mad082

the lumpy idle is probably being caused by a dirty IAC. do a search on here of how to clean it. as for the splutter up in the revs, it won't be a boost spike (but getting a boost gauge will tell you for sure), but i'm guessing it is a coil pack or spark plug problem. most likely coil packs though. you could start by replacing the spark plugs as they are cheaper the coils. just get some NGK BCPR6ES plugs from your local car parts place. see if that makes it any better. if it doesn't then invest in a new set of coils

yes they are just a bleed valve setup like pretty much all dual stage boost controllers, even the new turbotech dual stage one, which isn't really a dual stage boost controller, it is just a boost controller that allows you to run the stock boost and then a higher boost. if you want your low boost setting to be higher than stock then you need a normal boost controller as well. even the stock solenoid in the r33 and r34 skylines works by bleeding air off to give you about 2 psi higher. all electronic boost controller are bleed valves as well. to a small extent the standard turbotech boost controllers have a bleed valve aspect to them as well, because once the boost pressure pushes that ball and allows air to get past it and go to the wastegate, there will be some air bleeding out of the small hole drilled in the side of it. and yes, your dual stage should just get hooked up like the normal boost controller in the line from intercooler to wastegate.

not really, no. they base it off the worst rating history driver. when i had my 33 my insurance was $950 for just me, or $1050 if i had the missus on too. she was a rating 2 and i was a rating 1. but i was 23 at the time, she was 21 and i live in a small town, so that made it a fair bit cheaper. when i had my 180sx i was only 21 and i was paying $1750 a year, but again, only live in a small town. was a few hundred cheaper than if i lived in a major city.

you are only young and probably live in the city going off that price. the car is an import and classed as a sports/performance car (even though it isn't turbo) and you are in your first year of having your licence (going off another post where you said you are on your red p's). welcome to the world of owning imports, where high insurance is the norm (although at your age and for the price of the car you have even a commodore of similar price probably wouldn't be that much cheaper). i think you will be lucky to find insurance much cheaper than that through other places. if you aren't willing to pay that sort of money for insurance then you should've taken that into consideration before buying the car, or go without insurance and hope like hell you never need it.

it isn't hard to do yourself. take maybe an hour and save yourself about $80 in labour.

could be a lot of things. could be ball joints, could be worn sway bar bushes, or any other random bush for that matter. i used to get a similar noise in a commodore i had and it turned out that one of the bushes had just squashed a bit (car was only 12 months old at the time) and so the locking nuts just needed to be adjusted a bit to hold the bush tighter. can't remember what exactly it was though as that was nearly 10 years ago now.

no you should be like "that is a normal feeling of what abs does when you dump on the brakes on a loose surface and it is stopping the wheels from locking up". jump in any car with abs and drive along on grass or dirt and jump on the brakes and it will do the same thing.

RIP guys

if the brake pedal feels funny, like pulsing, then it is the abs doing it's thing. it is stopping the wheels from locking and it is releasing and grabbing the brakes. i know the exact noise/feeling you are talking about.

lower ball joint is in the steering yes, but it isn't the tie rod. it is the ball join in which the wheel attaches to the car. the disc rotor sits on the hug which sits on the axle stub which is all attached to the suspension via the ball joint. the way to check the ball joint is to jack the front of the car up and get a long bar and put it under the front wheel then pull up on the wheel. if there is a clicking/clunking noise then the ball joint is stuffed. oil leak is probably just from the rocker cover. that's nothing to worry about.

may possibly be the AFM. they can send the car into limp mode where it won't rev above 2500rpm

yes it should fit provided that the flanges are setup for a skyline.

oh and why would you need 10 foot of piping? where do you have the bov fitted, in the boot? LOL

are you using the bov with the actual recirculation snout on it? (look like the pic below). if you are then you should have the hose on the outside of the snout (almost sounds like you are running it on the inside by the way you are talking, because the synchronic bov's recirculating snout is about an inch in diameter - should easily be able to fit your thumb into it), and then you should be able to run the stock hose. or you may be running the bov with the anti-stall atmo fitting on it which only has a skinny snout. if so then you need to put the proper recirculation snout back on it found another pic with the anti-stall atmo snout in the plastic bag at the bottom right of the pic. this will also result in flutter since the hole through the centre is tiny.

have you taken the car into the tuner to get them to check the AFRs? it may be the actual tune on the ecu that is the problem. it may be running mega rich. you said you reloaded the tune, but the tune you reloaded may have the same fault in it. put it on a dyno and see what is going on.

yes there is a built in cut in the ecu. as for the pressure it is running, check to make sure there is no boost controller in the hose from the intercooler piping to the wastegate actuator. if there isn't then when you replaced the gaskets you may have reinstalled things so that the wastegate flap is fouling on something and not working properly.

