Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

Hello. Since this place seemed so full of knowledge I decided to join. Hope us 'mericans are allowed!

I'm looking into importing a R32 GTR and have a couple of questions that I've been trying to find info on I think I have found my answers but would love input to make sure I am correct.

I'll cut to the chase and ask my questions.

  1. What is the most AWHP I can expect safely from the stock turbos and very mild modifications?(93 Octane)
  2. What can I expect if I upgrade to a turbo without ceramic blades?
  3. From a durability preventative maintenance POV what should I do/replace when I get it?(I assume at least the 25yo clutch)
  4. Whats some good basic/bang for buck handling recommendations?

I'm not looking to make a track car, just something very fun I can drive about ever day while having fun and being comfortable.

Thanks Everyone!

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/456185-usa-researching-r32-gtr/
Share on other sites

Hello. Since this place seemed so full of knowledge I decided to join. Hope us 'mericans are allowed!

I'm looking into importing a R32 GTR and have a couple of questions that I've been trying to find info on I think I have found my answers but would love input to make sure I am correct.

I'll cut to the chase and ask my questions.

  1. What is the most AWHP I can expect safely from the stock turbos and very mild modifications?(93 Octane)
  2. What can I expect if I upgrade to a turbo without ceramic blades?
  3. From a durability preventative maintenance POV what should I do/replace when I get it?(I assume at least the 25yo clutch)
  4. Whats some good basic/bang for buck handling recommendations?

I'm not looking to make a track car, just something very fun I can drive about ever day while having fun and being comfortable.

Thanks Everyone!

Since your new I will have a go at answering your questions - but be aware that these have been asked (And answered) many, many times on SAU. A google search will turn them up with ease.. Anyway.

1. It is not the horsepower but the boost level that your turbos will survive. Typically 1 bar is all you should use. What it reads on the dyno depends on the dyno but 300rwhp is a rough number.

2. Depends on the turbo. A trite answer I know but it really depends on the turbo. Check the forced induction section for any number of engine/turbo/fuel combinations. Also look up 707160-7 and 707160-9.

3. There is an enormous number of things that can go wrong - and probably will. Bushes, belts, clutches (Attessa more so than the one you are thinking of), window seals, rear wiper, oil pumps.... Get it up on a hoist and looked at.

4. Bilstein shocks, new springs, sway bars, new bushes and front end neg camber.

Have fun.

  • Like 1

Thanks. Yeah I'm sure they are asked a lot. i mostly had "ball park" areas of the answers I expect to hear. I just more want to think I'm not comprehending something wrong. :-)

Would you say that if i get a GTR in good mechanical shape I should put clutch, clutches and full fluids change as the top items on my list? I know a 25yr old car can have a lot of small things wrong, but long as it's running mechanically sound I can worry about smaller things later.

As for the turbos I was thinking (from my understanding) the N1/R33/R34 have basically the same turbos but with metal blades. My last car ran about a 12.6-.7@106MPH on street tires. I'd like to if possible get a bit quicker than that, but if not with out heavier work, then so be it. I don't spend much time at the track, I just like having fun on the way to work.

I'd rather sink money into reliability and bulletproofing than crazy power. I'd rather my car can take 600HP and make only 300 while getting me to work every day than take 400 and making 370 while constantly having small things keep popping up. For example my Mustang had a built rear that would take 800HP. tranny that would take 600, and bottom end that would take 450, but I never pushed it past 330whp. It never let me down either until I had an accident.

If you're not after anything too serious then start with a full inspection of the car and a fluid change. I'd also recommend a compression test before purchase.

The car might even come with a decent clutch if you're lucky.

I'd recommend swapping out the ceramic turbo's as soon as you can as they're known to fail. 707160-7(R34 N1) or the HKS varient GT-SS is the next step up from factory and will give you roughly 400hp to the wheels and a high 11 second 1/4 with supporting mods.

Supporting mods would be a full exhaust, fuel pump, injectors and a tune to reach that goal.

Search will be your friend as to which way to go about it.

How deep are your pockets? If you want to recondition lots on the car you could be forking out a bit of money if the car isn't in great condition to start with plus the age.

25 years old and parts need replacing or have been replaced and need to be replaced again, etc.

If you are looking at importing, save yourself the headache by getting some checks done before it leaves Japan for your own security. Last thing you want is the car to be a disappointment once it gets here and a money pit to get it running before maintaining it.

With regards to modifications, there are heaps of different combinations and it depends on your power goals, response, reliability etc. Have a read through some build topics, the rb26 dyno thread and the use of Google could help pin point more specific articles.

