joshuaho96

Now that we've derailed this thread about billet blocks, does anyone know if the PPG or stock ratios are better for the stock 5 speed in the R32/R33 GTRs? I'm looking for a synchro transmission and I don't think I can afford the expense of doing a V160 swap properly.

If the car starts just with a normal key and no transponder/remote required there's no real security system.

I'm planning on putting in a step 1 VCAM, does it make sense to change the exhaust cam as well or just leave it?

Yeah, the first step is fine. I would just install a Nismo oil separator or comparable while you're in there. Low boost, tune, take it easy for a while and make sure the engine is healthy. Dipstick vent and oil cap vent are really last resorts, don't bother unless you're really having issues with blowby, which you shouldn't at low boost and an internally stock engine. If you're going to run a high flow oil pump you should go with an extended sump. The two go together, generally speaking.

More boost creates more blowby, which stresses the PCV system more. More blowby means more oil spitting out the breathers. The crankcase vent mods are really to solve that issue, track use just means spending more time at high boost. Street use just implies you're not spending very long at high boost. If you're going down the road of a built engine think carefully about the trade-offs there. 2618 forged pistons are very tough and make big power but they do not live long lives. For something that is street-first you probably don't want to have an engine that has quite a lot of piston slap and needs to be carefully and lovingly warmed up, it's better to have a piston that calls for a tight piston to wall clearance for street use. Don't wildly overbuild an engine for way more power than you want. Tight piston clearance also helps with reducing blowby, so for track use if you aren't too wedded to huge power it'll make oiling less of a headache. Really, every time I think about these issues with the RB26 the real solution is to sell the car and get a 996 Turbo but I have some kind of brain damage that keeps me from doing the obvious, cost effective solution. Does anyone know if the Tarmac Solutions sump is going to be enough with just 1.5L extra? I'd like to only bump up to ~6L of oil capacity instead of 8-9L but I'm not sure if it's a good idea.

Modifying engines is hard, if anything it's harder if you intend for this to be a street build that can survive track punishment. Deleting power steering/AC/etc is a much harder pill to swallow to go dry sump, ripping out your trunk liner to fit an Accusump is a lot less palatable for a street-first kind of build, etc. You have to decide what this car is going to be. If you want it to survive on the track with wet sump you want to turn down the boost, run less aggressive tires, etc. If you want to have 500+ whp for hard drag launches with slicks and hard track use but also street usability something has to give for practicality. The RB26 is really not a great engine in that regard, modern engines are amazingly better at doing what you want to do. Don't forget that to survive races with 600 hp the RB26 had swinging pickups and all kinds of other craziness for the oiling system, the stock RB26 has basically none of that.

Biggest thing to worry about with these engines is crankcase ventilation. You can have a huge pump pushing tons of oil on the oil feed but you'll ventilate the block if excessive crankcase pressure keeps oil from returning to sump fast enough. That's really what causes the "oil stuck in head" issue. Nissan figured this out with the R35 GTR, which is why the oil pump has both a scavenge pump and a pressure pump as well as significantly improved crankcase ventilation. The pressure pump is your usual oil pump, the scavenge side is on the oil return ports trying to forcibly suck air/oil down the return ports and force the returned oil into the pickup, so it's a "hybrid wet sump" in that regard: https://conceptzperformance.com/aam-competition-oil-pump-isr-treatment-nissan-gt-r-09-r35-aam-isr_p_7433.php In the context of a wet sump RB26, you can either try and improve the crankcase ventilation system as-is with more breathers. I haven't been able to examine the breather fittings/hoses yet but one "easy" mod may be to put in a checkvalve on the crossover tube and then drill out any restriction that may be present in the stock breather fittings. That would keep fresh air from bypassing the crankcase when on vacuum but allow for maximum flow when on boost. I suspect that you would ultimately need to add another crankcase breather directly off the crankcase though.

If you're concerned about imminent catastrophic failure, monitor your engine by doing oil analysis and/or cut open your oil filters to look for metal filings. Leakdown/compression is also good to know, if either are poor you want to rebuild before turning up the power. Rebuilding an engine is simpler and less likely to go wrong when it hasn't spun a bearing/bent rods/valves/etc so if you see metal shavings in the oil filter or high bearing content in the oil stop driving the car and get the engine pulled. Once you've built up a baseline over a few oil changes you can crank up the boost and see if the engine is surviving the same way. Also check coolant and oil levels regularly to make sure you aren't leaking/burning anything. It's a huge waste of time to pull and tear down an engine just to inspect the bearings. Cylinder bore condition + piston condition can be inspected by pulling spark plugs and borescoping it. Oil analysis is relatively cheap, so is cutting open an oil filter.

