Here is my GTI-R

So a few of ye may have seen my "New Member" thread a while ago, I hadn't actually picked up the car when i made that so here it is.








1990 : 150km
Front Mount
Apexi Filter
HKS Blow off Valve
Bought it just after a rebuilt engine, bearings and seals etc.. were all replaced (All OEM) Covered 30 miles since the rebuild i am told.
ACT clutch and flywheel fitted the same time
750cc injectors
Full Mongose exhaust (I think)
Sard ECU
D2 Coilovers
Short Shifter (unknown make)
16" Rota Fighters
Umbrella socket
Mud Guards

Well to start off the car is brilliant, I love the look of it, i love the acceleration and love the retro interior. It is such an odd and rare car makes it even more appealing. However there are a few issues with mine.

The arches are rusty (as expected).
The abs light is on,
The exhaust would wake the dead (I don't have a problem neighbours do)
The gear selector does not recenter back to neutral. (Missing shifter spring?)
The Aircon has been removed (But have all the parts to put it back in)
I plan to get all these bits done in time but only have weekends to do it!

I am comparing my Pulsar to my 355 bhp Integra DC5 through out all my thoughts/opinions here.

On first driving it, I actually found it very heavy and clunky, much harder to drive than the DC5. It could be cos I have driven my own car for 7 years, but my second thought is it could probably be due to the 4wd system and diffs etc. The new clutch engages very quickly and the car just bounces off the line it seems, plus I found that I needed to rev it higher to get it rolling. The steering seems heavier, there is a lot more manual work involved in driving it. Once I get used to it though I reckon it will become second nature to driving it.

Performance wise for me it is all about the launch, I don't know the car well enough to rev it to 5k and pop the clutch so for the moment, i have not launched it while in boost but i have rolled into boost in 1st and when it kicks in it really goes. It would destroy the DC5 with the grip off the line. But once rolling I do think the DC5 would pull it in and breeze by it around the top 4th gear. rolling out of a round about in 2nd or 3rd i also think my DC5 would have it (depending on road conditions of course).

When i heard it was on D2 shocks i was not sure, but to be honest I was very pleasantly surprised, I thought they were supposed to be utter tripe but when going over a bumpy roads they were very smooth and comfortable so i am thinking I will leave them on for a while and see how it goes.

The biggest problem with my car is the brakes. The ABS light is on, when on boost there pedal is hard and only when off boost does it start to compress. When the car is idling and you push the brake it starts revving up and down. This leads me to believe it is an air leak somewhere. The previous owner gave me a brake booster but it looks like a nightmare of a job to replace it!! Any opinions on this? It does fit the symptoms but should the ABS light be on also? I spotted i have 1 braided brake line also!!

The rust I don't think is too bad. The inner and outer arches do need to be done, the rear part of the bumper under the vents needs to go, but my inspections seems to be that is all. I was able to jack the car up on the sills so that must be ok. Maybe 4 or 5 thump print sizes of rust around the doors and windows which hopefully are only suface at this stage.



That is the worst arch on the outside

I didn't get a chance to check the handling cos could not get up any real speed on backroads with them brakes! But with the coilovers on it I will get the fast road done according to the "very good all round settings" posted by GTI-R US. Will then compare it to the DC5 in this area!

I like the interior, I got an awful wheel with it, but already replaced it with an original OEM (1st mod) I also have some aftermarket drivers seat, but again I already have the oem seat to go back in! I am also missing / need to replace a few interior bits.








3 air vents
cup holder
oem stereo and stereo surround / cover.
Also need a OEM gear leaver and booth.  

There is a fag burn in the passenger seat. The rest of the interior is in good condition, carpets matts rear seats and boot are excellent condition and very little scratches on any of the plastics.

Exterior, some small penny dents here and there, few scratches, had a front splitter i removed, also had no badges and an aftermarket front grill. I will need to replace all these. Maybe eventually get a respray.




So that is it. I will get more pictures next weekend again as i was very busy this weekend, doing things but managed to change the oil. I bought plugs but was told they were the wrong ones. They were very cheap though so no harm done NGK BCR8ES.






