Box of performance parts-what's worth keeping?

wilhelm101

New member
Hi all,

I bought an ST185 with an ST205 motor which was a half completed project, destined for a track car. I intend to keep it as a daily driver. I have come from air cooled motorbikes and am not too sure about modding though I have done a bit of research. The car came with a bunch of performance upgrades and I''m not sure what to sell and what's worth keeping as a spare or worthwhile upgrade.

My concern is the legality of the car is questionable now but I reckon I can get away with it in Tasmania.
Secondly I haven't put it on the Dino but seems pretty powerful as is and I don't want to compromise reliability by further upgrades as it will be my daily driver.

Currently the Car has -

3rd gen Motor
Front mount intercooler.
Garret Ball Bearing Turbo disco potato.
Slotted and vented rotors
High Volume fuel pump (Deutsche works)
Standard CPU
Heavy Duty Clutch.
Sports Coil overs (firm but comfortable enough- wound up to max height)

Parts in Box

Apexi Power FC plus and hand controller
Saard 800cc Injectors
Pressure reg and oil damped gauge.
Semi Sealed H/beams and HID xenon kit (think this will be illegal and blind people)
Rear bushes kit nolathane (already decided to keep these)
Oil pressure sender unit.

Any suggestions on what's worth keeping and why would be greatly appreciated. Bear in mind I will probably be paying a proffesssional to do any work as I am without a garage and a bit rusty. Intend to get back into it once I get another work shop though!

Cheers,
 

FC Zach

Active member
wilhelm101":3mh00501 said:
Apexi Power FC plus and hand controller
If you're not doing the tuning, I'd ask around and see what others are using because if no one near you can tune it then you are obviously limited. . IMO, there's better platforms out than this but I'm a little biased to Haltech

wilhelm101":3mh00501 said:
Shard 800cc Injectors
Not needed unless you plan to increase the power.

wilhelm101":3mh00501 said:
Semi Sealed H/beams and HID xenon kit (think this will be illegal and blind people)
Definitely get rid of these! ! Being a third shifter I do most of my driving at night and I find these obnoxious! There are DOT legal options out there that aren't the standard sealed beam like what came in our cars. For example I have Truck-Lite LEDs in mine.
 

wilhelm101

New member
Thanks FC Zac. Interested in your light set up. Is it much of a job to convert? My parts box also included a new pair of semi-sealed headlights. Not sure why the need to replace the whole unit, would these be useful for conversions later down the track?

Glad I'm not the only one who finds the xenons obnoxious, thought I might be just irritable lol.
 

f3ared

New member
Id be selling the PowerFC off and buying a different ECU mate. Plenty of people around that can tune them [at least on the main land] but they are a flawed piece of equipment. Few mates had them on their S chassis and R chassis Nissans when they were the ECU of choice - results were ordinary. They all had a myriad of issues that would crop up - best one i can remember is the car running a full point richer with the headlights on :rofl:
 

underscore

Well-known member
Other than the bushings and oil pressure sender (I assume it's an OEM one?) I'd sell all the parts in the box unless you have a desire to use any of them. As for the lights I'd be half tempted to smash them to bits, but I have a very strong dislike of aftermarket headlights. "Upgrading" the low beams or fog lights on a vehicle is a daft idea, that's what high beams are for.
 

FC Zach

Active member
wilhelm101":m582o7g2 said:
Thanks FC Zac. Interested in your light set up. Is it much of a job to convert?
Nope, direct replacement. . however because LEDs use less power than the standard halogen counterpart, these will not trip your High Beam indicator. I fixed that issue by adding a 194 bulb to each low beam to put extra load on the circuit without creating too much heat (like a resistor would). Here's a link: http://www.truck-lite.com/webapp/wc...=15554&parent_category_rn=13089&storeId=10001

wilhelm101":m582o7g2 said:
My parts box also included a new pair of semi-sealed headlights. Not sure why the need to replace the whole unit, would these be useful for conversions later down the track?
There are great halogen replacement options out there that are brighter/clearer than the OE sealed bulb. . What does it take, A H4?

wilhelm101":m582o7g2 said:
Glad I'm not the only one who finds the xenons obnoxious, thought I might be just irritable lol.
Yeah, I'll flash people because I literally can not see in front of me and then they'll do the same! ! as if the "lows" weren't bright enough, they turn on the brights too! Then there are the truck bros with the ridiculous LED light bars. .
 

wilhelm101

New member
Thanks guys.

