JimX

This guy offering you $50 to call it even is about as close as you'll get to an admission of guilt from him I think. He's basically trying to bribe you with $50 so that you'll forget about the $420 he ripped you off. Did he think this one through properly before making such a ridiculous offer? How could he on any reasonable grounds be only $50 responsible for something which cost over $400 all told? If he honestly didn't think he did anything wrong he wouldn't (and shouldn't) have offered you a token $50 refund. This guy knows he's done something wrong and is trying to cheap his way out.

My tacho hasn't worked for awhile now. Everytime I pull it out of the dash to do something it seems to fix it for a few days or weeks, then eventually it dies again and sometimes comes back by itself, and sometimes (most of the time in my last few attempts) whatever I do doesn't fix it at all and it stays dead indefinitely. It used to start working by itself more often when the car's been sitting in really hot or cold weather for a long time (usually hot) but again, not lately. In extreme weather conditions I'm guessing a loose contact somewhere is expanding or contracting enough to make a better contact with something else in there, but where that is exactly I am not longer sure. It could the plug contact in the dash or it could be a dry joint or failing component in the tacho itself. Does anyone know how to test a tacho with some cheap parts or a Jaycar kit? I might head down to Jaycar on the weekend and see what they have, they must have some sort of 12v variable pulse generator I can rig up and pretend it's an engine. Gravedigging this thread has inspired me to suddenly care more about my inability to read revs

I thought people might find this NGK spark plug code chart useful, I did a search when trying to find the right code for my plugs but could not find a full reference on SAU. I also saw a post from someone that thought the "P" in "BCP" etc meant it was platinum, hopefully it will also help prevent disinformation being spread. As far as I know this image isn't copyrighted, if it is then can a mod please delete it.

It sounds like your alternator's voltage regulator is broken. They often start overcharging your battery when they wear out. Use a voltmeter and check the voltage of your battery while the car is running, if it is anything over 14.4V or so then the regulator needs to be replaced. If the alternator is overcharging then you are lucky that the headlights have blown before the more expensive electronics in the rest of your car. Get it checked/fixed before that starts happening or it could get very expensive soon. The other thing if you didn't know is you have to make sure you don't touch the glass bits of your headlight bulbs with your hands/fingers. The oil from your skin causes a heatsink effect on the bits you touched and this will greatly reduce the bulb life. I don't think it'd be bad enough to cause them to blow within 5 minutes, but keep it in mind anyway. If you accidentally touch the bulbs, wipe them clean with metho or something before installing them.

If it started happening straight after you got the car back from your mechanic you should take it back and tell them. If it's too late for that now (seeing as though you posted this a week ago) check the low pressure hose under the power steering pump and see if it's leaking there. Mine was leaking due to being old and cracked, it was only about $24 for the hose but really difficult to get to so I got my mechanic to do it while he was doing another couple of fiddly things for me and had everything apart. Failing that, or even if it is the hose but you can't be bothered replacing it, try using a bottle of power steering pump sealant that you can buy from auto spare parts shops. I think I used the Nulon brand one (not 100% sure though) on one of my previous cars (VS Commodore), it started off as a slow leak that I never got around to fixing but when the car started to leak a puddle of fluid on the garage floor after parking it more than a couple of days I decided I needed to do something. I didn't expect the sealant stuff to work very well but afterwards it sealed it up 100% perfectly and was still totally sealed when I sold the car about 6 months later. I would've tried the fluid sealant option on the GTR, but a new hose was only $24 and my mechanic already had the car in bits to do other stuff, so I figured I'd just do it properly.

+1 for exhaust manifold porting around the turbo flanges to match the upgraded turbo flange size. I did mine at home with a Dremel at home (die grinder would have been much quicker but I had nothing else to do at the time anyway) and it could have possibly been the best bang-for-buck mod I've ever done. I'll never know for sure though, because I did it at the same time as I upgraded the turbos so I couldn't do any before/after testing. But it doesn't make any sense to put bigger turbos on without increasing the turbo flange size on the manifolds to match. I have seen a photos of stock and Nismo manifolds next to each other, and the only difference I can see between them is the turbo flange size. So I presume that I have basically done a free upgrade to Nismo manifolds. Also with your idle problem, have you adjusted the screw thingie underneath the plenum? Mine used to idle around 1200 as well (I think for pretty much the same reasons yours is) but I managed to get it to normal (before I got my PowerFC) after someone on the forums told me about this adjuster screw under the plenum. The thing is if the adjustment is maxed out then you'll have to try something else. I forget all the other details because it was a few years ago now, but searching the forums should turn up my old post about this issue.