Handling on the gtr on the street would be good so I doubt high end suspension mods would be needed but the basics can be covered and improve the car quite a bit. Quality tyres, brake pads and among other things together will all help the overall performance of the car.

  • Like 1

Thanks. Yeah I'm sure they are asked a lot. i mostly had "ball park" areas of the answers I expect to hear. I just more want to think I'm not comprehending something wrong. :-)

Would you say that if i get a GTR in good mechanical shape I should put clutch, clutches and full fluids change as the top items on my list? I know a 25yr old car can have a lot of small things wrong, but long as it's running mechanically sound I can worry about smaller things later.

As for the turbos I was thinking (from my understanding) the N1/R33/R34 have basically the same turbos but with metal blades. My last car ran about a 12.6-.7@106MPH on street tires. I'd like to if possible get a bit quicker than that, but if not with out heavier work, then so be it. I don't spend much time at the track, I just like having fun on the way to work.

I'd rather sink money into reliability and bulletproofing than crazy power. I'd rather my car can take 600HP and make only 300 while getting me to work every day than take 400 and making 370 while constantly having small things keep popping up. For example my Mustang had a built rear that would take 800HP. tranny that would take 600, and bottom end that would take 450, but I never pushed it past 330whp. It never let me down either until I had an accident.

Look drive the car and if the clutch is fine then it is fine. No need to replace something if it is working. Its not a WRX/Emo so the clutch isn't the weak point. The attessa clutches are a known wear point. They are shimmed to give a certain clearance and when the clutch plates wear the shimming goes out of tolerance. You then get a slow to react system or one that doesn't work. Unfortunately the only ways to work this out is to pull it apart and measure it - or based on experience to make a judgement on the working of the system. Difficult if you've not driven one before.

RB26's can make stupid power even on standard internals. Leave the Nissan in it and do the support mods to your preferred hp. By which I mean ECU, afms or MAP (take your pick), injectors/fuel pump, turbos/exhaust. Will make 400rwhp happily with that lot and with room to spare too.

  • Like 1
  1. What is the most AWHP I can expect safely from the stock turbos and very mild modifications?(93 Octane)

    - I wouldn't run anything more then 1 Bar Boost (14.7 PSI) on stock 25 year old engine and turbos.

    - But if the engine is healthy (good compression) and turbos are good condition, 300 Rear Wheel kW's (402HP)

    - Anything more you'd be risking it.

  2. What can I expect if I upgrade to a turbo without ceramic blades?

    - Anything between 300 - 350 Rear Wheel kW's is a good range.

    - Depends on what Turbos you go, Garrett -7 / -9 / -5

    - If you want anything over 300 Rear Wheel kW's, you'd would have to start modding the Air Flow Metres / Fuel Injectors and you would need an ECU Tune.

    - Adjustable Cam Gears.

    - Just keep in mind the engine itself.

  3. From a durability preventative maintenance POV what should I do/replace when I get it?(I assume at least the 25yo clutch)

    - Change Oil / Oil Filter / Air Filter / All the Fuilds

    - If clutch ain't slipping, then don't worry about it till it slips.

    - Retune it to run your 93 RON, we here in AUS have 98 RON so all JDM cars imported in will be tuned to that.

    - Whatever breaks on the way, just fix it, 25 year old car, things will need replacing sooner or later.

  4. Whats some good basic/bang for buck handling recommendations?

    - Suspension / Wheels / Tyres / A good set of Brake Pads / Calipers / Strut Brace, if you don't have it already.

As for the turbos I was thinking (from my understanding) the N1/R33/R34 have basically the same turbos but with metal blades. My last car ran about a 12.6-.7@106MPH on street tires. I'd like to if possible get a bit quicker than that, but if not with out heavier work, then so be it. I don't spend much time at the track, I just like having fun on the way to work.

- No, R33 and R34 GTR Stock Turbos are Ceramic

- R33 GTR N1 Turbos are Metal but non Ball Bearing.

- R34 GTR N1 Turbos are the equivalent to Garrett -7's and are Ball Bearing.

I'd rather sink money into reliability and bulletproofing than crazy power. I'd rather my car can take 600HP and make only 300 while getting me to work every day than take 400 and making 370 while constantly having small things keep popping up. For example my Mustang had a built rear that would take 800HP. tranny that would take 600, and bottom end that would take 450, but I never pushed it past 330whp. It never let me down either until I had an accident.

- That's it! That's what you want.

- Build an engine strong and reliable and run a nice power figure just under it's limit.

