My 1995 GTR project thread.

[PurpleStreak]

Love the attention to detail Paul, its a wonder what those ultrasonic tanks can do! We have a contractor who cleans spools at work with them and they come out damn clean, I didn't realize you could get garage sized versions!

About the brass insert you eliminated and tapped a thread into the aluminum, you may want to flatten the surface and place a copper washer between the fitting and the aluminum, as the metric thread isn't designed to seal across it..could eliminate a headache later on!

[cortexx]

Millenium Jade ..

Just like it should be done!

Awesome work Paul. Love the great detail pictures. Love the autoporn!

Cam cover color?

[bellis_GTR]

I would however , i would hate to deprive you of the pleasure of building it all yourself

Just like it should be done!

Awesome work Paul. Love the great detail pictures. Love the autoporn!

Cam cover color?

[cortexx]

I would however , i would hate to deprive you of the pleasure of building it all yourself

Damn. That is sexy. Can you come out to Edmonton and help me with mine?

[ColinR33]

Damn. That is sexy. Can you come out to Edmonton and help me with mine?

[cortexx]

Actually from thsi angle you can see the cam markings that have to be aligned when installing the belt , should have posted this pic earlier ..........



so the exhaust side was pretty painless , mostly because the engine is not in the car

Intake side is taking alot of my time as perfection is the key here...

So the intake manifold assembly came to me in less than perfect condition , the nissan engine gasket set came with all the o-rings and pieces needed for a complete strip and rebuild of the intake castings so no excuses to not do things properly ...

First things first - complete disassembly of all castings , the intake manifold , the balance tube and the water return casting that runs underneath. the water return has no gaskets but relies upon metal to metal sealed with nissan RTV just like the waterpump installation. The balance tude has a series of o-rings that seal the casting to the intake and it all needs to be scrupiously clean for final assembly.

Off to the bead blasting for the intake followed by some solitary time in the ultrasonic tank to remove any and all residues and particles . Turned out really nice - looks like new metal - so i gave it a good coating of fluidfilm to stop it oxidising. Here is the unit with the new set of o-rings installed ..



The balance tube and water return castings were tanked in the toxic waste bucket of kleenflo metal cleaner to remove anything not metals , then washed in varsol , blow dried , bead blasted to aneal the metal and clean it , thrown in the ultrasonic tank to really clean them and then painted the same epoxy paint the block was painted with ...

balance tube reinstalled to manifold with new allen bolt fittings ..



The water return casting has a nasty case of corroded nipple , so i decided to fix it incase it leaked . Delaing with this at the back of the engine once installed is not my idea of a relaxing evening .. do it once - do it right ...

it's ugly i warn you ..



so i cut off the nipple and discarded the nasty part with my dremel ...



I then punched out the remaining brass insert and tapped a nice new pipe thread into a fresh aluminium ....



Looks alot nicer , went to Canadian tire and bought a $3.50 brass fitting from the plumbing section spread some Nissan RTV sealer over the threads to make sure it's watertight and assembled it ..



A nice cheap repair that should hold up for another 17 years



Incidentally to make sure the threads don't leak from the inside ( antifreeze is very searching ) , i trickled some red threadlock down the threads from the inside of the casting ... not the best picture but you get the idea ..



once this was completed the casting was treated to the epoxy block paint and assembled to the intake manifold . Looks nice and clean in 1 piece and the contrasting colour really makes the aluminium pop out

The 3 castings are torqued down together to ensure that there is no warpage caused by uneven bolt tighteneing





Here is the finished assembly with a nice new Tomei stainless intake monifold gasket ready for install to the cylinder head ...



Once again the mundane and dirty fasteners were replaced with much nicer allen headed bolts of the appropriate sizes , i also used lock washers on these fittings for a tight and secure assembly.

After this evenings work i decided to mount the ITB's and the Nismo plenum i intend to use purely for an idea of what it will all look like when it's together - here is the engine build todate ...... more updates soon (tm)

[cortexx]

Intake manifold Rebuild ...........

Actually before we go down that road i think i'll cover the exhaust manifold install , coming from Toowoomba in Australia is the now famous six boost exhaust manifold . It is a true divided pulse twin scroll design that hopefully will improve the scavenging ability of the exhaust system to increase power , and also decrease spool up time. It weighs alot but is made from 3mm steam pipe so should last me a few years . Also came with all new stud kit and new nuts and stainless T4 flange gasket ( although i turn my nose up at this a little , looks like a cometic piece).

Time to install the studs into the head using antisieze - this ensures the exhaust manifold will fall off while on the track and give amny more hours of pleasure re-assembling things . ( oh wait , that was the dump pipes to the down pipe.... ) I jest really - antisize is a must on these studs if you ever want it apart again.




exhaust gaskets next - im using the ones that came int he nissan gasket kit , ill possibly replace with stainless ones at a later date but dont have a spare set at the moment ...





Screw the chsseburger - We can has 6boost ......

