R34 Build/diary

[B-rice]

Hopefully I'll get that done soon enough for you. Got quoted $970 to do it. They'll probably cut corners while at it.

[XRATED]

pleeease.. remove the thread tape from those AN fittings on your fpr.

[B-rice]

It's not thread tape lol. It was to stop the wire fraying making it hard to fit. When you cut the braid with a cutting blade it always mushrooms. Will take it off but.

[B-rice]

So things took a bad turn. No more GTT. The savings have started for a new project. Have a lot of stuff for sale on the GTT so pm me.

[MrFijiGold]

Woah. Hopefully new project is a R...?

[B-rice]

You sir.Coined it!!

[k_d]

Welcome to the dark side. Hope you like hitchhiking and 2minute noodles!!!!

[timmy_89]

What happened? Massive fireball landed on the car? Or you sold it? Lol.

[B-rice]

Hit a roo on the highway and pretty much did a fair bit of damage.

[timmy_89]

Hit a roo on the highway and pretty much did a fair bit of damage.

Ah no man, that sucks

[B-rice]

So good news back in the game. I had some unfinished business with my old 34. Hearing an RB would tear me apart thinking about all the things I had planned for mine. Anyway the one I got pretty much almost takes off from the stage I left my old one at.

[B-rice]

So I purchased a silver R34GTT with an RB25/30 and relatively low ks than what I had before so I was questionable about the legitimacy.Did a Revs check and it seemed like the mileage hasn't been changed. The body is in mint condition no rust under the chassis or jacking marks on incorrect locations. I've had the car parked for nearly a month now mainly due to issues that started a few weeks after purchasing it. Probably the reason why I always prefer building the car from scratch some people shouldn't be allowed to touch these cars.

The engine has less than 5000kms according to the previous owner. I realized that the there was no external line feeding the VCT. So I had to get in contact with the builder to verify if he had done the internal method of drilling through the brass plug.Turns out there was nothing done about that. Some people claim that a few "9 second VL's"  run without the internal oil feed. I've opted to get this sorted asap otherwise the intake cam will just chew itself out. 

First of all I have this oil leak on the side of the block, seems to be originating from the cam seals. Seems like the previous owner gave this car a good wash before I went to inspect it. So I never spotted the leak. The power steering pump has a leak too which ill have to get fixed. Then upon pressure testing the water system I found a water leak just above the water pump seems to be a common problem with 25/30 conversions. Unfortunately, I did not see any of these before, would have adjusted the price for this.
In general shouldn't be too difficult ironing out these problems and a few other things around the car.  

 

[B-rice]

Update on this, I fixed most of the leaks on the car. It turned out to be a leaking cam seal. Initially, I was panicking as I thought it was coming from the head gasket. Now I need to crack onto the steering rack leak then the car will be leak free. While looking for something completely unrelated, I ran into a rather clean looking R34GT4. It seems like it has most of the exterior mods taken care of and the usual bolt ons. So was thinking maybe I should swap and get an AWD Neo.

The plan would be to pull out the NA engine and get a temporary RB25 Turbo for the mean time while building a RB30.  Then the final goal would be to drop the RB30 and use adapter plates and drop it into the AWD chassis. It the best thing I could do, can't really afford a GTR as a uni student. So keen to hear what inputs people have. I feel like I may be losing out on this swap just to get the AWD. The questions in my mind before I pull this off are

-Are parts easy to get for the R34GT4?
-Available ECU options, I'm guessing I won't be able to use a GTT plug-in ECU
-Potential Issues with dropping an RB30 into the AWD chassis (I haven't found much info on this)
-Most likely will need to be engineered unless if I transfer the NA engine number onto the RB30 block, they will never be able to tell.

Need some help thinking this through!

 

[dr phil]

I've done an AWD neo swap into R34 GT4. Isn't a particularly hard swap, as far as swaps go, in fact I ended up with a GTT ecu loom on the Stagea neo motor, which made parts of the wiring easier. Only thing that needed changing was the ABS to body loom plugs, pins are all scrambled from GTT (abs is in the ecu loom) to GT4. The only wire you need setup from ECU to the 4wd computer (in fact, abs and ets share the same ecu) is a throttle position signal, which a GTT loom will provide anyway, normally it would go to the traction control ecu.

