Warpspeed

You have two things in your favor, the licence was suspended, not canceled, and it was a random check, you were not caught drunk, or driving like an idiot. It is really up to the magistrate to decide. He will look at your previous police record before he decides what to do. My guess is a further suspension plus a fine. Highly unlikely you will get jail, but if you do it again, better take a toothbrush and comb with you to court.

I agree that the timing inputs to the Autronic SMC are much less flexible than the Motec, but removing two screws and replacing the optical disc takes about two minutes, you don't even have to remove the CAS from the engine to do it. That can hardly be called a limitation. You prefer Motec, fair enough I cannot argue with that at all. But I have some $1,000 dollar spark plugs here for you if you want them, hehehe. They must be better because they cost a lot more, eh ? Seriously though I can see advantages and disadvantages with both Motec and Autronic. Maybe neither is actually best, just different. It seems to me that Motec have a totally different sales and marketing philosophy to Autronic. Motec will sell a complete package with all the correct interfaces and software to fit your specific engine exactly. But it would then require buying a whole lot of extra fairly expensive stuff to transfer that ECU onto another quite different engine. That can be a problem if you buy a secondhand Motec. If it originally came from a V8, and you want to put it onto a rotary, or a V twin Harley, you are going to be in trouble. Autronic is much more flexible in that the same basic unit will run almost anything, but it just takes a bit of thought to get everything hooked up properly and make the appropriate selections in software. Autronic needs some thought and understanding. With Motec all you need is money, that is probably the main difference at it's most basic.

I have recently fitted an Autronic SMC and am EXTREMELY happy with it. In Queensland contact Ray Hall Turbocharging. Autronic have a few very sophisticated features that leave every other system far behind. The first is the autotune feature. Yes it will set up your entire fuel map while you drive the car for you. It does require the rather expensive Autronic air fuel meter to be connected to the ECU, and the ECU will then automatically map every fuel site that can be reached on the road. A dyno would be better, and will be needed anyway to map the ignition timing. But even on the dyno, the autotune is much faster and probably more accurate than any dyno operator. The second outstanding feature is the (private members only) Autronic help Forum. That site offers excellent technical help, it is not a social chat Forum. I installed my SMC between Christmas and New year, and was able to have questions answered personally by Ray Hall within a few hours on Boxing Day. The guy is ALWAYS there to help. I have never had technical help backup like this with anything else, ever. Autronic users also discuss problems and issues between ourselves. it is strictly technical only, not a social Forum. The SMC is very easy to install, and for us Skyline freaks, there is a replacement optical disc for the CAS that provides the correctly timed and phased signals for the ECU. Other engines can require distributor modifications which can be a nuisance. But for RB engines it is simple. My engine started and ran first attempt, the base settings already in there are fairly reasonable, and just about any engine will start and run first go, provided there are no wiring errors. One thing you will notice, Autronic ECUs never appear secondhand. Never. They are so good that people move them from car to car. They sell the car, but keep the Autronic ECU. They are that good. Heaps of Motecs and FCs on the secondhand market, but no Autronics. Motec are a good ECU, but they have this horrible sales and marketing strategy. You buy the ECU, then you have to pay extra for unlocking codes to enable various software features. For instance if you want your ECU to electronically control boost, you must pay extra money to unlock that software. If you want antilag, you pay extra for that too. Autronic is not like that. You buy the basic ECU, and get the operating manual, and every feature is right there on the computer screen. You can select exactly what you wish the ECU to do to suit any car or engine. The software is very sophisticated, particularly for idle and engine warm up control. The only thing that the FC has that is missing in the Autronic is the knock sensor input.

Yes it will be o/k, but the injectors will be operating right at their limit. Check that the fuel supply and return lines can actually flow sufficient fuel so that the fuel rail pressure remains under the full control of the pressure regulator at both idle and flat out. No real way of estimating intercooler efficiency or induction temperatures. So very much depends on ambient temperature, and how the car is driven.

Oblivian, Google "twincharge". It has been done many times before, Nissan have done it on a production car, (the March) so have Lancia, and VW. The latest 2006 model Golf GTI just released in Europe has both a turbo and a supercharger.

Oh No ! You probably nailed Kermit.

Yes it will bolt straight on, But No, nothing else lines up. Water passages are all wrong, combustion chambers are different as others have said. It is possible, but not worth the trouble and expense. Just get a complete RB25 donk.

If you live in the suburbs, it probably doesn't matter. If you drive a lot out in the bush, where semi trailers throw up bloody great rocks, it may be a rather good idea.

