R32 Sedan - Grip and Drift (have my cake and eat it too build)

[CRSKmD]

Finally addressing my catch can and oil setup

Plan is to do as much as practical without having to remove the motor or pull it apart. (no back of head to sump drain/breather or oil restrictors)

First step is a set of full length baffle plates from Hypertune and a Tomei cam cap stud kit.

I could probably have laser cut and bent up my own ones but this took any guess work out

[CRSKmD]

Looking at finally painting and installing my R32 GTR wing I bought back in 2018.

I got two quotes:

Quote 1: $880 includes: wing, spare boot, holes welded up prep/paint.
Pro: full boot with wing AND hole-less boot with lip i can swap between
Con: $$ 

Quote 2: $330 wing only.
Pro: cheaper
Con: lose my (relatively) rare no holes sedan boot

Also to consider I do plan on painting my whole car at some point "soon" (been saying that since 2018)

Anyway Enjoy these All Japan Day 2025 pictures of my 4 door, still rocking the Calsonic Livery!

Rolling in

Interior shot

Matching Peer Pressure Racing overalls are pretty cute ngl.

This year was a hard 1990 cut so I got to be over with all the older cool stuff

Next to arguably the best car there. A mighty S-Cargo

[soviet_merlin]

Love the purple accents in the car! It all comes together really well with the cage, boss kit and other little bits. Nice work all around!

What colour are you thinking for paint?

[CRSKmD]

9 minutes ago, soviet_merlin said:

Love the purple accents in the car! It all comes together really well with the cage, boss kit and other little bits. Nice work all around!

What colour are you thinking for paint?

Thank you! The matching touches really ties it all in.

If/when I redo the whole car it would likely be the same colour I did the Engine Bay/Brakes/Cam covers in 2018. or something adjacent

 

On 1/26/2018 at 3:06 PM, CRSKmD said:

 

for my first time painting with pearl in a 3 layer job im pretty proud of what i managed to accomplish! the photos simply do not do the paint justice

 

[CRSKmD]

Got around to installing the Tomei Cam Cap Studs and the Hypertune cam baffles/splash guards.

Unfortunately, I was not aware that the cam cap studs do not clear the stock RB25 internal cam cover baffles. Some research found a set from boostdoc which includes a replacement cam cover baffle and full length cam baffle + tools and fasteners. but I'm not keen on re-buying what I have already bought.

So the plan is to take the hard route and modify the existing cam cover baffles to clear both the cam cap studs and the hypertune cam baffle plate.

I assume there must be people who have gone through this even just to convert from cam cap bolts to cam cap studs? If so any tips would be appreciated. Otherwise I think I will mark where the cam cap studs foul, drill clearance holes in the cam cover baffle, and remove the cam cover baffle oil returns to clear the  hypertune baffle plate.

I will also need to remove the baffle and drill and tap threads to bolt it back on so i can clean out any swarf.

Fuel tank foam as extra cam cover baffling?

[Duncan]

I can't help with the cam stud clearances (are studs really even needed??) but I have been running fuel cell foam over the factory baffles in the race car for years and they have been doing a reasonable job of keeping blowby under control....almost never have to drain the catch can even though the clearances are pretty loose

[CRSKmD]

54 minutes ago, Duncan said:

I can't help with the cam stud clearances (are studs really even needed??) 

The studs are needed to run the splash plates/ full length baffle plates 

 

do you have a link to which foam you used? I have seen autosport had the yellow stuff that’s E85 safe.  https://www.autosport.com.au/fuel-tank-foam

 

 

[Duncan]

I'd use any fuel safe foam....mine went in 15 years and 15 rebuilds ago, still getting reused

I'd have to say I don't understand swapping to studs to fit a particular baffle unless you are having a massive blowby issue, and even if you are addressing crankcase not head breathing is probably the next step.

[CRSKmD]

yeah I get ~0.6L per session into the catch can. very ethanoly. It ends up overflowing out the breather of the catch can on circuit days too even with a 2.3L capacity catch can and I only drain out ~0.6L max. So every session I have to come in and drain the catch can, which is a hassle.

So this is me cracking the shits and doing everything I can without removing the motor (back of head sump drain/breather and oil restrictors off the table).

plans short term are:

• full length splash plates
• remove oem cam cover baffle add foam and reinstall
• at -10 or -12 AN fittings to the side of the cam covers down to the sump (luckily I already have fittings in the sump)

Yes the ~340,000km unopened motor is probably not helping things

[Duncan]

Ahh got it.

Well maybe install a drain for the catch can somewhere down low and accessible like a wheel well too....

