Thread: Hi 24 Hr Lemons 1991 se-r new guy

my name is jeff and i live in los angeles and i race a 91 se-r in 24hr lemons with my brothers and cousin. i'm a desert racer so this is new to me. this is our first season and we've broke every race so i'm obviously obsessed with this nissan world which i knew and know nothing about. we just installed out 3rd motor, the first one over heated and stuck a piston so bad the rod bent and broke thru the case at buttonwillow, the second motor i think got over-revved - grabbed 2nd instead of 4th at the ridge in washington. whoops.
so another junkyard motor is in the car, valves look like they have psoriasis thru the intake but it seems to run good, fyi the only knowledge i have about these cars is what i've learned so far by screwing up.
we did open up the stock airbox a bit and built an exhaust from the stock headers back but i'm wondering if its too rich or too lean and if the computer will adjust the tune for a small amount of tweaking?
also we left the emissions/egr/smog stuff on the car besides the cat which was removed, it seems to run good like this, should we remove some of it? all of it?
there is another se-r team who is super rad and they work for carbotec brakes i think, they're car is painted like the american flag, they had installed a bigger radiator out of an evo 8 i believe and we did the same after we grenaded out motor the first time, i'm wondering if its a good idea to run the nismo 1.3 bar radiator cap and if my black auto zone hoses will be able to hold the pressure...
and the last thing, sorry, i have a 22 gallon atl fuel cell that we are thinking about installing in place of the stock gas tank because it seems like we have to re-fuel every hour and a half. i'm wondering if anyone has installed a fuel cell in a b13 with a sr20de and where they mounted it, and most important what fuel pump did they run? i've heard that 3bar is stock fuel pressure, so with a fuel pressure regulator and a 3-5 bar pump will we be ok?
thanks!!

Welcome to the forum! I'm a LeMons racer as well, and am currently in the middle of a new SE-R build in the Austin area.

Overheating, especially the oil, can be a bit problem with racing these engines. You've got the radiator covered, I would definitely recommend a higher pressure cap. Doesn't need to be the Nismo, unless you like the fact that it looks pretty. There are less expensive ones that do the job just fine, the cap from a 300z is a popular choice.

I would definitely recommend an oil cooler, there are a number of writeups on adding one, check a few out and make your own decision on how best to integrate that.

Gauges - water temp, oil temp, oil pressure, those are a must to keep an eye on how things are doing.

Underdrive pulleys, that will gain you a bit of HP, and your accessories will spin a bit slower. This is good for the water pump, less chance of cavitation.


On the topic of the fuel cell, I've only seen a few Sentras at the track with them personally, but I know they are out there. For a lot of teams, 1.5 hours of driving is a pretty good stint, drive till the fuel's gone, then do a driver change and fuel up. If you really want to go longer, the fuel cell will help, and if you do the baffling or an internal surge tank, then you can avoid the fuel starvation issue on the corners. Just make sure that your team goes over all the fuel cell related rules for LeMons (and Chump and other series if you may someday race there), and follow all the safety guidelines on the install from those rules, most importantly getting a nice frame built around the cell so that in a crash it doesn't go flying. That's a lot of mass sitting there, so secure it accordingly.

hey jimbo_se-r. thanks for the knowledge and info! seriously
i called auto zone and they have a 300z radiator cap for $12, why is the nismo one $34?
i will search oil coolers tomorrow for sure thanks
when i was at the junkyard i pulled a larger stock steel water pump pulley off of a newer car and the bolt pattern was the same so i've run it to slow down the pump.
so far we only have a water temp gauge, need to install oil pressure and oil temp, need to search for good posts with pics..
the fuel cell thing still seems sketchy, like maybe the car will be all off balance if there is twice as much fuel weighing it down in the wrong location.. i don't know..
thanks!

Hi choke, are you coming to Sonoma in December? If so, come by our pits. We are the red se-r #16. We'll be behind the grandstand.

Here is pic of us swapping out a trans on Sunday morning last time at Sonoma.
P3220497

Welcome to the forum Jeff.

Yes, it will compensate for most bolt-ons, even cams. It will however always run a little or a lot rich depending on the mods.

Go ahead and remove all of it you feel like. The only thing the EGR is good for is fuel economy at very low throttle opening. The only good thing the charcoal canister is for is preventing a little bit of fuel vapor from entering the atmosphere. Make block-off plates for what you need, buy a bung for the header, etc. etc.
With all of that vacuum hose and brackets and whatnot gone it will be much easier to work on, and less complex.
There might be a solenoid or two to leave plugged in or by-passed to trick the ECU into throwing no codes or CELs.

We tend to like to increase cooling around here more than putting band-aids on things like stronger radiator caps.
We will go with the Koyo R1977 radiator and be all set. Maybe add some water wetter. Then maybe a stronger radiator cap if it comes to that.


There are plenty around here with fuel cells, but probably most of them into drag racing. I can't help there.

You're right about our base fuel pressure though. 3-bar.

Hey rodknox, yea we are racing the December race in Sonoma and will for sure come say what's up!

Ben thanks for the advice, I agree getting rid of all those vacuum lines will make life allot easier.

Welcome to the forum. We like pics!

Welcome

here are some pics of the car, we drilled out some spray paint caps and gave it a sweet splatter paint look and my brother had an extra cat vinyl we threw on the hood for speed
[img][URL="https://flic.kr/p/zTmJiM"][IMG]https://farm1.staticflickr.com/635/22240959199_582c619f4f_h.jpg[/img][/URL]IMG_1444 by jeffrey johnsen, on Flickr[/IMG]
[img][URL="https://flic.kr/p/zTmJpP"][IMG]https://farm1.staticflickr.com/725/22240959549_56d85f7d7b_h.jpg[/img][/URL]IMG_1410 by jeffrey johnsen, on Flickr[/IMG]
[img][URL="https://flic.kr/p/zdQvCE"][IMG]https://farm1.staticflickr.com/739/21805036354_9b2ca4ebee_h.jpg[/img][/URL]IMG_1407 by jeffrey johnsen, on Flickr[/IMG]
[img][URL="https://flic.kr/p/zTmyNp"][IMG]https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5822/22240927219_6b7280d81f_k.jpg[/img][/URL]IMG_9623 by jeffrey johnsen, on Flickr[/IMG]