Adam's R33 Skyrine

[Run-It-Hard]

Setting it out

Since I’ve got stuff all going on at the moment, I thought I’d talk about what my upcoming plans are in a little more detail. I’m getting my licience back in a few weeks and I’m going to dance with the devil … I’m going to register the Skyline shortly after and push my luck with the authorities.

When I can legally drive it on the street, I’ll get the car on a dyno and see what the Haltech E11 is doing. I’d like to get out to as many events as possible, while preparing for the big one in November, The Raceline 2 day Matsuri at Wakefield.

One of the many things I’d like to do is piss off the HICAS that I still have in the R33. Instead of using a conventional HICAS lock bar, I’ve decided to take another approach. Some might remember I was trying to sell an S14 subframe that I bought for the Stagea a while ago, well I still got it and it’s going to make it’s way into the Skyline. That way I can completely remove HICAS and all the heavy shit that goes with it.

The subframe will need a bit of a tidy up though, so I’ll be replacing the standard bushes with Midnight Mods solid subframe risers and I may even strengthen the subframe before I bolt it up.

One convieniant thing about ditching all the HICAS is that I can use one of the lines for the power steering cooler I still need to install.

Some other things I’d like to purchase and install in the car before Matsuri is a half or full cage, harness, a shitload of wheels/tyres and whatever else comes along the way.

[Run-It-Hard]

breathe baby breathe

Moving to the world of RB’s has been great! they are an awesome engine that love limiters, can make great power on stock internals and sound dope! but one thing that has shit me from day one is the manifold positioning.

Working on the engine bay on the MX-5 is as easy as it comes, but that’s not the only reason I opted for a forward facing plenum. It poped up cheap! The Greddy unit will neaten the engine bay up, reduce my intercooler piping and make quicker spark plug changes.

Should be all sweet right? we’ll soon find out.

[Run-It-Hard]

HICAS ... wut?

The weather in Sydney last weekend was pretty shitty, sunny all week and stinking hot on the Friday, it looked like the weekend would of been pretty rad! but once again mother nature trolled us.

Anyway, Nick was bored as on Sunday so we decided to get cracking on the car’s rear end.

Within an hour or so, the whole rear assembly was unbolted and on the driveway. Originally we were going to bolt it back up and slap the new sub frame in, but have decided to get some other things done first.

I need to get some bushes for the rear knuckle, which will let me run traction arms and completely ditch the HICAS system. I’m still tossing up whether to replace all the bushes in the sub frame too, and undecided on shimming, or replacing the diff for a 2 way unit.

I scored some cheap as chips ISC coil overs too, so I’m waiting on them to arrive as well.

As of yesterday, I scored myself a Nismo 2 way LSD, so hopefully I'll have it all in the car this long weekend, and ready for a "shakedown" at EC on the 15th.

[Run-It-Hard]

This thread is not all doom and gloom after all!

That Stagea of mine

For those wondering, I’ve still got the Stagea. It’s been on the market for a couple of months now and I haven’t had much interest in it unfortunately. In saying that maybe it is a good thing I haven’t sold it yet.

Since the whole loosing my licence thing, a lot of shit has gone down. I’ve moved out, and scored an awesome new job which means I can afford to keep both the Skyline and Stagea. I’ll admit, the Stagea is the most practical car I’ve owned, it has saved my ass hundreds of times and well, I’d like to keep it that way.

So, I’m thinking of just having it as the daily, lowered on some nice wheels … continue with my subframe swap and add a tow bar on the back for when “shit happens” to the Skyline.

I miss how it used to look.

[Run-It-Hard]

body { background: #FFFFFF; margin: 0px; padding: 4px; font-family: Verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt; } when it rains, it pours

“When it rains, it pours” is something I have been saying quite a bit lately. Reason why is if any shit goes down on this R33, it will. It was painstaking, getting this sub frame in but I am happy to report that I’ve finally done it with stacks of help from both John and Nick.

The HICAS ball joints finally gave way to countless beating I gave it while Nick heated the knuckle. I resorted to cutting them with a hack saw to weaken them, and break the seal they had in the knuckle. The next part that held me back is a doosey!

I was sent the wrong bushes! So for now I have to make do with what I have and get the right bushes. This was a pain in the ass and probably the only thing of the sub frame swap that I figured would be easy, yeah right!

On top of that, just when I thought everything was smooth sailing, Khoa, Nick and I came across this problem. The strut top nuts for the front coil overs were seized which resulted on the hack-saw, and angle grinder to come to town.

