Beer Baron

not much. honestly if you want nice 4wd that's robust it's hard to go past a landcruiser. the V8 models are now up near 300kw and haul arse. plus they come with all the usual gear, leather everything, heated everything TVs up the ying yang etc. or euro like a VW toureg or audi Q5 or Q7. I mean the V12 Q7 has about the same power as an R35 GTR! maybe a tad more these days. nearly 400kw. the touregs have V10 diesels too with just under 300kw from memory and W12 petrols near on 500hp if that floats your boat. these days they nearly all come with 6speed manual or 6 speed auto too. 4WDs is probably the one segment where we get pretty much all the kick arse choices. mainly due to our stupid LCT rules which exempt them from LCT and for that reason they have always been popular with soccer mums aus wide. a 4wd is probably the one type of car I wouldn't bother importing. I'd steer clear of the ford stuff though. so many great jap and euro options out there now.

yeah, forget the N1 balancer then. for $500AU + post buy the ATI one from the states.

yep dodgey previous repair. it's cracked right in the heat affected zone adjacent to the weld. too much heat where it's been welded there (lots of weld, possibly to fill a hole?) it's weakened the metal next to the weld which has then cracked. if possible it might be better to cut off 15mm or so of pipe and get a new flanged welded on nicely. just need to check first if you can get 15mm of give out of the current brackets/mounts as obviously it'll be 15mm shorter.

nope if sealed properly it has a pretty decent shelf life. should be fine since jan. rock on.

check the oil drain as well as the feed. it's possible the feed was fine but if the drain is blocked or not flowing enough then it won't sufficient flow.

yeah I read this yesterday in the paper. about the only thing I know for sure is it will be a small inconvenience for all those small importers with a car on this voyage of trans future 7. toyota will get their cars out no problem. they are starved for stock atm and no way will they let this stuff sit there too long. at most they might order a decontamination wash of all the vehicles which'll raise a bit more cash for AAT. I wouldn't be too worried, just expect your car to be redlined and held a few extra days at the wharf.

if it's possible I now love webber even more. he's the thinking mans F1 driver! I reckon he'd do alright in a 1300hp F1 with no TC. he has a lot more experience in hard to drive cars than many of the younger kids like vetsmell.

still way too much in my eyes. more like 2.5 charged and 4.0 NA would be closer. maybe even 2L/3.5L or even as low as 1.8L for the charged cars 3.5 NA. still think 6L NA is way too big for an F1 engine.

lol, if they did this probably 80% of cars in state and national competition would be sticker free overnight and no longer competing. just about anyone I know who pours decent coin into their race cars does it through their own business as advertising expense for their business. everyone from old mate with a workshop running his alfa to another bloke who owns a cafe running his porsche GT3 cup car and everything in between. I'm sure plenty of small businesses put so much into their race car it ate all their profit and then some! not just would we have empty grids but the whole motorsport industry in aus would just about go under if ATO started cracking down on folks with small businesses putting cash into their race cars as a business expense. scary!

hang on, do you mean the diff gears? if you there's no need to replace the whole rear cradle etc. just take the crown wheel and pinion out of the 33 GTR set-up and fit them to your 32 diff and diff housing. then away you go.

it's not really a straight answer. but my advise is start looking for an ATI balancer if you want 400kw and want to use it hard on the track. if you are 100% street car with 400kw it's not suffering the same kind of RPM, power and acceleration as a track car would be with the same power. in a 400kw GTR you'd be lucky to be using much more than 200kw at 6,000rpm on most days on the roads with the odd squirt to 8,000rpm. not like on track where you are driving with the throttle buried for 50% or more of a lap. if you only want 400kw and it's a street car perhaps consider an N1 balancer as a budget option? they are a bit of an improvement over standard and not too expensive (less than $500) vs $1000 for an ATI.

yep, you need to get it repaired asap. with the force on the flange as the exhaust moves it'll eventually tear through more of the titanium. you can see it already becomming more of a tear than a crack. get it repaired/welded up and it'll be good as new. also make sure the exhaust is supported by all the brackets it should have. quite possibly lack of support brackets caused that damage in the first place.

