Frankiman's street/track GTR project

[frankiman]

Chapter 10 - The Master Plan, part1

no more teasers, you want to know what i'll be doing to my dearly beloved this summer
here it is

i've been ordering parts even before putting the car into storage
so i got piles of boxes

and, if anything can be learned from my previous build chapters, is that i'm not the kind of guy to spend big bucks on only a few select parts, or only work on of the car's caracteristics

so there's going a ton of upgrades, in and out, front and back, under and on top








heres a list of the new parts

Engine, externals
SS braided rad hoses
Apex'i power intake kit
Splitfire coilpacks
new OEM coilpack harness
Cusco oil catch can
HKS special edition SSQV III bovs (2x)
downpipe heat wrap
Greddy adjustable intake cam gear
OEM timing belt kit (timing belt, tensionner pulley, tensionner spring, idle pulley)
custom grouding kit
..will eventually source a KOYO rad later this summer

R34 black ornament plate

Electronics
HKS EVC-S boost controller
HKS Type-1 turbo timer
AEM UEGO wideband AFR meter
Skylab torque split controller (not shown in pictures, haven't receved it yet)

Brakes
R33 brembo calipers
R33 324mm stock front rotors (will eventually switch to AMS's 2-piece R33 rotors)
Garage Saurus big rear 330mm rotors
Garage Saurus rear caliper conversion brackets
SPL front cooling guides
Hawk HP+ front and rear brake pads

Wheels
Ichiba bolt-on wheel spacers, 2 pairs (15mm and 25mm)
Rays Duralumin ''long'' lug nuts
PoorBoy's wheel scealant (aka brake dust shield)

Suspension / chassis
Nismo rear traction links
KTS adjustable front upper control arms
Cusco adjustable tension rods
Cusco adjustable tension rod pipe
Moonface roll-center adjusters
Nismo steering rack bushings
Whiteline adjustable front and rear swaybars
Cusco tri-point rear strut brace
solid steering bushing

Drivetrain
TurboQuip custom SS braided clutch line

Exterior
PIAA super yellow fog light bulbs
Type-A front canards
possibility of a carbon fiber front diffuser (heh nelson?!)
white LED strips
tow hook

Interior
OMP corsica steering wheel (selling it, since i just picked up a uber rare special edition of the same wheel)
carbon fabric and vynil
Autometer carbon fiber 52mm gauge cup
Sabelt harness
blue LEDs for cluster, din gauges and AC (thx to josh for the idea)
cup holder
used console trim, to be carbonized
cluster dial rings
ebay nismo harness shoulder pads
ebay nismo horn button


Here are my plans
(take into consideration that these pics were taken with a cheap camera 2 days before i stored the car, it had been sitting outside for 3 weeks, without a wash)

i'm going to have this harness/roll bar i designed made



since my car is my summer daily driver, i want to keep seating for 3 people, or you know.. a place to put my school bag

and since i'm an engineering student, i designed it too hold from towards force from a body restraining harness, and the downwards force of a possible roll over

so, the big green bar would be 2'' cromoly tubing, flush to the roof, and flaten at one end to bolt to the seat belt pivot, and maybe with a camera mount at the other end, directly in the middle of the car
this bar would be powder coated to hold against the rubbing of the harness, since the harness would be strapped directly to it

the small green bars would be 1/2'' solid aluminum (or steel, in worst case)
the red parts are adjustable threaded bits
the forward facing bars would be bolted to the rear 'front seat mounting points'
and the rear facing bars would be bolted to the rear 'seatbelts mounting points'
all those small bars would be connected to the big bars by helm joints

the height of the harness mounting bar, would make it so that the angle of the harness would be 15deg (FIA approved)



i'm dropping the MOMO Race wheel in favor of my new uber rare special edition OMP Corsica, which is a deep dish, suede, 330mm wheel
maybe i'll finally be able the heal-toe now

to help the heal-toe maneuvers, i'm going to weld extensions to the metal pedal covers so that theres almost no space between the brake ad gas pedals

cluster;
i'm going to swap all the bulbs for blue LEDs, polish the plastic screen, cover the surround with carbon fiber vynil, and put in metal rings in each dial, each ring will be painted flat black

the plastic steering column cover will be covered with CF vynil as well

the Autometer boost gauge is beeing relocated to the steering column cover, with an Autometer carbon fiber gauge cup


the AEM UEGO AFR meter will be installed where the boost gauge was

i'm also going to cover the used/cracked console trim i just bought in CF vynil, and probly the DIN gauge cover too

the Ash tray is getting replaced by the Skylab torque split controller, where its desgined to go



the light bulbs for the cluster, DIN gauges and A/C will all be replaced with blue LEDs to match the radio and the general white/blue theme of the car

swapping the electronics;
HKS EVC-1 boost controller (which was discontinued in 1994, tells you how long it had been there!) will be swapped for a brand new HKS EVC-S unit
HKS type-0 turbo timer (2008 model) is getting swapped with the new type-1 unit that matches the EVC-S



