RH9 R32 GTR Build Thread

[OST Micah]

Got the cam installed and the buckets shimmed. It was an odd experience sending a rather irreplacable part to the other side of the world but you got to do what you got to do. 

While the rockers were off I installed a set of Hi Octane baffle plates and modified the intake one as needed to fit the HKS cam cover.

 

Once the cam was in I did some cold start and idle tuning in the garage since there was still snow and salt on the roads. Once the weather broke I drove it around and got the drivability tune sorted. I had been researching expansion tanks over winter and decided to make one just to aid in the coolant overflow filling issue. Still denying heada lift at this point. Had to relocate my fuel pressure regulator to below my brake master.

 

Finally got a chance to do some dyno testing. The intake cam really kept the power in at high RPM. So much so that it made power to about 9000. I set the new rev limit to 9300; up from 7800. 

 

Here's a before and after for the intake cam. Same boost level of 30lbs.

Edited February 13, 2021 by OST Micah

[OST Micah]

 Looks like I posted a bit out of order. I prepped and repainted the bumper sometime before the intake cam. Color matched the lip as well. 

 

Cleaned and dyed the hood liner as well. It was pretty filthy.

 

Also found a retrimmed steering wheel around that time. I was really happy with how the car was coming together at this point. Still didn't have a 9 second pass though! Check out the cardboard cutout from a Coors Banquet box spray painted black and used as a radio blanking plate. I was still on the hunt for a radio.

 

Did some testing out on the street before heading to the track.

 

It was the middle of summer 2020 at this point and all the tracks were staying closed because of the China Virus bullcrap. However we did get ourselves a rental and even though it was hot as can be I went just to see what would happen.

Made a few passes and a few partial hits getting the launch sorted. It was about 100F in the pits and much hotter on the track. DA was just about 4000.

Finally got a decent pass but forgot to shift at the new shift point.

 

So far there was no coolant in the overflow and no oil coming out of the catch can. I was pretty excited. Problems solved! And no wiping down the engine bay and cleaning up oil every pass.  Then this happened the following pass.

 

I had no idea I went 9.99. I thought for sure it was another bad pass. When I shifted into 4th I felt the clutch grab, pull the RPM down, then suddenly RPM shot up. You can hear me peddling the throttle when the smoke appears. I thought it was clutch slip but it was odd that it grabbed and then slipped. Either way I was ecstatic to finally have a 9! And just barely. It was a bad pass and a bad 60' so the car had more in it.

When I opened the hood to cool the car down the entire bay was completely drenched in water (I stopped running anti-freeze since it kept pushing it). The radiator was empty and the overflow was full. Waited a bit for the motor to cool and put some water in it. Started it up and saw bubbles in the rad. Revved the motor a bit and water shot right out the open rad cap. Well at least now I didn't have to guess anymore; lifted the head. I guess the expansion tank masked it for the first few passes. 

Got the car back to the shop and got the head off after work the next day. Number one and two showed signs of head lift. Number on piston had some heat damage but nothing terrible.

Number 1:

Good piston:

 

 

Took the head down to our machine shop and they had to take .005" off to get it flat again. I inspected the head studs and you could see some shine on the threads where the nut was but that was all I could find wrong. I couldn't believe I was lifting the head at my power level with ARP 2000 studs. The washer registers in the head were fine as well. Not wanting to reassemble and have the same issue I bought a new set of studs, used a recommended CMD lube on the threads, and switched from the Cometic gasket to a Nitto with the sealing ring. Torquing the studs absolutely felt smoother with the CMD over the ARP supplied lube.

Went back to the track the next weekend. It was just as hot and DA was hovering around 4000 again. Pass below is off the trailer.

 

The car was making more power and I was getting the 60' dialed in and pretty consistant. Last time the car went 140mph DA was about 1800 and air temp was something like 55F.

The head sealed up great! Finally started to get some forward progress with the car after a lot of battling.

Edited February 13, 2021 by OST Micah

[OST Micah]

[OST Micah]

One modification I missed was a hydraulic clutch slipper in addition to the pedal slipper. I got tired of doing a 1.43 60' one pass and a 1.65 60' the next. This slipper is controlled by the ECU and shuts off at a set MPH so it does not effect the shifts. What a difference! Took a few test launches at the track to get it right but once I did it was an amazing help. Now every pass was under a 1.48 60'.

