Sneakeypete's R32

[WantGTR]

this is awesome. what are the details of the engine? Pm me if you like.

 

thread subbed.

[sneakey pete]

Cheers guys, still have a few more updates left in me yet too.
I put basic specs in a post on page one, but this is the clifnotes

Spool 2.8L stroker, 9.5:1 compression ratio.

all the trimings for studs and gaskets

unigroup 260 cams

full head reco

tomei oil pump

Hi octane sump

Hi octane crank trigger

Quaife front diff

nismo coppermix competition twin plate

Anyway, the car was taken to the fabricator for some manifold action, we decided to attempt something a bit special, the reason for the power steering pump delete, spurred on by hypertune recently doing something similar... Low mount!
Unfortuantly after a few weeks of trying he couldn't make it workable. Maybe with a 7670 it would fit... Or perhaps the airconditioner removed and the turbo being able to be lowered more. Either way, still something i'd like to see done one day. But, after a while trying we moved onto a more conventional top mount.

In the mean time I grabbed a few more parts. Sard style fuel rail and a new clutch slave as the old one had popped out.

The manifold flange arrived from the states. I'm not 100% sure where the fabricator got it from but they do a CNC ported flange that transitions from the port shape to the round shape, with a cut out area from the pipe itself to sit into. Was surprisingly cheap too. I think they may also have a stainless steel option for those inclined to go that way.
And of course a twin scroll flange, need to make the most of the Borg Warner.

In the mean time I had some days off work and set about using the tools in the shop to get the oil system mounted up and lines made with the help of some friends.

The lack of BoV pipes allowed me to get the cooler a bit closer in to the car, so hopefully more into the flow of air. A duct and mesh vent behind it will be constructed to make sure its getting some actual air flow. Fingers crossed on the track this means the temps will stay stable.

Also not pictured for some reason is the drain i've put into the line out of the bottom of the oil cooler. Should allow me to get most of the oil and crap out of the system when doing changes

And yes, the filter does fit off between the plenum and the thread. Just.
No, I didn't check beforehand...

These lines will be tied up with rubber mounts at a later stage

Fabricator also made up the bracket for the Power steering pump. I reckon its great! keeps the factory (astra) 3 rubber mounts, bolts up to the stock BoV holding locations and the chassis rail so its got 3 points of contact, wedged in nice and tight, and stock cooler pipes slot in nice.
He's since made his own similar one for an astra pump on his.

Finally, the manifold. We of course went to a conventional top mount setup, 1 5/8 sch40 pipe, turbo sitting forward of cly 2 because of the size of the housings, pretty traditional stuff in that respect.

Looking at other twin scroll manifolds out there we noticed something very surprising. Most of them are not actually equal length! This was a particular issue on runners 1 vs 2 on most. The more we looked at it we understood that it probably wasn't possible to do with the space available on a normal RB. However... there wasn't a power steering pump on this one so the fabricator decided he would be able to spread runner 2 out over the AC leaving more room for it to be full length. The downside was that this meant that there would be unequal bedn radius across each runner. However, we decided that getting the length equal was probably more important.
The end result was a manifold with runners 320mm +/- 3mm across all 6. I'm very, very interested to see how this goes.

 

Weld out

And the finished product. Also threw some npt bungs in there for EGT's in there because why not... (yay scope creep!)

[sneakey pete]

I also drilled out the turbo speed sensor and installed that while the car was at the fab shop. The Borg Warner EFR's have a speed sensor boss cast into them that has had machining done on it to make sure its in the perfect spot to be perpendicular to the spinning blades of the turbo. They then sell a sensor that fits into this hole, all you need to do is drill out the remaining length to bring it all the way through the housing. Drilling Said hole was one of the more nerve wracking things i've done, but I got it in.

After that It was time to get the car home to make room for an actual boat in the shop. Thankfully I was able to borrow a trailer and tow car from friends... Unluckily i managed to lose the number plate...

