Posted on: Tuesday, September 27th, 2011, 10:01:02pm
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Welcome to my little diary/project thread. Here are a few pictures of my cappuccino which I picked up just over a week ago. These were taken after an extensive clean which she desperately needed, and the awful rusty mudflaps were taken off. The car was cleaned inside and out, claybared, polished, and then waxed. Still a few imperfections here and there but much better than when I first clapped eyes on her. Some sort of homebrew exhaust Since these were taken I have debadged the bonnet, and painted the mesh black again as it was silver.
She has also been treated to an oil change with some nice fully synthetic oil and a genuine filter, a set of NGK spark plugs, a K&N panel filter, fitted new fuel filter which was a bit fiddly and rusted but we got there in the end. Also flushed the coolant system refilled. she seems a lot more peppy now and you can actually hear the tubby spooling, which you couldn't before. Dont think she has had much love recently as the fuel filter looked as old as the car and the spark plugs were rusty.
The oil cap seemed to be weeping out the top so I changed the oil cap for a nice simple anodised black tegiwa one. no fitted pics yet, but looks like this: I was tempted by a Suzuki sport one, but not tempted enough for the price I could find one for
Coming from an Evo as my last car (yes quite a change, but a good one ) the brakes have not instilled much confidence. I gave the car a brake bleed while changing fluid to dot 4 on the weekend, but I'm still not happy so some more upgrades for the brake system will be in the pipline.
Ah, oh yes, rust What drew me to this car was the advert saying that it had all been done, but when we got there and looked properly we found a few holes in the floor that need to be redone. Needless to say I haggled some more money off the asking price to cover it. Aparently it was only "done" a year or so ago, but will have to be done propperly this time round
Anything else? Yes actually While I was servicing the car I noticed a broken front spring and leaky dampers. Replacements ordered today. It also wouldn't be a Cap if the speedo didn't work intermittently would it? Which, with the aid of a passenger has been traced to the connector behind the seat, so I'll need to get round to that too.
Also in the pipeline are a gearbox and diff fluid change, I have the oil, but was struggling to find the fill hole for the diff so gave up until next time Also have a kmh to mph converter to fit to make motorway fast lane overtaking a bit safer
Once I'm happy with all the mechanicals of the car I will most likely look to giving the old girl a hint of aggression to her styling. Stay tuned and thanks for looking!
Last modified Tuesday, September 27th, 2011, 10:03:18pm by nikki
Posted on: Tuesday, September 27th, 2011, 10:31:08pm
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Looking forward to seeing how she progresses
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ggutnik
Posted on: Tuesday, September 27th, 2011, 11:49:03pm
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Great read! In my opinion, the front badge just looks too big/out of place on the cap, which is why mine is off as well.
Other than that, looks great, and boy do you kids have a lot of rust problems over there! I'm still amazed by that each and every time.
Did you end up getting KYB replacement shocks? Or did you go OEM?
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nikki
Posted on: Wednesday, September 28th, 2011, 11:23:58am
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Thanks for the replies
“
Quoted from ggutnik, posted Tuesday, September 27th, 2011, 11:49:03pm at here
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Did you end up getting KYB replacement shocks? Or did you go OEM?
After weighing up all the options available that I found, which basically were the KYB's and a set springs, Gab coilovers, Suzuki Sport coilovers, BC coilovers or the £4k coilys from Garage Limit I decided to go for the BC's as the were the best value for money and also appear from the pictures at least to have seperate preload and ride height adjustment, which the suzuki ones dont. When the market for cappuccino suspension is so limited compared to a "normal car" they actually make quite a bit of sense. With 30 way damping adjustment as well as the seperate ride height & preload, and the option to swap springs out for different weights I should be able to fine tune them into something I am really happy with. Add quite a comprehensive warranty and UK based aftersales and it swung it for me.
