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

[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

[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]

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?

[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]

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

[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

[Oakville]

Yay for updates

[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

[nimblestix]

well it already exists;

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

:P

I've thought about continuing where josh left off, I would have to swing that past him first though.
Might be a bit cheesy?

Anyways not trying to clutter up yours!
I love what your doing here maurus, thanks for the props too!

Sent from a galaxy far, far, away.

[MarusGTR]

The storm - Part 3: Braiiiiins (or lack thereof)



So after finishing the engine I took a break for a few days as I knew another work marathon was coming up.

Bobbo and I had started talking about having me participate in Time Attack #2. Because TA #2 and #3 were on consecutive days, the club had also reserved the day before the event as an open lapping session to get people warmed up/tweaked in and to practice for the event. So this meant that if I could get there for the open lapping, I'd get enough practice laps to get my license the day just before the event; it couldn't be any more perfect.

After our talk I elected to take some time and work on my thesis again.

In the mix of things, I guess with some of my stupidity sprinkled in, it hit me on a monday night (IIRC) that the open lapping event was the next friday. I then went into panic mode to get things done.

So you might of guessed I had bought a lot of parts and you were right. For tracking I had bought (PS thanks for Bobbo's sponsor Focussed Motorsport for the WB):

-Nistune ECU
-Innovate MTX-L
-EBC Yellows

Also as a final service I had bought all the fluids for an overhaul flush:

[oh **** my browser nearly crashed, s'all good now]



Not pictured, a gallon of Motul 90PA and jugs of Redline MT90. **** yes.

But before the fluids I wanted to do the ECU and WB. Too hard to resist. The ECU was a Veilside Stage 2 (I think?) chipped to Nistune. Super shoutout to the GTRC user I bought it from, he got it tuned by Almasi for my setup prior to shipping it.





Just to be sure though, I took a looksee to make sure the EPROM was actually present.

Well this was unexpected.



But since the thing looked like it had been in a washing machine it needed some spruicing up.



Much better.

But to be on the safe side, the WB would take priority. I wasn't about to install a foreign ECU without any feedback.

So out with the passenger seat, I needed the space to do some more creative work...



So, out with the radio.



Since sometimes working on the GTR I feel as dumb as a bag of nails I didn't want to start getting into the harness to find a suitable power source. The idea here was to use the lighter power.

It had suitable wire gauge and amperage as it's basically a heating element; the fuses wouldn't need replacing as they were more than enough for the WB.

And I'm not a smoker. Screw the damn thing.







I also took the gauge cover off. Both it and the radio were going to get matte paint. Yes you read that right. Yes I'm anal. But you'll see where I'm going with this.

W-w-wait, something's not right here...



Oh god what am I doing!?





Both the power and dimmer were spliced together. I wasn't looking to get blinded or host a rave, just to have some simple feedback when I'd look down. Because they suggest giving the WB a clean signal, the ground was mounted on the transmission/shifter block.





I was going to use the exhaust temp sensor hole to pass the O² sensor. Problem is that is was too narrow. So since I wasn't going to buy a 50$ bit just to widen a hole, I took a spray can cap, put it over the hole and dremeled the hole from under the car. The cap was so that sparks wouldn't ignite the insulation.

Cause y'know, that's bad.



I had brought the test pipe to another mechanic friend to get the bung welded. A ford sparkplug was used ironically as a hole plug.

Oh did I forget to mention I have a super awesome and rare RS*R equal length downpipe? My bad.

So, where was I going with the paint and sawing?





So after a good day of practicing, I had finally found a way I could do a decent mount plate for my WB. I used the spare ring and glued it to the underside and let it set overnight. I also used the spare gauge bezel and used it to mock up the holes. Since it got mauled in the process, I used the tinted screen and overlayed it to the bezel I was going to use.

I was really looking for low-key.

With that done, ECU swap. Easy enough.



