mikel

Inertia = mass x radius^2 Because the radius is squared, even if the larger wheel is lighter, it only takes a small increase in size (radius) for the larger turbine to have a higher moment of inertia. cheers Mike

Anthony's first words when I spoke with him after getting home were, "oh no"...and, "that's a dash out job"... But even in the depths of a Brisbane "winter", not having a heater is manageable, and it gives me an excuse to visit Anthony again if I decide to upgrade the turbo actuator! It's certainly not wiping the grin off my face having the car working better than ever. there is one really good thing about Commodores - every 6cyl VL is an RB30 upgrade for a Skyline in the making! cheers Mike

Hi Torques, Thanks for posting that - a bit of history there. From Robo's 2004 post: "Down low it is virtually eye for eye with the stock turbo, above 5000rpm is where it improves. But, when running 17psi in earlier testing, midrange before 4500rpm was pulling like a train. At 100k in 4th, you could just boot it and it would take off, nice!!"... My actuator is opening too soon, so the 2530 on my car is laggier than stock - but once the boost kicks in around 3500 - 4000 rpm it pulls very hard. I'm sure there's a bunch of modern turbos that perform way better than the 2530, both faster spool up and higher flow, but for an old turbo, where streetable power up to around 230kw is sufficient, they work great - mine brings a smile to my face every time I hop in the car. cheers, Mike

I think they're a great turbo for a street setup as long as you only want 220 - 240KW, although obviously getting old now. I just had mine tuned by Anthony ( @Guilt-Toy) and it makes 234KW. Mine tails off also, and it's running only 13PSI up near redline - it's not a big turbo after all, and would be running out of flow at high RPM lol, I picked up my car from Newcastle on Saturday and drove to a mates place in Kyogle. On Sunday morning we did some tractor work on his tree plantation - the Skyline feels substantially different to my mates tractor I completely agree with this cheers Mike

omfg - the car is awesome - way better than ever before and quantums above what it was after the NEO head went onto the R33 bottom end. Anthony picked me up at Newcastle airport and he gave the car several squirts - from the passenger seat it felt amazing. We put a fresh tank of 98 into it and I took over - the acceleration on boost was ballistic - the tyres are quite new, but budget, and must be awfully close to their limit on a dry road in a straight line when the boost comes on. It's sooo good having a working tacho again, but I'm still getting used to the boost coming on so hard when I nail it in 1st and 2nd, so hanging on and watching the road is a bit of a priority - somewhere between 3000 - 4000rpm the thing just takes off. i now understand what Anthony meant when he said on the phone last week it's a bit laggy - it's always been that way, and likely made worse by the unknown aftermarket cams that came with the NEO head, but previously the boost built much slower - I thought this was "normal" behaviour for a turbo Skyline, never having driven any other Skyline. With Anthony's tune he's got the boost on as early as possible with the current lazy waste gate actuator on the HKS 25/30 turbo and Turbotech bleed valve setup. The drive up the highway from Newcastle to Grafton was the expected boring drive keeping to the speed limit - every other car was staying exactly on the speed limit, so I was too paranoid to do the usual 115 - 119km/h in the 110km/h zones (do you get pinged in NSW for only a few km over the limit?). I filled up with fuel in Coffs Harbour, and got a respectable 11.5 litres/100km fuel consumption Newcastle to Coffs - not that fuel economy is a focus for me or most that drive Skylines, but pretty good for a car that just had 550 injectors installed - clearly Anthony spent a bunch of time on this aspect of the tune also! Grafton to Kyogle on the Summerland Way is a fantastic drive, and this is where I couldn't take the grin off my face. A well maintained road with beautiful sweepers and many straight sections with good visibility for overtaking - knocking it back to 4th to overtake was always sufficient, but doing it in 3rd was waaaay more fun - and clearly the less time you spend on the wrong side of the road is by far the safest . This new machine of mine is an overtaking weapon! - it was good before, but has now reached a new level - it's so in the sweet spot of power and torque between 80 and 110km/h - choose your gear for grin factor. I stopped in Kyogle overnight at a mate's place, and just for fun we took the car over the weighbridge at the dump to drop off some recyclables. approx 1/2 tank fuel (say 30kg) 2 people, one much fatter (me) than the other (say 190kg total) some tools + recyclables (say 10Kg) Total weight 1.64 tonne - remove 230kg (2 people + stuff + fuel) = 1.41 tonne or 1410kg - 20kg higher than what I've read quoted for the R33 Skyline of 1390kg (likely "dry") - close enough! The drive back from Kyogle to Brisbane this morning was great. Kyogle to the top of the range before crossing the border to QLD is the best part - down the hill into QLD I got stuck behind some motorcyles. It was at the traffic lights through Jimboomba (between Beaudesert and Brisbane) that I got a better handle on the "laggy" thing Anthony had mentioned. The Beaudesert Highway though Jimboomba is single lane each way, but the traffic lights have a sneaky left lane option that reverts to single lane about 50m-100m or so after the lights. I took the sneaky left lane to get to the front, but being in "don't attract attention mode", I didn't give it a lot getting off the line and pop it into 2nd, but there's a commodore in the right hand lane next to me that wants to have a go - we're side by side until somewhere between 3 and 4K rpm in 2nd gear on my now working tacho (thanks Anthony) and I stopped looking at the tacho and focussed on the road as I knew what was coming next. Needless to say I chopped the commodore well before the left lane disappeared. I couldn't be happier with the work done by Anthony! On this morning's drive to the tip in Kyogle my mate noticed a drip in the passenger foot well - nothing to do with Anthony's work - the heat exchanger in the cabin has developed a leak - all bad - from Kyogle to Brisbane there was a constant drip - nothing serious enough to require topping up the radiator, but on discussing with Anthony when I got home it's not an easy job. Living in QLD approaching summer I can just blank the hoses off in the engine bay as a quick fix while I work out the proper fix - a minor glitch in overall Skyline happiness! cheers Mike

