Friday, October 26, 2007

Sat in the new GT-R!! どう、似合う?

Here I am with the world's newest and most exciting Supercar!!

Engine:



Headlight:



Me in the driver's seat!



This is GORGEOUS!!



And, for those of you who don't care about cars:



Will also update with my little adventure with some photo and video journalists this evening, a bit later..

Monday, October 22, 2007

How Mine's Did It! (Engine building) エンジン組み立て説明

Block - topside after polishing


Bored out cylinders


Block - bottom side


Intake port before


Intake port after


Exhaust port before polishing


Exhaust port after polishing


Tomei forged pistons


Conrods weighed


Pistons and conrods come together


Lightened, and plus minus zero balanced crankshaft


Crank installed.


Valves - intake (r) and exhaust (l), both polished


Combustion Chamber - pre headwork?


Head Assembly. Looks Full Squish to me


Mine's Cams - 252 each, 10.05 mm lift


HSK Cam Gears and Belt


Intake, Intake gasket installed


Tomei Expreme Exhaust Manifold


Oil pan and baffle completed.


Tomei Exhaust Manifolds Installed!


HKS GT-SS Turbos!


Turbos added- now just need to add hoses


Engine Done!


Cleaned Engine Bay, ready to receive new engine!

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Finally - Reunited!

Went to MINE'S today to finally pick her up. Wow!

Here is what the new engine looks like (will post better pix tomorrow)



And here is the destroyed old engine - it was so bad, they could not reuse.






And this is what I asked them to put on - to show off! But, I may exchange this mature bragging for the new Mine's logo - where the "S" is red!



Driving impression: as I am still breaking the engine in, I cannot rev the engine above 4000 rpm. Further, the boost on the engine is turned down/off (to about 0.7). However, even with these two handicaps, this engine feels so much stronger than my old engine. The engine feels stronger than when I first bought the car - there is lots of low end torque - and feels stronger than after having raised the boost to 1.0 from stock, and installed the Tomei B cams. The engine is very linear now, and I think it's even quieter (save for the noise coming from the new dual plate clutch). The engine begins pulling at 1500 RPM (the idle is at 1000 RPM! - previously, it was around 800-900) and then the turbos kick in at about 2200 RPM. Overall, the engine is SO smooth, it's like a Honda engine.

This has me thinking - was something inherently wrong with my old engine? It was like a truck engine in comparison. Further, Nakayama-san said that the cam gears were set to 30degrees, way too much. Not sure if that had anything to do with the failure, maybe it was caused by it (as Nissan Ps told me that it was 2 degrees after installation...) Anyway, now that I have a brand new engine - overbored by 10mm, so additional 60cc of engine capacity - I can break it in properly. I am starting to suspect the prior owner did not take that good care of this car. So I will!

As for specs - some things have changed. One problem is that, over these 11 weeks, Mine's never called me, even ONCE to let me know how things were going. I was the one who always called them. So, despite having asked for a Nismo oil pump and Nismo intake plenum, these items were not installed.

When I arrived, Niikura-san introduced himself immediately and apologized for the situation. He then told me that, even with their demo cars, they don't always have the Nismo plenum. The difference is minor - reflected on the dyno, but not really noticeable when driving. Plus, it can always be installed later.

As for the oil pump, well, that requires that the engine be removed, and I didn't want that, and I'm sure they didn't want that either. I called Nissan Ps earlier, and a cost estimate of the new pump would be about 30 man, that is 10 man for the pump, and 20 man for the labor. The plenum installation would cost another 20 man - 15 man for the part, and 5 for the labor. So, in the end, I decided it wasn't worth it - I could leave it with Mine's again - assuming they would want to work on it - but frankly, I am simply tired of not having my car. Plus, all of the tuners apparently use the N1 oil pump without problems, and Nakayama-san guaranteed that there would be no problems. I will take his word for it.

So, these two items were not included. What WAS included - and unexpected - was I got everything done that is done in the Stage 2 engine - that is, internal polishing work wise. So, I didn't get the PBB, but polished combustion chamber, polished intake/exhaust ports, and strengthened engine bolt washers (more important than the bolts themselves, apparently).

So in the end, the engine is somewhere between the Stage 1 and Stage 2. No N1 block, no PBB, and no Nismo oil pump, and different cams (more efficient than the Stage 2s) than are listed in the menu.

So am I happy? Ask me when I've taken the engine to its 8000rpm redline!

650 kms to go until I finish breaking it in!

Friday, October 19, 2007

24 more hours! Maybe....

Called MINE'S earlier today. Supposed to get back to me this afternoon, but have not heard anything yet. Car is supposedly done... we shall see. Am worried that all of those parts I ordered after the initial work order was written, may not have made it in...

Thursday, October 18, 2007

48 more hours!! 後48時間!

Called MINE'S today - the car should be ready by Saturday afternoon! Today, they are putting the new engine in the car, and tomorrow and Saturday, the techs will be test driving. So, if there are no problems, I should be able to pick up on Saturday.

Yay!!! Boy it sure has been a long wait...


Also - found this. Didn't know that for the 1997 LeMans, the official Pace Car was a GT-R.


Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Forgot to call MINE'S...

to check on the progress. As you might recall, when I called last week, I was told that the engine was ready to be installed already, so my presumption would be that yes, it would be installed, then the car would be test driven by now.

But, silly me, was too busy actually working to check.

Anyway, was checking on the GTROC website, and found a link to the website for the upcoming Gran Turismo Prologue video game. There were some screen shots of the cars in the game. Interestingly, the only second generation GT-R model shown was that of the R33 GTR!

There was also video which showed the R33 GTR (and the new R35 GTR) in action!
Here is a link to the game website: http://www.gran-turismo.com/jp/gt5p/

Meanwhile, check out these screen shots! Blue, red, silver, purple and white! I definitely want this game!


















Thursday, October 11, 2007

Good News! At last...

Well, I think the wait is nearly over. I was told by Nakayama-san at Mine's that the car should be finished by the 20th.

We shall see.

Meanwhile, here are some photos of the R33 GT-R from a CD I got off Yahoo Auction Japan - the PhotoCD is entitled "Skyline GT-R in FISCO" - perhaps part of a press kit? The item was described as being never sold to the public.