R32 Gtr Circuit Car Build Thread

[OLLIE_NZ]

Hi guys,

This is a bit of a build diary thread, which we'll hopefully update as things change with the car, add bits etc.

A friend and I have a 1994 R32 GTR with 63,000 km which we purchased in February this year from Japan, we're turning into a circuit only car. (maybe one day, years down the track we'll do a Targa event or a hill climb)

The engine is pretty much standard at the moment (I think 420HP) Here's a list of modifications taken from the original for sale add

Apexi Power FC ECU

HKS DD air filters

Greddy front pipe and a Veilside Expro stainless steel exhaust

Apexi Boost control kit.

Nismo fuel pressure regulator.

Auto G-Red copper twin capacity radiator and Samco silicone radiator hoses

Greddy Oil cooler kit with core located in front of the radiator & remote oil filter

HKS Hipermax Type III coilover suspension and alloy pillow upper mounts.

Sard radiator fan controller

Apexi electronic gauges Boost, Oil Pressure, Oil Temp & Water temp.

Work so far has been to strip all the unnecessary parts out (Hi-Cas, ABS, brake booster, interior, sound deadening, heater , AC etc.

The car is empty apart from two Sparco Pro ADV seats and the dash skin and cluster.

It's just been dropped off today for an 8 point crome moly car to be installed and also a pedal box.

We've extended and baffled the sump.

Installed goodridge stainless steel brake lines and some Motul RBF600 brake fluid, also done an oil and filter change with Motul 300v 15w-50

We have a full set of Dunlop D14 compound slicks 240/625R17 on 17x9" Panasport G7 rims

We will be purchasing some AP brakes (6 pot fronts and 4 pot rears) in the future, but currently have new stock brakes.

The car came with a set of HKS Hipermax III coilovers which we've yet to take out on the track.

We're hoping to get the cage done in a few weeks and then get it out on the the track, we'll take it easy as we don't want to kill it on our first outing.

Our budget for a suspension kit is around the $5,000 mark but we would be willing to stretch a little higher if there was something that much better, do any of you trackday guys have any good ideas on what to go for on our budget?

What have been the main things you guys have done to your cars to better your lap times and improve reliability?

Many thanks,

Ollie.

Dry ice laid out, about to chip off the sound deadening

Extended sump

With Tomei baffle

Edited August 30, 2010 by OLLIE_NZ

[R31Nismoid]

2 threads below this...

http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/Bn...ld-t333312.html

R32 GTR build thread, already more info in thre than you'll get in this thread.

[OLLIE_NZ]

Hi Nismoid, it's more a build diary as such too mate.

I did have a good read of that thread, certainly some good info in there.

[Beer Baron]

with $5K flexible suspension budget (assuming it's just for the shocks/springs and arms and bars etc are on top) then I would go straight for some MCA (murray coote automotive) which are built mostly from Proflex parts. The only downside is being in NZ you don't have the option of getting him out to the track with you to further the set-up but most people in aus don't do that anyway.

You just need to tell him what the car is for, what you want and he will build something good for you.

Murray Coote Automotive

(07) 5494 8177

144 Lower Mt Mellum Rd

Landsborough QLD 4550

[Beer Baron]

oh, and if this is a build diary it'll get moved to the projects/build ups section.

and btw I think your 420hp may be a tad optimistic from a 17 year old standard RB26 with a power FC, boost controller, front pipes and a jap cat back exhaust. more like about 330-350hp at the engine. expect around 220-250rwkw depending on how much boost you're runing.

[OLLIE_NZ]

Beer Baron, good call on the moving thread mate, if you wouldn't mind moving it that would be great.

Could you possibly delete this post and my one above it, and also Nismoid's once you moved the thread. More so to clean the thread up a bit.

[OLLIE_NZ]

Hi guys, a bit of an update on this.

Beer Baron, the dynapack hub dyno, measured 270.8 kW at 1.19 bar (I'm not fussed either way if it's less) I've got the print outs somewhere.

At the moment the car is at the fabricators having the roll cage and pedal box installed. We're thinking that we'll possibly have the HKS hipermax III suspension rebuilt to start with and see how that goes for a while.

We're currently looking at a brake upgrade and are leaning towards some APs, maybe a 343x35.5mm 6 pot front and something to suit at the rear.

A large portion of the cage is done, there's a few more bars to go in still as I've illustrated in the pictures below (sorry about the microsoft paint, I'm not so good with photoshop )

Unfortunately the roof diagonal that was tacked in place for a trail fit of the seat and us with helmets on was not going to work. I'm hoping you guys might have some other good ideas for the roof?

