My R33 Gtr

[Buckna]

Hi guys. Thought I'd post up the build thread here as I don't know how to get access to the premium section. And I know some of you might enjoy seeing something different getting built.

The idea came about when I decided I wanted to build something new, as the 350z had gotten boring and was moving onto circuit racing, we'd come to the conclusion that apart from a select few, there are virtually no good looking r33's in australia, and barely any around the world. I knew I wanted it to be wide, low, huge wheels and powerful. Needed to combine everything I'd done in my previous cars and turn it into one good collaberation of everything I've done before plus some new things I wanted to try.

Started off as a R33 GTR shell I picked up for virtually nothing off my good mate callum. Pretty clean shell, missing a few panels, some good bits on it to re sell.

When I got it home, I instantly started removing everything I didn't want in the car, and everything I was planning on modifying.

Now, there where a few things I liked about the GTR, wide guards, great aggresive body line, clean base. etc.

But, I don't like GTR front suspension, It doesn't allow for adjustability, and considering I didn't need the 4wd system, I thought I'd scrap the factory GTR stuff.

This proved a little more difficult then I'd first thought, GTR rails are bigger, strong, and in a completely different spot, so bolting a GTST crossmember to them was out of the question. Then I toyed with the idea of doing a full rail swap from a GTST, and that, due to my limited panel beating knowledge was deemed to hard. So we decided to build a complete custom from K frame so to speak, utilising bits off other nissan's to simplify the process.

This is a comparrison of the original GTR crossmember, compared to the GTST item. As you can see, there is a big difference, joining these together was not going to be an easy task.

Here we started to dummy up one side of the normal nissan setup into the GTR frame. This looked like it was going to be a fairly simple process.. So we bolted it into the car and had a look at where everything sat.

WRONG!. Turns out, GTR stub axles are actually 50mm longer than GTST items. Which essentially means the whole steering rack/lca setup also sits about 50mm lower in the car, obviously to allow for the 4wd system to come through and to clear that huge sump! This setup would probably have worked to drive in and out of the driveway with, but the geometry would be all kinds of whack. It'd essentially be like you've lowered your car 50mm at standard height.. not ideal.

[N1GTR]

Approved. Keep the good stuff coming

[Buckna]

So we continued to cut away at things, and refitted the lca mount 50mm higher (actually a touch higher again, as I figured I'm going to run this car stupidly low I should try correct some roll centre while I'm here)

Now we refitted all the suspension stuff and it looks normal. finally. Although some more minor mods will be done to this setup towards the end of the project, this seems good enough for now. After that it was time to dummy fit the steering rack, move it as far forward as possible without fouling on anything. Also decided to mount the rack up a bit, to help with tie rod angle when car is railed. Once all that was in, measured, and tacked, we started to weld in all the bits we needed, adding plate (3mm) to brace any sections we needed.

and of course, a shot in the car

Now you'll notice the steering rack. Having done an ls1 into an s15 with a mate of mine, steering rack knuckle to starter motor clearance was an issue, here the GTR rack comes out further by about 2 inches and hugs the rail, which is handy, should mean that there are no dramas in clearing the starter.

GTR rack vs S13 rack.

Now that the crossmember is 90% completed, It came time to try and mount the engine.

Engine is sitting on a block of wood in this shot, it's not straight here, as what I was using to measure off was actually not centre. doh. But this is majority of it mounted.

Few dramas of course, the sump didn't clear the middle of the crossmember at the front, so we cut away at that. cleared the starter by heaps, but then was limited as to how far back I could move the engine due to clutch master cylinder needing a home. Most conversions run a clutch master inside the cabin, normally a willwood or something of the sort. If I'm lucky the GTR's 5/8 clutch master with booster should be sufficent for the twin plate clutch the engine will be running. If not, I'll tackle that hurdle when I get to it.

Turns out, along with the 50mm lower steering setup, the trans tunnel is actually shorter in height than a normal skyline one. So the gearbox did not want to fit in the factory tunnel. Not that big of a drama. So it was removed.

Now that all this was dummy fitted in place, it was time to see if the bonnet shut.

good, bonnet clears no dramas. excellent.

