Baby Gojira! R32 GTS4 bolt on upgrade fest.

[Stribs]

Way back in early 2013, I had just sold my CADET powered S12 Gazelle, and got a hankering to have another Inline-6 motor, and see what ATTESA was all about -- On a non GTR budget (at the time, R32 GTR beaters were about 15K.. hah! Who would've thought)

The contenders were Stagea's (manual, impossible or expensive), Skyline GTS4's, and the other unicorn - a Cefiro AWD.

The drivetrain on the other hand was a given, the best iteration of an RB engine I could pick up without buying a 26, the RB25DET in Neo form!

A few months passed waiting for an affordable unicorn to pop up, and an R32 GTS4 Coupe finally presented itself in June, a quick U-Haul later, a narrow body 100cc deficient Godzilla began it's incubation!

Then the hunt for an affordable AWD RB25 then began in earnest. This actually proved to be rather difficult purely in the availability stakes let alone affordability!

The first one was unearthed at Challenger Auto Parts that turned out not to be a NEO, boo.

The second one tuned up as a sure thing! An entire Stagea MANUAL Neo front cut at Otomoto - fantastic! Travelled out to take a look and did a comp test which was going oh so well until we hit #6 which turned out to be way down, blamed tools and tried again, prayed, screwed it in tighter, etc, but yeah, it wasn't to be, dammit.

Third time is a charm, Jap Sports Spares was wrecking a Stagea, so went down there to check it out, the front of the rad support was pushed back to the CAS, so it was going to need a new one, the water pump also looked to have copped it, so a gamble was made some talking was done, and a good price ensued.

More importantly, the comp test came out great, and also, beggars can't be choosers, right? These things were much thinner on the ground than I thought they'd be!.

Fast forward to late 2014, and the back yard is just getting more packed from other (deconstruction) works in progress.

Err actually, it's moved on to 2018, oops - I've been building other cars. I Picked up a set of R32 GTR wheels during that time as I everything else I own was staggered (typical!) -- After having quite a few years to look at it, the clean non-aero narrow body R32 look has really grown on me. I'm going to run with it!

Obligatory, just chamois'd pic - it's about time I get this thing back on the road. I want to document the journey for a couple of reasons - 

1. To pull out my finger / give myself a bit of motivation, and
2. Try to give something back to the SAU forums I've lurked on for so long (cough).
3. Well, three reasons, finally have an ATTESA thing to have a go with at a track day!

 

 

Edited February 10, 2019 by Stribs
remove extra pics, fix typo.

[Stribs]

Turned over the RB20 by hand and it all felt OK, not even a breaker bar, just your usual 1/2" ratchet, which is odd, as when buying the car I was told that the motor was seized.

In any case, the RB20 is going as one of the outcomes for the project is to have an "almost RB26", hence the NEO RB25DET. If, and its a big if after inspection it's still good it can be put to pasture with a slightly modified RWD sump.

Undoing all the ancillaries and letting them dangle in the car was pretty straightforward. HOWEVER, getting the bolts out of the front CV's was a real pain - pro tip, learn from my error, degrease them first (probably coupled with "use real tools/spanners")!!!

Will have to pick up some new fasteners before they go back on - note the odd (bolt) man out ? sheesh!

The bell housing bolts were a super PITA to undo, even after dropping the transmission mounts so I could get a number of wobble bars up its guts. In the end, a friend who could generate more torque than me cracked them.

After that the motor came up pretty readily, the only issue being me unknowingly trying to do a wire tension test of the oil pressure sensor, once unplugged pulling it was relatively painless with a bit of manoeuvring around the drivers side CV.

Now would also be a great time to delete the HICAS bits up front, leaving the front to rear lines to potential future re-use, remove the totally dead ABS unit, and make some hard new brake hard lines as a result. Have any of you done this? Was it a pita? Bundy tube roller and double flange tool suggestions?

Have been mulling over whether to keep the Neo motor together and then go find a Stagea rear diff to match ratios, OR swap the front sump/diff between the two and keep rocking the 4.375 final drive. I haven't looked at the rear diff in this thing for ages, but it has 6x1 stub axles from memory, no idea what Stageas are stub axle wise, anyone? Another option would be to just go with an entire rear Stagea subframe with offset bushings, but those things are WIIIDE, and this is a narrow body R32.

