MLCrisis

Hi, Guys. I just got a full set of Hankook K104s, 235/45 17s for $188 a pop! FRom Swan Tyre Services in Osborne Park. They have them on special. Great service too! Cheers.

:lol: :lol: :lol: Gotto love it!! And thanks to Sewid, who got the list of sounds before I got to read the thread. Wonderful!! By the way, guys, if you are having trouble choosing a BOV, then here is a tip for something to fill the gap while you are making up your mind or saving up your pennies: 1. Take MP3 recorder/player; 2. Take trumpet mouthpiece (as in the musical instrument); 3. Attach to empty toilet roll or empty GladWrap tube (depending on desired note); 4. Eat beans; 5. Lots of beans; 6. Stick trumpet mouthpiece and GladWrap tube assembly up your backside; 7. Record results & play on super doof-doof system in your motor. Easy - peasy! Cheers!

Danke. Mein Deutsch ist nicht sehr gut. And I was never much of a Schummy fan, anyway! I am afraid that poor use of language infuriates me. Usually, I grit my teeth and ignore it, but as I was replying anyway, I thought I would pile it on! As for the rest, my apologies for stirring up Ross80, I am afraid I could not resist. Particularly as he was being so impolite to begin with, although I am hardly stung by his crude attempts at insults in reply. The entertainment continues! At least it beat the TV last night!! Keep going, Al, you're on a roll. Cheers.

Wonderful !!! A complete idiot to whom I can reply, rather than the one or two others who only showed glimpses of idiocy. Tremendous!! You get this thread's star prize! I think Al captured the essence of it, but please allow me to add one or two words to supplement his message (and ru3-29T please note, and all of "yous", I am also using grammatical English, correct punctuation and real, grown-up spelling). So, Ross80, this website is about high performance imports (and, by the way, the "your" in your opening sentence should be "you're", as in short for "you are"). We all love driving our cars and want to be able to continue to do so. Hence, we encourage responsible use. This means sticking within the law on the public roads (within a margin that is generally accepted by the public as a misdemeanour rather than a heinous crime), whilst organising opportunities to use your car to its max' on the track and other closed road events. The website is also about swapping technical information and helping each other to understand our cars and how to get the best out of them, both mechanically and as a driver. This ethos abounds throughout the forums, as you have found out when you happened across this thread. Allowing those with an IQ that matches their shoe size to take over and salute those who drive in an irresponsible and dangerous manner will simply result in more draconian laws to curb the use of the cars we love. It will also probably result in more of you and your teenage mates, who think they are Michael Schumacker after two weeks of driving experience, killing themselves, their friends and innocent bystanders. So if you don't like the message, go and find a site that supports idiocy, incompetence and an invincibility complex. Such fun! Cheers.

Thanks - it is just stock boost and stock turbo. I would love to claim that I controlled it in a power slide, feeling like Michael Schumacker, but I didn't. I managed to catch it and keep it on the road, but there was a lot of luck in that, I reckon. Definitely a fright, Shmiddy! But I was more worked up about it afterwards, when the "what might have been" sank in ..... .... ...... And I know what you mean about those sprinklers too! Cheers.

Hi all, I must admit that I am in two minds about sharing my experience with you, but in the interests of improved understanding of the cars we drive, here goes! Just had a few days down in the glorious South West and enjoyed the chance to drive reasonably hard on some bendy roads - although there were only one or two you could really do it on. Lots of braking and changing gears, whilst taking care to line up for the corner and look around it, etc. All was going hunky dory and a fun time was being had by all. So, heading back from Eagle Bay to Dunsborough and I was catching up with a reasonably recent Suburu Legacy Wagon. He seemed to be issuing a bit of smoke, but not much. He was still a reasonable distance in front of me. Then as he went into a bend, he suddenly issued a lot of black smoke, but continued. I took this bend a bit more cautiously, but he was still OK as he went around the next and the smoke had reduced again. So I was less worried and powered through the next bend, in fourth (am pretty sure - may have been third), so I doubt I was doing much over 90 km/hr but may have been. On the apex of the bend, the back end lets go really quickly and I am suddenly sideways with bags of opposite lock and foot right off. She came around pretty quick, more on the wrong side of the road than the left, a little bit of over-correction and opposite lock that way and then I was able to move her back onto the left side of the road. Fortunately, nothing was coming the other way - otherwise my 16 year old son, who was in the passenger seat, would not be here. We were probably on the wrong side of the road for a second and a half, if that. The Suburu, meanwhile, was pulling to the side of the road about 50 metres ahead (where the car stayed for the rest of the day, looking very sick). So I reckon that he dumped some oil on the road (my son suggested this immediately, which backed up my impression). But it also occurred to me that the boost may have come on just as I powered through, which would have contributed to the overall effect! Boost comes on at about 100 km/hr in third, so maybe I was going quicker than I thought. We did handle similar bends with no dramas prior to that, so I reckon that oil was the main contributor. Net result is an important lesson for me to pay more attention to vehicles suddenly producing smoke and also to watch the revs when coming through bends. My understanding is that there are two points in the rev range when boost comes on - one is about 2000 and the other is about 3500 - is that right? (At different levels, obviously.) BTW my R33 is stock, apart from pod filter, cat-back zorst and super whiz-bang R34 GTT stock intercooler. Any thoughts and observations would be welcome. Cheers.

