R33 Gts Build

[TwoCents]

Hi all,

Well, I know what some of you are thinking... wheres the T following GTS... well there is no turbo to my R33 main reason being the government laws and the fact that I would probably already be dead if I had a turbo model. (Not going to lie)

I've owned my R33 GTS 1995 for about a year and a half now and since then I've had many different thoughts on what to do with it such as - Keep it stock and sell it later for a turbod one, sell it now and buy a turbo car to track as well as a tow car, just sell it now and get something cheaper for the meantime etc.

So I've settled on keeping the car and learning to work on every aspect of it and will eventually drop some more power into it when I'm ready for it. Will be aiming to do some track days in the near future and want to do some time attack/hill climb events.

The deciding point was I wanted experience in cars something that would give me a taste of what I want to do in life and put me into that felid.

I am currently studying mechanical engineering and will specialise in the automotive industry so getting some hands on experience and knowledge is what I'm aiming for.

Figured this would help me to get some hands on experience rather than just the theory side of things.

Here is the car when I first bought it.

Had 109,000k's on the clock and was very close to being fully stock except for:

DK&E extractors with a 2.5" exhaust system

Apexi Strut bar

Drifteks

Genuine GTR wing

and the front grill

Everything else was stock including the cassette player.

So, quite a bit has happened to the car since then, got hit up the back by two r31's resulting in 2k worth of damage - new exhaust (varex muffle, high flow cat, hotdog resonator and new piping) rear bar and some other panel work.

Have also put in:

• Lowered blisten springs
• Apexi Pod filter with my home made CAI
• 3 gauge cluster, Oil/Water temp and A/F ratio
• Gts-t rear sway bar
• GTR rear strut bar
• Front and back DBA slotted rotors
• A1RM QFM brake pads
• Hel braided brake lines (group buy)
• Full 4 to 5 stud upgrade
• R33 Gts-t callipers front and back
• Alpine ida-x305 head unit
• Series 2 spolier
• And some other small mods - Speedo lights, lock nuts

Put it on a dyno to see what kind of power it was making ended up with 170hp.

Took it out to my third drag days since I've had the car and my clutch decided to give way half way down the strip, it would engage and around 5-6k rpm then drop the revs to 2k... o well.

So I decided to keep it off the road for a bit and do what I've wanted to do for quite a while... strip it.

Here is how it was a few days ago

[

And here's day 1

Back seats removed, and boot stripped.

Day 2 i got a bit more into it

Dash out, carpet out, aircon behind dash and in engine bay out etc.

Have found a few goodies so far about 10 random washers sitting under the carpet an old discoloured gobstopper a 100yen coin?? and a Toyota 2 way screw driver thingo.

So that is how it is at the moment, the car hasn't been worked on by a mechanic yet, other than pointing me in the right direction so I've pretty much done all the work on this car so far from being self trained.

I have reached the point of how far my knowledge can go with stripping it out other then getting some dry ice to remove all the sound deadening.

The questions i have if anyone is willing to answer them:

1. Wiring, I really don't want to go chopping up the loom, but I want a bit of a clean look rather than wires floating around the car being exposed, so what do I do there?
2. How far can you actually strip the car for it to still be roadworthy I.E does the A and B pillar need to be covered, some holes need to be plugged up, and can I remove the firewall sound deadening? Etc etc.
3. What do people use to re-route the air cons heating system? Can you bock it off on the engine block?
4. ???

Thanks - Joel

[TwoCents]

Update for today's work...

Have started to deal with the sound deadening, ordered 12kg of dry ice at $4/kg and got to work. I attacked all of the horizontal surfaces and it worked a treat easily cracking and coming off.

Once all of the horizontal surfaces were done I then moved onto the vertical surfaces with a heat gun and a chisel which is a much slower process but I eventually removed all of the sound deadening.

A few bits of rust have appeared that will have to be dealt with but there is nothing major.

Have started to clean all of the excess residue with some turps and a rag... seems to be doing the job.

Sorry for the crap quality photos... using a camera phone and its in the dark.

[OKBANANA]

Looking good mate.

Looks like a fantastic base.

[Mohsen]

mate 170hp for an na is awesome!

loving this

[NA_Goodness]

Looks like a great project, mate! My first car was an NA 33 as well, I did a bit of work to it, but not as mechanical as you are. I'll be following your progress on this one!

[ShyBoi]

Good to see another person building up a GTS, I did the same because I was restricted on P Plates and now I won't sell it after all the work gone into it.

