shaund

Thats some real bad luck, keep your eyes peeled for a second hand turbo.. im sure something will pop up.. go searching the for-sale section. I've heard of good condition R33 turbos going for $350. Anything you buy though claiming to be good condition, make it condition of sale that it passes an inspection by a turbo-savvy mechanic, that is unless you're confident enough to check it out for yourself prior to purchasing. Good luck! -Shaun

Yeah, this is all very true... Essentially make sure you follow the directions on the back of the bottle. Should go without saying really :-o The instructions say that when you're using it in an engine, you want to put all but the last L of oil in, idle the engine until it gets up to temperature, blend your measured ammount of Pro-ma into the last L of oil thats still in the bottle, add while the engine it hot, and then go for a good drive for 30 mins. This is essentially because the MBL will just sink to the bottom of your sump and take ages to work its way around otherwise. Seems to be turbo safe too.. at least so far so good. In the case of gearbox oil, it dosen't give you any specific instructions. I just added it to mine and started driving (i had 2-3000km old oil in it, no need for new oil yet).. eventually its worked its way into 4th syncro and done some magic I'd imagine the best way to do it for gearbox would be to drop all your oil, blend it into the new oil, pump it in and go for a drive. Its pretty thick, so blending it into the oil for a gearbox would at the very least make it easier to get in there. I'd be really interested to hear anyone elses experiences/results with this additive. Cheers! -Shaun

lol.. wasn't referring to your post

lol... love the keyboard mechanics Bedding in a clutch is pretty simple.. its all about getting the interface between the clutch material and the flywheel optimal, ie uniform across the entire surface. The best way to achieve this is to follow the clutch manufacturer's directions. Alternatively, if none are supplied, drive it normally for ~300-500km without excesively slipping the clutch. Until its bedded in, you've got a greater chance of creating 'hotspots' on the flywheel with excessive slip, which leads to non-uniform grip on the flywheel, which can be the difference between a clutch that works well, and one that slips prematurely. Essentially, don't launch it. Also, note that your flywheel may need to be machined differently (different finish) for a button clutch than for an organic OEM style clutch. Pay attention to the clutch manufacturers directions. Running your car on a dyno before bedding in the clutch is fine, stick it in 4th, (or whatever gear you are doing your run in), and away you go... on a dyno, you don't launch it like you do on the road, so there should be practically no slipping of the clutch required.

Just drive it 'normally'.. riding the clutch is basically when you're not quite fully engaged and the clutch is slipping (ie, not quite pedal fully released) for an excessive period of time, and getting no benefit. Nothing wrong with slipping the clutch to get a smooth take off, but idiots that sit at a red light and instead of sticking it in neutral and using the brakes, they sit in 1st gear and 'ride the clutch' to stop their car rolling backwards and hitting the car behind. That is dumb.

Hi Guys, Just thougnt I'd share my experiances... Seems its a pretty common complaint for people to have trouble with worn syncros. My problem was with the syncro in 4th gear. The gearbox seemed to be in pretty good condition overall, but after it warmed up, it behaved like the syncro for 4th was near on non-existant. Shifting from 5th to 4th required me to touch on the gate on 3rd to use 3rd's syncro to spin things up, and shifting from 3rd to 4th at high RPMs was equally dificult without grinding gears. I learnt to drive around it, but it still meant that things were painful if you were caining it around a track etc and shifting from 3rd to 4th at speed. A solution suggested to me was to use an oil additive called 'Pro-ma MBL8" Its a molybdenum based oil additive. Its quite thick and grey in colour. I added 50mL of it to the box, and after about 50-60km, started to notice a difference on the 4th syncro. ~500km later im seriously thinking that I don't need that gearbox rebuild I was thinking about doing; it works as good as any other syncro in the box. Price I paid was about $40 for a 250mL bottle, 50mL is enough to treat the gearbox. I'm using Penrite Transaxle 75 in the box. Its also suitable for using in engine oil too. ~100mL for a 6cyl according to the bottle. I've put some in mine and its made a very slight difference to throttle response. I'm not looking to push this product or generate any money for myself, this is just my genuine experiance that I hope is useful to others. My mechanic/engineer who suggested this to me sourced it for me locally in Perth. If you can't get it from where you normally buy your stuff from you can call him (Steve) on 08 9409 7920. His workshop is north of the river (wangara). I've attached a photo of the bottle I bought so its easy for anyone interested to regonise. Cheers! -Shaun

I have the same clutch you are talking about in my R32 GTR... excedy cushioned button clutch. These clutches (assuming ours are the same) come with a sprung centre too. I'd never use a clutch without a sprung centre.. asking for trouble! Feels very much the same as a stock clutch, drive it normally, but as others have said, riding the clutch with a button clutch of any type is bad for wear, hell riding ANY clutch is bad for wear. I've had mine since about november/december last year and I'm quite happy with it. Handles 4-5k RPM launches quite well, but launching it with higher RPMs than that (like 5-6k) and it slips a bit, grips, and then absolutely rockets off real hard. Make sure you mechanic replace the spigot bush too when doing the clutch irrespective of wear.. its a cheap component, as opposed to the labor to replace it later if it wears enough to notice.

