R33 Gts-T Build

[93WIZ]

hey everyone, so i got this skyline in January this year, it is a 1995 R33 GTS-t. i must say this is the first skyline i have owned and i love it to bits!! previously i have had S13's and various other imports but when it comes to quality workmanship especially in a car thats 16 years old!!

When i got it the car was not running well due to a split in the exhaust manifold gasket so straight up i removed the turbo etc to find a cheap and nasty china gasket, i replaced this with a genuine nissan part and got the exhaust manifold flange machined at the same time.

took it for a drive and realised it has a massive miss/boost cut and 3 weeks after this the rego ran out....so i sold my S13, did a bit of online shopping and the build started to get this R33 running.

first up i got my hands on a T04E turbo and stainless highmount manifold

* apexi power fc

* 740cc injectors

* heat wrap

* new FPR

* exeedy clutch

* Z32 AFM

* and all major service items.

in the garage goes the R33 and the tare apart/build begins.

unfortunately i do not have too many pics but i will upload the ones i do have.

i noticed the previous owner has put alot of cheap parts on the car that just wont work, so i pulled them all off and replaced with genuine or good aftermarket parts.

at this stage i had all the parts ready to go, so i started putting the injectors in the rail, replacing some lines, new gaskets, checking for leaks...and then i noticed a oil leak from the rear of a rocker cover....thought to my self...the stock rocker covers look shit, so i went out and bought some paint and gave them a nice respray. this is the result.

looks way better than before!!

within 2 nights after work i had the thing back together, so i booked in for a dyno tune down at the pits with matty spry in a few days.

this is what the car looks like the morning before it was going on the tow truck to the dyno.

overall i am pretty happy with the result bad sad because i still havnt heard the car running since all this work i have done!!

so off to the pits it goes!!

2 weeks later i get a phone call saying my car will be ready that afternoon....at 4:30 i rock up to find matty spry looking into my engine bay telling me the car caught fire on the final dyno pull!!!

VERY PISSED OFF, small wiring fire that was too close to the turbo lit up, so just over $1,000 poorer left with a broken car, another tow truck later.....the car gets towed from matty sprys workshop to my uncles house who luckily can fix the wiring...turns out the wiring was burnt out all the way back to the dash basically!! so everything was re wired.

surprisingly the tune that was almost finished was still saved and wasnt deleted in the fire, so i was able to drive the car.....

after 1 week of driving the shitty china JJR wastegate seems to be giving way, so i have ordered a 38mm tial wastegate with 1 bar spring.

Also forgot to add that when 85% of the tune was finished the car only made 300hp on 17psi spiking to 21.5psi through the mid range (big issues with wastegate and bov)

but bov and wastegate are soon to be changed, hopefully make somewhere around 320HP at the wheels on a lower boost.

some future mods to look out for on this post are:

* R33 GTR interior

* garrett gt35R

* and the odd bits n pieces like tinted windows

* also looking for a greddy style plenum with 90mm throttle body.

will have more pics up soon!!

[Col-GTSX]

great thread, nice work

[93WIZ]

Thanks mate, she is getting there slowly but surely.

as of 2 thursdays ago the car has started making a hissing noise (air leak) it doesnt really happen when accelerating under slight load etc, mainly on cruising and idle. very annoying!!

anyone have any ideas as to what it might be, i did pull the plenum off before it went to the dyno tuner so maybe the rubber gasket has moved if one of the bolts has come loose or something.

[zoidbergmerc]

Press down on the plenum and see if it stops, if it does, re-torque the bolts and see what happens.

[93WIZ]

So its been a while since my last post on my R33, i re tensioned the bolts on plenum and it didnt make any difference to the air leak noise, i found that it was definately the plenum though. Anyway i took the turbo off again, and tig welded the new 38mm Tial wastegate to the manifold witht the 1 bar spring in it. once all that was back on the car i found a cheap greddy style plenum along with a 80mm top rpm throttle body!! i then tigged up some new intercooler piping in 75mm 316 stainless steel to suit the bigger size intake cant wait to here it running!! bit by bit i have been putting everything back together and making sure it is all done right this time round.

the car is set to be going in to get tuned at Gavin Wood Autotech next week, before then i have to make a new throttle cable bracket and re wire the boost controller

anyway enough rambling on, here is some pics of the progress.

all welded up

The plenum when i bought it

After i sandblasted it, first coat.

final coat in blue to match the blue bits in the engine bay.

