- Engine swaps are certainly nothing new but behind us we've got Chris Alexander's R32
Nissan GTR with certainly an engine swap that I've never seen and definitely nothing I've seen
here at World Time Attack.
We're here with Dom from Tony Rigoli Performance to talk a little bit about this car.
So for a start, there's no RB in this car anymore, what's it got?
- It's a 4G63, like an Evo 9 engine.
- OK that on face value would seem to be an unusual choice.
Obviously the RB26, RB28, 30, all of the different variations we see make amazing power and power
is really critical here at World Time Attack.
So on face value, going to a smaller capacity 4 cylinder engine might seem like an unusual
choice, why did you do that?
We've done it to pull weight out of the front ends to make the car corner better.
As for the power, we can make the power out of one of these engines basically the same as
a 6 cylinder.
Because you are limited to turbo size for it to be responsive you know.
So yeah the RB can make big power with a massive turbo on it but on the same turbo,
this little thing does alright.
- It does alright, we'll talk about the power shortly.
So basically being that the 4 cylinder is obviously so much shorter, it's not just
the mass of the engine that's important, it's the fact that it's not so far out over the
front axle line is that correct?
- That's correct yeah.
- And we can see visually just how far back in the engine bay the engine is.
Now I believe you also have a rule where you have to retain the factory firewall, is that the
limiting factor for where you can position the engine?
- Yeah that's correct yeah.
- OK so when it comes to 4G63s, well actually let's come back a step, obviously when you're
looking at going to a 4 cylinder engine, there are a lot of options out there and we continually get
pummelled on the internet for not putting a K series into our own 86 racecar so why was
the 4G63 the obvious option?
- A Honda, I couldn't do it to Chris, I couldn't do it to myself.
But yeah nah the 4Gs, we've done a lot of development over the years so that's why
that was our choice of engine.
- You stuck to something that you know inside and out, you know you can produce the power
reliably?
- Yeah that's right yeah.
- And I mean I think that's important to understand as well, yes there's probably a half a dozen other
engines that could do what you're doing with this, you don't need to go and relearn everything
about an engine that you're not familiar with which is so valuable in terms of time and money
spent?
- Yeah it is you know and we have a lot of parts for these you know so it wouldn't make sense
to go with a different engine again.
- Alright so the engine, and I'm going to come back and talk a little bit more about it but it's
not just the mass of the engine that you've changed in this car in order to get the
handling or the weight balance a little bit improved over where it was.
What have you got in the way of a transmission now, or a transaxle specifically?
- Now it runs the Albins ST6 transaxle.
- OK so for those who aren't aware, tell us what the difference between a transaxle and a
conventional transmission is.
- So the gearbox in this car used to be in the front, bolted to the back of the engine.
Now the whole unit's in the back, gearbox, clutch, alternator, starter motor, everything's
in the back of the car.
- So essentially you're just running a prop shaft that rotates that engine speed through the
transmission tunnel and everything else is at the rear or do you still have a clutch and
flywheel on the actual engine?
- No well the clutch, flywheel, everything's in the rear so at the front, it just has like a coupler,
just so we can connect the shaft.
So basically like an R35.
- And what sort of advantage does that give in terms of the weight balance?
Do you actually have numbers on that yet or is it too early to really know?
- Yeah look we only just finished the car so we barely had time to put doors and a front
end on it.
So but yeah it's the balance will be a lot better, like everyone always wants more
weight to the centre of the car.
And that's basically what it's done.
- Yeah I think, there's a couple of elements that are important to mention here and
the first is, you showed me off camera a photo of the car, essentially as a bare chassis
and roll cage and that was only 3 weeks ago so we'll give you a bit of a free kick there for
maybe not having a thorough understanding of everything that's done, that obviously will
come with time but coming back to the weight and the position of the weight, it's not just the
weight that's important, it's trying to get that weight more towards the centre of the car
and that will help allow the car to rotate better than if we've got weight right at the extremities
of the car, correct?
- Yeah so when this thing had the RB26 in it with all wheel drive, you've got all that diff and shafts
and turning into a corner faster is always going to push on the front end whereas now it'll be a
lot better turning in, you won't have that drag.
- Alright let's come back to that engine and when it comes to producing huge numbers with the 4G63,
just like almost every engine that's out there now, there are billet options available and you
haven't gone that route, do you just feel that it's not necessary at your power level?
- Yeah it's not, I mean we can run these up to 1600 horsepower in a drag application so at the
power this is running on, there isn't an issue.
- And there's a different, a range of different options when it comes to engine combos for the
4G, there's the 4G64, there's 2.1 long rod engines, the list goes on.
What have you chosen in terms of an engine combination for this?
