Overhauling/fixing/modding Bigbird

[BLKYLO]

Unfortunately in october last year, my tiptronic 34GTT decided that it was time to start changing just about everything on the car to ensure that it keeps running. I am going to keep track of it here with before and after photo's, comments and a quick " how i did it " as i progress from fixing a very depressed daily, to getting it ready to hand over to Toshi Tune for another big change to make a push for a solid and safe 300 rwkw for around a 5-7K budget.(mods only)

My main reason for pushing this through is I now have another, slightly cheaper to run daily that I can use whilst the 34 sits unregistered in the shed. I am the first owner in australia, and being young and stupid I bought the car from E&M motors in 2010 with absolutely no research into the dealership. On the test drive, the car was punching out easily 300+ rwkw, and upon compliance the dealership " forgot " to put all the modded parts back in the car. Typical.

It has become very, very apparent to me that lots of the factory parts have never been replaced, and almost all the aftermarket mods were replaced with OEM parts that were/are/soon-will-be on their way out. Taking it as a learning curve, I am going to change 80% of it all by myself, save up some moolah, and then hand the car over to get the car back up to where it was when it was imported.

Please feel free to comment/give advice/Give experience's. I am NOT a mechanic, I am doing it all on my own and any feedback at all is greatly appreciated.

The list to fix/change:

- Alternator

- Belts

- Water pump

- Thermostat

- Radiator

- Ignition coil

- Coil packs

- Spark plugs

- Driver headlight

- Driver window regulator/window seals

The changed/fixed list:

- Inlet manifold

- Battery

- Vacuum sensor

The current mods list:

- 3" exhaust with Varex muffler

- Boost T

- B.O.V

- Nistune at 12 psi for 200rwkw

The future mods list:

- Fuel pump

- New turbo

- Front mount

- Electric B.C

- Electric. BOV

- RB26 head

- Bigger/better brakes

- Injectors

- Re-tune ( obv)

Currently have swapped out the lower inlet manifold as the top radiator connector pipe was well and truly corroded. Will edit and drop photo's in tomorrow. Have the radiator semi pulled out and drained, will leave out so as to have enough room to access front of engine. Have discovered a great deal of corrosion in intake lines and almost all coolant pipes, changing as I go. Big thankyou to skyline parts on FB for sourcing all my parts and getting them to me in a timely manner.

[BLKYLO]

[RBrennan25]

Why are you changing to an RB26 head? Aren't you better off with the 25 neo to keep VCT? Certainly would be cheaper. Other than that interested to see the progress as you go

Good luck mate

[Ben C34]

Changing to an rb26 head is a definite backwards step, so take that off your list.

You must add to the list the auto trans. Even with the power you have now it won't last long

You need minimum a shift kit from mv automatics, and preferably their billet second gear servo and a larger trans cooler. Seriously , your trans will die a pretty quick death if you don't sort it out soon.

[BLKYLO]

Ok will update my list.

Scratch RB26 head,

Add gearbox options. Do you have a ball park figure or am i better off ringing them?

Just so i can adjust the budget.

Deposit paid for some new parts, more photo's and updates soon.

[MrFijiGold]

Another gtt thread. Whoop whoop! Glad you made decision on keeping the neo head. Keen to see more updates.

[Ben C34]

Funnily enough I have a trans for sale with the mentioned mods.

Unbelievably I forgot to message you.

I'll do it here.

500 bucks. Complete trans M v shift kit and billet servo and I will throw in another trans cooler. Was working perfectly. Ring mv and get a price then let me know what you think.

PM if interested.

[BLKYLO]

So new radiator/alternator/bleed valve pipes ordered and 75% paid for.

Looking into what belts I need and trying to find a deal on coilpacks. ( car sputtering under power, fine while cruising. Correct me if im wrong but been told coilpacks )

Ben has graciously given me some info and part offers and it looks like I will have a new job in the next fortnight or so, so the money should be rolling in and i can get this off the ground by my birthday.

I am going to be adding to my tool kit where i can, Going to try to fit what I can myself before driving it off to the tuner ( have no knowledge about tuning whatso ever ).

Should see some more photo's and progress here in a fortnight.

[Therealsandybang]

Keep it up. GTT threads are popping up a lot lately

[Turbosingh]

I love GTT build threads

[BLKYLO]

Big couple of write ups to come soon, Having issues getting photo's off my Ip6 onto my PC for some reason.

Until then, Still waiting on radiator and alternator, although pretty sure after inspecting the old radiator i know where my cooling problem is haha.

Air lines to all be replaced, new boost controller has been bought and waiting to be installed. Have been told my problems arent coil packs, but possibly ungapped spark plugs and boost cuts under full throttle.

Once photo's are on the PC the 6 post write up begins.

[GH05T]

Funnily enough I have a trans for sale with the mentioned mods.

Unbelievably I forgot to message you.

I'll do it here.

500 bucks. Complete trans M v shift kit and billet servo and I will throw in another trans cooler. Was working perfectly. Ring mv and get a price then let me know what you think.

PM if interested.

Buy that quickly

[BLKYLO]

Buy that quickly

Basically have, Ben is busy with work at the moment so he will get to me shortly

[BLKYLO]

So!

Where to begin!

Ive mentioned that I was having an airleak, and that I was going to change the thermostat. With the air leak coming from somewhere near the head of the air intake, I decided to yet again, for the 4th time now, remove the entire section plus the fuel rail. ( if i had more tools and money, this would be the moment I install a forward facing plenum and a modified fuel rail. This is not a fun job. )

Basically, the three underneath bolts from where the lower intake manifold meets the head are a pain in the ass. Theres NO room, and it takes a certain length tool socket extender to reach it, especially the rear bolt closest to the firewall. Completely blind, all done by feel and a large vocabulary.

