JimX

What sort of idiot would smash and grab your $100 boost gauge? I think you'd be more than likely have a thief smash and rifle through your console for spare change, and any CD's lying around. I know of many people that have had that happen, but I've never heard of a thief targetting an A-pillar gauge. The friends I know that have had this happen didn't even have any loose change or CD's visible through the window, the thief just took a chance and found them. The only problem with the instrument cluster mount is it can interfere with the reading of the other gauges. When I got my car my gauge was there, and it blocked off the tacho from around 5000rpm and up. So I removed it and later had it mounted on the A-pillar. If you can do it carefully enough though and have a small bracket, it won't block your view of the gauges. My mounting bracket wouldn't permit this though which is why I moved it to the A-pillar. Anyway, if a thief can see a boost gauge mounted on the A-pillar he can see it on your dash, so if you're worried about a thief stealing it, then best don't put it in your car at all. As for legality, I'm pretty sure you can be defected for having it on the A-pillar. But I've gone through several RBT's and no cop has even commented on mine, so in Sydney at least it tends to be something they generally ignore. But I'm sure that if I pissed a cop off they would quickly defect it. In that case though it could a distraction from something more of a pain in the arse to fix - like being too low or something. If they just want to look for one thing to quickly defect you, the A-pillar gauge is easily fixed and preferable to almost any other defect IMO.

The '95 model is often referred to as the series 1.5 because it looks like a series 1, but has many series 2 components, such as ECU, engine, AFM, etc. If yours is a late 95 model, it's definitely a series 1.5 and has the improved bits in it.

My 044 has exposed wires. There'd be no way to really seal them on an internal pump I don't think, fuel has a very low surface tension and it gets through everything easier than even water would. If the circuit is good then there's nothing for it to spark against anyway. If you really want to test it, get a car battery and a small amount of petrol, and try sparking it with wires to make the fuel ignite. Do it under the most favourable conditions you can think of. See how hard it is to do, then imagine it being 100 times harder in your isolated fuel tank where you couldn't even breathe the air above the fuel due to the vapours. It's just not going to happen. I've read about stories where people accidentally set fire to their petrol tanks through the inlet (usually through static grounding of the pump), and there's only a tiny flame despite it being above 50 litres+ of fuel. The only place it burns is where it's getting enough oxygen from, which is the inlet. So you can stop it just by putting the petrol cap back on. Btw Tony, I saw a promo thingie on the History channel today about engineering's greatest failures. They had a bit where they showed a Pinto getting rammed from behind and exploding. I'm pretty sure that the main reason Hollywood picked up on the "crash -> explode" car phenomenon is entirely due to that great piece of American engineering. What I want to find out is where they picked up on the "crash head-on, then immediately vault into the air doing a torsional twist in a graceful arc before crashing back onto the ground" thing. Various movies/series spring to mind that do this, but the one that sticks in my head the most is the A-Team series from the early 80's. I don't think an episode went by where that didn't happen at least once. Sorry, I'm just ranting. It's late and I need to go to sleep.

You won't blow the tank even with a short. For a start, there is no air in the fuel, and you need air to have a fire/explosion. Secondly, even in the air above the fuel (if the fuel level drops below the pump) there are too many fuel vapours for it to ignite (ie, too rich a mixture). And thirdly, consider this - the fuel pump runs off 12v. The spark will be 12v. Your ignition system runs off 10's of thousands of volts, and even then sometimes it fails to ignite even when vapourised and at the correct mixture (think cold cranking on cold winter's morning). Put it short (no pun intended) you're not going to blow up even if you botch the wiring

Pull gear off, re-align properly with the marks on the backing plate, put it back on. The only way you can get it wrong really is if you don't know about the marks on the backing plate. As I didn't when I was doing things the first time

5W-50 isn't any thinner than 15W-50, except when cold, when you shouldn't be revving it anyway.

Just for anyone that thinks Motul is the be-all and end-all of engine oils - When my lifter blocked up and started rattling, I was running Motul oil. Now, I'm not specifically blaming this oil for causing the blockage, but people have a tendency to blame whatever oil they're running at the time for whatever engine problems occur, especially with blockage of the galleries etc. I don't know if the Motul oil caused my problem, but with the last oil change I have also noticed for the first time the lines going to my catch can starting to stain with blow-by, as well as oil stains on my rear bar near the exhaust. This could just be a coincidence, maybe my engine is just naturally starting to wear at this point in time and I just happened to be using Motul oil while it happened. But I am going to change brands to see if it makes any improvement. I have also had no problems using Motul oil on my motorcycle. I think I will switch back to it because it's cheaper than the Castrol I'm currently using in it. Or I might try Mobil.

The pumps don't come with a banjo fitting, that's why I had to remove the valve. Sorry I misread your post, I thought you already had a banjo fitting for it I went to Pirtek and Earl's who both have a bazillion connectors, and neither had a banjo connector of the right size. I spoke with the guy at Earl's and he said it shouldn't be necessary, and a couple of other people have told me likewise since. I've still got the valve though, in case someone comes up with a good reason for putting it back on and gives me a banjo connector to suit. But until then it stays in my spare parts box.

Because the thickness of oil doesn't determine how well it protects your engine. Unless your engine is excessively worn and the clearances are a little bigger, in which case thicker oil will help "take up the slack". But people have a misconception that thicker oil=better engine protection, which isn't necessarily the case. There is no problem with 5W-30 oil if your engine is brand new or in good condition, and it's not making ridiculous amounts of power. I only started getting problems with my car after I switched to a heavier oil. Now, I don't know whether it was the Castrol or the Motul that caused problems, or even if the problem would have happened anyway. But I'm now having to switch to 15W-50 oil to help protect the potentially worn lifters. I think the only other things I'll notice is decreased power and economy.

