Project: Toro R32 GTS

[JBreaks]

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Those of you who know me, will know this car. Not because I rice around blowing off and back the hair of teenage girls, but because it was imported and originally owned, in 2004. by Andres Moran Toro. About 2 years after getting this car, which in highschool was a BIG deal and so cool, Andy passed away after a cancer that had started in his liver and was once successfully removed, became malignant once again and moved onto his lungs. This car had defined his character in the short time he had to truly live as an adult (or as close to that as a 19 year old can be), and it defined me, in that after seeing his successful import I moved onto many of my own, which through a round about series of events heavily influenced the life I live today. 6 years after his passing, and at the outcome of the above mentioned events, I found myself in a family home with an empty garage (Acura Econocruiser stayed outside) living with Sentry Sam. Andy's parents graciously agree to allow me to purchase the car, which had been under a car cover for nearly 6 years at this point. I pick up the car, which struggles to start, drive to the registry to make it legit (yup, drove), get back in drive home and park on the driveway. The car would fail to start from this point and stay motionless for almost a month as I struggle to fix this mystery issue.
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I replaced everything I could, vac lines, plugs, the battery, fuel filter, calibrated TPS. Cleaned every part of the intake side and tightened every coupler. Eventually with continued small improvements it ran, and Sam suggests that I upgrade the fuel pump as fuel pressure appeared to be my main cause (big differences after changing fuel filters repeatedly and blowing out lines). I buy a Walbro 255 lhp. It begins.


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At this point it boosts, and it boosts good. All the way upto 12 psi without problem. But by now its September 2012 and winter is fast approaching. I start to see a wierd hesitation under boost, particularly at ~14 psi or so. The old ignition system can't keep up. But I can't afford oem or splitfire coil packs.. just straight up... and what about that shitty 23 yr old ignitor....

The brake pads are thin, and the rotors warped. So I research until I find out that 300zx are compatible for this and buy the best setup I can at that moment.
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The race pads squeals when cold but it stops like a friggen beast, which is good cause i'm moving faster and faster all the time. September chills are providing some bad ass morning boost sessions, so I take it to the next level with a front mount. Sentry approved.

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The snow appears and the cars are garaged. It will be an eternity. How can I make it. Sam's f*ckin SVO spools away each morning while the Acura struggles to start. I can't take this.

Researching my options for coils, it all became so clear. If you can't afford splitfires, straight up build yourself a better system from scratch. I junkyard myself some GM LS2 yukon truck coils and get to work making a custom harness.
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She aint pretty but she works..

VIDEO: RB20 LS2 Coils (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNcbZrcxhuY)

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Sentry picks up this big mother f*ck of a borg warner for this Aristo. I can get jealous. Straight up, I cried once. I need that shit in my life. I construct a plan to achieve this.

step 1: cheap management.

Apexi SAFC is kijiji'd and installed. With a Innovate mtx-l wideband/data logger in the mail:

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I get bored with the wideband coming so I cut apart the oem coil cover that is now useless to me and make a Ls2 coil mount rail.

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Innvote arrives and I kijiji a boost gauge as well... gauge ont back light so I piece together some kinda light thing out of buick dash bulbs and she glows.

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Step 2: fuel

I GTRC up some 444 cc R33 GTR injectors and wire those bad boys in, waiting like 2 months for some damn resistors to arrive from china (all to save $0.35 a piece) so I can have appropriate impedance in the circuirt (rb20 injectors high impedance, gtr injectors are low.)
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Somewhere along the way I ended up making a sick trade for this extremely sun faded Seibon TT carbon hood. I've put about 15 hrs of direct sanding into so far and we are only like 70% done....

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Step 3: boost

Last but most importantly, a new turbo, slim manifold and downpipe arrive in the nick of time (for the acura to get vandalized..) and currently occupy my garage floor.

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So this is how she sits... starting and running, but so rich that it will be unable to restart once shut off. No attempt has been made to tune as its not on the street. I've been totally side swiped by the Prelude Ghetto Turbo as I need a daily to back up the rest of this build. Looking at the turbo almost every single day, it won't be long before thats on there.

Stay tuned respective mangs.
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[Shlade]

Sorry about your friend.