Anyway I will put it out there on here if anybody is breaking a pulsar I am after the following bits in a bulk order

1) Quiet exhaust
2) Rear Badges
3) Front grill and P badge
4) Upgraded brakes / discs / braided lines (Evo/Clio or wilwood)
5) Gear knob and gater
6) Radio
7) Radio facia
Air Vents
9) Air con top pipe

If ye have managed to get through all that you may realise i am not looking for a 400bhp monster more like trying to get it back OEM spec apart from the current engine mods, even if it means losing a bit of power, however hard that is to believe.

Looks like you might have a tidy R on your hands mate.
You say its done 30mile since rebuild? If true you should run it in on mineral oil.
Bob wrote a good post about this and has some good tips.
http://www.gtir-motorsport-club.com/t1660-new-engine-run-in-procedure
Has it got a back box fitted? This should reduce the noise without affecting performance too much.
Those holes look like they're in the clutch housing? The first one looks aftermarket and might weaken the case. Its hard to tell from the pic, but if it is you might be limited in how much power it can take as early transmissions housings were a bit week area and were revised by Nissan a few times.
The 2nd hole pic is just a missing plate fitted to the sump housing which shouldnt be an issue.

Some people I think left them off for heat but I guessed shit and water would get in. See it has a aluminium foot rest in. Yes not the most common rev counter or clocks.

johnny gtir wrote:Some people I think left them off for heat but I guessed shit and water would get in. See it has a aluminium foot rest in. Yes not the most common rev counter or clocks.

I need a set of original clocks so

Car looks pretty good overall mate, little bit of work to do but will be a nice project. Just be careful about jacking it up on the sills, it's a big no no on these cars, too many have a lot of damage from it.

In regards to the brakes, have a look at the check valve on the brake booster line.

Wtf is that grill? Looks transformers lol
Anyone else notice the alloy foot rest? $$$$
Looks a tidy car. Just needs some tlc.
If you take the plenum off. Still conected to the throttle bodies. .. you will just be able to get the brake booster out.
Do it while you swap that nasty drivers seat over because you will need that seat out so you can climb in and undo the brake booster from inside the car.
I have a couple of gearstick gators. Will dig them out and send you a couple of pics of them.

I noticed it if you bother to read my post Stu
Splitter will sell
I would probably buy the gear knob

Thanks Cosmic, I was looking for one that didn't need much work and i think i got one. Can never be sure until you get it home and give it a once over though. But i think it seems OK so far. Yeah it has a back box fitted, I am not sully sure of the make of it, i will reverse it up onto the ramps and have a look next weekend. I actually like the look of the tail pipe though! Maybe it needs a silenced de-cat and another centre silencer.

Yeah that is what he told me. You can never be sure but he seemed very honest. Showed me all the rust and everything so i kind of believe him. Well if the holes in the housing is just to let air in around and not a big problem i will leave them. I was just thinking there should have been a oil pan there or something.

Yeah I got the motorsport foot rest.

gtir_woody yeah when I was jacking the car up I was thinking to myself I don't think this is a good idea, I could just imagine the jack going straight up into the car. Also the front of the car seems very heavy to have that weight on it. How do people jack the car up then to change the front wheel?

I am going to get all the rust taken care of, waxoil the inside of the panels and sand everything down underneath and underseal it.  

As ye can see I am very much a newbie idiot with these cars. You could ask me anything about the DC5 and i could tell you down to the last detail. I am sure i will get to the same stage with this car eventually.

Jack the car up from the front. Under the radiator there should be a cross member and in the centre of that it has a section of steel boxing that everyone uses.
For the rear everyone jacks up on the rear diff.

As said dont look too bad with some work and time spent on her

you wont however get 400 ponies out of her with the stock maf shes got at the moment.
any idea who supposedly built the engine and has it got forged pistons?

