Adam's R33 Skyrine

[mattlikewhoa]

I like where this is going...

[Run-It-Hard]

Anthony and I have done a few modifications to the steering components on my R33. One of the simplest things we did was cut the lock stops on the OEM knuckle down 2-3 mm. That allows quite a bit more steering angle.

One thing we found interesting was that the height of the outer tie rod determined how much lock we are able to obtain. At the highest point the lock stops wouldn’t touch the LCA, and at the lowest the ball joint touches the LCA. So we’ve raised them a touch from the lowest point, and now the lock stops hit the LCA with the ball joint just clearing, perfect.

The following mods I’ve done to achieve this are:

• KTS inner and outer tie rods

• Cut lock stops

• Extended LCAS for more inner clearance

Nothing fancy, just a bit of time spent determining how much to cut the lock stops and experimenting with the outer tie rod positioning.

JUST A LITTLE BIT MORE

[Run-It-Hard]

I’ve been on the hunt for a tuner for some time now. It’s daunting trying to decide who to give the keys too, as a tune can make or break your car.

I had set goals I wanted to be done, and I don’t know if that put some tuners off or not but it just seemed like they weren’t interested in anything other than taking my money.

After weeks of stressing out my boss, Steve asked me who was to tune my car?

Years ago, Steve had a Nissan Bluebird with a VG30DET that just didn’t feel right. He took it to Insight Motorsports to re-tune it and completely transformed the car. Since then Steve has been going to Insight.

I decided to give Scott a call and have a chat about my car, his customer service was excellent and I didn’t feel like I was bombarding him.

So I’ve booked a tune with Insight Motorsports for the 7th of May.

Let’s make this interesting, My power goal is around 350kw on E85. Scott is confident that we’ll max out the fuel setup before then.

Here’s a quick re-cap on the engine setup:

•Standard type built RB25

•GTR camshafts

•Disabled VCT

•Garret GT3076R

•3 inch exhaust

•850CC injectors

•2L surge tank

•Single Bosch 044 fuel pump

•Running on E85

How much power do you think it’ll make? Whoever gets the closest to the final figure, will receive 2 free Run It Hard! stickers.

You must post in the comment section on the blog to be eligible.

Fire away!

TUNE UP

[Run-It-Hard]

With 9 days until Wakefield Matsuri, and only 4 days until the R33 gets tuned. Anth has been working full steam to get the car finished.

We are really close to completion , it’s just a matter of tackling the little things now. Most of them have been crossed off the list. Let’s have a look at what’s been going down at Dahtone Racing.

The turbo lines are just about done, Anth opted to run them as far away from the Hybrid performance turbo manifold as possible. We’ve used braided line and fittings from Aeroflow as Dahtone Racing is an authorised distributor of their products.

The Cusco catch can has been moved to the back of the engine bay, we don’t want to mount anything in front of the wheel arches as the car will be tubbed down the track.

A 3 inch dump pipe, along with de-cat has been built by scratch from Anthony. We actually had troubles obtaining the V band clamp and fitting due to it being an odd size. We ended up paying top dollar for a set through GCG.

Anthony has also fabricated a screamer pipe, which will be extracting a shitload of noise from the Tial wastegate. I can’t wait to hit gate!

We’ve relocated the power steering reservoir next to the radiator. Mainly because there’s now a big turbo right next to the OEM location. If we had left it in the original spot I’m sure the power steering fluid would boil in no time.

To keep things on the safe side, I’ve added a power steering cooler too. Anthony wasn’t too happy with the original placement though, so he fabbed up some mounts to push the cooler further out. This offers more clearance for the hoses leading off the cooler, and intercooler piping.

Last but certainly not least, the surge tank setup is on its way to completion. We decided on placing the surge tank above the fuel tank due to utilising boot space for tools and spare tyres.

I still need to do something with the throttle cable, as the OEM piece is so short that it only opens the butterfly half way.

All in all, we’re on the home stretch now!

THE FINISHING TOUCHES

[Run-It-Hard]

te a while ago, I bought a pair of OMP style seats for the R33. They came with rails to suit an S14. unfortunately whoever made the rails didn’t seem to have consideration for the taller person.

The rails were useless to me, and they were bloody shocking! They were S14 rails cut, with a thick bar welded up top to fit the universal sliders that bolt to the seat. I reckon the rails were well over 15cm in height. Worst of all, the design kept the bottom of the seat flat.

