# Thanwa's R33 GT-R



## Thanwa (Mar 21, 2020)

Hi GTR forum users,
I've been a Skyline owner for two years now and have not started my own thread!
You can find me on Instagram for more regular updates: @Thanwa95

*Current Spec List as of 03/02/2022:
Engine Spec*:
2.6 ENGINE RB26DETT - Stock Bottom End
Abbey Motorsport modified head, rebuilt, lightly skimmed, Oil bypass modification
HKS 1.2mm Metal Headgasket
G4 Link ECU - mapped on 99 @ 512-533bhp
Twin Garrett Turbos GT2860-5s
NZ Cam Trigger kit
HKS/Denso 600cc injectors
HKS Hard Pipe Kit
Exedy Ceramic twin plate clutch
Hard Pipe MAF Delete
Blitz SUS Power Air filters
Blitz twin blow off valve
Splitfire Coilpacks
HKS Hi-Power 409 cat-back exhaust
HKS Stainless Steel Downpipe
Nismo Intercooler
Nismo engine oil cap
HKS high pressure radiator cap (1.1 bar)
Mishimoto aluminium radiator
GKTech high performance cooling fan
Garage D aluminium cooling slam panel (ARC replica)

*Exterior:*
(approx 2012/2014) full respray of original QAB Nissan Pearl White done in Japan.
R33 GTR NISMO 400R front bumper
Greddy FRP front lip/spoiler
R33 GTR N1 front vents
R33 GTR NISMO intercooler air guide
R33 GTR NISMO 400R sideskirts
R33 GTR NISMO 400R rear bumper
R33 GTR NISMO 400R rear boot spoiler
R33 GTR bonnet lip
NISMO door handle guards

*Additional Factory Options:*
OEM Window Tints
OEM Sill Covers
Drivers Knee Pads
Rear Wiper

*Drivetrain and Suspension:*
OEM 5 SPEED GEARBOX
Powerflex Polybush Gearbox Mount
HEL Stainless Braided Clutch Hose
TEIN Flex Z Coilovers
DRIFTWORKS Rear HICAS delete
OEM Brembo Callipers
Goodridge Stainless Braided Brake Lines
EBC Yellow Stuff Pads
MTEC Dotted & Grooved Discs
18″ Volk Racing Rays TE37 Forged Alloy Wheels (10.5j ET+15 all round - 265/35/R18)

*INTERIOR & ELECTRONICS*:
APEXI Boost Gauge
NISMO 320KM Clock/Speedo
NISMO factory triple cluster clocks
NISMO Steering Wheel
Razo Pedals
Custom Leather gaiters
OEM GTR Seats
OEM GTR Carpet
Footwell RGB LEDs
Fire Extinguisher

*Sound system:*
Alpine CDE-205 Headunit
2x Kenwood KFC-XS174S 6.5” Fibreglass Cone front door woofers
2x Kenwood KFC-ST1004 door super tweeters (front)
2x Kenwood KFC-ST7 door super tweeters (mid)
2x Kenwood KFC-ST30 front roof tweeters
2x Kenwood KSC-Z990 rear parcel shelf speaker set (pair of tweeters, mid range and woofer) - this set was refurbished by me using a papercone.
*All tweeters are ran using a capacitor or crossover matching their rated frequencies.
[TEMPORARY] 1x Toxic 2000w 4 Channel amplifier (will replace with Kenwood X-Series amplifier but undecided on 4/5/6 channel etc)

_planned for the future_ Custom subwoofer boot build using:
2x Kenwood KFC-WPS1202D
2x Kenwood X502-1 Class D Mono Amplifier

*Thread Log Beginning: *
I have kept everything I've done documented from the very beginning since I owned the car, so I am gonna update starting from Wednesday the 5th February 2020 which is the date I bought this car.
















You can see here I still had my Toyota MR2 MK2 as my daily where I bought this R33 GTR with the intention of being the weekend car.