[cortexx]

Another shot that shows the even gap a bit clearer ...





Now that is all installed and bolted down , it's a good time to install the ATI harmonic balancer .

Alot of research and deliberation went into decision of what harmonic balancer to use. The main concern was having one that could handle the future power this engine intends to make , and also what balancer fits the bill for the engine internals.

the crank was zero balanced by the machine shop , the oil pump drive clearenced to have 2thou each side of the crank drive , the rod, piston, pin, bearing assemblies all balanced to within 1/10th gram in a major effort to reduce harmonic frequencies and vibration as much as possible .

There were 4 available choices for me , 2 ATI models to chose from, a ROSS tufbond model , a fluidampr , and the factory unit.

The factory unit was shunned for it's age and cracking of the rubber ring , the ROSS unit was shunned because not enough people had expeience to draw from its usage . The fluidampr was originally my first choice until a had a chat with Mike at active engines in mississauga and he showed me what happened to an LS1 engine that used one , 1 2JZ engine that used one and a honda that used one. This left the ATI unit that is rebuildable and seems to have thebest track record on performance engines.

Having chosen the ATI unit I had to chose either the 600hp unit or the 1000hp unit - i chose the latter because i'd eventually like 600+ at the wheels and didn't think the smaller one would suffice.

so I installed the 1000hp unit ..






This was only torqued to around 100lbft as the crank started to spin so ill finish the torquing of this when it's in the car .

The ATI kit also came with an underdrive pulley for the N1 water pump, so i installed this with 4 6m allen bolts as I am not going to used the mechanical fan this time , i have an electric unit ready for install .





It's actually starting to look like the familiar RB26 now - we is making progress ( cribbed from hannibal Lecter i must confess ).

[cortexx]

Having seen the aftermath of a borked cam belt on an interference valve engine I did alot of research about the install of the belt on the RB26 - turns out there are no hidden secrets on this installation. Care must be taken to install the tensioner spring correctly. Once installed correctly the left side cam idler (one with the spring on its shaft) will attempt to rotate in an anticlockwise rotation (in doing so tensions the belt to the correct tension.

But first the challenge of making everything line up . starting by making sure the crank is in TDC position by aligning the markings on the oil pump and cam wheel ...



once that is done the belt can go on., the position of the cams will already be close because placement of the head on the block and the insertion of the studs/bolts would have been impossible if the cams were out of position.

I found it useful to remove the left idler wheel completely while installing thebelt. There is an indentation on the crank cam wheel and the 2 cam wheels that will align with the marks on the timing belt. If you get this right it's all correct. Luckily I am using cam wheels which negate the need to degree the cams as they are pinned for usage as direct drop in replacements for factory cams so this job is that much easier.





once the belt was on i reinstalled the idler , spring , 2 washers and the nut loosly so that the idler had movement for adjustment.

The method of adjustment at this stage is to spin the engine over a few times by hand to make sure that (a) nothing hits inside and (b) everything settles and the sprung idler settles in , the belt aligns and the belt is at the correct tension. I then put an allen key in the idler to hold it in position while i cranked the nut down that fastens the assembly to the block. spun the engine once more to check everything was good and called it a successful install.

One thing worth mentioning here is that the markings on thebelt will not stay aligned with the markings on the cam wheels , and drive gear, the marks are only there to help you align the belt on install, once the engine has completed one revolution of the crank the marks on the belt mean nothing , the marks on the camwheel backplate and oil pump should all stay in sync with each other though.

remember this?



5 minutes of bead blasting and 10 minutes in the ultrasonic cleaner followed by a liberal coating of fluid film produced this ..





You will notice my affinity for allen headed bolts for engine assembly . In my opinion I find it much easier to assemble - disassemble engines that are held together with these fittings, they are far less likely to get rounded off , and look much nicer installed and they take up less room that regular bolt heads.

It's also worth mentioning that the lower cam belt cover does not simply fall into the correct position when installed , it has to be gradually coersed into position as you tighten the fasteners. It is also worth mentioning that if you do not have it aligned it is almost impossible to set the staic timing on the engine with the mark that is stamped into the cover. take your time and get it right. The cover should intersect perfectly at the bottom where it comes in contact with the oil pump housing, and the gap around the cam washer should be consistant to reflect this.

[cortexx]

Now it's time to reinstall the studs one at a time with an extra long allen key. ARP saw fit to make the top end of each bolt have an allen key recess to facilitate this process, ARP product is very good quality - maybe the best you can buy for your engine.

The Studs too a turn in the ultrasonice tank to make sure they are as clean as possible , they are exposed in the heads oil gallery so i want no contamination .

Here are the studs coming out of the tank along with a few other castings i wanted to clean up ...





The studs are then treated to an application of assembly lube paste that comes with the ARP stud kit. This helps reduce the friction on the thread as you torque down the nuts so that you get a much more even torque setting. This is imperitive - especially with an aluminium inline 6 engine as it's so long and prone to warpage if the nuts are unevenly tightened down .




