mad082

1: i drove my car round for as long as i owned it without it attached to that front bracket. 2: most people i know have run them without the heat shields after putting on an aftermarket exhaust 3: i can't remember, but most likely matching the colours will be fine 4: it was probably running a bit rich from lack of o2 sensor, but shouldn't have really affected the timing (so not rich and retard). more likely is that the coils are a bit weak and the extra airflow is putting stress on them. getting the o2 sensor sorted should help with that, but if the plugs are getting on a bit i'd replace them. if they aren't that old then i'd gap them down to 0.8mm (if they are the stock gap of 1.1mm) and see what that does.

as for making the 32 more reliable, start by replacing the thermostat, make sure the 100,000km service was done and if getting close to 200,000kms then do it again. pull the radiator out and get it tested, or simply buy a new one off ebay. that will take care of any possible cooling issues you may have. then just do the usual oil changes. it shouldn't be any less reliable than any other car (import or not) of a similar age and condition.

those of you who have been on here for a while will know what i'm about to say, lol the missus SSS is pretty decent. 112hp at the wheels with only extractors (they make a big difference) and exhaust. still stock ecu, etc. certainly gives most 6 cylinder natros a good run for their money. faster than most similar aged commodores and falcons and skylines. 3.5L v6 magnas are also good. had one that run a 14.8 at willowbank with just a cat back exhaust and ordinary tyres. the autos are a slug though. at the other end of the scale, i don't know what the fascination is with lancers. they are ordinary to drive and aren't that quick. they are no different to drive than a corolla, but there more bodykits available.

yeah i did. mine was also a TH and i put a lukey rear muffler on and it made a difference. then i put a redback mid section on and it made a difference too. extractors did bugger all though. and yeah, up to around 10kw is pretty much spot on. that is pretty darn good economy. you won't get much better than that. the best i've ever gotten out of the missus SSS is 6.5L/100kms on the highway (generally around the 7 to 8L/100kms on the highway. round town i generally get 10 to 11L/100kms out of it (and about 14L/100kms out of my vt wagon around town and 9L/100kms on the highway), but that is a lot of short trips (so car runs on cold start enrichment most of the time) and stop/start driving, so poor economy is to be expected.

if you run the 25 box then you need to change speedo sensor (can't remember what exactly needs to be done but the rb20 runs a mechanical speedo and the rb25 is electronic). essentially it is just a drop the engine in and the loom, but there is a fair bit of dicking around with getting the wiring sorted. if really pushing you could get it knocked over in a weekend, but that would be some long days.

tried putting some lead sinkers in the fuel tank?

if it's a custom paint colour then it won't have a paint code. they probably just mixed colours together until they got what they wanted, so it will be extremely hard to reproduce. there is the small chance though that they took note of the exact quantities of what they used to make that colour. some other factory colours to compare to that one would be the yellow used on the VX/VZ holden monaro, or the yellow used on the holden HX GTS monaro

move to qld. no double demerit points up here (well not over holidays, but you do get them for repeat offenses)

would also be worth doing a few tests to see how long the battery lasts playing movies. i'm guessing that it will be dramatically shorter than just browsing the net. you should easily get a movie out of it, but i think 2 full movies might be pushing it. not an issue if you can charge it when you get to where you are going.

up to maybe 20kw on a r34 gt-t from a good tune if you are running a front mount, full exhaust and higher boost. if the car is dead stock then the gains would be much less. as was said, you will get more gains from doing those mods than just the tune. and on a r34 gt-t you can have a nistune installed in the stock ecu. if it is still running the auto ecu then probably. it partly depends on how they did the wiring when they did the gearbox conversion. the autos are designed to only be able to be started in neutral or park. i'm pretty sure they send a signal to the ecu, which controls this. most people who put manual boxes in just trick the ecu into thinking it is in neutral or park all the time, so the car will start whenever needed. the downside to this is that the ecu has different mapping for park/neutral to when it's in gear. manual gearboxes have a switch in them which also tells the ecu when it's in gear so that it changes the mapping, but unlike the autos you can still start the car with it in gear. long story short, if it's still running the auto ecu then i'd start by looking at getting a manual ecu for it and making sure that the gearbox switch is working properly. (a consult cable and progrum such as datascan can tell you this)

to properly clean the injectors you need to remove them and have them professionally cleaned. this generally isn't that expensive and would probably cost less than $150 all up.

apparently marinas will have an exemption, so might have to just buy your fuel from there. as for the peugeot, it's a peugeot, probably doesn't run properly on any fuel, lol

the auto boxes in the later model commodores (vs/vt/vx, etc) are apparently known to cook very quickly when towing (this came from an auto transmission workshop my fater in law was speaking to recently). fuel consumption when towing a car is pretty shocking as well. definitely go the patrol, however increase your budget just a bit so you can make sure you get one in decent condition.