That's a really awesome story behind the vehicle. Looking forward to this build.

[msommers]

Originally posted by Shlade
Sorry about your friend.

That's a really awesome story behind the vehicle. Looking forward to this build.

100%. Curious to see where this ends up.

[Twenty]

It's awesome to see you getting this back on the road. Best of luck with the project. :)

[JBreaks]

Thanks guys. A really unfortunate situation, but it totally commits me to the project and makes the payback so much more sweet. Really nice to have total buy in to what you are doing and not thinking 'I'll just sell this eventually' in the back of your mind.

[JBreaks]

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Put in at least 20 hrs of power sanding into this thing. The original clear coat is made out of diamonds. Finally getting somewhere. Just that top right vent, the fine detail sanding and clear coat till I'm done.

[urrforce]

again sorry to hear about your friend but great that you would carry on something in his memory

and entertaining story lol looking forward to see where this goes

[JBreaks]

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T-belt kit arrived for the rb20. Only other thing I might need is a clutch. Here is the thing tho: This is originally an auto trans car, so what clutch was put in there? I'll be waiting to feel it slip before I order that one.

[sr20s14zenki]

It would be an rb20 clutch...i think they are the same as 300zx na?

[JBreaks]

I mean more like did they go with oem or something better? Most online opinions are that the oem begins to slip at 250 whp or higher. I think I'll be well above that once I'm done now that I've got the GTR injectors in there.

[sr20s14zenki]

Originally posted by JBreaks
I mean more like did they go with oem or something better? Most online opinions are that the oem begins to slip at 250 whp or higher. I think I'll be well above that once I'm done now that I've got the GTR injectors in there.

Best way to check is to take off the rubber that shields the clutch fork. Maybe you can spot something...

[JBreaks]

Great idea! Almost willing to change it regardless, but first I gotta get that turbo on, hood done, tune ect.. so its not hot on my list.

Also, Totally down to take freebie parts for this or the prelude if anyone is going to otherwise throw something away. Interested in anything, scrap intake or exhaust piping ect.

[sr20s14zenki]

Fuck it just tune it and see if it slips (=

[JBreaks]

Got a $6 ebay leather wrap for the new wheel i'm putting in. Fit snug and was nice real leather... sewing skillz could use some leveling up....

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knock off momo has hard plastic like grip.

[JBreaks]

Pretty damn good for the price.

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[JBreaks]

Out with the old and in with the New.

Broke a manifold stud off in the head tho... so hopefully that can be removed. :confused:

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[Neil4Speed]

Great dedication in this project Jesse. Its a great tribute to Andy (Beyond member: Andres_MT). Good luck, and I will look forward to more updates.

[flipstah]

Originally posted by JBreaks
Pretty damn good for the price.

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I'll give that a B-. Too bad about the wrinkles on the bottom.

Nice work on the car so far, though! Keep it up! :thumbsup:

[GTS4tw]

Looking great, lots of the same mods as me! Im probably blind, but did you say what the new turbo is? Looks like RB25?

[JfuckinC]

Always wondered what happened to the car.. RIP Andy, he was a seriously nice dude.

:thumbsup:

[JBreaks]

Originally posted by GTS4tw
Looking great, lots of the same mods as me! Im probably blind, but did you say what the new turbo is? Looks like RB25?

Its a generic aftermarket, bigger than rb25 as well. 3 inch turbo inlet, .5 A/R compressor, .63 A/R hot side. Good for 400 hp + but I won't be going that high. Might have to boost pretty hard with the quantity of fuel I'm flowing.

[gretz]

What brand is that turbo?

[JBreaks]

WSR or something like that. Surprisingly nice quality for what I was expecting. Was about $500 before duties ect.

[faiz999]

this car was so bad ass when andy was rollin in it. the blowoffs were epic.

nice to see you restoring it and getting it back to its former glory days. i remember being mad jealous when i saw andy driving this.

[JBreaks]

So.... 4 of the manifold studs broke off flush with the head... tried to drill and extract one and it just won't give.. anyone got advice before I just f*ck up the other 3 and end up drilling out everything and tapping in new threads for a bigger bolt?

[gretz]

Do you have a welder?

