My new Super Turbo!

[Nakazoto]

Hello all!
I have had this diagram of the Super Turbo operation (pictured below) floating around on my hard drive since I was like 15 back in the States. I then moved to Japan about 3 years ago and finally spotted a Super Turbo at a used car dealer. I took the car for a test drive but couldn't afford it at the time, so I had to pass on it. I regretted it ever since. So I kept searching and a few examples would pop up from time to time but none of them were ever as clean as the one that I test drove. Then finally it popped up again in Osaka! So I jumped on it like crazy! Which brings me to here, haha.

Picture from HD that I've had for the past 10 years (it's made it through like 35 windows reinstalls).

And here the car is!

When I took the test drive I only pushed on it slightly, I never realized how much go these little things have in them! It's an absolute blast to drive!

Unfortunately, this particular example has the infamous UFO oscillations when on Supercharger boost. I gotta find a way to fix this...

It's been repainted and looks amazing. Can't for the life of me figure out why. If it's an accident car, someone did such a good job of repairing it that I can't find a single thing wrong with it. It drives perfectly smooth and straight and feels tight as tight can be. There are some seals on the engine leaking and it needs new tires and brake pads, but other than that, the car is gorgeous!

I've read a few reviews about this car and they all complained about understeer, but the car grips well enough that in order to make it understeer on the narrow roads of Japan you'd have to be driving at ludicrous speed, and I don't have the juevos to do that, haha.

The interior is so minty fresh it makes an Altoids can want to take a shower. In other words, it looks brand new inside! There's a little bit of sun-fade on the door handles and window crank handles, but some paint will fix those so quick it's a wonder why I haven't done it yet.

The car has enough lights on the front to make the alternator cry like a little girl at night. Seriously, with all lights on, the blinker clicking and the radio going at night when idling at a stop light, the voltage gauge reads a mere 10 volts! Get moving and it bumps back up to 12 to 12.5, but man the alternator is not up to the task of power all the light coming off the front of the car, haha. Perhaps I should upgrade to a newer more capable alternator.

When I got the car I received two keys, a spare that was cut into a generic buy off the shelf at the hardware store key and some weird key with a cat on it. I gave the cat key no thought and just tossed it on my desk thinking it was someone personalized key they got at a key shop or something. I was actually really upset that I didn't get the original key. Then I was flipping through the owner's manual and stumbled across this page showing the cat key. The cat key IS the original key!

Apparently the cat's name is Asashio. It was featured in a bunch of commercials here in Japan as the unofficial mascot of the March.

And the youtube links to the above videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFI87OZxd24
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByQwKo29fZQ

The car is epically small!

Here's the car next to my impossibly small Mitsubishi and the roof line is actually slightly lower and the wheelbase is only marginally longer! Sure it's like one and a half times as wide, but still, that's tiny!

I couldn't help but get my two babies out for a quick "family" photo.

I actually went to Nissan today and ordered 500 bucks of parts. So ya, this thing is coming apart a bit for some good old maintenance work!
More to come in next post!

Cheers
David

 

[Nakazoto]

Alright, so I live pretty close to a book store here called Takahara Shouten. They have tons of great books hidden away in that place. My car had the original Owner's Manual and Service Record book in it already, so after a quick run up to Takahara, I managed to get my hands on all the Super Turbo specific service manuals!

Then I went out and bought some nice spark plugs (from a motorcycle shop to boot, haha).

But then I decided that saving money was for chumps and I went to the Nissan dealer and ordered all of this!

The first step of course is pulling that front wheel off. The adventure begins!

Before you can do anything in the engine bay the intercooler has to come out. That's like the first step to everything, including a simple spark plug change!

With the intercooler out you can see this weird resonator thing in the section of pipe that leads to the turbo. This part sees no boost and has three vacuum lines leading to it. Little would I know just how important this piece is, haha.

The three lines that run to the underside of the resonator.

My goal here was to get the valve cover off to put a new gasket on it as it was failing to keep the oil where it belongs (ie. not around my #4 spark plug, haha). This was no easy task! All those steel vacuum lines had to move out of the way. Only one of those steel lines is the water line for the turbo! So, after loosening the banjo bolt up I got closer.

The charge pipe that comes out of the turbo splits just after the valve cover with one half running straight to the bypass valve and the other half heading in between the block and the intake manifold before finally snaking down to the super charger. This pipe obviously has to come out as well.

