My First Skyline! R33 Gts-t!

[ZenF1]

Hi guys

I've been reading this forum for a while now, but couldn't really contribute as I was driving a 92 Civic GL (for sale if anyone's interested!)! Three days ago I took the plunge and bought my first Skyline! It's a 1996 Nissan Skyline R33 GTS-T and it's silver/gun metal in colour.

I've never owned a turbo car before (actually never driven a turbo car before, but have been in them) so this is quite an upgrade from the slow Civic! Few weeks ago when I was looking around for Skylines, the criterias basically required it to be a car with some grunt! Cuz to me there is no point having a turbo car if it's not going to make you feel good driving it right!? So with this in mind, a came cross my baby!

Some details:

Model: 1996 Nissan Skyline R33 GTS-T

Transmission: 5 Speed Manual

Odometer: 94,000

Modifications: I am not 100% on the mods, and the guy I bought it off wasn't too sure either, as he wasn't a massive enthusiast however, I've been reading and looking at the engine bay in the last two days and this is what I can see:

* Garrett GT3540 0.7 A/R, not sure of the size of the housing though?

* 3 inch full exhaust system

* Apexi PowerFC with hand controller

* Turbosmart Eboost Controller

* K&N Air filter

* Front Mount Intercooler

* Wastegate/BOV

* Fuel regulator

* Brass button clutch

* Front and rear strut bar

* Lowered with King Springs

* 350z rims with fairly new treads

* Kenwood CD player with speakers

Parts that I can't see, but I would imagine it's install would be bigger fuel injectors, fuel pump. He wasn't sure if it's got forged pistons or not. I guess the best way would be take it to a mechanic and then they would be able to tell me the complete list of mods!

If anyone can tell from the photos so anything I missed, that would be much appreciated!

Not too sure if this is rare or not, but it's registered as a 5 seater when it was complianced in 2003.

The next thing I need to do is to take it for a full service and then tune (hasn't been tuned for over a year)!

A few questions if anyone can help:

* Under braking the car seems to shudder, obviously a brake issue, but is this as simple as bleeding the brakes?

* Going from 2nd to 3rd, there seems like a shaking sound, the gearbox also feels loose, is the gearbox on the way out or is it the brass clutch?

A few things to note also is that it seems to be chewing up petrol like crazy! I know turbo cars eat petrol, but no this fast! Hopefully after a good tune, this will improve a bit! Another thing is the boost doesn't start kicking in until I reckon after 4,500RPM!! this then goes to about redline! I think its a biggish turbo, but its still pretty late, for high speed I guess this would be good or tracks, but for street drive, I don't get much boost unless I give it some! Can I just tell the tuner to lower the full boost rev? For street drivability, what RPM would be a good range?

Other than that the car looks fairly stock and no silly stickers or anything Nice and Simple, so just the way I like it!

Enough talk and now to some pics!

[Wink]

Nice R33 and also nice photos

[WPN-O33]

Wow nice first skyline! Its hard to believe that with these major mods Big turbo,gate custom refabricated plenum with Thottle body, Pfc, etc etc, that the owner didnt know what the mods were entirely??? Very strange. But what an animal it will be for you, especially coming from a civic!! If you dont mind me asking how much did u pay & did he have any receipts?

[ZenF1]

Wow nice first skyline! Its hard to believe that with these major mods Big turbo,gate custom refabricated plenum with Thottle body, Pfc, etc etc, that the owner didnt know what the mods were entirely??? Very strange. But what an animal it will be for you, especially coming from a civic!! If you dont mind me asking how much did u pay & did he have any receipts?

Thanks for the comments guys.

WPN - Yeh, the seller was a top bloke, but he didn't do any of the mods himself, so he didn't know what it was, I guess he just wanted a fast car. The previous owner to him was some Toyota manufacturing mechanic though, so the whole setup was undertaken by him.

I paid $14,500 for it but no receipts as he didn't do any of those mods... not 100% of the kw, but its claimed @ 285kw on 18psi... obviously need to dyno it and tune it to see....

[Wink]

$14,500 for a GT3540'd R33.. Pretty good or maybe I don't know that R33 prices had fallen that far!

