JimX

Yep I can confirm that economy usually goes up after S-AFC install. I would usually get around 400km per tank with the S-AFC installed. I took it out last week to sell, and now I've done 200km on the first tank afterwards and it's already a bit below halfway. I would get 13-14L/100km around town depending on how I drive it, and at a guess around 1L/100km worse without the S-AFC. Combine that with 30rwkw less than before, you can see why I'm itching to get my PowerFC!

What other mods have you got to get 421rwhp?

My biggest reasoning for choosing the iridiums over coppers are mostly due to the longer life of the iridiums. Copper plugs tend to deteriorate noticably over time, even while the plugs are still good. eg, after 10000 or 20000 cold starting is a bit harder and economy is down a bit than when new. And because of the intake being in the way I didn't want the hassle of pulling it all apart everytime I had to change them. But now I have the front-facing plenum it's not nearly as big an issue to change the plugs every 5000 or 10000, so I think I'll go back to coppers when these iridiums wear out.

I know it's been discussed before but I did a search and couldn't turn up anything too specific. I'm wondering how hard it is to install these yourself? I'm not sure of what has to come off other than the cam cover. Do you have to remove the timing belt completely or can you just loosen off the tensioner (which is where?) and slip the old one off and put the new one on? Do you have to drain the coolant and remove the radiator first or can it be done with cooling system intact? If someone has a step-by-step then please post details

I have driven a friend's new XR8 and it is a very nice car. I would keep it if someone gave me one but I wouldn't buy one myself unless I could still afford to keep the Skyline as my weekend car, because it's just too agricultural. It feels like you're driving a big hovercraft (although it does handle pretty well for its size) and even though there's 260kw on tap it just doesn't feel fast because of the huge weight of the thing. Because my friends (married couple) use it as a work car it's not going to get much if anything in the way of performance mods. But still, it's faster than the vanilla 6 cylinder versions of Commodores/Falcons. (these comments made because I think that the BA XR8 would be very similar to a current HSV)

Until reading some posts in this thread I had never even thought that the exhaust could make the rear cylinders run hotter and thus leaner due to the dump pipe being right next to them. I'm going to get some thermal wrap this weekend for the dump and see if it makes any difference. The uneven air distribution could be even less than I thought.

Yeah I'm not too sure Castrol's so good anymore. I put it in my bike and after about 2500km the gear shift lever got a little "sticky". When I changed the oil it was good again, but I don't think I want to keep using it anymore. I think I'll switch to Mobil 1 for the car and go back to a Motul semi-synth for the bike.

300 on a friendly dyno, 250-260 on others. Depends on where you go.

Castrol's Formula R comes in 4 different flavours - 0W-40, 5W-30, 10W60, and 25W-50. The first three are full synth, the last is mineral. I'm thinking of a 5W-40 for summer. I was running 10W-60 for awhile, there were absolutely no problems other than slight loss of power and worse economy. I really need an oil temperature gauge to decide once and for all what I should be using in summer. An oil cooler should enable you to run thinner oil too.

Only if your bonnet has been removed

I worked for City Ford once, and the DG drove a BMW 5 series

Tony, that would be the case if the intake before the TB was constantly under pressure - which it isn't unless you've got the hammer down. So while you're on boost, you're mostly right. But to get on boost quicker, a shorter intake is better.

Have you owned either type of car?

No one has yet properly explained to me why this is the case. I don't buy into it personally.

If you think +30rwkw is nothing, then yes the S-AFC is a toy. As Steve said though, the PowerFC is better, but it does cost a grand more. (well, $700 more if you don't want the hand controller) It's up to you what you want really. I never had any detonation problems with the S-AFC, but the cost was it was tuned a little richer than it could have been with the PowerFC. If you have the bucks then get then PowerFC. But if you don't, get an S-AFC until you. Edit: Another thing to consider is the tuning of both. The S-AFC is simple to tune, and costs only around $150. The PowerFC takes a lot longer and can cost upwards of $500. When I get mine I am going to road tune it as best I can before bringing into the dyno for fine tuning, which will hopefully bring the cost down.