Victory at last!

Popped all of the belts off. This thing is really hilarious, you can grab the main pulley and just turn the engine over by hand now problem, I managed to do two full revolutions like that trying to make it to TDC.

On the front of the engine, before you can get the timing belt covers off you have to take off this bracket. There's like zero room though! I was convinced that this was going to be the hardest part of the whole thing! It wasn't, but it was still a pain, haha.

Where the bracket used to live.

Timing belt off!

You can actually see the timing marks on the crank pulley and crankcase in this picture really well!

I wanted to get the water pump on but figured I'd start with something easier and went for the thermostat and housing. First new parts to go on!

Turned out I didn't need to worry as the water pump was a cinch!

Last thing for the night was to instal new cam and crank seals. This actually took three of us to accomplish, but don't be fooled, it wasn't because it was a difficult job. No, it was because prior to this, a good old bbq and some Mexican beers had suddenly appeared in my garage and none of us trusted our own judgement, so we all triple checked everything, haha. That would also be why I only remembered to take a picture of one of the new seals, haha.

Next morning, I got down there at 8 am and got back into it with renewed vigor! First thing on the list was to get the timing on and tensioned.

Then I pulled the old fuel filter out and the brown nastiness that flowed out of it was slightly disturbing. I don't think that the fuel filter had been replaced once in the last 20 years! New filter in and shiny looking!

New gasket on the valve cover!

While I was inside I started looking at the bypass valve. This thing is interesting. It naturally rests with the butterfly valve half cracked open. then vacuum and boost cause it to open to regulate supercharger boost pressure and ultimately let the turbo charger take over. It's a crazy piece of engineering.

Got a buddy of mine to make sweet love to the vacuum hose for this picture, haha.

Then I started the ever so daunting task of replacing the majority of the vacuum hoses, which was a good idea as most of them were cracked! This was the most difficult thing I've ever done on a car! My hands look like I got in a fist fight with a cougar and lost. I couldn't type on the computer for an entire day after I got done! This is just a small portion of the hoses.

One of those hoses in the picture above actually had a restricter in it (although I have no clue for what reason). So I snapped a picture of the restricter before pushing it into a new hose and installing it.

The majority of the old hoses.

With all the vacuum hoses replace I got to work on the ignition system. New cap, rotor, wires and plugs!

Turns out this was a good thing as the old rotor looked like it had seen better days!

That was all the new parts so I plugged everything back together except the motor mount, belt covers and drive belts and started her up hoping for hte best. She started and purred like a kitten, smoother than I could have hoped for. After a little happy dance and some quick revs to make sure nothing was going to suddenly explode I shut her down for final assembly.

Drive belts on and new air filter in!

Now at this point I let her warm up for a bit and then went to take her for a test drive. The main purpose of my test is to diagnose a boost fluctuation I get under supercharger boost. I was hoping my vacuum shenanigans would take care of it. What happens is under full boost the boost jumps between 9 psi and 11 psi when on supercharger boost until about 3,300 rpm then it smooths out and the turbo finally takes over. So I hop in the car after the engine is warm (and after double checking for leaks from my coolant and oil change) and take it down the road. Then I give it the beans and look at the boost gauge expecting it to hit 9 psi and then bounce back and back forth between 9 and 11 psi (I'm severely hoping it's steady as a rock). The car makes the most unbelievably sound in the world and takes off like a bat out of hell, way faster than it should be. That happened in the short time it took me to look from the road to the boost gauge it was so immediate. I glance at the boost gauge and it just bounces off of 20 psi as I'm coming out of the throttle! I give it a few more gooses regulating the boost at 15 psi (barely) and am practically puckered. I had no idea the sueprcharger could boost that hard! I obviously got some vacuum hose routing wrong. It's late and dark so I go to sleep on it. Then I think about the resonator. That thing was massive and steel and crazy looking. I just plugged the hoses back into it not paying attention to the order. After consulting my repair manuals I pull the resonator back out the next day and see that I got two hoses backwards. I notice at the same time that I actually have the third hose of the resonator and another hose on the charge pipe swapped as well. I swap em all in to the right place, hammer it back together and take it for a drive. She runs flawlessly! Still has the boost fluctuation, but that's a project for another day.

