Homebuilt Rb28 Gtr33

[33GTRV]

Hi guys, after much deliberation, i am going to throw together a quick build thread that will evolve over time as the engine is built. In this ill try and give out as many pointers and tips as to what im doing/done and why ive done/am doing it.

OK, where to start....

I purchased the car back in 2002 from a small importer in brisvegas for a princely sum. It had a catback exhaust and that is about it. I was pleasantly surprised by the grunt it had and the klms were what sold me on this car. 38000k's on a neat 97 s2 MP1 coupe. These K's were verified by a friend i had in japan after we scoured through the service history of the car, so i was reasonably pleased

I was happy with this power for a few years and after running nearly clinical and consistent 12.5sec passes at our local goat track, it was getting to me. It started when i blew up the box after a spirited drive at a khana event. I purchased a PAR box(NEVER GAIN) of which we had removed and fixed no less than seven times. While this saga was unfolding i got a little edgy and spent a few bucks on a set of fujitsubo front pipes, hks dump pipes, k+n panel filter, vi-pec plugin, 550cc denso injectors and a set of -5''s. After it was all sorted i made a semi healthy 477whp but never got to take it to the track.

Before the trackwork could commence i purchased a set of camtech camshafts from a forum member which came up at 266deg. 9.45mm lift on both the intake and exhaust so off to a local shop it went to have them installed. It took 5 weeks for the work to be completed and cost me just shy of 1200 bucks, neither of which i was happy with. When the car was started by myself it was very very choppy at idle and excessively smoky. I thought hey, maybe its like this as it is in need of a tune due to the camshafts, so i started to putt it down the road like a 75year old in a lambo, scared shitless id break it.

I neednt worry, it broke itself....I seen the oil pressure guage drop to zero, the engine stalled abruptly and it was making a god awful knocking noise. Onto a tow truck and back to my house so i could kick the missus' car out of the garage and throw it in there. I checked the oil, good. checked the cam timing, good, then i noticed an odd nut on the turbocharger outlet pipe. I looked further into it and noticed no washer....

So, out with the engine and guess what i found in the sump.....a nice little washer. after i pulled the oil pump i found the nut. Not too impressed, many words were said, many ales were drunk, much a tear shed.

So what to do? I called up brad from spool. Asked about a rebuild kit and he happened to mention a bit of a special on his stroker kits....i was sold, the wife on the other hand, she was preeeeety pissed. After some persistend smoothing, back rubs and general ass licking i purchased a stroker, arp stud kits, full gasket kit ect ect and this is where i am today. In this build thread i will try and outline some of the do's and donts of engine building, a few bits and bobs on how to ect ect and by the end if it, ill show you how i have done the engine and gearbox removal, by myself, in my own home garage and show you the little tricks ive learnt along the way. Of course, pictures will flow on as i recieve the gear from brad and the engine machinists and as i get time off work to tinker ill try document it with my wifes new cannon 60D which i will endeavour to cover in grease and grime......

Cheers, Allan

[33GTRV]

Got the engine block back today and got straight to work on it. Drilled out the oil returns to 9.5mm, took a bit out of the larger oil return galleries with a die grinder and chamferred all the oil galleries. Then gave it a hell of a wash and a solid water jetting then gave it the mandatory wd40 bath before setting about installing the ARP main studs i have here from SPOOL. I can tell you all that the off the shelf kit requires the trimming of 2 studs. One of the rear studs and the centre stud(long one) as the rear hits the sump and the centre one hits the driveshaft tube. I did this with a 1mm wafer disc and a 5"Grinder and did it VERY slowly so i didnt introduce and significant amount of heat into them then reinstalled them. They require approximately 5mm removed from them each. With any luck i will recieve some oil pump gears next week along with some valve springs and i can start assembling the head.

