John Dixon

Would have been fun for sure. Car should be sorted by the end of the year presuming I can find time to get it done so will def be at some track days and some of Mike's drag days next year so maybe catch up then?

Cheers, hopefully it'll be making some noise again before the year is out. Is the length on them OK too then? If so I'll def have a set off you if you stock them, or the part number if not?! Not bothered about the harness as I run a standalone system but will be great for the people with stock, those coil sub harnesses get very brittle.

Looks like the 2nd option will actually seal properly too! Nice find.

There are some UK suppliers but nobody that would do a single set :(

Nice to see another VH on here! You got any details of the 2 coilpack options. It's been concerning me on mine that if I loose a coilpack they're VH specific, that looks like a neat solution :)

Well, 3rd set have turned up and look good so far! Fingers crossed all the final measurements and weights are OK

Cheers all. It will def run again, hopefully this year (pistons, work travel allowing and Leon's availability allowing). Lots of work to do on re-fit as I've totally redesigned the oil system to solve a few overcooling issues too.

Worst is it's not just one guy, its one of the biggest custom piston companies in the USA, given this is all they do you'd think they'd get it right! To be honest it'll always be pretty clackerty due the the cam profiles, that being said they were wrong at first too - it's been a long slog. Worst is it's all the bits I had to farm out that were wrong, so bloody annoying.

Glad you like it! Sounds much better now, there were no trumpets in the air box when that was shot and was only revving to something like 5.5k. It sounds mental at 9k! There are companies like Mazworks that do kits now with mounts etc so not that expensive now I don't think ...

Yeah, its 5.2L, 12:1CR and ~8.5k rpm so plenty of power for the chassis especially with a 4.1 diff. Nowhere near the power of the big turbo cars but that was never the point. The whole idea of the car from the start was to get a nice NA engine in there, I can't stand lag / rubbish throttle response you get from turbos. With 8 48mm throttles this is almost telepathic. - - - Updated - - - Yep, even Chris is loosing his rag with them now.

Hi all, been a while since I’ve been on here. Kind of lost interest with my car being off the road really, a few had been asking about the car so … Now another 12 weeks delay because of piston manufacturer being useless!! To cut a long story short when the engine first failed we stripped it down and discovered that the first machinist had put the valve pockets in the wrong place so had some valve/piston contact hi revs, pistons scrap  Original pistons were made by wossner but they couldn’t do a new set any time soon and very expensive so went to one of the American companies, been a nightmare with almost 6 months of waiting and mess-ups! Fortunately Chris who is now building the engine is a great guy and over 30 years experience of high end motorsport engine builds, I suspect most would not have spotted these issues. Happened like this: Us: Hi, can you make me a set pf pistons like the one I sent you but with correct pockets? Them: Yes, no problem. Us: Great, when. Them: Oh, about 4 weeks. Us: OK, brilliant. At this point we cleaned up the block and heads, got replacement valves etc. then they called back. Them: You know your pistons, well we can’t make rings in that size, can you go up to 98.5mm on the bore (0.5mm up). Us: Well OK, but it’s a hassle as block has just been prepped but OK. Now took nearly 3 MONTHS to get the pistons by which time I was getting very annoyed. So now bottom end fully prepped, balanced and assembled for dummy build with oil control rings only on. Dummy build done and valve clearances, cam movement allowance checked etc. On removal for final build, the oil control rings didn’t ‘feel’ right. Turned out they were a 2.8mm ring pack and the groove was 3.0mm fortunately Chris spotted this, I wouldn’t have! So got back in touch. Us: Explained situation. Them: Ah, yes you’re right, we find matching rings for that bore size. Us: Well OK, but we changed the bore size to suit the rings! Them: Oh, right, erm let me talk to engineering. Nearly a month of constant phone calls and we get Them: Erm, we’re going to have to make a new set, will rush it through as this is all terribly embarrassing. Let me assure you I’ll personally make sure the next set are correct. Us: OK, but bottom end all balanced, you need to make them to target weight as well. Them: No problem, be with you in 2 weeks. Another 2 MONTHS passes with lots of calls then finally new set arrive but unbelievably they’re wrong too!!!! Us: Yes we received them but the groove is still wrong. Them: No sir, it’s 2.8mm. Us: Yes, but its 5mm deep for a 2.5mm ring, the ends can cross! Them: Oh, b*****s, terribly sorry etc. So still waiting for the new set! On the plus side, I now have 24 very nice paperweights!

Still on orkney so not much time to reply but: 2) That's pretty much what nissan do with the VTC too, it's on from something like TP of 8 (very low load) then back off at high rpms. Best thing to do is switch it on/off at each site on the maps and just see what works best for the engine instead of trying to guess. Bear in mind it was mapped with the cams in those positions, if you change it you will change the fuelling and timing requirements at each site also. 3)The boost control function is activated, it's open loop PWM mode, are you looking at the closed loop SP table? You don't need to EBC and it is not connected to a solenoid anyway. Did you check the sensor readings etc? The car was running and mapped with no issues, it should be absolutely fine. From memory the only issue was that past 18psi the intake temps went through the roof so it wasn't pushed past that.

