Endurance R32 GTS-T build

[smart_garrett]

Hello all,

First a quick intro about myself i'm currently a junior in university studying engineering across the pond in America, and my goal is to have the first W2W circuit r32 in America. This is a pretty bold clame but I'm determined to get it done as I believe I have enough prior motorsport knowledge where I don't believe its a shot in the dark. Now, there are lots of time attack cars running around, but that's not my jazz. I have raced in an enduro series in the states for a little bit but wanted to build my own car. The car is a '91 hcr32 that I got back in 2017 and it has been an open track day car since. Just recently have I started to tear it down and start some development on the chassis and engine. The car came to the port pretty much standard.  

It then then got light modifications to serve as a weekend/dual purpose car like hicas delete, cusco coilovers, solid rear subframe bushings, koyo rad, koyo oil cooler, 25neo turbo, fmic and some other misc stuff.  

Fast forward to 2019 when I was off at school on the other side of the country the car came with and got some more work such as a lot of new bushings, front and rear camber arms, tension arms. The rb20det got some love with a Garrett 2860rs turbo, all supporting modifications and a haltech platinum pro after the nistune board and kinugawa turbo took a poop. I also did some development with some catch can set ups and found a 2 can set up that worked good for me.

 

The car had since done countless open days at various tracks to keep me busy in between school, work, and racing this e46 which was owned by a friend at school and his dad.

 

 

 

Back to the r32. The plan for the car is to build the car roughly to make this coming season and do a lot of testing to gather any info that will help me for 2 years down the road when the car will get refreshed and another engine built that is more suitable for race use as the motor in it now is the refreshed motor it came with. The series I want the car to eventually race in is called WRL, which is an endurance series based in the states. To start where there car is at currently I have just finished removing the engine and stripping the car to prep for a cage which is being built by a well known race shop here in Colorado. The car left to the cage builder in a fairly empty state.

 

While the car is currently at the shop still I have been busy refreshing the ol 20det with a refreshed head, all new gaskets and pumps, and a checked over bottom end. I was also keen on trying a cheapo top intake plenum on the "mule" engine for some tests.

 

 

 

Most of the safety equipment is sitting in the garage ready such as a seat (OMP HTE-r), sabelt 6pt belts, window and drivers nets, and some other misc stuff. I have also been busy with sorting out the harness that will run to the rear of the car to control the lights, as I took the stock harness and stripped the hicas, amp, rear wiper, and other misc junk out of it so its very skinny and will fit next to the battery cable to the rear passenger side of the car. This is pretty much up to date, so feel free to ask any questions as I will try to update this forum as much as possible as the car will be back in the garage early next week and will be getting some paint on the interior. 

 

 

[Duncan]

Great to see!

What are the main rules for the WRL series? Do you need to keep capacity at 2l for instance?

[PranK]

This looks great, I'm looking forward to updates!

[smart_garrett]

2 hours ago, Duncan said:

Great to see!

What are the main rules for the WRL series? Do you need to keep capacity at 2l for instance?

So the WRL series has 4 classes ranging from pretty much prepped e36-e46 spec race cars all the way to Porsche gt4 club sports. The classing is done on a PWR (power to weight ratio) basis with point modifiers for things like a sequential box or air jacks etc etc. The plan as of right now is to try to keep the 20det as I was pretty unsuccessful on finding documentation anywhere online about rb's built for endurance and I know the 20 can take a hell of a beating given it has the right support obviously. Once the car is done I can get it on the scales and see where I'm going to have to fall power wise, but from a rough guess Im thinking it will be sweet around 300-350 whp (220kw - 260 kw). Unfortunately for me I think im going to have to do most of the R and D on this myself as ive asked around as much as I could over here in the states, unfortunately everyone here with skylines is either obsessed with just outright power or time attack cars and not any w2w or endurance support. That's why I'm talking to the great knowledge base on here. 

[smart_garrett]

I forgot to mention the races range from 14-24 hour races with some full day races and some weekend events (8hr+8hr for example)

[robbo_rb180]

This is interesting.
Keep the oil cool & good catch can setup you will be fine. Spend the time getting the car handling & be reliable, You'll probably find yourself going better than guys with big horsepower.
Depending on the rules is there flexabilty for basic aero?

[smart_garrett]

5 hours ago, robbo_rb180 said:

This is interesting.
Keep the oil cool & good catch can setup you will be fine. Spend the time getting the car handling & be reliable, You'll probably find yourself going better than guys with big horsepower.
Depending on the rules is there flexabilty for basic aero?