Anyway, here's some pictures of how the turbo sits in the engine bay

[sneakey pete]

Next step was plumbing the crap out of everything. Given I have the dual walbros in the back and a max power of this turbo being 500awkw on E85, the stock lines are probably to small, so I needed new fuel lines. The power steering also needed new lines, and the turbo needed water and oil lines. I also wasn't too keen on paying pornstar money for speedflow given I needed something like 12 fittings for the fuel system alone so went up to Motorsport Accessories to grab all my stuff with their own brand. Quality of it seems decent, no tiny internal diameter of fittings etc that some other cheaper ones suffer from, proof will be in the usage though.
Staff there are also extremely helpful.

Anyway, first I did up the power steering lines. This was pretty simple, 3x bump fittings to suit the 2 on the rack and the power steering pump. (can't remember exact sizes but can check if anyone needs. The bigger one on the rack and the astra pump are the same size, and one 2mm smaller for the smaller rack connection). A -6 90 degree 200 series hose fitting and a 90 degree to rubber hose adapter allowed the hoses to go up and run along the chassis rail and its all sweet, a nice short 1m of line back to the rack, tucking through next to the cooler pipe.

I also grabbed a bulkhead tee for my oil cooler drain, and a fitting to mount up the factory oil pressure sensor for the cluster gauge.

I also get the occasional visitor while working away on the car. I guess they keep the insects out of it.

Moving onto the fuel system, I got some Delphi 1400cc injectors. It may be a bit borderline as to these being big enough but we'll just have to see what happens. I will have the fuel flow to bump the pressure to 4bar, which would make them 1650cc effective, so fingers crossed that will work.

After that it was just a matter of picking a location for the rest of the objects in the fuel system and making up the lines. I've got a turbosmart FPR1200 that i've mounted on the strut tower, the flex sensor is mounted on the old bracket for the Hicas lines at the bottom of the firewall, and ive got a speedflow 10 micron fuel filter which is mounted up where the old rear Hicas solenoid used to bolt in. I've decided to run the rail in single feed, from the rear. Don't see the point in twin feed. If people can make 400kw with a stock rail feeding from one end with tiny stock lines, i'm sure i can make 500kw using a bigger rail and bigger lines...
The lines are again 200 series -6, i've used nylon braid lined stuff for the front line back to the FPR and the rest is the normal stainless. I had reservations about using braided lines under the car, however I was unable to find a set of Hicas lines to use (threw mine away when I removed them) and didn't really like the prospect of making tube up, as bending it etc to fit under the car on jack stands wouldn't really be fun. In the end, it tucked up into the hicas clips really, really well, and between the brackets holding it in and a few strategic zip ties i'm not confident it won't hanging down.

Fuel tank went back in, I really do love the fact that i've got twin walrbos and there's no way to tell.

Lines all tucked up

 

Engine bay fuel lines. Note the pressure sensors taped into position as a mockup. Will be getting some adapters to fit them in

Getting a bit crowded under the plenum again though.

 

[AMR33]

Looking really good mate

[MagicMikeZ32]

Looks great Pete!

[sneakey pete]

Thanks guys.
Need to update the progress, probably an update or 2 from the last week at home working on it. Anyway, Have some ceramic coated manifold pictures.

[sneakey pete]

I needed to clearance the head slightly for ease of manifold install. I got a steady pair of hands, in the form of my dad, to man the angle grinder. Main issue was the EGT probe hitting the tab at the front of the engine. It was a very constrained area, not much space between it and the EWG actuator.

The next step was mounting up the EGTs. The wiring guy I got to wire in the new ECU put them onto a plug (keeping equal lengths for the wires apart from this to avoid some of the issues possible), however the bung on cylinder 6 needed some work. I got a 1/8th NPT tap from MSA (after trying 3 other hardware stores....) and managed to tap it out a little bit to get an acceptable depth. Tapping welded on stainless steel bungs isn't fun, I must say.

EGT's mocked up.

Cylinder 5 vs Cylinder 6

A side by side comparison showing how deep after a go with the tap. I think I took it another half turn after this also.