Just have to wait for them to turn up now, can't wait to get them on the car
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nikki
Posted on: Friday, September 30th, 2011, 9:39:05pm
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Little update for you all.
Few more goodies turned up the other day Magnecor KV85's which I just got fitted this evenng after work. little bit of a squeeze getting the spark plug cover back on after due to the extra lead thickness. It was a bit dark by the time they were in, so no fitted pics yet.
And this I had an Alpine 103BT in my last car, loved it and its built in bluetooth handsfree, handy USB slot, mp3 fan-dangle-ness, etc. I'm not getting on with the JVC in there at the mo, so decided to order another 103BT. Anyway a few weeks passed, still no stereo. So I contacted them to see what was going on and was told it was dispatched quite a while back. I told them that I had not recieved it yet. Thankfully they said that they would get a replacement out to me. Although, after they checked their stock and realised they had no 103's left they sent out a 125 instead, Bonus . To be fair though I have no idea what the difference is yet Looks almost exactly the same and has the all important features I wanted. I'll let you all know when I find out what the difference actually is Sadly it isn't fitted yet as I need to order one of those apline aerial adaptor doo dahs for it
Still, tomorrow I'm off to my pals garage so I'm sure I'll get a few bits done
Last modified Friday, September 30th, 2011, 9:46:25pm by nikki
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nikki
Posted on: Sunday, October 2nd, 2011, 5:49:42pm
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“
Quoted from nikki, posted Friday, September 30th, 2011, 9:39:05pm at here
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Still, tomorrow I'm off to my pals garage so I'm sure I'll get a few bits done
Ok, so I was lazy and it was hot All I ended up doing there was giving my dash a clean and fitting an unbroken dip stick and ashtray I got from Kei. Nice to meet you BTW, thanks for letting me pick your brains too
I did finally manage to get a shot of my engine bay however, Showing off the new leads and cap
Then today, I happened upon so offcuts of bride material I had laying about The majority of the graduation sections had already been used and the main bits left were all black, which I think I prefer as its a bit more subtle. So, what could I try first? Console cover! Ran outside with my screwdrivers, a bit if spray adhesive and a few choice staples later and.... Its not 100% perfect, but It'll do me and it makes a nice addition to the interior
Thanks for Looking
Last modified Sunday, October 2nd, 2011, 5:53:25pm by nikki
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lord
Posted on: Sunday, October 2nd, 2011, 10:04:55pm
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Your getting into tweaking the car to how you like it...Good start so for...
I wonder how many people read 'bride material' and thought for just a second you were cutting up a wedding dress
Drop me a PM if you would like to be added to the ClubCappo Member Map. More details can be found here. We now have an official Facebook group as well as a page! See here
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nikki
Posted on: Sunday, October 9th, 2011, 1:18:31am
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Hmm, now your giving me ideas. What about a wedding dress made of bride material?
Thanks for the comments
Today I managed to get down the garage and get a few things done. Stereo is now fitted, not greatly as the little retaining bolts were missing from the sides, but its in and working and making the crappy speakers sound better than they ever did with the old one. I also had an led interior light bulb meant for another car, but with a bit of spreading out of the terminals I got it to fit I also stripped down the brakes and gave everything a good wire brushing as well as a few other rusty components, swept quite a load of crap up afterwards. Masked the discs up for painting and decided to liven the colour of the calipers up a tad rusty bits of the discs went black One of the front calipers back together
As well as all that I also got the handbrake cables changed as they were maxed out on the adjuster and I still could not park on hills without leaving it in gear and the steering turned. Much tighter now.
Then I had a play with the dodgy speedo connector which had bady corroded terminal inside. Cleaned them up and plugged back in. I also took advantage of the door beeping thread as it was driving me mad. Cut the wire for it while retaining the headlight warning. Speaking of which, my headlights were not looking too great. One was brighter than the other, and when you flicked to high beam the one that was bright would go dim Started by cleaning the earths nearest the lights, but no change. In the end it turned out to be a dodgy fuse.
