pixel8r

Ok, lets clear some things up. The M35 stag, otherwise known as the series 3 stagea, comes in either 2.5L V6 turbo (VQ25DET) or 3.5L V6 N/A (VQ35DE). The 2.5L turbo one has 206kw and I think 400N-m of torque (nice!) whereas the 3.5L has 200kw and somewhere around 360N-m (from memory - again, could be wrong). The 2.5L turbo would definitely be the quicker of the two, and I'd guess its performance would be similar to current s2 stageas (c34 series 2 = 1998-2001) given that it has more torque but is also heavier. That is, if you compare to a stock one. Not many s1 and s2 stageas around here are stock. One thing I doubt is if the M35 has many aftermarket performance mods available...so you may be best to just leave it stock and enjoy it as is... The engine in the 3.5L is the same as the maxima and 350Z (previous model, they now have the VQ35HR which has more kw & torque). All M35's come in either AWD or RWD versions and there is an AXIS one which I think just has a bodykit or something. Personally I prefer the (probably dated) looks of the s1 and s2 stageas getting around now, but I have seen some modified M35's that look quite good. I'd imagine the M35 has far superior handling and comfort however due to being built off the newer platform. Most notable differences are the engine being moved back so that the front wheels sit in front of the engine - this gives better handling and stability. Also newer technology all-round would be a big plus. Hope it all goes well. and for anyone looking at buying one, dont go for anything newer than 2003 yet, they're not available for compliance yet.

I've yet to test this theory out in my stag, but it should be easy for me to do (I drive to work every day so most of my driving is in fairly similar conditions). This previous week I only managed 12.3L/100km even though I was driving a lot more sedately than normal - and intentionally cruising slowly up to speed for speed limit changes like 60-80km/h etc. So far this tells me you are correct because normally I see about 12 or less L/100 in much the same conditions - and thats without going so easy on it. There's a few questions I still have though - you mention that boost is what affects fuel economy, not rpm - but rpm is related to boost. Another thing is that normally when I'm in 4th gear, the revs are below 2500rpm which usually means the car wont be on boost anyway. The opposite would be true if I was to select a lower gear - I'd then be on boost more and hence use more fuel - at least as I understand it. I'm not disagreeing with you, just trying to work out the theory for myself. The simplest way I understand it is that to save on fuel you aim to get it into 4th gear and constant throttle for as long as possible when cruising, but use the gears when accelerating, and avoid allowing the torque converter to suck up your power (usually this is when slowly accelerating, correct?). Does this sound close?

I know this isn't really the thread to be discussing this article, but does anyone else find it a bit weird that they claim the GTR with "stock" boost, will climb to 1.3bar (19psi) with just an exhaust and powerfc?! Does the vspec have the same ceramic turbos as the standard GTR? If so, this would be goodbye x 2 for the turbos. Anyone know what stock boost actually is for a GTR34? I always thought it was the same 6-7 psi as non-GTR skylines. The article isn't really comparing apples to apples either. The STi and Evo are direct competitors. The GTR appeals to a different market than the other two and you will find that people in this different market (most of us) will view the GTR as superior for what they'd want in a car. Good read however...

My S2 is 1658kg (kerb weight) so thats fairly accurate. I'd guess the extra weight could be attributed to tiptronic auto, bigger cooler, bigger turbo housing, bigger brakes, possibly more panel on the front?? and just small bits and pieces all round... I'd also be interested in lightening the stagea but have concluded that everything is pretty much needed, either for legal or for comfort reasons. The advantage of a lighter stagea for me would be primarily fuel economy but the added performance would be welcome.

Sounds like your mechanic maybe didn't know how to tune them (although they are quite easy to do...on their own at least).?? Had no trouble at all with my SAFC - it works GREAT, and for the money they are excellent value for money. Cost me $400 including a good dyno tune (got mine 2nd hand) and saves me 2L/100km now, which equates to about $5-12 every time I fuel up (every week for me). So it will pay itself off in less than a year, and give me more performance potential at the same time. Its your only option for an auto unless you want to shell out big $$ for a E-Manage + tune...