the harness bar will go right behing the driver side seat,
and the Sabelt harness will be installed

the Fischer cup holder (that i found in an old DIY in one of the GTRC forums) will be fitted to the back of the armrest

and i'm also going to wrap the door cards in CF fabric



i'm having the front bumper repainted, because if full of chips and scratches,
the portion where the license plate goes will be filled in with fiberglass of bondo to make it flush with the rest of the bumper

and large white canards will be added to the bumper

and somehow, the huge dark gap between the lip and the bumper will need to be fixed

still haven't decided where i'm going to install the tow hook (which will be powder coated light metallic ''Endless'' blue)

i'm taking the headlights off, to properly fit the new PIAA super yellow fog light bulds in place, because my old ones kept shorting out
and i will realign the headlights to north american standards, because right now, with my non-projector HIDs, i must pissing alot of people off

and i might completely remove the FMIC diamond grill, or replace it with a honeycomb shaped grill



i'm going to get my wheels painted (for the 2nd time), same color, but with a much thicker coating inside the wheel

i'm also checking on how much it would cost me to have custom center caps made (since none exist for this wheel)

i'm going to install my new brembo calipers, that i will previously have had powder coated ''Endless'' blue, a kinda light mettalic blue

i'll probly paint the rotor hats de same color

i'll install de wheel spacers, and probly paint them white to match the rims
the front wheels offset's is +38, so i'll put the 25mm spacers for a final offset of +13
and the rear wheels offset's is +28, so i'll put the 15mm spacers for the same final offset of +13

and swap my old faded Rays nuts for new ''long'' type ones, same color

and the rear brake back plates will need to be modified to fit over these 330mm garage saurus rotors




and the side pods with definitely need to be fixed,
i'm going to have them repainted with the bumper
but i'll going to have to take the skirts off the cut the portion that goes under the pod, so that the pod fits snugly

to look something like this




and this enormous gap will also need fixing


ran out of caracters again, continued in next post

[frankiman]

Chapter 10 - The Master Plan, part2



first off, the battery is beeing removed, to make place for the Cusco oil catch can, and a bracket that will hold both the driver side HID ballast (that isn't fixed anywhere right now) and the grounding kit block

i'm going to try to modify the oil filter relocator's mounting plate to alignt the bolt to the injector's resistor pack bracket

and the battery relocation cables will themselves be relocated underneath the car



the darn stock recirculation valves will be swapped in favor of the HKS SSQV units

here where i'd like to get your opinion;
should i have them recirc too, or full atmospheric,
or recirc one and atmos the other?!!



i'm going to spend quite some time cleanin the firewall since it is just so god dam dirty and looks like shite

the strut bar will get powder coated flat black

ornament plate will be swapped for the black R34 'skyline GTR' plate

old OEM coilpacks are getting swapped with new Splitfire ones
and the old coilpack harness with be replaced by a brand new one

t-belt cover will finally get the right color powder coat

i'm going to finish hand polishing the twin turbo pipe, and the first IC hardpipe

the HKS suction kit is getting canned in favor of the Apex'i power intake kit, which will be also powder coated flat black

the HID ballast will be relocated, cuz right now its looks like shite

the charcoal canister is gettingTFO

and i will eventually swap the stock rad for a full aluminum KOYO unit and then install the SS braided rad hoses, and might swap the rad fan for electric alternatives, all this later in the summer

and while the t-belt cover is getting painted, i'm going to change all the timing parts for brand new OEM ones, and install my Greddy adjustable intake cam gear



i'm strongly considering having the spark plug cover machined something like this, so that the coilpacks can breathe

but i would only get the holes circled in green done on each side

this the look i would like someday, this is Marke's car, which has one of the cleanest engine bays ever




right now, my oil cooler is sandwiched between the Trust FMIC, A/C condenser and radiator
saying its a heat soaked area is an understatement

so i'm having longer braided hoses made by TurboQuip, like these


and relocate the oil cooler exactly like this, (curtisgoodman's car)





i'm finally going to finish relocating my Braille lightweight battery to the trunk
but like mentionned ealier, the cables will come from under the car, i'm going to run them where the HICAS lines used to be, since i removed them

i'll put the trunk panels back in once i'm done

and i am going to install the added Cusco brace, which will look like this (GTR--J's car)




at some time this summer i'm going to have to take the tranny off to figure out exactly what clutch i have

and then, i'll swap the rubber clutch hose in favor of the SS braided one custom made by TurboQuip in montreal



the downpipe is getting wrapped in Tomei heat wrap, its absolutely cooking my tranny to death right now, which shoud look like this (thanks again to GTR--J for the pic)


and i might take the whole cat-back off to polish it a bit, i got the idea from the job a buddy did with my old cat-back i sold him

and what Josh managed to do isn't bad either!




i'm going to install the adjustable KTS upper control arms
and take the coilovers off again, the lower then back down 1/4''
and i'm probly going to have them tested/rebuilt by Selex suspension since they are pretty old units and the rubber boots are all torn



also going to install the Moonface roll center adjusters
i'm not going to use the full spacing offered by the part, since my car isn't ''japanese road' lowered