Edited February 13, 2021 by OST Micah

[reaper]

ECU controlled off of speed is a good idea for the clutch slipper. Always wondered how they did it

[OST Micah]

Just now, reaper said:

ECU controlled off of speed is a good idea for the clutch slipper. Always wondered how they did it

The only downside is that it delays the whole clutch throw so you have to find the slip point manually at the line. Otherwise the car will creep off the line as the clutch is slowly engaged. I like to have to do as little as possible at the line. I'm working on something to hopefully fix this.

 

I had done what I set out to do with the car and was going to save any more runs for the low DA in the Fall. Drove the car to and from work every day it wasn't raining and just enjoyed it for the rest of the summer. Added a coolant pressure sensor as well. 

That day at the track didn't go very well. The car would not launch on just the slipper. It still needed manual pedal input to slip unlike the last time out. I guess on race days I just don't think clearly because the issue was pretty simple and I figured it out on the way home. The fluid control knob on my launch slipper had backed off over the course of driving it every day for the passed couple months and te slipper was not doing much slipping at all. 

The day ended for me when an intercooler pipe blew out of a coupler and went into the radiator fan. The fan, shroud, and radiator were all destroyed. Thankfully I was able to get parts ordered that day from a couple suppliers who had them in stock.

Some footage from the day. Sorry for the quality. Not sure where the originals are and this is how they downloaded from Facebook.

DA for the day wasn't as low as we had hoped; around 2000 with about 80F ambient temp. But the car did not go any higher MPH on the full passes it actually made. This had me concerned. I fully expected a 143mph pass in 2000 lower DA. Nothing was unusual about the logs but one thing always stood out with this car and that was high intake air temps. It would see a consistant 40F no matter the ambient temp and on this last day it was reaching 170F on 30lbs. I started doing some more digging here.

[OST Micah]

It made me sad to have to throw away the Apexi radiator that came with the car. I couldn't find another one anywhere and I never saw another car with one so maybe it was a bit rare? Either way it was pretty chewed up so in the trash it went. Went with a Koyorad because they were in stock and honestly it is a pretty nice piece. I liked the Apexi drain position much better but I can change that one day.

New rad, shroud, and fan installed.

 

I talked with a friend of mine who has a Vibrant intercooler core and looked over his logs. His IATs were ridiculously cooler than mine for similar boost levels. I had a hunt for a new bolt-in intercooler as that was the last thing I could think to do to get my MPH where I thought it should be. Unfortunately I didn't have the budget for a Hypertune or Plazmaman intercooler. I couldn't even find the right core size that was the same as what I currently had to make my own. I finally found a Garrett core part number list burried on the internet and they offered a bar and plate core that was almost the exact dimensions of my current core. My supplier had one in the whole country in stock and I got it. I was about at my wit's end with getting the MPH out of this car so if this didn't work I didnt know what to do. Some had suggested 10.5mm or more lift was needed but I couldn't justify the cost.

Got the core in and my intercooler off. Decided to reuse my end tanks to save time and money. 

Gave the front a light coat of black paint and installed. I'd always wanted to do my own test on upgrading an intercooler and this was going to be a pretty great comparison. Literally the only thing changing was the core itself. 

But then I said screw the testing, I need to get this thing to MPH around 145 so I pulled the headlight as well. I had ot try all options.

 

Went back to the track and DA was around 1300. Lower but not so much lower that it would throw off testing. Ambient temp was around 65 so a bit cooler. Made an aborted first pass because engine protection kicked in due to low oil pressure at launch. Oops, I forgot to refill the oil after the last track day. Thank goodness for engine protection! I have it set right up against known good oil pressure when full so it doesn't have to strop far to activate. Put a quart in and went back out. This was the first full pass.

 

Another angle.

 

When I shifted into fourth a few hundred feet before the traps instead of right at the traps I knew it was significantly quicker. I was telling myself 9.8? 9.7? I didn't want to get my hopes up because I'd done that too many times before. It had to be good though. The 60' felt fantastic and I shifted into fourth much earlier so it had to be good.

