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

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  • #46
    2012 - Going on a diet

    And I was on my way home. Halfway to the Nova Scotian border I stopped at a (sad) empty truck stop restaurant for supper where had a chat with the owner and waitress while eating my reheated turkey and topped up the gas tank. Godzilla was also famished. She ate supper, a fresh rabbit, on the remaining stretch to Bathurst.

    On my way back I started thinking about how she had passed a trial by fire. I had been far from pushing her to the limits but that was because of due dilligence with her old 20 year old hardware. Still, I decided it was time for me to give her some track-flavored TLC as she had earned it. Also it was a way to proving to myself I could actually do the work.

    So I came back home in one piece, parked her in the garage and went to bed.

    I took a couple days off to continue some writing, as I had now moved back at my parents (semi-permanently) after being gone for 7 years so that I could complete my thesis without hemorrhaging rent money. I had some time to gather the intel for my game plan and mustered up some courage to work on her. On the menu:

    -Carbon canister delete
    -AC delete
    -Full brake system restoration
    -New coilovers



    I had given her a good rince since the track but she still hadn't been washed yet. I put her again in the garage and prepped her for surgery. At my parents, I tend to get more focused in the evening at it just becomes beautiful outside and mosquitos aren't such assholes. So usually I wait until sunset to start big projects. The neighbours must love me (all 4 of them).



    So first off, the carbon canister. During the previous year it had been obvious that wathever gas tank evaporation system had clogged because each time I would gas the tank would depressurize loudly. That's a big no-no since the gas vapour is actually the flammable part of gasoline. Some threads popped up on GTRC (and I also found the same on google) pointing towards the carbon canister, the charcoal filter that absorbs the tank's gasoline vapours, getting old and clogging the system, trapping vapours in the tank. Since it was an eyesore and I could use the hand room in the engine bay I opted for a full delete.

    It was in my skill bracket. The vacuum diagram in the TSM made the affected circuit easy to spot, even moreso with the colour coding of the lines (I love the engineering in this car, I can't say it enough).

    But, since I wanted to delete the AC, I could hit two birds with one stone. So I started tearing the front end of the car apart. To put it bluntly, at this point I just cut the canister vaccum lines chucked the canister out.









    If you notice the time lapse in the background I'm sorry for being a lazy SOB that just spent his time drinking and listening to music. Ok, I was writing too, I admit.

    So as you can see, the first part was straightforward. I should also note the system had vented itself somehow in winter 2010 so if the cops are looking move along. You should be careful though, even if the system was empty, the air quality changed quick after I had broken the seal. My dad (longtime smoker) couldn't detect it but I immediately told him to get out and let the system vent more.

    Taking your time does have its perks; by looking long and hard I figured out that the AC evaporator could be easily slipped out from under the rad support without even touching the rad. The hard part though, was the AC coolant hose that you can see in the top right corner of the evaporator. I'm not quite sure how they slid it in in one piece at the factory but it got out in two.

    From there it was time to attack the pump itself.



    Tossing the PS pump aside took a lot longer than I had anticipated as, as a rookie, didn't know that the pivot bolt had to be loosened for the assembly to become free to rotate. Anyway, from having the PS pump this position I had free access to the AC pump (under).

    It had actually been a good call in a sense; as the AC idle pulley is the tensionner, I noticed pretty quickly that it wasn't spinning freely anymore. It felt like trying to turn a square peg in a triangle bore. Next was a case of uncoupling the coolant hoses and disconnecting the pump power.



    Finally. I love an efficient enginebay. Now it was just a case of coaxing the remaining hoses out and plugging the holes in the firewall. To plug the holes I cut the coolant hoses and removed the fasteners. I used some salvaged rubber and sandwiched them with the fasteners. Quick and clean.







    O hai turbo. No pump in the way.

    So now I had to plug the vaccum lines that were left open. One was a signal vaccum and the other was plenum vaccum. So both needed to be sealed properly. To do so I again salvages some old scrap, the canister's hoses. Just as a testiment to how old some of these hoses become, the turbo side of the line, the one closest to the block, had turned to soft slag. Completely lost it's resilience. I discarded that end and cut a piece of the still proper ends to make plugs.







    Finally, the tank vapour line had to be dealt with. I'm not too sure how others do so (strangely they don't talk about it on threads I've read on the subject) but I found that the original dump line was perfect; it would dump the vapours in the rail safely away from heat before being expelled. The job looks ugly because I used sealant to make sure contact was proper at the coaxial pipe connection.



