Sigma of fury to get more furious (a bit)

As the Sillbeer project progresses, my daily transport is known to many as the Sigma Turbo. In actual fact it's 1984 Mitsubishi Galant Turbo. It runs basically the same engine and driveline package as the Starion, so quite a bit of information I learn of the Austarion forums is handy.

Pics of the Battle Sigma:
- Front
- Side
- Rear
- Engine 1 (note tiny turbo)
- Engine 2
- Interior

Anyway, the turbo that is currently on it - a Mitsubishi TC05-12A is very very small. In fact I think it probably came off a 1.8L Cordia Turbo. Boost response is strong between 2000-4000rpm, thereafter you may as well change gear. So I got to thinking about changing over to something a little more common. As it happened, the guy who bought my old black Silvia was upgrading his turbo and was selling the original - which I knew was still in pretty good condition. So I bought it for a good price and it is still in good condition. The turbo is a T25G - usually found on the Nissan S13 SR20DET Silvia's and 180SX. Compressor - 50 trim T3 wheel with 0.8A/R T25 diffuser Turbine - 1.77" wheel (I think the trim is 62), 0.64 A/R T25 housing. These usually support about 220hp. So it should make a nice upgrade.

Another plus about this conversion is that happened to have done some work recently for Embleton Engineering - being a new logo design and more recently a bunch of stickers. So with this in mind, I went and spoke with them, delivered the stickers and have managed to work out a contra deal to cover the cost of converting to the new turbo...woohoo!

Lets just hope nothing bad happens once I fit up the turbo - mwuahahahahaha.

Cheers
Brendan

The uber seat

Was my birthday recently, so as a present to myself (and using cash I got as presents), I bought myself a new steering wheel so I could play Gran Turismo 4 with a little more realism. The unit I got was designed to work with GT4 and is the Logitech Driving Force Pro force feedback wheel. It's a pretty nice wheel too, giving you much more realism and feel than a Dual Shock controller. While I got the wheel, I walked past this racing seat that had in store at Harvey Normans, so I bought that too to make it more real. When I got it home, I played for a few hours and soon realised the standard seat sucked ass big time, I needed about 4 cushions strategically place to get a decent position. Then I remembered that I had a couple of nice Recaro's that aren't likely to be used for quite a few weeks just yet. So I went down to C-Red with the seat frame and Recaro in hand and bribed Roy to fit the seat to the frame. With the use of 4 small ally tags and some nuts and bolts, I now have what some would believe as a very nice setup.

I tried it out on the weekend just gone, and yes it's bloody great. The seat holds you in nice and tight, and you don't get the feeling you've been sitting on a concrete slab for 6hrs.

Cheers
Brendan

Head Job

Have just had word from Roy at C-Red that the head is now back from the machinest. While there the new exhaust valve guides were fitted along with some stiffer valve springs (Tomei Type A 7500RPM limit). The camshafts being used have a 260deg duration with 11.8mm left on both intake and exhaust side. A Tomei Rocker Arm Stopper (RAS) Kit will be fitted and the head screwed on with a Tomei 1.5mm Metal Head Gasket being used as the meat filler. Will get some pics of the setup the next time I'm in at the workshop.

It's envisaged that this setup, along with the previously mentioned ported intake and exhaust ports should make use of the rest of the setup being bolted in place.

Yay, finally some movement, although it'll have to slow for a bit while I get some cash together to get the GReddy Plenum and then have the plenum and rocker cover done up in red crackle paint (as per FJ20ET style).

Cheers
Brendan

Short block complete (plus other bits)

Apologies for the delay between updates. There has been movement in the right direction, with the completion of the short block now taken place. All is nice and shiny (technical term used to describe a well built engine) with the bores looking very smoove. You'll notice the block as been sleeved, more because of the piston size than any performance enhancement. If anyone happens to know what type of forged piston these are, let me know. They're connected to Arias forged rods, all hanging onto the prepped and knife-edged crank.

Short block pics:
- Just like new
- Top
- Beautiful sleeved bores
- GTi-R Oil Pump
- Bottom
- Big-ends
- Crank cradle/girdle
- Serial

The head is also almost ready to go - these pics taken just before it went off to have the guides replaced for good measure. The intake ports have been ported and now have a nice sharp edge too. Just need to get in there and give it a nice smooth finish by hand:
- Serviced Head
- Intake Ports

Over the last few months, I have been collecting various parts ready for the assembly phase. Here are a few of them:
- HKS Stainless Steel Turbo Dump Pipe
- HKS Stainless Steel Turbo Dump Pipe
- Stainless tubular manifold (heat coated)
- Stainless tubular manifold (heat coated)
- Nismo 740cc Fuel Injectors (straight-fit)
- Sparco 90mm Deep Dish suede steering wheel
- Nissan Aero Sport ('Nismo') rear pods

Unfortunately the body hasn't gone too much further since the last update, there being a delay while we wait for a parts shipment to come in from Japan. All I have repeat is that the rear Wise wide-body guards are on.

Thanks must go to Roy, Josh, Jeff and Marc over at C-Red for their help thus far on the project. Can't wait to get the body back to see if the QF's are going to fit ; )

Cheers
Brendan