EDIT: Actually that was me Gave ya the thumbs up

Not sure how true this is but I've always thought that part of the 20kw increase with the R34 was due to the bigger housing on the turbo. The other major change was improved VVT. For this application, the R34 turbo should give some gains to an R33 s1. The r33 s2 has the same ceramic turbo as the r34 but the r34 also has a plastic (nylon) compressor wheel, which I dont think the the r33 has. This makes the R34 turbo slightly more lightweight and therefore should give better response in theory. All the best with it

This is more correct. After a certain RPM (or at least once you get higher into the rev range, say over 2500rpm?) the awd system will still put more torque to the rear as necessary, but will favour 50:50. With the button off, its the same principle but it would instead favour 95:5. Hope that makes sense As far as being faster, I would imagine it WOULD be slightly faster mainly because driving the front wheels will likely help with the weight transfer, not sure if this is correct - I might be way off the truth, but IMO it would be better to share the acceleration over all 4 wheels, than just the rears...who knows? In any case, under full load the awd system will basically be running 50:50 torque split anyway, so the difference between button on/off when under hard acceleration is probably nil or at least minimal. It is worth noting however that the system is not really designed to be used in 50:50 mode full time for daily driving and a few people have cautioned using it like this for fear of burning out the clutch packs prematurely... I'd like to think it was built strong enough to handle it but I'm not willing to risk it Occasionally I'll use 50:50 for driving in the wet but only in extreme weather conditions and bad road surfaces...

You'll find that a properly tuned stagea has about the same fuel economy as aussie wagons. On the highway they use a bit more, but around town I find the fuel usage to be pretty comparable to say commodore wagons or falcon wagons. The problem we have is that stageas are designed for japanese fuel, and they are also I suppose leaning towards the "high performance" category...so I think the fuel economy we get is quite reasonable all things considered.

hehe, it was huddy who's been in and driven mine (and Tangles' one as well I believe).

When you adjust levels, compare the result with the original and the original will often look dull, even though it looked like a good photo when you took it. I've only recently started playing with saturation and maybe even contrast to make it look more surreal or extreme. Sometimes its only subtle changes but other times its more noticeable, but it can really add "wow" to your photos If anyone has trouble with "noise" in photos, try using software called noise ninja. Its fantastic. And for those without photoshop, and who are pretty good with computers, try the GIMP (free download). Its not as good as photoshop (is anything?) but it is still quite powerful and did I mention its free?

Manual focus could work if the moving subjects are always a similar distance from the camera and the lighting isn't changing much - thats the only reason I suggested that. For anyone looking at a camera with pretty much instantaneous Auto Focus, try Ricoh's R4, R5, (and now the new R6) cameras. less than 0.1 seconds to take a photo INCLUDING auto focus. The claimed times are like 0.05 seconds or something, so needless to say the AF is extremely fast. And the photos I find are pretty good for a camera in this class.

Absolutely fantastic artwork there!! That's definitely worth paying for!! A drawing that good is worth so much more than even the best photo IMO. Put them in a frame and they'd be worth some good money

I think you're confusing something here - 92dB would be OUTSIDE the car, probably measured near the exhaust? For a free-flowing exhaust thats still fairly quiet (sometimes inaudible when cruising at 50-60), make sure you get 2 mufflers, no resonators or anything. I've got a 3" oval magnaflow muffler at the rear and another 3" oval muffler in the middle. Being a wagon I need it quiet to reduce drone! Its definitely quiet enough but not as quiet as stock. To make it quieter and still get good flow, use twin pipes...although this will cost more. It seems you either get good power, or a whisper quiet exhaust, but not both. Also I wouldn't bother doing other mods when you have the stock exhaust, except maybe just an SAFC or something - to maybe save a bit on fuel? Other than that, be aware that adding more boost pressure (ie. more psi) will likely just put more stress on your turbo without actually flowing more air through your engine (it could actually flow less!). psi is a measure of pressure, not necessarily airflow.

This sounds like the same problem. If your engine cuts out for whatever reason, you'll lose your power steering and the battery light will be on the same as it is when you click your key over to start the car in the morning (or say when you're running the radio without the engine on etc...its just telling you its using battery). It sounds to me like it could be your Air Flow Meter. Rather than swap it, have you considered cleaning the contacts inside it (ie. in the middle of the piping, not the electrics itself). There are two little wires that hang down into the middle of the AFM pipe and a little thin wire runs between them which measures the amount of airflow through the intake piping. Sometimes these can get covered in stuff such as oil if you have an oiled air filter (like a K&N for example)... Its an easy job - take your AFM off (might need to remove your airbox and also loosen the clip on the other side of the AFM so you can remove it from the piping). You'll then see the little wires clearly visible when you look through it. All I've done in the past is pour some methylated spirits (ie. metho) over these wires (do NOT touch them with your fingers or anything whatever you do) and then leave the AFM in the sun to dry out. You can also run a small amount of metho over the pins where the plug goes into on the side if you want, just to make for a better contact. If you dont have metho you can just use any non-residual contact cleaner. I just use metho cos its something I have in the cupboard. If you leave the AFM in the sun afterwards it wont take very long to dry, say about 10 minutes? then just put it back in the car and job's done. I had problems like loss of power and then power would be a bit stuttery - in my last car (nissan silvia turbo). Eventually the engine started dropping out on idle and it cut out a couple of times in traffic - very unsafe I agree with you. The car actually got so bad it wouldn't idle at all, but it turned out to be the AFM and replacing that solved my problem. Then I learned you could clean it, so try that first, it might save you a lot of money. (apologies for the long post but I forgot to mention, if you're looking for a workshop - go Boostworx for sure. they may be booked up a little bit but thats BECAUSE they are that good)

