AWD V-8 GTR? Possibly Possible.

[The Dark Side of Will]

Not your fault that V8 swapping a GTR is such a good idea that it took off on its own

[crzyone]

Don't even know what to do with my car now. One thing I do know, the shop I had my car at for 3 months just tried to screw me out of many thousands of dollars.

He sent me that pic of a damaged cam cap claiming it was mine. It's not even from my engine. I went there to get the car, he got there before me and I'm assuming that he pulled off I7 right before I got there. He forgot that the pic he sent me was clearly an I6 cam cap. (mine are not even numbered and look totally different!)

So, either he gives me back my undamaged I7, or I will need a new head. These are not interchangable and are line bored from factory.

Now I have to confront him at during the week when he is at work and try to get this worked out. He tried to scam me. He could have easily scammed me but his big mistake was letting the car sit for 3 months. If he had fixed it right away, I would have been none the wiser. It would likely have been a $5-8k repair bill, and that's what I was expecting.

I'm waiting to talk to him before I spam every local forum he is on to warn everybody. Hopefully he makes it right.

A V-8 swap might come out of the smoke... We'll see. I'm going to try and make him pay for repairs or a new head.

Everything that was suspicious before I picked up the car is really starting to make sense. I'll get into details if you guys want to hear about it.

*MAD*

[The Dark Side of Will]

By all means, vent. You never know when Mach10 might come back and offer devious avenues to prepare the dish best served cold.

[Atilla the Fun]

This is why you do the wrenching yourself. If the caps have to come off, you pull them. But first stamp every one with it's position, and the last 4 digits of your phone number. A new set of 34 stamps can be had for about $15. A-Z and 1-8, use the 6 for 9, use the O for 0.
When I take a 350 block to a machine shop for cam bearings, I don't take the main caps, and I do stamp the block. No shop can be trusted, no matter their fame or reputation, because employees come and employees go.
If you're gonna own a quasi-exotic engine, that's twice the reason to master it yourself.
If you can afford the engine, then you can afford the books. If you can spare the time to play with the LSx swap, then you had the time to do the wrenching yourself.
I don't really hate you, but I dislike how you seem to come across as superior for getting the R34. I can't cope with people who feel a need to be better than everyone else, your car doesn't make you superior. Now, I realize I'd be a hypocrite if I had added: " Unless it's an '84 Trans Am", especially since it's obviously not true. But it shows that I understand the desire.
Choosing the engine needs to be about efficiency. Every aspect of it. Power efficiency, efficient packaging, efficiency of wrenching on, power per dollar, power per pound, combustion efficiency, et cetera. That is superior to choosing based on what's easier, or any emotional consideration.

[crzyone]

I don't really hate you, but I dislike how you seem to come across as superior for getting the R34. I can't cope with people who feel a need to be better than everyone else, your car doesn't make you superior.

Ok, now you can get the fuck out of my thread. First namecalling and now you say I act superior? WTF? You don't know me and I don't assume to know you.

The "jdm power" tag is either from Shaun or Howard, not me. The avatar is just a funny one I found on the Internet. If that's superior to you, you need to find some self esteem.

[The Dark Side of Will]

I don't really hate you, but I dislike how you seem to come across as superior for getting the R34. I can't cope with people who feel a need to be better than everyone else, your car doesn't make you superior.

Everything else you said made sense except this.

I've owned FIeros for 13 years now, worked extensively on my 6000 AWD and worked with Alltrbo for two engine swaps in his 3rd Gen Camaros. The fact of the matter is that a lot of the foreign hardware is just flat out better than anything comparable that GM built.
I could go on at length explaining that, but until you work on the cars and see what they can do, you just won't understand it. Yes, BMW has its share of problems, does strange things sometimes and is unashamed of demanding expensive maintenance... but it's also a much higher caliber of hardware, design, engineering and tuning than anything GM built.
Nothing GM has built except the C5+ Corvette comes close to the level of performance oriented technology and engineering that Nissan put into the GTR from the R32 body onwards. Nothing.
If not being willing to put up with BS from bureaucratically handicapped design, shortchanged engineering and low quality materials makes me a snob, then so be it.

The reason I'm still in Fieros is that the mid-engine cars I really want cost a LOT more... e.g. NSX. The entire amount of money I've put into The Mule over the entire period I've owned it doesn't add up to just the purchase price of an NSX... and the Fiero's currently faster. However, if I *had* bought an NSX, I wouldn't be in the middle of a CLEAN SHEET REDESIGN of the ENTIRE rear suspension... because Honda got that right on the NSX and I don't have to mess with it. That's why I'm not bothering to make my Fiero a "nice" car. I could put money, time and effort into a custom interior, blinging paint, etc... but a nice Fiero is still not going to be as good a car as a ratty NSX.

You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. Compared to the best out there, the Fiero will always be a mediocre platform with mediocre engineering and mediocre materials. Everything GM built in the '80's and early '90's is the same way. The C5 Corvette and first gen CTS-V finally started to break out of that mold.

GM powertrains, on the other hand are excellent. They package high power and torque output in a compact, lightweight, inexpensive engine architecture produced in huge volumes. When paired with long-lived, durable transmissions, its no wonder that GM engines get swapped into all the superior chassis. The "Engine Conversions" section of Bimmerforums is about 75% LS1 swaps and about 25% all the BMW engine swaps combined. So in certain circumstances, the LS1 engine is the no-brainer choice.
My "bad idea BMW" build is not such a circumstance, but my dad's Datsun build is. The Fiero can go either way. I chose the Northstar and I think it's less work than the LS1 or SBC.

