sunsetR33

Just a follow-up on this topic. From what I can tell so far the rusty residue on the engine block might be unrelated to a coolant leak or maybe just older than anticipated. After driving it from the winter garage to my friend's garage I could not see any new traces of coolant leaking there, but I will test this properly once I was able to fully warm up the car and drive it for a bit. I think I can agree that the whole porous engine block stuff is kind of nonsense, but there is just a silly amount of true, false and half-true information on anything Skyline-related on the internet.

Yes, but you need to do these type certifications for tuning parts. That is the absurd part here. Meaning tuning parts are very costly (generally speaking) as well as the technical test documentation for say a turbo swap with more power. It just makes modifying everything crazy expensive and complicated. That bracket has been lost in translation many years ago I assume, it was not there.

Read the ECU for fault codes or have someone else do it. A faulty coolant temperature sender is usually listed in ECUs. If the sensor itself is not busted it can also be a bad ground connection. Or in a really unlucky case, damaged wiring.

Can't be a Futjitsubo as those are made with a flex piece and Reimax is smaller in pipe diameter. If anything it is closest to a Mines pipe, but evidently it is not an actual Mines pipe. Classic word humor

Alright I will try to not forget. As GTSboy replied to you already, problem is mainly the mismatch between the actual exhaust part and the denomination in the papers. That basically just looks like tampering to a cop, if they were to check your car and notice. If it had been done right they would have clarified it to be a custom pipe and just given it a certain part number that you have to engrave or weld onto the pipe. I will definitely inquire on what to do. Changing the pipe wouldn't be my favorite solution as it costs a bunch of money and the cat was fitted with the front pipe and exhaust under the car, and if the front pipe flange does not sit in the OEM location the cat will need to be refit for any other pipe to work. It also usually doesn't need a brand name or something like that, but more something like a part number. Usually for exhaust parts, on silencers and cat units specifically, there is a badge that reads the certificate number that belongs to these exhaust parts under EU regulation. You get these numbers after you put a part or group of parts through the tedious testing according to EU vehicle legislation and they pass. You can find these "part numbers" on various parts throughout a EU vehicle. On windows, headlights, engine parts, seat belts and so on. All these parts have gone through standardized testing and acquired a so called ECE or EG Certificate that makes them legal to use by themselves in all countries that adhere to these standards. You can also not alter these parts in any way, if you do they become illegal. An example for stampings on an exterior lighting part, the people who need to know can find the documentation for this unit in a database. I do not know what all the standards and so on mean.

Because all parts that are put into your papers usually are assigned a badging if they did not come with one. So other people can just check that badging to tell if it is the parts your papes outline. But my pipe has NOTHING on it whatsoever. No idea why this even passed as a Mines pipe to begin with. I see this going two ways: -nobody cares and it's a non-issue, but that is unlikely -the pipe will just have to be assigned a bagding, for sake of argument, a Mines logo, and the papers corrected accordingly If it interests you I will post what the actual solution ended up being. All I care about is that it has to sound equal length and nobody can screw me later on because of a pipe being illegal.

The fasteners to the pipe are not subject to TÜV I guess, if we really start putting nuts and bolts through technical tests I'm going to hang the people responsible and then myself. Usually on a modern-ish EU normed car, you would just replace the pipe. Because if you start hacking away at it and welding new pieces on the cops will definitely find a reason to tow your car. That is just how it is sadly. On old cars and imports with no clear "standard" stuff like that won't matter too much. Most cops or inspectors probably won't even really know what they are looking at. But there is experts for this stuff even among cops, and some of them know the rules to a T and even have extensive knowledge about many vehicles. For "just a pipe" to be legal it usually is included in a set of parts, like a complete intake kit or a full exhaust. For example my exhaust needs to pass a noise test, meaning they have a standardized test track with a set of instructions and they run the car through there 3x for an average noise value that is 75dB(a) at point x of the test track. If it's above that, fail. For a turbo setup to be put in your papers you have to do dyno runs, emissions testing etc. So quite costly

The issue is more the fact that there is inspectors that deal with japanese cars a lot and they might know what a real Mines pipe looks like. And then they're gonna get antsy and not pass your car. But I'd have to talk to one of them about this, because you know as well as me that it's just a damn pipe and it effectively doesn't do anything. As I need to have my GT2860s and my exhaust setup (and the increase in HP) TÜV'd anyways maybe they can just correct the entry in the papers or assign a badge to the front pipe. I'm no expert either though, will inquire about this. Thanks for the insight. Not sure if having a custom made pipe is good or not. Will find out in due time I suppose. Would be kind of funny if this was made in Germany though.