Hi Anthony - I can't wait to drive it. I've been very happy with Gary's @Sydneykid suspension setup - so much softer than the Jap coilovers the car came with, and quicker on the track. with that smooth power curve, I think I'll just drive it for a while and see how it feels - but a new actuator and another drive to Newcastle may be on the cards. cheers Mike

I wish that I'd posted the dyno graphs back in 2007, as I can't find them now, but I suspect that the 235 rwKW back in 2007 was likely the dyno reading a little high, given it had standard injectors and fuel pump at the time... Fast forward to 2017, the engine is now a NEO top and bottom with "unknown" aftermarket cams, R33 sidefeed 555 injectors, Walbro 155 LPH fuel pump, turbotech bleed valve, PowerFC, steel suction pipe, HKS 25/30 turbo. 234 rwKW - tuned by Anthony (Guilt Toy) at EFI Performance Tuning in Newcastle https://www.facebook.com/tunedbyanthony/ cheers, Mike

the car is ready to pick up tomorrow - can't wait! Anthony also fixed my dodgy tacho! here's the dyno graph NEO top and bottom, R33 side feed 555 injectors, "unknown" cams (but not standard - they came with the NEO head), Turbotech bleed valve, new Walbro fuel pump, new custom stainless suction pipe after the AFM. Beautiful power curve - Anthony thinks the actuator on the HKS 2530 turbo is a bit "lazy" and he could bring the power on a bit earlier as the gate is creeping open earlier than it should - but that's a project for another day... I can't wait to drive it! cheers Mike

Many install a HICAS lock bar, but if your ends are worn you may need to replace them 1st (I did mine 10 years ago and don't remember how it all went together) Having a computer decide where to point the rear wheels isn't great IMO HICAS is short for the computer saying "Help I Can't Actually Steer" Mike

the coils are Neo Splitfires. the injectors were standard R33 sidefeeds Anthony is just about finished, and he's done a fuel pump and injector upgrade (drop in 555cc sidefeeds) along the way. The plan is to fly down Saturday morning to pick it up. The drive home should be lots of fun - likely drive the highway to Grafton then take the Summerland way to Kyogle and stop at a mates overnight to get some twistys home to Brisbane Sunday morning. cheers Mike