(not my pic, can't remember where i took it)


this is what the underneath should look like,
cusco tension rods, and rod pipe
but instead of the Cusco swaybars, its going to be grey Whiteline units

with all these adjustable suspension components, i'll be able to infinitely fine tune the car's handling caracteristics

and where the green circles are, i'm installing SPL brake cooling guides to direct air to the calipers

==========================
2nd dyno tune

i'm going back to Almasi for another tune this summer
this is what i have now



as you can see, the turbos spool quite slowly, and boost drops alot after hitting its peak

thats why i went with these parts;

replacing the HKS suction kit with the Apex'i power intake, just as good power wize, but filters 10x better

replacing the HKS EVC-1 boost controller by the new EVC-S,
the evc-1 is just so old, after talking to a few people, it might the cause of the boost falling off at high rpms, with a new unit it shouldn't drop

replacing the stock recirculating valves with HKS SSQV, again to ensure they don't leak at higher rpm (high flow) which drops boost, with these i should be fine, and the sound will be OMGZorg

replacing the old OEM coilpacks with new Splitfire ones, will ensure better spark during high load or/and high rpm situations

replacing the OEM intake cam gear with an adjustable Greddy unit, advancing the intake cam by 4 or 6 degrees should help the turbos spool much sooner

and boost will be cranked up to 14,7 psi (1 atm) or maybe just a bit higher
RBs can take up to 16psi on stock internals, so i don't want to go over that (or even test it)
and i was told N1 turbos were much more efficient above 1bar (14,5psi)

the weakest link in my setup will be my nismo 555cc injectors,
at 13,5psi, they peaked at 72% duty cycle
i was told by experts going over 80% greatly reduces the injector's life spand
so ~15psi will get me near that 80% limit

my goal is ~425whp or ~500bhp


next year though, the engine is coming out for a full gasket refresh, and new breathing hardware

==========================

i might be forgetting somethings, but thats mostly it

i might have to change my tires this summer
right i have Yoko Neovas in front, and Flaken Azenis in the rear

i'll probly swap them with Dunlop Direzza Z1 Start Spec, which are much sturdier tires than the azenis, but much cheaper than the neovas

==========================

opinions? i'd like to hear them

and i just realized my car is looking more and more like GTR--J's car
not a bad thing i might say

[cobrAA]

haha, ta suivi mon conseil pour le PB Wheel sealant! Great stuff!

[GTRADDICT]

That's a nice build!!! I don't have a GTR yet but I know alot about engines lol. I like the way you building it... You can keep on driving it and you put on the upgrades!! Aussitot que j'ai la mienne jva monter a montreal!

[cobrAA]

That's a nice build!!! I don't have a GTR yet but I know alot about engines lol. I like the way you building it... You can keep on driving it and you put on the upgrades!! Aussitot que j'ai la mienne jva monter a montreal!

yeah! another frenchy!

[G.T.R]

I am going to be at ultra drive, that looks like lots of fun! Road trip from ontario anyone?

Steve

[NismoS-tune]

You've got a lot of dreams for your car there. Good thing you have deep pockets.

[RABBIT]

I am going to be at ultra drive, that looks like lots of fun! Road trip from ontario anyone?

Steve

DOWN.

[frankiman]

its UltraRide guys btw

You've got a lot of dreams for your car there. Good thing you have deep pockets.

my pockets aren't that deep,
2/3 of the parts are used, or new out of box

i didn't buy anything i couldn't get a crazy deal on
and everything as its propose, exept for all the carbon fiber crap, which just looks good

[archaeic_bloke]

awesome stuff francois! so this is now current ? and completely up to date?

[frankiman]

awesome stuff francois! so this is now current ? and completely up to date?

YESSSSS




even though...

[NismoS-tune]

Is that a genuine nismo spoiler or knocker? I'd like one but they're all expensive I thought :S

[frankiman]

pretty sure its a real one, since my car came with the whole nismo body package minus rear spats

[frankiman]

so i just got my Cat Delete pipe today, looks pretty nice

i'll eventually have 2 bungs welded to it, 1 for my wideband O2 sensor and 1 for the oem EGT sensor,
then shoot a couple coats of high temp clear coat on that shiny sucka



a bit like josh's DeCat


for some reason (if anyone can enlighten me..) the guys at autoworx welded my wideband bung onto the rear dump pipe on Robin Almasi's request (guy who tuned my car), which only gets its reading from 1 turbo..

i just thought getting the reading after the Y would be more precise since it would be from both turbo,
and if one of the two turbo starts to run lean, you would know immediatly,
as it is, its only monitoring the rear turbo, which is the one most likely to fail yes, even though...

[archaeic_bloke]

ya man, that is SUPER weird.. ive never seen that before... except for people running the AEM ecu... the do a front and rear AFR one for each turbo... how long ago did robin get you to do that? maybe it was common like 2 years ago but isnt a good idea today?