See this is a really tricky topic as technically the same rules apply to all cars but for cars but there is a difference. If you want to modify a car like the Skyline which never existed here you have a bit more freedom as they do not adhere to EU specs anyway. Any modification you do has to be in dividually checked anyway so as long as one of the inspectors think it's ok and within the TÜV ruleset you can get stuff like a top secret rear diffuser put in your papers. Which frankly would need a shitload of tests and certificates for EU spec cars, like a 2010 BMW M3 for example. But if you DO run these tests and all tests come out ok (safety stuff for the most part) there is no problem running such a part legally. It's just way too expensive to do for a single person on one car. The most touchy parts are emissions related mods, like an exhaust, turbos, air intakes. If it makes noise or alters the carbon emissions it's essentially illegal until you prove it's not. Meaning it doesn't exceed noise limits or have worse carbon emissions. I'd say for hoses if you replace them same same it doesn't matter what material they are or what brand you use. Same for nuts and bolts usually, they won't go and specifically check that your water hoses and some bolts are 100% OEM parts, that is nonsense.

The inspectors are not forensic by any means but if you forge your documents and/or badgings on vehicle parts and are found out, the consequences are just far bigger than if you just run illegal parts. And their job quite literally is to cross reference what parts you got installed and what your papers say you got. Something as silly as your suspension being 1mm too low will fail you. Nonetheless I asked if someone knew the damn pipe and I certainly did not ask for smartassery or underhanded comments, no idea why you need to be told this. Great way to waste both our time.

Say that to the guy that is going to fail your inspection or tow your car for illegal exhaust modifications. If you have anything else useful to say, please go tell your wall.

Sound logic, but in actuality way more illegal than just having the wrong pipe. Normally, doing something like that would be forgery. Meaning you may have certain documentation for vehicle parts, but the actual parts are different ones and you just assign them the numbers and badging from the documents. But nevermind that. Nonetheless, I AM curious if this pipe was ever made by any official manufacturer this way, because I honestly am not familiar with this pipe layout and shape. As I will be putting on the HKS Silent Hi Power once my exhaust gaskets arrive, as long as it sounds right I will just roll with this front pipe. I can always order the actual Mines part if I run into legal issues. It would be an unnecessary expense as there is lots of other problems I have on this car as of now.

No I actually want to know if this pipe exists or existed under any manufacturer, it may cause legal issues if I have different exhaust parts under the car than in my papers.

Hi all. So I have my GTR on the lift and have been working on it a few days and yesterday I unpacked the frontpipe that was wrapped with heat wrap stuff, because part of it was breaking down and soaked in oil. Noticed that the pipe itself does not actually look like a Mines, despite it supposedly being a Mines. But I could not find any fronpipe online that looks exacly like his, and I don't think it is a custom one. My amateur measurement also showed the two pipes are about equal length, so maybe this is just an old version of the Mines pipe? Would appreciate insight on this by the enlightened folks. greetings from Germany

I understand, thanks. Yeah I wouldn't want the car to tip over, I'll try and use the sills, I don't want to risk smashing the chassis rails. I ordered some rubber pucks that have a hopefully big enough slotting. If the front right gives me trouble I can always just make a wood block. I'll measure and inspect the sills closer once I actually take the car up. I hope so, but the rubber blocks I had in hand so far were pretty damn firm, if they are that hard they won't give much way. I'll let you know what happens. Angle grinding rubber isn't one of my favorite tasks. I'll probably start a build thread soon, for my own documentation and "log" as well as sharing what's going on with the car.