Final step was tossing the intercooler shroud back on after I hit it with some sandpaper and paint!

More to come as I get more money!
(Also, if my text seems directed towards people who know nothing of the Super Turbo, I apologize, it's a bit of a copy paste from the website I originally posted this stuff on before I knew of this site)

Cheers
David

 

[Guy]

Cheers David, Awesome post and even more awesome car. I look forward to seeing and hearing more about it (Y). Daft question, but does being being in Japan make it alot easier getting spares?

 

[whipit]

Wow, excellent write up, good to see a member all the way from the homeland. As above, how are you for spares?

 

[sr20bud]

absolute stunning car mate keep up the good work (Y)

 

[martycturbo!]

nice car and nice write-up, i saw one on my holidays when i was going from osaka to kobe, almost jumped out of the train!! seem to be pretty scarce in japan now

 

[Baz]

Absolutely gorgeous Super turbo and rare colour, great post and the work and understanding of the car is 100%, If you need any help send me a pm I have built mine from the ground up every part of the car has been addressed to make it a track weapon:grinning:

 

[Baz]

Also the boost flucuation is caused the bypass control valve or UFO As we call it, its pictured in one of your photos, its on the drivers side beside the washer jet water tank, looks like a UFO with One 6mm vac line and 3 x 3-4mm lines underneath. This is the cause on the flucuation, only way to cure this is to buy a brand new one

 

[K10 SHED]

Nice car and great pics :grinning:

 

[Nakazoto]

Thanks everyone for the replies!
Oh, and thanks for the info baz (although, to be honest, I figured that out by reading a bunch of your archived posts a few days ago, haha).

I talked to Nissan about the UFO, but they said it's been out of production for over 2 years, so practically impossible to get a new one. Which means, it's time to get our thinking caps on and make one. Surely it's not that complicated, a bike pump with a psi gauge, and some double checking of what each nipple is supposed to do and we should be able to figure out how it works internally.

As far as parts availability goes, it appears that anything Super Turbo specific is pretty much impossible to find, but anything that can be used among all K10s is still in stock for really reasonable prices! A lot of stuff caries over as well, so that's good. Although a rebuild might require some custom stuff to be fabbed up as I doubt they have pistons, headgasket, etc. in stock.

Just ordered some new door pins and bushings to fix my sagging driver door! Parts should be here day after tomorrow! Looking forward to not having to slam my door every time I want to close it, haha.

Thanks again everyone for the comments!
Hopefully we can come up with a UFO solution cause that appears to be a highly desirable part!

Cheers
David

 

[porkpie700]

Gorgeous colour (Y)
I thought replacing the vac lines on my super s was a pain, but after seeing all the lines you had to change on the ST i'll never grumble about it again lol.

 

[whipit]

If I remember correctly the UFO's can get sludged up, upside down in an oven can help to dislodge sludge... think Baz knows....


Did read of someone swapping it for a boost regulator although not sure how...

 

[Baz]

If I remember correctly the UFO's can get sludged up, upside down in an oven can help to dislodge sludge... think Baz knows....


Did read of someone swapping it for a boost regulator although not sure how...

It can work but more often than not it wil not. A boost regulator? Whats that?

 

[Daniel]

Awesome car mate, that colour is pukka, and the engine bay looks mint (Y). Can't wait to see what you have in store for her, I get the feeling this is going to be one of the best build threads on here :grinning:. Good luck (Y)

 

[Baz]

Awesome car mate, that colour is pukka, and the engine bay looks mint (Y). Can't wait to see what you have in store for her, I get the feeling this is going to be one of the best build threads on here :grinning:. Good luck (Y)

I think you could be right in saying the best st threads but at the moment its not a build thread as the engine is running

 

[whipit]

It can work but more often than not it wil not. A boost regulator? Whats that?

Boost controller then... can't find the thread. Wasn't confirmed by anyone we know though.

Does anyone have a spare broken one I can strip down and investigate... don't mind paying.

 

[Daniel]

I think you could be right in saying the best st threads but at the moment its not a build thread as the engine is running

Ok then, ST thread :laugh:. Either way, I'm looking forward to seeing how this progresses, I reckon it will be very informative as well (Y)

 

[Seb_]

This topic is full of "no joke" work. Excellent.

 

[Vitus992]

Great work David, I enjoyed reading this.

