mad082

i would assume that ther thermostat would be in the same place on the 34 as on the 33. maybe take a pic of what you are talking about. but on the 33, if you stand on the drivers side of the car and follow the top radiator hose from the radiator back towards the block, where it attaches to the block you should find the thermostat housing. it isn't attached to the radiator but to the engine block.

if you are getting pinging at idle then you have issues. but i'd say that it isn't pinging and it is possibly a worn bearing in the clutch. or a pulley bearing. but it is very hard to say without hearing it. also turbo noise would get worse when you hit boost if it was dying.

it really comes down to how you are driving. if you are flooring it a fair bit then you will get poor fuel economy, even in something like a skyline with a relatively small engine. they aren't exactly tuned to be economical either. they are tuned to be a bit sportier, so that means that even driving like a granny you would use more fuel than some other 2.5L engines out there.

if the car is running lean then there is an issue that isn't going to be caused by the stock ecu. i'd say that your fuel pump is on it's way out (or already gone by the sounds of it). i'd start by replacing the pump and the fuel filter (in case it's blocked) and then take it back and get it dyno'd again.

+1 for crap driver not dropping back a gear or 2. and isn't autosaloon all about how pretty the car is, not about how many killer wasps it has? also for all we know the guy could've had a brand new engine in the thing and only be running 5psi on a very conservative tune.

i've never seen a snail with a big hole in the middle of it with a turbine wheel in it either, LOL

maybe you should spend some time in the NA section of here. similar sort of thing goes on, LOL

the gasket will be leaking where the bolts are missing. simple as that. since it has been driven with missing bolts the gasket will be stuffed where the bolts are missing so you will need a new gasket either way.

yeah i thought the same thing at first.

i don't think it will fail. it will be better than all the previous versions. i personally think though it will fail in some peoples eyes because they will be of the view that they waited all that extra time and it wasn't massively better than the previous versions. so it will only fail because their expectations were too high. i'm just expecting it to be a bit better than previous versions, but not some "oh my god this is just like racing a car in real life!!!1!1!!ty" type of thing.

that isn't entirely true. a lot of the reason why the small turbo will make less power is because it is restricting the exhaust gas so the engine is having to work harder to push the exhaust gases out of the cylinder as there is more restriction (and therefore higher pressure) in the exhaust manifold. once you reduce the restriction on the exhaust side then it can push the exhaust gases out easier and won't have as much resistance pushing against the piston. if you take 2 turbos with the same size exhaust housing but with different compressor housings then compare how much power they both make at the same pressure there won't be too much in it. the reason being that the pressure you see on a boost gauge is caused by the compressor ramming in more air than the engine can injest, thus pressurising the system. also you will have the intercooler adding restriction and that is why you will often see them saying that they only cause a 1psi drop at 15psi or something like that. that means that on the turbo side of the intercooler the pressure will be 1psi higher than on the plenum side. that is reguardless of what is pumping the air because the intercooler will only flow a certain amount of air before the pressure starts to increase inside the core. pressure is a byproduct of flow. the more air you flow the higher the pressure will be. if you keep all variables the same (so in the case of an engine, keep all the same intercooler, piping, exhaust and size of the exhaust housing on the turbo) you can't really alter the amount of air flowing through something without altering the pressure.

not really. as far as the actual engine goes the 2-jz is a much better/stronger engine than the rb26, and anyone who knows about engines, no matter how much of a nissan fan they are, will say the same. most of the toyota engines are better built than their nissan counterpart.

could be any of the gaskets really. on my 180sx i had i had the turbo actually come loose on the manifold. or it could be that you have broken some of the exhaust manifold studs, turbo studs or dump pipe studs/bolts or even where the dump pipe meets the front pipe. when the car is cold grab a torch and check all the studs on the manifold/head to see if they are all there. some are hard to see so sometimes it's easier to just feel for them (hence why i said to do it when cold). also look around for carbon build up as you should be able to see evidence of where it has been leaking, even after just a short amount of time.

that's nothing really special. i had a manual magna making the same sort of power with just an exhaust, weighing about the same and while they are a bit quicker than a NA 'line or commodore (ran high 14's), they certainly aren't blow the doors off quick like the turbo skylines are compared to a v6 commodore. but then it depends on whether the car you are racing is auto or manual. cause if it is auto and yours is manual then of course you are going to do better.

i can see where the OP is coming from. to me r33's are starting to look dated, and 32's have looked dated for quite a while now (in my opinion). interior wise i still prefer the 33 to a lot of newer cars, but the exterior isn't doing it for me as much as they used to. even a very tidy one with a nice set of wheels still only just takes my fancy, where as newer cars, be it r34's, commodores or falcons with a few tasteful mods will get my attention more. but then i'm not like some people on this forum who are green eyed skyline fans and think that every other car made is a hunk of crap. i appreciate all cars for what they are and what their strengths are. for example if i was buying a car that i had to do a lot of travelling in then i would chose a commodore or falcon over a skyline any day of the week as they are much more comfortable to spend a few hours in at a time in.

but better oil should reduce the sludge, etc. but at the end of the day, the actual difference in the filtering ability of different brands of filters is going to be minimal. and how often have you heard of engines failing because of something to do with the filter? also from memory, a lot of car companies generally only say that you need to change the filter every second oil change. so if you are changing the filter at every change like pretty much everyone does then it will be even less of an issue.

i think that if your o2 sensor was bad you'd be getting worse than 12L/100kms of "brisk city driving"

personally i would go a nistune. should cost you about $1000 (so half that of the others) including tuning. being half the price doesn't mean it is only half as good. it will do pretty much everything you need it to do. then you can put that extra $1000 you saved towards other mods and come out much better off.

what do you drive? i know you had posted a dyno result for a NA 300zx, and even they aren't really any faster.

then i think the people you are racing need to learn how to let the handbrake off, LOL.

i think the sedans may be a bit longer than the coupes. not sure about 33/34 compatiability. dump pipe, etc will fit, but it will come down to where the mounts are for the rear section of the muffler. few mins with a tape measure will give you a much better idea

the performanceflow muffler is pretty much the same as the magnaflow but it has a bigger body on it so it is quieter. still use the centre/offset configuration and the perferated straight through pipe. very much like the ultraflow

i played stunts and agree it was teh coolness. you could put in a loop. i still remember some of the tracks i made. 1 was a big oval. had loops all down 1 straight and jumps all down the others. had them spaced out so that you would land perfectly on the down ramp then go straight up the next jump. i think there was about 3 jumps down each straight. and the corners were banked, and because of the way they did them, the start of the banking was like a jump as well so the banking had to start ages before the corner otherwise you would jump way past the corner because of the speed you were doing.

it is one of those things, if the oil you are using is good, and you don't actually have any issues with the engine then the choice of filter doesn't mean that much. if your engine is producing enough metal filings to warrant having a magnet in there then i think it is too late to worry about what filter you are using, it's time for a rebuild. personally i've only every used ryco filters in all the cars i have owned over the past 10 years, as has pretty much eveyone i know (including some mechanics) and i've never had an issues, nor do i know anyone who has had issues that have come from the oil filter being a poor quality unit.

i'd go something like a 2.5" lukey performance flow. it's an oval muffler and not a cannon, so should help reduce police attention. also being an oval muffler it will be a touch quieter than a cannon. i recently got one put on my SSS pulsar and along with 2.25" piping (and 2.5" muffler) it is quieter than the old 2" system that was on there with a smaller bodied 2" oval muffler. also shouldn't cost that much to get fitted. i was quoted $120 for muffler and fitting at my local muffler place, but ended up being a bit more cause i got the extra piping done (ended up being $170 all up)