Bookis R33 Gtr - Noob Daily Driver Build

[Booki]

Hey all,

Had my GTR for about 7 month's and decided to create a thread for my mods/progress on the car.

When purchased it had;

HKS Pods

Exhaust + Hiflow cat

Sony Headunit which did not pickup aussie radio

Viper Alarm System - the good key fob with the screen has bits of the plastic broken

Everything else, stock standard

This is the car when i first bought it, It was filthy when i bought it home...it needed a quick wash, unfortunately do not have a before pic.

The next day i went out and picked up some fresh oils, Here is the service guide i will be following, which may help other users. I have just made it up myself after researching and asking noob questions. If anything is wrong, by all means. Let me know!

Maintenance Guide

Engine Oil 7.5-30w Synthetic, Motul 8100 X-Cess 5w-40w Approx 4.6L

Gearbox Oil GSL 75-90w Approx 4L

Front Diff GL5 85-90 Approx 1L

Rear Diff LSD GL5 80-90 Approx 1.5L

Transfer Case Nissan Automatic Fluid Type D Approx 1.8L

ATTESA System Nissan Automatic Fluid Type D

Spark Plugs (.7-.8mm gap) BKR7, PFR7A-11, BCPR7

Scheduled Intervals

Engine Oil 5,000kms/6 Months

Gearbox Oil 40,000km's/Yearly

Front Diff 40,000km's/Yearly

Rear Diff 40,000km's/Yearly

Transfer Case 40,000km's/Yearly

ATTESA System

Spark Plugs (.7-.8mm gap)

Fuel Filter 100,000kms

Oil Filter 10,000kms/Yearly

Coolant Every 2 years

Oil's Used

Engine Oil Motul 8100 X-Cess

Gearbox Oil Castrol VMX-M

Front Diff Castrol LSX90

Rear Diff Castrol LSX90

Transfer Case Nissan Automatic Fluid Type D

Few snaps of the oil changes in place, also where i placed my Jack stands.

Highly recommend this little pump as well, Picked it up from supercheap for about $20.

Also found my exhaust was a "Ganador" beats if its good or not.

While in the mood for maintenance, I also popped off the AFM's and sprayed them with some Brake Cleaner, Carby/Throtlte body cleaner...and to really finish them off some AFM cleaner. All products did the exact same thing, except the AFM cleaner dried quicker. I would just use carby/throttle body cleaner. Its cheaper. Does the same thing. They turned from black to red

While i had it up on stands, I was checking my wheel's, front drivers side tie rod end was worn.

So ordered one in and swapped it over. Car felt alot more solid/stable on the road now!

Worst thing had happened a few weeks into the owning the car. The alarm chucked a fit. Casually driving off in my car and i start hearing a car alarm, not paying too much attention and thinking "Someone's car alarm is going off" ...so did i realise it was mine LOL. Pulled over, popped my bonnet and went to turn it off with the alarm key provided from the previous owner. Turned it to the off position...didn't work. Ended up the switch was broken and could go 360degree's...Sigh. Ended up driving home with the alarm, opening up the siren and it went off. Soon as i put it back together, it went off again, strangest thing.

I did notice some damage to the PCB though, Just ended up wacking on some electrical tape for a quick fix to shut the prick up.

Few weeks went by, and figured i would give it a polish....Setup a weekend aside to do it, and after alot of elbow grease here are the results. Can't tell to much on camera, but in the flesh its alot nicer to look at Well worth doing it!

Next thing on the list, was a bluetooth headunit. It makes work life alot easier being able to drive the car and take a phone call. Best part is, when people ask "Is that your car???" "yes..." "Wow it sounds like a race car!", the sneaky smirks come on my face

Didn't get too many pics on removing the dash, but its pretty straight forward.