Just a quick note to say I have finally fitted the R34 intercooler! Did it yesterday - taking full advantage of the public holiday. Judicious use of a screwdriver assisted removal of all hoses from pipes (they were sticking). Cooler went straight in. Even the shroud needed only minor modification to fit. Net result appears to be more power - but difficult to say whether this is just an impression or not, without some form of measurement. Boost also appears to be slightly higher, although difficult to tell with just the standard gauge - but it would make sense, 'coz the pressure drop in the R34 cooler is less. Not driven it enough yet to work out if the boost is coming on earlier or not - only did a quick lap around the block. Overall, very pleased. Thanks to you guys for the input. Cheers.

Thanks for the tips, guys. At least I am not missing some special tool or technique, like a half-turn anti-clockwise whilst pushing left on the pipe, standing on one leg and humming "Tokyo's the town for me" or something. Sunday arvo should be an interesting time. I knew it would come down to judicious use of a screwdriver. Cheers.

Hi, guys. This is probably a dumb question, but how on God's Earth do you get the bleedin' hose off the intercooler pipe? I am trying to fit an R34 GT-T intercooler to my R33 and am failing miserably to remove the hose. Is there some knack to this or a trick I am missing? I have got the pod and the AFM off, no problem, so I can see what I am doing. I can get the screw-clip off the hose (corrugated plastic bend), as well. But I cannot shift the hose from the intercooler inlet pipe. Naturally, I am trying to curb my instincts to use the 4lb lump hammer and 18" screwdriver. They will remove anything, but not usually in a re-usable form!!! Or do all you guys who have done this have a secret handshake? I am running out of sticking plasters for all the spanner rash! Answers on a postcard to .......

Sorry, mate. I know this is a bit late since your post, but your opening statements are basically wrong, although right in some respects. The whole of the exhaust system from the exhaust valves to the exhaust tip contribute to "backpressure". This is simply the resistance to flow that the exhaust gases experience before they exit at the exhaust tip, in other words the pressure drop through the system. This means that there is a base pressure that has to be made in the cylinder to enable flow to occur. That pressure is effectively the "backpressure". Naturally, the reciprocating motor overcomes this backpressure and then some. The greatest contributor to the overall pressure drop is more than likely to be the exhaust wheel in the turbo, but every bit of pipe, every bend and every restriction plus the valve and ports in the cylinder head contribute to that pressure drop. To say that the turbo "extracts" the gases is just plain wrong. The turbo would only extract gases if it was driven by something else. But the exhaust gases drive the turbo. Reducing the pressure drop downstream of the turbo exhaust wheel enables a higher gas flowrate and increases the relative pressure drop across the exhaust wheel, thus increasing the driving force to the exhaust wheel. Your conclusion about responsiveness, etc., is correct - but you got there by the wrong route. Or do you understand all this and you just didn't express it very well? Sorry to go on, but there are a lot of incorrect ideas mixed up with fact in explaining how a turbo works on the forums. We need to get it right. So if anyone can add to what I have said, I would welcome their input. Cheers.

Hi, guys. I filled up at WCH/Scarborough Beach Road last night. Seems like most places have it now. But just one thing - maybe it's because I'm an old b'stard, but I see no point in calling BP. Far from it! They have busted a gut to fix a refinery breakdown in half the expected time, they have gone out of their way to let people know by SMS and the like and overall have done their damndest to help their regular customers. So if you cannot cope with the fact that Perth is the most isolated city in the world and is served by only one, ageing refinery, then that's tough. But don't insult the people who are working their butts off to provide you with the goods you need. You should be sending them a note of appreciation, instead of being so wrapped up in your own little self-focussed worlds that you cannot appreciate someone else's position or circumstances. Just thought I would throw that little rock in the pool. Cheers.

