Bakemono Nissan S15: Two Guys from Tokyo Initial D Edition - BUILD THREAD!

[KiLLeR2001]

^ No I think Singapore wins that title.

[Supra_Lover]

Hey nice build man, keep up the work

[sidewaysil80]

Originally Posted by BakemonoRicer

the purpose of the car is for it to be a sleeper. I don't exactly want people to look and instantly know that I'm running an aftermarket suspension set-up.

Not to be a dick but, why bother? It seems asinine to run a fully adjustable suspension setup yet keep it at essentially stock levels. I would have thought a set of high quality shocks/struts with matched springs would have yielded equal handling characteristics at a much cheaper price + plus it's non adjustable so you would be fine free.

but whatith thee fucketh I knoweth

[ditchs14]

Originally Posted by sidewaysil80

Not to be a dick but, why bother? It seems asinine to run a fully adjustable suspension setup yet keep it at essentially stock levels. I would have thought a set of high quality shocks/struts with matched springs would have yielded equal handling characteristics at a much cheaper price + plus it's non adjustable so you would be fine free.

but whatith thee fucketh I knoweth

just cuz its at stock height don't mean that its not beneficial. Australia is fucking terrible for modified cars. keeping a car looking stock as possible is the key to not getting pulled over every ten mins.

[Reece]

I can see why you would want stock ish ride height and coilovers. You want to look legal, yet you want the stiffness and benefits of coilovers. Plus camber and dampering is adjustable.

[sidewaysil80]

Originally Posted by Reece

I can see why you would want stock ish ride height and coilovers. You want to look legal, yet you want the stiffness and benefits of coilovers. Plus camber and dampering is adjustable.

Originally Posted by ditchs14

just cuz its at stock height don't mean that its not beneficial. Australia is fucking terrible for modified cars. keeping a car looking stock as possible is the key to not getting pulled over every ten mins.

I get that ride height isn't the only benefit, I was just pointing out a set of K&W v1's or custom valved bilsteins+swifts would yield similar if not superior improvements yet cost a lot less because your not paying for height adjustability. Not that it matters, dude has a bad ass car and his coils/arms are worth more then most zilvia members cars.

[BakemonoRicer]

Hey, thanks for the comments I appreciate all the responses.

To ditchs14 and Reece, yes you are on the money.

Sidewayssil80, I chose coilovers with height adjustability as I like the fact I will be able to lower the car for trackdays. On the street, I am all about the car being a sleeper. Plus, if you go to low the stock control arms will be below parallel and it will compromise handling, plus, our roads over here are reallyyy bad. Anyway, there is nothing more satisfying than hammering through a few corners and seeing the person behind trying to keep up, only for them to become a blip in the distance & knowing that they are thinking they just got beaten by a virtually stock S15.

So anyway, in June, I finally got around to taking the Tomei Oil Pan off. It was a bit of a hassle to take off due to its design, stock oil pan is much easier. I had it tested at two mechanics workshops and they both confirmed that a defective weld was causing the leak. I could either a) get it rewelded or b) ship it back to Tomei in Japan and prove a point. I opted for Option B.

Here is a pic of the weld causing the issue...




In July, I picked up a few parts....

CES Racing Front/Dump Pipe
Nismo Low Temp Thermostat
OEM door bump rubbers
ARK Design Turbo Timer Harness
HID Harness



ISC performance engine/gearbox mounts

[BakemonoRicer]

July update.

Below are some pictures of a brand new fully automatic HKS Turbo Timer (Type 1). This turbo timer has long been discontinued.

I choose this Turbo Timer as it has old school & era specific styling, and will look fairly stealth given its a similar colour to the under section of the dash.

This one has a whole stack of extra functions such as vehicle speed and RPM display, speeding warning level, shift light, timer (for 0-400m, 0-100kmh etc) and more.

[BakemonoRicer]

Another July Update.

At this stage, the car was still off the road as I was waiting for a reply from Tomei.

I filled in some time by spending approximately 50 man hours fully detailing the car. The only thing that is left to do is paint touch-up for stone chips and so on.

