Mad's GT-R

[themadscientist]

So, I suck.

Let me elaborate.

I claim to love cars and I really do, more than people in most cases, but my behavior towards them and my care of them makes me a partner whose "love" is as destructive and toxic as that stripper you went out with. You remember, "Sparkles," the one that stole stuff from you, banged your friends and left you with a venereal disease? Yeah, I always hurt the cars I love. I beat them, I neglect them, they break, I lose interest and they go to an undeserved grave. So, again, I suck.

It's the ADD, really. I always have grand plans and good intentions, but they never come about. I get in over my head and shit just doesn't get done. The first step in correcting a problem is recognizing you have one. I have one and I want to break the cycle.

The reason I needed a new car and bought the BRZ is because all my "race cars" were broken. The reason I have not messed with the BRZ is because, as I said, I suck. She's that "good girl" and I'm that former bad guy who doesn't want to hurt her like all my old flames. It's working well, not messing with it.

So, 12 step jargon out of the way, let's look at my latest victim, a 1994 R32 Skyline GT-R. This is how it looked when I got it.



The previous owner had the engine done and the shop used a huge Holset turbo off a Volvo diesel truck. It was laggy, but when it came online hold the hell on! I like overkill and lag is not as bad to me as it is to others. Maybe I like the foreplay or something, but it's not a dealbreaker.




This is what that turbo is supposed to be attached to.



The guy told me to overhaul it. Hell, he gave me the kit to do it. I kept putting it off, though, and one night, THUD! I was hoping I popped an intercooler pipe or something, but no, it was done.



I could have just put a fresh turbo on it and got back on the road, but as I started to get into it I didn't like the way it was done. Stuff like this.





This connects to that connects to that and before I knew it I had really tore the car apart. That old MO had repeated itself. I was overwhelmed, busy with life and I kept procrastinating. The car has sat in my yard for, honestly, I don't remember how long and I don't even want to calculate it; I already feel like a serial killer.

OK, what can I do? Well, what do we already know. Oh yeah, I suck. Yeah, it's time for me to get painfully honest with myself, suck up my pride and hand the car to someone else while there is still a chance to save it. Here's how it looks now.






I enlisted a local shop, one of the few whose work, I wouldn't go so far as to say I trust; let's just say they wouldn't fuck up on purpose and that's actually sort of rare around here. They are down the street from the house and after looking at the car confirmed the shell wasn't too bad and that after they got caught up they could fix the car.

[themadscientist]

The original plan was to drop a freshly overhauled, but basically OE R34 engine in with just cams, a head gasket and the turbo kit I had already bought. That fell through, we would have to use my engine which, I hear, was put together from three engines.

This concerned me so I adjusted the build plan. if the block and head castings were usable, great, but the internals would need to be addressed. When we were talking about a refreshed R34 engine I had confidence that the parts would still be in usable condition, but now, with 25 year old bits and pieces, no way. I want new internals and quality machine work.

I found a nice price on a new N1 crank, Carrillo I-beam rods and CP forged pistons and placed my order. One vendor for the crank, another for the rods and pistons. Both of those vendors didn't have the parts in stock like their sites said and neither could confirm when they would be in stock. I was pissed, the orders were canceled and I still needed a rotating assembly.

I had been lusting after a 2.8 stroker kit from down under, but I didn't want to drop that much coin, but with this new turn of events, suddenly, the kit actually had real utility. They had it on the shelf ready to ship. Order placed.

http://www.spoolimports.com/spool-st...b28-stoker-kit

I was not enamored with a stroker as I already don't like the rod angles on the RB with its short deck, but it was this or nothing. I like this kit for several reasons.

• This kit does make up the stroke by moving the pin up, though, so it's better than others in that respect.
• I get the I-beam rods I prefer over H-beam, which I feel is an inferior design.
• The shop is used to using CP pistons and the domes on the standard ones they use are very similar to the CPs in this kit.
• The crank is fully counterweighted, much better than comparable items with only eight weights.
• Spool makes a spline drive oil pump kit as well which solves another RB problem, broken oil pumps AND they had facility to do the machine work and mount it before shipping to me.

Great customer service, fast shipping, but the boxes could be built better; my crank got pretty smacked up, but overall I'm pleased. I will have to ensure it wasn't tweaked getting bashed around on the way to me.




RB engines have their oil pumps driven normally by two flats on the crank, like this. Top is an early crank with a narrow drive section, below is the later version with a better, wider section which helps but doesn't cure the problem.



There is a great deal of play between the crank and the driven gear and it rattles after a fashion and places all the stress on the edges of the flats. This vibration can actually cause the pump's backing plate to come loose an to round off the driven sections of the gear like stripping a nut with an open ended wrench which eventually shatters the gear like this, blows the pump and then the engine.



This is the Achilles heel of this engine and kills them quite frequently. Since my build got awfully serious, this would not stand. Many try to fix the problem by getting hardened gears, but the fundamental problem is still there, it just makes failure less likely, but the failure profile remains. Nope, that's not good enough. I had Spool slap one of thier spline drive setups on my crank. The spline system spreads the load 360 degrees and there is very little lash so it should completely eliminate this problem.



