R33 Gtr Build

[RB2600]

So now that things are moving along nicely, it's a good time to post this build thread up.

Purchased this Silver 1997 Series 2 R33 GTR back in August 2012 off a forum member, acknowledging that it had a blown engine.

To what extent, I did not know. Was told by the owner at the time that the spark plug in cylinder 1 had snapped, front turbo was gone

and lots of smoke at Sandown. The rest of the car looked to be in good condition so I bit the bullet and made the purchase. I bought

the car for a very decent price so that left a few doors open in terms of what I wanted to do engine wise - rebuild or 2nd hand stocker.

All to be determined after investigating the extent of damage.

The goal is to participate in half a dozen track days per year with hill runs at least once a week. It has been over 3 years since I last went to Winton.

I plan to keep power levels relatively conservative, as much weight reduction as possible without cutting and hopefully that will keep me occupied till

I finish uni. Would like to show some appreciation to Dad for helping out whenever I need a second man and the girlfriend for being the patient,

supportive and understanding woman she is. Hopefully when it's all up and running they will be enjoying it just as much as I do.

A couple of photos prior to my ownership:

First morning after getting the car home. Had to test fit the gear knob even though the car wasn't going anywhere:

Being the eager me, I got to work straight away to investigate into what happened:

This didn't look good at all - it was at this stage I knew I needed another engine and began looking:

Cleaning the car made me feel better (no it didn't):

Once again, the ricer in me came out, collecting some all show no go parts:

Thank you to the mrs for the Nardi 330mm deep corn wheel:

And the JJR carbon wing blade:

So I had this stupid idea that it would be easier to get the engine out the bay with the head off. Not true, I was making a lot more work than necessary for myself:

Everything looking normal:

At last! Head off:

The problem cylinder:

Engine damage at it's finest:

NOTE:

For anybody trying to pull an engine from a transmission with a pull type clutch, don't bother until you've separated the pin from the release fork. It's not gonna happen.

It will move a few centimetres but no further.

Here you can see the pin on the bottom and the fork on the left of the input shaft. Once they were apart, it was a matter of prying between the engine and transmission:

On the topic of engine damage.....

[Adzmax]

I'm no expert, but something looks very wrong there

[Reese69]

i havnt seen many blown engines in my time but its safe to say that one is fked up lol - good luck on the build

[34GeeTeeTee]

Wow That is some serious carnage......

[Blitz]

Yep, no messing around there, someone destroyed that engine in style.

[Tonba]

Brutal...

[33GTRV]

Didn't buy it from fats did you? Looks like it did some srs kids!

[SiR_RB]

Holy farrkrkkk that is some serious damage, toss the whole thing in the trash !!

[MrFijiGold]

Damn!

What motor/combo are you planning?

[fatz]

I have a engine for this u should call me

[RB2600]

Didn't buy it from fats did you? Looks like it did some srs kids!

Lol nah bought it from another member here in Vic.

Holy farrkrkkk that is some serious damage, toss the whole thing in the trash !!

Yepp, block has gone to a friend to use as a coffee table and I've kept some parts as memorabilia.

Damn!

What motor/combo are you planning?

I have a engine for this u should call me

Already have an engine for it, details will be up shortly!

[RB2600]

In December 2012 (after much searching), I found an engine on yahoo auctions. It was a rebuilt r34 rb26 bottom end and r33 rb26 head with all gaskets replaced, a Nismo timing belt, Nismo 1.2mm metal head gasket.

The stock turbos also had adjustable actuators attached and I made a few phone calls, the total cost to have the engine landed in Melbourne was just over $3500, I thought awesome! Everything looked quite fresh in photos

and I have this perhaps very naive belief that the Japanese are all honest. So I put my trust in them and made the purchase.

Engine getting ready to put into the container:

Fast forward to May 2013, I FINALLY got the engine! After lots of hassling the middle man importer and chasing things up! Once I got the engine home, I went straight away to justify my trust in the Japanese. More on that later.

