Thread: Long time se-r LeMons racer

Hi everyone, Yeah, we race a '92 se-r on the west coast and have been since '08...about 30 races. We've blown up every motor (4) except the one that is in the car now. Trannys? Yeah, we've scattered them too. But now I need some help in locating a dust seal for the left side axle. Nissan says they don't have those anymore. I was hoping someone on here might have a source. It's the one on the tranny side of the axle. Thanks.

we had gotten ours in the aftermarket from rockauto.com

..and welcome btw

So, what kinda racing exactly? As I'm building a track car myself, I'm curious if you are having any consistent failures you've been able to sort out that are causing your engines and trannies to go, or if it's random stuff every time.

From talking with others, it seems that oil temp is the biggest killer, and your engine is doomed if you don't run an oil cooler.

Thanks, I try rockauto.

Hey jimbo! haven't I seen you on the LeMons forum? I'll look in to an oil cooler...have not heard that one before. Let's see...rods and valves mostly. We ventilated more than one block. A couple of weeks ago, we destroyed a motor at the Thunderhil LeMons race...valves and a piston. Fortunately, I had just bought a complete NX2000 with a JDM motor sitting on the floor that the owner had run out of gumption on. We replaced the blown motor Saturday night in the pits. Took us until 3am. We use Red Line 40wt and the pressure stays around 60psi at 7k. I think one of the weakest areas of racing a se-r is the tranny/diff/ axles. You gotta wait on the syncros to catch up. We had one teammate (emphasis on had) that broke 2 trannies. We all pitched in on the first one. But the second time, I asked him to replace it...suddenly racing was too expensive and he quit. Oh yeah, don't be curb hopping...that will destroy an axle quicker than you can say "oh sh*t".

Yeah, I'm on that forum a lot, especially when I've got a race coming up, otherwise, not so much. LOL In the middle of a build now, so probably no racing until early next year.

We blew up two motors, rods through the blocks. 2nd one was definitely oil related, I'm sure, the first one was likely the same, but we didn't troubleshoot much. First engine was leaking oil and only lasted a day, 2nd engine was fairly well built and lasted 8 or so races before blowing. I can't remember who I chatted with elsewhere, but two other SR20 racers said that they were solid after installing oil coolers. Certainly can't hurt.

Never had a problem with our transmission through all those races, maybe we were lucky. May have done one axle, can't remember now. Did have one alternator bracket break (damndest thing...), one hose, one belt. For the most part, pretty uneventful stuff except for the two engines. LOL

Welcome!

We have been running since 2008 as well (over 25k track miles)

We've lost 2 engines over the years... 1 was an ooops missed shift (hey, it happens) and the 2nd was a pop-out of gear at Road America. There was a 3rd engine that went boom from overrev but that was not us (it was a different driver) so we don't count that as our mistake... lol

On transmissions, we are on our 3rd transmission. The 1st one just got tired and needed bearings replaced (it did last about 180k miles so really can't complain), 2nd one lost the syncros (again from another driver slamming the gears) and now this 3rd one has been good to us (fingers crossed).

We have never had an oil cooler and never saw the need for one.

Are you running aftermarket cams? If not, I honestly don't understand why you are revving it up to 7000rpm or above in the 1st place. On a 100% stock SR20 engine, you don't have any pull power at all after about 6800rpm and just making noise (as we clearly saw on several dyno run sheets on our own car) so we tend to shift at 6800rpm (and have our shift light set there as well).

...just my .02 anyway

Hi Chris, Thanks for your .02... One of my teammates (last time at Sears Point) missed a 3rd to 4th and hit 2nd which in turn overreved then broke valves and scarred both JWT cams. Being a good teammate, he took the motor back to his repair shop and did a rebuild with fresh cams. That was the motor that lunched at T'hill. The JDM replacement motor ran just as good as the cammed motor...maybe a little better...lap times were the same. My shift points are anywhere from 6k to bouncing off the limiter...ha ha. When we first built the first se-r, we're on our second, we put in a quick shifter but soon found out that for endurance racing quicker shifts will ruin the syncros.

I think jimbo's oil cooler idea is great if not a little spendy and I am having a little trouble visualizing where I can mount everything. The 3.5 quarts of oil probably gets a little warm after 6 hours of racing. We should put in a temp gauge.

By the way, if anybody needs non racing parts for their se-r...I have lots of stuff...even a sunroof, seats, some glass..etc.

The transmission case flexes slightly under load and causes small misalignment in the gear stacks. It's the worst part on the car, IMO. Some tricks to preserve the transmission and help the gear-bangers be more precise:

• Fill the trans case void space with welds
• Use poly engine mounts in good condition (they do wear out over the years)
• Use the Energy Suspension shift rod bushing
• Replace the shift lever stabilizer rubber with a slightly modified ES sway bar bushing (example)
• See the crossmember bushings made by forum member UNISA JECS
• See the transmission cable bracket made by forum member Andreas Miko
• Run a GL-4-compliant, syncro-friendly synthetic transmission fluid
  

The stock oil pan is easily dented near the pickup tube on these cars (insta-starve), and they are unbaffled. Tracks with long, sustained turns at upper RPMs seem to pop SR20DE's every so often. The oil cooler might not be a bad idea if for nothing other than extra capacity. Underdrive pulleys might not be a bad idea, either.

Here are two MotoIQ articles about a road race G20 (same drivetrain) from a long-time SE-R guy that kind of summarize things:

Project Infiniti G20 Racecar: Keeping It Running
Project Infiniti G20 Racecar: Transmission Upgrades

Here's a transmission seal part number thread (applies to all B13/B14/etc "32V" VLSD cars):
http://www.sr20-forum.com/general-sr20/69684-b14-5mt-driver-s-side-axle-seal-part-numbers.html