Apart from a bit of wiring, the real dramas are suspension and brakes, as the GT4 is a spec lower than GTT. You will want GTR spec sway bars too, gt4 doesn't even have a rear one. I swapped in all GTT brakes and GTR suspension into mine.

[B-rice]

Thanks Phil. As far as wiring goes I'm not a sparky. So it would be something I'd give to an auto electrician unless if reckon it's that simple.

The biggest question is, do you think a that effort was worth it?

I can handle most mechanical challenges. But when it comes to electrical work I tend to avoid it.

[dr phil]

Was it worth it? Next time around i'd consider an R33 Autech 4dr GTR

If you can do a lot of the mechanical work yourself, then probably yes, it mostly bolts in, few custom parts required. If you are getting somebody else to do it then it gets expensive because of how many things need to change.

I did a few extra things while i was at it, like change rear hubs to aluminium carrier from GTT, hicas type crossmember with lockout bar and new bushes. Front hubs in R34 GT4 are steel too, so will be changing them to R33 GTR aluminium soon and new wheel bearings.

I like it because it looks like an average sedan but has attesa-ets which i've always wanted, and fits my kids in the back. Stagea neo turbo motors are like half the price of an RB26 too.

[B-rice]

So the car is up for sale now. Going to be funding my next project. Which I should be keeping for a long time.

[B-rice]

Comes with one year rego. Expires July 2018
ENGINE
Car has engineering certificate saving you from the hassle with RTA
* Rebuilt Rb25 head with ARP head studs, new springs, titanium retainers, skimmed, bored and polished. Head was built by Top Torque, Vermont.
* Rb25/30 modifications made to the head with oil/water galleries modified with block offs and restrictors
* New Kometic multi layer head gasket
* All new rocker/exhaust/intake gaskets
* All new hoses, oils and fluids
* Rb30 block
- nitto forged pistons,
- manley rods,
- block has been tested, skimmed, bored, honed
* Crankshaft balanced
* Rear head oil drain from Franklin Engineering in NZ return to block
* New Garrett ball bearing GT 3076 turbo
* Greddy type front facing plenum
*R33 reduced throttle body with deleted traction control module
* Z32 afm
* Custom intake with hks pod
* Low mount exhaust manifold
* New Daycco Timing belt kit
* New Competition stage 5 button clutch (still running in)
* Lightweight racing flywheel
* 1000cc injectors
* Splitfire coil packs
* New spark plugs
* New Aeroflow fuel rail and fittings
* Bosch fuel pump
* Oil catch can with head breather hoses
* Apexi Power FC ECU ( tuned in December by ESP and previously by Maatouks)
* 3.5 inch Kakimoto exhaust with split dump pipe to external wastegate (screamer pipe)
* Front mount intercooler
* New alloy radiator with twin thermo fans (clutch fan is still available)
* Nismo short shifter
* New compact battery still positioned in engine bay

Engine has done under 15000kms
315kws at 21.5psi conservative tune.Nothing was maxed. Has the potential to go to 360kws before changing turbo. Plan was to go E85 and HTA3582. I have decided to start another project. With AWD

SUSPENSION/WHEELS/BODY/INTERIOR

* Resprayed about 4 years go in skyline grey but with a metallic in the paint (very clean, hardly any imperfections, extremely straight and not a single spot of rust)
* Body kit in great condition with no cracks/scrapes with front bar just resprayed to tidy up driveway scratches
* 18 x 9.5 Rota g force wheels wrapped in Michelin pilot sport 3 tyres 255/40/18 on the rear (brand new). Grips really well
* HKS adjustable coilovers
* Slotted discs with ferrodo pads (New Pads yet to to be installed)
* HKS turbo timer, data logger
* Blitz electronic boost controller
* Pioneer LCD touch head unit
* Kicker rear 6 inch speakers
* Resprayed centre dash in Matt black
* LED tail lights

I barely ever have enough time for this car anymore. The lip is yet to be installed and Project MU brake pads are yet to get installed.

I have a set of LMGT4s that I can include in the deal at the right price. They have
265/35/18 Rears Michelin Pilot Sport 3
234/34/18 Fronts Michelin Pilot Sports 3

Not interested in swaps ATM unless if its a R34 GT-Four.Car is garaged 100% of the time. Mostly driven on weekends if I'm not working. Feel free to do a REVS check to check the authenticity of the kilometres.

[B-rice]