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hey guys, new here and just getting my 1st skyline,

my question is:

i just got my r34 neo rb25de, stock - direct import, because of my age and cost of insurance decided to stick to the gt model, but once it gets a bit cheaper for me to own

a turbo car, would my best option to get a front cut of a 34 rb25det and do the swap or just build a neo rb25de+t - i am looking for something reliable, how hard would the

swap be?

i know the best option is to just get a gtt but im hoping not to have to replace the car entirely cause im looking to do a fair bit with it .

any reply would be great

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expensive if you can't do the work yourself

wouldn't bother with turboing the n/a engine, if you must keep the car then dropping in a turbo engine is the best idea

you said it though, just get a gtt when you're allowed to

yeah the best option is to limit the mods you do to the NA (or only do mods that are removable), and then once you can drive a turbo just go out and buy a GT-T. you will save yourself a few thousand dollars buying a factory turbo as you would be able to sell your GT for similar money to what a GT-T costs, and it saves you all the time and money of doing a conversion. plus depending on what spec your NA is, you may get things like better brakes, LSD and stronger gearbox, which if you were to upgrade all of them on the NA, plus the cost of doing the turbo upgrade, you'd be getting close to the price of keeping your NA and buying a GT-T as well.

hey guys, new here and just getting my 1st skyline,

my question is:

i just got my r34 neo rb25de, stock - direct import, because of my age and cost of insurance decided to stick to the gt model, but once it gets a bit cheaper for me to own

a turbo car, would my best option to get a front cut of a 34 rb25det and do the swap or just build a neo rb25de+t - i am looking for something reliable, how hard would the

swap be?

i know the best option is to just get a gtt but im hoping not to have to replace the car entirely cause im looking to do a fair bit with it .

any reply would be great

You didn't mention whether it's a Manual or Semi-Auto.

If it is Semi-Auto, don't do the engine swap, just.. just don't.

The smart money is all on "Sell and buy turbo car later" though. It is the best value for money option by far. "Sell and buy R33 GTR when off P's" is even better.

You didn't mention whether it's a Manual or Semi-Auto.

If it is Semi-Auto, don't do the engine swap, just.. just don't.

The smart money is all on "Sell and buy turbo car later" though. It is the best value for money option by far. "Sell and buy R33 GTR when off P's" is even better.

its a 5 spd manual

another question (just tell if its a retarded thought) - would i be able to get a r33 rb25det front cut and then use the neo head from r34 rb25de - and then throw it in my r34.

Why bother? I don't think the oil gallerys line up for the NEO system, and LOL BTW, it's a little more complex than just "throwing it on"...

If you were to go down that path, an R34 front cut wouldn't be much more expensive.

Listen to us mate, if money is your issue, sell the car and buy a GT-T, it will be thousands of dollars cheaper, more reliable, simpler and a shitload easier. GT-T includes different suspension, LSD, brakes and heaps of other stuff, so just doing a motor swap is only half the job.

in all seriousness, don't bother doing up the NA too much, especially if you plan on going turbo down the track. it really is a waste of money compared to selling it and buying a turbo one. just do mods that you can transfer. things like ECU are interchangable between natro and turbo (just by changing the tune), and things like suspension are probably interchangable as well so just keep the stock parts to put back on before you sell it.

  • 2 months later...

Cheaper insurance? As in, cheaper because you don't plan on telling them about it being a turbocharged vehicle?

Why do people come on here asking for advice and then insist on ignoring it, thinking they've come across some secret squirrel way of owning Skylines that no one else in the entire SAU community has ever thought of doing before? Just realised it's the naturally aspirated section, my bad.

Dude, I have done this exact thing... My advice, sell up and buy a factory GTT.

Doing the engine swap is a huge headfuck. Nothing ever goes to plan or to budget. I started out with a $5000 budget, and ended up paying roughly $10000 by the time everything was finished and back on the road. All up, it took about 5 months to be completed, including waiting for the donor car to arrive from Japan.

To break it down for you:

Written off R34 donor car is the best way of going about this as you will need the gearbox (because the RB20 box is a piece of shit), driveshaft and diff because the GT driveshaft won't fit and the GT diff has different ratios. So you need to find an R34 with front-end damage. This cost me $4000, came from Japan with 61000kms on the clock.

Then you need a pull type clutch to suit the new gearbox, I went with an Exedy Ceramic which costed me $1250.

You will also need to supply FMIC, fuel pump, radiator, and boost controller. That there cost me another ~2k.

If you are not doing the swap yourself, labor is going to set you back about $3000. This was the major headfuck part, waiting on the garage to do the work for me. My car was with them for about a month and I am still finding random problems like incorrect wiring for the boost sensor and incorrect installation of the knock sensors which has costed me more money because it has wasted valuable time on the dyno while my tuner tried to sort it out.

After the conversion was done, I had to splash out a bit more on getting a good exhaust system as my old exhaust was a 2.5" designed for the NA. I was lucky in the fact that my car already had the brakes and suspension upgraded so I didn't have to spend any money there (although I did splash out and get coilovers anyway). If your car still has the stock GT brakes then you NEED to upgrade them at the same time. I've probably forgotten a couple of things I needed to do as well.

