KrazyKong

TUF if you're going to choose between the 4100 and Nulon, go the 4100. I think it's currently on sale right now at Ricebarn for the next few days. However if you want a better oil and a true fully synthetic oil (the nulon is not a fully synthetic despite their packaging claims) locate some Gulf Western Sougi S6000. Find a distributor in your area and you'll be able to get 5L for $60 or thereabouts. This oil is group 5 and on par with some of the best around (300V) for half the price.

That's alright bud. What I'm concerned about is that hose connecting to the thermostat is cold. Thus am worried is my car actually getting a full circulation of coolant, or is the coolant only flowing in and out of the top hose which is the hot one. Can anyone feel the bottom hose on their 33 and tell me if after a drive, it's hot? Or how hot it is compared with the top hose?

On my car the thermostat is in the bottom hose as you can see in this picture here. So what you've just mentioned above is in contradiction to what's in my car. The hot hose (top) is the one without the thermostat, the cold hose (bottom) has the thermostat in it.

Well after a week of having the radiator out and having finally straightened all the fins, it was time to re-install the radiator and all hoses. All went ok, and I put some Locktite sealant stuff on the thermostat as well. Did a few drains of the radiator and was amazed at how brown the water was coming out. I was pumping in fresh clear tank water and it was quickly turning a frothing brown crappy colour. But something that happened kind of freaked me out. I had the car idling for awhile, and topping up the fluids as well as doing the bleed valve. Now what I noticed was the top pipe going into the radiator was hot, yet the bottom one was stone cold. Now if the bottom one connects to the thermostat, and is cold to the touch, that means the thermostat isn't opening right? Wouldn't that mean the coolant/water is not being able to flow in a complete circle or cycle? Shouldn't the bottom hose be hot too? Or is this the water that's been cooled down from the radiator and then is going back into the engine cooler. But what I don't understand is if it's cooler, then the thermostat will never open. Thus my confusion.

Have you tried running your sparkies at 1.1? or just put them to 0.8 by default. You're car is pretty much stock, so running them at 0.8 could quite possibly be the cause of your missing problems. I would put the Bosch Plats in, leave them at 1.1 and see how it runs. I was convinced from all the reading on here that I had to have the 0.8 gap for my car. But then discovered the larger the gap, the better the spark. People only gap them down due to having huge boost pressures and aftermarket turbos. You're stock, leave them at 1.1 and see how it runs.

If your running at stock boost leave them at 1.1. There's no need to gap them at 0.8 unless the car is missing.

Now for some Bosch plugs and she'll be screaming again in no time.

Day 4 drawing to a close and I'm in the home stretch. Quite a few more hours left until I'm done straightening the fins. I'm practically blind right now looking at the damn things for so long. My focus is all out of whack, what to speak of the headaches lol

It's normally $12 at Ricebarn and about the same a Big W or K-Mart. I remember you saying a little while ago Birds how this GW XMP was as good as the Castrols etc. From Galois exploits it sounds like Castrol Magnatec sucks lol. And the funny thing I bet the XMP is better than Castrol for the price of fries and a shake!

I did just that some weeks back and decided against putting in the cheapy stuff. Since I was going from a semi synthetic to a fully synthetic, the idea of putting in $10 stuff didn't make sense once I got around to doing it. Then I'd have a mixture of cheap/semi and full instead of just semi/full. However as far as oil goes, the GW cheapy is actually quite good. Going to use it on the oldies car for their next change as their car as 300k on it and I don't think putting in a $70 bottle of Penrite is a worthy investment lol.

That would be funny to hear lol. Though I have a feeling Sougi won't let us down.

Picked up a new genuine Nissan thermostat today. I had a look at the Tridon/Stant ones from the auto stores and was underwhelmed. Compared with the genuine one I pulled out of my engine, these oem ones felt like toothpicks in comparison. They were half the weight and felt very flimsy. The new genuine Nissan one isn't 100% the same as my old one, but the changes are only cosmetic. It does however feel a little lighter than my original one, so am hoping it's still going to be better than the oem ones. I was half tempted to just put my old one back in as it still works fine, but the rubber seal part is starting to look a little worn so figured I'd just replace it now. The old one still has years left in it due to being very well made to begin with but I guess since I'm in this fix and replace frame of mind, bought a new one. I'm now on Day 3 the aftermath of me trying to flush the radiator. Took me ages to get it out as I was looking for the little piece of the fan shroud that slides out. Turns out my R33 doesn't have one, thus I have to flex the shroud and 1/2 fins of the fan to get it out. Once I finally got it out, I put a pressure hose into the radiator and let her rip. Then in all my cunning plan glory... I decided I'd give the radiator a clean... with the pressure cleaner. So good so far... opps a few bent fins, all good I can fix them later... yep on Day 3 I'm still straightening the fins and I've only gotten one side done so far. Add to that the discovery of corrosion of some of the fins on the radiator and I'm one sad panda. The radiator should still cool fine once I'm finally done, but I'm getting to the point now where I've spend months on this car, and just want a break! Once the radiator fins are all sorted, I'll hook it all up again with the new thermostat. I still plan to run some of that radiator flush treatment stuff through. Then it hopefully should all be good enough I don't have to worry or think about it for awhile.