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lord
Posted on: Sunday, October 9th, 2011, 10:43:41am
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thats what you call a good days work.....
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nikki
Posted on: Tuesday, October 11th, 2011, 9:56:25pm
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More goodies! Coilovers turned up today. First things first was to strip them down and grease the threads up in preperation for our lovely UK roads. While I was there I also double checked the preload and was lucky I did. The fronts were ok at 3mm, but the rears were all over the place with one at 8mm and the other at 5mm. Now all reset to 2mm all round, and I also double checked the even-ness of the ride heights so there all ready to fit.
Will most likely need a bit of height adjustment when on, and once more once they have settled in a bit. Eagerly went to fit the fronts earlier, but the front anti roll bar links are rusted to buggery and just spining which is not allowing me to get the strut over far enough to get on the nut to split the lower arm, grrr > So I gave up and will attack again at the garage on the weekend.
Last modified Tuesday, October 11th, 2011, 10:00:29pm by nikki
You missed the important information (again) Where from and how much?
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nikki
Posted on: Tuesday, October 11th, 2011, 10:09:33pm
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“
Quoted from Andy, posted Tuesday, October 11th, 2011, 9:59:34pm at here
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You missed the important information (again) Where from and how much?
Sorry I did get them from Corby, so £669 delivered. I just quoted in the other thread thinking the link was for BC direct
That said, when the box came today it had some interesting infomation on it. At some point on its travels, I think from overseas to the UK it passed through Bren at Apex performance as it had his business address on it. I know of Bren as my boyfriend owns a 200sx and Bren is a trader on http://www.sxoc.com. Whish I knew that first as I may have gotten a better price than I did, but all I can say now is if your in the market for some, contact Apex first as it looks like they get them in and then distribute them to UK sellers.
Posted on: Tuesday, October 11th, 2011, 10:11:18pm
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Interesting.....
Drop me a PM if you would like to be added to the ClubCappo Member Map. More details can be found here. We now have an official Facebook group as well as a page! See here
Posted on: Tuesday, October 11th, 2011, 11:05:14pm
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Nice ! I'm going to buy these coilovers too, I'm curious about your feedback when you finally get to fit them
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Avar
Posted on: Wednesday, October 12th, 2011, 7:21:44am
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That suspension looks good, i think its on my purchase list now also.
Have you thought about getting canvas socks for them, to protect the threads? I've seen some coilovers have them and thought a bloody good idea after the hassle i've had with my Suzi Sport ones.
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nikki
Posted on: Saturday, October 15th, 2011, 9:58:36pm
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Yay! I went to the garage today
Firstly I got my replacement caliper off Kei fitted, thanks for that. Not sure I've seen the canvas sock things you mention, hopefully the copper grease should go some way to helping things move when needed.
Then once that one done and bled up, I could remove these Lovely condition, mmm Then the good stuff could go in A front fitted Rear Got the wheels back on then checked the ride height out. Front was looking a bit too low for my liking, still need to be able to mount the evil that is known as "the speed bump" We jacked it back up and raised the front 10mm and rechecked And the rear height Arch gap is literally milimeters with the current 185's on there It was getting a bit dark, but I managed to get a few pics to see how she sits I set the dampers to max and went for a spin, too hard. Backed it off ten clicks and went for another spin better but still a tiny bit firm so I went for another 5 softer and left it there.
I got the idle control soleoid thingy striped down and rebuilt with a rubber ring too. So no more tappy tappy on idle
Also attempted to fit the speed delimter, but I'm not 100% its working yet. Does it change the actual reading on the speedo when its working?
