The Real Basics - Nissan Skyline GT-R , R32, R33, R34
Maintaining the car. The first things you should check. If you just bought a Nissan GTR there are a few things you should check, and you should know before you go out and do too much drag racing, or running around the road course. This guide goes though a few of the basics for your RB26.I originally wrote this back in 2000. I have updated a few things over the years, but a few parts need an update.
RB26DETT Myths and Truths | Advanced Notes
1) Oil - 7.5W-30 recommended in Japan. A good 10-30W synthetic is a good start for a street car.Oil Change /Filter change. Keep it happy. We use Redline 15/50w or 10/30w full synthetic. Oil Filter - OEM 15208-60U00 , Fram PH3682 ,OEM(R34) 15208-9E000
2) Fuel - 91 PON in California. Higher some places . You don't want to run anything less than the highest octane pump gas available.
3)Air filter. If you are using the stock box you can put a K& N part # 33-2031-1 OEM –16546 –V0100 or 16546-V0100 , Fram CA4309 ,. Fits R32,R33 ,R34. Part of making power is Air in /Air out.
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| R33 air inlet to the stock airbox. |
4) Spark plugs - PFR6A-11 are the stock Nissan Skyline GTR plug made by NGK. PFR7A-11 are one heat range cooler, also from NGK. You may want to tighten the plug gap up if you are going to up the boost. Stock gaps on these plugs are 1.1mm which is pretty wide for a spark plug. Iridium's work well. They are expensive but they work well. We have had a problem with the Denso iridium plugs breaking the ceramic around the electrode. With the NGK's we haven't had a problem.
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| Denso Iridium spark plug missing center ceramic. You have been warned ! |
5) Fuel filter - Same as a 1996 Infiniti J30. Its a good idea to change it when you get the car. Its almost the same as a 300ZX filter, but the outlet has a 90 degree bend on the actual filter.
6) Transmission fluid - Don't try and fill it though the gear shifter. Though the gear shifter is the transfer case . Get a good GL4 75-90. The Getrag in the R34 uses its own special fluid, although we have used Redline ATF with success.
7) Front Differential - GL5 85-90
8) Rear Differential - LSD GL5 80-90
9) Transfercase - Nissan Automatic Fluid Type D
10) ATTESA System - Nissan Automatic Fluid Type D
What needs to be upgraded , when ?
Fuel injectors - 444cc. Lets just say that each cc of injector - on a 6 cylinder car is good for 1 hp... So with the stock injectors we can make 444 hp at the motor.... its just an approximation , but its pretty close.
Fuel Pump
Turbos
Records for stock turbos. Stock peak boost R32 Skyline GT-R is about 0.8 , R33 0.9, R34 1.0. Need to go to a full metal turbo. HKS GT series are good turbos. We have also run Apex'i AX series turbos. The 2530's are the way to go with the small GT series for about 450-500 whp on pump gas.
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| Missing ceramic exhaust wheel |
Oil pump
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| Tomei Oil pump : The best wet sump RB26 oil pump |
Clutch
MAF - The stock RB26 65mm MAFs are good for about 400 whp. Above then they run out of range and max out their voltage. Stock ones max out at around 400 horsepower to the wheels. A popular replacement is the Nissan 300ZX meters. A 300ZX uses one - we double up for the GT-R.They are physically larger. 80mm vs 70 mm. Some ECU's swap over to MAP based load, but with the ITB's, it can be a difficult thing to tune for part throttle.
Oil Cooler - The stock cars run an oil/water heat exchanger. Its a good idea if you are going to go on a track, or do any high speed driving with the car to put an external oil cooler on the car. On a track, it only takes a few laps in cool outside temps to get the oil temps above the 110C range. As important as the cooler itself, is the ducting to and though the cooler core.
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| Large Sebrab oil cooler being fitted to an R32 |
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| ARC oil cooler in a Super Taikyu R34 GT-R |
Camshafts - Stock the RB26DETT camshafts are 240/236 duration 8.58/8.28 mm. If your aftermarket camshaft has more than 9.1 mm of lift, the head needs clearance around the lifter bucket due to the height of the camshaft lobe. Small cams will generally see at least 20 whp, and will generally also pickup response. Stock base circle is 32 mm. Many of the higher lift aftermarket camshafts have 30mm base circles.
Brakes -Stock R32 brakes are an upgrade for 300ZX's.Stock Vspec R32 brakes are Brembos. Stock R33 /R34 are Brembos. For most people these are adequate . Brake pads are up to whatever is the latest and greatest. Generally speaking if they work really well, they throw a lot of dust, and squeal like a stuck pig at low speeds.
What Breaks ?
Clutch
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| Pull style/ late R32/R33/R34 clutch. This is a Nismo |
Transmission
The Getrag in an R34 requires its own special oil.The oil is available from Toyota dealerships and its $40 a liter. The Getrag does not like Shockproof Heavy, so don't use it in it.. OS Giken transmission internal upgrades for the R32-R33 seem to be good up to 700 hp. If you want to go fast straight, there are some guys building a strong Nissan automatic box.
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| Early and late R32/R33 transmissions broken 3rd gear |
Turbos
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| The wheel on the left is steel, the one on the right is ceramic |
Oil pump
The N1 oil pump is a stock pump with a stiffer spring.We had a lot of N1 oil pump failures. These pumps were direct from Nissan, not knock off's as some have speculated. Many aftermarket companies make upgraded pumps. The motor has to come out, they cost $1000 and up.