While I was at MSA I picked up a Pod. I think i'll need to get the passenger side inter cooler pipes modified as there really isn't any room to fit a pod off to the side, nor have any sort of pipe I can route the catch can vent into for legalities... but that can wait until the car is driving, don't feel like trailering all that way, so for now its Fully hecktic pod on turbo spec.

Note that i've started to mess around getting the coolant lines in place aswell

 

Finally, I've got some wiring related pictures.
To control the engine I decided to change from a haltech platinum Pro to a Link G4+. The link can interface with the DIYautotune 8 channel EGT amplifier via Canbus, which means the total cost for a ECU running EGT's is a fair chunk lower than the haltech. Additionally they also sell a Can based wideband O2 that's a bosch 4.9 sensor instead of the 4.2 of the haltech, plus its a much smaller control unit.
The software of the link seems to have a few more tricks up its sleeve over the haltech, such as fuel pressure scaling of injector duty cycles, plus all of the usal protection for oil pressure etc.
Apparently it has better logging but i've not had an opportunity to play with that yet.

First up I have an interesting air temp sensor that was supplied by JP tuning. Its an long length open tip sensor, with the same thread pattern as the factory unit, so it actually sticks into the flow of the plenum and will of course respond at a decently quick rate which is important for a MAP based tune. Needs anew plug but it doesn't look out of place at all.

 

As well as this, the crank trigger was wired up into the Cas wires.

I had a new gasket for the Cas but i've lost my old one with the spacers in it. Turns out a mate had ordered 10 of them for some reason, so I was able to grab those and put the timing belt cover back on to get an idea of clearance/brackets etc. Makes a big difference to the look of the engine bay!
I may yet take the sensor out and put some kind of black wrap over it...

The battery has also been relocated to the boot to make room for an eventual catch can, including big f**k off fuse. This also allows me to keep a decent sized battery in there, which I would like to do as the car may have to sit for a few weeks at a time without access to keep it permanently on charge.

Power terminal located next to the fuse box, includes a takeoff for the power steering pump.

Fuel system was also wired in with a pair of relays to run as a staged setup, at this stage. Don't think it will be worth the effort to do any PWM type arrangements.

Finally, the honeywell 150PSI sensors were permanently mounted into place and wired up, along with the flex sensor and boost controller. The turbo speed sensor is still waiting for Pins, as for some reason that particular plug didn't come with them included. Must be an American thing
(also note, the speed sensor has some kind of logic board in the plug, so you can't simply hack it off and put your own 3 pin plug on there). Fuel pressure sensor fits in quite nicely.

[sneakey pete]

At some point the boot release lever lockout had been activated. There's a tab that can be slid up and down that locks out the cable from releasing the boot lock. Unfortunately, the key has never worked in the boot lock key barrel...

Cue removing the boot access panel, the amp that's bolted to it, the strut bar and the stuff in the boot.

And the boot lock mechanism as I hadn't discovered the lockout at that point. Wasn't too fun on a hot summers day.

 

Meanwhile, I kept working on the Oil and water lines for the turbo.
Bit of a tight squeze under the manifold for the water and oil to run up between cylinder 1 and 2. Had to get a banjo fitting for the oil feed out of the block and then it only cleared by a couple of mm.

For those playing at home, i've run -4 oil lines and -6 water lines. I modified the factory water outlet casting with a M12x1.25 to -6 fitting, came out a treat I think

As the lines will be in the company of some rather hot bits of metal, I dug out some heat sleeve from the old tomei turbo kit and chucked it over the water and oil feed lines.

The oil drain took a few goes. Had some spare 100 series hose around so I decided to use that. At first I thought 30 and 30 fittings would do it. Then 30 and straight. Ended up using 45 and a 90...
Its also a bit difficult to get in so it sort of lives in there for now.

