Revhead

It's not coming from the passenger seat... ? I would quiten down your belts, that will at least make it easier to track the noise down it wasn't the belts. Failing that, it could be a gasket (as has been mentioned) or any of your ancilaries (alt, a/c, water pump etc) or possibly a shagged/overboosting turbo. Get under the car and listen for noises. If it's a shagged bearing somewhere (water pump, aircon etc) the noise will still be there, but it'll probably be either much more quiet, or it'll be a rumble instead of a screech. Without more info it's very hard to guess accurately Hey, there's an oxymoron for ya

It is a Skyline forum so the intention is that it's an area to discuss ways to improve the performance of your N/A Skyline. That said, I agree with Xeron. Give respect where it is due - there are plenty of vehicles that will flog your 33. In fact, I ride one such "Honduh" regularly

Yes, welcome to SE Qld! We're having a skidpan day soonish, feel free to come out and chat with everyone

The best indication of a car's "real" power is seeing its terminal speed. A 4WD car will quite often run a good time but will have a low terminal when compareed to a RWD (or esp. FWD) car running similar times. Doesn't mean it's slow of course, but it's an interesting point, and I've found cars with similar terminals are fairly similar in acceleration once off the line (eg an 11 sec car that runs 115mph would accelerate 'roughly' the same as a 12 sec car also doing 115mph). Not 100% accurate but a good rule of thumb in my experience. Anyway, what kind of terminals do WRXs run? Normally a mid 90's mph, compared to most guys on here with stockish 33s that run high 99s to mid 100s. I've raced a mate's twin turbo S6 RX7 (3" exhaust, a bit of boost) in my GTS25t and it was dead level - I actually started to gain on him over about 160, but he would undoubtedly run a better time than me. Slightly off topic, but I had a guy in a WRX try to race me on the bike one day. I pulled away easily in sixth gear, dashing my hopes of it being a worked WRX, and he came back again, so back to second and fan the clutch, take off on the back wheel and wave After pulling something like 20 carlengths and backing off, I still got the 150km/h flyby, and he didn't look happy

Oh yeah, forums http://www.gixxer.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi: GSXR forums. I believe it's based in the US. http://www.rrzone.com/forums: Fireblades http://www.fireblades.org/forums/: Fireblades again http://www.cycleforums.com/forums: General bikes That's all I can think of at the moment

If you're new to riding - do NOT get a big bike! Until you've ridden one, you have no idea how quick they are, and the torque by itself will no doubt get an inexperienced rider into problems (lifting front wheel, going way too quick into corners etc). As an indication, with a terrible launch, my bike (which is by far not the quickest bike out there) ran 11.209@129.27mph, which is a shade under 210km/h, and it's only just clicked into 3rd gear (out of six). Put another way, it'll do 0-200km/h in under 11 seconds. I can tell you from experience, that the first time you crack open the throttle on a big bike, your brain will kind of scramble. It's a bit hard to explain, but it's sort of trying to comprehend what's going on. It sounds a bit dramatic, but it really can be dangerous just trying to jump straight onto a 10 second bike. Think of it like this - a late model litre bike makes around 130-140rwhp, and weighs at most 200kg, plus rider. So with drivetrain loss (not much on a bike) it might make 150hp and weigh 300kg with a heavy rider, which gives the same power to weight ratio as an R33 Skyline with well over 700hp. Give it a wheelbase of under 150cm, making it damn near impossible to keep it on the ground, and you start to understand. I work in a hospital, and the number of times I hear people say things like "I just bought an R1, and it just looped on me, I dunno what happened" is incredible. Apologies for the essay but this is something that is really important to me. I cannot stress it enough - DO NOT get a big bike unless you have riding experience. Forget the macho "I can handle it" stand, learn how to ride before you try to ride something quick. Phew, now that rant is over, I would recommend a CBR250R or RR as a good first sportsbike. My brother has one, and it's a great little thing. He has run 14.5 on it, which is about as quick as a stock R33 GTS25t, and it revs to 18,500rpm, it sounds like a Formula 1 car! You can pick up a very good condition CBR250 for around $3000 - $4000 if you look around. As for dirtbikes, I'd recommend a DR. WRs are damn good but are a race bike, need rebuilds more often as they are more highly stressed. The DR650 (I think it's a 650) is a very good offroad bike, well behaved, well built, plenty of power, and handles like a dream. You can also get a DR250 if you're not ready for lots of cubes, and they're just as good, all they lack compared to the bigger bike is the power.

Yep, have run a few WRXs, including some with comparable mods to my own (exhaust, pod, boost) and have pulled away easily. In 100km/h rolling starts there is no competition, the R33 will blow them away. A point of note, not many WRX owners will dump the clutch at high revs from a standstill, due to the well-publicised gearbox issues (and replacement cost) they have, so off the line shouldn't be an issue either A WRX will eat a GTS25t in the twisties though, partly because of 4WD and a lighter car, partly because the stock suspension in earlier R33s will be rooted by now (mine is). And don't even think about chasing one up a dirt road...