When I got back my dad handed me the slip and shook his head and wasn't smiling. He goes, "nope, only like a 10.7 or something". Well that shattered my mood. Then I looked at the slip. What a jerk!

 

So as far as I am aware this is now the quickest H-pattern GTR in North America. And with a stock drivetrain to boot. The second quickest I know of was a 9.46 or so but with a PPG dog engagement up in Canada. I'll post some logs of the before and after intercooler core/headlight testing later but one of the two (or both) made a big difference. 7mph is huge!

[Darmanin10]

On 2/15/2021 at 3:28 AM, OST Micah said:

It made me sad to have to throw away the Apexi radiator that came with the car. I couldn't find another one anywhere and I never saw another car with one so maybe it was a bit rare? Either way it was pretty chewed up so in the trash it went. Went with a Koyorad because they were in stock and honestly it is a pretty nice piece. I liked the Apexi drain position much better but I can change that one day.

New rad, shroud, and fan installed.

 

I talked with a friend of mine who has a Vibrant intercooler core and looked over his logs. His IATs were ridiculously cooler than mine for similar boost levels. I had a hunt for a new bolt-in intercooler as that was the last thing I could think to do to get my MPH where I thought it should be. Unfortunately I didn't have the budget for a Hypertune or Plazmaman intercooler. I couldn't even find the right core size that was the same as what I currently had to make my own. I finally found a Garrett core part number list burried on the internet and they offered a bar and plate core that was almost the exact dimensions of my current core. My supplier had one in the whole country in stock and I got it. I was about at my wit's end with getting the MPH out of this car so if this didn't work I didnt know what to do. Some had suggested 10.5mm or more lift was needed but I couldn't justify the cost.

Got the core in and my intercooler off. Decided to reuse my end tanks to save time and money. 

Gave the front a light coat of black paint and installed. I'd always wanted to do my own test on upgrading an intercooler and this was going to be a pretty great comparison. Literally the only thing changing was the core itself. 

But then I said screw the testing, I need to get this thing to MPH around 145 so I pulled the headlight as well. I had ot try all options.

 

Went back to the track and DA was around 1300. Lower but not so much lower that it would throw off testing. Ambient temp was around 65 so a bit cooler. Made an aborted first pass because engine protection kicked in due to low oil pressure at launch. Oops, I forgot to refill the oil after the last track day. Thank goodness for engine protection! I have it set right up against known good oil pressure when full so it doesn't have to strop far to activate. Put a quart in and went back out. This was the first full pass.

 

Another angle.

 

When I shifted into fourth a few hundred feet before the traps instead of right at the traps I knew it was significantly quicker. I was telling myself 9.8? 9.7? I didn't want to get my hopes up because I'd done that too many times before. It had to be good though. The 60' felt fantastic and I shifted into fourth much earlier so it had to be good.

When I got back my dad handed me the slip and shook his head and wasn't smiling. He goes, "nope, only like a 10.7 or something". Well that shattered my mood. Then I looked at the slip. What a jerk!

 

So as far as I am aware this is now the quickest H-pattern GTR in North America. And with a stock drivetrain to boot. The second quickest I know of was a 9.46 or so but with a PPG dog engagement up in Canada. I'll post some logs of the before and after intercooler core/headlight testing later but one of the two (or both) made a big difference. 7mph is huge!

I remember seeing this on the r32 gtr facebook group. Very impressive results.

Interesting to see how much of a difference the intercooler made. That's probably one of the things holding back my setup currently as well.

[OST Micah]

Just now, Darmanin10 said:

I remember seeing this on the r32 gtr facebook group. Very impressive results.

Interesting to see how much of a difference the intercooler made. That's probably one of the things holding back my setup currently as well.

Thank you very much. To be honest I didn't think the car would go this quick so it's impressing me too. Nissan did a great job with these things.

 

Here's some intercooler and headlight removal compare logs. The first log is the old core (not a factory core; likely an HKS intercooler since all piping and everything else on the car is HKS) and headlight installed on a 75F day at 2000DA. The second is with the new core and headlight removed on a 65F day at just over 1300DA. Boost level has not changed.