[sr20s14zenki]

I would avoid drilling at all costs. Im not sure about the rb20, but on the sr20, it was very easy to hit a coolant jacket while drilling and mess up the head.

I would get a nut with a tapered top, as shallow as you can get it, and put the tapered end towards the head. Then, as gretz said, use a welder to weld the nuts on. This will do two things, a. it will give you something to turn the stud out with, and b. it will head up the threads and make it easier to turn. Try and thread it out while its still warm from welding....

Also, pretty much the same, but try this

http://merpower.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/weld-on-a-washer-before-the-nut1.jpg

[JBreaks]

Do not have a welder on hand.

Drilling is pretty much my only option at this point it would seem. The one bolt is almost entirely drilled out already. Going to go at it again after work and see if I can drill it as shallow as possible and extract.

Also should mention all bolts are broken off slightly inside the head..

[gretz]

Originally posted by JBreaks


Also should mention all bolts are broken off slightly inside the head..

Ya, drilling may be your only option if you dont have a welder... I would center drill a pilot hole as close to center as possible before going all in.

If you can get it to somewhere with a welder, you can build up weld on the end of the stud to do what sr20s14homo posted

[JBreaks]

I'll give it with the shallow drilling and heat it up with a torch a bitch before attempting extraction. Failing that I might be buying a mig welder. Not the worst outcome in the world. I see there is a wirefeed mig on sale for $499 at the moment.

[sr20s14zenki]

http://calgary.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and-sell-tools-power-tools-Mig-Welder-W0QQAdIdZ478318315

its a 180, and youll probably need to run 220 to it.

[JBreaks]

I've got a buddy coming over tonight with a variable speed dremel and a variety of cobalt, titanium and carbide bits. He's also asian and an engineer, so that's gotta be worth an extra 10 or 15 hp at the end of the day.

[sr20s14zenki]

Yep, gotta watch those nissan studs. Every nissan engine seems to have them break. So far, broken none on any toyota ive worked on.

[DeleriousZ]

Exhaust studs break on vg30's in z31's alllllll the tiiiiiiiiiiime.

[JBreaks]

Well I extracted 2 and had to drill the other 2 out... don't believe I pierced the water jacket, but one went about 2 mm deeper than the 'stock' depth, makes me a little nervous.... Most of the coolant drained from the head via the turbo water line before this little exercise. Still I would have expected to see a drop or a little green staining on the drill chips.

[JBreaks]

Numero uno: Go overboard on tap and die set.

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Numero dos: Tappy Tappy

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Numero tres: Fresh Threads

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Numero quatro: Homemade mani bolts achieved

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[JBreaks]

Almost done.

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[JBreaks]

Got it all together and fired it up. Major leaks between the head and manifold.... so new gaskets are inbound and I'll be taking it all apart and putting it back together yet again hah. Sounds aggressive as hell now though so I'm pumped for the results.

[JBreaks]

Stripped it down and re assembled with new gaskets, copper rtv, went totally overboard sealing everything up, and she is minty. Just waiting on a tune now. Have socketed ecu on hand if I have to go the eprom route. Ideally I'll be looking at a nistune or something similar.

Live the dream amigos!

[SkiBum5.0]

Awesome build and love the handcraftmanship (word?).
Can't wait to see it out on the road.

[kdwebber]

this wouldn't happen to be the car that was owned by andres_mt would it?

[JfuckinC]

It was, and is named after him ;)

[kdwebber]

I was actually the first Canadian owner of this car. I sold it to Andres a while back. I always wondered what happened to it. I was worried that it had been written off like so many of the other RHD's imported.

OP if you want I have pictures from when I originally brought the car into Canada back in 2005. Best of luck with the car.

Kyle

[7thgenvic]

This is a awesome Thread!!!!!

[JBreaks]

If you want to post some pics on this thread it would be awesome to see how far its come! Still trying to line up a deal for a nistune ecu, with a eprom tune being my last possible choice for solution... I've got parts arriving every day for my prelude build and I need this thing to take me to work. haha

[kdwebber]

I also have some pictures from the first day I picked up the car but they are on my other computer at home. I'll post them up when I can.

