Murray_Calavera

Pretty much what you'd expect at that power level. Hypergear turbo, long list of supporting mods, full Haltech catalogue, etc. I'd say this goes for most drivers, suspension is still a dark art for most people. And it's really hard to convince someone how much better their setup could be...

Yes. The only scenario I can imagine when the answer isn't yes, is if you drive like there is highway patrol behind you at all times. If your car currently runs, enjoy it and keep saving. Better costs more, keep saving until you can budget the better ECU. It's worth it. Nope. Plenty of us making >300kw on unopened motors. Mine is unopened and makes about 350kw if I turn everything up, its fine (lots of caveats here, how the car will be used/abused, how long you expect the engine to last between rebuilds, how has the engine been maintained prior to coming into your ownership, etc etc).

Haltech fanboi reporting in. Buy the Haltech!

This might be true if you live in NZ but I can't see how this could be true for us locals here. I've found the customer support for Haltech to be absolutely amazing. I've turned up to Haltech and spent entire days with their tech support guys, they've even helped me with wiring dramas that had nothing to do with their products. They have the best customer support of any company I've dealt with, I can't imagine how my experiences with them could possibly be any better.

It's a slippery slope... this is only the beginning lol

I know you don't want to hear this comment, but I can't not say it. I just can't see 200kw being worth the time and effort. Its like guys with NA cars, putting in headers/exhaust/tune for a massive 20% jump in power. Great, the slow car is still slow and you're down $10,000. My vote is leave it NA or price in a gearbox upgrade and shoot for at least 300KW, preferably 350KW+. Now you have a NC that will try to kill you from time to time and will be exciting to drive

Ah yep. The main message I want to pass on is, try not to get scared of ghosts when thinking about knock/knock detection. What I mean is, healthy engines make noise. Knock is also noise. Your knock sensor and ECU combo are trying to determine bad noise from good noise based on how loud the noise is. The factory knock sensors and ECU are not good at doing this. Modern ECU's are pretty decent at it, however I'd still say that you would want to verify that if your ECU says it's knock, that you actually listen to it and confirm that it is correct. Are you familiar with the plex knock monitor? https://www.plex-tuning.com/products/plex-knock-monitor-v3/ I expect you're the type of person that would be very keen to play with something like this. It is great knock detection and you can pop some headphones on and listen to what's going on. Knock that you've deliberately induced in low load low RPM areas is not really putting anything at risk and is a great tuning/learning/verification tool. I just thought this was worth mentioning based on the way you were talking about setting up a base map and the Haltech base map settings. There are better ways to spend your time then chasing ghosts and worrying about detonation in scenarios that it is crazy unlikely to encounter it. I was also wondering, what ECU are you planning to get? Will it be long til you pick it up?

Based on this - and this - My advise is to find a local workshop that is trustworthy and has experience building GTRs to the level you want to achieve.

I have questions - * what are you using to detect knock? * do you have knock ears or any other way to listen to knock? * your driving a R33 yeah? what are the knock sensors your running, factory is the old school style yeah? Do you have modern bosch knock sensors? * have you deliberately induced knock to see what it looks like on your ECU/knock monitor and listened to it to hear what it sounds like?

You 100% could do that, would save money on a gym membership lol. But yeah, getting a cordless orbital sander will feel priceless coming from doing it manually. Good luck with it mate

I admire your efforts with the scuff pad. As a mere mortal, I use this for the baulk of my sanding work- https://sydneytools.com.au/product/milwaukee-m18bos125-0-18v-li-ion-cordless-125mm-5-random-orbital-sander-skin-only Yes you can easily create a low spot while sanding. There are 2 types of filler, 1 part of 2 part. The 2 part filler will get used for large corrections and the 1 part filler will get used for pin holes and areas that only need slight filling. Depending on how zealous you are with the sander (very easy to do with a power tool) or if you are chasing rust etc, yes those low spots will need to get filled or you will end up with a very obvious defects in the paint. Using the guide coat and large sanding block, high and low areas will be revealed (watch youtube videos for a good visual on this). Its up to you if you think its worth the effort to make the car completely flat before you spray it (you make it flat by filling the low areas). At the end of the day, it comes down to time. The end result comes from the level of prep put in to the car. If you want a perfect result, you have to put in the time during the prep stage or else it will be impossible to achieve a perfect result during the spraying process.

