SteveL

If the screw went down the plug hole and you turned the motor over you may have done some serious damage - but certainly some damage. At best you've mashed the end of the spark plug which might explain why it won't start (but still should run on the other five). At worst - bent valve(s), damaged valve seat(s), indentations in the piston crown/combustion chamber. Bottom line is don't turn the engine over until you've found that screw. If you can't find it externally, then inspection of the cylinder in question using a borescope would be the next step - if you can find a mechanic that has one. It would probably mean having the car towed. Alternatively its going to be a case of taking the head off to inspect for/the damage.

I think you need to take it back to the shop that did the work. No offence intended Cole, but you do realise this is an Australian forum with a focus on Nissan Skylines ?? - most here wouldn't have much of an appreciation of the mechanicals of your car, although would recognise Pontiac as a make of american car. You might be better off looking for a US based forum focused on your make/model. Just a suggestion

Agreed....in the case of the wrex appears to be a rear-end lose through the fast left-hander at then end of the back straight. Probably got in too hot, had the line wrong, etc, etc GTR probably the same but had almost recovered it - then run out of room. You become a passenger once its on the grass . As someone else said, _very_ lucky not to have rolled it. A few years back someone did some fairly substantial re-arrangement of the armco at Sandown (may have been a John Mott event) and was presented with a fairly substantial bill just to add insult to injury.....

Nissan 200ZR was Z31 chassis with RB20DET engine: http://www.fsinet.or.jp/~ranfa/myfairlady-e.htm Most RB engines available have the sump bowl in the wrong place to drop into a Z31 chassis - the sump bowl is at the front in RB engines used in Skylines, but Z31 needs a rear bowl. Changing the sump is an option, but finding a rear bowl RB sump is not that easy. Since you want an NA RB30, your best bet would be to get one from an MQ Patrol (I think that's right). These have a sump with the bowl at the rear, but its fairly deep so probably need some mods to fit. These are a carburetted engine (RB30S), but it would be a simple matter to bolt on the EFI gear from a skyline engine (R31). Bonnet clearance might be an issue as the RB30 is a fairly tall engine compared with an RB20 - fitting a twin cam head to an RB30 block actually lowers the overal height a small amount.

Well you might be lucky and they can do something with it. If the worst comes to worst let me know and I can ship you over some spare caps from this other head as replacements (you pay shipping, of course ). But you'd still have to have the bores machined/honed to suit.

WOW, that's about $1300 (maybe more ??).....good luck with it.

Yes that's possible...if you were a bit closer I have a head there you could have for free. Edit: get some quotes first....you might find the machining will be more expensive than sourcing a secondhand head.

Get a quote from a local engine reconditioner to have the guides k-lined, which is a bronze insert used after the valve guide bore is reamed oversize. Usually cheaper than new guides, plus has better wear characteristics. But before you do anything, have the valves measured for wear as well as the guides if there's cause for concern.

The caps are machined (line-bored) as part of manufacture of the head and the bad news is they aren't available separately as spare part. If they're twisted as bad as you say then I'm afraid your up for another head. The reason the bolts stick is that crap (mainly carbonised oil residue) build up between the shank of the bolt and the inside of the cap. When you try to undo the bolt the crap basically jams the bolt solid in the cap.

Yes that's probably the reason for it, although my version is 2003 and you would think that a car built in 1998 would appear...... Anway, all GTR gearboxes have the same number of synchros on each gear (for the R30A gearbox design), but there have been a large number of production changes over the years and the design of the synchros has changed considerably since the original R32 GTR type (they aren't interchangeable without changing a whole lot of other parts in the gb).

Only one kit is listed for the master which includes piston, seal and some other parts. It's possible there's a locally available equivalent for the master cylinder - probably start somewhere like Repco, and it might work out cheaper than repair kits from Nissan. I'm fairly sure that's true of the slave - someone else will hopefully confirm, but I'm fairly sure it was the pathfinder. If you decide to buy from Nissan, give the parts guy your VIN so he can confirm the above PN's and check for any recent changes.

Bad news is there's no repair kit for the clutch booster - secondhand is probably the next option as new is likely to be mega-$$ Repair kit PN's for the master and slave are: master piston and seal kit - 30611-05U25 slave seal kit - 30622-16E25 slave piston kit - 30621-05U25 Someone has mentioned that the R32 GTR clutch slave is the same as the RB25 GTSt type which is also found on local Pathfinders (?? - not totally sure, you need to check)

FAST says that GTR #043388 was manufactured in April 1998, while 043390 was an Autech GTR also manufactured in April '98. Only Nissan knows why your car VIN is invalid, but you might be able to get away with buying parts using the 043388 number since at least theoretically yours should use the same production parts. Yours should have a late series pull clutch type GTR gearbox, but I suppose it's possible an R32 GTR gearbox was fitted as a replacement at some time. The date of manufacture is determined from the complete VIN.

That's not a valid chassis number as far as FAST is concerned. Double check it. Probably explains why Nissan can't identify the correct parts.

If anyone has a pair of koni sport (yellows) for the rear of an R32 GTR that they don't want I'll take them off your hands (as long as they aren't pounded out ) Have used koni's for years in race cars, road cars and motorcycles (race and road) without problems. Like any other shock they have to be properly setup for the intended application.

No....05U is part of the Nissan part number for the piston. It will be something like xxxxx-05Uxx. I believe it identifies it as an R32 GTR part.....certainly an R32 GTR flywheel has 05U cast into it, as does the standard RB26 block (N1 block has a different number). Usually the last 2 numbers after the '05U' will be different for o/size pistons.

yes

The tie rod end (left) and ball joint (centre) are both located with tapers. You need to get hold of a ball joint separator or fork, and a tie rod end separator. See attached photos. Both available from Burson's, etc.

Handbrake should release if the cable isn't connected (to the lever in the car). Factory discs have 2 threaded holes in the hub area. The idea is that you screw a bolt into each and tighten them in turn - thread is 8mm or 6mm, just a standard bolt. That gradually 'draws' the disc off the hub. There's also a large inspection hole through which you can access the handbrake mechanism and back-off the internal brake shoes. Aftermarket discs usually don't have any of these holes, which makes things a bit hard. Best thing to do would be soak everything in WD40 or similar and then use a rubber mallet to wack the back of the disc in the area where the caliper is normally located. Try rotating the disc to expose different areas. Hopefully that will loosen the disc.

Apart from personal imports and cars imported for race/rally purposes, the new rules are: - anything built prior to 1 January 1989 can be imported without restriction - cars built from 1 January 1989 can be imported using the SEVS scheme (if compliance is available.......)

Is the handbrake off ??

3.5 R180 was used in 4-speed manual 240K's sold in Australia - pre-1975 or 1976. Hard to find these days. Diff would bolt in, but don't know about the driveshafts.

Looks like a std R32 GTR pump.....again apologies for the bad news, good luck with it.

Chris I'm sorry to tell you but that's not an N1 water pump. The N1 pump has less blades and an anti-cavitation plate as shown on the pump at the top in this photo (courtesy of UAS site):

05U21 = stock R32 GTR turbo