The drive home lovely, no boaty pitching or un-needed bouncy-ness. I could feel all the bumps in the road, but it is smooth with it. I also managed to get over the speed bumps I encountered on my travels, few larger ones to tackle yet, but so far, so good
Last modified Saturday, October 15th, 2011, 10:11:36pm by nikki
Posted on: Saturday, October 15th, 2011, 10:03:34pm
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Looks great! Hmmmmmmmm
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nikki
Posted on: Saturday, October 15th, 2011, 10:12:50pm
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Thanks
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lord
Posted on: Monday, October 17th, 2011, 10:06:44am
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That looks sexy all dark.. n low... love it ! Looks good standard.
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nikki
Posted on: Sunday, October 23rd, 2011, 4:36:19pm
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Since you last see me I have carried on softening the damping. Now around 10 from soft on the front and 7 on the rear. Being such a light car it doesnt need to be over damped, although I would say if I was going out on track I would probabbly go for about 14 clicks, but for general road use I think I getting quite close to settings I am happy with. Also had a bit of chassis scrape (gets the rust off ) on a rather large speedo bumpu Now raised it another 8mm all round. For some strange reason my 185 tyres are also 55 profile which isn't helping matters.
So this weekend I stayed at home and had a little play with minor body mods. First off: De-oranged the indicators, used a hair dryer to open gave them a quick clean inside and then heated the glue back up and they resealed well Back on the car, the right way around as the writing on them was upside down when i took them out. After that I turned my attention the the aerial, which I'm not overly keep on, so removed it and its base and refitted this in place Also note my little BC badge I added Thats it I'm now off to give her a nice wash
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kayfour
Posted on: Wednesday, October 26th, 2011, 11:24:37am
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Very cool!
Never seen that antenna before
next plans to look for some new rims?
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nikki
Posted on: Thursday, October 27th, 2011, 11:48:33am
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“
Quoted from kayfour, posted Wednesday, October 26th, 2011, 11:24:37am at here
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next plans to look for some new rims?
I have picked some wheels out that I like, but I doubt I will be getting them straight away as winter is on its way. I'll most likely stick with these through the darker months. I may quite possibly get some winter tyres for them though, I already had a few sideways moments in the rain with the tyres on there at the mo, so I'm not overly impressed with them.
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ggutnik
Posted on: Thursday, October 27th, 2011, 12:55:23pm
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wow what kind of antenna is that! seems like a straight fit?
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nikki
Posted on: Thursday, October 27th, 2011, 1:11:48pm
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Its just a universal bee sting (with a base) from a motor factors.
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nikki
Posted on: Sunday, November 6th, 2011, 12:44:18am
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Moar Changes!
I got hold a centre console insert as mine was cracked and broken. Added some bride off cut I had left over And popped it in Annoyed at the lack of clock in the cap I purchased this from ebay It comes with a cigarette lighter adapter, but I choose to cut it off and hard wired it in. It also has an inner and outer temp sensor so I routed the outer sensor to somewhere where I thought would be good for an accurate measurement. See a use for the wing vents! A quick clean of the surface and stuck it on And hidden away again
I have also noticed I have been getting a bit of a wet seat Turned out one of the seals isn't at its best on the roof, so I gave it a good clean out and cleared my drain channels. If that doesn't fix it I have go see how much Mr Suzuki wants for some new ones
Next up, got this Routed the piping though this grommet Stuck it here in a universal pod for now As I had expected, it revealed that I was only boosting to 9psi, I suspected that due to slightly leaky tubby gaskets I noticed the other day. Luckily I had one of these laying about. Intended for the Evo but I never fitted it. Stuff like that comes in handy when moving from one turbocharged car to another As you know, space is at premium in here, so it now resides in the glovebox complete with filter And the solenoid got monted here I had some red hose left over so...... Then got stuck in And then I ran out. Managed to do the majority of hoses in that size though Will have to get a bit more now to finish off. Looks like red is fast becomeing my accent colour.
Quick mess about and I got the boost back up to 11psi. I will do the tubby gaskets soon too, dont worry. More fine tuning tomorrow, but I think I will aim for something like 12psi on the low setting and 13 or maybe 13.5 on the high one with my standard ecu. Does that sound safe enough to you lot?