I have a four dollar conversion kit that converts an R31 Skyline into a genuine R34 GTR. If you believe that, then you will believe a cheap build it yourself Jaycar kit will read accurate air fuel ratios with a stuffed secondhand narrow band oxygen sensor, with no temperature compensation, and without any calibration. It is like using a wooden school ruler to set up the clearances in your race engine. If you are building a ten dollar race engine it will work fine. Bloody hell guys. If you want a decent measuring instrument, buy a real one. Spend the money and get something that works. If you want the best, buy Autronic or Motec. If you have a crap engine, a crap air fuel meter will be quite o/k.

One very simple way to tell, GTS has four stud wheels, GTS-T has five stud wheels. If it only has the four wheel nuts, someone has just changed the badges over on the car.

I have done this on several cars. Usually the easiest way is to find a convenient boss somewhere on the exhaust manifold casting. Sometimes there are threaded holes provided to mount the heat shield for example. They may typically be tapped for an 8mm bolt, and the thread most often does not go right through into the exhaust manifold. So what you do is drill out the hole so it is larger, and goes right through into the manifold. Make damned sure you don't leave any metal chips inside the manifold !! Best to take the manifold right off the car first. Then blast out the chips with compressed air or a garden hose. Tap the hole for a convenient thread, 1/4 BSP is easy to get fittings for. Then go around to a hydraulic hose supplier, or somewhere you can get a steel fitting that goes from 1/4 BSP to 1/4 flare, and get them to supply 500mm of steel bundy brake (or fuel) line, a matching flare nut, and get them to flare one end of the steel pipe for you while you are there. You then have a 500mm length of quarter inch steel pipe sticking out of your exhaust manifold. A piece of rubber tubing pushed onto the end will work fine, and will not get hot enough to burn. You boost gauge can then be used to measure the exhaust back pressure if it is not too high. When you have finished, you can replace the fitting with a 1/4 BSP blanking plug, and that will also hold your heat shield in position, after you have filed out the hole in the heat shield to suit the larger diameter. A typical stock factory turbo at factory boost level, you can expect the turbo to reach rated boost at maybe half redline Rpm, and the exhaust back pressure will come up to twice the boost pressure and stay pretty much at that while at full boost. If you wind up the boost to maybe 15psi, expect around 30psi back pressure with a small stock turbo and factory exhaust system. That is fairly typical. Fitting a monster turbo will lower back pressure a lot, but boost will then not hit until fairly high up in the Rpm range. The lower back pressure will definitely raise top end power, we all know that ! If you built some sort of freak turbo with big compressor and small turbine, trying to get a low boost threshold, it will not go as well as you hoped. The increased back pressure of the small turbine will kill power, and the big compressor will do nothing but surge. Exhaust back pressure is a problem. But knowing what it is can be an excellent guide to sorting out other problems. Lower exhaust back pressure will also reduce detonation by allowing the heat to get out of the engine. Those red hot manifolds and turbine housings are trying to tell you something. Low back pressure = big horsepower, it is that simple. As a guide, each 1 psi in the exhaust manifold is costing you 1% engine power. So find out what it is and be truly surprised. There is far more power to be had by playing around on the exhaust end of the turbo, than the compressor end. It is also an excellent way to compare turbo efficiency between different turbos. Remember the turbine has an efficiency figure as well as the compressor. Another thought, the total back pressure is turbine back pressure plus the pressure drop along the whole exhaust system to the back of the car. We all know a big exhaust goes better, but most of the problem is in the exhaust turbine itself not the rest of the exhaust system. Find out what your back pressures are, and you can then identify the weak link in your system.

The problem is getting it to spool up, and controlling boost and engine torque (drivability). Where you have a constant speed engine under very heavy constant load like in a diesel truck, electricity generator, or a boat, or even in an aircraft, turbos work great. What turbos are not so good at is for very fast acceleration. If your turbo takes two seconds to spool up and reach full boost, the engine cannot accelerate to full power in less than two seconds. Think about it...... The engine can NEVER accelerate faster than the turbo can accelerate. In a car that does not really matter, even a fairly fast car. But in a motorcycle, it sure does matter. A powerful bike may go through three gears in four seconds. No turbo can keep up with that. So turbos don't work well on powerful motorbikes. They don't work on powerful drag cars either. Once the power to weight ratio becomes really high, turbos are more of a liability than an asset. The engine becomes too peaky and laggy, and underivable. Even the Formula one drivers hated turbos. They were very hairy to drive, especially in the wet, and generally less responsive, and less reliable than the larger normally aspirated engines they replaced. None of this applies to road cars, and turbos are really great on the street. But if you were building a 5,000 horsepower car for something, a supercharged big capacity V8 would be the only way to do it. If you wanted 5,000 horsepower for a boat, a gas turbine would easily beat anything else. But it would probably take twenty seconds to spool up to full power.

