joshuaho96

Should work if it came out of a GTST.

ChatGPT is trash and lies about things I would not expect it to lie about considering many things it's wrong about are very easily verified with google. The S3 R33 GTR shares its steering wheel with R33 GTSTs of the same production year. Part number is 48430-26U17. I'm guessing you have to get it from a car that came with HICAS though, the ER33 is 48430-26U18, but the HR33 diagrams note that part number is still leather vs 48430-26U13 which is not leather-wrapped. They all use the same airbags, so if you need another one you can get it off basically any same year R33 or Stagea.

Get a timing light on it and verify it's sparking reliably at a sane ignition timing. Use a COP extension lead to be 100% sure about timing instead of hoping that the timing loop on the back of the engine is accurate. Make sure it's actually injecting fuel. MAF is not used on the stock ECUs for initial cranking.

RE5R01A is the transmission. Didn't realize they had a 5 speed for the NA cars but for some reason the turbo engines stuck to 4 speeds. Looks like the solenoid block is still available from Nissan directly at a somewhat reasonable price: 31940-60X01 https://www.amayama.com/en/genuine-catalogs/epc/nissan-japan/skyline/er33/6568-rb25de/trans/317 I would move sooner on this than later. The moment the de minimis exception for Japan goes away expect to be paying 25% tariffs even for stuff like this.

Is this preventable by priming the system with external oil pressure? I've seen the speed academy folks hook up an external oil priming system to the oil pressure sensor port with an air compressor to check for oil leaks before putting an engine back in a car. Something like this: https://www.jegs.com/i/JEGS/555/23550/10002/-1?gPromoCode=SPRINGINTOSPEED_APR25_5Off&gQT=1

The quickjack pinch weld blocks are 12.7mm deep. I use some generic amazon/alibaba special jack stand pads which are 20mm deep which is far more than you need on these cars: https://www.amazon.com/Seven-Sparta-Adapter-Universal-Protector/dp/B07N691QNG I'm not sure what your lift looks like but presumably these will work too: https://www.amazon.com/HXXF-Adapter-Universal-Slotted-Protector/dp/B07X7MYGYF

I have a VALCON if anyone wants it, I have no idea why you'd want to have VVT specifically broken out of the ECU as opposed to running it off the FCON/whatever standalone you have.

AFAIK I've seen other people recommend using the back of the balance tube as well. Andre Simon from HPA at least. I can't imagine it being that far off from ideal even if it was only used to drive a boost gauge from the factory.

Isn't there a fitting on the back of the balance tube? That's what the OEM boost gauge uses.

Most hardlines are available new still. But unless they're rusted to the point of needing replacement you can just zinc or cadmium plate them to keep them going for decades to come. Regarding the turbo drains it really depends. Braided lines might be better if it's a straighter path than OEM but I would not assume braided teflon lines will never leak. Teflon is a very durable material but you can still abrade, erode, or otherwise compromise its integrity. The return hoses on the bright side are not that hard to access relative to a full turbo removal so if things go wrong you can always put it back to stock. You can very easily drive yourself insane analyzing every little change, or maybe that's just me.

For all the talk of "these parts are junk" I generally recommend OEM because it's really not as bad as claimed. I have never seen or heard of a case like the N63 where the oil returns completely clog with coked oil for example in ~10 years or less. Would it be nice if it were a straighter path? I guess, but most modern cars use a scavenge pump instead of a pure gravity return. Also the factory lines that would be relatively simple to convert to braided are generally speaking hardlines from the factory. I would consider braided line to be a regression, not an improvement. It's also been engineered such that all the hardlines have appropriate strain relief where needed. There's absolutely room for improvement, for example the HKS advantage heritage intake piping shows just how much can be done to make the turbos fight each other less in OEM twin turbo configuration and reduce compressor surge but it's rarely a simple/straightforward process. I recommend looking at what the group A/N1 cars did, generally speaking the changes they made were necessary and proven in endurance racing.

Power light apparently functions as a transmission error light, you can try the power sequence to read any codes from the transmission control unit.

Yeah I would try and diagnose this in situ before thinking about pulling the motor. Those hoses have quite a sharp bend and like anything rubber after 25-30 years it all needs replacement. Budget 1000 USD for hoses alone at this point, there are a metric ton of them in this engine and they're all probably in need of replacement if they haven't been touched yet and you want to replace all the rubber with OEM/Nismo Heritage. Once you know the scale of what needs to be done you can debate whether to pull the motor or not.