Apparently noisy throwout bearings are a VERY common problem on Skylines. I've heard of people going through four or five bearings before they found a quiet one... but then again, all it is is a noise, it's certainly not an indication that your gearbox is about to seize! From experience, don't bother trying to 'repair' a bearing unless it's an emergency - a repacked/lubed bearing is certainly better than a stuffed one, and it's better than being stuck in the middle of nowhere, but you cannot guarantee how long it will last for. A day? A week? A year? Who knows - you can't rely on it, replace it with a new one ASAP. If it's just normal bearing noise (rather than a noise indicating bearing failure, eg rumble or screeching (!) ) leave it alone. The squeaky clutch pedal is quite often just the plastic bush on the pedal pivot. Just spray it with some decent lube (that won't eat the plastic) and push the pedal a few times. If that doesn't work, lube the actuator under the car (where the clutch fork comes out of the bellhousing). Easiest thing to do is to get under the car and have someone repeatedly press the pedal, and you just sit there and lube anything that makes noise - within reason of course

Congrats Pete, I know you've been keen for ages! It must rock/suck working for an import yard, eyeing off all those sweet imports...

Lol I do have a few things limiting my ability to try it at the moment - money, and an uncertain future (might be moving to Japan for a year or two, might not be) mainly. But it would be very interesting to find out about... might make some enquiries for my own interest.

White 32... sorry for the delay mate, have been a bit busy with other things. I'm actually on 4 weeks' leave at the moment so I won't be back in Toowoomba until early April, but yeah, we should definitely hook up. As for the skidpan day, I now have my wheel bearings so it should all be sweet. They're not in yet but all I need now is the time/motivation to do it. One thing I did notice... the front wheel hubs look a lot like a front wheel drive setup, but with a bolt where the front driveshafts would normally go... I wonder how easy it would be to put the GTS4/GTR bits in, given that I need a new gearbox anyway, and the looms and floorpans are the same? Hmm...

We could've drifted with 6 passengers in Gary's fourbie last time, but unfortunately slip and I were the only ones who weren't wusses

Yeah, it'd be fun going out there on the 929 with you guys... lol should've put a smilie in that post, I was kidding

With mine, it hits the line next to 'E', but the light doesn't come on until it's a good few mm below that (probably about 5mm). normally just it by the trip meter... I fill it to the brim, and drive around until I see around 500km. It'll normally take around 50-55L by then, and the guage is showing pretty much on or just below the 'E' line - so that should give an indication as to how it reads. And please guys, don't turn this into YET ANOTHER fuel consumption thread...

Bleach - agreed, that was part of the point of what we are making. But don't forget that, at 17, the vast majority of people have little or no real driving experience, regardless of their level of maturity. While some 17 year olds could really handle a 500hp GTR, I dare say that they are very much in the minority. And no, this isn't a stab at 17 year olds - I'm just talking from experience. While I'd like to consider myself to be a fairly sensible person, I probably wouldn't have had the discipline to not 'try it out' or to resist a bit of peer pressure at 17.

I assume you mean the series 1 spoiler, the curved one that sort of rounds off the back end? Yes it is a pain to get the lights out of it, the best way is a ratchet with a screwdriver bit, works a treat. Also, I believe the LEDs aren't strictly in series - they are grouped into lots of 5-10 LEDs, and all of the groups are wired in parallel, so that if you blow an LED, only the group that it's in is affected, not the whole array.

Will have to see if my car is ready by then. Getting a new ECU and coilovers, and also need to change the front wheel bearings. But assuming it's all done and I can afford it (lost my job last week, have to go back to a lower-paying one...) I'll be there. Otherwise I might head out and spectate. They don't let bikes out with the cars, do they?

Hate to be a wet blanket, but have you considered sometihng different for your first car? R32 GTSt isn't a real good first car, it's too easy to get into big trouble. Maybe a non-turbo or something. As much as I would've liked the 33 when I was 17, I'm damn glad I didn't have it, I probably would've killed myself/someone else... At the very least, hold off getting the car until later in the year - that way you don't have to pay your parents back, and will have some experience at the wheel. And on a slightly unrelated note, come to a driver training/skidpan/whatever day, you would be absolutely astonished how much you'll learn! Not trying to sound like an old bugger, but I work in the hospital system and see the end results of powerful cars with young guys at the wheel who don't know how to control it properly... don't just say "nah, she'll be right", actually think about it first. If you *know* you're sensible enough to hold back (would you be able to resist a challenge from another car? etc) then consider the GTSt.

The oil shouldn't cause too much of a problem, but if you're going to clean it with high pressure water, I'd pull it out of the car first. Hit it with some WD40 or other water dispersant afterwards.

I've also heard the factory BOV leaks over a certain amount of boost... ?

Ouch, cheap shot Dunno how it'll affect times around Mt Cotton (probably slower, more dorifto!) but the suspension should stop 'incidents' like the one on the way out of Gary's place (tandem drift over the crest of a hill) from being quite so bloody scary... by the way, did Gary tell you his exchange students this time are two 21yo French girls? /me waits for 'ooh la la' comment

So has a date been set yet bitch? Side note - my car should be more driftable depending on how far off the date is. Should be getting my coilovers in a few weeks, woohoo

By the way, it'd be "taimingu beruto"

It's a pity you didn't have a whole stack of stuff in the car to drop/throw out of the window. I mean, your gf was just trying to air out the jack/ball bearings/bowling ball, but being as clumsy as she is, "dropped" it into the path of the other vehicle. Oops.

I would *always* give the car a full service when you first get it. It may well have been done the day before with high performance stuff, but it could have just as easily been done with cheap crap (likely) or not done at all. I would do the basic stuff yourself (filters, oil, coolant etc) and take it to someone who knows their stuff for a thorough check over (pressure test, compression testing, etc). Don't forget though that you can put the computer into diagnostics mode to see if it's picked up any problems. Look elsewhere on these forums for how to do this.