putting a 25 into a GTR is not a great idea. a bare 25 short motor is not much of a saving over a 26 short motor. most of the 26 value is in the head so since you'd already have the 26 head that's irrelevant. so you go and buy your 25 bottom end, assuming it's all fine you still need to buy a sump adapter ($1000 for a kit) and right there you lose any savings you may have made. you now have an engine with weaker rods, different pistons, and 100cc less capacity. GTRs are bad enough at 2.6L, taking off 100cc is not going to help. the reason you see many more 26s failing from oil problems is they rev higher than 25s do (so more oil being pumped to the head, less in the sump) and that is combined with higher cornering and acceleration forces (from AWD). so high revs with high g-force loads mean it's very easy for a 26 in a GTR to suffer oil surge. there is a reason no one has put a 25 into a GTR. it's a waste of time and money and no cheaper than just replacing a blown 26 with a good condition used 26.

from memory mine were about 15mm maybe 20mm and I think there were longer bolts too as I seem to remember when I removed the spacers the bolts were too long. washers and longer bolt are fine. if you find it's beneficial you can always machine up a neater looking spacer later on.

well the only other thing I'll say is russ and mark do test what they do. I'm sure if it wasn't working they would have put it back. I know average temps were noticeably higher when I removed my spacers without any other change. if nothing else just give it a go. it costs practically nothing and takes only 20 min or so to remove and replace the bonnet. with some mates to help you can just fit one side at a time which is even easier. get a temp probe under there somewhere, or just log oil and water temps over a session, then do the same with/without the spacers. if results look good, keep it, if not back to standard and back to head scratching! will definitely come say hi and then ask you if you realise that your bonnet is not shut properly... lol

well glad to see the midori tune was not too bad. the car certainly ran nicely with it but I know when hermey ran it in the dyno he did think timing was a bit aggressive, not to the point of being dangerous though and not knocking. I need a steer I think...

honestly, I would not upgrade cams in an RB26 to anything without doing valve springs. valve springs get tired and the last thing you want is your 100,000km old springs now having to deal with more lift. so yeah, if doing cams (regardless of the lift - they all have more lift than standard) do springs at the same time.

I had a car (32 GTR) from japan with the rear of the bonnet spaced up. I thought it was a bit gay and everyone always thought my bonnet didn't close properly. when i got the chance I removed the spacers. temps definitely went up a bit. so yeah it's doing something. no doubt base of windscreen is a high pressure zone so maybe it's ingesting air through there and helping it force the other engine bay air (from the front bumper ducts) down the trans tunnel (which is where engine bay air escapes in a factory standard car with no bonnet venting)? I haven't studied it enough to know for sure but it's possible.

if you still have this thing, when does it expire?

if you want IRS etc why not just start with a 32 or 33 GTST shell? if it's only a track car you could get a pretty decent 32 GTST or 33 GTST non-registerable shell for not much coin.

i wouldn't go there personally. doesn't look like a dual solenoid type valve to me. looks like a regular single solenoid. could also be worth checking if it's NC or NO. that will tell you what will happen if the solenoid fails...

the oil feed restrictors are a good idea even with stock oil pumps. especially if your engine is going to see a lot of sustained high RPM use. as kiwi said even a stock oil pump running and long periods of high rpm will flood the head with oil. as far as thicker head gaskets go they don't increase the bore diameter. they do slightly increase chamber volume which reduces squish and reduces compression ratio. you need to ensure you know what you're doing when chosing head gasket thickness so you get the characteristics you want.

awesome mate. so how does it feel with 400 compared to it's original 350/360kw on the jap tune and pump fuel? I imagine near enough to 50kw would be pretty noticeable. first gear = useless now!

1, I concur. 2. yes, doctor, I concur. 3. yet again, I concur. the restrictor orifice only comes in the tomei full gasket kits (ie the ones that come with MLS head gasket, exhaust gaskets, inlet gaskets etc. they include the oil feed restrictor. but if you just buy a head gasket on it's own, all you get is head gasket. need to buy a restrictor separately.

do it bris!! then pay haus marvin to keep it in that field with all the borken alfas and we can go and use it once or twice a year... forget RSR Nurburg, I want to use BRISBURG! for all my clapped out, death trap hire needs.