The Driftworks R32 Skyline - 1JZ-GTE.

Righto, this car's been around for a good long while now, I originally imported it late in 2004.
It's since seen a good bit of action, but also more than it's fair share of problems......
Here's a quick history of it:

 

Phil used the car last year and this was the car we did most of our coilover testing on, so the suspension setup is pretty spot on now. After a tweak here and there and it looked really solid at North Weald

But..... with as much drift abuse as it saw we highlighted a definite weak point in the link and we all saw far too much of this kind of thing

 

so we summed up the options for the engine and after seeing the performance and strength of Bon's chaser over 2007, there was an obvious contender in Toyota's 1JZ-GTE engine with an R154 gearbox





It's the engine Toyota made to compete directly with Nissan's RB and in it's standard form, it's a lot stronger in many ways.

A standard 1JZ-GTE engine won't cope with massive power, but it should be totally happy with sub 500bhp and if anything goes wrong, it's £350 for a readily available replacement engine rather than thousands for a time consuming rebuild on a 500bhp capable RB.

So I've been gathering and hoarding bits for some time now (cheers to Doz for the engine ) but I've been struggling to find the time to do anything about it with the S15 being the top priority.....

 

We'd been talking to Dave Walbrin of 'Dave and Julie' fame recently as he's just 1JZ converted his own R32 Skyline and was very happy with the results. I mentioned how we were struggling to make progress with it and he offered to pay a visit to Driftworks HQ and lend a hand

So last weekend, the Datsan Modifications crew of Dave, Julie and Dan came up to Brum and after fuelling up on as much cooked breakfast as we could stuff in, they set about the car.



prepping the sump


onto the engine


all happy


New set of 800cc injectors


R154 box with the manual 1JZ bellhousing fitted




Nearly ready to drop in




Just some quick mods to the sump to give us a bit more clearance


And in she drops

 

Getting it all straight


quick cuppa


Sitting pretty


But the turbo's pointing into the turret


so off with the housing


and a scary bit of chopsawing




That should do nicely


Similar treatment to the coolant pipe

 

So that's pretty much where I'm up to now. There's a fair few jobs left to do, but this big push has broken the back of it and definitely renewed my enthusiasm for the car. It's going to be awesome

So a MASSIVE thanks to the Datsan Modifications crew, Dave, Julie and Dan for giving up their time to help out I was amazed how quickly they got the job done and the quality of their work is spot on Their help has made a huge difference to whether this project was practical or possible given how much else we've got going on at the moment and I really really appreciate it

If anyone needs any similar conversion work doing, it'd be well worth giving them a shout on datsanmods@live.co.uk

Also a big thankyou to Mr Steevo for knocking me up some funky engine mounts. They saved a good few hours work for sure and are a spot on fit

And thanks to Mr Ant as always for always producing the right part or suggestion in times of need and also for using the welder on number 6 so nothing will ever break

I'll keep updating this thread with details of the progress over the next few weeks.

Exciting stuff

 

Basically both
when I compared the cost of getting the RB25 repaired and updated so it wouldn't happen again, with new pistons etc to the cost of selling it all off second hand and getting all the bits for a 1JZ install, it worked out £1000 cheaper

But also, whilst a stock 1JZ engine might not be quite as strong as a fully built RB with forged everything, it's not as far behind as you might think. Metal head gasket as standard, stronger rods and pistons and such etc etc. Bon's proved the strength and reliability last year running 550bhp on a totally standard engine.

If a well built RB gives up, it's expensive and time consuming to sort. If a standard 1JZ gives up, you can have it back up and running within a couple of days for around £350.

Plus the 1JZ sounds AWESOME

 

£350 seems to be about the going rate for a standard engine with no turbos, gearbox or ancilleries. Obviously the conversion will cost a lot more than that, but once it's done, that £350 should be the worst case scenario to get back up and running if I have engine problems in future