Hey, yeh, i bought a series two stagea about 9 months ago. My friend Bryan has been doin backyard fabrication and performance since before he even had a car. Nowadays, he has an RB26 from an R33 stuffed into an early 80's HB Mazda coupe, which he actually manages to drift at Barbagallo. So, we set about slowly bombin out the Stagea in Bryans backyard perfomance workshop. Apart from some 20"s and a blow off valve, we kept it completely stock and took it down the 1/4 mile. Managed to pull a 15.7, which we were happy with, though i did have the synchro mode on the whole time, whether or not this would have helped either way.... So after a few more months, we did a few more minor modifications, a turbo back exhaust with remote muffler and a boost gauge. I was looking at a decent power upgrade, but i was also tossing up doing a manual conversion, as the auto is lame. While on a rare holiday, my gearbox started playing up. It was randomly just getting stuck in 3rd from park. Just randomly but, sometimes it would drive and shift fine, next time, stuck in 3rd. Anyway, faced with the possibility of a busted box, but wanting more power, i decided to look into a RB26 halfcut. managed to find an R32, 42000kms with panels, lights, rear diff and k-frame for $6400. So, with one week of holidays left, we have set about doin a GTR Stagea conversion. We aim to have it at least running in two weeks, cos the car is my daily driver and i kinda need it.
Right now, its the end of day 3, and we have both engines on the floor and all the necessary parts swapped between them. Interior of the stagea is fairly dismantled, center console and footbrake are out. The dash is out, cos i wanted the GTR dash with the front torque gauge. It looked like it would fit, almost kinda did, but, back in with the original. Anyway, we have got a whole bunch of useful information so far from what we have discovered, main thing, dont believe what everyone says on these forums. While some people know exactly what they are talking about, im finding out, expensively sometimes, that most people dont know shit. We would appreciate any help or info anyone has in relation to the conversion, my main concerns are the ATTESA system- will it work with the R32 ecu, wheels etc?. The ECU- can i just unplug the stagea ECU, everything seems to work without it? I'm sure we are going to come across a million more problems and questions as we go, but we are recording our progress, and we will post some updates, when i can be screwed, cos i got a lot to do tomorrow....
