The New Zealand car scene has been strong and striving for a very long time. As a car enthusiast by heart myself ever since I can remember, the complete enjoyment and fulfillment gained from working on those projects from the comfort of our homes.
Whether it’s smashing knuckles on those stubborn bolts or firing up that engine for the first time. It never gets old, and always satisfies the needs. I always love a good budget build, built not brought.
In all honesty, I think New Zealand houses the majority of MacGyvers in this world. One of our kiwi MacGyvers is Josh and his R34 Skyline
Built from the comfort of his home. He purchased his 98 Nissan R34 Skyline bone stock. With a factory, rb20de Neo automatic the car was a perfect base to start his project.
Obviously, the stock RB20de Neo and auto trans had to go. So, he sourced himself a freshly built forged RB30det and his project was underway.
Our first encounter with Josh was when he approached us for some AN8 fittings for his vct drain. We got yarning about future plans for his Skyline and that’s when the bug hit!! Josh got his rb30det mounted and then he started compiling a parts list for parts that he required,
at that stage little did we know his car was going to be the guinea pig for our products, Parts, and testing. Josh required a clutch line that Eaparts custom made to his specs.
The Clutch line was then fitted and tested. Much better than the factory damper clutch line set and looks a lot cleaner and tidys up the bay at the same time.
With the gearbox and clutch all sorted. He moved on to the engine side of things. The turbo was then mounted, Josh required the turbos oil delivery and return sorted.
Eaparts then custom made a Teflon oil feed and turbo return line to suit his needs.
At this point. Josh had definitely fallen for the clean and sharp look of AN fittings with a braided hose. At this stage, Eaparts was in the final stages of designing the custom heater delete for RB engines. A week later Josh picked up the first prototype heater delete kit,
eliminating the 33-year-old RB30 Blocks tin heater outlet with an Eaparts 6061 alloy option.
Installation was a breeze.
At the same time, he picked him up some press in rocker cover fittings for installation of a catch can kit.
Moving onto the electrical side of things. A link G4 was the offender of choice to tackle the task of managing the engine.
The loom was made from scratch by TMD Automotive.
Once wired TMD also ran a base tune on the car unfortunately faulty fuel regulator and dodgy fuel lines put the tuning on hold.
Josh got a new fuel regulator and decided to replace all fuel lines and fittings. Eaparts supplied fuel lines, 100 series fittings and hard line fittings to convert both feed and return fuel lines. With a few options available as to how to run his fuel lines. He opted to use hard line fittings Over hose finisher option. Installing the hard line fittings Is very simple. They provide a leak-proof seal. With ease of installation, Removing the flare is a must but once done it’s a matter of sliding on the tube nut and olive and cranking them up.
With the problem parts remedied the R34 was now tuned to a safe 12 psi run in tune. Like most backyard builds. There are usually loose ends to be finished off nearing completion. The power steering Circuit was something on the list. The factory ugly power steering lines on Skylines and other R and S chassis’ are hideous and can be hard to make look nice in a tidy engine bay. Not to mention they are prone to leaks. A custom Eaparts high pressure power steering kit was fitted along with custom rack fittings. The power steering leak was no more. And it looks so much more aesthetically pleasing in stainless braid with black fittings.
The power steering kit he purchased includes two AN6 rack fittings, AN6 pump fitting, Teflon high pressure braided line complete with a 90 degree fitting at the pump end and 45 degree fitting at the rack end. A low-pressure an6 braided line which runs from the rack to the power steering reservoir with a 45 degree at the rack end and hose finisher at the power steering reservoir also supplied is the power steering pump feed from Reservoir the kit is a complete replacement. Only modification required is the flares may need to be removed from certain reservoirs.
As the car is built as a street car. And not a dedicated track car. Josh plans to re-run the heater Circuit. Eaparts Have supplied Josh with that complete AN10 braided heater conversion kit. The kit means removing the heater core to install the AN10 heater core flanges Which replace the brittle plastic outlets prone to breakage. A very nice piece of kit, which will set you back around $450 NZD. Included in the kit is the Eaparts alloy an10 heater outlet the same one used with the heater delete kit. He will be changing out the heater delete for the heater kit soon.
This kit consists of AN10 90 degree hose ends, AN10 0 degree hose end, rear AN heater outlet, Eaparts press fit alloy replacement AN10 heater outlet, AN10 bulkhead fittings, AN10 female 90 degree unions and custom Eaparts billet heater core flanges. Most RB enthusiasts Would have had battles with replacing burst heater hoses in the past. And can relate to how much of a pain they are to change. Eaparts offer you a solution to eliminate that problem altogether.
Josh’s car has somewhat been a guinea pig for many of our products. It has been the perfect candidate being a daily driver. testing our products is a must and we stand by our products. We will not sell anything we will not put on our own cars. The products installed on Josh’s car are just a few of many that we can offer you. We are constantly working on new products and are not limited to the RB platforms.