However... due to COVID lockdown at the time and cheaper fuel prices... I ended up driving it to work daily for almost 3 months haha.
The car however, started to misfire, straight after servicing it actually... Swapped out the spark plugs and found that did nothing. Ended up taking it to Abbey Motorsport who figured out it was my ignition booster causing one coil pack to misfire... Ordered a second hand one and swapped it out


























Country test drive after changing the ignition booster for a second hand one.. turned out the car was running extremely rich and over-fuelling. Spitting flames despite having a catalytic converter still.. It also likes to flood itself if you leave it to cool down a little so you have to start it on full throttle... Personal diagnostics put it down to it being mapped on a bad fuel filter. So rebooked with Abbey Motorsport for a remap.


















Whilst waiting for the remap, I decided to paint the grill I was given by the previous owner and stick a brand new GTR badge on it to replace the tired, damaged old grill which didn't have a badge holder on it and the badge was also faded. For a rattle can DIY job I thought it came out very nicely!

























Full inspection and remap day. Very pleased on the underside condition of my Skyline as well as having over 160psi compression in all cylinders!









It made 452hp (high boost) and 401hp in l(ow boost) at the hubs. High boost has a power dip where abbey advised it was due to CAS scattering and that a cam trigger kit was advised as the solution.









With the car all prepped and lockdown lifted. I decided to put part worn Toyo Proxies R888Rs on and go to the Nürburgring!

















Turns out the car's oil gets too hot... 135c just over half a lap in... therefore G4 Link limits the power and I have to slow down and keep revs low.. still managed to achieve a lap time of 8 minutes despite holding back on straights! I have plans to go back with an oil cooler as well as all my suspension bushings refreshed in the future and see what time I can achieve!









Before I head back, decided to go on a mini road trip! This is a photo of my Skyline on a random road in Nurburg!









When I came back, decided to give it a service as I covered around 3-4k km since the last service as well as I only just covered 1400 miles in just 4 days!

















JDM vs the World meet at GoJapan/TunerFest at Brands Hatch - Sunday 13th September 2020 just before they imposed more restrictions. The last car show of the year!









Had another photoshoot in Stratford, London.


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## Thanwa (Mar 21, 2020)

CONTINUED:
















Made a proper service history folder using badges and stickers off Aliexpress! See some photos of how the car used to look like back when it was in Japan before it was imported!









My new and used Kenwood speakers imported from Japan arrived!

















Dismantled the speaker to recone the broken one and paint the covers!









The paint job came out better than expected with another rattle can job!









Test fit on the rear parcel shelf came out very nice!










Something to keep me extremely busy over the winter!









Acoustic Wave on the door card, Skinz Pro Black on the door, Vibe's speaker baffle for the speaker housing. Awaiting for more money for my front component speakers! Temporarily got Hertz's Energy 6.5"s in.










Saw this on sale at the JDM Garage's eBay store so bought it and fitted it!









These expensive JDM bad boys arrived as a birthday treat to myself!









Tweeter mounted on the door card!









Kenwood's top of the range speaker fitted!

















To end off 2020, I finished the year with a boot restoration!









First job of 2021! Fitted a temp Clarion 10 inch subwoofer (until I can afford my custom boot build) and some Skinz sound deadening to the boot floor!









Prep for the MOT since Nürburgring has 100% ruined my brake discs! As well as some Pirelli part worn tyres as the R888Rs were completely bald!









Random buy just to tidy up the engine bay a little.









SO, there was a couple of months where I didn't do much to the skyline except for the odd bit of sound deadening... 
I was busy prepping the MR2 for sale, attended my first Strictly Skyline meet and I finally sold my MR2 the next day to fund more things to service/upgrade on the Skyline!!









You can see my splitter got defeated and deflected by the wind here in this photo LOL.


