Jacob's R33 Gtst S2

[Duncan]

do those ball joints on a hoist mate, they are an absolute arsehole to get out.  And yes they can make the rear end horrible when they are flogged out.

adjustable traction arms only help manage bump steer. the upper control arm controls camber but the traction rod changes the angle of the hub under bump. there is little point changing it unless you're also going to do the full bump steer measurements and adjustments

[kingtube69]

Ended doing the ball joints on jack stands because I didn't want to inconvenience my mate. The HICAS ball joints were actually easier to change than the camber arms because of the stupid eccentric washers on the stock camber bolts. 

Old ball joints were beyond stuffed


Cut the old ones flush in order to be able to press the joints out


Using a ball joint press with no attachments I managed to press the joints  out using my battery impact gun. After doing 1 and a half of them the 5 AH battery died lol




New ball joint in


I couldn't separate the ball joint and the arm so I cut it straight off with the angle grinder - It's getting scrapped anyway 


Farewell HICAS!!!!


Lastly I installed the camber arms, as mentioned these were a massive pain in the ass. I spent more time on these than the HICAS ball joints. 


Did a quick DIY alignment with rope and jack stands then took the car out and it feels completely different. By far the biggest improvement following the coilovers. I'll book an alignment in for the next few days and get some new tires while I'm at it. Ive also ordered some Camber lockout washers and bolts from GKTECH because the ones I struggled with aren't in the best condition anymore

Bonus video!

 

[jmknights93]

Camber arms look pretty cool

When are you going for a proper alignment?

[kingtube69]

17 hours ago, jmknights93 said:

Camber arms look pretty cool

When are you going for a proper alignment?

Thanks Josh, I appreciate you organising them for me! 

Not sure when It will get an alignment, hopefully in the next few days. Do you have any recommendations on shops to do the alignment? I won't be going to the place we all went to last time unless I want to get jacked up again. 

[kingtube69]

Camber lockout kit arrived from GKTECH the other day and I installed it when I got home in about 30 minutes. 
The bolts that were on the car were definitely stuffed. 

Booked my car in to get a set of Michelin Pilot Sport 4s fitted as well as a full alignment. The whole time I have had this car I've been buying cheapies and only ever had one alignment so this should make a massive difference in conjunction with the coilovers, adjustable arms, hicas lockout and camber lockout.

The main result I am looking for is some progressiveness and stability in the rain especially being that we are nearing the end of summer (not to say that we won't still have dry days). During wet days my car aqua planes a lot and slides a lot which doesn't instill much confidence at all. 

I'll probably end up posting a detailed review once I have had them on for a while. 

 

[kingtube69]

Tyres and alignment are done - Car feels like a completely different car. 
No more bullshit tram lining and tracking and so much grip. I did have to raise it on all corners but man it feels so good. 

The aligner was very experienced and the staff took extra care with my car 

I would definitely recommend Jax in Penrith 

[kingtube69]

Been driving the car around for 10 days now without any issues except a little scrub on the front when I hit bumps because the guards aren't rolled at all. I'll look at getting a roller over the next few days to do it or pay someone if i can't be bothered. 

[kingtube69]

I'm on holidays from work at the moment so I'm using the time to catch up on things that I have been neglecting with my car. I pulled the intercooler off today and bought some acetone to clean out the core as well as some good polish to clean up the pipe work and end tanks.

Pulling everything apart

8L Acetone - Didn't even use a whole 4L 

Before

During

 After

I found that if you use superfine steel wool then polish again it comes up nicely.

I've also been getting some kms up on the tires and have done around 4000 so far. These are still by far the best that I have ever had. A last note is that I am tossing up between doing a few things in the coming months with my car - Paint or diff. Not sure where to really start though 

[jmknights93]

Looking good my friend!! Pipe work looks like new.

Hoping to have mine out of the shed very soon.

 

 

[kingtube69]

On 4/11/2017 at 3:12 PM, jmknights93 said:

Looking good my friend!! Pipe work looks like new.

Hoping to have mine out of the shed very soon.

 

 

Bring it out of the shed and on a cruise with me!

