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

[future_R34]

I like your build thread better than "project horny". This is a real life build that everyone can relate to.

[MarusGTR]

The storm - Part 4: Gotta buy a calendar

Now that I had one more week to complete my preparations for the time attack, I had enough time to tie up some loose ends. First, I had noticed a flaw in the EBC pads; all their backing plates have a universally molded base for a wear indicator (which they don't use). Even AMS had the manufacturing foresight of having two sets of bases, one for wear indicators (which they did use) and one without.

Why is this a problem? Well a wear indicator is usually mended to the protrusion at the bottom of the pad bases. Since all the EBC pads have these protrusions and that the 296mm GTR brakes are a tight setup, the protrusions would, under wear, eventually reach the AMS rotor floating hat and lock up the rotor or destroy a caliper and/or the car and a school bus full of children in the collateral damage.

So I took the pads off again to grind the bases down.



But this is where it hit me. These pads were thicker than the AMS pads they had replaced. And I had flushed the system to the brim with the AMS pads...

See where I'm going with this?

You're correct! I'm an idiot that didn't account for fluid displacement in the reservoir when I swapped the pads and ended up screwing up the BMC paint in the process.

Well at least that's a major problem that resolved itself by default.

With the pads back in place I then got excited to the prospect of changing my shifter for a no-name short throw. I wasn't looking to having an inch of shaft to play with (ha) like I've seen been done on countless occasions, but to refresh the assembly as sometimes gear changes felt a little too meaty. And in actuality, the cheap kit had its perk; being a two piece shaft I had gotten a custom upper shaft machined for my setup with a slightly longer length than OEM. So the throw angle would of been reduced but actual longer shifter would make the throw more reasonable.

First, that circlip ring SOB. Really, it's a SOB with a mind of its own.



So with the old shifter removed I then put it on the shelf next to the new kit. And then I dropped my head in dissapointment.



Turns out I had a RB20 bushing, no where close to RB26 fitment. I seems that this kit (which I had bought as an RB26 kit) is typically sold as a universal RB kit on ebay, not quite universal afterall (really, no duh).



What made matters worse is that my current shifter, which had to go back in, had some pretty mean wear and tear as you can see in the guide slits on the side of the pivot ball. Still, I tried to polish the ball a bit and regreased the bushing with CV shaft lube in introducing small quantities in the crevices and rolling the bushing over to distribute it.

Also this gave me the chance to look at my transmission seal options. From factory you have 3 seals/boots. You have one flat which covers most of the transmission/gearbox hole, then the dustboot which is over the pivot ball and finally the other ribbed boot which completes the isolation of the inside of the cabin to the undercarriage.

Since I'm running a more compact setup (no skirt), getting the ribbed boot low makes it stiffer and takes out responsiveness from shifting. Ideally, I wanted one flat boot that would seal the cabin from transmission heat. So I found an alternative. I discarted the ribbed boot and grabbed the flat boot by its center hole, initially about the same diameter as the shifter. I figured if I could get it stretched over the gearbox/shifter hole (about twice the diameter) it would seal properly the cabin from the transmission. I made it happen. Mental picture, I goatse'd it like a ************.

[not pictured]

Next step was to complete the weight loss program. The AC delete had taken pretty much all of the hot side of the system but the evaporator remained. Another staple of the exquisite engineering in the R32 series, the evaporator is easily accessed from its box behind the glove box. The box, being a closed unit, can easily be removed by unscrewing 6 screws (again, the engineering is so superb that they made of the of the more isolated screws perfectly angled to be reached by a standard screwdriver) and both pulling the box down and towards the back of the car.



From this point its simply a case of unclipping the power/sensors.

Another reason to removing it is that on the track I could only rely solely on adequate flow coming out of the vents to cool myself. Not only was the evaporator dead weight, I surmised that it was also a good source of flow energy parasitic loss. Which you can see here, I was right.



So like I said, the box is a closed unit. Just looking at the construction I realized that I could gut the evaporator core out and simply put the box back in to seal the system (which would make the process a lot easier than I could of hoped for).





I then noticed a few ugly stains in some of the foam...

Don't smoke guys.



To seal the gaping holes in the firewall (remember the two hoses that go to the enginebay) I sawed both pipes long enough so that they'd keep their mount position secured in the reassembled box. Honesly with the evaporator out and the box all cleaned up, on 2/4 fan power I could now feel fresh air on my face straight from the right-hand steering wheel vent, so it was well worth it.



With some slight adjustment to the ride height to square the car up, an alignment was due. Since I've gotten more of a friendly relation with my local Nissan, they let me put my car on the hoist and assist with the alignment. Its a good way to cut time so you don't get the overtime (more than 1 hour) surcharge.

