Fixing the GTR spare / blank / coin cover

 so at some point in the GTR's life it got an alarm fitted with requisite LED and rather than use the coin holder on the dash or even drilling a hole in the dash / steering cover the fitter decided to take out the coin mask from the centre console arm rest and drill a hole in that... Not even swap it with a blank but actually drill a hole right through it. I suppose either way it's unlikely I'd have got the original included but damn what place to put completely out of eye line as well.

So, started off by having the LED moved, it was but left with this

luckily I had this already sitting waiting for the moment

side by side for comparison

and finally in the car. Easiest fix done yet ha.

It's a funny old world

 So I've been fighting with a stumbling mis-fire on the old Mustang and this has been going on for about a year now :(  First off I thought it dodgy petrol but two tanks of V-Power soon disproved that. I did run a code checker with the trusty Torque Pro Android app and no stored codes. Did the MAF clean, did sparkplug change as it was original ones in there from beginning. Spark plug intervals are 100k but really 5yrs in and you think yeah time for a change. Non of this fixed this issue...

So finally i had a look round and realised I could use Forscan for free if all i wanted to do was read stuff from the car and reset error codes. Got myself a cable and downloaded the windows progam and boom there was the fault P0024. Cam timing issue, bank 2 exhaust cam over advanced. Cue much messed around with Ford who did zero diagnostics but instead swapped the VCT solenoids about and said yeah that's it. Um no, it wasn't as the code was still there and i could hear and feel the same issue as before. So knowing how they'd basically done hee haw digging and allegedly swapped the solenoids but how could we know... went back to another trusted and very busy garage and I bought a replacement VCT solenoid (Ford OEM no less) and actually got it swapped out. Sadly this did not fix the issue. The next stage is terrifying.

This is changing the Cam phaser / sprocket but thats inside the head. To get to one phaser you have to 

• remove both valve covers
• loosen the sump
• remove the single piece timing cover
• remove the primary chain if not both primary chains
• remove the secondary chain for the bank you need
• remove the VCT solenoid for the cam you want
• remove the cam with the issue
• replace the phaser / sprocket
• re-assemble in reverse order

Now you can see straight away there is an issue. If you have to take the timing cover off and a primary chain possibly two depending how they are setup, you have all four phasers and all four VCT solenoids siting there looking at you. You have both Primary and Secondary timing chains sitting there looking at you. You have many chain guides sitting there on the floor after you removed them to get to the above. So yeah, as much as it hurts you do it right you do it once. All the timing gear is getting swapped out and new seals for timing and valve covers plus it'll require the coolant radiator being removed to get the extra space to work on this. Kerching... Oil change as well then eh since the sump has to get dropped.

GT-R news. Well it got all new belts, all new fluids, all new brake pads (disks were fine), wheel alignment done, couple of electrical things tidied up, OEM airbox fitted and then it's rained pretty much every day since! Oh, it got MOT'd as well. No issues.

Happy days.

That old OEM oil cooler issue..Part 2

 So yeah what seems like an eon ago i had had the stock oil interwarmer removed and was quite happy about it and then someone hooked up an oil temperature gauge to their GT and measured the results of their oil cooler delete. Yeah, eye opening but there was some concern over the quality of their gauge so we needed a second set of results. I got a fairly basic analogue Stack Oil Temperature gauge and got it hooked up, I should have posted this stuff Dec 2022 then July 2023 but i never so here we go.

Dec 2022 - about 3degC outside air temperature and it's fresh but dry, Exec summary - 90-92degC oil temperature (basically just far enough past the 90degC marker to see the marker, gauge back face then needle) in all steady state driving. Actual driving speed did not seem to make a difference to the oil temperature with the only difference being how fast the oil gets to said temperature and it can take a surprising distance to get up to that temperature. So, 50mph, 70mph for 30 miles give or take the occasional lift and coast for traffic it is the same temperature for the oil at 90-92degC so it's very steady Was also in stop start traffic for 25 minutes and oil temperature stayed the same 90-92degC. CHT on the dash would vary from 95-100degC throughout all the above

Come March ish 2023 the ambient temperature was a bit nicer at 12degC and oil temperature under same conditions as above was 100degC, outside air hotter makes the engine oil work a bit more which is fair enough.

June/July 2023 and boy was it hot here, 23-30degC some days. Brilliant stuff. Well sadly never got the chance to hoof it last summer but 23-30degC ambient temperatures outside and in fairly enthusiastic driving without pushing the revs to the red, the oil temperature never got above 103ishdegC temperature, could see the dial face between the 100 and the needle position. The only time it rose above this was climbing the Applecross (Bealach na Ba) road. Climbing to 2050odd feet above sea level, 25degC weather, air con on (obv!), 20percent gradients, high loads on the engine pulling out of alpine style hairpins (three of them) and constant stop / start / on the power between passing places and blind corners on a single track road. Oil temperature hit 110degC which actually matched the CHT readout as well. TBH most of the time they are pretty close to each other with steady state driving, when hoofing it the oil temperature can be higher than CHT but usually not by much. 

So in conclusion, i think for the road in this climate, I'm fine without the cooler. Hoo raa