Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

Hi all,

I just purchased a '98 Stagea Autech 260RS. Based on my research, it's #412 of 1784 across both series. It has 142k km and is mostly stock, save some GT-R R34 rims and a Tomei(?) front grill. I'm based in the States, so this car was never sold here in any form. We didn't get the GT-R here until the R35, so the drivetrain is an unicorn (ironically). I'll be picking up the car in a couple weeks and driving it cross country to its new home. For now, I'm scouring the internet and educating myself on the care and feeding of these beasts. So far, I've determined that I can't just look up parts anywhere in the US, so starting to amass a list of cross-referenced parts. Anyway, I'm excited that there's an active forum for these cars and their sisters. I plan on gleaning all sorts of information from you.

Hi. I'm Kip. I've bought a car that doesn't exist where I live. I'm a fool.

-Kip

  • Like 1
Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/485025-fool-in-the-states/
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Kip said:

Hi all,

I just purchased a '98 Stagea Autech 260RS. Based on my research, it's #412 of 1784 across both series. It has 142k km and is mostly stock, save some GT-R R34 rims and a Tomei(?) front grill. I'm based in the States, so this car was never sold here in any form. We didn't get the GT-R here until the R35, so the drivetrain is an unicorn (ironically). I'll be picking up the car in a couple weeks and driving it cross country to its new home. For now, I'm scouring the internet and educating myself on the care and feeding of these beasts. So far, I've determined that I can't just look up parts anywhere in the US, so starting to amass a list of cross-referenced parts. Anyway, I'm excited that there's an active forum for these cars and their sisters. I plan on gleaning all sorts of information from you.

Hi. I'm Kip. I've bought a car that doesn't exist where I live. I'm a fool.

-Kip

It's not that hard. Many parts are sold direct through Nissan USA dealers now, just look up the part numbers through the parts catalog. The 260RS is entirely R33 GTR as far as drivetrain goes.

Welcome Kip.

You'll be fine. I have a car (well, "truck") that not only does not exist where I live, but I had to have  converted from LHD to RHD as well.

Both drivetrain and engine are generally R33 GTR, but you can get info here on specific differences

  • Thanks 1
On 10/26/2023 at 4:44 PM, soviet_merlin said:

:wave:

From one fool to another, I'm sure you'll be fine. Do you have any photos of the car?

Here are a couple of the "glamor shots" from the dealer. It's pretty much stock (as mentioned above), but does have a set of meister coilovers and a modified exhaust. The interior is untouched which is nice. Tires are on order to add a little more sidewall and I'll adjust the coilovers to put the wheel wells just above the tire instead of down on the rim.

Engine 1.jpg

Side View 1.jpg

Three Quarter View 1.jpg

  • Like 4
On 10/26/2023 at 3:53 PM, joshuaho96 said:

It's not that hard. Many parts are sold direct through Nissan USA dealers now, just look up the part numbers through the parts catalog. The 260RS is entirely R33 GTR as far as drivetrain goes.

I didn't know Nissan USA would help me out. Very cool. That's half the battle (the first being tracking to the right part numbers).

Yeah. Reading a lot about the R33, since mine is essentially the wagon/estate/combi/avant model of it. I'm excited to have one of the ultimate sleepers.

  • 4 weeks later...
18 hours ago, soviet_merlin said:

Nice one, looks very clean! I always much prefer the boxy more aggressive look of the S1 over the S2.

Thanks. Just picked it up last week. Drove it 32 hours across the country to its new home and then some more local, holiday travel. Over 4,000 kms in all. The car can really eat up the miles.

And the petrol! It seems the car is more modified than I realized. I think it has an old school tune on it that is dumping too much fuel into the mix, based on the soot collecting on my rear bumper cover and the 13l/100km consumption I'm seeing. Regardless, it's an interesting car. I'm enjoying getting to know it. I'll get it off the ground this week and go on a fact finding mission. See if I can get a better understanding of the mods.

  • Like 1

Oh wow, that's some serious distance! That's an easy half a year worth of driving for many. I'm glad to hear it made it okay.

I wonder if the soot could also be from the exhaust setup. There's a highflow catalyst on mine that does pretty much nothing and smells terrible. I have been blaming the gunk on the bumper on that. Not sure though.

4 hours ago, soviet_merlin said:

Oh wow, that's some serious distance! That's an easy half a year worth of driving for many. I'm glad to hear it made it okay.

I wonder if the soot could also be from the exhaust setup. There's a highflow catalyst on mine that does pretty much nothing and smells terrible. I have been blaming the gunk on the bumper on that. Not sure though.

It drove beautifully. It really likes to just cruise around 130-140 kph. The exhaust quiets down. It's off boost. It just eats up the kms. It's almost zen like. ๐Ÿ˜‰

You're right. The exhaust has something to do with it. I believe it's some sort of HKS exhaust, at least from the cat back. It has an ~10cm tailpipe that has both limited clearance of the bumper cover and points upwards a little. It's a cool visual that's a total 90s throwback for me, but it's creating some of the discoloration.