Yep Undersocre it is a OEM pressure sender.

Yep the semi sealed takes an H4 FC Zac, which I assume is an approvement on the stock headlights. We have a lot of problems hitting wallabies and kangaroos down here so might be worth upgrading.

Thanks again people!
 

FC Zach

Active member
underscore":1h7zsvt4 said:
As for the lights I'd be half tempted to smash them to bits, but I have a very strong dislike of aftermarket headlights.
Ha Ha, that's how I feel every time I pass someone with non DOT compliant headlights! Hell, even some OE lights are too much.

wilhelm101":1h7zsvt4 said:
Yep the semi sealed takes an H4 FC Zac, which I assume is an approvement on the stock headlights.
Yeah, something like a Sylvania Silverstar but with that said, you can get better options in a sealed beam too (if that's what you'd rather stay with) but the sealed beam options are gonna cost more than a two-pack bulb replacement. . .

wilhelm101":1h7zsvt4 said:
We have a lot of problems hitting wallabies and kangaroos down here so might be worth upgrading.
:rofl:
 

Celi-GT4

New member
Sounds like you got yourself a nice ride! I would also ditch the Power FC as its more then 15 year old tech now and was always limited. I had an AEM on my track car and found it fairly easy to program. Haltech and others are great also.

Another option that I liked for track days was to run ethanol or E85 what its called here in the states. Not sure what is available down there but a 700cc injector would drop in and run like stock with that fuel here in the states. While its a pain in the ass changing rails from track to daily, that fuel runs super cool with much higher octane so you can run more boost (.5bar more) if desired.
 

diceman

New member
f3ared":3jw7uxk5 said:
They all had a myriad of issues that would crop up - best one i can remember is the car running a full point richer with the headlights on :rofl:

Interesting you mention this as a few have found the same issue with other ECUs on the 3sgte as well. It is thought that the issue is related to the vehicle wiring arrangement rather than ECU as the stock loom feeds 12V to injectors from a different location to the ECU 12V and hence whilst the ECU sees a drop in voltage due to electrical load the injectors may not (or less so). Whilst it's possible to compensate in the INJ vs Voltage fuel trim the ideal scenraio is for all componenst to see the same voltage but that requires a new loom for engine etc being built.
 

f3ared

New member
diceman":2y8is1ni said:
f3ared":2y8is1ni said:
They all had a myriad of issues that would crop up - best one i can remember is the car running a full point richer with the headlights on :rofl:

Interesting you mention this as a few have found the same issue with other ECUs on the 3sgte as well. It is thought that the issue is related to the vehicle wiring arrangement rather than ECU as the stock loom feeds 12V to injectors from a different location to the ECU 12V and hence whilst the ECU sees a drop in voltage due to electrical load the injectors may not (or less so). Whilst it's possible to compensate in the INJ vs Voltage fuel trim the ideal scenraio is for all componenst to see the same voltage but that requires a new loom for engine etc being built.

Hey mate,

You are right in a sense that it wasnt entirely the fault of the PowerFC, and it was reduced by adding an extra earth from memory - both to the ECU and the headlights themselves. I can also see how this could possibly be present in any Plug-and-play ECU or anything with an adaptor harness to plug into the OEM loom. The corrections for electrical load however were still a problem and could be erratic at times - not from a tuning point of view, but from the way the ECU itself compensates for these conditions.

Best example I can think of happens with [in particular the LT and MT series] Microtech ECU's - you set your corrections for air intake temperature, but once you save the tune file/lock the ECU the whole map shifts and a safety factor gets added to the AIT correction table, giving you more fuel and less timing than you had initially input.

Cheers

Nick-
 
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