My GT-R buying experience

[Wildtraveler]

I paid $2200 for them.

[Wildtraveler]

Well the car is about back together. I was putting the DP back on. I bought the tomei outlet pipe which has SS studs and these flat SS nuts which I would never use. So I used the old nuts and well the nuts and the SS studs don't mix. I seized 3 and had to pull the studs out and one came off. None of them were crossed and I was able to get 2 off holding the stud with vice grips. So I bought some new studs and nuts today. I don't know if it was dumb luck or not with the 2 materials not liking each other but yeah. Plus the seemed very soft. Anyway it will be up and going today and hopefully to the dyno in the next 2 weeks.

[Wildtraveler]

Well it runs...

I have a miss between 1100-3200. I am going to look at all of the crap every one that has ever owned a skyline says to look at. Once these turbos kick in it pulls okay ( my speed 3 is definitely faster.) I know i need a tune. My AFR looks good though. Anyway the spending of money continues yeah

[Brexfast]

I would think that the tune would be a big factor in that probably. What system are you planning on using to get it tuned?

[Wildtraveler]

I am looking at the AEM infinity 8. I have heard from tuners around here that the 6/8H is a different unit and it just don't act right. So that is why i looked at the 8. Also the tuner I am planing on using sells it for $1030.00 as long as you tune with them. Plus $70.00 for the harness.

I took off my coil cover and low and behold the harness is shot. I pulled off #4 and the plug disintegrated in my hand I could not even put it back on unless I slid the wires on one at a time lol. Now the car is sitting in the middle of the garage for the next week while that part comes in. Guess I will buy some coils while I am at it lol. Maybe I just need to leave it parked in the middle of the garage it seems to like it there. This damn thing is going to be rather new buy the time I am done.

Oh and my HICAS started to twitch. The wheels were turning on there own just sitting there in the drive. It was kind of cool to see them work but not really. I will post a video. I think I am just going to get rid of HICAS so I don't have to mess with it.

4WD light is still on and I got code 18. Ill have to look into that.

I pumped all of my oils in using this cheap Amazon pump and it was 256 pump for one quart! Don't use a cheap Amazon pump lol

[Brexfast]

That is odd with the hicas twitching. I locked mine out with the driftworks kit so I wouldn't have to deal with it. But I figure the more things I fix now, the less I have go wrong later and having to wait for parts can take time.

Did the dump pipes fit the o2 sensors or did you have to get a threaded adapter? I have read that it is smaller than the r33 and r34 and most of the dump pipes seem to be universal for r32, r33 and r34.

Also do you have a part number for the new turbos? Did you order them directly from garrett?

[Wildtraveler]

The pipes came with the adapter for the smaller o2's. Did not even know that those existed till the other day. Torque to 24.7 nm or some crap. Anyway they fit great and looked to be made well. Don't use the studs that came with it. They suck I bought some new ones.

[Wildtraveler]

#1 105
#2 110
#3 130
#4 140
#5 110
#6 125

That is all I have to say about that. Jun and JSP Trading can kiss my a** and I hope they don't do business in America again.

[M35Squirrel]

maybe dump a can of Engine Restore?

[RainR32]

#1 105
#2 110
#3 130
#4 140
#5 110
#6 125

That is all I have to say about that. Jun and JSP Trading can kiss my a** and I hope they don't do business in America again.

Man WTF
I'm Sorry

[Wildtraveler]

It is what it is. I guess I'll be getting new valvetrain and some cams while I am at it. I'm going to take the oil pump off to see if it has the narrow crank as well while its apart. So maybe I will just have to build the bottom too. I'll know in the next few weeks.

[Brexfast]

Dang. I'm sorry to hear that.

[sx moneypit]

#1 105
#2 110
#3 130
#4 140
#5 110
#6 125

That is all I have to say about that. Jun and JSP Trading can kiss my a** and I hope they don't do business in America again.

That sucks.After all that time waiting they send you a POS.

[Wildtraveler]

Throwing a knock sensor code 34. I'm just going to buy new KS and wire and pins for the EECS and run new. I don't feel like messing with it.

