Sydneykid

I have seen this in lots of cars, sometimes there is a bent component, sometimes not. A proper 4 wheel wheel alignment usually shows this up. The general consensus in the suspension industry is, over time and many k's, with just the driver in the car, the chassis develops a twist (a set). This means it is lower on the side that has someone in it all the time when it is moving, ie; the RHS. This is exacerbated on GTR's because of the transfer case, front drive shaft and diff also being on the RHS. If you have had the wheel and chassis alignment checked, then personally I would put it down to chassis set, lift it 8 mm on the RHS (up one circlip groove, front and rear) and move on. cheers

Circlip grooves are a standard fitment, lots of shocks use circlips to retain the lower spring seat. Many new cars come with circlip grooves, for example any of the Subarus equipped with Bilsteins (B4, STI etc ) have circlip grooves. I have had 20 or so cars checked for initial rego with screw spring seat height adjusters and none of them have had any problems either. It's more a matter of legal height, than how that height is achieved. Let's face it, aftermarket mud flaps are technically "illegal", so are non standard spark plug gaps. It all depends on how fine a line you want to draw. cheers

What is the height, centre of wheel to guard on all 4 corners? That will enable me to tell you how much travel you have. The Skyline Konis are very firm, but it is mostly bump stop contact that I find causing harsh ride. If it is lower than 350 mm front 340 mm rear then it is most likely bump stop contact. You may need to raise it and trim the bump stops, the height will tell the answer. cheers

Depends on the brand, generaly speaking yes, it will fit. cheers

Alex, your stuff is ready to ship, PM sent. cheers PS; One of the guys has found his Stagea to be a bit low even with the lower spring seat circlip set on the highest position. Since we have all sorts of specifications with double sunroofs, substantial sound systems etc, all subsequent Bilsteins have been machined with 3 extra grooves to give additional height if required. If you find yours is a bit low for your requirements you can either return them and I will have Bilstein add the extra grooves. Or you can have your local suspension/machine shop do it. It is fairly simple, they are 1.5 mm grooves, 0.6 mm deep and with 8 mm between them. Under no circumstances should the springs be reset, higher circlip grooves are the best and cheapest method for achieving the extra height you want. Sorry for any inconvenience. cheers

Well done Mark, just reward for all the effort. I am confused as to the SC calendar for 2006, I have seen 3 different versions. Where can I find the definitive calendar? cheers

Thanks, that's a big help. It attaches exactly the same as my current one, everything is just bigger, thicker and wider. One more picture please, the inside of the spare wheel well, where the bolt comes through from the centre toe bar bracket. cheers

Master being sent today, refer PM. cheers

That's a static measurement, the dynamic caster is much more noticeable as the polyurehane bushes don't deform as easily as worn out standard bushes. So it makes a noticeable difference on the move. Plus you can't go too far as the tyres start to rub on lock. cheers

330 mm on the front......well that explains the excessive camber. It really needs to go up 20 mm, to give it some geometry. Then you can stick the camber bushes in and set it up properly. 350 mm at the rear with that sort of camber would indicate that there must be some worn bushes. Either upper arm (rear camber bushes will fix that) and/or maybe subframe (the rear subframe bushes will fix that). You can then come down 10 mm and still have reasonable geometry there. These are the bits that you will need; KCA331 Caster Kit $110.00 KCA348 Front Camber kit $272.00 KCA347 Rear Camber Kit $123.00 KCA349 Rear Subframe alignment kit $105.00 Total is over $500 so delivery is free on the Group Buy. The front and rear toe will have to be adjusted after the bushes are installed and the caster and cambers are set up correctly. cheers

Stabiliser bars are by far the best bang for buck handling upgrade you can do. Easy to DIY, no wheel alignment or other crap required, just swap for the standard bars and away you go. The price is >$100 cheaper than retail, so they are a good buy. cheers

Have a talk to Heasmans Heasman Steering Pty Ltd 455-463 Princes Highway (cnr Railway Road) Sydenham NSW 2044 tel (02) 9519 9774 fax (02) 9550 3270 [email protected] cheers

Used to be very popular, locks the rams on the rear rack in their outwards position. So there is still power steering fluid circulation, but no steering action. The box plugs into the HICAS ECU and stops the dash light from coming on. Quite effective, no long terms issues, they are just expensive for what they are. Plus they leave all the hardware in place (and even add a little bit) so no weight saving. cheers PS; make sure you get English instructions as they are tricky to fit, particularly the washers.

