So What Other Weird Skyline GT-R Related Projects Are You Working On?

There are only so many hours in a day.  However there are lots of projects that we can work on.  Here are a few weird ones. Some are silly, some are more serious. Some will probably never get done.

Left Turn camera

This is something that I thought might help improve safety on the RentJDM cars. Since there will be a ton of people renting cars, with little to no RHD experience, anything we could do to help things like a unprotected left turn could help.  The idea actually came from Chris Payne several years ago, but I never got around to making anything work.  So far tried it out, this bullet cam is too wide a lens. I can see everything, but that means I can really not see anything. I had another camera that I am trying out. Otherwise maybe making a telephoto adapter for the camera may be an idea.

Bullet camera stuck onto the bumper for a trial

Using a 19.2 battery to power up the wireless camera

 Since the OEM mirror mounts to the ceiling, there were no off the shelf adapters. The options were to mount the Autovox wireless mirror with screen to the glass, and remove the old mirror, or modify the OEM mirror/mount.  I ended up taking the OEM mirror off, but there was no real smart/easy way to adapt the mirror to work.  So I drilled a hole, tapped it, and cut some slots in the Autovox bottom mirror mount. One small piece of foam tightened it all up, but not that tight.  Still has a little side to side movement. I had an extra mounting point, I drilled out an old Ram Mount ball, and it worked out OK for a place to hang a RAM mount. I needed this at the last R's Day. My mount fell off the window many times during the day.

I took apart a factory mirror.  This left me with some extra parts. I added a RAM mount

This only uses the one screw to hold it in place, and has a slight amount of side to side movement

This camera supposedly has a 170 degree view. I honestly only want about a 90 degree view.  They have some setups with a 140 degree camera.  Since I mostly just want to see if there is another car coming when making a left turn, or passing on a 2 lane road, wide angle isn't important.   Another idea was to make it dual function, front and rear/backup camera.  Some of those do exist, but haven't dug too far into it yet.

When I tried the camera mounted high inside. The issue is that you can see everything, even the inside of the car. 

Electronic Center Differential or Transfercase

FX transfer on the left electronic lockup, mechanical lockup of R32/R33 on the right

I started working on this one many years ago, when I was under one of my Infiniti FX35/FX45.   I also had a RB25 all wheel drive engine and transmission in my garage. As all normal GT-R enthusiasts, I also had a spare R32/R33 transfer case, and R34 transfer case. I mean doesn't everyone?

 The quick and dirty ATTESA system overview is, the ATTESA ECU uses inputs from wheel speed, a G sensor, and the engine ECU to calculate how much duty cycle to run a hydraulic pump, that fluid from the pump, pushes on a lever to lock up a multi disk clutch pack in the transfer case. Simple non convoluted stuff.

FX35/45 on the left, RB25 Auto on the right

That all is fairly complex, and you have electronics, driving a pump, that is mechanically locking something up.  I knew a bit about the R35 GT-R, and how it locks up its all wheel drive system, though an ETS or FWD clutch pack.  Using electronics aka a solenoid to lock that clutch pack up, eliminates a bunch of failure points, and should greatly improve system response time.  Everyone always talks about RB's and response, well in this case its the ATTESA response.

GR6 or R35 GT-R transaxle.  #3 is the FWD or ETS clutchpack. Looks really similar to the first picture

However once I got all the parts in hand, it looked to be a bit more complicated than I wanted to go down at the time. I've talked to several people that want to do it, but so far nothing solid.  Glad to show what I have found so far. The FX transfer are cheap, under about $300. The parts inside look really similar to what is in the R35.  In the end, I am not worried about them handling power (some slip is honestly desired), however the FX transfer doesn't have a internal fluid pump like a Skyline GT-R transfer.  It might get pissed off at you if you try and keep it locked up for a while.   ATTESA pumps are expensive and they leak. Parts like the pressure switch are near impossible to find.

Transfer case information - RB26, RB25, R32, R33, R34, R35 , FX35, FX45 .  
ATTESA information

Sunvisor

That extension action.  Yes, it is the wrong color, easy to fix.  Anyone else have others that might work better?

This one is super important for me. The OEM sunvisor on a GT-R, doesn't work to block the sun on the right side, when I sit in my normal position.  There is no extension, the visor doesn't slide. They are 12 inches center to center on the mounting points.

2004 Toyota Tacoma. We had one at work, I gave it a shot. It fit, not exactly, but not horrible when stowed. The color, is obviously wrong, but it is a tan interior truck.  The visors themselves are about $100 on eBay. 

Doesn't quite clear the notch. 

I'm open for suggestions on what else might fit or work for a visor with a slider or extension.

Buy USA Legal R32 and R33 Skylines at Importavehicle.com!
Index and Start Page

Bluecar

#bluecar at a wet Laguna Seca for R's Day

The #bluecar wasn't really one that I wanted to keep around, but I have kept around for a bunch of years now.  It was just a car that I purchased many years ago, and now have been using it as a demo car, when Nismo #500 was getting built.   Nismo #500 is back, and Big Bird 2 is here, so its time to sell the #bluecar.

2019 specifications

There are a lot of my special parts that I put on this car, things like my Nismo R-Tune suspension, and brake ducts.  There are a few things that I also need to fix, and bring to where I want them to be.

