A week of mechanical

Hello everyone,

Last week my brother-in-law let me access his garage and tools for a week to work on the 33.
Let's go with what have been done during this week :

1) Painting the center of brake discs 
Mines had a rusty aspect that was not very beautiful so i decided to change that.

Brake disc before

Brake disc after treatment and painting

2) Installing NISMO carbon pillar garnish

I had those since a long time but didn't had time to install it. Now it's done and that will fit perfectly with the future aesthetic change that I imagine.

3) Oil, Gearbox oil and front transferbox oil change.

4) Replacing of the OEM turbo outlet pipe with TOMEI ones 
One of the toughest job because those pipe are not the most accessible part in the car.
I had to remove all the intakes part and need to disconnect the rear turbo to gain some space to work.

Admission out, rear turbo disconnected and OEM outlet pipe down

The second problem was that I realised to late that the pipes I received were R34 one's (TOMEI has two reference 421201for R34 and 421101 for R32/33).
The problem is that I had a reprogrammed 32 ECU with 32 sensors (to allow me to drive with SP98 that we found in Europe). Those sensors don't have the same dimension than 33/34 ones.
As I don't have time to exchange the pipes or order adaptators for 32, we were forced to do some welding to modify the pipes I had.
I felt really sorry to modify such perfect parts but I thank the welder who works with my brother-in-law to allow me to go further.

Modified TOMEI outlet pipe

5) Cleaning the front strut bar
No picture, just give a little refreshment to the bar and put a new "skyline GTR" sticker on it. 

6) Replacing the OEM 17" wheels with my 18" ones
As the winter is finally gone, I decided to come back to the 18" wheels with "summer" tires

I nearly done all what I planned to do but i must admit that there were some moments when I curse myself from wanting to do it (nearly) by myself (i'm not mechanical at all for remembrance)
Anyway, the job is finally done and I think I don't will make any other "big work" on the car before a while (except solving my airbag/horn trouble and finding someone to install a boost controller).

Next step: a few cosmetic changes. More photos early May I hope.

Thanks for reading

Kakimoto exhaust installed

Hello,

So last Friday I received a package from Japan (thanks to Suruga performance for that)

So my new exhaust arrived with some other useful things (new Nissan coils and harness EGI, some Gaskets  and the Tomeï outlet turbos pipes) to comeback on the road.

As I was on holiday and my brother-in-law had some place in his garage for me to work, I didn't wait and change my coils, harness and the spark plugs immediately (ok, actually, it took me 2 hours but i'm far from being a mechanic).

Result : the misfires were gone \o/.

I didn't stop there and replace my Japspeed(tm) exhaust with the Kakimoto(tm) R one.

The mid-silencer section of the Kakimoto R exhaust

End section of the Kakimoto R (still with his protective sheet)

Beside being a beautiful piece (from my point of view), this new exhaust with his mid silencer is really quieter than the Japseed. 

What a change! And a good one.

As the misfires were gone, I was able to tack my car back even if I must still replace the turbo outlet pipes. It was a real pleasure to drive it again.
Next step, replacement of the turbo pipes during second week of april.
I'll try to make some pictures of the work.

To end this post, two shots of my precious (:p) after a quick wash (it needs it ...).

Back to the garage

Some fresh news.

So the run in continue but not as smooth than at the beginning.

As I come close to the 2000km, i start to push the car a little higher in the rev.

I discover that the car has some trouble around 5000rpm ( when i reached 5000, the indicator jumped between 4800 and 5200 rpm).
As turbo pressure stood stable, we thought that i had some misfires.
Beside that, when we check the car with my brother-in-law, we also discovered that there was a crack in the turbo outelt pipe (front turbo).

So the car is back to the garage waiting for my last order :

-) Tomeï outlet turbo pipes

-) New gaskets for the turbo outlet

-) New coils (and harness for the coils). I choose OEM ones because 

1. I found some feedbacks with durability trouble on Spitfire ones (and if something can go wrong in a car. I'll have the problem)
2. As tempting as the Okada plasma option is, my budget does not stretch.

-) New Kakimodo Type R exhaust system. As I intend to use my 33 to make some "long" distance, the kakimoto one will be better with his intermediate silencer than the noisy Japseed one I curently had.

 

-) New Iridium BKR7EIX spark plugs.

Hope to receive the whole lot quickly (and find some time to fix all).

Small things

Hello everyone,

No big news today, just received some little OEM parts to have a "proper" car.

• New sticker for front bar
• New center caps for OEM wheels  (as i will keep the original wheels to drive in winter/autumn with Nokian winter tyres, they will be reconditionned this summer) 
• Emblems (Not sure i took the right ref.)
• Grommet screw (mine is nearly completely away)
• I also received some clips to fix back inside the rear boot and new seals for the decat (not on the pics)

I hope that good weather will come back soon so I can install all this stuff.

Back on the road

Hi everyone,


I continue to run in the car, nearly 1100 km (and a oil change at 500) had been done so far.
Everything run smooth for the moment.

Still a little problem with the new airbag but soon i'll go to the official GTR (R35) belgian dealer who should have all the necessary to check and fix that.

 I 'll try to post pictures of the different places I go during the run in (even if the weather is not very good for the moment).

Lac du Val Joly, France

Barrage de l'Eau d'heure, Belgique
 

First snow :) (Just leave the car two hours outside in front of my flat and found it like that)

First kilometers

So today, we make the first kilometers with the 33.
Yes, "we", as my brother-in-law is a mechanic i prefer that he drives for the first kilometers and i stay as passenger and observer.
The good news :

• The test on the audio system was positive 
• We finally find a convenient way to place the oil filter.
• After 200km we don't have any mechanical issues (no water or oil leak at all).
• Nismo submeter works well (so it means that i have an eletrical issue  or a faulty sensor as the oil temp indicator didn't move at all).
• The blue led lights for aircon, submeters and speedometer are just as i want (thanks Aki for the idea).
• The 3M carbon covered front lip looks good (thanks again to Aki for the idea)

The "less good news" (not really bad but still annoying)

• trouble with oil temp sensor
• trouble with airbag (light on the speedometer is permanently lightened)
• Horn didn't work (but the fuse is good)
• The tyres on stock rims are not so good (but I already ordered some Nokian WR A3 XL to solve this. So i will have stock rims with winter tyres  for winter time and 18" rims for the rest of the year)

Still some work to do but  now I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

And to conclude, some pictures (a little crapy sorry).

The engine bay with the relocated oil filter.

 The 33 with her carbon covered front lips in winter configuration with stock rims

Merry Christmas to everyone and a happy new year.

@Aki : Thanks for your previous message but it seems that I can't answer it. Hope that i can add more (and better) pictures and news soon.

It's alive \o/

So the car has started again.
As you can see, there's still some work to do on the interior but it works.
The RB26 works smoothly and the car has done a few kilometers without trouble.

Still has to check oil sensor because the nismo oil temperature on the sub-meter didn't seem to work.
I will test it tomorrow with the OEM gauge.

If i can solve this part, i can finsih the interior and tune the audio parts.

So still some work but i'm relieved that the biggest part is behind me now.