Yes there is some room for aero, it does add some points to the modifier, but I think it’s really worth it in my experience. I’m planning on doing a simple rear wing and front splitter as far as big aero goes.

[smart_garrett]

Just picked up the car from 3R Racing here in Colorado. I had them mig weld the cage as tig was a bit out of my budget while already breaking the bank for this cage. 1.75" x .12 DOM. Looks great though now time to take out the interior and give it some paint this weekend.  X door bars look a bit funky in this photo but its because they are extruded out towards the door which gives a bit of an illusion in this photo.

Edited January 19, 2021 by smart_garrett

[smart_garrett]

Picture of the lowered seat mount 

[smart_garrett]

Masking the interior for paint. Plan is to paint tomorrow. 

[animal33]

On 14/01/2021 at 10:09 AM, smart_garrett said:

Hello all,

First a quick intro about myself i'm currently a junior in university studying engineering across the pond in America, and my goal is to have the first W2W circuit r32 in America. This is a pretty bold clame but I'm determined to get it done as I believe I have enough prior motorsport knowledge where I don't believe its a shot in the dark. Now, there are lots of time attack cars running around, but that's not my jazz. I have raced in an enduro series in the states for a little bit but wanted to build my own car. The car is a '91 hcr32 that I got back in 2017 and it has been an open track day car since. Just recently have I started to tear it down and start some development on the chassis and engine. The car came to the port pretty much standard.  

It then then got light modifications to serve as a weekend/dual purpose car like hicas delete, cusco coilovers, solid rear subframe bushings, koyo rad, koyo oil cooler, 25neo turbo, fmic and some other misc stuff.  

Fast forward to 2019 when I was off at school on the other side of the country the car came with and got some more work such as a lot of new bushings, front and rear camber arms, tension arms. The rb20det got some love with a Garrett 2860rs turbo, all supporting modifications and a haltech platinum pro after the nistune board and kinugawa turbo took a poop. I also did some development with some catch can set ups and found a 2 can set up that worked good for me.

 

The car had since done countless open days at various tracks to keep me busy in between school, work, and racing this e46 which was owned by a friend at school and his dad.

 

 

 

Back to the r32. The plan for the car is to build the car roughly to make this coming season and do a lot of testing to gather any info that will help me for 2 years down the road when the car will get refreshed and another engine built that is more suitable for race use as the motor in it now is the refreshed motor it came with. The series I want the car to eventually race in is called WRL, which is an endurance series based in the states. To start where there car is at currently I have just finished removing the engine and stripping the car to prep for a cage which is being built by a well known race shop here in Colorado. The car left to the cage builder in a fairly empty state.

 

While the car is currently at the shop still I have been busy refreshing the ol 20det with a refreshed head, all new gaskets and pumps, and a checked over bottom end. I was also keen on trying a cheapo top intake plenum on the "mule" engine for some tests.

 

 

 

Most of the safety equipment is sitting in the garage ready such as a seat (OMP HTE-r), sabelt 6pt belts, window and drivers nets, and some other misc stuff. I have also been busy with sorting out the harness that will run to the rear of the car to control the lights, as I took the stock harness and stripped the hicas, amp, rear wiper, and other misc junk out of it so its very skinny and will fit next to the battery cable to the rear passenger side of the car. This is pretty much up to date, so feel free to ask any questions as I will try to update this forum as much as possible as the car will be back in the garage early next week and will be getting some paint on the interior. 

 

Nice. I don’t understand one thing though. The benefits of a forward facing plenum are immensely overshadowed by the pitfalls of one critical part of questionable quality/integrity.... And not fully knowing the characteristics of the plenum the data won’t necessarily be applicable for a proper unit that happens to look similar.... (Unless the design, inside and out, is near on identical, your ECU has vastly improved capabilities and you have the capacity to monitor things like individual cylinder exhaust gas temps and stuff.... 

Check out HP Academy on You Tube for virtually all the advice you could need. NZ is miles (kilometres... lol) ahead of 90% of other tuners. 

Strong, balanced and easy breathing engine is certainly important but not nearly half as much as allowing the car to function without fighting itself, as much as you can possibly achieve. Suspension geometry, weight distribution, aero which functions just as much as cooling performance enhancers, etc etc. you seem like you know the drill well enough and I don’t wanna come across wrong, the wanna be plenum threw me is all.

