JimX

I'm getting my S-AFC tuned at Hills next week, for $140. I had also rung up Croydon, and they wanted $300! :eek1: Does anyone know why Croydon costs so much more? Since this is only an S-AFC I'm more concerned with cost than end results, but Hills have a good reputation and they use a dyno so I can't see why Croydon costs over double. Can someone explain why? If Croydon genuinely is better (eg they can get me an extra 10kw) then I might go with them when I can afford my Power FC. But if there is no difference other than price I may as well stick to Hills.

That's too far away A happy medium needs to be struck. You just have to use your spider sense in car parks and figure out where the lowest risk areas are. Touch wood mine has worked very well so far. (touch wood again!)

For people in states where it's illegal to get a radar detector, keep in mind that the cops can still detect the "stealth mode" ones, without any extra hardware! What they do is leave their equipment off then periodically switch it on as cars are approaching. The ones with the detectors will almost always go for the brakes, and they pull these guys up and search the vehicle until they find the detector. Scummy, but effective!

Change the gearbox oil after every track day?! Jeebus!!!!! Transmission oil is different to engine oil. Most of the contamination in engine oil comes from the partial burning of it, plus it gets mixed in with fuel etc, all of which end up breaking down the rest of it. A gearbox is a sealed unit though, with no burning going on. It only wears out as the gears squish all the oil molecules together and they eventually get separated and they don't lubricate properly anymore. You do tend to get some metal particles in the box, but most of these settle down the bottom and aren't too much of a concern. My gearbox had never had an oil change when I got the car at around 85000, so when I changed it there was a LOT of metal in it. And yet the box was good both before and after without too much of a concern. You're only getting a few shavings after a track run, if you're running a good quality transmission oil (eg Redline) then I don't see why you'd change it after every track day unless you were racing professionally or something and someone else was paying for your oil. As for engine oil, I change it every 5000 just for simplicity's sake, but I pay attention to the colour. It should end up a sort of dark brown/gold colour when I change it, I never let it go completely black (which it usually does by 10000). As long as it still has some of the gold colour left in it, it's doing well over 90% of the work it was doing when it was fresh. With my current driving habits the oil so far is still fine and it's almost done 5000 since I got it. A good quality filter is essential, never skimp on that. A good quality filter should last for 10000, but what you're more concerned about is the size of the particles it lets through even when it's brand new.

Even though I hate the risk of shopping centres, I would advise against taking up 2 spots unless the car park was nearly empty. Reason being it pisses people off, and they would be more inclined to key your car. Just follow all the other suggestions, ie find spots where you are less likely to get hit, ie far from the entrance, and nowhere near the trolley return bay or any stray trolleys. Sure someone could just wheel their trolley up and hit your car with it anyway but your chances of being hit are massively increased even if there is one stray trolley nearby (whether by accident or on purpose).

My front is lower than the back by about an inch, but everything is brand new. The old worn out suspension had the rear about 1" lower Just because one end is lower than the other doesn't mean it's worn out or stuffed, although if your rear is lower than the front it's more than likely not done that way deliberately so something is probably wrong.

Erm, and this is a performance mod how? I'm looking at a photo of a series 1 and 2 front end right now, and it looks like only the inner top corners are different. You'd probably want to check and measure them physically before buying them though. I don't think the plastic is any different between series 1 and 2. You probably just need to give yours a bit of cut back polish. My series 1 headlights are very clear aside from a couple of tiny spots of dullness. I'll polish these out one day. Have a look at the attached pic of my front end, you can see the right headlight is reflecting lots because it's in the light, and the left headlight you can barely see at all because it's in the dark and almost perfectly clear. The clarity of the headlights was one of the first things that struck me about this car. Personally I think the rounded series 1 corners look better than the series 2, but that's just me.

Warpspeed, Torque is the only thing acting on your wheels, so you're splitting hairs here. The simple reason why your car accelerates slower in a taller gear is because you are reducing the power to your wheels. Have you ever seen a dyno chart? The torque curve stays fairly flat all the way along, but the power goes up with the speed and eventually tapers off. If what you were saying was true it'd be the other way around. What I'm saying is if you have a high powered engine with not a lot of torque, you can compensate for a lack of torque with gearing, which will improve your acceleration but won't improve your top speed unless you had a really short ratio, and you lengthen it to the point of finding the engine's torque limits. Once you're past the threshold of your maximum torque, no amount of gearing will increase your top speed. Even if you're not redlining, eventually there will be a gear ratio that will limit the vehicle's top speed. It is a lack of torque here that's stopping you going any faster, not power. Therefore you could say that the amount of torque governs your top speed. Your example actually illustrates this. You're talking about a high terminal speed. You're using power to accelerate to this speed, not maintain it. So yes, you need a high powered engine to get to that point as quickly as possible, but the actual speed you can reach is a reflection of your torque. Even most normal cars have enough power and torque to keep accelerating way beyond the standing quarter mile so it's not a very good example. I have ridden 250cc motorcycles that can accelerate quite quickly to about 130kph, but the top speed is like 150 and the acceleration from 130-150 is much less than from 0-130. When at 150 in top gear, the engine is way below redline but it just won't go any faster even if you drop it back a gear. These bikes have high powered engines (40hp or so) but very little torque, which is why they can't go any faster. I maintain that I am entirely correct, and even your example proves this. If I'm half correct then that means you're also half correct, which means we're both correct? That doesn't make any sense