[d00dz]

Drive safe mate!

Nice setup you have bought.

[ZenF1]

Well, I am not 100% how much Skylines are worth, but when I saw this one, it was definitely much better than all the other ones around the same price!

Actually, I am finding it pretty easy to drive, just getting use to the brass button clutch though... but yeh on high revs, the turbo absolutely just screams!

[v_s_p_e_c]

Very good price you got on that.

Where are you located?

[fob2nv]

Lucky bastard.Very nice ride.

Drive safley mate.

[dr1ft3r]

beautiful first car mate! and what a damn steal that price is! dont act stupid in it tho. take your time and drive safe.

[ZenF1]

Located in Sydney! So give a wave if you see me!

But definitely, drive safely on the road and leave the speed to the tracks. I am planning to take it to WSID/Track sometimes in the future, as I've never done any of them before..

Any predictions the 1/4 mile times? low 13? high 12s?

[DRD-00F]

Depends on you really, but i think it can do rather well... it sounds like a nice setup...

Congrats on the car I'm sure you're loving it

You'll have to come to a meet soon and show it off (and give me a ride)

[ScaryTed77]

Nice car buddy, interesting look with those rims.

Enjoy it, but be safe (especially in the wet!)

[TTT]

please make sure you have full comprehensive insurance that covers all the mods.

It's worth it.

oh edit... brake shuddering usually means warped discs. if there is plenty of meat left on them, most mechanics can take them off and machine them. At this point you should get new pads aswell...

the gearbox shaking feeling could just be the gearbox mount is worn or possibly one missing.

Mechanic will be able to check it and let you know what's needed.

How much fuel is "lots" to you?

maybe fill up, reset the odometer, drive for the week or until you feel the need to fill up again.

make note of how many litres you fill up with..

then check your odometer again.

THEN:

litres put in at refill / km's travelled since last odometer rest x 100 = L/100kms

eg

45L at refill / 330km travelled x 100 = 13.6 L/100kms

Also, you find that your first week or first few weeks you will use more fuel than you will later..

it's natural to do that with the new car

Edited October 1, 2007 by GTST

[evil_weevil]

big upgrade from a 1.6L civic!!

take it easy out there mate!

and nice car

[Abo Bob]

Hi guys

I've been reading this forum for a while now, but couldn't really contribute as I was driving a 92 Civic GL (for sale if anyone's interested!)! Three days ago I took the plunge and bought my first Skyline! It's a 1996 Nissan Skyline R33 GTS-T and it's silver/gun metal in colour.

I've never owned a turbo car before (actually never driven a turbo car before, but have been in them) so this is quite an upgrade from the slow Civic! Few weeks ago when I was looking around for Skylines, the criterias basically required it to be a car with some grunt! Cuz to me there is no point having a turbo car if it's not going to make you feel good driving it right!? So with this in mind, a came cross my baby!

Some details:

Model: 1996 Nissan Skyline R33 GTS-T

Transmission: 5 Speed Manual

Odometer: 94,000

Modifications: I am not 100% on the mods, and the guy I bought it off wasn't too sure either, as he wasn't a massive enthusiast however, I've been reading and looking at the engine bay in the last two days and this is what I can see:

* Garrett GT3540 0.7 A/R, not sure of the size of the housing though?

* 3 inch full exhaust system

* Apexi PowerFC with hand controller

* Turbosmart Eboost Controller

* K&N Air filter

* Front Mount Intercooler

* Wastegate/BOV

* Fuel regulator

* Brass button clutch

* Front and rear strut bar

* Lowered with King Springs

* 350z rims with fairly new treads

* Kenwood CD player with speakers

Parts that I can't see, but I would imagine it's install would be bigger fuel injectors, fuel pump. He wasn't sure if it's got forged pistons or not. I guess the best way would be take it to a mechanic and then they would be able to tell me the complete list of mods!

If anyone can tell from the photos so anything I missed, that would be much appreciated!

Not too sure if this is rare or not, but it's registered as a 5 seater when it was complianced in 2003.

