A Road Legal R31 Rb25Det

[mungy]

This has been one of those "oh while im doing this I may aswell do this" build and one thing after another led to building one amazing R31.

I Know most people dont like R31's that much,but even you who dont will appreciate this car I promise.

The story starts a few months ago when a good friend rang me and asked if I wanted a cheap R31, I immediatley said yes as I have a secret love for the R31. I was told it had a blown trans but it was a regoable r31 with 120,000km on the dash and had been can sprayed in matte black, my original plan was simply to swap out the trans as I had one sitting there with 160,000km and just drive the car.

Well that didnt happen........

It arrived on the back of a green tow truck and was actually still drivable, looking at the usual fluids the oil was clean, trans was full of water and the radiator was full of trans oil so I had decided it needed new radiator in as well as the trans out from the 31 I had sitting there.

It dawned on me that the 31 I had (smashed of course) also had a brand new $1500 A/C system with a new condenser, compressor, lines and evap, so I thought I should put that in too and make my summer alot more comfy.

I quickly ripped out the radiator and condenser and thought to myself the radiator hoses are much nicer on the other 31 so ill change them too, while i was getting the newer hoses off the other R31 all the other ancillaries look much newer so I decided to swap it all over...............

This is when it went all pear shaped...........

Because I needed to rip out the dash to get the new evaporator in I though it would be much easier to get a manual conversion done while everything was out of the way, and it would be easier to swap trans and ancillaries if the motor and box was all out of the car.

Once its was all pulled out I looked at it and as a joke to myself thought "this would be a perfect time to put a 25 in"..........

A few phone calls later I had decided to go ahead and put a 25 in, I had one sitting there in a 40th anniversary R33 with low enough K's and decided to use that.

The motor I had was in an auto R33 but I was planning on using a full manual kit I had from another R31 I had purchased before. While installing the pedals and clutch components I thought "would be a perfect time to get an s13 front end on this" and immediatley pulled the front end apart..........

At this point it started to dawn on me that this car was nearly completley in bits and thought I better finish this off and pulled all the front panels off to look for the usual rust.

looking at it sitting there on jack stands basically a bare shell at the front and striped out interior I realised I was only going to change the trans and now the car is in bits...................and immediatley started to regret my choices.........................

BUT WHATS DONE IS DONE........LETS CONTINUE.......

So now the entire front end was off I thought I may as well take out the K frame and clean out the entire engine bay as well.

Right there I decided I may as well go all out and convert this to 5 stud and get this car legal with a 25, I got myself s14 hubs and ball joints, R33 turbo brakes and the EF/EL rear brake setup to get it all to legal specs.

I then started to get EVERYTHING sand blasted and cleaned, every part was taken back to bare metal and resprayed in annodised red.

I stared to reinstall every part off the front end once it all came back, it looked quite nice, all brand new and red.

This is about when I had decided that going all out ment not using the shitty 20 box and installing a 25 box, so I went and plucked a NEO box with 110,000KM to put in with the 40th ann RB25DET I had chosen.

Many days and swear words later I had the front end back together and the engine with the neo box bolted into the car, surprisingly the gearbox just bolted up perfectly, no plates or washers or any modification at all, just bolted right in and measured up EXACTLY the same length as the 30 manual box, all I had to do was take the manual tailshaft to Hardy Spicers to change the front of the shaft to suit the neo box.

I enlisted the services of a very good mate, most of you know him here by the name simon s14, to come wire up this car.

Being a 40th anniversary engine, it turned out even the wiring loom was different to the standard series 2 engines and was slightly harder to get all the wiring done than normal. Having the wiring done we tried to start it for the first time........for some reason the fuel pump had just stopped working in the month or so the car had been sitting there, very strange, I needed to change the fuel pump anyway so had decided to use the R34 NEO turbo fuel pump, in it went and the car fired up.

The car is now waiting to go to garage7 tomorow to get the rear end converted to the ford brakes and the 5 stud to be drilled into the hubs, Decklan is also making up a completley new exhaust system for it so when it goes for emmisions testing it should pass first go(fingers crossed)

Ill get some pics up as soon as I can of the car in its current state, and update the build once it comes back from Garage7.

Not long after this car will be going to regency for a full inspection.........................god I hope I did a good enough job.

[trustr32]

Very cool read man sounds like a more extensive version of my old 31 that I bought for a daily and when the motor blew ended up doing a full overhaul lol. Keen to see some pics if you've got any.

And don't worry about the haters 31's will always be old school cool.

[StevenCJR31]

31s are fine . . . altho (being NA)most you find now have been caned by p platers!

[Mohsen]

Hahhaha love it! Same thing happened to me with my 32

[timmy_89]

How many cars did you have laying about to pilfer parts from lol

[mungy]

Well I own a jap wrecker so I have many....many parts available, ill get some pics up tonight.

Unfortunately because the business was pilfered by thieves not long ago ive been recovering from that loss and the cost of new security Ive put the project on hold for now, the car is so close to being done its really upsetting I cant just splurge more cash on it.