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| Wide RB26 oil pump drive |
#6 cylinder - #6 cylinder is the lean cylinder. Every motor has a lean cylinder. Its also at the back of the motor, last to get coolant flow. The stock intake manifold design forces air to stack up at #6. The Nismo inlet plenum was designed to balance flow though the motor. This is not really a basic, rather something just good to know. Just know that if you ever run the car lean, you will probably hurt #6 first. Also if you are checking compression or leak down, try out #6 first.
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| Nismo plenum, stock airbox , 600+whp |
Why you shouldn't use a Japanese market tuned ECU.. Japanese market premium fuel is rated at 100 octane.They use a different method of determining octane in Japan. Here in the US -Southern California our premium fuel is 91 octane (RON+MON/2) . Of course you can buy 104 unleaded from VP. You can also buy 100 octane unleaded out of the pump at some 76 stations. But for all practical purposes 91 is as high as you will get here in Southern California. Some places in the US you can get up to 94 out of the pump at "normal" gas stations.
Advanced Notes - after you are finished with the basics, check out some of the advanced notes.
14 comments:
Hi Tyndago!
I'm having cold start problems, and bit of rough idling. I need to step on the gas pedal to make the GT-R start. And upon checking some of my plugs are wet w/ gasoline. :( No error codes detected, split fire coils, BCPR7ES plugs...
Maybe a leaking injector. Maybe a MAF issue. Maybe a leak in the intake path. Splitfire coils are crap. My cars always ran better with stock coils, and a new coil harness.
Ok. Funny thing is it happens a lot on cold starts only. When the car is warm it's no problem. I could scratch the MAF out since I tried another set before. Hmmm...intake path leak, and leaky injectors. What's the standard vacuum of the RB26 at idle, 0.5 (a/c engaged) to 0.8 (a/c off)? And what are the signs of a leaky injector? The car idles quite ok, but not as fine as before.
Split fires are crap? :) Maybe that is why they are now almost at the same price w/ the oem ones
Leaking overnight. Other than pulling them out and testing not a lot.
Although injector seals, or other seals leaky that seal up when the car warms up is pretty common. Often the injector seals.
Thanks for the tips! Another thing discovered is the wet plugs seems to jump from num. 3 and num. 4 cylinder.
3-4 is probably that throttle gasket. There are 2 gaskets there, one on each side of the throttle body.
Nice topic. By the way leaky injectors will be obvious since there will be traces of gasoline on the top injector (exposed side), and will be fixed via new o rings... Or... is there a kind of injector leak that can't be fixed by them o-rings? Like the leak is coming from the injector body/tip area itself?
Hello Tyndago!
Do you have any info on what is the function of the clutch pedal switch? Was adjusting clutch engagement on pedal when I saw it. Tried checking it on FSM, and the function of it wasn't described at all.
Does all GT-Rs have it?
Thanks in advance!!
All the GT-R's have them. Most cars in the US won't start without the clutch in.
The JDM GT-R's will start with the clutch out. I am sitting here thinking that the late R34's might have needed the clutch in to start, but I can't remember exactly.
I can't think of another purpose other than starter lockout.
Hey!
Was googling GT-R stuff and stumbled to your site most of the time. ;) Anyways, how do you go about bleeding the GT-R BNR32 and 34 brakes, Brembo ones. I know the basics like the furthest one first up to the master cylinder. But since these Brembos have 2 nipples, w/c do you bleed first? And is there a need to bleed the ABS also if you replace the master cylinder? W/c nipple first on the BNR32 ABS?
Lastly, you were most helpful on GT-R owners around the world! Thanks You!
On the Brembos with two bleeders, do the outside first, then inside, on each caliper. Like the furthest to closest idea.You don't need to do each out then each inner. I would start the car, and bleed the ABS unit. You don't want any trapped air. Just makes everything feel bad.
Regarding the brakes, so it doesn't really matter if I don't follow the outer then inner nipple bleeding? I just saw on different forums stating the opposite, inner then outer and actually saw an old post from you also on GTROC back in '06 (http://www.gtr.co.uk/forum/60045-bleeding-r33-calipers.html). ;) And do you really need to start the car during the bleed process? Just saw the FSM, and it even says to remove the battery terminal before bleeding.
Thank you again!
I was probably wrong there. Although its kind of 6 one way half dozen the other. Its not as critical the order, as trying to get all the air out around each piston. Sometimes you have to drive the car, or hit the calipers with a rubber hammer to free up air. Outer then inner, just like doing the furthest wheel from the master first. The outer is further away from the master, inner is closer to the master.
I would leave the car off the first time, then after the first round, when you have a decent pedal start the car, and run around the car once. On the R35 the procedure actually says to "Run the vehicle until the surface temperature of caliper reaches 70 to 80°C (158 to 176°F), and then perform
the stops 1 to 8 with the caliper heated".
If you replace the master running the car can trigger the ABS and move some of the trapped air around. The whole thing we are trying to do is get rid of all the trapped air. Any air will give you a bad pedal.
Sean,
Do you have an article on regular maintenance? My R34 is approaching 100,000km on the odometer. I'm prepared to throw some money at the car to give it an overhaul. What should my focus be for a GT-R with this mileage?
Thanks!
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