My 1st drift practice - CA18DET powered!

Discuss topics related to the CA18DE and CA18DET series engines.
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Hello all:

Long time no posting! Hope everyone is doing great, and have their CA18 projects progressing as planned.

Just wanted to share my experience doing my 1st ever drift practice in my CA18det powered S13. It was a long struggle to get the local race track to let us do some practices in it, but after some of us got together we only had to cover the ambulance fee to get the track on a Wednesday.

My S13 has been through a lot of mild upgrades, 2 rebuilds and some neglect periods, but I'm so happy it behaved properly on the 20+ runs I did on the short layout we had. Here are a couple of videos.







Next upgrades are a bucket seat, oil cooler for the powersteering system and strut/tower bars to stiffen the chassis. Can't wait for the next one.

Cheers!


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centralcoaster33
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What fun! I'm glad you got a track to support you. It will be easier next time I think now that you have been through their process to rent the track. Does your power steering overheat or get all foamy so you need a cooler?

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Power steering Fluid was spilling from the reservoir, so I need to put a sock on it next time; glad it is relocated next to the clutch master area, so not much harm

After some runs, rack felt sluggish and got very noisy. After letting it cool and pouring a bit of new fluid in, it got back functioning properly.

Not sure if there is such thing as high performance powersteering fluid, or if red ATF is something I could use in a 240sx PS system.

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centralcoaster33
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Oh, yes indeed! ATF is the fluid to use. Not any of the "Power Steering Fluid" from the parts store. Flush your system and put in ATF. See if that fixes your issues and you won't have to buy a cooler or whatever. It is written somewhere, but I forget where. You can search and find it, but believe me, you want ATF. I switched mine years ago. If you get strawberry shake after switching to ATF, then maybe you'll need a cooler, or to find an air leak in the system.

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centralcoaster33
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Okay, it says it in the Factory service manual, steering chapter or maintenance chapter. Use a Dexron type. Newer FSM says Dexron 2 I think. I couldn't get the one for 1993 to open today (slow internets).

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Thanks for the info! Will switch to ATF asap!

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float_6969
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Sounds good and looks like it was a lot of fun!

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:chuckle: yeah, it was a lot of fun. Can't wait to install my bucket seat.

Installed a power steering cooler today. Since my car came with side mounted intercooler, I placed it on the left side below the head lamp for some good airflow.

https://flic.kr/p/XJTktP

As we were flushing the old ps fluid to put new atf in, It was very impressive how hot the new cooler got just by moving the steering wheel from one side to the other. I'm glad I decided to do this mod.

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Proper link to the oil cooler picture:
Image

And some videos of the 2nd practice we did this week:











Loving my CA! I must say all was well worth it.

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float_6969
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Did the cooler fix your PS overheating issues?

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Yeah, beat the crap out of it the last drift session, not a single complaint from the steering rack.

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float_6969
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Great! glad to hear the cooler sorted the issue out!

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Looks like a really fun track! Nice wide track for plenty of room to learn and practice throwing the car into the corner. Looks like tons more fun that the boring speedways we have here in Ohio

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3rd drift session at our local track. Very fun stuff. New tires needed. :biggrin: :gapteeth:

Best run of the day:

dash
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I only c a box. How come I c no video ?

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float_6969
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Works for me...

dash
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works in chrome. Gotta play around with settings in explorer

good to c a healthy ca18 at work. Fun

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Outside view of that day.




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4th practice yesterday. New suspension setup and several upgrades to the steering rack. Car was great, with probably over 40 runs during the day. Enjoy the pics and video.

Image

Image

Image


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Edited video with more footage:


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float_6969
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:bigthumb:

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Some more videos from that day, can't wait to go again.






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And yet more videos. 5th practice went great!



float, Dee, or anyone else, do you have one #3 part available I could buy from you? I want to fix my A/C.
Image

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centralcoaster33
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Looks like more fun has been had!

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All of mine are broken :/

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No worries, I'll keep looking for it.

Onboard video:


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dash
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Looks like you're out there luvin yourself :chuckle:
and several upgrades to the steering rack
What sorta 'upgrades'.... other than bushings and a cooler ?
I'd like quicker steering.... I'm thinkin I'll have to get the stock knuckles shortened

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I've done a lot of mods little by little, trying to avoid doing it all at once, focusing on seat time and improving my skills along the way, as I also try to understand how mods changed the car behavior.

If I recall correctly my front suspension/steering mods were in the following order:
- Megan Racing coils, Energy bushings and ST sway bar installed several years ago. I've only been drifting since september 2017
- Powersteering cooler mentioned above
- Cusco strut bar
- Steering rack spacers (larger bolt-on spacer on passenger side) for a little more angle
- Steering rack bushings
- Steering shaft solid bushing
- Proper alignment, -2.8deg front camber and -0.05deg front toe (out)
- Slightly softer compound tires, Dunlops Sport Maxx instead of the chinese brands I wear on the rear.

That's about it for what you see on the videos so far.

I'm also looking for faster steering, and I've been told to go for adjustable Tension rods and increase Caster in order to achieve this. So the next things that I will be installing are:
- ISR PRO tension rods
- GKTech roll center correction kit, in order to increase front track width, add camber and gain a little more angle
- Mod cross member to move the rack forward and prevent any over centering.

Don't plan to do any knuckle mods in the near future.

Cheers!

dash
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steadily making increment improvements towards your goal.... you're doing a fine job


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