Our R32

[Bushy]

So as I mentioned in the last post I'm trying to get the car ready for rego. I decided to put the pressure on myself and have it booked in for the 22nd March for the engineers inspection (for mod plate), unfortunately this relies on other people getting work done/parts turning up so we'll see what happens.

I've been running around trying to get little things organised, like the seat belt buckle and bulb clip from the last post, surprising I had a lot of trouble tracking them down locally, so I ended up getting the buckle from Nissan and the bulb clip is coming from an SAU member on the mainland

The silicon heater hoses turned up last week so I fitted them straight away, I think it looks much tidier now (you can see the old heater hoses on the windscreen).

I got the inlet manifold back yesterday but the face needs surfacing as its bowed from the welding, so I dropped it off at the machinist today who assures me I'll have it back by Monday (fingers crossed). As I think I mentioned I want to run the injector loom under the manifold so I started lengthening the plugs last night and finished it off today, pretty happy with how it turned out.

Where I plan to run the loom:

First plug done:

The final product!

Jobs left to do are...

- Fit inlet manifold

- Fit coilovers (when they turn up!)

- Fit drivers seat and buckle

- Fit rear seat

- Fit standard steering wheel

- Fit standard wheels/tyres

- Fit headlight bulb clip

- Bleed power steering

- Bleed brakes

- Fill/bleed coolant

- Get wheel alignment

- Fit front guards/bonnet (when I get them back from painter)

It's all pretty straight forward but potentially time consuming, and it depends on when work gets done/parts turn up, should be a fun week!

[Bushy]

So as I predicted its been a fun week ha. Almost everything has come together and I may just make my deadline. Prepare for a photo overload.

I started on Sunday with installing the Gktech rear camber arms, the plan was to also install the rear toe arms but in a dumb moment I overlooked the bit that said "not compatible with HICAS rear subframes", I also believe this makes adjustable rear toe arms redundant as the tie rod ends on the HICAS lock bar can be used to adjust rear toe? Anyway, so the toe arms are up for sale.

Rear camber arms (they make everything else look so dirty!)

On Monday I got the manifold back from being surfaced, and picked up the new drivers seatbelt buckle, Nissan surprise me sometimes only $36!

I got stuck into fitting the manifold Monday night, a fair bit of time was spent cleaning it/removing burs, then fitting and sealing the water pipes/air regulator, AAC, throttle body, fuel rail/injectors, injector loom and brass barbed fittings for various vac hoses.

When I got around to fitting it I stripped one of the nuts, which then stripped the stud, I've got no idea how I managed this as I hadn't even started torquing it down when it happened, anyway that created an hour long headache to remove the nut (it was not very accessible), so I called it a night as I didn't have a spare stud.

Tuesday I got a the call saying my coilovers had arrived at Tas Mobile Mechanics so I skipped the last few uni lectures and left to get a new stud/nut and to pick up the coilovers.

The illusive projector bulb clip also turned up, thanks to Kane (Kane_R32) for getting it to me in time.

I finished putting the manifold on that night, bled up the cooling system and started it up without any major problems. I'm pretty happy I took the oportunity to hide the wiring I think it looks much better, I didn't even have to lengthen any plugs (apart from the injector loom). I also had time to install the rear coilovers.

Wednesday after uni I fitted the front coilovers, I also had to finish cleaning up some rust where the spot welds from the engine bay had burnt through the paint in the wheel well (not a fun job). I then set the ground clearance to the legal height to keep the engineer happy.

And lastly I fitted the standard front and rear seat, I quite like the uniform look of having all the standard seats (well they're actually R33 seats but you can hardly tell the difference). It turns out I don't have to fit the standard steering wheel for the inspection.

I bled the power steering and brakes today and took it for a quick drive, it hits full boost much sooner/harder now, I believe this is because there was always a crack around the AAC valve flange which I didn't pick up on until the welder pointed it out to me (I had seen it previously but I didn't identify it as a crack).

