Latest Shenanigans

[RobMz]

Hey Guys and girls,

It's been a while since I've seen any of you good people so I thought I'd post up my latest round of shenanigans.

Let's see, where to begin. I suppose at the latest acquisition to the stable. Here she is in all her glory, a Aus spec 1987 Silo. Complete with Holden spec RB30 Auto, and by Holden spec I mean the original motor died and the previous owner threw in a 30 from a VL.

Everything on this poor bastard is just about clapped out but the plan is to turn her into a fun little club day circuit car. As she stands in the shed at the moment the entire interior is removed with our next stage being sound deadening removal. Might try the old dry ice trick for that one. Anyway it's given my father and I an excuse to tinker away at something.

What else has been happening? Well last Sunday the daily and I contested the BP Midland / Pedders No Bull Sprint Series at Winton Motor Raceway. It was the second round of the year. I finished the day 15th in my class out of 18. I know your all looking at that and saying, "what poor form," but I look at it as my near stock daily beat three people and scored a new PB for me at 1.47:6500 round the 3km National Circuit. I know there is a little more in her, I just need to learn to pedal faster. Great day though, highly recommend the trip down to Winton, it's a damn good giggle of a track.

Well that's about all from me. I'll leave you guys with a nice pic we took when we went to Mt Hotham a few weeks back.

Stay safe everyone, hope to come out and see everyone again soon.

RobM-z

[Randon_I_Am]

Good Times...

[Shell]

Thats an awesome pic!

So what's your daily you did Winton in, the black R33?

[ZCR]

thats a great pic of your R33!!!

[RobMz]

So what's your daily you did Winton in, the black R33?

Yep. Its a '95 series 1.5 gts-t. It's sitting on a SydneyKid Bilstein street package, and the obligatory exhaust and FMIC. Other than that its bog stock. Made 160 ish awkw on the last dyno run she did a year or two back. Its no power monster, but its an absolute hoot to grab it by the scruff of the neck and throw it threw the corners.

[RobMz]

thats a great pic of your R33!!!

It was taken about half way up Mt Hotham in VIC. Its a good little drive, that spots a lookout just off to the side of the road. We saw that car sized patch of snow and thought, "oh we have to do this." I can tell you what though, if it took 5 sec to get a run up and plough her into the middle of the snow bank, it took about 10 minutes of slipping around, back and filling, and wondering if I should have packed the snow chains before we got out of it. If nothing else we got some good looks from the park rangers.

[MIVEC]

That's an awesome photo, top work!

[Factory 5]

good to see someone having fun at winton too!

I plan to get my R30 out there sometime near the end of this year for something similar like you have done...

the challenge is keeping it registered and roadworthy

[Sir Lord Van Von Vader'ham]

the 33s ok... i supose

But the 31#1 looks neat as!

[RobMz]

HA.

I've always had a thing for the 30's and 31's. I think it's because if you look at them in profile they look like the cars you would draw as a kid.

[RobMz]

Thought I'd drag this thread out of the vault rather than start a new one.

Latest things to be done to the R31.

A couple of weeks back we got 10 kg of dry ice and set to work removing the sound deadening. It was probably a little bit of over kill to get that much but we got a nice layer across the whole floor pan. We let is sit for about half an hour and then instead of beating the hell out of the floor with a hammer I took an air chisel on a very sedate psi to it. It worked better than I ever could have hoped for. The stuff came off in chunks, and I mean big chunks, no slithers anywhere. I was quite surprised and very happy with the results. All in all it took about 2 hours from go to woe with all the obligatory beer stops in the middle, so time well spent me thinks.

I also bought some S13 front lower control arms from another forums sponsor to kick off the suspension conversion. They are OEM replicas, nothing flash, but appear to be a reasonable bit of kit.

Decided whilst they were new and shiny to box them up. I've never done it before but my suspension bloke recommended that at least the inner bush be boxed up. So off to a mates workshop to weld them up.

Rough job but effective. The inner side is done as well but you can't see it in the photo. A quick lick of paint and all sorted. Not sure if it will achieve anything or not but provided entertainment for a few hours.

[RobMz]

Hey guys and girls,

Dragging this one out of the vault again for sit rep and to field a few questions.

So the 31 project is slowly moving forward, even if it is at snails pace these days.

We've re-bushed the entire rear end, new sway bar, adjustable pan-hard rod and boxed up the lower trailing arms. We were tossing up whether or not to shim the diff up but decided not to waste our time. A kaaz centre will make it's way in eventually but that's down the parts list a fair way at this stage. The axles also got sent round to the local engineers shop and re-drilled to a 5 stud pattern. The rear guards got some hammer love and the lip rolled up. (That one surprised me too. It was quite easy to fold that edge up with only very very minor deformation in the paint).