[Wildtraveler]

haha I was able to get my borescope in there and take a look and wouldn't you know it I don't even have a knock sensor in the front! I did not look for the rear yet I am just a tad on the extremely pissed off side now. I found the plug for it as well and it is broken. I cant stress enough stay away from JSP Trading. Please spread the word to never use them to everyone you know. I wish I had the money to go meet this f***. Maybe I will go TDY and I can have some free time and take a ride.

[RainR32]

haha I was able to get my borescope in there and take a look and wouldn't you know it I don't even have a knock sensor in the front! I did not look for the rear yet I am just a tad on the extremely pissed off side now. I found the plug for it as well and it is broken. I cant stress enough stay away from JSP Trading. Please spread the word to never use them to everyone you know. I wish I had the money to go meet this f**ker. Maybe I will go TDY and I can have some free time and take a ride.

[Wildtraveler]

I am going to buy a complete harness from Wire Specialties. I already bought the coil harness so they are giving me a discount on the new harness. I am looking for a source for the det sensors. I need 2 and bolts but I am sure I have some bolts laying in my "leftover/extra box" over the years. There is light at the end of the tunnel but that s*** is far away lol

[Brexfast]

Have you mentioned any of the problems to Jun? Just curious what he would put the blame on.

[Wildtraveler]

I did and he said

"As I sent you pictures we had done too many things for your car
why we have to do this on purpose then done nothing and just send your car out that way
we dont have to loose time and money
we lost a lots of money but never made any money on the car
unfortunatly you feel that way but we also reglet dealing with that car...."

And

"we dont sell japanese cars especially most of our customers very satisfied and repeat buyers
your case very unlucky even for us"

[Brexfast]

Wow. That is too bad. Maybe he should do a better inspection on his cars before he buys them. It seems like he is not equipped to repair engines let alone swap them. He should have noticed missing sensors I would think. He is probably just an exporter and not mechanic and so he went the cheapest way possible for the fix. You and at least one other guy can't be the only ones who he messed up on motor swaps.

[Wildtraveler]

I would have been ok with it had I know at least. Would not have liked it but at least I would have known. I could have planed. Now I'm just trying to figure it all out one at a time.

[Brexfast]

Yeah I told him that about mine too. The clutch was completely worn out. It went out day number 2 of driving it. I barely made it home. And with ordering parts and trying to get an appointment I wasn't able to drive it for almost a month. I planned on upgrading the clutch anyways so I wish I could have known so I had the clutch and appointment made already. I know it isn't as bad as your situation but when I confronted him he said the clutch was perfect and the port people must have done it. The car was 100 percent stock so it didn't have the power to burn out the clutch in a few movements which I don't know if it wouldn't even be possible to do a burnout as a port worker. Just shows how shady the company is. Hopefully when you get the engine fixed you can still be able to enjoy the car. I definitely have a smile on my face every time I get in mine.

[Wildtraveler]

I am at the DMV now getting my plate. Just slid around the corner down the street. That was a first for me and was absolutely fun. As long as I am over 3k it builds boost and pulls pretty good.

[Wildtraveler]

yay its legal finally.

[Wildtraveler]

This is just getting better every day. I was looking at the positioning of the knock sensors again today and I found the rear one it is facing the wrong direction (strait up some how) and I cant plug it in because it is the wrong way and the plug is broken and I am fairly certain that the front one is not there because the bolt is broke off inside of the block. I can see the hole where it goes and there are no threads and there is an old rusty bolt down in there. Now I get to pull the intake so I can drill it out and hopefully I can drill it out with out having to use a helicoil when I am done. At least I only had to buy one sensor. oh wait now I have to buy new fricken gaskets oh and I guess while I am in there I may as well replace all of the vac lines and water hoses. This car is going to be in amazing condition by the time I am done lol.

[Wildtraveler]

Made a bracket for my license plate today out of aluminum 1/8" plate. Had to counter sink and shave down the bolts that hold the bar in place to prevent the plate from bending at the corners when I tightened it down. Should be getting my new engine harness next week and sensor. Now I just have to get that plenum off and drill out that bolt.