Ontop of all of this, I'd also been collecting more parts for it. Stuff like wheels. seats, radiator, turbo etc. I'll post up some pictures of the more interesting stuff.

This is an alloy twin core 75mm PWR radiator, PWR make some of the best cooling products in australia, and this radiator was designed to sit directly under the rad support to allow it to move forward in the engine bay for more clearance. picked it up at a bargain off a mate who wasn't going to use it anymore. Didn't quite fit, but with a bit of cutting, it found it's home nicely.

This here is a R33 GTST shell that has had a front hit, this is what started the project off as it was given to me by a friend of mine "the ibis"

it was a good condition low km (16,000km!!) shell which was missing motor and box and had the obvious front hit. This is good as it will have all the dash, carpet, door trims, window surrounds glass etc I need to complete my build. Ibis has also hooked me up with headlights, the turbo charger, front brakes, and will hopefully be doing the wiring when the time comes.

Speaking of the turbo charger.

Ibis has provided me with a garret 4082S turbo he picked up for $100 a while ago, core is in perfect condition, as are the housings, specs are 1-18 rear housing and .58 front housing, Should hopefully do some damage to tires with the 5.7 litre capacity the motor has!

Other things I've gotten so far are, a fixed back seat, genuine sheepdog racing from the late 90's, have had this seat in nearly every drift car I've owned, I find when you find a seat that just feels amazing, you just can't seem to part with it.

Bride recliner seat, this will be used for passenger, nice n comfy seat, should do the goods, also have a pair of harnesses to go with them.

I have sourced some wheels thanks to JDM GARAGE, work VSKF 18x10 +7 front, 19x10.5 +7 rear in chrome. these sizes should be ideal for what I want to do, they have heaps of dish front and rear, and I have 4 rears in the same size! So that should make skidding on the same wheels possible more often

Some cusco base height fully adjustable coilovers to suit R33 GTST, A nismo pro GT carbon LSD suit GTR. adjustable 1,1.5 and 2 way. Trust extended diff cover, R32 gtr rear brakes and R33 gtr rear swaybar. Also an R34 N/A rear cradle, no hicas. To accompany that there are ikeya formula toe arms, cusco camber arms, GTR axles and hubs, the rear cradle will be seeing an equal amount of modifying, but hasn't been started on yet.

[Buckna]

Fuel system will be a 2 litre swirl pot with twin bosch 044 external pumps feeding aftermarket fuel rails and 80lb injectors.

Full GTR bodykit will be removed. Have sourced a genuine PS kit out of japan. made of flexi glass it's pretty durable, the fit is amazing (although designed for a GTST shell) and the overall look should be agressive, Also have a URAS bonnet vent and a 1660mm wide 3D GT carbon wing.

the wing is nice and wide

anyway, back to the important part of the build.

To mount the engine, I wanted it to be solid obviously, room was very tight and I don't want much room for movement, Plus I also needed to make sure the mounts didn't interfere with my turbo manifolds, luckily the LS1 has been designed to go in so many different cars there are multiple mounting points on the block. I removed the stock SS mounts and made up some plates to bolt to the engine.

I used 5mm plate for these as I didn't want it breaking. To save room I decided on using rollcage tubing for the mounts, I know it's strong and being only 38mm OD it should be small enough to clear manifolds etc. For engine mounts I used 10mm chopping board. (yep the kind your mum uses to make sandwhiches) and cut it into shape. Finding a way to mount it was a bit difficult, but I used the same idea for the mount as the engine bracket itself, and the motor is now mounted. sitting square and clearing everything

as you can see the motor sits about 4-5mm off the bonnet. Which isn't as bad as one would think, due to the motor being solid mounted, plus, I have that URAS vent I can put there if the motor feels like moving around..

that's about as far as the build has gotten so far. Massive thanks to my mate callum for all his time and welding skills.

Also picked this cage up out of an ex targa tasmania R33 GTR.

It's chromoly and has nearly all the bars I was planning on doing, got it off a mate for an absolute bargain

Just gotta work out the best way to get it in now!

[Buckna]

Mmm, Well just dummy fitted the rear cradle. Kinda convenient, because I'm changing to a R34 NA cradle, it actually mounts 1.5 inches higher into the car.. Which is ideal.

