Hanaldo's R34 Gt(T) Skyline Build

[Hanaldo]

Alright, time for some much needed updates! I know my fans have been impatiently waiting

So I spent a bit of time deciding where I wanted to go with the car after the troubles on the dyno. I drove it a handful of times to keep the battery happy, and it was driving better than it ever had! Whether it was the Link or the new injectors or a combination, it was idling and cruising like a brand new car. Which made it hard to believe there were any issues with it, and even harder to avoid putting my foot down in it. After spitting my dummy and leaving it on the ground for a bit, I decided I have put way too much into this car to give up on it now. My mates were a big part of that decision, so thanks to those of you that put up with my moaning while the wound was fresh

Time to get back into it. I asked around on here about getting my head reconditioned, and was pointed towards Headtorque in Osborne Park by a number of helpful guys. So I gave them a call, and Gerry was very very good to talk to, by far the best customer service I have dealt with here in WA. He listened to what was going on with the engine, offered his suggestions as to what could be wrong with it, then suggested how to go about fixing things. So huge thanks to Gerry and the guys at Headtorque, their willingness to help me and their knowledge of RB motors was uplifting after some of the other workshops I've dealt with.

Before I could get stuck into pulling the head off, I needed to wait for space in my mates shed. In the mean time, determined to stick by my policy of turning repairs into upgrades, I bought a valve spring and retainer kit from Performance Springs:

Then, after seeing 34GeeTeeTee's and Simon-R32's results, I couldn't say no to a set of Tomei Type-B Poncams:

While I was waiting for all this to arrive, I was also ecstatic to see the return of my custom catch can! Complete with Earls -10 fittings and a drain port, I had almost forgotten how beautiful Brad's work is:

Quick trial fitment:

Very tight, but it's going to work! Unfortunately, Brad has positioned the drain port on the bottom in the exact spot where it fouls on the intercooler piping With the Earls blanking cap, I'm not sure I will be able to get the catch can to sit square with the fuse box, so it's not going to look as neat as I wanted it to. BUT, it looks great none-the-less and such a small issue isn't a big deal.

[34GeeTeeTee]

YES YES YES YES YES :wub:

[Hanaldo]

Fitting the can back in made me impatient, so while I was still waiting to get the car into my mates shed, I pulled the cam covers off and took them to have the -10 fittings welded on. Then I took them to Diamond Powder Coaters to get sandblasted and powder coated. Decided to get them done in Dulux Steel Pearl:

Which unfortunately turned out a bit of a lighter shade and not as metallic as I wanted, I was after something closer to the gunmetal metallic you see on the Toyota Rav4's. But anyway, they look much better than they used to and they still look amazing with the carbon fibre covers which was my goal, so I'm happy!

Next up I did some research on head gaskets and ended up deciding just to get a replacement OEM one given I'm not doing any bottom end work. After a bit of a search, JustinP offered me one he got in a kit so I snapped that up, cheers mate! THEN, further research told me a bit of extra clamping force wouldn't hurt, so I went and purchased a set of these:

While this was happening, my mate cleared some space in his shed so I borrowed some cam covers off another mate and drove the car up there ready to start work!

[34GeeTeeTee]

Keep the updates rolling

[Hanaldo]

We got into pulling the head off that weekend so I could get it to Headtorque asap. Removal of the radiator left me wondering how I never had any cooling problems:

Only took a couple of hours before the front of the motor was off, along with the exhaust and intake:

Progressed pretty quickly:

Then it was ready to come out!

Took a bit of convincing to get it off, and the Plazmaman became pretty good friends with the brake lines in the cylinder, but we eventually got it off and out!

The bottom end looks great, not a lot of deposits

No ridge on the bore, and the original hone marks are still there:

[Hanaldo]

Time to take the first look at the cylinder head

Cylinder 1:

Cyl 2:

Cyl 3:

Cyl 4:

Cyl 5:

Aaaaand Cyl 6:

All of them looking pretty good. So visually I couldn't see anything wrong at all, but better to leave it to the experts. So I finished pulling everything off it including the cams, then wrapped it up ready to for Headtorque.

[34GeeTeeTee]

Is that valve marked on number 2? (on my phone so hard to see)

[Hanaldo]

Unfortunately this is where things hit the brakes a bit, as I shattered my meniscus and tore the medial collateral ligament in my right knee playing football only hours after we got the head off, so I have been unable to drive for the past 3 weeks. Relying on other people to give me lifts everywhere made things a bit difficult, but I got round to dropping the head, cams and valve spring kit off with Gerry.

