pixel8r

Heard on the radio this morning petrol is dropping in price - tipped to be as low as $1/L by the end of the year. Will believe it when I see it but sounds like good news.

opps. yeah just realised that. oh well - hope my pic helps to compare the two. i was assuming he was talking about the "side skirts" of the factory body kit...

looks like that s2 doesn't have a side skirt... (EDIT: hmm that s2 appears to be an image from a computer/video game - looks very real tho!!) hope this pic helps... Thats the stock S2 skirt btw... Maybe someone has a similar angle shot of a S1?

pretty sure SA is ok with it at the moment...but I could be wrong. been a loooooong time since I was on my P's (feel old saying that). I bought a n/a 1991 S13 Nissan Silvia (SR20DE & auto) when I was 19 and loved it - because I didn't know any better. I was paying $1700 a year for comprehensive insurance and thought that was ridiculous enough so didn't really want a turbo at that stage. 4 years later I sold it and bought a '92 turbo silvia (SR20DET - also auto) and wondered how I managed to think the n/a silvia was fast?! Still, you obviously have no choice, so at least if you go with a n/a R32 or something you'll get good fuel economy and the only thing you'll be missing is the straight-line performance. You still get all the handling and looks of the skyline. Gives you more to look forward to about getting off your P's I guess. Plus you'll (hopefully) have a better insurance rating later when you eventually get a turbo'd car. When I sold my n/a silvia and bought the turbo one Just Car Insurance didn't charge any extra to insure the turbo silvia - it was the same price.

I drove a nissan silvia n/a (sr20de) from adelaide to brisbane and back again - no worries at all. Later we sold it and bought a '92 turbo silvia (SR20DET) and then last year we did the same trip in that - adelaide to brisbane for a holiday and back again. The car had 150,000+ kms on the clock too, but still ran beautifully. Whilst in brisbane we probably clocked up close to 1000km driving all over the place. Nice hot weather 35+ degrees almost every day!! Not a single problem. Oh, and this was running 10.5psi on the stock turbo (3" turbo-back exhaust incl hi-flow cat). Pretty sure you wont have any problems. The nissan imports are pretty tough. Just let it idle for a minute or two when stopping for petrol etc. - just to let the turbo cool a bit after doing 110km/h for hours on the highway. And earlier this year we flew to the gold coast to buy our stagea and drove back to adelaide in that. stock boost and everything but had no trouble whatsoever.

hehe, I reckon I was eyeing that one off when I bought mine back in March. Was a bit out of our price range, but looked awesome!! I've decided stageas look great in blue. nice r32 as well

Hopefully you know what I'm talking about. The small strips that cover the top of the front headlights on a S2 Stagea. Kind of makes the S2 lights look more like S1's. If anyone has some of these (oh, I need pearle white colour) or knows where I can get some, please PM me Thanks.

Sounds like the turbo off the VQ25DET. The only car I know of that has this engine is the Series 3 (m35) Stagea. Thats a turbo 2.5L V6, so the turbo should work well on a 2.5L RB I guess... The 350Z is non-turb and has a 3.5L V6 (VQ) engine. Anyone know if the VQ25DET turbo has steel wheels? Would be interesting to hear your results - might be another alternative turbo upgrade for skyline/stagea owners Not many of these are likely to make it to australia though...

Putting a bigger exhaust on will raise the stock boost level due to a change in pressure or something like that... On a stock S13 Silvia turbo I put a full turbo-back 3" exhaust on and the boost went from 6psi to 10.5psi.

Having recently replaced my faulty turbo with a hiflow unit - I can definitely say I feel your pain...its a very expensive operation. although my original turbo didn't shatter so I guess I'm very lucky in that regard. Hope you get it sorted ok.

I did mine in 50/50 mode but not sure if that would make any difference since ATESSA reverts to normal operation after say 20km/h apparently. Although I cant really prove this - should've done a run without the 50/50 turned on but too late now... maybe I could've got 5-10 more awkw's by turning that mode off - who knows... All the info i've read about the 50-50 mode makes me think I'll never need it. Even in very wet conditions here its still very difficult to make the wheels spin when in normal mode.

hehe, and to that I say "not necessarily". having replaced my turbo with a hiflow unit only slightly larger than the GCG, with everything else stock, the result isn't all good news. Firstly, I replaced the turbo because of a fault with my original turbo - NOT to gain more power. It was more about needing a new turbo and choosing a direct replacement that also provided more value and potential than just putting another stock 2nd hand one in - plus with a hi flow turbo the internals are brand new and covered by 12 month Garrett Warranty. You can read my original thread here: http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/in...0gt30&st=60 But in short the result of this operation was that the car still delivers nice smooth performance and also has more power when on boost. The downside is that there is now noticeably more turbo lag (reaches full boost about 500-1000rpm later) so that translates to a 0-100 time that is essentially the same as before. Obviously everything about the car is designed around the stock parts so as soon as you change one thing you need to change others to accommodate. So in summary - the car still drives nice and even gets better fuel economy with a high flowed turbo, but dont expect the extra performance until you give the turbo what it needs - air (ie. bigger exhaust to allow it to flow better and easier) For anyone looking to go down the hi-flow turbo path - I'd recommend firstly a bigger exhaust, and then some kind of boost control since the exhaust can raise the stock boost level quite considerably, and then some kind of fuel and/or AFM management - eg. FPR / SAFC, and finally you will also benefit from a front mount intercooler to REALLY benefit from the extra boost. I've done my setup kind of backwards because my turbo died and I needed it replaced - and this does still work, but really needs a bigger exhaust, more boost, more cooling and some tuneability to work at its best. So just to summarize that the hiflow turbo doesn't really give "free" power on its own...but can certainly make the most of your other mods.