The point is the transient response. There is a transition period between idle air + timing and the new mass flow rate + timing. Lower airflow at idle makes the engine tend to respond more in both directions. Additional loads like AC compressors can cause the engine to stall, adding more air will tend to make the engine want to race up. More air means transients are smoothed out more. I'm not saying that we should all go out and change base timing to 30+ degrees on our engines, base timing for idle is often set where it is to ensure that the engine won't stall. What's important is understanding the trade-offs between setting advanced/retarded base timing and whether the assumptions the OEM uses to set base timing are still true for your setup.

It's a matter of proportion. "vacuum is higher" as an explanation suggests that the tail wags the dog. If you need less air to idle, then when you crack open the throttle the air provided by the throttle has a larger proportion compared to the AAC bypass air. Suppose you need 1.5g/s to idle with 30 degrees of timing at idle, but 6g/s to idle with 10 degrees. If you crack open the throttle to get 20g/s of airflow then the engine will suddenly receive 13.3x more air in the first case, but only 3.3x more air in the second case. The difference in engine response to 3.3x more air is quite sluggish compared to 13.3x more air. Important thing to remember is that you need, need to have enough reserve torque to control idle speed. Adaptronic has published a video talking about this issue, which maps with what I've experienced with my tuning experiments:

The R34 GT-R valuations, especially for the rare variants, have never been tethered to what the car actually is. Every time I look at the frame of an R34 Skyline it's very clear that it is basically the exact same thing as an R33 Skyline. What is actually remarkable is that you can see the progression of cost-cutting on the undercoating from R32 -> R33 -> R34 Skyline. The R34 has the least and has the same rust issues as the R33 but also the extra brackets on stuff like the carbon fiber diffuser is even worse for rustproofing and tend to be swiss cheese after 20 years. Effectively the main differences between the R33 and R34 are some bolt-on suspension arms/bushings, some chassis reinforcement pieces in places like the trunk floor, the divider between the rear seat and trunk, the base of the B pillar, etc. There's also the 6 speed Getrag, the slightly revised RB26 (different CAS, ball bearing ceramic turbos, smart coils, etc), and slightly improved HICAS logic. I doubt most people are really interested in keeping HICAS but if it matters enough it's probably possible to adapt the R34 HICAS controller over to an R33. I'm sure this sounds like sour grapes but it's more like bewilderment because there seems to be an obvious backdoor to have a car that drives like the R34 GT-R but for much less money.

You should try it for yourself, the difference in linearity and throttle response is noticeable. If you need 5 g/sec AAC bypass air to idle and you crack open the throttle, the difference is very noticeable compared to if you were to get it down to 1.5 g/sec. I've had subtle vacuum leaks happen before and the engine won't respond nearly as much to the throttle until it's fixed even though timing/fueling was all in a good state and the tune was speed density.

MBT is maximum brake torque timing. It's the value that maximizes engine efficiency for that operating point, assuming you don't get limited by knock first. A stock RB26 should idle warm around base timing with no accessories and nothing else going on. It will jump to more or less timing to control the idle. The more timing you can dial in at idle the less air you need, the less air you need the more control authority the throttle has. The AAC valve is basically a controlled vacuum leak. You want to reduce it as much as possible so that the engine responds more to your pedal. There are limits to this though because idle requires the ECU to constantly adjust timing/airflow/fuel to keep it stabilized. If you add too much base timing and pull out too much air the ECU won't be able to compensate for sudden drops in engine RPM and the likelihood of a stall rises.

Generally speaking setting base timing can be done at whatever reference you have for timing marks, although you may not want to use TDC as a reference, especially if you have a missing tooth for TDC, accuracy can be worse at TDC if that is the case. The reason why there’s adjustment present in the cam sensor is to prevent sensor triggers from overlapping. With no missing teeth if you have overlap with any of the crank teeth the ECU will lose sync. With a missing tooth you want to avoid overlap with the tooth after the missing tooth, that’s the reset for the ignition sync so it is important to not have the cam overlap. At idle you can and should crank the timing to at least 20 degrees. Don’t set timing to MBT. It’s a balance between adding more timing to make the engine more responsive getting off idle/improving idle fuel consumption and leaving enough timing margin that you can ensure the ECU can adjust idle faster than the AAC valve can respond.

Your catch can has two little breather filters on it, what you probably want to do is run those lines just after the air filter on the turbo but before the compressor inlet. Just make sure your catch can is actually filtering out all of the oil.

