mad082

when i bought my 180sx it had a skinny alloy gear knob and it shit me off. i'm on of those people who rests their hand on the gear knob and pretty much change gears without my fingers even touching the knob. so it's all done by the palm of my hand. i prefer the feel of stock gear knobs over pretty much every aftermarket gearknob i have used. i ended up changed the gearknob in my 180sx to a stock gear knob out of a n14 pulsar (just the pov pack) and it sat lower than most multifit after market knobs and felt much better. as for weighted knobs, i had a gear knob out of a wrx in my 33 for a while. they are a friggin heavy knob. they feel like they are made from lead. i'm not joking about the weight, they are seriously heavy. the weight wasn't really an issue. may have made it feel a touch smoother on gear changes, but generally felt ok. i know that some companies who make short shifters recommend using a weighted gear knob with a short shifter as it helps a bit with the notchiness and hardness of shifting due to the extra inertia the shifter has. but as people have said, go with whatever you prefer. in my opinion stock shifters are the way to go. generally sit nice and low and are ergonomic

bit hard to say that all NA skylines are good because one that has a 3.5L NA motor is ok. it is going to spank the arse off a RB20DE r32, and rightly so. i don't mind the 350GT and yes i'm sure they go alright, but they aren't really in the picture here as they make up for their lack of turbo by having an extra 1000cc of capacity over the next most powerful NA skyline (rb30 doesn't count as it puts out less power than a rb25)

no, using full cycle theory (a cycle being the amount of time it takes for every cylinder to fire, which in the case of a 4 stroke is 2 rotations) it is only 2.6L but using the 1 rotation of the crank theory it is 5.2L you can never have 2L of air in a 2L piston engine at any point either, yet they are still classed as a 2L engine. note: i was slightly off in my calculation earlier. a 2.0L 4 cylinder engine will have 1.5L of air in it at any time, not 1L.

to make 120 to 140kw you won't need to run very much boost at all. even 5psi would see you close i'd say. as for turbo choice, the stock will do nicely. plenty of response. you have to remember that a NA engine will spool a turbo earlier than a turbo because of the higher compression. with the stock turbo you should have full boost by under 2500rpm. on my r33 gts-t (slightly smaller turbo than the r34 turbo) i was making 14psi by well under 3000rpm with the stock turbo. ecu will need to be altered to take into account the extra airflow. fuel pump would probably be ok (i'm not sure if they are the same pump as a turbo) and it would be good to upgrade the injectors to the stock turbo ones to be safe but the NA ones may cope

could also just be that your radiator cap has shat itself. however the chances that it just happened to stuff up at the same time as the cooler hose popped off would be pretty low. i would more be leaning towards the head gasket though. i had an EA falcon as my first car and i did 2 headgaskets in it. both times it was around the time that it got a coolant leak (one time was a hole in a radiator hose, the other it blew a hole in the end tank of the radiator). both times i never had any water in the oil, or oil in the water, but it was hard to start and blew the smokey mist out the rear only when it was started after sitting for a while. in normal running it wouldn't

doofy you are pretty much right on that (you can quote that if you like, LOL) the capacity of a piston engine is the volume of a single chamber, multiplied by the amount of chambers, reguardless of the amount of rotations of the crank required to achieve a full cycle (hence why a 2 stroke and 4 stroke engine of the same displacement are both stated as such, rather than the 2 stroke being twice the capacity). and this is why a rotary should also be classed as the volume of a single side of the rotor, then multiplied by the number of sides of rotors in the engine. so in the case of the 13b, there are 2 rotors, with 3 sides each, so a total of 6 combustion areas. mazda only calculated 1 side of each rotor. if you look at a 4 cylinder engine the volume of air in the engine at any time is half it's displacement. when the number 1 piston is at bottom dead centre, number 2 will be at TDC, number 3 will be at BDC and number 4 will be at BDC as well. so you have 2 full capacity chambers and 2 chambers at zero capacity. or if number 1 is halfway, all the others will be at halfway as well, so you still only have 50% capacity.