 

[Duncan]

It was oranje, but details were never posted up. I'm sure it can be sorted with some time and thought, it is just a vacuum/boost control device

 

[Baz]

Boost controller then... can't find the thread. Wasn't confirmed by anyone we know though.

Does anyone have a spare broken one I can strip down and investigate... don't mind paying.

Hmm Yeah as Duncan said it was someone on here but never showed how it was done, i'd take that with a pinch of salt to be honest. Aftermarket boost controllers only have 2 ports maybe 3 usually, the UFO has 4 connections. I had a spare but I sold it a few months back, very hard to get hold of unfortunetly. I think the rubber diaphram inside can perish.

Ok then, ST thread :laugh:. Either way, I'm looking forward to seeing how this progresses, I reckon it will be very informative as well (Y)

(Y):laugh: Definetely mate , looking forward to the updates, hopefully i'll get to rebuild my own next year

 

[Nakazoto]

Thank you guys so much for the comments!
I'm utterly in love with this little car, the more I drive it, the better it gets, haha.

On the UFO topic, this seems to be a pretty widespread issue. I've been mulling over how to fix this and I think with a little ghetto engineering (and copious use of a welder) I've got an idea. After looking at the only diagram of the guts of one I can find it appears that aside from the four inputs it's exceedingly similar to a bov. I think, with some backyard engineering on a bov to create a third small chamber below the valve (where it feeds in to the intake pipe normally) with one nipple, two nipples in the exhaust port of it, and a third nipple just below the diaphragm, we should have something that gets pretty close. This probably sounds like crazy talk at the moment, but I think with a good adjustable bov and some proper welding and effort we can start making adjustable replicas.

I'll draw some pictures and spew some more ideas on this in the near future!

Anyways, thanks again everyone for all the comments! Just picked up some new door pins and bushings from Nissan, so that's next on the fix list!

Cheers
David

 

[whipit]

Hmm Yeah as Duncan said it was someone on here but never showed how it was done, i'd take that with a pinch of salt to be honest.

Probably just replaced his charcoal canister with FPR, BOV or some rubbish.

Looking at the diagrams, bet an arrangement with a low pressure FPR with vacuum control and a one way valve may be possible. Will create another thread later.
I get how it works, just putting it into writing is going to be the challenge.

 

[Baz]

Probably just replaced his charcoal canister with FPR, BOV or some rubbish.

Looking at the diagrams, bet an arrangement with a low pressure FPR with vacuum control and a one way valve may be possible. Will create another thread later.
I get how it works, just putting it into writing is going to be the challenge.

Be great to get one tested on a car

 

[whipit]

Mines too far from completion but will see what I can knock up for JAE... the diagrams of the internals aren't much help but getting a good idea as to how it regulates.

 

[Ed]

That's why mine will be controlled electronically.

 

[Nakazoto]

Thanks everyone for the comments!

I've been really thinking about this UFO thing, and I might have come up with a workable solution. Let's see if I can get the spaghetti of thoughts in my head onto paper!

Starts with the repair manual. In Japanese, which is fine, but not overly helpful...

Ah, translated by yours truly! Much better!

Okay, now lets post up my favorite diagram again to get an idea of what each line does on the inside of the valve.

Alrighty, some explanation of the colors in relation to the repair manual.
Magenta = Line A
Yellow = Line B
Green = Line c
Red = Line D

Okay, according to the RM, when there is no pressure applied to B, air flows between C and D but not between A and D. When pressure is applied to B, air flows between A and D but not between C and D. This must mean that when the diaphragm pulls up, it blocks off Line C (green). This particular characteristic is a pain to implement. However, I think I might have a solution.

First let's look at a Greddy Type S BOV.

Alright, a couple important things to note here. Firstly, there's already a nipple on the bottom side of the diaphragm, this is good news. Second is, the overall design is very similar to the UFO. The spring is also adjustable, allowing you to fine tune when exactly it opens. Not sure what the spring pressure on it is, but if need be, the Greddy Type S can be dismantled and the springs swapped.

So here's my proposed modifications to the Greddy Type S to make a UFO.

