Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

I've been talking with the owner about this but I'm in two minds about it. It ticks a lot of boxes (gun metal, dark interior, modded) but there's a few things I'm not sure about.

Here's the details from the ad.

2001 model, (comes with dark interior)

144,XXXkm's (Genuine Odo...)

Exterior: Full custom gunmetal respray Car is immaculate.

Wheels/Suspension: New Nitto Invo's New RDA Rotors with new New Project Mu HC800 pads Genuine Rays Engineering Volk TE37 Superlap's 19x9.5 Nismo Type S suspension front and rear. Exhaust: HKS Super Silent 3" Venom Cat HPI dump pipes Blitz front pipes

Engine/drivetrain mods: Nismo Super Coppermix Clutch. Garrett Gt2860-5 turbo's Splitfire Coilpacks Haltech Platinum Pro ECU. Tomei Poncams 800cc Sard injectors Walbro 400LPH intank pump Apexi/HKS full piping kit and pods Genuine HKS type R intercooler.

interior: Stock, clean interior, no extra guages or stuff like that.

A final Note: First Australian Owner, Imported in 2011 as a completely stock vehicle. Car is running a good street tune at the moment, just had a service. Owned her for 4 years, time to say goodbye :(. Very reluctant sale.

After talking to the owner, who is very helpful and seems quite honest and genuine. A few things stand out.

- I'm in two minds about the respray, it looks like a quality job (I'll fly up to inspect the car myself if it passes a preliminary check over by my dad who is closer to the car). I love the colour but wonder what's being hidden. He notes he painted it as the black paint was faded in a few spots and that he loves gunmetal.

- The boot lock does not match the key which implies tome it's had a boot lid replaced - maybe from a hit. The seller mentioned that himself and said the panel beater could find no trace of a hit as the seller had this same concern.

- High k's, he notes it has excellent compression (Godzilla Motorsport) and is making a safe 340awkw which is a little low for -5's but is only running 98 octane, I'm not just thinking about the engine though (diffs/box/bushes etc). I'm aware that lots of GT-R's receive cluster swaps and have much higher K's than advertised, he claims this is the original cluster. The car can possibly also come with a fully prepped RB30 short block that he has sitting ready. He said he's welcome for me to have the car professionally inspected and also offered a hoist for when my dad comes by,

- Interior blemishes. The seats look good but the marks on the cluster surround I'm not sure I can clean off. Also the marks on the passenger side rear arm rest and the carbon fibre wrap on the coin cover and near the AC controls. He said he's removing this and cleaning up any residue.

- In terms of pros, he has a bunch of spares that will come with the car. Turbos, piping, powerFC, 2 spare rims (just Rota's) and possibly that RB30 (which I might sell as the work involved is still fairly substantial, RB28 might be easier). Basically anything he has modified he has kept the stock version of (except the cams). There's quite a few dollars in bits there, especially if I can get that RB30 as well.

- I love the colour/wheel combo and while it's a respray it's also a one off unique colour which makes it a little special. Not sure about those wheels in matte, I assume I could put a clear coat over them for a gloss look, though the offset looks a little tame on them also.

- There's nothing else on the market like this at present so I'd have to import otherwise.

The car will be a once a month kind of drive and the occassional track day (hence concern around K's). I would add a vspec 2 naca duct and rear diffuser also as the car is not a v-spec. I'll also add the exhaust temp and intake sensors and add those to the MFD via the diag mode as described on here.

He's coming back to me with full details on the short motor but gave me this rundown - cometic head gasket all quality brand new ARP fasteners, big end bolts and head studs etc.

The engine and crank have been machined and balanced, the con-rods are spool items and the pistons are Carrillo's. all the big end bearings and girdle bearings are ACL race bearings. Built for 9:1 and e85.

The seller himself seems very friendly, helpful and more than happy to answer my questions, show me photos and is very specific about showing me any flaws etc.

Thoughts?

Oh and don't go trying to buy it... I've got dibs on it.

post-23873-0-22149300-1441665863_thumb.jpgpost-23873-0-87951000-1441665863_thumb.jpgpost-23873-0-69960200-1441665864_thumb.jpgpost-23873-0-21643800-1441665865_thumb.jpgpost-23873-0-78003700-1441665865_thumb.jpgpost-23873-0-25608700-1441665866_thumb.jpgpost-23873-0-73081200-1441665866_thumb.jpgpost-23873-0-23266300-1441665867_thumb.jpgpost-23873-0-40007100-1441665869_thumb.jpgpost-23873-0-84686300-1441665871_thumb.jpg