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## Thanwa (Mar 21, 2020)

Bought another one for £100, Greddy one second hand (but unused and unpainted)

















With the amount of driving I've done decided to wash the entire underneath! also adjusted the height of the car, 10mm up on front 15mm up on the rear. Mainly to avoid ruining yet another splitter! (I've regularly wash underneath just not as thorough as this one time)









A bunch of stuff was removed all for cleaning! all intake side pipes were to be drenched in brake cleaner and rinsed in the kitchen sink! some pipes replaced with silicone ones!









Pipes refitted, Dynaliner fitted, splitter fitted to front bumper, cracks reinforced.









new hardware as well!









Subtle decorations as well.









Braided Clutch Hose fitted as well during clutch / brake fluid flush.
















On the next to do list, however I went on a spring road trip with a friend of mine, after I dropped her home... I had an unfortunate cloud of white smoke come out my rear exhaust... my mind: head gasket failure...









I waited for the car to cooldown and fill up coolant in order to get it home. (I don't have breakdown recovery.... + it was 3am... so couldn't call any friends)









Some more Japan Goodies arrived

























Anyways, I have booked and sent the car to Abbey Motorsport to sort out officially as my HKS twin plate clutch was also slipping at the time on the way home...



















Bought 1x of this off eBay after trying to hunt a high end Kenwood subwoofer for months. Later on a couple of months later, I found 2x more for sale of the same subwoofer... However the seller did not want to split it or sell me one... So I now have 3x of theses Kenwood WPS monster 12 inch subs. (I will be keeping one as a spare for if one dies since they seem hard to get)










I get my car back!









New HKS front pipe to replace worn Nismo one.


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## Thanwa (Mar 21, 2020)

New Yokohama AD08s fitted all round and went to Japfest!!









Engine bay looking smarter. only need to paint the cam covers... (ignore the watermarks on the radiator ruining the photo) - Note: you can see i got the NZ Cam Trigger kit fitted finally to sort out that issue mentioned last year.









To cut my losses, I sold majority of the old parts removed from the car as well as some spares I had for the Skyline. Anyways, I've downloaded and printed the entire RB engine manual for the R33s, put them into sleeves and a folder for future use/reference. 










JDM vs the World at Brands Hatch again! September 2021 photo!










A little something for the house.










Bonnet pins swapped out for Stainless Steel ones.










Extensive research done on the history of my Skyline! To the exact garage where it used to be serviced at in Japan - Grand Slam GT-R Rubber Soul (now known as Jenesis) in Osaka, Japan!

















New goodies! finally bought the oil cooler too....

















Sooo I lost another splitter earlier on the year again.. not long after getting the head gasket sorted.. So this time instead of repairing it myself, I sent it to be professionally repaired and sprayed. I was very pleased with the outcome!


















Replaced the heater matrix as it was blocked!!! This explains why my head gasket might have failed or at least contributed to it's premature death! Since it was summer, didn't notice the heating wasn't working properly... as it got colder. there was no hot air coming at all... only when stuck in traffic for a very long time it did!










Thankfully all accessable from the footwell. You can see the new Matrix inside there in this photo looking fresh!










Took it back to Abbey Motorsport for an aircon regas as well as a remap to run slightly more boost on high. as well as lean down my low boost.

















Car now makes a staggering 435hp at the hub in low boost (1 bar) however, due to 600cc injectors reaching over 90% duty cycle, my high boost was limited to a 1.4 bar taper down to 1.3 bar at the higher RPMs so it only made 457hp at the hub. There is a huge significant difference in low down drivability as well as it makes 399ft pounds of torque at the hubs now in the high boost!









Finally got around sound deadening and proofing the roof!









