Bnr34 Revamp

[Mckhenry]

Hi All,

Just getting into my rebuild and wanting to hopefully learn from others mistakes before I make them myself.

This has been a long time in the planning so it was a little relieving and simultaneously intimidating finally getting started. My previous experience with cars was extensive, but nothing of the magnitude and technical complexity of the GTR.

So here are some pics when everything still worked, hopefully is wont be too long until I see this again;

So now I was ready to get going, I had a rough old shed I was able to use thankfully. So I set about getting the car in a good spot, got her up on the stands and fired her up for one last time to heat up the fluids, drained it, disconnected the battery and started on the front end. I am looking to replace the guards, so they came off too.

I had a decent day, with a little bit of stop starting, had to go get some tools, cords and other bits and pieces. had a good 3-4 hours and was a little disappointed with the progress. Finally hit a brick wall when my the half inch drive couldn't crack the gearbox plug and I didn't have the right hex key to drop the tail shaft.

On a lighter not, this is the old girl that refuses to die, loaded up with all my crap, pretending to be a tow truck;

[Mckhenry]

What I am looking to do is give the motor a freshen up, the car lobbed in Australia in 2002, so I think is is safe to say the km's are fairly on the money. So the current motor has done about 140,000 and has a few heavy breathing problems, thanks to a suspected cracked ring in number 5.

So we are going for a forged top end, heavily ported head, tomei type b cams, tomei oil pump 87.5mm bore.

Supporting hardware is Apexi FC, Tomei expreme dumps and manifolds, HKS full piping kit AFM's to plenum, NISMO plenum and 800cc twin spray injectors, Splitfire coilpacks, HKS EVC, Garrett -7's (a little too small), Aexi dry pods, HKS Type R 700mm FMIC, oil cooler kit and Nismo or Z32 AFM's.

Body wise, looking to put a full Z-tune front end on the car, with pods ans spats.

Hoping to get the engine out before the end of the week!

[Mckhenry]

Forgot to mention, fitting some coilovers as well, would love to get some 19" wheels to fill the guards out, but this rebuild budget just doesn't allow that unfortunately.

But would love to know thoughts on a good street compound tyre, low noise with plenty of grip??

I have Potenza R compounds, great tyre, noisy as hell though.

[Mckhenry]

And tonight a funny thing happened!

Unfortunately the engine crane I bought is a real piece of junk, I got the engine up and clear, but with only the wife on deck, there wasn't enough strength to lift the transfer case and gearbox clear.

Thankfully one of these was sitting in the shed;

I would have been screwed without it, but finally the motor is out. It was actually a little easier than I thought it would be, amazing you can get so much in a little space. Anyway it is good to be on track, so far I have given about 8 hours to this and anticipate another two to three to strip down the engine. Should hopefully be ready to ship off to the machine shop by the end of the weekend.

[Mckhenry]

[GTRNUR]

I'll be first to subscribe.

Looks like you have a quite a mission ahead of you. What's the goal with the car? A little fun on the street, sprints, circuit/time attack?

Just a suggestion too, have your block cylinder thickness checked before you buy your pistons and bore to 87.5. The 87.5mm bore in a standard block means your bores are potentially only 2mm at their thinnest (which is towards the bottom of the cylinder around the height of the welsh plugs).

Keep the updates coming!

[Mckhenry]

I'll be first to subscribe.

Looks like you have a quite a mission ahead of you. What's the goal with the car? A little fun on the street, sprints, circuit/time attack?

Just a suggestion too, have your block cylinder thickness checked before you buy your pistons and bore to 87.5. The 87.5mm bore in a standard block means your bores are potentially only 2mm at their thinnest (which is towards the bottom of the cylinder around the height of the welsh plugs).

Keep the updates coming!

Yes it is quite a mission, but after getting the engine pallet to TNT yesterday at least I am half way to getting her running again.

The goal with the car is just to renew it as best I can, it had about 389WHP before it went in, I am hoping to get that much closer to 500WHP, but essentially the car is a daily drive, my business car, which at least makes what I am doing tax deductible. But I do plan on tracking it a few times a year. The goal is just to have a super responsive little beast to get around in. I will mothball it for a weekender after a year or so of that and get a more sensible daily drive. Every time I work on the car I try to bring that particular part or section back to new condition, replacing clips and fasteners, re padding, you know how harsh these cars are on the road, years of that help to create a lot of squeaks and rattles, two things I can't stand in cars.

I bought some of the powdered guide coat, so if Mu-Secret take too much longer I will get into the body. If the guide coat is non abrasive and won't harm the paint, I will apply that to the doors and quarters and 'wipe' the car with a speed file to check for dimples and dents. I have a paint budget of about 2.5-4.5K, so I am tossing up as to whether I do a full respray or just prep and paint the z-tune front end I have on order.

This is my idea of what I want my girl to look like well the bottom one anyway;

But I am putting the Z-Tune bits on for functionality, I want the bonnet to help keep the air pulling through the FMIC and radiator, with the guards pulling heat from the bay.

