GTSBoy

Don't get me wrong, I'm no pinko leftist who supports arbitrary taxes. I just love poking the ants' nest. But in all seriousness, spending luxury car tax money on a car is already a silly and unnecessary exercise, which I have never done and will never do, until and unless I get sufficiently wealthy that I do not even have to think about whether spending that much money on a massively depreciating purchase** is a sensible idea or not. And being of sound mind and body, I cannot imagine how anybody else can think that they should go out and spend that much money on a car unless they have already surpassed that threshold of wealth. If you are not sufficiently cashed up that the difference in cost caused by the tax doesn't even factor in, such that the tax does bother you, then you shouldn't be spending that much money on a car anyway. **note that I said "depreciating purchase" and not "depreciating asset". Already shows the mindset difference between me and the bleaters.

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Why would I go to the effort to google up "articles" that say the same things I learnt directly for myself over a period of 20 years? That is for you to do, now that you have been told that your understanding was wrong.

Remove and/or plug.

Le sigh. Piezoelectric transducers. Google them. RB20 and RB25 same same. Not identical, but same tech.

Timing. Not timming. Tuned, not tunned. Let's agree on some common spelling conventions before we start counting the crayons.

Close it up and live your life.

And you would have been giving poor advice.

Let's attack just these bits. The ECU only adjusts timing to achieve idle speed control if it cannot achieve it with the IACV. Period. It does not just add and subtract timing at idle when the AFM signal goes up and down. It doesn't even bloody look at the AFM signal when it is on the idle maps. You see all sorts of shitty timing variation on a timing light on an RB because the belt drive to the CAS is a source of dither and because the trigger wire (on the old igniters) is a shitty way to trigger a timing light. If you put #1 coil on a plug lead and put the trigger on that you get a much better signal, but it is still full of crap from the CAS variation, etc. The knock sensor is a piezoelectric transducer. Basically a microphone. It sends the noise it receives to the ECU when it is analysed by a dedicated part of the ECU (basically an audio notch filter to grab the right frequency range and a counter for knock events, which are basically click-noises). There is no variable resistance involved in this. The knock sensor has an impedance of about 500kohm (or somesuch value) and the only reason to know that is to replace it with a resistor if your sensor is f**ked and you need to stop it pulling timing without chucking a code from removing it entirely. People do use Nistune because the stock ECU is a good thing. BUT WHAT I AM TELLING YOU IS THAT IT IS AN OLD ECU DESIGN THAT IS NOT SOPHISTICATED ENOUGH TO DO CLOSED LOOP TIMING SEEK. I use Nistune. I have tuned mine myself. I have worked a few times with Matt from Nistune to fix problems in the system. And Dosepipe tunes many Nistunes. We know these ECUs.

Slap, it is time for you to stop now. So many things that you have said are simply not in agreement with reality. 1. The ECU does not pay any attention to anything to do with the fuel when it comes to setting the timing at idle. The only thing the ECU does is a) try to operate the engine on IACV control to hit the target idle speed with the timing fixed to 15°BTDC. Absolute, 15°, BTDC. b) if it can't hit the idle speed target (if the idle is too high) it will use what is called delta control to use the timing to pull the idle back. I have personally seen this happen on many RBs when the idle control is all gummed up and won't work. 2. Nissan ECUs really do NOT run a sophisticated closed loop timing control such as you outlined. There are many more modern ECUs that do exactly that (the Ford EEC-IV was one of the first). But R32-4 ECUs really don't. They have a single ignition timing target value for each and every cell in the map and that is what the ECU is programmed to hit. The only time the ECU pulls timing is when it registers knock. There are various strategies across the ECUs, from knock maps to simple -3° type deltas, but nothing sophisticated. If you put better fuel into one of these cars, the ECU does not go winding the timing up looking for knock and then trim it back and then add some more. The shitty old knock sensors on these things do not lend themselves to such sophistication. 3. Don't talk about SAFCs as if they are relevant to this discussion. SAFCs are to ECUs what shovels are to scalpels. I quoted this bit because it is important. It is simply NOT TRUE that R3x ECUs raise timing with less airflow. Certainly not true across the whole map. Have you ever looked at a stock RB2x timing map? The timing drops to lowest values at peak torque (basically the middle of the map in both speed and load axes) then rises again as you go above and below that part of the map. More revs = more advance. Less load that peak torque/efficiency = more advance. More load than peak torque/efficiency also = more advance. And, for one last time. The timing values in the maps and as output on the Consult interface for "current ignition timing" are all absolute engine position with respect to TDC. Not "imaginary 15° base setting + the value you see". Just "the value you see". That's it. Provided the CAS is set correctly. It is a loooooooong time since it was fashionable to turn up the power by advancing the CAS a few degrees to increase the timing. That was 20 years ago.

