Lupes' Hr31 Gts-x

[NZM.031]

no you dont put spacers on to clear brakes... no no no no...... you put spacers on because you want super epic hella flush!!

[Lupes]

It's just another thing to get defected for, they fit well without them so I don't really see the point.

[Lupes]

Ordered an adjustable front swaybar this afternoon as well as new genuine link pins from Nissan. Should see the swaybar tomorrow, and the link pins Wednesday morning.

Also paid off my adjustable caster rods tonight as well, should have those by the end of the week.

[XRATED]

Looks great mate...

What are the details on the rims? Size, width, offset, brand, model and disk?

Don't put stupid spacers on...

Do you have an auto spoiler?

You have to sit that puppy a little closer to the floor....

Fkn hella flush- BS

[Lupes]

Cheers mate.

I don't know a whole heap about the model of rim, all I know is that they are made by Work. Fronts are 17x8 +5 and rears are 17x9 +11. They fit well, and no scrubbing as of yet either which is good. What exactly do you mean by disk?

I don't have an Autospoiler but I'd like to get my hands on one, I reckon it would finish the exterior off nicely. It did come factory with one, I have the buttons on the dash and the plugs in the engine bay, just need a pair of motors and the lip itself. I'd like to be able to just get a copy lip and mount it without motors just because it would be easy, but I need it to be able to flip up otherwise I won't make it in my driveway, if I come in at the wrong angle as it is the front bar scrapes.

Rear does need to come down a bit, eventually I will replace the KYB shocks with Bilsteins which are height adjustable via the use of a circlip to change the height of the spring seat so I can set it a little lower.

In other news, I fitted my 27mm front swaybar tonight, and to be honest I'm a little disappointed, although it might just be the fact I haven't really driven it hard enough to notice a big difference. Don't get me wrong, the front end does feel tighter, and there is noticeably less roll even just driving through the suburbs, I'm hoping the difference through the twisties is greater. When I fit my new link pins tomorrow I'll adjust the bar to the hard setting and see how it feels then.

[wht510]

I highly recommend the Bilsteins. They are a great shock.

you don't want to go too low in the back end. The semi-trailing arm geometry goes to the $hitter if you go too low.

[NZM.031]

what do you mean about the front swaybar?? how are you let down by it?? if you want the car to become more lively around corners maybe you should do the rear swaybar... this brings on more of on oversteer character which, for me, suits my driving style.. i like to feel the tail and control it rather than wonder what the front will do.

you may also need a bit more front camber... but your castor rods will tidy that up a little bit.

p.s. in regards to your spacer remark... they are no more a defect than adj. pillow ball type castor rods, or 17x9 wheels when the originals are 15x7.

and ive not heard of many accidents being caused by proper bolt on type spacers... they are no different to having more meat on the inside of your wheel face to push the offset out when they are bolted up snug and tight.

[Lupes]

I thought the change would be more substantial than it was, but that might just be me having my expectations too high. It doesn't feel stable enough to me through the hills, that's possibly a spring rate or shock issue though, the front end is really stiff to the point where you can hardly move it by hand. Great for smooth roads but get a badly maintained Adelaide road (most of them) and it's really rough.

I agree on the rear swaybar, it will be getting one ASAP, there's a group buy about to start for custom 24mm solid rear swaybars for HR coupes so I'm in on that.

Some more positive caster will give me a bit more dynamic camber through corners which will hopefully get it a little closer to how I would like it.

Yes the wheels may not be legal, or the adjustable caster rods, but spacers are more obvious than either of those to most cops. Bolt on spacers are safer than slip on spacers definitely, but no spacer is even better.

[NZM.031]

yeh it could be a shock/spring issue.. blown shocks will be rough on bumpy roads, feeling like its a stiff spring issue, but they go soft and unpredictable when loaded up through a corner, but it could be too stiffer spring for the shock. if the front is too stiff, it will not allow any weight transfer to load up the front grip and can make the front a bit skatey..

ive had an experience on my r33 gtst a few years ago where the tyre direction completly changed the front grip..

the tyres (which were not cheapies) had been running backwards since they got put on.. one night i decided id had enough of people pointing this out to me, so i swapped them over so they were running the right way.. well.. went out for a bit of a strap and my god.. it was woeful.. hitting the same corner as i always had, it just would not steer..

i changed the tyres back to how they were.. and it was all back to normal.. wierdest thing id ever experienced.

best bet is to save and get brand new coilovers or spring/shock combo.. a mate of mine has BC coilovers (height and damper adj) in his semi slicked, vf34 equipped rex.. weve driven it hard fairly often and not had a problem for 3 years... given that they only cost him $1200 + $600 to get them properly set up and aligned by a guru, its been a pretty good investment. getting 2nd hand ones, you are unsure of the quality.. degreaser and aluminium cleaner do wonders for blown coilovers.. you assume they are good, just rough because they are stiff.

they are reasonably compliant for normal driving. much better than G4's or D2's etc.

also look into getting some pinapples or cradle bushes.. you need to tighten the back up so its not throwing around and upsetting the weight transfer.

[XRATED]

I think the best steering/susp mod I threw at my old HR was a set of rose jointed rack ends and a soild replacment steering dampener...