In the first log IATs are 113F when the car leaves the line. They are 180F when it goes through the traps. That's an increase of 67F. This is consistent increase for the car regardless of ambient.
In the second log IATs are 70F when the car leaves the line. They are 124F when it goes through the traps. That's an increase of 54F. Significantly less change than the old cooler.

The logs show a couple things. The IAT with the new cooler is much closer to ambient at the start of a pass and it even drops below the starting line temp early in the run. The other interesting thing is that manifold pressure is no longer as constant as it was with the old cooler. It doesn't go higher than before but there are several points where it is 30-40kpa lower. Controller duty did not change. Lastly, and most significantly, the car picked up over half a second and gained 7mph in the quarter mile. That is a MASSIVE improvement. How much came from the headlight? How much came from increased flow from the cooler? How much from lower IATs? I won't know until I decide to put the headlight back in. Either way, fantastic result for a few hundred bucks! Looks like I finally found the bottleneck in my setup that was holding me back at that 140mph wall.

Note: my earlier post was incorrect when I said IATs increased 40F. 

[OST Micah]

We then got in on a rental at MIR about 7 hours south of us. The air was supposed to be killer. 

When we go there it was sunny and cold with DA around -1300. 

Our other cars did fantasticly both going 8s for the first time with our shop Hellcat going a 1.24 60'.

Unfortunately it didn't go so well for the GTR. I think the clutch kicked it on the 9.3 pass because it was not dragging the car forward on the 2-step. This cause the 60' to be terrible. I tried to let out the clutch more at the line but it just didn't help; put too much load on the motor and and it wouldn't come on to boost. Just a messy day for me but that's how it goes.

However with the negative DA the car did go 150mph! I probably made 10 passes with three being full hits. Most of them had bad 60s and I bailed and others the trans would simply not go into fourth. It was starting to get pretty tired. 

Second gear wheelie!

9.6 at 150 pass - poor 1.54 60' but I ran it out anyway

Another full pass

 

A decent 60' but missed third.

 

So now the car is back at the shop undergoing some modifications to hopefully improve on that 1.39 60' as well as make it more consistant. I will also be rebuilding the clutch again and installing my spare transmission while I build the one that's in the car. I got a Speedtek close ratio gearset with a longer first that puts my starting line ratio almost exactly where it's supposed to be and I'm pretty excited to try that out. But first I want to see if it's possible to make an 8-second pass on a stock trans!

We're now caught up to present time. Updates will be slower from here on out.

Edited February 17, 2021 by OST Micah

[BK]

9's on a standard GTR box is impressive, especially without breaking it.

Well done 👍

[OST Micah]

Got a couple days here and there between scheduled builds at the shop to start some 2021 prep. 

Started with the suspension. The HKS Hyper D coilovers are holding me back. The car squats and hooks but then springs right back up and wheelspins. I need something double adjustable. 

Measured everything and got a custom set of Viking Crusader double adjustable shocks for the front and rear. Made my own top mounts and lower mounts.

 

For the front lower mount I had to slice a 1/2" ID sleeve, split it open, slice a second sleeve and split it open, cut a section from one sleeve and weld it into the first. Then hone it out to get a .782" ID sleeve. Then hone the lower shock bushing to accept. 

 

Unfortunately the rear springs did not fit inside my Whiteline camber arms. Did some measuring and found the GKtech ones fit. Ordered a set along with their traction/tension arms.

 

The front tension arm bushings have been leaking for a while so in went some poly bushings. 

 

Still have some more work to do on the suspension but that will happen later. I couldn't leave the car on a shop lift for too long so moved on to other tasks.

A couple issues needed correcting. The most significant was the tranny. I started having difficulty making the 2-3 shift and the 3-4 shift was getting impossible. Secondly, at MIR the clutch showed signs of being done. On the two step the car would roll through the lights. It never did this before and it was causing bad launches and may be responsible for the shifting difficulties. I also wanted to remove the sump to add a bung for a catch can return drain. I found that the oil thrown in the catch can at the track is perfectly clean and there is no sense in dumping it out every couple passes. I'll have a valve on the drain line for daily driving to keep water out of the oil.