Some S13 cusco coilovers slotted in, and we changed the tops to a cusco pilo ball import r31 hat so we didn't have to do the dodge drill extra holes in the top of the strut tower. The hats and shocks assembled together quite neatly however the 31 hat spring seat was approx 2mm larger diameter than the s13 springs but a quick machine back of the spring seat and it was all good. In the end there was only really the thickness of the powdercoat in it.

So apart from the guts of the diff the rear is sorted. Some r33 gtr rims tuck in nicely, the rear brake callipers now need to be rebuilt (mainly for my piece of mind), and some new rotors and pads.

So on to the questions. I know there are a few guys on here playing around with 30's and 31's and was hoping for some first hand experience.

The rear brake rotors (on the AUS 31) are solid 10.4mm thick. Can you get a vented disc in this thickness? Seems a little thin to me but to be fair I haven't really looked into this yet.

The front end is getting a s13 make over as well. I've got some r33 gts-t callipers that will be apart of this set up. We will be running r33 callipers up front and stock 31 rear callipers. I'm not entirely convinced the r31 brake booster and master cylinder are up to driving this combination. I had thought something along the lines of r33 gts-t booster and master. My concern with this is that there may be too much bias to the rear doing this. So the question hidden in here is, has anyone who has done the r33 calliper on a r31 done anything about the booster or master? If so how was your bias? Keep in mind this car will never see public roads again so I have no problems running a proportioning valve if that needs to be done to address this issue.

Anyway if you've gone through that conversion I'd love to hear your thoughts on the matter.

On a side note, I made it out to 'Friday night not at the museum' for the first time. Was good to meet some new people and catch up with everyone else. I'll leave you all with mobile phone pic's of the 31's current status.

Cheers,

Rob

[Frink]

am digging the GTR wheels....

[Sir Lord Van Von Vader'ham]

am too diggin dem wheels...

The GTS/GTS-X came out with vented rear rotors (size?), but 32 onwards has solid ones and start at about 18mm thick.

Im running (as is bluprint) 32 fronts and 31 rears and it seems to be a little soft when you first push in but after that your face is on the windscreen and it always locks up the fronts first. if your going to be running a hydro, just chuck in a valve at the same.

I would like to catch up and have a lookie at ur box....

[RobMz]

Would love to have people come round and take a squiz. The more knowledge the better.

Unfortunately the car is in Albury, southern NSW. I work in Canberra and play back home. Thats why she's taking so long to build (well that and a lack of funds). Too much work, not enough shenanigans.

If anyones ever down their the same time I am it would be all cheese and crackers.

Would like to meet some of you 31 aficionado's at some point too.

[StinkyPoo]

Your build is very cool.

Sorry I can't provide any advice. I'm trying to keep my car more standardish to keep reliability and sanity!

I'll be passing through Albury this saturday..... I'm not sure how much time I'll have though.

Edited October 26, 2009 by StinkyPoo

[RobMz]

Well i'll be working here in Canberra this Sat so will miss out on that one.

The point of the build was to give my father and I something to play around with so we would stop playing with our road cars. It hasn't helped.

Have a safe trip.

[Factory 5]

try

r31skylineclub

Basically the bible site of R31

Full of boagans and fully sick burnout kings and dyno queens, but if you can sort through all the bull 5hit ther is some really good info in there.

Also i think if you download the RDA or DBA or whatever brake catalogue, take note of the R31 rear disk sizes and other details, see if a disk from another vehicle or make within the catalogue will match. I vaguely remember Peugeot may have a similar size slotted and vented disk that can be machined down to suit.

As for R31's there is so much that has been done or can be done it isnt funny, but you are the FIRST ive seen GTR rims on, looks GREAT!

If youre after some fun here is a good recepie for 190rwkW:

Darkhalf ECU Remap (search the R31 site)

ebay stainless highmount manifold

t3/t4 hybrid turbo, enzed oil lines (very easy)

VL turbo injectors

3 inch exhaust

ebay intercooler, custom pipes and joiners

all can be done on a stock block and internals no worries, just make sure the oil supply is good, and all ther electrics are good

we put it all on a mates car in Vic in 6 hours, was a most enjoyable trip home!

[Factory 5]

http://wiki.r31skylineclub.com/index.php?title=Rearbrakes2

this is a link to rebuildin rear calipers

note particularly the 'self tightening ratchet' assembly, a universal issue with these rear calipers! only needs doing around the 150,000km plus mark

[RobMz]

Thanks MAG86.

Been over to the 31 club a fair bit. They have a good wiki. Thanks for the link.