Thought it was about time I posted some pics of my GTR. Had it now for around 6 months so you could say I've been a bit lazy in the pic department :chuckle: :chuckle: .
Anyway, here goes....
Not very arty-fart but gives you the jist of how it looks. As you can see, I've removed the 'Skyline anniversary' sticker off the boot lid to make it look a bit cleaner
As far as the exterior goes, I only intend to add a Nismo boot lip and that will be it as I love the look of an R32 with N1 body 'kit'.
No underbonnet shots yet i'm afraid as I thought id wait until I get my Tomei Fuel rail and braided hoses fitted which will tart things up a bit :chuckle:
Managed to get the inlet manifold properly bolted up at last. Have to say that the bottom set of nuts presented a particular problem as there is MUCH less room between plenum and inner wing compared to stock plenum!! Trying to get any decent power on the spanner was 'challenging' but I got there in the end.
With this done I was able to permanently put in place all the boost plumbing from intercooler to plenum as well as some other bits and bobs. This means that EVERYTHING to the left of engine centreline is done, fitted, torqued..finito!!
Ordered all the remaining parts to make up a downpipe so will get stuck into that when they are all together. Only leaves.....
Turbo to intercooler plumbing
Turbo oil return
Wastegate air plumbing
and some sort of wastegate outlet pipe solution.
And engine bay will be compete....how exciting!!!
I really feel that, since buying ECU and PDM, I have cracked on at a furious pace. Even the missus, who usually considers me, quite unfairly I may add, to be 'lazy' has taken note of my progress.....:chuckle:
On another note, I've been getting the car prepped for our possible house move which meant fitting the Aragosta dampers I bought a while back. They need a rebuild and I had them boxed up ready to go but as I'd sold my previous struts I had to get them out the box and put them on. While doing this I tool the time to fit some Whiteline adjust
able ARB links.
Next job was to get some fluid in the brakes and bleed them. This is where I ran into some issues.....
All was going well and had finished bleeding the front and rears. While I was feeling rather pleased that none of the pistons had seized I noticed that there was some fluid that looked like it had sprayed around the balance bar area. Long story short, both cylinders were leaking fluid from the seals like sieves!!! Odd as they were brand new genuine Girling cylinders.......They'd been fitted on the car for a couple of years but had never been used so I can't explain how they came to be knackered!!! Have just ordered a pair of replacement Wilwood cylinders of the same size so should hopefully solve the problem.
Been busy designing and fabricating my downpipe.... Was originally going to farm this out to someone but decided to get a load of bits and do it myself. The (almost) end result is quite satisfying!!...
Thought I'd allow a little protrusion to slot into the decat...
which helps with location. Also added a boss for my EGT thermocouple.
Got another amplifier coming as I think I may have fried the last one.
So, just a bit of tidying to do with the welding and the body will be done. Ordered some 1.75" tubing to do the wastegate oulets which I'll be connecting to downpipe via a pair of v-vands which will allow easier removal should I need to remove the downpipe at a later stage....
Been plugging away with the downpipe and, more specifically, the wastegate outlet piping..
After much faffing with downpipe off....bit of cutting/grinding...downpipe on....measuring...downpipe off....bit of cutting/grinding...downpipe on. yadda-yadda...I have finished the rear wastegate piping..
Now, just the front one to do but by the look of it, it will be a proper PITA. Reason is that the ONLY way I can route the pipe to the rear is to go under the N/S engine mount and just above the N/S driveshaft. To be fair, once it is lagged heat wont be an issue but I may have to tactically break it up with a V-band as I doubt I'll get a single-piece pipe in there once welded up!!!
Having installed my new thermocouple amp I'm getting some dodgy readings looking at the ECU Manager software...(830deg when just lying in the passenger footwell).!! I suspect it's probably the thermocouple itself and have ordered a new one.
Removed the plugs and spun the engine over to see what sort of signal I'm getting from the crank trigger and cam phase sensor, They SEEM to be reasonable enough but there's something niggling about it that I just can't put my finger on!! . Bit of thought with that one I think!!
Also, when trying to set up the sensors even WITH linearisations, the readings can be a bit wierd on ECU Manager so work to do there too. Ordered a Dash-ECU comms cable so I'll be able to set the dash up properly to display all the selected parameters. Np doubt this simple job WONT be simple!!! *sigh*
Received my Dash-ECU interface cable the other day and, as expected, is indeed a faff with CAN addressing and just general buggering about! Getting my head around it slowly...
In other news, I got myself a small PAS cooler (Thanks Leo!!) which I got on with mounting on the car. Decided that placing it under the N/S light was the best option...
Should keep fluid temps down which has concerned me ever since I removed the stock cooler. Have cut a hole in the bumper so air can get to it which will be getting covered with a bit of mesh to stop anything nasty from taking out the cooler
Received my Dash-ECU interface cable the other day and, as expected, is indeed a faff with CAN addressing and just general buggering about! Getting my head around it slowly...
In other news, I got myself a small PAS cooler (Thanks Leo!!) which I got on with mounting on the car. Decided that placing it under the N/S light was the best option...
Should keep fluid temps down which has concerned me ever since I removed the stock cooler. Have cut a hole in the bumper so air can get to it which will be getting covered with a bit of mesh to stop anything nasty from taking out the cooler
Made up the front wastegate exhaust pipe the other day....
Pretty simple, just lots of measuring, cutting & welding....love it!! :chuckle:
Armed with that I then made up the stub which would be attached to the downpipe...
This was made up of some small angled sections cut from straight pipe which I'd never done before. Turned out well so was pleased!! After a bit of finishing I wrapped it with the rest of my DEI exhaust wrap....
