Shoota_77

Reading wrong as in high, low, erratic?

$2000 is a load of crap!! It costs $75 to transport a car from one side of Melbourne to the other. Storage? $1900 over a few weeks, wow, I need to buy a wreckers just to rent out some space! I hope for your sake there's somewhere you can go to fight it because it's a load of crap in my mind. Don't just dessert it, fight for it!

If you can get someone else to maintain the pressure on the breaker bar while it's being heated that will make life easier and you don't over or under heat it. IT will let go as soon as it reaches the right temp. Don't burn him though, he might not come back....

Was that run done with iceskates on???? It was seriously all over the place! Must be quite a handful to drive with it skating all over the place like that!

Leverege is the answer!. I presume it's a 1/2 plug where you use the breaker bar or ratchet straight into the plug? If yes, put the breaker bar on it and put and extension onto the breaker bar (piece of pipe). They get overtightened when reinstalled for some reason. They really only need to be firmly tightened not done up like they're holding the whole car together like they seem to be most of the time! Otherwise you could try a bit of heat (a bit, not glowing red!) around the bung. This will hopefully soften any seallant that's on it and enlarge the housing a little to loosen it as the alloy will expand quicker than the steel plug. Good luck!

Yeah, they never clean their spoons.....

Great looking car Allan! I couldn't find mentioned where you got your surge tank from? I want an under car mounted one similar to that. Thanks.

Is the cooling fan operating correctly? If it's not engaging properly when you stop it won't suck air through the radiator properly to replace the action of the airflow from driving. The gurgling sound won't be the actual leak, it's the coolant boiling in the block. It may be because there is a leak and as Jeff says, pressure as well as the coolant raises the boiling point of the fluid. But you say you tested up to 100psi so pressure shouldn't be the problem. That's WAY above what a normal system would operate at (from my recollection anyway!).

I've got twin 3 inch for the purposes of a 30/26 but haven't run it yet. Piggaz have you got any piccies of yours? Do you run cats then just one set of muffs per pipe or resonators as well?

Gee she's a bit rattly! Did you prime the oil pump (get oil pressure) prior to start up? Should a good fun once it's all sorted!

Shit mate, sorry to hear that! Yes the guy I bought it off is a top bloke. He bought it off someone else under the same understanding that I did (that it was basically a brand new engine). Unfortunately it was far from it and very poorly done as well. Thankfully for me I bought the right one. Still a massive pain in the arse though as I'm starting all over again with only a set of rods to show for it!! I was hoping to bang a head on mine and off i go but no.... Ah well, it's all good fun! Means I get to build it exactly how I want it now, albeit 3 months later than hoped by the time it's done. You should name and shame your guy if he doesn't offer any assistance so others can be wary of him in the future.

I pulled one of the main studs out and it's not in upside down. There's no allen key head either end so must be another brand. The nuts are ARP however so not sure what happened there?? Finally ordered my pistons today after a heap of toing and froing with the shop in US where I'm getting them from. It's hard when only a few hours of each day overlap between Aus and USA. It's going to take 5 or 6 weeks to get the pistons which is going to be a killer.... Specs of the pistons are custom made CP forged 86.5mm, 9.5:1 comp ratio (with 26 head), ceramic coating to piston crown, low friction coating to the skirts, 22mm gudgeon pins (wrist pin as the Yanks say). Decided to go with the coatings to reduce friction a bit ( teflon on skirts) and reduce likelihood of detonation (ceramic on crowns). It cost another $50 per piston to get both coatings done. It might be overkill but if it means I can poke another few PSI in then it's worth it. I'm pondering the idea of getting the combustion chamber and valves ceramic coated as well to really make the thing detonation proof (as always up to a point anyway). Should look something like this (just the coating, not the piston itself)- I'll get my turbos hotside (and possibly exh manifolds) ceramic coated to drop engine bay temps a bit too. Need to drop my crank off to the machinist to get the shagged main bearing journal checked out to see if it's salvageable or if i need a new crank too. It was supposed to have had a longer oil pump drive snout on it but it didn't..... Another thing I've had to order. Ordered a set of oil gallery plugs as well, one blanking and the other 1.3mm orifice. I also ordered a new CAS as when I got my 26 tuned it seemed like the timing was fluctuating a bit so worth the investment I think. I think that's it for now. New block has hopefully started getting tidied up, heaps of other stuff to do before the pistons eventually get here. With my slow rate of progress I'm sure the slugs will be here before I'm ready for them.