Honestly, for a daily I would gladly rock a Camry. The more disposable the better. People drive horribly out here and road conditions are awful.

Verify it's going into each of the 4 gears in normal acceleration, make sure the torque converter locks up over ~65-70 kph or so at low throttle opening. If you ease into the throttle at those speeds eventually you should get a "gear" between 3rd unlocked and 4th locked. It should downshift eventually if you floor it at 65 kph too. Get some Matic D ATF and drain the pan, check for signs of sadness in fluid and drain plug magnet. Top off to the correct level afterwards. If the transmission is worth saving you can drop the pan on a second drain and change the filter while you're at it. These are not complicated transmissions, at least compared to modern stuff.

I have seen this happen in cases like the R33 GTR where they eliminated the ATTESA actuator rod retaining clip to save 5 cents. Parts diagram references it, the actual part doesn't. Also if you try and look up the specific retaining clip on an R33 GTR it resolves to nothing. But it exists on R32 GTRs as I discovered a week or two ago.

Yeah, this is more stuff like transmission/clutch R&R. Intake manifold R&R. It's not super complicated, but each step matters and you need to be careful and patient. I have heard stories for example of people not figuring out the super coppermix twin plate orientation and getting it wrong on assembly. Removing a cylinder head and putting it back in once it's machined isn't that hard, following torque sequence to install some cams isn't that hard either, but somehow I've seen a lot go wrong between here and there. Scraping off all gasket material isn't that hard either, but I've seen shops ruin heads by using a roloc disk that was too aggressive.

Weirdly I see a flat washer on aftermarket pumps but as you said it doesn't seem like new OEM pumps have it. EPC doesn't break out the regulator as a separate component either. I'm guessing if the pump came that way it's safe to use as-is.

A local that insisted he learned from the best in Australia for RB builds managed to machine a head past the point of saving according to another shop and it dropped a valve too. Ghosted the customer and as far as I know nothing really happened to him. A coworker also recently told a story about owning a Porsche in Germany and running into issues with a dealer tech leaving scratches, oil stains, and missing parts all over his car. I'm not a master tech by any means but at this point I've seen enough expensive mistakes that I'd rather make them myself.

Apparently very early R33s had R12, after that they switched to R134a. So if it's all OEM R134a and the parts still exist it might be worth keeping it stock. But from a quick search the condenser is really, really expensive if it's still available. Hard to say which actually ends up cheaper here, if you end up needing a new compressor the FPG kit is probably cheaper.

Aren't R33s R134a?

People think it's a waste of space, ugly, etc, generally associate "emissions control equipment" with "bad". These OBD1 vacuum-only systems I'm not a huge fan because I think they don't go far enough. They're wasting some of the fuel captured because they start purging as soon as the engine pulls vacuum. Later OBD1/OBD2 they put an electric purge valve on them to vent only when closed loop is active so the ECU will trim some fuel out. Even later OBD2 with zero evaporative loss the tank is 100% sealed from atmosphere until you run the engine or press the refuel door release. The tank has to take much higher vacuum/pressure spec but you never deal with saturating the charcoal canister and losing some fuel that way. The fuel also lasts as long as it would in a 100% airtight container which is nice when you're dealing with modern E10 pump gas.

If your luck is anything like mine, what happens is in the process of pulling hoses to get access to the one leak you create many more leaks because every o-ring was on the verge of failing and the strain of pulling it apart caused it to fail. Sometimes life is simple, sometimes you pay twice trying to save once. For the R33 you can still get most AC components from Nissan, I use nissan epc data or amayama to look up the part numbers and then search for the cheapest/most practical way of sourcing from there.

The dirty secret is there is nothing recyclable about the plastic bag or old plastic bottles either. Our local trash collection explicitly calls it out as hazmat in both cases. Oil-soaked rags + paper towels too. Oil-soaked cardboard is also not recyclable. The most common case of oil-soaked paper like that is pizza boxes, which are explicitly compost-only from the oil. To my knowledge hazmat oil contaminated plastic the only solution is either landfill or "thermal recycling". Most plastics in my experience there is slow permeation of the oil it's holding into the container so it's very challenging to get it 100% clean.

AFAIK on most Toyotas that half moon is usually an aluminum piece that you seal with RTV so you just source the valve cover gasket but I kind of doubt that you'll ever save money buying an aftermarket piece in this scenario.