Hi, guys. This topic has been covered a number of times - try searching on "refinery sharing" and select "any date" to get the relevant threads (instead of the default "30 days"). The following might be illuminating, which was one of the contributions I made to an earlier thread: So BP don't give 98 octane fuel to anyone in WA, including Caltex. And the recent shortage of Vortex, wierdly at the same time as the BP premium and Ultimate shortage, was not a conspiracy, but exactly because there was a problem at the BP Kwinana refinery. Hope this helps. Cheers.

Hi - is this for R32 or R33? Cheers.

Hi, Guys. Just a note of caution to all of you budding bucket chemists. You need to take care how you throw this stuff around, if any of you are thinking of mixing it outside the tank. The best way, I would think, would be to part fill your tank, add the carefully calculated amount of Toluene/other additive and then finish filling your tank with normal gasoline from the bowser. Avoid chucking this stuff into buckets/drums or whatever. Keep it in a suitable container and pour it straight into the car. If you must pre-mix, then do it outside (not even under a car port), well away from electrical appliances, including lights. Minimise the opening into the drum (i.e don't just slosh it into an open top container) and stand up-wind. To minimise your exposure, wear gloves (those red plasticky, rubber ones that come up over your wrists), preferably some sort of mask to protect from fumes and DEFINITELY wear goggles to protect your eyes from splashes. Do everything you can to minimise ignition sources. Bear in mind that any vapours will be heavy and tend to slump over the ground - so close the door into any building nearby (like your kitchen!) to prevent fumes drifting in. Bear in mind that ignition could occur some distance away and flash back to the drum/container. (So don't think you can let your mate smoke 10 metres away.) If half of Perth is going to be sloshing this stuff around, we are bound to hear of some idiot getting burned. Don't play with the stuff if you do not know what you are doing. These are chemicals with a significant fire risk. Just drive slower for a few weeks on whatever petrol you can get! Cheers.

Hi again. An atmo BOV should not make any significant difference to the likelihood of your car to stall. Mitchy's comment is true to a point, the engine will run momentarily rich for a second or so when the BOV has acted. But this won't cause it to stall - 'coz your BOV is only acting at 1800-ish revs and above. There is a looong thread on low revs stalling, in the Forced Induction forum, which concluded that repeated stalling at low revs comes from the Oxygen sensor being stuffed. There is loads of info on replacing it, including getting the same part from a Ford dealer, but loads cheaper. So you can just stick your BOV on the car and it should work fine. Cheers.

Hi, I had the standard silver insert and bought a purple one from Xspeed. They used to have all of the SSQV accessories, so check out their website. My understanding was that the gold insert made no difference in sound, it was just a different colour. The purple insert is a lower pitch sound, which is less penetrating (i.e. carries less). I recently bought a plumb back connection for the SSQV from bd4s.com.au. So now I don't go "PHUTOOOO", I go more like "phoooo". Hope this helps. Cheers. P.S. Aren't phonic representations of BOV sounds crazy! If you had a conversation about it in public, you would be locked up!

Hi, Steve. Is this the VSPL core intercooler? (which is the only sidemount kit that I know of!). I would be interested in it, even just for the i/c, and am prepared to gamble on whether the piping will fit my R33 SII. Please send me pm if still available. Cheers.

Hi, Steve, As I want performance, not decoration, what do these intercoolers flow like? Can you give flow figures and pressure drop, please? Am I right in assuming that there is no difference in the kits betwixt SI and SII Skylines? Mine is an SII. I suspect the amount of cutting for the front bar would be different - I think the SII needs less, is that correct? Very interested in the cooler & pipe kit. Thanks a bunch.