Once you have done that, you actually have room to remove items, such as the alternator, fuel filter, oil filter, and any lower hosing you need to access.

Im hoping that the leak is solved by gasket making the throttle body to the intake head, and im replacing all the hoses both big and small. The leak was a loud, consistant noise that didnt change under throttle conditions.

[BLKYLO]

Attacking the cooling problems,

By removing some lower hosing and the thermostat, i noticed that i had bright green coolant from when I bled and topped up the levels just before rego last year. So it was apparrant to me that my water pump, thermostat and radiator was functioning in some capacity. However, the radiator is most definitly the problem. Absolutely covered in muck in the lower left corner, there is no way this was functioning correctly.

IF I took Bigbird for a quick 20 km lap back to my place, and i hit boost more than 6-7 times, the temp gage would lose its shit. But upon 2-3 minutes of cruising, the tempo gage returned to normal.

Now im hoping to god that I dont have a cracked head, but with all the places I have been covered in coolant when removing pieces, There was never that tell tale oil and coolant mixture at any point. So i believe i am safe for now. See photo's of radiator removed, and old thermo vs new thermo.

There is a brand new radiator on its way with the new alternator, its a straight drop in, kindly provided by Skyline parts. Im a bit confused as to why so much shit was all over the OEM radiator, I only live on a dirt road and its not like I take it 4wd. In any case see photo's as to progress.

[GH05T]

that is a whole lotta crap

[BLKYLO]

A few to the side problems,

I have bleed valve corrosion, hopefully getting an OEM from japan shortly thanks to Skyline Parts,

Cork gasket mat seems to be slightly useless, you need a good knife, on the money cut out, and the ability to anticipate the need for stretching to get a solid seal. If anyone knows where to get an OEM or aftermarket gasket that fits inbetween the throttle body and the intake head PLEASE LET ME KNOW.

My front bumper has seen better days, word to the wise if you have the parking assist rod like I do, you twist it anti clockwise as the final measure of removing the front bumper. Unsure whether i will attempt to buy a compressor and some painting gear and fix it myself, or do the same and fit new bumper, or just slap the worked and damaged front back on for the time being.

Passenger headlight plastic snapped somehow without me noticing, might try to super glue it back together with an underneath support, might just leave it.

Driver headlight turning on and off, unsure if the bulb isnt in properly, but unscrewing the back I found a milk lid attempting to compress the bulb into place. Need to find suitable DIY dodgy fix.

Driver window regulator needs to be changed, any advanced warning on the way to do this?

This will be the end of the write ups till the new parts arrive and I get a chance to start mucking it back together.

As usual, all comments and suggestions and experience is greatly appreciated.

[BLKYLO]

that is a whole lotta crap

If only that was an over statement

[BLKYLO]

UPDATE!


The 34 is all back together and running again!

Will try to backtrack to where i was last as ive been on holidays and had plenty of time to get things done.

New radiator/alternator arrived.

Noticed that the bottom of the radiator was missing the transmission heating line from the bottom of the OEM. Easily fixed by just bypassing with the smaller hose thats on its way back from the cooler. If you ever swap your radiator out you will see this.

Alternator went in fairly easily, luckily i left the adjustments for the belt where they were when i removed it so it " fell " straight back into place. Great to have the battery charging again.

Word to the wise, if installing a new radiator check the width against your factory OEM one. If its anything near the word FATTER than your oem, the fan shroud will NOT fit back in and its best to just leave it out rather than attempt to force it in and damage your shiny new steel core.

After installing those, the car went back together pretty easily, considering it was the 5th time i had done it. I cleaned and attempted to polish the shit out of the throttle body/butterflies, I used half a bottle of gasket maker for inbetween the throttle body and the intake head, as i mentioned last post my factory gasket had disintegrated. But however, the loud consistant air leak is now gone so that solves that problem finally and thankfully!

Replaced most of the air lines with sensors attached, and running all the way down to the vacuum can at the front bar. Semi Tempted to now do the direct boost lines where the controller is, just to be safe. I was wondering if anyone knew much or the value of re-installing an two stage boost controller? Or what I should remove to just run the single boost line? Looks a little messy after the lines for the factory two stage where cut and modified to allow the single boost T to just flood 12psi into the system.

Changed brand new battery out yet again in favor of another one i had lying around. I deliberately removed the positive connector when I parked it up yet the battery still dropped a cell on negative connector only. Might try and put some water in it and charge it in another car, because its strange how a brand new battery only two days of actual use old carked it in those conditions.

Hit the headlights up with the old sandpaper and polish routine, probably will come better if i buy a machine polisher. for the moment at least doesnt look too glazed or fogged.

A note to all those removing/replacing front bumpers, dont forget to re-attach the clips for your bumper indicators lol. Whilst the driver side is easily rectified, its another 10-30 minutes work trying to get the passenger side in if you still have side mount intercooler installed.

Main issue right now to try and solve is how rich the car is running. And the missus followed me on one of my test drives and said at one point i might as well of owned a diesal. Any thoughts are greatly appreciated. Apparrantly it might be time for a new AFM?

Hopefully next post will be about costings for MODS people. the EXCITING PART. Considering i finally landed a job back in my field, so with that career moolah should be back on track.

One mod is for sure is that I will be grabbing some bits and pieces off ben who has kindly caught my interest. Such as a gearbox already pre-built to handle 300rwkw

Stay tuned people and any help is as usual greatly appreciated. Feel free to PM me or add me on fb.