No disrespect but to me is a bit like seeing young ‘motoring enthusiast’ put 22” anchors bought from the local tyre shop when they fitted 245/10-15 rubber on their sports car and think the CHOo, Choo, cho, ch noise sounds good and is what well sorted cars should sound like. Cause that’s what everyone else says is the sound your after. 
 

Cant wait till the states catches up with the jdm game. There be a resurgence of R&D and parts again.  

To finish first, first u gotta....... 

[smart_garrett]

10 hours ago, animal33 said:

On 1/13/2021 at 5:09 PM, smart_garrett said:

Hello all,

First a quick intro about myself i'm currently a junior in university studying engineering across the pond in America, and my goal is to have the first W2W circuit r32 in America. This is a pretty bold clame but I'm determined to get it done as I believe I have enough prior motorsport knowledge where I don't believe its a shot in the dark. Now, there are lots of time attack cars running around, but that's not my jazz. I have raced in an enduro series in the states for a little bit but wanted to build my own car. The car is a '91 hcr32 that I got back in 2017 and it has been an open track day car since. Just recently have I started to tear it down and start some development on the chassis and engine. The car came to the port pretty much standard.  

It then then got light modifications to serve as a weekend/dual purpose car like hicas delete, cusco coilovers, solid rear subframe bushings, koyo rad, koyo oil cooler, 25neo turbo, fmic and some other misc stuff.  

Fast forward to 2019 when I was off at school on the other side of the country the car came with and got some more work such as a lot of new bushings, front and rear camber arms, tension arms. The rb20det got some love with a Garrett 2860rs turbo, all supporting modifications and a haltech platinum pro after the nistune board and kinugawa turbo took a poop. I also did some development with some catch can set ups and found a 2 can set up that worked good for me.

 

The car had since done countless open days at various tracks to keep me busy in between school, work, and racing this e46 which was owned by a friend at school and his dad.

 

 

 

Back to the r32. The plan for the car is to build the car roughly to make this coming season and do a lot of testing to gather any info that will help me for 2 years down the road when the car will get refreshed and another engine built that is more suitable for race use as the motor in it now is the refreshed motor it came with. The series I want the car to eventually race in is called WRL, which is an endurance series based in the states. To start where there car is at currently I have just finished removing the engine and stripping the car to prep for a cage which is being built by a well known race shop here in Colorado. The car left to the cage builder in a fairly empty state.

 

While the car is currently at the shop still I have been busy refreshing the ol 20det with a refreshed head, all new gaskets and pumps, and a checked over bottom end. I was also keen on trying a cheapo top intake plenum on the "mule" engine for some tests.

 

 

 

Most of the safety equipment is sitting in the garage ready such as a seat (OMP HTE-r), sabelt 6pt belts, window and drivers nets, and some other misc stuff. I have also been busy with sorting out the harness that will run to the rear of the car to control the lights, as I took the stock harness and stripped the hicas, amp, rear wiper, and other misc junk out of it so its very skinny and will fit next to the battery cable to the rear passenger side of the car. This is pretty much up to date, so feel free to ask any questions as I will try to update this forum as much as possible as the car will be back in the garage early next week and will be getting some paint on the interior. 

 

Nice. I don’t understand one thing though. The benefits of a forward facing plenum are immensely overshadowed by the pitfalls of one critical part of questionable quality/integrity.... And not fully knowing the characteristics of the plenum the data won’t necessarily be applicable for a proper unit that happens to look similar.... (Unless the design, inside and out, is near on identical, your ECU has vastly improved capabilities and you have the capacity to monitor things like individual cylinder exhaust gas temps and stuff.... 

Check out HP Academy on You Tube for virtually all the advice you could need. NZ is miles (kilometres... lol) ahead of 90% of other tuners. 

Strong, balanced and easy breathing engine is certainly important but not nearly half as much as allowing the car to function without fighting itself, as much as you can possibly achieve. Suspension geometry, weight distribution, aero which functions just as much as cooling performance enhancers, etc etc. you seem like you know the drill well enough and I don’t wanna come across wrong, the wanna be plenum threw me is all.

No disrespect but to me is a bit like seeing young ‘motoring enthusiast’ put 22” anchors bought from the local tyre shop when they fitted 245/10-15 rubber on their sports car and think the CHOo, Choo, cho, ch noise sounds good and is what well sorted cars should sound like. Cause that’s what everyone else says is the sound your after. 
 

