Another BK R32 GTR money pit...

[Shoota_77]

Man it must be amazing to see a brand spanking new paint job on a GT-R!!  Would be the final piece of the puzzle to make it feel like a new car all over again! 

Your dad is a legend for being into them and you for helping him!  Great to see.

[BK]

On 14/07/2021 at 8:34 AM, Shoota_77 said:

Man it must be amazing to see a brand spanking new paint job on a GT-R!!  Would be the final piece of the puzzle to make it feel like a new car all over again! 

Your dad is a legend for being into them and you for helping him!  Great to see.

Yeah us ex Shep boys going hard now ! Old man was like fk it, give me your old R33 GTR wheels so it'll hook up.... 

Came back with fresh Hankook RS4 !

[Shoota_77]

On 16/07/2021 at 12:30 AM, BK said:

Yeah us ex Shep boys going hard now ! Old man was like fk it, give me your old R33 GTR wheels so it'll hook up.... 

Came back with fresh Hankook RS4 !

Did I know you were ex Shepp?? I can't remember knowing that! 🤣

You're a better at Sheppresent than me, you get shit done!

[BK]

Yes I was born in Shepparton. My whole family is from there, so yes secretly I'm really a Victorian - Shhh !

[BK]

The race continues to be ready for tuning, putting the car back together. Here is a bit of a look at the brand new replacement outer sills that have been replaced on both sides. Just about to put the freshly painted sideskirts on after fitting new front inner guardliners and new series 2 rear mudguards - I have a mountain of genuine Nissan clips and bolts for the jobs ahead. Doors were also removed as part of the paint job and realigned. With new strikers they shut perfectly now, as they were shocking before. As you can see I'm a bit shit at taking photos though

 

[r32-25t]

Looks really good 

[BK]

So after the big 1500km drive to Adelaide, the white 32 didn't miss a beat, has 2500km on the rebuilt RB26.

Patiently awaits it's turn on the Prohub...

 

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

GT-R badge missing, you want a R33 GT-R one?

Took it off the boot I purchase for my GTS-t shit box because noway I've having GT-R badges on a shit box GTS-t lol

[BK]

On 04/08/2021 at 2:56 PM, Dose Pipe Sutututu said:

GT-R badge missing, you want a R33 GT-R one?

Took it off the boot I purchase for my GTS-t shit box because noway I've having GT-R badges on a shit box GTS-t lol

Nah it's on there, zoom in

[BK]

We lost the engine....

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

On 04/08/2021 at 8:19 PM, BK said:

We lost the engine....

Shit.....

[BK]

On 04/08/2021 at 8:08 PM, Dose Pipe Sutututu said:

Shit.....

Yeah, what a polarising couple of days. We were doing all the 98 baseline tuning and then had troubles going to 8000rpm redline. We'd get up to about 10psi boost and fuel pressure was going from 50psi and then falling off a cliff repeatedly with stable manifold pressure. Thought it was shitty pump relays, bypassed them. Thought it was SSR / PWM problems - also bypassed it, so this time it's literally direct to battery feed for pump power. With all pump control ruled out it appeared to be faulty fuel pump, as pump terminals were at 13v during pressure fall off during dyno runs.

Fuel pump was a Walbro 525lph F0000285, done 2500km. It was mostly highway driving with 1500km of that done to get to Adelaide no problems, so we could only conclude that the pump must be faulty. Cue Simon getting straight onto a local supplier to get a new one delivered so we could change it ASAP. I had the pump out and swapped it in myself while still on the hub dyno fairly quickly - at a cost of cracking my head open in the process quite severely on the stupid boot catch with blood pissing out of my head everywhere.

Should have probably gone to get stitches but fk it, we really needed to push on. Get back into it with the new pump and shit started doing the same thing ?! Perplexed at the pressure problems we started clutching at straws,  so we pulled the pre rail 40 micron Speedflow 602 AN8 fuel filter to inspect. To our surprise it was almost completely blocked - couldn't even blow through it. We pulled it apart and it was really bad, like a fine silt. We had the tank completely drained, empty, dry and clean on Saturday, so we knew it's not from a dirty tank. Filter was 2500km new and checked after 1000km engine run in, so only explanation is we've picked up bad fuel at one of the fuel stops to Adelaide on the drive down. All fuel on drive down was 98, but with outback fuel stops like Erldunda, Marla, Coober Pedy, Glendambo and Port Augusta I bet one of them has had some bad fuel contamination.