In addition to the heatsleeve over the oil drain, i wrapped runner number 2 in some exhaust wrap, as the oil and water feed as well as the water drain will be resting on it. This way between the hose and the manifold I at least have a heat sleeve and some exhaust wrap and ceramic coating. Hopefully that should be enough, for a few hot laps at least.

Finally I needed to change the banjo's on the turbo to metric adaptors for hose routing reasons. Lots of fun and games, luckily MSA had no problem with me exchanging fittings a few times!

 

Finally I made a return hose to the radiator return with some black nylon coated braided hose. Aswell as that my dad had a go at modifying the factory water return hose bracket so it retained its functionality holding the Cas wiring loom. All in all it came up a treat, with another clamp to hold the hose to the timing cover i'll be happy where it sits and really happy with how it looks. Well, once I trim some of the excess length from the oil feed heat sleeve...

Here's some pictures of everything mocked up before I went back to site. I've done all the hoses for the wastegate and BoV also. lines going everywhere!

Need to order some exhaust nuts as the factory design is to big of a diameter now, so I'll get the final bolt up when I get back.

[Nismo 3.2ish]

You have to slow down mate, my back hurts and I am getting tired just reading what you are doing, LOL

Enjoying you build

[sneakey pete]

Don't worry, nothing will happen for 2 weeks until I'm home again!

But it really doesn't need to slow down has been over a year now.

It's good to do these, helps remind me of progress which is nice. Glad to see people enjoy reading them as well.

[linkems]

I wanted to try running pwm with my single walbro but my tuner told me not to bother. It works but he has seen them fail shortly after, they don't like anything apart from constant full power.  Do you need to run any sort of check valve to stop the primary pump flowing back against the secondary pump when it is off?

[AngryRB]

I like the attention to detail , like the EGT probes etc.. looks awesome and great to see an older guy passionate about RB's..

Edited December 4, 2016 by AngryRB

[sneakey pete]

1 hour ago, linkems said:

I wanted to try running pwm with my single walbro but my tuner told me not to bother. It works but he has seen them fail shortly after, they don't like anything apart from constant full power.  Do you need to run any sort of check valve to stop the primary pump flowing back against the secondary pump when it is off?

Yeah, I imagine there must be limits with PWM.
My main concern was about both running for highway cruise tbh, i'm not too worried about micromanageing it too much as there is no surge, so the entire tank will absorb heat input pretty decently at the track.
The pumps themselves have a check valve in them, as i understand it. If they don't i'm in for issues

1 hour ago, AngryRB said:

I like the attention to detail , like the EGT probes etc.. looks awesome and great to see an older guy passionate about RB's..

Thanks! A lot of what i've put into these works has been what i've picked up and thought over and over through all my years on these forums and others.... but not sure where the older guy thing has come from?
the picture before of the grinding is my Dad, not me, as he has much steadier hands for that kind of thing...

[sneakey pete]

Factory manifold washers/nuts wouldn't fit on due to the weld material sticking out, so I ordered some locking nuts from the local hardware store. When I got back after a final check and throwing the manifold onto the scales (17kg!) I bolted it in and tightened down the egts.

I also topped up the power steering fluid. Not a terribly hard task at all as there's just enough line to swing it out to the side. Unfortunately the fittings in the rack and pump seem to leak so need to take them out and replace with some thread sealant. Its also a bloody loud pump so need to look into that.

Turbo and dump pipe went on, fuel filter bracket was made up, clutch slave bolted in, transfer case and diff oil added, all of which i have no pictures of.

I got the fuel rail spaces machined down and put the rail/injectors on.

The more suitable length spacers

Also tidied up the oil cooler lines and mounted them to the subframe out of the way of everything.

Put the cooler pipes, radiator fan etc all back on. Bay is pretty much done now, needs a little bit of wiring touched up and some fluids put in.

Also needs a catch can setup...

 

 

Have come across... some issues.

Wastegate actuator seems to want to bind a little, so presumably the arm is at too much of an angle, will need to have a dogleg bent into it I presume.

