Mitch's R33 Ls Track Car Rebuild

[No Crust Racing]

Was talking about doing another test and tune if you're keen. Silvia should be ready to go hopefully by the end of the month.

I'd rather drive an hour and do Winton over Wilby. 

[Mitch_Dubya]

Im def in for the test an tune, just let me know when. Ill drive every chance i get, any track, any car

[Mitch_Dubya]

I didn't make any changes before round two at Wilby just chasing seat time. I did throw is a spare pair of Toyo Proxes semis i had left over to chop out with the Nitto's, see if they have any laps left in them. I was grouped with the clubs fastest cars including three LS S13's, a 32 with a supercharged LS and even a big power 33 with a real Nissan engine. The car ran well, albeit, still loose in the rear end. decided to give it another session before changing tires and maybe some track side rear toe in. Towards the end of the second session the car developed a tapping/knocking noise so i backed off instantly and idled off the track hoping me a frayed belt or tire. No such luck and no more racing. Potentially a broken rocker, lifter etc. more likely bottom end. Was up all night listening the YouTube videos of LS with spun bearings/various other knocks. Maybe time for the ever reliable RB swap. I did managed to lower the PB by 2.8 seconds on a short track, 35.99s enough to finish the day at P9.   

[Mitch_Dubya]

Dropped the oil out, magnetic sump plug came out with shards of metal attached but the oil looked ok. Engine out, sump off and confirmed 1st rod bearing gave out, took second with it and a big end wasn't far off. Looks like we may be able to save the block but for parts $$$ alone we'll drop a new engine in and get racing again.



An LS1 with acc should be around a grand and they're everywhere. Rang a local wrecker who had four or five. Just by chance I rang my mothers bf who is a panel beater and has bought cars off this wrecker before. He has an LS1 he picked up out of a burned out Monaro which he's given to me. The plastic intake is obviously melted but we should be able to swap parts across to get tuna by again and the price is right. May look to build up the other engine over time with all the good bits for bigger power or a blower down the track.

[No Crust Racing]

You wouldn't have that problem with a V..... Oh wait.

That's shit news, sorry to hear.

Least spares are cheap and plentiful.

Good time to throw a cam in...

[Mitch_Dubya]

The next victim!
The other engine has a cam, double row timing chain etc so we'll swap all that over before it goes in.
Tossing up whether I get the tune touched up before I go thrashing this around. Set up should be identical other than age/wear on engine

[No Crust Racing]

Yes to touch up tune/check over.

[Ls747]

Hey mate just wondering what clutch master your running? Cheers

[Mitch_Dubya]

Hey mate just wondering what clutch master your running? Cheers

Not sure dude, came with a modded master, I took a couple of pic for ya

[Mitch_Dubya]

Discovered a few demons whilst dismantling the engines today. When the double row timing chain was fitted, the oil pump spacer was installed backwards which we can only assume had a missive effect on oil pressure/flow

This is how it was sitting, restricting the oil flow by nearly 50% and if you look closely, spitting oil straight back into the sump.
The cam came out looking ok so we jammed that into the new block. Never knew the specs of the cam so I'll have to do some homework and decipher the digits


There was a fair difference in the sump baffling between the two and the Monaro sump looks like it'll do a much better job. It has tighter fitting baffle all around, it tapers down to the oil pick up and it's got a few fins to help point it all in.
Original


And new



We didn't get it done today but we'll swap the dual valve springs across to the new setup

The engine mounts needed to be swapped as they're different an I managed to strip a thread doing so.


Quick helicoil an all good.
Got a new starter motor on order which should come in the week but with 2 weeks till round 3 and zero free time I don't think we'll make it.

[No Crust Racing]

Least you'll have a bit more of a known quantity now, better sump too. 

June 4th is still do-able... get Russ to help. 

Actually no, he will have no free time for a while, ask Matt. 