I have no doubt a turbo top fuel engine could be built, and probably be just as powerful, but it would most likely be completely underivable. The existing rules outlaw a whole lot of things, including turbos. The fuelers use slider clutches and this holds the tyres right at the point of traction limit over the full quarter. A turbo would be almost impossible to launch consistently, and when it DID hit boost, it would just break into uncontrollable wheelspin. Pretty much the same with motorbikes. Turbos are great, but beyond a certain fairly high power to weight ratio, they just are too difficult to drive (ride) and not responsive enough.

Or you could get an Opcon Autorotor. They are available over the counter in Melbourne. The largest has a rated flow of around 29 cubic metres of air per minute, that is 1,024 CFM, around 680 horsepower worth of air. Is that enough ? http://www.hi-flow.com/HP7Super.htm They also provide full boost over about a 10:1 engine speed range. How about 35 psi boost from 900 rpm to 9,000 Rpm. Show me a turbo that is fully spooled at 900 Rpm, and does not run out of flow at 9,000 Rpm. Absolutely no contest......

Turbos are quick, cheap and easy. If you want a serious amount of power though, it will most likely end up a laggy pig. Superchargers are complicated and expensive, similar top end power but a MOUNTAIN of torque and no lag. You get what you pay for. So many guys compare a $ 300 secondhand Toyota blower to a beautiful $ 1500 ball bearing turbo, and say the blower is crap. They are right. Now take a smokey old $ 300 secondhand turbo off a 1.5 litre engine, and compare it to a $3000 screw blower that can make 500 Hp. That proves turbos are all rubbish, right ? If you are going to compare turbos to superchargers, start with a similar budget. The more you spend, the better it will be, no matter which you decide. I have owned both, and like both, but for different reasons. Anyone that thinks superchargers don't make power should realise that ALL the fastest drag race classes run superchargers. So where are the four second top fuel turbo cars ? If it could be done, people would be doing it, and there would be new classes started for really fast turbo cars.

I have been through all this drama myself, and would strongly recommend selling the car and buying the real thing. It looks easy, just fit the turbo, ECU and injectors, but it never turns out quite that way. The problem is that things start going wrong. First the clutch slips, then the gearbox let's go, then the brakes start to become hairy. It may even begin to overheat if the radiator has not been upgraded. After a huge amount of work and money, you end up with a highly modified car that is neither legal or easy to sell. A roadside check by the cops or EPA could put the car off the road, and it would be rather difficult to return it to standard. Sure, lot's of guys do it, but it is not going to be as cheap and as easy as it looks initially. Save up, sell the car and buy a GTST or GTR. It will be fast, reliable, and legal. And it will still be worth something when you try to sell it.

Some of you guys are out of your freaking minds. I have bought this turbo so it is no longer for sale. It is on my car right now and works fine. A small amount of shaft end play is quite normal for these BALL BEARING turbos, and this one is fairly typical.

Sky30, I have not personally compared the two gearboxes side by side fully dismantled, but know someone that has. There is one bearing with a different Nissan part number, not sure which, but both bearings are physically interchangeable and probably make no real practical difference. It is the sort of production change that car makers sometimes make during a production run. The 4WD gearboxes are essentially otherwise identical in all respects, and used in both GTR and GTS-4. Gears, casing, shafts, selectors, seals, transfer case, everything are absolutely identical. Diffs are the same too. R160 in the front and R200 in the rear all are 4.11 ratio except the R32 which has 4.32 diffs. The rear LSD can be viscous, multi-plate, or electronic, depending on what was ordered. Some GTS-4s even have the electronic diff usually only seen in the V spec GTR, though that is extremely rare. The R34 GTR with the six speed Getrag has different gear ratios and diff ratios again, (3.54, I think ?). The front diff is an R180.

GTS-4 and GTR gearboxes are identical, except that the R32 GTS-4's (with the RB20DET) used different ratios. The R33 boxes and diffs are identical ratios. But driveline strength also must include the clutch and half shafts. The GTS-4 is considerably less than the GTR in both clutch capacity and rear half shaft diameter. It also uses four stud wheels. If you get an R33 GTS-4 and put a GTR clutch in it, and upgrade the wheel hubs and half shafts, it will be identical to a GTR in both strength and ratios. But an R32 GTS-4 will have different ratios, but could be made just as strong with the same clutch and driveshaft changes.