After replacing the fuel filter element we got into it again and full fuel pressure appeared to be restored, so we could finally start loading it up. Did a full run up to 8000rpm to check gate base pressure which was 15psi so it all looked good to go. During about the 4th power run still on 15psi boost we noticed the oil pressure at about 4000 - 5000rpm suddenly dropped sharply about 20psi, so the run was aborted. Returning to idle at 1000rpm the oil pressure had gone to about 15psi. Oil pressure at idle was around 35psi before that, so the decision was made to not progress any further.

[r32-25t]

Hopefully you shut it down before any major damage could be done 

[BK]

I hope so, but I will expect no less than damaged crank and main bearings. Just about to go back down there, take front lip off and organise the white 32 to be taken back to the NT via car carrier.

Before I do that I'm going to take the blue 32 for a quick spin, put that on the trailer and drive it back tomorrow.

White 32 - mission aborted 👎

[Duncan]

Yeah that sucks, not much you can do to guarantee clean fuel from stops that probably don't sell a tank a year though

You should be able to get an oil analysis done pretty quickly before deciding to pull the engine, at least you will know if there is bearing material there - I take it there is no knock yet since you didn't mention

A fuel problem might hurt the big ends if the run wasn't stopped when detonation was detected, but it shouldn't hurt the main bearings unless there is a lot of crap in the oil

[BK]

On 05/08/2021 at 7:04 AM, Duncan said:

Yeah that sucks, not much you can do to guarantee clean fuel from stops that probably don't sell a tank a year though

You should be able to get an oil analysis done pretty quickly before deciding to pull the engine, at least you will know if there is bearing material there - I take it there is no knock yet since you didn't mention

A fuel problem might hurt the big ends if the run wasn't stopped when detonation was detected, but it shouldn't hurt the main bearings unless there is a lot of crap in the oil

Engine will definitely be coming straight out and disassembled for a post mortem. We've been discussing this and I think the main bearing oil clearances might have been set a bit tight by the old man. He showed me that he'd set it at around 0.025mm, which I believe is on the tight side. I expect the bad fuel contamination has gotten into the oil and probably starved a main.

I'm prepared for the crank to be stuffed, just hopefully not the rods. Pistons and rings should be ok. Funnily enough, Simon started it cold briefly the next day just to move it and it had 125psi oil pressure at idle.

[Ben C34]

Fingers crossed

[BK]

Has to have done a bearing to have dropped to 15psi oil pressure hot at idle with a Nitto pump doesn't it ?

[Duncan]

Maybe some sort of main bearing issue (not spinning because you would hear it) but could be clearances, or maybe something simple but critical like an oil gallery plug missing like that nasty one where the filter housing attaches that causes oil to bypass rather than circulate, or o-ring on the oil pickup missing etc

I'd still start with checking on a mechanical gauge and doing an oil analysis before pulling the engine, and with stuff like this best to ask the machine shop's opinion not the internet because it is expensive to be wrong.

I've just pulled my motor after about 5 (short!) seasons because it was idling around 30psi and only giving 50-70 psi at full noise, standard bottom end with nitto pump running 20w50. I would not be comfortable with 15 at idle.

[BK]

On 14/08/2021 at 6:54 AM, Duncan said:

Maybe some sort of main bearing issue (not spinning because you would hear it) but could be clearances, or maybe something simple but critical like an oil gallery plug missing like that nasty one where the filter housing attaches that causes oil to bypass rather than circulate, or o-ring on the oil pickup missing etc

I'd still start with checking on a mechanical gauge and doing an oil analysis before pulling the engine, and with stuff like this best to ask the machine shop's opinion not the internet because it is expensive to be wrong.

I've just pulled my motor after about 5 (short!) seasons because it was idling around 30psi and only giving 50-70 psi at full noise, standard bottom end with nitto pump running 20w50. I would not be comfortable with 15 at idle.

Yeah dropping from 35 down to 15psi at idle means something has happened.  As mentioned above I think the old man might have set his oil clearances too tight and it picked up a bearing on load. Car is getting picked up and shipped back Monday, so once it arrives engine will come straight out and bottom end disassembled.