-----------

Finished polishing and reassembling the car today. I did a boost leak test and found a bunch which I would have never thought of. Fixed most of the leaks with the exception of 1 which is the BOV flange until I blew off the intake pipe at around 10PSI because the soapy water had seeped around the hose and clamp. Not sure why the BOV is leaking so bad but I'll need to work out another way of sealing it. Took it out for a test drive and it was boosting higher than normal so I turned the AVCR down a bit. Overall happy with the results, car runs nicely now too. 

 

I also changed the silicone joiners and the hose clamps on the FMIC because the old ones were shit and bugging me for ages

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

good job man, looking at your build is motivating me to fix up my shit box

[jmknights93]

Do you still have the neighbours who you used to annoy when revving your car lol?

[kingtube69]

On 4/13/2017 at 8:22 AM, Dose Pipe Sutututu said:

good job man, looking at your build is motivating me to fix up my shit box

Thanks Johnny! You're the one who motivated me to get the HICAS done so its good to hear I can repay the favor!

21 hours ago, jmknights93 said:

Do you still have the neighbours who you used to annoy when revving your car lol?

What are you talkinabeet

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

I just wasted quite a bit of money since reading your thread LOL.

[kingtube69]

On 4/14/2017 at 9:04 AM, Dose Pipe Sutututu said:

I just wasted quite a bit of money since reading your thread LOL.

Hahaha now you have me interested - What did you get?

--------------------------

Update: Bit the bullet and bought a Haltech Wideband with gauge the other day and got cracking with the install. A couple things I had to do was find another way of routing the wideband wires because they would have been too short to run around the drivers side and down so I poked a hole with a coat hanger then screw driver through the main loom grommet - I also had to depin the deuschte connector to get the wires through the firewall. 

Once I fed that through I and filed a near perfect hole in the back of the glove box so I could run the wires for the controller, USB for the ECU and the CAN cable for the controller. Then I ran the gauge wiring up and terminated it with a nice 4 wire connector from Jaycar. I put the wideband where my boost gauge was and the boost gauge where the oil temp was. 

I'm interested to know if anyone has any ideas for a multiple gauge setup that is easy to read and access. I was wondering if a tablet that is mounted in the glovebox or has a mounted infront of the existing gauges with the haltech software displaying stats would be a good alternative to multiple gauges in shitty looking holders - My last thought was to get a racepack dash but Jesus they are expensive and red hot if a cop spots it. 

Gauge fitted

Controller located nicely in the glovebox (excuse the thongs!. I'll affix it semi-permanently when I have done the free air calibration but since I recently got a 3D printer I would like to see if I can make a nice mount for it with a section to hold the USB cable for data logging and tuning 

 

[kingtube69]

Forgot to mention in the last update that I still need the bung welded up which I'll get done Monday and then I've struck a deal with Johnny to get him to setup launch control 

[jmknights93]

Looking nice! Are you still using the same gauge bracket setup? I remember that was a massive pain in the ass lol.

I have some HKS gauges that came with a nice alloy bracket to suit the factory R32 GTR gauge din.
Would something like this help you?

[Kane_R32]

/\ mint!

[kingtube69]

On 4/24/2017 at 9:11 AM, jmknights93 said:

Looking nice! Are you still using the same gauge bracket setup? I remember that was a massive pain in the ass lol.

I have some HKS gauges that came with a nice alloy bracket to suit the factory R32 GTR gauge din.
Would something like this help you?

Thats sick! Sell the holder to me or at least let me measure it so I can 3D print them, please?

------------------

Update, got the wideband finished today, went  to performance exhaust center in Northmead and they sorted it out in under an hour. I'm also going to have them redo the whole exhaust with good mufflers and cat in either Stainless complete or mild steel with stainless muffler - The blokes at the shop ensured me they could make a high flow system that is quieter than my current system and also confirmed that my current cat is 200 cpsi. Further to this they pointed out some quick and easy improvements. 

Didn't get a chance to take many photos but I depinned the connector for the wideband again today and slid on some heat proof hose sleeve as the wires run beside the dump pipe. Ideally I would like to get more of the sleeve and do even more of the wires but how it is for now us fine.  

You can see there is some braided sleeve over a portion of the wires that is away from heat. The remainder of the wire is done in heat sleeve.

More to come as I start ordering new parts in the coming weeks. 

 

[jmknights93]

20 hours ago, kingtube69 said:

Thats sick! Sell the holder to me or at least let me measure it so I can 3D print them, please?

You can borrow it if you wish?