Crush a bit, lil' bit, roll it up, take a hit

Tomei Oil Pan Failure

Needless to say, I wont be running one of these any more. Although it is an easy fix, its actually quite a pointless part to upgrade on your S-chassis if you're running an oil cooler anyway.

Tomei Large Capacity Oil Pan SR20

The quality of these oil pans are nothing short of magnificent - simply a beautifully crafted piece of artwork. They can be a little fiddly to install if the installed studs (4 studs are required during install [supplied]) are not 100% perpendicular from the lower cradle of the engine as the 4 studs need to line up to the oil pan which has very small holes (ie no leeway upon mounting). 

Sway bar clearance is a little tighter than the OEM oil pan but not by very much. Coupled with Nismo engine mounts my 27mm whiteline sway bar still has plenty of gap. Clearance depends on ride height though as a lower car will bring the sway bar closer to the oil pan.

They say its +600cc but I found it added a litre of oil capacity. I usually fill up 3.5L on my redtop SR20 but after fitting the Tomei oil pan it took 4.5L to reach the top mark on the dipstick. Perhaps because I had the oil draining for nearly a whole week at the shop..

I'm not entirely convinced that the hinged doors/baffles are really necessary on SR20 oil pans. If you ever look up at the dipstick when you have the oil pan removed you'll see that the top oil level mark on the dipstick is situated well above the highest point of the oil pan: approximately an inch - meaning the oil level sits an inch above the joint of the lower engine cradle and the oil pan. In my opinion (and its just an opinion) the OEM oil pan without baffles is sufficient enough as it already has an upper oil control plate (attached to the lower engine cradle) as standard and its a very tiny oil pan to begin with. 

What you see in this photo is the aforementioned oil control plate.

Extra capacity helps to stabilise the oil temperatures but I found it only helped the tiniest bit. For example, I would hit 120*C within 5mins of running hot laps at Wakefield but with the Tomei pan it would take perhaps 6-7mins of the same sort of driving to reach the same temperatures. Its definitely no substitute for an oil cooler.

From my findings extended oil pans like Tomei/Greddy etc etc are not an entirely necessary item to have.
What is necessary are oil coolers!

Nismo Big Operating Cylinder and Braided Clutch Line Install/Review

When running metal/floating pressure plate type clutches like OS Giken and ORC - the clutch engagement is very on-off. With the factory slave cylinder you get a mid stroke engagement and also a very sudden take up.
Installing a Nismo slave cylinder slows down the clutch fork operation as the piston volume is larger than OEM. Thus, you have less fork stroke, and also softer pedal feel. The result is a much more gradual engagement of the clutch and also lowers the engagement point of the clutch (ie clutch engages earlier). Combined with the Nismo braided clutch line - when installed you have the option of deleting the factory clutch damper hoop - replacing the outlet with a bleed bolt/nipple supplied in the kit (as shown in the photo).
I haven't experienced any more vibrations in the clutch pedal than normal since removing the damper hoop - however I am running a metal clutch with very short diaphragm springs which may play a role in transmitting vibrations to the pedal. I suspect a traditional clutch system (such as OEM or Nismo Sports clutch) would transmit more vibes but that is just hearsay. Bleeding the clutch is now much easier. The hoop used to trap a lot of air and I always had to raise the front of the vehicle up to bleed the clutch system but now I can leave it level and bleed it. Worthy upgrade - recommended.

S13 Oil Pickup/Strainer upgrade

Last week I went to remove the oil pan to replace with a Tomei gated unit and to my surprise found this:

The S13 SR20 red top oil pickups have no support bracket on the strainer itself - only on the tube. While the S13/S14/S15 blacktop SR20's have a support bracket brazed on to the strainer . So I went and got the updated oil pickup from blacktop models.

It bolts straight up with no modifications required. However you need to get the oil pickup gasket as the updated version uses a metal gasket instead of the O-ring of the redtop pickup - the updated version is a much more reliable set up. I will now monitor for any change in oil pressure characteristics.

Update: Oil pressure now seems to build up a lot quicker on start-up than before. Also pressures seem to be a little more stable. Great outcome from a $50 part! Crucial! 

Silvia Brake Bias (S13 and S15 Rear Caliper Piston Size)

In the search for greater rear end brake bias: I had been informed that S15 rear calipers had bigger pistons than S13.

After purchasing a set of S15 rear calipers I got home to measure up:

38mm Piston Diameter on the S15 AND S13 rear calipers

As captioned, I found the S15 and S13 rear calipers to have the same piston size. Despite nearly everyone on Nissan Road Racing who believe that S15's have larger rear pistons - it turns out that it is nothing but a myth...

Now to figure out another way to increase rear bias... Master Cylinder?

Redline MT90 Review for S13/S14 application

I've been running Castrol VMX80 in my gearbox because that's our workshop supplier but the change to Redline MT90 has improved the shifting feel a great deal. It slots into gear much easier now and the bearing noises have decreased too. Good shit. Expensive though.

EDIT: Had a trackday running this fluid and it made a world of difference. Rolling back down the pit lane (after very hot sessions): the bearing whirr from the box running Castrol VMX80 was almost non-existent. Highly recommended.