JimX

That is farkin' annoying. The lack of head checking I mean. If someone is going to do that the least they can do is position their mirrors so that they cover their blind spot. That's how I've got mine, which means I have to crane my head slightly if I want to use the mirror to see the whole lane behind me. Despite that, I still do a head check even though my mirrors cover the blind spot. Humans have a tendency to sometimes ignore what is right in their direct line of sight, so at least doing it this way I've got 2 different perspectives on the same bit of road and I'm much less likely to not notice something in the blind spot. I've not ever missed something in the blind spot since I started doing this many years ago. On the bike it's a different story. Because I have no middle rear vision mirror I have to put my wing mirrors to cover the lane behind me. So I have to just rely on the head check. But this is one reason why I am extra careful when changing lanes on the bike, and I tend to ride faster than the surrounding traffic to minimise the chances of someone sneaking up on my blind spot.

Not sure what you're trying to say with that.

Based on the poll as it currently stands you have a 60% chance of crashing your car whether it's your fault or not, and a 10% chance of having it written off. Why the hell anyone would want a nice car like a Skyline for their first car is beyond me. Why don't you get a cheap POS car, that way it won't matter if you write it off. You're not even getting insurance (not like you could afford it anyway) and yet you're willing to take a risk that you only have a 40% chance of surviving your P's without damaging your car, and you have a 10% chance of writing it off and losing the whole $15k+. I think you would have better odds at the casino. I drove a variety of POS cars until I was 25 and could afford to not get ripped off on insurnace. I didn't have any accidents in that time or have my car stolen, and yet I don't regret it at all. I'm not saying everyone should follow my example, but a turbo Skyline as your first car when you just get your P's, goddamn. Good luck with it, because you're going to need lots of it.

Ok mine is the mildest "failure" by far, but at the time I thought it had died completely. I rang up Tony and asked his opinion since his engine had failed recently and I thought he might have some idea of what was wrong with mine. Fortunately this was just a thing which was cured by a couple of hundred dollars after I towed it to the workshop. Engine/Car: R33 GTS-t Type of failure: LOUD knocking type noise (not pinging) from top end of engine when idling. This happened one morning in my garage after not starting it for a week. When revved slightly the knocking noise increased in frequency as well. Very little compression when trying to start (engine turned over really fast), so it took a long time to kick over. I found out via the workshop that it was a blocked lifter causing a valve to not seal properly. In the end there was no damage to the engine fortunately. Factors influencing the failure: Crap quality oil, causing a lifter to become blocked with gunk. I had used Castrol Formula R for the past 4 or 5 oil changes since getting the car, and I believe it was this oil or the previous owner's unknown brand of oil that caused the blocked filter. State of tune of the engine: Tuned S-AFC Suspension and tyres: N/A Oil used and service interval: Castrol Formula R for around 20000km (changed every 5000), then swapped to Motul 8100. It was the Motul which actually caused the blockage, because it cleans out all the accumulated crap in the engine really well. Because there was so much gunk in there, it dislodged a fairly big chunk which ended up in a lifter causing it to become blocked. Even though it was the Motul that actually caused this blockage, I blame the previous owner's unknown brand of oil and the Castrol Formula R I had used. If you use Castrol all the time you may never get this problem, but only because it's not removing any buildup from inside your engine even if it's not adding any. I would not recommend Castrol synthetic oil to anyone for this reason. By the same token, I would say to be cautious when swapping from a crap/unknown brand of oil to a good one like Motul. I'd do an engine flush first, or at the very least do a flush if the valve train starts to get noisy. General comments: After a couple of hours at the mechanic's, who diagnosed it and ran 2 engine flushes through it, the problem was fixed. He said that it was possible that the lifter was worn and collapsed, because it was still making a slight noise afterwards. But I'm pretty sure it's ok now, because the noise has gotten less and less over time after using Motul 8100 oil again. The brown exhaust buildup on the rear bar is much less than it was before (as opposed to the black fuel buildup which is the same ), so most of the crap is now out of the engine.

Motul 8100 is thinner than Mobil 1 (5W-40 vs 5W-50) so it doesn't surprise me that the 8100 gets you better economy. You would get better economy again by using a 5W-30 oil. The other things you say I'm not sure how that works or why it's necessarily better because of it. Don't get me wrong, I'm not dissing your 8100 oil I use it myself too. I have found it to be better in one important way, in that it keeps the inside of your engine clean. But other than that, whether it's a better oil than any other synthetic other than Castrol (which gunked up my engine) I wouldn't know.

Why do you need your dad's permission to buy a car? Will he kick you out of home if you get a car he doesn't approve of or something?

$500 or less.

Why is 8100 the best?

If the tuner said a coil has decided to break down, get him to tell you which one. Buy/borrow a known working coil and replace it yourself, and if the problem isn't any better then get yourself a new tuner.

Funny you should mention that. The mechanic that sells Oil Extreme says he sells most of it to a local council (I think, some sort of government agency anyway) who use it on their bulldozers. Not for the extra power, but for the extra friction protection. They've been using it for years, so I presume it's doing something good.

If you have a standard PowerFC then it doesn't retard the timing with a high knock. The standard ECU does retard the timing.

I can't figure out why anyone would grind off the key on the CAS. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but surely there's a safer method of getting these ECUs to work? I consider grinding bits off the CAS to be incredibly dodgy!