Thanks everyone. So it looks like my first steps will be basic maintenance/care, then supporting mods to help along a 707160-7 or GT-SS.

I appreciate the help.

Not sure if anyone is familiar with them but I plan on going to japaneseclassicsllc.com once I see they have a car in stock that I'm interested in. They are a lot closer to me than others shops and seem to do a good job at inspecting/cleaning/prepping the car. If anyone has any positive or negative feedback about them I'd love the input.

Edited by Nexus GT-R

Have you been to gtrusablog.com? It's by Sean Morris - he pioneered Skyline importation here in the US and crew chiefed the Speed World Challenge R34 a while back so he knows a lot about these cars. I bought my Nismo R32 from him and he's been a big help.

So far on my car I've done oil and filter, sparkplugs, and gearbox and diff fluids for basic preventive maintenance. All the belts and coolant will be changed too as soon as I get in a new water pump (it's not broken but since I'm swapping out the timing belt I figure I might as well swap it out at the same time). Also have a new fuel filter waiting to get swapped in. Clutch is on the menu too but mainly because my throwout bearing is worn.

Not too many owners here in the US of course so I started my own blog to talk about my car and post useful info. There's not much there yet since I just started but I'll be adding some DIYs and other info posts as time goes by. It's at 23gt.blogspot.com if you want to check it out.

Have you been to gtrusablog.com? It's by Sean Morris - he pioneered Skyline importation here in the US and crew chiefed the Speed World Challenge R34 a while back so he knows a lot about these cars. I bought my Nismo R32 from him and he's been a big help.

So far on my car I've done oil and filter, sparkplugs, and gearbox and diff fluids for basic preventive maintenance. All the belts and coolant will be changed too as soon as I get in a new water pump (it's not broken but since I'm swapping out the timing belt I figure I might as well swap it out at the same time). Also have a new fuel filter waiting to get swapped in. Clutch is on the menu too but mainly because my throwout bearing is worn.

Not too many owners here in the US of course so I started my own blog to talk about my car and post useful info. There's not much there yet since I just started but I'll be adding some DIYs and other info posts as time goes by. It's at 23gt.blogspot.com if you want to check it out.

I actually found his site last night and got lost in it, haha. It's got SO much information. Kind of makes me think that I should invent in a NISMO intake manifold just to help negate the lean #6. Since the engine has to be lifted for it to be put on it seems that it would be something that would be timed perfectly to also installing a better oil pump along with it.

Edited by Nexus GT-R

I actually found his site last night and got lost in it, haha. It's got SO much information. Kind of makes me think that I should invent in a NISMO intake manifold just to help negate the lean #6. Since the engine has to be lifted for it to be put on it seems that it would be something that would be timed perfectly to also installing a better oil pump along with it.

Nismo intake plenum and upgraded oil pump are on my planned mods as well but I've got a laundry list of other things that are higher priority right now since it runs fine and that would require pulling the engine. I'll probably do all of that once I get the other stuff taken care of and I'm ready to have the engine pulled for a full overhaul.

Nismo intake plenum and upgraded oil pump are on my planned mods as well but I've got a laundry list of other things that are higher priority right now since it runs fine and that would require pulling the engine. I'll probably do all of that once I get the other stuff taken care of and I'm ready to have the engine pulled for a full overhaul.

I hear ya. I'd probably get the parts i want for it, then wait till I have a few things to go on at once and just have it all done at the same time. if it didn't involve pulling the engine I'd do it myself. I've done intake mani on my Mustang and cams on the ZX2, but I'm not comfortable pulling a motor.

I don't have a GT-R since for a daily driver it isn't worth it, but I have a R32 Type M so similar things will apply:

Unless you have service/shaken records, don't trust the KM on the odometer. At all.

If you have the service records, find out the last time the timing belt was replaced. The RB engines are all interference. If it snaps you are f**ked. If you don't have the records and don't know when the timing belt was last replaced, or if it hasn't been replaced, do it immediately. It's not worth the risk. The service interval is usually 80,000~100,000km or every 5 years, whichever comes first since rubber deteriorates. Change it to a Nismo or other strengthened belt for more peace of mind.

The US and the rest of the world measure fuel octane differently. The US uses AKI (RON divided by MON) whereas everyone else uses RON. 93 AKI is the same as 98 RON. You will be okay without a retune unless you have an aftermarket ECU. If you want to get the most performance, use something else (I use 95~96 AKI).

