DJZ's R30 Skyline

[DJZ]

Got back for the weekend again and got a bit more done.

R33 brake calipers, they will be going on this:

And the R32 GTS-t calipers on that will be going on the R30

Intercooler piping pretty much finished, turbo inlet and air filter sorted too

Intercooler goes here once the inlet and outlet are extended about 50mm

Probably going to mount the power steering reservoir here, the L20ET pump has the reservoir built in so I can't use the original one.

Got all the hose clamps I need and also some power steering hose and some more EFI fuel line. I need to run a pipe from the p/s reservoir to the pump and then another pipe from the reservoir along the LHS chassis rail, under the motor and then back up to the steering box for the return.

I bought a KAAZ 2 way LSD which will also be going in the Z and the R31 LSD out of that will be going in the R30! I need the yank the center out of the R200 shortnose it's in now and get it setup in the 3.9 longnose in the R30 and then swap the two diffs.

There's still a fair bit left to do but I've got 3 weeks off after Christmas so that should give me heaps of time to get it sorted.

I need to:

Port the wastegate hole before I can finish bolting the turbo on, then start building an exhaust.

Finish the wiring so I can actually start the motor again, now that the loom is through the firewall I need to mount the relays for the fuel pump etc and finish wiring those up, the battery is also going to be relocated to the boot as the intercooler piping is in the way so I need to wire that up.

Finish mounting the radiator and intercooler.

Fill the gearbox up with oil.

Sort out the brakes, I haven't decided what to do yet, whether to do another front Z31 5 stud setup, or use the setup off the Z and put S13 front suspension and coilovers into the Z.

Get a high pressure line made up to go from the power steering pump to the steering box on the other side of the engine bay.

Err that's about it I think, and a million other little jobs.

[DJZ]

Intercooler mounted, well at least at the top. I love the fact that Bunnings sell aluminium that is perfect for mounts and brackets. My mate Zac welded on the extension bits for the inlet and outlet, it fits perfectly now.

I got the bottom mounts for the radiator made & welded. Need to make a couple for the top now.

Forgot how much of a pain in the ass getting a diff out is, but I got it out on Sunday afternoon and took the center out of it, gotta get some spacers for the crownwheel bolts and get it set up then jam it in the Z.

I ported the wastegate hole in the exhaust housing, this was after I realised I couldn't use the Nissan wastegate flapper bit that bolts on to the exhaust housing as the flapper was in the wrong position and a couple of milimeters of hole wasn't covered so I'm having to use this one that somebody has made, it's probably a good thing as it will flow a million times better.

[DJZ]

I got some spacers made for the diff finally, they ended up being 10mm ID, 13mm OD instead of 10x12 like the diff in the Z. Going to try and get it set up sometime this week so I can get them swapped. I need a 3.7 & a 3.9 L series speedo cog if anybody has some spares? I think one is white and one is blue.

Did a little bit of tidying up and painting in the engine back, trying to decide whether to find a paint that matches the cream in the bay or just paint it black.

Got some 0 gauge cable so I can mount the battery in the boot, crimped the connectors on at work. Tidied up some of the wiring (alternator etc) in the engine bay and removed the original battery cables.

Finished bolting the turbo together, got some sweet staino bolts for the exhaust housing, got a 2.5" multi bend thing from Chase so I can start building the exhaust. Need to sort out some banjos for the water lines for the turbo, the RB turbo ones are too small for the older Garrett center section I'm using.

Finished making some bottom brackets for the intercooler & put the front bumper back on, looks pretty good. I'll get some photos up in the next couple of days.

Washed out the intercooler piping, had all sorts of crap in it from when it was made/bent.

Tried to mount my new 909 fuel pump, it didn't fit in the original bracket so I've unbolted all the OE fuel pump stuff and made up a new bracket, need to find a banjo & enclosed nut thing so I can put it all in.

Still on the lookout for some R32 GTR wheels if anybody knows of any for sale, the closer to Christchurch the better, or some Enkei RP-F1s or some BBS LMs.

[DJZ]

Got the fuel pump all mounted, had to buy a banjo & nut kit for it to make it fit from NZ Performance, replaced some dodgy looking fuel hoses too at the same time.

