All out? Or keep it Minty fresh?

[gtrjerry73]

Hey guys this is my first topic on this forum And I'm brand new to the gtr scene. I recently bought a 1990 gtr and i am at a bit of a crossroads. My original plan was to upgrade to gt2860's and shoot for around 600 horse. However when I took it to Wayne at Jms, he started to shine a light on my rare find. Now I know it's a car and it's meant to be enjoyed but after looking underneath and sayin things like "this thing looks like it just rolled off the showroom floor" and the factory original windshield that looks like it was just replaced yesterday. And less than 80k on it I'm starting to think I should just rebuild the turbos and get rid of those brittle ceramic bits, remove the boost restrictor and leave it at that. I know it's my car and obviously it's my choice. I just want to get the opinions of gtrc-land and hopefully some insightful suggestions to sway my decision. Oh and uh... Sorry for the novel

[evilgtr]

More power !!! haha take those tiny snails off and throw the 2860's for it. The first time you smash the right pedal you will be happy you did.

[gtrjerry73]

Lol ya I probably should or I'll never really see what she's all about I launched it for the first time a couple days ago and really started to see how tough she really is......

[louis110]

Keep it minty!! Unmolested GTRs are such a rare treat nowadays.

[evilgtr]

you can still modify and keep stock apearance, a nice set of upgraded turbos and a clean tune will only add to the driving experience of the GTR as well and remove 1 of the issues that fail on a regular basis - stock turbos.

[gtrjerry73]

hmmmm decisions decisions :P ya even if i throw in the 2860's, and upgrade fuel and ignition and get a really good tune, intake exhaust, and just shoot for 450 ish that should still be pretty easy on the stock engine no? or does anyone know if steel rebuilt stock turbos would be able to throw down that kind of power without being maxed out? i drive my car pretty nice most of the time anyway so 600 might be a little much for me anyway.

[DougTaylor]

I'll have 2860-5s for sale pretty soon (going single) and all the rest of the piping etc and I can meet you in Red Deer.. As far as stock vs mods - I've modded mine quote a bit, but the classic look of the GTR is still there. I like the Fast and Furious look (ok, so I'm a bit of a ricer..)

[gtrjerry73]

Well I just bought a house so this will probably be a winter project but I'll keep you in mind for the 2860's for sure. I just don't wanna do too much to it cause it's the cleanest gtr I've seen around here anyway.

[gtrjerry73]

been a while but the car has been in the shop for a better part of 3 years solid.

as per the name of this thread, i was originally planning on keeping the car mainly stock and not going too crazy. however i saw a built motor on here though charles and decided screw it and bought it.

gt2530's
4 inch intercooler
exxedy twin plate
hks rods and pistons
jun oil pump
and some 600 cc injectors.
mines ecu that was supposed to be tuned for the car (know better now was a bit ignorant on these bfore)

i got the motor delivered to a shop where Raymond cheung from silver zinc put the motor in the car.

after the motor was installed he couldn't get the car running properly and was insanely rich. drew the conclusion that the mines ecu wasn't going to work so i ordered a bunch of parts to get it running properly.


tomei fuel rail and fpr (l type)
generic large oil cooler placed nicely at an angle behind the bumper vents on the passenger side.
syncronic bov - got a local local shop to weld the bung onto the inter-cooler hard pipe behind the bumper vent on the drivers side.
haltech platinum pro ecu

i bought a bunch of gauges but after some research ended up getting a racepak display only dash to avoid a ton of gauges and go for a cleaner look.

all braided fuel lines
tomei expreme ti cat back.

and thats pretty much it

after i installed these parts i got a shop in edmonton to tune the car on the new setup

they made good power (480) but said it was leaning out and they were getting a weird knock they couldn't diagnose. they recommended i scope the motor and get bigger injectors but for now should be safe to drive after they lowered the boost a bit and it was making 420 at the rears.

I drove the car for a couple of evenings and when i was leaving a meet i lost cylinder 6. i pulled the coil and there was no difference in engine note.

I tested for spark and it was strong

I tested for fuel and the plug was wet

frustrated, i towed it to summarus were raymond was now working and they diagnosed very low compression on cylinder 6. so i dropped the hammer on ripping the engine apart.

what they found wasn't good with bad machine work and parts that didn't match the parts list when i purchased the motor. bad machining was the culprit of the lost compression and the knocking as a steel burr on one of the exhaust valves was stopping the valve from closing fully. not being able to be certain of the rest of the motor at this point i made the hard decision of doing a full rebuild. instead of just fixing the valve seat and slapping it back together. i didn't want to have more problems surfacing down the road as anyone that has had a shop rip an engine apart is insanely expensive. so basically this decision snow balled into the following.


ooook so apparently im not authoriized to post pictures in my post? ill try to figure this out and post some.

[Bruizer]

Sorry to hear man. Pretty typical scenario for an RB26 in Canada but working on it can be fun too. I'm 9 years into mine with similar issues. I think I'm on the 4th or 5th rebuild now (different shops). I've lost count. My guess is it all leads to 1 leading cause. RB26. Good luck with the rebuild