I knew I would wear this one. I cycle as well, so I am well aware of the consequences. I was not suggesting that I am lackadaisical, if anything I am suggesting the opposite. I take pride in my driving but, given the topic, I was admitting that I am not perfect. Having been sprawled on a number of bonnets, shredded various clothes, worn various flats on hips, shoulders and knees and woken up in an ambulance after landing unconscious in the way of oncoming traffic - it would have been memorable, but I have no memory of it - I take more care than most looking for cyclists at junctions. But despite all that, I got it wrong this morning. As it happened, I managed to stop just in time to give him the room to avoid me. No excuses and I apologised profusely. I was the dickhead. So, in the knowledge that I am not perfect, I look to improve my driving all the time. I concentrate on things like giving bikes room. I pull out from the inside lane of the freeway to give room to the vehicle who is entering from an on-ramp. I work hard to drive as well as I can, all the time, which is why the people doing the things listed gives me the sh$ts. But you can add another to the list - the motorcyclists who sit in your blind spot on the freeway and then crack the shits when you pull out! (Happened to me just the once, I must admit - but I see the potential often.) And I always give a long signal first and 99 times out of a hundred I look over my shoulder as well as check the mirrors. But on one occasion, the two combined - I did not look over my shoulder and this dickhead was sitting there. Because of my long signal, he knew I was coming, so it was not a near miss, but he yelled and gestured anyway. Most motorcyclists won't do this, but some clearly have no idea. And now I have my mirrors adjusted to minimise the blindspot. Oh, and anyone who is human can be distracted by something when driving. If you acknowledge it, you can manage it - so I don't drive perving at girls in lycra. I only perve from the comfort of the traffic light queue! Cheers.

Yes, agreed. I, too, am a mere mortal and make stuff ups on occasions. They are mercifully few and far between and have never been of any consequence. But I do try and acknowledge them and give a "Sorry" to those I have affected. (Like the cyclist who burst out of the shadows this morning and nearly became my new bonnet decoration! Oops! First one for a long time, but I was clearly inviting it with this thread!!!!) Mind you, I quite often see this girl cycling in the morning who clearly believes in lycra. Hard not to be distracted!! Cheers.

Ah haha! I had forgotten about that one. That REALLY gets me! At least in the Summer, I will have my window open and so will they (YES!). So a few well chosen words about indicating before the lights change a) help to inform the idiot who would otherwise be blissfully unaware of their incompetence, B) perform a public service by informing said idiot of their area of their aforementioned incompetence, c) attract other road users and passers-by to their demonstration of incompetence thereby creating an impromptu public education session and d) make me feel much, much better! Always polite though - people are always disarmed by politeness and don't know how to respond. Loud, yes! But always polite! Good comments, guys. And the filtering on the freeway (or lack thereof), the tosser who matches speed and boxes you in - all good examples. At times, I wish I was driving a big, old Landcruiser with a massive rusty bullbar and big side steps. Then a little encouragement to the drivers around me would not hurt at all!! (But that is just fantasy - don't try this at home!!!) Oh oh - and another one! The people who, in traffic in the city, drive into a junction when their exit is blocked. Then the lights change and they sit there blocking the traffic on the other street - St. George's Terrace and Milligan Street is a classis for this one! I am just amazed at the way they stare straight ahead and refuse to look sideways. If they just acknowledged their mistake and waved "Sorry", it would at least redeem them to some extent. It is even better when they are there when the pedestrians get their go and they all stream all around the car, making all sorts of loud comments. Great stuff! Cheers.