The new KAAZ 2 way is in the Z now, thanks to The Diff Shop for fitting it in last minute 2 days before Christmas and doing it rather cheap too!

The HR31 diff out of the Z is now in the Skyline, axles are only bolted in loosely as I'm still trying to find some 5 stud wheels to put on it, the wheels that are on it are going to be sold on my 260Z so I need to do something soon.

Other than that things are going pretty slow, I popped an exhaust gasket on the Z while out at Ruapuna so I've got that in pieces and am trying to figure out whether to change the turbo now or not, anybody want to buy a TA51/T04 hybrid turbo?

This thing came up on Trademe again and I completely missed it, I was watching it when it was on there maybe 6 months ago? Apparently it's been sold to a dude in Christchurch, if anybody knows who and they get sick of it let me know!

[DJZ]

Got it running again, removed the horribly installed alarm, about 12 meters of speaker cable that was doing God knows what, some 3 core polyflex cable that ran from the ignition switch to where the stereo would have been, about a dozen other wires that weren't doing anything.

Filled the gearbox and diff up finally, had to go buy another suction gun as I can't find either of my other ones. Filled it up with water for the first time as well, only one small leak from one of the washers I used on the banjo fittings for the turbo water lines, replaced it with a new copper washer and it's fine now.

Have to weld a bit of pipe onto the intercooler piping for the idle air valve thing, it's sucking unmetered air at the moment.

Tried the wheels off the Z on it, they actually fit pretty well and look not too bad. I sold the wheels that were on it with the 260Z so now I'm wheel-less for a couple of days, apparently Osaka Auto are getting in a set of R32 GTR wheels this week so I'll keep an eye out for them.

Here's a little video of it running, still running a little bit rough, keeps dropping a couple of cylinders now and then and idling a bit funny. It sounds better in person, not as rattly

Got to swap back to the original suspension till I get the new brakes sorted, will probably run the wheels off the Z on it as they are multi fit 4 & 5 x 114.3 and put the GTR wheels on the Z if I get them. I have to build an exhaust and finish putting the interior back together and it'll be ready to take for a drive!

[DJZ]

Car should be driveable tomorrow.

Spent all of today working on the exhaust, it's pretty much done just have to do a couple of final adjustments as something must have moved when I welded it up and it's sitting against the diff. Sounds very quiet for having 2.5" all the way through and only one muffler at the back.

Finished lots of little jobs, my mate Zac whipped up a pretty awesome downpipe/divorced wastegate setup for me. I mounted the power steering reservior and bent up some tubing for the return from the steering box, still need to get a high pressure hose made. Swapped back to the original front suspension. Shifter comes up in a pretty good place. Still working on some wheels for it.

[DJZ]

It's been a while since I've updated this, I've mainly been working on the Z but still doing little bits and pieces to this.

Decided to put the coilovers on Trademe, if they sell I'll probably swap it to S14 suspension like I'm doing to the Z. It runs and I've taken it for a couple of little drives, it has problems idling (too high) and doesn't run very well under boost, not too sure what the problem is, I'm thinking I might just share the Link between this and the Z, I'm going to make a new loom for the RB going into the Z so I can chop up the old loom to put in this, would make it go heaps better I reckon. I bought some 550cc injectors for the Z so might reuse the GTR injectors it used to have in it for this.

I'll probably just put this on hold till later in the year till after the Z is finished.

[DJZ]

[DJZ]

A little mini update.

Got sick of trying to fix the idle control so I've pulled the loom out and started installing the old Link loom from the Z, everything is pretty close to being in the right places, had to extend the wiring for the TPS, CAS and ignitor but it's almost there.

There is a base map that comes with the G4 Links for an RB20DET with 440cc injectors so I bought another set of GTR injectors and a GTR fuel rail as the NICS motors have barb injectors. I hope to get it running on the Link sometime this week.

I keep getting and then selling sets of 5 stud hubs for it, haven't quite got the money to do anything about the brakes at the moment, most of it is going into trying to get the Z finished asap. I'm probably going to end up buying new wheels for the Z so the 17"s off that will most likely end up on this with small spacers on the back.

[DJZ]

Another mini update.

