GoHashiriya

And one more

Uploading pics on behalf of Sid

Yeah, I get that. I try to be as cost-efficient as possible with cars, and typically prefer to buy them at the bottom of their depreciation curve. I was looking at those Bilsteins too as they're roughly in the same price bracket as the BC's - lack of adjustability and being soft put me off, not that I want anything too hard. That's my issue with the Skyline, it's too expensive and it's reflected in my driving. I don't mind going full pelt as long as there's a gravel trap to catch me. Really, proper safety equipment is needed for total confidence. Well this just turned up for the BMW. I'll try and get the front together tomorrow and take some pics of the absolutely horrid rear end; perhaps I'll have a crack at the rear on Wednesday. I need to make the car drivable before the weekend as I'll be driving it over to London.

This is the part I was unprepared for. I mean, thinking about it now, the first day I collected my car from the importer someone posted a photo of it on the highway to an online JDM page which my friend then sent me. I drove straight to the office to pick up some things and was immediately swarmed by about ten college kids - "how much power" "why no wing" etc. The next couple times I went out I didn't really notice anything, there was a "why no wing" at a service area at some point. Then during the fourth time out driving at the Nurburgring I got the "do a drift" - the bastard cut it out in this clip. The title in itself is a red flag. As you may have guessed, I am not a fan of the attention. This leads me to wondering what to do with the car in the future; I'll see how this year goes and it may be garaged, which it mostly is already, or maybe even sent back to Japan to also be garaged and driven occasionally on visits. Fortunately my daily is as interesting as drying paint.

New alignment and matching tires is great and f*ck me are the German roads fast. Took another trip to the Nurburgring yesterday with my buddy and the car feels great in the dry - a lot of mechanical grip. In corners at 140-160kph I felt like I could keep going.

Has anyone else been swarmed by morons with cell phones taking pictures of their car? A few of you may know, I recently moved from Japan to Europe and brought my R34 with me. Since arriving I've driven the car a handful of times and without fail have had people filming/taking photos of me with the car to a point where it's becoming annoying and a bit hazardous. Yesterday, whilst driving with my buddy (R32 GTR) on the highway, I spotted three cars pulling alongside with some twat hanging out the window recording with his phone. This one VW Golf came alongside in the passing lane and held position preventing me from being able to pull out and pass slower traffic in my lane so I gestured to him to F*ck off. It seems when people have approached me, in the car park, at work (drove there once - mistake), gas station etc. they ask the same questions: "why doesn't it have a wing?" and "how much power does it have?"; the latter has been met with pure disappointment when I told the kid it's stock. Of course, Japan was a totally different story, the people are a lot more subtle and have never bothered me about my car or have been polite in doing so. Has it always been like this in Western countries, and what are your experiences? I just don't recall this ever, or maybe I didn't have a nice enough car back when I was growing up in the UK. I've taken the R34 out a total of six times since it landed and besides going to the Nurburgring area it's becoming more of a pain than anything.

Of course sometimes you cannot go with the cheaper alternative but I try to weigh it up for the application - am I competing or am I going to the track ten times p/yr. As long as there’s enough information out there to back the cheaper alternative as a good option I’ll go for that. I’m a bit of a bastard though as it’s my job to reduce costs, particularly on non income generating assets. EUR 500 saved for the diff + EUR 1,000 saved on BC racing over Bilstein and then say EUR 300 versus EUR 600 on an off brand windscreen versus OEM (for example) soon accumulates. I mean, I’m probably gonna put the car in the ditch anyway. Absolutely do not take this as a justification for always buying cheap shitty parts, just a rationale for doing your research and considering what’s necessary for your application.

It’s amazing I could only find drips of information on it too. No one seemed to have it with the same low oil pressure warning I had - usually vanos codes. How long it had been like that for is anybody’s guess. Really dumb idea, especially considering how easily the cage detaches from the filter housing cap.