Here are the results... in these photos the car has sealant applied, I added wax a little while after.

[BakemonoRicer]

Which brings me to where I'm at now..

At the start of August, I got word from Tomei that the problem with the oil pan was their fault. They said they are very sorry & they offered to reweld it or replace the oil pan, and also compensate me with a free t-shirt and sticker....so I'm hoping that the t-shirt and sticker will be super rare.

Only problem is they don't have oil pans back in stock till September, but I've decided I'll just wait it out and have it replaced so long as they do a double check before they send it out.

A few days later, I decided I'd just reinstall the stock oil pan rather than leaving the car off the road.

On August 20th, I had ISC Performance Solid polyurethane engine/gearbox mounts installed....

Initial impressions were that the cabin really vibrates like a mofo, lots of NVH (bear in mind I still have the stock exhaust and no power mods). However, this is expected to become a little less after I've done around 10,000kms.

The full exhaust system is getting installed this Saturday. I'll keep you guys updated...

[BakemonoRicer]

Exhaust is installed....

Massssivee power and torque gain. The car is super punchy, especially around corners.

The system is a modified CES racing front/dump pipe, straight through stainless cat pipe, and a HKS silent catback.

The 2 cracks and potential problem areas in the front/dump pipe were completely tig welded, and then painted with VHT flame proof header paint. Prior to this I had fully sanded down the front/dump pipe as I had bought it used.

The cat pipe I bought was 300mm long, and was then extended another 50mm with a piece of 3 inch stainless, and then flanged up to suit. The exhaust fits perfect this way. The guy who did the exhaust work can completely build cars, and has his own 10 second Datsun SR20 drag car.

Front/dump pipe painted.



Test fit of front/dump pipe



Stainless cat pipe, tig welded with painted mild steel flanges



Car now looks hoon spec =P

[first_choice]

nice parts!

[tricky_ab]

The last I had heard from Tomei, was that there were further delays. They are now expecting the pans in mid September...

[BakemonoRicer]

I haven’t updated this thread in a fair while, but construction is still in progress.

Having a great time with the car - still using it as my daily driver and will take the car on a spirited cruise every now and then. Most of the cruises are fairly low-key and with just a few good friends.

Wisemans Ferry



Rolling shot….



Now back to the build progress - In September, I received a set of Nismo braided brake hoses and my replacement Tomei N2 Oil Pan arrived. Tomei chucked in a free T-shirt.

Nismo braided brake hoses installed and now running Project Mu G-Four 355 Dot 5.1 Brake Fluid


Tomei N2 Oil Pan replacement


In December, developed an exhaust leak because studs/nuts and bolts had rattled themselves loose. It sounded like I was driving an NA. Thus, I took the front/dump pipe off (which was held on by 1 bolt and was sitting on two studs lol). I had some stainless thread cut to length to use as studs, fitted a genuine Nissan turbo gasket… and fitted everything back up.

Car is running great again =D.

[BakemonoRicer]

I contacted Streeter on Feb.4th asking for a price on an intercooler from a very well-known company. Hint - their intercoolers have been used on Super GT race cars. I went to the website and found out (thanks to a Japanese friend who translated for me) that this intercooler is now discontinued and once remaining stock is sold it's game over. Talk about timing. It took a few days for the company to reply to Streeter and at this point I was a bit nervous as I had no idea if any were actually left. Got a reply around 10pm on Feb.7th advising me of the outcome…..will it be a happy ending or have I now gone down a different path? Stay tuned.

[BakemonoRicer]

Fair bit of catching up to do on this thread....

Over the past few months...

Been stockpiling parts as usual.



Nardi is very nice....350mm deep dish w/ Works Bell Short Boss + Rapfix II Kit.



Entered a track day, so took the car to a new workshop recommended by a good mate of mine. The guy there is a guru so if anyone needs a good workshop to go to shoot me a pm.

Had Nismo engine/gearbox mounts installed. The circuit sports solid engine/gearbox mounts were too brutal, and caused issues with ground clearance as they lower the engine by approx. 15-20mm. These are for sale now if anyone wants - $130 (10,000kms use). Would suit a drift/track car as lower c.o.g. & they hold everything rock solid.

