Shoota_77

🤣 Press mods are on hold for now! Unfortunately I’m being distracted by a bloody Skyline. Much rather be working on the press....

Also @OST Micah fingers crossed the Speedtek gear set works out for the both of us! There was a lot of pressure by other forum members not to do it so personally I will look like a massive dick if mine turns to poo! I’ll cop every single “I told you so” on the chin if needed! 🤣

Cheers mate, appreciate it! Thanks for taking the time to read my meandering dribble! It’s probably one of the oldest ‘active’ builds with the least amount of work ever done! I’m sure the system has come close to auto-archiving my thread a few times due to lack of updates! Fingers crossed I can ignore my motorbike for a month or so and I can smash out a few updates, stay tuned....

Couple of better photos of the tranny during build.

Admittedly that is a big power figure which will go hand in hand with a big torque figure. Have people been successful holding that sort of power through an OS88? Wasn't RIPS using one in one of their cars a while back? EDIT - Just googled and this is an OLLLLLLLDDDDDD article but they were making 1500HP and running 8's in MGAWOT through an OS so obviously it can be done- http://www.speedhunters.com/2013/05/mgawot-2-a-1500hp-gtr-street-car-that-runs-eights/

$8000-$9000 difference is MASSIVE. For me it would be the difference between doing it and not doing it and for @khezz it could well be the same. Not everyone has a spare $30K that they can just throw at our cars. Some of us old school GT-R owners (peasants) aren't like the "new trend" of owners that have magic money reserves... I'm sure you'll absolutely love driving the car with a sequential regardless of what brand it is. Look forward to seeing vids of the first few pulls at full noise!

Yeah not the end of the world! Neat were pretty happy overall with the quality of everything from Speedtek, in terms of the cutting of the gears, the hardness level of the gears, etc. It was just that one machining issue plus the vent hose at the top of the billet centre plate is designed to fit an AN fitting into it but they haven't put a thread in the hole to screw it into. The hole is way bigger than the hole in the factory centre plate that the original pipe that fits into it so I'll have to roll the box upside down and tap a thread in it so no swarfe goes inside the box from the tap. It it cops whatever abuse I throw at it and survives then all (negatives) will be forgotten! I started cleaning up my shed on the weekend which is my version of females "nesting"prior to a baby coming home so hopefully that means I'm nearly ready to start working on it again!!

Ha ha fu(k the pool, can't ride that up a hill in the mountains either!!

Yeah I’m tipping an OS would cost a fair bit more to get built up nowadays. Especially if you add the extra internal work on I had done on this box. I honestly don’t expect I’ll drive it enough to justify the price of a sequential. If I only had one hobby it might be doable but at the moment I’d rather spend $20K on my motorbikes that I do get a huge amount of use out of. If I ever give up the bikes and sell those and the caravan then it will be a sequential for sure but until that day comes along (if it ever does...), hopefully this box is strong enough to cop everything I throw at it!

Gearbox is finally here after about 6 months! Still a few little things I need to put on it then it will be transfer case on, bolt it back in the car, hit key and drive off into the sunset...... Yeah nah it won't be like that at all. Still a heap of things to do but the final major piece of the puzzle is back so if motivation decides to accompany me over the next few months then maybe I'll be hitting the key again at some point this year! I get my licence back 19th of September so it would be fairly amazing for my first drive to be in the GT-R but I'm a realist so let's not get ahead of ourselves! 🤣 Couple of pics of the box. Not sure if you can tell from the photo of the input shaft but the ISF (Isotropic Super Finish) treatment makes it look amazing! Hopefully it holds together! If anyone is interested, the whole gearbox upgrade with Speedtek billet shafts/gears, billet centre plate, new bearings and seals, labour, ISF finish, freight, etc, etc came to about $6500-$7000. A lot of money to be still 5 speed I guess but fingers crossed it's up for a good flogging!

Paint looks magic mate, good job! Selenite is a Benz colour from memory? Goddam old car ownership can be frustrating! Glad you’re giving it some love, hopefully she’s back on the road in no time!