Oh no am I too late! I got an SMS from Anthony a few hours ago asking him to put my opinion of his tune of my GTR last year. Not to talk it up but just to say something, which I presume to mean my honest opinion. I have to say I am VERY happy with his tune! I drive sedately most of the time, but when I do give it some stick I am not kind to the car when I do (although I am kind to the triple clutch on launching and gear changes to avoid blowing the gearbox). The car just goes better across the whole rev range after the tune, and it also got rid of my compressor surge/turbo shuffle. Even should my engine die from here I will not blame GT's tune. The car had a fairly tired engine when I got it and the compression across the cylinders was a little uneven before I did installed the new turbos, I just decided I was feeling lucky enough to be able to save up for a rebuild by the time she goes. If anything my car is the real acid test as to whether or not a tired engine can stand up to GT's tune and so far so good. It was a road tune only so I don't know how much power it had before and after. Just that the car gets more power and uses less fuel now than before. I think I may have to threaten violence on someone/something if I can't get Anthony to tune my car again with my next upgrade The fact that he lives 2 minutes away from me by pure coincidence is a bonus. Car is an R33 GTR, 3.5" turbo-back exhaust (except for one dump pipe - don't ask!), bigger FMIC, 780cc Sard injectors, HKS intake plumbing, HKS 2530 turbos tuned at 20psi. Oh and it's midnight purple which I think is good for +5rwhp

Consider the cam gears sold! pm sent.

Oh something I found a few weeks ago but forgot to mention in here, it seems that there is a reason to be doing this mod. Looking at the pic that I've attached, the N1 manifold seems to simply be the factory manifold with the same bits ground out. Pic found here - http://gtrusa.blogspot.com/2007/11/rb26det...ths-truths.html Also I'm wondering if the people who I have heard complain that the 2530's are laggy on GTR's are running the stock manifolds? (this includes the person I bought them from, I think he changed to GT-SS's). Because I find it hard to tell that my 2530's are any laggier than the stock turbos. There are times where I think they are even more responsive than stock. Some of that would be due to the ball bearings vs plain bearings, but I also think the ported/matched exhaust manifolds would have a lot to do with it. Anyway looking at this photo, I think that if anyone is thinking of buying N1 manifolds, don't pay any more than you would for a good porting job because they seem to be exactly the same thing aside from the size of the turbo flange hole.

I am using the Sard 700cc injectors with 2x2530 turbos and they get up to around 80% duty cycle at full throttle and 20 psi boost. I haven't dyno'd the car yet (only road tune) but it'd be well under 500rwhp. I would think that you'd need to go larger for 500rwhp, but I am also running standard AFM's which max out, and I think once that happens the ECU will start dumping in more fuel than it needs just to be safe. So maybe my 80% duty cycle is more than it should be. Also I'm running the standard fuel reg, you can squeeze more fuel out of them with your turbosmart reg but I don't know if it'd be enough. Speak to your tuner who would have a better idea about sizes and brands and how much extra flow your reg will get you. I have an adjustable Nismo reg but haven't installed it because I don't need it yet. I really like these Sards though, they're smoother than I expected and idle very nicely even when cold (when the ECU is behaving, it stumbles 2-3 times when aircon kicks in but it did that on the factory injectors too, need to re-program the PowerFC's idle soon). I couldn't tell these aren't factory injectors, and bigger injectors are meant to be a bit rough at idle/cruising. I'm not familiar with the HKS rail, I'm using the factory rail (RB26) for these injectors if that helps at all.