Cant wait till the states catches up with the jdm game. There be a resurgence of R&D and parts again.  

To finish first, first u gotta....... 

I’m a bit confused by what you’re trying to say here. I have plenty of knowledge about vehicle dynamics from real world work in fsae, which in the states is universities designing a small race car from the ground up with cad, fea testing and dynamic testing etc.... I also have plenty of resources at my disposal luckily. As far as the power train goes this is of course not the race motor it’s a mule for testing gates in the sump (plan will probably be an accusump down the road) and seeing what this plenum will do for now as I’ve heard plenty good things about it even though it’s not the nicest casting/design out there. A stock style plenum is not acceptable in this case as the heat soak will be huge and the ease of access to coils, plugs, etc etc is way better with the front facing.  Yea it’s not a 1000$ plaza man plenum, but for a low hp motor I wanted to see what it could do. I doubt the race motor will even have individual egt’s though because you have to remember this car will probably only need to have about 300 hp for classing rules, unless of course I find myself going through engines quick.... Tuning would be aided by them yes but I don’t think it would be needed initially and tuning is done at my friends shop (e46 car) where they and I have tuned a couple cars for endurance where you have to do a different approach than a regular map. Anyways, I will keep that in mind that the plenum is no good(?). Thanks 

[smart_garrett]

Paint coming along nicely. Trying out this "2K" clear coat and it seems to be good and thick but unfortunately its so cold outside even with the garage heater its still too cold for a great outcome, but it will work.

[smart_garrett]

Bit of an update from the past week. Got the dash cut to fit around the cage and lightened on the bottom side. Finished up all the gauge wiring that is tied to a central fuse block that is controlled through a switch.

Also got new pigtails for the knock sensor harness as the old ones were crusty and I was having issues with weird resistance in that circuit before. Planned out the wiring for the main kill switch too, including a "normally open" and "normally closed" connection loop to prevent voltage and amperage spikes from alternator run down time. Now just waiting for a bunch of parts to come in to finish the wiring and battery mounting/circuit. 

[Duncan]

Those dashes are a bastard to cut neatly around a cage, more so for the areas you have to cut to get the dash in and out.

Can you do me a favour when you get a second, can you take a pic of the demister wiring where it attaches to the rear screen? I need to get mine working again but the wire has been removed right back at the glass. I've got a rear loom but it stops at a 2 pin connector which the workshop manual says goes to a "noise supressor", the some other connector, then the window. I'm assuming I can just apply 12v to either side of the screen but want to check first.

[smart_garrett]

17 hours ago, Duncan said:

Those dashes are a bastard to cut neatly around a cage, more so for the areas you have to cut to get the dash in and out.

Can you do me a favour when you get a second, can you take a pic of the demister wiring where it attaches to the rear screen? I need to get mine working again but the wire has been removed right back at the glass. I've got a rear loom but it stops at a 2 pin connector which the workshop manual says goes to a "noise supressor", the some other connector, then the window. I'm assuming I can just apply 12v to either side of the screen but want to check first.

Unfortunately all that wiring was torn out so I don't have it anymore.. I would agree with you though that 12v at the pins on the rear screen would most likely do it. I'm not super sure what the noise suppressor would do in this case unless it was somehow a capacitor so its probably not needed.

[Duncan]

Thanks mate...that's what I figured too, will give it a shot...

[smart_garrett]

Small update I suppose, been quite busy with school recently. Managed to finish up most of the wiring under the dash and for the fuse block. Got the battery mounted on the passenger side turned out nicely. Got the dash bolted in for now and the seat put in to test clearances. This weekend ill cut the dash up to try to fit the mid drivers net through to attach to the dash bar, I'm hoping this can be done cleanly because the dash sits in a weird spot on the bar to cut. Made up a bit of a switch panel too for now although I will go with a pdm down the road this works sweet for the time being. Button is for start, then from right to left it goes ignition, accessories, and fuel system. Transponder and cool suit switches will go in later as well.

[OST Micah]

Nice work! Good to see another car in America being built for racing instead of hard parking. Following.

[smart_garrett]

6 hours ago, OST Micah said:

Nice work! Good to see another car in America being built for racing instead of hard parking. Following.

Thanks! I think its crazy of the amount of 32-33 here that the "build" is a big single, wheels, tomei exhuast, and coilovers, oh yea and maybe a momo steering wheel haha!