JimX

Don't get 35%, get 20%. It may be illegal but I've heard of very few people getting done for it. Also if the car was built in 1996 or earlier then it's actually legal to have darker than 35%. The thing with Skylines though is that it probably goes off the compliance date rather than the manufacture date, but you can always argue with the cops that it came like that from Japan. I've been RBT'd at night a couple of times and the cops have never evern mentioned that it might be too dark. And they did a full rego/licence check on me and everything! I'm just glad they didn't get me to pop the bonnet to find my illegal atmo bov I prefer the dark tint even on a silver car. It's reflective enough I think, and provides a good contrast for the rest of the car. This is what my 20% tint looks like. It doesn't generally look as dark as these photos indicate, especially when it's not overcast like it was when these pics were taken.

RedLineGTR, the coilpacks are held in by small bolts. There are 4 holes on each mounting bracket, but mine were only held on by 2 bolts each. I don't know if this is like that from the factory or if the previous owner CBF'd putting all 4 back in. Two on thediagonally opposite corners is more than enough anyway. Once the bolts are out, gently pull the coil pack up and off the plug. It's held on by a rubber moulding similar to what holds normal leads on plugs. You should probably unplug the wire from it before doing this, but in the interests of minimising the amout of stuff removed I left each coil pack hang there off the wire, doing one at a time.

Here's some pics I took of my air box/pod just after I installed them: http://members.optusnet.com.au/jimx/skyline/enginebay/

Nope, not for awhile either Got too much other (non-car) stuff to do

I was going to refer you to my original thread about it, but since then I've moved the pics out of my webspace I don't have any pics of the box here at work, I'll put some up when I get home.

INASNT, The UAS one isn't a "perfect" fit, but it's better than I could do myself I have FMIC. If you enjoy making stuff yourself then I say go for the home-made version. I just didn't have the time or patience to build it, though I do admit that putting the pre-fab'd one in was fun. I built a subwoofer box for my Commodore a couple of years ago and that was "kind of" fun, but I think this time around I'll pay someone else to do it MRK25T, the Hills version is a proper sealed box with a bottom as well rather than just a partition with a lid. It's aluminium rather than fibreglass and hella sexy. It's probably not worth the price difference based on performance improvement, but the Hills one looks better (IMO) and is of a better design. It's up to you which you prefer and how much you want to spend. I don't know if I'll ever get it, it's something that I think would be nice to have but the UAS fibreglass one is good enough for now.

Yes, but it takes time and probably won't look as good. How much is a weekend's worth of running around securing materials and drawing up plans and building worth to you? To me it was worth about $180 I knew there were plans for it lying around, but I cbf'd making one myself. I installed the box myself, that was enough of a challenge I'm even considering getting the Hills Motorsport aluminium one at some point, it costs around $400. Might wait until I can afford all the hardcore stuff at once though.

The Apexi pod doesn't need cleaning, or rather can't handle it. I think it's generally advertised as lasting forever, but I would probably replace it when it got too dirty. I got my cold air box from UAS, it's just a partition with a lid on it. Looks really nice though, worth the money I reckon (about $180). The only problem with it is that it doesn't have a scoop or anything. I'm thinking of cutting a hole in my panel and running some PVC tubing down to the front guard. Just need to get motivated

25GTT, I'm just wondering how you're expecting to get 310hp (230kw) at the wheels with those small mods and 14psi. Brendanf is only getting 220kw at 14psi and he's also got a new plenum and throttle body. I'm not saying you *can't* get those power figures, I just want to know what your theory is so I can do it to mine as well I've got a similar setup to you and I'm only getting 166kw@11psi atm. But most of my restrictiveness is from the really crappy FMIC plumbing, I'm going to get it done properly once I save up the required $400.

Does the Power FC have the rotational idle function? If not, which ECU's other than the Autronic and Wolf 4d have it?

