Share Your Euro!

[admS15]

I just did some brake pads and odd bits and pieces, yes pretty straight forward.

 

Next up is timing belt change. Someone at Renault forgot to put the keyways on the cam and crank pulleys. She'll be right, what could go wrong..

[Kinkstaah]

Plenty.

As far as Renault Timing belts are concerned, this is one where I'd call someone like Paul @ Auto Paris in order to do that, Or the guys at Alpine Affaire, but that'll cost more.

They seem to be pretty religious about changing it on time, so someone who has done it 771 times or something would be my pick lol.

[admS15]

It's alright boys, i got this. I may give a couple of those shops a call for a quote anyway but I'm pretty confident i can do the job. Just requires some timing lock tools, i have some detailed instructions equivalent to a Nissan fsm. Just like a Nissan.

[admS15]

Timing belt done. Not too bad of a job. Was like working on an SR20 cross RB. A couple of timing lock tools and a day of cursing the french and it was done. Engine lives on and no frogs or snails where harmed

 

 

 

Horse shoe lock tool in place to lock cams in tdc position. A pin is then inserted into the side of the block and locks the crank in place.

 

Overnight parts from ktec racing UK. No vat or gst paid. Stuff you Gerry Harvey.

 

 

 

Old school way of finding tdc before cam lock tool and locking pin was inserted into the crank from side of block. Interesting story about that, later.

 

The crank timing belt gear is keyed, the balancer isn't, neither are the cam gears. I was lucky I didn't have to remove the cam gears as the vvt pulley wasn't making sr20 noises and the cam seals weren't leaking.

 

The only thing that i stuffed up on was putting the blanking plug back into the side of the block. There is another threaded hole close to it that is unused with the same thread and i put it in that. The engine had some positive crank ventilation for a day before i had to investigate why there was oil leaking onto my driveway. Quickly realised my mistake and rectified.

All in all, not really any more difficult than an rb timing belt. If the cam gears needed to be removed, another lock tool would have been required to lock the gears together to undo the bolts. Still very diy able.

[PranK]

Overnight parts from the UK?! Dang I bet that was pricey.

Nice work on the belt. How long did it take all up?

[admS15]

That was fast and furious figure of speech. Was £50 3 day express via TNT. Got stuck in Singapore for 8 days. Turned up in just under 2 weeks. In the end i got genuine Renault parts for cheaper than i could have got aftermarket here. So it was still a win.

 

Belt took me around 10 hours all up. Wasted an hour removing and refitting a heat shield i didn't really need to remove and a couple of hours working out why I couldn't get the tensioner to do it's thing. Removed and refitted that a few times. If i had to do it again, i reckon it could be done in 4-5 hours.

[PranK]

Nice. Thats awesome.

[Kinkstaah]

Ktec and Kamracing

So many good things
Good to hear it went well, the belt and bushes are like 90% of problems on them. You'll track it with decent tyres and go "Oh that went easily, why do I own a Skyline again?"

I've still not recovered.

[admS15]

On 22/07/2021 at 2:23 PM, Kinkstaah said:

Ktec and Kamracing

So many good things
Good to hear it went well, the belt and bushes are like 90% of problems on them. You'll track it with decent tyres and go "Oh that went easily, why do I own a Skyline again?"

I've still not recovered.

This is precisely why i have refrained from tracking it but i probably will as the 33 is becoming too valuable to crash (wow, can't believe that's a reality). The skyline will always have a place, coz skidz. Every enthusiast needs skidz in their life and wrong wheel drives have no business doing skids. Speaking of the skyline, im going to put it on club reg soon. Vic is changing the age requirement from 25 to 30 years. Gotta get it done before October or wait another 5 years.

[Leroy Peterson]

Anyone here with newish VW's?

I thought cars sorted the leaky sunroof issue in the 90s, lol apparently not. Even cars new on the lost got water stains on the roof.
Euro's cheapening up build quality a lot since COVID.

[PranK]

On 26/07/2021 at 4:59 PM, Leroy Peterson said:

Anyone here with newish VW's?

I thought cars sorted the leaky sunroof issue in the 90s, lol apparently not. Even cars new on the lost got water stains on the roof.
Euro's cheapening up build quality a lot since COVID.

Depends if you park under a tree. Takes bugger all for a bit of foliage to get stuck in the sunroof drains and block them enough. Especially with the rain we've had this year. I check my carpets every time I get into my cars after any rain, I'm so used to having puddles in them.