You got that around the wrong way. With a lot of power you can gear it down for very quick acceleration, but without the torque your top speed will suffer. So on a simplistic basis, you could say that power=acceleration and torque=top speed. Of course gearing affects this, but that's the basics. A lot of people talk about fast drag cars which have a lot of torque, but these also have a shitload of power. Take a look at a Mack truck. It has mammoth amounts of torque but not too much power (on a relative scale). They accelerate like slugs but can still get up to well beyond highway speeds. You're not going to run a 9s quarter mile on a normal truck engine no matter what your gearing is.

Change the oil yourself, should take less than 15 minutes. That way you know what's being used in your car. I would change it every 5000km or so personally, and depending on the quality of the filter I would change it every 5000 or 10000. Other fluids (brake, transmission, diff, clutch) don't need to be changed for 50000 or 100000km. So change them all when you get the car and forget about them for the next few years. According to the owner's manual, the transmission fluid NEVER needs to be changed if the car is used for private use, and at 100000 if it's used for business. Personally I would change it no later than 100000 regardless.

I got Bilstein shocks and Whiteline springs for a bit over $1300 too. Labour to fit was about $200 so I decided to do it myself. Didn't take too long and was very easy so I can't justify the extra cost. Turtle, when you say you can "feel every bump", are you sure it's just not because some ultra-hard Japanese Tanabe/Tein/Cusco/JIC/etc suspension? You might try adjusting the damping rate to see if that will soften up the ride a bit, if you have adjustables. If the shocks are worn your ride won't be harsh like that, the car will just start to bounce up and down and not recover very well from bumps. It'll also tend to "float" over uneven roads/bumps. If the fronts are particularly bad your steering wheel will shudder horribly when both front wheels hit a bump at the same time. You can get cheap shock absorbers for your Skyline but I don't see the point if you intend keeping the car for any length of time. Just do the one-off investment on some good quality shocks (eg, Bilsteins) and when they *do* eventually wear out (they'll outlast any cheap brand) they can be rebuilt, probably for less money than a whole new set of cheapies. The added bonus is your handling will always be better than with the cheap set.

Sounds like it's had at least one VERY hard and missed shift in its life. These things should never snap off due to normal wear and tear. It is possible if the sprocket had a flaw in it when it was manufactured, but far more likely to have been broken due to abuse.

It's not a simple case of raising or lowering the pressures for the track. You have to find a happy medium which will allow the tyres to bleed off excess temperature. Either too high or too low pressure will cause them to overheat. Usually low to mid 30's for pressure is good but you really have to experiment. I run mine on about 36 for the street, used to run up to 40 on my previous car but found the sidewalls got slightly distended after awhile. I haven't taken the car to the track yet so I don't know which way to move it from here, I'll have to experiment myself.

If you can't find the sticker saying it's been changed then err on the side of caution and change it. It's meant to be done at 100000km or thereabouts, if that baby snaps your engine is going to be up for some serious repairs. Belts are around $110 from Nissan (genuine), or around $30 (I think) for a 3rd party one from your local mechanic. Labour to fit should be around $150 or so, if you don't wanna do it yourself. It's a medium difficulty job, even though I'm sure I could do it if I absolutely had to, I think I would just pay the $150 and get a mechanic to do it. It's a once-every-5-to-10-year job after all. Ask the importer what oil he used, if it was just cheapshit Woolies oil then change it again anyway, it's a small price to pay to protect your engine and turbo. The rest of your fluids can probably wait, but change them as soon as you can: Transmission oil (almost certainly never changed by any previous owner) Brake fluid Clutch fluid Diff oil I've done everything bar the brake fluid on mine so far, it was going to be done by Midas but I forgot to bring my wheel locknut key and they were too lazy/inept to bleed them with the wheels on. I've done it myself on other cars plenty of times with no problems/hassles so I think they were just being lazy. I might do it myself soon if I can get motivated enough.

Yep, as does the factory item. I'm just hoping to design it so that it won't jump around too much and if it does it will land back where it started. Perhaps some foam underneath to help absorb any clunking sounds, or even velcro to hold it down? I could always use nut and bolt type fasteners or clips, but that'd probably mean drilling into the floor of the boot and I definitely don't want to do that. This is turning into a major project, why couldn't they just design something good from the factory? (sigh)

Well I had a good look the other day and I don't know how this is going to work. There doesn't appear to be any lip around the edge for the floor to sit in. What I might do is make something with legs on it so that it sits inside the spare tyre well, but I don't know if this is going to work if the spare tyre is in there. Ah, I just had a brainstorm! Instead of legs to support the whole thing from the bottom of the tyre well, maybe just little bits of wood to keep it in place around the lip of the well to stop it sliding around. Then the actual floor itself can be any shape at all and it shouldn't shift around. Anyway I'll see what I can figure out eventually.