Hi guys. This started as a reply to another post, but quickly got off track .... I would be interested in whether any of you share my frustrations - clearly some of you do from previous threads. I hasten to say that I love Perth and if this is the only problem I have to deal with in living here, then it is still a wonderful place. There are bad drivers everywhere, but having said that Perth drivers have a few idiosyncracies that drive me nuts! Here goes: ## You're the fifth car from the lights and the lights change - it takes 30 seconds before the guy in front of you is rolling!!! (In London, if you are more than a nanosecond taking off, even ten cars back, you get horns from the guy behind.) ## The people whose God-given right is to drive in the right hand lane - no matter what. ## The people, often also of the latter category, who form mobile road blocks with someone on the inside lane. People, if you are in the outside lane, then you are ov-er-tak-ing, which means you go faster than the car on the inside lane, then you pull in in front of them. Matching speeds is not an option! ## The people who drive up behind someone turning right (or a bus that has stopped) and just stop. Even though the other lane is clear and they could easily go around them. The skill you are lacking is called an-ti-ci-pa-tion. ## Roundabouts are your friend - they help traffic flow and avoid more traffic lights (and the problems above). So why not learn how to use them? Four cars stop at a roundabout in West Perth, one on each entrance to the roundabout. Nobody moves - except me behind one of the idiots and I am leaping about in my car, tearing my hair out and yelling "It is not that difficult!". ## The more advanced Perth driver who has learnt how to enter roundabouts and is good enough to actually use their indicators, but get it wrong and indicate right when they are going straight ahead!! When going straight ahead, you are supposed to enter the roundabout with no indication, then indicate left as you pass the exit before the one you are going to take. You only indicate right when, unbelievable as it seems, you are actually turning right!! And while we are on the subject, the F#CKING road designers need shooting, castrating and made to sit in the passenger seat of one of the idiots described above who doesn't understand the stupid road arrangements they have laid out! $$ Traffic lights that take 2 minutes to go through their cycle, giving every possible manoeuvre a go. You do not have to have lights controlling right turns when there is never any bloody traffic - for example, Oceanic Drive and Westcoast Highway. There are never more than half a dozen cars going either way on Oceanic Drive - so why have the delay of right turn signals?? On WCH, it's fine, but on Oceanic it is stupid. $$ What is the obsession with narrowing perfectly good roads and putting all these twiddly bits along the side, sticking out into the road and asking to be driven over??!! Try driving down Nicholson Road in Subiaco at night. You can barely see these things - and there have clearly been lots of people who have hit these big kerbs, because of all of the black tyre marks on them. If you happen to hit one and destroy your wheel or suspension, take photographs and sue the council!! $$ Also, what is the obsession with putting all these twiddly islands in the middle of previously perfectly good roads. Then stick a tree in the middle of it, with red and white steel barriers at ninety degree to the traffic. So if your wheel survives hitting the kerb, the barriers and the tree will stuff your bodywork! Don't these people realise that a wide road is a safe road? Narrowing a road and peppering it with obstacles just causes problems. Try driving down Grantham Street in Floreat and every stupid island has black tyre marks on the kerbs. If you are a pedestrian, don't think you are safe on one of these islands. I have seen a car hit the kerb of one of these with a big impact, the driver clearly lost hold of the steering wheel, and the vehicle drove right over the island and nearly into the oncoming traffic. $$ Why place a lamppost right on the outside of a bend or junction? Anyone getting it wrong, even slightly, is bound to hit it and have a big crash, instead of just a minor one. Road designers in Europe were writing about this issue and safer road design over fifteen years ago! So how come Roads WA is not aware of this? $$ What is wrong with Subiaco Council? Are they trying to stop cars driving through there at all? Hay Street and Roberts Road are major commuter routes, yet Fortress Subiaco is doing its bets to impede through flow of traffic! Why? The same is happening in Wembley on Cambridge Street! What are these councils up to??? Sorry about the rant and the length of this, but there you go. I would be interested in anyone else's examples or views. Cheers?

erm .... don't speed? Or at least stay within 5 to 10 km/hr of the speed limit. And as for 140 km/hr in an area that is either 60 or 70 km/hr, that is just madness and you deserve all you get. You could easily kill innocent people doing that, as well as youself - keep it on the track. (To admit you don't even know the speed limit, shows you had no intention of even trying to stay near the limit.) Just thought you might like some grumpy-old-git input! Cheers.

Used car warranties never offer much protection, except against major mechanical failure. I am sure that you would have found the same with any used car yard. Persuading a customer who is convinced that they are covered, when in fact they are not, is a hard job. The measure of the yard is probably how well they deal with that and how prepared they are to give a little in the grey areas. But don't expect any used car yard to give away much - they are not reknowned for their charity work! Cheers.

I bought my R33 from Down Under Autos on Oxford Street, Leederville, in Jan 2003. They were very good to deal with and gave me a good deal. I have continued to use them for service since and they have always looked after me. Both the guy at the yard and the guy at the service garage have always been happy to talk to me and answer my stupid questions. They are also quite prepared to recommend other places for work that they don't do. Of particular interest is that they are a licensed RAW and they are also an RAC registered dealer - which means that all of their cars get RAC checks and the RAC also checks out various aspects of their quality management. I am sure there are other good ones around too, but I received good service from these guys and will definitely talk to them when I am looking for a replacement. As for John Hughes, they were very slick salesman and had some nice cars. Their asking prices were high, but they were prepared to move. I reckon I could have got a reasonable deal off them, but they did not have a Series II when I was looking. Overal, I reckon they would have ended up about $2k - $3k higher. Whether you get any more for that difference is your own judgment. Cheers.