NZ R33 Long Term Build

[R3N3]

Hi All

I’m Rene, based in Hamilton NZ and am the owner of a silver 1996 R33 coupe. I bought the car in August 2009 and I am the first owner in NZ.

When I first purchased the car, it was a bone stock gts25t automatic with approximately 75,000kms on the clock. From memory I paid about $8,600 from the dealer:

 

Mod History

So over the years I have done a few modifications. The first real mod I did was wheels (on stock shocks) and tints:

Now this was done prior to finding out about SAU/SDU, meaning I had no understanding about things like fitment, so was rolling round in 4x4 spec for some time..

Eventually I became a bit more educated (thanks to the forums) and started to do things a bit better. Rather than write a novel of the last 13 years of ownership, I thought I’d just add the list of mods:

• Exedy lightweight flywheel
• Exedy full face organic clutch
• Braided clutch line
• Adjustable whiteline swaybars (front and rear)
• Znoelli dimple drilled and slotted brakes with performance pads (front and rear)
• Braided brake lines (front and rear)
• BC Gold adjustable suspension
• Hicas lock bar
• Tomei upgraded fuel pump
• Genuine Greddy front mount intercooler kit
• 3” exhaust from turbo back, with 3” bellmouth dump
• R34 OP6 turbo
• Mishimoto aluminium radiator
• ATP catch can and speedflow fittings
• 17x10r and 17x9f wheels with Falken fk452 all round
• Innovate mtx range gauges (oil, wideband and boost) 

Funnily enough, this list was actually composed to add to the classified to sell it, however I just can’t bring myself to do it. Did you say M3 @Dose Pipe Sutututu?

Anyway, this brings us to the current day

The car now has 105,000ks and is barely used as I just don’t have time and it doesn’t really suit being my daily (as I need something more suitable to visit construction sites). I don’t think I have even driven it in the past 12 months..

Build Direction

The plan here is to go for a bit of an OEM+ type vibe, so nothing too extreme. I am also planning to modernise a lot of the vehicle with things like new ECU (decided on Haltech), DBW, cruise control etc. The power will eventually get increased with an end goal of around 280-330kw.

I am keen to get a bit more motivation and actually get this car build back up and going again. It may not be the fastest build, but I’ll get there eventually! And then I’m less likely to try sell it..

Edited August 9, 2022 by R3N3

[R3N3]

So about 10 years ago, i bought a brand new Greddy FFP (a legit one), which i have always wanted to put on. Now i know there is no real performance gain, however i have always been a fan of how much it simplifies the engine bay and makes servicing that much easier. The reason i never got round to installing it is that it just seemed more trouble than its worth for basically a stock car..

All mods to date are more suspension/handling/drivetrain, so today i made the decision to start with the more serious (and expensive) part of the mods, the engine hardware..

Today i purchased:

• Xspurt 1000cc injectors (1/2 height)
• EFI Hardware fuel rail
• GFB FX-R fuel pressure regulator
• necessary fittings to direct mount regulator to rail
• NZ Wiring trigger kit
• 82mm Bosch DBW throttle body
• Taarks 82mm DBW to 3" hose clamp adaptor
• Outsider Garage 350z pedal kit
• Franklin Performance R35 GTR coil kit

There is still a bit of time before this will make its way into the car, as i want to have a complete cold side assembly, with a sub-harness all good to go.

As a note, i have heard the the 82mm Bosch DBW throttle unit is basically a direct bolt on with some very slight mods to the plenum, so will be testing this out.

[30ed32]

Could've sold you my brand new 1000cc xpurts, 350z pedal and r35 coils..  Well maybe you need some other bits I can offload.

Anyway car looks pretty tidy and and should go well with these "subtle" mods.

[R3N3]

On 9/8/2022 at 9:58 PM, 30ed32 said:

Could've sold you my brand new 1000cc xpurts, 350z pedal and r35 coils..  Well maybe you need some other bits I can offload.

Anyway car looks pretty tidy and and should go well with these "subtle" mods.

Bugger!

just realised you were (NZ) based after reading your thread again and seeing the number plate..

good luck with your move!

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

Mate, great looking R33! 

It's not too late to go European and spend your days talking about how you went from v1.01 to v1.03 of your Stage 1.5 tune and now you can bake off the line holding your chai latte without spillage.

🥲

I feel you're at the point of no return now, brace yourself!

 

[R3N3]

On 9/8/2022 at 10:55 PM, Dose Pipe Sutututu said:

Mate, great looking R33! 

It's not too late to go European and spend your days talking about how you went from v1.01 to v1.03 of your Stage 1.5 tune and now you can bake off the line holding your chai latte without spillage.

🥲

I feel you're at the point of no return now, brace yourself!

 

Haha, I’ll just have to do both…

I’ll be upgrading the Skoda Kodiaq work car eventually..

[R3N3]

So today I got stuck into removing the plenum. What a crappy job that is, definitely not suited to my ogre sized hands.. I tried removing all in one go, but in the end removed the top plenum first.

Before

After

while the plenum is off, I want to renew some of the plumbing/hardware beneath it. One thing I’m not sure about is whether or not I keep the oil heater? I know you can direct mount the filter to the block or get a taarks style fitting adaptor. Is it best to keep the oil heater for street driving?

while the plenum is off I will also upgrade to an LS alternator.

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

On 14/08/2022 at 5:39 PM, R3N3 said:

. Is it best to keep the oil heater for street driving?

100% it is, gets your oil to temp much quicker.