While I can agree with most of your other sentiment, I don't understand the total vilification of the front-facing plenum in the manner I have quoted above. Using the same logic, a bigger intercooler would not introduce more lag. It's common sense really - lose 1 metre+ of intercooler piping and how can it NOT improve throttle response? If you honestly think that it can't, then there must be something else with the airflow of the plenum that completely negates the loss of 1 metre of plumbing. I would be interested to know what that is, if so. Edit: I remember mentioning in the past that I had lost around 3kw in the very low rev ranges due to the front facing plenum. What I had totally forgotten about was the 2 degrees knocked off the timing, which I think would account for most or all of that power loss. I'll see what happens when I play with the timing again after the PowerFC arrives.

How many km do the R1-R's last?

I don't think a mechanic's inspection is worth the paper it's written on. Pretty much everything they do you can usually find yourself if you know a bit. Probably the only thing I've learned since getting the car which I didn't check when I got mine was checking the turbo bearings for play. Fortunately, mine is still in perfect condition But you can't really tell if the clutch is 90% worn (ie just before it starts slipping), you can't tell if the radiator is slightly corroded and *just* about to leak, you can't tell if hoses are just about to split, etc. All you can really do is stuff like pinch-test the hoses and listen for unusual engine or drivetrain noises etc. As long as the engine is good (ie, no coolant or oil-related smoke problems) then I would say that the turbo has to be the last major thing to be fixed. If you sold the car after fixing that you would be throwing a lot of money down the drain.

That was one of my considerations too, Other benefits it gives are making it much easier to get at the plugs and injectors. I'm soon going to drop a set of RX7 injectors in, and I will be very glad that I don't have to remove the plenum to get at them. Small considerations maybe, but considerations nonetheless.

Starts pretty low, maybe 2000rpm? 10 or 12 psi by around 3500rpm. I've got it set to 1 bar so it hits full boost at around 4000. With the S-AFC tune I had there was an absolute mammoth power spike at around 4000-5000rpm which felt like a real kick in the pants, but after 5000rpm there's nothing because torque dropped right off. Power still climbed gradually and peaked at 215rwkw, but it still felt gutless above 5000. There were a few theories thrown about as to why it does that, but the latest one is the Fuel Cut Defender not being connected. I discovered this when removing the S-AFC to sell. Hopefully it will be fixed when I install and tune the PowerFC. Even if my peak power doesn't increase, it will still feel a lot better without that torque loss up top. Example: It made 160rwkw at 5000rpm, and only 175kw at 6000rpm (and 215 at 7000). For a cheap plain bearing turbo I think it's pretty good. Although if it is the turbo itself causing the power restriction at high revs, I may have to sell it and get something bigger. Or at least upgrade the exhaust housing.

My turbo is a T04E, flowing 450hp.

$4k for a clutch and faulty cooling system is a joke. The first thing I would do is ditch your mechanic. The three problems you have are not really that major. I wouldn't get rid of the car unless you know it has other problems, like worn rings or something. Get yourself a second hand turbo and stick with it. You should be ok from there.

Pre-tune I was getting 185rwkw on the Hills dyno. Post tune it got up to 215rwkw but dipping/surging and leaning out. Even though power does go up slightly overall from 5000 to 7000, because of the dips it feels like there's absolutely no extra power after around 5000rpm. PowerFC uses AFM usually, but I think there are variants which use MAP. I'm happy to stick with AFM for fuel economy reasons.

I never said that the Evo had a bad build quality, just harsh. If you don't mind the hard seats and lack of sound insulation and no climate control then maybe you want an Evo Good luck to you either way, but $30k is a lot of moolah just for something that goes better on the track than a mildly modded Skyline. Imagine for a few minutes what $30k of mods on your car would do. It really depends on what you want from a car ultimately. If you want a track weapon and have $30k to burn, you probably do want an Evo or GTR.

My advice is to not do up the hose clamps too tightly when you put the new one in, because I reckon this is what makes the hoses harder to get off next time. Just tight enough to not come loose should be enough.