Brake pedals & seat wear are one area you can look for. As far as warn wiper stalks, the lettering on mine is fading/smearing due to the paint not being very long lasting. So in my case it's not an indication of kms, rather just a defect in the materials of the car. So you have to try and decide if things are wear & tear from high mileage or from sloppy materials used.

It seems all semi's are 30% "something". That something can be Group IV or V. Since ester is Group V, M5000 would be III/V vs the III/IV semis from Penrite, Nulon, Castrol & Mobils etc.

I half expect a UOA report to state oils like Penrite and Nulon have less traces of X in them compared with other oils... therefore they are better because you're engine won't ... some_cs_student, there's more than a few Sougi users here, and also others who have and can give real world comparisons for what they used before vs using Sougi now. These real world comparrisons carry alot of weight. I can't get advice from someone running an Audi or Falcon as they are entirely different cars. Don't get me wrong, I don't think a UOA is a bad thing, but I don't think a UOA is going to tell me what oil will run better in my car. All it will do is tell me what trace elements, minerals and other things are in the oil. Birds, you're right 100% here. Real world usage is what counts. Driving the car, hearing it, feeling how it performs is enough for me to say X product is working very well in my car. Price also matters too for alot of us. We all want to use the best, but I know I'm not the only one who can afford the "best". And then the term "best" is often a subjective thing anyway. So we make our decisions based on price and what we perceive to be the best product for that price. M5000 sounds like a winner then Birds. Definitely makes sense to use it if only doing 5000kms eh. You said it has the same additives as S6000. So what's the difference then? Less % Ester as the base?

I've been so happy with S6000 I forgot all about little old M5000. I have no doubt it's a good oil. Let us know how it runs eh as for half the price of S6000 if it runs as good, it's still going to be better than pretty much every other semi and false "fully" synthetic out there. Ah, the famous phone call finally happened. Interesting about Sougi's demise down to a lack of space. Surely that's an easy fix as even if there's no space in their current location, another storage space could be secured very easily. Hmmm, so Andrew said Sougi didn't have a big enough fanbase. Well that means only one thing. Everyone here who uses Sougi needs to send a letter (snail mail) to Andrew. GW need to hear there is a fanbase for Sougi and how much we like it, how pissed off we are at the thought of losing it, and to thank them for making a great and non expensive product. Nice to hear about the surplus. However I think we can no only convince them to continue production, but maybe to market it a little better. Sougi's success is down to an exceptional product for a cannot be beat price. Grassroots at it's finest. So guys and supporters of Sougi, even if it's only a dozen of us on here who have actually used the product. Let Andrew and Ben know how much we love Sougi, take pictures of your car with a Sougi bottle next to it and send it to them. Printout stuff from these forums. There is alot we can do. GW don't need to receive tens of thousands of letters to get the messages. They are already getting it, so let's make sure they then know how passionate we all are. Sougi isn't all about engine quietness. It's about how smooth the engine runs, how the car feels more responsive, how the oil pressures are better and not so high or eratic. Group V it sure is, and for our cars also it seems the combination of the Ester base and 10w40 makes it a winner. Would be very interesting to see an oil analysis, but if you were going to do that, then it would make sense to then do one for Royal Purple and 300V/8100 as those are the only readily available oils that compare with Sougi.

That seems quite a dramatic way to get water back into the head. The idea of starting the engine with no water in it, feels like a recipe for disaster.

The Bosch's are going great. Car feels very good, but as you know from some of my previous posts, I did do quite a few things at once, so I can't then say for sure if the new plugs helped. But let's put it this way, they didn't not help either. And for the price, you're paying for coppers basically and getting platinums.

