History/Work Log R33 Skyline GTR

[EricG-SkylineGTR]

Current Picture

MODS

Engine
-Boost Restrictor Out
-Apexi Intake Pods
-Greddy B.O.V.

Exterior
-Retrofitted High/Low Headlights With HID's

Interior
-Various Carbon Fiber Wrapped Pieces
-Apexi Power FC ECU

Future Mods
-Greddy/Godspeed Intake
-Tomei Exhaust Manifold
-Tomei Turbo Dump Pipes
-Tomei Twin Turbos (Now changed to Garretts 2860R-5's)
-Haltech ECU (Now changed to Power FC)
-Deascherwerks 800cc Injectors (Now changed to Injector Dynamics 850cc)
-Upgrades Fuel Pump (Deashworks 320)
-Tomei Oil Pump (Now changed to NISMO)
-N1 Water Pump (Now changed to Stock)
-Aluminum Radiator (Koyo Rad)
-HKS Oil Cooler With Oil Filter Relocation Kit (Changed to Greddy's brand)
-Twin Plate Clutch (OS GIKEN)
-Build Engine Capable For 500WHP (Internals With Head Work) (ITS HAPPENING NOW)

* * * * *

Before we begin this log of mine just wanted to point out a few things first. The purpose of this thread is to keep track of what has been done to the Skyline with any sorts of mods and the history. I'm building this Skyline to be an everyday street car with the occasional track days (like many other like to do) to keep a balance. I have followed in many other footsteps with the way i have the car currently so be sure to read on to find out. I'll update tha main mods in the future. Now with that said and done lets begin

CHAPTER 1 - Background Info & Beginning

Back in my teen years when i first bought my very first vehicle (Toyota Tacoma) i got into this modding world. Once I was introduced this modding it became very addictive since we all want our own vehicle to be special or to be the odd one out to say "that one is mine". I'm sure many of you can relate since i did quite a bit of modding to my tacoma with a full exhaust, intake and eventually leading to a supercharger. The truck was very enjoyable but of course you'll always want more which came my next dilemma. I wanted something quicker and agile because if i continued with my truck i had a feeling i may eventually blow up the engine. Didnt want that since it was my daily driver and still is to this day.

On the hunt i went for a sportier car. Ive always wanted a GTR ever since i was a younger boy so on the seach i went. Looked into the newer R35's at first but they were way out of my price range even for the 2009's. Let's go back to the 90's were the cars back then was be ruling the JDM world. Back then the iconic R34 was not able to be imported so onto the earlier version to an R33. To me, the R33 looks of the car were very appealing so onto the search i went to try and find one for myself.

OF course before going on the hunt with all the importing non-sense paperwork i serached locally and found one in my home town.



Contacted the seller and on we went with a test drive. At this point i never driven a right hand driver vehicle before so i was really nervous once he showed me with a test drive of his own. Once he did a pull with the car I was instantly hooked. It already felt much quicker then my tacoma but the thing is was the asking price….

He was asking 23K for the car which felt pretty high to me compared to some of the other adds i found. We talked about it for a while since the car had to get its lip repainted and some minor spider cracks on the front bumper. Managed to get the car for 19K. Not to bad but hey now ive myself a GTR!! Before I did buy the car I took a look underneath to see any kind of rusting and nothing really. Maybe some minor surface rust here and there but it was in really good shape.

Bought the car back in 2013 in the middle of summer. I had such a time with it for that summer and of course came a few mods already. Bought a "new to me" set of retrofitted headlights fori can install HID's



Carbon Wrapped the dash since it was looking pretty faded



and got rid of the OEM blow off valves for a Greddy B.O.V. (i wanted to hear my PSSHH and the car ran fine without any issues)



and lastly the apexis intake pods



With those minor mods done, i enjoyed the Skyline till it was the end of the 2013 summer. With that realization i had to store the Skyline somewhere since it WILL NOT see winter months at all. A Temporary tarped garage was bought at canadian tire and i had to settle with that for now.



It worked fine through the winter months as long you wipe off the snow off the roof. At this time i had a big plan to make my car feel quicker since i got used to the power the car was making then. Starting researching the big ol debate of twins vs a single. I didn't know much about the car back then so i stuck with twins. With the great forum of GTRC i manged to get quite a few awesome deals with brand new second hand parts. My parts collectiong started to grow.

