The ever evolving R32 GTR build

[mr_rbman]

Well ever since my appreciation of Japanese cars started in the early 2000's the R32 GTR was always the ultimate dream car for me but was never quite within reach (that old saying if you can't afford to buy two then don't buy one) boy is that soooo true.

So I've had a few jap cars before purchasing this one.

R32 Gtst which I bought pretty stock, built an RB30 twin cam and had a bit of fun.

Evo VII which was a great piece of kit.

R32 Gtst with a SR20DET which was a wide body track car, great fun but never got to use it enough.

Datsun 1200 sedan, awesome little old school cruiser.

But the bug for speed had started to come back and life's circumstances had brought me to the stage where buying one was more realistic and I figured if I were to get one now was the time as they just seemed to be increasing in price (now even more so with the yanks getting access to them)

So I started searching around January 2015.

Basically wanted to find something local (S.A), late model (93/94) or something with a rebuilt motor.

I ended up after around 4 months of searching finding this 89 model with a fully rebuilt motor.

That probably in hindsight blinded me to its short comings as in 4 months of searching this was the closest to fitting my criteria that I'd come across, I sooner more recently found out that whilst the build was definitely done all the bolt ons and engine fitting was done by the owner and it looks after close inspection to have been a rush job for sale. To which I am now slowly going over and fixing.

I've probably jumped forward a little......So I picked her up the Thursday before Easter and no less than four hours later travelling down the same road I venture at least once a week skippy decides to jump out and give me a nice little surprise resulting in what you see below. Thank god I insured it before picking it up.

After putting it in the shed and going away over Easter it gave me a chance to calm down and see it as a positive, as I mentioned earlier I bought the car mainly due to its rebuilt motor.............the body was certainly not clean, straight but it was certainly showing its age. Insurance ended up covering half the car being resprayed and I decided to get the rest minus the boot/rear resprayed whilst it was in at the shop.

Can't work out how to save this post so i'll come back tomorrow and edit to finish.....

[r32-25t]

Wow skippy really did a number on it

[PranK]

Wow skippy really did a number on it

I was thinking the same thing! Bloody hell! How did Skippy end up?

You need to start a build thread with that thing, Its gorgeous!

[GH05T]

hey mate, glad to see another 32 in SA being looked after, i dont think i have seen it around yet.

Edited February 22, 2016 by GH05T

[mr_rbman]

r32-25t - ye she certainly did a good job on me, came out of nowhere and I had hardly any time to react.

On the positive side she's basically brand new in the front end now and the paint/body work is looking good.

PranK - not sure about skippy, no sign of her after the accident so I presume she hopped off, tough little bugger.

GHO5T - she's only really gotten back on the road early this year so that's probably why mate.

Edited February 22, 2016 by mr_rbman

[mr_rbman]

Well I can't edit my first post for some reason, as you can see from my first post my skills behind the pc are fairly amateurish.

So the goodies in/on the motor as I bought it.

Mahle forged pistons

AP rods

Brand new crank

modified sump with baffles

oil restrictors

refreshed head

Greddy cam gears

Sard fuel rail

AI FPR

Sard 650cc injectors

R34 GTR N1 turbos (2860-7's)

Apexi pod filters

Nistune ECU

A 'bitsa' exhaust (standard dumps :-/)

Since getting her fixed up after hitting skippy I then got the famous heater hose leaks :-/ how someone has a motor rebuilt and doesn't replace the heater hoses at the same time is beyond me.......by now rego had run out and I decided to leave it unregistered to tidy up a few things I didn't like when I bought the car.

Firstly I replaced the heater hose leaking and another one which didn't look too healthy (as anyone knows with a 32 GTR this is not fun to do but with the assistance of the old man and mates it got done) I plan to replace all heater hoses later in the year just to be safe.

It also came with Apexi Coilovers....I definitely must be getting older as the harsh ride got old very quick so I luckily found someone chasing Coilovers who had some bilstiens (blue not yellow) we swapped and I definitely prefer their ride now compared to the apexi's, I changed the heights to the recommendations (SK) I think 350mm~ at the rear and 360mm~ at the front.

Once they were done I proceeded to search for a standard fuel rail and airbox as I like the idea of popping the bonnet and it looking standard to the untrained eye. Fuel rail was easy but the airbox was a little more difficult to locate, ended up finding one interstate (NSW) after Australia Post somehow delivered it to Country Victoria I received it about a month later......purchased a K&N filter then happy days, or so I thought :-P In the meantime I'd purchased and wired in Z32 AFM's not clicking that as they were larger in diameter they of course wouldn't mate up to the standard airbox, so they were sold and some Nismo AFM's were purchased to rectify this issue.

I then also purchased a Blitz dual stage boost controller, Walbro 460LPH fuel pump and splitfire coil packs in preparation for the dyno.

