Hr31 Coupe Rb26 (For Now)

[DCIEVE]

More bit's and pieces

The wiring is moving along, I should have a complete engine loom in the coming days and the body loom is pretty close as well. The firewall has been hole sawed for the engine and body loom bulkheads.

I originally installed a flexible tow hook but soon realised there's a sizeable gap between the reo and f/glass bumper which wasn't going to work too well. In go's a rigid hook.

Most of the hot side area has been covered in dei reflectagold. This is mainly because the manifold and wastegate pipes sit really close to the strut tower, and the cabin side firewall insulation has been removed. I had no idea how time consuming this was going to be....!

And a new, new head has been re-built. This has been a massive set back to the engine build but I'll give the seller a few more days to do the right thing before I go into more detail. Basically the engine is ready for trial assembly.

[DCIEVE]

I do believe one of your fabircators has done some more work????

Interesting to see that the WG pipes were done over a year ago, seems like yesterday

Missed this one - see the post immediately above yours

Great work as usual Nick, nice choice with Owen too, him and his family do alot of great work, and are always prepared to go an extra step to get it done right.

Yeh they're a good group of guys.

The door trims and rear firewall came back from flocking and have been bolted down. Came up pretty well.

With the rear firewall done the cage could go back in with new gr8.8 hardware and steel backing plates.

I picked up a low temp thermostat on the engine builders recommendation but I've since been told by a few people the engine will run a lot cooler on e85 so a standard thermostat is a better option. Any thoughts?

Also made a start on oil feed/drain lines since I still have Brad's spare 26/30. FullRace recommend a tiny 3an feed line!

While I was at it I took a few minutes to trial fit the EGT sensors. Ended up being lucky I did as no.1 interferes with a lug on the side of the head - will have to grind it down on the new engine.

[masTers]

Nick is there any theory behind such a tiny feed line?

[r33_racer]

Did he also recommend a big -12an oil return mate?

I got a borg warner s400sx to fit to my car and I'm curious what oil lines to run for it too. Some people say -3an and others -4an, but most have said a -12an return.

Curious to know what you have been told?

[r33_racer]

Also when we switched to methanol we had to use a standard thermostat as the engine ran a lot cooler then on petrol and with the nismo thermostat we couldn't get the engine to stay on temp. I suspect it will be a similar situation with e85.

[DCIEVE]

Nick is there any theory behind such a tiny feed line?

I think it's to avoid having to use a restrictor.

Did he also recommend a big -12an oil return mate?

I got a borg warner s400sx to fit to my car and I'm curious what oil lines to run for it too. Some people say -3an and others -4an, but most have said a -12an return.

Curious to know what you have been told?

The advice I had from Geoff at FullRace was to use a 3an feed and 10an drain - he mentioned if you use a 4an feed a restrictor might be required. I already have a 12an adapter for the block so I'm going to stick with that size - can't do any harm I s'pose! S400sx is a big turbo!!

Also when we switched to methanol we had to use a standard thermostat as the engine ran a lot cooler then on petrol and with the nismo thermostat we couldn't get the engine to stay on temp. I suspect it will be a similar situation with e85.

Thanks for the advice - I was worried that might be the case. A colleague has an evo track car running on e85 and he said a similar thing.

[ssxRicho]

Again, intense.

[masTers]

Nick, are you sticking with the sump that Tom made you, or are did the dry sump kit come with a replacement one?

[DCIEVE]

Again, intense.

Thanks mate!

Nick, are you sticking with the sump that Tom made you, or are did the dry sump kit come with a replacement one?

The rb26 sump drilling doesn't suit the rb30 bottom end without an adaptor so I had to sell Toms sump The external pump kit came with a sump though, it's quite a nice design with external pick-up and plenty of capacity either side of the trapdoors which should help prevent starvation. Coincidentally I had a chat to Tom today about doing the alignment and suspension set-up!

[DCIEVE]

The new engine is 95% complete

Made up a drain that clears the manifold so I don't cook the braided line.

Sadly I'm STILL waiting for Brad / Risking / ProFab to cough up a refund for the stuffed cylinder head I was sold. This has been a 2+ year saga.

Edited August 31, 2013 by DCIEVE

[szymonsta]

sweet R31 man.

[r33_racer]

Looking good bud! Slowly getting there with the engine build. Hopefully old mate gets that refund happening!

