It just might be the lower radiator hose collapsing..... we keep the motor spun up 5,000-7,100 rpms most of the time..... pretty much when it overs heats.......... Joe will baby it and the temps will come back down some.......... it could be so many things

It's just not acting like a head leak. The deck was cut, the heads were hand lapped, and it's the shimmed HR gaskets.

 

I know it's frustrating trying to diagnose this kind of stuff.. I go through it all the time.. Makes you want to pull your hair out.

Let the car idle, and get nice and warm. Pop the hood, and hold it at around 5-6K for about 5-10 seconds, and see if the hose distorts at all. That should help to answer that question.

If you get a chance, just run a leakdown test.. Napa has the tester if you don't have one on hand. Stuff happens.. even the most careful engine builders can sometimes overlook something, or have some freak of nature thing happen that causes a leak. Hell, I've done it a few times.. You can eliminate that possiblity and move on to the next possible culprit.

Travis

 

7 days till UTCC. We are going to improve the ducting and add back a thermostat. If I can get 1 or 2 good laps, that should be ok for now.

Here is the video from the mid-June Road Atlanta race. Ambient was about 98deg and the track surface was close to 160deg. It was brutally hot. The ECU pulls power after 210, and really pulls power after 220. I'd get barely a lap in before losing speed. This video isnt a good representation of what the car can do, but it wasnt a bad effort for our first race on the motor and new BC Racing shocks.

Enjoy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0ySWaMijO8

 

Nice video Joe! I'll be at your race next Friday at VIR. Any other Maximas want to join us?

 

come on out to the race, it'll be a good time for sure.

 

Goodluck at the next race. Make us VQ's proud.

 

It's always great to see a nissan passing a vette on a drag strip or road course

 

Oh yeah. I'll take some decent HD video for you guys. I won't be able to drive out my Maxima though.

VIR isn't far from a lot of members here. I hope some others can make it out. I'm sure it'll be a fun day.

Just so they know, be at VIR next Friday July 23rd. Racing starts at 8am!

 

shouldn't overheat now (fingers crossed) A little late night fabrication.

 

Looking at the distance between the header and the radiator, we have less than 2" of clearance. I'm sure the radiant heat doesnt help but the air behind the radiator is probably stalling.

We decided to install the radiator infront of the core support, adding about 6" of clearance. Brackets were fabbed up that sit in front of the core support adjacent to the bolts for the torque bracket. A shroud was cut out of aluminum that contours to the inner bumper. The shroud is rivited to a box frame that sits on the edges of the radiator. To make room for the lower radiator hose we cut the core support and added channel steel.

If this mother f'er doesnt keep the car cool, I dunno what will!

 

Very nice! I can't wait to check it out at VIR this Friday!

 

Great event at VIR on Friday. Even tho we were outclassed, running against Vipers, Porsches and other big motor cars, we placed very, very well. Watch us fight it out with a 700hp Ford GT, not the street legal version.

The overheating issue was solved and by the last session, Big J had tuned the VQ to where I was topping 5th and holding 6th down the back straight. We were pushing the edge of 160mph. With better aero we should see 165+ later this year.

Here we are tearing up the UTCC! Enjoy and please post some comments on youtube. Maybe Nissan Motorsports is watching Special thanks to Aaron for dropping by!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-H1QJjxBpk

 

Badass video!

 

Damn that looks fun.

 

It was nice meeting you Joe and Justin! I have a lot of awesome footage and close up pictures of the car in action. I'll be sure to get that to you as soon as possible.

After seeing Joe's car in person and seeing first hand that he's one of the best drivers on the track on any given day, I am VERY happy NWP Engineering is sponsoring your race team! Good luck in the rest of the season and let me know if you need anymore Tshirts. I hope to meet up with you guys at the track again shortly.

 

Thanks for coming out, and thanks for helping swap tires and brakes between rounds, it was hot as hell and the help was awesome.

 

No problem Justin. I always welcome people's help when I'm swapping tires and stuff at the race track. That's why I told you to put me to work as soon as I showed up. It was fun being a small part of your race team for a day. We'll have to do it again soon.