[Mckhenry]

Well I managed to hit one of what will hopefully not be too many hiccups, I snapped a stud off the turbo exhaust inlet flange

As you can see I can't back up two nuts on it unless I thread it, so if anyone has any thoughts on a fix it would be great??

[Mckhenry]

Well I managed to hit one of what will hopefully not be too many hiccups, I snapped a stud off the turbo exhaust inlet flange :

As you can see I can't back up two nuts on it unless I thread it, so if anyone has any thoughts on a fix it would be great??

[Mckhenry]

Well I managed to hit one of what will hopefully not be too many hiccups, I snapped a stud off the turbo exhaust inlet flange :

As you can see I can't back up two nuts on it unless I thread it, so if anyone has any thoughts on a fix it would be great??

[GTRNUR]

Thats an easy fix. Heat broken stud up with a LPG blow torch or oxy. Then let it cool. Then get some vice grips and unscrew it. The heat will expand the stud, then shrink back making it easier to remove from the turbine housing. Giving it a few light taps with a hammer will also help free up the corrosion on the threads.

You want to use new studs all through the exhaust side of the engine and on the new turbo's as well, the old ones are very head fatiuged and 1/2 the time the break off in the head before you un-bolt the manifolds.

[Mckhenry]

Thats an easy fix. Heat broken stud up with a LPG blow torch or oxy. Then let it cool. Then get some vice grips and unscrew it. The heat will expand the stud, then shrink back making it easier to remove from the turbine housing. Giving it a few light taps with a hammer will also help free up the corrosion on the threads.

You want to use new studs all through the exhaust side of the engine and on the new turbo's as well, the old ones are very head fatiuged and 1/2 the time the break off in the head before you un-bolt the manifolds.

Thanks, I hope it is that easy!

Will be using new studs everywhere in the engine too, not replacing the turbos though, would like to the -7's are pretty small, but should still be pretty punchy.

[Mckhenry]

Thats an easy fix. Heat broken stud up with a LPG blow torch or oxy. Then let it cool. Then get some vice grips and unscrew it. The heat will expand the stud, then shrink back making it easier to remove from the turbine housing. Giving it a few light taps with a hammer will also help free up the corrosion on the threads.

You want to use new studs all through the exhaust side of the engine and on the new turbo's as well, the old ones are very head fatiuged and 1/2 the time the break off in the head before you un-bolt the manifolds.

Like your grey GTR too, nice looking car!

[Mckhenry]

Looks like I picked up the worlds cheapest compressor and HVLP top feed gun, $90 for both, neither are leaders in their field, but will be fine for priming and filling, the compressor can hold itself for 30 seconds solid on 38psi, given you will never have the gun on for more than 10 sec at a time it should be ok. If it can spray and remain wet enough, I may even look at doing an acrylic top coat and possibly even going over the whole car, instead of just the front end. Then put it in the shop for a two pack clear coat, given the heat and humidity here over the last few months this may take some time before it can be done.

Looks like my Z-tune front end is close to being ready, just missing the carbon bonnet and z-tune solid splitter. Hopefully these get shipped prior to the end of the week.

[Mckhenry]

Ok, getting close to starting the body leg of this journey. My parts are near ready to ship, I have opted for the solid z-tune style splitter as I can't use canards on the z-tune bar. Expecting these pieces to be full of pinholes, so hopefully I can start trial fittings and prep work for next weekend

Managed to get the internally vented guards, so they will do more than just look pretty;

The rest;

]

[HOSTILE]

Looking good! Where did you pick up the Z tune bits from?? Were they super expensive if you don't mind my asking?

[GTRNUR]

Same questions as above!

Im also keen to hear what you say about fitment, and how well the factory under trays and wheel arch inner guard plastics tie into the glass parts.

Ive also heard the genuine nismo R tune bonnets are appropriately re-enforced so they dont require bonnet pins, and that many of the after market ones do require pinning. I'd like to hear more about your bonnet and whats recommended for attachemnt.

[Mckhenry]

Hi Nur and Hostile,

It will be interesting to see how they go on. Bit worried about the inner and outer guards marrying up to the wider guard, especially seeing as I am looking to put some 20" Enkei's with 275 30 R20's in there.

Not too worried about the state of finish though, Lamboghini carbon parts come out of their factory pinholed. So I will post some pics next week, it should be here by then.

Either of you know where I can get a torque sheet for an R34?

[Mckhenry]

Re bonnet pins, it is a tough one, at the end of the day you have a little fun in 4th and you are over 200km, a bonnet coming loose at that speed could kill you and do a lot of damage for the sake of some $70 pins.

I have ordered a carbon set.

[GTRNUR]

Either of you know where I can get a torque sheet for an R34?

You can use the service manuals for the R32/R33 gtr's for the engine torque specs. And the R33 service manual for the specs for torque for everything suspension related. If you search around the net you can find these in downloadable PDF form pretty easily, and there used to be someone selling them on ebay too.