Welcome 2022! Started the year with an oil change (I've seem to have managed to do 10k miles (16k km) across these two years and have done 4 oil changes... )


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## MS33 (Jun 27, 2007)

Most of the photo's are missing 😕


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## Thanwa (Mar 21, 2020)

MS33 said:


> Most of the photo's are missing 😕


I've redone all the photos which were broken via IMGUR links so they shouldn't disappear now!
Thanks for letting me know, to everyone else; if one of these images go missing again please let me know


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## Red Duke (Jan 10, 2005)

Brilliant thread! Love the GTR and the service folder idea is brilliant, I've got so many receipts and bits all over the place, having something like that (more likely 3 or 4... 😂) going to nick that idea. 👍

How's the roof deadening? Our builds are pretty similar, I've done my doors and door cards too, didn't do the roof as I wanted to get the interior back in the car!


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## Thanwa (Mar 21, 2020)

Red Duke said:


> Brilliant thread! Love the GTR and the service folder idea is brilliant, I've got so many receipts and bits all over the place, having something like that (more likely 3 or 4... 😂) going to nick that idea. 👍
> 
> How's the roof deadening? Our builds are pretty similar, I've done my doors and door cards too, didn't do the roof as I wanted to get the interior back in the car!


Glad you liked it! Thank you 
Aha, I stole the idea myself off someone who did the same for a MK2 MX5 that I went to view and decided not to buy it lol.
It just looks more professional and presentable too! Also makes it easier for you to count what sort of fortune you spent on the car 🙈

As for the roof deadening. It didn’t make much difference to my HKS exhaust as its not a droney exhaust to begin with however it’s improved the subwoofer’s bass tones. Made the tone more tighter. Thats the most noticeable thing about doing the roof. As for road noises, there is a minor improvement. But its not near as noticeable as when I did the door and door cards.
I used XFire Xmat which is basically an all in one, deadening with closed cell foam on top. I may have gotten better results if I used my Skinz + thicker closed cell foam but it’s probably better I didn’t because I struggled to fit the roof liner back on and the Xfire stuff isn’t even thick 😂😅

I’ve done a lot more deadening which I haven’t photographed, basically the entire car except for the firewall and footwells is covered. 
Theres more acoustic and closed cell foam on my interior trim pieces and pillars as well.


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## Red Duke (Jan 10, 2005)

Haha yes that's what put me off doing the roof 😂 I've done all the other panels and floor too, Acoustic Solutions heavy stuff (looks like padded metal 🤔) and then dodomat on top of that. Cleaned the interior carpet, etc. I had a Kenwood under seat sub which was enough for me, scrapped it after changing to a double din Android unit and it stopped working. You couldn't hear a lot over the Kakimoto exhaust anyway, lol. 😵


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## Alex C (Aug 10, 2005)

Good thread, lovely car.

I did some sound deadening also but barely notice the difference 🤨


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## Thanwa (Mar 21, 2020)

Alex C said:


> Good thread, lovely car.
> 
> I did some sound deadening also but barely notice the difference 🤨


Thanks! 

yeah I find theres more benefits on deadening on a car which has a bad exhaust drone, but more refined ones which doesn’t have that dirty tone it doesn’t cancel out that noise / reverb in the cabin. 
Music is where its most noticeable. Depends on the speaker setup of course.


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## G-Zilla (Jul 15, 2017)

Great work man! You have a lot of patience to be making a folder (cool folder by the way) and documenting everything done to it. Looks like you will be enjoying the car for a while!


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## Thanwa (Mar 21, 2020)

So I haven't done much since last time, just been mainly driving the car and going to meets with it. However, I've covered cira 2000km since last update so I got enough content to do a bulk update.









Towards the end of the JDM vs the World Ace Cafe Meet in March. a group of friends came with me to do some professional photography shots in Central London. Mainly with a film Camera.
Compare the differences between iPhone XS Max (Above) and an old school professional film camera.








Although the quality isn't as clear as a modern digital camera, you can see the atmosphere and vibe the image gives is completely different.
















