Ben's R32 Gtst Build

[sav man]

I had a damaged wastegate line, which gave the engine some being boost spikes (went off the scale of the map sensor) on Friday, and the overheating problems started and got worse from there.

It's a tomie super grommet, but I won't be using that again as they warp the deck of the block

[Roy]

So the plan from here? Always wondered about the merit of machiing head and block to take 26 studs. I really want to rebuild my RB20 and flog off the 25DE

[sav man]

I've already done that.

Just going to pull it down and see where it failed. If the block is to far gone I'll just replace it

Edited April 1, 2015 by sav man

[sav man]

No in car from the V8 Round. Foxtel put an end to that, but someone has uploaded the broadcast to youtube

Edited April 1, 2015 by sav man

[sav man]

[sav man]

A video that was put together for Targa Hellyer

Edited April 7, 2015 by sav man

[ssxRicho]

Very cool

[sav man]

Been a while since an update. The engine is stripped down and I got a replacement block which is at the machine shop. The old block has had it's day.

I had been noticing a pool a silicone under the car whenever is was parked for a length of time. Turns out one of of the rear subframe bushes was leaking it out. So I've dropped the subframe out to put new bushes in it.

[Roy]

Any cracks in the subframe? Mine had a few

[sav man]

I'll have a look for that. I just replaced the subframe in my stag for that reason, that was alloy though. Where is yours crack?

[iruvyouskyrine]

Usually it's around the LCA mounts. Have seen it on 2 different cars.

[Roy]

Ditto, front lca in particular.

I am in the middle of installing the new front end, rear end and gearbox. lol ony taken me 12 months...hope you rip into it quicker than me!

[sav man]

Subframe is all good. Must be the protective oil coating that it got in the early years.

Block will be back from the machine shop by the end of the week, so I will be able to start assembling that on the weekend.

I am ditching the Nissan optical CAS and going to a High Octane trigger kit. The RPM trace is pretty rough and wouldn't of been helping with reliability.

[XRATED]

24-1 cas disk smooths out the signal significantly.

Not as accurate as a propped crank trigger, but a huge improvement (I did upgrade the keyway spine at the same time).

J.

[sav man]

I did look into that option. But from a reliability point of view, the 20+ year old Nissan optical sensor is still used and likely to fail.

For a road car I'd run the replacement CAS disk.

[sav man]

It’s been a while, but it’s time for an update. 

I entered the Sports GT support race for the V8 Supercars at Phillip Island for Nov 2015 

I installed new sealing rings instead of a head gasket. They require the block to machined similar to o ringing, they are able to grow and follow the head and have a copper gasket with 3bond for the water galleries. 

 

 

 

 

 

I also started building a new winged sump 

 

 

 

2 weeks before I was due to leave for Phillip Island Dad was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and went in to hospital.  So I parked the new sump and continued to put the car together.  The car was ready a couple of days before I was due to leave, or so I thought.  I got the car tuned and found my Chinese 1zzfe coils were good for 1 dyno pull before dying, so I ran down the road and got some VDO ones (which are still fine) finished the tune and took the car home to find oil under the car. 

I cracked the oil filter mount that bolts to the block  as the gasket was damaged and not giving an even surface.  The crack was almost invisible to the eye, but it was opening up under pressure. 

The day I was due to leave, the doctor called us in and said Dad only had days left to live and advised me not to go, but Dad insisted that I go.  My mate got hold of a filter mount at 1pm and dropped it to me, I fitted it and found it didn't leak after 30 secs of running so I drove back to the hospital to have a beer with dad and drove to the boat. 

 

The first session at Phillip Island my rear tierod came loose, giving me 4mm toe in on the drivers side.  As the weekend went on I found the car wash pushing coolant out for the first couple of laps of each race, and the coolant pressure was spiking.  But I continued on and finished the weekend and got some good wheel to wheel racing in. 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vL3z9rH06g0

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeeVfNx6w3c

 

In hindsight I realised that I hadn't retentioned the head studs, so the head was lifting, but the sealing rings filled the gap once the cylinder temp raised. 

 

I returned home and Dad died 1 week later.  Shortly after the funeral I decided to run Dad's Subie in Targa instead of the Skyline, as the GT4 class is far more prominent.  I also pulled the head of the Skyline to fix it in case I had to fall back on it. 

Once I got the head off, I could see that the cylinders were leaking everywhere and retentioning headstuds is done for a reason.  As it turned out that's all I did on the Skyline for 12 months, it just sat in the corner of the shed feeling sad. 

The Subie took far more work than I thought to convert to the GT4 regs from the Modern regs so it was all very last minute.  I got to the even with high expectations wanting to do well for Dad and it was the first big rally for me and my girlfriend together.  She had done another event 2 months before Targa with another competitor as a warm up, as I didn't have a car ready, but she was different when she came back. 

We started the event well, and lead for 2 days, but I blew 3 tyres because I'd put too much camber on the car (only worked out after the event), had a couple of offs, and as the event went on I was continually having to fetch the mrs out of the other competitors room.  After the after party she stayed the night 'on the couch'.  After some witness statements of her actions/drunken confessions I kicked her out of home for cheating (turns out it was a few over the years...all racers).  After that I didn't look at the cars for a long time and considered selling them and not going racing again. 

 

Late in 2016 I got back into the Skyline.  I found I had valve float on the inlet valves, so I replaced all the inlet valves and put extra spacers under the springs for more preload.  I put all the engine back together again and hit the starter..... 0 compression on any cylinder.  A few days later I pulled the head back off, everything looked fine, so I put it all back together again.  This time it had compression on 3 then 4 then 5 cylinders, but not 6.  I pulled the engine out and the head off again and found a bent valve.  After talking to some people I worked out that the lifters got gunked up, as they were sitting in a box for 12 months.  I replaced the valve and pulled all the lifters apart and cleaned them.  I also completed my new sump and installed that  while the engine was out. 

 

 

 

So this time when I put it all back together the car started and ran on 6 cylinders.  I've done some road testing and haven't pushed and coolant plus the coolant pressures seem fine.  I've event retentioned the head studs.  So the car is now ready for it's first event in a long time, the Ross Auto Corsa.  After that I will be using it for Circuit and AASA tarmac rallies 

 

Edited March 9, 2017 by sav man

[Duncan]

well that is a hell of an update, life really knows how to send challenges.  Good to hear you still have the time and interest in getting the skyline running properly.

[sav man]

I gave the car it's first shakedown on the weekend and the Ross Auto Corsa.  Played with the setup and boost a bit, the below run is at 10psi boost (usually run 20)

 

Edited March 13, 2017 by sav man

[nk7]

Appreciate the effort and time taken the post. Probably therapeutic. Burning fuel is good for the soul I hear. Awesome start to the year though

[Komdotkom]

Hi Ben,

Can you eleborate a bit more on the issues that you had with the 1zz coils?

I've just bought the 1NZ coil kit for my R32 tarmac rally car, now you have me worried. The coils that I have are Denso coils according to the manufacturing stamps, but as you know these days things are not always as they seem.

Great work on the car with amazing attention to detail, thanks for taking the time to document the build. Are you planning on doing any tarmac stuff in Victoria?