Wouldn't you need to have owned the car for 1 year in ireland to be given approval to import it to aus?? I could be wrong but i'm pretty sure you cant just get a car shipped over from another country without proper import approval. For example to import a stagea into Aus it needs to come from japan (even though there are many in NZ etc). Either that or do it as a "personal import" which applies to any vehicle that has been owned by the importer for 12 months overseas before bringing it to australia.

never heard of that...?? Timing Belt hasn't been replaced at all to my knowledge. Only done 37000kms and as far as i know it all looks genuine. What that means is the car has been sitting around for a very long time which i guess could be worse in some ways than a car thats done 10-15,000kms a year. But yeah the engine itself seems to run really smoothly. The front suspension definitely could be better but its not a priority for me at the moment (drives ok still and i can live with it).

Cheers!! thanks for that tangles! I definitely think my dyno readout was a bit sus. Will give GWW a call sometime this week and ask them if they can give me any feedback as to why its so low. Other than that apparently non-shootout-mode dynos aren't that reliable when it comes to power figures - more just useful for tuning purposes. And seeing the results of the magnas that were there on the day - the power figures looked a bit all over the place. You had cars with 163kw at the engine only getting 5 fwkw better than some with 147kw at the engine (all magnas) and it just really didn't add up on the whole. dont wanna blame GWW for anything tho - they do a great job with stags/skylines - but I do think there must have been factors not in my favour on the day. We had the stagea in 4wd mode (button on the dash) but i dont know if that changed anything since at higher revs it reverts back to normal atessa operation anyway as far as i know. I just wonder if the dyno was reading kw at the FRONT wheels only (being a magna dyno day) because the torque split isn't 50-50 in a stag - not sure how the dyno would accurately calculate awkw if the torque split isn't 50-50. Can anyone shed some light on this? But its a simple calculation - my stag is pretty stock, but with a GT30 turbo, running more boost (8psi) and therefore i assume its flowing more air than stock, but approx 20awkw less than a stock S2 stagea. That doesn't add up. Also it can keep up with a magna with 115fwkw and weighing 250kg less (actually my top end on boost should blow it away but thats beside the point). If I really did have only 100awkw i'd have been way behind...

manual kit? i got my shift kit (valve body upgrade - makes the shifts more instant but still an auto) for about $440 from mv automatics at blackwood. includes auto trans service.

the only time i really felt it through the car was on the dyno. the vibrations got worse as the revs increased...but this could still be front suspension i guess. Otherwise when just driving around i'd hafta say its mainly through the steering wheel and pedals, not the seats or anything. My guess is front suspension or something in that area...

Ok, just had a good look underneath and no loose bolts connecting the front drive shaft or anything... I'm probably thinking of the more difficult things too soon... Could be as simple as a good wheel alignment/balance etc. Plus I still think my front suspension has some issues. Not going to worry too much about it right now. thanks for the help guys.

Hi all! Just thought I'd share with you some great news from Graham West Workshops. I was there getting my car dyno'd this morning and one of the guys there was telling me they're working on getting a powerfc to work with the auto nissans and having good success. They told me it would soon be possible, using the factory ecu to run the trans and having all factory sensors still working, but using the powerfc - giving the tuning capabilities that so many auto stagea owners want. If I understood it all better I might be able to explain it better - but it sounds like this option could soon be a reality for the auto stageas - at least in adelaide anyway. cheers, Steve.

this sounds like it could be it. have spoken to a couple other people who suggested it could be similar stuff... could anyone help a noob like me with photos of what bolts we're talking about here? that'd be really great!!

yeah i'll be hanging onto it for a while yet. just real disappointed after spending $3k on a new turbo and not seeing any benefit on the dyno. I expected it to be a little better than stock. It definitely feels faster so thats all I can go by. Still a nice car. Just need to start saving up for the exhaust and safc (and maybe fmic and boost controller). then i should start to see some nice power figures. my target would only be 150-160awkw. Not after a race car, just a sporty wagon with plenty of grunt. I reckon about $2000 or less would get me there. my gt30 turbo's got loads of potential sitting there - its just a matter of unlocking it.

yeah its a good compromise. i reckon the shift kit is essential tho.

nah its an auto - tiptronic (r34 gearbox). it'll still rev to 7g (using tiptronic) but it hits the rev limiter too quick so lots easier to let it shift at 6g. doesn't really "drop off" boost - just not on full boost from 1st into 2nd. and because of my restrictive exhaust it can take a little while to build up again - not too bad tho. yeah i stuffed up the launch with the magna. was gonna stall it up but was too late and it really bogged down when i took off. my car's not super quick but should've been quicker than a magna - still, thats how it is, its not about how quick your car is, its about how its driven...and in this case i lost.

Just had a closer look and noticed a leak under the front axle area - both sides. The left side is leaking more - two small 50c piece sized wet spots on the ground under the car since i parked it this morning. The diff fluid bottle in the back is above the MAX line so not sure if thats it. Just something to keep an eye on methinks...

Thanks, thats helpful. Hopefully you're not just trying to make me feel better about it apologies for overreacting a little. But i'd seen a rough 120awkw figure posted on this forum sometime and taken that to be the standard S2 stock power output. and about 100awkw for a stock s1?? a FWD magna got 115fwkw on the same dyno this morning (stock, 147kw at the engine) so i dont think the dyno is to blame at all. but yes i realise some dynos can give higher readings and that dyno results vary a bit. AFR's were good. I'm now getting 12.5 - 13L/100km city driving without driving economically at all. thats nice at least. still a nice car - sorry to all for overreacting a bit and sounding like i wanted to sell it - sometimes you feel like that when things go wrong...