Project R334 from The Netherlands

[iTzTMG]

Hi guys, decided to start a build thread on the forum as I've been asking some advice on this forum and probably will be asking more in the future. 
Since I have my car for a while already the first post will be somewhat of a summary of what has been done to my car up to now. 
So, my car is a 1997 R33 GTST which has the URAS R334 conversion kit, not something you see that often( and not to everyone's liking).

 

When I bought the car the engine was basically stock except for: FMIC, HKS air filter and an Apexi catback system. 
As with most Skyline's it didn't take very long before the first upgrades were ordered, so in came the: Tomei Poncams, new FMIC and piping as the old piping had too many couplers to my liking, Nismo Super Coppermix clutch + lightweight flywheel, Splitfire coilpacks, Apexi 3 inch front pipe, Tomei Expreme turbo elbow, decat, Apexi boostcontroller set to 11 psi, chipped ecu by RSP/Dynotuner in the UK.

 

After a while the car developed a misfire on one of the cylinders which could be fixed(temporarily) by revving the engine hard, this misfire started to get worse and worse after a couple of weeks until the car got hard to start.

At that point I decided to do a comp test and.... yupp 0 compression on cyl 6, so off with the head and then the problem became evident. 2 valve guides had cracked and were missing pieces.
2 of the valves were bent probably because i was driving the car with the broken valve guides for a while(even raced it like that lol). 
So 2 new valves and some maintenance parts later the head was back on and it was happy again.

 

Edited September 1, 2016 by iTzTMG

[iTzTMG]

Like a lot of Skyline owners I like motorsports and my choice of motorsport is dragracing, as I grew up in Curacao(island in the Caribean) before moving to the Netherlands, I was raised in the dragracing scene as it is the most popular motorsport on the island.
So that is also the type of racing that I now use my Skyline for. My goal for this year with the current setup was to try and get the car in the 13's, unfortunately I haven't been able to do so and I end this season with a best of 14.2 on the 1/4 mile.

 

 

I've been struggling with traction a lot and decided to get a set of Mickey Thompson ET streets on 16" R32 GTR wheels which I tested last weekend but this also did not help, only managed a 14.4 with a 2.260 60ft at the last event. It seems that the car is just not making the power it should(currently on stock ecu).
My original plans were to get a hybrid turbo, Haltech, some injectors and run that for a year and slowly upgrade the car but then I thought I should just spend the money once and go all the way.

Edited September 1, 2016 by iTzTMG

[iTzTMG]

And that's where I am at now, the start of Project R334....
Instead of going the hybrid turbo way I've decided to set my goal for next year at running 11's on the 1/4 mile, to reach that goal I've decided on the following setup:

- CP pistons 87mm with upgraded piston pins
- Spool H beam rods with ARP bolts
- ACL race bearings
- ARP head studs
- Supertech +1mm valves(inconel ex, stainless in)
- Supertech valve springs + titanium retainers
- Supertech valve seals
- Bronze valve guides
- Spool head drain kit
- Tomei poncams 
- NX nitrous system (wet)
- AEM water methanol injection
- Precision Gen 2 6466 turbo (T4, .84 AR, split pulse) 
- Tial MVR 44 mm wastegates
- Haltech Platinum Pro ecu
- ID1000 injectors
- Deatschwerks 340 lph fuel pump
- Topmount manifold by CRG (T4, split pulse, dual wastegate)
- Front entry intake manifold
 

Manifold by CRG in progress

 

For now it's just a collection of parts laying around at home and a lot more parts are needed but the plan is to hopefully start putting it together soon. It would be nice to have it all finished up by the start of the next dragracing season(June next year) but we'll see.
We all know deadlines for these kind of projects are rarely met and I rather have if built right instead of finished fast.

For those on Facebook, I have a page where I'll be posting photos/videos of the project and events that I visit here in the Netherlands so if you're interested please like my page https://www.facebook.com/projectr334/ it'll be very much appreciated.
Of course progress will also be posted in this topic.

Edited September 1, 2016 by iTzTMG

[admS15]

Welcome. Looks like it's turned into a serious build. Nice collection of parts there. Should get you into the 11's easily[emoji106]

[PranK]

This looks fantastic! Great build! I think it needs a build thread! 

 

[V28VX37]

Great stuff, thanks for sharing!

Is there like a European Recruitment Drive for SAU on or something, lots of awesome overseas builds being posted at the moment?!

[iTzTMG]

13 hours ago, admS15 said:

Welcome. Looks like it's turned into a serious build. Nice collection of parts there. Should get you into the 11's easily

Thanks!! I sure hope so

11 hours ago, PranK said:

This looks fantastic! Great build! I think it needs a build thread! 

 

Thanks! I'll keep you guys updated on the progress of this.

2 hours ago, V28VX37 said:

Great stuff, thanks for sharing!

