DaveB

Damn, wish I knew that before I paid a couple hundred for gaskets Yeah I used genuine nissan ones; I have a picture of the packet around here somewhere... they cost me ~$40 for a dozen I think? Which is the absolute maximum it should cost you really. There's nothing special about them; just mild steel although they do have some fancy high-temp coating. But the ones I took out were at least 110,000 K's old and they looked near new (just a little duller) so yeah put them in with some nickel-based high-temperature anti-sieze anti-bind compound (a tiny tiny bit on the end threads of the stud) when you put them in the block and they should be fine for at least another 100,000K's.

Sorry to hear you're having such a hard time of it... my old studs all came out pretty easy with just a lock-nut and ratchet. They look near new. I was beginning to wonder if there was anything to this stud problem... but sounds like you have the proof. Taking any pics along the way?

All sorted. Thanks Adam Now to try to make it to the cruise....

More POWAH is good... that is my excuse Also turbo is slightly cheaper/easier than replacing the engine... Does your turbo make a high-pitch sound a bit like your avatar name zoomzoom? Mike's ingenious test is pretty easy; find a clean rag, a couple of cable ties; fit as per pic's and drive around for a bit. If the rags are clean, then oil in the pipes could be your turbo... I guess there are other things it could be too but I think mine is failing turbo oil seal. I only found oil inside the pipes.

Thanks Robert. Yeah, the darndest thing - I can't find my membership number anywhere either?!? I have seen it, mine's in the low-30,000's... no time to make a donation, I'm about to head off on my lunchbreak to drop turbo off at a local place to hopefully get a gcg hiflow done on it by end of next week. The price they told me was $1,850 though so not too bad... he did know I was a member of the SAU forums... will have to make that donation PS If you need to save for a turbo upgrade, do as I did... pull the old turbo off (mine was pretty bad anyway) and watch ur petrol savings as ur stag sits in the garage!

How do I get this discounted price?

If I lived nearer Brisbane, I would be coming to you to get an alarm/immobiliser installed in my stagea! Unfortunately I'm in Adelaide... could you make any recommendation(s) about places Down South? I am thinking of ordering a Mongoose M80G (cheap online) and doing the install myself, and thus more 'customised'. sorry, back on topic...

Slightly OT... but when upgrading the turbo (GCG hi-flow in this case), how far out will the tune be - eg. how to drive it to the workshop once the new turbo's in? Pull the AFM plug and run it in limp mode?

Hmm this sounds interesting... I too have a S2 auto. Let us know how it goes!

Hi guys, anyone installed a Walbro GSS342? It's 255LPH/500hp pretty similar spec's to bosch 040, and is also an in-tank pump... workshop recommended them over the Bosch; apparently the feedback they have had is that they are quieter than the 040 and very easy to fit. Just wondering if anyone's fitted one themselves to a series 2 stagea? How easy is it?

bump... I think price is fair for a set of (stylish ) 16 x 7" mags, even with a little bit of gutter-rash...

Lol I agree with you on the heat shield bolts! I have been having a wonderful time (not) trying to remove mine... took me all Saturday... Have just been going through the turbo replacement myself... think it's this thread. I can only offer "subjective advice" in that my turbo was making some pretty loud spool/rubbing/whining noises for a good 20,000K's, and more recently throwing oil out the inlet, and it sounded like an exhaust leak at idle with the bonnet up and listening to it closely (bit of the rattle like you described I think)... and I could get much less than 1mm longitudinal/end-to-end play in the shaft, and a barely visible/feelable amount of lateral/side-side play in the shaft. However I'm sure mine's got too much... looking at a GCG hi-flow rebuild this week. ~1mm all round sounds like a LOT to me... if it has any side-to-side play AT ALL, surely it's gonna contact the housing when it spins up to 50,000+ RPM and heats up to like 800 degrees? (pure speculation on my part here!) I have heard that you can get the turbo rebuilt (to stock spec') for ~$600, something like a hi-flow from GCG is ~$1,895 (exchange) and an aftermarket turbo like a Garett GT2871R (perhaps ~30kw less top-end than a GCG hi-flow?) is ~$1,600 + new oil/water lines/fittings and adapters... but more of that in thread mentioned above Edit: PS An R33 turbo with "some end play" which had been sitting in a guy's shed for a couple years just went for ~$200 on ebay; there might be the odd 'bargain' to be had there...