Spool also sells the hardened gears to go into the Nissan pump. I went with the N1 pump body and gear wave profile for better flow.



And that gear will slide over this new collar.



My focus on oil control is resolute and there will be some more steps taken to be detailed in later postings.

[themadscientist]

After two months the pickup date arrived. The shop is close so they opted to strap tow it over there.



After a few more days wait, the engine is out. It's pretty crusty. I hope the castings are usable, but I am worried. This engine is a mystery and there's no telling what we will find when they rip it open.





Oh my, there it is. I have come to hate this triple plate clutch. This is another built from multiple donors and I called it the on/off switch. There is no discernible friction zone and it leaves you with two choices, stall the engine or bark the tires. I have a new twin destined to replace it. As I won't be drag racing it, this should be adequate.



Now the car goes to the body shop to get the engine bay repaired and repainted.

[An Amish Woman]

Well, this has my attention!

[slicktop]

I hope you didn't pay money for that GTR...

[themadscientist]

Time for the porn gallery. This seems to be shaping up to be a NFG build not so much because I am trying to become the alpha GT-R around here, I've seen the apex predators around here; the best I could target is toughest hyena walking among the lions. No, it's just I have always done the work myself and to a tight budget so I had to lower expectations, settle for "good enough" solutions and watch for those things coming apart. I have enough funding to solve problems now with top shelf new parts and have better mechanics doing the work so that's what I'm going to do. Screw it, turn into the skid and go "weeeeee!"

First, the more pedestrian stuff. New Nismo motor mounts. The mounts in the car are probably sourced from a pile of used parts that were in the corner of the shop when they dropped the motor in, no thanks.





I would have gone with a Haltech if the car had a ROM-tuned OE ECU, but it already has a Power FC D-Jetro (no air flow meters needed) and while not on the level of the Haltech IMO it is still an effective solution. This, plus the fact that the shop has a ton of keyboard time on the PFC and almost none on the Haltech leads me to want to stick with that to make it easier on them to meet my expectations. I'm a picky customer so better to make it easier for them. Aren't I nice?

I did decide to increase functionality by picking up the boost control kit for the PFC so they can tune the boost levels right in the ECU and not through one more gizmo competing for space on what will be a busy dashboard. The wiring harness is old and crusty, though so I got with Wiring Specialties (great service) for a full replacement harness including coil pack and transmission harness. Again, eliminate all potential failure points and make life a little easier for the shop.




Oil control is probably the greatest focus I have on the engine build. I will not cut any corners in trying to make it bulletproof. I ran right up to the edge of picking up a dry sump system, but determined that a properly set up wet system with all the known shortcomings addressed would do the job very well. Parts are still coming, namely a Trust extended sump kit to add oil pan capacity, but here is what I have so far.



First, oil slosh. The pan has a bit of a baffle, but it's very shallow which is why I will have the sump extension welded on. There are a few aftermarket oil pan baffles out there to keep the oil pickup constantly submerged in a pool of engine blood, but I determined the Nismo to be the best. I prefer the more rugged swing doors over the rubber ones seen on other types. Secondly, there are a series of crank scrapers to slough oil off the spinning crank.

Unfortunately, this item was selected before my crank purchase fell through and I went with the stroker. I may have trouble. The extra swing on the crank IS going to nail those scrapers. At best I will be fitting and trimming for a while to adjust the scrapers to the crank throws, at worst, the rotating assembly will encroach so badly I won't be able to use it. If the latter occurs I may need to go with the lesser Tomei unit.




Another oiling issue is blowby. RB26s cough up oil through the valve cover breathers like frat boys puke up cheap beer. This has multiple causes, one of which is oil pooling in the head. Part of that is over delivery of oil to the head. This has led to Tomei selling a restricter to reduce oil to the head. Fine. It does make me wonder, though, why they would make that AND a pump that delivers a crap ton more oil than the OE unit, WTF? Either there is too much oil or there isn't, make up your mind. My theory is that oil delivery is fine if the pump doesn't explode (fixed that) and if the pump flows well (N1 pump profile, fixed that) and the pickup never sees air (fixed that). The restrictor will be used, but the oil pooling is still a problem. The drainage is not adequate. Solution, a big rear drain!

http://www.spoolimports.com/spool-oi...il-drain-kit-2



This kit removes the welsh plug from the rear of the head right where there is a big pool of oil sloshed back by G forces and trying desperately to drain down the casting passages at the same time crankcase pressure is trying to rush up. Gurgle gurgle. Better to dump down that big hose into the rear drain boss on the block. The kit is for twins so has the Y fitting, but I am going big single so the rear port can be dedicated to head drainage, Yaaa!

Now, another contributing factor to trademark RB26 blowby is the factory valve cover baffles. They allow oil to slosh back down the baffles, get stacked up and become a barrier to crankcase pressure trying to escape. The oil is thus pushed out by that pressure. Let's redesign the baffles to prevent that. Oh wait, Mines already did it. Take my money!