Alright, so first things first, we eliminate the nipple we don't need and seal up the vent on the side as well as the intake charge inlet on the bottom. Then we put two nipples in the side and one more on the bottom. Line C is the hard one to deal with as it's the one that closes off when the diaphragm opens up. I figure if I can find out what pressure the diaphragm opens (bike pump anyone?) I can then buy a pressure switch and run a T off of Line C to read the pressure. Set the switch for the same pressure as the diaphragm and when it clicks on it'll hit a solenoid in between it and the BOV that essentially closes the line.

I'm sure I missed something completely, but this looks to me like it pretty accurately emulates the UFO. Best of all, I'm fairly certain I can package all of this into the same location as the UFO with little problem. What do you guys think? What am I missing?

Cheers
David

 

[Ed]

Are you not over looking the fact that your valve is probably working, its just not being damped correctly? Have you considered what may be wrong before trying to discard it? Try putting a very small restrictor with a filter on line 'b' to dampen the effect of the diaphragm. Consider what is actually happening under the conditions of mechanical oscillation and try and think what would efficiently resolve it.

 

[Nakazoto]

Haha, I should have prefaced my last post with "I was procrastinating at work and...".
I'm definitely not discarding my UFO, the car drives great aside from the oscillations. I was just merely tossing out an idea that I had at work while I was actively trying to ignore work, haha. On the topic of trying to dampen the effect of the diaphragm, Line B already has a pill like restrictor in it (from the factory I believe).

Here we go, I snapped a picture of it when I was replacing vacuum lines.

Should I double up on restrictors? What exactly causes the oscillations? Best that I can work out is, based on the characteristics of the oscillations, it has to do with the bypass valve not opening quick enough, causing a small spike in supercharger boost and then opening too far to compensate for it. However, since the turbocharger isn't producing boost yet it doesn't maintain enough positive pressure on the under side of the diaphragm to keep the diaphragm open and it starts to close the bypass valve, dropping boost down. Then it opens the valve again to bring in more boost, repeating the process over and over again. This would also explain why above 3000 rpm the oscillations start to smooth out before the turbo takes over.

Another restirctor would help keep positive pressure on the under side of the diaphragm, helping to keep it open and maybe smooth out the oscillations, but wouldn't it also cause the pressure on the under side of the diaphragm to build slower, possibly giving a larger spike in supercharger boost pressure (and maybe even ultimately exasperating the problem)?

Sorry, I suddenly hit you with a game of 20 questions, haha. I just want to reiterate, I'm not trying to suggest that anybody do the BOV modification I outlined above, I'm merely trying to bounce ideas off of fellow members. Hopefully then we can all get a better, stronger grasp of what is causing these oscillations and then, as a group, I'm certain we can come up with a cost effective solution (as this seems to be a problem that plagues more than just myself)!

But, it was just a thought, if my crazy brainstorming and hand drawn pictures aren't welcome, I apologize and will try to keep my brain spaghetti to myself in the future.

Cheers
David

 

[Baz]

David this is a great thread and your ideas are brilliant, I understand the working of the setup on the st but can not really explain it as well as you have because I just cant get the words out due to my lack of vocab .

Have you tried the oven trick with the UFO?

 

[Nakazoto]

Thanks a lot Baz!
After having seen the work you've put into your March, hearing you say some of my ideas are brilliant is quite flattering, haha.
I haven't tried the oven trick yet, as I'm not entirely too sure what temperature to bake it at. Also, a little nervous about tossing a 20 year old piece of plastic in the oven, haha.

I can't stop thinking about this UFO thing, haha (mostly I really like procrastinating at work). I tried to think of a simpler way to control it and then I started thinking how you could do most of the electronically. So I came up with this design:

It actually seems a little too simple to me, but I can't figure out what I'm missing (if anything). So the way it works is you have 2 standard vacuum solenoids, a single pole double throw relay an a pressure sensor. When the pressure swich has less than 10 psi, S1 is off blocking air from flowing between A and D and S2 is on allowing air to flow between C and D. When 10 psi hits, the relay switches poles and S1 kicks on, letting air flow between A and D and S2 turns off, blocking air from flowing between C and D. Near as I can tell this satisfies all the requirements of the UFO.

