Lower Inlet Manifold finished

It has been a long slow task, but one that hopefully will yield good results. It is my plan to replace the lower inlet manifold with a painted one, the original idea of chroming being shelved early on in proceedings in favour of painting. I actually made it quite a big job for myself by not only removing casting lines but additionally polishing the whole of the units visible faces for when fitted to the car.

Casting, polished, masked and ready for paint

 Polishing aluminium can be a boring task and with the rough sand cast faces of the manifold I found that a coarse 120 grit wet and dry paper was the ideal for initial smoothing. Naturally on an item with so many facets as this, it is very difficult to get into all nooks and crannies. So I also used some small head grinding stones, it's not ideal using these as you may cut too deeply, creating more of a blemish that that which you were trying to remove.

In primer, back face with top polished and lower rough cast.

When the manifold was ready for paint, it was given a good wash. I used a jet washer at close rage in all the awkward areas to make sure that they were 'really' clean. Although a high powered water jet into a small area does involve an amount of 'splash back' so I had my bath for the week!

Some product!

When the manifold was finally clean it had to be masked. There are so many holes and threads it took around one and a half hours to do properly. It seemed every time I turned the unit, I would find another hole wanting my attention.

Lastly at the end of the process I noticed that the manifold I am working on has slightly different fixings to the one that is actually fitted to the car. However after closer examination it would appear that the unit will fit and the extra fittings are for fuel rail location only.

To keep things simple I went with a paint finish of satin black. The main pipes that will be 'seen' have a high smooth finish. Whereas the rear pipes are 'half' finished, with the lower unseen portion remaining rough cast.

R33 Rocker Cover Fitted

Well it got to late Saturday evening and after an entertaining session priming up a lower inlet manifold, I decided to spend a quick five minutes and bolt in the new rocker cover.

Naturally the fitment was terrible and I spent a lot longer than at first hoped. My original plan of whipping the old plastic cover out and slotting this one in soon went out the window. But hey this is why we do it no?

Basically on test fitting the cover sat towards the left too snugly, leaving a large gap all down the right side (this was a bad thing). The cover had been supplied with screws and an amount of sticky backed rubber tape. My first thought being that perhaps the tape ran the side length of the metal rocker covers, the only problem with this plan being that it was a bit too wide to do this successfully, the second problem being that it simply wasn't long enough to do both sides. So that idea in the bin.

I compared like for like holding the old cover up against the new. After some study it looked as though the original cover actually sits quite tight to the left, although it isn't noticeable due to rubber seals along each edge.

Well shit or bust time then and I removed the rubber strips, which obviously is a one way only deal. I attached them to my now fingerprint covered replacement part with a good dose of that old favourite, superglue.

After unsticking my fingers for the millionth time. I started to get the knack of glue to rubber ratio and allowed for the capillary action of the glue (holding the work piece upright and allowing gravity to work) managed to get the strip into a reasonable placement.

I then took some of my 'too short' sticky backed rubber and chopped it lengthwise, attaching it to the bottom of the cover against the newly attached rubber strips.

Test fitting showed that it was 'acceptable' and a sigh of happiness was to be heard.

The simple task of screwing the cover on was the next pain.

Where the holes are a bit 'out' but have been drilled at a large diameter meant that I was limited with making them bigger myself, for fear of them being a bit too big. This meant that loose placement of screws was required. It was still a bit of a faff as keeping the screws true and happy meant a bit of fiddling around. You don't really want them going in at an angle as the rocker covers themselves are made of soft aluminium and can quite easily cross thread. The idea is improvement, not destruction!

I still have a screw to attach, although this is due to not having the correct key. Will come back to this as it isn't actually seen.

So finally my simple five minutes took a good two hours, although the parts supplied are good and sound. I would suggest that the drill holds could be a shade lower from the top perhaps by .5mm.

Passenger side

Drivers side

The offending article!

I have included some shots from all angles. This shows how quickly this mod gets lost in the orgy of shining metal that is my engine bay.

R33 rocker cover - first look

Well I have received my 'custom' rocker/coil pack cover, it's pretty impressive and seems worth the money! My only difficulty is with getting a photo without too many reflections or my ugly mug smiling back at me from it's shining face.

There is the option of colour coding... But my colour is black!

Reflections of everything around you are not optional

 Will be fitting it probably this weekend, so stay tuned dear reader for the exciting reveal (if I don't blind my self with the reflection from the flash!)

If you would like something similar then simply mail custom_jy5899sif@members.ebay.co.uk with your request or look up the seller customs_2000 on that fine supplier of parts, ebay

In the works - racing to the finish line

Currently am in talks with Andy at Serious Performance Autos to 'finish' the mechanical side. I'm not sure if I have tired of doing it, but am trying to get everything done and complete in one massive hit.

It's not the ideal way of working, although there is a fair chunk of work that goes way beyond my level of mechanical expertise or equipment.

