Shoota's R33 GT-R RB30/26

[Shoota_77]

Great read mate, looks like it will be a very well rounded engine when its done. Great to see you doing it all yourself, would love to have the skillset that allows me to build my own engines!

Ha ha, I hope you're right!! I'm a qualified mechanic but haven't been paid to touch my tool(s) in years. Now I just play for free.....

[Shoota_77]

Been a bit slack lately but finally got around to doing a bit today.

Drilled the holes in the main bearing girdle to be able to attach the windage trays-

Also put a bit more work into gasket matching the oil galleries in the block. I'll do the head next, it needs a huge amount taken out of it. It's sooo rough I'm surprised. It's like they just drilled a few holes next to each other and hoped for the best! Shoody work by Nissan on a brand new part.

[black bnr32]

good thread. keep it up!

[Gts-t]

Those coatings look great, love your buildup and extra prep work of the block etc.

Look forward to more updates, hope the hands are feeling better soon.

[Shoota_77]

Continued operation "Oil, get yo ass back in the sump where you belong" today. I'm making a whole lotta extra work for myself (had to fully disassemble the head again after this round of machining) but hopefully it all pays off in the end.

Before (lazy, lazy Nissan)-

"That's not a carbide burr, THAT's a carbide burr!-

A mountain of shavings later-

Getting closer to actually bolting some shit together rather than grinding the arse out of it!

[r33_racer]

Looking good so far mate. Nice work.

The other thing you could check out while you have your die grinder out is to smooth out around the water jacket slots around the bores in the block. Polish them up so its not a cast finish with lots of stress risers.

Then when assembling the engine see if your studs when screwed in are actually nice and perpendicular to the block face. If not, best trick is to drop a ball bearing down each hole and then screw the stud down on top of it. The point load from the ball when bottomed out will stand the stud up dead straight (well as straight as the block threads are) and evenly load each thread. You end up with a straight stud and uniformly loaded threads which makes for a stronger base when holding the head down.

Its quite the simple and inexpensive trick.

[Leroy Peterson]

Nice progress.

Might have to do the same with the galleys to my engine...

[Shoota_77]

Looking good so far mate. Nice work.

The other thing you could check out while you have your die grinder out is to smooth out around the water jacket slots around the bores in the block. Polish them up so its not a cast finish with lots of stress risers.

Then when assembling the engine see if your studs when screwed in are actually nice and perpendicular to the block face. If not, best trick is to drop a ball bearing down each hole and then screw the stud down on top of it. The point load from the ball when bottomed out will stand the stud up dead straight (well as straight as the block threads are) and evenly load each thread. You end up with a straight stud and uniformly loaded threads which makes for a stronger base when holding the head down.

Its quite the simple and inexpensive trick.

Interesting... I wasn't too worried about the studs as I presumed when you tighten them they pull up against the top off the threads. I presume bottoming them on something forces them up into position against the top of the thread before you start tightening them. Is that the idea? How tight do you tighten down the studs? I've only ever hand tightened them in the past. I thought that was recommended procedure from ACL?

Keen to hear further elaboration on that point!

With the water galleries I think I took photos last page of where I've cleaned those up with the die grinder. I need to spend the next week cleaning die grinder filings out of my garage, that shit gets everywhere.

[r33_racer]

Usually they will want to load up and kick over as you run out of thread and the shank binds up in the top of the hole. How bad it does it I guess can be put back to how tight you wind it in. Even wound in loose I have found when you then put the washers and nuts on all lubed up they still can turn into the block abit, bind up and kick over before you reach the right tension. You are correct about them being put in by hand, so not very tight at all. I think that is what the ARP instructions state.

You would think that when you screw the stud into the block that it would start to pull up against the top of the threads, but when it locks up when you run out of thread to screw in, its something like the majority of the tension is held in the first couple of threads (where it has locked in and taken up the slop) and from there down it dissipates to far less. I believe as you tension from there it only becomes worse.

You are not wrong about the filings mate, worst part about using a die grinder!

[Shoota_77]

Had a bit more time so removed the oil plug galleries (so I can 100% clean every last piece of metal shavings out of the engine.