Now, what I'm worried about is getting to a point where it's constantly oscillating between say 9.5 psi and 10.5 psi. This could happen because the change is so immediate, it would see 10+ psi, crack open and the bypass valve would scream open at full blast, causing boost pressure to fall off. It would drop to 9.5 psi and snap the bypass valve closed, causing it to rip the boost up again. The reason I think that a (good) UFO doesn't do this is because the progression between off and on in a diaphragm system is much smoother and a diaphragm has the capability of finding an equilibrium. Which makes me think I need to rework my BOV idea a bit to eliminate the pressure switch as this would just cause the same problem.

Although I may be entirely off on how precise control of the bypass valve works and the solenoid idea may do the trick. I'll keep brainstorming ideas!

Thanks again Baz!

Cheers
David

 

[Seb_]

You have a new pm supatubo sama!

 

[Ed]

Nakazoto, only thing you are missing is that the turbo assists the supercharger even when by itself it has not reached boost threshold yet.

So at say 3500 rpm the turbo may be producing half a bar, that means that the supercharger only needs to assist with the rest, thus its workload is reduced.

Don't forget that the supercharger increases exhaust gasses which in turn make the turbo spool sooner.

You can see this working if you put two boost gauges on the car one after the turbo and another after the supercharger.In the most simplistic form your trying to get a smooth transition from SC to Turbo, this can only happen when the turbo is self sufficient.

The trouble is there are many variables to this. The electric solenoid on the bypass valve for example is there to allow air to bypass the supercharger at idle and all light throttle loads where the demand for the supercharger is not met, this increases engine efficiency reduces wear etc on the supercharger (since it wont be spinning). This is also assisted with the vacuum tank which under these conditions will hold open the actuator, and thus butterfly valve on the bypass control valve.

The whole point of Nissans system is to allow a progressive transition from one to the other. The other interesting thing is how the ecu defines load since its only inputs to control the solenoids are throttle position and airflow. Its interesting to note that the ecu and electronics actually have no idea of boost level at all.

Ed

 

[Nakazoto]

Alrighty, I'm finally getting time to do an update!
My co-worker quit his job and all of his responsibilities got stacked onto my desk. Needless to say, overtime and I have become best friends, haha. At any rate, I've slowly been working on an intercooler and radiator water sprayer. My goal was to keep it as incognito as possible though. I also didn't want it to just spray as much as it can for as long as it can, so I came up with an idea. It involved drawing pictures on paper... I love drawing, haha.

For those of you who aren't mega geeks like me, this is a 555 timer IC based circuit for controlling the length of time the intercooler sprayer sprays. Way it works is, when you have the master switch on and you hit full throttle, the IC starts counting, it runs for 2 seconds on, then 2 seconds off. It continues this cycle until you let off the throttle. I also wanted an override switch so I could switch it on without hitting full throttle, like right before I know I'm going to mash the pedal on a hot day.

Now I can make tons of excuses for wanting an intercooler sprayer (it gets hot in Nagoya, I want to pull the most efficiency out of my factory intercooler, I like wasting water, etc.) but the simple fact of the matter is, I like building stuff. So useful or not doesn't really bother me. I wanted to see if I could build it, make it work right and keep it nearly invisible.

So I bought some parts and it was on like Donkey Kong!

After inhaling much smoke from the solder, this is what I ended up with. Things to note, I originally had a potentiometer planned, but I pulled it out and ran with a resistor to make sure everything was working right. I eventually reverted back to the potentiometer so I could adjust the amount of time on and off.

A whole lot of ghetto wiring! Also, full throttle switch, master switch, override switch and potentiometer back in place on the board.

Alright, testing! Kicks the little light on and off at adjustable intervals with the override switch and master switch both on, just as planned.

Override switch off, but full throttle switch pressed gets the light flashing as well!

The only visual change inside the car. Ignore the green wire falling down in the back, I hadn't hooked it up fully yet, haha.

Full throttle switch.

Board mounted to the inside of the dash, still reachable from the drivers seat so you can adjust the on off timing, but completely invisible unless you're a serious contortionist! Also to note, I used double side tape for everything as I wanted nothing permanent and no holes, so I could rip it all out in a matter of minutes if I got sick of it. Not sure if this will backfire on me and have the full throttle switch falling off. We'll see. I may upgrade to zip ties on the full throttle switch in the future.

Motor mounted.

