Nate's R32 Gt-R Build (And A Bit Of Personal Car History)

[gtr0321994]

Legend cheers

[AMR33]

Faster Lap times. If you want to keep an eye on what the engine is doing, wire up some gauges for now. Once your ready to get the dash then sell the gauges for a couple of hundred bucks and go dash. Its simply what I would do. Each to their own

[Natemarian]

Faster Lap times. If you want to keep an eye on what the engine is doing, wire up some gauges for now. Once your ready to get the dash then sell the gauges for a couple of hundred bucks and go dash. Its simply what I would do. Each to their own

That is a fair point. To be honest i wouldn't be as concerned if the Haltech had a logging function but without the dash there is no way to log at all from the Haltech

[Anfanee]

Get a cheap laptop and stick it in the glove box, plugged into the haltech.

[Natemarian]

Get a cheap laptop and stick it in the glove box, plugged into the haltech.

Would that work? (obviously with the haltech software) I haven't had a chance to have a look or play with the haltech or anything yet so I don't know much about it

[Natemarian]

Not directly GT-R related but it looks so damn cool I had to post it up.

Mrs got me an awesome helmet for xmas for when i finally get the GT-R to Winton for the shakedown

Quality of the pics is crappy because I'm still learning how to work this fandangled new phone lol.

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!!!

[Natemarian]

Ok guys my apologies for having not updated this recently, the truth is for a while there wasn't really anything new to report and now it's all been coming together so fast it's a bit hard to keep up.

Ok so how about we get straight into it huh?! First off it we decided to remove all the air conditioning gear to save a bit of weight and tidy up the bay a bit, won't be missed as it didn't work anyway (needed a re-gas) and the car will really only be used for track days and weekend mountain trips.



Next up is just some simple pictures of the oil catch can/oil air separator test fitted and the braided lines for the oil cooler neatened up a bit.





(P.S. that Stagea in the background has a mad anti-lag/launch control setup )

Here's the new HKS heavy duty actuators installed on the 2860-5 turbos. (Sorry for any blurry photos, I just get what I'm given from Brett, given how busy they are I think I'm lucky to get any pictures at all)



There is the poor shell sitting there in all it's former glory. The decision was made to spend a few hours tidying up the bay as the previous owner(s) obviously overlooked the importance of a well kept engine bay and it is in a bit of bad shape, not bothering to respray it though as I am not sure what I am going to do with the paint in the future.



A couple of pictures of the engine on the engine stand getting put back together, gotta love those HKS cam gears





These are just come pictures from inside the new sump. While I don't really know what I'm looking at exactly at least I know it has baffles hahaha.







NOWWWW onto something a little more exciting! If you have been reading from the start you will know the original plan was to run billet oil pump gears in the N1 housing to save a bit of coin and Brett has used them a number of times, HOWEVER the supplier (who shall remain nameless) was being a pain and was the major reason for the slow progress of the build, for months he was promising his shipment of gears was almost there. In the end the decision was made to go to a Nitto oil pump, I was actually quite happy about this as I had heard a few stories of people smashing the backing plates of N1 pumps with billet gears.



So I'm not sure if I had mentioned it earlier but the original plan for the engine covers was to be a pearl white very similar to the Sutton Bros. S15 Silvia but after a quick chat with Brett and a mate of mine we decided to change the plan to a simpler one, a nice wrinkle black finish.



The motor all back together, I personally love the design of the sump.



Now these two are my favorite pics of all, the motor ready to go back into the car :DDDD Things are getting very exciting now





I love how it turned out with the wrinkle black and the purple. I'm very excited to see it all together with the HKS oil cap to match the gears and the silver from the Kansai Service strut brace and Greddy intake kit it should tie together well, also under that tape on the valley cover is an R34 GT-R decal rather than the old school 'Nissan Twin Turbo Blah Blah' badge.

That's almost all I have for you guys but I do have one more thing to add. After a long deliberation I decided that rather than getting a trailer or big brakes I am instead going to have a Motec c125 logger dash installed, the plan is that in the long run this is probably more likely to save me a substantial amount of money as otherwise I have no other way to monitor temperatures on the fly, plus by the time I stuff around getting a reliable lap timer and everything it's just much easier (and I love having gadgets to play with, I've already designed a few layouts for the dash haha)

Ok that is all I have for you guys, I'm sorry for the absence of updates but things have been hectic lately but all is drawing to a close which means it will be time for videos of the car being used for what it is designed for

[Gts-t]

Good build thread mate, I like the attention to detail on the matching parts with the hks and Ross stuff. Looking forward to seeing the motec logger. I probably would have gone with the dash as well, but it would be nice to have the brakes as soon as you can. Where abouts are u finding some of these second hand parts. Good choice on the workshop too they seem to have plenty of experience keeping track gtr's alive. Oh since u don't mind throwing some coin you should chase up a hks fuel rail just so it matches the other Hks gear

[Anfanee]

Would that work? (obviously with the haltech software) I haven't had a chance to have a look or play with the haltech or anything yet so I don't know much about it

Believe so. Wouldn't see why not. I can find out if you like?

remember the Haltech dash doesn't log stuff by itself. You need another bit of kit that is ontop of the haltech dash.

