JimX

Not $900, OVER $900! I think it was $970 or something stupid. I don't know the details but the replacement was under $200 fitted.

I think that 044 pumps aren't very reliable full stop. The amount of failures I've heard about has to be a pretty high proportion considering how few cars have these pumps. This is the first time I've heard that being in or out of the fuel makes a difference though. I guess all I can do is cross my fingers that mine is reliable. As much as these pumps are, they are still cheaper than some. My sister's Festiva fuel pump died last year, and she was quoted over $900 for a replacement! Not including labour. She got a cheapie aftermarket one.

So you're not planning on modding it at all?

An R33 will do that too so your point is?

What is the point of these posts? Is it really a significant deciding factor on which car to buy? If it is, I think you need your head examined.

You might be thinking of boost cut.

How do you gain low down torque by having more restriction in the intake?

They are $550 new from Greenline or Nengun without plug, so I wouldn't say $350 with plug is a ripoff, unless it's 10 years old+ or in otherwise crappy condition. If you shop around you can get them for under $300 but if it's as new then $350 is a pretty good price.

As far as I know it does. Sydneykid said that knocking on the stock ECU will cause the engine light to flash up, so presumably there are limits to how far it can retard the timing. The PowerFC will flash up the warning light when the knock level gets above 60, which is really useful because this is still below the limit at which you can hear the pinging from the engine. It's especially useful for poor bastards like me that can't afford the tune yet

Wot they said!

Yeah, the mechanic is a moron, trying to pass the buck. I would cut my losses and just take the car to someone that knows what they're doing. I don't think there's much point in "forcing" the original mechanic to fix the problem, more than likely he'll end up doing more damage to the car and not fixing the original problem. If you can get a more reputable mechanic to have a look at what's happened, and write out a report that indicates that the first mechanic was to blame, you should be able to send it to him along with a letter of demand of a refund plus expenses for your wasted time. If he refuses to pay, take him to small claims court. You should win easily.

What advantages does the brass button have over a regular clutch? Do they grab like ceramic clutches? Harder than normal pedal?

[pauline hanson]Please explain?[/pauline hanson]

No but neither can the PowerFC.

I don't have a spare $2500 lying around.

They don't exist. They're all a figment of our imagination

You have to cut the bar for any decent sized fmic. I haven't done it myself but the workshop that installed the fmic did so without too many dramas. I don't think it's that hard. Dump pipe and cat - get one of each from BATMBL! See the car parts trading forum.

Where are the tuned and plug'n'play options for each?

I've been told all over the place that Z32=higher resolution AND higher airflow capacity. But I get what you're saying. If I've been misinformed then you should use the AFM with the closest limits to your wanted power goals. Whatever the case I'd be getting an R33 AFM for only 200rwkw, just to save around $200.

One good unit out of 3 is not a good track record for a $1000 alarm.

Well my first reaction was going to be to tell you to search, but I tried searching myself and there's too much other Z32-related stuff to make it easy to find anything. So I'll try to sum it up in here, and hopefully other people searching in future will be able to find it too. Also hopefully I'm not too far off the mark, anyone with corrections please let me know! (heh, as if you wouldn't let me know I'm wrong anyway) Your AFM outputs between 0 and 5 volts, depending on the amount of airflow. On an RB25 AFM, it reads 0.5 volts or so at idle, and 5 volts at some pre-assigned amount of airflow, which usually works out to around 210rwkw. It's less on the RB20 AFM I presume. When the amount of airflow causes the AFM to hit 5 volts, it is said to have "maxed out" and won't go any higher. Your ECU usually interprets this as a message to dump as much fuel as possible in to avoid leaning out. A Z32/VG30 AFM has a finer resolution, and caters for more airflow. So at 5 volts, it's not 210rwkw, but say around 260rwkw. So the point of upgrading to a Z32 AFM isn't for more power, but for more tuneability for the ECU to be able to read the fairly large gap between 210 and 260rwkw. If running off the old AFM the ECU would just be dumping fuel in and you'd get a really bad power curve and waste a lot of fuel. If your goal is only 200rwkw, you might want to consider the much cheaper RB25 AFM instead. It's the same physical size as the Z32 AFM, but will support a bit more than your power goal. The R33/Z32 AFMs are bigger than the R32 AFM, but that's not the main point of the upgrade.

I haven't tuned my PowerFC yet. Been running pretty good for the past couple of months.

I took pics of the setup before I snipped anything off or bent anything into shape. This was before I realised that these 2 things were a must to be able to fit it. So all the pics I have are useless

Ha! Simple? Putting the pump back into the tank was by far and away the hardest part of the whole job! You need to bend the bracket backwards and to the right, because the 044 is too big to fit into the corner of the tank where the original comes from. When you stick your head in and look around you'll see what I mean. It's very hard to get the exact positioning, I just used trial and error. If someone has a proper formula for it please let me know! The factory bracket needs the top metal tube snipped off, and also the bottom bit which holds the factory bracket in place. To compensate for the loss of this bottom part you can bend a lip onto the bracket above where you cut it so that it's got some support. I took the top fitting on mine off, which is the part you're meant to get a banjo connector for. I couldn't find one anywhere so in the end one of the shops I was at said there was probably no reason I couldn't remove that ball bearing valve thing, so I tried and it was all good. Just bought some barb adapters for top and bottom, then hoseclamped the hoses and sock on.

$1500 for the job lot from Brant would be a much better deal, because Quiktrak is like $1200. So you'd be getting the Nemesis for only $300, and this is something I would definitely consider. Got any links for prices? I rang up Brant a few weeks ago and the guy was a bit short with me. Didn't really seem too interested in my business, probably because they are so popular and inundated with orders.