The Red lines indicate bars that are still to be added, along with some gussets on the A pillars and also on the door X bars.

Anyhow pics are below.

Edited September 10, 2010 by OLLIE_NZ

[OLLIE_NZ]

Just had news that the pedal box is on the way from the U.S

After speaking with someone at Wilwood in the U.S, we're going to go with a 1" Master cylinder at the rear and a 7/8" at the front, also a 3/4" Master cylinder for the clutch.

No doubt the brake pedal will be rock solid.

Edited September 10, 2010 by OLLIE_NZ

[djr81]

With the roof bar you can try turning it 90 degrees to clear the driver then sit the navigator on the floor. Which is probably a good idea anyway. They are much braver when they can't see over the dash.

[Risking]

Don't buy masters till you have callipers. The masters are sized according to callipers. Even if they are slightly wrong the pedal will be shit and the brakes won't work. You don't wants rock hard brake pedal with a pedal box, you need a firm yet soft pedal that actually works, otherwise your going to wear yourself out after two laps trying to apply the brakes.

Been there stuffed that up.

Very suprised wilwood didn't explain that to you

tilton pedal boxes are very affordable and in stock at earls in silverwater. I purchased another one today.

Edited September 10, 2010 by Risking

[Burgz32]

Risking is right wait till you decide on caliper's, but even when you do 1 inch and 7/8 are way to large for anythink i could think of....

i've fitted up 1 or 20 pedal box's, and your more than likely gunna need around 5/8 for the front and 3/4 for the rear.

did you go for the hanging pedal's for any reason???, with the amount of floor mount's around these day's, i point all my customers in that

direction..

cheers

[OLLIE_NZ]

Hi guys thanks for the replys so far.

djr81 - We put a dummy bar across the other diagonal as you suggested but that wasn't going to work either unfortunately (maybe being 6'3" , plus a helmet and some roll cage padding is not so good after all). I guess the cabins were made for very small Japanese men.

We're at the point now where the top of the cage has been dropped and fully welded so a traditional roof diagonal or X bar won't slot up in there now that it's all welded together. I'm a little concerned about not having a diagonal and am wondering if there's any other type of roof bar arrangement that might work still.

Risking & Burgz32 - Thanks for the heads up on the master cylinders. The main reason we ended up taking the route we did was set off by first selling our the complete inerior including the factory seats on trademe (our ebay equivalent). We were then left with buying some fixed back seats being a pair of Sparco Pro ADV seats. Initially we were going to have some seat brackets made to fit the seats into the car but then we were told that it's better to incorporate the seat mounts into the roll cage (so that the seats move with the cage in the event of side impact, rather than potentially being crushed by the cage moving).

So rather than paying to have the seat mounts done twice we thought we'd wait and have the whole cage done all at once. As we wanted the diagonal bars running through the firewall we have to lose the brake master cylinder and the clutch m.c.

As we can't quite afford the $8,000 - $10,000 for the front and rear A.P brakes but we wanted the pedal box installed with the dash bar we we're a little unsure about master cylinder sizes. When we were speaking with the Wilwood technical guy, we mentioned we'd probably end up with roughly 330x32mm 6 pot fronts and 300ishx32mm 4 pot rears.

The master cylinders are fairly cheap and easy to swap after everything is in. What would you guys think would be good size master cylinders for the brake sizes I mentioned above and also the clutch?

At the moment were left with the factory brakes which is not a good thing and no doubt the pedal will be rock solid with a 1' rear master cylinder and a 7/8" front.

The Wilwood pedal box was pretty cheap at $300 NZD out of the U.S

Cheers,

Ollie.

[Burgz32]

Hi guys thanks for the replys so far.

. When we were speaking with the Wilwood technical guy, we mentioned we'd probably end up with roughly 330x32mm 6 pot fronts and 300ishx32mm 4 pot rears.

The master cylinders are fairly cheap and easy to swap after everything is in. What would you guys think would be good size master cylinders for the brake sizes I mentioned above and also the clutch?

At the moment were left with the factory brakes which is not a good thing and no doubt the pedal will be rock solid with a 1' rear master cylinder and a 7/8" front.

The Wilwood pedal box was pretty cheap at $300 NZD out of the U.S

Cheers,

Ollie.

I'd be checking with someone local in the know Ollie, because even with the brake package you want

those cylinder's are still way to big, i help out with an R33 GTR in Targa Tasmania which has X champ

car Brembo 8 spot's on the front and AP 6 spot on the rear, and it run's 11/16th front cylinder, and

3/4 rear cylinder, and even then we had to change to a softer pad because the pedal was a little

on the firm side.

