Hanaldo's R34 Gt(T) Skyline Build

[Hanaldo]

Please don't take my question as any kind of criticism, that's a damn impressive result regardless.

Trial & error is all part of the process, that's a kick arse start on a pretty unforgiving material.

Sorry mate, just found this. Didn't take your comment as negative at all, was a valid question! Carbon is pretty hard to work with, but it's actually not as hard as a lot of people seem to think. And it's a lot of fun in the process, if not a little expensive haha.

Anyway, got a couple more updates. Forgot to post pictures of the parcel tray with speakers mounted and back in the car:

Then I hit the drags again on Wednesday night, got to use my GoPro Hero 3 for the first time:

Unfortunately I forgot to charge it, so these were the best three vids I got before it went flat:

Edited April 5, 2013 by Hanaldo

[timmy_89]

I missed the updates after asking!! Haha. Looks good man. I like the carbon look in the spoiler, not sure if I'm 100% on the parcel shelf, but the quality of the work looks good

Also, what was the other car in the forward facing footage? And what was it running? Lol

Edited April 10, 2013 by timmy_89

[34GeeTeeTee]

Nice work on the vids man! I gotta get our Go Pro worked out! What cover did you have on to get the sound clear?

[Hanaldo]

I missed the updates after asking!! Haha. Looks good man. I like the carbon look in the spoiler, not sure if I'm 100% on the parcel shelf, but the quality of the work looks good

Also, what was the other car in the forward facing footage? And what was it running? Lol

Yeh I'm a carbon nut, so anything I can make out of carbon I will, hence the parcel shelf But the downside of it is having such a shiny surface underneath the rear windscreen, it makes the back window rather distracting haha. But still, I like it.

Nice work on the vids man! I gotta get our Go Pro worked out! What cover did you have on to get the sound clear?

That was just the waterproof back, sound is ok. I want to give the skeleton back a go, see how different the sound quality is.

[34GeeTeeTee]

Hmmmm i might try that Skeleton one IN the car on the weekend and see what the sound is like, Ours was really quiet with the waterproof cover on....

[timmy_89]

I've used both closed and open back on my Hero3 and unless there is water around I will always use the open back. Sound is a hell of a lot clearer I'm happy with my GoPro, can't wait to get more use out of it.

[Hanaldo]

Yeh I definitely wouldn't use the skeleton door outside the car, the sound gets intense with just the waterproof one on

Still, happy with the quality of it! Need to buy a few more adhesive mounts, then I'll be set!

[timmy_89]

Yeh I definitely wouldn't use the skeleton door outside the car, the sound gets intense with just the waterproof one on

Still, happy with the quality of it! Need to buy a few more adhesive mounts, then I'll be set!

Skeleton case definitely when in the car. I used the skeleton back during a motorkhana the other day and it was good. I had it mounted on the side window and then the door and the front guard just behind the wheel. Wasn't bad sounds wise. But I wasn't doing high speed either so the wind wasn't much of an issue. Doing anything high speed I think the wind would suck.

[34GeeTeeTee]

Yeh I definitely wouldn't use the skeleton door outside the car, the sound gets intense with just the waterproof one on

Still, happy with the quality of it! Need to buy a few more adhesive mounts, then I'll be set!

So that is a permanent mount yeah?

[Hanaldo]

So that is a permanent mount yeah?

Yep!

[timmy_89]

Yep!

I've got the adhesive mount on my helmet, that way I can use it when I'm out in my go kart too, and I just use the suction cup on the car

[FeZ25]

That's using the skeleton back with a suction cup mount outside the car.

Chuck it in 420p

[34GeeTeeTee]

That's using the skeleton back with a suction cup mount outside the car.

Chuck it in 420p

Needs more gate and skids! But the sound isnt too bad!

[FeZ25]

Needs more gate and skids! But the sound isnt too bad!

We're working on it

Sound is mad behind the car near the pipe since it's blocking the wind. I'm playing with noise reduction and other things with final cut pro, I'll let you know how that goes.

I'll also stop derailing this thread. Good build is good. Nice work.

[Hanaldo]

We're working on it

Sound is mad behind the car near the pipe since it's blocking the wind. I'm playing with noise reduction and other things with final cut pro, I'll let you know how that goes.

I'll also stop derailing this thread. Good build is good. Nice work.

Haha cheers mate. The idea is good, but I don't think I'll call it a good build until I'm into the 11's and at least 120mph! Haha.

[34GeeTeeTee]

Haha cheers mate. The idea is good, but I don't think I'll call it a good build until I'm into the 11's and at least 120mph! Haha.

You are heading in the right direction

[Hanaldo]

You are heading in the right direction

So, to take another step in the right direction, time for some updates! Big ones! I want to do a bit of a detailed write-up on what I've been up to, so I'll do it over a couple of posts rather than one massive one

I'll start with the performance updates first. After seeing Stao's results at the drags a few weeks a go, it convinced me that I should stop procrastinating with my setup and find out exactly what is holding it back once and for all. I began by doing an air leak test by pumping compressed air into this:

It's simply a 3" rubber joiner and a PVC end cap with a bicycle valve stem melted into it. Cost me about $5 to make and works extremely well, you simply bolt this on in place of your pod filter and using an air compressor and a tyre inflator, pump as much air into it as you want or need. Without any engine noise, it makes it very easy to find leaks. In my case, I could initially only get about 2psi into the system and it would bleed off within a few seconds. I found there was a massive leak in the 4"-3" reducer on my intake pipe. Fixed this and managed to get about 5psi into the system before it would bleed off. I found that some very dodgy welding of the bung for the IAT sensor from a certain workshop (to remain un-named) had a lot of tiny holes in it, which were bleeding air off so quickly that I couldn't build more than 5psi. I fixed this with some Selleys Kneed-It and some epoxy resin. I then found a few other small leaks which I fixed up, and I can now get the system to hold 25psi without it bleeding off at all. Gotta be of some benefit!

