GTR's limits reached

[whiteballz]

The Haltech R35 GTR Skyline had a catastrophic blow up on Friday the 24th if October. Our GTR has been running on a new platform of Haltech engine management flawlessly for over 5000km's now.

The car was being track tested at Eastern Creek raceway
(Eastern Creek International Raceway - Australia) when the engine let go. The car had completed countless flat out laps with the engine producing 400kw at the wheels, up from 300kw at the wheels - The driver tells me it was a terrific ride!

After finishing Haltech's latest Flat shifting calibrations a few more test laps had to be carried out. With no sign of trouble the car went out and successfully completed 2 more laps before finishing up on the side of the track leaving a trail of oil and plume of smoke behind it.

It was time to put it in the trailer and go back to the workshop to pull it down. After building up enough courage our in-house mechanic
removed the VR38DETT from the car and set it up on the engine stand.
A few hours later the engine was fully stripped and the damage to the engine was clear - It appears Haltech have found the limits of Nissans new super car!
The engine had met its maker.

Piston #1 and #3 had separated from their lower halves right through the center of the gudgeon pin. As the Conrod's had no piston's to guide them up and down the bore they started smashing the bore, block, oil pump, sump and anything else that got in their way.

Due to the massive damage to the block we will need to replace it. And figure it's a great time to make the engine a little stronger. We will be boring the motor out and installing Darton sleeves, replacing the factory cast pistons with a study Forged unit as well as installing a set of Billet conrods. This should allow the engine to reliably produce
over 400Kw at the wheels and handle the pressure.

Posted in the forums on nissansilvia.com - from the owners of the haltech GTR (envy imports)

[coolieman1220]

needs an RB!

i hear VQ's like to blow while turboed if proper mods to block and rods etc. arn't done. hmmmm

[cmcpokey]

needs an RB!

i hear VQ's like to blow while turboed if proper mods to block and rods etc. arn't done. hmmmm

ive only heard that when they are taken to over 500+ hp...

[Roentgen]

Damn... any pics?

[whiteballz]

Damn... any pics?

@ Roentgen

unfortunately no.

I'll keep an eye on the thread and see if any photos pop up

i hear VQ's like to blow while turboed if proper mods to block and rods etc. arn't done. hmmmm

@ coolieman1220

VQ's can be pretty potent - If all the supporting mods are done correctly.
Theres a skyline GT (inifniti G35) in on the northern beaches with 900+hp and 1200Lbft - but the owner has spent more on the engine than most people do on the whole car.

[Bleeding Heart]

Well... all cars do have their limits...

[whiteballz]

Certianly so.

I'd like to see an engine that doesnt detonate at 400kilowatts at all four wheels with stock internals

Still, Should be interesting to see what it makes power wise with new internals..

[henk4]

Certianly so.

I'd like to see an engine that doesnt detonate at 400kilowatts at all four wheels with stock internals

Still, Should be interesting to see what it makes power wise with new internals..

and whether Nissan will take any action to further strengthen their stock engines...

[AERO_HDT]

Why should they?

Nissan aren't going to waste time developing a stronger block for the so-called "tuners" out there - it's wasted development money and only encourages shonky aftermarket builders and encourages people to put through warranty claims saying "the block was designed to withstand xxx amount of horsepower, it should be replaced".

The article claims that the driver had completed countless "flat out" laps.

How many laps exactly? And what sort of engine would stand up to that punishment save a purpose built race car?

[fpv_gtho]

I'd like to see an engine that doesnt detonate at 400kilowatts at all four wheels with stock internals

Does it have to be 4?

[LeonOfTheDead]

Why should they?

Nissan aren't going to waste time developing a stronger block for the so-called "tuners" out there - it's wasted development money and only encourages shonky aftermarket builders and encourages people to put through warranty claims saying "the block was designed to withstand xxx amount of horsepower, it should be replaced".

The article claims that the driver had completed countless "flat out" laps.

How many laps exactly? And what sort of engine would stand up to that punishment save a purpose built race car?

but that's exactly the point of the GT-R. it's a car basically "born to b tuned". it's one of the most famous cars among tuners drifters and so on. not that I like the trend or never enjoyed it, but it's one of the main market of the car, that's it.
considering that, they should improve the car as much as they can, or they could be hear people (not smart one, not the point) saying "the R34 was a better car, what the hell did Nissan do?" just because the older car was also easier to tune.

surely, we don't know if the car was not treated correctly, but this is not the first rumor about its not so intriguing reliability. it could be a part of the "let's-hate-the-GT-R-bandwagon", but it's still something Nissan should care about.

IIRC they was not so happy at the idea the tuners were going to take care of the R35 as they did with other Skylines in the past, and so Nissan installed that black-box thingy. I don't remember all the story, what I remember is that I thought Nissan was against tuning on their baby.
But, besides my previous considerations about the fact that this car is what tuners have always dreamed about, that could be seen as their fear, because whit all the mods made by the tuners the fact that the car was designed with a focus on the performance more than on the reliability was about to be "discovered".

just my usual thoughts about the GT-R.

[P4g4nite]

So basically, they've just boosted it, then ran it 'till it died?

[baddabang]

Zr1>gtr.

[teatako]

Why should they?

Nissan aren't going to waste time developing a stronger block for the so-called "tuners" out there - it's wasted development money and only encourages shonky aftermarket builders and encourages people to put through warranty claims saying "the block was designed to withstand xxx amount of horsepower, it should be replaced".

The article claims that the driver had completed countless "flat out" laps.

How many laps exactly? And what sort of engine would stand up to that punishment save a purpose built race car?

This man tells the truth and asks the right questions.

The fact that tuned Civics are like mothers (everyone has one) does not mean Civics should be made for tuners. Civics are what they are , whether people decide to tune or not. Same with the GT-R, which is seen by Nissan people as "my Sentra´s big brother", just like VAG freaks rave about the Veyron and see it as the ultimate proof that VAG pwnz0r, and makes their diesel Lupos z0mg teh secks by proxy.

[Matra et Alpine]

SOunds like the block is pretty damn pimpressive.
The description clearly statest the piston split at the gudgeon pin. With high revs the piston speed is high and the stresses at the change of direction are MASSIVE.
The power and the speed are pretty much meaningless ... what revs was it doing ?
Experience suggests that as they were "tuning" the flat shift then they woudl ahve been operating the engine at it's limits and they'd only been in for 2 laps. LOTS of possibilities and not one of them is a negative on the "engine" !!