[crzyone]

It's a no brainer that the Japanese supercars from the 90s are pretty much superior to anything made in North America at the time (fiero going, better car aquired). At no point in time have I acted superior on the forum, and if I did, point it out.

There is only 1 reason I'm even on this forum anymore and it's because I have friends on here that I've known on the Fiero forums for the better part of 10 years.

[The Dark Side of Will]

I think we have a nice community here that's growing less and less Fiero-related as it evolves.

I drove an FD for a weekend, as I mentioned. I'm a big guy and the car was a pretty snug fit. I'd need to install a racing seat to sit low enough in it to actually own one, but it's better than the Countache and 308 I sat in. Maybe the FD I drove was rough, but the interior build quality wasn't great and it certainly wasn't wearing as well as my E34 is.

The chassis is phenomenal, though. I haven't driven a Z32 300ZX, but I understand they're similar, in both build quality and handling... albeit much heavier.

Of the '90's Japanese supercars, the MkIV Supras seem to have aged the best.

[crzyone]

The MKIV aged very well, and I think the R34 GTR did as well. Both look as badass today as when they came out. The FD still looks good, I've never had a car that could get me a date before this car. Girls love it, even ask to take pictures of it. If I didn't have a girlfriend...

[The Dark Side of Will]

Skyline question: What aftermarket torque split controllers are available?

For Bad Idea, I can use an adapter plate and the E30 T-Case, or I can snag an E34 T-case from Europe and bolt it right up. Both T-cases use a planetary center diff with fixed 35/65(ish) torque split. The E30 T-case has a viscous coupling that acts to control the speed difference between the front and rear outputs. The E34 T-case has an electronically controlled clutch that acts in the same way.

My understanding is that the Skyline is RWD until the T-case clutch transfers torque to the front shaft... IE *ALL* of the front axle power goes through the clutch.

Might anything from the GTR market be adaptible to control the clutch in the E34 T-case?

[crzyone]

The aftermarket TSC's just trick the G sensor and give it a constant output which fixes the amount of torque that goes to the front. The Skyline has a separate computer for the AWD system. The aftermarket controllers can only give you an on/off switch or a preset torque split.

Not sure how the BMW system works, but adapting a GTR awd system to it would be an interesting project. The computer controls the external T case pump which varies the pressure on the clutch. You are right, all the power to the front wheels goes through the T case clutch.

The G sensor in the skyline seems to work more on acceleration than turning which seems strange. In a neutral corner the front wheels won't engage much, but as soon as you add acceleration to a corner it puts more power to the front wheels. Good for corner exit.

When I raced my car last year with the amount of power it's making now it's pretty tail happy. Guys run the TSC dial in about 30% torque to the front at all times so the car is less tail happy. Unfortunatly when you do that you lose the variable torque to the front. No personal experience but I do have one sitting here ready to install as soon as my car is back on the road. I imagine initial turn in will have more understeer but you can get on the throttle earlier in the corner.

Here is the same controller I bought
http://www.ebay.com/itm/110738444569?ss ... 1423.l2649

[The Dark Side of Will]

Did you see this? http://www.ebay.com/itm/370555628939
Need a spare front drive assembly?

Anything's cooler when it says JDM... Alot...

I would have figured somebody like Greedy or AEM would have come up with the electronics and databussing to have a fully featured tunable torque split controller that would give the features of the stock unit, but be tunable.

Or does Nissan control the torque split via the ABS or traction control modules?

[crzyone]

The awd system does use the wheel speed sensors from the ABS system. Not sure how integrated the 2 systems are though.

The R34 has a 3.545 diff ratio compared to my 4.11 R32. The taller front and rear diffs from an R34 on my 32 might make 1st gear actually useable.

[The Dark Side of Will]

Holy cow... huge difference in gearing, the R34's a good bit heavier and it's *STILL* faster? And still has the same power rating? Lol...

[crzyone]

The R32 was limited in the size of wheels, tires and brakes because it was a homologated race car. First thing the R33 and 34 got was larger wheels, tires and Brembo brakes. Tire technology also got much better from 1989 to 1999.

The R32 was fastest in a straight line drag race, but the 33 and 34 have an even better ATTESA system than the R32. They also control the rear diff torque split unlike the R32.

Technology can make even a heavy car fast as hell around a race track (R35 GTR) 3800lbs.

This video shows that the Godly Mines R34 is no faster than tuned R35 GTRs with about the same amount of power. The new R35 is amazing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVfFI12Esng

One thing I did notice, Tarzan is really short shifting the R34. That car makes max HP at redline pretty much like any tuned RB26.

[crzyone]

Well, I think I'm going to stop dreaming of a V-8 GTR and just focus on making my car better. I read a story the other day and it made me remember why I love this car in the first place - The RB26DETT.



Full story here
http://www.motoiq.com/magazine_articles ... bnr32.aspx

[The Dark Side of Will]

Godzilla has bumpsteer? WTF?

[crzyone]

Only when lowered as much as they did. My RX7 is the same way. I have a bumpsteer correction kit for it though.

[Shaun41178(2)]

happy to hear you are sticking with the RB motor.

[The Dark Side of Will]

Only when lowered as much as they did. My RX7 is the same way. I have a bumpsteer correction kit for it though.

People say the AWD E30 has bump steer when lowered. They think that spacing the rack back up will help. I'm slowly bringing them to understand suspension.
No one's EVER pulled a bumpsteer curve on the car...
Not what I expected from BMW enthusiasts.