All in all, unless your car has already been modded so that it is beyond value of what a similar spec GTT would cost (this was the case with mine), then sell the GT and buy a GTT. Save yourself the headaches. I didn't listen to everyone telling me this and it costed me a lot of money and time. For your power target, you are also going to need to spend another few thousand on turbo, injectors, ECU, etc, etc, etc.... The list goes on.

Edited by Hanaldo

Mate, your insurance company will bend you over if you don't tell them about the turbo engine. And do you think the revised insurance will be cheaper on a gt with an engine transplant rather than on a normal gtt?

If you're annoyed at the insurance cost a skyline is not the right way to go, considering small things can come up regularly which cost a fair bit to fix.

The car will also have poor resale value, robbing future you, which future you won't thank current you for.

The mods you've listed are transferable though, so you can keep them. If you go down this path you are literally pissing away 10k, maybe more. For that you can buy an r33 gtst s2, and for another few k you could by an r34 gtt in really good shape. Or you could save up for a house. It's just a waste of money that you won't get back, to make a copy of a car that you should have bought anyways. r34 gtt's have come down 4k in the past 18 months, they're a freaking bargain now.

How many years have you got left on your p's?

Also be careful asking very basic questions unless you're ready for a flaming from the experienced members of sau, or a tongue lashing from a mod after they close your thread. Things like "how do i get 250-300rwkw" have been covered a thousand times, and the answer lies in the FI dyno thread. There are a million different ways each with different perks and drawbacks.

Anyways, despite EVERYONE seemingly turning against you and trying to hold you back from what you want to do, many of us have been there, and we're all just trying to save you the pain of repeating common mistakes

ok so i think ive made up my mind in this regard - despite all best advise ( thanks to all btw) im gonna go with the engine swap - over the next 3 years ( for cheaper insurance ) - does any one have a list of what im gonna need to do - hoping for about 250 - 300 rwkw

i don't mean to be rude or anything, but it's going to cost you a lot more than you think it will. as many have said in this thread, you will need a bucketload of money to carry out the work and of course it will have poor re-sale value. i was thinking of doing the same thing but was advised not to by somebody who actually did do the swap and the conversion in the end, which he said was a regret. plus, you are not going to get cheaper insurance just because it's a non turbo chassis, it's actually the same chassis used by the 25GT-T. if i was you, i would just wait until the provisionals expire, and then invest in a clean R34 25GT-T which will be cheaper than the actual cost of making an N/A R34 a stock R34 25GT-T.

if you're going to mod, just do basic things like exhaust, wheels, etc but try and keep it as stock as possible (even if you keep the OEM parts and whack em on when you're selling, you will retain the cars original value and not lose too much, don't forget.. another p plater WILL pay $14500-$15000 for an R34 25GT that has been looked after well and cared for)

my two cents.

first of all guys - this is not a retaliation and i thank all of you for taking the time to guide me along the right path. and i agree that getting a factory gtt would be the best option.

my situation atm isnt the best and i know that i have already made a massive mistake in my choice of car.

i just got my r34 gt - again because i couldnt afford insurance as i am under 25 (for a gtt) and the car repayments. :(

atm i just manage to afford the 2

the cheaper insurance comes from waiting the 3 years until i am 25 ( not just lie-ing to the insurance company)

and the biggest mistake of all was paying 24000 for my gt - car dealer - because nobody would finance a personal loan so i could buy a private one.

so all in all (again ) i agree that a gtt is the best way to go but im just trying to find a way to avoid forking out for a new car - and loosing a tone on my current car - to be honest in the end id love a gtr - but who wouldnt

and the biggest mistake of all was paying 24000 for my gt - car dealer - because nobody would finance a personal loan so i could buy a private one.

:O :O :O :O :O :O

:blink:

You have been ripped off sir.

:laugh:

Edited by Hanaldo

first of all guys - this is not a retaliation and i thank all of you for taking the time to guide me along the right path. and i agree that getting a factory gtt would be the best option.

my situation atm isnt the best and i know that i have already made a massive mistake in my choice of car.

i just got my r34 gt - again because i couldnt afford insurance as i am under 25 (for a gtt) and the car repayments. :(

atm i just manage to afford the 2

the cheaper insurance comes from waiting the 3 years until i am 25 ( not just lie-ing to the insurance company)

and the biggest mistake of all was paying 24000 for my gt - car dealer - because nobody would finance a personal loan so i could buy a private one.

so all in all (again ) i agree that a gtt is the best way to go but im just trying to find a way to avoid forking out for a new car - and loosing a tone on my current car - to be honest in the end id love a gtr - but who wouldnt

$24,000 for an r34 25gt. i'm expecting to pay around about $14500 all up for mine when it arrives in australia. you should have just saved up more money and paid cash instead of getting a car loan... worst thing you could ever do imo since a car is a depreciating asset and paying $24,000 for an n/a r34 wow, just wow.

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