Now with the fluids. Well as I had mentionned, Motyl gear had been a bad call for the rear diff as it lacks friction modifiers for clutch type LSDs. I still had enough left for the front open diff, which would be a perfect match.

So for the rear diff I found cheap 90PA (on a motorcycle site wtf?) which I replaced 35$ worth of Motyl gear in the rear diff.

The transfer case. Simple enough, Motul ATF went in.

For the transmission I had opted for Redline MT-90. From my googlin' it had come up as a better choice for old synchromesh than Motylgear. I know shockproof has a better feel but I was looking for durability, not artificial numbness that'll just end up grinding my gears. I previously had Royal Purple diff fluid put in 2010 (it was popular on GTRC back then) but I don't think the friction modifiers and my 2nd gear were playing well together.

So turns out my drain bolt was seized. Awesome. My dad wasn't too happy when he saw I had cut one of his spare copper pipes in half to get more leverage.

Moving on.

With time running out I had to change the brake pads. The AMS pads had been great for street but since my rebuild I was generating so much clamping force that the rear pads were getting pulverized. Basically braking hard and jerking to a stop the rear pads would make a sound like a pin falling in a metal can.

Seriously I have no clue why people look for BBK, for petes sakes these brakes were designed for this car weren't they?! [EDIT: Ok ok that was a bit harsh. Still the difference the rebuild made just made me realize that some just go for BBKs for looks. Which is fine, I guess.]





With the EBCs in I took the car out for a spin. She felt fine if not too rich (low to high 10s at WOT).

But anyway I didn't have time to think about it as I noticed that my BMC had brake fluid all over it. ************.

I managed to see it before it took the paint off the body but the BMC took a kicking. Basically at this point I thought I had made so much pressure in the system that I blew a seal. Since it was thursday, I PM bobbo to tell him the bad news that I couldn't make it.

Me starting the convo: "So about tomorow?" (we had planned to hang out)
Bobbo: "Going out with the wife"
Me: "Wait what?"
Bobbo: "Yeah?"
Me: "..."

Oh turns out it was the wrong friday.

****.

[MarusGTR]

Jesus that's a long thread page eh?

EDIT: And seems like this post just broke it. Go back one page for my new chapter.

[bobbo]

Me starting the convo: "So about tomorow?" (we had planned to hang out)
Bobbo: "Going out with the wife"
Me: "Wait what?"
Bobbo: "Yeah?"
Me: "..."

Oh turns out I thought we were the next week.

****.

LOL! Yea I remember that! That darn tricky Christian calender is always screwing people up!

[Woodly]

I added that to my porn folder...

But seriously what material did you use to cover the gauge it looks awesome? Also what paint is that?

Great update as usual!

[MarusGTR]

hehe thanks, it's from a sheet of ABS plastic I bought from an audio and "performance" shop around here.

One side has the typical ABS texture but the other is flat and glossy so you can score with a knife and break pieces cleanly. I instead used that side and made a prototype with the old eyechrometer and through multiple slight alterations I was comfortable enough to make the final piece by overlaying the prototype over and matching corners on the grinder. It looks ok from afar but don't look at it from too close. I really wish I'd be better equipped (or skilled).

Most of the work was done on my dad's counter grinder which I'd handle the piece with one hand and cool the rock with a water spray bottle in my other. If I didn't cool the rock the plastic would melt and warp.

As for the details they were done with my dremel. The chamfering of the holes (btw they're the lean-side LED lights) was done with a conical rock and then everything was painted. The screw holes were also chamfered for a sturdier look. The screws were a handfull of mismatched freebees (if you notice the one at the bottom left is bigger because it has more load on it) from another audio shop where the manager was planning to throw them away after my search at local suppliers wasn't fruitful (could of got some but it would of been by the hundreds).

Anyway final paint job was with Krylon camo flat black, the same stuff I used for the front lip.

[Woodly]

Awesome thanks for the break down!

Video works now! And wow that looks great in the dark in that spot.