Bobbo, being the clever track guru that he is, had the genius idea of maxing OEM specs for negative camber to have good highway wear but still have some wedge on the track.





Next, flushing the ATTESA. Since my trunk is stripped I had been giving the stinkeye to the dirty ATTESA tank in the corner and I was itching to flush the system. Since there isn't any procedure to flush a contaminated system (I was assuming a worse case scenario), I devised this procedure. [link]

Finally, the fire extinguisher. I wasn't going to go out in a ball of flames, not on my watch.



She was ready.

[Rush_in]

the last photo looks like she was gonna rape a small child in a middle of the night while you ware a sleep

[MarusGTR]

^ I hope you meant that in the nicest of ways lol!

[Woodly]

Lol wow....that's quite a thought. This car is awesome though!

[bourquetc]

Loven the detail u put in everything! great work man

[Rush_in]

^ I hope you meant that in the nicest of ways lol!

But of course! very nice job

[amnash]

hey i like how the fire extinguisher is mounted there was wondering how to mount mine. what size/type is that???

[MarusGTR]

^ Its your typical off the counter dry powder extinguisher. It was a remnant of my old apartment and I paired it with an old dirty extinguisher mount I found in the basement. Its ABC, so it does oil and accelerants.

Since I didn't want to start drilling holes in the floorpan willy nilly for a position that'll be likely temporary, I opted to use the shaggy OEM carpet and velcro instead. So I contact-cemented some pretty solid industrial velcro strips to the underside of the mount.

[MarusGTR]

ASCC Time Attack 2012 - Part 1

If you recall the ASCC was hosting two of its Time Attack specials (#2 and #3) with a day just before for open lapping. I would only be participating in TA#2 as a way to gauge myself and the car, since I could not afford to participate in the series.

And since I didn't have my competition license, going to the open lapping day would kill two birds with one stone; I'd get to know my new GTR better (new brakes, new suspension, etc) and get some practice while I could get an official as a passenger to write off my license.

So, as I was going to be in Halifax for a few days and the event was somewhat of a proving ground for myself I asked a few friends of mine if they wanted to join up for support. Two of them said yes, as one is a Halifax native he could see his sister and the other was simply interested in joining and would be hosted by the other friend. So by my arrival in Moncton a day before the open lapping, cue a comedic turn of events.

Disclamer, from here on there's not a lot of pictures since I forgot my camera in Moncton. That and my friends took awesome footage of me that ended up being corrupted by GoPro's poor shutoff/file management. Its going to be text heavy.

Anyway, their girlfriends joined in, causing the cars in the group to get different departure times. Friend A left early for his sister's, but being GPSless in a stripped out RHD and being as comfortable in Halifax as a deer looking at headlights I'd be trailing Friend B who was equipped with GPS. Halfway across NS, myself and Friend B decide to split up; I was running out of gas and had to fuel up. Since I didn't want to make Friend B any more late, I'd split up and go to Bobbo's while Friend B would continue on to Friend A. I stopped at the first Shell I saw from an overpass.

So I called up Bobbo and turns out that as usual I had been too late and he was already out with the Mrs. So this meant I had to catch up with Friend B before I'd lose any recognizable road markers. I look at the pump, there's sign taped to it: V-Power shortage in the maritimes. I then raced off to the closest gas station, it had premium, I fuelled up, hopped back in the car.

"Where's my goddamn key?" I use my GTR key on its own, no rings, so it slips easily in my pocket.

I get out the car, start looking everywhere, pockets, under the seats. I lose a good 10 minutes looking like a possum turning everything upside down. I get frustrated and pat myself down again. You know that little useless midget pocket? Yeah the key had slipped in there so snug I couldn't feel it.

So with the RB all fueled up I roared back on the highway and called my friend to see if he's still on the main 4XX highway, which he was. I then tell him to get on the side of the road near a mile marker and put his hazards on so he'd be easy to spot. Night had creped up on me way too quickly. So I start to go into scanning mode, trying to figure where he could be by exit numbers and rolling mile markers with my limited field of vision. Then pretty much where I'd expect them to be, I see a car with hazards on the side of the road.

Remember what I said about my N1s not having lows? It makes it hard to recongize cars with only fogs...

So I stop right behind the car, only to realize its not the right one by the time I reached the rear bumper. Being RHD, I could see the occupants, a guy my age and his wife on the passenger side of the car looking a bit distressed. So I roll my window down and asked if they needed help. Guy, looking a bit confused to the RHD/samaritanism comes up to me and tells me they're ok, they were just a little shook up because their older son had power puked everywhere in the car and they had no way of dealing with it. I laugh and looked behind to my stripped out cabin where I had stashed all my track gear and pull out a roll of blue shop towels.