It had bilstiens and matched springs... no sway bar upgrades. It was awsome through the tight twisties in Tassie.

PS... Ha ha ha I actually threw out the auto spoiler motors! and permanently fixed the spoiler!! ... it was 10 years ago.

Edited March 3, 2010 by XRATED

[Lupes]

That's basically the problem. The front just doesn't grip how I would like it to, it's too bumpy and I think the shock is actually doing the opposite of what it should, keeping the tyre on the road. The front inserts are Bilsteins which are "supposed" to be the same specs as the GTS1 Bilsteins were but I'm not so sure. There's been a member of the R31 club with a pair of front inserts that were been around 4 times as stiff as what they're meant to be, so maybe mine have been valved incorrectly as well. Could be a case of the shock being to stiff.

The inserts were fairly new when I bought the car, so I'll probably send them away to get revalved as opposed to buying new ones. I don't actually know what spring rate the front springs are, but I'd like to. I've seen the formula for working it out posted somewhere here so I'll go for a look sometime soon. I don't think they're overly stiff, just from watching how much the spring compresses when I let it off the jack (so not a very good measurement lol)

I'd prefer to stick to the standard insert type suspension, the only advantage coilovers are going to have is that they are height and damper adjustable, which isn't really a big issue for me.

I have solid rear subframe bushes sitting right next to me. Once I've sorted the front end I'll be replacing all the bushes in the rear and fitting my custom swaybar. Should make it feel a lot nicer.

Justin, what are rose jointed rack ends? Can't say I've heard of them. My mate with a HR said the same about his alloy steering coupling spacer, that it made it feel more direct and nicer to drive.

Edited March 4, 2010 by Lupes

[NZM.031]

yeh alloy steering spacer, gives you more feeling.. great idea.

rose jointed rack ends.. pillow ball type rack ends... gets rid of the wobbly tie rod end and makes it a solid connection..

Just Jap have some cheap ones for $150 or you can go exy jap ones, like Super Now, JIC, Ikeya Formula or Kazama.

[XRATED]

They're the animals...

I throw them in all my cars now.

If your getting a washy feeling in the front end, I'd def. get the shocks and springs bench tested and matched back up.... While they're out, check all your bushings, wheel bearings, links and joints.

Also invest in a strut brace... HR isn't well supported in the front end.

J.

[wht510]

I agree with XRATED. Strut brace is a good idea too.

Even replacing the castor rod bushes with new items, (such as Nolathane), and replacing the ball joints on the base of the struts/end of LCA makes a fair bit of difference too. My HR feels quite nice now these items have been replaced.

If you are in Melbourne Quadrant (in Berwick) is the agent for Bilstein. They can check your shocks and service them etc.

[dank]

looks good mate nice and clean R31 you dont see these everyday!

[Lupes]

Cheers guys.

Already have a GTS-R strut brace fitted, quite a bit chunkier than a Whiteline strut brace, and it's a factory item if the cops say anything;

By the time I'm finished almost everything in the front will be new, there isn't much to go as it is. Since I've owned it, I've replaced both LCA's, link pins, swaybar link pin and D bushes, the swaybar itself and the wheel bearings. Adjustable caster rods should be here early this week, adjustable camber tops will be coming when money permits, and after that when I find time I'll pull the shocks out, find out what the factory GTS1 cars were set to and send them off to be revalved similar to that. Unfortunately I'm in Adelaide so it will probably cost me $400 - $500 to have the shocks revalved after freight etc.

[XRATED]

Box that pod up man!!

[Lupes]

Sooner or later I might, I'm not so good with custom fabrication so when I decide to do something about it, I'll probably just go to a fabrication place and get them to whip something up. I'm not a big fan of things that don't look factory however, ie big shiny aluminium pod enclosures, catch cans etc. We'll see when the time comes.

Anyway, I got my caster rods finally last night, chucked them in and adjusted it really roughly using my fingers for the drive to work.

Today I aligned it properly, and I've currently got it set to 6 degrees caster on both sides, 0.5 negative camber (not adjustable, yet) and 0 toe.

Drives heaps nicer, brakes feel firmer as you would expect after replacing a bush with a rose joint, and the added dynamic negative camber has had a big effect on higher speed cornering, under steers heaps less now, feels better all around really, very happy with them. Money well spent.

[NZM.031]

Lupes... i make pod boxes in my spare time. using 2mm aluminium, so it actually does something against engine bay heat..

if you make me up a rough template out of a pizza box.. i will make one and send it back to you. mates rates.. coz you got a cool 31! haha.

raw aluminium doesnt stand out half as much as polished shit.. i hate polished.. its ghey.

heres a pic of my old r33 with a box that i polished.. ignore the blue trim around the edges.. this was in fashion in 2005

[wht510]

I was always keen on making a pod box from carbon fibre. Doesn't conduct heat as bad as aluminium, and can be moulded into a variety of different shapes.

Just bloody expensive.

NZM031, that's a nice engine bay mate. Looks tidy. Another good thing about non polished stuff is that if you scratch it, it's easy to blend it out and most scratches don't appear that much.