Whilst waiting for the engine to arrive, I was not prepared to waste any time or money that I had saved in purchasing the shell and the engine for a good price. Basically, I was prepared to fork out for a running R33 GTR so

this left me with some "goodies money"

Tomei Ti Expreme catback:

Mine's front pipe pro (strangely enough, this item did not come with a Mine's badge or box or instructions of any sort as I had expected. I did make the purchase from Jesse Streeter and the item looks exactly the same as the pictures I found on the internet so that's good enough for me)

I also bought a 3" test pipe off a fellow here and plan on tacking a few brackets on to bolt the stock heat shield on. I musn't have thought it was picture worthy, hence why the following space is empty.

Not long after the exhaust setup was sorted, these arrived in the mail! (-9/GT-SS)

Ordered them from Kudos with the bits required for install. Excuse me if I'm uploading multiple photos of the same item, I get so excited when parts arrive!

The turbo decision was difficult, but in the end it came down to being realistic with what I wanted to use the car for. I've been in R33 and R34 GTR's with 300rwkw-320rwkw (all on RPM dyno).

These are capable of that and more (especially on E85 which is highly likely in the near future). As I said, I would really like this engine to last and hopefully keeping the power level around the 300rwkw

mark will achieve that. Along with the weight reduction that I have planned for the car, it should be fast enough for me. Hence, -9's.

Part number for the Garrett 1 bar actuators if anybody requires confirmation:

To be continued

[RB2600]

Procrastinating with school work has never been a hard task.

One day I decided to give the engine bay some cleaning prior to installing the engine (which I thought was in the not too distant future - little did I know)

Before:

After:

It concerned me a little as to why there is writing on the subframe (possible front end damage)

The damage on the passenger side driveshaft was caused by my desperation to get the engine out when the release fork was still in...

This one was a no brainer, especially considering how good the exchange rates are:

Comes with everything required to install, even flywheel bolts and a release fork boot!

[rbjunkie]

wow

[RB2600]

Was hoping to get some input on a few things that have had me pondering for a while now.

- Wheels (White XD9 or Charcoal XD9)

- Engine block paint

- Cam, timing and coil pack cover paint

Starting off with the wheels, I initially was locked into a set of TE37SL 18x10.5 +15, pretty standard stuff. However, the more I looked into the subject, the more I thought, ANOTHER GTR with TE37SL...

Not only that, but in my opinion, R33 GTR's look better with deep dish wheels which the TE37 isn't. The decision of XD9s came along quite easily as they're quite close size wise to the 10.5" width and

+15 offset of the TE37. The XD9s of discussion here are 18x10 +18. The only thing that bothers me is that they're not a very light wheel, especially compared to the SL's. As you can see in the following

link, XD9's are 25.05 pounds (11.36kg) compared to the measly 19.4 pounds (8.8kg) of a standard TE37. Not to mention, Rays claims a 400g weight reduction in the SL's compared to a standard TE37

and the reference size is 18x.10.5 +15, which brings it down to approximately 8.4kg. A total difference in rotational mass of almost 12kg!

Regardless, I now have my heart set on the XD9 (unless someone can sway my decision through performance benefit justification) but the choice between white and charcoal is very difficult, particularly on a silver car.

I did a little bit of photoshop on my friend Aki's silver R33 GTR which mine will be very similar to, with the carbon end caps on the wing, carbon wing blade and Tomei catback. Aki is a very dedicated R33 GTR fan in Japan and has an excellent example of his own with an awesome blog containing a plethora of info and interesting facts. Anybody that appreciates R33 GTR's or GTR's in general would get a good read from his blog.

The end result:

Also requested a member on this forum to share a pic of his car which I was aware had charcoal XD9 (yes I know, stalking at it's best). Hope he doesn't mind me posting it here, credit where it's due but I shall not expose

his identity unless he chooses to. Don't really have any other pics for side on comparison unfortunately.

Tough choice!!