Cheers, Kyle

[JBreaks]

Had the car over at Toma's last night hoping to tune. Founds some issues before we put it on the dyno but Toma burned me a base mapped chip so I could go home, after spending like 2 hours poking around the car trying to figure things out. The guy is an excellent human being... Will be back for the final tune and posting the dyno video soon.

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[JBreaks]

Now driving around on Toma's chip with lots of SAFC intervention. New TPS sorted out some strange idle/cold map issues. Got the hood on, needs a couple more hours of sanding and a nice thick coat of clear. We'll be running on a properly tuned nistune as soon as possible.

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[JBreaks]

A little pre-winter-hibernation mode update:

The hood got mounted and received it's first layer of clear coat. Some more sanding for perfection and a layer or two and she will be ready to rock. It's very light/flexible carbon, so I'll be getting some hood pins next season I think.

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Got a long session of base tuning on the nistune done with Toma. Put down 242 hp at 10 psi, but ran into some random ignition break up and some other issues related to MAF with atmo BOV ect. I've been street tuning it since and turned the boost up to 20 psi and now have issues keeping traction in second and third. It'll go back for final power numbers after I remake the ignition harness and get her running more 'perfect'.

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[JBreaks]

After a long cold sleep I'm getting ready to bring her back to life. Since the last update I've done:

-Newly wired ignition harness
-New set of LS2 coils
-New plugs
-Timing belt, idler and tensioner
-Blox adjustable cam gears.
-New Turbosmart manual boost controller (apexi AVCR was giving me some issues)

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[JBreaks]

An update on my plans for this summer:

Despite running nistune type 2 with a tune by Toma. I never got the results I wanted. The power at 20 psi was awesome, breaking traction shifting into second gear on 8.5'' wide works, but the drivability was shameful... MAF related stalling after BOV vented to atmosphere almost constantly due to the huge amount of air flow... RB ecu's fire injectors and coils in batches of 3 so break downs in the wiring harness and ECU it's self caused issues on sets of injectors and coils at a time. The GTR injectors with resistors didn't respond well at any injector latency and it would struggle to idle without 29%+ MAF signal increase at idle through SAFC in addition to tuning the map with nistune....

I've decided to bite the bullet and go Megasquirt MS3x. Fully individual injector and coil control, completely rewire a custom engine harness to run fresh sensors with the exception of oem nissan knock, CAS and TPS. Switch over to a reliable and cheap GM MAP and IAT sensor array. Tune it perfectly from cold start to Max boost. I'm planning to do aquamist water meth injection and run something like 25 psi. I'm also planning to procure some thermoelectric semiconductors and possibly develop some kind of system involving a small motorcycle batter and solar plates to create a electrically separate water/meth cooling device to get the mix below freezing before injection, but this is just in dream phase. Also interested in the effects of inducing vacuum on the pcv system, it's well proven that a greater differential pressure between the interior of cylinder and the open crankcase will induce a better seal from piston ring to wall. Vacuum pump systems have yielding 15-20 whp on the dyno. I'll be looking to find the best and cheapest solution possible to untap this easy power.

To date I have done the following toward the standalone install:
-Sold nistune, injectors + resistors, SAFC, various other car parts from old projects (mostly honda)
-Purchased numerous small items to touch up other minor things on the car, volk lug nuts, heat wrap so I can better control some heat sock issues, wheel spacers, turbo blanket ect.
-New set of proper high impedance 480 cc injectors from Stephan in High Rive (Injector Dynamics)

I've been bad about taking pics lately so I'll get it back in gear on that front.

[JBreaks]

Progressed on converting this car to MAP and IAT in prep for the Megasquirt ms3x that is currently being shipped.

Made a new longer intake pipe with no pcv return hose hole, as a new catch can will route crank vapors to a future exhaust venturi:



Brand new set of 480cc high impedance injectors from Injector dynamics, replaces the old gtr 444cc low impedance with radioshack resistors:



Began to do some heat management to protect intake charge temps and keep that turbo hot. Heat wrapped the newly welded up intake pipe over valve cover and turbo, also deleting the IACV hose from this pipe (thank you new MAP set up). Need to modify a turbo blanket I got to fit internal wastegate arm but that should go on soon:



Turbo still looks new after about 5000 km of hard boosting, zero noticable wear visually or to bearings:



**working on pics here....