Sydneykid

Sorry BATMBL, I think I need to explain my point a little better. I can buy a California legal hi flow 3" in 3" out (with flanges) 409 stainless steel encased catalytic converter with 16 gauge pipe for a 5.9 litre engine from any one of 50 (or so) Catco distributors in the US for ~$US80. The California catalytic converter emissions standards are amongst the tightest in the world. If a cat passes in California then it would have no problems passing in Australia. A distributor is going to make 25% min, Catco must be making 15%, that means the complete cat costs Catco around $US50, so the most the coating can cost is $US10. It simply makes no sense to me that anyone would import and sell an illegal cat when you could have a legal one for $US10 more. It is simply rediculous to even consider it, the risks are too high. This leaves me with only one conclusion and it involves what is "legal". Let's say the Magic cat is made by someone overseas who couldn't give a rats about Australia's emmision testing. They know the cat passes but the volume is too small to pay for compliance certification. Small volume importing is always facing this issue but it doesn't mean the product is bad or doesn't work. All it means is the size of the Australian market and its unique (and sometimes stupid) requirements does not warrant the cost of the testing and paperwork.

Sorry BATMBL, but the facts simply don't support that line. As per my last post, I can buy a single Catco catalytic converter with 3" in 3 " out for a 5.9 litre engine for $A82.50. Add about $A20 for freight, no duty as it is coming from the US (good on you Johnny, Free Trade Agreement) and 10% GST. That's $112.75 if it gets caught for GST, pretty unlikey at that price. I don't see a lot of downside in that, after all it must be a legal cat as it is coming from Catco.

Very low, as the VG30 has smaller combustion chambers than RB's, because of the flatter valve angles. Low 8's if I remember rightly.

A little turn in understeer is normal, there is a tonne on the front wheels after all; What size bars? If adjustable, what settings? What spring rates? What caster? What camber? If the settings are OK, then you may need an ATTESSA controller to set up the torque split for your driving style. The right hander onto the straight is a bitch as it is off camber, but as the corner onto the only decent straight it is important. So Wakefield Park requires a pretty unique set up with quite a bit of side to side stagger in the set up.

Nope, there is no waiting for slip. When the G forces indicate a portion of front drive would be beneficial, then the ATTESSA supplies it. It is proactive, not reactive. ATTESSA controllers would work on Stageas, calibration may be interesting though.

Time for a new job then:cheers:

Things I have seen fail; Piston ring land Piston crown Head gasket Little end bearings Conrod bolts Big end bearings Main bearings Exhaust valve and seat The #1 part is pistons, #2 is conrod bolts, #3 is the conrods themselves. Head gasket can be an issue on older engines, head studs are a good solution. Upgrading the bearing material is important and main bearing studs are worthwhile. Actually the only thing I have not seen fail is the crank, they are blooody strong suckers. Hope that helps some more:cheers:

The Stagea runs full ATTESSA (like an R33 GTR, but with different calibration), so there is no one torque split, it is infinitely variable from 100% rear drive to 50/50. The ATTESSA controller determines the split based on the inputs, speed, engine rpm, gear, throttle position and most importantly G forces. It should not be compared to the simplistic 4wd split that we see in front wheel drive supplied 4wd's. Some of which use the ABS sensors to detect wheel slippage, which is far too late in the equation. Plus they can never go more than 50% rear drive, which limits their handling envelope.

I am not agreeing or dissagreeing with you, the jury is still out as far as I am concerned. All I am doing is relating my experiences. I am quite well aware of the necessary equipment required for emissions testing, I worked in the car industry for several years and we had to certify all new models. I rang 2 RAWS workshops and neither of them will do any car that isn't their own for compliance. Got the story about only being licenced for certain vehicles ie; not Stageas. Now there are only 4 Stagea compliance shops, 3 in Qld and 1 in WA. I'm sure as hell not sending the Stagea there for emissions testing. Sorry, I am not silly enough to send the Stagea to the EPA. The question remains, WHO? What I can say is the Magic cat removes somethings as the exhaust has quite a different odour to the straight through 3" pipe on the race car. This may be the result of the oxidation catalyst as it removes the unburned hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide. Picking NO or NO2 removal is not something even my calibrated nose would be capable of. Moving on; There is some discussion about Magic being too cheap for a "real" catalytic converter, well here is an extract from a current Catco dealer price list; OXD/TWC/TWC With AIR - 5.9L Max. Eng. Size 5000 lbs. Max. Vehicle Wt. Part # 3" Inlet X 3" Outlet - 16 1/2" Overall 2607 Part Number Price Each 10 - 99 Price Each 100 - 299 Price Each 300+ 2607 $US63.52 $US60.58 $US57.35 So I can buy a single Catco 3" inlet and 3" outlet catalytic converter for a 5.9 litre engine for the princely sum of $US63.52 (that's $A82.50). On that basis it doesn't appear to me that Magic cats are too cheap to be a "real" cat. More to come on this I am sure:cheers:

