The ever evolving R32 GTR build

[mr_rbman]

So as i alluded to in the previous post, this was purchased hoping i could get out on the track and enjoy her without little to do / worry about.

Well that lasted all of 5 days, when i was pulling up to my driveway and all of a sudden I couldn't shift gear (it was stuck in what I believe is 4th gear) now I was well aware of the fragile 6 speed gearboxes these have but with the car only having an EBC and 3" TBE i wasn't hugely concerned, famous last words 

I had ever so slightly missed a shift from second to third 5 or so minutes earlier but continued to drive with no issue......it looks like I've broken the common weak point (selector fork), so I'm now in the process of removing the gearbox to confirm......

[mr_rbman]

Not a lot been happening with the GTR lately (just living under its car cover).....but have been nutting out with my mechanic the plans for this year... 2019 make the GTR a historical vehicle here in Adelaide so rego will become shitloads cheaper...

Inspired a little by Actiondans build i'm going to head down a similar path.

So my first purchase was the famed Plazmaman cooler, even better looking in person.

Motors going to come out and check everything looks OK and whilst it's out I'm going to have the engine bay painted.

 

On the 'to purchase' list:

-1250cc injectors (E85)

-Headgasket

-Flex fuel sensor

-ARP head studs

-Rebuild my -7's to -9 specs

-Kelford L182a cams (BC valve springs)

 

The aim is 380ish rwkws...

[GH05T]

i too am waiting patiently for historic rego 

[mr_rbman]

Not much happening with the GTR...

But I'm slowly accruing bits & pieces...

[mr_rbman]

Small addition to the engine bay...

Off to get a few goodies fitted soon... :)

[mr_rbman]

Hit the new track here in S.A ..... 'The Bend' 

Fantastic day out, managed all 6 x 20 minute sessions, although i now have no rear pads remaining and front aren't much better ;-P

Time to upgrade to 33 items....

[mr_rbman]

Well as they say 'It never rains but it pours'

After doing very little to either car for a while (just collecting parts & emptying my pockets) they are both now in at the shop, this is made easier now having moved jobs and working away...

The S15 is getting some what I'll call 'budget' upgrades, only bought the turbo new..

• Kinugawa GTX2867 turbo
• Nistune ECU
• Nismo 740cc Injectors
• Genuine Z32 AFM
• Walbro 460Lp/h fuel pump

Sticking with 98ron for now... Will see how it goes and may contemplate cams + E85 next year if the S14 gearbox can hold up...

Being new to the SR world I'm seeing they seem to respond far better than RB's to cam upgrades...

Based on the above mods what cams do SR people think will net me the best results???

 

Edited October 31, 2018 by mr_rbman

[mr_rbman]

and here is where the GTR currently sits...

Motor seems to spend more time out the bay than in

This time it's out purely to respray the engine bay (still struggling to decide whether i stick with the standard flat black or match the exterior which helps in keeping the bay clean for the inevitable oil spills...)

Whilst the motors out though I'll be adding ARP 2000 head-studs, metal head gasket and giving the motor a general check-over in anticipation of some more boost/power/E85...

 

 

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

RE: S15

Pop some headstuds into the motor

I've tuned 2x GTX2867R albeit Garrett versions and one did 272kW with boost dropping and the other did 280kW bang on with 1.8bar of boost.

If you're bored, check out trak-life's instagram page!

https://www.instagram.com/traklife/ 

[mr_rbman]

30 minutes ago, Dose Pipe Sutututu said:

RE: S15

Pop some headstuds into the motor

I've tuned 2x GTX2867R albeit Garrett versions and one did 272kW with boost dropping and the other did 280kW bang on with 1.8bar of boost.

If you're bored, check out trak-life's instagram page!

https://www.instagram.com/traklife/ 

Already following u bud, have been for a while

That result above is what convinced me to go the 67 instead of the 71 route...

Assuming i'd better do head gasket too if i'm doing studs then!?!

Biggest concern is the gearbox though... thinking if i push much more than 250rwkw's i'm just asking for trouble....

Also any thoughts on what secondhand cams i should keep an eye out for? (want to retain VCT & more concerned with response etc. than outright power...)

 

Edited October 31, 2018 by mr_rbman

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

hahah awesome!

yeah the GTX2871 (IMHO) seems a bit mismatched, but.... just 2 weeks ago I tuned an older S13 SR20 and it made 270kW with plenty more headroom but being a stock motor with the stock headgasket I didn't want to push it further. I suspected it would have gone 300kW with more boost and timing, but owner said 260kW was what he was aiming for so I gave him 270kW haha.

S15 headgaskets are of a better material and with just slightly overtorqued headstuds they seem to hold up the track/street abuse. The problem with the stock head bolts is they are torque to yield and because of the coarse thread don't clamp as well.

Gearbox, seen the new Alpha Omega kit? uses a R33 gearbox and no more stupid W pattern! Shifter also sits bang on the middle. With the 3.7 OEM diff, might be a bit tall, but the 3.9 from the Auto S15 is perfect

Cams, I would say go Tomei Poncams, keep the torque nice and fat. I did have a S15 with Procams, GTX2867R Gen 2 going on the dyno but sadly his gearbox exploded a week after I street tuned it so we had to delay the dyno - so no results yet lol.

 

[mr_rbman]

40 minutes ago, Dose Pipe Sutututu said:

hahah awesome!

yeah the GTX2871 (IMHO) seems a bit mismatched, but.... just 2 weeks ago I tuned an older S13 SR20 and it made 270kW with plenty more headroom but being a stock motor with the stock headgasket I didn't want to push it further. I suspected it would have gone 300kW with more boost and timing, but owner said 260kW was what he was aiming for so I gave him 270kW haha.

