Sydneykid

You have started a new thread asking almost the same set of questions, I have kicked off with some answers over there. The only question that I can see is unique on here is the caster question, so I will try and answer it here. Caster is like camber on demand, when you turn the steering wheel you get camber change. This compensates for the body roll and maximises the tyre contact patch. When you don't need camber (ie; straight line braking) there isn't any, which maximises the tyre contact patch under brakes. Caster gives more negative camber on the outside wheel and more positive camber on the inside wheel, so it improves the contact patch on both front tyres. The alternative is to whack on a whole pile of negative camber, and that works OK around corners for the outside wheel. But it is bad for the inside wheel as excessive negative camber drastically reduces the tyre cantact patch. Plus it is there under brakes, you are only using the inside edge of the tyre. The negative camber just gets more as the front suspension compresses under brakes, so the harder stop you have the less tyre is touching the road. So that is why more positive caster is always better than more negative camber. I need to point out that there are a number of names used for the same part in your question. The part that stops the front wheels moving forward and back has the following names; A. Radius rod (the one I use most often) B. Caster rod C. Traction rod D. Tie rod (not the correct term) E. Link rod (there are lots of link rods on a car) etc They are all the same part, on a Skyline lengthening or shortening the radius rod changes the caster. There are 3 common methods used for adjusting the caster; 1. Redrilling the holes in the radius rod where it attaches to the lower control arm. Cheap and easy for a permanent resetting of the caster, but not adjustable. 2. Fitting a threaded rod, easy to fit and adjust. But they usually come with spherical bearings at the front which are not a good idea on a road car. They wear quickly, knock like a bustard, transmit the impact shock of wheels hitting bumps straight into the chassis, increase the NVH and cost more than new (complete) rods to replace when they wear out. 3. Adjustable caster bushes, tricky to fit to the standard arms (press needed), easy to adjust, made of long wearing polyurethane and have some capacity to absorb impacts without possing them on. The best solution for a car that is driven on the road mostly. Hope that was of some help cheers

I'll kick it off, for setting a good lap time there is NOTHING more important than handling, achieving the highest possible corner speed. That's good tyres and a suspension set up that uses those tyres. Whatever my budget is for suspension on a car, I spend at least 50% of it on shocks and the other 50% on everything else. Good shocks are the most important part for achieving high levels of traction from the tyres. As a general rule I stay away from Jap shocks, they have unsophisticated valving and too small a piston area to be efffective. The best bang for buck suspension upgrade by far is stabiliser bars, they help keep the maximum tyre contact onto the track surface. For the same reason, next comes alignment products, caster adjusters, camber adjusters and sub frame alignment. Last on the list of important things are springs, they are there simply to hold the car up and compress rapidly and easily to absorb bumps, ripple strip jumping and, in general, allow the tyre to follow the road surface at all times. These days I can run almost the same soft spring rate at any circuit we go to, we use the shock absorbers and the bars to adjust the handling. Whatever you are doing with your car, the HICAS has got to go, it is not your friend when pressing on. If you want a good suspension kit that works well on the road and handles the track work equally as well, have a look at the Group Buy on at the moment, an R33GTST fitted with basically this kit is leading the NSW Speed Event championship. This is the Group Buy for R33GTST's, there are others for other Skyline models. http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/in...showtopic=85467 The adjustable stabiliser bars are the go as they will allow you to adjust the handling balance. Softer rear bar settings for grip and harder for drift. You will also need to have camber and toe settings for each discipline, I can easily provide those for you. That will do for a start, this is going to be a huge thread as you have a very broad subject. cheers :

I agree with grim32, I find it very hard to believe that IHI (they make the Apexi turbos) made a mistake calculating the size of the wastegate by that much. I have seen exactly the same problem several times with adjustable actuator arms straight from the factory. The wastegate actuator simply isn't travelling far enough. This means the wastegate flap isn't opening far enough to bypass the necessary exhaust to control the boost. To test if this is happening in your case, simply disconnect the wastegate actuator and wire the wastegate fully open. If this doesn' t resullt in very low boost, then you have another problem. I have seen (rarely) split dumps where the wastegate pipe actually stops the wastegate flap opening far enough. That is easy to test, just disconnect the wastegate actuator and check that the wastegate is fully opening. Maybe check this just before you do the above test. cheers

May I be so bold as to ask how much and from whom? For comparison, the last Jun one I bought (a few years ago and the pain is still there) was around $500, and that was on top of the $1600 for the Jun oil pump. cheers