I plan on getting the Nismo plenum in the future (in other words after more important stuff is taken care of and only as money allows) because a) the previous owner of my car had refinished the current plenum in blue and that's not the color scheme I plan to have for my engine bay and b) my car is a Nismo R32 so it seems only fitting to have as many Nismo parts as makes sense. In other words, it's totally not a priority but just something I want to do if I can lol.

Refreshing the suspension and possibly the engine/trans mounts seem like a higher priority right now.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • jeebus. glad you weren't under it while performing the stunt. Also thanks for the link to the wheel measurer, exactly what I needed
    • In the older stuff there were very significant differences 2wd to 4wd, for example Stagea had strut front end for 2wd and double wishbone for 4wd so it was not minor to swap. From poking around the 2wd v37, it *looks* like it might be more possible; some of the parts specifically have "2wd" stamped on them which suggests the platforms are more similar. You'd still want to start with a 4wd half cut to swap stuff from though. I'd suggest if you don't have a tune on the ECU you don't really need one on the trans either. Throttle mapping is in the ECU side (and you can always use a Roar Pedal if you want the throttle to actually respond to your foot), and really if you are happy with the stock power you probably accept the stock trans behaviour too....its all made to be "sporty" not racey.
    • So, updates. I have not washed the car since it came back from Tassie. I've driven it around a bit but not got around to actually sorting it out. I DID raise it because I cracked the rear bar leaving a hotel which was very distressing. Interestingly, the car drives more compliant now that it's raised a fair bit (5mm front, 15mm rear). Also noticed that my FR height was 10mm lower than FL. So that's now sorted out, too. I also bought this and had it printed: https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/1576422240/wheel-and-tire-fitment-tool-universal?ref=shop_home_feat_1&dd=1&logging_key=08f604d9fa4cc383550ba985e6ac85cd5cac7fbb%3A1576422240 Now, if I was smart I would have taken my brake calipers off to actually use this correctly but it was evident enough to me that in the region where the caliper was... there was nothing to hit suspension/guard/arm wise. So I'm going with "it'll be fine" after using the tool to hopefully very precisely measure the wheel clearance. Also while doing this, I had the very VERY bad idea of jacking one of the wheels/suspension arms up while the rest of the car was on jack stands. I did this to see how the arm would travel. This all was well and good until the car slid off the stands and went through a fence. So don't do that. Incredibly nobody was hurt and there was only minor damage to the rear bumper as the car didn't have far to slide, and had 3-4 wheels on it. The only damage turned out to be the fence itself which was easy to fix, and a little bit of damage to the fibreglass rear bumper trim. I had already planned to try a touch up paint kit to fix the time I drove into my garage door to see if it'd help in the interim before I get it fixed properly. I used the Dr Colorchip kit after looking online and seeing everyone talking about it. Yes it's made for chips and not huge broken missing pieces and I'll be 500% recommending it for stone chips after using it for stupid things like me. This took about ... 10 minutes and looking at the half assed photo the 30 second job I did on the bumper corner was almost perfect just by using the tiny little brush and painting it in. The sealact stuff to remove over-painting is really useful, so if/when I do it again I'll likely slather the touch up paint well over it and then clean it up with the cleaning solution. The wheels should arrive in a couple of weeks. I am still kinda confident after doing a stupid amount of measuring (and borrowing a set of 18x10.5+15) that they will not fit because I overlooked something, somehow and flew too close to the sun. ALSO R34 GTR guard liners do not fit on a GTT. I bought the undertray brake duct guides and had the wonderful problem of them not fitting my intake, my oil cooler and the liners themselves were even worse. Attempting to fit them won't work in general - You would have to cut them up as another poster mentioned as the bodywork is different on the GTT. At least I can try to resell them. So instead of cutting those up, I cut up my old already-cut-up GTT liners and extended them by using some PP plastic and drilling some 8mm holes for some nissan clips for the 'extra' bit. Because I was happy to cut them I was able to mount them pretty damn forward so I now have some semblance of guard liners, and the brake vents seal the bumper from the bottom. It sort-of-looks like this, to give some idea - If you look at the GTR and then the GTT this is when I realised that I needed to seriously measure as the inside of the rim area is entirely, entirely, entirely different and could not take any internet measurements for granted.   
    • If you are Ecutek tuned then these TCU tunes are anywhere from $550 to $700 usd. If you are not ECUTEK tuned, then it gets costly!    
    • Sorry to hear your HFM BM57 was faulty,  did you contact HFM I would hope they would be at least grateful for the information if there was some sort of manufacturing fault, you would hope they would be sympathetic even if your item was 2 years old if it had never been fitted. May I ask where it leaked from ?
×
×
  • Create New...