I did a few radiator flushes last week with some tank water and cheap coolant. Today I decided to look at it a bit deeper and was glad I did. My cooling system must be pharkn dirty as now I'm finding thus scum/past stuff under the radiator cap after driving it. Was tricky for me getting to the thermostat. Finally did, but not after breaking a socket adapter since I was torquing it at the wrong angle. Good old $9 tool set ftw. The end of where the top hose connects had corroded badly. There were jagged sections where it had rusted away. I hope the engine isn't this bad, but now way to check that . I'll have to file and sand the end down to make it even and try and get as much of the rusty crap off as possible. Then looked at the bottom hose and inside was this mixture of black sludge, and rusty scummy crap. to the previous Jap owner! Though I should have had a look at this sooner I suppose. Compliance put new fluid in, but I can only guess they just drained the radiator itself and didn't look at anything else. It was getting dark in the day, so I wasn't going to be able to finish this all off. Placed the hose into the top engine hole and left it on for about 10mins or so. Didn't have too much pressure, but it was alot more than just a trickle. Had the water flowing out the bottom hole. I cleaned the rubber hoses a little, and have them soaking in some mild detergenty stuff for tonight. Also started filing off the corroded tip and crap from the thermostat housing. I know Kudos Motorsports sell a replacement, but the hoses sit so far up, the connection will still be good and safe once I have it all cleaned. Other than that, I gave the radiator a few flushes with the tank water too. I took the thermostat out, and originally was going to just get a replacement. But then realized it could very well be ok. So I put it in a pot of boiling water and it opened up just fine. I'm not sure if it's worth the $60 for a new Nissan one, or would an oem or no name one from one of the auto stores be just as good? I've replaced a few thermostats before in previous cars, but never had one as solidly built as the Nissan one I removed today. Also, there's the more expensive Nismo one too that opens up at a lower temperature. Most likely money not worth spending for my car as it's pretty much still stock. I've got some gasket goo stuff too for when I put everything back together. One question, how do I get water back into the engine once I install the thermostat. If I fill up the radiator, how will water get into the block if the thermostat is closed? Will it flow into the block via the return hose instead? Would like to know this before I turn the car on and mess something up. Also about whether people have gone with a genuine Nissan thermostat or an oem one.

Wow I never would have thought the 4100 would be "better" in your engine than the 8100. It must be down to the oil weights then, as I'm sure 8100 has more additives and detergents in it. But it's being let down by an inferior weight. This only gives me evidence to 10w40 being one of the top weight choices for our cars. But just remember not all 10w40s are the same and some are terrible like Castrol. I was very much leaning towards trying 8100 once my Sougi dries up, but now I'm certainly starting to have doubts. Yeah dude, I know I'm not the only one whose very eager to for this phone call with Andrew. It's being cruel to finally find a near perfect oil for my car, and then find out it's being discontinued.

All credit should goto Birds, that's who first put me onto the Sougi. Glad you like it, as I'm loving it too. Interesting about it holding up better than the other oils. And also nice to hear a direct comparison between 8100 vs Sougi.

I'm going to eek out as much life from Sougi as possible, and $ providing will stock up on some. Once that runs dry, who knows hopefully Motul will follow up on their looking into making a 10w40 8100 oil. Otherwise I imagine I'll look at either the 10w40 Royal or the 5w40 8100. Galois, was that a typo you made? Group V oil should give you 10,000kms. And I'm sure Group IV would give more than 5000kms. It's the cheap ass, or not so cheap, but still cheap in quality oils that struggle to make 5000kms. If money is really tight, I won't try Nulon, but might try some Valvoline, Elf, Shell or something semi. Even GW's SynX is a semi and in 10w40 too. Interesting about your comments of the crap Castrol oil. Just adds more information here to others that it isn't the right type of oil to use. I wish the OP was around or something as we need an updated page now with not only what each group of oil is, and what makes/brands, but also what oils people have used and found they were not happy with them.

Ah ok, was wondering that myself actually. So for a Group V oil like Sougi, it would be either 1 year or 10,000kms? Otherwise for the semi synthetics and other products it's 6 months or 5,000kms right?

You can't get anymore simple than that. It has the exact same connection as the one that's already on your car, so no soldering, wiring or anything is needed. The hardest part is taking off the old spark plug really. Other than that it's a perfect replacement for a fraction of the cost.

Basho, don't pay $260 when you can pay $77 instead. Try this link http://www.kudosmotorsports.com/catalog/ng...25det-p-42.html Kudos are based in Nerang, so you might even be able to pick it up and save on some shipping costs. I bought one from them and can't say enough how helpful they were. Great prices and great service. I took some pics of the sensor which you can find here. http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/-t...t&p=5225914 That's interesting, I didn't know 300V came in that large a size. Though if I was buying 25L of any oil, it would be Sougi right now.