Edited May 27, 2013 by RB2600

[RB2600]

Painting the engine block, as I now have the engine, I will be giving it a clean and fresh coat of paint prior to installing.

Has anybody used VHT engine enamel with good experience? I will be painting the block black as it is currently blue. The website mentions that for proper curing, the part needs to be put in an oven for 20min @ 90ish deg.

Was wondering if I will be able to get away with a good long lasting finish if I were to skip this step.

The finish I am aiming for is that typically found on the engines that Mine's build. Once again, pictures borrowed from Aki.

And a pic from a different engine

What are people's thoughts? Is that just a standard engine enamel satin black? Or is that more of a wrinkle black? Wrinkle black only takes 177deg and the engine enamel apparently takes 288deg.

I'm certain that the paint of choice for all the covers will be VHT wrinkle black, however I have heard so many mixed opinions on how to achieve the best wrinkle finish.

Would it be a matter of spraying 3 or 4 thick almost runny coats with 5min hairdrying time in between?

Am desperately wanting this finish - image from Dahtone Racing fb page

https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/774826_567775449916495_274031354_o.jpg

Image was pretty huge so just clicky clicky.

[RB2600]

So, the arrival of the engine, 22nd May 2013.

Upon first look, I wasn't so sure I had received the right engine as the block was painted blue (apparently many rebuilt engines in Japan are painted blue? Someone can clarify) and I didn't remember seeing that in the pictures.

Apparently I was wrong, engine number matched up, everything else had matched the description upon later inspection.

Rear main seal

Crank pulley as you can see here is chipped, not a worry as the last engine provided me with a few spares

Just had to quickly check the overall condition of the motor before heading back to uni in the afternoon so began removing all the spark plugs. To my surprise, I found this in cylinder 6.

I panicked and was preparing myself for the worst.

Didn't have a borescope and couldn't really fish anything out with a magnet so just decided to take the head off to see what the situation was.

Since the engine was on the stand, it was much much easier to work on.

THANKFULLY upon lifting the head, this was what I was presented with. Nothing compared to the last engine. Was absolutely stocked that there was only very minor damage (next pic)

The swirls in the middle of the piston in this pic was just from me fishing around with the magnet.

As you can see there is very light scoring on the cylinder wall and only extends for about 10-15mm. However there is that chip on the piston, am hoping that spot

won't affect compression too much and won't cause detonation.

Nismo 1.2mm metal head gasket, coat of hylomar and she's good to go back on.

[BK1990]

Painting the engine block, as I now have the engine, I will be giving it a clean and fresh coat of paint prior to installing.

Has anybody used VHT engine enamel with good experience? I will be painting the block black as it is currently blue. The website mentions that for proper curing, the part needs to be put in an oven for 20min @ 90ish deg.

Was wondering if I will be able to get away with a good long lasting finish if I were to skip this step.

The finish I am aiming for is that typically found on the engines that Mine's build. Once again, pictures borrowed from Aki.

And a pic from a different engine

What are people's thoughts? Is that just a standard engine enamel satin black? Or is that more of a wrinkle black? Wrinkle black only takes 177deg and the engine enamel apparently takes 288deg.

I'm certain that the paint of choice for all the covers will be VHT wrinkle black, however I have heard so many mixed opinions on how to achieve the best wrinkle finish.

Would it be a matter of spraying 3 or 4 thick almost runny coats with 5min hairdrying time in between?

Am desperately wanting this finish - image from Dahtone Racing fb page

https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/774826_567775449916495_274031354_o.jpg

Image was pretty huge so just clicky clicky.

looking good man that's my motor at dahtone haha the covers were done buy craved coatings in Penrith 0404760314

[SiR_RB]

I used that same vht satin black engine block paint, I didn't put the block in an ovan to cure it, running the engine will do that for you

Is the new engine a stock internal engine, anyway of pulling that slug out to check the rings aren't damaged? Check bearings too while its out?

[blah_blah]

Good work!

Will be keen to see how your project unfolds!

I was there the day she blew up at Sandown so keen to see you back on the track with this car!