Thanks for looking
Last modified Sunday, November 6th, 2011, 12:46:12am by nikki
Posted on: Sunday, November 6th, 2011, 4:07:46am Attachment:whatisthis.jpg - 19.37 KB (2275 views)
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Is it a sticker???? I've never seen this before and I want one!!!
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Avar
Posted on: Sunday, November 6th, 2011, 8:23:53am
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I hada look at this while i dropped some bits off, i think Nikki said the car had been resprayed so my assumption is that it was a sticker sprayed over, it looks quite good doesn't it?
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nikki
Posted on: Sunday, November 6th, 2011, 10:32:27am
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“
Quoted from Ricou, posted Sunday, November 6th, 2011, 2:52:15am at here
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13 is safe, it's the stock boost level.
You could go to 14, but a mate and I found that it doesn't make much difference to up the boost with stock ECU.
Nice job by the way
Thanks. I thought stock boost was 11.5psi?
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Quoted from mattjohns, posted Sunday, November 6th, 2011, 4:07:46am at here
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Is it a sticker???? I've never seen this before and I want one!!!
Yes I have never seen another cap with this, its like a raised sticker that someone has put on the car, then painted the car over the top. No idea if its stock suzuki part or aftermarket but I have looked over the net for it and cant find it anywhere.
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nikki
Posted on: Saturday, November 12th, 2011, 9:11:18pm
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Back down the garage again But before I show you what I have been upto this week, I'll just run though my boost issues I'm having I have two settings on the controller one is set to 5% gain (the lowest setting) and the other 35% (the highest) both produce 11.5 psi So I did a bit of searching on the forum and found a couple of culprits to check.
Firstly though I chopped that bolt And how it looks fitted, still a bit of poke but much better than before Then turned my attention to one of the possible culprits mentioned earlier. The dump valve. I got a blanking plate made up. And fitted it along with a makeshift plug for the pipe I also bought some more red hose to finish the job I started last week Did a bit more How its looking now And the result? It feels a tiny bit better in that its not fluctuating as much now, but its still not producing the right amount of boost so it must be something else. Possibly a lazy actuator? I think I'll start a thread in technical and see if I can get to the root cause of it.
Anyway thanks for looking and I will leave you with a little photoshopped pic I was messing about with editing these pics
Last modified Saturday, November 12th, 2011, 9:16:04pm by nikki
Posted on: Saturday, November 12th, 2011, 9:37:44pm
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Who installed the boost controller ?
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nikki
Posted on: Saturday, November 12th, 2011, 10:15:48pm
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My mechanic, but he is very methodical, and this isn't the first time he has fitted this particular model either. Its been checked over by more than one person, so I'm pretty confident Its installed correctly.
That's good to know. I was just saying, because if the boost controller's valve isn't installed the correct way, it can cause the kind of issue you're having.
Btw, when you say the highest setting on your BC is 35%, it means there's no way to set it to 100% ?
Edit: Alright, nevermind, just read your post in technical section
Last modified Sunday, November 13th, 2011, 2:11:12am by Ricou
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nikki
Posted on: Sunday, December 4th, 2011, 10:11:59pm
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Time for an update!
In the end we got the boost stabilized now which is nice. Even hit fuel cut a few times along the way
I finally managed to get my car on the ramp an see how bad the rust is. Here is one of the holes to do Something similar on the other side too
My brakes were still making a scraping noise here and there, so went for a full strip down of the discs and refreshed the knuckles too. After a wire brush Zinc oxide primer They then went black but forot to get a snap
Then ripped my interior apart My electrics were still playing up and we found that the seat belt mount was chaffing the loom and a few dodgy twist and tape repairs were found and fixed. The loom was also re routed and lengthed a bit to avoid an contact problems with the belt or the seat in the future. It was all wrapped up and protected after.
