Beer Baron's Epic R32 Gtr Restoration And Build Up - Japanese Style!

[Beer Baron]

EDIT: I decided to move this thread into motorsport as that seems to be the place for all the builds these days. I know it's not an out and out track car but was built to do well on street, track and strip. and so far has done lots of different events in the hands of the new owner.

it's a little bit different but was great fun none the less..

Hi Guys,

A few people on here know about this car, but since it's pretty unique and such an epic rebuilt I thought I would make a thread about it.

The story is my mate bought this car in Japan (kyushu to be precise) in early 2007. It was bought at auction and was a 32 GTR in excellent condition. Body was ruler straight with no accident history or paint work and it came with the log books and owner history. The car was very standard but as is the case with any car that is nearly 20 years old the engine had seen better days and the bushes were quite worn. Some of the interior was very good but regular use bits a bit worn. Since it was such a nice, neat car he bought it anyway.

We discussed it for a while deciding what to do. We finally settled on the idea of sending it over here and I would organise an engine rebuild, basically just speccing all the parts I wanted and getting a local shop to restore it to it's former glory. The only downside was the shipping would be difficult as the car was now not running as it was partially disassembled to diagnose the engine. Then we had a brainwave. Why not build it up in Japan using a well known Japanese workshop and all 100% top quality japanese parts. We settled on the plan and them embarked on nearly a year long build process that has seen nearly every part under the bonnet replaced, huge amounts of interior replaced and more underbody bushes and suspension components than I can count. Add to that upgrades to the brakes and wheels and POWER as well. It is now one of the nicest street 32s I have ever seen. It was a great experience for me as I chose all the parts for the build and I suppose you could say laid out the blueprint for what I think is the killer street RB26 package and then let Tets and the team at Prime Garage execute the plan, along with some work at Nissan Japan in kokura.

Let's start with the parts I specc'd for the build:

Brand new 2007 RB26 crate motor from Nissan (we thought this would be the best base to start from. as everything is brand new from rocker covers to sump) cost $$$ but worth it imo.

We then had the engine completely pulled down and rebuilt and blueprinted to ensure everything was spot on and would be reliable for years to come

Brand new HKS GT-SS turbo kit (my personal choice for great street performance and with the right support mods able to get to 350rwkw)

Brand new Tomei stainless exhaust manifolds (the grand daddy of GTR manifold, nice thick wall stainless and the pipes are extruded not bent so they will last a long time.)

Brand new Tomei dump pipes (as above, the pick of GTR dumps, nice big open bell mouth design and amazing quality)

Brand new full Tomei gasket kit (inc 1.2mm head gasket, metal inlet and exhaust gaskets and the all important oil feed restrictor for the head)

Brand new Tomei Poncams 260 degrees, 9.15mm lift both intake and exhaust (great cam for street use and well matched to the turbos)

Brand new Tomei Type B valve springs (always a good idea when going bigger cams, good insurance)

Brand new Trust adjustable cam gears (will be used to dial in the cams for maximum response)

Brand new Trust timing belt (purely for a little more insurance even though the motor had a brand new nissan belt on it!)

Full Prime Garage head porting job and both inlet and exhaust manifolds port matched and inlet ported out (huge amount of hours spent here and Tets is a RB26 head work master, head work done with fast street use and possible track use in mind, squish zones left as is to give max response for street use)

Trust stainless front pipes

High flow cat

Trust cat back exhaust (lovely sound but not too loud, in keeping with the road use aim of this car we did not want a loud 'cop magnet' exhaust)

Brand new Sard 700cc injectors (great choice for a GTR of this level, car still starts and idles beautifully with these the ecu has no problem controller them, and they will allow for plenty of power)

Trust fuel rail (large diameter ensure no problem with feeding the injectors, plus it looks shiny! lol and it has the ability for us to switch it to a twin feed if the need arises)

Trust adjustable fuel pressure regulator (not much to say, it's an FPR.... meh)

Nismo Fuel pump and direct power feed from the battery to ensure it gets good voltage all the time

Brand new throttles and linkages from Nissan (old ones have the coating wear off and sometimes leak, we took no chances and bought brand new. cost a bit but worth it)

Brand new Apexi Power FC (this was the one thing I specc'd that Tets didn't initially agree with, he wanted us to use a HKS FCON V Pro as that is what he feels is best, but since the car was always destined to be shipped to australia when finished I wanted a power FC as it can be tuned at pretty much any performance shop, he saw the sense in that.)

Brand new Nissan VG30 (Z32) airflow meters (we kept AFMs as I think it's the way to go at this power level, twin 80mm meters don't pose any real restriction, and genuine nissan AFMs seem to be very reliable)

Brand new nissan O2 sensors (again, with street use in mind working O2 sensors is a must to get good economy when just cruising)

Brand new Greddy Profec B II boost controller (I chose this as I have enjoyed good success with one in my other GTR and they are well prices and compact too)

Trust full oil cooler kit with remote filter mount and built in oil-stat (important in my mind on any upgraded GTR even for street use, and the oil stat means the oil doesn't take too long to warm up, remote filter mount makes filter changed a breeze)

Trust Spec R intercooler (make sense to upgrade as everthing else was, even though it's not really needed at this level, it certainly doesn't hurt)

Brand new Trust Lightweight pulley kit for the anicallariey (looks very nice and anything rotating that you can lighten is a good thing)

Brand new Full Trust Super Suction intake kit (this replaces all the intake piping, new alloy intakes for the turbos, and all the piping from turbos to plenum, gets rid of the 'twin turbo' pipe for a much nicer Y shape merge pipe)

Brand new Tomei Sump baffles (help combat the all to common oil surge problem)

