Hello 6SpeedOnline!

Im a long time BMW owner and contributor over at bimmerpost, some of you may recognize my Santorini E92 M3, It got a few likes on instagram over the past couple years.

Anyway, I'm waiting for my '16 F80 M3 to be built and in the mean time I decided to indulge in a long time fantasy of mine which was to own a RHD JDM vehicle, I've always admired the Skyline GTR in all its forms so when I started seeing R32s come available through various importers I knew it was only a matter of time before I snagged one.

After speaking with several importers, I found a that there was a wide variety of interpretations of cars that were in 'Good' condition. I started familiarizing myself with the auction rating system and was looking for my 3.5-4 rated example without too many modifications. Everyone claimed they 'have a guy' in Japan but it seemed that 'guy' was just throwing up the card for them at the auction any time a skyline came on the block. The 'guy' snaps 5 pictures and puts the car in a container and it seemed every single one sold before it hit the port... To me, that business model was just too risky, I needed to have eyes on a car before I purchased it. I then came across Phase9Motorsports, they are Anaheim based but have an office in Japan where they hand select their vehicles from private sellers, not the autction-block like other importers. The result is pristine, well cared for examples, I believe they have a bone stock Gunmetal grey with only 30K miles and a genuine Nismo GTR currently available. I spoke with Franz and he quickly answered my myriad of nit-picky questions and quickly agreed to meet up with my friend to allow the car to be inspected. My friend said it was in excellent shape and had very well thought-out and high-end modifications. I'll be having it shipped to my house in Las Vegas this week. All-in-all my experience has been excellent dealing with Phase9 and I would recommend him to anyone who is considering purchasing a JDM classic!

So on to the car!

- Gunmetal Grey
- 40,322 Miles
- Gram Light Wheels w/new Bridgestone tires
- Tein Coilovers (not installed in pics)
- 60mm Garret Turbos
- Mines Turbo-back exhaust
- HKS Intakes
- Nismo Twin Plate Clutch
- Nismo front/rear Tower bars
- Nismo R_Brake pads
- Nismo Steel brake lines
- Greddy Turbo Gauge.











The plans:
- New head unit w/USB & BT
- Install Tein suspension
- Paint wheels pale gold
- Hide Greddy boost gauge wires
- Replace all window gasketing
- Remove and polish Mines Exhaust
- Boost controller
- Tune
- New steering wheel
- replace shift boots and ****
- Paint correction and polish

Stay tuned for updates!
Cheers,
-Curt

 

How to Register/Finance/Insure
For those of you that are wondering what you need to register and title a grey market car like a GTR:
- NHTSA Form HS-7 (DOT safety equipment waiver under 25 year rule)
- EPA 3520-1 (Emission exemption form)
- Manufacturers Certificate of Origin (confirming the build date and the car is in-fact 25 years old)
- CBP-7501 (DHS form confirming that the car is legal for sale in the U.S.) Most Important!
- Depending on your state, Vin inspection, standard registration form.

The NV DMV had a fact sheet that they referenced on Grey Market Vehicle registration, so be sure to ask your local DMV if they have such a resource, it will greatly expedite the process.

If you are thinking about getting a loan to cover the car, there are two roadblocks. Most banks will have no problem loaning to companies who have dealership license, however a lot of the importers are still working that out and while they have a legally registered business, they do not yet have their dealership credentials. So you will have to get the loan based upon a private sale. This was actually better for me because NV doesnt charge sales tax on private sale cars. The problem was banks typically will not loan to a private sale without a copy of the free and clear title, which none of these freshly imported cars typically have. So what I ended up doing was getting an unsecured personal loan at a higher interest rate, pushed the first payment due date out 60 days, and will secure the loan when the title is produced by listing my bank as the first lien holder at which time they will reduce the interest rate to a significantly lower percentage essentially revering it to the original auto loan APR.

Insurance:
Since most insurance companies will only see this car as a 25 y/o Nissan, you may have a hard time getting full coverage for what it is actually worth. The way around it is to find a company that has a collectors or rare/valuable clause that allows them to set the market value of the car. I was pleasantly surprised that for $25k coverage of the value of the car with the standard 300/100 and zero deductible, the car was only about $35 a month to insure.

 

Welcome to the GT-R fold. I just sold my R32 GT-R to my brother after about 2.5 years of ownership and it's currently enroute to him in the US.

I've heard "pristine" thrown around alot with these cars, and I haven't seen a single one that fits that description, but yours does look pretty nice. Check out and join up on skylineownersusa.com if you haven't already seen it. Lots of good people/info there and it's picking up with each passing month.

Alot of other Skyline owners will also tell you to keep a bit of cash on hand for when the car breaks (and it will break) particularly early on when you're feeling it out. My car was a nice car, but I spent a good chunk on maintenance and unforeseen repairs. Track days will accelerate that as well. Be very careful that you don't get zealous and overrev the car (above 8K) without verifying whether or not you've had the crank collar issue addressed.

Again, welcome to GT-R ownership. It's a blisteringly fun car.

 

Thanks man, yeah I plan on taking her to a local shop that does a lot of work on RB motors. I knew the oil pump was one issue, I did not know about the crank collar being a weak point, I'll be sure to have that addressed as well, thanks for letting me know. Are there any other common issues that I should watch out for?

