Dr. Marus or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the RB26DETT

[MarusGTR]

well it already exists;

http://forums.gtrcanada.com/gt-r-project-cars/27955-skyline-gtr-build-project-*lots-pics-document.html

:P

LOL I'm an idiot, totally forgot, that and it's also the GTR on Skylife.

Still, the sentiment is still valid 'stix

[Oakville]

Yay for updates

[frankiman]

With a GTR like yours I would of started long ago lol

well it already exists;

http://forums.gtrcanada.com/gt-r-project-cars/27955-skyline-gtr-build-project-%2Alots-pics-document.html

:P

[MarusGTR]

I'm liking this!
Inspiring me to get off my rump and start my thread! Looks like your having some fun with it man, keep it up.

With a GTR like yours I would of started long ago lol

[nimblestix]

I'm liking this!
Inspiring me to get off my rump and start my thread! Looks like your having some fun with it man, keep it up.

[MarusGTR]

The storm - Part 2: Giving her TLC

I was hoping of building up hype and make you guys wait but it's too hard, so I guess I fell for my own charm.

So this is what I was up to:



I'm sure some of you might find this classy, but I just work with what's available. By the way, the stick is to shake it at children that might walk on my lawn.

Ever since I had the car, the paint off the valves covers had been flaking at a preposterous rate. Maybe I was just giving her too many rubs but I swear I could just glance at it and it would get another chip. Being that I love the look and texture of raw metals, I got the genius idea that simply removing the paint would make it more to my taste -and- be the least expensive option.

So I started using paint remover and boy is that stuff ever harsh. Heads up to anyone trying it, I needed heavier gloves than these.



The paint remover worked but through the years the uneven paint had caused some strange patina on the aluminium surfaces. Also some of the paint was extremely stubborn or in hard to reach corners. So after talking most of the paint off I borrowed a 30 year old sandblaster from my uncle. This would remove the patina and a small layer of metal, making everything evenly textured.





It was too hard to pass up a test fitting:



As you can see though the sandblasting hadn't been thourough enough yet. So after some evened material removal I washed all the covers with water. Still damp, I then wet sanded them with some fine grit (2000 IIRC?) to remove the peening. When the surfaces were smooth I then used a scuffing sponge to brush the aluminium unidirectionally. That honestly was time consuming, I litterally spent a few hours brushing, washing excess metal sludge, brushing...but it was worth it.

I also had to degrease the cam covers because some sand had mixed with the oil stains and couldn't be flushed with water. That was more of a frustrating hassle.





Then another brillian idea came to me. The TT pipe and the strut bar were both aluminum too; I could give them the exact same treatment. So I sandblasted the TT pipe, used a powerdrill to even the welds and gave the rest of the parts the same treatment.

With the metal pieces all proper I then turned to my Apex'i pods. Since they were in another tint than the rest of the metal, I decided to paint them. In retrospect I should of sandblasted them before painting to reduce the rough texture but ah well.

Another component that could use some attention but is often disregarded: the clutch fan.



So my reassembly went underway. For the sake of not losing you guys I put the thermostat install in Part 1 but in reality this is where it happened. I actually assembled the fan twice; the first time I nearly got the rad back on until I saw the little unopened thermostat box on the shelf next to me.

So yeah, reassembly. I changed all the valve cover seals with Yonaka bits. The half moons at the rear of the cams (you can see the old orange sealant) were a PITA to change but it does indicate the head had been worked on.




With the covers back on I had to torque the crank pulley. Being that it requires a whopping 350ft/lb of torque, I had to resort to borrowing a wee little 1" drive torque wrench from an 18 wheeler tire shop.







And 5 seconds later after falling on my ass:



Everything was then in order, with rad back on I flushed the system and gave her some heavier black gold. The result?

[MarusGTR]

The storm - Part 1: The service

I had been delaying the fact that I had bought a car with no service history.

Since she rolled more than 129000 on the clock, I was way past the 100k general service she -may- have had in Japan. To give me some more confidence in her at high RPMs, I had collected parts to do this service before my next trip to the track. Yes I was going to go at it again.

My club, the ASCC, was hosting a time attack at AMP and I wanted to push the car a little harder, to give me some kind of baseline on the car and my abilities. I still didn't have the required motorsport license but Bobbo and I had figured a way I could get it in time. But lets not get ahead of ourselves. So in the works, I had to install:

-New OEM waterpump (not an application in need for N1)
-New OEM thermostat
-New timing belt kit; idler pulleys, tensionner, spring, OEM timing belt
-New drive belts So lets get to it!



What's this? It's GTRADDICT, helping me out with the timing belt install. That's something I did -not- want to screw up.











Turns out I'm not the only one that thinks old RB26 parts are held up in place with unfreakingbeleivable voodoo. The crank pulley is no exception.

This is where Party Boy was an asset, I'm sure. Sarcasm aside it is a two guy job, one person has to be inside to clamp on the brakes. On our first try we spun the rear wheels car with even the handbrake on.



So with the bolt pulled out, the use of a simple crank pulley puller was in order.







Congratulations, it's a 10lbs pulley! PS: Don't mind the hair, it was full of coolant.