[GreyZ33Track]

Putting a S2 RB25det in my R32 GTS4 now.  We are swapping the pan from the Rb20 to the 25.  Keeping the shorter gears.

[jmknights93]

1 hour ago, GreyZ33Track said:

Putting a S2 RB25det in my R32 GTS4 now.  We are swapping the pan from the Rb20 to the 25.  Keeping the shorter gears.

Pan fits with no modification?

[Stribs]

3 hours ago, jmknights93 said:

Pan fits with no modification?

If it's an AWD RB25DET donor the pan will bolt straight up.

If RWD RB25DET I'm pretty sure you need an adaptor and relocated pickup - like what  Lewis engines sells.

[Stribs]

5 hours ago, GreyZ33Track said:

Putting a S2 RB25det in my R32 GTS4 now.  We are swapping the pan from the Rb20 to the 25.  Keeping the shorter gears.

Sweet! After a bit of forum trawling, to add simplicity / save sourcing a stagea rear end for a mashup / save $'s -  I'll stick with what I've got.

[Stribs]

Holy suspension droop! No coilers here (yet) - running gear is the priority at the moment.

Pulled various bolts and nuts, there's a few "hiders" in there, take a good look before you try to lever the pan off!

I'd dropped the oil once already, obviously I was impatient, as after I prised apart the pan and block... SURPRISE! Anyways, dropped the remains of the oil cleaned up my mess afterwards. The sump bolt was pretty furry...

First surprise - Oil pan baffle installed, so now I have two! (I had previously bought one, ready to install...) Tomei knock off as I think the genuine items have TOMEI stamped into them?

Gave it a much needed degrease and pressure wash, even after taking out the baffle and hitting it again there's still a lot of bearing shell glitter in there.. will put the motor aside for post-mortem later.

No more bits of dead motor in here anymore, doing what I can to save the neo from an early death. There were two lots of silicone gasket on the sump, its been off more than once, taken it off the mating surfaces, now I need to find a suitable piece of softer metal/wooden dowel to get it out of the depressions.

The drainage holes have been enlarged to 5mm as per the TOMEI installation guide, you can see the pinpoints of sunlight shining through onto the sump in this shot.

Finally, some pre-existing home-brew mods to the oil pickup, would like to know if this actually does anything?????

[GreyZ33Track]

Never seen that before. .wouldn't it take more suction to pull through larger opening? If it does flow more oil, worry about head drain issues?

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

Do you want a bigger turbo? Haha

I have a Hypergear ATR45SAT with the optioned ball bearing centre 

[Stribs]

14 hours ago, Dose Pipe Sutututu said:

Do you want a bigger turbo? Haha

I have a Hypergear ATR45SAT with the optioned ball bearing centre 

I am actually planning a turbo upgrade, the ATR45SAT might be a little larger than I am looking for though - what's it like to keep on the boil on the street? -- Was also planning to keep the stock manifold.

The OP6 currently hanging off the neo is going to live on attached to an RB30  - small, but should be ok, right?

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

It might be a tiny big, but you've got AWD so there's a bit more load meaning it will spool a bee's dick earlier.

I was getting 20psi by 4300rpm also had it low mounted however with an 45mm gate off the manifold.

Yeah stock OP6 is super small and zzz lol 

[Stribs]

Question: How far in is the bronze manual spigot supposed to sit? Anyone got an NEO factory service manual in English?

Mannn, what a fiddly job taking the auto crank spigot bushing thing out of the Neo - the puller tool didn't even crack the marker paint. After futzing with the spigot puller for almost 2 hours, it was time to use tools on hand and get agricultural.

As the spigot sits proud (thank goodness) I tried a cold chisel from the side which didn't achieve much, in the end, a centre punch to guide a drill bit on opposite sides, and then a bit more of a belt with the chisel released it enough for the tool to pull it. Much more painful than a bronze spigot bush!

Mangled, the centre punch made sure I haven't marred the crank though, safety first!

All the chisel marks, at least it's budging now.

Finally out, what a chore for such a minor item.