HKS Circle Earth Grounding Kit fitted. My alternator seems to sit around 13.2-13.5 volts once warmed up. I've only ever seen it at 13.9-14 volts at start up. Also there was alternator wine coming from my speakers so I was ensuring everything had a good connection. (Ignore dirty ish engine bay, I tried to clean it lol) 















I was being a little too optimistic that some ground cables were going to fix my issue so I also gave the battery cable a massive upgrade as well... I have plans to eventually complete "The Big 3" upgrade for my Skyline with 0AWG OFC cables to support my future subwoofer boot build and ensure all electronics are getting stable power. 
I ended up getting a Ground Loop Isolator for my rear RCA cables and that actually fixed my issue 😅😂









Had to add this sticker prior to Japfest. This was the day I became a Instagram Girl haha. 









Also, when I bought the car, on the drive home, one of these on the left side of my spoiler came off.... So unfortunately they don't sell singles... so I had to buy a new pair just to freshen it up for Japfest! 









Had an insane Strictly Skyline convoy to Japfest! Absolutely amazing day! 









So the next day I attended the JDM vs the World - Ace Cafe meet (day after Japfest) and we found some fluid leaking... Originally thought it was a coolant leak however.. thankfully it was just screenwash... I couldn't find the black rubber seals online and didn't want to go and buy an aftermarket bottle and adapt it to fit.. SO I just used some silicone gasket maker and put that on with the rubber O ring seal. Let it set overnight and there has been thankfully no leaks since! 









So after 2000 KM since the basic oil change. It is time to do everything! All the other oils / fluids was done in October 2020 already circa 10k KM ago. Some might say early change but this Skyline isn't driven like a garage queen is... So I'm just trying to ensure the maintenance is all up to scratch and keeping it good to drive! 
















Brake and Clutch Fluid flushed and replaced with DOT 5.1, the fluid is not as dirty as it looks in the photo. However, the clutch fluid looks like its been cooking... so hopefully 5.1's higher boiling point will help with that. 









This oil is excessively cheap... which is why I can afford to do these frequent changes. I've had it sent to an oil testing lab and yes it has all the additives you need for it to be safe. I've also seen MANNOL products on the shelf in Germany when I went to the Nürburgring. I also collected an oil sample to be sent for analysis. 









Just cut open the HKS filter to show you how decent the filtration is as well as how the magnet works. Certainly a good filter to have! (its covered circa 7500km.. so twice its hard driven recommended hence why it looks a little dirty)









My old Shockproof wasn't even dirty but I decided to fill it up + a MANNOL gearbox additive this time and it did some magic! My gear 1-2-3 is smooth like butter now though it hasn't cured my gear 4 synchro of course. But certainly worth doing! Highly rate Redline for sure.
I might try Heavyweight Shockproof next time and see if that does any magic for my 4th gear. 

I don't have a photo doing these two: 
Coolant, was drained and flushed then filled up again with the Lucas Super Coolant additive. I don't think I've bled this properly so will need to go back and do it again.

Transfer Case, I've decided to go with Dextron VI ATF over Dextron III after lots of reading. The old Dextron III came out relatively clean so I do question was there any point in the early change. 

I couldn't be bothered to do the front and rear differentials at the time as it was coming to 9PM... so that is all thats left to do.


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## Thanwa (Mar 21, 2020)

At JDM vs the World's Monthly Ace Cafe (May's one) meet. Three Skylines lined up at the front!









Made a boot floor replica using my bent, dirty and old OEM one. Unfortunately I didn't see the Plywood until several weeks later after I already made it out of OSB/3...









Wrapped in white faux leather










Front Side lined up well, the crease marks disappeared overtime so it doesn't look as bad as in this photo! 









Attended GT Tuners Club's event and parked next to the Kream Developments GT-R. 









Continued the boot build, managed to make a fake wall for my new Kenwood X302-4 Amplifier! 









Drilled holes for the wires which is why I regretted picking OSB/3 as the material, Plywood would have been a much better candidate. 
Fat 0 AWG wires overkill for the amplifier but purpose of the build is to show off the wires and make it look clean. Also future proofs my build in case I change my mind with the Kenwood and decide to go over 1000 RMS. 


















