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If possible, try not to portray that people on the wrong side of the law drive cars like ours... I know its fictional and on TV for entertainment but the Today Tonight and ACA crowd don't need anymore references to us being arrogant/dangerous/irresponsible people on the wrong side of the law. If its on TV it must be true is the attitude of many australians!!! Make the good guys drive them! That said I will definitely watch it when it eventually comes out. Any idea when that might be?

To me

I have to agree I think HPI are going down hill pretty steeply in my opinion. I have been considering writing to them for sometime but can't really put a finger on what has gone wrong. I think its just the passion that has gone. Look at what used to be in the mag: - Car comparisons comparing everything we care about - Trips to japan - Detailed unbiased tech ads - Power ups of various cars Just to name a few. Now the magazine is just full of cars sitting in one spot with a spec sheet waffled into 2 pages. Pretty disappointing. Speed magazine were very good at capturing not just the spec sheet but the way it drove and the excitement driving it evoked. You used to be able to read an article and feel what it was like to drive the car! HPI used to have that passion for the cars and the industry but I just think they are probably a bit bored and lost enthusiasm. Need to get some new staff to bring the enthusiasm back! To me the perfect example of this was the absolute joke of a DVD that came with the latest edition. I couldn't believe how bad it was. I don't think you could look any more amateur if you tried!! The old HPI would never have let that be attached to their mag.

Just noticed wrxhoon is watching this thread. I think he will give you a much better explanation than I can. I learnt all about this from him. Leakdown test you need an aircompressor and a special air tool. Best taking it too a good mechanic. I wouldn't worry though as if you are making good power all signs point to a pretty good engine. I would start to worry when it starts burning oil or starts to not make power.

Guys, The absolute value is not that important. As long as its not excessively low eg. ~125 then what matters is how close all the cylinders are. The reason it only matters how close the cylinders are is that every compression tester reads slightly differently. Obviously quality, parts used etc effect the result. Also the temp of the engine and the amount of voltage in the battery effects it as well. My car showed 10 psi difference between two compression test guages within two weeks. And the second one was higher! Those results look ok to me. Generally the cylinders you do last start to show lower figures as the batteries looses a tiny bit of its beans! Again I have seen this as well. I wouldn't worry. Keep taking it to the track! Leakdown test is by far the most accurate means of checking the condition of the engine. It actually tests the pressure the rings can hold as well as valves and stems.

I was told that LPG is higher octance and does burn cooler but you don't see this as you can't get a nice spray out of the injectors with it so hence the reason you loose a bit of power. Also something about it not getting to the cylinder due to the massive change in temperature... eg. freezing cold when pressurised into intake pipe into hot manifold. I am no expert on this but that is what I have been told.

I know its too late but when I was at uni I had a mirage of all cars with: Adjustable Koni Yellows King springs Front camber kit 15 inch wheels The chassis is really stiff in the mirage compared to a lot of other small cars. With the shocks wound to half the car felt quite stiff and handled awesome! I took this car to REGULAR super sprints it it never broke down once in the year I had it. Then my brother bought it and continued to regularly take it to the track and it never once broke. Then he sold it to his friend who took it to the track. Best time I did in it was a 1.22 at wakefield and a 58.00 at Oran Park South with Firenza tyres ( cheap road tyres). I was great fun to drive and had a habit of oversteering on turn in which was nice. Then get a bit of understeer/4 wheel slide on exit. The car was so cheap to own. Its apparently still going now some 3 years later with no problems although a little low on compression across the board. (just worn out)

I am not trying to damage your thread but it is worth noting that no standard gtr (other than n1 and nur) came with steel wheeled turbos. They are ceramic. This was because they wanted a quick spool time which the ceramics do better than the steel wheeled turbos. There is the issue of ceramic turbine wheels falling off with too much boost. Mods: Delete this if I am breaking any rules but I don't want anyone being mislead.