While he was pulling it apart and having a look at what needed to be done, I decided I wanted to do all my turbo lines again. I was never happy with the oil drain we dodged up when we installed the G3, and anyone who has installed one of these turbos will know how much of a pain in the ass the stock water lines are, so I decided to do it all properly now while I was spending the cash:

If anyone wants to know the necessary fittings you need to do your oil drain and water fittings, feel free to ask as it wasn't very easy finding the info and I did buy a couple of the wrong fittings.

Without the head I couldn't make up the lines yet, so to keep myself busy I decided to tidy up the engine bay. The hoses and wiring on the intake side was a huge mess from when we installed the plenum, so I took the chance to run that all neatly along the chassis rail. Then this was the general state of my engine bay:

So I got in there with the ol' toothbrush and a bucket of petrol! I have spent about 16 hours all up over the past 3 weeks polishing it all up, though luckily the speaker system in the shed and petrol fumes meant good times were had! This is the result:

Getting behind those ABS lines was a bit of a bitch, but considering the outcome it was well worth the effort:

There's still a bit of work left in there, but it's ALMOST as shiny as the exterior now Feels good to get that done, you can spend thousands on cosmetic mods like fuel rails and intake plenums, but a nice clean engine bay makes almost as much difference!

[Hanaldo]

Is that valve marked on number 2? (on my phone so hard to see)

Not reallyyy, it does have a small little chip out of the edge of it there, but just general wear and tear, it hasn't hit anything.

[34GeeTeeTee]

Not reallyyy, it does have a small little chip out of the edge of it there, but just general wear and tear, it hasn't hit anything.

Ah fair enough well done on the updates man, well worth the effort!!! Your work with the toothbrush is epic!! Love it...

[Akshunhiro]

Someone had fun stamping re-stamping your VIN! Very artistic

[Hanaldo]

Someone had fun stamping re-stamping your VIN! Very artistic

Yehh the jerks, not sure why they felt that was necessary Ruining my bay

Ah fair enough well done on the updates man, well worth the effort!!! Your work with the toothbrush is epic!! Love it...

Haha not done yet

While I was cleaning up the engine bay, my mate removed the remains of the old head gasket from the block

After I was done, I started cleaning up the intake manifold to get it ready for some paint. Going to try and clean up the cast marks while I'm at it as well.

But after 16 hours of cleaning my engine bay, I soon got bored of that and didn't get very far Next time. Back to the cylinder head. Gerry gave me a call a couple of weeks ago to discuss what needed doing. Confusingly enough, he didn't find a single thing wrong with the head. It was perfect. So that leaves me stumped as to what the problem was, and rather worried it is going to happen again BUT, for now, I decided to eliminate as many things as possible and hope that the problem was caused by some dirt that has long since passed through the system. So I got Gerry to completely recondition the head and replace everything. This included custom bronze valve guides which he made shorter to suit the new cams. The recondition included complete disassembly and reassembly, media blasting, crack testing, pressure testing, new exhaust manifold studs etc. etc. etc. Then on Thursday, I got the call to tell me it was ready to be picked up. This is a glimpse of the final product:

I will take more pics when we are ready to put everything back together, for now it's staying in plastic

Edited August 20, 2012 by Hanaldo

[34GeeTeeTee]

Looks yummy!! AND it worries me that nothing was wrong, it goes back to us saying it didn't make sense..... The progress looks awesome anyway buddy and I am really keen to see it go

[Hanaldo]

Yehh, I'm a bit worried now that it's a dodge ecu or something TOTALLY unrelated. I dunno. We shall see. For now I'm being optimistic

[34GeeTeeTee]

Same man!! SUPER keen to see it going

[KURTIS34]

YAY

I haven't been spyin for a while

It's a good to see it moving again

I will be checking again

I hope with all this money spending your thinking about adding a drum of e85 too the shed

[10 4]

I could buy a 1980s Alfa and it'd be far more reliable than this POS

[Hanaldo]

You're not wrong, Kidder. But who buys a Skyline for reliability?

[10 4]

lol not me

I buy one for fuel economy

[34GeeTeeTee]

lol not me

I buy one for fuel economy

This guy

Martin i hope you are going to coat the little bits like the radiator brackets etc? Come on man!!