Got the car up and motor/trans out.

 

Got the spare trans all prepped. This is an R33 unit so it needed switched to push type and a couple parts carried over. The guys that removed this last took the ATTESSA actuator out of the tcase and proceeded to drop it right on the end. They dropped it hard enough that the actuator didn't fit back in its hole in the tcase. Tore the trans down to check the syncros which were good and split the tcase to hone out the oblonged actuator hole. What a pain. Some people shouldn't be allowed to work on cars.

 

The clutch floaters were very warped. Not wavy, but both were concave. I had the flywheel resurfaced for good measure before the rebuild kit went in. The clutch has been in the car for two years now so it held up well. 

 

Started reassembly. No pictures of the sump removal and -8 bung installation.

These ARP bolts were about three threads too long. The previous installer cut the factory bolts down as well. Must be a thinner flywheel.

 

Lastly I cut off the single NPT bung in the middle of this section of the radiator, filled it in, and added two bungs. Kind of a pain but there wasn't another neat place to put these. One is the head bleed vent and the other is the coolant pressure sensor. This will be the third location I've had it so hopefully this sees some usable data.

 

Then I put the kid to work. Gotta start them young!

[OST Micah]

On the last pass made at MIR I shifted into third and, poof, there was no third. I figured I finally wiped the teeth off the gear like everyone else. Wasn't really disappointed as it was bound to happen eventually even with all the safeties in place. That's why I had the spare trans. 

Today I finally got the transmission apart to see what it looked like and what what salvagable. I confirmed that putting the shifter in 3rd and spinning the input shaft by hand that all gears worked except 3rd. However upon teardown I didn't find what I was expecting.

The gearset is actually in great condition! The syncros are completely flogged but there is otherwise no damage to the gearset.

The issue was actually a destroyed 1/2 shift fork. I don't totally understand how this caused a neutral state when in third gear so maybe someone with more transmission knowledge can chime in. I can slide the syncro ring to engage third by hand and it turns the output shaft. Pretty happy this appears to be the only damage as it leaves me with two good gearsets. 

Didn't get to installing the motor today. Hopefully this weekend or early next week. 

[OST Micah]

Well I'm an idiot. I did break the 3/4 fork. Just looking at it wrong. 

Here's a look at how absolutely trashed this transmission is. These are the third and fourth syncros, rings, and gears. I can't believe it shifted at all. This is likely why the fork broke. The syncros couldn't line up but it was being forced to anyway again and again.

 

 

Edited February 26, 2021 by OST Micah

[its cardo 1987]

Killer Build Micah. 8's incoming bro keep at it. 

[OST Micah]

On 3/10/2021 at 8:21 PM, its cardo 1987 said:

Killer Build Micah. 8's incoming bro keep at it. 

Thanks a bunch, buddy! 

 

Got a bit of time spread out over a few days during lunch to tinker with this. One of the items on the to do list was to remedy the HOKEY fuel hat hose connections. A few years ago I wanted to keep the fuel hat unmodified but after fussing with these hose clamps too much I gave up. Just not safe to be clamping AN lines. Don't laugh... it's embarrassing.

 

Cut the plastic 90s off and drilled out the steel tubes. Them modified a drill bit to "mill" down the plastic under the hat on the drill press.

 

Fitted a pair of bulkhead -6 90s and made up a proper return hardline in the tank.

 

Much better and much safer! I'll be dropping this side of the tank down an 1/8" or so to keep the lines off the body.

 

[Ben C34]

That's not a good way to pass the wires through the tank. The wires are pretty much straws, there is a path for the fuel and vapours to comu up through them. You need a proper solution there.

[Rusty Nuts]

1 hour ago, Ben C34 said:

That's not a good way to pass the wires through the tank.

I had hoped he would have put silicon in the shrink before heating it.

[Ben C34]

7 minutes ago, Rusty Nuts said:

I had hoped he would have put silicon in the shrink before heating it.

Im talking about inside the wire, along the conductors.

[Rusty Nuts]

45 minutes ago, Ben C34 said:

Im talking about inside the wire, along the conductors.

Fair call