[CRSKmD]

On 4/23/2018 at 12:52 PM, CRSKmD said:

also sneaky catch can drain

Yeah one of the first things I out in when I started having catch can filling up issues. Still prefer to empty 1-2 times a track day rather than every session

[CRSKmD]

1 hour ago, Duncan said:

I'd use any fuel safe foam....mine went in 15 years and 15 rebuilds ago, still getting reused

 

What size bolts did you use to reattach the cam cover baffles? Thinking it will need to be M3-M4

[Duncan]

Yeah pretty sure they are m4, but best to check, and perhaps use new hardware

Also don't over torque them......there was that one time I lost an expensive engine after a workshop overtorqued one of those bolts and it ended up in the oil pump (no, I don't know why they removed the intake mesh either)

[MBS206]

7 hours ago, Duncan said:

Yeah pretty sure they are m4, but best to check, and perhaps use new hardware

Also don't over torque them......there was that one time I lost an expensive engine after a workshop overtorqued one of those bolts and it ended up in the oil pump (no, I don't know why they removed the intake mesh either)

So, barely torque them, but add a drop of Loctite just to be sure?...

[CRSKmD]

7 hours ago, Duncan said:

Yeah pretty sure they are m4, but best to check, and perhaps use new hardware

Also don't over torque them......there was that one time I lost an expensive engine after a workshop overtorqued one of those bolts and it ended up in the oil pump (no, I don't know why they removed the intake mesh either)

RB20/25 covers don’t have threaded fasteners stock like RB26 covers. They are blind rivets so I will need to drill out and tap threads. I bought some M4x6mm button heads and will report back once done if I chose correctly length wise. 
 

have also got some loctite 

[CRSKmD]

Got started on the modification to make these splash plates fit over the long weekend.

First the surprisingly time consuming task of swapping all the cam cap bolts to Tomei cam cap studs. I did the method of removing one bolt at a time, applying loctite to the stud, double nutting to torque as the manual described. Then carefully unlocking the nuts without disrupting the torque of the stud (and going back to re-torque a few times when it slipped). Finally applying the nut and torquing to spec. Repeat x28

Next up I went about removing the stock cam cover baffle so I could ensure it was fully clean after drilling for stud clearance.  As the blind rivets holding the baffle on were domed I used a punch to mark the center then used 4mm drill bit to carefully drill out the rivet without going too far part the baffle.

As seen in other thread here is what is inside the stock baffles

I decided on M4x6mm bolts to bolt the baffle plate back on with. I used a 3.3mm drill bit with some tape to mark the depth at ~8mm.

Next was to tap the threads using a cheap bunnings kit M4x0.7.

With the baffle removed I also drilled out the spot welds holding in the baffle plate oil returns. Unsure whether this was the best option or if I should have cut holes in the Hypertune splash plates to allow the oil drains to still function... time will tell.

I then removed the the Hypertune splash plates so I could rest the cam cover on top and use a dab of grease to mark where the studs impacted the oem cam cover baffle. The most obvious spot was on the hump from the stock mesh is held.

Using this hole as an anchor I bolted the oem baffle plate back into the cam cover and lined up the Hypertune splash plate. Marked the rest of the holes for the studs and drill those out too.

Total 32 holes drilled and 12 threads tapped on the passenger side cam cover alone for this bolt on part that totally clears all OEM cam covers..

Drivers side next as well as some E85 safe fuel foam to fill the space behind the behind cam cover baffle plates.

oh and some lock nuts for the splash plates of course.

Edited 18 hours ago by CRSKmD
typo

[GTSBoy]

37 minutes ago, CRSKmD said:

Total 32 holes drilled and 12 threads tapped on the passenger side cam cover alone for this bolt on part that totally clears all OEM cam covers..

I understand your sarcastic exasperation. But to be fair - the baffles do indeed fit OEM cam covers. They did omit to say that you need to do a bunch of stuff. But they do fit them.

[CRSKmD]

15 minutes ago, GTSBoy said:

I understand your sarcastic exasperation. But to be fair - the baffles do indeed fit OEM cam covers. They did omit to say that you need to do a bunch of stuff. But they do fit them.

[Duncan]

That cannot have been a fun set of drilling.

The stock "baffle" looks identical to rb26, I just cut fuel cell foam to fit the full length under the baffle.

[CRSKmD]

2 hours ago, Duncan said:

That cannot have been a fun set of drilling.

The stock "baffle" looks identical to rb26, I just cut fuel cell foam to fit the full length under the baffle.

Have you checked the foam over the years? No deterioration to the foam from e85 mixing in oil? (assuming you're on E85)