George's R33 GTST build

[PranK]

Dang, this is awesome. 😍

[pogman]

 then it was time for tuning being in WA and having the emtron Quang from wanted motorsports where the work and dyno was being done recommended we have emtron remote tune it to best utilise all of the emtrons awesome features like the torque management and how it does all its wizardry, so of course we had some teething issues mostly with the 25+ year old harness that i wanted to use (i know stupid decision) we had a great final result of 620whp at 23 psi unfortunately didn't take a pic of the graph or ask for a print out. the flat shift was working nicely on the dyno but after the first drive realised it wasn't happy when on the road which we believe is just an issue in the numbers i gave to the tuner so that will be updated so i can really bang some gears. but wow after the first drive it is a totally different car (obviously) but i put a lot of it to the ecu, in the throttle control and feel Aswell as how it comes onto boost now and having a nice close ratio box now gives the car an awesome drivng experience.

 

after having some wiring issues due to using the 25+ year old harness i decided it was my turn to become a sparky and removed the harness, removed parts that i wasn't using anymore and rewired some parts that were just failing rewrapped it all in heat protecting sheaving to help keep it all nice and safe and after a few goes finally have it running nicely. then it was final interior install with the bride xero seats and 6 point scroth harness, aswell as some more minor additions in the bay overall very happy with how it all turned out over the past 2 years or so, and now its time for some track action and some nice new sticky rubber

 

 

 

[bcozican]

👌 awesome work mate. Time to see it on the track. Gonna be good

[pogman]

11 hours ago, bcozican said:

👌 awesome work mate. Time to see it on the track. Gonna be good

thanks mate, yeah cant wait to get out there and do some laps. hopefully both of our cars can be on the track together would be an awesome sound although i would be holding you up ahahaha. 

[pogman]

so, while bored at work this week was going through some build threads and saw CRSKmD's thread and saw the free cooling improvements in the front end just by trying to direct the air better and thought i wonder how my car looks. basically, it's terrible gaps from every single point and so with some time today decided to start and tackle that. 

nice and easy one to start filling in the gap at the top between the body and radiator.

 

then while jacking the car up found this fun surprise, never thought i would have to move it as my car isn't exactly stance nation spec but anyway decided to fix that first.

so trimmed it back abit applied some primer and used some old rubber hose around all the edges to ensure it wont rub through secured it all down and while putting the fender back on realised the headlight bolt to fender wasn't installed so chucked a new one and now the headlight actually lines up with the body so big win there.

 

sorry for the poor pictures but went for covering up the gap between the intercooler and radiator and it took me longer than i would like to admit.

 

the indicators have always been really saggy and had huge gaps between them so tried to improve that and then cover up the gaps still in place to try and stop the air getting in behind them.

 

 

some awesome trimming work has been done to fit the massive China intercooler that used to be on the car but ran out of time to fix that up today sadly so plenty more to do

[pogman]

so finally had an event i was home for that didn't get rained off or otherwise cancelled to be able to actually drive the car, unfortunately was roll racing which isnt my favourite thing ever but had an awesome night with friends and testing the car out. obviously a huge difference in driving experience with the samsonas although still without flat foot upshifts the ratios are so much nicer and actually has boost into the next gear which was not something i always experienced with the stock gearbox. but of course absolutely loving the sound of the sidepipe and for its downfalls of ruining the car in ever other way it does sound awesome at the track.

 

had some weird issues where it would misfire in 2nd but fine in every other gear and at the end of the night at the end of the run would have no throttle until it decided it wanted to work, so will be looking into that before a proper track night coming up in just over a week to really see the changes in the car.

 

 

 

 by the end of the night found that if i was nice and gentle on the throttle in 2nd it wouldnt misfire so was only fully throttle and loaded up in 2nd it would occur 

[admS15]

Sounds mint👍

[pogman]

couple of weeks ago now had a track night at Wanneroo raceway and was super excited but abit apprehensive about the DBW issues, in the meantime i had potted the wiring to the plug as i was informed it can help ensure the TB can live a long and prosperous life and could maybe be the fix to my issues. unfortunately, the night didn't go as planned and the car still had the DBW issues where i had no throttle after either one of the main straights which was extremely frustrating and meant i couldn't put a lap together well at least not one 20 seconds slower than it should so i very sadly packed up and went home. 