 

It's actually not so much a pump problem as it is where the pump pinion meets the crank at the crank collar. Nissan machined the collar too small on the early RB26s which can cause the pump pinion to break at high RPM due to shock. I've known two people personally that have grenaded engines due to the issue, one at Tsukuba and the other on the highway. Japanese shops will tell you that if you keep the revs under 8K, you shouldn't have an issue. I wouldn't stray past 7.5 since that's about where power peak is in that car on OE cams. So alot of guys go all out and buy Reimax geared pumps like JUN or Tomei but don't really address the real problem. JUN makes a collar that can be machined onto the OE crank, but that requires crank removal (and all that goes with that), but most people will just go with a later (R33-R34) crank (and all that goes with that). Just be careful unless you know for sure it's been addressed.

Other sore points with this car:
-Your MAFs will eventually die out. It's an old car, and they weren't the most reliable pieces to start with. Z32 MAFs have been a good swap for a long while, but I just did R35 MAFs a few months ago and it was a big improvement.
-You'll have ignition issues. Coilpacks, plugs, igniter, CAS. It's all late 80's Nissan.
-Injectors will leak
-Check out your coolant and hose condition before driving it very far. I had one let go behind the engine last year and found all sorts of corroded piping when they all were changed.
-HICAS will give you issues. Most guys get a lock out bar or remove the system altogether. Gets complicated because it shares the power steering system.
-Interior electrical gremlins will abound. Window switches and locks.

Barring all that, it's actually a very impressive car when driven hard. I had alot of fun with mine. Due diligence with maintenance and condition goes a long way with these. Yours looks like a nice car, so hopefully it will be a good experience for you. Looking forward to updates.

 

Dude, all great info, thank you very much! I'll take a laundry list to my local shop and make sure they inspect/repair everything mentioned here.

 

Yeah no problem. The Skyline forums across Australia, NZ, UK and now the US have some great info especially since most of the other markets have had these since the very beginning.

I forgot to mention it since you shouldn't have this problem per your mods (but make sure), the ceramic turbine wheels in the OE turbochargers are well known to come apart when pushing over 1.0 bar of boost for very long. I have friends who have tuned at 1.1 on OE turbochargers, but that will not last long at all.

The transmission and OE clutch can sustain a surprising amount of power and torque from a roll, but launching the car at decent power levels can strip 3rd gear. Also, run good fluid in both gearbox and transfer case and be nice to your synchros. Those are pretty weak in these transmissions.

 

Thanks man,
I just ordered some Redline synthetic oil and transmission fluid, new NGK plugs, a new fuel and oil filter and new HKS filters for the intake system. What fluid do you recommend for the front and rear transfer cases and how many quarts do they hold?

 

I just changed all the gear fluids before I sent the car off, so that's funny that you asked. You have front and rear differentials, but you also have a transfer case for the ATTESA E-TS 4WD system that takes ATF. The Factory Service Manual is available in a lot of places, so go scope that out and download a copy.

In it, you'll find the transmission takes 4.3 quarts of a good GL-4 (I used Redline MT90). Some guys will use lightweight or heavyweight shockproof on problem gearboxes, but MT90 smoothed my cold shifting out really well, so I stuck with that. The transfer case takes 1.9 quarts of ATF (I used Redline D4 ATF), the front diff takes just over a quart of GL-5 and the rear diff takes 1.6 quarts of an LSD GL-5. I used Redline's 75w90 gear oil for both, and you may want to add a little of their LSD friction modifier to the rear. I've seen Japanese shops put much heavier fluid than recommended in the diffs, but I haven't seen much of a difference. The only tools you should really need are a 1/2" drive breaker bar or socket wrench, some teflon tape or sealant, and a motorized or hand pump for the fluid. I did it all in an hour or so. Pretty easy.

But don't take all that info at face value. Download the FSM and double check the numbers.

 

Copy-all, Sounds like I ordered the right stuff, I'll probably take it to a shop to have it all done at once along with the A/C conversion. Thanks for all your help!

Here is a pic after the Tein's were installed

Question, is there a standard spacer size that I could install on all four corners?

 

Yeah looks 10000X better with the coilovers. As far as standard spacer size, I'm not sure what you mean. What people usually run? Knowing your wheel specs (width and offset) would help out alot, but it looks like a good 10mm would fix you right up judging from the pictures. Just remember you're adding unsprung weight to an already heavy car.

 

Got her detailed today, the exterior is damn near flawless and the interior looks just as nice, very pleased!




List of things to do:
Redline Synthetic Oil Change
Transmission fluid flush and replaced with Redline fluid
NGK Spark Plugs
Oil and fuel filters
Differential and transfer case fluids
New eBrake and shift boots
New external window gaskets
Polish lip and restore paint on wheels
Remove CD changer headunit and replace with Pioneer Bluetooth/USB unit
Tune

 

thanks for this thread it's time to register mine and definitely will contact phase9 i picked up my 1990 r32 from Canada and drove it for a while using a dealer's plate i borrowed from a friend luckily she's already fully done (motor wise) with zero rust. All of the above maintenance were all done and currently getting a synchro assembly replaced by a local tranny shop (NJ) i was getting an intermittent grinding from 5th to 4th other than that she's a joy to drive. I went with 750 ID injectors, 370z mafs,and a Nistune and pretty happy with it kinda lift the whole car sensation on full boost 2nd to 3rd gear pull, no drag racing with this car just roll or road course racing is her prowess, and oh by the way the attention she gets is crazy! Happy motoring bro.

 

Very helpful thread - I've been thinking about doing this at some point as well.

 

Nice, I hope to add similar mods to mine. Be sure to post pics!