I was very dubious of any benefit of a lightened flywheel when I replaced my clutch a while ago - after all you have the rest of the drive train hanging off it, what difference can a few kg's in the flywheel make? Well to my surprise it certainly made a difference in 1st and 2nd to how quick the car would rev out - I'd not understood the effect of reducing rotational inertia on the front side of the gearbox in low gears . Street cars need mass in their flywheels for drivability but IMHO some mas reduction is a good thing cheers mike

I got the family car back on the road only to discover a leaking radiator - so I put a new one of those in also - hopefully nothing else will go wrong in the next little while so I can get the Skyline back on the road. I've been discussing with Anthony (Guilt Toy) using his bottom end, and on Saturday I drove down to Newcastle and dropped the car off to get Anthony's bottom end with my head installed. I've been reading about Anthony's exploits and tuning skills for years - great to meet him finally, and the other guys in Newcastle that will be involved in the work to get my Skyline working properly again. There's quite a community of "like minded car enthusiasts" that Anthony knows in Newcastle - not too many mechanic workshops I know of would have a bunch of people there on a Saturday afternoon keen to discuss my Skyline issues. Anthony clearly has a "tuner's ear", as I took him for a drive and he could hear the detonation in my car way before I could. Hopefully my head is OK and can go straight onto Anthony's bottom end - we'll see. If it all works I'll have a NEO motor in my R33 soon. cheers Mike

cheers Andy, most helpful thanks mike

Hi Ken, I'll preface this post with the point that most of my audio experience is with home and pro audio not car audio, but most I say below should still apply... correct - if your speakers are 4ohm, then in parallel they (should) present a 2ohm load to the amp - and based on the quick skim I had of the amp specs this should be OK. That said, a speaker's impedance varies with frequency - it has a peak impedance at the resonant frequency of the driver, then drops back and rises slowly as the inductance of the voicecoil increases with frequency. Driver specs don't really provide enough information (eg 8 ohm vs 4 ohm) as to what their minimum impedance is, but it's a start. "Normal" home/pro audio drivers are typically 8ohm or 4ohm - maybe some car audio drivers are specced at 2ohms - I wouldn't know. In home audio and pro audio any speaker/driver that dips below 2ohms impedance would be regarded as a "difficult" load for any amplifier to drive. You should never connect a load impedance to an amp lower than what the amp can drive - the output stage of the amp will go into protection mode (if you're lucky) or fail. If your drivers are 4ohm, not 2ohm, start with the wiring diagram you provided - it should be fine. If your drivers are 2 ohm (does car audio have 2ohm drivers?), then you could wire them in series as opposed to parellel and present a 4ohm load to the amp - this would be fine as far as not overloading the output stage of the amp, but may require tweaking of volumes on amp channels to get the balance right between mains and sub (which is required anyway if adding a new sub) In reality you need the ability to change the volume front to rear (ignoring the sub for the moment) to get the balance right - so this is a good idea. Running front and rear speakers in series or parallel won't allow volume tweaking front/rear. Based on my (limited) knowledge of car setups, your front speakers are more important - so running the fronts off the amp and the rears off the head unit is the best approach - as you've suggested. Whichever way you go you should plan around 2 channels bridged for the sub with the following points as suggestions: the spec of the sub says 94dB at 1W (in car) - I suspect that 94db is measured at 60-80Hz or so, not 20 - 30Hz - hence you'll want the extra power from bridging 2 channels of the amp for a bridged amp (2 amp channels in bridge mode), each amp channel "sees" half the speaker load, so for a 4ohm speaker connected to a pair of amps connected in bridged mode - each amp sees a 2 ohm load - make sure the amps can handle the load (in this case a 2 ohm load from a 4ohm speaker) be very careful of EQ boost at low frequencies - in car audio you get significant cabin gain that works in your favour, but even with that, in the bottom end where the driver/box response is dropping off, adding EQ can consume available amplifier headroom very quickly and force the amp into clipping. cheers Mike

in your diagram you're wiring 2 x 2ohm speakers in paralllel - that's a 1ohm load - my quick review of the amp says it can handle a 2 ohm load not 1 ohm. Even at low volume, a 1ohm load could put the amp into protection mode due to the high current required with such a low impedance load if the drivers were 4ohm each it would be ok looks like you need 2 channel input, not 4, (your ? above) and get 3 channels out - left, right and bridged sub - left and right crossed to sub at 80Hz cheers Mike