More seriously the front right wheel bearing is completely f**ked. So yeah... not sure what's happened there. Will need to get that replaced over Christmas. Not sure if i'll hit the dyno before then, which will be disappointing if I don't.

[MagicMikeZ32]

Bearings stuffed because it has been sitting still for so long with weight on it  

[Anfanee]

i rate that fuel setup...... Makes me want to re do mine.

[sneakey pete]

Aircon belt is in. Important around these parts. Not a whole lot of room between the balancer andt he adjuster however. May edit that in the future.

 

Catchcan installed....

Also noticed that someone has been playing around with the underside of my car. Also its Filthy, in more ways than one.

I took the time to install some ducting and a vent for the oil cooler. I will still need to install some ducting to stop air flow above and below it, and something on the inside. But this is a start, would stop a fair bit of it from flowing around between the outside of the cooler and the front bar.
Got a bit of grill Mesh for the vent, will stop large stones etc getting in there, and its angled to stop aganse stuff from that angle.

Buttoned up the interior mostly, ECU is still not bolted in obviously. I don't think i had any good pictures of in here including the steering wheel, which I really like and can't understand why people would go back to a standard one

I also picked up a new wheel bearing and got a mate to help me by pressing it out and pressing the new one in. Except I'd ended up with a GTS-t one. However, got a new one sorted and had it pressed in.

Also got a big piss off torque wrench to do up the new wheel nuts. Had to get a new set form nissan as the driveshaft shop seems to have lost mine. Torque wrench made short work of the required torque. Also used it to tighten the harmonic balancer bolt.

So, all was well and good ready to insert fluids and send off to the workshop for run in on the dyno and the base tune...
Or you know, not ready and pissing out coolant. everywhere.

[fomby639]

Awesome build mate!  Keen to see the results of the 9.5:1 pistons and e85, I'm planning on doing the same but with a 2.6 and either -9's or GTX2860's in -9 housings.  Did it take long for Spool to sort out the pistons for you?

[sneakey pete]

Cheers. Might be a little while until I get onto the E85. Got some things to tweak first and about to move house. Will get there eventually but will probably be running around on 10psi and 98 for a few months.

Anyway, the leak seemed to be coming from everywhere: at the front of the block and the back, seemed to be from plenum height so I pulled that out. I had a suspicion it was coming from the rail under the plenum, but what I found when I went to unbolt it was pretty dissapointing. The bolts were only finger tight. There was no sealant on it.
The guy i'd got to paint it had taken it off, the RTV had been water blasted all out, and it had then been re attached with finger tight bolts and painted over. I hadn't noticed the lack of sealant poking out unfortuantly. Needless to say paint didn't make a great sealant and I now understood how so much water was coming out of such a small areas.

Photo of non sealed under plenum rail. (inner runners and plenum are upside down)

Also a good shot of the underside of the plenum as i've got it set up. Blocked off the hoses. Also MAP sensor mount.

And a good photo of whats left underneath the plenum now, with it in the bay for reference.

 

I also primed up the fuel system and found.... another bloody leak. This one was interesting. It was coming from a bracket hole in the rail itself, not the injector orings. Looks like the thread was tapped to far/drilled to close to the main rail or a loose bolt has worn it out. Either way there's the tinyiest hole in the bottom of the rail under the mid port.

Solved the problem with a raceworks rail.

I also got a proper catch can, a Racepace one off of a R33. Fits well enough for now and has the double wiper pumps. Will probably convert to those at some point and open up the passenger side for a proper turbo intake. Speaking of which i'll get one of those made once the car's moving under its own power, need to relocate the intercooler piping I think, but really couldn't be stuffed loading it up on a trailer just for that. When that's done i'll also get the outlet on the catchcan changed and run the breather across infront of the radiator to the intake to make it all nice and legal and the like.

Apart from that its all buttoned up. I've swapped the filter to a R34 one as I couldn't get to the dipstick otherwise (whoops).

Finally with the help of some friends for both a trailer and a tow I got the car up to the workshop to be setup/fired up and run in on the dyno.