 

Here are a couple shots from the event. You can see how far forward we moved the radiator to prevent stalling bw the back of the core and the header.


And to make it almost unbearable in the car, it was pushing over a 100deg with the heat index. I was literally drenched after each session. Thankfully we had some shade.

 

Nice I like it.

 

Haha. It looks like you just got back from a dip in the pool.

 

We made a couple aero changes recently, moving to a front alumilite/dybond front splitter with full undertray, GXE front bumper for more surface area and full ducting for the radiator. The result was 12-14mph more top end at road atlanta and more stability.

Also, I added a gutted maxima intake and OBX headers and went back to the dyno today. The results are impressive. While peak only changed by 5hp, we picked up 30hp on the top. In a race car, thats massive. Anyone who races and doesnt gut the plenum is missing out. Considering we have only wiseco pistons, NWP spacers, and revup cams, the rest of the motor is essentially stock. Suffice to say I am happy with the results. Many thanks Aaron, UpRev and Z1.

Next event is next weekend at Barber Motorsports Park.



Stock Max Intake and Shorty Headers v Gutted Max Intake and OBX Headers


Final - increased to 7300rpm

 

great work, just wondering did you retune the car for the modded intake and headers before the dyno. I am guessing you did seig how the rev limiter was increased but just wanted to make sure

Also were your temps still in check on that 100degree day

 

And a 3" exhaust......... sounds pretty good

 

tuned on the dyno. So this is best tuned run last time on the dyno vs best tuned run this time.

30whp and 22ft/lbs at redline is HUGE in a racecar. That is definitely going to bring the average MPH per lap up, and probably bring the straightaway speed up 5-8mph.

 

Nice. Those are our next mods for the 3.5.

 

be on the look out for new video from Barber after the weekend

 

Ever consider the sfr manifold? I gained close to 30whp at redline also with just that mod. Also gained power downlow across the entire powerband. 5whp peak was gained aswell, and no tuning done after. Dyno was done the same day at the same dyno 3 hours or so apart.

 

 

Exciting stuff - that's the custom-made intake from SFR, right? Is your dyno comparing the SFR to a stock 3.5 UIM or is it from a SSIM intake? Do you have any photos of your installed SFM? What is the material? aluminum?

How's the driveability? and did the TB mount in the OEM location?

This is a rare piece, so lots of questions....

 

I had a stock UIM. It was a pretty straight forward install. The throttle body bolted right up with no problem. It even weighs less then half thed weight of the stock UIM. Material is aluminum. I have the prototype manifold so it isn't as pretty as the other manifolds roaming around. Driveability is great. Nothing changed except a nice growl and more power.

 

 

 

The runners and plenum are impressive. You say you bought the prototype - why? Did SFR make any production units? Is your car a 2003-03 model (I'm not familiar with under-the-hood except for 4th gen)?

This manifold would be a natural for direct-port nitrous... Hummm....

Thanks for your response and photos.

 

It was the first one made for n/a. There's was one other one made but the design was different. It was on a turbo car.

A friend of mine has the one made for forced induction and is also putting a direct port on. It looks pretty nice.

 

If you want to know more pm me. I feel bad for derailing the thread.

 

You're not derailing the thread, this is all good info. I think we have reached the limits of the motor without switching to cams. I would like to see a comparison of the SSIM to the SFM.

I doubt we'll switch to cams as our focus has shifted to correcting the roll centers and removing that gawd awful scott russell link and going with a panhard rod.

 

I have a 2005 altima se-r. Had to plug up the egr port. When my car was being dyno'd there was a guy there that tuned a few vq's. He said with a tune he could get close to 10whp peak. He really like the design of the manifold aswell. He said he was going to recommend that manifold to anyone over the ssim.

Grey: call SFR and ask for Tim. He is a great guy. You could talk to him about having the holes drilled and tapped for nitrous nozzles.

 

 

This weekend we ran hard against some Porsche GT3s and did well. Enjoy the video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmMlvJ5lGrM

 

Heck of a car, superb driving...... or to quote Dunham's Achmed the Dead Terrorist, "Holee Krap!"