Had the DBA 4000 T3 rotors, Project Mu HC+ pads and new OEM shims installed. Sweet combo for touge/track. Also got the car fully re-aligned.

As most of you know, was having some issues with the twin plate. Turns out several shortcuts were taken by the previous workshop, & my new mechanic did his best to diagnose & sort the issues. Clutch feels a lot better now, but need to sort out the drivetrain as there's way too much slop - will need to drop the subframe to install the yanack solid diff bushes, and also need to source some nismo reinforced bushes for the subframe (wasn't too keen on the idea of solid subframe bushes). Might be an idea to do some more while the subframe is out .

So anyway, threw in a fire extinguisher and took the car to SMP South. Only power upgrade is full exhaust system, and clocked a 1.12 which is semi-reasonable. Finished up the track day late afternoon and the car was still in one piece - so I was happy lol.








19/12/2014

Brand new full set of forged monoblock TE37SL's arrived. These wheels are the real deal, will need to massage the guards to fit these puppies.





04/01/2015

In other news, I went and installed a brand new BNR34 Vspec II Nur pedal setup. Makes heel & toe downshifting super easy.

The brake and clutch pad should be heated up before even attempting to fit them - I used some hot water followed by a hair dryer. It'll still take a bit of time & patience to get them on.

For the accelerator, I removed the existing assembly and replaced it with a 200SX GT accelerator arm & the NUR pedal pad. When removing the existing arm, you'll need to push a plastic bush out near the cable linkage which is easy enough - just make sure you push on the end closest to the firewall.

The shift boot is by Superior Auto Creative.

Here is a pic of the new setup.

[BakemonoRicer]

18/03/2015

Been noticing a fair bit of movement from the rear end - it's an old car so obviously there's quite a bit of wear & tear with the bushes etc. Now beefing up the rear end which should take a lot of lash out the drivetrain, though I've avoided solid subframe bushes after looking into it...

Got all the parts sorted and enlisted a trusty mechanic to do the work....setup as follows:

-Yanack Racing Solid Diff Bushes

-Nismo Subframe Bushes

-Ikeya Formula Rear Knuckle Solid Bushes

-Nismo Rear Lower Control Arms

-350Z Rear Hub seals (interchangeable with the S15 item and a far superior design).

After the rear end gets done, the car will end up back in the garage while I save some coin for the front end.

[BakemonoRicer]

21/04/2015

Car back in action... turns out I had two broken subframe bushes.

All the gear for the rear end is now fitted and the car feels fantastic.

Slight increase in noise with the solid diff bushes - but no issue as I don't mind the sound.



Teed up Nelson to roll the rear guards as it was scrub city with the new rims. No issues with the fronts so they stayed factory spec. Really wouldn't mind seeing if I could make Z-Tune lip arches work with the rear guards...



Been getting out & about as much as possible to enjoy the car, as usually it doesn't take long for it to end up sitting in the garage for months haha.

[BakemonoRicer]

25/12/2015

Couple pics of the exterior with the TE37SL's and Sunline Racing Carbon Boot.... the thing is as bloody light as a feather weighing in at 3.5kg with full factory webbing.






Off work until the 4th, so I've taken the opportunity to get cracking on the GT car....

I started off completely flushing the cooling system with distilled water. All the coolant/discharge was very clean with no contamination...

When I started removing the radiator, it was missing the air guides so I suspect it's been replaced at some point in the past. It was actually in pretty good condition aside from being caked with leaves etc.

I got to have a closer look at the front-end and it's original including all the seams, pretty damn rare for an S15.

Next up for install is the HKS drive belts and for the cooling system upgrade... I've got a Sunline Racing Radiator Breather Tank, SARD radiator hoses, and I'm tossing up whether to throw on the ARC radiator (36mm thick) or the SARD radiator (49mm thick).

[Street_raiders]

Nice part selection, where are you buying everything from if you don't mind dude? I'm from Melbourne