mad082

lol, pretty much what i was trying to say, just less politely

if it was just a quick grind you have nothing to worry about. you could do it once a day for a few weeks and the damage would still be minimal.

the horror stories are you refering to the work done or the problems with cars? if it's the work done, you will find that in any dealership, even a nissan one. if it's horror stories, then yeah they will be plenty, but don't forget that you have to allow at least some margin of error down to the segment of population that buy those cars being tools and treat them like shit and don't maintain them. not saying this makes up for all the problems, but at least some of them.

spotted a white 34 gt-t at bridgestone in noosaville yesterday with the plates NZMO34 (i think). was there for most of the day (i work next door at the bike shop). also saw it driving past work today

based off your engine number, i'd say yes you have a r34 engine in it.

i love the NA section

+1 for running a stock ecu on a 2.7L engine not helping the situation.

if there was and metal shavings, it would be bugger all, especially when you remember that there is a few litres of oil in the gearbox. secondly, i'm pretty sure the drain bolt has a magnet in it to collect any metal shavings to stop them doing any damage.

personally i wouldn't have bothered with iridiums and just gone with copper plugs, but that's just me, since in the long term (and short term come to think of it) coppers work out cheaper.

o2 sensor won't make the engine light come on as far as i know. if it's running rough then it will almost certainly be the coils, as a dodgy o2 sensor won't do that.

+1 for timing light. will be the only way to get it set correctly.

mates missus has one. had a few problems with it too. because they make cars here and to be honest, the cars the make here aren't too bad. the viva isn't one of them though. that said, i'm sure plenty of people have had bad experiences with japanese brands as well. you also have to remember that the holdens are generally cheaper than some of the other cars in the same category, so you gotta take that into consideration too. that doesn't justify shit going wrong, but it has to be taken into account when considering quality.

then why would they join a club for imports?

as i said in an earlier post, and sort of linking it with the posts above, the condition of the road will play a big part in it. my s13 felt plenty stable at speed limiter (on the track), as did my 33. on a rough road though, at speed, the softer suspension of the 33 made feel more stable. on a smoother road there wasn't much in it.

i know a guy with a supercharged either 186 or 202 (not entirely sure). he has it in a track car (old holden of some sort, can't remember). it's not the most powerful thing in the world. only makes about 200hp. it's only running a carby though.

do you have a boost gauge? that will tell you whether you are getting a boost spike or not. if the boost pressure increases then you have a boost spike. if it stays the same there is no boost spike. when you say it's like it downshifts and over revs, do you mean it sounds like it's hitting a rev limiter? so in other words, the car is misfiring? if yes, then it is most likely your coils are on the way out, or possibly the spark plugs.

yeah i was just making the point in case someone came in here and thought that their fuel gauge was playing up because it was on E with about 10L left.

just to make a note about something you said in the original post. you said that the fuel gauge was on E when there is 10 to 20L left in the tank, when it is working correctly it should be on E when there is about 10L left in the tank (on flat ground. if it's parked on a hill then it will probably be on the E with more in the tank), and this is also about the same point the fuel light should start to come on.

so the aston driver was a german? probably got taught to drive by micheal schumacher

could've also had a new headgasket put in at some point in time and if the head was machined (which it most likely would've been) then you would end up with good compression results.

if you are lucky it will just be the seal. if you are unluck then there is probably a rust hole. as for fixing, i'd be calling a windscreen place and getting them to do it.

attempting to get that sort of power out of a stroked 186 is going to take a reasonable amount of work. personally i'd just put in a modern engine with a turbo already bolted to it and then work from there. as for running an intercooler, as long as it is a supercharger that doesn't just sit on top of the manifold then you will definately gain power from putting one on there.

yeah most of the jap coilovers are designed for either drifting (so as stiff as hell) or for their nice smooth roads, so too stiff for our roads, but this doesn't stop plenty of people being fully hecktic and putting them in their road cars thinking that they now have some super handling car and they are probably right, if they are only racing around a carpark. get out on your average road and the stock suspension would probably do a better job.

he is right. the stock suspension is designed for the generally shit aussie roads, so they are pretty soft. make a few changes and it will be a drastically different beast. there will still be a bit of a difference in feel through the steering wheel though because of the different steering wheel size as well as different steering ratio.

the difference will be noticable...... whether it is in a good or bad way will depend on what suspension it has been lowered with. it will handle better in most cases, but if you put in too stiff suspension then the first time you try to corner hard on a rough rough then you will find that you end up bouncing onto the wrong side of the road. i had this happen in my 180sx when i got new front suspension put in, and i was driving normally. that suspension only stayed in there for 2 days.