R32 Overhaul

[bakwoods]

Good morning all. I figured I might as well start a build thread on my 1990 Skyline GTS-T (Gxi hybrid). The backstory of this car is pretty out there. It's an FR chassis, had a motor swap done on it, the previous owner cut the engine harness and hard wired an R31 ECU and hard wired the TCM as well. Needless to say it was less than attractive. 

Fast forward to yesterday. We just finished installing the chassis, engine and alternator harnesses. I was fortunate enough to find the harnesses on eBay via international sellers. For >$500 I was able to secure those. I'm still missing a transmission harness for the A/T which I can likely source off of a Z32. They had the same transmission so I can assume the connectors are the same. 

Right now I'm at a standstill, the coilpack harness was hacked up as well and the connectors from the old harness don't look like the typical 6 pin plugs but rather have a rubber boot on them and a metal clip. In addition there's a single wire plug (round) that comes off of the coil pack harness. Again, not connected to anything. As such I decided to deal with Wiring Specialties for the coil pack harness. Unfortunately they don't make harnesses for A/T which limited me to factory only. 

That being said, I trust that once I get the coil pack harness and the transmission harness I'll be back in action. From there it'll be time to consider relocating the fuel filter, installing new suspension components and replacing the single pot calipers to something beefier. Yes, I forgot to mention that I've got single pot front and rear calipers. The Gxi came with rear drums so I'm not sure what these are. 

[bakwoods]

Well the since the repairs and upgrades have been a "weekend only" kind of job, there's little that I've been able to accomplish since I first started this hellish nightmare. 

Since I last posted, I've taken out the interior completely and cleaned it thoroughly before repainting it black. If nothing else, it looks a lot better than the stained grey mess that I had inherited. I sprayed everything in a booth then brought it outside to "air out" thoroughly since the smell lingers for weeks if you don't. 

Next the floor was seal coated on the inside for good measure since the previous owner had done bits and pieces of the floor with some kind of "industrial tar." After curing the wiring to the back was run and successfully buttoned up. Laying the carpet down was a breeze now since everything was bolted down and there were no exposed wires. The next snag was the transmission harness, the gear selector and solenoid wiring connectors were snipped off so I had nothing to go off of. It took me nearly 2 weeks to finally track down a pin out for the A/T and so far no luck. I as able to figure out the connection and wire colors by reading dozens of obscure threads from across multiple forums. It's amazing that no one has yet put in the effort to pass on that sort of information.

Of course being overzealous, I figured I might as well take out the A/C while I’m here and free up some space. The only issue I ran into was the pump itself which was a nightmare to remove due to the perverted nature of where the bolts are. Nissan really outdid themselves, it’s like they don’t want you to take the damn thing out lol.

Moving onto the next challenge was the FMIC. The dreaded SMIC was still in place and quite frankly I couldn't wait to be rid of it. We removed the old piping relatively easily but removing the actual intercooler was more challenging because of the placement of the bolts. I mocked up the FMIC the other day and took some measurements to fabricate some brackets and see where I will need to cut the long bracket for the hood latch. The intercooler is so massive that the piece won't fit correctly and  The only minor set back is the oil cooler which I intend on replacing with a new unit with new lines.

Now that the intercooler is mocked up and we know what’s what (wiring wise) the rest of the project will ultimately be mechanical which means a lot less guess work and a lot more money lol. I started to remove the upper plenum and then realized that I needed to bore out the holes on the lower runners to allow for the new manifold to bolt up. Even with the lower runner holes blocked off to prevent any metal shavings from slipping in, I still decided it’d be best to take off the lower runners and see what exactly I’m getting myself into. It’s a good thing I did because when those coolant hoses came off, they were brittle and brown on the inside. Oxidation is a pain in the ass to clean out and even with several fluid flushes the hoses themselves have been coated thoroughly so whatever coolant I pour in will eventually become contaminated. I thought it best to just remove the coolant hoses and pursue a full hose kit to make sure that everything that’s going in will be new and clean.

Pulling off the lower runners had its own set of challenges since the coolant lines are near impossible to access from top or bottom. I ended up snipping the lines just to get everything out, when I go to reinstall, I’ll be sure to direct the clamps at the right angle to access them next time.

With the holes to the block itself blocked off I think it’s only safe to say that it’s time to clean up the lower runners, degrease the block and chassis and a start scrubbing away all the grime that has built up.

On the other side of the engine, I suppose I’ll need air tools to take the turbo and manifold off since everything is so rusted and seized that it wouldn’t budge. Considering that the downpipe itself has a few bolts that don’t seem to want to cooperate with a socket wrench because of where the bend is I can’t slip anything over, nor can I get a ratcheting wrench in to access the bolts. Once that comes off I’ll be doing the same step, clean, degrease and tucking all the wires away.

The power steering reservoir too needs new hoses as the current ones are way too short and it was floating around the bay not attached to the strut tower. The alternative is to invest in a new polished reservoir to brighten up everything.

I know most people’s builds don’t go over the gritty details like this, in fact most build threads are “here’s the old turbo” and then another picture, “here’s the new turbo” and that’s that. Though frankly I think it’s just as important to show the ugly details that no one thinks about. If nothing else, this build is not only teaching me more about the Skyline, but how to curse in more creative ways while my 2 year old runs under my feet.

[bakwoods]

Well the car is at my buddy's shop to get the FMIC installed, there was no way to piece together that awful CX Racing kit. I have no idea what they sent me but their customer service is terrible. (deep breath) Obviously this isn't a thread to bash another vender on, just venting.

On the plus side with the new engine and chassis harness installed (and assuming I wired up the A/T harness correctly) it should fire up and run. If not, I'm in trouble.

I did manage to score a good deal on a NEO motor with 55K approximately with an A/T. That being said, has anyone done of these swaps? Namely motor and trans into the R32 chassis? So far most people have done the motor swap, but the transmission aspect of it no one has really talked about it anywhere. Am I the only one? I have tried searching all over and have yet to find any information via Google or any other forum outlining the do's and don'ts. 

Hoping someone on here can be of some assistance and guide me through. I was thinking for the sake of ease just to yank a chassis harness out of a Stagea and run that in the R32 body. Obviously I'd have to custom fit some stuff like the cluster but I also considered just investing in the Stagea cluster and mounting that into place. The climate control will be gone so i can make room for gauges. I just hope that the mounting won't be an issue.