The nuts and washers also get the ultrasonic treatment before install for exactly the same reasons as the studs .




The studs are easily threaded down through the head and wound down into the respective holes in the block with a long allen key. They are tightened down finger tight , just enough to snug them. This is why i use an allen key for this rather than an allendrive on a wrench , you cant over tighten them with an allen key . I also didnt thread lock them down because i may redo another head some time and wanted to keep the whole assembly easy to remove again.




Once the studs are all in place once again, i installed the washers and nuts . The washers were installed with the same allen key but i attached a neonidium magnet on its shaft so that i could drop them into position without losing them down the oil galleries in the head . If you lose a washer or a nut when trying to position them over the studs , chances are they went sideways into an oil gallery, so have a handy magnet pickup available because i guarentee you will make use of it here no matter how careful you are.




Another tip just incase you ever attempt this insane journey - you can use a good glob of lithium grease on the nuts to hold them in the socket as you lower them down to spin them onto the stud, Lithium grease can be used anywhere in the engine assembly like this , it won't hurt anything and will get flushed on the first oil change after start up. I actually like to coat the cam lobes with it prior to start up as it prevents scuffing of the lobes and buckets . But it's great on my nuts








AND the nuts dont drop while you position them




Once all the nuts were snugged down by hand i torqued them all to 60ft lbs and left them over night. I am told that torquing it in stages isnot required with these studs etc because they do not stretch, I was also made to believe the tomei cam cap stud kits were awesome pieces that i must have and ...... well you know ... anyway , the guy that taught me most of what i know when i was an apprentice told me to torque in stages and give the studs , gasket , and head time to settle before final torque and that advice has served me well so that's what i'll preach

On to the cam belt installation .....

[cortexx]

10th Oct 2012 updates ...

Been a while and have been doing more work than keeping this thread uptodate so here's whats been going on.

I got the use of an ultrasonic cleaning tank for a while and have been putting that to good use to surgically clean parts prior to installation - it's great insurance to stop crap getting into the engine. Also switched to glass microbeads for a blasting substrate to clean aluminium castings that has the effect of shotpeening the surface of the metal making it less prone to corrosion , a bit less prone to cracking and alot easier on the eyes. Anything that gets blasted with the glass gets tanked in the ultrasonic cleaner to make absolutely sure no glass beads end up in the engine.

So after alot of jerking around with the head making sure that the valve train was assembled as perfectly as possible it was time to mate it to the block. Cleaning of the block deck , piston crowns and bore walls were done with methyl hydrate to make sure there was no grease or debris on the mating surfaces. They were then then wiped down again with a tac cloth to make sure no lint or fluff remained.

Of course after doing this we have nice clean bores and pistons but a dry bore is very bad so I lubed it again by carefully applying a generous coating of 20w50 mineral oil taking care not to contaminate the deck.

all shiney ready for the head ...




As you can see the ARP studs are still in the head after being test fitted - this was to make sure no crap fell down the holes while waiting for the head install. I will remove them prior to head install because there is no way in hell you will drop a head over these studs on an RB engine , you will damage the threads on the studs.

The head gasket was test fitted now to make sure all holes were where they are supposed to be and that none were missing ( seriously i have had head gaskets missing stud holes and water jacket holes before when i was a mechanic back in the day) . This is a superstition of mine because the chances of this happening on a premium gasket are probably nill , i just cant assume it is so.




Now I know the gasket is all good the studs must be removed so that the head can seat. The studs can then be reinstalled once the head is in place - again - do not be tempted to install the head with the studs in place !



The gasket should stay in position because there are 2 dowels located on the lbock to make sure everything aligns properly . DO NOT install a head if they are missing ( i know i'm stating the obvious but i have seen it done before ).

I cleaned the head the same way as i cleaned the block deck - it is important to remove the grease because you want as good a seal as possible. The stainless type head gaskets have a nitrile coating on them that melts and bonds the surfaces together once the engine is started and heated up. It is this bond that gives the strength and resistance to high cylinder pressures that boosted engines are subjected to. The cleaner the mating surfaces , the more intact this bond will be. It is for this reason that you should never reuse a stainless head gasket once the engine has been started . You can remove the head and reuse the gasket as long as it was never started.

Head gently mounted and located on the dowels ...

[wideopenthrottle]

This thread is amazing. I can't wait for my R33 to get in. I have searched on a few topics and your build has so much information it's great. The only think that makes me a little sick is when the compression test gets done its a junk motor.

[gAWDzla]

loving the build man. wish i could get parts like you guys can, very jealous.

[cortexx]

Ok a few pics as promised , I didnt make it into the workshop last night , too tired ..

Here is the block with oil pump , water pump , cam belt idlers and arp head stud kit installed .....




and the glorious 6boost manifold (that's about to get wrapped)



Should have some more updates tonight.....

[frankiman]

I love this build thread, quality workmanship


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