What are you looking at doing to the car overall?

[TwoCents]

Good to see another person building up a GTS, I did the same because I was restricted on P Plates and now I won't sell it after all the work gone into it.

What are you looking at doing to the car overall?

I have a general idea, but my thoughts tend to wander and I change my plans quite alot. For now it will be aimed at track days and eventually some time attack... will just go with the flow.

Didnt get much done over the weekend, but clean out the interior of the car and do some research on what can stay and what can go.

[ShyBoi]

Yeh I'm much the same mate tossing up between putting RB25DET Neo from a Stagea in, or finish the exterior for track days or interior doing harness, seats and rollcage...then I've also got a holiday to Europe or Vegas potentially...so much have to choose so instead I avoid for a few months lol

[pharlap]

looks good, please update with pictures!!!

[TwoCents]

looks good, please update with pictures!!!

Havn't done a lot over the past week, have been helping out flood victims.

[TwoCents]

Update from Tues:

Finally got a good two days of work in, have cleaned the back of the car and prepped it for a few layers of paint.

Got a friend to come around and do a quality spray can job I'm too impatient to wait for paint and try to do 4 coats in 1.

Put down 3 layers of matte white, just enough to give it a solid color.

Final Result

Very happy with the final result, now its time to start putting things back together once I've cleaned up a few more things.

Have had a few goodies turn up in the mail this week also

Exedy Heavy duty clutch, modified by NPC.

Adjustable Exhaust cam gear

Z32 Ecu

Doing an engine swap on a friends car at the moment, so progress will slow once again.

Thanks, Joel

[pharlap]

im bloddy terrible with doing engines etc, how do you get into doing this stuff like engine swaps, changing clutches etc. do you guys just read books or what!? i wana learn haha

[OKBANANA]

You just get in there and do it.

Most stuff only goes in one place.

[NA_Goodness]

Pretty much! Mate always tells me, shit only fits one way! it's working out which way it fits is the hard part.

Mind you, I'm a 4th year apprentice mechanic so that helps a bit

[TwoCents]

im bloddy terrible with doing engines etc, how do you get into doing this stuff like engine swaps, changing clutches etc. do you guys just read books or what!? i wana learn haha

Reading forums, start doing some DIY's, the internet has info on pretty much everything you can do to a car, just read up on stuff then attempt it yourself with trial and error. If you get stuck go bug a mechanic or a friend on the know.

Just get into it...

[pharlap]

but i dont really know of some DIY's to do 2 mah car like u guys haha

[75coupe]

search and read, and if that fails ask, get flamed and learn the hard way....

[TwoCents]

Havn't had an update in awhile, so I think its time.

I have pretty much finished off all of the interior to where I want it for now, will shed some more weight later on down the track but all of the hard work is done.

Using a heat gun rag and some turps I removed all of the little bits of soundeadening and glue. Didnt bother to weight how much I got out but it was worth it.

Have deleted the rear windscreen wiper and have bunged it up, all the wires and connections are in just have to tie them down and give it a cleaner look.

Interior is pretty much complete, put the carpet back in but stripped all of the underside padding off of it, also got rid of aircon pipes and a few other little bits and pieces.

Next thing to strip is the doors, I cant do a lot with them except for speaker removal and some un-needed material.

Will finish that tonight and get ready to drop the gearbox tomorrow and start to install the new clutch.

Also.. really want to buy some aftermarket seats as the stock ones are heavvvvy

[pharlap]

dark picture but looks awesome cant wait for some more pictures!

[TwoCents]

Time for another update.

Started my first gearbox removal clutch install this week and it has been yet another learning curve, figuring out how to get to the top gearbox bolt, removing the spigot bearing etc etc...

So jacked the front and back of the car up, went to almost max height of my car stands.

Demon Sausage dog

Everything went smooth until the top gear box bolt was left... spent a few hours trying to get at it with about 5 socket extenders then gave up for the day .

Got up in the mourning bought a wobble joint and was able to remove the bolt in about 10 minutes

So got the gearbox off and removed the pressure plate and clutch.

Yes... i drove quite a distance with it slipping till 5k then grabbing for a second, fk getting a towie.

Its worn quite badly and started to come apart a little bit.

Time to get the flywheel off to get it machined and my air tools didn't quite make the cut.

So another dodgy was needed. So with the use of my trusty bar blade it was off.

Cleaned up a bit of the grease and dirt build up and got the flywheel machined and ready to bolt down.

Just have to go borrow someones torque wrench and it can all go back togather.