The problems I have with testing are; 1. Who? The EPA is not a good choice for "who" on a modified car, what if it fails? 2. How much? Last time I had a car emissions tested the cost was over $2K. 3. Buying an 5 gas emissions tester is not a viable option. Last time I checked they were around $US5K. My experiences today; I have 2 Skylines here and 1 Stagea, one of the Skylines has a Magic cat that I bought and piad for and I have receipt that says "catalytic onverter". The other Skyline has no cat, it is a race car after all. The Stagea still has the fairly new (less than 12 months old) compliance cat on it, not for long though. They are all filled up with BP Ultimate from the same service station. They are all tuned pretty much the same, on the same dyno and by the same person. The Stagea is the only one without a Power FC, it has a DFA as it is an auto. Now I let them idle until they are warmed up, noting that they all run closed loop so the A/F ratio aim would be around 14.7. The race car (no cat) smells most The Stagea is next, most likely because of its state of tune The Magic cat fitted Skyline smells better than the Stagea My nose is pretty good and I would have thought that if the Magic cat did nothing (same as the straight though pipe on the race car) then it would smell as bad as the race car. Also, it has a spare fitting for the dyno lambda sensor on the split dump/engine pipe, and it gives different readings there than when I stick the lambda sensor up the tail pipe. This is quite normal on a car fitted with a cat. Whereas the race car gives almost zero difference. Hence I remain sceptical:cheers:

RB31DE:cheers:

In this country we are ALL innocent until PROVEN guilty. Until such time as Magic is PROVEN guilty, they are INNOCENT, that's all there is to it.

Get the alignment checked, that will show up most problems. Not at the local tyre shop, please. For traction, on Teins, the usual answer is to take out front springs and throw them in garbage bin. Put the rear springs in the front and buy new rear spings around 200 lbs per inch. That's the least expensive, cost ~$200 if you do it your self.

#1 Heasmans at Sydneham, talk to Doug Heasman #2 StGeorge Steering at Punchbowl, John Leffler is the man #3 East Coast Suspension at Kirrawee

Get a solar powered battery charger, they trickle charge a enough to stop the battery dying:cheers: PS; Why have you got a great car that you don't drive? Isn't that why you bought/built it?

Over the years we have developed a standard around here..... BHP = Brake Horsepower, which can only be measured at the crank, on an engine dyno if you like. RWKW = Rear Wheel Kilowatts, as measured on roller dyno (Dyno Dynamics being the most popular in Australia) BHP / 1.34 - losses = RWKW PS; it is much easier if everyone uses the same language.

Hi, Legend01, 160 rwkw is a bit low for the mods, depends on the boost of course, I would be looking for 220+ rwkw so there is a fair bit to go. Do you have the graphs of the boost curve and the A/F ratios? There are couple of simple things I do when I get a lower than expected result on the dyno. First I remove the airfilter, just run the AFM open and see what difference that makes. Then I drop the exhaust, from just in front of the cat, that will tell you if you have a problem there. These are both done on the dyno as they only take a few minutes to test. If they both show nothing drastic, then I like to know what sort of restriction the intercooler has. So I compare it, out of the turbo and at the plenum, obviously i don't have to do that on the dyno. If it shows no real restriction then everything else is down to tuning, A/F ratios, boost, ignition timing and cam timing. Hope that helps:cheers:

Sydneykid Rule of Thumb (yes another one) for an unopened RB25DET is 450 bhp, that's ~280 rwkw. So you are already past where I would start looking for signs of distress.

Hi PHATR32, easy question, not so simple answer. The current actually varies according to the fuel pressure. Of course the fuel pressure varies with the amount of boost. So I have a little rule of thumb, that the electronics guru's will no doubt tell me is wrong, but it has worked for me so far. The standard GTR pumps is rated at 190 litres per hour, and I say that's about 190 watts of power. Divide that by 14 volts and you end up at 13.5 amps. Walbro rate their 190 litre per hour pump at 12.5 amps max current, so the "rule of thumb" is not too bad. When we use a Bosch 044 rated at 330 litres per hour, divided by 14 = 24 amps. So I use a 30 amp fuse, relay and appropriately rated wiring. Hope that helps:cheers:

That's why none of the race GTR's ever ran HICAS, 7/8 tenths no problem but 9/10 tenths and it does not inpsire confidence. None of our Skylines (or Stagea) has HICAS:cheers:

Why? Can't be fuel economy, an AFM is demonstably superior as it measure the actual air flow into the engine. Can't be emmisions, an AFM is demonstably superior as it measure the actual air flow into the engine. Can't be power, I have seen a GTR with over 1100 bhp running AFM's Can't be 1/4 times, I have seen a GTR run low 8's using AFM's Can't be terminal speed, I have seen a GTR with a TS over 160 mph running AFM's Ok I give up, why do you want to get rid of the best method of measuring load on an engine and substitute it for a MAP sensor that guesses load by measuring pressure and then calculation and extrapolation?

#1 sounds like lifters, time for an oil change? #2 sory more information required before I can guess that one

Thanks Marc, looks like the usual 30 mm lowering on the front, but with standard height rear. I did similar with ours, it takes away that nose up look they have when the rear springs settle due to load carrying. The diff right/left rear is usually because they spend a lot of their life with just the driver in the car. If you are changing shocks it may pay to check the free height of the springs and maybe swap left to right. PS; send me the spring specs and I can rate them if you like, using the computer spring rate simulator, it is very accurate. I would need the wire diameter, coil ID and number of coils.

Oooooh, here's a go :matrix: So if I have GTR that has a standard engine and makes 250 kw, that means 150 4wkw. ie; the drivetrain and the dyno loses are 100 kw. I take the engine out and swap it for an engine making 750 kw, that means 450 4wkw ie; the drivetrain and the dyno losses are 300 kw. First question, how can the same gearbox, diff, tailshafts, drive shafts, wheel bearings, dyno rollers etc suddenly soak up another 200 kw? Second question, according to Newton's law, energy can neither be gained nor lost, it is simply converted into other forms of energy. So where does the extra 200 kw go? Heat? That would be enough to melt the gearbox case on the dyno. PS; Don't give me the E=MC2 argument, there are no atomic reactions going on in my Skyline.

Let's forget what the computer says for a moment, what actually happens when you stomp on the brakes hard enough to activate the ABS?