Spotted neat looking silver R33 GTS-t heading south in traffic jam in Parramatta around 3pm, WPN 33R I think, SAU sticker across back windscreen. I was on my way to Westfield but the traffic was banked up so bad and most of it seemed to be trying to get into Westfield that I quit while I was ahead and went back home.

I found the torque specs I used for the Suzuki Swift GTI that I changed the gearbox on recently. A completely different make/model, but it seems to have the same sort of large tapered fit plug into an alloy casing so I imagine these should be fine. I'm going to use them anyway. Oil filler/level plug: 36 to 54 Nm Oil drain plug: 25 to 30 Nm

This is mostly just a warning to anyone that has bought a Skyline and never changed the gearbox/diff oils or let the workshop's apprentices do it. Make sure all your gearbox and diff drain and fill plugs aren't done up too tightly or it can split the casings! My story: A few months ago I noticed a small but growing patch of oil under the car in the garage. At first I thought it was just spillage from my general servicing but as it grew I realised it was transmission fluid by the smell. So I decided to have a better look under the car while I was upgrading my turbos and noticed a very thin film of oil over the whole gearbox. The leak seemed to be coming from the top of the gearbox. There were 2 leaks in the gearbox! The first one was the rubber boot on top of the gearstick had split over time, so it was no longer sealing and there was oil leaking out around the top and splashing down all over the sides of the box. This was a $20 part from Nissan I think (2 days for it to arrive) and very easy to fix. I thought that was that, but after a quick test drive I noticed it was getting another film of oil starting from the drain plug. Long story short, the compliance yard had done up the filler plug too tightly and it had created a hairline split next to it over time. However it had only just started to crack it enough to start leaking oil after about 20000km of driving, so it was only done up a little too tightly. Over around 3-4 months I had lost around 300cc of gear oil, which may well be too much to lose even with normal driving. Fortunately gear changes were still very slick and I didn't have too many gear shavings on the magnet and the oil itself is very clean, but I still feel there are more than there would be had I lost no oil. There are few ways to fix the split casing (as I found from searching in here), from dropping the box and welding it properly from the inside, or using some sort of putty or welding it in place from the outside. Since my leak was very small and I got several months warning about it, I went the cheap and nasty fix to see if it works. I cleaned the whole area around the split, applied some thread lock into the fracture, smoothed it down and pushed the thread lock into the crack as best I could. Then cleaned the surface again and smeared on a thick top coat of JB Weld and let set for 24 hours before re-filling the gearbox (I'm about to do the last stage now). I will check it every few weeks to see how it holds up over time and report in here. The funny thing about the split is it doesn't start right at the threaded part of the filler hole. There's a 1cm gap of flat unbroken metal before the split starts and goes for about 2cm. I did plenty of overlap with the JB Weld to make sure I covered any splits that I couldn't see yet. I do have one question which I couldn't find an answer to after a lot of searching and will be useful to anyone changing their gearbox/diff fluids and not wanting to kung-fu chop their gearbox/diff housings like a bonus stage in Mortal Kombat. Does anyone know what the torque settings are for the drain and filler plugs are? If I can't find any information I'm going to treat them like a taper-fit spark plug (just a pinch of a turn with the socket after finger tight or so) One last hint for anyone unable to crack those over-tightened drain and filler plugs. Heat them up with a little butane blowtorch. I used a $30 one I got from Jaycar but a cigarette jet lighter might be enough. I was unable to budge the drain or filler plugs at all, so I tried heating the plugs uniformly around the edges for about half a minute and then they both undid very easily after this. Many thanks to wrxhoon who helped me find the sources of these leaks and their likely causes.

Well it's roughly in the middle, kind of up the top but a bit off centre and you have to poke around a little until you find it. Feedback from the owner is usually necessary... Hang on what are you talking about again? I forgot already.

I have often wondered the same thing! Especially in the for sale forums where people make an offer for something posted 5 years ago. Oh, and please don't ask me how I found this thread or why I replied to it. Trade secret!