Check the workshop manual (you'll find a pdf if you go searching). Make sure you are also using the right grade of oil. Don't use redline's "recommended" oils as gospel... people have pointed out recently that they have got a few things wrong in recent times. I'm not advocating Redline or any other brand... I personally (in my R32 GTR) use all penrite oils and I'm very happy with them. General rule of thumb for diffs and gearboxes is to get the car up on stands (or a hoist if you have access to one) so its level, and fill them up to the point where the oil is level with the filler (ie, it just starts to dribble out the filler). You'll probably find the diff uses between 1.5 - 2L of oil, and the gearbox may be 3 - 3.5L, but thats just a guess based on past experiances, not specifically with an R33. Cheers! -Shaun

Steve's Shed in Wangara.... Steve and I rebuilt my GT-R including some pretty extensive structural rust repairs (ended up with a chassis). Replaced engine, gearbox, entire drivetrain from a half cut. Knows what hes doing, and is familiar with CVs in the GT-Rs (from the work we've done on my car). Quite cheap and takes his time to do a proper job. Will also tell you anything else he finds wrong along the way. Corner of Brady St and Ocean Reef Road in Wangara. 08 9409 7920 / 0417 969 358

I'd also be interested... I've got an R32 GT-R, so easy enough to drop into RWD mode... and you'd only be about 10 mins from home too... So long as its capable of reading the power and torque produced, i'd be happy. I've got some adjustable cam gears i've yet to adjust... much easier on a dyno than on the street :-o One suggestion... make sure your dyno is setup so the car sits level, otherwise you can get oil starvation problems on some cars. Seems to be 'trendy' to have cars slanted front down, tail up on RWD dynos... not very clever.

Agreed... also, if you're getting that much blow by that a catch can gets full in more than a months worth of street driving or 3-4 track days, your engine is well and truly shagged and/or you're pushing it too hard (too much boost perhaps?)

Cranks over easily any time.. warm or cold, even after leaving it for a week and a bit being on holidays, was easy to crank over. What you're suggesting makes alot of sense, hoever its a remote possability in my case... this engine came out of a half cut a few months ago, but everything is in really good nick, right down to the sides of the cam lobes being sharp enough to cut you! Makes plenty of power, solid 175psi dry compression across the board etc. I've not run injector cleaner or anything thru it yet - worth a shot though. I'm gonna be fitting some big injectors in the next month or so to go along with a vipec ECU - all in preperation for some -5 turbos... if its leaky injectors, that'll fix it for sure. Cheers! -Shaun

Hi Guys, I've recently got my R32 GTR on the road... and I'm noticing that within 500km, im smelling fuel in the oil... its quite noticeable if you do an oil change and let the old oil sit in a bottle for a day or so.... I'm wondering if its just overfuelling and getting into the oil past the rings. I get a small ammount of black 'dust' on the rear bumper after a few days of to-and-from work. I'm going to do an oil and filter change again tomorrow morning and get it on a dyno to see if its just overfuelling, but I thought I'd ask if anyone else has noticed similar themselves or had any ideas of what the problem might be? Cheers! -Shaun

Awesome cruise last night guys.. and I didn't even know about it until I completely by accident met up with a group and started following out Mundaring way. I was just out for a casual drive with a mate! Love the supra doing massive donuts bouncing off the limiter 10 mins after i arrived at the final meeting point... that was my signal to GTFO

LOL If theres one thing to look out for, its those damned internet mechanics Any small cooler should be fine.. I've yet to see one made of anything other than copper or alluminium, both of which are fine with normal fuel. If you get a second hand cooler and its had something other than fuel thru it, i'd clean it out with some clean new fuel. Just make sure the pipe diameter is large enough to flow the return fuel without adding any restriction... ie, the pipe diameter should be equal to your return lines/hose. The cooler Travis Trayhern pointed out from ebay looks good, but im sure you'll be able to get something cheaper at a wrecker. just make sure you test it for leaks before you use it.

