Kinkstaah

There's no real downside and it's not strictly required. Caltex used to serve E70 to E85. As Bill mentioned up above, United has been E80-85 pretty much forever. Never ever saw that change. I suppose the offensive price gouging for the product is worth something. (then again, Ethanol lowers the price of 91... so... they're probably maximizing the 'cheap stuff' by keeping that Ethanol content up in E85)

On the subject of drives: Now that my power steering/steering had been freshly installed/entirely revamped and battery/electrical system entirely redone, post-emergency alignment and utterly f**ked tyres, as my new ones I bought in January couldn't be squeezed in/installed in a day.... ….to do a 1200km drive through the long weekend from this route: There were many photos and a few Instagram posts of people who are not me, https://www.instagram.com/p/CppXVDDpQu2/ https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cp5BoUQJBF2/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y%3D WhatsApp Video 2023-03-13 at 5.15.52 PM.mp4 WhatsApp Video 2023-03-13 at 5.20.24 PM.mp4 WhatsApp Video 2023-03-13 at 9.07.39 AM.mp4 I did take this photo though: All in all everything was amazing. The power steering system actually held up flawlessly under some genuinely hilarious load being put through it, because if you noticed the pictures every other car was a: Civics MX5s (with boost!) MR2 (with a K24) Modern Fiesta ST Clio RS Most on much newer than 5yo Tyres, and a few on R-Comps, in the twistiest, unrelenting roads in Vic. And the old tank of a boat or whatever it is really held up well, and supposedly quite intimidating making big angry V8 noises in the mirrors of cars that it had no right to hang with in such twisties. The only fatalities was one of the civics did a bottom end in Mitta Mitta (he hired a truck to tow it back the next week) and I melted my exhaust hangers with my exhaust due to the unrelenting RPM and … spiritedness of driving it. The actual metal rods the hangers slide over got so hot they melted through the Poly exhaust hangers that I thought were an upgrade. Perhaps Polyurethane is not the best material for an exhaust hanger. I did provide this information to where I bought them, and the business refunded me. My retired rubber exhaust mounts have now been re-added, with a hoseclamp around them to reinforce them some - a trick I saw on a similar thread about melted polyurethane exhaust hangers. While on the subject of Polyurethane, apparently my diff bushes had also left. These left long before this drive, and were the reason I got a bit of a clunk on any acceleration. Luckily the tyre provider had a set of spare rubber ones from a S15 that was going solid. They have a better design so the part cannot simply exit. The clunk is now gone. So yes, great times, everyone vowed to do it again soon, and another 3 day booking and $500+ in fuel, everything was great, and I came back to get my previously-purchased-but-not installed tyres, and another alignment to fix my OCD. Until my alternator appears to have died and let go. https://speedmaxinnovation.com/blogs/news/almost-all-the-gm-alternator-information-you-could-need?page=2 This very helpful link makes me believe that while I have an American standalone loom for my LS, they didn’t seem to actually put a resistor in (or it isn’t connected to my battery lamp/adapted to it, or I forgot/didn’t care at the time) the one wire the alternator uses. So the 175A alternator I have my custom pulley on is off for an old school man to look at, to avoid me having to buy another $700+ 215A alternator and move my pulley onto it. At least with the power steering deleted from the engine bay it is a very simple belt arrangement and very easy to remove the alternator. At least it wasn’t stuck in Mitta Mitta with a broken bottom end.

The rear wing endplates and stands don't meet the requirements as above - They need to me smooth and not sharp. There's some examples of legal wings. You'll note that every OEM wing follows this kind of design principle.

The R33 GTR is the best looking Skyline GTR. It is.