I want to back up the tune on a PowerFC but the injector and fuel settings are all showing up as zero on the hand controller. I assume this is some sort of copy protection put on by the tuner to stop people copying their tune, but I was wondering if there was an easy way around it? Edit: I spent about half an hour searching before I wrote this post and couldn't find anything, and I didn't notice anything in the faq when searching for "locked". But about 2 minutes after I posted this, I kept clicking through the search results pages, and on page 18 I saw this post, which answers my question - http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/Pf...em-t175791.html So anyway, my new question is can I borrow someone's data logit for a few hours, and does anyone know what CRD's password is

I can finally upload pics so here is the before and after shots. As you can see, even the factory dump pipe flange is touching on the rear turbo compressor. Don't mind the heat wrap, it's been re-used from my old Skyline and that's why it's shredding all over the place. It's only a temporary measure for now. I've been carefully bending the front pipes back into shape with a scissor jack levering a breaker bar off the chassis. If I can't get it happening in the next hour or so I'm gonna quit it and try the Duncan dent on the weekend

Ok I had a look at some photos I took during each step when I was removing stuff (still can't attach files here) and even when it was the factory dumps and turbos, the exhaust flange almost touched on the rear turbo compressor housing. So I've definitely got the dumps pipes on the right ends, short on front and long on rear. It' s just a combination of the slightly bigger compressor housings and the dump pipes which take up more space than the factory ones even with the heat shields on. I have gained some extra space by loosening everything and shifting it around a little and tightening back up. It would fit except for the heat wrap which makes it too thick, but without it then I will have hot stainless steel touching on the aluminium intake, which is not good. So I might have to hammer a small dent into the dump, but not as much as I first thought. I also found I have to either drop the front turbo down again or rotate the rear compressor temporarily to fit the bolt for the intake in. I'm gonna have dinner now and and watch some Benny Hill.

They aren't HKS dumps, just ebay cheapies. I will take another look when I get home tonight, but I think they won't go the other way around because of the different angle and height of the dump-to-front pipe flange. If they are the wrong way around though, the previous owner has shoehorned the factory dumps in the wrong way around too because I made note of each dump pipe as I took it out and matched them to the new ones.

I thought I should put a post up because searching has not been working since last night (so my apologies if this was already answered elsewhere ages ago) For the past few weeks I've been slowly been upgrading the factory turbos on my GTR with the HKS 2530's I bought ages ago but never had time to fit. I'm only spending an hour or 2 each day on it (missing some days for various reasons) and I'm right up to the end and I've hit the biggest snag I've hit in the whole project. This is the situation as simply as I can put it - The aftermarket dump pipe from the front turbo touches the compressor housing of the rear turbo, which then touches on the aftermarket HKS metal intake of the rear turbo. Aside from this being a far from ideal situation for heat, the main problem is it stops the intake pipe flange from sitting in position on the turbo (ie, I can't bolt it in). I will post pics when the forum starts working again, it currently won't let me. The problem is due to the aftermarket dump pipes being wider than the factory ones due to the split wastegate outlet, but I think it is also compounded by aftermarket the front pipe (unknown brand, came with car) being slightly pushed up and out of position after many years of hitting the occasional speed bump. There is no flex pipe in the front pipe so it's going to affect the fitting of the turbos and dumps directly. Here are the things I've already thought of to fix it, along with my misgivings about each option. 1. Rotate the rear compressor housing slightly to allow fit - I'm not entirely sure that this will allow it to fit, but I may give it a shot anyway (it's hard to get to the bolts without removing the turbo though) 2. Replace the front turbo's dump pipe with the factory one, which will clear it - Ugh, for several reasons. 3. Take front turbo back out again and hammer a flat spot onto the bit that touches the rear turbo parts (already tried this in car, not working) - Not as much "ugh" as above, but still ugh. 4. Try to bend the front pipe inlets back into a more normal position to provide the extra 5mm or so space I need. I think there is enough free play n the manifold and turbo mountings to accommodate this - This is my prefered option, but it is very difficult to bend tough tubular stainless steel without using the road (speed bumps). 5. Replace front pipe with a new one and/or one with a flex fitting - kind of ugh because the front pipe is in good condition aside from being bent slightly out of shape. I imagine any second hand front pipe will have the same issues if it's ever scraped the concrete. I can't justify this expense without first trying to bend the old one back into alignment. 6. Tow the car to a mechanic and pay them to sort it out (ugh, and maybe even impossible given the location of my garage) 7. Grind some off the flange of the rear intake pipe, which will allow it to sit further back onto the turbo and clear the dump pipe - It's only aluminium so will probably weaken it more than it should be, and also I'd need this done professionally to get it 100% flat. 8. Replace rear intake pipe with one that fits - It'd have to be metal or it'd melt onto the dump pipe, and any metal ones would probably have the same issue I have now. I'm sure there are other things I've thought of but can't remember them right now. Any other ideas?