So everything is done, apart from the bonnet and front guards, I'm still waiting on the painter, I spoke to him the other day and he assured me I would have them back by tomorrow morning at the latest so I'm waiting anxiously as the car is booked in for a wheel alignment at 3:30pm tomorrow.

Hopefully I'll have some more positive updates on Saturday!

[Artic Choc]

Wow you have been a busy bee havnt you hahaha. Thats excellent its all coming together nicely and just in time too. I still love your intercooler mounting every time I see it, it makes me want to do it

Great work looking forward to the photos on Saturday

[gtr jet]

Looking good mate. I love the way you did the injector loom.

[Bushy]

Wow you have been a busy bee havnt you hahaha. Thats excellent its all coming together nicely and just in time too. I still love your intercooler mounting every time I see it, it makes me want to do it

Great work looking forward to the photos on Saturday

Looking good mate. I love the way you did the injector loom.

Thanks fellas! Although I'm ultimately doing the work to make myself happy, it does feel good when others appreciate what you've done

I ended up getting the panels back from the painter at 1pm on Friday, he lost a lot of sleep in order to stick to his word and get them back to me in time so big thanks goes out to him! A nice change from what I'm used to.

The panels went on as soon as I got home then it was driven down to the local Beaurepairs on day rego. for a wheel alignment, for some reason they didn't have me booked in but still managed to get it done for me. It was raining so that made the drive pretty interesting

After I got back I had to replace the indicator fuse which blew, then the below modifications to the coilovers to keep the engineer happy (i.e. no longer height adjustable below the legal limit )

And this morning I took it to the engineer and he was happy with everything, so now I just need to wait for him to submit his report and hopefully the mod plate will be issued by transport.

From driving it today I noted it hits full boost by 2200rpm, so pretty happy, the new intake setup seems to have made a bigger difference then I thought, and it seems it must have had a boost leak when I was driving it at the track as I suspected.

To get it ready for the road worthy, once the mod plate has been issued, I have to fit the climate control, new front tyres and fix a small oil leak from the turbo oil feed line, I should have a few weeks to do this though so plenty of time.

And lastly here's some photo's of how the car sits now:

[#skyginer]

Does the r33 rear seat go straight in without modification.

[Bushy]

The seat itself bolts straight up but you will need to use your R32 seatbelt buckles

[#skyginer]

?

[#skyginer]

Thanks, nice car btw. Funny how most 32 gtst projects start off as scrappers but end up quite nice lol

[Artic Choc]

ahhh shes looking pretty mate

great news with flying through the engineering you must be very pleased with that. but sounds like its running quite nicely now with those little problems fixed and out the way.
by the way did you end up fitting the high flowed turbo yet or is that for a later date? im keen to see how much this bad boy will pull with it on

[Bushy]

Nah turbo won't go on until after its registered and I've driven it for a while. Hopefully the cops will just see it mod plated for the engine and not know any better about the turbo, it will be low mounted on the standard manifold and keeping it internally gated so it won't be obvious.

[Bushy]

Not a great deal of progress lately, I'm still waiting for the mod plate. I hear it could be a 4 to 6 week wait for the engineers report to be processed, and I don't even know if the engineer has submitted it yet Oh well, not much I can do. There are a few little things to do, so I've been pacing myself so I don't run out of things to do and get bored haha.

The engineer confirmed my suspicion that I would have to fit the climate control module to pass the roadworthy (when I get to that stage), which makes sense. It meant I had to re-design the centre console/gauge fascia, I thought it would be a good opportunity to fit the plastic console surround to neaten things up a little and design the new gauge fascia to suit, and this was the result...

I've still got to fit the black plastic surround, this will probably mean I'll have to modify the fascia slightly around where the 12v socket/ashtray is. I have a new one on the way from Amayama as the one I had broke in the crash, and no-one in Tassie likes selling their spare R32 parts ha (I should know, I have stockpile of parts I "might need one day").

