Bryan's R32 GTR

[bkkn]

Front turbo follows the back... lowered it into the bay, connected the lower oil and water lines then placed the manifold on top... once again making sure to tighten all the manifold nuts before lifting the turbo on or you'll never get your hands behind it...



After it was all together reattached the upper coolant lines then tightened the turbo to manifold nuts...

[bkkn]

Once all was tightened down; reattach all the vacuum lines and reassemble the intake pipes...



Refill the oil and coolant then turned the key... Fired rite up and was instantly dumping coolant on the ground... Upon further inspection the coolant feed line to the front turbo was leaking...




Off came the intake pipes in order to check the top fitting... When I loosened it the fitting completely fell apart from the braided line... Factory defect apparently; I had an extra line so it wasn't a huge issue but now I could only pray that I could get to the engine block fitting without removing the rear turbo... Off came the down pipe and it was my lucky day... Took a little maneuvering but I managed to remove the other end from the engine block and install the new line... Mental note for any future work to be done...

[bkkn]

Reassembled the intake pipes and started the skyline once again to ensure there were no other minor leaks...



Sure enough the front coolant return line was barely dripping on the turbo elbow... For the third time the intake pipes were removed, fitting taken apart, checked, tightened and reassembled... Start it again to check the previous leaks...



Now the other side was dripping on the rear turbo... For the fourth time the intake pipes came back off... This time every fitting I could get to got taken off and re-tightened... For those of you who haven't caught on yet the moral of the story is double and triple check all your fittings before reassembly... Intake back together and started for the last time... No leaks! Took it down to the under-body wash bay to ensure all remaining residue was cleaned up then replaced the bumper and brought it back home...

In the end I spent about 4 days in the auto craft shop and cost around $200... Much better than the approximately $1500 it would have cost me to have a shop do the work and a much better sense of accomplishment...

[bkkn]

Finally finished... (famous last words) here is an update from my mapping session in the UK this week... Drove up to London Thursday the 11th of July, it only took about 6 hours to make it to the Calais ferry then 2 hours on the boat and another hour and a half into the city... Really wasn't all that bad and would do it again if the need arises...

Thursday we just kinda hung out in the city and didn't really do much of anything, after the drive we were pretty spent. Friday was prep day so I headed north to meet up with Steve Sadler from FC Tuning UK... We started off by fitting the complete fuel system finally... Lines, rail, 800cc SARD injectors, Aeromotive pressure regulator... A lesson I learned is that although the SARD injectors are sold specifically for the RB26 engine they do not plug strait into the factory harness, nor does SARD provide the proper clips / wiring... Off we went to source a set of clips and Matt (one of the Redline mechanics) assisted me with wiring and looming up the new injector plugs...
Old Plugs:


New Plugs:

[bkkn]

After fitting the fuel system it was time to tackle the Z32 MAF's... It seemed fairly strait forward but I have some helpful advise for anyone doing this in the future... even though the wires of the factory MAF's and the wires of the Z32 MAF's are exactly the same color they do not however connect the same... 2 hours of trouble shooting to finally fix that... i did not take any pictures of this part because we were pretty pissed off and it was like 0200 so you'll just have to google or imagine these colors... so for future reference... connect black/gray to matching black / gray... connect solid black to solid black... still with me? good because here is where we messed up... connect white to orange... and orange to white... if you connect orange to orange and white to white like you would assume they will not work!
Out with the old:



In with the new:



Also of note; when I swapped from the Greddy filters to the HKS it required modification to the washer bottle. The HKS filters are a bit bigger, I took the washer bottle out and tossed it in the oven at 250* for 10 mins and you can pretty much form it anyway you need to from there...
Engine bay complete: (for now)


The intake plenum has since been repainted black also as it attracts a lot of attention (not the good kind).

[bkkn]

so after a long night of dyno prep we headed over to Motorworx in west London the next morning... First pull on factory map and waste gate boost was around 312hp which seemed to me like a reasonable starting point considering it was in essence "factory" again... worked out the road map and then started to increase the boost... at 1.1bar it acquired a misfire so we took a break to diagnose the issue... Changed the plugs still misfire... tested the coil packs and sure enough they were starting to go...



Now it was a mad scramble to find another set, it was 1800 on a saturday and I had driven all that way, I was not going to settle for 1.1bar... lol... Steve called a few shops to ask for favors but no one had any in stock... Finally after exhausting just about everyone the 6 of us knew Danny; the owner of Motorworx found someone willing to let me borrow his set of splitfire's to finish mapping the car... swapped the new coil packs in and man what a difference!

[bkkn]

in the end it pulled a consistent 540, 541.4, and 545.9 on 98ron pump gas and 34*c ambient temperature... I have no doubt that on a cooler day it would have cracked 550 but I'm happy with the results... The waste gate springs were a bit on the weak side too, they're fine for this build but to push more than 1.5bar they would surely need upgraded to HKS actuators or equivalents...



Video of the high HP pull:
Skyline GTR final pull 545HP, 479LBFT, 1.5BAR - YouTube

I can't express how amazing this session with FC Tuning was... They weren't the typical tuning shop who is only there to get their money out of you... Since I was buying the NISTune ECU from them as well, it was a flat rate for the ECU, installation, dyno prep, and mapping... You generally don't get to see all the behind the scenes stuff and I appreciated the hospitality, I don't know too many other shops that would stay and work on a car until 0230 and not charge you anything beyond the original price...

[bkkn]

Finally got around to installing the AEM wideband sensor as well recently. It was pretty strait forward and I honestly didn't think to take many pictures of the install because it really was that easy lol.

I drilled and welded the provided bung into my downpipe, screwed in the O2 sensor provided, and ran the wire through the passenger side floor where the exhaust temperature sensor wire is located.
The wires come out under the passenger seat and I routed them under the carpet and out behind the radio and center console.
The previous owner had some sort of "kill switch" mounted where the original clock was located. This did not work with the car's alarm system and was essentially just for looks so I figured this would be an ideal place for the new gauge to live.

[bkkn]

I dropped by the local hardware store and picked up a small sheet of black plexiglass and cut it to the exact size of the "kill switch" plate. This was an ideal location as the factory clock's wiring was still behind the dash and provided a good power, ground, and dimming signal for the wideband gauge.
It was as simple as creating a hole in the factory shroud big enough to fit the gauge, splicing in the correct wires, and screwing my "new" gauge holder into place.
Here is how it looks now; not too shabby and surely better looking than the non-operational kill switch.

[Dragon Humper]

Nice....you got a whole bunch of double posts that need trimming though.

The 'Ring is going to be a whole bunch more fun......you bastard.





Jon.

[bkkn]

Fixed... No idea why it was making double posts like that lol... It never gave me the usual duplicate post warning and updated correct (or at least what looked correct) as I was posting...

[hp44incgtr]

damn nice car man i remove them turbo with the engine in the let me tell you i know yo pain next time im just gonna remove the engine its no jokes, the only thing i would change on yo car would be the rims its hard to found something that matches the color of yo car..

[hp44incgtr]

its tune on pf it made good power but the curbs lines are up and down how responsive is it..

[hp44incgtr]

i got the same steering wheel quick release by turning the lock i love when i park my car i just take it with me good luck taking my car lol..

[MarusGTR]

Dude, you have NO clue how much I envy you being at the 'Ring and especially that you were shot on the carousel. I would make duplicate users just to keep pressing the like button. Hook a guy up with an english-speaking engineering job in Germany? :P

Quite the massive start to a build thread btw, good job and stay safe on the track.