It rained flowers when the music began..

Ms Skyline sings "Il dolce suono," an aria from the opera Lucia de Lammermoor. It is one of the most difficult arias because of its length, its soaring arpeggios, and the high F above high C.

They say the Devil has the best tunes. Well I don't know about old Lagartija Nick, but this angel has been keeping a little something tucked away under one of her wings.

So lets just sit back, relax, turn the volume to max and chill with your new favorite singer Ms Skyline, straight from the Jap car sub culture, enjoy her soft lows and screaming highs.

So get ready for a massive concussion of rock and roll with Ms Skyline with the MGT section accompaniment on piano.

Thanks are due on this occasion to Mark putting his head in the deafening jaws of the shark to record this moment to posterity.

Assembly is the reverse of installation - Left overs and a start up

Post after post of major works and dreamy excellence, just like the building of Lego one part slotting into the next, in almost perfect in design. 

Naturally this isn't so and there are a few items that caused some small difficulty along the way. 

MGT are not big fans of the Plazmaman inlet complaining about the restricted access once it is in place. Which could explain why the previous outfit Drift Street Imports left bolts off. One of the other things which didn't get put back on last time was the undertray. I somehow didn't think it would go back on this time either, as now have the RIPs extended sump, although Mark at MGT was messaging me the other day, saying he was cutting lumps out of it so it would fit!  

I think I will need a new turbo blanket, judging by the look of the other it appears a bit mishapen now and as I think they effectively 'bake' into place am not sure it is a reusable item. 

Below: This is the gearbox backplate. This needed some work as was 'clattering' against the new clutch. MGT thought that it seemed odd as some of the holes were elongated. However the car did start out as an Automatic and this would have been changed many moons ago.  

Below:  This is an image of the right hand boost pipe from throttle body. The clamp isn't really working there and it offers a potential for boost leaks. This pipe is being replaced. 

Below: Innovate LC-2 Wideband Sensor installed.  

If like me you ask, what exactly is a wideband? Broadly speaking there are two different types of O2 sensor available, wideband and narrowband. Both sensors have their place in tuning an engine, narrowband sensors are designed to be used in conjunction with a catalytic converter.

In brief a catalytic converter works on a saturate/starve principal where the fuel injection system saturates the converter then starves the converter, i.e. it runs rich of 14.7:1 (saturate) then lean of 14.7:1 (starve) and as such a narrowband O2 sensor only reads rich of 14.7:1 or lean of 14.7:1.

Narrowband O2 sensor are unable to determine exactly how rich or exactly how lean the engine is running making it useless for full power engine calibration (as under full power we need to run the engine much richer that 14.7:1 so we don’t melt pistons!).

A wideband O2 sensor on the other hand is designed to read a much broader spectrum of air to fuel ratios which makes it the ideal tool for engine calibration.

Below: One of the best ECU's available now. Sure there are others but this is pretty proven technology, mapped in the right hands can be highly effective and benefits from built in safety features.  

The Link G4 only comes as a circuit board and needs to utilize the original ecu case. As I had an Apexi Power FC which is still a desirable choice for upto 500 HP (so desirable) I had to dig out my old Automatic ECU (Mapped at Bells auto) which I originally had mapped to 320HP at the fly! 

Below: A picture of everything finally coming together. I could not resist this picture and sneaked it onto my Facebook page. Soon regretted it with the all the questions. People just do not understand 'art'. Although maybe I should understand the Facebook isn't private and it feels so ugly boasting. Am in this for me not the applause.  

Below: I would like to say this is the first fire up, it is actually the second (see rattling back plate). From here the next chapter starts. 

Thanks go to MGT Motorsport for the photos and constant technical explanations. 

Ms Skyline's Evil Clutches.. There can be no escape for the horses!

 The rebuild continues apace at MGT and the engine is temptingly close to installation. Apparently there are minor small complications where my attention to detail is not the same as anyone else's. I couldn't possibly comment without probably upsetting the whole world.

 Anyway. The clutch (always useful) is in. This is a Xtreme 230 mm organic sprung twin plate clutch, all the way from Australia (where huge chunks of Ms Skyline are from)

Clutch plates, The rest of the photo's show in order of installation. As a twin plate you get to see everything.. twice! But I have included all of the pictures as a fitting memorial to the new clutch that will (hopefully) not be seen again for a long time. 

A twin disc works by effectly doubling the amount of frictional area used when connecting the engine to the drivetrain, which doubles the amount of grip from the engine to the transmission (Same theory applies when people choose to use wider tires and rims, they want a bigger "contact patch" with the road). There are many ways a clutch can be designed to increase grip from the engine to the transmission, increasing the frictional area is only one them. Multi disc clutch setups are favorable (despite their high price) because they offer more grip without neccessarily increasing the clamping load of the pressure plate (which is very bad for the crankshaft).

On a regular single disc setup, the friction disc rubs on the flywheel's face, and on the pressure plate's face (two fricitional surfaces). The frictional disc itself is connected to the transmission via the input shaft, and the flywheel and pressure plate are bolted together (they are connected to the engine via the crankshaft).

On a twin disc setup, there is a center plate which rotates with the flywheel (effectly this center plate is an extension of the flywheel). You can consider this plate to be a second flywheel. Sandwiched in between the two flywheels is the first friction disc. On the other side of of this center plate, there is the second friction disc. After the the second friction disc comes the face of the pressure plate. Here is the order:

flywheel -> friction disc 1 -> center plate -> friction disc 2 -> pressure plate

This makes for a total 4 frictional faces (flywheel, two sides for the center plate, and the pressure plate). This is DOUBLE the amount of frictional surface area than a single disc setup.

To visualize how this kind of setup works, you have to keep in mind what is attached to what. There are only two rotating bodies here (think to yourself "engine speed" & "drivetrain speed"). The first body is the a splined input shaft from the transmission that is connected to the two friction discs (the friction discs spin with the transmission). The two friction discs spin together because they are both connected to the transmission's input shaft. The second body is the flywheel, center plate, and pressure plate which are all bolted to each other and spin together in unison with the engine's crankshaft. Any difference in rotational speeds between these two rotating bodies happens when the clutch pedal is depressed down (when the clutch disengaged) or if the clutch is slipping under power.

So clutch all mounted up and now time to 'insert' engine here

An engine is no good without a gear box

And below, the end of a days work.

All pictures kindly supplied from MGT Motorsport