INASNT, all I can say is don't believe everything you read. I read that article too and that's why I bought the Apexi. But after I installed it, the Apexi seemed to be more restrictive than the old HKS I had borrowed off a friend. The car had noticably less up-top than it did when I had the HKS in. Once I installed the cold air box this got resolved and I couldn't tell any difference between them, so I think just by design the HKS will suck in less hot air from the sides. So I'm thinking it has a better ram air effect than the Apexi, and if you don't have an air box/don't want one/can't afford one/whatever, the HKS is probably a better filter to buy. I know enough about foam filters (ie, crap at filtering) to believe their filtration test results though, which is the main reason I bought the Apexi.

If you don't oil it then it will just let through the smaller particles of dust. Which may not be that bad if you don't drive through any particularly dusty areas, but keep in mind that even when oiled the HKS filters let in a fair few particles of dust. They're designed for the track, where dust and engine longevity usually aren't of much concern. That said though, I bought my car with a crappy unoiled Redline pod filter which you could actually SEE gaping holes in, and I don't think the engine is any worse for it even though it was a couple of months before I got my Apexi pod. But then again, I never made a habit of driving it through dust storms either

Not sure how you clean metal mesh filters. I would presume you just spray them with some sort of mild solvent (contact cleaner maybe?) or soak them in something for awhile then wash them out and let them dry. Any metal mesh filter experts around? Either way, they don't need oiling. And because you say it's metal, I'm pretty sure it's a Blitz (could be wrong though)

Are you sure that's an Apexi? It looks more like a Blitz metal mesh one. The only Apexi one I know of is a high flowing paper element one, and with either that or the metal mesh style, they don't need to be oiled. If yours isn't either of the above I can't answer your question

It's worth $30 to me

Pawley, all foam filters need to be oiled. Get the filter oiled, or replace it with a pre-oiled one.

Haha, this is funny. I was just about to write up another thread about the aircon system but I may as well just reply here. Firstly, buy yourself a can of air conditioning cleaner from a Nissan dealer or something. Mine cost me $30. But now here's my question - Where are the air conditioning intakes? Is it beneath the plastic mesh under the windscreen wipers? The reason I ask is because you have to spray the whole can in there. I'll let you know how mine goes after I figure out where to spray the contents of my can

Then why are you looking at the S-AFC?

I wouldn't forget the S-AFC if your budget constraints were tight. The best thing to do would be to save up $700 or so for the S-AFC plus tuning, and when you save up an extra $1500 or so, sell the S-AFC and you should have enough to buy the Power FC and get it tuned. That's exactly what I'm doing Pity that the Power FC isn't the first thing on my list of things to get so it's quite a way off yet

There is an adjustment screw for each headlight (ie, 4 since the car has separate lights for the high beams). They are behind each headilght and look like a long sort of screw. I adjusted my low beams awhile ago and I remember it being a bitch of a job to get to one of them in particular.