Gosh, I must be stupid. They are made of the same steel tube as the fuel lines, with larger wall thickness, so stronger They run parrallel to the fuel lines using the same mounting brackets They start just next to the fuel tank The end just under the inlet plenum They have nice, standard sized, screw flange fittings, so braided hose bolts straight up at both ends Power steering fluid is petrol soluable so it's easy to clean them out, just turn the fuel pump on for a few seconds There is one that is 60% larger in diameter than the standard fuel line, so handles 60% more fuel flow Or there is one that is the same size as the fuel supply pipework, so you can run 2 pumps and 2 fuel supply hoses, one to each end of the fuel rail You can then use the larger pipework for the fuel return Maybe I am not so stupid after all cheers PS; I have done it on 4 X R32's, works a charm

Some of my many posts on HICAS removal........... I use the rear stage of the R32 pump to pump the fluid through the power steering cooler. It has been like that for 3 years. Don't just block off the rear stage, it will over heat and sieze. You can remove the rear rotor, but you then have to reroute the fluid to get it through the cooler. There is no hydraulic pressure when you bypass the front solenoids and run the power steering fluid return through the cooler pipe and back into the reservoir. So a piece of (longer) hose is a perfectly acceptable solution, in fact Nissan uses a piece of hose at the reservoir on the return. Remove the standard rack, there are 2 hydraulic hoses connected to it. Unbolt the hoses from the rack and from the terminal block and close off the fittings in the terminal block with bolts. Put the hydraulic lines in a plastic bag and store it in a safe place. Then undo the the hydraunlic hose from the front solenoids, under the inlet manifold on the RHS inner guard. Buy a short (around 600 mm) piece of rubber bypass hose (hydraulic) from Pirtec, Enzed etc and slip one end of it over the steel pipe that comes from the power steering pump up to the solenoids. Then stick the other end over the steel pipework that comes from the cooler pipe (it runs around in a loop in front of the radiator). Don't forget to block off the holes in the front solenoid block with bolts as well to keep the crap out. there are not "two lines coming out of it, that go to the rear for the two hydraulic rams". Have a closer look and you will find that the front half of the power steering pump supplies pressure to the front steering rack and the rear half of the power steering pump supplies hydraulic pressure to the rear steering rack. There is no hydraulic pressure interconnection between the front and rear steering racks. If you are ciiruit racing then you will need the power steering. The amount of caster you need to run makes the steering very heavy especially with decent racing tyres (slicks or "R" type). We also run a power steering cooler as the fluid gets hot after a 20 minute race. If you are drag racing, then ditch the power steering, saves weight and power loss. Stick some bolts in the holes in the rack where the pipes are removed, keeps the dirt out. Makes no difference to the rack, just heavy steering. But you are only driving in a straight line, so it doesn't matter. On an R32 you reroute the rear power steering supply (the one that goes to the solenoids on the front RHS inner guard) via the power steering cooler back into the power steering fluid reservoir. You can remove the two solenoids at the front and the one at the rear, plus the supply and return pipework. All up saving of ~20 kgs including the rear rack Somewhere is all that dribble might be something you can use. cheers

That would be fitted Chris and the flanges machined, it's not really a backyard job. Have you bought a Jun one lately? cheers

Yep, the raw materials cost a bomb, and you end up with 80% of it as swarf. The one we made (never making another one, so don't ask) took weeks. I would like to do one and just machine the top 5-6 mm off the main bearings. That means it wouldn't need to be as thick and I could make it out of mild steel. I reckon it would be 99% as strong with 1/3 the effort. Plus I could incorporate the 4wd sump adaptor into it in one go for RB30's into GTR's. I will have to leave it as an idea for about 12 months, otherwise the machinist will kill me after the effort he put into the last one. cheers

Nope, welding a crank is not a good idea. The heat weakens the localised area and there is a heavy harmonic balancer hanging off that end of the crank. you could possibly do it and them do some heat treating, but the total cost would be excesive. Cheaper to buy a Jum adaptor collar, and they are expensive. A usual, Zoom have left out a considerable amount of detail, maybe they want to protect some secrets. Which is OK, but it makes people think something is a simple job when it really isn't. Very dangerous practise and I wish they would issue warnings when they leave out important stuff like that. With our race team machinist, I have been working on an adaptor collar so we can use the later/larger RB26 oil pump drives on the RB20/25/30 cranks. The first one gets a test run in my RB31DET next week. We then have 12 X RB30DET's to fit them to. They look pretty simple but the dimensions (internal and external) have to be very precise, the target price is $200 plus GST. If they work OK, I will set up a Group Buy on them, so watch the Group Buy section for more details. cheers