    From there, reassembly. But first, she needed the first thorough clean, part by part.









    It really had made a difference. If my mother's scale is correct I took a good 50lbs out of the engine bay.



    Next up, the brakes.
    Last edited by MarusGTR; 01-10-2014, 10:34 PM.
    1992 BNR32 SKYLINE GTR

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    • #47
      Beau Travail!!! Continue sa Marus92!!!

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      • #48
        2012 - Gotta so slow!

        So yeah, brakes.

        At the track the brakes really showed their condition. While the pads were relatively new AMS pads and grabbed properly, I would get complete brake fade in 3 laps. This is why I was unable to lap often as I had to cool off the brakes as often as I went out. And when the brakes went, they went.

        So obviously, like I had mentionned, the brake fluid was atrociously brown and was probably overheating. Knowing the shape of the rotors and calipers when I got her, I knew a full restoration was in order. So I ordered a Pitwork (OEM) caliper rebuild kit from Daryl.

        First off, I disassembled the brakes. Lines were dropped and most of the fluid was gravity drained. Meanwhile I started cleaning every nook and cranny in the wheel wells with WD40. The hubs were also in a need for a good wire brushing, cleaning and the wheel mating surfaces were lubed with silicone.



        Still doesn't look that great but it's certainly the best I could do with my skill/budget. Anyway, with this dealt with I turned to my brake rotors. Because of AMS's simple manufacturing process, the disks had started to get bright orange oxidation on some of the venting surfaces.



        I realized that by using BBQ paint, I could lay some thin coats that would make the brakes a lot more attractive and curb oxidation at the same time (this is where my love for function comes from, stuff starts looking pretty nice once they become functional). So I proceeded to wash them with brake cleaner a brush and rinsed/wiped them with a final touch of brake cleaner before masking the friction area off.



        Made a world of difference.

        So with the rotors baking in the sunlight, I started looking at my calipers. They had seen better days. The rebuild kit consisted of the boots, seals, clips, rings, lube, etc needed to refresh to OEM spec. So, not quite sure about what I was doing, I started figuring a way I could pop each piston safely without losing a finger. Since the rears were only 2 pot I started fiddling with them first.







        My dad has a pretty decent compressor so I figured if I could push enough air in the caliper the pistons should shoot out. Since I wasn't quite sure how hard they would come out, I took a cheap wood plank and put in the caliper to absorb the blow. And quite the blow indeed, I don't think they're normally supposed to come out like buck shots but these sure did. Thing was, being multi pot calipers, only one piston, the one with the least resistance path, would come out resulting in caliper depressurization. So the pistons would have to be pushed out one by one but how do you keep the caliper pressurized?

        This is how I did it.



        I cut the piece of wood in 2 pieces, one small, one long, so that I would have 3 blocked off ports at all time, secured by C clamps. Pressurization would be assured by using old nitrile gloves that would act as a gasket. Pistons would shoot out hard enough to make dents in the plank so I was happy I had found a hands-free approach.

        With calipers all out, I started wire brushing the surfaces and using strong rust remover. It actually worked but some of the most stubborn rust, the rust in the bore, would require extended exposure to the rust remover.



        I could now concentrate on cleaning the calipers at my rebuild station. Old fluid and white flaky assembly lube caked the cylinders so I used a my utility DOT3 (it's my hands-on bottle for cleaning or etc, it's been opened for too long to be viable in a brake system). Each polish would get some pressure form the compressor in the passages to clear any deposits (and yes I did spray myself in the face often).



        With the calipers all cleaned up I started degreasing them...

        FOR PAINT!

        Yes finally, the old things would get paint. Ironically the old bleached paint was so resilient (I assume ceramic based?) that I couldn't prep them by scuffing. I just decided to spray and pray.



        Now the tricky part. With the calipers baking in the sunlight for a day (I think) I had to reassemble them with brake lube for piston insertion into the pots. Quite tricky to not contaminate your caliper-handling hand to not take paint off but I made it.

        And I was extatic with the results.







        Some of you might notice that the direction of the slots is opposite to what I had before. While some people might argue that it has no consequence, they're right. The real reason why I changed the rotation is because the 296mm MaxSlots are directionally ventilated. Rule of thumb for rotor vanes is that if you put a stick or screwdriver in a vane, it should point backward.