Vanos solenoid problems and basically all sensors die an early death

They absolutely are, but the thing is, if you're only exposed to these circuits for a while, what I normally think is good driving suddenly isn't so much. I was a pussy at the Nurburgring (GP) entering corners at 180kph - the difference in the balance of the car suddenly becomes so much more pronounced and I'm still a bit regarded at left-foot braking - something I now practice on my commute. So the (dream) plan with the E90 is to make it a 325i Cup car. Whether I get there or not is another matter. In my mind the simplicity of having the NA variant and cost made it a bit more appealing. Plus, like mentioned above, I'm actually too much of a pussy for big power. Of course I f**ked up by not researching enough on the N53 vs N52, the latter being more robust without the DI system. Suspension-wise on the BMW, and I've been reading the technical requirements for the 325i cup, basically everything except struts has to be standard - bushes are free. I figure you get about 5-10mm adjustment with the rear camber bolts which should translate to 0.5- 1.5 degrees of adjustment. So with coilovers, lowered at 30/40mm I expect I can dial out some of the camber from a drop and attain -1.5 to -2. If necessary, I could get the same effect as the M3 arms with some offset bushes. There is a limitation on ARB width to qualify, although I absolutely want to get either M3 ARBs (can't say sway incase I upset GTSBoy) or the H&R ones - both of these are the cheapest options. Like mentioned, M3 arms are on the way and I should have them fitted within the next week. How are the BC Racing coilovers btw? Reviews are mixed but I think for me they would be fine; a friend of mine uses them on his R34 for track driving and has nothing bad to say. I'm looking at these or the ST coilovers (German brand, new to me) as prescriped the in Cup spec sheet. They're both similarly priced and offer camber adjustment. It's fine but it really upsets my OCD. I've got a couple of options for dialing out the rear camber and keeping my ill-fitting wheels: raise the rear a little bit, say 5mm, that should permit -2.5 camber or drop the front to restore that slight bias of more negative camber up front (not optimal with the roads here). The next alignment won't be until at least next year and I really need to rebuild the rear subframe. For now, I'm not using it at all on the streets except occasional blasts through the German countryside. I was covering about 10k kms p/year in Japan, I expect this to now be about 3-4k. You could say buy better sized wheels, and yes, I should have. But the wheels came from the Z and price of good wheels is just insane now. Again, a couple of options: get a new set (I want 17" RPF1s) or buy two used 9.5J TEs, both are about the same price excluding shipping.

A big issue with these is, unlike the R200, diffs are super expensive. The Blacklines are about €800, Quaife is €1,300-1,500 and any clutch LSD is the best part of €2,000. Have a look on some of the BMW forums, the Blackline has really good reviews for track use - I’m sure not if you’re subjecting it to extreme high performance - but it’s enough for me to go for it.

I honestly wouldn’t bother with this. They don’t hold up under any serious strain. Get the Blackline (Chinese fake Quaife) if anything, as it’s reported to perform pretty well.

The good news is, the quote from my mechanic for N53 bearings was relatively low and he’s fortunately an ex-BMW tech. I also went down this path - engine had a low oil pressure error from a missing cage in the filter housing. I ended up watching a million hours of rebuild videos until my oil analysis came back okay other than a shit tonne of boron *iirc* which was consistent with a leaking oil filter housing gasket. I also recall BMW N series bearings having a different material composition to normal.

So I raised the car up a fair bit for shipping - see image - then lowered it again when it arrived. I then rushed to get an alignment in NL before the track and the shop just wasn’t anywhere near as precise as what I got in Japan. The guys that did the alignment this week said there was a fair amount of toe in the rear that could have contributed to the understeer. It was also the case that the rear camber went from about -2 to -3 at the shop in NL. However, since I’ve now got slightly wider tires in the rear - NS2Rs run wider than Accelera 651S - I could only get a minimum of -3 in the rear now due to clearance. Front is now -2.75 (-2.45 in minutes) due to being raised a bit (previously -3 in JP). So it’s likely a combination of the two factors, camber and toe. The issue now is I have more camber in the rear than the front and the next step on the front Cusco arms will put me at -3.5ish front which seems a bit excessive to me. The weird thing is I’ve never had any understeer at the track in Japan but they are very different circuits - Japanese circuits are much slower than the one I’ve been to here. I’m probably going to have to start another thread for the E90. The plan is sort of to keep it as a daily but progressively mod it into a track car - honestly, you need a cage for the sort of speeds you go here. Just ordered the M3 front arms btw. Love the car despite it being in pretty shitty condition. Oil analysis came back okay and it seems to have stopped consuming oil since fixing a load of engine bay things. Saw yours is a 335i right? f**king mistake on my part getting the DI N53 over the N52, fuel economy is insanely good though at 14-16 km/L. Cheers, it’s great to see the benefits and pitfalls of different places. I’m contemplating going back to the U.K. around next year as the cost of living in the Netherlands is just ridiculous. GF is nagging me to settle and buy a house but I don’t know what LSD to buy.

lol, yeah, and how gutted I am now I’m back over in Europe (actual Europe) and dealing with the nightmare of U.K.-Continental Europe bureaucracy. Anyway, arrived in NL early January with the BMW, whilst the Skyline followed suit about a week later. Both cars ended up stuck with their relative importers for about six weeks. Since then, I made a trip to the Nurburgring with a friend and have since ditched the Skyline in the garage. This week, I finally managed to find a suitable shop to do an alignment so hopped on over to Germany to fix the miserable mess the local Netherlands shop conducted; the car was just not aggressive enough in the rear for my driving style - I found myself understeering a fair bit at the ring which was really a first for me with this car. Mis-matched F&R tyres can be held partly responsible - have now moved to F+R NS2Rs. One thing I’ve noticed is the 180kph limiter just does not cut it here. I quickly hit that (for the first time) in Germany on the autobahn. Japanese circuits are small - at least the ones that were near me. I rarely spent much time in 4th. After much deliberation with the HKS SLD, I have ordered Nistune from Matt. Whilst the Skyline has been gathering dust I got to learning the highly neglected BMW I bought in the U.K. was in fact just that, highly neglected. Took the ol’ dog down to Switzerland last weekend with a progressively deteriorating front end. It went from vibration during braking at highway speed on the way down, to vibrating non-stop on the way back. I’ve already fixed numerous engine issues - low oil pressure, f**ked injectors, incorrect coils and plugs, electric water pump. Still to do is a suspension and brake overhaul, rear subframe replacement and likely more ageing engine electrical components. But I must say, I love it. After so long with the Skyline, I really didn’t know cars could be so comfortable.