I also ordered the 'pocket' which goes below the radio, not sure if I'll fit it yet or put in a radio. I'd like to return the centre console back to standard look, including the standard radio, but then I don't know where I'd put the gauges.

A new cat back exhaust popped up for sale locally for a reasonable price so I bought it. I've bought it for three reasons, 1) the current X-Force exhaust is slightly bent and putting a lot of tension on the dump, 2) the new one should sit higher so I will have more ground clearance, the rear muffler is currently the lowest point by a fair bit and 3) I want it louder ha.

It also came with removable baffles, it will be interesting to see how much difference they make

I helped a mate out on the weekend who was running his FD RX7 for the first time in the Tas Super Series Sports GT category at Baskerville and had a ball. It has put bad ideas in my head (or good ideas, not sure yet). I've always liked taking the car to the track and I'd love to cage it and compete, but then I remember how much effort I've gone into to get the car road legal. I might run it on the road for a year or two then consider it again.

[Bushy]

Again no major progress, still waiting on the mod plate But it's given me a bit of time to sort out a few things which is good.

I pressure tested the intercooler piping/intake and found some embarrassingly large boost leaks (so that explains the stalling when warm). I fixed most of them although there are still some very small leaks that are giving me grief and I can't be bothered with at the moment. I found...

Throttle body vac hose nipple not blanked off (lol)

Vac hose too big going to boost T

AAC o-ring buggered

AAC gasket

Throttle body silicon joiner clamp

BOV clamp

Pin holes in manifold (fixed with JB weld )

This is my home made bung

I was missing the fuel rail spacers so I bought new ones from Nissan and bought lower insulators at the same time. Also bought genuine AAC gasket and passenger front seatbelt buckle so I can put the standard seatbelt back in (currently have an R33 seatbelt which looks different). I love new OEM parts!

Unfortunately me installing the fuel rail without the spacers had bent the tabs, so now with the spacers installed the injectors don't seal properly. I've decided not to cheap out this time and have bought a brand new standard fuel rail via Amayama (in the post).

The new plastic centre console trim and centre console 'pocket' (no photo) turned up!

I fitted the glove box and moved the ECU slightly so I could fit the kit panel

I fitted some Quik-Latch fittings to the front bar for easy removal. This is a great product but not cheap!

Then I found the tail light/dash light fuse keeps blowing when I turn the lights on. Its not the switch itself, most likely a short to ground which means stripping the loom, I'm trying to sum up the motivation to get it done as I've already spent countless hours searching for damaged wires. I've created another thread for the issue but there's probably not much else that anyone can help me with http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/topic/442131-testing-r32-headlight-switch/

Soo this is what it looks like now, and it will get worse

Cheers for reading!

[Bushy]

Copied from the other thread, but with pics

I found it! Armed with some new found motivation and a few stiff drinks I got stuck into it tonight.

I pulled out the rear seat and found the plug going to the tail lights etc. and disconnected it. I found the same red wire with blue trace at the plug and tested continuity to ground going to the tail lights, there was no continuity so I knew that part of the loom was OK. Then I removed the two big terminal plugs under the dash near the drivers feet.Then I tested continuity to ground at the other side of the plug (at rear of vehicle) and had continuity, so I knew the short was between the main plug under the dash and plug at the rear. Then it was just a case of stripping the loom from the back to the front and following that wire.

I found that the wire split just under the drivers seat and went across to a couple of plugs next to the handbrake and that is when I remembered I had removed the centre console and immediately knew that's where the short would be. Sure enough I found that I had put a screw through one of them when reinstalling the centre console haha.

Where the wire branched off under the drivers seat.

The culprit!

I'm so stoked to have found the problem without having to take the car to an auto electrician. This is why I love working on this car, it's so satisfying when you put in the effort and get the results!

[Artic Choc]

mate that sounds like a whole lot of stuffing around but in the end it was well worth it. great news!

yeah no kidding that mod plate has taken its sweet time..ahh well it goes back to the old saying.. good things take time.

i still think you should paint your cam covers while you wait for the plate just one more thing to do to kill time and make it look that much better hahaha

loving your progress as always mate good job!