Covers the majority of the pipe which I'm fine with as the area between first and second bend is the most important in terms of heat management. The ECU and PDM are in the passenger compartment behind the drop-section of the pipe but with exhaust wrap, gold reflective foil and aluminised heat shield, I don't think heat should be an issue!!
Installed pipe on the car.....
Connected the rear wastegate exhaust pipe but will need to get some more exhaust wrap to do the front wastegate pipe before permanently fitting it as it runs near some thing's I'd rather not get too toasty!!
Next jobs are things like finishing the Dash2 config and the ECU config. Just bought a Motec DMCD (a silly name for a mag-hall converter) so will connect to a front and a rear ABS sensor. This will give me vehicle speed as well as a couple of interesting things like wheel slip between axles. At some stage I'll get another so all 4 wheels are being 'seen'.
To get the car ready for mapping and track I need to get:-
- CAN keypad
- ETS-Pro 4WD controller
- Dampers refurbed
- Boost hose from turbo-intercooler
And then It's mapping time
The 'end' is so close I can almost taste it..........exciting times!!!
Just to add.. Ran two downpipes both ways.. One without a flexi.. lasted a year.. the other with a flexi.. lasted a year :/ definitely look into bracing the turbo if you haven't already.
It's such an annoying factor a top mount downpipe.. I know ppl like me where it barely lasted 6 months or a year and others who bought a cheap 100 quid manifold and still run it 4 years later. Same for the downpipes. Some ppl have knobbled one up in the shed and it's outlasted the car and others have had one "professionally" built and it was still shite.
Hope it works well anyways. Either way it will work it's just a question of how long really but if it doesn't then I guess you can always add a flex in or just build another hehe
Lots of ppl brace the turbo underneath to help strengthen the manifold.
Ages ago I had some crazy idea to brace from above.. making a bracket that fastened to the other side of the engine or via the 3 big bolts that hold the coil pack rail in place and then the brace would come over the top and support some turbo weight that way. Prob wouldn't work but I hear some chaps did it on cosworths many moons back
Thanks, will do. Although, the amount of work needing done is reducing (thankfully!!). All the mechanical stuff is done bar the replacement Wilwood calipers and rotors but these will get fitted once I've destroyed the stock stuff that's on it at the moment.
Just a 4WD controller to get along with a CAN keypad and damper refurb then it'll be mapping time...
Been getting some cash together despite many other projects requiring some investment!! Will be getting Motec CAN kepad, Motec GPS and Motec DMC at the end of the month but thought I'd treat myself to a new garage toy..
My little 306 Rallye has been failing MOT emissions lately so this should help in getting it under control. Not bad for £81 :chuckle: :chuckle:
Bit of a hiatus with the GTR of late as there's not much to do until I get the Motec bits from Australia. That said, I got a new neutral switch and decided to fit that today...
There's NO WAY to get the neutral switch out from underneath so I cut an access panel...
Also checked the continuity of the reverse switch while I was there and there was nothing...nada!!
Removed it and after a good dosing with contact cleaner, it now works. I WAS going to get a new switch but it seems daft to when the old one now works perfectly....
Just need to plate over the holes that I made and wire the switches into the PDM as switch feeds.
Yesterday I picked up a parcel......it contained.....
A Motec DMC-D
A GPS Sensor....
And a 15 button CAN keypad....
Got them from a place called MRT Performance in Australia and saved an absolute fortune compared to buying from anywhere else. Highly recommended!!
Will get these wired in over the next couple of days and configured. Just leaves the 4WD controller and damper rebuild and we're good to go (hopefully)
Also, I've bought some 10mm alloy plate which I'm going to have made into zero-offset brake bells for the rear. Bought some steel plate previously for the same job but they were damaged in the recent house move so took the opportunity to change material.
Been doing some trackdays in a friend's prepped 200SX which has reinvigorated my desire to get the Skyline finished and on track. Unfortunately it blew up at Combe last Friday (suspected HG failure!) thankfully with me NOT at the wheel :chuckle:!!
Been busy with the fibreglass ...... Didn't take any pics during the making of it but basically this.....
Translates into this.....
If I was precious about it I might have spent a bit more time with the filler and made it totally smooth but TBH it's solid and functional with no bare fibreglass edges so I'm happy with it. A bit of primer and a few coats of black paint, finished off with a scoot over of lacquer and she's all done!!! Even with the tightest of harnesses, I can reach all the keys with ease!!
I'll probably get round to wiring it into the PDM and CANBUS tomorrow and it'll be all done. Will then need to assign key functions and that will be that .
The GPS is all wired, which just leaves the DMCD. Seeing as I only went with one right now I will take the NSF (wired) and the OSR (still to do) ABS sensor feeds in order to get some Front/Rear data. Ideally, I'll get another so each corner will provide the ECU with rotational information.
That just leaves ETS-Pro 4WD controller to buy (end of this month) and get the dampers rebuilt and it''ll be ready for mapping. Happy days!!!!
Arrived home today after a couple of days in the 'Big Smoke' to find this.....
Just want to say a MASSIVE thank you to Colin (Cokey) for going above and beyond expectations with this!!!! :bowdown1::bowdown1:
This is THE LAST piece of the puzzle I need to get the car to "Baseline" spec. Once it, and the DMC-D are wired in I can then look to book it in for mapping. I'm SOOOO excited about this...
Folks at work (and the missus) have been so used to hearing "it'll be ready THIS year!" that they just chuckle these days and nod heads in a disbelieving fashion.... Ye of little faith. To paraphrase Nigel Farage the other day..
"6 years ago I said I'd turn my road GTR into a decent spec track car. You all laughed at me. Well, you're not laughing now are you??"
:chuckle::chuckle:
TT
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