* * * * *

CHAPTER 2 - Summer of 2014

Summer comes around again with the warm weather around us and the itch of driving all of our cars again. Out came the Skyline! It was still on stock form despite the parts i have bought for it already. I had thought about installing the new turbo's over winter but the little shack made it WAAYY to cold.

This summer I had a great feeling it was going to be an awesome summer! It sure turned out to be an interesting one! Ran into some of my other JDM friends and we boosting all day long!





With that i manage to get the Skyline on a track to really test it out. That day as by far the funnest day i had with my Skyline. The same GTR in the picure above (Midnight Purple) was tagging along with me as we travlled around Alberta. (Sorry dont have pics!) The one thing i did notice though, on the way back it felt as if the car was putting it brakes on lightly here and there but i wasnt touching the breaks at all. Of course it eventually went away with a disasterous consequence i didnt know was about to happen.

[EricG-SkylineGTR]

All was fine and dandy went we got back into our home town. I continued my every day life with this awesome car of mine until the next week came strolling by. A different friend of mine wanted to see how the car launched so i agreed sure lets go! As soon as i dropped the clutch the back wheels spun for days on end, the front wheels didnt feel as if they were doing anything. The Skyline was fish tailing as i went through 1st and 2nd gear. I stopped after second with the realization of something was very wrong. When i got to a coasting drive there was a nasty grinding coming of the front end of the car which of course eventually went away once i got home to go investigate this sound.

Had a friend come help me out on this with jacking the front of the car and rolling the front wheels. No strange sound or grinding coming from there. The only thing we seen was a lound bang in a sense when we went from front rotation to a reverse rotation with the wheel. So we figured with the can front end not grabbing we pulled the front plug. There was hardly any flow of oil coming from the diff since it was very thick to the point it felt like anti-seize. As soon as we looked at the magnetic drain plug there was pieces of metal as if they were from the gears themselves. Pulled off the main cover to discover my pinion gear has been SCHREDDED.







Clearly my diff got ****** up pretty bad and dont really have a solid explanation why that did happen… Now im out of a diff but with the urge of still wanting to drive my car i put the car in RWD with taking out the front prop shaft and puling the fuse.

A couple of weeks went by knowing that this happened and driving the car in RWD felt to me this isnt the right way at all. I had to re-build it eventually so on the search i went to find a place were i can rest the car for quite some time. I'm thankfull my parents lent me a bit of space in their garage so i can do this. By the time I parked the car for good it was fall once again so i managed to get to ride the car for at least half the summer.



If you own one of these Skylines you'll know the front diff housing is molded with the oil pan and just because of that i decided to pull the ENTIRE enging out to make things easier since EVERYTHING in the diff housing has to be replaced.



Of course now with the engine pulled and winter pretty much around the corner i made a drastic decision of rebuilding my engine! Was going to be an intesresting winter now with the hopes of having this done for next summer!

* * * * *

Chapter 3 - The Re-Build of Winter & Summer 2014/15

With the decision i made to rebuild this engine i knew i had a big project ahead of me. Knowing I had my parents garage for this build made things easier with the room available. Got ahold of some important tools I'm going to need for this and onwards I went to tear down this engine!





With all that done within a months time or so i wanted to get the block cleaned and checked out for any cracks. A shop down in edmonton called "Pro Stock" helped me with this. They noted i needed to re-bore the block because the shape of the bore was "V'd". Fair enough we bored the block 0.5mm over. While the block was over at their shop i also mentioned to order some pistons and rods since i wanted to upgrade from the stock pieces, let alone they wont fit anymore! Got the usual eagle rods with CP pistons combo and some ACL bearings, funny though seems as if everyone goes this route. Also got them to clean up and balance everything with the crankshaft.

I'd like to note 4 MONTHS later i received my block with all my parts. I was excited to get this finally on the go! So on with the re-build i went. Firstly dropping the crank in the block and checking clearances. Once that was done just a matter of bolting everything together for the final time. (No i did not forget about the oil squatters)



Secondly came the assembly of the pistons once the proper ring gap was acquired



Once that was done its just a matter of dropping them in the block!



Got all 6 in without to many hiccups. There was a couple times a ring would split out from the holder but i caught that right away before breaking any of the rings. Once they were all in took my clearance measurements on the rods, all was well so onwards i went to torque them down to spec for final assembly. Assembled some of the accessories on the block such as the oil pump, rear seal, stock oil cooler etc.. This is how the block sat for another 4-5 months because I finally made up my mind to do something with my head.

