R33 GTR Norway

[erlingas]

Hello! My name is Erling and I'm from Norway.

In 2019 i bought a R33 GTR originally imported to United Kingdom by Middlehurst Motorsport in 1997. They bought 20 cars directly from NISMO in Japan in 1996.

My car is a series 3 1997 model.

Current state is that the engine is out for rebuild after having a thrust bearing go bad and grind away on the crankshaft...

[Duncan]

Welcome Erling, it sounds like your car has been on quite an unusual journey.

Also, a thrust bearing failure is not a common issue; do you know if there was any contributing factor?

 

[erlingas]

Thank you!

Yes, indeed a unusual journey. It came to Norway early 2000's and has been used very little since then. Milage is only 44.000km...

The engine has been tuned from Middlehurst but also rebuilt approx. 10-12 years ago because of oil starvation from some previous owner in Norway.

I don't know why the thrust bearing failed, but my guess is because of wrong axial clearance on the bearing or faulty bearing... But, I also discovered the engine had an NISMO G-max spec 1 (silver cover) clutch installed. I think I have read somewhere that the pressure plates on these clutches have such high spring pressure that contributes to more wear on the thrust bearing. I'm I right?

[PranK]

Hi Erling, welcome to !

How far away from being able to drive it are you? The wait must be painful.

[erlingas]

Thank you Christian!

I reckon next year it will be up and running (2022). I hope so at least