80mm TB

new plenum on

just a little bit neater

cant wait to get her dyno tuned next week, hopefully for more torque than HP figures, with the T04E turbo i am hoping for over 310HP at the wheels on 1 bar and maybe a bit more on 18psi, street fuel.

future mods will be little bits n pieces to do with interior and body work, roof wing, top secret front bar, rolled guards etc.

enjoy and let me know what you think

[DaveO74]

Looking nice mate the blue theme will look good when finished.

May I suggest painting the fuel rail as well but a different colour to break it up, say silver?????

It's the little things that make a detailed engine bay look super neat.

Nice work.

[93WIZ]

yeah mate, i was going to do it silver but i think in the next few weeks or months (depending on $$) i might try and get a HKS fuel rail or something similar which are anodized in pink or purple...might make the engine bay look a bit different. make it or break it haha.

but at this stage i just cant wait to get the dam thing tuned and on the road!! thanks for the feedback bud.

[Lucaas]

hmm i like blue :)

[DaveO74]

No worries, also paint that dam front cam gear cover as well will match up better.

[93WIZ]

NEWS UPDATE:

just got car back from Gavin wood AutoTech and all i can say is that i would recommend him to everyone i know, great service, so professional and go to great lengths to ensure the safety of the car both on the dyno and once it comes off the dyno.

car made 305HP on low boost which i am extremely happy about. i had to put all new heavy duty clamps every where and put some tig welds all around every intake pipe to ensure none of them slip off anymore. i also replaced the water pump with a highflow GMB pump and put a gates racing timing belt on. whilst doing all this i got a 3" highflow cat as the old one was 2 1/4 ".

Gavin wood has explained that to gain more power, better boost curve etc i will need a better manifold where the wastegate is positioned in a more accurate place. but for now i am happy with the car. will just be tidying up the exterior and interior and saving up for another turbo and manifold set up.

PICS will be uploaded later tonight!

[93WIZ]

[adamskill]

well done mate. i love it when people do as much as they can them selves. what do you do for a quid mate? your pretty handy with the welder.

[sean133]

thats looking wicked mate.

ive got a 33 series 1 too and reading threads like this really help people just getting into the skyline scene with what can be done and what way to go about things.

i have to say i love those rims !!! they really change the whole look of the car.

love the blue colour in the engine bay too, i would definitely say go with the hks purple fuel rail, aswell as the hks purple oil cap. and ive seen the fuse box also painted to some nice blue/red colours.

all the small things like that make the car that much nicer... especially when you pop the bonnet for your mates

[93WIZ]

well done mate. i love it when people do as much as they can them selves. what do you do for a quid mate? your pretty handy with the welder.

yeah mate i have tried to do everything on my own with this car and have loved working on it, its great because now i know how everything is done on the car because i did it haha.

i am a apprentice engineer - fabricator for work, i can do custom bits and pieces on the side if anyone ever needs stuff done

cheers for the feedback guys, love this thing on gate. next step is making a surge tank as on tight corner/uphill etc she backfires a bit, most likely from fuel sloshing around in the tank so hopefully a surge set up will prevent this

[93WIZ]

thats looking wicked mate.

ive got a 33 series 1 too and reading threads like this really help people just getting into the skyline scene with what can be done and what way to go about things.

i have to say i love those rims !!! they really change the whole look of the car.

love the blue colour in the engine bay too, i would definitely say go with the hks purple fuel rail, aswell as the hks purple oil cap. and ive seen the fuse box also painted to some nice blue/red colours.

all the small things like that make the car that much nicer... especially when you pop the bonnet for your mates

haha cheers mate, love the wheels on this thing, grips like crazy with the 265 tyers on the rear!! at the moment im just going to save some coin but i will definately look at getting a fuel rail when i do the surge tank set up.

[sean133]

may i ask where you got the rims? or would you know any places where i can get them? i was after works vs xx but im not made of money haha. also, what kind of paint did you spray the covers in the engine bay with? mainly because of the engine heat, etc, is there any paint that i have to use or anything to do it?

[SlidingAlex]

Saw This at JDMST Calamvale lastnight, looked Very nice

[93WIZ]

hey guys, the paint i used was just metalcast paint from supercheap, you can basically use any paint but then apply a heat proof clear coat over the top 2-3 coats, they are rated to 650 degrees! i used 3M products.

Yeah the JDMST meet was insane, first one i ever been to and it broke the skylines cruise virginity !! haha more to come for sure.

[ossie_21]

Very, very nice looking car. Good work!

[vnordin]

Looks great, really nice condition of the car!

What do you use for head gasket? and how much boost you run with?

Cheers from Sweden

Edited September 21, 2011 by vnordin