VTA BOVs - pah! Begone with you (pair)

Another of those things the car had when I got it was a pair of Vent to Atmosphere (VTA) Blow off Valves (BOVs) and I don't really like them. There is the argument that on a car equipped with AFM there is always unmetered air going into the engine when you release the throttle. While this is maybe true the fact that these valves 'dump to atmosphere' when you shut the throttle means there is no fuel being injected either so it kinda isn't a problem. However that's not the issue i have with them. The issue I have with them is not only do they dump air when lifting off the throttle after being WOT, the darned things sound like they are dumping on part throttle as well almost to the point of leaking when not hard on the gas. Anyways, managed to find myself a pair of OEM BOVs complete with the mounting bracket so I figured not many moving parts, 30yo or not they should work. I did buy new rubber hoses for them ha, OEM from Japan no less. I forgot to get the top hose but mine was ok to re-use and saved a bit of faffing around with the top one.

So how does it feel and sound after the changeover. Wonderful, so far. Nice and quiet though you can still hear some intake roar when on the power but no phsssssssssst when driving part throttle, no PHSSST when lifting off under heavish throttle loads. It does actually feel slightly smoother on gear changes as well, feels like it doesn't stumble / pause like it did before as the recirc works and likely the OEM units shut faster and stay closed more than the HKS units. Try and give them a bit of clean and then see if anyone wants them

Front indicators

Been a long time since i added to this blog and a few things have been done. Let us start with last years light update

So yes one of the Nissan clear indicators has had a crack in it since before i bought it and while it's not like the car gets driven in the rain, or power washed to death it did look a big naff. I would have gone to the OEM amber but they are kerching if you find them and even the Figaro units (which Nissan used) aren't exactly common on the ground either. I did however find that many R33 owners have used crystal clear style front units which are available at a reasonable price and should match near enough the clear wing mounted units. So, first issue was getting the lights out which could have been a total nightmare but in fact the single fixing screw per indicator unit came out no bother on both side. Much happiness.

Below is the first choice i bought next to the cracked OEM unit

then I managed to source a pair of clear front from the Figaro

choices were middle OEM Nisssan Figaro (which is the source of these lights anyway) or go crystal clear with the amber being less noticeable until actually in use. Anyhow, I made a choice, tada

and then finally fitted back onto the car once i was happy the alignment was equalish on both sides. Looks nice enough I think and always the option to go back to the Nissan units should I want to.

I quite like the end result but you'll have to excuse all the white space in the post, it seems that is how google likes to do the formatting. Time to revists my long forgotten HTML coding skillz.........

GTR boot lid struts replacement

 so yeah the boot struts in the GTR were long past their best and quite frankly damned dangerous! The trip to Applecross confirmed i really needed to do something about it cause the lid one again tried to de-capitate me haha. So, the struts (all 30yrs of existence of them) had long cried enough and because the boot latch sticks proud of the bottom edge of the boot, when that lid comes down it's really gonna hurt if your head is still in the boot, getting the sleeping bag as it was in the this case.

Now Nissan in their infinite wisdom chose to fit closed socket joints on one end of the socket with a welded bracket at the other end to secure them to the lid. Why oh why they did this is likely another reason why as a company they are struggling to keep going. Anyhow, to replace these struts involved 2 options

• remove the two entire strut and boot lid attachments and send off to get new struts attached
• buy replacement struts and then cut off the old ones with a Dremel and hope the bracket supplied actually works

However a problem with many replacement units in that they are a touch shorter than OEM fitment with the result the boot lid doesn't open as far as OEM. Might not be a problem in real world but doesn't seem like a good starting point to limit how far the lid opens and risk smacking ones head into said boot lock latch. So after much searching and procrastination I found Up Garage USA and their full height strut replacements. They also had a handy video for getting the bottom socket off the car without resorting to a cutting disc. Far safer for sure, just use plenty of lube and take your time.... A lesson for life maybe heh heh?

Anyhow, I actually did this mid May just didn't post it. 

Boot lid opening

I also replaced the petrol flap spring as i was having to open the flap using the end of a credit card, again didn't post it at the time

Fuel flap release

Haven't done much else, I did try replacement clocks for the dash but they didn't work so back to the current ones. 