Works will be undertaken at Serious Performance Autos and include

• Fitting of hybrid turbo
• Fitting of my current work in progress, the lower inlet manifold (see posts)
• Supply and fit of front upper camber bushes (for wheel aligning)
• supply and fit of rear camber bushes (wheel aligning)
• Rear diff oil
• Supply and fit of bigger fuel pump and fuel pressure regulator
• Fitting larger 555 injectors
• Fitting APEXi Power FC Engine Control Unit (ECU)
• Mapping at Abbey Motor Sport
• Wheel alignment at Abbey Motor Sport
• MOT so the car is legal in the UK
• possibly spark plugs (if mine are no good)
• The all important juices, coolant, oil etc.

Through my 'collecting' habit I have a high flow fuel filter and oil filter (every little helps!).
Will be very interesting to see what the finished power output will be when all is said and done. This work will complete the second stage of tuning (which is where I will stop!).

Skyline R33 Stock Take!

Ms Skyline moves along so rapidly, she sometimes takes me quite by surprise. I thought it might be nice dear reader if I were to share a few photographs of her transition from beautiful car to um, more beautiful car! Beautiful, but different?

Naturally these photo's are all out of date. But I have been waiting for the Sun to appear... I'm sure it will one day! 

Original front end



After fitting of front mount intercooler and splitter

Above we have the original nose (how she arrived) and the changed front. Originally it was the plan to fit an M spec front 'splitter' to the car (see garden post). However after cutting of the bumper to fit the intercooler the car seemed very 'blunt' on the front end and lost some character with the huge chunk of Aluminium looking out.

If you are not keen on defacing and cutting up the front bumper for a front splitter, there is always the option of fitting a side mount intercooler from a R34. this however does have its drawbacks being only able (I say 'only') to handle 300 BHP.

I did think about putting mesh in the aperture, although this would have looked silly and cheap. The car needed to regain it's front stance and this was done with a Knight Racer front splitter click here you will see from the advert that Ms Skyline is the star, although I would mention that she only does it for fame and no fee's were exchanged.

Side view with standard ride height

Lowered 30mm, alloy's added, side skirts, spats and colour coded wind deflectors around window.

 Side views. As you can see a drop of 30mm is sensible. I have kept the standard Nissan shocks and fitted Tein springs. This gives a more pleasing look to the eye and does transform handling into and out of corners. Coil overs are not for me as it isn't a track car and the plan was to improve the car, not ruin it.

The side skirts, rear spats and wind deflectors are all genuine Nissan parts. These were sourced from Tim at the Moff Shop If your in the UK or Europe, always drop Tim a line. Will add more about the Moff shop in services of note at some point.

The wind deflectors come in a rather nasty shade of brown clear plastic. I had these sprayed to match the rest of the car.

The side indicators (or amusingly titled 'winkers') were replaced with Nismo Clear Indicators (almost £60) and just below them you can make out the gold 'GT' badges.

Lastly you would have to be blind not to notice the wheels!

Original Automatic Dials

White dial replacements with chrome dial rings.

As a part of the major modifications Ms Skyline underwent, one of the biggest was converting from an Auto to a manual gearbox (more about that saga to come). This meant that clocks and dials had to be changed as an Auto speedo is actually calibrated differently. Additional to this I would not be needing the automatic indicators for drive, park etc.
So a new clock console was sourced (spec 1). White dials fitted (Andy at SPA said I was a brave man) with chrome dial rings. Fitting new dials is not for the faint hearted, you have to actually remove the needles to fit the new dials. Although more about that later.

Well there you have a very basic run down of some of the changes from old to new. this isn't meant as a do it guide and is just all showboating!

Coil Pack Cover

Have been hunting around for a while now to get something to replace my plastic coil pack cover. A little like the washer bottle question... It's possible I have gone too far, although found a chap who makes bespoke items (see example)

stainless coil pack cover

Naturally mine would not be in the fair shade of blue and will be black. There is a wire mesh over the cut out area and the lettering is infilled in black. To have it made up is ridicuously expensive though and there is no change from £69.
Will update as and when the part turns up!

Enforced relaxation?

One thing about being in the UK that we seem to be top at is avoiding hitting each other in cars. I remember one visitor to our island in the Sun, returning his hire car a day into his holiday stating 'you people drive in an 80MPH car park!'. So yeah, perhaps the roads can be a bit hectic which kind of defeats owning a sports car a bit.
However the real killer is when your on the motorway and there is a juicy accident!
Here is my current view, which I have been looking at for an hour, only the odd ambulance or cop car wizzing past for entertainment. Is funny as feel completely unsympathetic towards the poor people who are squished or dead. In fact if dead we may move sooner. Aw don't throw stones at me, you try sitting here for an hour!
I don't mind doing nothing, but not in my own time!