The next thing I need to do is to take it for a full service and then tune (hasn't been tuned for over a year)!

A few questions if anyone can help:

* Under braking the car seems to shudder, obviously a brake issue, but is this as simple as bleeding the brakes?

* Going from 2nd to 3rd, there seems like a shaking sound, the gearbox also feels loose, is the gearbox on the way out or is it the brass clutch?

A few things to note also is that it seems to be chewing up petrol like crazy! I know turbo cars eat petrol, but no this fast! Hopefully after a good tune, this will improve a bit! Another thing is the boost doesn't start kicking in until I reckon after 4,500RPM!! this then goes to about redline! I think its a biggish turbo, but its still pretty late, for high speed I guess this would be good or tracks, but for street drive, I don't get much boost unless I give it some! Can I just tell the tuner to lower the full boost rev? For street drivability, what RPM would be a good range?

Yeah definitely bigger injectors in there with that turbo.

As mentioned you need to get the brake discs machined. Front ones more likely but do you feel the shudder through the car or through the steering wheel and car?

You may have a broken gearbox or engine mount. Get that checked out.

Yes it's a big turbo so it will be laggy. You can take the cam gear covers off and check if you have adjustable cam gears in there. If you do you can use them with a retune to bring boost on earlier, if not you can have them installed.

You sound like a sensible guy so I wont harp on the be careful comments but one thing I would suggest is that you do a skid pan day of some sort. The club will be holding another Texikhana early in the new year but there are others around fairly regularly.

Also, yes take it to the drags. You might get a high 12 on street tyres. Go a few times with street rubber then consider getting some drag radials for some better times. Post up when you are going and you will probably get a few others coming along so you can meet some like minded and helpful people. We're all pretty much here to help each other out.

Lastly, you will need to find a workshop that suits you. Whereabouts do you live?

[Yidz]

As mentioned take care on the roads. Massive jump in power. The scary part is thinking you're use to the power and everything just gets taken for granted. Looks like a very tidy example and hope you enjoy it

[HOT_R33]

GT3540 is capable of making up to 30psi. Make sure your boost is low until you know exactly what kind of internals you have eg. big end bearings, main bearings, studs, forged pistons and rods. Valve train might be worth checking as well.

Running a turbo like that at, even at half its potential, can be dangerous on a RB25 with stock internals.

Exibit A:

18psi was running through this one when it blew, very nasty.

See if the previous owners have reciepts for these mods.

Good luck .

[Lepperfish]

Nice car, thats dirty cheap for the amount of mods on that car.

[ZenF1]

DRD-OOF - Yeh would love to attend any meets coming up! . The car feels like to drive! nice and deep sound!

GTST - Yeh I've got comprehensive insurance with Justcars, pretty much all the mods that I know is in there, but when I know more I'll ring and add them into the policy as well! A lot of fuel is somewhere I reckon in the 20L/100KM range... I havent drive much yet, but it seems around that kinda rate... I almost died when I saw the petrol needle go down that fast!

EVIL - I actually have a 1.5L civic! lol and yeh its damn slow, funny when I drive this car the clutch is so heavy, and then going back to the civic, I step the clutch in, in about 0.0001 sec, a big change in clutch pressure!

Abo Bob - The shudder is mainly through the steering wheel and of course the gear stick, but definitely need to take it for a check. Yeh I am pretty sensible these days (24 years old) and seriously I drive like a granny on my civic too, never had an accident but I've learnt from my teenage years! I would want to take it to the tracks/WSID sometime in the next few months once everything is okay and tuned! Should be fun! I am around Lidcombe way, so I was thinking of going to Bel Garage. Gave them a call today, and got some rough quotes on prices. Should I get a regular service or a FULL services now? Timing belts and all that? its like $800 difference! Not sure if its worth it or not?

HOT R33 - Yeh I am taking it easy at the moment running it on setting 1 on the EBC which I was told was 10PSI so hope that should be no problems! I'll take it to the mechanics so they can open and check what pistons etc its got on there.

But as for the tune, I want a more smoother power delivery, hope thats possible to lower the full boost a bit... I'll post up dyno pics when its all done!