I should say I _DO_NOT_RECOMMEND_ doing this if your stock pump will do the job. I.e for a road going LS, no, you do not need this. If a RB pump can handle the high RPM I also wouldn't really recommend it. Also, it is f**king loud. by loud, I mean it sounds like a fuel pump, outside of the tank, sitting in the boot, getting much louder if you turn the wheel, it is an ever present, very loud, electric whine that does not stop. Ever. I could probably get the fittings. GKTech do ones that adapt the rack. https://au.gktech.com/high-pressure-power-steering-6an-adapters From there on it's AN fittings depending on all your angles and where you want to mount the pump, and how long hose you want to run. I believe the PUMP end has a 15mm (?) bolt that comes out, so a regular bolt -> AN fitting works here and the other is a push on hose for the low pressure side. Speedpro do actually do a power steering hose, but it holds less pressure than 200 series (??) and is intended for being inside the engine bay and not run under the car, so not really useful in this application. In a RB setup you'd probably run the hose on the inside of the chassis rail, but I don't have that option.

The TLDR: Moving the battery and converting to Astra power steering pump cost about $4000 incl very much mates rates labor for the bits I didn't do. This is one of those jobs that seems sensible and logical and simple enough, but to do it right with all the considerations turns into a bit of a headache. I spent $300 on wiring alone just to run the cables from the boot to the bay. There seems to be no photos of taking the interior out to run it along the channels of the body. The resident electrician advised very much that the cables should run on opposite sides of the car, so that is why the Negative terminal is on the passenger side, and the positive terminal at the front where the battery was. The washer bottle moved out the wheel arch up into the bay, purely so my oil cooler gets more airflow and perhaps runs a little cooler. Everything helps and all these mods were very much a "maybe I can get SOME performance benefit..." There's a custom bracket that bolts down into the car to holt the bottle up, as well as extending those wires through the arch and into the bay. Power Steering side of things was equally as expensive. The pump itself cost $200 from a local wrecker, but as we know that is barely the most expensive part. Lots of money on lines and fittings. Boot And of course, under the car with some very neato 3D Printed brackets I found on thingverse. In the end my boot looks like this. It's not quite finished in these pictures, as they were taken when _mostly_ hooked up and they are hard mounted to the chassis through the carpet. I'll post up a picture once I have the full boot assembled as there's one more bracket/strap to make for toolboxes. But there's an idea for now. I then took the car on a ~1250km blast through the great alpine road with a bunch of people I've never met before, and it was a really awesome time. Hilariously, while the power steering and battery gave me absolutely NO issues at all.... (yes I was admonished for having this finished the night before then immediately belting the shit out of the car...) .... the steering shudder I was feeling that lead to all of this was due to brake deposits, presumably. The steering had nothing to do with it, and no, in absolutely no way can you feel the difference in the weight distribution

This was the route I took. I had kms in my insured kms saved and knew I would need to do the service after. So I figured I'd just give it a bit ol drive. I've wanted to do the alpine road but doing that in a day is pretty crazy as you have to get up very very early to do it, and really needs to be done over a long weekend/take leave. By the time I got moving it was 1pm, so I did the above and got back in the evening in mostly one piece. I sadly don't know much about the drive from Syd to Canberra. I did the scenic route _once_ to Sydney via the coast, but don't remember enough of it to have any opinion, someone more local may know as above Heat. Had nothing to do with the wiring. That causes issues if they are constantly being set to the "on" or being activated. Same thing as the option A or B being constantly held down. This was just all the exhaust going through 1in at the last muffler, causing heat, and heat > plastic casing the motor was in. Closing the Varex took my AFR from 13.1 to 10.9. It is a pretty massive restriction!

Well what’s happened since then: I took the car for a very very big drive (~700km in a day) around every twisty road imaginable. This was fantastic, except I was getting some pretty gnarly vibrations through the steering wheel, which I resolved by simply not braking around the twisty bits. Actually worked really well. I also noticed the car was running a little leaner than I would like, (~13.1 AFR) up high, so I simply closed the Varex. I did make it home, to find somewhere along the line the Varex refused to open up again… Also noticed my steering rack was obviously leaking from the driver’s side. I assumed this was the cause of my steering wheel shudder. At the time I thought it might have been understeer. The car also needed a service, and needed spark plugs which I had not changed since, well, at all. What was suprising to me is that ONE plug was different heat. Just one. The one with all the heat marks all over it. I had initially checked two or so of the plugs to see what was in it when the conversion was going on. Never thought I’d have to check 8 because mysteriously one was a hotter range… 8x Iridium plugs of the same range (TR6IX) went in. Oil came out and went in. Supposedly the filings are of normal range in LS land, and it is still pretty fresh (~15,000km since assembly...) I also ordered a metal Varex motor. I then thought that I’d definitely need the rack rebuilt. …And if I’m doing that, I should probably do an Astra electric power steering conversion and put that in the RL corner of the boot, because I needed ~20kg of weight there to have the car corner balance itself, as it was only ~20kg out before.. …And if I’m doing that, I should probably relocate my battery there too. …And I should probably move my washer bottle to where the battery was, so my oil cooler gets better flow…. How hard could that be?