        This is irrelevant for straight vanes (like your 324mm R33 Maxslots, Bobbo) as the reason for the vane rotation direction is because of the Venturi effect.

        Before I had realized this, I had (stupidly) thought that the inlet was at the perimeter and vanes had to be in an attack angle. But then if you look at the flow continuity and account for venturi effect this didn't make sense, especially if you compound centripetal forces in the mix.

        To put it simply, if a disk has directional vanes placed in the right direction, it becomes a centrifugal pump. If you take a page from Relativity and change your reference point to the rotor (stays stationary) and imagine the air rotating around it, you see that it will be affected Venturi effects. Because with fluids (in this case air) speed is in constant balance with dynamic pressure, more speed means less pressure. Give enough speed to a fluidic system and it may drop local pressure enough to suck up higher pressure zones (I'm being very basic here but this is how paint guns work, for example).

        So back to our rotor reference, this means the low pressure zone at the perimeter induces flow from the eye of the rotor; this is why performance OEM rotors often look like turbine blades around the inner perimeter.

        So yeah this is my super complicated reason to just explain why I flipped the damn things around.



        Finally, bleeding. Since you guys probably do it in your sleep, I wont go over the procedure. It was done with a simple water bottle and the help of my father while I'd pump the brakes.

        What I can say though is that it had been a long time coming. First came out white varnish, then dark brown sludge then it started getting proper around the... 3rd fresh bottle of DOT3.

        You might ask yourself: DOT3? PFFFT. Then I'd tell you I had enough foresight to know I didn't want to waste 3 bottles of 5.1 on just pissing it out and dumping it.

        Next, the coilovers!
        Last edited by MarusGTR; 01-11-2014, 12:46 AM.
        1992 BNR32 SKYLINE GTR

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        • #49
          Something to read on a lazy saturday, ya!
          Victory is on the horizon..

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          • #50
            Originally posted by Oakville View Post
            Something to read on a lazy saturday, ya!
            I'm trying to beat 50 shades
            1992 BNR32 SKYLINE GTR

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            • #51
              (like your 324mm R33 Maxslots, Bobbo)
              That's changing for this year though... Atleast the rotors. I'll post a photo as to why I wouldn't recommend the AMS rotors for track use later.
              Also can you take some of the back slashes out of your thing at the bottom of your threads? It's too wide and screws up the screen.

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              • #52
                Originally posted by bobbo View Post
                That's changing for this year though... Atleast the rotors. I'll post a photo as to why I wouldn't recommend the AMS rotors for track use later.
                Also can you take some of the back slashes out of your thing at the bottom of your threads? It's too wide and screws up the screen.
                Happy? :P

                You're tickling my curiosity, I wonder what happened to your set? I'll probably have to keep mine for another year if things don't change.
                1992 BNR32 SKYLINE GTR

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                • #53
                  Didn't have to take them all out as it looked pretty spiffy. The way it was made the critical part of the screen smaller to fit all the slashes in.

                  As far as the rotors go there is significant cracking likely caused by the time or two they MAY have got a little heat in them and I don't think the material quality is nearly as good as what you'd find in a Brembo, Stopteck ect. I'm noticing now once they get even a bit of heat in them there's very noticeable vibration. Not acceptable.
                  I got two seasons out of mine so it's fair to assume you'll get the same or more with yours.
                  You could try removing the splash guards to promote better air circulation on the rotors. I don't have any.
                  Last edited by bobbo; 01-27-2013, 01:21 PM.

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                  • #54
                    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.
                    Last edited by MarusGTR; 01-27-2013, 01:52 PM.
                    1992 BNR32 SKYLINE GTR

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                    • #55
                      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...
                      Last edited by bobbo; 01-27-2013, 03:00 PM.

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                      • #56
                        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.
                        Last edited by MarusGTR; 01-27-2013, 03:44 PM.
                        1992 BNR32 SKYLINE GTR

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                        • #57
                          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
                          Last edited by bobbo; 01-27-2013, 05:49 PM.

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                          • #58
                            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...



                            Last edited by MarusGTR; 01-11-2014, 12:56 AM.
                            1992 BNR32 SKYLINE GTR

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                            • #59
                              How much for the dog? Awesome update as usual! I'm sure we all wouldn't mind seeing the photoshoot shots!

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                              • #60
                                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
                                '89 GTST - SOLD
                                '92 GTR
                                '94 Mitsubishi Pajero 2.8TD LWB
                                '12 Mazda3 Sport Skyactiv

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