The [fr34k] Is Back

[sleptema]

HI guys.

Hopefully this build thread will last a little longer than my last 34, hopefully won't make the same mistakes as I did on the previous.

Bought this January 2014 after searching for a few months. Owned by an older gentleman (who didn't know much but had cash), with receipts, import papers, all the goods. Only 106k kms on it and fresh timing belt service, and a very good price for the amount of engine work done. Specs include intake/exhaust, FMIC, 600cc injectors, fuel pump, type a poncams, powerfc, z32 and garret gt30 @18psi. Making a fairly responsive 350rwhp. I ended up doing a compression test for piece of mind after I bought it, and got between 150 and 155 over all 6. Engine pulled hard, started and ran great. The intention of this car is to just be a weekend cruiser.



First point of call - put my old plates on



6000k HIDs high and low.

Also painted the interior trim. Will be professionally hydrodipping it later on, this is just a temp because the "sticky paint" was really bad

It was about this point I started noticing some really dodgy stuff going on. Nothing major, and nothing to do with the engine performance, which I still stand by.

I call this segment: "Things that I have found" - "Why I believe he has done so"

Wrong size battery for mount - Because I have no idea (you can also see the quality of my ballast install, which was the reason for the photo initially)

He has hacksawed the gear shift knobs' thread off, and rethreaded a new knob on, lowering it by around 30mm. He also replaced stock gaiter with this abomination.

- Why? Because F**K YOU that's why. Have no idea why this was done. But I sourced a new shift arm locally, and bought a new gaiter, and better feel shift knob. You can also see my half assed paint job here.



Drivers side wiper arm had snapped, so he had just taped it back together - lazy I guess? It was summer, I probably would have done the same thing. New arm sourced.

The worst of the lot. The boot would not "pop up" when you pressed the handle or used the key, but if you lifted it slightly it would. I removed the trim to find out someone had COMPLETELY filled the boot with expandable foam. The rear light had also been welded over from the inside, and a new light had to be put in the rear windscreen. - My guess is that previous previous owner had a sub, and to stop the boot from vibrating he decided that weighing it down with 3kgs of foam would help. On the plus side, with my sub in there, it certainly does not rattle. At all. Ever. (pics to come)

Replaced stock gauges with nismo. Will be replacing dash if one comes up locally.



Bonnet struts. Which work perfectly because the bonnet latch height made me hit my head, this raises it that little bit so my head clears it



Decent fitting rims, and tien super street coilovers



Got an oil cooler going in today as temps do get high, even in winter. Going to try a different brand of oil as well, going to try Nulon 10w40

Got front tie rods and ball joints (as my FL was seized), HICAS elimination kit and front and rear cambers arms coming as there is -2.5 deg camber all round. Have also replaced that $50 head unit with a decent one with bluetooth, and put a small sub in the boot.

More to come.

[sleptema]

The worst of the lot. The boot would not "pop up" when you pressed the handle or used the key, but if you lifted it slightly it would. I removed the trim to find out someone had COMPLETELY filled the boot with expandable foam. The rear light had also been welded over from the inside, and a new light had to be put in the rear windscreen. - My guess is that previous previous owner had a sub, and to stop the boot from vibrating he decided that weighing it down with 3kgs of foam would help. On the plus side, with my sub in there, it certainly does not rattle. At all. Ever. (pics to come)

Here is a picture of the boot. New one is being picked up Sunday.

Oil cooler and filter relocation in. Only goes over 80 deg now with a fair beating, whereas before it'd creep to over 90 just cruising. And it holds pressure nicely. I will eventually cut the hoses down to size and get new fittings for them as these are only cheap china and there is a lot of excess hose. Will replace the oil and filter this weekend again (changed when did the installation, but not sure how long the cooler was sitting for before I put it in)

Mechanic said my passenger engine mount is gone, time for nismo solids I reckon.

Edited October 3, 2014 by sleptema

[timmy_89]

Nice thread mate, besides the things you've pointed out it looks like a generally clean car

What plans have you got for it?

Edited October 9, 2014 by timmy_89

[sleptema]

Nice thread mate, besides the things you've pointed out it looks like a generally clean car

What plans have you got for it?