The definition of whether those cars are luxurious to be in is not the point. The point is that vehicles that cost that much money are still a luxury. You can get away with spending half that amount and get perfectly serviceable vehicles for most people's usage models. Sure, there are one or two usage models where the vehicle can legitimately get up towards luxury car tax levels. But almost all purchases made in the luxury car tax bracket are 100% discretionary and based on want, not need. Ergo, luxury. Doesn't matter how much people bleat about it. It's just because they want X vehicle at a lower price. If the luxury tax were to be changed/abolished/whatever, these people would still spend the same amount of money because "I want" not "I need", and also the real need is to stand out from or keep up with the other wannabes in their street/social circle.

No, the absolute static idle timing is 15°. The ECU's knowledge of the engine's position is based on the assumption that the CAS is adjusted so that its TDC point is the same as the crank's. That, of course, puts the ECU at the mercy of the idiot twiddling that CAS position. But when everything is set correctly, the ECU says that the idle timing is 15° because that's what it is.

Sorry, no. All wrong. Idle timing is a real 15° (manual), or 20°(auto). 30° at idle would be a shitshow.

The standard diff will be fine. Well, it will be strong enough. The viscous LSD part of it will be sucky if you add much power. Any other LSD option that will fit the car will also do the job. Keep in mind that as an S chassis, you have 3x2 bolt flanges on your diff/axles. So you want to stick with S chassis diffs.

Take the door trim off, investigate the lock mechanism push rods. Correct whatever you find wrong. May be broken plastic clips, might be crap wrapped around it, might need a squirt of teflon lube spray on pivots. The central locking actuator might be f**ked and causing resistance to movement, etc etc.

Well, seeing as you're still worried about the "while you're driving bit", you should NOT take the ECU's word for what the ignition timing is. The ECU only knows what the CAS tells it about engine position. You have taken the CAS off and put another back on, so the real engine position could be different to what it (the CAS) thinks it is. The only way to know for sure is to put a timing light on the engine and see. If the marks don't agree with the ECU, then it is time for investigation. This can simply mean you have to adjust the CAS to make them agree, but it can also indicate a mechanical problem (the pulley can slip on the balancer's rubber). You should not just wind up the idle on the screw on a Neo (or on many engines) because the ECU is actively trying to control the idle down to the setpoint in the ECU, which is about 650 rpm. You have opened up a bigger air flow path that the ECU can't control, so it winds the IACV down to nothing, then it starts pulling timing. I think the IACV steps can be almost any number, if it's actually working, depending on how far open it needs to be to support the load at idle. But if you see it at low values, like 30 and it's not moving up and down to maintain the idle, then it is probably bottomed out. You probably haven't done a good job on cleaning the IACV and/or putting it back together. Probably worth another shot. And lastly, all of this is only for idle. Unless you have a real mechanical problem causing the low idle timing, then the idle timing maps and control do not play any part when the engine is running on the main maps. You should monitor the timing while driving. Run the car at moderate load (up a mild hill) and hold it at a known engine speed (say 3000 rpm). Note the timing value. If you can check the TP value on your Consult, then you can look up the standard Neo timing maps for that load and speed and see if it matches what the ECU was commanding.

The ECU is pulling timing to try to get the idle speed down to target. This usually happens when you either have a vacuum leak after the throttle, or the idle valve is dirty and stuck too far open. Both are really common, but the dirty idle valve is more common. It requires removal, dismantling and thorough cleaning to make it work. You should be able to see the number of "steps" that the IACV is on via Consult and if it is really low, that's your giveaway to the above.

Yeah, probably not. The gas might be willing to take the left turn to go out the wastegate port, but anything solid will be more than happy to separate from the gas flow and continue going in the direction it was originally travelling - which is towards the turbine. And I would still be fine with that. A blown ceramic turbine is a fine excuse to upgrade the turbo, on the <1% chance that it somehow manages to break.

Bah humbug. Any plastic will melt &/or burn away within a very short time. If it manages to make it out the exhaust while still solid and passes through the turbine at idle, precisely NOTHING will happen. How fast do you think the turbine will be spinning at idle?

Mental note: Don't use a ratchet. The ratchet can only handle so much torque before you'll shred the teeth off of it. This is why breaker bars exist.

Ceramic coating on turbine housing and dump pipe is a good idea. Ex manifold too. After that, any extra shielding is just icing.

Anyone spending >$66k is buying a luxury product, regardless of whether they want to tow their boat etc. Boats are luxuries, big expensive cars are luxuries, even if they are a rough riding 15 year old truck chassis with an entertainment system bolted on top. No-one really needs more than a Kia/Hyundai/Subaru/small/medium/sedan/SUV anyway for 95% of what they do. So they should not bitch when they have to pay more to keep up with the Jones'.

I wouldn't stick anything onto the firewall etc. The adhesive won't be that great and will not last a long time. You'll eventually have shit hanging off. The products themselves will certainly do what they say, except for that one aspect.

Vaseline was to do with the question about injector o-rings. Which I would have thought would be quite clear when I mentioned f**king o-ring lube. As to the piece of plastic......close the engine, start it up, go on with your life.

I don't have a problem with the LCT. The exemptions that the Euros are getting are because they have low fuel consumption figures. the big Toyos that everyone is bleating about use HU-f**kING-MUNGOUS amounts of fuel. If people want to buy their bro-dozers, then they can pay for their bro-dozers.