[Bushy]

Thanks mate!

I've thought about doing the cam covers but can't really be bothered haha. I might give them a bit of a polish one day and repaint the coilpack cover, I think I prefer the standard look

[Bushy]

Time for another small update. No news on the mod plate, I spoke to the engineer the other day and he said he had, had a few strong words with Transport Tas recently about how slow they are haha. It can't be much longer, already been 2 months!

When I was trying to fix the wiring short, after blowing about 20 fuses I thought a manual reset, fuse style, circuit breaker would have been handy, I found that Narva sell them and got hold of a few off good old eBay.

As I think I've mentioned I want to eventually return the centre console to the standard look, which has had me thinking about where to put the gauges. I've reached a decision that they need to go in the glove box, but obviously that doesn't allow me to keep an eye on them while driving. So, I'll rely on the standard water temp gauge while driving (for now) and have fitted an oil pressure warning light. This included an oil pressure sender/switch and light from a local auto parts store, and Proflow 1/8 BSP + NPT (for the Saas sender) T-piece.

Whilst I was fitting the oil pressure switch, I found a couple of coolant leaks, of course they were under the inlet manifold in impossible to reach places. One was an obvious split hose going to the standard oil cooler, the other I couldn't pin point. So off came the inlet manifold (again) to replace all the old hoses, tighten hose clamps and re-seal anything that used Grey Max sealant (water pipes, thermostat housing etc.). I had to order a new genuine rubber hose to the oil cooler as it is a stupid shape, and figured it would be a good idea to replace the inlet manifold gasket with a genuine one at the same time. Both ordered from Amayama for half the price Nissan Australia wanted, the trade off is longer delivery time.

At some point the new genuine fuel rail turned up, so I changed over the injectors etc. Looks nice and shiny, can't wait to fit it all back up!

Replaced the stupid Philips head bolts with stainless Allen key head bolts.

I've been thinking about new wheels, I like the steelies I bought, but they're not quite what I was expecting so I've advertised them for sale. Now I'm trying to make my mind up on some 18" Work wheels. I'll be going with white wheels regardless and its a choice between S1R, VS XX, M1 3P and XT7s at the moment. Leaning towards XT7s simply because they are a lot cheaper but keen to hear other opinions! Especially if you can help with sizes/offsets that work on GTST with a nice amount of dish (obviously not including the XT7s).

[Artic Choc]

shiny things are always nice!!

hmmm wheels.. thats a tough one. for size and offset im not sure what would work well for a r32 gtst (i ran stockies on mine coz i liked the look) but a good start is to look into here " http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/topic/84208-wheel-sizes-offsets-for-skylines/ " i used that to find a good size for the r34 and i couldnt be more happy with it.. i would roll your guards (if they havnt already been), r32s need the fattest tyres you can get on them to get that aggressive look.

i have always been a massive fan on work miester s1r if i could afford a set i would defiantly choose them. but for the price. i dont think buying them for a non gtr is worth it (cant fit nice wide sizes under) the price you pay is very premium for a not as aggressive stance. maybe some XD9s? look beautiful on r32s

but if your willing to put the money down for some go for it.

i heard SSR wheels are not as expensive as work (i could be wrong i havnt checked prices) but make "similar" styled wheels.

http://www.jdmconcept.com.au/ may help you out bro

[Bushy]

I had a bit of a look through that thread a while ago so I've got a rough idea what will work, might have to have another browse though.

I do like XD9s but a few of my mates have got them and I want something different ha.

Funny you mention jdmconcept, I stumbled across it the other day and they seem to have pretty good prices. They currently have some SSR MS1s for sale in almost the perfect size/offset which make me drool, but they are farken expensive!

[Artic Choc]

hot damn they are sexy as hell!

unfortunately XD9s are common but for good reason haha. shame about it though...

i just photoshoped them wheels onto your car and it looks sooooo goood lol... why do good things have to cost so much..