[whitetiger777]

I don't know why you guys buy these cars sight unseen. There are enough importers bringing them in every month, just wait for them to have stock. I know that a lot of the importers sell them before they hit the shores to over eager buyers, but if we just could cool off a little and be able to check them out the right way before buying, these horror stories would dry up and those importing rust buckets and blown motors would be sitting on a lot of useless stock. Import a vehicle seems to have a around 10 at any given time, but they seem to have body issues. I'm going to another importer who just got 4 of them in this week to check them out on Monday, if I buy from them I'll post their names as a good importer. If I don't there's another guy up north who will be getting some in as well.

[Wildtraveler]

I went the route I went just out of pride. I wanted to be able to say I found this car and I brought this over on my own with the information I found on this forum and a few other sites. It seems kind of foolish, but that is who I am. I like to do things just to prove I can to me. Plus I have learned a lot about this car that a lot of people bringing them over never will. I do all of my mechanics work with help from my son, daughter and wife. Yeah it has been a little rough and I seem to be complaining but I do really like what I am doing. I get to make it mine more and more every day. But definitely if you don't have money saved up and want a semi care free experience and don't do not go the route I went lol.

[GSX-R35]

I don't know why you guys buy these cars sight unseen. There are enough importers bringing them in every month, just wait for them to have stock. I know that a lot of the importers sell them before they hit the shores to over eager buyers, but if we just could cool off a little and be able to check them out the right way before buying, these horror stories would dry up and those importing rust buckets and blown motors would be sitting on a lot of useless stock. Import a vehicle seems to have a around 10 at any given time, but they seem to have body issues. I'm going to another importer who just got 4 of them in this week to check them out on Monday, if I buy from them I'll post their names as a good importer. If I don't there's another guy up north who will be getting some in as well.

Wildtraveler isn't the only person to buy a Skyline from overseas without physically inspecting it himself and he won't be the last. Many JDM car owners successfully buy their cars from overseas and bring them over without issue - I know several that have done so. I'm helping a friend do it currently with a very rare JDM luxury car. You need to understand that there are many reasons why a physical inspection or waiting for a landed car may not be practical. The Japanese are generally a very scrupulous people and cars sold at auction and by most exporters are thoroughly and reliably documented as to their condition. From what I've read in this thread Wildtraveler's car was not presented to him correctly by the exporter as to its mechanical status. If the exporter had given the car a thorough inspection as most do I don't see how they could have missed all the issues that he's had with the car and not mentioned them (a big hole in the intercooler and an inoperative turbo should be fairly obvious).

Is it better for your piece of mind to inspect the car yourself? Yes, absolutely, but does that mean it's crazy to buy a car without doing so? Absolutely not. I don't encourage it myself but if you've been in the car collecting and modifying hobby as long as I have you know people do it all the time even for cars sold here in the US simply because of the distances that may be involved making it impractical to do a personal inspection. In this case, Wildtraveler was the victim of a seller that misrepresented the car (either by ignorance or intent) and I hope you didn't mean it that way but your comment comes off as insensitive and patronizing.

[GSX-R35]

I don't know why you guys buy these cars sight unseen. There are enough importers bringing them in every month, just wait for them to have stock. I know that a lot of the importers sell them before they hit the shores to over eager buyers, but if we just could cool off a little and be able to check them out the right way before buying, these horror stories would dry up and those importing rust buckets and blown motors would be sitting on a lot of useless stock. Import a vehicle seems to have a around 10 at any given time, but they seem to have body issues. I'm going to another importer who just got 4 of them in this week to check them out on Monday, if I buy from them I'll post their names as a good importer. If I don't there's another guy up north who will be getting some in as well.

Oh, I also should mention that you're looking for a Skyline only now in August of 2015 while Wildtraveler paid for his in August of 2014. In other words, he was looking for his car a full year before you and in a time when the cars had just started being legal for import and there was precious little info out there about where to source them and how to bring them in. You've had the benefit of more info being proliferated and more importers popping up since then (in other words - 20/20 hindsight) so I think it's unfair to criticize Wildtraveler for his purchase.