Alright, at this point I hooked up the washer tank with a T on it and tested it out. Thing went haywire! I think the amperage load on the motor is too much for the little relay I'm using. It was crazy, just randomly flipping on and off with no rhyme or reason! I'm going to try having the little relay kick on a bigger, automotive relay and see if that fixes the issue. If not, maybe the wire I'm running to the wire got scraped somewhere and is intermittently shorting out to ground. At any rate, I didn't have time to further pursue that as my girlfriend's new car showed up!

More on that here: http://www.micra.org.uk/threads/47014-My-girlfriends-new-March!?p=486725#post486725

Thanks everyone for the comments!
Cheers
David

 

[Nakazoto]

Got some more work done on the intercooler sprayer today. I was having trouble with the draw from the washer motor being enough to pull voltage away from the controller board (since the 12 volts for the pump was being pulled from the 12 volts for the control board) causing the 555 timer to go haywire. So, I doubled up on relays, one on the inside on the control board and an automotive specific relay under the hood. This fixed the issue right as rain. The interior relay sends 12 volts to the bigger relay under the hood. The bigger relay kicks on and 12 volts direct from the battery hits the washer motor, completely isolating the washer motor load from the controller board.

My whole goal with this was to keep it as incognito as possible, and with the washer bottle in, you can't really tell its there! Everything hides nicely under the bottle.

Looking from a different angle you can see the washer motor, but since I used one from a 280ZX, it looks pretty factory.

This is my mounting for the nozzle on the hood scoop. It seems pretty solid. I'll check on it every couple days to see how well it holds up.

Ran the line, it's the clear silicone line that runs right beside the factory black washer nozzle line. Some day in the future I'll buy some proper washer nozzle hose and run that instead for an even more invisible look.

Kind of hard to see, but you can just see the nozzle through the hood scoop. Plenty of clearance between it and the intercooler and it seems to spray directly onto it.

Haven't really had a chance to test it as it's raining like crazy outside right now, and not much need for an intercooler sprayer when its cool and raining outside, haha. I reckon I'll give it a shot on a hot day after sitting in traffic and letting the intercooler heat soak a bit.

Before I shut everything down for the night, I got a picture of my buddies Evo 5 parked next to its much much older grandad, haha.

More updates to come soon!
Cheers
David

 

[Baz]

Brilliant work David(Y)

 

[oranje]

thats why i love Japan and all of Japanese people!!!! David this is a great work and as an original and long March st LOVER i thank you for all this info we've been looking for all this years! the car i imported to greece so i can make my st was like your color but unfortunately in Greece we only have left hand drive cars. it is beautiful and awesome! As for the restricter it is because you have to get the air smoothly.if you remove it you will see a difference when full throttle and the supercharger is on! consider this tweak. put a switch to activate or de activate the supercharger. for fuel consumption. if you like i will tell you which cable from the ecu to cut and put the switch!

cheers gorge

 

[oranje]

It was oranje, but details were never posted up. I'm sure it can be sorted with some time and thought, it is just a vacuum/boost control device

do you want any info by me?

 

[oranje]

Hmm Yeah as Duncan said it was someone on here but never showed how it was done, i'd take that with a pinch of salt to be honest. Aftermarket boost controllers only have 2 ports maybe 3 usually, the UFO has 4 connections. I had a spare but I sold it a few months back, very hard to get hold of unfortunetly. I think the rubber diaphram inside can perish.


(Y):laugh: Definetely mate , looking forward to the updates, hopefully i'll get to rebuild my own next year

be carefull of the how much salt you will take baz.if david wants i can send him pics of how i did it with a profec b. you are not the only one knowing stuff around here.

 

[Duncan]

share away...that's what a forum is for.

 

[oranje]

i will ask my mechanic tomorrow and tell you duncan

 

[Baz]

be carefull of the how much salt you will take baz.if david wants i can send him pics of how i did it with a profec b. you are not the only one knowing stuff around here.

Think you need a woman man.(Y)

 

[oranje]

you need a woman mate because with that face mate things are difficult... at least i know if a suspension is good and then i will sell it and much more inaccurate stuff you've said over the years about ST. anyway this is Davis's topic and i will not continue this. if you like it there is pm..mate... i told you in the past. if you like a good running ST come to Greece my mechanic...cheers Irish mate..

 

[whipit]

you need a woman mate because with that face mate things are difficult... at least i know if a suspension is good and then i will sell it and much more inaccurate stuff you've said over the years about ST. anyway this is Davis's topic and i will not continue this. if you like it there is pm..mate... i told you in the past. if you like a good running ST come to Greece my mechanic...cheers Irish mate..