The guy just lit up, I gave him as much as he thought he needed. In an understandable hurry, I left them to sort things out with the RB roaring, to find Friend B just barely a km later. I still feel really bad for making them wait like that.

So, Friend B takes point and I follow his trail, something that got harder to do as we went deeper into Halifax, to a point where we got to the bridge pay toll, especially since it was multi-lane tolls converging to two lanes. If I got out to pay, I risked losing Friend B as they were unaware of my handicap. So I just drove up to the toll, rolled the window passenger window down and made a loonie rimshot from the RHD driver seat, where I proceeded to dump the clutch when the light went green to cut in front of an SUV that would of blocked my line of sight.

All said and one, we finally group up, and with Bobbo's help we hung out at a local pub, ate huge peanut butter burgers and drank homebrew. I then went to Bobbo's where I crashed for the night.

Next morning, cue Days of Thunder theme song.



Source and for other pictures of the event, hit link.

Sung by no other than Whitesnake's lead singer. Coincidence? I think not. Sadly turns out I'm the polar opposite of Cole Trickle. I'll get to that later.

So with everyone registered and tagged we were ready to go out on the track. Sadly, for my license I got paired with a very conservative official. That wouldn't help my times but I just needed to show some consistency, which I didn't at first; my first time in corner no.2 my line got wonky really quickly because of the different suspension and considerably better brakes, following with some powersliding, which he didn't appreciate too much. In turn no.7 I attempted to get a little ballsy and hit the breaks late so I'd release just before the apex but with my poor experience resulted my my rear end getting loose and I had to correct the resulting oversteer.

We then got into the pits and let the other group get some laps in.

During that time a car got in late; a late model convertible Roush (or GT500 Bobbo?) mustang that had just been out the shop for a major track-oriented overhaul. The owner matched the pricey car, a rich thin short bloke with a thick german accent in a full racing suit. The car had been uncooperative all week after multiple problems popping up, including an ECU problem the same morning, causing its tardiness. The car simply didn't want out.

And my group was called back in. I went out with the official again and merged in the field right behing the mustang with no one behind me for at least 1/2 a lap. By the time I caught up at the no.6 crest (this is where cars get pushed the hardest for the back straightaway, you have to gun the engine after the slight lift off)...

...I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

The mustang was on the straightaway, barreling towards the right into a dirt bank so hard that I saw chunks of lawn explode as the huge mass of steel flung up in the air like foil and land hard on its roof*. By the time I two-foot stopped I was the only car still on the track, the marshalls had called the other cars in the pits, I was the only one left. Being that it was quite an unusual event, the official got out of the car and instructed me to get a fire extinguisher from the main tower (against the regulations but I complied, it was an isolated crash).

*As I recalled the roll cage had been severly bent and one of the passengers' helmets had gone through the windshield, but I can't recall actually seeing the car up or upsidedown. It was blur.

By the time I got back at red flag speed there was a truck crew tending to the driver and co-pilot and other drivers were tending to dusting off the track. The convertible's roll cage had done its job, the driver was up and talking to officials about what had happened. With a little CSIing were quick to notice that the rear differential, which had been left on the track where it had been found, sheared right off before the car even hit the dirt. One of the traction arms had been sheared off, the other looked suspiciously untouched as if it had never been actually secured.

Basically, the crest had caused a shift in weight distribution and by punching the gas, the diff locking up and with only one traction arm holding the assembly, sheared off and flung the rear of the car up in the air. Since they were going at speed, the rear slammed back onto the pavement and flung the car uncontrollably towards the bank.

The car really didn't want to go out that day.

By the time the track reopened, my friends arrived with subs for lunch, missing all the action. They still got to see the carcass that had been left there as a warning for the rest of the day.

[Rush_in]

and then what happened?

[amnash]

ya the bridges in Hali can get a little crazy sometimes and having a r/h car wouldn't help, that made me laugh about throwing the loonie at least youre a good shot or it could have got kind of expensive if you kept missing lol

this isnt the same time i was there was it?

[MarusGTR]

^ Nope, it was in early september.

Sorry for the poor grammar guys, I fixed some of the structure. I'll finish the story soon.

[bobbo]

The car was a GT500 apparently an animal making around 700hp. The "German" accent is a Polish accent and the passenger was the owner. His helmet hit the windshield as a result of the seat breaking.
Hard to keep your foot down when in your periphery there a badly mangled car off on the side of the track.
Needless to say that car is gone but the motor was salvaged.

[MarusGTR]

^Thanks for clearing that up and sorry to any Poles reading, not too sure how they'd appreciate my intepretation of them sounding german lol

Guess I need to travel more eh? :P