My climate control is rarely off too

Ok, fuel filter is dead easy, unless you're a stubborn pighead on me and try for about an hour to remove the hoses which refuse to come off If I had cut my losses after trying and failing to pull the hoses off after 5 minutes I could have done the whole job in about another 15 minutes. Here's a rundown on what to do to change the fuel filter. 1. Buy a Z200 filter from GP Auto1 and about a meter of fuel hose (1/4 or 5/8 inch I think? Check what's written on the old one). 2. Leave the engine off for maybe 15 minutes to allow the fuel pressure to drain back into the tank. Some people would say you should bleed the fuel line properly though the a valve somewhere but in my experience I find it fine to just put a lot of rags underneath where the fuel will squirt out of the hose when you pull it off or cut it. When I cut my hose after an hour it just dribbled out, so if you want to play it really safe then wait an hour 3. Put some rags underneath the whole area where the fuel filter and line is. I used an old bathroom towel which is nice and big and soaks things up nicely. It didn't need to be that big by a long shot but it's best to go over what you need than under. 4. Take all the clamps off (be sure not to lose the small nut which holds the screw in) and try for A COUPLE OF MINUTES AT MOST to pull the hoses off carefully. If they don't come off within that time you'll probably never get them off in which case you should proceed to step 4a. Otherwise go to step 5. 4a. Cut the fuel hoses as close as possible to the metal line connectors on the car, rather than near the ones on the filter. I just used a sharp pair of small scissors. If you use big sidecutters then be VERY careful as if you misjudge where the metal connector starts you might end up pinching it shut or cutting it off. Err on the side of caution and do it a few cm above where you think it ends. 5. Pull the fuel filter out, then if needed do a vertical cut along the remaining bits of fuel line still in the car so you can pull them out. 6. If you need to replace the fuel lines, measure up the old lengths to the new hose you bought and cut them accordingly. Don't forget to add on the sections that were left in the car to the line length. If your old lines are still in one piece and in good condition, remove them from the old filter. 7. Put the hoses onto the new filter and re-attach them to the car. 8. Put the clamps back on and tighten them up reasonably tight, but not too tightly. They go just behind the bulge in the metal on each connector, on the METAL side obviously. 9. Switch the ignition to the ON position and then OFF again a couple of times to get the fuel up and through the filter. 10. Go back to the engine bay and check for leaks. 11. If all's good, start her up! Please note that I take no responsibility if you blow your car up during any of this, but if someone can point out a glaring error or omission please tell me and I'll fix it up.

(cross-posted on OCAU forums) From a usual city cycle economy run of 14L/100km (very sedate driving, ie hardly ever) to 16L/100km (hooning around) I just turned in a result of 13.3L/100km with my usual heavy-footed driving after doing some routine maintenance on my R33 GTS-t. The power has also increased noticably down low, though it's not noticably different when floored. Idling is also smoother and throttle response improved. Ok, so what did I do to get this fairly hefty improvement in fuel economy? Here's a brief list: 1. Changed spark plugs. 2. Replaced fuel filter. 3. Put some Spitfire injector cleaner in fuel tank. 4. Installed a fuel catalyst in the fuel line (this is the controversial one). I'm not going to focus on the last point because I'm not convinced they work either - after I go through a few tanks of fuel I'm going to remove it and see if my economy worsens again. Because of my lack of focus on it I won't even mention what brand/type it is. But the first three things I did certainly helped. I don't know which of the them improved power and economy the most, but if you've just bought a car and don't know for sure when those things were done you should do them asap. I wish I'd done them a lot sooner now. I was going to pull the injectors out and get them ultrasonically cleaned, but I think I've achieved most of the economy gains already so it's probably not worth the extra $200 or so to pull them out and get them dnoe. The plugs I used were NGK Iridiums to replace the standard platinums that were in there. The old plugs were in pretty good condition so I still think the Iridiums have something going for them. I cut open the old fuel filter to see what it was like inside and it was SCUMMY! The filament was all black and clogged up, and there was black SLUDGE in it! I couldn't believe my eyes. Does anyone know how long it takes a fuel filter to get in that condition? They cost about $20, I might just start doing it every 10000km. Just a hint to anyone wanting to change the fuel filter on their Skyline - make sure you have some spare fuel hose on standby (or at least access to some at short notice) because it was an utter BITCH to get off. In the end I had to cut the hose and replace it. If the old filter has been there for a long time most likely you will damage the metal connectors if you attempt to pull the rubber hose off.

Tell them it's for a VL Commodore, should be the same thing I went to GP Auto 1 for a fuel filter and he wasn't sure about it after looking it up so he gave me one to compare to the one already in the car. It didn't match, it was way too fat, (probably was the Z202 already mentioned) so I came back and told him that I saw "Z200" on the one in there. He had those in stock fortunately so I got it and away I went.

Sorry, I have to disagree entirely. It sounds like fingernails being scraped down a chalkboard.