All very nice, pictures and a little info on the controller would help a lot of members though.

 

[Baz]

thanks for that mate :laugh:

 

[Nakazoto]

Alright alright.
Firstly, thanks everyone for the comments!

Second, no more bickering, haha! Baz has been extremely helpful and I've learned a lot by reading his old posts. I'm also sure that Baz is fully aware that he isn't the smartest person on this board (doesn't mater who or where you are in life, there is always someone smarter, faster, crazier, etc.). Baz's car is quite crazy and Baz has been nothing but positive and helpful in all the posts I've read of his!

And Oranje, your pictures of the UFO when you took it apart have also been helpful, but I couldn't really see the guts of the UFO. What I want to know most is how the pipe routing inside works, mostly, how it cuts off flow from one pipe when the diaphragm moves.

Thanks for the comments about my car! I'm not sure putting a kill switch on the supercharger is a good idea though. My understanding is that the UFO keeps the bypass valve closed, routing all air through the supercharger until the supercharger starts to produce boost. Turning the supercharger off would force air through a non-moving supercharger until the turbo started to make enough boost to open the bypass valve. However, since all air is being forced through the non-moving supercharger exhaust energy becomes non-existent and the turbo would never happily spin up until real late in the game. Just my thinking though...

Also, new rule. No secrets in my thread, haha. If you have good information on how to solve this problem with a simple electronic boost controller, post up some photos and information and everyone will be hugely grateful. Coming in here and telling everyone you know how to fix it, but then refusing to tell us how doesn't really help anyone. So, like Duncan said, "share away, that's what a forum is for."

Alright, thanks again everyone for the comments! Also, thank you Baz for posting up so many useful threads that I have been able to dig through and read in my spare time!

Oh, before I forget, expect more on my pressure sensor switching idea. I think I've got a pressure sensor I can make work by hooking it up to a darlington pair of transistors. Should be doing something with this soon!

Cheers
David

 

[will930]

awesome work! but im sure at any time this is an improvement? so would possibly stay on the car when sold etc no?


and im a bit concerned about using the washer bottle for supply as it has detergent so surely it could make a mess or something?

 

[Nakazoto]

Alrighty!
Being MIA sucks, but mass amount of overtime that caused it all will be worth it when the money shows up, haha.

Thanks will930! Some people may be looking for a factory fresh Super Turbo when it comes time to sell, so I try to make sure every mod I make is easily reversible! Although I tested it out the other night and it pulled nice and hard through all of third, it was very nice! I didn't think I'd be able to feel a difference, but with the engine well and truly hot it made a noticeable difference in power delivery!

Like you will930, I was a little nervous about the detergent in the washer bottle, which is why I washed it out completely and filled it with normal old water, haha. It rarely gets below freezing here and during winter I won't need it so I'll just empty it out.

Alright, update time!
The front brakes looked like they were made entirely of rust, so I bought some pads, discs, shoes and brake lines for a full brake overhaul! Unfortunately, I purchased the wrong discs and the rear shoes had so much life on them it would have been a waste to replace them, haha.

After a quick trip to Nissan and a huge sum of money later, OEM brake discs!

New hotness!

New pads are endless carbon cermaic!

All on and ready to rock!

After a few quick burn in sessions I decided to do some emergency braking to see how it did. First things first, the car is a completely different beast, tires are what's letting me down now. A good set of stickies and this thing will stop damned fast! Small problem though in that the passenger rear locks first and throws the car into a very entertaining slide, haha. Found that one out the fun way! I think some new tires will remedy that though.

I also ordered a new boost gauge on Yahoo Auctions. I somehow managed to find an almost period correct Ultra boost gauge, I was so stoke and it looks absolutely fantastic!

I temporarily mounted the sensor here. I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be kept vertical and I will remedy that soon enough but for now it works like a charm.

Right at home!

More to come soon as I think I have a pretty solid idea on how to fix this boost wobble issue! Just waiting on more Yahoo Auction parts!

Thanks everyone for the comments!

Cheers
David

 

[James]

You know what makes me the most jealous... You can use Yahoo Auctions without using a damn intermediary and paying crazy costs! :laugh:

 

[Seb_]

What James said. So many March bargains on YA ...