Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

Hi all,

I live in the UK, driving an R33 GTS Facelift, with an RB20E engine in it.

I now know that I have the basic Skyline and tuning is poor, has anyone done any thing with a N/A GTS like mine?

Any pointers on Induction, Exhaust and those lovely 4-stud wheels.

Regards

Mark

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/29510-r33-gts-rb20e/
Share on other sites

Hi Mark,

I had an R33 GTS (RB20E) for over 2 years. Great car, just lacked power (and the choice of aftermarket wheels was limited by the 4 studs...) As for tuning options, even here in Japan I had major hassle trying to find suitable parts. In the end I decided it was better economics (for me) to save my money towards a more tunable (or more powerful) car, but it all comes down to personal choice.

If you'd like to squeeze some extra horses out of the engine, a pod filter (Trust does one for the RB25DE which *should* fit the RB20E), exhaust (fujitsubo make one suitable, I think) and wheels (Rays CV europe in my case)...

Good luck!

Dave

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/29510-r33-gts-rb20e/#findComment-602749
Share on other sites

air filter, headers + exhaust, some head porting, some cams + cam gears, aftermarket ECU

after all that, i dont think you would much more then a an RB25DE engine's power output, and would have stuff all drivability.

having said that, im sure a decent cat back and a pod will make the engine sound a whole lot more better and more enjoyable to drive.

wheels, the Jap brands make some very nice 4 stud wheels, but they are expensive. enkei's and vols are some that spring to mind

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/29510-r33-gts-rb20e/#findComment-604058
Share on other sites

Dave, Nismodified,

Thanks for the Tips, will probably kep the old girl going for a few more years, as it owes me a bob or two. The filter and exhaust ideas sound a bit of fun. Will they improve initial lift off from 0-2000 rpm, as the car can shift when you wind it up, induces wheel spin at the drop of a hat, but seems flat below 3000rpm ?

Dave,

Seen your site it proves an interesting read, made feel I was not the only one to have bought an RB20E Skyline :Oops:

Regards

Mark

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/29510-r33-gts-rb20e/#findComment-606914
Share on other sites

Mark,

Thanks for checking out my site. To be honest I do miss my old GTS, it was a rock solid car, never let me down and looked great. If I could have kept it along with my new car I would.

Regarding power/torque below 3,000RPM - you've got to be careful when choosing an aftermarket exhaust - get something too big, you'll lose a lot of back pressure and you're low end power/torque is gonna get worse, not better.

as an example, look at this power graph for a Fujitsubo Legalis R exhaust - notice bottom end power and torque are way, way lower for the aftermarket exhaust than the std one...

LegalisR_torque.jpg

Their super R shows an improvement, but you're not really gaining much below 3K RPM:

LegalisSuperR_torque.jpg

Just saying, choose an aftermarket exhaust carefully and make sure it's specifically designed for an N/A car.

Dave

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/29510-r33-gts-rb20e/#findComment-607039
Share on other sites

Dave,

I will check out the exhaust aspect carefully as you suggest, will also look at UK distibution for the Japanese exhauts.

I see from your site you have the R34 GTV, how much extra do we pay in the UK through importers and dealers for Skylines ?

I would like to upgrade as you have, but having paid more than I feel I should, am a little wary.

Is it worth waiting for the R34 range to come into price range or get an older R32 GTR, would value your advice.