Suggestions to your questions follow; 1. 1 finger is ~340 mm (centre of wheel to guard is the standard suspension industry measurement). The rear guards are cut 15 mm lower than the front guards, so if you have 2 fingers at the rear (~350 mm) it will be very nose down (~25mm). The best looking/handling rake (nose down) is 10 mm. So (at 340 mm front) the rear guard needs to be almost zero fingers (330 mm). 2. 350 mm = 2 man sized fingers (not girly ones) 3. If you get 1.5 - 2.0 degrees negative camber on the front, regardless of ride height you won't need an adjustable camber bush kit in the front. But it hardly ever happens and each car is different. 4. For the 10 mm rake (nose down) you are looking at ~340-345 mm at the rear. That usually gives ~2.0 degrees negative camber, which is too much. You will need at least 1 rear adjustable camber bush kit. 5. You will always need to adjust the caster, Skylines NEVER have enough caster standard. So you will need adjustable caster bushes for the front of the radius (tension) rods. 6. There are no radius (traction) rods at the rear. Ajustable arms (and radius rods) have spherical bearings, they wear very fast, knock like a bustard and usually cost more than new arms to replace. Polyurethane (adjustable) bushes are a better alternative for a car that sees some road work. Hope that answered your questions cheers PS; don't forget to check out the Group Buy for your model, as the Whiteline camber and caster kits are at good prices.

I think I posted mine somewhere........ Nakamichi head unit, in the top single din slot Nissan Pathfinder flip top box in the other (bottom) din slot, silver lid matches the Stagea dash and console surround Soundstream 4 channel amp 120 watts per channel mounted where the standard stacker goes in the LHS rear 1/4 inner guard (the ATTESA reservoir is in the RHS 1/4) MB Quart DKE116's in all foor doors They are 165mm diagonal between the mounting holes and 180 mm total diagonal. Bit tricky to fit as the MB's are perfectly round and the standard speakers are a rounded off square. No problem with depth though. I use the rear for carrying stuff far to often to have a sub, the MB Quarts do a pretty good job and I am not into doof, doof anyway. cheers

Yep, I will be in Adelaide for the Improved Production Nationals from 11th to 13th November. At this stage it looks like I will be flying down, not Stagea driving. But I could always load stuff into the transporter. Let's see how the Group Buy approach works first. cheers

Personally I think I would be more comfortable with a genuine (plastic) set rather than fibreglass copies. To get the ball rolling I have sent out some enquiries to the usual Japanese exporters. I will try and set up a Group Buy on Dayz and Autech body kits. I will post up the progress as soon as it comes to hand. cheers

I'm ready, have cash, want Dayz side skirts. cheers

Lower boost, higher airflow and more power are all about removing/reducing the restrictions. After all boost is simply a measure of restrictions, it is airflow that makes power. The usual restrictions are; A. Exhaust, turbo back including dump and cat B. Inlet, before the turbo. Pipework, undersized AFM, air filter C. Inlet, from the turbo to the inlet valves. Pipework, intercooler, throttle body, plenum, inlet manifold, ports. D. Turbine, the turbine itself can be a major restriction. It has to small enough to give good boost response and yet large enough not to be too big a restriction. E. Engine, valve sizes (both inlet and exhaust), valve springs (too light and they will cause valve float), cams, cam timing (adj cam pulleys). Some of these items are not a problem at your power level, a lot of the items are never a problem on RB's, the usual suspects are; 1. Tuning, how close is the tuning? 2. exhaust, turbo back 3. intercooler and pipework 4. cams 5. valve springs 6. ports, every RB cylinder head needs porting What I do is to work my way down the list, checking on the dyno each item (eg; drop the exhaust in front of the cat and see how much power it is costing, remove the air filter etc). There is no magic, just thorough testing. cheers

Oh, I am not unique, there are 5 or 6 other guys in Australia (that I know of) who could have told you the same things. cheers

Piece of cake, from a post I made in the Stagea Suspension thread; Some people have had problems reading/understanding the Whiteline instructions for the rear subframe bushes. Courtesy of Emanuel, I have numbered the bushes in the pictures and numbered the corresponding bushes in the Whiteline instructions. If you are lucky I have got them right, it is so much easier when I am actually doing it. Please do a quick check just to be sure. It's a bit hard to draw #3 as it goes above the sub frame, which you can't see in the picture. The bushes that go above the subframe have cuts in them. This is so you can slip them over the bolts/studs and don't have to remove the whole subframe to do it. Cheers