post-23873-0-84463500-1441665741_thumb.jpgpost-23873-0-40032100-1441665742_thumb.jpgpost-23873-0-73633500-1441665742_thumb.jpgpost-23873-0-23744300-1441665743_thumb.jpgpost-23873-0-73353000-1441665743_thumb.jpgpost-23873-0-96359000-1441665745_thumb.jpgpost-23873-0-96817100-1441665747_thumb.jpgpost-23873-0-96606000-1441665749_thumb.jpgpost-23873-0-00126700-1441665752_thumb.jpgpost-23873-0-98090500-1441665753_thumb.jpg

post-23873-0-68121900-1441665984_thumb.jpgpost-23873-0-24303000-1441665986_thumb.jpgpost-23873-0-69904600-1441665987_thumb.jpgpost-23873-0-69595400-1441665988_thumb.jpgpost-23873-0-72432500-1441665989_thumb.jpgpost-23873-0-32076000-1441665991_thumb.jpgpost-23873-0-17996800-1441665992_thumb.jpgpost-23873-0-26945700-1441665993_thumb.jpgpost-23873-0-49036400-1441665994_thumb.jpgpost-23873-0-46831200-1441665995_thumb.jpg
Edited by ActionDan
Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/459533-thoughts-on-this-r34-gt-r/
Share on other sites

I haven't even asked for the VIN yet, what's a JOC?

He strikes me that way, he was well aware of any problem I through at him, such as "How's the MFD?" "Its been replaced as I couldn't handle the crazing on the screen".

He gave me a full run down of how to fit the RB30, some issues with RB26 alternators, why he had swapped to RB30, discussion around R34 CAS etc etc.

Edited by ActionDan

How does that work/how do I pursue it?

And thank you.

EDIT: If it's this then that's money well spent.

http://www.japaneseodometercheck.com/purchase.html

Edited by ActionDan

My plan is to have my dad take a look (he's got an excellent eye and plenty of mechanical knowledge) as I'll need to fly up to see it.

If my dad gives it the OK I'll have a workshop professional inspect/comp test.

If that's OK I'll fly up for a final inspection/drive and leave a deposit.

I'm awaiting the VIN as we speak and will do the JOC.

Are people not concerned about the respray or the high k's?

Edited by ActionDan

http://www.japanesehistorycheck.com/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Japanese-History-Check/557835010998928

These guys tend to dig a bit deeper, found some rather dodgy cars (e.g. re-registered twice in Japan to wipe the previous two recorded km).

RE: body, bit hard unless you really know what you're looking for. E.g. a relo of mine is a spray painter, he can tell straight away if a car has been hit, whether the respray was good, etc.

Mileage seems fine, remember they're 15 years old now.

I thought this too, but I question how long the motor will live with a factory head gasket and bottom end at that power.

Pulling the head on my track car was a pain as it was without 2 mote cylinders and an extra turbo to consider.

I thought it was built...

He's coming back to me with full details on the short motor but gave me this rundown - cometic head gasket all quality brand new ARP fasteners, big end bolts and head studs etc.

The engine and crank have been machined and balanced, the con-rods are spool items and the pistons are Carrillo's. all the big end bearings and girdle bearings are ACL race bearings. Built for 9:1 and e85.

I'm not sure I follow what you mean.

The current motor in the car is the factory 26. He has an assembled RB30 short motor and is coming back to me with receipts for all the work done so I have a full run down of the specs.

Did I miss something?

Get it to a workshop to professionally inspect, and look yourself if your Dad is happy with it. Need to look at the under body to be satisfied there is no damage or bad rust issues that are being hidden. Do the history check as some dodgy stuff could of happened when importing and usually it is picked up from the transition between Japan and Australia when the km's or stuff doesn't match. 144k km seems reasonable though.

Seems legit and like a good deal but you want to be absolutely positive before buying a 60k+ plus car at least and a flight down to inspect can't hurt that much compared to being disappointed by hidden issues you didn't inspect. All the best with it.

I'm also particularly fussy about the minor marks and scratches etc but over time I've just 50% forgotten about them and realised it's not a museum piece I'm keeping so I'm no longer thinking about that clip that's missing or what not.

Dont get me wrong, it's the exact mindset you'd want when buying.

As for the boot lock, can you get a new one barrell matched to the existing key?

Looks rather tastefully modded and I love the standard interior/engine bay. As for the respray and high Kms, it'll be in fresher condition than any other comparison and seeing the vehicles condition (underside, engine, interior wear etc) wil give you a good indication over the kms on the cluster.

Apart from a reluctant sale, has the owner indicated why he's letting it go when he's half way through a rb30 bottom end?

When was the last major service? good to know if you're up for one given the kms.

Cluster surround marks could have been gauges? hard to see when driving!

Yeah agree with above poster, do all the checks you can, and get the right people to see it as that money is money well spent.