Regards

Mark

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/29510-r33-gts-rb20e/#findComment-608343
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • Update 3: Hi all It's been a while. Quite a lot of things happened in the meantime, among other things the car is (almost) back together and ready to be started again. Things that I fixed or changed: Full turbo removal, fitting back the OEM turbo oil hardlines. Had to do quite a bit of research and parts shopping to get every last piece that I need and make it work with the GT2860 turbos, but it does work and is not hard to do. Proves that the previous owner(s) just did not want to. While I was there I set the preload for the wastegates to 0,9bar to hopefully make it easier for the tuner to hit the 370hp I need for the legal inspections that will follow later on. Boost can always go up if necessary. Fitted a AN10 line from the catch can to the intake hose to make the catchcan and hopefully the cam covers a slight vacuum to have less restrictive oil returns from the head and not have mud build up as harshly in the lines and catch can. Removed the entire front interior just shy of the dashboard itself to clean up some of the absolutely horrendous wiring, (hopefully) fix the bumpy tacho and put in LED bulbs while I was there. Also put in bulbs where there was none before, like the airbag one. I also used that chance to remove the LED rpm gauge on the steering column, which was also wired in absolute horror show fashion. Moved the 4in1 Prosport gauge from sitting in front of the OEM oil pressure gauge to the center console vents, I used a 3D printed vent piece to hold that gauge there. The HKB steering wheel boss was likely on incorrectly as I sometimes noticed the indicator reset being uneven for left vs. right. In the meantime also installed an airbag delete resistor, as one should. Installed Cube Speed premium short shifter. Feels pretty nice, hope it'll work great too when I actually get to drive. Also put on a fancy Dragon Ball shift knob, cause why not. My buddy was kind enough to weld the rust hole in the back, it was basically rusted through in the lowermost corner of the passenger side trunk area where the wheel arch, trunk panel and rear quarter all meet. Obviously there is still a lot of crustiness in various areas but as long as it's not rusted out I'll just treat and isolate the corrosion and pretend it's not there. Also had to put down a new ground wire for the rear subframe as the original one was BARELY there. Probably a bit controversial depending on who you ask about this... but I ended up just covering the crack in the side of the engine block, the one above the oil feed, with JB Weld. I used a generous amount and roughed up the whole area with a Dremel before, so I hope this will hold the coolant where it should be for the foreseeable future. Did a cam cover gasket job as the half moons were a bit leaky, and there too one could see the people who worked on this car before me were absolute tools. The same half moons were probably used like 3 times without even cleaning the old RTV off. Dremeled out the inside of the flange where the turbine housing mates onto the exhaust manifolds so the diameter matches, as the OEM exhaust manifolds are even narrower than the turbine housings as we all know. Even if this doesn't do much, I had them out anyways, so can't harm. Ideally one would port-match both the turbo and the manifold to the gasket size but I really didn't feel up to disassembling the turbine housings. Wrapped turbo outlet dumps in heat wrap band. Will do the frontpipe again as well as now the oil leak which promted me to tear apart half the engine in the first place is hopefully fixed. Fitted an ATI super damper to get rid of the worn old harmonic balancer. Surely one of the easiest and most worth to do mods. But torquing that ARP bolt to spec was a bitch without being able to lock the flywheel. Did some minor adjustments in the ECU tables to change some things I didn't like, like the launch control that was ALWAYS active. Treated rusty spots and surface corrosion on places I could get to and on many spots under the car, not pretty or ideal but good enough for now. Removed the N1 rear spats and the carbon surrounding for the tailpipe to put them back on with new adhesive as the old one was lifting in many spots, not pretty. Took out the passenger rear lamp housing... what do you know. Amateur work screwed me again here as they were glued in hard and removing it took a lot of force, so I broke one of the housing bolts off. And when removing the adhesive from the chassis the paint came right off too. Thankfully all the damaged area won't be visible later, but whoever did the very limited bodywork on this car needs to have their limbs chopped off piece by piece.   Quite a list if I do say so myself, but a lot of time was spent just discovering new shit that is wrong with the car and finding a solution or parts to fix it. My last problem that I now have the headache of dealing with is that the exhaust studs on the turbo outlets are M10x1.25 threaded, but the previous owner already put on regular M10 nuts so the threads are... weird. I only found this out the hard way. So now I will just try if I can in any way fit the front pipe regardless, if not I'll have to redo the studs with the turbos installed. Lesson learned for the future: Redo ALL studs you put your hands on, especially if they are old and the previous owners were inept maniacs. Thanks for reading if you did, will update when the engine runs again. Hope nothing breaks or leaks and I can do a test drive.
    • No those pads are DBA too  but they have colors too. I look at the and imo the green "street" are the best.
    • I’m not sure what happened I told them about sonic tunes free OTS tune and the next the I know .. I was booted..   To funny 
    • Yea - I mean I've seen my fuel pump which is decades old and uh, while I'm not saying this with real knowledge... but I sure get the ick at using anything in the fuel system that produced the state of that pump. Many years ago I went through multiple pumps (and strainers) before I dropped the tank to clean it out with extreme violence. I'm talking the car would do maybe 50km before coming to a halt, which resulted in me cleaning out the filter with some brake cleaner and going on my way. None of my stuff ever looked like what came out of your fuel tank. I don't think I'd be happy with it unless every single component was replaced (or at least checked/cleaned/confirmed to be clean here).
    • I'm not going to recommend an EBC pad. I don't like them. Just about anything else would suit me better. I've been using Intima pads for a while now.
×
×
  • Create New...