The car made 440 whp at 14 psi on the dyno at Church Automotive Testing.  It turns out, it still had the stock fuel pump in it. When we tried to turn up the boost, 19 psi we saw 500 hp, but we didn't have the fuel flow to meet that horsepower demand.  After R's Day, we added a hydramat, and a "Hellcat" 525 l/hr pump. If we get a chance with all this COVID-19 stuff, we may head back to the dyno and see what the car wants to make for power.

In any case, it will be put to a cool sellable condition, and it will be sold. https://www.importavehicle.com/inventory

Nismo #500

Nismo #500 is back. Has a little engine build, some other stuff. It did have the OS 88 in it, but that trans is going in BB2. The original clutch change, got way out of control, and there were a few/many years that the car sat.  There are a lot of finishing parts for the car, fuel system, tune, fuel rail, regulator, some other bits and pieces. Once I am done with the Bluecar I will bring the Nismo home.

RentJDM

Suzuki Cappuccino from RentJDM one car that will be available for rent. 

Talk about a way to screw up a grand opening, closing Las Vegas.  The original plan was to open up on April 23rd, with most of the month spent coming up to speed with a soft opening. However Las Vegas is currently closed.  At some point, when allowed RentJDM will open.

Big Bird 2

Two RB26 in the bed of a Holden Ute

The original engine and transmission have been removed.  The OS Giken OS88 sequential transmission, that was in Nismo #500 is now on the floor waiting for the engine. The transmission from BB2 is in the Nismo.  The engine is going in the BLO.  The RB30 from the BLO will end up in BB2.  The car itself is at our friends from One Stop Paint and Body.  They are going to be painting it yellow.  As close as we can figure, is that the color is a fleet yellow, Ford/Chevy, which makes sense, considering it was painted yellow for the movie.  They would have used whatever was most accessible and easy.

Still need to finalize turbos, engine management, and injectors for the car.  Still need to find some wheels- probably some BBS LM.

Other updates for BB2
ECU 2020

Parts Testing

There are a few parts that I want to get tested.  Those are the water pumps, the fans. The stock and N1 water pump flow would be interesting to know. Both the OEM clutch fan, the GK Tech fan, the OEM AC fan. Then some electric fans, and setups like Leask-spec radiator and shroud.

Fan testing - anemometer

Power steering pumps, and electric power steering seem like something cool to try out. One of these days. Anywhere you take hydraulic fluids, under a ton of pressure out of an equation, or minimize them, the better your life is going to be.

Electronic wastegates also seem like something, to take one extra part out of the response time of the engine. If you have direct control over the wastegate, not--- electronics, pressure, mechanical, seems like something worthwhile to try and make work. Turbosmart showed electronic aftermarket gates at SEMA 2019.

Electric Assist

BAS.  Belted alternator starter.   GM had a mild hybrid thing they called BAS. That was a combined component that provided a limited electric assist and start. Since the footprint is small enough to fit in an alternator spot, it always had a limited appeal to me.   There are some fill in the curve implications, and there are some emissions implications for me. However would require some work and thinking. The are normally 36 volts, running at 42-45 volts. Super capacitors.  They toss belts, and can be sort of a grumpy thing.  The costs of the BAS units are pretty low now, and luckily I know some people that worked in developing the BAS and BAS plus units.

AYC- Active Yaw Control

The Skyline GT-R have a F160 diff, the Subarus have an R160 diff. Nissan and Subaru do share some components.  So that all got me thinking about Subaru, and Evo's and yaw control. This wouldn't be for the rear differential, but this would be for the front differential.  None of the Subarus that I can see have something like the AYC of the Evo, but there might be something out there.  There are some downsides to having a locking front differential, most of which are related to low speed, high angle. If it were electronic, it could be open at low speed.

Blog Posts

I have about 50 something different technical blog posts in draft. Some take a long time to research and write up.  Things like subframes, differentials, installing R34 ABS in an R32 GT-R. Exhausts, clutches, etc.  One of the parts that takes the most time, is finding pictures. I have pictures to help explain most things, just finding those pictures is a thing.

Trunk Subwoofer

It sits up pretty high here.  I used a heat gun, removed some padding and it sits much lower now, but not low enough

A radio isn't that important to a lot of people, but it is important for me. Most 1980's and 1990's audio systems are pretty lacking for sound.  I liked the Bose speaker setup in my FX, so I noticed it had a subwoofer that fit in the spare tire.  I tried it out, and it fit, at least mostly in the R32 GT-R spare tire. On eBay used OEM ones can be had for anywhere from $60-$100 with the connector. Aftermarket brands are more expensive  With the connector is important, as you don't want to have to find and ship something, when there are ones being sold with it.

I flipped the spare tire over to fit the sub. However then the spare doesn't fit flush due to the mounting point.  I bought another style of sub for another car, but it was still a little tall.   I don't want to ditch the spare, I want to have it all. From the car side, there is speaker wires and power that goes back to the OEM rear sub. I had a sub bypass connector that plugged in.  That way its really easy to remove the sub, and put back to stock. Or remove when I go to the track.

Overall sound is good. It really helps to fill in the bottom, even with the 6.5 in the doors and rear deck.

Using the factory rear amp connector to power the amp.  Works out so far.