I can help if you need more things stripped/broken

Edited May 21, 2017 by ActionDan

[Mitch_Dubya]

Made the lap dash with most jobs complete, no time for a tune though. Car ran really well, pushed it 80% in the first session an it felt much more powerful, came in an had lowered my pb by 1.5s and into the sub 1 min club with a 59.3. After seeing that I was itching to push it to 100% in the second session which ended with a 58.2 an temporarily into the top 10. The old tires were starting to go away a bit but thought I'd give them one last shot at bettering the time in the third session but soon discovered I have stripped a half shaft which was the end of the day for us. Pumped with the time but still haven't had a full days racing yet this year. Bought another diff an swapped out the half shaft. Today had another crack at motorkhana and khanacross which was a blast. Car ran solid despite a few small niggles but just happen to drive on the trailer at the end of the day without a new issue to fix. I left the semis on the front an just ran scrappies on the back, noticed the front left had delaminated so it's well and truely f**ked. I'm having a hard time convincing my old man that -7 is too much neg camber. He somehow thinks that we wouldn't scrub tires and would run better times with the camber as is but get rid of the front toe out [emoji36]

[Mitch_Dubya]

[Mitch_Dubya]

[Racer5]

Great build Mitch, you and your old man deserve a medal for persistence. 

Im on my 2nd ls in my r32. 1st one died from oil surge.

Went all out and put a Dailey Engineering dry sump on my 2nd engine. No problems since. 

[Mitch_Dubya]

On 25/07/2017 at 8:11 PM, Racer5 said:

Great build Mitch, you and your old man deserve a medal for persistence. 

Im on my 2nd ls in my r32. 1st one died from oil surge.

Went all out and put a Dailey Engineering dry sump on my 2nd engine. No problems since. 

Thanks John, in the essence of bush mechanic style build, our temp solution is a giant brake light in front of my eyes wired for oil pressure warning... can i ask what clutch master setup you used? we're contemplating a change

 

[Racer5]

Lol re the light, the damage will probably be done by the time the light comes on.

I reckon you and your old man could rig up a next to nothing cost dry sump. Untill then you might be chewing through ls's. Kavanaghs in Melbourne might have a cheap pump or speedway blokes have an old setup etc. 

Im not surprised your running in the fast groups. The ls with the skyline chassis is a great combination. 

Mine has an aftermarket master cylinder with a remote reservoir. 

Edited July 28, 2017 by Racer5

[Mitch_Dubya]

A few changes and a few purchases. Got a set of 18x10 weds sa70's real cheap from a local sau memeber. Wanted to get rims this size as a club member has a virtually unlimited supply of cheap slicks that most of those ahead of me are running.




We've done the typical rough as guts door cards and rear fire wall hole filling with thin alloy.


Rattlecanned the parcel tray black on Friday to get rid of the glare for a weekend of racing. I will dry ice the sound deadening eventually and paint it better.
Toying with a xr8 powerbulge for a future top mount blower that may never happen and had it vinyl wrapped.


The club ran a lap dash at Wilby on Saturday, camped the night at the local and ran a drift day there on the Sunday. The car ran faultlessly for grip, bar a little fuel surge issue in the last session when the fuel level was down under 1/4. Threw 20l at it as I'd qualified p7 for the top 10 shootout. Wasn't my cleanest lap as it just started to rain in my warm up but it got heavier for some so it was enough for p2 with a pb of 35.55 still with clapped out old semis.

Big night on the turps and a trailer skid later, my first attempt at a drift day on a very narrow track. Was a heap of fun and spent a lot of time off track before I blew a hole in the diff. I was having too much fun to realise that I was single pegging my last lap for the weekend. I haven't pulled it down yet to investigate but happy with how the car ran across the weekend.





Not wanting it to be out of action for long, it's back out to the farm for a freshly shimmed diff, a shorter set of modified lcas, fuel cell and a few other small jobs, should be ready to race again as soon as next week.

[Mitch_Dubya]

Pulled the stock tank out of the dirty3, not a fun or easy job. Needed a farm hoist to make the job easier.


Tank internals were all f**ked up and bent out of place which meant we were never gonna get the last 20+ litres out of the tank. Explains the fuel surge issues we were having.
Cut out the spare wheel well bracket an took to it with a sledge hammer to mount the cell and central and far forward as possible. Positioned the cell sump to the rear so fuel would run towards the outlet under heavy acceleration.

Plumbed up the fuel lines and wired up the pumps and she's about ready to go again this weekend.

With the 25kg+ reduction in tank weight and the unusable fuel we were lugging around this should shave 40 - 50kgs.
I'll take it for a run at a fun day at Winton on Saturday to test the fuel system and diff. I'll just be running the fed 595's that came with the weds. I'll finish off what's left of them off at another drift day at Winton skid pan that the car club is running early October then I'll grab some slicks and see how it stacks up with the big boys.

[Mitch_Dubya]