If you have a decent multimeter, you can easily check/compare the primary and secondary coil resistance. Compare all 6 coils as it is most unlikely that all of them are stuffed. Check the resistance between the input terminals, should be very low around 1 ohm'ish. Then check the resistence between the output terminal (where it fits onto the spark plug) and one of the input terminals, should be very high 10,000 ohms or so. cheers

I have a piece of string, how far will it reach? Saying "t4 turbo" is like "piece of string", more specific details on exactly what t4 we are dealing with here? cheers

Yep, the bush in the housing is a tight fit, but the crush tube rotates fairly eaily in the bush. My experience has been 99 times out of a 100 I just rotate the crush tube for max caster and bolt it up. Usually I don't have to adjust it after that, only for bent chassis and then only on one side. cheers

Knock sensors are simple microphones, so they pick up stuff that may not be pre-ignition. Things that have made my knock sensors record stuff that isn't knock; Starter motor When cold, forged piston knock Loose knock sensor bolt Twin plate clutch rattle Too much tappet clearance Loose engine mount bolt to block Loose exhaust pipe Alternator bearing AirCon compressor tensionor bearing worn cheers

I really need the centre of wheel to guard heights on all 4 corners to give a definiitve answer. It's a vital bit of info. cheers

I do most of my own servicing, but I still fill in the book and record the k's and dates. I keep the receipts for the parts, they also have the purchase dates on them. So I can substantiate the service intervals, parts and hence k's. When I sell a car the potential buyer can see exactly what was done and when. cheers

Yep, when you have them too low the suspension geometry gets very screwed up. The rear camber goes way negative (you have that), even the front camber gets excesive (you have that), the front toes outs (you also had that) and the rear toes in (yep you had that). What you are seeing only the static readings, the dynamic readings are even worse. Hence my question about height. cheers PS; You shoud see what it does to the driveshaft angles.

The crush tubes in the polyurethane buhes have offset holes. So you just undo the front radius rod retaining bolt and rotate the crush tube to adjust the caster. It actually takes longer to type it than it does to do it. First put the car on the aligner and ascertain the adjustment required. From memory the adjustment is 1.5 degrees, so half a turn is 0.75 degrees, 1/4 of a turn is 0.37 degrees etc. Remove the bolt, turn the crush tube the desired amount, replace the bolt, check result. Any decent wheel aligner will get it spot on in one go. cheers

Well.........if it has 3 degrees of negative camber on the front (without any camber adjustment) then it's too low for decent handling, braking or traction. You have raised the back and it has over 2 degrees negative, that's also/still too low for decent geometry, traction, drive shaft angle and acceleration. What are the centre of wheel to guard measurements? If much less than 350mm front and 340 mm rear then you really need to address that issue before you get into alignment products. cheers

Which looping? There are three possiblities; 1. The loop of aluminium pipe that serves as the standard cooler? 2. The loop where the front solenoids used to be, to feed the fluid through the standard cooler? 3. The loop at the rear to bypass the rack? I will have to take some pictures of my own car, I don't actually have any, either before or after HICAS removal. cheers

The "Jun remove the squish" has always intrigued me. It is universally accepted that squish/quench is a good thing, for both power and detonation prevention. So why would you remove it? Lately I have heard (a number of times) that Jun only do it for their customer engines, but not their own race engines. That to me indicates they may actually use it as a method of adjusting compression ratios to control detonation. It saves them using different dome pistons and/or thick head gaskets. The pistons are an obvious cost issue, as they would need to carry many differrent part numbers for the large number of capacity and compression ratio combinations. The thick headgaskets in themsleves add a number of problems, including sealing and detonation inducement. There has been some discussion over the potential for improved airflow around the valves as a result of removing the squish material. Having tested this on a number of engines (no RB's though) the improvement is marginal at best. Certainly not enough (on a turbo charged engine) to offset the downside. So maybe removing the squish is the lesser of the evils, but it is still evil in itself. cheers

My 20 cents on your accurate observations; Boost is simply a measure of restriction, remove restrictions and power goes up and boost goes down. The AFM measures airflow. Without removing restrictions, increasing boost generally means more power and lower boost generally means less power. So boost is a relevant measure, comparatively, but not as an absolute measure. I can have one Skyline engine that makes 500 bhp at 1 bar and another one that needs 2 bar for it make 500 bhp. The exhaust question is more complex, removing the restriction has a number of effects and they are all somewhat interrelated. Firstly the exhaust back pressure reduction is reflected in more airflow at the same boost and hence more power. Plus the turbine can spin at a higher rpm because of the lack of restrictions downstream from it. The compressor (running at that higher rpm) can generate even more airflow. It may even generate more airflow at lower boost pressure, hence higher efficiency. The combustion temperature, as a result of the above, may well decrease allowing more ignition advance to be used and more power to be generated. That's why exhaust is the best/first upgrade on a turbo engine. cheers