I have a feeling team free spirit does this. A while ago, the guy (whoever manages that page) sent me previous auction records for my car which was nice of him. Fortunately in my case it all checked out

A quick google returned: “Stay away from japaneseclassics. They are well known now in the importing community that they take trash cars, slap a coat of paint and up mark a huge amount. You can check out team_free_spirt on insta. They do alot of the exposing right now” I can’t validate this but it would be cause for concern for me, especially if I’m considering buying sight unseen. What this guy is saying is a pretty common practice in the market these days. I can say that team free spirit provide a lot of exposure on these efforts.

Yeah, great guy that Matt, giving very comprehensive emails with quick responses. He told me it’ll be plug and play for the ECU, which may potentially get me out on track at 600kph by the end of the month or June. Anyone wanna buy a HKS SLD..

I think this is applicable for most. My car was ~2,000,000 JPY in 2020 Total expenses are around ~5,000,000 JPY excluding fuel. Selling price could be anywhere between ~5,000,000 JPY to ~7,000,000 JPY depending on how desperate the American. Sure, I could have stored it in that time but there are still storage costs “carry costs” as we call it in industry - insurance, garage, electricity, maintenance, etc. and possibly made 100% (nominal return), but I don’t think that’s why most of us are here. Apologies for the deviation.

Speaking with Matt now, seems to be a more cost effective solution to just buy new from Matt - approx 300 EUR - then my local electronics store just told me EUR 100 to solder it in and I guess I'm good to go 600kph.

Basically, I want to drive at the track ASAP without the 180kph limiter. Nistune offers an element of future-proofing and means I won't have to butcher the harness (comparatively to installing the HKS SLD). Power FC is an option but everyone has told me not to buy this. Link/Haltech is just not worth it for me, cost wise. Issue with Nistune is I'm too spastic to solder the board myself. So that leaves buying the aforementioned pre-installed used one from a seller on eBay, then reflashing it with the stock map and killing the limiter.

Sorry, I should be clear, buying the software license is not a problem. The problem is my other source of information has told me that depending on the Nistune feature pack version, I may not be able to flash a base map myself and *may* require a feature pack update at Nistune. Does this sound accurate?

TBH, I’ve hit a bit of a dead end with this. The Nistune’d ECU for sale is mapped for a big turbo, which is completely different to my stock motor. My friend (Nistune user) tells me I’ll need to get a new base map on it (no shit), which could - depending on the age of the Nistune board - mean sending it off to Nistune themselves to get it done. Price for this ECU is €355. Then I’ve still gotta buy a license. Sending my ECU for installation at Nistune costs about €400 (~AUD 700) including a license. So, plus shipping will be about another €200/AUD 350 (EMS), total around €600. I imagine downtime around a month. This seems to be the smartest option. Or have a crack at the soldering myself - I’m not that cack-handed. At this point I’m at Power FC money - does it work with an AT harness.. I can’t remember. Yes, PFC is not as good as the Nistune, but this option requires zero downtime. Then I’m thinking f**k it, this is a pain in the ass, I just wanna go rag it on the track; so SLD and then Nistune over winter… I figure I can do some reconstructive surgery on the harness with the some nice little crimps and heat shrink and it’ll look as good as Michael Jackson in his final form.

That’s the one. Yeah, the seller has confirmed the base ECU is from a manual car. To be honest, I’m only worried about the TCS light being illuminated due to registration here in NL - unsure on rules. Back in Japan, we weren’t allowed to have any permalit error-related lights (or so my shaken guy said). Looks like this Nistune is the way to go then, appreciate it GTSBoy, and the others that chimed in.

Thank you Duncan, and I will say, before reading GTSBoy’s response, this was more or less my logic. I can’t argue with that. The part I couldn’t get past was thinking that the speed sensor in the 30A was replacing whatever was in the AT transmission before, and therefore completing the prior circuit. The other thing that I failed to mention was that, across all HKS documents, despite mentioning compatibility with AT R34s, there is no mention of a different pin. These Japanese instructions appear to predate early man, so there’s always room for error. I’m speaking with the seller of this R34 GTT ECU with Nistune at the moment. It’s pretty cheap and eliminates the possibility of me soldering my fingers to the ECU when installing the board myself. I am yet to confirm whether the base ECU is from an MT or AT car, so the question is: When using an MT ECU in an AT car, and then losing the TCU part, are there any other implications? Another thing I’m not sure of is whether I can pass local regs with a TCS warning. Of course, swapping between ECUs is a fairly simple task.