With the pulley out, using the crank bolt is a simple way of turning the engine to an aligned timing position. Party Boy then proceed with tearing down the timing hardware and waterpump. I had been busy with something else... But by the time he was done he had to head out so I took over for degreasing and prepping the surfaces.

Did I already mention I get distracted easily?









With everything prepped it getting pretty late and went for bed. The next afternoon GTRADDICT came back over to supervise the timing install. I love the look of new parts.















This last picture shows that the thermostat was likely installed when the engine was built way back in 1992. I'm still not quite sure if I should of installed my nismo unit instead of a new OEM, but I prefered to go the safe route in case the colder thermostat would of wonked the stock ECU, especially since there are no tuners around.

So with all of that done I was on my own to finish the reassembly and complete my little side project...

[MarusGTR]

^

Thanks, yeah the compression test was a celebratory moment. When you take into account that the engine was cold that must give even closer compression to new-spec.

I'm not sure if it was rebuilt... I think its a case of being on low boost all those years. The engine bay looks like its been untouched since it came out the factory. Brittle wiring (broke a coil harness connector last year, thing was a stiff as a dry tree branch), a leak in the PS system somewhere from original hoses/clamps, etc.

PS: I love NB for it's natural ressources, but there's not much here for me... we'll see how it'll go

[RixR32]

Great thread man. Awesome read. The stories behind some of these cars and their aquisition is almost better than the build itself
Gives me inpiration to kick mine into high gear and actually start my build thread..

Happy with your comp #s eh! Thats great, either your engine was rebuilt recently, or just treated well aka still has the restrictor. Great find despite the other issues IMO. Mine tested 160 across, but was rebuilt not long ago.
Think my 160's are due to the thicker metal HG cause 170 is new spec.

BTW my wife is from the Moncton/Sussex area (Petitcodiac). Love NB in the summer.

Rick

[Woodly]

How much for the dog? Awesome update as usual! I'm sure we all wouldn't mind seeing the photoshoot shots!

[MarusGTR]

Calm before the storm

Just a small story bump before the big stuff.

I was happy with the coilovers the car came with. They had been height ajustable and still stiff/robust enough to hold their own at the track.

But during winter I saw something I couldn't pass up.



Not Roxbox, the Endless ZEALs. Again, things fell into place as I got them for a great price and they were more track oriented.



The old coilovers looked rough but most of the discoloration was actually rust stains from small surface rust spots.

So after installing the coilovers the car was finally ready to go out. I was so excited that the first thing I did was wash her for the first time of the season. Cue Feels good man.jpg





With my honey all clean I went out for my first photoshoot in Bathurst, which some of you might remember in the Media section which got broken with the Photobucket update. I can post pics again if you guys want so.



I had to put any more work on her on hiatus. I spent the rest of the month working around the clock trying to get a presentation done on time for a thermodynamics conference I was presenting in Malta. But I had a few things planned for my return to Canada...

[bobbo]

How hard are you piling on the brakes? I've never had my ABS engage.
And yes my brakes have been hot. Tremblant has a very fast straight that's ends down hill and into a pretty hard right hander. Combine that with Time Attacks and track days and I don't feel those rotors owe me a penny.
They're getting replaced with DBAs or a Stopteck BBK. Depends on what else I do to the car over the winter. There are several plans in the works

[MarusGTR]

Oh I thought you had a crack in the width not the surface. Yeah that looks scorched lol. I'm not quite sure of what consequence those could have but guess it must be the end since you say they vibrate? It looks like thermal expansion cracks.

You can see in this image a bit of what I meant for the perimeter. I was using this as a reference under the assumption that you had the same.



The vibration was at high accelaration after 150kph (fixed with the balancing) and while hard braking (more like pulsing). Obviously the ABS would create that pulsing, with my non-ABS DD and driving the GTR for two years without ABS made it an uneasy/alien feeling to me. I'd prefer to modulate the brakes/skidding myself without external assistance.

The fool me once bit is because my Sentra has DT wheels on it too and they were incredibly inadequatly balanced (no clue how they could of screwed up that bad other than slapping weights on the rim like playing pin the donkey) so with the GTR, I ordered the DT wheels with an optional (60$) "road force balancing" which turns out was as much **** as the free option.

[bobbo]

I don't know man. It's the same rotor except a different diameter. Unless they changed suppliers between '09 and when you bought yours.
What vibration are you talking about and what does DTD have to do with it. When were you using ABS? Driving in the rain?
Here's what my fronts look like now...

[MarusGTR]

Bah I think it was pretty tacky anyway, it was time for a change.

Yeah the metal is pretty soft, but I'm still surprised they cracked with that thickness. Did you look at my set by any chance? I find that the vanes look a lot beefier than your set, but the finish is a lot less refined. Yours have rounded edges while mine are sharper and raw. From a design standpoint mine have high crack risk zones because of corner strain focus.



We'll just have to wait and see but yeah like you said I only have one mild season on them.

PS: About that vibration I was having, I ended up getting the wheels balanced and turns out Discount Tire had screwed up again (fool me once...). It helped but then after driving my dad's car I realized that some of the vibration was because of ABS, I'm not used to it lol!

Turns out in 2011 I had gotten used not to having ABS because it's slaved to AWD, which had been turned off because of the G sensor malfunction.

I think there's going to be an ABS delete in the future.