Thats actually not correct. Having been talking to a registered rta engineer, I was advised that the issue with pod filters is the drive by noise. Any modification after the airflow meter the cops can defect you for as it can effect emissions. I like many others was under the impression that a pod filter had to be fully enclosed to be legal. According to the engineer this is not the case and has to simply pass a driveby test that is less than ~75db. Apparently most skylines are noisier than this. Front mounts get defected for obviously effecting emissions as mentioned above but also for effecting the structural rigidity of the car as a hole needs to be cut for them to fit. The cops actually get this wrong most of the time as in s15,s14,s15,r32,r33,r34 the hole does not require cutting through any part of the chassis and is simply a sheet of metal (battery box) so is easy to get engineered. Hope that helps. Engineer for anyone needing advice was Nathan from Grey Imports in Sydney.

Might look like a semi slick but they aren't R compound rubber. Treadwear rating is too high.

I am really disappointed with HPI these days. I thinks its poor. All the japanese content, car comparos.... all gone and just feature cars stationary with text. I haven't enjoyed an HPI in quite a long time and I buy them every month. Latest 1 has 104 pages and I finished reading the content in under an 1 hour. Speed used to take days. Don't get me started on SPEED. That was the best magazine ever published in aus. I can't believe it was not profitable. Shows australia is a bunch of ricers if 2dmax was more profitable..... I feel sick.

If I was you I would leave the car WELL ALONE. A car that has been for a swim could get all sorts of electrical problems due to the short circuiting that may/may not have happened. The compression is really bad as well. The engine is almost finished. 50% leakdown!!!! That cylinder will always be burning oil badly. Thats what the white smoke would be. Anymore than 10% leakdown is ordinary. 20% is the absolute worst you would want it to be. If its was me I would tell him your not even slightly interested in this car but may be in another car he has. If you buy it you have potentially got a car full of rust deep in the chassis with an engine that is almost finished. Do yourself a favour and don't get it. Its just not worth it. Try and screw him for the deposit back. Won't be easy but with hardwork it is possible. I have done it once before. Hope that helps. James

Chris- Hit refresh on your browser and you will see! Its holding my old one in cache.

Thanks to Al for the pics, (on antilag) I now have a new avatar.

Everyones missing the point paulr33 was trying to make earlier which is the point of this topic. The number of kw's a car makes on 1 dyno is completely irrelevant. The only way any number on a dyno is useful is if you change something and run it on the same dyno again. All dynos will show different readings because of temperature, ramp rate, humidity, temp sensors etc. This is on top of how long ago the dyno was calibrated. Therefore dyno readings are only useful to measure an increase in power if a baseline run is done, then the mod completed and then another run on the same dyno set up the same way. People need to stop getting caught up in the number and use the same dyno the whole modifying process and simply watch the increase. I am still not sure that is explained very well but I tried. A good tuner doesn't even care about the peak figure anyway. That is just a by product of tuning for the most amount of torque across the rev range. My 2c.

Thanks Chris. What an awesome day! Bring on the pics!