Have you got the details for the shop at Minto? I should get some of those tips for future use, but also other people that might be reading this thread could make use of the info. Notably the 2 people that voted with the gung ho option It is good to see that other people have already ported their manifolds. Makes me feel like less of a leper. Or if I still am, I'll just join you other DIY lepers in the colony.

What's wrong with them is the price Even though the GTR is an expensive hobby I don't feel I have to spend money for the sake of getting it perfect. I have put off installing these turbos mostly for that reason and in the end I decided that I'd rather have a budget install than none at all. I'm not going to skimp on the tuning at all which will be the important place to spend the $$$. I don't think I'm going to get $1000 worth of value from a pair of HKS manifolds. I'm pretty sure I'll get the whole install and tune done for around $1000 including parts and labour, and I can't justify doubling that budget just for the sake of new aftermarket manifolds. (+$2000 for turbos, but I spent that 2 years ago so that doesn't count )

I was thinking the same thing! Or to make people buy an upgraded Nismo/N1 manifold, if they were ever made. Which would probably just be the same casting, but with the same bit machined out Oh, and I tried to get a good photo of both flanges lined up next to each other, or even a before and after shot at the same angle/distance but it wasn't happening. So I have cropped one of my photos with the gasket lined up on top. It originally had the other manifold lined up but on a different angle which made comparing them impossible. You can see the shiny scrapes along the edge I machined. I think I can take some more off the lower left hand corner (the inner bit, not the lip/edge) to give it a bit more volume and symmetry. Edit: The copper coloured thing is the gasket, obviously. I used it every now and then to make sure I wasn't going out of bounds.

You have inspired me to get a closer port match with my last remaining dremel stone It's not that hard to match up fairly well, and it is also very easy to knock off the occasional rough spot of the factory cast as long as you're not aiming for perfectly smooth surfaces and matched ports. That's why I'm holding back on getting it perfect, because I cannot add metal back on if I take too much off. But since the consensus is that the closer the port match the better the flow, then the closer I get to matching the port should be some improvement. Even if I am 1 or 2 mm off, it's still better than the 5mm that the original size mismatch was (39mm across for factory, 44mm across for the 2530's) Also, I think the thread will evolve into either "Installed the 2530's and the turbos aren't as laggy as I thought they'd be", or "Installed the 2530's and the turbos are hella laggy! Let me go back to stock..." as I won't be able to tell if this mod has improved or worsened lag at all, because I'm doing all this at once. I am hoping the former, of course. Oh, I just thought of a third option - "My modified manifolds exploded under boost" (oh, and I don't mind the thread highjack. Everyone needs answers!)

Well, the first thing I did was use what seemed to be a die grinder in this cheapass drill bit set I have because I thought it'd be way out of the dremel's league. However, I managed to blunten it in fairly short order without taking much metal out, so rather than waste time looking for a proper die grinder from a professional tool shop I thought I'd give the dremel a shot since I had a few grinding stones in the kit. I'm surprised at the tenacity of these little stones, I went through only 2 little stones and it's virtually finished. Just not sure if I want to take a bit more metal out or not yet or if I want to neaten it up any more. I would advise anyone wanting to try this to buy a proper die grinder rather than waste so much time with a dremel, however if I had been as clumsy with the die grinder as I was with the dremel then I would have bigger missing chunks of flange to deal with. Also if nothing else, anyone that was curious to know if a dremel can do it (as I was), the answer is yes