you went about it the right way. generally the girls who cop the most crap are the ones who come in and say "i want to mod my car to make 500kw, but i have no idea what to do" but then as soon as people start giving them advice they turn around and say "i spoke to a good friend of mine who once saw a picture of a skyline in a magazine once, so they know everything about them and they said i need to put 15 turbos on my car and run the exhaust system off a ford festiva and pull the fuel injection off and run a 350 holley. so i'm going to listen to them and ignore all your advice because it's crap and you know nothing" now while that is a small exageration, it isn't by much. i should also point out that it isn't just girls who do that and get flamed. guys do it too with similar results.

have you taken into account the amount of data you would use downloading movies? now assuming you are talking about downloading them using free wifi in the airport, i'm not whether they have both a time and data limit on the wifi so you can't just sit there and download massive amounts of data. i know the free wifi at places like maccas have that, so should be able to find a video streaming app you may not be able to download the whole thing via free wifi.

most major brands are all reasonable quality. if you talk to enough people you will hear that every brand is crap, and that every brand is great. you are actually best looking on a lancer forum and seeing what they recommend. what brand works well on one car might not work as another brand on another car, so any advice you get from what works well on a skyline might not be true for on a lancer. i've used genie and pacemaker headers with no issues in the past. i should also note that there are certain cars where aftermarket headers make next to no difference in power. v6 magnas are a great example of this. the reason being that the cams are a bigger restriction than the headers. so gains will be minimal. having said that, on something like a SSS pulsar they make a big difference. also i've driven a lancer and they aren't that bad of a car power wise. maybe yours has a bigger issue, such as low compression or a dodgy fuel pump or clogged injectors (which a bottle of injector cleaner won't fix), or possibly even a blocked cat. not trying to talk you out of getting headers, just don't want you to be let down by the possible lack of gains if there is something else going on.

so tempted to change my avatar to onslow.....

1 option is to download stuff at home on your pc and simply put it onto your tablet to watch later. that is probably the best option

yeah at most you will get 10 maybe 15kw out of an aftermarket ecu with a decent tune. but that is roughly a $1000 outlay to get that.

N15 SSS pulsar uses the same as the r33. just ask for one of them

yeah same. i drove a v8 BA falcon ute (the base model 220kw version). the pull from 1500rpm was spectacular. pulled as hard from 1500rpm to 3000rpm as hard as my 200kw r33 did from 4500rpm upwards. only downside was that without realising it you would be doing 15kmh over the limit with the slightest throttle variation. was good not having to change gears driving around town when you got to a hill though (was a manual). just kept it in 4th most of the time. a few years back i had a 180sx (with turbo sr20) and the missus had a SSS pulsar (natro SSS). the 180 was great in the higher rev range, but out of our street (a slow corner up a bit of a hill) the missus would be a set of tail lights disappearing into the distance unless i dropped back to 1st gear and went through the corner at about 3500rpm. if i stayed in second then by the time i started to catch up she was already slowing down for the next corner (this wasn't really racing either, well not from her. she was just driving spiritedly, i was doing my best to try and keep up, LOL. she never even broke the speed limit).

just go to your local exhaust shop and ask them what extractors they can get. oh and FYI, extractors won't do much for fuel economy. in a lot of cases they will do bugger all, or make it worse. they generally only make a difference to power at the higher end of the rev range, at the expense of a bit of low end. it may be worth looking at other, cheaper things to try and improve fuel economy. check your o2 sensor, clean your AFM, take note of how long the car takes to warm up (if it takes more than 5 mins or a few kms of driving to warm up, or doesn't warm up to the middle of the gauge, then the thermostat is shot and replacing it will improve your economy) and most importantly, examine your driving style. if you floor it everytime you take off then you aren't helping the situation. it's also worth pointing out that spending a few hundred dollars to TRY and get better economy is somewhat counter productive. lets say for example that you spend $300 on extractors and it only gives you a 10% increase in economy (which is a reasonable figure), you will only save $3 a week, so it will take you nearly 2 years before you have saved enough to pay for the extractors. what sort of economy are you getting?

i saw a 6cyl falcon ute towing a (big) trailer with 2 speedway cars on it today. was going suprisingly well

given that most people run them on premium to make up for the octane loss compared to the super leaded they were designed for, i don't think it's that much of an issue. but yeah, i've been running e10 for years on multiple cars without issue. the only thing i do is change the fuel filter when i first get the car just in case it is full of crap that will break down a bit. it's not the best to use in cars that are rarely driven though. it is more prone to absorbing water. the biggest issue though is for people with boats. most boats are designed to be run on regular unleaded and not on premium or e10. they will run ok, but it's not ideal.

ah good old qld. no DD over the public holidays