Studs are definitely stronger, and a further advantage is that you can leave the studs sitting in the block when you take the head off. If you are going to be continually taking the engine apart regularly, as in a real race engine, the threads in the block will not wear out from the constant removal and re torquing. That is the good news. The bad news is that the head becomes a bitch to get off. It has to be lifted STRAIGHT up off the studs, if it goes slightly crooked, the studs can jam in the cylinder head holes. Another thing is that Skyline head gaskets do not have a reputation for giving trouble, and neither do the standard factory head bolts. As both work perfectly fine as they are, why change them ? Some guys really get a kick out of spending money on their cars. If I told you that a set of Titanium wheel nuts cost $3,000 dollars and were twice as strong as the factory wheel nuts and saved 0.5Kg in weight, would you buy a set ? That is what it really comes down to. If a set of head studs make you feel better, then get yourself a set. Otherwise the standard head bolts will work fine, it is entirely up to you.

Definitely steel, and definitely forged. I have an RB26 crank in front of me right at this moment.

If it starts and runs, and seems to drive o/k, then driving it will not do any damage AT SMALL THROTTLE OPENINGS. If it is dangerously out of tune, you will know because of the stalling, hesitations, missing, or jerkiness, and it will let you know something is desperately wrong. But even then it will not damage the motor unless you really thrash it. It is like running out of petrol. The car coughs a bit and stops. You don't melt pistons, break rings, or burn valves just because you run out of petrol. Take it real easy, and it will be fine.

Unleaded fuel always burns black and sooty, that is the way it is. You can only get a nice light grey exhaust pipe colour with leaded fuel or avgas. Unleaded cars always have dark black exhaust pipes, even when running lean. Spark plug heat range has a lot to do with it too. Too cold a plug may foul, even in a well tuned engine that does not burn any oil. 12:1 air fuel range adds just enough fuel to burn all the available oxygen and will give maximum power. Any more fuel than that cannot burn because there is not enough air in there to do the job, so power will not increase below 12:1 14:1 air fuel ratio ensures that all the fuel is burnt completely, no unburned fuel will be present in the exhaust. Leaning it off beyond 14:1 will not improve economy.

Quite right, but the trouble is knowing what wheel sizes actually mean. Look at a 40 year old design of exhaust turbine wheel like a T3. It is shaped like a biscuit, large diameter and skinny around the peripheral edge with the vanes aggressively swirled at the outlet. Compare that to a more recent ball bearing turbine like a GT25 which is more cylindrical in shape. It looks more like the paddle wheel off a riverboat. Smaller diameter with straighter vanes and a much bigger outlet area. The trim numbers are much higher. The old wheels are like 40 trim to 60 trim, the new ones more like 65 to 90 trim. Trim is the ratio of areas of wheel outside diameter to eye diameter. The old skinny wheels had higher tip speeds requiring smaller a/r housings. The flow range was less and they are more difficult to match to different engines. The wheels were heavier too. New wheels flow much more and have a broader flow range, less rotational inertia, and are much more efficient. A T3 has a bigger turbine wheel than a T25 (or a T20). The T3 is even bigger outside diameter than a GT25, but the GT25 turbine is a MUCH higher flow turbine than a T3. So actual wheel diameter is not a very good guide to flow when comparing old turbos to the newer ones. If you want to work out wheel trim and you know the eye diameter (say 41mm) and the wheel outside diameter (say 53mm). 41 x 41 = 1681 53 x 53 = 2809 1681/2809 = 0.598 that would be called a 60 trim wheel (59.8 actually) So you can see a 40 trim wheel is pretty skinny and a 90 trim wheel is going to be pretty fat. There is no way you could compare them just by overall diameter, but that is what Garrett does. A GT28 is a hell of a lot different to a T28.

It all depends on how old you are. When you are only 20, there is never enough money to modify cars, get pissed, chase skirt, smoke weed, and have fun. When you are 30 there is never enough money to modify cars, pay the mortgage, feed the kids and pay the gas and electricity bills. When you are 40 there is never enough money to modify cars, send the kids to uni, pay off the mortgage and have that overseas holiday you always promised the missus. When you are 50, there is never enough money to modify cars because you have saved nothing for retirement, and must start soon. When you are 65 and no longer have any debts, have several hundred thousand dollars invested, and are looking forward to future retirement, can finally afford a quick car, you no longer really want to drive fast. When you are 80 and a millionaire, you drive the Ferrari to the corner shop, and the bowls club at 40 Kmh in the right hand lane wearing your hat. Young punks in very noisy Skylines abuse you and make rude hand gestures. That is life.