New tyres fitted - GTR

 so the march towards getting the GTR ready for spring / summer progresses, not at the quickest pace but better than last year that's for sure. As it still has the stock 9x17inch wheels i plumbed for 255x40 same as fitted by previous owner but Michelin PS4 tyres and all four corners replaced. I would have gone 245x45 as per spec to get a slightly higher rolling radius to help the front splitter but remembering the MR2 and it's 245x45 on a 9inch width, it just looked a bit stretched and with our potholed roads we need all the rim protection going. 255x40 just looks nice on the rim so there it is. Next stop, alignment then see it if still tracks a bit under braking.

It's a funny old world

 So I've been fighting with a stumbling mis-fire on the old Mustang and this has been going on for about a year now :(  First off I thought it dodgy petrol but two tanks of V-Power soon disproved that. I did run a code checker with the trusty Torque Pro Android app and no stored codes. Did the MAF clean, did sparkplug change as it was original ones in there from beginning. Spark plug intervals are 100k but really 5yrs in and you think yeah time for a change. Non of this fixed this issue...

So finally i had a look round and realised I could use Forscan for free if all i wanted to do was read stuff from the car and reset error codes. Got myself a cable and downloaded the windows progam and boom there was the fault P0024. Cam timing issue, bank 2 exhaust cam over advanced. Cue much messed around with Ford who did zero diagnostics but instead swapped the VCT solenoids about and said yeah that's it. Um no, it wasn't as the code was still there and i could hear and feel the same issue as before. So knowing how they'd basically done hee haw digging and allegedly swapped the solenoids but how could we know... went back to another trusted and very busy garage and I bought a replacement VCT solenoid (Ford OEM no less) and actually got it swapped out. Sadly this did not fix the issue. The next stage is terrifying.

This is changing the Cam phaser / sprocket but thats inside the head. To get to one phaser you have to 

• remove both valve covers
• loosen the sump
• remove the single piece timing cover
• remove the primary chain if not both primary chains
• remove the secondary chain for the bank you need
• remove the VCT solenoid for the cam you want
• remove the cam with the issue
• replace the phaser / sprocket
• re-assemble in reverse order

Now you can see straight away there is an issue. If you have to take the timing cover off and a primary chain possibly two depending how they are setup, you have all four phasers and all four VCT solenoids siting there looking at you. You have both Primary and Secondary timing chains sitting there looking at you. You have many chain guides sitting there on the floor after you removed them to get to the above. So yeah, as much as it hurts you do it right you do it once. All the timing gear is getting swapped out and new seals for timing and valve covers plus it'll require the coolant radiator being removed to get the extra space to work on this. Kerching... Oil change as well then eh since the sump has to get dropped.

GT-R news. Well it got all new belts, all new fluids, all new brake pads (disks were fine), wheel alignment done, couple of electrical things tidied up, OEM airbox fitted and then it's rained pretty much every day since! Oh, it got MOT'd as well. No issues.

Happy days.

er so I bought one lol

in its natural habit no ?

 yup I have gone and bought an R33 GTR, after the prices have already gone stupid and before they go really stupid (hopefully still upwards to get some cash back to me in the future). Car I'd always wanted after the MR2 but kept the MR2 for so long until it was rusted beyond repair (boot floor was rotten from wheel arches to the bumper) that I thought no more old 90's JDM for me and then full circle here I am. 

So why now? Well after my trip to Japan in 2020 for the Tokyo Auto Salon and going to the Daikoku Tokyo car meets, seeing all the JDM cars and tonnes of British / European and American cars as well, the R33 passion was relit and then the pandemic hit. But it has itched away at me since then and while I've nagged various mates about it I didn't really do anything about it til just before Christmas 2022 when i really started seriously looking at options. A few ups and downs later and here we are and I've only gone and done it. Did I need to do it, nope and certainly shouldn't have done it for many many reasons but you do only live once so er yeah why not!

So it's a Series 1, silver (obv) very basic mods of coilovers (too low and too stiff as the car skips over a series of bumps rather than ride them out) lovely Kakimoto exhaust that is not too loud and neighbour friendly ish and some daft HKS mushroom filters. Other than that, stock which is how it mostly will remain. Might update the mp3 CD head unit to a Sat Nav unit but that's a bit more awkward with the single DIN layout. Might just get a plug in Sat Nav display that does the Bluetooth for the phone / music as well. Choice choices.