If that's the case then my advice is to run tires that are not particularly grippy to avoid pushing the limits. Ventus RS4s are supposedly good for this, a durable track tire that has relatively low grip. Moving the breather position forward a little may not matter much, but if it does make enough of a difference you may need to drain the catch can back to sump. On a track car this isn't a big deal, oil temps are high enough that water/fuel won't accumulate. I would also add a line just before the turbo after the catch can to try and ensure that crankcase pressure is at least atmospheric. You have to make sure that the air coming out of the catch can is as clean as you can get it though.

Isn't the point of the breather being all the way at the end of the baffling/mesh path to try and keep as much oil out of the lines as possible? If this is a track build first and foremost just go dry sump and none of this matters. Cap off the breathers and let the scavenge pumps deal with it. It will keep you from ventilating the block.

If OP really wants a collector's R33 he should buy one of the Autech R33s listed here: http://www.garage-yoshida.net/car/

It appears to be missing the factory A-LSD. Factory build plate does say that it is a VSpec though: http://gtr-registry.com/en-bcnr33-vin-table.php This is a car build 06/1995 Series 1 VSpec with: (1G) 2 Door Coupe; (2GJ + 11Z) RB26DETT; (4P) 4WD HICAS; (7F) 5 Speed Manual; (14G) Super Fine Hard Coat; (15J) Rear Wiper Someone retrofitted the series 3 front lip to it as well, seems OEM based on the finish. Series 2/3 steering wheel as well. I have a feeling the airbag doesn't work because the dashboard/center console area was changed to fit the ABS computer in the series 2/3 whereas the series 1 had it in the steering wheel which is why it's so massive. A-LSD light is missing which is super fishy. Suggests the gauge cluster has been swapped and mileage is not accurate. Possibly done during the LSD swap but something to keep in mind. Interior appears in good condition but you need to check under that dashboard cover to know for sure. Driver side door cards have some damage. The interior also has a series 3 antenna switch instead of a blank plate as expected for series 1. Car has a compliance plate from when it was imported to Australia. It is a little infuriating how dim the Duncan Imports interior photos are, it feels like they're trying to hide something. My eval is based on this car: https://www.duncanimports.com/vehicles/1156/1995-nissan-skyline-gt-r I looked at the other one they have and I can't believe these two cars are priced the same: https://www.duncanimports.com/vehicles/1183/1995-nissan-skyline-gt-r The condition is clearly different. This one seems to have evidence of rust in the trunk. The entire bottom half of the driver side seat has water damage. It looks like someone has sanded off the finish on the center stack around the radio/hvac/triple sub meter.

Yeah if you live in the desert it'll be fine. What I've noticed is that cars stored outdoors tend to get water in unexpected ways as ambient temps drop below dew point at night causing water to accumulate on the chassis. Also stuff like poorly adjusted sprinklers spraying on cars is a thing as well. The dew can be especially bad in seaside areas because it can be salty. I suspect the reason why pretty much every R33 has strut tower rust is because Japan is humid and the concept of an enclosed garage doesn't exist in the vast majority of Japanese homes outside of homes for the very rich.

http://blog.garage-yoshida.net/archives/12205 This blog post is pretty good for discussing what issues exist in the R34 chassis as far as rust goes. Strut tower rust is inevitable on the R33 and R34 chassis if it's still factory, the questions is just how quickly the rust will progress. If you have a flawless example and you monitor the integrity of the sealant between the seams you can prevent rust entirely by resealing the strut tower panel overlap area but if you don't pay close attention it will start rusting. One tell-tale sign is when the flat spot-welded portion on the top next to the strut brace area starts to bulge like this: If the panel hasn't lifted from the sealant like that it's still ok. If you repair the struts in this state the panels can still be saved, but they will probably be pitted pretty good when you cut it back. The other two common rust spots on the R33/R34 chassis are under the plastic cowl and the drain just forward of the doors: These parts tend to be hidden, if rust is bad on the visible parts the cowl area could have holes in it.

If you already returned the rotors it's fine, I'm located in CA though.

Yeah, dba 4601 seems to fit from what people say but it's not actually exactly correct. If you need to unload your 300mm rear rotors I can buy them off of you, my R33 needs new rotors I believe.

Weird how Nissan decided to basically match the brake rotor sizes towards the end, I've heard that there was no modification to the rest of the car either so presumably that impacted brake bias?

Bright dash lights are a bad idea for night driving if you care about being able to see at night. I've heard arguments that it helps to keep drivers from dozing off but if you're so close to falling asleep that a bit of blue light makes the difference you shouldn't be driving.