Blowby should be, pretty much, eliminated, but there will always be some so I will be researching and picking up a catch can system. The shop wants to fab one up, but theirs and many others have t=no level indicators, filtration nor easy ways to drain or clean them so I will likely buy one. Radium has a sweet setup that makes my junk twitch.

http://www.radiumauto.com/Universal-...s-AOS-C58.aspx

[themadscientist]

COOLING! It's hot around here and I will not be babying this engine. I want to make sure it doesn't get heat stroke. Picking up on the oiling system, I tapped Greddy again for a nice, big, huge oil cooler kit. I also will never have to reach under the intake trying to get at that oil filter either with the remote mount boss. Happy.






Keeping the oil cooler is one part of the equation, keeping the coolant flowing and shedding heat as efficiently as possible is the other. For the water pump, I am still on the fence. The N1 pump flows better in the upper range, but the stock one does better in traffic. I will be doing a lot of full throttle blasts, true, but I will probably be spending more time in stop and go traffic. Hmm, I'll probably go N1 and avoid possible cavitation problems which create air bubbles that collect in the intake crossover tube and cause trouble. So close to doing JUN cooling mod. So, my credit card walks into Greddy again....





New Samco hoses to route the water flow AND the power steering fluid.

[themadscientist]

The engine needs its energy drink. I will leave injector and regulator selection up to the shop, but I have made sure whatever they go with will literally have a firehose feeding fuel to them. They have, as they have on most of my parts selections suggested good enough stuff that they normally use, granted, with good results, but I want to over engineer this and push the envelope. So far every part I have brought them has immediately caused them to see what I was on about, case in point the spline drive. They went from "N1 oil pump is good enough" to having mine copied and they are already recommending it to new customers. I suspect this fuel system will be the same.




The journey starts with a 300LPH in tank pump which feeds into a 3.5 liter tank through the top of which will sit twin 350LPH external pumps. Overkill? Absolutely. Regrets? None.





If you see gas prices rise, it's my fault.

[weederr33]

You're planning on putting that engine in a twin, right?

[themadscientist]

Alright, the thing that got this snowball rolling, the turbo kit. When the turbo blew I bought a new one with the intention of just replacing the broken part. I should have picked up a the GTX4088R, but I had a moment of weakness and went bigger for no other reason than to do it. That's pretty dumb, kids, don't do that. I picked up a GT4094R.



It's basically a 4088 turbine with a 4294 compressor. I was looking for something that would hum along at 600HP, but be able to go higher without breaking a sweat. The map on it looks like this.



It was surprising how small it looked next to the Holset, a turbo it stomps on air flow. It looked downright compact in there!

[IMG]http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o141/madatnico/IMG_0708_zps67321***.jpg[/IMG]


As I mocked it up, though, I encountered problems. First the manifold had been hacked up to mount the Holset because it had a different bolt pattern I didn't like that. I picked up another manifold from the builder that wasn't hacked up and had a GT v band wastegate, albeit a chi-com knockoff. That hurdled I moved on to discover the downpipe was a real clusterfuck and I didn't want to even try to reuse it. Now I had to have a new downpipe made. The GT was also water cooled which meant I needed to source all the fittings and hoses to facilitate that since the old turbo had no water passages. This is where my enthusiasm started tapering off and the long sleep began.

I had an epiphany and decided to buy a complete kit to make it as easy as possible to get the car back together. I went with the Greddy kit because it was so comprehensive and the T78 kit over the T88 kit for better response. "Response" on an old repackaged diesel turbo, funny huh? No, I had a plan. I had the kit upgraded to v band thinking I could then use it with the GT turbo. Nope. The V bands are not the same. I was a little discouraged, but while the T78 is not as advanced or powerful as the GT4094 it's still no pushover and could meet my goals so, screw it, I'll use it.







It's crazy laggy, but not as bad as the T88 and I can't afford to beef up the drivetrain yet past the clutch so having a lazy turbo might help keep my transmission from grenading. I'm not feeling the plastic air filters and because I don't need air flow meters I can run one big filter so these will get shelved.



My parts source is a great guy and when my kit was delayed to weld on the V bands he beat Greddy up about it. They threw in a surge tank free as a gomen-nasai. WHAT? That is not a cheap piece of hardware, AWESOME!



I'm not sure what color I will paint the car when it gets a chance to go back into the body shop; it's just getting the engine bay done now. As such, the color of the engine was hard to pick. I decided on black since that will go with any color. I started with the valve covers, coil cover and front cover, but after seeing them I decided to coat that nice Greddy surge tank too. It' bad ass looking IMO.

[themadscientist]

Originally Posted by weederr33

You're planning on putting that engine in a twin, right?

Nope. I'm one of those folks who likes his BRZ just like it is. It's been a great Nissan parts getter / mobile used parts sales platform in support of my "racecars."

[weederr33]

Originally Posted by themadscientist

Nope. I'm one of those folks who likes his BRZ just like it is. It's been a great Nissan parts getter / mobile used parts sales platform in support of my "racecars."

Spare no expense is what I say haha

[i_deecee]

i agree those engine covers look super nice

[An Amish Woman]

Originally Posted by weederr33

Spare no expense is what I say haha

I believe John Hammond said that.