Is there like a European Recruitment Drive for SAU on or something, lots of awesome overseas builds being posted at the moment?!

Thanks! 
The Dutch and UK forums aren't as big and active as SAU, I've been reading on this forum for a couple of years now, so it was about time to share my project since I'm sure I'll be asking questions now and then.

[iTzTMG]

So just a small update on the progress of my build:

Ordered a lot of small stuff like seals,gaskets, bolts, standard water pump, crank collar( thanks to KiwiRS4T) and N1 oil pump.
Decided to go with the N1 oil pump and will be getting billet gears for it, as I'm not planning to raise the rev limit too much I think it should be ok.

Also picked up a bare block and a head 2 weeks ago, these will be used to build the new engine so I don't have to start taking my car apart just yet.
I am picking up another head this weekend tho, as the previous one has some damage to the squish pads of cyl 5.
First I was thinking to have the squish pads removed but as I already have pistons which are the OEM style it might be better to go with another head so it won't affect the compression etc.

I did start on removing the bump in the exhaust ports of the damaged head, so I'll continue with that and might keep it as spare and do the same to the other head.

Also got the manifolds from CRG and Otaku Garage so I had to test fit them and take a few photos(not the best quality photos):

The block and head will be off to the machine shop soon so hopefully some more updates soon. 

 

 

 

[iTzTMG]

As I was afraid of, not much progress has been made on the build unfortunately.

I had to move out of the garage I was renting, travelling for work, girlfriend that wants to go on holidays so basically the build moves at a much slower pace for now.

The car however does drive and a few little things have been done to, like the NX Nitrous system is now fully setup and consists of the following:

• NX proton plus wet kit(running 35-50 shot).
• NX 10lb bottle with lightning valve
• NX bottle heater kit
• NX purge kit

I am still on the stock ECU and that seems to hold the car back quite a bit but I am going to hook up the Haltech and bring it in for a tune on the current setup before the end of July, so hopefully that will bring some improvement.

Edited May 27, 2017 by iTzTMG

[iTzTMG]

A couple of photos from a recent photoshoot

[iTzTMG]

And some photos taken at a drag race event a couple of weeks ago

 

Managed to finish 2nd in my class, running a disappointing 14.1 @ 159 KM/H

 

[iTzTMG]

A short video edit I made

 

Looking to do more of these in the future, also with more racing footage.

For those interested, I really appreciate it if you like/follow/subscribe to my social media channels:

• Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/projectr334/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/projectr334/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCorkz2LhtK_N-LlNcGuU_Aw

[iTzTMG]

Last weekend we had another dragrace event here in the Netherlands and I had another go at it.
The weekend started off quite badly with some ones party tent landing on a few cars, one of which was mine.
So I have some paint missing and a scratch from left to right on the windshield, besides that our own tent couldn’t handle the strong wind and collapsed after a few hours.

Managed to get two runs in on Friday and the first run was a new PB for me, ran a 14.0 with a 2.1 60 ft.
Second run I managed to do a 13.5 with a 2.0 60ft and I was very happy with that as it is the first time I managed to get the car in the 13’s.

Saturday started off with a lot of waiting for the track to be ready for qualifyingand when I finally got to run again I managed to run 2 more 13.5’s and a 13.199 @ 163 km/h with a 2.0 60 foot.
I was very happy with that as it was a whole second off from the times I was running at the event in May.

I qualified 3th in my class and on Sunday we were supposed to run the finals but due to bad weather I only ran one race after which the event was stopped, as I won that race and qualified as number 3 I took home 3th place this time.

So overall it was a decent weekend, with me finally running in the 13’s.
This is on the stock engine, stock turbo, stock ecu and a 35 shot of nitrous from the Nitrous Express Proton kit.

Some pictures taken at the event

 

Now let’s see if I can get it in the 12’s next time xD

[Girorostar]

Hi Mate, nice build. Great that you were able to get the car in the 12's on stock ecu and a shot of nitrous, very impressive. 

[iTzTMG]

Last weekend was the last race weekend of our drag race season and as usual I participated.
The first day I managed to do 4 runs which were all in the 13.2 - 13.5 region, on the second day I only managed to do 1 run as the track was closed due to the bad weather.

The last day I ran 5 times of which the first run was quite bad as the track did not have any grip at all, it resulted in a lot of wheel spin and me failing to get it in second gear which resulted in a 14.5
The remaining runs all came as a surprise to me as I first ran a 12.97 then a 12.83 , 12.71 and finally ended with a best of 12.667 @ 173.8 km/h with a 1.956 60 foot

The best 60 foot I managed to get that weekend was a 1.842

I’m quite happy that I managed to get my car into the 12’s on the stock turbo/ecu setup with a little help of a 40hp shot of nitrous.
Now to see what I can change for next year and in the meanwhile I will be slowly building the new engine.