And yeah that is cheap for your pedal's, did they come with cylinder's???

if not checkout these guy's, i buy all my brake gear off them, they're UK based so it take's 3 or 4 day's

to arrive, but very good price's...

Cheers Jon

http://www.compbrake.co.uk/

Edited September 10, 2010 by Burgz32

[Risking]

You can't tell why masters you need by the piston count, you need to know piston diameter and rotor size, vehicle weight, tire type, pedal box ratio etc etc.

Th wilwood guy you spoke to should have known this. By tilton masters and email them direct with your actual brake selection ad information. They are very helpful.

Also 3/4 is too big for the clutch master 5/8ths is the way to go with the factory 3/4 slave and a 6.2 pedal ratio.

What ratio pedal box did you order??

Have you paid for a 4130 Molly cage??

And on a side note if your cage builder can't get a suitable roof bar into the Cage to suit your height it recommend taking it elsewhere, it's not that hard to do.

[savant]

Hi Guys, I'm co-owner of this car - to answer a few questions:

Wilwood pretty much jumped straight to the 3/4" clutch, 7/8" front and 1" rear. We asked a few local guys and there was mixed messages, but a few confirmed this should be OK. We were a little dubious so are happy to buy another couple of cylinders to make it work, it's no big deal.

The pedal box is 6.25:1.

Cage is 4130, we thought we'd pay the little extra to save some weight - figuring most of the expense is in the time to build anyway. The cage builder is pretty experienced and came well recommended. We're going to have another chat about roof bars on monday, possibly a \/ kind of configuration could work.

Thanks for the feedback - this is our first proper track/race car build so need a little help!

Cheers

Edited September 11, 2010 by savant

[Risking]

Fair enough, wilwood must be brilliant if they can suggest those masters without even knowing caliper piston sizes. ( this is the exact reason I use tilton instead)

Good luck with the rest of your build and getting it all working.

[OLLIE_NZ]

Many thanks Risking.

So far just trying to get Wilwood to send us the pedal box etc has been a real drama, very slow.

We'll certainly be going down the AP path for the rotors and calipers.

[OLLIE_NZ]

Just a small update fellas.

A few bits arrived today from Atomic Speedware in the U.S (the Sparco helmet box we purchased locally))

When I was putting the brake master cylinders onto the pedal box, I wondered if there was a correct way to have the sizes (ie the smaller 3/4" on the left or the larger 7/8" ?)

A bit over the top but..........

So we ended up with one too many Master cylinders, we're going to start with 5/8" Clutch, 3/4" front brakes and 7/8" rear brakes. We might hang onto the 1" for a while or just sell it on.

Here's everything that arrived from the U.S today

Very loosely put together so I could see about room constraints.

Not much new in the way of the roll cage, just the additional bar on the rear X

Edited September 13, 2010 by OLLIE_NZ

[OLLIE_NZ]

A small update.

Went over today to see what progress was being made.

A couple of questions fellas, our fabricator unfortunately knocked or dropped something onto our G sensor thing that sits on top of the transmission tunnel next to the handbrake. The excessive impact 'red' is now showing up which is a bummer, is it normal to replace these with a second hand undamaged one or should we be looking at buying a new one from Nissan? (no doubt they are thousands )

Secondly, what is the pressure switch on the clutch pedal all about and do we need to move it onto our new clutch pedal with the pedal box? (I'm guessing it might be for cruise control?)

In the on going saga with master cylinders we ended up buying another 3 today all compact size as the dash bar was going to cause some problems, we don't seem to have mastered the 'measure twice, cut once' theory.

Also the pedal box had to be chopped up to clear the steering, no big deal and has ended up in the same spot anyhow.

The A pillar has gusseting on both the inside and outside, the dash bars are all in. It's really just the harness bar, main hoop diagonal and the lower main hoop horizontal bar that needs to go in.

Also a question about mono wiper setups, as one of our dash bars blocks off the old mounting location for the wiper motor we're wondering what the best way to tackle this is? In an ideal world we'd have the wiper blade in an up right central position of the windscreen and be able to do a full sweep to the left and right to clear the whole windscreen Am I asking too much?

A pillar gusseting (note the wiper motor hole and firewall bar that blocks the old wiper motor mount)

Dash bars in

Seat mounting spuds

New compact master cylinders, 5/8" , 3/4" and 7/8"

Door bars tacked in place (gusseting still to come)

Damaged G sensor

Pedal box mounting frame

Pedal box temporary fit

Modified clutch pedal, should look ok once it's repainted.

Seat rails

Seat sitting roughly in place

[jdonly12]

Looking good mate