Removing the plug-

Tapped a thread to be able to screw in slide hammer-

Easy as that-

Tapped a thread into the block each end and installed a 14mm grub screw and Bob's your uncle-

Hopefully get everything washed up over the weekend and paint the block so it goes faster....

[Shoota_77]

Painted the block today.

Looks like a Massey Ferguson in primer-

Decided to go silver for something a little bit different! Not sure of everyones thoughts on that...??

Washed all the bearings and put the crank in. Just need to get some more Plasti-Gauge to make sure all clearances are perfect-

Hopefully get the bottom half sorted by the end of this week. My pressure washer crapped itself so still need to get the head washed up after all the extra machining for the oil galleries.

[black bnr32]

the silver looks great

[Shoota_77]

Thanks. It might sound silly but silver engines make working in the engine bay easier as it refracts the light better than black. Makes digging around underneath manifolds a bit easier when you can see wahts going on. Makes oil leaks easier to find too.....

[StevenCJR31]

Thats why nissan painted the blocks black

Too hide the oil leaks :-p

[Shoota_77]

Done f. all lately. Finally got around to putting in the crank and torqueing it all up today-

Tested end float-

3 thou end float so well within specs-

I also spent another three hours porting the head. Not going crazy taking out heaps of material, just making everything sure everything flows nicely. Removed all steps and rough bits in the ports.

Also finished port matching the exhaust manifold to the head. Tossing up whether or not I ceramic coat the manifolds and dumps. Probably should but it's more money..... Does it ever end?

[Shoota_77]

It's official, I'm shit. Been busy making stuff lately.

This (second kid, little sister for the walking, shitting 2 1/2 year old war zone)-

And this, slab for my shed on my new block. Doing it all myself so taking a f'ing long time! Had zero idea about concreting before this-

On the car front, I've finished the head, weight matched the pistons and rods to within half a gram of each other which is pretty bloody close (0.05% accurate).

Then assembled the pistons onto the rods and in the process of putting the rings on the pistons-

assembled the

This could be finished by the time my kids are teenagers the way I'm going....

[Shoota_77]

All pistons in. Bought a tapered ring compressor which I HIGHLY recommend. Makes putting the pistons in so much easier and feels a lot nicer than a traditional clamp style compressor.

Was a bit worried about piston protrusion from the block but apparently it'll be ok. I hope! I'll play doh the pistons and whack the head on when I get a chance to see how much clearance I have.

After thinking I'd finished the head I've decided now to remove the exhaust humps. Should've done it right from the start but oh well, still easier now than when it's completely assembled....

It's incredibly slow progress but I'm getting there!

[Shoota_77]

Got the front end on (oil pump, water pump, etc)-

I fear I might have a porous weld issue with the changes made to my oil pump unfortunately. Seems to be weeping out of a porous looking section that was welded on to make the pump external pickup. An abortion of a job was done the first time it was done prior to me getting the pump so made life hard for the second modification. I'm tempted to get it modified again anyway to work around the A/C bracket. Call me soft but until this car becomes a full track car I still want my air con! Northern Victorian summers are unrelenting...

I sat the head on the other day and turned it over (without cams in) and the pistons don't hit the head which is a good start! It had me worried for a while! I've got some Playdoh so when I get me new head/block dowels I'll bolt the head down and see what sort of clearance I get between the valves and the head. Hopefully it's enough....

[Gts-t]

Looking good shoota, I'm enjoying the read. Congrats on the baby as well

[Shoota_77]

Thanks Mick, I wish it wasn't so long between each update! Family, building a house, building a shed and work seem to get in the way very often!

Pulled the oil pump back off last night to work out how to get around my A/C bracket issue. Think I might have a solution with a 90 degree -10 fitting I cut up. Glen (aka Rb30/26 running gear in LX Torana hatch fame) is hopefully going to help with the aluminium welding which is outside of my abilities (and equipment!).

These photos may not make sense but I know what I mean! If you look at the last photo I'll be able to cut away the triangular bracing on the A/C bracket. I don't believe there should be great enough side loadings to cause the bracket to flex or break. Time will tell.

It would be lovely to make some consistent forward progress at some point rather than 2 steps forward 1 step back! Such are the joys of doing it yourself I spose...