If its just been rebuilt it should be running on a mineral based oil, you definately dont want synthetic in there until she has around a 1000 miles on the clocks thats assuming either the pistons / rings have been renewed and its had either a rebore or cylinders rehoned

We should have virtually all the parts in stock that you need to sort her out so drop us a message on here or an email and il see what we have and sort out a price etc

As woody said above.........Brakes could be the servo unit 1 way valve but more often than not the cause is mainly a seized master cylinder which is fairly easy to change

johnny gtir wrote:I noticed it if you bother to read my post Stu
Splitter will sell
I would probably buy the gear knob

Oh yeah so you did
I only browsed through all the replies

The guy who rebuilt it has a garage with a few skylines, rx7s, subarus and into drifting and all etc... He said he didn't put any forged internals in it but said anything that needed replacing was done with OEM parts. He told me while we were talking what he had done but I cant remember everything. The bits i do remember are the timing chain & tensioner, water pump, all gaskets and seals, engine bearings. No work on the head and no forged pistons.
It was fairly random how I got it, it was not advertised for sale but I heard he had a good one and just had some work done on it, I asked him if he would sell, I suppose he got it cheap and couldn't say no to some easy profit.

I will only jack it up if I need to remove a tire, anything else I drive it up onto the ramps, but wont be jacking on the sills any more!!

Not a clue what type grill it is?? Nobody seen it before? I think it is just some universal front splitter though, It just made the car very low.

Yeah it is going to be a bit of a process of getting it back to the way it should be, but on the way already. I am not looking for mad power at all I am happy with what it has, i know getting a quieter exhaust could possible cost me some power but as a trade off i think it is worth it.

I will look up the check valve first, investigate what it is etc.., if that's not the problem i suppose i will do the booster then get a new master cylinder. As would have to buy one of them to test it.

Ah yes, I can hear air escaping too when I press the brake behind the dash above the pedal. Sounds like a check valve. May not need to swap the booster so?

Thanks I may send you a massage now with a list of parts I need.

The splitter is a Renault laguna front splitter.
The grill looks like someone has done it them selves. Probs a load of fibre glass..

If it's the rear jack up from the diff if you have a small headed jack use a square of wood if it's the front use arb mounts

So I got a few parts for the pulsar over the last week. I am not done yet either, have a few more bits to get.
They are not the cleanest, but to be honest I am just happy to get them.
Original badges:


Original clocks


Original Grill


Rear wiper / wiper motor / Interior heater vents



Air Con system


Original Intercooler and mount and blow off valve (recirculation)



Wheel arch trims: Don't know why these would be removed in the first place.


Couple of trim bits


OEM ECU


This is the spare brake booster that came with the car


Silenced mid section (decat??) came with the car too.


Window tint / security film.


Gearbox transfer and diff oil: This Castrol seemed to be the only GL4 that didn't include GL5 stuff I could get. It is for GL3/GL4. From my research on here that was the one to get. I know it is fully synthetic and a few comments were you are better off semi synthetic as that is what they were using when they were designed but I reckon this is ok?


Underseal and rust recovery coating



I am not going to put in the OEM ECU or anything, I am just collecting all the original parts back together. I will leave the engine mods as is.
The clocks are in MPH and as i live in Ireland need KPH so going to get these swapped for KPH clocks.


I have already pulled this ball of wires off the loom behind the dash and found that the OEM radio plugs are gone


Next on the list is this tangle



Then diagnose the cig lighter and boot door light switch.
Once that has been done, i want to fit the central locking on a fob rather than using the key in the door. Initial research says I need a door solenoid for the drivers side. I need to look into it more though.

This is the setup I need to use for the pulsar apparently, according to the wiring diagram supplied for the GTIR with the system.


One wire goes to the control switch in the door, one wire to the unlock solenoid (which i need to add) and the rest of the diagram is housed within the system itself.

If anybody has fitted central locking to the car before and has any advice it would be great.

Nice update mate, you have good collection of parts starting to build up. Are they gtir clocks or off another model?

I assume they are off a Sunny. The guy I bought them off had a few pulsars for breaking and he sent me them. I reckon he had a sunny sitting in them pulsars I think he has realised his error too been offered to swap back for KPH clocks, them MPH clocks are a lot rarer.

Yeah I think you don't see as many of those ones. I was just concerned whether it would be a direct fit or not.