There is plenty of room under the car at the rear to hide a small cooler on the return fuel line... some where forward of the rear diff would be a good spot. If you put your cooler on your return line, there is no high pressure, but potentially a high flow rate. As mentioned there is a risk of fuel leaking if the cooler gets damaged in an accident (ie, mount the kerb, run over a rock/lump of wood) etc, but if you put it as high as you reasonably can and drive sensibly there is minimal risk. If you wanted to go ultra minimalistic, you could use a cooler in the style that the 32 GTR has for power steering that sits infront of the aircon condenser. This is just a length of pipe with some fins attached. I'm sure there would be a 'safe' place to hide this at the rear of the car. -Shaun

Hi Guys, As some of you may be aware from a couple of my previous posts, I'm currently doing an engine swap on my R32 GT-R. I want to take off the oil pump to inspect it and see firstly what I've got (N1 or standard) as well as the condition its in. So far I've removed all the bolts and the oil seal from the pump. I get the impression that the inner gear of the pump is press fit on the shaft and may be caught on the plate at the rear of the pump. It has been suggested to me by my mechanic that we may need to remove the sump to get it out. Can anyone confirm what is required to get the pump off? I've looked in the workshop manual and they don't specifically mention that you need to take the sump off, however its in the same section as' removing the sump' is in. Cheers! -Shaun

Hi All, I just thought I'd report back on my success... Given the engine is out of the car (still mounted up to the front suspension assembly, up on wheel stands) , some extra options become available... I took the flywheel off, and replaced it with a 1m length of 10mm steel plate that I'd drilled holes in in just the right places so I could bolt it up in place of the flywheel. With this bar in place, i rotated it so it was parallel with the ground, another wheelstand holding it up at the end furthest from the crank. Breaker bar on and reasonable amount of force later, the locktite cracked and it was done Thanks for all your help and suggestions guys! Cheers, -Shaun

Hi Deren, Yep, the clutch is on its way out... nasty burn marks on the pressure plate as well as the fly wheel as you can see here: Pressure plate: http://hades.arach.net.au/gallery2/v/Shaun...C00314.JPG.html Clutch plate: http://hades.arach.net.au/gallery2/v/Shaun...C00313.JPG.html Flywheel: http://hades.arach.net.au/gallery2/v/Shaun...C00316.JPG.html The fingers on the pressure plate are also unevenly worn and in some cases unevenly 'bent' inwards (towards the flywheel) where the thrust bearing has been making contact with it. Time for a new clutch and pressure plate I think. I'll also need to have the flywheel machined. Hi Colgf Yeah... sounds like mine is as tight as yours was, if not tighter Thanks for your tips. Good things to know. Cheers guys! -Shaun

Hi, I take my stuff to Steve at Steve's Shed in Wangara. Top bloke with plenty of experience across the board with all sorts of interesting high performance stuff. Steve is a automotive mechanical engineer with 26 years of experience, so I feel that I can trust him. Hes also happy for you to help with your car if you want to get your hands dirty and learn something too, which is what I'm doing. Hes doing some work for me currently with my R32 GT-R. Rust repairs first on the body and then swapping the motor and gearbox with one I just got from a half cut. Hes just moved workshops, so I don't think white/yellow pages would be up to date yet... Ph: 9409 7920. Cheers, -Shaun

Hi, Thanks... good to know that im not trying to turn it the wrong way now to bring in the big guns... im thinking that we'll have to try and lock up the flywheel after taking the gearbox off the back of it, and then getting a longer bit of tube over the breaker bar! I've also read that locktite will break down with heat... so perhaps heating it might be a good idea too just incase some idiot put locktite on it too. Cheers!, -Shaun

Hi All, I've just got a R32 GT-R half cut and stripped everything out of the shell. I thought I'd do the right thing and replace all the belts before I put it in my car. I'm having real difficulty removing the bolt that holds the harmonic balancer to the crank. Is this bolt a left hand (reverse) thread? In trying to undo this, we have had a 6' long bar attached to the yoke on the back of the gearbox and a breaker bar on the bolt on the front, with a 4' long bit of square tube over the end for extra leverage. We've managed to make the clutch slip in trying to get this undone! Jumping on the breaker bar dosn't help either. I had a look through the service manual, and there is no mention that the thread is reversed, however, on page EN-61 the diagram of the bolt shows the threads drawn on the bolt running in what appears to be a reverse direction. We've been hitting it several times a day over the last 4 days with a WD40 equivalent to try and loosen things up a bit, but it hasn't helped. One of the things suggested to me is to heat it up with an oxy torch and then have a go after its had a chance to heat soak into the crank, but I'm dubious about doing this... I'd rather not destroy the rubber in the harmonic balancer Any help would be greatly appreciated. Cheers! -Shaun