If it was me I would buy the GTR but not for cops or for legality. Its just a better car. That said a lot of people have said that a nicely modded gtst is more fun than a gtr as it is a bit more 'on edge' being rwd. Having driven a number of gtsts and GTR's I would say that a GTR has much less useable power on the street. Stab the throttle at 3000rpm and the gtst will go. Stab it in the gtr and nothing will really happen for a while. The Gtr is therefore not as quick a car just driving around on the street. You can can use the power legally on a gtst where as with a gtr you are going pretty quick when you are using the power. Another point is how fast the car 'feels' a 250rwkw skyline feels MUCH MUCH faster than a 250rwkw GTR. I have been in an 11 sec gtr (300rwkw) that felt slower than a 230rwkw 33gtst. I'm not kidding! To me that is important because I would rather go slower and feel the speed that be travelling faster and it feel slower. I don't drive to go fast I drive to enjoy it. Most people would agree. As far as modifying a skyline is concerned and the legalitys, you can easily modify one these days and get it engineered and never have a problem. Costs $500-700 if you consult them before you start modifying and the entire car is legal. To answer your question about what I would do if I spent it on the gtst I would do the following: (I have tried to be reasonably conservative) HKS GTRS- $2500- has useable power with enough grunt to make over 270rwkw injectors- $900 Fuel pump- $350 Cams- $700 Power fc- $1000 Labour to put the above in and tune- ~$1400 You will now have up to 280rwkw depending on how hard you are prepared to push the motor with very little lag. One guy made 300. Suspension Bilstein shocks and whiteline springs- $1200rrp (might be able to get them cheaper through the club) whiteline handling pack- $700 Fit and wheel alignment- $800 Wheels 17 inch buddy clubs would be my choice- $1650 new Tyres- $1000 for really good ones Stereo- $1200 has me satisfied I have just spent nearly $15k. Some of you will think some of the prices are high while some are low but I have tried to be conservative. I have seen all these products for the above prices or cheaper. Labour depends greatly on where you take it and how good they are. I personally wouldn't push the standard bottom end past 250rwkw which the GTRS could do but doesn't have to. Tune the car with 1-1.2 bar and it will probably make around that power and last forever even if you do track days. No point spending all that money if your not going to use it. If you did all this first thing I would recommend would be a skidpan day and track day to start to get a handle on it. The car would be a mid 12 second car probably even faster with a good driver even on street tyres. In a gtst that is really fast. You won't catch yourself getting 'used' to the power too quickly if at all. My 2c.

I have an s15. Fuel cut from boost is not an issue on s15 with the boost levels you should be running. On the dyno mine saw 18psi with stock ecu very briefly and there was no boost cut. With standard ecu I would not run any more than 11psi as the ecu in s15 makes the midrange REALLY lean. Do you have a boost guage to determine what boost you have set? Once you have power fc I wouldn't run more than 17psi. I only run 16. If you can, don't do any boost tuning yourself if your new to this its a really bad idea. Do it on the dyno. A rebuild will cost you more than $4k to do it properly. The problem you currently have will either be massive boost ie. >20psi or more than likely the spark blowing out. Gap the plugs correctly. If you don't know what to set them to take the car to a workshop.

I think I accidently deleted it. I was trying to do two things at once last night and must have deleted it instead of editing!

Yeah well done Tosh it was exceptionally well organised. It was a great day.

My guess is the trust turbos on the dyno graph are 518z with the 0.72 rear housing. I am not sure whether that is the 8cm or 10cm (or neither) which is how trust measure the rear housing but that would be my guess. Maybe someone could convert the 8cm and 10cm to a/r.

Not being an expert but having driven one on a number of occasions, GTR's distribute torque to the front wheels just by nailing it. Infact it doesn't have to floored or breaking traction. Any decent gforces even in a straight line will cause the guage to fly up to 50%. You can even be turning a corner with no throttle and it will start to distribute talk to the front which helps keep it stable.

Your car won't start on if you don't give it the cold start "rich" map. When the block is cold the fuel wants to turn to liquid (from a gaseous spray) on the cold metal eg. the bore. Therefore you need much more fuel present to make up for the fuel that is sitting as a liquid on the side of the bore and on the top of the pistons. Also when the engine is cold you will notice the engine idles higher, this is to help get the oil circulating as quickly as possible and to help heat everything up. A rich mixture does not stop the engine heating up as much as you would think. Remember the engine is only near on idling. So basically forget about it. The car won't start easily at all and the engine once it does start will want to stall as well as it not being looked after while it is cold which is when you do most of the damage. If you have a rough idle when its cold I would be looking at other things. I have seen r32's idle nicely cold so I would be looking at leads, spark plugs and coilpacks. Hope that helps.

Chances are it is the AFM. If you haven't tried another set I would not do anything else before doing that.

I probably wouldn't want to use the term "come on boost at a respectable rpm" when your aiming for 500rwkw. RB26's are over square so that doesn't promote good boost response but I am not sure what VQ30's are. I would guess they are under square given the "lowly" 6500rpm limit. Twin t67's will get you there. Keir wilsons gtr uses these but I doubt they will come on boost before 5000rpm on a 3 litre. If the engine is in a 300zx you will have serious room issues as well.