Is there any sort of pre filter before that external oil pump? Like a screen on the inside of the weld on fitting in the sump?

[Duncan]

Looking good bud! Slowly getting there with the engine build. Hopefully old mate gets that refund happening!

Is there any sort of pre filter before that external oil pump? Like a screen on the inside of the weld on fitting in the sump?

That's a damn good question - I lost an (expensive) engine when the shop removed the screen from the filter, and a cam baffle bolt came loose and made it's way into the pump intake.

[DCIEVE]

sweet R31 man.

Thanks!

Looking good bud! Slowly getting there with the engine build. Hopefully old mate gets that refund happening!

Is there any sort of pre filter before that external oil pump? Like a screen on the inside of the weld on fitting in the sump?

Cheers Michael. There is a trash screen on the pick-up but I've been wondering if I should add a coarse inline filter, say 120micron, pre-pump. What do you guys use on your dry sumped race engine?

That's a damn good question - I lost an (expensive) engine when the shop removed the screen from the filter, and a cam baffle bolt came loose and made it's way into the pump intake.

This sort of stuff makes me very nervous! Hopefully all bases are covered with the trash screen and other oiling safety measures (accusump, warning lights etc).

The build is getting towards the pointy end now. Dash is back in, harness eye bolts installed and bled the brakes. Also did a trial fit of all the exh & wastegate piping on the dummy motor to check clearances..

After seeing the above Geoff from FullRace recommended moving to newer MVR wastegates as apparently they handle the temps a bit better even without utilising the water cooling.

Engine build wrapped up last week and by Saturday I had this sitting in the garage

With info from Michael (r33_racer) the inlet side water lines have been re-run in 120 series hose. Can also see the rb25 knock sensors here and just out of view the OS GIKEN quad plate.

Motor and box going in together - surprisingly easy despite doing it solo

Pretty pleased with how it's come together. All that's left now is bolting on the rest of the ancillaries and wiring. Then wheel alignment before towing it up to the engine builder for first start and run in.

[Sir Lord Van Von Vader'ham]

Excellent progress matie, must be super stoked to see the motor back in place

[SRS13]

That looks sensational mate! Great work.

Sorry I missed it but is that an EFR turbo set-up?

[r33_racer]

We run Peterson scavenge filters. But any coarse inline filter will do the job of protecting any large objects from going through your pump.

Does your oil pump have a gerotor gear design or spur gears? If its spur gears its not as critical and if your trash screen inside the sump was good enough then you could just leave that. Unfortunately gerotor design is not so forgiving...

[GH05T]

verry occasionally, some one does it right. this is one.

such a good build to read, in love with the car.

makes me miss my 31s

[clubracer]

This looks awesome. Love people using Reflect-a-gold more and more these days.

[DCIEVE]

We run Peterson scavenge filters. But any coarse inline filter will do the job of protecting any large objects from going through your pump.

Does your oil pump have a gerotor gear design or spur gears? If its spur gears its not as critical and if your trash screen inside the sump was good enough then you could just leave that. Unfortunately gerotor design is not so forgiving...

Hmm it is a gerotor so I might have to look into a scavenge filter. Thanks for the tip

That looks sensational mate! Great work.

Sorry I missed it but is that an EFR turbo set-up?

Thanks mate. It's an s300sx 88-75, the EFR's were having some issues back when I made the purchase.

Excellent progress matie, must be super stoked to see the motor back in place

Definitely nice to clear some space in the house/garage!!

Long time without updates but the car is basically complete and has been for a few months while I wait for a wiring loom. Anyway a few images to bring this up to date.

Reassembling the jigsaw puzzle... definitely lose some of the simplicity you gain going high mount single when adding dual wastegates.

View from the underside

With almost everything installed minus some fluids it went into http://www.racingdynamics.com.au/ to be aligned and corner weighted. Ended up being 1230kg dry. Being able to adjust camber is a rather nice addition! Tom also made a cover for the accusump and remounted the battery.

Due to an oversight on my behalf the ross harmonic balancer came with a htd drive whereas I already had gilmer drive on the oil pump. It was also set-up previously to run at 70% engine speed whereas I'm under the impression 50% is more typical. This was sorted by Evan at Garage7 with a new 38 tooth drive pulley.

I stumbled on these quik-latch fasteners after trying out a couple of other options for securing the front bumper. A really elegant/simple alternative to dzus.