[Natemarian]

Believe so. Wouldn't see why not. I can find out if you like?

remember the Haltech dash doesn't log stuff by itself. You need another bit of kit that is ontop of the haltech dash.

Thanks for the offer mate but I am going to stick with the Motec. Brett can get them for a good price from a mate who is a Motec dealer plus I will probably upgrade to a Motec ecu when I go single anyway. Thanks again though

Good build thread mate, I like the attention to detail on the matching parts with the hks and Ross stuff. Looking forward to seeing the motec logger. I probably would have gone with the dash as well, but it would be nice to have the brakes as soon as you can. Where abouts are u finding some of these second hand parts. Good choice on the workshop too they seem to have plenty of experience keeping track gtr's alive. Oh since u don't mind throwing some coin you should chase up a hks fuel rail just so it matches the other Hks gear

Yeah I really want to get some big Alcons under those front wheels, it was especially tempting when Brett told me he has a set sitting in the shop. Unfortunately the budget is wearing thin due to coming closer to purchasing my first house so a line has to be drawn somewhere, I know if I go bigger brakes I'll end up adding a pedal box for better pedal feel, then I won't be happy with the bias so I'll purchase rear brakes as well and before I know it my house deposit will be gone (again lol).

B.C. are great, their service has been amazing (I'm admitedly a bit of a pain to deal with, I change my mind often). Brett has always been good for filling me in with what is going on and where they are up to and as you said they sure do know their GT-R's well.

Almost all my parts came from a Facebook group called 'GTR's and GTR parts for sale' there is always lots of stuff on there from wiper arms all the way up to 6 speed Hollingers. I also used the SAU forums for a couple of purchases as well. Also worth a mention I saved a large sum by getting all my new parts from Japan through Jesse Streeter, I just sourced stuff on Perfectrun, gave him the part numbers and details and he would always be cheaper by at least 10%.

Hope that helps mate Thanks for the feedback.

[Anfanee]

All g man. Keep the updates coming!

[k_d]

The more expensive racepak logs anfanee, the base model is just a display dash.

Love the black/purple. Soo nice!!!

[Natemarian]

The more expensive racepak logs anfanee, the base model is just a display dash.

Love the black/purple. Soo nice!!!

Yes it does. The haltech logger dash was the one i was going to run in the first place however after talking with Brett he said the visability on them in direct sunlight is pretty crappy, not an issue in racecars where you can make a surround to shield it from sunlight however in a street car/track car like mine where it will be exposed to sunlight Brett said I would be better off running the Motec due to having a much better screen and being totally customizeable.

Thank you for the kind words on the colour scheme I hope it turns out as good as I imagine.

[Natemarian]

Ok so once again I have been slack with updating this damn page! But here it is, the next update.

She finally has a heart again! The motor was dropped in a few weeks ago.

A few close-ups of the piping, glad I went with the greddy intake, it looks great! Makes me wish I got a Greddy plenum as well

Now when i ordered the greddy intake i had planned on keeping the Apexi Power FC and therefore keeping the Nismo AFM's however now that I have gone to the Haltech the boys have had to make something up to mount the filters to. It was decided to use the old Apexi pods as we all know the HKS mushrooms are pretty common for breaking down quickly and not being great filters.

So about a day after getting the pictures from Brett showing the motor having been bolted in I got this picture from him.

Yep, unfortunately for my wallet, the tail shaft was shagged. Oh well, off for a reco that went.

Shortly after that I got some much better news, IT LIVES!!!!!

They turned the key and fired it up not long ago, now it is just a matter of a tune and wire up the Motec C125 and it will be time to pick it up! Hopefully just after easter.

I will keep you guys posted and put up videos once i get it to the track for a shakedown!!

Edited March 25, 2015 by Natemarian

[Shoota_77]

Awesome news! Be good to see it fangin around Winton in no time!

[Natemarian]

No pictures yet guys just a quick update from my phone since I've got a spare moment on Easter morning (happy Easter everyone)

The guys ran the car up on the dyno the other week and all was good until they started to put boost in to it, it made a small noise from the head so they stopped immediately and pulled the valve covers off (glad a took it to people who know what they are doing). After an inspection they noticed the mines cam baffles were sitting hard on the cam bolts, they rectified this and the car is now back together and the plan is to get the final power run done this week then they just need to install the ets-pro and motec c125 dash and it's finished.......but since its been so long i might get them to throw on some whiteline sway bars as well

Happy Easter everyone

[Natemarian]

Ok guys so I am back! I know it has been a long hiatus but there were a lot of hiccups. I'm not going to sit here and bad-mouth anyone but long story short I picked up the car without the dash or ETS-Pro installed. I only picked it up a few weeks ago so the car had sat at BC for over 6 months.

