R31 Help 1st car

[Zanthic]

Hi guys im looking at buying a Skyline For my first car i want a R31 about but i want the TURBO got any advice on how to tell if the R31 is the RB20DET and the RB20DE im not that great when it comes to cars all i like to do is drive em oh and is there much of a power difference between the na and the turbo? i found a R31 1988 silhouette for Aus$2400 not sure what engine yet any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thx Brendan

[YO880]

have you looked into insurance yet? for a 1st car, a turbo might not be the best option..

i don't think any australian car came with the 2L Turbo, just the 3L RB30E engine, for a turbo, you will need to find one that has been converted, or an import.. or do it yourself.. either way would expect insurance to be a killer

i am pretty sure the RB20DET have "ceramic turbo" written on the cross pipe above the engine..

[SteveL]

Hi guys im looking at buying a Skyline For my first car i want a R31 about but i want the TURBO got any advice on how to tell if the R31 is the RB20DET and the RB20DE im not that great when it comes to cars all i like to do is drive em oh and is there much of a power difference between the na and the turbo? i found a R31 1988 silhouette for Aus$2400 not sure what engine yet any help will be greatly appreciated.

Silhouette is the Australian built model and will have the RB30 engine unless it's been 'converted' to turbo which is unlikely for those sort of $$$

[Zanthic]

thx for the help hey insurance aint that much of a biggy atm how hard is it to convert these into turbo's i got 5k to spend so after buying this thing ill have 2.6k

[YO880]

not too hard apparently (depending on how mechanically minded you are) , just buy a front cut and xfer it over

http://R31.fcpages.com/rb20.htm

[Zanthic]

how much would that cost my cousin is a mechanic so all i needa buy is the parts how much power do they have with out the turbo?

[YO880]

check out justjap for frontcuts, i know they had one a couple of weeks ago (it was a redtop)..

you wouldn't bother fitting a 2L non turbo, it would be gutless

your other option could be to drop a RB25DET into it

do a search here, or on r31 forums.. i am sure there is plenty of stuff out there

[B0oStEr]

Even if you could do most of the work yourself a conversion wouldn't be the cheapest way to get a turbo. Motor, G/Box, ECU wiring, exhaust, brake upgrade, engineer's certification plus whatever labour etc $2.6K won't get you anywhere near it. You might manage to pick up a tidyish import turbo for $5K I've seen a few auto Passages (4door pillarless) go for that money. Manuals and coupes are harder to find for that money. A very tidy manual coupe with a few mods and some nice wheels probably won't leave much change of $10K

[Zanthic]

all i want is a Stock R31 with a Turbo engine i dont like my chances of getting one i want 4 door auto also 5k is all i can get thx guys you've helped me out alot and it was realy realy quick to

[SteveL]

Your cousin should check out the car before you lay out any $$$...particularly the diff as they are prone to be very noisy/whiney (a known problem). Silhouette model should also have an LSD. R31's are solid, reliable cars when well maintained, but it's still 15+ years old and should be throughly checked.

[this is the part you won't like] AFAIC since this is your first car, you should get some experience with it in its standard (ie NA) form before going down the turbo path, not to mention the fact that getting insurance is going to be difficult and expensive.

[Zanthic]

how much HP does a NA have? and does anyone no how fast it hits 60mph???? STOCK!!!!!

[racsov500]

arent the gt passage 4 door turbos (jap)

but your unlikely to find one for 5k

get a local one and use ur saved money to get an exhaust wheels ect, cause the stockers are painfully boring (xept the gts's)

[AnFz]

Like it has been said,

The oz released R31 all came with an RB30E, about 114KW

The import HR31's came in RB20 Turbo and non turbo variants. The DET pushes out about 140KW+, while then N/A only does somewhere between 100KW - 110KW.

5K will probably get you an N/A import R31, coupe or sedan, but these are gutless as hell, no top end and no torque. You'd better off buying an N/A local R31, and save up money and mod that, or maybe do a VLT setup yourself.

You will be hard pressed to find a turbocharged import or local for 5K. Either fork out the cash for one already setup, or buy a stocko and DIY.

The other thing to think about is how you are going to maintain it? While 5K might get you an import, it will be barely there on the mechanical side, even still if you buy something else, theres rego and insurance to think about also, not to mention fuel costs.

Visit www.r31skylineclub.com you will find a wealth of information on the forums, just use the search function hope that helps

[pentae]

Buy a pintara for cheap (1.5k) buy an rb20det front cut (1.5k) and you'll have 2k spare to get someone else to do the job, or if you can do the conversion yourself spend the rest of your budget on suspension/tuning/brakes

[predator]

just turbo the rB30e.. you can get anywhere from 120-200rwkw .. using parts from the VL turbo and standard bottom end.. many have had great results.

[SKY031]

If it's your first car, then the NA RB30 is fine.

I'm suprised that predator was the first person to mention turbocharging the RB30.

If you've found a Silhouette for that price, grab it while you can.

Drive it around for a while, familiarise yourself with the car, and then chuck a turbo on it

[Zanthic]

might go buy that silhouette tomorow then ey all i want to do is beat my mates crappy 92 EF ford lol thats one of my main goals and to be able to do some sick burnouts what would you recommend me spending the 2.6k that is left on best parts for most performance?

[YO880]

spend a couple of hundred bucks on an advanced driving course, and just get use to the car..

better to have some money tucked away in case you find something wrong with the car...

then later on down the track look at upgrading etc..

[predator]

if all you want to do is burnouts and be a hoon.. grab a VL.. you'll fit right in..

[SKY031]

It's probably worth your while to spend some of your left over money on changing the timing belt too.

These cars are getting old now.

As you'll quickly learn, cars are a very expensive hobby.