Although pretty confident it's not a wiring issue i was sick to death and pretty embarrassed by the wiring on the car and just wanted to rule it out 100% and ensure i don't have issues with it, I was also pretty keen to give it a go myself and while i wanted to wait until i had my house and some space it needed to be done now.

 

this is an example of the mess of the new mixed with the old that was in place.

 

 

spent some time planning and tracing all the oem wires and seeing where they go and chopping off everything no longer needed which was great fun and left a nice pile of mess for the bin.

 

ordered all the new wiring, plugs and Raychem needed to complete the new harness and can't wait to dig in and get it done, it won't be no professional concentric twisted motorsport harness but hoping to make it neat light and resistant to all the heat that it could go up against and most importantly reliable.

 

[pogman]

Harness update time have had great fun and learnt so much already so far with this project. I started off making both the ignition and injector sub harnesses in the hope any mistakes i made here aren't as hard to undo and learn from as the main harness. 

A cool comparison of the old harness using presumably TXL wire and the new which is using Tezel. Also opted to use DTM plugs to keep the whole setup as neat and tidy as possible and tucked the wiring under the coil bracket to try and keep it all from sticking out too much. Although the injector harness, I'm not overly happy with as I'm still using the rubber boots that are supplied with the type of plugs it just looks ugly and sticks out like a sore thumb with the white identifiers so a slight redesign may be done.

 

Then it was main harness time and most importantly trying to route it nice and away from the heat it will use the OEM heater hose routing which is no longer present to keep the harness up high and secure. it's amazing how much smaller this harness is able to be compared to the old one. plugged everything into the emtron and with the help of the tuner again attempted to start it up and instantly fired up and running smoothly on all 6 which was a big shock to myself. So still some routing and adjusting to be done for the final fit up and installing a knock sensor harness plug which is in the post all has gone surprisingly well.

 

 

The old harness for shits and giggles.

[pogman]

small update time, after always wanting a "cool" looking bonnet for my car and always struggling to find one for the series 2 that i liked and wasn't an insane amount of money. Saw one i liked on RHDjapan from D-speed in Japan the price was very good for a carbon bonnet so good infact i was a little unsure how much i trusted it, decided to bite the bullet and with the help of jesse streeter in not long at all it was at my door. Once it was delivered i ran in from work and quickly unboxed it and to my surprise the quality was actually pretty good i quickly removed the old bonnet and placed on the new one to test it out and even the fitment wasnt too bad at all. Then decided to paint the little grille in the bonnet black to stop it sticking out so much.

 

I decided to not mess around with the hood latch and just install some aero catch hood pins, having never installed them before did some YouTube university classes and i was good to go. fair to say it is not a fun job at all from making brackets so the pins sit nicely and actually cutting through the bonnet but also being very scared of cutting the holes too big it took wayyyy longer than i would like to admit but finally got it there. Then it was time for a quick test drive to ensure the latches actually worked and thankfully the bonnet looked very stable.

I still think paint matching the bonnet and leaving just the part that sticks up as carbon would help make it all look alot neater as im not sure how i feel about all that carbon on a very fridge white car but will leave it as is and see how i feel with time.

 

[The Bogan]

I would paint match the whole thing to avoid unwanted attention 

I had a similar bonnet, paint matched, on my old R33 GTST, but mine was a fibreglass jobbie made by Blitz in QLD, they work extremely well for radiator efficiency and under bonnet temps

[pogman]

13 hours ago, The Bogan said:

I would paint match the whole thing to avoid unwanted attention 

I had a similar bonnet, paint matched, on my old R33 GTST, but mine was a fibreglass jobbie made by Blitz in QLD, they work extremely well for radiator efficiency and under bonnet temps

yeah i agree paint match stops it from standing out so much, oh that's actually really good to know i was wondering if it would help with air flow now actually having an outlet in the bonnet. Will have to focus on ducting into and out of the radiator now to make the most of it.