Cheers! Sorry missed this one - PM replied! I'll call you Sun

Yes have had no problems in that department. I usually get Shaun on the phone and he's pretty helpful; said they could do a custom exhaust sounds like they do a fair bit in-house. The tune they did for the service seems pretty good; made 130rwkw completely stock. I had some trouble with the gearbox though; I'm hoping this has nothing to do with tuning on a rwd dyno, I'm pretty sure that if you pull the front driveshaft though it can't hurt it... but still doesn't sound ideal (there's been a LOT of discussion about this!)

cheers Tangles. actually that workshop was Boostwerks; they're about 20 minutes away. I figured I'd supply the labour content of the stud replacement and save ~$500. I didn't name-drop though... wonder what'd be the difference in price. unfortunately car is undriveable atm. I should know before next week whether I have been successful; turbo off for the second time. Now if I could just get the damn bolts on the dump undone... I call Boostwerks from time to time for quotes on this and that; I will probably get them to tune the beast when the new turbo's on and fit an FPR & maybe a fuel pump (or else I'll fit the pump) after I have the turbo, exhaust and DFR/SITC/IEBC sorted.

You're right about the road noise - noticeable increase on the stagea. not so much that it bothers me though (and they are still new) plus I went to lower profile and 17's; the tread is pretty chunky definitely an all-weather tyre. Haven't noticed anything bad about their handling; at least as good as the 16's I had on before. Wheels magazine seems to think they're great... there's a reference to the review on these forums somewhere. at $165 a tyre I chose them for their value! btw there's also a drift version ( )

These things seem to be pretty rare eh...

Cool, that's a pretty damn good price. On the subject of budget tyres... 1 x plug for Maxxis MA-Z1 Victras, 235/45/R17 @ $165 each. They won some wheels magazine award few years back, it's on this forum somewhere... but yeah the RE050 is probably a better dry-weather tyre, I dunno.

Hi, If you still have the RB20 exhaust manifold I will take it & pay postage to 5159... please pm me DaveB

um... sorry I meant I'm looking for one for myself

thanks yeah I will try calling GCG; the dealer they gave me I think was inflating the price a bit 'cause he was asking $100 more than ATS (who didn't recommend the GCG hi-flow in preference to their GT30 rebuild lol). When I got the car back from compliance it had this whine, so I checked the forums and pulled the turbo and found a cracked gasket between exhaust manifold and turbo. I thought "yay I've found the problem and it only cost me ~$50" but unfortunately the whine didn't go away. I have an ex manifold gasket, studs and locknuts on order, I will replace the studs. Hopefully I can also secure a 2nd-hand manifold too because knowing my luck, that will be cracked between 3 & 4. Anyone know if there is a difference in manifolds between RB20 - RB25? I spoke to the workshop when they did my 100,000K service and they wanted an extra $500 on top of the service to replace studs, more if any of them broke. When I pull the manifold I will check for leaks. I just hope I'm not gonna need a stud extractor kit because it's not gonna be easy to get half a stud out of a turbo head, I'm sure...

Cool Turbo it is then... cheers

and here's the result after about 30K's of driving...

I looked into the deposit situation with an Adelaide-based company that GCG suggested, who were going to charge me $100-200 too much anyway; their advice was that GCG don't accept deposits anymore, something about not receiving the right turbos back??? I would've thought "simple, don't refund the deposit!" but I don't know... re: the turbo condition... it whines, and when I remove the inlet pipe I can feel a tiny amount of play longitudinally and laterally in the inlet shaft. My guess is ~1mm but that is an absolute *guess* since my fingers aren't micrometers (darn ). But it has been like it is for as long as I've had the car (about 6 months & 20,000Ks), and nothing has changed. So it can be used I guess... I just wasn't comfortable with using it with the IEBC install I am about to do; I always planned to upgrade to a GCG in the future but I didn't plan an order of things... that has changed. Plus there has always been a bit of oil in the inlet pipes (pre-turbo) and leaking out of the J-pip on the inlet manifold side, so I thought it best to repair it now. If it's only worth $100-150, and going from the suggested laginess of the '34 housing as compared to the '33 housing, then I might sell it off if and when I can get a cheap blown '33 turbo, as I would prefer the extra response over the extra ~20kw. Thanks DaveB

Yes I do! It never really feels like you're going in a straight line somehow... I guess it's what the magazines describe as "poor on-centre feel". I'll use some Whiteline bushes as specified in the group buy. Biggest problem seems to be the rear camber correction - it's at max factory adjustment now, with still ~1.5 degrees negative that's too much for a ride height of ~400mm... to go down to my target ~375 I just know I will need camber arms. Can only find cheap pillow-ball ones though; anyone know if Whiteline's KCA118 will fit S2 stagea? Are the different sizes/rolling circumferences going to be ok? (~2.7% difference?)