Nobody escapes the laws of thermodynamics. What do you do when your aircon system heats up? What's the aircon condenser cooled by? .......air 😛

I passed an emissions test in NSW (for Victoria!) doing the IM240 with a cammed LS. Keep the stock cam when you go there. I had four cats, 2x100 and 2x400cell. They do not seem to impact performance at all. Given how the IM240 is actually done, I see no reason why you would not pass it due to the addition of a supercharger because ALL of the tune is outside any real load cell area. They would barely use 20% throttle in any of it. It is a sample generated in the 1960's of a 4 minute (hence 240) cycle of stop, go, drive around town experience with one pull onto a medium speed highway from like 60-80kmh. The events are timed, so they cannot say, floor your car from 0-80kmh, the actual acceleration gradient, gear change times, and what gear you are even in are controlled. In my case I was allowed into the lab/dyno area to directly work with the guys to pass the car, even tune it on the spot. This depends a lot on your charisma and people skills I suspect. The biggest kicker for me was actually idling, and the car produced much more pollutants idling than it did moving. A lot of the test is idle. Hence a big choppy cam with raw fuel going out the exhaust is _not_ optimal but I barely scraped through. Having a 2003 car you will have more stringent targets to hit than I did, as I was in the 98-2002 bracket.

You did buy a fast factory car. You just want to make that car blow the doors off a 300K+ car that is 15+ years newer. There's some perspective for you 😛

I never knew you could have a ODB2 port do more than 1 thing at one time..... TIL.

HPTuners But it is a flashed based ECU. Can't modify settings on the fly. (actually you can but it's only certain OS's that do not support E85, so maybe you can) The thing that put me off the varex thing is you obviously sacrifice your ODB2 port for it. I don't doubt that someone smart with a Haltech/Motec/ExpensiveECU could mimic the behaviour by sending X volts when Engine parameters = ABCD which would then activate the stepper motor...

You can actually get an ODB2 box for a Varex, which will (yes, live) link into to engine parameters to open. So it can be automatically set to fully open at 50%+ throttle or whatever variable or combination of variables you choose.

how good are LS's though

All cars are toys. Nobody needs them. If it does not make you happy, then don't do it. If it does, then do so. You will know how you feel after you do it. You will know yourself if you would rather see a GTR instead of a Modded GTS4. Logic never mattered. It never _will_ matter. It's like putting a V8 in. It just feels right. I do not wish I secretly had a R34 GTR. I would not prefer to drive a Z tune if you gave me the keys to both. Others would disagree. In these cases you already know what you want to do.

But you said cruising slow was what you're all about. Now you can do it dropping cylinders and popping and banging. Sounds like an upgrade! As an aside, LS's are hard to even notice you're running on 7cyl for a month or so. Been there myself 😛

Your better car will need these mods for motorsport too. (I guess maybe not with regards to full electric steering, which all reviews universally hate... so I mean there's that)

Not really rage, but "I turboed my NA auto and it doesnt work now" is a thing. Because people do this cheaply (not necessarily OP) it is generally "how much of my original NA car can I retain?" Which is effectively nothing. It's _probably_ still cheaper to sell the NA and buy a turbo 😛 Still does not solve the issue of the cheese gearbox which won't survive 150kw, let alone whatever the forged motor is wanting to be. Haltech when I did it, did _not_ have an automatic gearbox controllable ECU for sale. Nobody did... If the elite can do it, do it. The main issue will be finding an auto elec at $150/hr with the confidence to give this a try, but once you do it is fairly straightforward as long as the auto (any auto) has its inputs in the realm it likes. It just won't, and cannot, and never will be a straightforward plug and play solution. Until someone makes an adapter I suppose, to go from the NA TCM to the GTT OEM ECU...