the big problem i see with a lot of peoples argument (those saying it's only 2.6L) is this: they are classing it as a 2.6L becuase it has only fired 2 sides of the rotor for the same duration as a piston engine would for a full cycle (2 rotations in the case of a 4 stroke). however the big flaw in this is the comparison. the simple fact is that a 2 stroke and a 4 stroke engines have their capacity based of the same theory despite the fact that a 2 stroke firing every cylinder on every stroke and the 4 stroke only having fired on half the cylinders during the same stroke. so it is only fair to then extend the same principle to rotaries who will only have complated 2/3 of a cycle in that time. if you want to class a 13b as 1.3L on the argument that there has only been 1 combustion per rotor per rotation of the crank/eccentric shaft then you also have to class a 4 stroke as only half it's given displacement and the only engine you can class as it's full given displacement is a 2 stoke. you either class engines by displacement of chambers combusting on 1 rotation of the crank/eccentric shaft or you class it as total displacement of all combustion chambers regaurdless of the amount of rotations of the crank/eccentric shaft makes for one full cycle of the engine. 1 rule for all, not just bending the rules to make 1 seem better. even with people (the mazda fans) saying that if calculated the same way as a 4 stroke the displacement would be 2.6L, they themselves are admitting that mazda has basically lied by calculation the displacement in a way that benefits them. i will agree with them though on the fact that a rotary is 'similar' to a 2 stroke, but not the same.

the stock bov makes plenty of noise with a pod. my stock bov was plenty loud with a pod. nearly as loud as an atmo.

i would look in the (i think) DIY section. there is a full thread about wasted spark setups and you may find the answers in there

you could sit the engine on 2 or 4 thick pieces of wood (or steel pipe) that are about 1m to 1.5m long so that you could get a few guys on each piece of wood to lift it up

this thread at the start........ this thread now....... +

is it like a rubbing noise or could it be a vibration in a belt? the reason i ask is that it may possibly be a pulley bearing causing a vibration in a belt when at a certain speed. an example of this is a semi common problem with SSS pulsars where the aircon belt vibrates at idle when the aircon is on and the moment you blip the throttle it goes away. new bearings in the pulley seems to solve it for a little while. other possilbe causes could be air in the power steering pump (or just low fluid) but that will generally be all the time and get louder as you turn the steering. the revs dropping to 1500 then down to idle is pretty normal as well. i have owned lots of cars that do that.

people seem to exagerate a bit on the touching of the bulbs. the first time i changed bulbs (back when i was 17) i touched the glass (was holding it by the glass to put it in the plug) and they both still worked when i sold the car about 4 years later. i have probably touched the glass in some way on every bulb i have ever installed (some cars you have little choice due to the way they go in, but i don't hold them like i did that first time) and i have never had a headlight blow or anything like that. the current set i have had in the car for probably 6 years and i'm sure i would've made some skin contact with the glass when either getting them out of the packaging (cause it was really hard to get out) and putting them in. however you are pretty spot on with the alternator voltage regulator. first place i would be looking. oh and all r33 skylines are JDM models.

well considering that i normally play GT4 at the moment and am good at that, i'll pass on shift. i could easily go from the early NFS games to GT4 without a worry, but prostreet shit me off.

the consult port is on the drivers side in the fuse box (a bit above above the accelerator pedal) as for oils, really depends on what type of driving you are going to do. do a search, there are plenty of threads on it. as for filters, i just used a ryco filter on mine.

oh i should mention that the one my mate got was a cheapy off ebay for about $100, but that shouldn't alter the feel of the shifter much as 2 shifters with the same through should feel about the same.

r33 ecu's can't be nistuned, but you can use either a r32 or z32 ecu with a nistune board in it. r32 just loses the VCT functionality

may i ask why you want one? and have you driven a car with one before? the reason i ask is because i had always thought of getting one until a mate got one. i didn't like it at all. made the gears feel more notchy. i didn't like it at all.

