Kinkstaah

I'm not entirely sure - I had gauges before I changed any of the OEM oil cooling/radiator setups. They are designed as road cars remember. Coolant was really never an issue. Before or after I replaced the radiator (because I did it when it cracked). If you go out and track the car with nothing, but you have gauges, the coolant temp will sit at 80-90C as you would expect, and your oil will be 150C in short order. Whatever happens, the temperature is definitely not equalized between the systems, even if they do transfer some element of it. I think as mentioned it's more likely designed to get things up to efficient temperatures (warm things, warm both things equally) rather than being a radiator. Then again, it does have cooling fins on it and a radiator of some kind... I mean someone could go out and test it but the effort in doing so is more than simply fitting a cooler and having... better cooling. I saw a teardown recently of a Subaru motor where the oil never got to temp and the engine was running E85. That was quite gory, so getting the oil up to 100C to boil off condensation is also really important. Almost like fluids are designed to operate in temperature windows and too cold is a problem as much as too hot is!

Head gaskets can fail and allow combustion gas and coolant to mix. Or combustion gas and Oil, I suppose. It's not only water and oil. Your engine being fed a constant stream of coolant into its combustion chamber can absolutely cause a misfire. Infact that is how I know I cracked my block multiple times because the coolant channel on a RB is closest to the chamber. It would misfire at idle (water going into cylinder), then not misfire when cylinder pressure exceeded the coolant pressure. (combustion pressure pushing into coolant system). You could check this by looking for residue in your radiator. But as mentioned, Someone who has physically seen the car has looked into it already and thinks it's a head gasket. The giveaway is the fact all of these problems seem to be on .. one side? Yes this is a VQ, but a gasket fail can happen in any combination. It depends on what things are combining that are best left seperate. It could be multiple things, but all of these "things" outside the engine internals are a) Radiator b) Thermostat (the engine will not overheat by the way if stuck OPEN) Anything else and you're pulling the motor apart to find/fix.

In this case it was literally a friend who invited me into a Whatsapp group of a bunch of pre-existing guys going for said drive. I think that they generally keep these things small, as you would have noticed, MOST cruises or drives are far shorter and far less spirited, or entirely stuck in a carpark somewhere. The alternator was fixed by "A guy I know" from my Older Italian Mechanic contact. I have no further details as to what actually failed, but I wired in the needed resistor and reinstalled it and I now have 14.1V and life is good again. I also finally got new tyres installed, which actually work as well, with another alignment, which actually makes the car drive straight. I also finally (after 10+ years) figured out how the glovebox is supposed to bolt in, realising I had either being ziptying or ignoring the bottom most hole, thinking something was missing. Turns out there's a metal bracket there, with the same thread as the rest of the screws for the glovebox. So that is also up and running as Mr Nissan intended. Also hammered the hole in the exhaust shut. Brakes still get juddery, but it's proably more the fact of the pad not actually fitting the caliper properly. I plan on living with it because... most of the time driving around it is fine. Who really needs a pad to fit into a caliper properly anyway?

Yep, this is just one of those things where people mod the car based on what the internet says, and NOT in an order of "I drive car hard and this is what it needs-order". We've all been there. I would also argue that 250kw is faster than 500kw through the hills, with all the other benefits that has. Roll racing is another story obviously. But you could still save money on power and roll up on drag radials (yes even from a roll) and you'll beat your friends and save money 😛

Ye, I think there's a fundamental difference between augmenting sound for the driver... and augmenting sound for people outside the car... I can totally see running a tube from the intake through the firewall that you could open/close. Saw a good video on a guy doing it for a supercharged mustang. Could see people (Dose) doing this for turbo sounds.

If your car is primarily road, or really _any_ road, get the Nismo 1 way over the 2 way. Clunking 24/7 with the 2 way is really quite bleh. I know the thread says "1.5 way" but there's really no such thing as a "1.5 way". It's just a 2 way with less aggressive lock on the deceleration ramp. There's still quite aggressive lock on the deceleration ramp, enough to have 100% of passengers in your car go "Hey man what's broken with your car lol"

Aftermarket speakers for mufflers. We're finally here.

Circuit yes, everything else no. They make a difference once you're on the throttle for more than about 30 seconds. It's more important than anything else on the list when the car is driven hard. An Accusump is also what you want as soon as you go around a corner with any gusto. Those two are the first two mods that anyone who wants to drive the thing hard should get. It depends on the use of the car. If you want to say it makes a ton of power and spend events with your bonnet up, it's probably wank factor. If you intend to use it as god intended, these two are vital but considering you have started with a 500kw goal and a forged bottom end, I'm going to think you won't use either as this is a build going in the exact other direction. I say this because you've got some oil control mods there but I'm not entirely sure you've not just "heard they are good while the motor is apart (they are)" but they are very much circuit mods. I still don't think forged pistons are worth it. Nobody seems to ever melt a stock piston nowadays, and you get nothing but downsides from having them, E85 does better for knock resistance than having pistons that resist said knock - and I am guessing you are planning to be E85 too.

I'm not sure on the oil. I thought transmax Z (the auto variant) was entirely fine to use. I used it for many years. I remember its expensive price tag! However: What you are experiencing sounds a lot like me to what happened when my first NA box died. As above, it had disentegrated to the point where there was shit clogging the auto trans internal filter. After a little bit of time, it literally sinks back down to the bottom of the sump, and the auto can do it's job. It is time to consider manual options for your GT-X. I cannot imagine finding another NA AWD R34 box in Europe is a simple thing to do. Of course, take the box out and seeing what is going on will likely be what happens next. Maybe it's fine. I suspect it won't be. I obliterated my box which had a MV kit in it. The NA auto box is fundamentally shit.