I'm pretty sure that's what I have. I don't have many details because it was already there when I bought the car, and was just advertised as a "450hp T04 turbo". A guy from Garrett in Chipping Norton later identified it as a T04E, but he didn't mention the rear housing which internally gated. So I presume it's a T3/4 hybrid, although the exhaust housing doesn't look the same as the VL turbo housings I've seen. Not having driven a turbo car with a state-of-the-art HKS or GT Garrett turbo I can't really comment on the lag, but I've been a passenger in an R33 with a stock turbo and mine doesn't seem too bad in comparison. If I launch at about 3000rpm it does so decently without bogging down. I can't remember when exactly full boost (15psi) comes on but I've mentioned it somewhere in another thread. I think around 4000-4500rpm. I had the car tuned with an S-AFC before at 1 bar, and it got 215rwkw. This wasn't quite maxing out the injectors or the AFM. After I swapped the S-AFC for a PowerFC, it then maxed out the injectors and AFM at 0.9 or 1.0 bar. So at a rough estimate I would say that it's now getting around 215rwkw or a tad more at 0.8 bar. It's not the turbo I would have chosen if the car didn't come with it, unless it was dirt cheap and I was poor, which it is and I am. I'm guessing the previous owner thought the same thing. Depending on price I think it's a good turbo, and you could probably get one for half the price of a GCG 450hp factory rebuilt one. The exhaust housing is rather small, if it is indeed rated to 450hp I could probably get more out of it by getting a bigger exhaust housing for it. The compressor is .6 AR. Other things to consider are you will need a new dump pipe, so try to find one that comes with it to save some money.

You don't need an 044 pump. I got one and I didn't need one that big, but I got it anyway because it was so cheap. A 910 or 040 should be cheaper and better than a Walbro. The cost will balance out with the work you have to do to fit it, but if you get 550hp out of your Walbro I will give you $5. They rate their pump flow in a dodgy arsed way, with no fuel pressure. Under normal fuel pressure of a Skyline it's more like 400hp. I believe they now have a "high pressure" version, which you should get if you are considering a Walbro. The old model will not get you much more power than stock. Which is ok if your old pump is dying or dead anyway, but I would want to pay less than $300 for it.

My experience is similar to what Tony has been saying (in fact he may be talking about me in his post ) I put a Bosch 044 pump into my R33 and re-tuned the S-AFC. But before I did (there was a gap of a few weeks) I didn't really notice it running any richer. It probably did run a bit richer, but I didn't seem to lose power or economy. I was hoping to break 200rwkw with the tune because of the bigger pump, which I did (215), but it still started to run out of fuel at redline. Thus I had reached the maximum flow of the injectors. The options from there are to replace the regulator or the injectors. I went with the latter option, but I've still yet to put them in the car. Because I am now also maxing out the AFM, so I am saving up to get a Z32 AFM.

Wow, that's like having government-issued, interest-free credit card with a $1500 limit Even more if you only drive rentals.

Often a whislting type noise that's not the pod noise is the turbo wheels hitting the housing. Take off the intake hose to the turbo and check for free play and look for metal ground away on the housing or blades. If so get it rebuilt or replaced.

Hammer

Oh, not so much bad for the car as wasting fuel, and possibly having the car not engine-brake as much as you'd like (which could be bad for certain road conditions). The PowerFC won't lose its tune if you disconnect it, as far as I know it should only lose its idle tune, and even then I'm not really sure it does that. It may well be a continual thing, and it requires at least 10 minutes to override all the previous settings. Which would explain why mine has gotten gradually better even though I did the full 2 or 3 lots of 10 minutes (I forget how many now, but it took ages).

I've never had a starting problem with my 044 even thought I thought I might due to the removal of the valve. I am concerned about my wiring burning out though. Where does it tend to burn through? In the top of the fuel tank cap? I should check it when the pump gets hot. It's quiet until it gets warm. On a long highway ride in the middle of summer I can hear it over the engine, and it's embarrassingly loud when I pull into a servo. But in winter it's almost silent, unless I do a lot of driving in which case it's somewhere between silent and embarrassingly loud.

I was about to suggest you read that thread, but then I saw you found it yourself The dashpot sounds like an interesting idea, however when my car had the problem I found I would have to release the throttle *really* slowly to not stall. If that amount of slow throttle release happened every time I think it would be at least annoying, and at most dangerous to drive. I found that I could rev it in idle and then let go quickly and it wouldn't stall, it seemed to only stall if I was slowing down from normal cruising speed. Yours may be different, I don't know, but the EIDS thing seems like it might do a "smarter" job. Just one question, hope it's not too obvious - Did you teach the PFC to idle with the 10 minute idling thing? Before I got my PowerFC I had the stalling problem fairly bad. When I taught the PowerFC to idle it was still there but muchly improved. And after a couple more weeks of normal driving without actually "teaching" it to idle, it seems to have cured itself. It still does happen very rarely but I can't remember the last time it did. You might want to wait and see if it improves of its own accord before spending money on things to fix it.

That's almost in my price range. Got any pics? Have you got a dump pipe for it?

Congrats! No doubt you have male jelly coming out the wazoo

If it's metallic paint forget it. Those scratch repairs are only invisible if done on non-metallic paint.

How can you afford a GTR but not afford the insurance?