I need more than help to finish my R33

[marni]

Hi all,

 

I’ve got the biggest lot of problems with my R33 GTS-T

 

It was a freshly rebuilt 25th anniversary RB25DET (plastic cas, neo cams) probably 6 years ago now

 

The engine was running so well but I fkd up badly and trusted someone I’d known for 10 years that was well known around Plazmaman for his welding and fab work. I added a lovely photo of some of his previous work. Not sure why my car was worked on by whoever did this shit  

 

I’m normally someone who would never open myself up to something like this, I still can’t believe I did it. Trusting him literally fkd it all up for me. Everything has been a struggle, like it’s almost been 6 years that’s how much I’ve just on and off been trying to work it all out. 

 

All I wanted was a car that danced down low, like full boost from around 3~3500rpm to redline, don’t really care what power it puts down (if it ever does) but I just wanted it to be quick to get on it. 

 

He recommended the turbo to get, I picked Hypergear but he told me to get the front 4” with a T4 and 0.68 rear housing. 

 

I was expecting all these beautiful welds, tidy fab work and paid for it to be ready to go to a tuner when I got it back. 

 

I got a car back that was an absolute mess, I actually couldn’t believe it was my car anymore. I don’t think you could even call what he did welds, they’re disgusting. 

 

So I stripped everything he touched off it and with every bolt I loosened it just got worse and worse. 

 

I covered it and literally built and finished another car in the meantime but now it’s getting to the point where I really want my Skyline back.

 

Its a struggle because I paid him to do all this shit because I didn’t know how to and now I’ve had to try and figure it all out omg 

 

Please excuse the bird shit horrible welds, I’ve got my show pony car and am so beyond dealing with this car I don’t even really care at this point. 

 

If someone told me about what he did to my car I wouldn’t have believed them but it happened to me. It was unbelievable. He went missing, my car went missing, it came back missing parts, the straight af chassis rails bore the scars of being dragged up a trailer backwards, even the sandwich plate was bent. Everything was leaking and open to whatever fell into it, rounded off/ missing bolts, power steering oil and coolant everywhere, no gaskets, parts stolen off it, even managed to damage the sump pan.

 

Promised me he’d finish the car, knew what it meant to me, I paid him thousands and thousands just for him to trash it. He told me he was fully licensed and insured, come to find out he’d cancelled his ABN, so obviously no insurance. I had laid up insurance on the car and would’ve been covered but I was scared they would’ve written it off or because the business was no longer trading I’d still be liable. 

 

He was supposed to: 

• New fully custom mild steam pipe exhaust manifold with turbo location moved from factory position to high forward mount. (I don’t know if it is a mild steam pipe, I’ve got a funny feeling the waste gate isn’t in a very good position and I don’t think the outlets off each cylinder are equal)
• 4” custom stainless steel dump with external gate (he re-plumbed it)
• Cut and shut OEM intake manifold with throttle reposition (I ended up doing the throttle reposition)
• Box in pod filter (left out)
• New 100cel catalytic converter (pretty sure it’s there but unsure if it’s 100cel)
• Front mount intercooler piping fabricated to suit (all smashed up and rusty holes where he was supposed to make it look standard where fmic piping passes through. I don’t even think my front bar is going to fit 🙄)
• Custom 5” intake pipe from pod to turbo (didn’t come with it so had to do something to make it work with the Z32 afm)

 

Engine:

• Full cylinder head service & machining 
• Brand new valves
• Precision upgraded spring kit
• Engine block honed
• New bearings 
• New piston rings 
• New ARP conrod bolt kit
• New ARP head studs
• Cometic head gasket
• VRS kit

 

• ATR43SS2 ball bearing turbo 0.68 rear housing 
• Turbosmart 45mm external wastegate (got delivered to the fab bloke, I’ve got no idea what spring is in it, I’m assuming the one that came pre installed)
• Walbro 260 fuel pump 
• Nismo 740cc injectors (tested to 880)
• Spitfire coil packs
• GCG FMIC
• RB25DET manual 5 speed
• 4:11 rear diff

 

I’ve got an Apexi Power FC in it atm, I was hoping to just get it to operating temp to make sure everything was okay before towing to a tuner but it’s over-fuelling too much. I don’t think that’s going to happen so i think I’m going to get either a Link G4 or Haltech for it. What do you guys recommend? I can’t work out the power FC so just gonna give up on that one  

 

It’s got an exhaust leak coming from somewhere I can’t see 🙄 

 

The fuel pressure was steady but now it like drops from 40 to 20psi randomly (noticed this yesterday) 

 

I’ll attach pics of the shit he put on my car and the engine bay now as it sits 

 

I really just need some help, I need a tuner in Sydney I can trust, I’d like to be with the car while it’s being tuned if possible, I know it looks terrible but unfortunately I’ve just got to put up with it for now and fix the cosmetic stuff later

 

Do you guys think the manifolds are going to be okay? Or do I throw the exhaust manifold and try again?