r32 did have a 4 cylinder option (ca18) iseekool, what you said about response, having a built rb20 is going to mean having all the power at very high revs (as you are going to need a high reving engine to actually get the power). that isn't always a good thing. makes it slower off the line as you will either have to slip the clutch to keep the revs up high until you really get going, or you will have to just fry the tyres. that would be a similar problem as to what the hondas would have though, but since they are in a much lighter car and would probably be putting out similar sorts of power to what a rb20 could, it wouldn't be so much of an issue.

i'd be more inclined to say more around the figure of 100hp more than what a worked rb20 would make. i think that even getting to 200hp in a rb20 would take a fair bit. not saying it couldn't be done, but it would be a fair bit of work (and money) getting there judging by how much it takes to get a rb25 there. and look i'm all for doing something different, but when it comes to building an engine to go into a race car, why bother building something when there are other options out there that will do the job better? going something like a sr20ve would give you 20 to 30% more power, and a less weight. we aren't just talking about building something to be different to show off to people with. we are talking about something to win races with, so why not give yourself a good platform to start with, especially when you are talking about a motor that is putting out nearly 40kw more in stock form.

personally i'd just be going something like a x-force full turbo back exhaust (or the just jap one, which is the same thing). at the end of the day, as far as the catback part of it is concerned there is a limit to how much difference in flow there will be between different exhausts. all that you will get from more expensive systems is a slightly quieter car as they use better mufflers. sure the more expensive systems may have slightly better cat converters and dump pipes, but they will also set you back close to $1000 more, and for that sort of money you could get a nistune installed and make up the difference in power and a fair bit more i'd say. if you are planning on going for big power down the track then you could go for the better system to start with, but then if doing that i'd go for a 3.5" system instead of a 3" system.

when i was talking about the AFM i was refering to the old one since you hadn't properly driven with the new one, but now you can rule it out. TPS would be best tested with a consult cable, however i'm not sure if they can be used in the older cars as i don't think they have the consult port. however you could test it with a multimeter. i'm not sure how to actually test the ignitor. the general symptoms of a stuffed ignitor is that once they get hot you start to get a missfire, very similar to when the coils go. generally the symptoms get worse when you get on boost. another possibility is that the CAS is dodgy and it is retarding the timing. to test that you really need a timing light and once it starts playing up, if it is playing up at idle, pop the bonnet, connect the timing light and see if the timing is out. might be a good idea to test the timing when the idle is fine as well so that you have an idea where it is when normal so you can easily and quickly tell if the timing is out when it is playing up.

did you happen to alter the seat at all to try to make it more comfortable? my mate has a dodgy back and has his seat nearly straight up and down. it's uncomfortable to sit in for even 5 mins no matter what sort of seats he has. anyone ever think that maybe the tint was pulled off the front windows for compliance reasons? you know, since they have to put everything else back to stock for compliance.

for spark plugs i would recommend the NGK copper plugs, part number BCPR6ES. you should get 10,000kms out of them (change them at every second oil change). works out cheaper than either the iridiums or platinums in the long run, and if you have decent coil packs then you may get 15,000 or even 20,000kms out of them. i pulled mine out after 10,000kms and they weren't very worn at all. as for oil, every person you ask will give you a different opinion. if you can afford $100 or whatever mobil1 is these days then use it. it also comes down to what you are using the car for, what mods it has and how hard you drive. if you are just using it as a daily driver and it is pretty much stock and you don't give it a hard time then you can get away with using cheaper oils. just go with something either semi synthetic or a basic fully synthetic oil if it is just a daily driver for normal driving. K&n panel filters are fine. fuel filters every 20,000kms would be more than enough. not sure what the exact service interval is. probably much more than 20,000kms though. timing belt is 100,000kms, and do water pump at the same time, as well as all the timing belt tensioners (don't just do the belt)

all the stuff about releasing the pressure for better throttle response is correct, however the stock bov on the skylines are more than good enough for the job, and they are 100% legal, so there is no point pulling it off just to put a different one on.

the rb26 head would also allow you to run the rb26 ITB setup. not sure how that would go for this setup though

i was getting much worse economy than you in my r33 gts-t. i was up around 17L/100kms. on a long trip on the higway it was down around 10 or 11/100kms. new o2 sensor made no difference because it was down to my driving style. the o2 sensor has no effect on how rich the car runs when you floor it. the ecu ignores it once you get into higher load cells on the map. this can be as low as about 40% throttle depending on rpm, etc. the o2 sensor is only used in light throttle applications, so light acceleration and cruising along at a steady speed. before you go out and buy a new o2 sensor you would be best off just testing your current one with a multimeter to see if it is working properly.