Nothing that I know of. The only thing I can think of is that the valve would keep the fuel line under pressure even when off. I don't think it would all drain back down into the tank, because that would mean air would have to get in the line. Where would the air come from? The regulator should stop any air coming back through the return line. Get a straw full of liquid and hold it by the top covering the end to see what I mean.

I've accidentally had it out by a tooth, in the retard direction. It idled fairly roughly, and lost all top-end power.

Bigger throttle bodies are not really necessary unless you're cranking out stupid amounts of power, because the turbo forces the air through. It used to be with carb-fed NA cars, you increase the "suck" efficiency by increasing the diameter of the items in question. That would mean a carb with bigger or more throttle bodies, and also a bigger diameter fuel line. But with turbos and pressurised fuel lines, the size of them became less important. Put it this way - You can squirt much more fuel through a 1/4" fuel line with a fuel pump than a carb'd engine could ever suck down a 5/8" fuel line. The same theory applies to your throttle body. Of course there is going to be a limit where you can't force any more air through and you need a bigger one, but that's probably not until you reach well over 250rwkw. If you go bigger before then, all you'll do is introduce more lag.

I'll take them Can I DD you $15, you take postage out of that and then forward the rest to Christian? Postage won't be more than $5 will it?

A lot of timing lights will show up double the actual timing. I went to set mine to 15 degrees, and it showed up as 30. Which is lucky, because that's where the last mark is on the pulley. If you want to set yours to 20 and your timing light also shows double, you might have to make your own marks.

The banjo fitting isn't necessary. With my 044 I couldn't find one that fit the ball bearing valve on the top of the pump. Spoke to a few people, the consensus was that it is to stop fuel running back down into the tank, but that it's not necessary. So I took it off and fitted a standard barb connector and it's never had a problem. Not even extended cranking after sitting idle for 2 weeks. The 044 primes so fast that the valve isn't needed. Since you already got the banjo fitting that's good, but if anyone else out there can't find one then you don't need it.

RB20 are top feed (same as GTR) but wrong impedance. You need resistor packs. But since RB20 injectors are only 270cc, it's probably a worthwhile upgrade if you can get the resistor packs cheap enough. I have heard that there are SOME rb20's which use low impedance. Best thing to do is measure the resistance on your injectors and compare with the ones you're about to buy. If they're around the same then you don't need resistors.

I wouldn't know what to think. There are several people here with Patrol clutches now. To you guys - How many hard launches has the clutch withstood so far?

If a GTR box will handle it, an R33 GTS-t box will handle it. They are almost the same.

Synthetic oil contains detergents which are meant to clean your oil galleries and keep them clean. Obviously the oils I had been using (Motul and Castrol) did not do a good job of this. Mobil 1 has the best reputation for keeping your engine clean so I am going to switch to it. The lifter could still be on its way out and I could get the same problem again soon despite having a clean engine, but at least by running Mobil 1 I can largely rule out engine deposits. The advice here is if you are starting to get noisy lifters, the first thing to do is do an engine flush and put in some valve lube stuff (buy it from Auto 1 or the like).

You can buy thick clear flexible plastic which does the same job. Imagine that contact stuff you used to put on your schoolbooks, but thicker. Virtually invisible, which is the point. Not sure where to get it but I remember seeing an ad for it a few years ago in the NRMA magazine.

Blah. Well no one had any idea, but it's been fixed now at the workshop. I had a non-working lifter on the intake side which caused it to lose compression on startup. The noise was all in the valves when running. I take back what I've said previously about not needing an engine flush if running synthetic oil - my engine definitely DID need it. Since the flush it still has a faint noise, but it's at least working properly now. The affected lifter may be worn which could have made the problem worse, but either way it was blocked and is now 10 times better than it was. I'm going to switch to Mobil 1 oil, which is meant to be the best type for preventing deposits (as well as all the other stuff it's meant to be good for).

Jeebus cripes that's impressive! I wouldn't give a rat's that it's 11:1 AFR either, with that kind of power it's better to be safe. You're at the level where you don't need to wring every last kw out of the engine, except maybe in the low-end. You just need to keep it smooth and safe enough for the stock internals to handle up top.

It is a common problem. I replaced all the tints on my car when I got it (they were all defective in one way or another) and the lines very faintly started appearing again on the new tints after a few months. One time I had the door trim off and I loosened off the nut that holds down the front felt thing, and it kind of twisted slightly. I put it back where I thought it should be, and after that I could no longer hear the window squeaking on that felt anymore. Since then I haven't noticed the lines getting any worse at all. I don't know if it was just badly aligned or pressing too firmly against the window, but if you've got the same problem it can't hurt to loosen it off and try adjusting it slightly. To me it looked to go back where it came from but whatever I did has definitely helped. Probably not perfect, but I can save myself from re-tinting that window for a lot longer than if I didn't touch it.

How many things do you have to plug before you play? And is the base tune good enough to drive around for a few months before you tune it or do you need to take it straight the dyno?

Usually around 215rwkw or so, but the PowerFC will tell you when it's maxed out. I wouldn't be overly concerned, because it will just dump fuel in when past the limit so you'll get a bogged down top end, assuming the injectors aren't maxed out also. Just try it with the original AFM and see what happens, if you don't get the warning light then there's no reason to change the AFM.