I have to make some custom cradle spacers to make it all fit. mitchy is onto it. but the cradle looks like it's up high enough to make geometry good.

Going to modify a few more things with it, but should be pretty good all in all once it's done.

So yeah, just waiting on a few things to be made to get the rear end sorted.. Then I'll be able to work out coilover heights.

Got all my wheels and coilovers and stuff for this build excited as.

This is with no coilover dummied up on stock arms. Only just makes it inside the lip of the guard... Once the arms are in and the alignment is done, the wheels are gonna poke a shitload.

Not much progress this weekend as I did 2 20 hour days unpacking the container, then drove to sydney (approx 1050km's) to pick up a C110 skyline for a mate of mine. But on the drive back my bmw X5 shat an alternator approx 4 hours from home, at 10pm. So getting home was a bit of a mission, good thing I know my way around cars.

Hopefully this week should show an abundance of progress.

[Buckna]

Hmmmm, seems that I lost alot of photos of this as my phone crashed and last backup i had was from xmas day. fml.

Considering it was too f**king wet to work on any car this weekend, the few minutes it did dry up tonight, I thought dummy fitting the wheels, kit, and everything else would be fun.

just some random snaps.

I'll also note that the front wheels are going to need 20mm bolt on spacers to clear the calipers. The rears are also gonna sit approx 20mm further out when camber is set to 0. So alot of guard work is yet to be done. This is just trying to motivate me into doing more work on it.

[Buckna]

been slack with updates, alot going on, but have been making some progress.

motor back in with turbo manifold done and bolted together.

turbo mounted. so little room

rear cradle assembled, minus ikeya arms. (getting arms overhauled as I'm using the same arms from the s14 which are a bit flogged out after a solid 12 months of drifting)

the giant fuel cell. when I cut it open to shorten it I'll get a pic of the baffles, they look sick as. should work a treat

I know my turbo manifolds look budget as, but, they will work, too hard to find anything turbo LS in aus at a decent price. and my budget for this thing is no more than 11-12k completed. So where I can make my own things and save on costs I'm going too

[Buckna]

Alright, turns out i've been pretty slack with this project. put simply. my sister imported a silvia from japan, (sr20det td06 v mount etc, cool rig) and I've been using that for comps for the moment, plus with modifying that, finishing a 34 sedan project and building another s13 for mountain duties, the gtr hasn't seen much action.

Today I got stuck back into it though, cut the roof off the car and fitted the cage in. what a f**king mission.

vert?

all in, next stage is weld cage to car... funnn.

hopefully be able to continue on with this thing at some fine pace and get it finished asap.

[Buckna]

got into it and did some work on it today.

modified the factory dash/steering column mount bar to fit in with the cage in there

car finally has steering, which will make moving it around so much easier now. thank f**k.

removed all the body loom today, saving the loom for any plugs that I might need, but rewiring the car for just the needed shit from scratch, trying to keep the inside nice and neat.

here's the fuel cell, currently way to long, going to chop it down the middle and take prob 30-40 cm out of it. making it to fit above the rear cradle inbetween the rear towers, should be good when completed.

I love the look of the cage through the rear window. looks tough.

scotty making my roof part of my car again

this saturday will probably see the cage be welded to the car. and thinking I might cut out the rear section to make room for the fuel cell and start measuring it all up.

wanting to have the fuel cell in by next weekend, as well as gearbox xmember made, trans tunnel fabricated, rear firewall fabricated, all mounts for fuel cell & surge tank & pumps made up, cage welded to car and needed gussets welded in also.

pretty much want the shell ready to be painted inside, once it's painted inside I can start on wiring the car up and making up the switch panel.

looking forward to fitting the dash, hydro handbrake, stock handbrake, carpet, some plastic trims, seats, harness' etc, make the inside look like a car again

with the gearbox xmember made I can measure up and order the tailshaft, and with the fuel system mounted I can make a list of the speedflow fittings and line I'll need to get the fluid from one end of the car to the other.

That car's not as far away from being done as everyone seems to think. I see the light already, getting excited.

[N1GTR]

Holy shit.

So much "like" for this project!!!

Nice one putting your name on the cross member haha

You weren't kidding, thats a low R33!!!