S15 headgaskets are of a better material and with just slightly overtorqued headstuds they seem to hold up the track/street abuse. The problem with the stock head bolts is they are torque to yield and because of the coarse thread don't clamp as well.

Gearbox, seen the new Alpha Omega kit? uses a R33 gearbox and no more stupid W pattern! Shifter also sits bang on the middle. With the 3.7 OEM diff, might be a bit tall, but the 3.9 from the Auto S15 is perfect

Cams, I would say go Tomei Poncams, keep the torque nice and fat. I did have a S15 with Procams, GTX2867R Gen 2 going on the dyno but sadly his gearbox exploded a week after I street tuned it so we had to delay the dyno - so no results yet lol.

 

Cheers Johnny.

I have seen the Alpha Omega kit, just not $$$ I wanna spend til I have to (This is the budget car after all  gotta save my $$$ for the money pit GTR...)

 

Just got word from the tuner, it made 208rwkws @ 20psi on 98 ron... little less than i expected but these turbos clearly don't come into their own until 25 + psi...

Running the standard airbox with it partially cut away at the front feeding cold air but that's the only possible thing I could think would be holding it back, it is a little warm in Adelaide today too apparently (31/32 degrees....) but wouldn't think either of thos would have too much of a detrimental effect...

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

7 minutes ago, mr_rbman said:

Cheers Johnny.

I have seen the Alpha Omega kit, just not $$$ I wanna spend til I have to (This is the budget car after all  gotta save my $$$ for the money pit GTR...)

 

Just got word from the tuner, it made 208rwkws @ 20psi on 98 ron... little less than i expected but these turbos clearly don't come into their own until 25 + psi...

Running the standard airbox with it partially cut away at the front feeding cold air but that's the only possible thing I could think would be holding it back, it is a little warm in Adelaide today too apparently (31/32 degrees....) but wouldn't think either of thos would have too much of a detrimental effect...

Must have a very flat timing map, SRs dont' like timing in the mid range so I usually ram in the timing at nearly 3~4 degrees for every 1000rpms once it has past peak torque.

Maybe ask your tuner to send you a screen grab of the timing map and send it to me.

[mr_rbman]

19 minutes ago, Dose Pipe Sutututu said:

Must have a very flat timing map, SRs dont' like timing in the mid range so I usually ram in the timing at nearly 3~4 degrees for every 1000rpms once it has past peak torque.

Maybe ask your tuner to send you a screen grab of the timing map and send it to me.

Will do...

 

He did say 'We've kept it relatively rich & very safe timing'

I have an event 4.5 hours from Adelaide in a week and a half which I've planned to drive to and from, so reliability is number one...

[mr_rbman]

pretty successful weekend, drove the car off and back on the trailer...

only issue in the end was a failed rocker cover gasket which kept spitting oil on to the firewall, new one ordered ready for the next hillclimb second week of December...

did have an intermittent miss issue at high RPM prior to leaving which in the end turned out to be a strange AFM issue that my tuner had never seen before (he's seen plenty of fake Z32 issues and is quite confident this isn't one...) whether it's the same issue or another one altogether the car does seem to do a strange surging specifically when i was coming back down the hill after each run, almost as though I was in too lower gear (even though i wasn't)...

 

Edited November 16, 2018 by mr_rbman

[mr_rbman]

Finally got round to pulling the motor down... Thankfully confirmed a few of the items I was told had been used in the build (by previous owner) but had no physical proof of (long nose crank, Eagle rods, ARP rod bolts etc...) 

But what was more i guess we'll call 'lucky' was how close I came to losing the motor all together... As you can see from the 'standard' oil pump gears it was cracked completely, without destroying itself, one more high RPM launch and i think she would've been cactus. Needless to say I've ordered a new oil pump and billet gears.

The engine bay is being painted next week and I've used the opportunity to have my cam covers painted the same as the exterior of the car, loved the old wrinkle black that they were but seems every second person is doing that look now...

Should hopefully receive all my other little goodies next week too...

• 1250cc injectors,
• ATI harmonic balancer
• N1 oil pump (Reimax billet gears)
• Tomei metal head gasket
• Tomei sump baffle 
• All new genuine (Nissan) water pump, timing belt, tensioner and idler bearings, gaskets, seals, hoses etc (the bank account balance is starting to hurt  

Also ported the manifold to match turbos and head then painted them using some VHT paint along with the heat shields, we'll see how long it lasts...

Edited December 15, 2018 by mr_rbman

[jmknights93]

Pretty keen to see those rocker covers on. I think you've picked an awesome colour! ?

[mr_rbman]

22 minutes ago, jmknights93 said:

Pretty keen to see those rocker covers on. I think you've picked an awesome colour! ?

It's coming up to two years without a decent drive, I'm hanging for anything at this rate

 

[Robzilla32]

I am one of the every second persons so I concur that you should change the colour...

Reckon that you dodged a bullet with the pump gear but as it's a GT-R, also equally likely that it has been that way for ages but would now fail because you looked at it

[mr_rbman]

10 hours ago, Robzilla32 said:

I am one of the every second persons so I concur that you should change the colour...

Reckon that you dodged a bullet with the pump gear but as it's a GT-R, also equally likely that it has been that way for ages but would now fail because you looked at it

Think you're on to something Rob