Thankyou for posting about the Mfactory option (whether it really fits is another story. It is not as simple as "R200") depending on what car/combo one has. I thought there was no Quaife option for any RWD Skyline. If my unicorn diff ever does break/let go/wear I was under the assumption the only option is to convert to a 350Z diff and put a Quaife in that.

Yeah, the RS4 has gone up in price, but there's still nothing near it's price point that is even a competitor. I mean the real case in point is Zestinos, which are more expensive/similar to RS4's (depending on TW) and really not nearly as good a tyre. The failing of Hankooks is that they don't really make them in really big boy sizes, but for 99% of people it's not an issue until you want to go over 265/35.

This is magnificent, and gives inspiration to get someone to make me a diffuser

All of this just to say you drive a "manual" drag car.

You don't. Or if you do, you do it for fun? It's only a shit box to you because you're accustomed to it. You just want a new shiny thing instead of enjoying the thing you built. Really you have to ask yourself what you find fun about the journey and target it. Objectively your car is great and you seem to need more seat time. Go read a review of the same people who drive a R chassis who have also driven a modern BMW. You can see as clear as day which one they find more entertaining/rewarding to actually sit in the seat of and want to go driving in. I still remember Carlos Lago saying his LS swapped S13 was a better car to drive than a P1/LaFerrari or 918. https://youtu.be/w-BEXoI9J-M?t=361 There you go.

Where's any of these new euros in WTAC? It's not that simple. What you're seeing is things like better matched turbos from the factory for displacement. AVERAGE power matters lol. Shifting speed with DCT etc matters. Yes, bump steer and kinematics do matter, but we're talking about racetracks here, not doing rally. You used to have to mod cars a lot to get to where cars come out of the factory now. They come pre-modded, that's about it. It's absolutely easier to get a 340kw M4 Competition, because all it needs is a tune and comes with a 3L TT with tiny turbos ready to go, this is what you pay 140K for. Remember, this is for fun. They are less fun. Want to go fast? Buy an actual race car or an open wheeler and absolutely massacre any road car and laugh at them/us for even bringing a stupid boat out on the track. f**k, actual Go-Karts will turn better times if you want to do some insane superkart stuff before you die doing said superkart stuff.

You have no idea the ratio of "Engine and Gearbox Sound relative to Exhaust sound" that are out there, I can raise you tenfold with the symphony of brick-in-washing-machine sounds the LS and T56 make. This car is mint, and is far more interesting than any stock BMW, and likely a much better car too, not to mention far more rare/street creddy if that is your thing.

Honestly, that is one pretty 'shitbox'

It also happens with the LS... and also happens with SR20 and the BP18T.... E85 is stinky stuff man

Not sure, I have no need for Expensive-Gouge-Juice anymore, though I do have the capacity. I remember not needing to touch any of the enrichment tables for start with the ol Haltech PS2000. Would start perfectly with full ethanol in the middle of winter without any issues. Never had any cold start problems at all, or hot start for that matter, was the most overblown 'problem' E85 ever had. At least for me.. But ye, do an oil change then drive for 100km then smell the oil filler cap. It smells like E85 really fast in my experience and isn't an indicator that the oil is ready to be changed yet.

I dunno about the smell, oil will smell like E85 if you do so much as drive it out of your driveway...

It's just one of those things, people kinda/rarely investigate a power failure. I mean: RB25/30's generally get sent to higher power levels than stock RB25's that are unopened. What is it about a RB25/30 that actually resists damage from power better than stock RB25 ordinarily would? Why do people expect it to last longer, then? Keep it all reasonable and drive it hard. You can see how well that has worked for Bill in this case, there's reasons for it!

Diff or rear wheel bearings. It kinda has to be. (though it could be a tailshaft... what else rotates back there?). The comically loud diff whine I have had in the past was due to the crown/pinion gear being f**ked. Messed up bearings is generally a low grinding/rumbling sound. Diff is usually a much higher pitched whining...right? I've had a wheel wobble so badly it almost fell off, and I wouldn't say it was ever loud enough to be conversation-stopping, whereas diff whine was alarmingly loud, piercing but the car "drove fine".

Generally yes though. Modified car shops are run a-w-f-u-l-l-y. This is the prime reason why these cars are often (by far the majority) modified by their owners. The truth is they don't employ anyone to really run the business side of things, they just do the work in their respective factories, on their own time. They are able to do this, because there is no pressure to improve, and they have an incredible backlog of work to get through, because their services are still in demand. If a workshop appeared that had high throughput, high quality, and good communications, such a workshop would absolutely clean house. I've been stunned for the last decade and a half as to how this hasn't occurred. I suppose at the end of the day these are very small businesses all round, and perhaps owners/operators do not want pesky things like wages cutting into their profits. There is no reason it should take months to a year to build an engine. But it does, because... see above.

In my case, the RB block became a consumable track day item more or less. The LS is far cheaper. Oil temps skyrocket under high throttle. I would suspect your 33GTST street car was sitting at 150C for 19 of those 20 minute sessions without an oil cooler. That said, perhaps 150C oil temperature isn't actually as bad for everything as things may make it seem. Leaving it tuned down and enjoying the track/driving it is VERY sage advice. Also generally "Track the car, and see what limits you first, then upgrade _that_" is the upgrade path of the smart person.

"Reasonable brakes, tyres and cooling" to this extent REQUIRES: Brakes: Race pads/upgraded/full BBK. Tyres: R Comps, the best street tyres will be screaming for mercy before this on a track with many bends. Cooling: 25+ row oil cooler, a radiator sent from the gods/ducting. Bonus: Accusump Without any of these the car will very much be a 1-2 laps (at most) before your oil is 150C+, brakes die, engine overheats. There is a reason: Is a thing. It takes LOT$ of "Reasonable brakes, tyres, and cooling" to do 30 minute flat out session all day.