Danny's R34 Gtt Build / Diary / Log

[vetter2769]

So turbo life began its journey with a 96 180sx, did all the usual mods, made 210kw with 900nm.

I loved it to bits, till some drunk driver smashed up my arse at a red.

A couple months later AAMI paid out...

Enter Turbo 2.0 (or should I say 2.5?)

After much looking at filthy 96 r33 gtst's I landed on this gem, a 2000 R34, with 120xxxkms.

Made him an offer and it stuck, this is her when I bought it.

Stock as a rock, only had a HKS silent cat back, and a Japanese stereo.

Me being a big car audio guy, I quickly went to work on a serious sound system.

got the dynamat in, Most people would take it out, but its not a track car, and i enjoy quiet cruises on the HWY and having all that sound deadening really makes a difference.

Amps in the boot

making my sub box

andddd subs in the boot (just fit with millimetres to spare)

[Sparks]

Loving those subs! can't wait to see the rest of the build

[vetter2769]

Thanks Mark.

The subs are Rockford Fosgate P3's.

Soon after having the sound system in, I started looking for power gains from the motor, at first I was unsure of my goals, but wanted to keep my options open, so I purchased a GFB EBC, it has a square flat panel face, which made it difficult to mount neatly like a gauge, so I opted to mount it here -

Sorry for crappy photo quality, but had to blur out the other stuff otherwise would give away spoilers, but just imagine stock gauges and random sony head unit.

Next up was to get that exhaust a bit more free flowing, so I picked up a cheap front pipe

and welded in a bung for a wideband o2 sensor.

It was around this stage that I had decided to go with 60mm gauges to sit nicely in the stock gauge location, I think 52 was just a bit to small.

Anyhow I purchased the race tech 60mm 4 in 1 gauges, exhaust temp, fuel pressure, top water temp, volts. Other gauge - Oil pressure, Oil temp, bottom water temp.

I got the EVO wideband, just because it was 60mm and came with a genuine bosch wideband sensor.

So pulled apart the dash, and started fitting some temp probes.

In this photo is the temp probe, and the second smaller thing is also a temp probe for my thermo fans control module (will get to that soon)

so after a long day of fitting all the sensor probes, I hooked it up, Along with a thermo fan controlling module, oh yeah did I mention the 52mm radiator and twin thermo's?

Fans just clear the AC belt...

Underneath the stereo you can see this small little number "17" that right there is the little box that controls the temp of my radiator.

Later I had to re-locate that sensor to the bottom radiator hose as the top radiator hose doesn't differentiate enough to allow control.

[vetter2769]

So after some more tinkering, I got rid of the stock air box, replaced it with a apexi pod filter, and fitted a nice cold air box around it, gave it that nice woooooshhhh sound!

Edit - forgot to mention the apexi neo piggy back ECU, tuned the car to 11.5 psi 210 rwkw

annnddddd then off to the drags I went....

[vetter2769]

Somewhere along the line I fitted a BLITZ SE fmic, and then not long after an oil cooler to go with it, (temps rose up over 110 at the drags)

Also while doing my front mount, I added an extra hose with a funnel channeling air to the bottom of the pod filter, hoping to get some fresh cold air onto it.

A bit before the drags I bought the standard Gtt rims, painted them white and wrapped them in nexun radials.

before paint -

after paint -

notice how theres always good looking women in the after shot? never the before shot!?

[vetter2769]

So all these mods and I still wasn't happy with the sound system, being a car audio guy I needed my car to stand out from the rest, something I've wanted to do is have a car with a playstation or something crazy like that! I love the fold out dvd screens so I needed to incorporate that into my car, however you just couldn't fit one in the factory location as the screen would fold out over the A/C controls.... and that sucked... big time.... also It would conflict with the gear stick (((( mega downer....

So i thought about doing a GTR MFD conversion into my Gtt (like Charlse with the yellow Gtt) but that was going to cost me big time... So I thought why not combine the both and have the screen in the top location (like the GTR) but make it fold out kinda like Audi do it, only custom...

So I pulled my dash apart again, and started chopping and moulding and fibre glassing and bogging and finally painting.... whole process took over a week, but was mega happy with the outcome.

Pics -

Andddd while we're at it lets throw the subs in the backseat.... because subs..... and to make way for a LCD screen in the boot.... yup....

Power inverter went in, PS4 went in,

and final result -

anyway that will do for tonight, will add more tomorrow

[vetter2769]

So adding more to the story, my oil cooler that I bought was also a oil filter re-locator type deal, so mounted the oil filter on the plenum (cold side) easiest oil filter in the world to change!

Also from the photo's you can see my Tomei FPR, with a pressure gauge in the bonnet (for the tuner), and also a fuel pressure gauge in the car, (as shown previously).

Tv went in the boot

Sparco wheel with momo quick release. This is how the car currently stands, the wheel has a bit of dish, which makes the indicator stalks a little to far to reach, so thinking of going back to a flat wheel.... suede of course! love the suede...

And thats pretty much how the car sits atm

I have a very clear understanding of what I want from my 34 now, and that is to have a street-able, and race-able car with incredible low down performance.

I know what cars with big turbo and lots of lag feels like, and they just don't have accessible power down low...

So really I want something like the stock turbo (10psi by 2700rpm) but with more room to move on power.

So this is the list of mods to come -

High flow stock turbo

1400 cc X-spurt injectors

tomei pon cams

power fc / z32 (already have)

and other little bits and pieces.

hoping that my clutch will hold out for now.