GTR fuel rail didn't fit so I've been mucking around since the last post trying to find some blank fuel rail extrusion. Finally find some at NZ Performance, so I've mostly finished the rail and just yesterday ordered some fittings for the ends. Should hopefully have it tidied up and maybe going again next weekend.

[DJZ]

Haven't updated this in ages, I haven't really done anything to it in ages! Been concentrating on the Z.

Fuel rail is pretty much finished, it's a very tight squeeze for the injector plugs and I'm going to have to grind off a little bit of the head casting to get one of them on. I'll hopefully do this this weekend then finishing wiring up the Link, put the intercooler piping back on then it'll be time to try and start it again.

[DJZ]

Been trying to spend my time off usefully, got this Skyline running on the Link today, was actually pretty easy. It sounds okay, I had to keep upping the fuel till I could get it to rev. Unfortunately the fuel rail looks like it's leaking slightly from both ends so I need to play with that a bit more and adjust the brackets to see if I can get it to stop.

Other than that I haven't really done anything else to the car recently. Still tossing up what to do with it, whether to finish it off or just get it driveable and sell it.

[DJZ]

Dicked around with the fuel rail for ages over the last couple of days and have finally managed to get it to stop leaking.

Swapped the wheels for some factory Z31 4 stud wheels I bought the other day for $50 as the S130 wheels weren't mine. Looks alright, won't be staying like that if I keep it.

Put the intercooler piping back on today, took the AFM off and replaced it with a bit of ali tubing. Took it out for a little drive down the street, it actually goes pretty well, it's a million times better than it was with the factory computer and that's running on the RB20DET base map in the Link, it actually moves once it gets into boost.

There are a couple of things I need to sort out:

1. There seems to be a leak from the speedo drive in the gearbox, I've bought new seals for these before but I have a feeling there might be a plastic spacer missing from the end of the drive.

2. The suspension is very very floaty, I need to pull the coilovers out of the back and put the standard struts back in and see if it helps.

3. Tidy up some of the wiring, main thing is the fuel pump relay.

4. Do something about the gearstick, it's too low and too far back. When I put the car into reverse my hand hits on the hand brake lever. I've got some others including the old one out of my C31 Laurel which from memory was much straighter and longer than the Z ones.

5. Idle control, at the moment it has none and is idling at around 1200rpm, this should be pretty easy to sort out.

6. The NICS butterfly valves, there is a vacuum solenoid under the inlet manifold, I need to connect this to one of the outputs on the Link and have a play with getting it to switch. I'm not sure how they work from the factory, whether it's an RPM switch, boost or vacuum switch etc that operates the solenoid. I think I'll probably just run it off an RPM switch.

Heaps of other crap.

[DJZ]

I've been thinking pretty hard about what to do with this thing, I don't really want to keep it and nobody seems interested in wanting to buy it, I've had offers of a V8 XF Falcon, some sort of dirt bike and a Cefiro in pieces.

I'm 95% sure that I'm just going to put an L20ET back in it, get it legal and sell it for around what I paid for it and I can drive it around in the meantime till it's sold. I bought an L20ET the other day for $100, I've got a VG20ET turbo which is slightly bigger, I'll leave the intercooler in there and plumb that up. Should be pretty easy to swap back.

[DJZ]

Got a bit of the "while I'm in there" fever with the L20ET, took the head off to have a look at the bores, they look pretty much perfect, then took the head apart to replace the valve stem seals.

Decided to match the head & inlet manifold to the gasket, the ports in the head are much much smaller than the inlet manifold and both are smaller than the gasket, the scribed line on the right port is the size of the gasket. Will also tidy up the step where they've cut for the valve seat. A couple of the valve stem tips were slightly mushroomed and I had to file/sand them to get them out, should be alright though.

Bought this today as well, not sure what I'm going to use it for and have to get a new plate for it, but it was cheap.

[DJZ]

Err so I bought another L20ET, mainly for the gearbox, exhaust manifold and it came with a VG30ET turbo as well.

Bit of an odd ball motor as far as the ones I've seen, it came out of the 430 series Cedric. Has a mid bowl sump, non optical dizzy, inlet manifold more like an L28 one with a bimetallic idle control, computer with only one plug like an early L28 one.

So if anybody wants an L20ET long block, let me know.