Boot prepped for around 1.25-1.3CU of Air Space per side / box. I absolutely despise fibreglass due to this experience and massively wish i either cut perfectly cut MDF boxes or paid someone to do this instead LOL! 










I seem to have a Kenwood WPS1202D addiction going on! Though I will admittedly only confirm that one works perfectly. Two of them, their cones ripped apart during a test trial in a ported box I had temporarily in my Skyline. It kicks so hard with two of them in there! (whilst they were working) - and the last one I bought as untested so not sure if it works atm. 









*I had a professional photoshoot in between this and the subwoofer boxes which I will post separately as the photos came out very very good!* 
I will include the photographer's details and everything else in the over post. 









The boxes didn't want to cooperate so I had to use a very heavy duty tool to remove it out of the mould... 









How it looks with the MDF ring and Sub.









Hot Glue Gun and ready for more fibreglass! 









Finally the correct size rear view mirror came up at a good second hand price... so I can fit my Nismo Carbon Mirror Cover on it!









Why did Nissan make two different size mirrors for the R32, R33 and R34 but retain the sale mounting style? I have no idea... 









Cheeky coolant bleed during work hours. 









Skinz sound deadening inside the box + un photographed 6mm closed cell foam liner. 










Used an old t-shirt as the fibreglass base for the rest of the box.


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## Thanwa (Mar 21, 2020)

Forgot to add this image earlier due to the 20 limit photo rule per post. But heres the pictures of the rings getting made!









Some of you may notice in my photo with the Kream Developments GT-R, my front bonnet lip was missing... so I repaired some broken mounts on it using hot glue gun, metal epoxy and fibreglass!









Only could do 3/5 since the other two bolts snapped during removal... 









Fitted all ready for Tunerfest! 

Unfortunately, I have ran out of Google Image storage space so I will have to cut the post short here and will update once I have completed the boot build + over works on my Skyline! 
For the time being, I will share some pictures from my professional photoshoot!


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## Thanwa (Mar 21, 2020)

For quality purposes I have uploaded this directly to GTR site rather than IMGUR.

I now present to you guys Chapman Cheng's works. Photoshoot was taken primarily in Canary Wharf, London area.
Owners:
R33 GT-R: @thanwa95
EVO IX: @evoixkev
Photographer: @chapman.cheng
Camera: Canon EOS 6D Mark II

📸DSLR EDITION📸
Nissan Skyline R33 GT-R vs Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX!
C1 Loop Wangan Battle.








📸Front Shot📸









📸Rear Shot📸









📸SIDE SHOT📸
Skyline photoshoot at Millwall, Canary Wharf’s lights.









📸REAR SHOT📸









📸NFS UG3 SHOT📸
Welcome to Bayview, Need for Speed Underground 3









📸CHINATOWN SHOT📸
The Evo and Skyline meet again at Chinatown Gate, parked in their natural habitat.

Also Big Flame during the Tunnel Run Photoshoot! 
<iframe width="431" height="767" src="



" title="Big Flame - Nissan Skyline R33 GT-R - Full HKS Exhaust System" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

The photographer also did shots in traditional film and will be posted on a later date!


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## Thanwa (Mar 21, 2020)

📸FILM EDITION📸
PART TWO
Owners:
R33 GT-R: @thanwa95
EVO IX: @evoixkev
Photographer: @chapman.cheng
Camera: Nikon F65-Kodax Portra Film 









📸CHINATOWN SHOOT📸









📸CANARY WHARF SHOOT📸









📸C1 LOOP SHOOT📸


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## Thanwa (Mar 21, 2020)

Due to my google drive space issues, I have a big bulk update to post in the next coming month. I just need to finish off the second subwoofer box and tidy up some of the bodykit before I post another bulk update. 

In the meantime, I have cropped a very rare footage out of my storage drives and I present to you... My R33 GT-R on the Nurburgring [30th of August 2020]


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