Sprint500 would loose track of the cam sync and cause an abrupt cut. No amount of fiddling with the settings in the software would fix this, so we decided to change the pickup to something more precise and clean for the ECU.

We used a Haltech S4 dual channel hall effect sensor and a custom machined aluminum trigger wheel with magnets. The nice part about this sensor is that it can do both crank and cam sync in one physical package. There are 4 magnets equally spaced 90 degrees apart for crank, and then one additional magnet to for the cam sync. So far after a dew days of driving the results seem promising!

More info about the Haltech S3/S4 sensors: Accessory Guides & Wiring | Haltech - Engine Management Systems