Dan's R33 Gts-T Track Build

[mynameisdaniel]

I thought I'd start a thread seeing as this car will hopefully be seeing a lot more track time over the next year. Here's the story so far...

After looking at a few R33s as possible candidates for a dedicated track car that would be cheaper to run and repair than my Subaru I finally came across this one. It had everything I hate in a car:

-Fibreglass body kit

-Cheap tail lights

-Resprayed

-Dangerously low

-Cheap after market wheels

-Even cheaper tyres

-Stupidly loud cannon muffler

But the price was right and overall it was a fairly clean base to start with. As well having a few goodies such as a GReddy FMIC and Nistune ECU.

The day after I bought the car I found some standard (read 20 years old) suspension to get the car off of the bump stops so it would actually get up my notoriously steep driveway. Having no service history for the car I got to work doing the full 100k service as well as well as cleaning out everything basically. I got a bit carried away taking things apart and cleaning them...

While stuff was apart, might as well paint it right?

So I now felt safe taking the car out for a spin without fear of it killing me. Well, besides the fact it's my first RWD car and had some truly horrible tyres on it with a tune and boost control combination that seemed intent on hitting boost as violently as possible. Off to a Motorkhana I went - where I learnt why these things are referred to as boats.

Overall the car went fairly well, I certainly learnt a lot about handling the car. It was a little hot so I didn't think much of coolant bubbling a bit in the overflow (more on this later). My hate for cheap wheels was further strengthened by how well these wheels held up without me hitting anything and no visible signs of impact from the previous owner. So the car was out of action while I sourced some new wheels and tyres.

I found some GTR wheels and semi slick R compound tyres cheap to get the car back on the track as well as an assortment of other wheels for various purposes. Time to take on Collingrove Hillclimb.

A few runs into the day, my AC belt decides to do its own thing - taking out the brilliantly placed CAS sensor wiring with it. With some help we were able dodgy up a temporary fix so I could drive the car home.

Some R33 GTR front Brembo calipers came up cheap and with me already planning on running GTR rotors with adapters I put them on with some HEL braided brake lines.

The car was now all ready to go out to Mallala. So I loaded it up and made it about 1km before one of those stupid worm drive hose clamps that someone has used on every single pipe on this car let go. Easy fix, but still a nuisance.

The day went well - again it was hot - so I didn't think too much of the coolant being pushed out of the overflow bottle as I still had the original radiator in the car with no idea on its history.

Not long after I had another day planned at Collingrove. After replacing the radiator with a new Koyo (OEM size) unit the day before I was up late at night trying to bleed the damn thing. Air just kept coming out until I finally concluded my head gasket was blown. I suspect this happened before I purchased the car, chemiweld or something had been used to patch it up and my thorough cleaning of the cooling system (for the second time) before installing the new radiator had finally dislodged the 'fix'.

So the head was removed and I ordered something like 120 OEM Nissan parts including a VRS kit and various bolts and screws to freshen everything up while it was all apart. They took a while to get to me so the car was again off the road for quite some time. I had the head disassembled, cleaned, faced, reassembled (with new seals) and leak tested. Can you tell which cylinder was drinking coolant?

Naturally, while everything was apart - it all got cleaned and painted.

As well as installing some other bits and pieces - Blitz ID3 EBC (replacing a bleed valve), front bilstein struts with whiteline springs, catch can, 3" split dump pipe, wideband O2 sensor and an Evo 7 recaro to match my Evo 7 wheels.

The car was back together. Running beautifully. This happened on a Friday. I spent all weekend driving the car in the heat without a single problem - feeling confident it will be ready for Mallala on Monday.

Monday comes, I make it through a few sessions. And... My clutch decides it no longer wants to transmit any power whatsoever to the gearbox. I really shouldn't have been surprised by this point. So we trailer the car home and take the gearbox off. Luckily it was simply the friction material of the 'HD' clutch that seems to have disappeared on one side. So in went a nice new Extreme 6 puck ceramic button clutch.

I've started looking into tuning this car as I wasn't happy with how it was running before the clutch went. So in went an RB20 Nistuned ECU with the latest feature pack so I can set up some flex fuel tuning. My Subaru is on E85 and it loves it! I had it tuned by Jaustech on an E17 mix so I have a solid starting point for my tweaks with an ethanol sensor input as well as other goodies like launch control.

So a few weeks ago was another day at Collingrove. In the good part of a year. This was the first day where the car drove well, nothing broke and I left after having a fantastic day all round. I was using up some old tyres on the rear so my times were hilariously slow but that just added to the enjoyment.

And that's where I'm at now. Another day at Mallala planned for a few weeks. Surely I'm running out of things to break?

[timmy_89]

Nice write up mate. They car appears to be pretty clean.

What engine mods to you plan to do before the flex fuel tune?

What other mods do you plan to do? I.e. suspension, etc.

Also, what is the outright plan for the car? Circuit days?

[SCR48]

Love the attention to detail right from the start on this!! Should be a great base for a track car

[mynameisdaniel]

Nice write up mate. They car appears to be pretty clean.

What engine mods to you plan to do before the flex fuel tune?

What other mods do you plan to do? I.e. suspension, etc.

Also, what is the outright plan for the car? Circuit days?

I want to get the flex fuel running right as the car is at the moment with the stock injectors - even if this means only running up to 30% ethanol before the duty cycle gets too high. The next stage (hopefully mid next year) will be injectors and Z32 AFM with the stock turbo basically to see what that's capable of on E85 and perhaps pushing it to the 'safe' limits with the cooler E85 EGTs to see what happens. All in preparation for a high flow turbo on E85 which is looking like the best option at the moment.

As far as suspension mods go I still feel some money needs to be spent on maintenance - replacing/upgrading bushings and perhaps replacing a few arms that are a bit smashed up from when the car was stupidly low. Beyond that MCA coilovers when I feel the suspension begins to become the bottle neck - which isn't the case as the car sits now.

Outright plan is circuit days, hillclimbs, motorkhana and gymkhana. Basically everything apart from drifting and rallying. With the intentions of continually improving lap times and having a reliable car that I can fill up with petrol and take out for the day. At the moment it's me holding the lap times back - more track time is needed to get used to the car and its limits and set a solid bench mark to start improving on.

Love the attention to detail right from the start on this!! Should be a great base for a track car

Cheers! Hopefully that's the case from this point on!