Then you're in for a rough spot. I would legitimately consider the crazy path of a BMW DCT conversion. Anything else is going to be underwhelming. Sensible me says buy a car with a decent auto in it. A V8 10 speed mustang is going to be a lot more fun and a lot more fast, and a lot more everything than the anguish of going down this path. It really depends on how irrationally compulsive you are with regards to keeping a R34, or whether you want what an R34 can do. If in your mind this is a 100K, once in a lifetime car, BMW DCT is your answer. If logic is being applied in any way, shape, or form... A10 Mustang or one of the many other automatic-optioned vehicles is going to be far faster, simpler, easier, more enjoyable, less regrets.

This is the first I've heard of it :D. Do you have any more photos of these R34 seats that have airbags in them? It must have been a very very rare option for people to select for some reason. My solution is leave the OG seats in. Unless you have a 5/6poiny harness, HANS device, cage and are on a racetrack, I much prefer an airbag that is functional. You're at the point where people do 'foamectomies' to seats to make them fit better as opposed to just removing certain elements of airbag functionality. Some cars have an option from the factory where you can actually reconfigure which options the car has (I did this with a Megane to tell it it didn't have TPM's from the factory). No idea if the R34 or any skyline has any functionality of sorts for this.

This is a normal and expected outcome from doing what you have done. I'm tired of going over what is going to be needed to fix it. The best solution is to not fix it, and to put a manual in. Can't drive manual? Learn. This is both the best solution and the simplest solution. The more complicated solution is to reconnect the OEM ECU (yes, ecu) and reconnect its relevant parts to the TCU. Then you effectively splice the Haltech into the engine-parts of the OEM ECU, and run the haltech like an old school piggyback. But it's a NA gearbox which will not last at all. It won't last if you put a shift kit in. It just won't last, period, so doing all of the above work will cost you thousands and leave you very sad. Still don't want to go manual? You could go a Turbo gearbox and build that, but it's still a $10K adventure to get it close to being able to perform the way you want, including an aftermarket gearbox ECU, which gets wired in similar to the TCU's original setup. You will need aftermarket flex plates (they do not exist) and other bespoke things. Your other option is to fully manualize the transmission. The crux of the issue is that the R34 Turbo ECU has the gearbox/TCU pins on the engine ecu. The NA has them spaced out to a seperate TCU with the same inputs/outputs for Nissan reasons. It is plausible to rewirewire wires that lead to the NA TCM pins into their corresponding R34 GTT ENGINE ecu pins. This _will_ work, and then you could feasibly run a Nistune Engine ECU, which also only works for the Turbo/GTT ecu. The workshop manual pinouts are a treasure. In theory you could look ingo the workshop manual and see what inputs the R34 TCM actually needs so it can operate the gearbox. It probably has wiring for power, tach, TPS and such from the engine ECU. Probably. I never looked into this. Lots of ECU wiring and f**king about ahead for you. All of it more expensive than a manual swap. Much more complex than a manual swap. Much worse result than a manual swap. My car spent years at a workshop with them trying to figure this out until I did it with a mate in about 30 minutes by actually reading the manual. Oh look I said manual again. Go manual. Any excuse you have about this is invalid. Refer to this post in the future, so you can re-read it and be like "lol shit yeah he was right I'm glad I went manual"

Could argue it is indeed a different engine...

Depends on how you set them up! (though most people do it for max squat, which is as you have described). Something to consider next time the subframe is out, which realistically is hopefully fkin never...

Dumb question Are these just pineapples by a different name (intended function). Sell them to me. Axle tramp and my R34 are an iconic combo.