My head went to Raw Brokerage in Florida. I chose them because i felt they specialized in the RB engines. Contacted them with the arrangements of sending down my own head for their stage 2 build and with the installment of TOMEI Type B cams. While i waited for that to finish up now was a good time to takled that front diff of mine.

This was a good project for me, learned lots about how diffs are properly set up and how everything works to make sure you get it right the first time. I already ahd everything torn apart with the outter races of the bearings pushed out ready for new ones. Now it was time to make myself an order to replace all the old parts and man what a bill that came to…. It was pretty high because i upgraded the front diff to an LSD NISMO diff.



Everything came in with a new prop shaft/pinion gear with the pairing ring gear and all the seals, bearings and o-rings. I didnt have to worry about shims since my father had grinding table for we can make precision shims. It was quite interesting how once you thought you had the right shims then check your pattern you'd have to re-arange a couple and not forgetting about your preload on the bearings. It was time consuming project with alot learned on it, it eventually looked like this once it was all done and finished with. Note that TOMEI baffling!



Then simply install it on the engine block!



By this time when i got this far on my buid it was around the months of march and spring was coming around the corner! Was thinking to myself my head better come in pretty soon! Well fast forward to the beggining of june i get a mail slip to finally go pick up my head. Was a great day, ive been waiting for this for roughly 12-14 weeks so i was pretty stocked to go get it.

[EricG-SkylineGTR]

Upon quick inspection i found there to be a bump where the valve covers sit. Was not expecting to see that because with the price i paid i was expecting the head to be in perfect condition. Contacted Raw Brokerage about it to let them know what has happened. It was an easy fix with a stone so it was minor stuff really.



Was waiting for some parts to come in at this time like my ARP head studs which for some reason i didn't order in advance. When they came in it was time to install the head. Another quick inspection of the finished surface i found another bump…. Was not impressed with this one since it was a 0.005" bump which made the head out of tolerance. I had to stone it back flat and got it as close to the point where my 0.0015" shim wouldnt fit below my straight edge.



Contacted Raw Brokerage about this and at this time i couldn't send in a claim since it there was too much time has passed by. They didn't do anything about it since it was shipping and i would doubt their machinist would let that go out their shop. Even if i did re-send mine back it would most likely be another month before i would get it back. By this time spring/summer was here and the cars were coming out. Onwards i continued with this build of mine by installing the head with the fixes i had to do.



By this time everything else was a breeze. Install the timing belt, manifolds with the turbos, coolant/oil lines, intake manifold etc, eventually go all the way to the intake plenum. I managed to build the rest of the engin in the matter of 3 days but yet machining and building my head and block took 8 months? Kinda wonder how that happens



Now was time to install the transmission with the clutch. That went on no problem after a bit of modding to the transmission. (cutting 4mm off the cover inside the bell housing) and with installing the conversion kit from OS Giken.







Then it was time to make everything one piece



With all that done, time to drop the engine back into its car! By the time i was ready for this half of the summer was gone. Installed the engine roughly in the month of July. (Trying to keep somewhat of a timeline)



Now it was really time to get this going with getting the engine running on its first start up! In order to get this engine running i needed to complete the following:

-Fuel pump with lines
-Intake piping
-radiator
-alternator with lower harness installed
-new belt for the alternator and water pump
-Greddy oil cooler & relocation with primed lines
-Prime oil pump
-Wiring harness for coil packs, injectors & CAS sensor

I'm sure theres a few i missed but once it was all done it was time to fill the engine with oil and crank the engine over for a start up! Poured a little amount of oil during the priming phase for not everything is "dry". With a couple of hesitations it fired up without any issues! Onwards i went to do an initial cam break in to keep the engine at ~2000 RPM's fpr 15 mins. Once that was done shut off the engine and it was time for its first oil change.

With the engine running just fine i can finally put everything else together which included:
-Axles & Driveshafts
-Install Power FC's Boost Kit
-Interior with AFR gauge & Short Shifter
-New suspension
-New Rims and Tires
-Fill front diff with oil and change transmission oil

By the time this got finished up were in the month of September and once September comes rolling around you know fall is around the corner followed by another season of winter. Here came another exciting part of this build the first drive!