I would strongly suggest that you don't import a car from Japan. Buy one locally.. here is why... I imported a '89 r32 GTR about 6 months ago through an import broker who I won't name publicly because the admins will likely have a big cry. (PM me for more details). I paid a premium for it, and it turns out that it has severe rust problems in the floor pan at all 4 of the jacking points (on the underside, infront of rear wheels, and behind front wheels). 3 of which are holes all the way through the floorpan. The Engine is is rooted, as is the gearbox. the import broker has basically dropped me and my problems on the floor and has told me to deal with the guy in Japan he organised the buy from. The guy in Japan has been doing his best to get out of it as cheaply as possible. I suspect he is hoping that I will go away eventually. He is wrong... I'll persevere until the end. If I were doing it all again, I would happily pay up to $30,000 for a local r32 GTR in good condition. I would take the car to a reputable workshop to have a complete inspection done. I have been quoted by Hyperdrive in Malaga (Perth) that they do a pre-purchase examination for $120 (2 hrs labour). I would imagine this would include a compression and/or leak down test, as well as a dyno run, checks on suspension and chassis (rust etc). If some one selling a car is unwilling for you to have it checked over by a professional, walk away. Based on your post, Im thinking that you are looking at buying locally and not considering importing? Cheers, -Shaun

Hi All, Thanks for your replies... Thanks gazza750... I'll give them both a call on monday and have a chat. Yup. However, the vehicle wasn't cheap... it was just shy of $16,000 australian before import duty, ompliance etc etc. Based on the photos and the description, allegedly 60,000km, seemingly genuine, supported in every way by the rest of the description and photos etc, I assumed I'd managed to score something really worth having. However, it turns out not to be. This vehicle was several thousand more than the other vehicles available at the time, all of which had more realistic milage of anywhere from 100-160,000. I suspect mine was at 160,000km (doing hard miles at that) and the odometer was simply wound back. Thanks Mr Italy!... Sounds like this one is the go-er then Thanks CSRB25DE. Unfortunately I took the measurements about a month ago and never recorded them. So this is the likely the cause of the noise I'm hearing. I guess the moral of this story is never buy a car sight unseen, especially if its in another country. Does anyone have any more workshops or pannel beaters to recommend? Cheers! -Shaun

Hi Guys, Apologies if this is in the wrong section...... I wasn't sure exactly where to post. I thought this would be a good starting point I bought an R32 GT-R imported from Japan about 5 months ago thats a complete lemon. Its been mostly sitting in my garage, and that of a pannel beater who went out of business recently, waiting for various things to happen. Luckily, the guy in Japan that I bought it from is doing the right thing and helping me with getting it to an acceptable state. I need some recommendations for workshops in Perth to do the rebuild on the engine, as well as the rust repairs. Problems with the engine include: Noisy valve train - noise is most evident when parked, in neutral, after warming up, gently reving the engine up to about the 4000rpm mark, a noise like a flapping heat shield seems to be coming from the rear drivers side of the engine. I've had a good look and there dosn't seem to be any loose bits that could be causing this noise. I've pulled the rocker covers off and all the bolts/nuts for the cams are all torqued up correctly. I've also checked the clearance between the cam lobes and the tops of the valves and they are mostly ok, however there are a couple that are about 2-3 times the tollerance out. I have doubts as to if this would be enough to cause this noise. Cylinder 3 is as oily as anything. Compression is all over the show: Cyl1 - 160PSI Cyl2 - 155PSI Cyl3 - 170PSI Cyl4 - 150PSI Cyl5 - 135PSI Cyl6 - 155PSI 4WD system dosn't work. (pretty open ended problem, I know) Pannel beater who was originally going to do the work on my car before going out of business said that there was some noise from the bottom end. Gearbox has a noisy bearing on the input shaft (i've sourced a recently rebuilt gearbox to solve this already). On the rust side of things, there are rusted out holes right the way through the floorpan on both the drivers side and passenger side, front and rear where the jacking points are located. I suspect based on the fact that all the metal underside around these points is pushed up and deformed that the previous idiot owner in Japan has no clue about using a jack! It seems at this stage that the guy I've bought the car from in Japan is looking to cover the cost of labour on the engine rebuild and I may have to either partially or completely cover the cost of parts. At this stage, I'm not looking to spend a heap on the engine internals. I simply can't afford to currently. I'm guessing that as far as the engine rebuild goes, I'm up for a full set of bearings, valve guides, rings, potentially valve springs, gaskets, timing belt, other belts, hoses etc and other incidental bits during a rebuild. I'm also thinking that it may be a good idea to put an uprated oil pump in place as I've heard many times about the oil pumps on the r32 GTRs shitting themselves. Nengun have a Trust oil pump for $1200. Are there any other relatively inexpensive things I should do to the engine at this point in time to make it more reliable, or able to handle more power? I'd really appreciate any recommendations that anyone can give me on local workshops in Perth to do the engine rebuild (or workshops to avoid for that matter), or pannel beaters to fix the rust (and likewise to be avoided). Cheers, -Shaun