Nah, they cleaned that up a few years ago. No dodgy servo's left. The RTA does random workshop checks, they pick 5 or so cars that have been rego checked recently by that workshop and have them brought to an RTA testing centre for checking. If they find long term rego issues (not short term stuff like bald tyres that might been OK when the cars where checked) they fine the workshop and cancel their licence. The RTA also does random car checks, when you take your pink slip in for this years rego, they randomly select a car. Then you have to take it to an RTA testing centre within 7 days and they check it for rego issues, inlcuding short term ones. If they find any rego issues they fine the workshop and cancel their licence. In both cases the car owner has to fix the problem/problems and take it back to an RTA testing centre before it can be registered. Some dangerous stuff means they cancel the rego on the spot and you can't even drive it home. Seems to have cleaned out the dodgy inspection shops, which is good for me as it gets rid of those dangerous, smokey, rust buckets with no brakes that frighten the beegeesus out of me when I have to drive near them. cheers

RB30 cranks have the same oil pump drive flanges as RB20's, RB25's and early RB26's. cheers

No, definitely not an N1 water pump. They are designed for continuously high rpm running in an RB26 (ie; circuit racing), exactly NOT what you want in an RB30 for road and drag use. cheers

Nope, the R333 ball bearing turbo is a good one, very reliable at sensible boost levels. Just what ball bearings are designed to do, improve the response a little and improve the reliability a lot. cheers

R33's have ball bearing turbos Wet floating bearings are plain bearings (no balls) cheers

There is Group Buy on Whiteline and Bilstein suspension on at the moment; http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/in...showtopic=85591 You should be able to get a set of front and rear camber bushes at the Group Buy price. But you really should measure the ride height (centre of wheel to guard) and have the wheel alignment checked. Then post up the ruesults here and I will do my best to recommend what needs to be done and what parts are required to fix it. cheers

OK decision made,.....now how am I going to get a set of Dayz side skirts? cheers

Quick clarification to start off with. I refer to the standard internals of an engine as a bench mark of its power handling capablity. An example, my rule of thumb limit for RB25DET standard internals is 450 bhp. I have not found 1 bhp from changing the RB25 inlet manifold/plenum when the engine produces 450 bhp or less (ie; has standard internals). Over 450 bhp there are a number of advantages to be had in changing the inlet system. The way I put it is "if you have standard internals, there is nothing to be gained from changing the inlet system on an RB25". I have been hearing about this and that inlet manifold/plenum increasing bhp on RB25's (at less than 450 bhp), but I have never seen it. Not once have I seen or been able to produce a power increase from ONLY changing the inlet manifold/plenum. Every time I dig I find that other things have been changed at the same time Boost was increased, or ignition timing was tuned, or A/F ratios improved, or a larger intercooler, or a bigger turbo etc etc. When just the inlet manifold/plenum and nothing but the inlet manifold/plenum was changed I have NEVER EVER seem a power increase. The truth is I have seen plenty of power decreases on our dyno. Then I get out my bucket of water and measure the internal volume, all fail the internal volume test, they have greater volume than the standard inlet manifold/plenum. That inextricably means a loss of throttle response at the same power output. Then I stick it on the flow bench and compare it to the standard inlet system and find that both have almost zero restriction at sufficient airflow to produce 450 bhp. In fact I have tested up to airflows equaling 550 bhp and found amost zero restriction in the standard inlet system. I am not the only one, Zenitani, for example, have produced a numbewr of 500+bhp RB25's with standard inlet manifolds/plenums. The bottom line, until you produce a before and after set of dyno results (with nothing elses changed) I won't believe that your inlet manifold/plenum gives more power than the standard inlet system on an RB25 up to 450 bhp. Until you produce a set of volume tests that prove that the internal volume is less than the standard inlet system, then I won't believe that your inlet system gives improved throttle response. Until you produce a set of comparative flow bench tests that show your inlet system has less restriction than the standard inlet system I won't believe that I wouldn't be waisting my money buying one. CostsThe last set of RB cams that I bought cost $450, there are currently 3 sets advertised on the forums for less than $900. http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/in...c=86468&hl=cams http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/in...c=89339&hl=cams http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/in...topic=84077&hl= I have no doubt that if I spent $900 (or less) on almost anything (cams, adj exhaust cam pulley, split dump, intercooler, Power FC, power porting the manifolds, more thorough tuning etc etc) I would get a power increase far in excess of what I would get from changing the inlet manifold/plenum. I have similarly challenged every inlet manifold/plenum manufacturer that claims a power increase from fitting their product (only) to an internally standard RB20/25 to prove me wrong. Nothing would give me greater pleasure than for you to be the first, at least I could then buy and recommend an inlet manifold/plenum that is actually worth spending the money for an internally standard RB20/25's. cheers