Sure you can run a thermostat on your oil cooler block but it still takes ages to get your oil to temp.

I deleted my water/oil heat exchanger just to tidy up that area however it took like 15 minutes of doodling around town before the oil even got to 50°C lol..

Mind you, this is on a 10°C morning.

[R3N3]

On 15/8/2022 at 10:11 PM, Dose Pipe Sutututu said:

100% it is, gets your oil to temp much quicker.

Sure you can run a thermostat on your oil cooler block but it still takes ages to get your oil to temp.

I deleted my water/oil heat exchanger just to tidy up that area however it took like 15 minutes of doodling around town before the oil even got to 50°C lol..

Mind you, this is on a 10°C morning.

Thanks

NZ is a bit cooler, so I will look to try keep it then. I’ll come up with a bit of a plan to try tidy it up a bit.

[soviet_merlin]

On 15/08/2022 at 8:11 PM, Dose Pipe Sutututu said:

I deleted my water/oil heat exchanger just to tidy up that area however it took like 15 minutes of doodling around town before the oil even got to 50°C lol..

Mind you, this is on a 10°C morning.

How long does it take to get the oil to temp with the oil heater? I presume it is fitted by factory on Skylines only?

10-15 minutes of doodling around to get the temps up sounds about right for my Stagea. It's not terrible, but somewhat annoying. I presume more so when self-inflicted

15 minutes of grandma driving feels like an eternity when it's a daily thing.

 

 

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

On 16/08/2022 at 12:15 PM, soviet_merlin said:

How long does it take to get the oil to temp with the oil heater? I presume it is fitted by factory on Skylines only?

10-15 minutes of doodling around to get the temps up sounds about right for my Stagea. It's not terrible, but somewhat annoying. I presume more so when self-inflicted

15 minutes of grandma driving feels like an eternity when it's a daily thing.

I think it's factory fitted on all RB25s, just the RB20s missed out  

My oil pressure sits like at 7~8 bar for a good 10 minutes before it warms up and thins down...

And yes, 15 minutes feels like ages!

[R3N3]

Minor Progress:

I have been chipping away the last couple of nights to get the alternator done and the thermostat housing installed:

I have never done either before, however, without the manifold on I feel like it’s much easier.. The alternator kit doesn’t fit the stock belt length, so need a new belt now.

I also got a new heater hose fitting that goes to the block, which will help tidy things up a bit.

I now have most things to complete the cold side, excluding a couple of AN fuel fittings.

[R3N3]

So a little bit more progress over the weekend. Was mainly to do with the heater hose plumbing and retaining the oil heater. The end result is much tidier, however I just need to get a hold of a 19mm to 13mm reducing tee for one side of the oil heater. It appears this fitting is not common..

Once I have that last fitting it will complete the plumbing.

I will be ordering tomorrow all the Haltech sensors and new terminated engine harness, so will hopefully get this plenum installed soon.

[Duncan]

FWIW, might be easier to find a 1/2" to 3/4" reducing tee, a lot of that stuff appears to be stuck in the 60s....

[R3N3]

On 22/8/2022 at 10:13 PM, Duncan said:

FWIW, might be easier to find a 1/2" to 3/4" reducing tee, a lot of that stuff appears to be stuck in the 60s....

Thanks. The only fittings I could really find (either imperial or metric) were for home irrigation and made from PE. 

I tracked down a Proflow fitting for an XR6 that goes from 3/4 to either a 3/8 or 5/8. I will just make this work..

I also found that Taarks make bosch knock sensor adaptors for an rb25, which is great, as finding a 1/4bsp to m8 was also impossible locally..

Edited August 22, 2022 by R3N3

[R3N3]

Today I also ordered the Haltech terminated wiring harness, PDM wiring harness and sensors. I will be going the 2500 elite + PD-16

now to learn how to wire..

[R3N3]

Been eating away at the wiring harness over the weekend. I started with the Rb25det pre-terminated harness but then made some modifications to allow additional sensors and DBW. I have also cleaned up a lot of the factory wiring, as a lot of the sensors link up to the other side of the car for the dash cluster. I will be going IC-7 so no need for the additional cables.

I’m aiming to tuck the harness under the manifold, so it will keep it nice and clean.

FPR is mounted, luckily the mount bolts line up perfectly to the bolts for the old fuel pulse damper and the return lines up directly with the stock hard lines. I have purchased all the required dash fittings, dam those things are expensive…

The Greddy manifold is off getting a new throttle body flange welded up for the DBW, so should have that back this week.

I’m hoping to get the majority of the cold side sorted next weekend, as we have twins arriving the following Monday, so may be a bit slower from then….

[R3N3]

Starting to make a bit more progress:

- Waterlines are plumbed back up and have retained the oil heater.

- DBW flange welded up to the Greddy manifold.

I have been working on the wiring the past few nights to get the Haltech loom modified and tidying up some of the factory wiring routing.

everything is just dummy fitted for now until i get everything 100% and test all the wiring.

 

 

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

Excellent progress, looking very sexual.

DBW is king, all those leak valves (IACV, AAC) belong in the trash 

[R3N3]

On 2/9/2022 at 10:20 PM, Dose Pipe Sutututu said:

Excellent progress, looking very sexual.

DBW is king, all those leak valves (IACV, AAC) belong in the trash 

Yeah, the dbw was the easiest way to simplify the cold side. No AAC/IACV and associated plumbing. The other key benefits of dbw for me is the throttle blipping and cruise control!