There is a bit to get through so i am going to break it up in to sections.

Anyway I went down to pick the car up, Brett had sent me some pictures at the workshop and here is the final dyno run.

He also sent me a picture of the car back together, it was nice to see it look like a car again.

Anyway here is the part you all want to see THE ENGINE BAY!!!!

Honestly after all the f@ck arounds, headaches and waiting it was all worth it just for how good that engine bay came up. Still have a few little things to do like change the oil cap and what not but that can come later.

So I had paid months in advance so off we headed making the 3.5hr journey North back home to Albury/Wodonga, here are some snaps my Mrs took in the 'support car' lol.

As you can see the weather was perfect, sunny and clear.........not.

This is my favourite shot of the car.

So we made it safe and sound back home. Stay tuned for part 2!!.

[Natemarian]

So on to part 2 - This one will involve some reading and little to no pictures.

Now that the car was back home I got a chance to start looking over the car in greater detail and as I am pulling the old parts out of the boot (BTW if anyone is interested in a Power FC with hand controller and some Nismo AFM's mine will be for sale) I noticed that I could not find the accumulator for the Accusump setup. Naturally I went in to search mode and searched the whole car and alas no Accusump to be found, no oil lines, no accumulator, nothing. Obviously i was not happy. THEN I continue looking through my stuff and find that he still has my original paperwork for all the previous mods i.e. built bottom end, turbos, cams, etc.

By this stage communication had broken down and I was becoming increasingly unhappy not only for the current situation but also that my ETS-Pro had been sent back to the USA because the transcoder? (I think thats what it was) was faulty and he also was still to refund me my $700 deposit for the Motec C125. HOWEVER I am still giving him benefit of the doubt as he did go through some personal issues during this time and I understand things have been rough for him.

Next set back. while we were driving home from Melbourne we noticed the AWD had stopped working, once we had got home I noticed the Attessa oil was low and probably needed a bleed. I had aranged for a local bloke here Matt Sims from Sims Performance to sort out the remainder of the stuff. He has a fair share of knowlege when it comes to RB's and built a local bloke Jason Ruby's s13 which runs 9sec quaters and is still street driven (video below) so I figure he is qualified

So I was reversing the car out of the garage to take it to Matt to get the AWD bled and I managed to stall it, no big deal.....except it would not start again.......WHAT NOW?!?! I got Matt to come around and plug in the laptop since his workshop is 5 mins down the road. Low and behold the tune is 'pretty rough' in his words and was running 35% too rich through the whole fuel map which pointed towards spark plugs being the issue causing it not to start, he was dead right. He pulled the plugs and not only were they black as charcoal but they weren't even the right plug! we found a correct set of plugs in the boot, cleaned them and dropped them in and it started first try. Also while Matt was looking through the tune he noticed that all the engine protection was turned off which was odd because the car was meant to have had 0-150psi sensors fitted throughout for the pure purpose of being able to have engine protection. A bit of digging around pointed out that none of the sensors were installed.....more money to be sent.

That is it for the doom and gloom side known as part 2. Expect a return to the usual pictures and happieness in part 3!!

[Shoota_77]

Shit mate, that's no good at all. I think some of these smaller workshops just take on too much at once and end up making a bit of a meal of it. Hopefully it all works out in the end. Sounds like the local bloke has half an idea which is great.

[Natemarian]

Part 3 - The final chapter....well sort of.

Ok so as you guys read the car needed a host of sensors to be installed. Also I got a chance to check out the Haltech Racepak dash that is on Matt's 9 second VL turbo (video below, pretty sure the car has gone a whole lot faster since then but I never asked) and I found that the visibility issues people had talked about weren't that bad so decided to save myself over $1k and order a Haltech Racepak at the same time as the sensors.

Matt ordered the parts on Monday and then sent me this on Wednesday.

Super keen to get the ol' girl finished and reliable(ish)

Anway Matt came and picked the car up tonight before I went to the gym and 15 mins later just as I'm starting he sends me these.

Obviously it is just sat in there with power connected but I think it looks great! So far all my dealings with Matt have been great and it would be great to not only find a reliable mechanic but one that is local (a large amount of the mechanics here I wouldn't trust to service a camry)

So you guys are now up to date. The car is at Matt's and is getting the sensors installed along with the Racepak dash and a retune, he is going to run the car up on the dyno tomorrow so we have a base of comparrison.

Hopefully smooth sailing from now on and I will get out to Winton for a shakedown!!

Have a good one guys!

Edited June 5, 2015 by Natemarian