A R32 build/maintenance thread

[Silverhks]

Well I guess I will start with how I acquired my beauty. This is pretty much my first sight her.

In the spring of 2017 a friend of mine mentioned that he had imported a BNR32 in 2016 and was thinking about selling it. Having only heard about this car I was immediately interested in seeing and driving it.

 

This is pretty much my first of sight her. Between this and how the test drive went I had to have her.

Known mods:

GT-SS turbos

Unknown spec cams, possibly Poncams

Rumored built bottom end, however based on the bits and pieces I think it's probably stock and I'm not taking it apart to check

Large unknown spec intercooler

Aftermarket hard pipe, this includes a botched together abortion of a merge pipe(I need to take a pic of this, it's hard to describe how much of an improvement a stock one would be)

Yellowjacket coils and an aftermarket coil harness.

Multi-plate clutch, rumored to be a Nismo

BC coilovers

There are some heim joints in the suspension. I haven't crawled under her and really checked what I have there yet.

HICAS is either disabled or broken. The dash light is on, I just haven't investigated yet.

Power FC with Japanese tune. I have been driving it on what I think is wastegate pressure (uses a Profec B)

An aftermarket steering wheel

 

 

I decided the first thing I wanted to tackle was the headlights. The low beams were atrocious and the highs were nonexistent. Shock! Someone had butchered rear of the headlights so they could poorly install some H1 bulbs. If I was going to repair the mess I decided to upgrade it to some Bi-Xenon projectors from Morimoto, I believe they were the mini D2S version 3.

Morimoto on the left, Stock on the right

Stock on left, on the right is rig I came up with to adopt the Morimoto.

Installed without glass.

20 years in the import scene and I have never liked chrome light surrounds. So I scuffed them lightly and flat blacked them.

The only almost finished product I have. I haven't sealed them back up or installed the clips yet. Not sure why I don't have a finished pic, it's going to make the DIY harder to write, oh well.

I installed my new spiffy headlights. Wired them up with the relay kit I bought and couldn't get them to stay on when switching to highs. (Interesting side note here, I discovered SAU while trying to figure this out, say summer of 17) There is a good thread here explaining the 2-3 options you have to make them work, I just can't find it at the moment ☹️.

While testing and aiming my new lights the car sprung a coolant leak under the plenum.

No problem, right? Buy and replace some hoses and your good.

 

Yep, not that simple. First you have to get the plenum off so you can see what the problem is. Boy, I wasn't aware of what I was getting into there. With every removed hose I was horrified by their condition and the crusty rust looking stuff on the inside. I hadn't found one that looked like it had actually failed though. Then I found the culprit, the fitting at cylinder 6. The little 90 take off had a clear hole in the bend. Unfortunately, the only way I could get it off was to remove the throttles and intake manifold. At this point I'm realizing I should have just pulled the engine....

I put a factory fitting back in but then "while I'm thereitis" set in. I decided to remove the factory oil/water mess and go with a remote oil cooler. I acquired a Ross Tuffbond oil take off fitting. I recently saw some posts about the NA coolant hoses really helping with simplifying this area, I need to look into this more.

 

I also got the valve cover, plenum, upper timing belt cover and intake manifold powder coated.

 

This pretty much catches you up to today. Due to simple lack of time it is taking longer than I would like.

[Silverhks]

Had some time to to work on the car today.

Installed the starter, the oil takeoff block, and intake manifold. I had to stop installing things because I am waiting on the oil pressure extension so I can mount it in the block and my remote oil filter mount, fittings, and hose.

I did start building up the IAC assembly and sorting out the other hoses I will be keeping. I would like to change to a stepper IAC at some point but that is going to need to wait until I can replace the ECU.

There are 2 vacuum lines that come around the back  of the head and tie into the water tube. Both are capped at the front side.

If I understand this correctly. The green line should have pressure from the plenum, correct? My initial thought is to run a line off the plenum with a tee. 1 side going to the EBC and 1 connecting to the green hard line completely avoiding the water tube hard lines completely.

I would then connect the EBC signal line to the blue hard line.

Does that sound correct?

 

Then the 2 steps forward 1 step backwards aspect of my time with this car rears it's head again. I removed the towel I had covering the head to see this...

Yes that is rust on the cam lobes.

I'm not sure what my options are at this point other than to pull the cams and have them polished. Which leads to "as long as I'm there" I need to get some cam gears. It will also allow me to measure the cams so I know what I actually have.

Edited February 24, 2019 by Silverhks
grammar

[R.3.2.G.T.R]

Nice work, replace all heater hoses with new regardless of stock hose condition, OEM hose kit iirc 12pcs

install cam gears for sure, good bang for buck mod

[PranK]

Looking great, love those lights!

I'm with you too, chrome surrounds have always been a pet peeve. 

[Silverhks]

On 2/24/2019 at 5:09 PM, R.3.2.G.T.R said:

Nice work, replace all heater hoses with new regardless of stock hose condition, OEM hose kit iirc 12pcs

install cam gears for sure, good bang for buck mod

Thanks. Back when I thought I only had a busted hose I bought an Autobahn88 silicon set. I am Replacing all of the hoses under the plenum with those and I am eliminating as many as I can currently. I also have replacement radiator hoses as well. I haven't looked into the exhaust side yet.

Yes, cam gears are going on. It's just more delay although the cams are probably going to cause more than that.

On 2/24/2019 at 6:13 PM, PranK said:

Looking great, love those lights!

I'm with you too, chrome surrounds have always been a pet peeve. 

Thanks. Trust me if I loaded a current picture you wouldn't say that. Typical unsealed shed dust layer...