[Lithium]

Been a long while since I've owned something that seems at all related to Skylines, but my latest car kinda has aspects which feel make it related to my old R33 GTS25t - is an F20 BMW M135i:

He runs the 3litre single turbo N55 engine, if you are a BMW propeller head it's the later model version of this engine with the larger electronic wastegated turbo (which brings it up to par with the old twin turbo N54 engines in terms of stock turbo flow potential) and suchforth.   In stock form these guys are meant to develop 450nm of torque from 1300rpm, and a conservatively rated 240kw peak power.  

Mods for now are a Wagnar tuning dump pipe, Masata hard piping and CTS intake and retuned stock ECU (and not pops and bangs 🤮) which while don't make a huge amount of power, when combined with the complete lack of lag (turbo is pretty similar in spec to an EFR6758, which is a tad mental when combined with a high compression 3litre spinny cam 6cylinder and twin scroll :D) and the ZF8 8-speed gearbox real world wise it's a significantly quicker car than my old GT30R equipped R33.

Aside from the nice handling, all the nice modern car comfort things its also pretty sweet being able to get sub 7l/100k fuel consumption on road trips where the roads are hilly and windy etc when combined with being pretty sporty.   I'm somewhat surprised these things aren't more popular!

Edited December 16, 2022 by Lithium

[PranK]

Nice! I love it!

How are you finding those upgrades?

I just bought an e90 335i to replace the e90 330i I've had for years. Swapping all the bits over at the moment.

 

 

[PranK]

Also @Lithiumget the XHP tune for your ZF box. Its totally transformed my paddles on the 6 speed ZF I have. Its a very worthwhile addition.

[Lithium]

Truth be told I've got all the parts but not everything is sorted yet, it's Christmas project stuff so I can't give a full review at this stage BUT I've got the MHD dongle and everything inc. XHP license purchased.  I'm impressed with the trans even with the stock tune so pretty excited to see what it's like with the XHP tweaks, from what I've seen it'll be pretty key to making it "work" as well as it can well combined with the "Stage 2" (groan) level of mods and tune it'll have if I take it out for a sneaky 1/4 mile run.

Is your E90 the N54 or N55 version?

[PranK]

Some cool Chrissy projects there!

Mine is the N54. I love the stock performance over the N52 330i and I'll be doing some similar stuff to you. THinking mainly of an intake (proper cold air rather than open pods), FMIC, basic exhaust stuff and a tune. Not sure what 'stage' that is but paired with the coilovers and M3 suspension bits I've got, it's going to be a hoot. I might do a 400m also just for shits n giggles.

[funkymonkey]

Still got my MK4 Golf GTI that's sitting in the back of the garage appreciating in value 😁

Dailying an Audi SQ5 twin turbo diesel, waiting on delivery of a Porsche Cayenne GTS twin turbo V8 in a few months time, then have to sell the SQ5. Missus drives the kids around in a Mercedes B180.

Bought an aftermarket Android headunit and LED badge for the SQ5, still in half a mind if I should install them or sell seperately.

Constantly looking at the Japanese auctions waiting for a nice R32 GTR to pop up, and some sort of leverage over the missus to drop cash money on it. And yes, totally regret selling my 32 GTR, GTS4 and GTS back in the day for a fraction of what they're worth now.

[PranK]

4 hours ago, funkymonkey said:

Still got my MK4 Golf GTI that's sitting in the back of the garage appreciating in value 😁

Dailying an Audi SQ5 twin turbo diesel, waiting on delivery of a Porsche Cayenne GTS twin turbo V8 in a few months time, then have to sell the SQ5. Missus drives the kids around in a Mercedes B180.

Bought an aftermarket Android headunit and LED badge for the SQ5, still in half a mind if I should install them or sell seperately.

Constantly looking at the Japanese auctions waiting for a nice R32 GTR to pop up, and some sort of leverage over the missus to drop cash money on it. And yes, totally regret selling my 32 GTR, GTS4 and GTS back in the day for a fraction of what they're worth now.

Pics or it didn't happen.

[PranK]

I remember the MK4 build on VWW. Some cool fabrication taking place.

[admS15]

 

 

 

I did a thing. Don't know yet if this is the best or stupidest decision I've ever made but it has 2 turbos makes 230kw and 650nm. Let's see what the future holds.