2 hours ago, Watermouse said:

Would a modern aftermarket ecu change that somewhat?

If you ran a wideband and tuned for a lean cruise you could save some. But it's just not an "efficient" engine design. Manufacturers have put a metric shit tone of work into reducing fuel consumption in the 35 years since that engine was born. Port design, chamber design, high compression, valve timing control, injector placement (and quality!), low tension piston rings, thin oils, smaller bearing journals, low drag engine ancillaries, etc etc. None of these modern things have you, hmmm?

2 hours ago, Watermouse said:

Would a modern aftermarket ecu change that somewhat?

It will help a little as others have said but don't expect miracles. And most tuners are not remotely interested in tuning fuel economy so expect to have to learn and do it yourself. 

Welcome! You've effectively got an R33 GTR wagon, so most of those parts can come from an R33, which most Nissan spares can order for you in the US these days. Body panels will be hard, but the US has some of the best body work and trim shops if reality TV is anything to go by :D

Sounds like you might have a remapped ECU, pop the carpet out under the passenger side and see if there's any tuning shop labels on the ECU, that's usually the easiest way to tell, or you might have to open up the ECU to see if there's any EEPROMs changed out etc.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • Good news!!! Changed the O ring today and Iโ€™ve got the โ€œpssshhhhโ€ back when I open the fuel cap ๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ™Œ๐Ÿผ๐Ÿ™Œ๐Ÿผ It was 100% the O ring because that bloody thing was inside the fuel tank ๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜‚ Fitting new fuel pump was a pain as always since the DW is a bit longer than stock. But sheโ€™s running!!! โค๏ธ
    • PWM quite literally just chops the ful 12V voltage on and off at whatever duty cycle you're running it at. If you're running it 100%, then it is on full voltage all the time, same as if there was no PWM. If you run it at 50% duty cycle, it is only seeing the full 12V half of the time. This is broadly equivalent to running it at 6V. But the crucial difference is that motors (and a lot of other loads) don't like being powered at low volts. They will either fail to start rotating, or draw a shit ton of current, or other undesirable things. But if you give them the full volt, and then a short period of no volts, and then some more full volts, then the times when they are seeing power they are seeing all the voltage, and they are happy. But you get the performance out of them as if they were only seeing that fraction of the full voltage. It is not really easy to answer your question about what flow you will get out of it at 50% duty cycle. I can tell you that it is not as simple as you think. For a start, that 460 L/h pump is not going to flow 460 when you're on boost. When you're on boost you will be somewhere down the sloping part of that red line. If you have 15 psi of boost, then the pump can only deliver about 95 gal/h, which is <380L/h. So your simple 50% on 460 = 230 wasn't going to work anyway. But also, it won't deliver 50% of 380 either, because when you devolt or PWM trim th epower being fed to the pump, it is not able to deliver flow or pressure in the same way. 50% duty cycle will probably produce <50% of the full voltage flow. The way to find out what duty cycle you need to run it at at low load (ie, at idle) is to idle it and turn the DC down until you start to lose fuel pressure, then turn it back up above that with some extra for safety. And then you do the same thing at full load, in case it doesn't need anywhere near 100% DC. And if you're careful/caution/prudent, you will also do it at a couple of loads in between so you can shape the DC map against load. It might not be linear between the two end points.
    • Man that dinner was such a long time ago....2010! I would only replace the rubber coolant lines with silicone these days; cheap, readily available and will last for ever. You will need new hose clamps though eg https://justjap.com/products/cooling-pro-silicone-engine-heater-hose-set-black-nissan-r32-gtr-rb26dett
    • I wouldn't look too hard at what they did with the R32 GTR in endurance racing in Australia... Lots of things weren't actually available from the factory in the way those cars ran them... Japan also followed what Fred Gibson was doing here with some of there endurance cars in Japan... Australia is also the reason for things like the Brembo brakes, and the change in the gearbox... And quite a few other tricks they used to pull. There's a few other SAU peeps still on these forums that will have heard the stories direct from Alan Heaphy, Fred Gibson, and Jim Richards when we were lucky enough to have a great dinner with them
    • For all the talk of "these parts are junk" I generally recommend OEM because it's really not as bad as claimed. I have never seen or heard of a case like the N63 where the oil returns completely clog with coked oil for example in ~10 years or less. Would it be nice if it were a straighter path? I guess, but most modern cars use a scavenge pump instead of a pure gravity return. Also the factory lines that would be relatively simple to convert to braided are generally speaking hardlines from the factory. I would consider braided line to be a regression, not an improvement. It's also been engineered such that all the hardlines have appropriate strain relief where needed. There's absolutely room for improvement, for example the HKS advantage heritage intake piping shows just how much can be done to make the turbos fight each other less in OEM twin turbo configuration and reduce compressor surge but it's rarely a simple/straightforward process. I recommend looking at what the group A/N1 cars did, generally speaking the changes they made were necessary and proven in endurance racing.
ร—
ร—
  • Create New...