It could be dropping because of the air that is still trapped in the system slowly working it's way out..... I wouldn't panic yet!

Ok, that covers most of it then. I would definately flush out the whole system and put in proper coolant before going too much further. What is the highest point on the engine that carries coolant that you can remove to allow the air out? Using my method from my first post, rasie the fill height of the coolant and remove the hose or whatever is highest to allow any further air to get out.

My first guess would be the coolant boiling when you stop due to having no air flow through the radiator. Did you replace the old fluid with proper anti boil coolant? Proper coolant as opposed to just corrosion inhibitor raises the boiling point of the coolant to prevent it boiling if the cooling system can't keep the temp under 100 degrees c. It might pay to bleed the coolant from a higher point. Put a funnel or something that will seal in the radiator neck so that you can have the level higher than the radiator. Then open the bleed screw (I presume CA's have them, most Nissans do) and bleed out any additional air. Tighten up the screw while the level is still higher in the funnel than the bleed screw. If you've got good coolant and it's bled properly then you need to check your radiator to make sure not too many bent fins and not blocked with bugs and crap. Is the radiator old? It may be blocked. Check the thermostat to make sure it's operating correctly (remove it and put it in boiling water to make sure it opens at the right temp (have thermometer in the water). If everything else looks ok then you might need to have a look at your water pump to make sure the fins aren't corroded. That's a longshot though. That should give you a few things to try anyway. Good luck!

Unlikely. Only if because they weren't on the injector and it got dropped it could damage the injector tip.

Thats the pintle caps he would talking about. They protect the pintle from getting damaged and help prevent fowling up on the injector tip The injector should just pull out of the rail once removed or if a different type will have a clip that slides around the injector to lock it in place. You can remove it with any pliers.

I'd guess at sticky injector holding open. Maybe the pintle got damaged during the process and is sticking open. I agree with the above as to how to diagnose the cylinder. Work out which cylinder it is (and if it is fuel), providing it is fuel, remove the injector and change it to a new cylinder, see if the problem moves with the injector. If yes, injector rooted, if no you obviously have another issue (electrical) Good luck!

Hey guys, thanks for the feedback. Glad to know someone is actually reading my waffle! With the headstuds, with how rooted/wrong everything else is I wouldn't be surprised if they were in upside down! I'll pull one out when I get a chance and have a look.

Sorry if this is a repost but though it was a pretty cool project- http://www.speedhunters.com/2010/07/car_spotlight_gt_gt_rocket_bunny_r33_pickup/ This is it in build, unfortunately a lot of the later phots have dropped off- http://rocketbunnyscotty.wordpress.com/the-skyline-r33-pick-up-build/

Dads little "trade assistant". He's a great help. By help I mean massive pain in the arse! He's showing potential though!