But hey, it’s all in now, the car drives and shit is all good. The R33 will be getting rego tomorrow, followed by making a quick stop at Dahtone Racing for some last minute preparation, for Driving Sports Twilight Drift this Saturday.

[Run-It-Hard]

Beast got rego today, felt good legally driving it. Bitches be mirin'

Has a missing issue on light throttle, meh. It's at Dahtone now getting a few things sorted before taking it out skidding on Saturday!

[krzysztof]

Bitches be mirin'

[boostn0199]

good work on the build, gota love how theres always complications in whatever you try to do ahah makes the day interesting.

[S1DWYSR33]

Im mirin' brah,

good work.

[jamie curran]

nice man.

[Run-It-Hard]

Cheers guys

Yeah I get ya boostn, but it was like anything that could of gone wrong with the subframe swap, did. But that's cars! haha.

Got an alingment today and drove it to work, it is so f**king hard not to give it a squirt!

Still need to go over a few things before drifting tomorow night.

Edited October 13, 2011 by Run-It-Hard

[zebra]

Love this build...looks exactly like my old car.

Blue, NS-01s etc lol

http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/topic/280635-zebras-2010-mra-gts-t-build/page__hl__zebra

[Run-It-Hard]

[Count Grantleyish]

Adam, awesome work getting it all done.

I have a question regarding HICAS, R33, when you did subframe swap and binned the HICAS, what did you do with the plugs? And what are you going to do about it? (removing it along with ECU or?).

Will be watching this thread, keep up the good work.

[Run-It-Hard]

Cheers dude, at the moment I've taken the plugs out from under the car, and tucked them under the battery tray. One day I might remove the HICAS ECU, but for now that'll do it! Oh I pulled the HICAS light out of the dash too, so yeah that helps with the light coming on haha.

all fun and games

Here’s an aftermath picture of the fun and games last night. I somehow lost the middle section of my front bar, now it looks like I cut the bar to suit my hectic massive intercooler bro!

You know your having a good time, when shit is missing off your car at the end of a run.

In other news, the car performed really well last night, though a few worrying issues arose. The R33 was near overheating pretty much every run and the oil pressure was quite low too. So I need to sort out a bigger radiator and some thicker oil before Mad Monday!

[Run-It-Hard]

keep it cool

So after my high water temps on the skidpan last week, I figured I better get it under control ASAP! So I opted for the largest radiator I could find, purely because I no longer have a clutch fan and have the extra space.

After hunting around, I found a 52mm radiator on Ebay for a steal at $169 shipped! Believe it or not, all the Chinease radiators come out of the same factory, Cooling Pro, ASI, Saber you name it … it is all the same!

Here’s a comparison photo of the OEM unit and the new radiator. It’s monstrous! It looks like the core is bigger then what was advertised as too, so I measured it up out of curiosity.

The core is infact 56MM! now let’s compare it to the OEM radiator..

It’s over double the core thickness of the OEM unit, nice! I remember when I fitted a Cooling Pro radiator to my MX-5, the mounts needed slight modifications to get it all sitting nicely.

I’m happy to report I had to do absolutely nothing to this unit, it was a direct bolt in!

While I was at it, I changed the lower radiator hose for a silicone unit. It matches the Billion upper radiator hose to a tee!

Here it is all fitted, this should help keep water temps down.

Not much left to do before Mad Monday, rad!

[Run-It-Hard]

Last month, Benny and I placed an order with JDL tuning for an R33 roof spoiler. Last Friday it turned up and I didn’t hesitate to mock it up. As you can see it is much more aggressive than the Vanquish spoilers which is what I really like about it.

It’s the first cosmetic piece of many. One day, I’ll have the Skyline looking mighty boss. It’s just a matter of when.

Spoilt

[Run-It-Hard]

Benny spotted a Stage21 cage listed on JDMST a couple of days ago. After a bit of stuffing around contacting the seller, I secured it.

It was only advertised as a half cage though. So when I saw that it was a full-cage it just made the bargain, even better. At least now I can have passengers when doing skids. Unsure when I’m going to fit it though, I’m still wondering whether I should strip the rear of the car out or not.

I’ve gotta make my mind up soon though, that’s for sure!

Monkey bars

[mattis96]

with the new radiator, are you still using the clutch fan and radiator shroud?

[Run-It-Hard]

I don't have a clutch fan or radiator shroud. Hence why I went for the biggest radiator I could find.