There was a group buy last year sometime for Leatherette seat covers. $400 if I remember correctly - for the lot, including headrests. Bit expensive compared to other options maybe but IMO they looked pretty good. personal taste though...

ok, "you're wea-" nah its fine really!! was pretty cool but a lot of people had trouble following the directions, so there was about 3 separate mini-cruises, with a lot of us just making our own way to mt barker. Some people claimed to have seen a speed camera, although most of us didn't see one (i'm pretty definite there wasn't one), and then there were cops at mt barker that showed up in the car park (must have been after I'd gone home), but didn't cause any trouble so everyone was happy Coming onto the freeway on the way home, my car started pinging a little bit (just the one time) as I booted it up to the 110km/h speed limit. Was 11 degrees outside so I'd say it either spiked or was a bit too lean...was tuned on a 35deg day and I know for certain my stock intercooler struggles a little on hot days or after driving for a while... Need to have a stagea only cruise sometime...almost enough of us in SA now...

Also more than happy to offer a drive I'm the opposite direction, at salisbury east. I've got a S2 One warning tho, the last person I offered to show the car to and also let him have a drive, now owns one Send me a pm if you're interested, tho I probably wont be able to make it into town on saturday (sorry). Farmers union iced coffee would suit me just fine haha

I know for certain that I can hear a lot more induction noise (ie. whoosh of air, not the whine/whistle of the turbo) with the aftermarket filter in. Same thing when I put the K&N in my old silvia. I actually thought I must have installed it wrong and that it must not fit properly because the induction noise was so noticeable. All was fine tho... But so saying, I agree that performance-wise there's probably not much difference. Maybe its one of those things that just compliments the rest of your "breathing" mods? (ie. exhaust, etc) dunno. I just got mine cos it was cheap and cos its apexi so my car MUST go faster now... (nothing wrong with apexi products btw, i also have a safc which is a great piece of gear).

Yes the R34 GTR will be on top of my "if you had the money and could buy any car you wanted, what would you buy?" list!! probably the same for a lot of people on this forum...

hmm that doesn't sound right either - yes they will replace them with a halogen setup (like most other cars on the road except maybe new bmw's and lexus's?). But i've had my headlights in for 12 months and only replaced them voluntarily to do a road trip interstate cos I thought my "original" ones weren't that bright. Turns out there was probably nothing wrong with them so there you go. Definitely shouldn't need to replace them every 3 weeks (not sure if you were exaggerating but even twice a year is way too often!!). While we're talking headlights, I did notice when I replaced mine that my right side headlight doesn't sit in properly. Normally the clip will hold it tight so it cant move - well thats how my left side one is, but the right side one can wobble about a mm or half a mm up and down. Not enough to make a difference and it definitely wont fall out or anything but I guess it does mean its a bit of a dodgy setup... I wonder if the compliance workshops all use a similar setup or not??

Same here, I thought letting it run in 4th round town will save on fuel, due to lower revs etc. Mine sits around 1600rpm when sitting on 50-60km/h but is up over 2000rpm in 3rd (I know cos it doesn't hit 4th until the transmission warms up).

cheers, thanks for the info! its been on my "todo" list since I got the car (um...about 14 months ago) - really need to get onto it...

I've gotta say that is a damn good price for a 34 GTR!!!

I have an apexi panel filter (dry type) - no idea what its like compared to others. I can hear induction noise so I kinda assume it flows more than stock... didn't really want K&N cos they are oiled but most people have no problems with them. I think in my case (i had a k&n one in a silvia, my last car) and some workshop I had the car serviced at re-oiled the filter for me and may have put way too much oil in. After that it started stuffing up my AFM but I never realised thats likely to be what it was until months later. I replaced the k&n filter with a cheapie bosch one from sprints and it was fine...but like I said everyone else I know thats got one has no probs with them... I'm not even sure what improvement you get with an aftermarket panel filter...I just got mine off ebay cos it was a good price (bout $50+postage if i remember right). pretty sure it was from a r33 skyline so most skyline ones should fit, especially r34 (since yours is s2 like mine and shares a lot of things in common with r34 skylines). And will be great to have another s2 stagea in adelaide!!! not many of us around...have only seen 1 other s2 here in the 13-14 months i've owned mine...