I would not be surprised if you are the only person on earth that has the interest/desire to do that lol. The Haltech base map is a really good starting point, the car will fire easily and drive very well, even on mild boost levels. To me, following your advice sounds like some sort of ancient Chinese water torcher lol (this is not an insult Josh, never change <3)

Haltech have a nice comparison table between the Elite and Nexus models - https://www.haltech.com/ecu-buyers-guide/ In general, the Nexus is better. Haltech have some nice product videos on their YouTube page, I'd have a look at those and if you're still not confident what way to go, I'd give them a call. They have the best customer support of any company I've dealt with, I'm sure they'll be able to help you out.

If you haven't bought the ECU yet, I would strongly consider buying a modern ECU. Yes it is very easy to setup and tune, however it is lacking many of the features of a modern ECU. The pro plug in is something like 10 or 12 years old now? Can't remember exactly but it is very dated now. In that time the Elite was released and now we have the Nexus platform. I would strongly consider not buying the ECU that is 3 generations old now (especially as it isn't a cheap ECU!).

Sorry I should have been more clear with the previous post. The block is a sanding block - picture something like this https://motorguard.com/product/motor-guard-bgr161-bgr16-1-rigid-psa-sanding-block-2-5-8-x-16/ The guide coat is the paint It's two separate things I was talking about, there is no "block guide coat".

Maybe more accurately, you aren't just dulling the existing paint, you are giving the new paint something to 'grab on to'. By sanding the existing paint, you're creating a bunch of pores for the new paint to hook on to. You can lay new paint over existing paint without sanding it, might last a year or two then sad times. The paint will peal/flake off in huge chunks. By sanding it, the new paint is able to hang onto it and won't flake off. Depends on the primer you are using. When you buy your paint, as the paint supplier what grit of sand paper to use before you lay down the primer. Use whatever you like as a guide coat. Pick a colour that really stands out in contrast to the paint. So say your sanding/painting a currently white car, using a black guide coat would work well. You very lightly lay the black guide coat down, then as you sand the car with the large block, all the high spots and low spots will stand out as the black paint is sanded off (or isn't sanded off). When you buy your paint, hit up your supplier for recommendations for what paint to use for a guide coat if you're unsure what would work well with your setup.

Sounds like you've started from the wrong base map. That image I posted above is from the base map for the RB25DET (this one, Pro_R32R33-113_RB25_VE.hr32r33-113). Maybe load that base map and import the data from your current tune if its otherwise good.

What Haltech ECU do you have?

Feels weird to me using the Honda VTEC setup, hoping that it will control the Nissan VCT. I would expect to see something like this -

What is already done to the car?

I'm confused. You said you want to "remove the clear coat from most panels" but it sounds like you are actually doing a full respray? Few random things to add - If you chase the blistered paint with 120 grit, I can almost guarantee you'll chase it down to bare metal (that's fine). But if you paint the car from here, you'll have nice little indents where ever the blistered paint was. The new paint won't magically level out the low areas, you need to fill them. Which leads me to the main point I wanted to add, make sure the whole car is flat before you paint it. All those areas with blistered paint you sanded out, make sure to fill them and triple check they are flat with a block guide coat. I'd also check the whole car is flat with a large block and guide coat but yeah up to you if you want to go that far.

A couple of things, firstly omg that turbo is expensive! $3,000 USD for dinosaur technology is robbery. You could buy a G series turbo and have a good amount of change instead. If you want a good budget option, have a look here - https://hypergearturbos.com/product/rb25dethighflow/ If you are keen to spend more, have look at the modern turbos, Garrett G series, Borgwarner EFR, etc. Have a look at the RB25 dyno results thread for inspiration. If you upgrade your turbo to something that will support the 300hp you want and only "probably" have Haltech ECU, your car will only "probably" run. Actually, no it won't run. You are going to need the ECU and injectors at the time you do the turbo upgrade. No thoughts on "this much boost" as you didn't say how much boost that actually is. Having said that, plenty of unopened RB25's making even more power then what you are chasing.

Agreed, another vote for the Haltech CAN wideband. No voltage offset errors is a beautiful thing.

You can still easily find running RB25's, they just tend to cost $5,000+

How to tell me you haven't raced a S or R chassis without telling me you haven't raced a S or R chassis.