Well guys, I ended up buying another GTR. It's a 1997 R33 GTR V-Spec. I bought it from Mr En One from SAU and I'm really beginning to regret it.
To cut a long story short, the car was in Tassie and so I had VIP inspect the car for me. The report came back all good, so I left the owner a deposit and got my lease company to draw out a cheque for him. He received the cheque within a couple of days and so I organsied the car to get on the boat at Devonport in Tassie to come to Sydney. He told me that Devonport was some 250-300kms from his home and he will get his "trustworthy" mate to drive the car to Devonport for me. Anyway the car arrives to Sydney, I pick it up from the wharf and to my horror, there is a noise in the motor. The car also arrives with the space saver wheel on the back right and the rim in the boot with the tyre absolutely shredded. When I get home I check the oil stick and find it to be dry.
I contact Mr En One, who puts me through to his mate who said that he noticed a noise after he changed to the space saver. Also, he explained that the tyre blew coz it was low on thread. VIP did tell me that both rears were low but the left rear had been replaced with another tyre, but not the right? I send VIP pics of the shredded tyre and they then explained that the tyre blew coz of high speeds around corners...
I get it towed to my mechanic who reckons the noise is not a big end knock and that the noise is in the head but he has decided to pull out the whole motor as this will take him only a little longer than pulling off the head. I've been in touch with Mr En One who has told me that his mate had nothing to do with the noise and that it probably happened on the boat..."Yeah right". He basically has told me that he wants nothing to do with me anymore.
I did read somewhere that sometimes the valve guides break and wedge into the pistons and then hit the head making a loud noise.
Anyway, when the motor comes out, my mechanic will probably take the head off and send it away but is it worthwhile taking off the sump to check the bearings? Is it also worthwhile to do the rings whilst the motor is out? Any info on where to source parts etc would be good.