Had a few friends come over to come help me push the car on dollies for i can drive the car out straight out of the garage. Tried starting the car and now it doesnt wanna run….. great, so a friend of mine grabbed a 8 feet of hose and dumped it in my fuel tank, it was pretty much dry. Oooops so we got about 20 liters worth of fuel and cranked over the engine again. This time without a hesitation it started up just fine. The next question is it going to go into gear? Grabbed the shifter, pressed in the clutch and baaam, first gear it slides in no problem. Out came the car out of the garage.



This time around i noticed quite a few interesting things about the car but went on around the block for a minor cruise to make sure everything is working in its right order and by the time I realize i actually have the car back on the road im back at my house again.



The things I noticed on the first drive is that the car doesnt wanna idle and wants to die every so often. Almost as if i had a vacuum leak somewhere. The other thing is that because of this suspected vacuum leak the car is running very lean. 16.0 to 17.0 at idle and 13.0 WOT at 3500 RPM's

This is where i currently am with the Skyline. Waiting on a smoke machine to come helpe me find my vacuum leaks since i do not want to run the engine and do the other "old school" ways. I do say after a year of the car being parked it was a pleasure to drive even around the block

There is much more to come so stay tuned

[StarkTemplar]

Wow really detailed post! I can't wait to see how it turns out. You can see the light at the end of the tunnel so you are almost there.

[EricG-SkylineGTR]

Chapter 4 Fall & Winter of 2015

With the first run done, my parents are kicking me out of their garage and it was time for a new place for the skyline once again. Luckily a friend of mine was able to spare me some room in his garage downtown. Since the car wasn't running really good i had to tow it down on a trailer. Gotta love my tacoma for it.



Once i got the car down it was time to start playing with the ecu and doing some minor runs for a street tune. Of course the very first run the Apexi ECU was screaming engine knock. Played around with the fuel map and started dialing down the timing. This went on for a couple weekends to get it down path. The car was really starting to pull good right before spool at 4500 RPM's. As soon as i got above 5000RPM's the dash would light up a check engine light very quickly, learned that i was getting close to maxing out my stock injectors so i had to leave the rev limiter to 5000.

Then came one weekend where i kept hearing this tick tick tick every time the engine was in low RPM's heavy load (3rd or 4th gear) The ECU wasn't reading knock so i was baffled thinking the engine waas lightly knocking so i stopped driving the Skyline. Parked it for 3 weeks until my appointment came up to go visit lightspeed for a solid tune and figure it out there since i couldn't make it stop.

Of course with lightspeed being a 6.5 hrs away from me my tacoma is not going to be the one to haul this skyline down but instead my sisters half ton silverrado will work just fine. We pretty much switched keys for the week i was gone down to red deer.



So now before lightpseed would do any tuning they went over the car to find anything leaking and also perform a leak down with a smoke test. The leak down passed with flying colours with cylinder 3 being the highest at 9%. The smoke test didnt mention anything for a vacuum leak so thats a relief. However i did mention to them about my skyline having a terrible vibration last summer when you got into higher speed of 100km/hr with it getting worse.

With that mentionned we went for a test drive around on the highway and im here thinking my engine is still knocking! So once the mechanic got a sense of what was happening in to the shop they brought the car. There was a couple of other thing i wanted to get done on the car which is

1)Upgrade the fuel system with a FPR & bigger injectors
2)Install the new Z32 Mafs
3)Figure out my tick tick tick noise

They got those jobs done but also mentioned my front turbo drain was leaking so they fixed that without any issues. They also had to relocate my boost solenoid since it's where the FPR is sitting currently. Once that was all done onto the dyno we went!



So once we had the car on the dyno i was able to see how much nicer it is to tune on a dyno. The dyno is a much more controlled environment where you can pay attention to your AFR's and not worry about driving on the road. Let alone with the dyno you can control load and go into every box on the fuel map. Once i seen this i dont think i'll wanna try street tuning again!

Anyways the numbers that the car made was a whopping 310 WHP & 320 ft/lbs torque at 5000RPM on 16 PSI. I dont have the graph because this is solely a break in tune till i can get more km's on the car. Everything went well at lightspeed. Remember that tick tick tick noise? Turns out it was the boost solenoid the whole time, and my driveline vibration was simply my wheels were not balanced properly since the car was dead smooth on the dyno.

[MarusGTR]

Excellent work on the engine, good on you of doing the planes and bottom end yourself. Wish I'd have those skills!

[coupelove]

badass.