- It's a 2.2 litre, like I said, our own stroker kit so our own rod length, piston combo.
But the block is just factory 4G63.
- Now why the 2.2 compared to the 2.4, what's your reasoning there, why do you favour that
instead of a little bit more capacity?
- What I've found with the 2.4s is that they really hit a brick wall with RPM.
Yeah they do make a little bit more torque but the 2.2 is a very happy medium when you're
looking at, between a 2 litre to a 2.4.
- OK and in terms of revs, what are you revving it to?
- The limiter is now set at 9200 so he hit it a couple of times and we'll probably end up
lifting it.
- And it's still making power out there?
- Yeah.
- And in terms of power, what are you making and what sort of boost pressure are you using to make
that power?
- At 45 pounds it makes 1030 at the hub.
- That's pretty solid for a small capacity engine.
What turbo are you using to get that?
- It's a Borgwarner 9280, the EFR.
- And what sort of, that's a big turbo for a 2.2 litre engine, what sort of RPM are you
starting to see it producing decent boost?
- They normally come on, this thing would be coming on really strong around the 4500.
- That's an impressive response.
In terms of the engine, you mentioned it is MIVEC or variable cam control.
So you're still retaining the cam control?
A lot of people go away from that with bigger cams because they can't swing the cam?
- Yeah we run the custom Grime cam and it's running the cam control as well.
- So is that pretty critical to getting that lower RPM boost response?
- It is, you know because you can set the cam where you want it to have plenty of torque.
- Now one of the problems with any high boost engine, the 4G is not immune to it, is head gasket
integrity, can you let us in on what you're using to seal the head to the block?
- Yeah we run like a fire ring set up with a copper gasket.
So it's like an alloy bronze ring.
- So that just seals, the ring sits on the top of the bore, I believe you'll probably have a
groove that it steps into at the top of the bore and then it seals straight to the head?
- Yeah and it's just flat on the head.
- And then the copper gasket there is essentially just for sealing water and oil?
- Yeah that's correct.
- And one of the problems with those copper gaskets, I mean they're very popular for high
boost applications but they don't do a real good job of actually sealing the oil and water
do they, what do you do in order to stop it actually leaking?
- Oh we use Threebond, use a good Threebond, and that's a fine line of using not enough or
too much.
- You don't want that Threebond getting into places that it shouldn't be but obviously you
want it to do the sealing job.
- That's right yeah.
- Alright in terms of the rest of the package, can we talk a little bit about the electronics.
So what have you got managing everything in the car?
- Yeah Emtron KV16 manages all the engine stuff and then it runs a MoTeC dash, MoTeC PDM.
- MoTeC dash for logging hub and driver display?
- Yeah that's correct yeah.
- Now Scott at Emtron has been beavering away pretty seriously at World Time Attack
developing the Emtron product and he's doing a lot around torque management and basically
allowing these cars to put a lot of power to the track and something we haven't touched on here
which probably should have been obvious is it's no longer 4WD either like a conventional R32 GTR,
rear wheel drive only so can you talk to us a little bit about the strategies in terms of
optimising the torque that the engine's producing and how much you can get to the track?
- Yeah look the torque modelling traction control, obviously retards timing and it's got ignition cuts
and however he does it, that's his deal but on the car now, it's still too early, we're still setting
suspension, he has started loading stuff in but we're just sort of going as we go.
- Now another aspect you just mentioned there was suspension and I don't believe this is a
new addition but if we look at the front suspension setup, it is drastically different to
a conventional R32 GTR.
One of the rules again with the class you're running in, have to retain the factory strut tower
but we've got no strut there any more and it's got sort of a rocker arrangement, inboard
suspension, anti roll bar that is in the scuttle panel at the base of the windscreen.
What's the impetus around that change?
- All that stuff is way over my head, I'm a drag racer.
But yeah when the car was built, yeah they've done that for geometry for some kind of reason.
- Fair enough, you're a drag racer, you're there to make a lot of power with the engine and we
can respect that, we don't have to know every element of the car.
- Yeah but honestly, I don't know why it's like that, I know it has something to do with
the car being very low and where the shocks need to be.
- Fair enough I mean generally as well a lot of the elements with the suspension on
these cars producing huge downforce as well as maintaining, keeping the car actually off
the track at 270 km/h coming into turn 1 so I can't speak for that on this particular car but
we'll move on anyway.
Dom look it's been great to get some insight into certainly one of the more unique builds
I've seen over the years we've been coming to World Time Attack.
Obviously as you mentioned, early days for the car I'm sure once you get it dialled in it's going
to be incredibly competitive and we wish you all the best for the rest of the weekend.
- Thank you.
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