Now this is where it gets interesting. I decided that if I was going to get it back on the dyno for a retune, then I might as well cross everything that I thought could be an issue off the list. At the top of this list... Cam timing.

[Ryno]

That's a great idea for checking boost leaks... I may have to make something similar, even if I don't find a leak it could be a fun weekend project.

I take it that your blow off valve recirculates back into the system, as if you had a blow off valve venting to atmosphere I wouldn't have thought pressurising the system like this would be possible.

[Hanaldo]

I had sort of suspected that my cam timing was an issue based on the behaviour of the car, ie. last dyno results, performance (or lack of) at the drags, compressor surge in 2nd at about 60% throttle when going up hills, etc. So, I got myself a dial indicator with a magnetic stand, a degree wheel, and made a piston stop from an old spark plug; then parked the car up in my old mans garage. Time to get dialling!

Basically the same procedure as replacing the timing belt, gotta take all the aux belts off as well as the fan, radiator, etc. Also have to remove the spark plugs in order to turn the engine by hand easily.

I then installed my new HKS exhaust cam gear:

And seeing as I was doing that, I decided to start on the exhaust side. So, first had to set up the dial indicator (this is actually the hardest part of the whole dialling in process):

Due to the cam on bucket setup of RB's, I also needed to make an extension rod for the actuator of the dial indicator, and then position it on the lifter so that the gauge was preloaded - otherwise there wouldn't be any change when I turned the engine. After about 20 minutes of messing around making sure the actuator was straight and parallel with the valve stem, I then installed my piston stop to find true TDC. Pretty simple, turn the crank by hand until the piston contacts the piston stop (GENTLY!), note down the value on the degree wheel. Then because I was using a degree wheel that only went up to 180, I turned the engine the other way until again the piston meets the stop, and noted that degree value. The true TDC lies in the exact middle of these two values. In my case, I got 95 degrees BTDC (positive) and 67.1 degrees ATDC (negative). 95-67.1 = 27.9, divide that by 2 to find TDC = 13.95. So what I SHOULD have done was rotate my degree wheel to sit at 0 where TDC was, you'll see why in a minute.

Finally ready to find the cam lobe centre. To do this, I picked a reference value on my dial indicator, eg. 5.4mm. and noted the value on the degree wheel. -159.0 degrees. Then turned the engine FORWARD until the dial indicator got back to my reference value of 5.4mm, and took the degree value. 66.2 degrees. Time for some simple arithmetic:

-159.0 + 66.2 = -92.8.

-92.8/2 = -46.4. Add 180 to get to the other side of the degree wheel = 133.6 degrees.

This is why I should have rotated my degree wheel. Normally you would now have the angle of your cam lobe centreline. Tomei specified that on mine, this should be 115 degrees BTDC. But, my degree wheel was 14 degrees out. So 115 + 14 = 129. 133.6-129 = 4.6. So my exhaust cam was 4.6 degrees out. Way out! I reset my degree wheel to read 0 at TDC, then checked this several times using different reference values on the dial indicator. Always 4.6 degrees advanced. So I then retarded the exhaust cam gear by 4.6 degrees, which took a bit of fiddling. Exhaust side done!

Now for the intake side.

Apart from this time looking for the value ATDC, the procedure is the same on this side so I'll spare you maths. On this side I ended up with 112.8 degrees ATDC. Checked and rechecked. Nope, inlet cam was 7.8 degrees retarded. And I thought 4.6 degrees was way out! So I needed to advance the inlet cam by 7.8 degrees. For anyone that hasn't seen the VCT gear, this is what it looks like inside:

Under those bolts are slide notches much like the HKS gear, but these are inside and there are no timing marks to help move it! So it's a fair bit harder to adjust. I used some vernier calipers to measure a tooth and then worked out how many degrees were in each mm of the gear. Adjusted it and put it all back together, remeasured. To cut a long story short, all this extra work actually distracted me and I completely messed up my arithmetic.Took me 2 days to work out what I had done wrong, so if you are thinking of doing this yourself my advice is "buy the adapter plates to make the VCT gear adjustable from the front and PAY ATTENTION!!"

After 2 days of skipping teeth and adjusting the gear, I had managed to get the inlet cam to 60 degrees 60 degrees retarded from where it needed to be! Lucky I didn't hit any valves, though I knew I had to be out so was being very careful of this. Took me a couple more tries to get it there, but I eventually got it to spot on 120 degrees! I then rechecked TDC to make sure it was right, then rechecked both my inlet and exhaust cams. 120.0 ATDC and 115.0 BTDC respectively. Exactly where they needed to be!

This is about it for the performance side of things. I had actually intended to port match my JJR dump pipe to the gasket, however after pulling off the dump pipe I found that the turbo's flange was actually far more restrictive than the dump pipe:

Stao must have changed his flange since this turbo was made.

Anyway, the car is booked in for a retune on the 14th, so 10 days! Looking forward to seeing how it goes.

[Hanaldo]

That's a great idea for checking boost leaks... I may have to make something similar, even if I don't find a leak it could be a fun weekend project.

I take it that your blow off valve recirculates back into the system, as if you had a blow off valve venting to atmosphere I wouldn't have thought pressurising the system like this would be possible.

I don't actually have a bov at the moment, I haven't got round to getting it welded on since I did the plenum. But yes, it usually has a standard GTR bov on it. If you were using an atmospheric bov you would need to block it off before testing.