joshuaho96

I figured it out. It was actually comical. After pulling out the cylinder I realized it turns both ways. When I put it back in suddenly it was fouling on something. Looked carefully and realized the lock cylinder arm was facing the wrong direction. Checked the cylinder on the driver side and realized it has an L on the arm. Pulled off the passenger side door card and removed the lock cylinder and put the “driver side” lock cylinder into the passenger side door. Now it works in both directions. So anyone with a similar issue where the key can only unlock the door but you have to lock it from the inside should check first that their lock cylinders weren’t mistakenly swapped at some point. If the lock cylinder arm is facing the front of the car instead of towards the trunk this is the warning sign.

I finally mustered the willpower to take apart the door on the driver side to figure out why it was rattling in there and also why my door locks can only be unlocked with the key but not locked from the outside. Now with the door card removed and the actuator arm unhooked from the door lock barrel I see that if I turn the lever it acts on the lock and unlock function works in both directions. Any advice for figuring out why my door locks are unhappy to lock but are seemingly fine with unlocking?

One cylinder being down is proof positive you need to pull it and rebuild. Even if an engine compression tests ok you still want to leakdown test it ideally to verify everything is healthy.

This needs ECU logs badly. Most likely what's happening is a lean misfire followed by fueling catching up.

I would find that hard to believe, that's just creating another break in the circuit.

That circuit is always live, just switched through the dashboard. So you'd have to figure out why the circuit is completing when it shouldn't.

Not supernatural, someone has probably messed with the wiring and it has effectively made the acc line always live. I have seen improper radio grounding do something similar before.

A very familiar dirt floor. I am definitely curious about the story you're alluding to. I suspect many of the story beats will be familiar but the devil is always in the details.

Are there bleeders on the R33/R34 ABS units? I thought it was just the R32 but maybe I haven't looked hard enough.

Interesting, I've suspected for a while that long runner is the way to go. Not sure how that packages though, it looks like it might be challenging to make everything fit.

O2 fluctuating like that is normal. The sensor is basically like a light switch in the response curve. The moment you go lean it drops towards 0V, the moment you go rich it shoots up to 1V. Right at stoichiometric it will be roughly 0.5V. The way the fuel control works is basically bumping the fuel trim rich when the O2 voltage drops below 0.3V (30 on NDS1) and then bumping it lean when it shoots past 0.7V, trying to keep the average around 0.5V in parts of the map where closed loop fuel control is enabled. Also forgot to mention it's not unusual for idle to not move enough air for the O2 sensor to go past 0V. Fuel pressure is supposed to drop when pulling vacuum so when the throttle is closed. If it is dropping when you are pressing on the gas pedal below what it is at idle that means you have a fuel pressure problem.

I think it's more a practicality issue. Done wrong it can definitely be problematic, I see a lot of BBKs that are clearly track-only because they want you to remove/cut away most of the dust shield, have no dust boots on the pistons/generally a full race kind of caliper, require you to grind away significantly at what is arguably a fairly weak suspension knuckle as-is, etc. Pad knockback and wheel bearing issues on track are not unusual to hear about with these cars. Kind of questionable to spend all that money and have it be worse on the street than when you started if it's not a dedicated track toy.

Yeah I don't recommend doing this unless you need more thermal capacity. If your heart is set on doing this anyways I don't recommend random unknown brands for this stuff. Akebono or Brembo is fine though. Alpha Omega racing seems to like the Falcon FPV Brembos or Evo Brembos as you already mentioned. The fact that they're thinking about issues like pad knockback, suspension knuckle rigidity, brake bias, dust shield/piston dust boot retention, etc... is a good sign IMO.

May as well just actually follow Nismo's directions at that point and drop the whole subframe with the engine and transmission out.

It's a huge PITA. I've done it recently and probably the most annoying aspect is how much fighting is involved at the back of the engine. I did it by pulling the rear manifold studs and basically the moment you pop it into the locating dowels you don't get to change your mind about how it's installed. That's how little space there is, the dowels on the ITBs sticking to the collector will be the difference between fitting and not fitting. I recommend just pulling the brake booster and whatever else is in the way instead of doing it how I did it. Some people claim you can use the clutch master cylinder bracket that holds the booster hose straight, I have no idea how they did that considering it's a bear to get on in the first place and once you get it in you'll realize the hose is resting against the collector and isn't sitting straight anymore, at least on an R33. I'm pretty sure when I read through the manual for installation it also mentions that you aren't supposed to use that bracket anymore. The two things you can expect to fight the most are the coolant/vacuum combo pipe bolt securing to the brake/clutch booster pipe and the bolt that secures all of that to the plenum. Getting the bolt and everything else to line up is just kind of a nightmare. If there's enough clearance you may want to have the brake/clutch booster pipe bolted up to the underside of the collector before you slide it onto the intake manifold. Then you have one of the two really difficult bolts already done. Securing the coolant pipe bolt I recommend using painter's tape to secure the bolt to the socket. You will need a 10 and 12mm u-joint socket, probably quarter inch.

The R33 I think makes a lot more sense to do a GTR conversion, the GTST front end is just kind of strange from the factory for reasons I don't quite understand. Even then I'd struggle to justify all the work it takes to do the change properly. Parts are insanely hard to source and cost a mint when you do.

Top two relays are accessory relays, bottom-most is the ignition relay. That last bit makes me wonder if your ignition barrel is damaged as robbo mentioned.

Meh, it's not really a huge deal IMO. But the GTR bumper definitely does not fit a stock GTST unless you do the whole front-end swap. The R33 GTST 40th anniversary supposedly has this optional bumper though that I think looks pretty good and theoretically should fit up like OEM?:

You sure your accessory relays aren't sticking closed? They hang out under the the interior fuse panel.

If you have a shop nearby with a Hunter Engineering alignment machine it will have all factory data for alignment on these cars. I was surprised when my local tire shop pulled up all the data no problem.

Good to hear you got it fixed and it wasn't something nightmarish.

Nope, to my knowledge only way to retain the dual mass flywheel with an aftermarket clutch is the ATS silent clutch series.

Neither of those are PCV valves, as others have said those are just breathers. This is also a super bad idea to run as-is because the moment your engine breathes more than a non-trivial amount you are going to start spewing oil mist all over your engine bay. No track in my area would be ok with this setup, you would almost certainly start dripping on the tarmac. Also worth mentioning that uncapped manifold hose barbs are vacuum leaks, maybe less of a concern with a MAF delete but still not recommended. I would also run a fan shroud if you can source one, the engine fan is going to be far more effective with proper ducting to pull air through the radiator instead of just vaguely moving air around it. The PCV valve is long gone on your car as far as I can tell, reference this diagram to see the original setup where 11810 is the valve:

I’m saying your reported compression test values show a 20% difference between the highest cylinder and lowest cylinder.

If the compression test was done after the problem started I would definitely borescope the low cylinders to look for signs of detonation like damage to cylinder walls, that's a pretty critical detail. 20% difference between highest and lowest is not great. It's kind of unfortunate you parts cannoned everything but at least you didn't pay mechanic labor which would've made this sky-high in expense.