how is the handling of shift? is it more like the older NFS games (such as underground) or is it more like prostreet? i thought pro street was terrible in most aspects (drag and drift were ok, but track racing was terrible). the older games were unrealistic but at least they were managable. and if it makes any difference, i'm wanting to know for the sony. as for the pc vs console debate, i'm no computer nerd and don't really give a flying firetruck if the pc has a slightly better graphics display. it also costs a buttload more, can't just simply unplug a couple of cables, stick it in a bag and take it to a mates place and plug it into their tv and play multiplayer with other non computer nerds, LOL. also i don't play that often so outlaying heaps of coin on a pc would just be a waste for me. as long as the game plays well i don't care about the graphics. hell i still love playing mario world on my SNES. also with a console i can lie back in the lounge without having to balance a keyboard and a mouse (even though that isn't as relevant for racing games).

the easiest way to check is with a multimeter. if you can wedge it into the plug where the wires go in while the car is running (from memory) you should see that 1 gives a 12v reading, 1 is an earth (so no reading) and the other fluctuates. that is the one you want to tap into. i should just add, that if you think that the gauge is going to tell you your actual air/fuel ratios accurately, it won't. basically it will tell you if your o2 sensor is working properly, but other than that it will be of no use to working out if you car is running lean or rich at full throttle as it will say rich whether your AFRs are 10: or 12:1. they are designed to work with a narrow band o2 sensor (which is what the stock one is) and won't work the same as a wideband. that said i have one in my car because i like flashy lights, lol

yeah that sounds like the sump plug. it is usally on one side at about 45 degrees, not on the very bottom of the sump (so it doesn't get broken off and you lose all your oil if the car bottoms out)

the problem with factory quoted fuel consumption is that they seem to find the most economical old granny they can to drive the car while they do the test. the economy never really equates to the average joe driving around. especially when it's a sports car. they don't take into account that they will be driven spiritedly. and that is when the rotary's consumption goes out the window. honestly who gives a crap about highway economy. they are all pretty close on that. but round town even the figures martyt quoted show the fuel economy of the rx7 being higher round town than a 300zx, which is a 3.0L v6 and weighs a few hundred kg's more. hell, even a 3.8L commodore beats it on both highway and city. for the city driving it spanks it, with the mazda using nearly 25% more fuel. and if you compare it to something similar in weight, like the 200sx, the rx7 uses 30% more fuel round town, yet it is supposed to be 700cc smaller in capacity.

you have said that the water pump impellor is perfect, but how is the housing? if the housing is a bit worn and the impellor isn't making a tight seal then it won't pump any (or enough) to cool the system properly (had this problem with my outboard. the impellor was new but it wasn't pumping water at idle and only a little bit at full speed because of the housing being worn). if you don't know how old the water pump is then i would replace it to be safe. also, when the radiator was professionally fluched/cleaned, did they actually open it up and clean it, or just flush it? for the fluid in the radiator to be cool while the car overheats means that there is a flow issue, whether it be the thermostat not opening properly (you didn't install it the wrong way did you?), the water pump or a blockage or air leak. as wacky dee said, the top hose should be hot. if it isn't and you are still getting overheating issues then there are a few things to do. first (this only applies if you have a stock ecu and are going off the temp gauge in the dash saying the car is overheating) is to get a hold of a consult cable so you can see what the ecu is reading the temp as. it reads from a different temp sender to the dash, so if it is reading ok then you just have a faulty temp sender. however if it is reading hot as well as the dash but the coolant/hose is still cool, then i'd say the thermostat is a probable suspect as it will be letting out a very small amount of coolant (enough to alter the temp sensor reading) but not enough to actually heat up the radiator

i had this happen (or something similar) in my 33. it was the pivot bolt. in my case i pushed the clutch in, let it up then it shot to the floor and if i lifted it back up it would just drop to the floor again. pretty much all the possible causes have been listed (except for broken clutch fork). some are easy to check, others aren't. anything to do with the lines, etc are easy to check. even the pivot bolt is relatively easy to check (harder to fix though). if you lie under the car on the drivers side you can move the rubber seal where the clutch fork goes into the box to see if it is broken. when i did mine the car was in the garage when it broke and my mate who is a mechanic was out of town at the time so i had to do it with the car jacked up. i spent about 4 hours under the car and only cost me 90 cents to fix, LOL.

since you want an answer in psi, on something like a stock turbo you could probably run about 5psi