ALDI pre-paid SIM cards last for 12 months before the credit expires - and they use the Telstra network - perfect for this application. Mike

LOL, clearly I don't buy enough stuff off the internet - I had to look up BNIB! ("Brand New In Box" for those like me) Mike

is your son currently using the kicker amp for his car stereo? if he is it may not have 2 spare channels to bridge for the sub. If the amp has 2 channels spare then as @inmaniac says - bridge them cheers Mike

Old thread, but very useful to me today... the hand brake adjuster is at the bottom of the whole hand brake shoe assembly that sits inside the rear rotors. With the rotor off you'll see the adjustment wheel - with the rotor on you need to rotate the hub (with the rubber plug removed from the rotor) so the hole is at the bottom and use a flat blade screwdriver to adjust the wheel the appropriate clicks - as above - rotate upwards until the hand brake shoes bind, then back off (rotate down) 5-6 clicks. As above, when you have the rotors off, give the mechanism a good spray with Brake Cleaner. cheers Mike

put the new rear rotors and pads on the car today @bbenny your thread: was very helpful - especially the tips for the 2 M8 x 1.25 thread bolts to get the old rotors off, and the adjustment of the hand brake. I went to the local hardware first to source the M8 bolts, but they couldn't confirm the thread was 1.25 - they had M8 bolts, but only the bolt length was quoted. Fortunately there's a bolt shop not too far away open on a Saturday - when I asked them they said 1.25 thread is standard on M8 bolts - but I'm glad I checked. The whole job went remarkably smoothly... this worked fine - cheers @Hadouken - didn't need to crack the bleeder until bleed time at the end. I recall a few decades ago changing the front rotors/pads on an XA Falcon, the Skyline is soooo much easier. I seem to recall not being able to change the Falcon pads without removing the caliper - maybe it's possible - but you couldn't pop the pads out of the back side of the caliper...and replacing the front rotors on the Falcon meant mucking with wheel bearings! (the front rotor on an XA falcon contains the bearings). It does bring a question to mind - when should you replace wheel bearings on Skylines? cheers Mike

Hi The 2 hoses connecting to the power steering reservoir are old and one is weeping Other than getting oil/petrol suitable hose of the correct size are there any specifics I need to know to swap these out? Cheers Mike

On my list of things to do is to remove the cover and note the part numbers of the coils - from what Scott says they should be NEO coils - but I don't recall any discussion that new coil packs went on when the NEO head was done - it's possible the NEO head still had coils. I've got to get the family car back on the road as a priority - the new alternator arrived today, so that goes on this weekend. cheers Mike

I've been gazumped for the moment as the family car has broken down and it takes priority for fixing (cash and time) - although it looks like I'll be able to reduce the Ford quote of $2K down to around $500 - $600 doing the work myself, but it's certainly slowed down the Skyline fix. If my NEO head and RB25 Block bores haven't been damaged, this is not a bad option - cheers Johnny. I would nearly have a NEO motor - particularly the pistons I need and the stronger NEO rods The key thing will be finding a reputable/capable tuner/mechanic/engine builder to do the work and consult with them - I've had some recommendations, but haven't found the time to talk to them as yet. cheers Mike

Also check out the oil control in RBs thread

Thanks Ben, I'm now confident it's a NEO head since checking the CAS (I have a NEO CAS) - now I just need to check coil packs and injectors to see what's still R33 vs NEO to determine the "in betweenness" between R33 and NEO Thanks Scott, ...at the point now deciding whether to put a 2nd hand R33 RB25 or 2nd hand NEO in. A NEO long motor (if I could source one) with my current NEO head is a risk as I have no idea how good my NEO head is (give the detonation issues), or the condition of any NEO long motor I sourced. My preferred option is to install a 2nd hand motor, either R33 RB25 or NEO. Guidance from SAU is to install a 2nd hand NEO rather than an R33 RB25 - stronger motor, and I'm halfway there already with my current NEO head... I still have decisions whether I keep the Apexi PFC or go to a Nistune - Nistune sounds like the go - I just need to source the NEO plus ECU/harness, and find an installer that understands the intricacies of a NEO into an R33 - gotchas like the air con control difference. cheers Mike