Just love it

[FineLine]

Insane build buckna.

What are the plans for the car?

[Buckna]

looking to use it mainly for drifting, but whatever really, just had a urge to build a cool 33, so i'll get the build out of the way and take it from there.

current dilemma is working out where to mount the fuel cell.

[fomby639]

wasnt sure bout this build when u told me at qr once but seems to be on the money, cant wait too see it out there baking it up!

[Count Grantleyish]

Holy shit, this is awesome!

Can't wait to see it finished and out trashing at the track.

[Mohsen]

Wow just wow...

Can you post the 34 sedan please? Must be EPIC

[Beer Baron]

nice project mate. should be a pretty fun piece of gear when done!

[Buckna]

Alright, well. few advancements.

I have cut out the boot floor, made bracing and mounts for my fuel cell. purchased a carter black lift pump and FAST aeromotive 1200hp feed pump, all speedflow fittings required for the boot system, 2 inline filters (one before carter, one after FAST pump), ARE surgetank, and enough line to redo the whole car. fuel cell has been modified and now holds 80 litres.

plan is to run only alloy hardline in the boot with speedflow fittings, then run new alloy hardline under the car,with bulkheads coming through the panels so the boot can be completely sealed off. new boot floor will be made up, and all the holes in parcel tray/rear seat area will be blocked off, incase any strict scrutineers go over the car at any point.

Also bought my billet fuel rails, aeromotive twin entry fuel reg and 840cc injectors. just waiting for them to arrive. trying to find a DEFI fuel pressure gauge that doesn't cost an arm and a leg too.

I also had to buy new wheels, somebody saw my 19's on my car and decided he needed to buy them from me for his FD, so down to just 1 pair of kf's, I went on the hunt for new wheels. it's hard choosing wheels, especially after fitting the KF's up as it looks so damn good on them.

The choices ended up being.

VOLK GTV 18x10 +5 (which I already have)

VOLK GTV 19x10.5 +5

VOLK GTC 18x10 -1

VOLK GTC 18x10.5 -8

WORK VSKF 18x10 -4

WORK VSKF 19x11 +20

or work schwert SC2 in similar sizes, but they got ruled out early coz they don't come in chrome!

ended up going with the kf's. I can replace the front ones I have now with the -4 caliper clearance model (mine were going to need spacers to clear my brakes) and get another pair of 19's for the rear, and use the 18x10 +7 i have for skids, and my gtv's for skids also. should give me 2 19's and 4 18's to skid on all around the same rear fitment. the only sucky thing about this is, I gotta wait for the new ones to get here. on the upside, I get to open the boxes to my brand new wheels in a couple months. that'll be exciting.

I also got some more shiny new suspension bits, cusco front upper arms and cusco front castor rods. I'll get round to putting them in when I pull the knuckles out to modify them for lock and to take my big brakes.

in other news, the rear cradle needs to come out again, as I'm not happy with where it's sitting geometry wise. plus I want to make the mounting for it a bit more solid as well, and maybe gusset the suspension arm mounting points.

[Buckna]

Here are some pics from the last few days of progress...

cut the cell and measured up, making sure it'd fit in the boot.

tucked away in the corner of the shop

welded in some bars to mount the fuel cell too.

cell with the side all welded up ready to go in

lack of boot floor.

dummying up the mounts for the lift pump.

made up the lines to go tank -> lift pump -> surge tank and surge tank -> fuel tank return

thanks to my mate matt for helping with the fuel lines. so easy with the right tools.

[PM-R33]

Wow awesome build thread man!

Looking forward to seeing the finished result.

[Buckna]

and today i had no real motivation to do anythiing substantial.

so to cheer me up I tried fitting up all the spare aero i have to see how it would look. and also mocked up where i want my wing to sit. pretty happy with the width of the wing and how it sits, might actually mount it tomorrow.

tucked away in the corner.

factory series 3 front bar looks awesome all the time.

then i tried to get motivated and cut the dash so it would fit in. I made a right royal mess of it, and it looks shit and i'm not happy with it at all. yay.

luckily i have 3 series 2 dash's, so I can use this as the template dash and use it to measure up how I should cut the next one, so it doesn't look like aids.