Short term: Just the little fixes that I am doing currently. I don't want to spend anything substantial on it until my loan is gone.. Probably be done in the next 6 months.

Long term: I will probably try to get 500rwhp from the stock bottom end. I plan to get there with high mount manifold, FFP, adjustable cam gears, ev14 injectors, link g4 ecu (as my tuner has said will meet my needs) and e85 conversion. Will get larger brakes on as well, as stopping will be important

Once the bottom end pops I will probably go for the 30 bottom end, and a gtx35 or similar and go for 600.

I would like to get a few track days in but on my current FIFO roster I seem to be missing every one that is planned.

[sleptema]

New belts and solid engine mounts ordered as apparently they were flogged. New boot lid is going to the painters this week and I'll swap that over while I'm on break.

Engine plans have slightly changed. I picked up a cheap high mount manifold and q45 afm, and I will be getting an adapter plate for the aacv made up to suit a greddy plenum. So I will be remodeling the bay a bit, and I will put the q45 in the cooler piping between turbo and fmic for (hektik fully sick uleh) dose. Hopefully a retune with adjustable cam gears and previously mentioned mods should show me a nice 380, but hoping for 400. Will also be a good chance to take the turbo off and see how she is coping with the abuse. May give my transmission fluid a change as well, or at least look at it.

I ordered HICAS elimination kit, front toe arms and ball joins, front and rear camber arms. All those adjustable arms should be going in tomorrow and a wheel alignment on Thursday. Should hopefully sort out most of my camber wear issues.

Car is quickly getting to a point that I am happy with.

Will start searching bigger brake kits soon, maybe braid all my brake lines as well and get a master cylinder stopper.

[sleptema]

Semi track day tomorrow. Local car club has booked out a skid pan and a small track for the afternoon and needed a spot filled. So flushed by brakes with new fluid, all the arms are on and getting adjusted today. Everything went on easy except the HICAS elimination kit which needs new bushes, so old ones need to be pressed out and apparently it is a mammoth task (hubs off) so that has been put on hold for now. Would have really like the HICAS off, but oh well. New belts also went on.

Picking up some territory steelies (17x7.5+35) to go on the rears that'll hopefully light up quite nicely. Will hopefully get some snaps up later this week.

Edited October 23, 2014 by sleptema

[sleptema]

Skidpan was heaps of fun. Learned how to control my car out of a slide which was nice because I don't do anything that stupid on the street, so this was the first chance I've had to really push the car. Oil cooler was the greatest idea, took a long time for the oil to get up to 105deg, and once there, a quick drive around would cool it back to ~85. Car felt great, brakes didn't fade and nothing broke so win win. I put 235s on the rears and they were good enough to get traction when I needed, but also gave me the ability to slide when powering out of corners. I did about 25 laps around the skid pan, and only 3 laps around the 'track' because I had to leave early due to family commitments.

All in all it was a great day. I chose one of the better videos and uploaded to youtube. I think it may be time to invest in a gopro so I can take some better videos.

http://youtu.be/Vo01IsJ3PnI

Edited October 27, 2014 by sleptema

[sleptema]

New boot is painted and is on. Turns out 4 bolts wasn't enough to hold on the spoiler according to the previous owner - he has also glued the spoiler on. A LOT of glue. I actually can't pull it off. Will search around for a new spoiler while I am trying to pull this one off.

Master cylinder stopper has been bought. Will fit up this week. Also bought high mount exhaust manifold and freddy plenum, will ask someone in my family to buy me a fuel rail and throttle body for christmas. Hopefully that will get put on early next year, and retune with the q45 afm.

Got the HICAS elimination kit going on later this month, got a mechanic booked in. Will get him to lower my coilovers at the same time on the rears.

Edited November 17, 2014 by sleptema

[sleptema]

Yay for updates.

So I got the throttle body, fuel rail and (better) freddy for christmas. HICAS elimination went in a treat - back end is very whippy on demand.