Ok quick update on the gearbox (saga). Neat Gearboxes went missing on me for a few weeks which was a bit frustrating. Turns out the owner Sam has done his back and been out of action for the last few weeks. During the reassembly process Neat have discovered that the shim/bearing seat for the countershaft have not been machined deep enough meaning they can't achieve the correct end float measurement required. End result is that they need to send the plate off to an engineer to be machined a bees dick deeper to allow the thinnest genuine shim to be used to achieve the required end float. Not the end of the world but a little frustrating. I contacted Alex at Speedtek and I think I encountered the individual I was warned about. I gave him the full information about the problem that Neat had discovered, sent him all the pictures verifying the issue but he just wouldn't cop it and admit fault. Initially he told me I needed to speak to the supplier of the centre plate as it sounds like they had machined it wrong. I replied, ahhhhh buddy, you made it hence why I'm talking to you.... So he hopped onto the other foot and told me to read the service manual as we must be reassembling it incorrectly.... Then he told me they could machine down the thinnest shim Nissan recommend to make the shim to suit the clearance... So does that mean you DID machine the plate wrong???? Anyway, I just strung it out for another 10 messages or so as it was mildly entertaining seeing his moronic responses and how incredibly pig headed his way of handling the issue was. I don't intend this to be racist but people with a surname ending in ski can tend to be firm of opinion at times.... It's cost me another $150 in the process to get the plate machined properly but in the grand scheme of things not worth the headache of giving a shit... A few years ago I would have lost my shit over this but I think in the 8+ years it's been off the road I've matured a bit . Hopefully have the box back in the next 2 or 3 weeks and then the shit hits the fan and I need to work out how committed I really am to this nugget! I've done my licence for 6 months (long story) so would be AMAZING if my first drive on September 19th was in the GT-R... Wishful thinking perhaps?

Man that sucks. you've got all the nice fruit and to be held up bolting it all together because of a few little componenets must be bloody annoying! Sell the gearbox and buy a pool for the kids?

Ha ha, yeah maybe if you’re one of those guys that tries a big burnout but can’t actually manage to spin a wheel...

Is that from the wheels or the clutch?

Oh this will happen. Hopefully more than once but that will depend on how well I've screwed it all together! I'll have a little more faith in the gearbox now that 3rd gear is made of something slightly harder than balsa wood!

I really honestly hope this is the case! There's always going to be things that need to be fixed/improved/etc and I just hope I can still find it in my heart to persist with all of them and still enjoy it! Because I've had so many setbacks over so many years, even little things turn me off it all over again. When I get overly mentally invested in it and totally committed to finishing it off, those setbacks are such a huge kick in the balls (more than they really should be). My brain then forces me to hate it to avoid sinking into depression over it! It's like a bad mental health avoidance tactic. You can't understand this until you've lived it for yourself! Anyway, I won't be focusing on the negatives, as soon as this beautiful gear bag is back on deck I'm into it!

Because it’s been so long, the good memories are so distant it’s hard to remember the reasons I loved it! It’s like a girlfriend you banged 10 years ago. I think she was good....

Heard back from Neat Gearboxes today to say they've got the gearbox internals back from hardness testing and they were all "exactly where they need to be" which is good news. He said formerly Speedtek stuff had been overly hardened (brittle) so they must have improved on that process of late. Sam is peening and polishing it all as we speak before re-assembly within the next week or so. Hopefully they can send me some photos as otherwise it will be the only part on the car I haven't seen the inside of! Should look pretty sexy after the peen/polish job on the gears. I'm losing my licence soon (long frustrating story but ultimately from constantly speeding but in the end not why I lost my licence...) so I'll probably be doing less camping and motorbike riding and might be able to actually get some work done on the Skyline. Once the gearbox is sitting on the floor of the shed hopefully that is enough to make me pull my finger out and finish off this damn, epicly long fiasco!! Finally then I will discover if I still have it in my heart to keep it or whether I'm so over it I can't bear to look at it anymore! It would be bittersweet if I did sell it. Obviously the cash would be handy and take 10 years off the home loan but I don't know if I could ever forgive myself for giving up an amazing car. I still kick myself from time to time about getting rid of my old Datto Ute but this would be on a whole different level. The Datto was totally the wrong vehicle for me but I still loved it! I'll post up some photos of the box bits if anything comes back.