I get most of my big cost parts through Jesse Streeter for those of you that don't know him check his shit out! --------> http://jessestreeter.com

I've got him currently sending me a tomie bell mouth dump pipe, which will complete my 3' exhaust system, which is - dump -> front pipe (with bosch wideband plug and exhaust temp probe) into -> decat pipe (coz e85 smells nice) into -> HKS "not so silent" exhaust.

I plan on taking more photo's in the future of things, and upload them here.

Even if nobody reads the thread, its still great to have a diary, and perhaps something to show the future owner (if there ever is one!)

So thats it for the moment, I shall report back with more mods soon

- Dan

[vetter2769]

Should also note down exactly what the stereo is made up of -

Clarion single din DVD H/U - 5v pre-outs.

2 x Alpine Type R splits, tweets mounted behind mirrors usual spot.

2 x Alpine Type R speakers, rear parcel shelf.

1 x MTX 4 channel thunder elite AMP

1 x MTX monoblock thunder elite AMP

2 x Rockford Fosgate 12" P3 Sub's

60 litre sealed divided sub box

2000watt inverter

PS4 2 x controllers

22" LED screen

Digital antenna

Buttons built into dash for garage door operations

Kicker 2g wiring kit

[Artic Choc]

bout time you put your build up man. LOVE this dudes car haha

[vetter2769]

haha cheers Jake

[vetter2769]

That stock Gtt spoiler was making children cry, so got a fibre glass replica GTR spoiler.

Painted thanks to Adam from Body Shop Paint Supplies Geelong - https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bodyshop-Paint-Supplies-Geelong/399859846777563

Was a bit of mucking around making it fit, but it came out pretty darn good

#rememberthebuster

[vetter2769]

So after monitoring water temps for a while I noticed that it would never cool down on the HWY, temps only ever stayed the same or got hotter, also the max temp was 87 (with r33 Thermostat) and the coldest it would get - bottom hose was 50.

This can be solely blamed on these shitty ebay electric fans I purchased, they actually block the flow of air and attempt to push air instead of the factory pull system.

So I reverted fans back to stock and this solved my problem.

Temps on the HWY would plummet, and the max top temp (after some hard pulls) was 85, and now sits on 81-83 on the HWY.... PERFECT!

Lesson learnt - Fleebay electric fans are rubbish and would never use them again, at least not the push type...

Stock fan shroud, stock clutch fan runs like a dream.

also carbon fibre'd the air deflector on the GTR spoiler.

[Therealsandybang]

It's the fan shroud that makes the difference. Use the stock fan without a shroud. I guarantee you will have the problem again.

The fan shroud prevents the fan sucking in air around the radiator (path of least resistance) and instead makes the fan pull air through the radiator.

[vetter2769]

oh I see... I wonder then if the electric fans weren't the problem, as I never had the shroud at all..

Anyway I'm very happy to have it back working properly. Now I can have my A/C on, on hot days again woo.

[vetter2769]

Bought Jakes Z tune front lip off him, and installed it today, looks so tough!!

amazing how the smallest things can transform the whole front of the car, really brings it alive.

Now for side skirts....

[vetter2769]

quick update - Tomei bell mouth dump is in makes the factory turbo almost lagless with my current setup, enjoying the low boost life

looking forward to high flow, power fc, z32, E85, Tomei cam's and 1400cc injectors = hello 300+rwkw

[vetter2769]

Quick update, haven't done much lately, been paying bills and crap, just changed minor things like steering wheel, also bought 2 gauges intercooler temp (in and out) and trans temp.

List of mods to come has been updated -

Tomei 1.5mm metal head gasket.

Tomei Adjustable cam gears (in and ex)

Tomei type B pon cams 256 lift duration

high flow turbs with 3" inlet

1400 xspurts

power fc

z32

earls braided lines

walbro 460 lph

EBC

Then tune

more to come later.

[Ben C34]

Type b cams aren't 256 duration, that's type a.

Why are you doing the head gasket? If you pull the head off put some ARP studs in there.

[vetter2769]

sorry typo, 260****

strengthening the head gasket to prevent it failing under high boost?\

its been recommended to me, also isn't 1.5mm thinner than the standard? so it should increase compression?

add ARP studs to the list then.... what a money pit this will be...

[vetter2769]

So having a slight change of heart, just going to put in the injectors and high flow the turbo, and have it all tuned for now.

Anyway - Recently pulled the front mount off and had 2 bungs welded in either side by TAS weld in moolap, did a fantastic job with some thick pipe and tapered thread, this was for the temp sensors that went it either side to show efficiency of the intercooler while driving.

Also drilled and tapped into the gearbox for oil temps in there.

I removed the custom dash piece surrounding the stereo and fixed a big nasty crack in it that happened after the sun got to it, and then moulded 2 gauge holders to the top of it, came out looking amazing, and hasn't cracked in the sun so far

then put back together

After it all went back together went on a big cruise around to Sorrento with the FWY group, noticed the intercooler would reduce temps by around 10 degrees on highway driving, and anyway between 10 and 20 on and off boost. As soon as it started to rain, temps drops drastically, so I'm going to plan a water spray system to either come on at a certain PSI, temp, or just with a push button, or perhaps incorporate all 3?

Thats it for now, this week I'm preparing the 34 for Motorkhana, just sorting out fire extinguisher brackets and stuff like this, should be fun, hope to have pics and videos of it.