Ah, got it sorted. I was sharing the soldering duties with a friend, and he stuffed up the ground connection I put this back on correctly and it was all sweet. I also found that the mysterious power pin which never seemed to have any voltage on it whether the ignition was on or off is still the correct wire to drive the unit. It has NVRAM so you don't have to worry about d/c the battery (tested it), and I daresay that when the car is off it draws absolutely no power from your battery. The manual was a bit ambiguous for the In/Out settings of the Hot Wire sensor numbers (it seems they both need to be set to the same even though the example has a different number for the second) but the engine seemed happy to set the In/Out both on 4 and it's all running smoothly now. It stumbled a lot when I left the Out on 1 like in the example so I put it back to 4. Now to get it tuned! Does anyone know who can do a decent job for a reasonable price in Sydney?

Well I finally got around to installing the S-AFC, but major problems! No frying of circuitrry thankfully, but the unit just won't power up. I double-checked all the wiring and it was all fine, but then I noticed the power wire wasn't actually getting any power at all (2nd from the edge on the last row of 20). However, the one next to it, 3rd from the edge, was getting 12v. So tentatively I wired the power up to this wire, but the unit still wouldn't power up. To make sure I didn't kill anything I disconnected the loom and it started up fine, so the ECU isn't fried. But I don't know why this AFC isn't working. Could it be dead? Do I have to press some buttons to switch it on or something? (manual doesn't say). Can I check it by sticking the power and earth wires across a battery, or does it require a signal wire as well to switch on? This is driving me crazy, it took ages to wire up because of all the splicing I had to do. If I can't sus it out I think I'll have to send the unit back.

Gtr13, the heavy weight oil is good if your gearbox is a little old and crunches a bit. For a new or reconditioned box the lightweight would be better. But for a worn box or maybe a competition/racing box, the heavy is better because it HELPS the synchros work better (ie less crunching), it doesn't hinder them. And it's not physically much thicker than normal gearbox oil, no easier or harder to put in than any other type. I got a mechanic to do mine anyway so it made no difference to me how difficult it was. I've changed tranny oil in the past and always ended up getting it all over myself. That stuff stinks! I was happy to pay someone to avoid having to smell like that for weeks.

There's a lot of talk everywhere about emissions lately, and even the current model MX5 has dropped a bit of power in order to meet some new emissions standard. What I want to know is, why are emissions so hard to control? Aren't the "emissions" just unburnt fuel? I would have thought that if you improved the ignition and maybe ran a better quality catalytic converter with a good O2 sensor that it shouldn't matter how much power you're running. If all the fuel is burnt you should in theory be able to run mega horsepower and not worry about emissions. So anyway, it doesn't seem as simple as that or it wouldn't be such a concern. Can someone explain why it's so hard to control them?

NIZ30, I have no idea. I mail ordered mine from someplace in Melbourne. What's wrong with mail order out of interest? They did dick me around for a day or 2 because they didn't realise they were out of stock before I placed the order, but it still arrived before the weekend via Express Post (ordered Monday) which is the soonest I was able to put it in anyway.

It all comes down to cost. You can get an S-AFC for around $600, whereas a Power FC is over double that. You probably won't get twice the power gains with a Power FC! (it depends on your setup though). But the S-AFC is better than nothing. My advice would be to get whichever you can afford. If you don't have much spare cash, get the S-AFC, then sell it and upgrade to the Power FC once you can afford it. That's what I'm doing Regarding the bigger AFM, do you just change the meter itself or all the plumbing behind it? Just looking at my intake it all seems to be uniformly the same diameter down to the turbo, I can't figure out what benefits a larger AFM would give.

I can't figure out how the pump would affect fuel surge one way or the other. If you're getting it, just buy/install a surge tank. Simple solution

I had the crunchies in my gearbox, mostly 1st -> 2nd and 4th -> 5th but occasionally on any gear shift. I put in some Heavy Weight Shockproof oil and all crunching has disappeared, except for 1st -> 2nd when it's cold. No other gears crunch when cold, and when warm even 1st -> 2nd is fine. I contemplated putting some Lightweight Shockproof Oil in the diff but I would have had to spend the same again (~$100) with LOTS of oil left over and there would be no tangible benefit because the diff never crunches So I just put in some LSD-grade diff oil from GP Auto, cost about $20. I wouldn't say there's no point in putting the Shockproof oil in a new or rebuilt gearbox. The point of it isn't to stop crunching, it's to protect the gears and stop them smashing into each other. If you use it from the very start your gearbox will probably last twice as long. Stopping the crunches on a worn box is just one of the nicer side effects. When you consider the price of even a reconditioned box, an extra $100 is not much. I will be using it from now on whenever I have to change the box oil.

Here's that site I couldn't find the other day with sound samples of various bov's. The sound quality isn't too great but you get the general idea. Personally I think the GReddy Type R sounds best, but I don't know if that's just because my car came with one and I'm used to it, or the previous owner thought it also sounded cool and I was therefore lucky to get it http://www.alltrac.net/tuning/blowoffvalve.html