Sent you the diagram tonight. Where it says "VTC Control Off PWM 1 via AuxOut 36" it means that the VTC system is connected to AuxOut36. It is all connected up and working. I used the PWM table as it enables the VTC to be turned back off at high revs as is useful if you have restrictive exhaust / turbine and get reversion. Check the Additional Maps menu, user output 1 to see the configuration. Pin 36 can only generate an on/off signal on the K3 fo 0 = OFF, anything else = ON. ON yours it's on from 1500-5500rpm.

Hi mate, won't be this month as not back home until Feb, braving the lovely Orkney weather again! Will prob be over your way not long after I get back though so will give you a shout then. Cheers

Hi, Cheers got Mark's text, never got time to be on here these days. In answer to your questions: This mapping was the first ever TT unit managed with Emerald back in October 2010, and it looks like I have a driving car, but probably not really optimized at that time: At the time it was mapped fully at emerald by Dave so should have been spot on then, not aware of any issues at the time. It may be the accel fuelling or bad sensor causing the overfuel, difficult to say with no lambda on when driving but possible. Full throttle AFR would have been ~12:1 so should not be smoking normally. 1. There is no Lambda probe connected to the management, so no chance to look at the ratios for optimizing the fuel/air mix. No, Barry didn't want to pay extra for one as he wasn't going to look at it after it was mapped. One of the stock narrowbands is connected up though so you should be able to get idle readings off that at least. 2. As a consequence, the car was black coated at the back after the 400 miles drive down home, and the mix looks very rich. Odd, def wouldn't have been mapped that rich when it was done. What was the fuel consumption like. As above, poss just too much throttle enrich, check for black smoke when initially applying throttle, also check air temp and water temp readings OK in live mapping screen. 3. The Cam Angle Sensor had synchronization problems with the original 360 holes disk, and I do not know if it was replaced with something else, but what I know is that it is not connected to the management ECU It is connected, just has a ford 36-1 pattern disk fitted instead. 4. The racelogic traction control is disconnected, supposely to avoid any influence on the mapping if tires are sliding on rolls. The question is wether this traction control uses ABS sensors to act on injectors, or if wheel sensors are installed, so that the full throttle gearchange can be activated in the management. The racelogic was disconnected for some reason although I can't remember why, most likely a dodgy connection or something causing issues on the dyno, normally the 2 systems can work together. That said, the traction control firmware for the K3 and k6 should be out soon so you could use that. You can use the full throttle shift anyway, you just need a clutch switch wired up - should be configured for AuxIn10, from memory the car was originally an auto so may not have had this. I have the wiring diagrams etc. for the car so shoot me your email and I'll send it all over for you. Nice car you got there, congrats. Cheers

HI Nick, Its JohnDixon300 -At - hotmail.co.uk Cheers

There is a company in Austrailia that does a straigh cut dog box if you want to go mad. No synchro issues ever if you can live with the noise. Will see if I can find the link when I get home

Yes, the emerald K6 http://www.emeraldm3d.com Have done 6 conversions on 300s and most are up and running fully now, have one on my V8 conversion too and used them loads in the past on 205s and stuff. Its a good ECU and gives you the benefits of a standalone that a piggy back / reprogrammed stock one just can't do. I'm familiar with megasquirt but never used it myself, have a mate that builds them and uses them a lot for autograss cars.

To be honest this looks like one of those things that will be a nightmare to get running without knowing exactly what's been done in the past. Trying to go back to basic setup may not be too realistic though as at any boost without the additional injectors etc. you may well be in trouble. The way I see it you have 2 options really. 1) Try to get what's there working then see what you have and decide where to go from there. Just getting it running though assumes that the VPC is working properly as a minimum. 2) Ditch the whole lot and fit an aftermarket system which won't require re-fitting the MAF etc. then set it up on that, if you use something like emerald you can keep the extra injectors too and just phase them in. Good luck with it, should be an interesting challenge!

Not seen that one. My next big job might well be a similar one. Plans for a 400MW array of tidal turbines again off the scottish coast.

Yeah, me too. Hopefully the new ones won't be so bad! Seems to be a fairly common thing with Skyline callipers and DS2500 pads. Even tried hi temp rubber on the back of them (as EBC supply) but that didn't help.

Will sort some out when I get back. Been doing a fair bit of stuff on it but been slow going with crazy working hours and trying to finish extension. Have now got hi-spec brakes, R33 GTR diff in NA subframe and re-designed lubrication system. New throttle bodies in the pipeline too once I get some dyno time to figure out what runner lengths I need.

If anyone is trying to get hold of me in the next few weeks then bear with me if I don't get back quickly. Been absolutely flat out on a wave power generation project for past year and finally going to commission it for the next 3 weeks or so until Xmas. Problem is it's in the orkneys so communication I belive is a bit sporadic! Link below if anyone interested http://www.flickr.com/photos/aquamarinepower/5957647939/in/photostream

Should be interesting to see when the camless engine finally becomes a reality. Not until 42v electrics at least. Koenigsegg apparently have one on the bench running. Pretty sure it had a rev range of something mad like 100-10k rpm! Will certainly take a while to map, continuously variable is bad enough!

My mistake, the V12 is I think the toyota one.