Did snap some pics of my headunit wiring though, I used a Aero Pro wiring harness, soldered the connections to the harness + heatshrink, then wrapped in electrical tape. I also did NOT connect my antenna, as I did not like the look of the antenna sticking up. I still get decent radio reception for those who wonder. The headunit i installed was a pioneer 6450BT. Basic looking unit, 3xpre outs, bluetooth, usb/ipod control, sd card and AUX. Head all the features I wanted at a decent price.

Couple of month's went by, and I wanted a better car audio system. I believed i was running stock speakers, and for anybody who has heard them. They are crap. Picked up some Kicker RS60.2 components, a JL Audio amp and some wiring. Good thing about the kicker components, you can mount the tweeter in the speaker itself. I didn't really want to drill into my door trims or alter the stock look of the car too much.

Set aside a weekend and began the install, Fresh speaker wiring, RCA's and remote trigger wire all setup.

Crappy stocky speakers

Found some SUPER dodgey wiring job, which would have been to power a "6 stacker CD changer" which was run to the boot. Needless to say, i removed this crap ass wiring job, the stupid LCD that was stuck onto my ash tray and found they had taken power from my ciggie lighter too. None of it was even soldered!! Grrrr!! Well now with all the wiring fixed up, I felt it was worth doing my own audio install.

Custom MDF spacers made up by the old man (Cause im crap with a jigsaw.), used a template that was written up by a fellow forum member, fitted perfectly.

Interior all inside, nice and safe

Yesterday, my alarm went off again after a buddy pressed the accelerator pedal while it was on remote start. After just throwing in the towel to the system, I cut the speaker wire.

Also got a Power FC + Hand controller which i purchased off GTR ZOAH, and a set of -7's brand new in box (Still deciding if i want to use those, or the -9's...tuner says shit all power diff). I got them for a decent price with actuators and gaskets. So might stick with them, still I just want to get the best performance for my $$$$.

[Booki]

So a few things have happened since my original post.

The -7s are now on the car, although after installing them. The headgasket looks to have blown

Didn't even get a chance to tune it and drive it with the -7's.

[Booki]

Havn't updated my build thread in a while, so here goes with the latest updates.

The head gasket was indeed blown on the car, Cylinder number 5 had coolant in it (could see it through the spark plug hole)

After seeing this, we got to work. Dismantling the beast.

After many nights in the shed after work, lots of frustrating smoko's, The head was finally off with minimal casualties!!!

The head was sent off to Racepace for a reco, while that was happening i got my gaskets organised. Picked them up fairly cheap.

Soon enough the head was back, all ready to go and we set back to work....Before you know it this is what we had in front of us

As each night went on, we got closer to getting it running again..Put in some Tomei Adjustable Cam Gears

^^^Anybody who has taken the plenum off....probably the worst part of the whole thing^^^

Before you know it, She was ready again!!

Fill her up with oil, then dropped it after I had it running for a little. Put in some Gulf Western Synx6000, the oil came out like this....

At this point, we were extremley dissapointed, thinking something had gone wrong. But i had high hopes that it was just "cleaning" the engine out due to the bad head gasket. Threw in some shitty cheap shit oil we had laying around the shed and it came out like......

Just to be 100%, I bought a few bottles of shell helix hx7 10w-40 and changed it a few times. Results were consistent, we were in business!

On the trailer and off to racepace for a tune, and here is the result

Couldn't thank my dad enough for helping me through the whole thing.

Here is how its looking at the moment, also ended up purchasing a bike too!

Edited December 20, 2012 by Booki

[Booki]

Had a bit of spare time up my sleeve tonight, and my gear stick surround had been flaking off since I bought the car. Bought some of that carbon fibre wrap stuff, end result is below. Pictures make it look pretty average, but in the flesh I am pretty happy with it. Regardless, it was better then the original state of it.

[Count Grantleyish]

That is quite nice dyno graph... At 17psi then dropping to 16psi?

I bet it's much nicer to drive now.

[Booki]

It's a hell of alot smoother then what it was before, still getting used to it though.

[Count Grantleyish]

Your GTR needs lowering and a decent set of wheels STAT!