I have been told by my better half that I have 3 months to do whatever I want to my car, once we have enough deposit for a home loan. Mint as! Will put all above mods on, and retune with the PFC at the beginning. Then I will try source a rb30 and build that up with a haltech or link. Bigger brakes and a some body mods (front lip, skirts and rear pods) may also be on the cards. Depending how much I can fit into and pay for in 3 months haha. Should be interesting! Still have a few months yet until we get the full deposit together so.. Watch this space.. Soon.

[Yo-Yo]

Spending all the money on car mods. Is there no greater feeling?

Good luck with your project

[sleptema]

Life plans have changed, again. No longer have a missus, so lets make some boost instead.

I have been in contact with a tuner here in Perth who knows a thing or 2 about neos, he has tuned one over 750rwhp on the standard bottom end. I have got a price for a new ecu (Link g4+ pnp) and tune. Just currently getting the parts ready for a FFP and high mount conversion. Gasket kit arrived today. I have sourced an intake adjustable cam gear that retains VCT, and I have an adjustable exhaust gear in the mail now. And I am picking up a d1 stable high mount manifold this weekend.

Also will have a rb30e engine in the shed tonight, will source a spare neo head and get that all ready for the car.

Goals are 400+ rwhp on the neo, and a super responsive 450-500 on the 3L.

[sleptema]

It begins...



Apparently rb30 has 117k kms on it, in good condition. Not going to hold my breathe until I have inspected first. But guy seemed pretty genuine.

[JH32]

Nice one! What's the time frame on the RB30 build? Sorry to hear about the relationship but at least now there is no leash on the spend!

[jay-rod]

What cam gears did you get that retains VCT?

[sleptema]

Nice one! What's the time frame on the RB30 build? Sorry to hear about the relationship but at least now there is no leash on the spend!

Still slowly saving for a house, so it's not going to be super quick. But I would say within 6 months everything would be completely done. I hope to have my current engine tuned by end of may though. Yeah, freedom at last! hahaha

What cam gears did you get that retains VCT?

If you look next to my plenum there are 2 gears. The red is the exhaust, which is just a standard tomei gear. But the gold one underneath is a "Greddy adjustable cam sprocket". Apparently rarer than hens teeth. We had someone in Perth find some and order all the stock they had, and they all went within a week. Wasn't cheap though.

Was a bit eager today, and already started the strip down

Looks like it may have over heated, as the thermostat was blocked right up.. Still yet to inspect internals though.

Edited March 20, 2015 by sleptema

[jay-rod]

What about cams themselves.

Did you/are you going to get some that retain VCT?

I heard Tomie have 1 that does.but ive never found it.

[sleptema]

What about cams themselves.

Did you/are you going to get some that retain VCT?

I heard Tomie have 1 that does.but ive never found it.

Both type a and type b poncams retain VCT, to my knowledge. I believe the reason there aren't many options for large lift and duration cams for neo's is exactly that - if you go too big, you cannot retain VCT, which is a massive advantage.

I am going to do everything in my power to keep the VCT, as it's advantages far outweigh the disadvantages, especially at the power range I am looking at.

[sleptema]

Whoops.

On hold until I get the defect sticker off. ;|

[Artic Choc]

^ ouch man thats shit about the defect.. what did he get you on??.. im also looking at doing a neo 25/30 for around 450wkw In about 6 months time.. havnt decided on the turbo but the one im thinking of going is looking very promising. Keen to know what know what interals youl use..

[sleptema]

^ ouch man thats shit about the defect.. what did he get you on??.. im also looking at doing a neo 25/30 for around 450wkw In about 6 months time.. havnt decided on the turbo but the one im thinking of going is looking very promising. Keen to know what know what interals youl use..

Was doing a hills run and I was the first car. Other cars behind me ran when the cops came after me haha. On top of the yellow I got $800 fine and 6 demerits for speeding. On the defect notice it says my coil overs have no rebound, and my rims are too wide.

This should be close to 350rwkw, I have a feeling the turbo would run out of puff any higher. I will use the standard internals on the first build, because I won't punch anything higher than 18 psi into it. But the second time I build (when more cash is avaliable) I'll go gtx35 and e85, and aim for the 500rwkw mark.

iruyouskyline has just built his 25/30 with a 3076r. I think he made 400hp w/ full boost at 2800.

Edited March 22, 2015 by sleptema