Anthony and I have redesigned a new set of rails that get the seat as close to the floor as possible while having the seat tilted. The new seating position is awesome, I’ve got plenty of headroom, I’m away from the roll cage and I’m siting nice and low.

ON THE FLOOR

[RBish]

love this thread. cant wait till im qualified , im definatey going to build a race car. so sick of canarys and permits and cops.

[Savtraxx]

so nice!

[Manuel Kasko]

Been watching this build for a good time now man and my god some work has gone into this weapon!

Good work and good luck on the weekend

Going to try my best to make it up from Canberra to see the car

[adamskill]

ads you have dumped some coin on this beast.

love it!

completely off topic, how do you rate the stag as a daily?

Edited May 5, 2012 by adamskill

[Run-It-Hard]

love this thread. cant wait till im qualified , im definatey going to build a race car. so sick of canarys and permits and cops.

Thanks mate! Yeah defects are shit aren't they? It's only going to get worse too, it's a shame but shit happens. At least on track you can have your car however you want.

so nice!

Thanks.

Been watching this build for a good time now man and my god some work has gone into this weapon!

Good work and good luck on the weekend

Going to try my best to make it up from Canberra to see the car

Thanks buddy, if you do come down you'll find the team easily. There'll be my R33 and two white R33, and 2 silver Stageas. We'll be wearing Run It Hard! shirts too.

ads you have dumped some coin on this beast.

love it!

completely off topic, how do you rate the stag as a daily?

Haha yeah I have man! I've promised myself I'm not going to sell this one otherwise it'll be a waste. I've made that same mistake with the MX-5, dumped cash into it and then got over it. I made most the money back by stripping it though.

The stag is amazing!!!! It likes drinking the fuel a little (400km a tank) not too bad. It's so versitile though, you can carry ANYTHING in it or on it. I've had a king size matress and onsomble in/on my Stag! haha.

If you are thinking of getting one, make sure you don't plan on selling it as you might have a hard time doing so. I tried to sell mine and had no bites, so I've ended up keeping it. I'm glad I did though it's an awesome car.

[Run-It-Hard]

In other news, a few mates and I were cranking on the into this morning, trying to get it tip top for the tune.

We had problems priming it, but we got it in the end!

It runs as is probablly getting run in as we speak!

[Run-It-Hard]

Here's a twist in the tale.

Yesterday afternoon I recieved a call from Scott at Insight Motorsports. Here I am thinking it was good news the car made 1000 horsepower or some shit, but I was wrong. Very wrong.

Long story short, Scott did a compression test and it showed 40-50psi across the range. He has blunly told me to get the car out of the shop and bring it back when it's ready to be tuned.

It's heading back to Dahtone as we speak where Anth will begin diagnostics.

I've tried to get in contact with Alister regarding what the f**k is going on with the engine, but suprise suprise, no luck after I left a message with his missus.

Matsuri is out of the picture at this stage, I'm gutted to say the least.

More news when I know what's going on.

[FST513]

That sucks mate.... sorry to hear, was looking forward to seeing what figures you got and at matsuri.

You still going to head down for matsuri?

[Manuel Kasko]

Shocking bro!

Sorry to hear and fingers crossed he gets back to you ASAP so you can find out whats going on.

Should be ready for June so start looking forward to that.

Good luck with all of it

[Run-It-Hard]

Alright, the 33 is back at Dahtone Racing. Anth has checked over the car and thinks the cams in the engine are the culprit.

The builder, for some stupid reason insisted on using GTR camshafts. These being for a solid head seem to mess up everything in a hydralic head.

So, as long as I can find some stock R33 S1 camshafts either today or tomorrow, I should still make it to matsuri!

If you know of anyone selling some/willing to donate whatever. Let me know! must be in NSW.

No word from Ali still, obviously doesn't want anything to do with this.

Edited May 8, 2012 by Run-It-Hard

[Manuel Kasko]

Thats good its not a huge problem.

Any chance in getting some photos up of the car with everything painted etc.

Just so we can see how the beast looks

[Run-It-Hard]

The weekend was our final chance to get the R33 ready for its tune. There was lots to be done and many setbacks to be had.

Sunday evening, we were on the way to finishing up. I had taken out the spark plugs, filled it up with oil and got ready to prime it. After a few attempts, we still had no oil pressure. Jeff Paulie, Anth and I had to come up with something fast. What we ended up doing was using part of my old oil cooler kit to feed oil into the block. We then ran the engine backwards to lubricate the oil pump.

