33 & 34 Happenings… Pt. 1

First blog post of 2020 and my first technical (but not thatttt technical) post! I always thought the blog would be a good way of tracking any work on the car but I never thought I had done anything that exciting (or anyone else would find interesting at least). However, recently there have been a few things I thought I would share, so read on!

Late last year I took the R34 to Cars & Coffee and through the hills as I was travelling over a particular ridge I noticed a slight hesitation… I wasn’t sure though. Anyway, if I had any doubts the next drive proved it for me – misfiring, lack of power, etc. Anyway the car was relegated to the garage, fortunately the R33 was still fine, or so I thought! A drive through the hills with friends revealed exactly the same symptoms! How would you be…. when it rains it pours I guess. Having experienced similar behaviour many years ago in the 33 I had a fair idea what I was in for…

My initial thought were the coilpacks were shot…

However, the R33 has Splitfire coil packs in it as I had the same symptoms many, many years ago and ended up replacing the stock ones. This picture is taken after I fixed the issues, I will explain why later but you might spot something that gives it away….

I pulled them out of both cars for further inspection.

Whilst I was at it I thought time to change the spark plugs….

Good thing I did as they immediately raised my suspicions….!

For anyone that is interested I changed the plugs on both cars, for the 34 I used PFR6A-11 and the 33 I used BCPR6E, both NGK brand. I have used the brand before and haven’t had any issues so was happy to use them again. For the 34 I used the stock spark plug (platinum) so therefore standard heat rating, spark plug gap, etc. with the minimal modifications on my car I don’t need to run anything cooler. As for the 33 I slightly changed what I had previously, so that I didn’t have to gap the plugs down from 1.1mm to approximately 0.8mm I bought them already gapped to 0.8mm. After having to gap down the last pair I had ( BCPR6E -11 the -11 at the end referring to the gap size) I did not want to do it myself! Due ot the extra mods on the car I run a smaller gap. They are a copper plug, poor 33 not getting platinum I know… : ‘ ( I could go on about what the different letters in the spark plug name refer to but I am sure Google will explain it much better than I could.

Spark plugs… copper for the R33 on the left and platinum for the R34 on the right.

When I was taking the old wiring loom off the coils on the R33 I noticed it was quite frail (& I also snapped two of the clips) I had decided it was time to show it some love anyway so I got a new loom for it! The old loom is on top, new on the bottom. Ignore the blurry photo…

I went with a Platinum Racing Product, the quality was great and it all clipped in very neatly. You can see it fitted in one of the earlier photos I alluded to… I did notice it was slightly shorter, which tucked it in well but made it harder to clip in at the end.

Time to put it all back together! Yes, I cleaned it all up while it was off!

So by this stage both cars were back together with new plugs and sure enough voila! The misfire was gone, to say I was happy was an understatement! However, that was not the end! I took the R33 off to my mechanic (Glynde Garage) for a regular service, they called me up and asked if I had been experiencing misfires, lack of power, all the symptoms I had fixed when I changed the spark plugs! I said yes but that I had fixed it… turns out when the car was up on the hoist they noticed a slight hole in the intercooler piping! I drove the car after swapping the spark plugs and to me it felt back to normal, so unsure whether the hole was causing noticeable issues at this stage. Regardless, it needed to be fixed – so it was fixed up and the car came back driving well again.

Where the hole was! Thanks to Glynde Garage for the pic. On 33 GTS-Ts there isn’t the factory hole for a front mount intercooler, unlike GTRs, so I think the piping rubbed on the hole I added many years ago. It is one thing that bugs me and I would like to tidy up (obviously we fixed it up as we could right now but I think there is a better way!)

Over Christmas, whilst surfing Facebook Marketplace (dangerous I know), I picked up this factory 300kmp/h odometer, can’t say I have seen many of these! The current one is having issues showing RPMs and since having the 300kmp/h version in the R34 I have thought I would like similar in the R33! This is not fitted as I will need to get the KMs matched, etc. but it is not my number one priority at the moment.

That takes care of the 33 for the moment, I have a few more updates but I will save them for the another post (same as the 34) as I am having a few technology issues so I will have to post again. Before I finish up though I have a few more little changes to share regarding the 34:

A frustrating experience with a shop who didn’t take the care car enthusiasts would like, meant I had to touch up my wheels. Clearly an incorrect socket was used that scratched the wheels…

However, in much more positive news I fitted my oil cap that I got at Omori Factory!

I was never a huge fan of them but I must admit since fitting it I have really come to love it, no doubt the throwback to visiting Omori help! Isn’t it great how little memories like that (& parts) help create the story of a car!

I have some more updates to come, like I said technology is not my friend at the moment so look out for part 2 soon!

On that note check back soon as I already have quite a large technical type update for part 2! Thanks.