Now, speaking of the head, i took the plunge and had a play with the exhaust side of the porting. I got myself a few cartridge rolls and a few buffing wheels for my dremel(not cheap, so small yet so exxy) and set about mainly cleaning up casting marks, blending in the bowl area and removing the exhaust hump and matching the ports to the Greddy Manifold i have. This was a reasonably time consuming process as it was a bit of cut cut check, measure check cut and so on as its something you wouldnt want to get too lax with. Anyway, the end results were pretty good and im happy with them, i got them all flowed so i could match them by my mates old man(sneaky bugger has a bench) and presto! I also had a small play with the inlet, i just blended the massive steps on the port where the cutter had cut the seats.

[Roy]

Cant believe you are starting down this road without supervision from an engineer

[33GTRV]

god damn gingerbeers lol

Im a TQ auto mech, but ive been out of the game for about 6 years so im a bit rusty, but its like riding a bike

I was gonna study to be an engineer, but then i thought to myself, hey....do i want to be hated by EVERYONE on a jobsite? Do i want to be looked upon as Different? then i thought ill go try something else...... lol. JK roy You meet some great ones, then you meet the ones that need to be hit by a stray comet lol

[bigmikespec]

So what stroker kit is it?

[r33_racer]

Its amazing how nasty the insides of the ports are, both with casting marks and machine marks. Good work on cleaning them all up mate! You can get the catridge rolls for cheap off ebay and from a few online american stores. Same with carbide burrs. Stuff here is so damn exxy!

[33GTRV]

yep. Bigmike, its the spool stroker crankshaft, piston and conrod kit they have listed on the website. Im pretty eager to get it going but also pretty sure im gonna have to be careful building it at home. Already run into troubles with the machine shop trying to tell me that its fine to mix and match stainless and sodium filled valves lol. Ended up replacing them all with stainless valves and went .5 larger.

Cheers, Allan

[260DET]

Strange, pics not loading

[33GTRV]

ya, sorry but pics are coming. Just went away for the weekend fishing.

[33GTRV]

So anyway, this is my garage as it has been for a few weeks/month and a half or so. My wifes car used to live in here.......

[33GTRV]

As you can see, there isnt a great deal that needs to be removed from the oil galleries. I have marked them in black mikko pen here on the left and right rear drainsand

and here is one side as im cleaning it up for reference. There isnt alot of material you have to remove, just that you have to do it right

[33GTRV]

Here you can see the ARP bolts that need to be trimmed and why they need trimming. The first one is of the centre stud that interferes with the driveshaft.

and the second is where the stud interferes with the rear of the sump

[33GTRV]

Here i have circled the small drain holes that i am to enlarge with a long drill bit and a steady hand, and remember, if you undertake this, be steady, be sure and use cutting compound.

[33GTRV]

Guess ill throw some progress shots of the home porting i have been doing. I didnt take any before shots sadly

ok, this is about 1 hour in on the first port.

and then after a bit of cleaning up on the topside

and looking much better here

Its a simple rinse repeat process and it is pretty time consuming and also, a big thanks goes out to Gerg-R31 for his quick piece of advice on the porting cheers son

[sinistaGTR]

Inpressive thread, keen to see how it turns out for you... Best of luck

[33GTRV]

Had a billet oil pump gearset arrive today from Spool, thanks brad. Also had some new valve springs arrive from the same company but unfortunately my conrods and crankshaft will not be available until after christmas, you cant have your cake and eat it too

[33GTRV]

just had my 1.5m snake arrive! he was delivered to the front drivers seat, looks to be in great nick, THANKS MOTHER NATURE! you scared the shrt out of me.

[sean133]

photo of the snake!! good read too hope it all goes well

[SHOWOFFR32]

Goodluck with the build mate, I'll be keeping an eye on this for sure... I'm about to do a build similar to this myself haha

[33GTRV]

As requested, le snake. We get a fair few browns around here at home but this guy is just a tree snake. Very pretty snake and a good opportunity to teach the kids about snakes and why they shouldnt touch them or go near them

He was asleep on the drivers seat under the gasket kit i had resting on the seat. When i moved the gasket set he sure got the shrts on and wasnt too impressed at getting grabbed by the head lol. The wife lost her shit as usual at me for showing her close up and surprising her, but the boy loved him and didnt want to let him go lol.

Cheers, Allan