Call up the workshop that regularly services the car for a chat too, cheap phone calls.

I'm not sure about the boot lock, he said the interior release works fine, but my thought would be you'd need an all new lock/key set to have them matching.

He has a hoist and encouraged us to inspect on that to see how clean it is underneath.

He's clearing out all his toys that sit unused he said, is selling a number of other things also.

Cheers

Yeah had a quick look around SAU, you'll need a new boot lock and have it rekeyed/matched to the rest of the car, pretty much what you said.

Hopefully he's kept lots of the paperwork, invoices etc always good to know the history if possible.

Is it running around 20lb to make that 340kw on the -5s?

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

    • Yep super expensive, awesome. It would be a cool passion project if I had the money.
    • Getting the setup right, is likely to cost multiples of the purchase price of the vehicle.
    • So it's a ginormous undertaking that will be a massive headache but will be sorta cool if pulled off right. And also expensive. I'm sure it'll be as expensive as buying the car itself. I don't think you could just do this build without upgrading other things to take the extra power. Probably lots of custom stuff as well. All this assuming the person has mechanical knowledge. I'm stupid enough to try it but smart enough to realize there's gonna be mistakes even with an experienced mechanic. I'm a young bloke on minimum wage that gets dopamine from air being moved around and got his knowledge from a Donut video on how engines work.]   Thanks for the response though super informative!
    • Yes, it is entirely possible to twincharge a Skyline. It is not....without problems though. There was a guy did it to an SOHC RB30 (and I think maybe it became or already was a 25/30) in a VL Commode. It was a monster. The idea is that you can run both compressors at relatively low pressure ratios, yet still end up with a quite large total pressure ratio because they multiply, not add, boost levels. So, if the blower is spun to give a 1.4:1 PR (ie, it would make ~40 kPa of boost on its own) and the turbo is set up to give a 1.4:1 PR also, then you don't get 40+40 = 80 kPa of boost, you get 1.4*1.4, which is pretty close to 100 kPa of boost. It's free real estate! This only gets better as the PRs increase. If both are set up to yield about 1.7 PR, which is only about 70 kPa or 10ish psi of boost each, you actually end up with about 1.9 bar of boost! So, inevitably it was a bit of a monster. The blower is set up as the 2nd compressor, closest to the motor, because it is a positive displacement unit, so to get the benefit of putting it in series with another compressor, it has to go second. If you put it first, it has to be bigger, because it will be breathing air at atmospheric pressure. The turbo's compressor ends up needing to be a lot larger than you'd expect, and optimised to be efficient at large mass flows and low PRs. The turbo's exhaust side needs to be quite relaxed, because it's not trying to provide the power to produce all the boost, and it has to handle ALL the exhaust flow. I think you need a much bigger wastegate than you might expect. Certainly bigger than for an engine just making the same power level turbo only. The blower effectively multiplies the base engine size. So if you put a 1.7 PR blower on a 2.5L Skyline, it's like turboing a 4.2L engine. Easy to make massive power. Plus, because the engine is blown, the blower makes boost before the turbo can even think about making boost, so it's like having that 4.2L engine all the way from idle. Fattens the torque delivery up massively. But, there are downsides. The first is trying to work out how to size the turbo according to the above. The second is that you pretty much have to give up on aircon. There's not enough space to mount everything you need. You might be able to go elec power steering pump, hidden away somewhere. but it would still be a struggle to get both the AC and the blower on the same side of the engine. Then, you have to ponder whether you want to truly intercool the thing. Ideally you would put a cooler between the turbo and the blower, so as to drop the heat out of it and gain even more benefit from the blower's positive displacement nature. But that would really need to be a water to air core, because you're never going to find enough room to run 2 sets of boost pipes out to air to air cores in the front of the car. But you still need to aftercool after the blower, because both these compressors will add a lot of heat, and you wil have the same temperature (more or less) as if you produced all that boost with a single stage, and no one in their right mind would try to run a petrol engine on high boost without a cooler (unless not using petrol, which we shall ignore for the moment). I'm of the opinnion that 2x water to air cores in the bay and 2x HXs out the front is probably the only sensible way to avoid wasting a lot of room trying to fit in long runs of boost pipe. But the struggle to locate everything in the limited space available would still be a pretty bad optimisation problem. If it was an OEM, they'd throw 20 engineers at it for a year and let them test out 30 ideas before deciding on the best layout. And they'd have the freedom to develop bespoke castings and the like, for manifolds, housings, connecting pipes to/from compressors and cores. A single person in a garage can either have one shot at it and live with the result, or spend 5 years trying to get it right.
    • Good to know, thank you!
×
×
  • Create New...