Ok, going back a step, here is the piston to bore clearance I was talking about (hopefully this works!)- http://s933.photobuc...3AFEB8FCA26.mp4 This is a picture showing the horrible attempt by whoever built it of drilling the tensioner stud hole into the head stud hole- Continuing from where we left off, the next thing I discovered was when I removed the sump there was a huge amount of "material" in the sump. By material I mean, copper/brass bearing material, excess sealant and other junk. You can see the pretty copper below- I pulled all of the pistons out to check the big end bearings and all of them were in pretty good condition, no spun big ends which would explain the bearing material in the sump. They were slightly scored from the crank which is scored itself. The rods are SEXY. They're one of the solidest rods I've seen in any engine. Very heavy though which will affect initial rev up but should hold good revs which can help spooling back up out of the corners as the engine doesn't drop off speed as quickly- So seeing as big ends were fine it had to be a main. Removed the girdle and it was pretty obvious where the problem was. The thrust bearing was rooted. It was severely worn on both sides and the main bearing face had started to de-laminate. It hadn't spun yet but it was a bees dick away from it. I'm not sure what caused it but something isn't right. The bearing possibly had too little clearance between the thrust surfaces of the crank and the bearing which caused it to heat up and stuff the bearing. The crank should be salvageable after machining- Here you can see some of the random bits of sealant that was making its way through the engine. A good lesson in why you don't overdo sealant application in assembly! The bearing was minutes/hours from killing itself- There were other little bits and pieces but I think you get the general idea, the engine is a pig! Now I promised a happy ending to the story and no, it wasn't at the hands of a Thai masseuse! The guy I bought the engine off (who will remain nameless unless he gives me the ok to name him) is an absolute legend. As I bought the engine off him based on it being in a certain condition, he was incredibly decent enough to cover what it will cost to get to that condition. Truly a standup guy and I hope he's happy for me to mention his name as it's actions like his that restore my faith in humanity. The block is at 87.5mm and needs a bore so it's done it's dash. Unfortunately the pistons which would have been reusable are no use to me as it would mean having to bore out a new block to 87.5mm which would be wasteful as there's no life left in a 87.5mm block. So, new block, new pistons on the way and reusing rods and crank (hopefully if not too rooted) plus new bearings throughout. Tossing up if I do a low fill Hardblok and would love some feedback on if guys have had any overheating issues with a low fill?? So hopefully should have pistons in a few weeks and we can get cracking again...

Bottom End Now, this is where shit went bad, I purchased a previously built RB30 bottom end that had done minimal work. Sounded like an awesome setup that I could quickly check bearing clearances and ring gaps, whack on the head and off we go! No, wrong! As soon as I took delivery of the engine I eagerly peeled off the tape covering the deck of the block and saw what appeared to be slightly more than near new. I pushed on one of the pistons that was at TDC and it had MASSIVE clearance. Thought uh oh! I won't bore you with all the details but the pictures can do most of the talking. (Now this story does have a good ending due to an amazingly decent bloke (who I bought the bottom end off) but I'll get to that later- The first attempt at drilling the tensioner hole went straight into one of the front headstud holes! It caved in a big chunk of the thread, rendering that head stud pretty useless for clamping force. A bolt was then screwed into the hole and cut off then a new hole drilled (crooked of course!)- Sorry to cut this short but I'll have to get the other disaster photos off my phone to post up the evidence..

Top End Last week I pulled the head off my spare RB26 to prep to go onto my impending RB30 bottom end. The thing is a bit of a pig so hopefully comes up ok after a good cleanup- Plans for the head are cleaning up the ports, crack test, pressure test, reface head, regrind valves (3 angle seats) and general tidy up of oil returns, etc. I'll be putting in my Tomei Poncam Type B's and Brian Crower valve springs/titanium retainers.

(Not mine, just interesting!) I remember hearing about this car when I was doing my mechanical apprenticeship in the late 90's. It was all built from brand new parts in Echuca by (from memory) an auto electrician. A truly amazing car when you consider it was built in the mid to late 90's when the R series Skylines were only new. The VL is a pretty light car so it would be awesome fun to drive especially considering one of the biggest problems with the VL's was they didn't go around corners! Mine felt like a snow plow when you wanted to go around corners! With the AWD I'm sure that issue has been greatly improved. It's a lot of money but considering how rare it is and much work has gone into it, it would be an awesome addition to a car nuts collection. Good fun to throw around a track every now and then. I love how it's such a sleeper too, you'd give a few people a bit of a surprise with it. http://australianmusclecarsales.com.au/muscle/93427