Full R33 GTR Brembo brake updrage with slotted rotors too (good street brake set-up, nice improvement over the factory sumitomos, but still easy and cheap to get pads and discs for)

R34 GTR wheels, forged 18X9 with new bridgestones (love the look of 34 GTR wheels on a GMG 32 so once the car was finished it didn't look 'right' on stock wheels. We had intended to keep the exterior 100% factory but it looks so nice with these and still very subtle)

Some of the interior parts replaces include:

door striker plates, latches

internal door handles (these fade and go white over the years)

centre console

gear and handrake boots

the trim panel around the rear windows (it often shrinks and sperates from the panel)

factory steering wheel

factory centre dash surround (updraged to late model 32 style)

ash try (again, late model spec)

gear stick surround (again late model)

climate control switches and panel

air conditioning vents

apart from those bits the interior is in original condition and amazingly nice. It still has the original tape deck head unit even! and no bubbles in the dash (very common 32 problem)

Once the engine work was completed we had it run in and tuned in a mammoth 8 hour dyno session at Prime Garage, they also tuned the boost controller. It is still on that 'run in' safe tune but I would say once it is given a more agressive tune, with more boost and some came gear adjustmet we will be looking at a comfortable 330rwkw+ and still very streetable and responsive.

I still have all the receipts for 90% of the build parts and over 200 photos of the build at various stages in Japan. I'll post some of them below.

Very keen to see what you guys think. I feel it's pretty close to the perfect fast street GTR.

THE PICS:

It all started with this, the heart of the beast:

Lastly, a preview of the finished product. More pics to come over the next few days when I have some time to load and link them.

EDIT:

a little spoiler, this is the dyno graph from the first mild tune in aus, still running about 17psi. and quite conservative.

[m3gtr]

bet ya cant wait to get it over there...

Its been a long time coming hasnt it?

Can i drive it before you ship it outta here?

Edited May 29, 2008 by m3gtr

[Beer Baron]

sorry mate, you are too late It's in aus already, been here for a month now. I've just been too lazy to get the thread up. but now I have my other prime garage motor (more track spec) on the way here for my other GTR it prompted me to put up a thread on this one.

[m3gtr]

sorry mate, you are too late It's in aus already, been here for a month now. I've just been too lazy to get the thread up. but now I have my other prime garage motor (more track spec) on the way here for my other GTR it prompted me to put up a thread on this one.

Farkn ell...how many of these things have you got.

We have a word for people like you in Japan... OTAKU!

This Tetsuya guy - he the hachi drifter?

[Beer Baron]

Farkn ell...how many of these things have you got.

We have a word for people like you in Japan... OTAKU!

This Tetsuya guy - he the hachi drifter?

nah, Tets is the owner of Prime Garage. I think the guy you are thinking of is tomo. tomo is in tokyo, tets is way down south - kyushu. haha, I'm not otaku. just baka.

[m3gtr]

OH SNAP! check out the prime garage bike!

Edited May 29, 2008 by m3gtr

[giant]

hmmm.... how do i approach the missus to add another r32 to the garage without loosing a nut!!

f*#k it just take the nut!!

[m3gtr]

nah, Tets is the owner of Prime Garage. I think the guy you are thinking of is tomo. tomo is in tokyo, tets is way down south - kyushu. haha, I'm not otaku. just baka.

ahh kewl. I thought twas the same thing...

You r a ばか　おたく．ですよ？

over tha top much>?

lol, 15 people in da thred lookin for da bazza

Edited May 29, 2008 by m3gtr

[kessian]

Bloody nice car, very subtle.

[Beer Baron]

a couple more pics of tuning etc. does anyone else think the tuner looks like takumi's dad from the initial D movie? I swear it's him! they use an elaborate tuning rig. HKS knock amp, wideband AF, Apexi pro software, EGT monitor, fuel pres monitor etc.

[m3gtr]

That porting job is first class. - love the extruded piping. Thats teh new school hotness.

I wouldnt say initial D...more ken watanabe than that going all samurai up on that shit,lol.

Edited May 29, 2008 by m3gtr

[PAV34]

That list Sounds freakin awesome, congrats

[Beer Baron]

hmmm.... how do i approach the missus to add another r32 to the garage without loosing a nut!!

f*#k it just take the nut!!

you can get by on just one for sure mate. you've already proven your 'boys' can swin so half as many wont hurt.

Adam: you know what the lovely part is, I can read your kana! hai, soo desu ne.

[m3gtr]

you can get by on just one for sure mate. you've already proven your 'boys' can swin so half as many wont hurt.

Adam: you know what the lovely part is, I can read your kana! hai, soo desu ne.

この　エンジン　わ　いくら　でした　か？

ちょ　たかい　でしょ、ね？　はちじゅまん？

おい！いま　わ　あなた　の　インボクス　チェク　はいやく。

Edited May 29, 2008 by m3gtr

[Gts-t]

Nice work baron, you have outdone yourself again

Looks abosolutely mint!

[Beer Baron]

glad to see the feedback is positive so far! I am in love with it, and mark did not want to part with it. but he already has a mint 32 GTR in his garage that he is storing for all eternity, and I have my other grey 32 GTR too. so don't ask why we did all this. because we are nuts and wanted to bring a GTR that was a bit tired and on the brink of retirement back to life!

[Pattygtst]

This must of been so much fun, i day dream about this shit all the time.

Hats off

[R32gts-t]

so hot!

it's great to see people are doing these car properly...

[Beer Baron]

adam, sorry it takes me a while to read. 1st sentence: can't say how much too much! hachiju-man might cover just the motor, but all the other gear we are looking more than double that, but I really don't want to say I didn't 100% understand the last bit, might resort to google, or just send me pm. onegaishimasu.

[djr81]

Dyno sheet, Baron. Dyno sheet.