It took a while but the engine finally primed it that night. Due to the time it took to prime the rebuilt motor, our plan changed from getting everything ready to having the bare essentials installed.

Anth and I bailed at 1am with minor things left to be done in the morning.

Let’s fast forward a little here, the R33 made it to Insight Motorsports without an issue. I received a call from Scott in the afternoon, here I was thinking it’s been run in and he’s going to tell me how much power it made. But boy was I wrong.

Scott had checked the car out, and after he ran it on the dyno for 20 minutes or so, he did a compression test. The results came back with 40-50psi across the engine.

I was devastated to say the least, I was thinking “how could this happen? I’ve done everything by the book, no short cuts”.

I tried to ring the engine builder, Ali from Powerplay and I got in contact with his missus instead. I explained what’s happened and her reply was “they must have done something wrong”. I was also told that Ali stepped out and will be back in 20 minutes. A day later and I still haven’t heard from either of them.

A new day starts, the R33 gets towed out of Insight and back to Dahtone Racing where Anthony gets onto diagnostics. He did a compression test which showed 60-70 PSI. Anth then started looking into the camshafts, as Ali insisted on putting GTR cams into this engine for some reason. Anth and I both did some digging and no one has had any luck with these cams in an RB25. Everyone explains the same symptoms that my car currently has, and I bet if they did a compression test with the GTR cams installed, they’d show similar results.

I have now acquired a set of stock RB25 cams that Anth will be installing. The way I see it right now, if these aren’t the problem well then there is something much bigger causing this. I’m confident in Anthony’s decisions though. He’s been my mechanic for four years now and when it comes to diagnostics he’s never gotten it wrong. I’m glad I have someone like Anthony to lean on when shit goes pear-shaped. He’s always there to help and never gives up until the job is done.

Anthony has also gotten in touch with Mick from Mick’s Motorsports, not only that he’s some-how managed to get my car booked in for a run in/tune this Friday.

Yesterday I thought I wouldn’t be driving at Matsuri (again). Today I have hope to kill my first pair of tyres in 7 months, at Raceline’s Wakefield Matsuri.

CRASH COURSE

[Run-It-Hard]

Thats good its not a huge problem.

Any chance in getting some photos up of the car with everything painted etc.

Just so we can see how the beast looks

I can try, I might not be for a week or so though haha.

[Run-It-Hard]

The past 24 hours have been frantic to say the least. Anthony and the Run It Hard! gang had been desperately looking for a pair of standard cams for my R33.

I posted a wanted to buy on SAU and luckily I snapped up a pair. As soon as I picked them up I went straight to Dahtone for Anthony to install. When I got there, Anth said to have a look at what’s going on with the engine. Check it out!

The GTR cams that Ali had installed were not only leaving the valves open too long, but they started to damage the head. This is on an engine that has been run for 20 minutes max!

Anthony also found some metal shards blocking the oil drains, this is most likely from the cams grinding against the head.

When the Skyline was at Insight, Scott did mention to me that the cam seals may be leaking. Well they weren’t the VCT feed was. Because Ali wanted to install the GTR cams on this engine, he had to block off the VCT feed. By the looks of things, he figured a grub screw would be all it needed. It wasn’t tapered, there was no thread sealant, just a pain old grub screw.

Anthony and myself were astonished to say the least. To top it all off, half of the cam shaft plates were bolted on backwards!

It looks like we’ve found all the dodgy things going on with the head. I’m just hoping Alister had a bit of pride and thought when he put the block together.

Now for some great news, after Anthony cleaned up the head, he installed the cams and did a compression test. Which showed readings over triple the original amount. This means it’s all systems go for matsuri!

Tomorrow I’ll spend some time before work, putting the car back together and finishing off the loose ends. Friday it’ll be off to Mick’s Motorsports to get tuned.

Guys if you ever need a trust-worthy mechanic, look no further. Head to Anthony at Dahtone Racing.

Anth, I cannot thank you enough for the effort you’ve put into getting my R33 up and running again.

RECOVERY MODE

[skylinecouple]

Great news, I've been watching this thread for some time. Good on you for persistance. Hope you have nothing but luck from now on.

On another note, you can buy a brand new engine from Japan for around $6,000 to your door. I'm sorry, but for me, unless I can get an engine builder to sign a contract to say they will rebuild the motor in a week if it fails and will have it back in your car, well, I'll leave the engine building to others. But always exciting to see others have some success. Alister sounds like a few sandwiches short of a picnic, he owes you for his ignorance, big time.