Toowoomba Skyline Owners

[Captain Natro]

What Kmart meet!?!?

[olloSKYLINEollo]

What's a Nandos meet?

A meeting of cars near a nandos store

[olloSKYLINEollo]

What Kmart meet!?!?

The one I mentioned earlier today

[olloSKYLINEollo]

I was going to ask you guys to head out to the KMart meet on Saturday 6pm.

Amanda will be there with her family (if you remember her from our last run).

That's her gig and her dad's a regular.

Where do we meet up? Tbar HQ?

Sounds good. Am doing an oil change on Saturday. Meet up at mum and dads place at around 6?

[me_larr]

Done

See you there.

[TezGT-R]

Got the urge to begin ripping the turbos off the R, got most of inlet side done and am beginning to wonder if a high mount single is a good idea. This metallic spaghetti system is really annoying lol.

[me_larr]

High mounted singles are good. Especially if you get pulled over. Then your car will be off the road again.....

Whichever way you go, do it quick so we can get more cars on the road when we do our little cruises

We really need to add a bit more variety to our sausage fest

[Captain Natro]

High mount ftw

[TezGT-R]

I'm thinking I won't get harrassed much on our cruises with the abomination in that pretty orange and black colour scheme to soak up the attention of the police.

[Captain Natro]

Bah humbug, it's mellow as blends into traffic even

[tommis85]

Doooo eetttt with the turbo

[tommis85]

Just keep in mind money/ecomical wise, under 500hp is best for twins, over 500hp is best for single - golden rule for turbo upgrades. Have a real hard think about how much power you want vs how much you can afford as there are many hidden traps to fall in to with this shiz.

I personally would upgrade twins and keep the car at a daily 400hp. Then, from experience, I would throw money at further reliability items and longevity stuff while keeping that same power level. Doing it any other way ends in tears, especially once you start making over 450hp.

[tommis85]

Believe me.....I know it all. And unfortunately it all comes from experiences. Least I can do is help someone who's about to embark on the same journey...

[TezGT-R]

Yeah I'm just gonna go the cheaper option of upgrading the low mounts for now, just not looking forward to putting all those pipes back in later on LOL. So many of them...

[tommis85]

Haha you'll be right - it's actually one of the easier things to do on the car. Just take a heap of photos for your first go and put aside a weekend for it.

Also be sure to replace your head studs, nuts and all your copper crush washers. Yes, you can get by without doing that but you risk getting oil and coolant leaks if you "re-crush" copper washers that already have been crushed out once.

I replaced all my mani studs/nuts (engine and turbo-to-manifold flanges)

As far as removal goes, here are some tips:

- remove bonnet and park under good lighting

- drain all your coolant and oil

- remove all your IC pipework that covers the turbos and group it on the floor with associated nuts and bolts

- remove your front pipes

- remove the exhaust side cam cover (you will need to so you get better leverage with the 12mm spanner for the mani nuts)
- start on the front turbo first, loosen all nuts off equally...you'll see that the more you loosen the nuts off equally, the more room you get when you're able to wobble the turbo around.
- take care with the metal oil and water lines....they can take a bit of bending and manhandling but don't push it.
- have a heap of cheap 12mm spanners / ratchet spanners on stand-by for the mani nuts...buy the flattest profile ratchet spanner you can afford. Use the cheap 12mm spanners to bend to shape for some of the more awkward mani nuts - you'll see what I mean when you get to them haha

Took me about 8 hours to do last time with engine in car. (including swapping all the gear over on the turbos once they're out...water lines, brackets, heat shields and the dump pipes). Some peeps say that it's easier to do with the motor out too...and I dare say it would be, but then that's a heap of extra work too. All much of the muchness really.

But yeh, just be sure to keep all your stuff you remove together. Keep nuts, studs and pipes together in piles etc. Every time you remove a major part, take a photo. I did this for mine but hardly needed them.

Edited January 25, 2014 by tommis85

[tommis85]

Oh, and make sure you fire it up without the front pipe on....it sounds sick as ;-)

[TezGT-R]

Lots of stuff I would have never considered, thanks dude. Been using the little tool kit I keep in the car but I'm gonna have to go to my parents place in NSW and get my big tool box and jack before I can do much more.

[tommis85]

Haha yeh, there're a lot of different ways you can go about it and everyone has their own preferences...the last time I did it things came apart and went together quite easily actually.

One other thing that you could do while the stuff is off is port match the manifolds. The stock ones were deliberately "miss-matched" by 7-10mm to de-tune the RB26. You may have to take them to a shop for this or get some aftermarket ones. A bit of a gain to be had there with the new turbos

Also, while you have the front pipes off get a larger diameter flex joint welded in to them that's not smaller than the pipe dia like the stock one is. I had this happen on mine - no wonder the rear turbos struggle a bit!

And...while we're talking exhausts, you should really get new dump pipes for yours. The R32 items are shocking, the R33's are a good upgrade, the R34's are fantastic (welded item, not cast).

So yeh, port match, flex joint (or new front pipes) and new downpipes will see you get the most out of your brand new turbos. How's the rest of your exhaust? Do you have a higher flowing cat?

[tommis85]

I swapped my factory dumps/down pipes out with split dump pipes....as in, back to back testing, and didn't notice that much of a difference. Maybe see if you can get yourself a set of 2nd hand 33's

[TezGT-R]

It's got a 3 inch trust system, including front Y pipe. I binned the compliance cat and put a massive one on it. Think it's a Metalcat. When the turbos get replaced I'll probably do the dumps too, since they'll already be unbolted and won't be any extra labour.