Also note rust inside
Other new additions are a pair of 6x9 speakers fitted in their own little custom boxes on the rear shelf, sadly again I'm a bit low on the picture front
Oh and not literally 20 mins ago I just won an N2 and injectors off the bay!! Cant wait for that to turn up
Last modified Sunday, December 4th, 2011, 10:17:44pm by nikki
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lord
Posted on: Sunday, December 4th, 2011, 10:34:45pm
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Glad you won the N2.. you got a deal there!!!!
You have done some good work to the Cappo so far and I'm liking.
Love the idea of temp sensor too!!
Last modified Sunday, December 4th, 2011, 10:44:29pm by lord
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nikki
Posted on: Monday, December 5th, 2011, 10:07:52pm
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Was you bidding on it as well then lord?
It was a good price
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lord
Posted on: Monday, December 5th, 2011, 11:37:12pm
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Already got one lol
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nikki
Posted on: Sunday, December 11th, 2011, 12:30:52pm
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Amassed some parts for another stint at the garage
Namely N2 ECU, 295cc injectors and gaskets to do the tubby.
Another little niggle I have had recently is the inability to fill my tank fully for some reason. Some kind of air lock in the tank would stop you getting more than two thirds of a tank in there at a time. I had read on here that the filler can get a bit rusty and block up, but when we checked it it was all ok. I think the poblem lies with the breather pipe, which I believe runs back to the carbon canister, so it could be that at fault, or the metal lines have rusted away. Had more important things to do, so left that for another day and moved on.
Removed the all the gubbins. While the manifold was off I noticed that there where alot of steps and lips in the castings around the ports, so I decided to gently port match the manifold so the gaskets lined up better. Also did the head ports. While the cat was off.....it would be rude not to I also found another lip at the bottom flange of the cat too. Ground it down.
I fancied tiding up the rusty iron look to the exhaust components. I would have gone red but used it all on the brakes, although I had some VHT "silver" paint to hand so used that up Actually looks more grey than silver IMO but its tidier than rust at least
While the tubby was off I think we discovered the real reason my boost isn't as stable as I like and why I only get 9psi when run purley off the actuator 4 cracks in total, you can just make the fourth one out following the outter circle of the wastegate seal. Most likely down to previous owners not letting things cool off propperly before turning the enigne off So a matching tubby for the N2 will be coming sooner than thought.
Got it all bolted back together ready to refit. Manifold back on minus heat shield due to snapped bolts
The whole underside of my car, including any and all components apart from things I have touched, is coved in a thick layer of tar like underseal.......or rust Even things like the aluminium exhaust heat shield got it. So while it was off I gave it a dam good scrubbing and it came up like this. The rest of the exhaust system had a few blows on the welds and missing gaskets, so we did what we could for now Refitted all of it.
Then on to the injectors and ECU. Old and new next to each other. Popped in
And the results? She sounds an octave meaner now, and idles camly. strangely sounds a bit more content with herself All the engine noise now actually exits through the tail pipe, which is nice I have yet to take advantage of adjusting the boost up to its full potential, which I will most likely do later today, but she easily went off the clock on the way home All in all, I'm pleased with the days work.
Cappuccino Owners Club › Gallery › Cappo Related Album › The Whole 3.6 Yards (Moderators: )
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The Whole 3.6 Yards (currently 11417 views)
While I was servicing the car I noticed a broken front spring and leaky dampers. Replacements ordered today. It also wouldn't be a Cap if the speedo didn't work intermittently would it? Which, with the aid of a passenger has been traced to the connector behind the seat, so I'll need to get round to that too.
Also have a kmh to mph converter to fit to make motorway fast lane overtaking a bit safer 
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Male
Looking forward to seeing how she progresses 
Looks almost exactly the same and has the all important features I wanted. I'll let you all know when I find out what the difference actually is 
and it was hot 
So I gave up and will attack again at the garage on the weekend. 
Attachment: 
All in all, I'm pleased with the days work.
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