After a few teething issues on the dyno (poor initial remap) this was tidied up but she would only make 220rwkws @ 14psi before falling over big time around 5800rpm, I knew my exhaust was going to be a restriction but not this much. It had/has standard dumps, twin 2.5" front pipes, 3" cat, 3.5" to muffler (which was cracked both in and outlet) then 4" to rear cannon. I feel the combination of standard dumps, 3" cat and possibly a fallen apart muffler are my restrictions.

This brings us to today, the car is in currently having a new full custom exhaust built and installed. After a lot of research on here and procrastination I have gone twin split dumps (400mm split before wategate pipe re renters main exhaust) then 3.5" all the way to the end with two mufflers. Whilst it's there its also having the turbo coolant lines replaced with black braided items as they are crimped in areas from the previous owners poor install, so I figure get that sorted whilst its easily accessible.

The aim of this car is to have a neat tidy weekend street car which can do the odd hillclimb and maybe drags.

I'm aiming for a reliable 300rwkws whilst keeping the exterior and under the bonnet looking as standard as possible.

Once these goals are achieved, ever so slowly getting closer...

I'll then start tending to the 4WD, its getting error code 18 so more than likely the expensive pressure sensor :-/

It's had most of the sub frame bushes replaced prior to my purchase which is one thing I didn't know when I bought it along with a Hicas lock bar which just needs the 20kg of crap removing now.

Edited February 23, 2016 by mr_rbman

[mr_rbman]

A few pics of how the car is currently looking the other weekend.

Managed to locate a front bar mesh which the car didn't come with.

[GH05T]

looks clean, love it.

[mr_rbman]

Planning to do a hill climb the first weekend of April, just realised that's only 5 weeks away so I'd better pull my finger out.

Still have to get the car back from the exhaust and then off to the tuners and then hopefully fix the 4WD issue.

Purchased a couple of maintenance items today from Nissan.

Genuine oil filter @ $16.45+ I thought wasn't too bad but the Genuine fuel filter @ $43.23+ was a little more of a shock, I guess at least the fuel filter won't be getting changed as regularly as the oil filter.

[mr_rbman]

Purchased some items to clean up the engine bay once she runs out of rego in late April, really like the ripple paint as a few people seem to have done, thanks to Ants for the 'how to'

Have taken a couple of pics of the engine bay as it looks currently and my CAI.

Car is back from exhaust shop now and very happy with how it feels and the noise it puts out, she's booked in to be tuned next Monday so fingers crossed.

(old exhaust is now in the for sale section for anyone interested.)

Planning to change oil (5W30) filter and fuel filter this weekend prior to Monday's tune. Have noticed just lately a more noticeable 'tappet' sound, hoping an oil change may quieten this down.

[mr_rbman]

Reasonable amount happened in the last week or so...exhaust all done...

Sorry for the poor pics, will try get better next time its on a hoist...

[mr_rbman]

Car has now been on the dyno and tuned

After locating a pesky boost leak I'm pretty happy with the results...

Current motor specs:

Rebuilt forged motor

R34 GTR N1 Turbos

Sard 650cc injectors

Walbro 460lp/h fuel pump (12v direct feed)

Splitfire Coilpacks

Blitz SBC

Nistune ECU

Nismo AFM's

Standard Airbox with K&N panel filter

Greddy adj. cam gears (2deg. advanced on inlet, 4 deg. retard on exhaust)

Full custom exhaust (2.5" twin dumps with separate 1.5" wastegate collector (350mm long split) into 3" collector, into 3.5" cat delete all the way to the end with x2 custom mufflers)

Looking at the graphs and comparing it to other similar setups it looks as though these make full boost a bit later than others?!?!?

Have played with the 'gain' setting on the boost controller and the cam gears helped but still doesn't seem right on paper, the car itself feels amazing though...

[okooko]

Nice work. 300 is a nice number.

Should bring her out to a meet, love seeing more bnr32's in SA

[R.3.2.G.T.R]

there are two flavours of R34 N1 turbos, maybe you got the bigger one, full boost looks like 5k, that is late, I was all in at 18spi by 3900-4000

[mr_rbman]

okooko will definitely be getting her out and about more now that I'm slowly ironing out the gremlins.

Edited March 8, 2016 by mr_rbman

[mr_rbman]

BWGTR ye I know this, I'll attach a pic of the ID plate for mine.......thought they were the desirable ones.....

Who knows these days.......saw the motive guys who had -5 cores in theirs......though if that were the case in this instance I'd be thinking more power.....

[mr_rbman]

So now another coolant line/heater hose has split :angry:

Replaced one just behind the starter motor and now it looks like the other ones gone......getting very frustrating.

Any tips?!

[GH05T]

yeah, replace them all.

i did the same, old coolant lines are like the chain theory, fix the weakest link and the next will simply go. just get the plennum off and do them all at once.

[mr_rbman]

ye Glyn that's what I'm 'hoping' to avoid (for now anyway) reading through many of the threads on here and removing the plenum appears as though it could open up another can of worms :-/

Motors going to be dropped soon anyway and have all the hoses replaced but I was hoping to get mt alma out the way first.

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

time for a single