Good job, nice and neat. But again, you're reading more into the strength requirement than you need to. All the bolts have to do is hold the gearbox parallel with the engine. The amount of twisting torque is negligible. The dowels and 2 bolts would handle that. The horizontal force again as per rotational force is minimal. Find me an example of where a transmission has snapped off the back of an engine and I'll reconsider my opinion that you're freaking out over a complete non-issue! Send it!

This is going to be insane!!! God damn those gearboxes are insanely nice looking billet wizardry!! Bolt it all together already!!!!

Apologies if my post came across as a whinge, it wasn't that at all! It was just my honest experience. Considering he had nearly $5000 of my money I was extremely patient and relaxed about the whole affair! I knew what to expect so I was ready for it. I honestly had that much going on the last 3 months I didn't have time to get too worked up about it anyway. I guess to a degree he had managed my expectations as I had very low ones based on everything I'd read and you guys told me! If the product is good, I'll be absolutely thrilled and any of the issues over the last 3 months will be completely forgotten about! I'll be driving off into the sunset with a big smile on my face and some faint movements in my pants!

Ok, long time no update.... So, my completely honest opinion of Speedtek as promised. Main problem I experienced - not understanding the term "managing expectations". If they'd told me 12 weeks and we got to now (12 weeks) and the gearset and centre plate were done, I would have been thrilled. Problem was, I was told 5 weeks. Each update (generally only received after a bit/lot of badgering by myself) was again, way under what became reality. Again, i would have preferred and been happy with longer dates had they been what I was given and what I received which they NEVER were. I feel there may be more to the story (parts being made overseas?????) but the blame over the last 6 weeks has been "the anodisers doing the plates are holding things up" Allegedly my parts are now on the way to Neat Gearboxes as we speak (the TNT tracking number they gave me was wrong so I can't be sure......). Once he has them and has had a chance to completely go over them and assess how well they're made I will then know whether it's all been worth it! Would I use them again? Probably. Would I double the time they told me I would get the parts? Definitely. Would I recommend them to other people? I can't fully answer that until the parts are fully inspected by Neat (and I've "inspected"them by smashing a few 500kW launches through them, specifically loading up full noise on the typical cream cheese and balsa wood constructed 3rd gear!) but if the quality is good then definitely I would recommend them but with SPECIFIC warnings about what i experienced. As I've probably mentioned, if they weren't the price they were, I probably wouldn't have gone with a billet gearset. The OS Giken equivalent with centre plate would have cost over $2000 more for the same thing. Fingers crossed they're up to the task! I'll report back once Neat have given me their opinion of them. Hopefully getting a completed gearbox back inspires me back into action again. I've barely touched the car since before I ordered the gearset so I'll need to put a serious rocket up my clacker to get back into it again. It's nearing to motorbike season again and I go completely missing during that 6 months of the year as I'm addicted to tearing up the mountains. Even more so now as I have a (near) new toy. Isn't she beautiful!! Please pray for my motivation to come rushing back like a Victorian COVID lockdown under Daniel Andrews!

Waaaaay over complicated bloke.... Most people just go without the bottom bolts. I've drilled new holes and will probably run 3 lower bolts. If it doesn't work I'm not fazed. The rest of the bolts will be more than enough. There really isn't much torque applied between the engine and the transmission. Just bolt her up and sent it!

It’s part of your synchro selector mechanism. You’ll probably find it easy to select the 2 gears that the synchro collar key has come from or it might jump out of gear due to the synchro having 2 rather than 3 of those keys holding the synchro in place. Or you just might not even notice! If you’re not noticing anything I’d just send it till it becomes a problem and worry about it then.