 

I don’t even think these combinations are going to work tbh

 

I know everything I fitted was rated to be able to take at least 400kW but most rated higher 

 

If you’ve gotten this far I really really appreciate it 🙏

I don’t mind if you trash me or the car, I made a rookie error and f**k I’ve paid for it. As you’ll see 🙄

 

Edited Monday at 10:01 AM by marni
Needed to take an irrelevant photo out

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

Jesus..... You're going to have heaps of boost control issues with that exhaust manifold.

[soviet_merlin]

13 minutes ago, Dose Pipe Sutututu said:

Jesus..... You're going to have heaps of boost control issues with that exhaust manifold.

Could you elaborate on that? Why?

Asking because it's not obvious to me and I always try to learn from posts here. 

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

@soviet_merlin note how this is a twin scroll manifold and the "fabricator" has tried to make it a merge however I'm not sure he/she/it did very well at school and understand how gas/fluids flow.

And why re-invent the wheel? manifolds like these exist, and the merge is great, not to mention the pulses are split all the way to the wastegate's fire ring:

 

[GTSBoy]

Are you suggesting that the expert fabricator's work is not as good as Sinco's?

Oh, eeby deeby for glup shitto! Eeby deeby for glup shitto for one thousand years!

[Duncan]

15 hours ago, marni said:

I really just need some help, I need a tuner in Sydney I can trust, I’d like to be with the car while it’s being tuned if possible, I know it looks terrible but unfortunately I’ve just got to put up with it for now and fix the cosmetic stuff later

I'd suggest calling Unigroup, they have a lot of experience with these, access to reliable fabricators etc. Of course it will cost but at least you can trust what they tell you

[silviaz]

5 hours ago, Duncan said:

I'd suggest calling Unigroup, they have a lot of experience with these, access to reliable fabricators etc. Of course it will cost but at least you can trust what they tell you

I found they are significantly more expensive than other workshops (this is when I went to ask about a tune), heard they are good though.

[MBS206]

5 minutes ago, silviaz said:

I found they are significantly more expensive than other workshops (this is when I went to ask about a tune), heard they are good though.

Sometimes you need to pay good money to get quality work done.

[Milkmun]

Won't get near 400kw, pump and injectors nowhere big enough.

Bin the manifold and get off the shelf and a modern ECU.

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

Not mention a SS2 especially with that rear oddly small rear housing.

I feel the Facebook mechanics and experts has led OP in the wrong direction.

[Duncan]

13 hours ago, silviaz said:

I found they are significantly more expensive than other workshops (this is when I went to ask about a tune), heard they are good though.

The specific reasons I suggested them in this case are:

* OP has a complex issue that needs to be checked out thoroughly, so their engineering approach rather than just chuck whatever on should help

* I've found them to be honest about what problems exist, even if the customer doesn't want to know bad news

I'm sure there are places that will bolt on stuff and do a tune cheaper, and faster

[r32-25t]

Get a 6 boost manifold, a Garrett or precision turbo that will make the power you want, call someone like mobile custom fabrication that can come to your house and do good fab for you. Get a bigger fuel pump and injectors and a modern ecu like haltech or link. Then take the car to be tuned at a shop with a good reputation, I use just engine management in ingleburn 

[silviaz]

3 hours ago, Duncan said:

The specific reasons I suggested them in this case are:

* OP has a complex issue that needs to be checked out thoroughly, so their engineering approach rather than just chuck whatever on should help

* I've found them to be honest about what problems exist, even if the customer doesn't want to know bad news

I'm sure there are places that will bolt on stuff and do a tune cheaper, and faster

Yeah that makes sense. I just thought because there's heaps of fabrication workshops around but I see what you're saying.

[silviaz]

1 hour ago, r32-25t said:

Get a 6 boost manifold, a Garrett or precision turbo that will make the power you want, call someone like mobile custom fabrication that can come to your house and do good fab for you. Get a bigger fuel pump and injectors and a modern ecu like haltech or link. Then take the car to be tuned at a shop with a good reputation, I use just engine management in ingleburn 

I heard their manifolds crack and have seen quite a few stories, or is that usually due to running super hot temps and poor tunes?

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

52 minutes ago, silviaz said:

I heard their manifolds crack and have seen quite a few stories, or is that usually due to running super hot temps and poor tunes?

or poor dump/down pipes with no support and no bellows / flex pipes installed

[r32-25t]

2 hours ago, silviaz said:

I heard their manifolds crack and have seen quite a few stories, or is that usually due to running super hot temps and poor tunes?

They have a life time warranty on cracking as long as you don’t wrap them

[silviaz]

24 minutes ago, r32-25t said:

They have a life time warranty on cracking as long as you don’t wrap them

Ah ok, that's pretty good.