JimX

Water itself will corrode steel whether or not it has minerals in it. One of the things about good coolant is it contains corrosion inhibitors that help stop this from happening. Normal tap water will be slightly worse for corrosion due the crap already in it, but not fundamentally so and the coolant will help prevent most of it. If it prevented all of it you'd never have to change your coolant. I actually bought 2 bottles of distilled water for my radiator for this reason, but when I put in the coolant I found that it was totally full even after bleeding. There must have been some water left in there from the flush that didn't all drain back out. So my engine now has some tap water in it with the coolant.

You can get an XR6T for $25k now? Talk about fast devaluation

Bearings shouldn't be that expensive, I think I got quoted $120 or so for a set of 4 for a Suzuki Swift (gf's car). If you're lucky you should be able to get an aftermarket set from Repco.

I can't figure out why people choose their cars based on how common they are. Do you really care that much about what other people think?

Of course they can. And we can think it's as lame as we like. You don't like it? Tough.

Wasn't it only me that said that? Ok, if you start with a stock R32, to bring up to similar spec (hp handling-wise) as an R33 you will need: Bigger injectors $200? Bigger brakes $500? RB25 box and engine $3000? Laber to fit all the above $1000? That $8k is already half used up and you haven't even done anything to the power yet. Plus all the time off the road to put it all in. Like I said, if you want an R32 it's probably better to find one with some or all of the above mods already done, unless you plan on keeping it stock. Or just go the whole hog and get a GTR. I would rather an R32 GTS-t with $8k of performance mods than a stock R33 GTS-t too. But that is assuming that the choices are as black and white as that. They aren't. Edit: And this is assuming you can even get an R32 for $8k less. I just had a quick look in the trading post and the cheapest R32 GTS-t I could find is $14k. Average around $16k. At least they are holding their value pretty well.

They should know, if they don't then the tyres will have an arrow pointing in the direction of travel. If there is no arrow, then it doesn't matter which side it goes on as long as you don't mix up front and rear widths

DJ_L3ThAL, you can't rotate your tyres for the reasons you said. Also many performance tyres are directional so you can't swap them left to right either (not that there would be much benefit anyway). Tyre rotation is just for lengthening the life of your tyres and even then it doesn't really help all that much. If you have one tyre that is getting a bit bald on one edge, it will still be ok to use because of the tread on the rest of the tyre. I had one tyre that was down to the steel belts due to bad toe alignment but it was still ok to drive in the wet because it was only one tiny bit that was worn through. So although rotating the tyres will lengthen your tyre's life, if you don't rotate them you can let it get a little more worn out on one edge than you could if the whole thing was worn out to the same level. Does that make sense?

Red900ss, why should you bleed your brakes? A braking system in good order will never accumulate air in it (exception: the old Minis have really bad brakes and suck in air of their own accord even when working properly). I've never had a car aside from a couple of Minis that needed its brakes bled as a regular servicing procedure. You'll be able to tell if your brakes need bleeding, by an inconsistent feel. If the brakes feel better after pumping them, your brakes have air in the lines. But if they feel fine before and after pumping, there will be nothing to bleed. Boiling your brake fluid might create air pockets, so maybe bleeding them is necessary if you do a lot of track work. But as I mentioned, you should be able tell by the brake feel whether or not they need bleeding.

Platinums and iridiums can last up to 100000km or more, they tend to just fail instantly rather than gradually wear out. That's why the electrode is smaller. Generally speaking if the car is running ok, the plugs are fine (if platinum or iridium). As for your brake and radiator fluids, just check the colour. If they look dirty, then change them. Power steering fluid should only need to be changed once every 50000 or 100000km or so. I keep forgetting to do mine You can also replace your clutch fluid, I did mine at around 90000km and probably won't touch it again until 150000km. Also a quick note in case you (or anyone else curious) didn't know about: NEVER top up your brake fluid. There is enough fluid in the reservoir to cater for your brake pads running out, so just check your pads if the fluid is getting low.

I put in 50% coolant and 50% water. This is that expensive Nulon coolant which you can mix at 33% or 50% depending on how good you want it to be, cost around $40 a bottle I think. I only put water into the overflow bottle because I forgot to fill it up with coolant when I did my radiator flush. The radiator is always full whenever I check it, but then the overflow bottle never gets empty either so it would always be full.

ST115's are also a good Falken tyre, same price as FK451.

Pentae, you've quoted GTS-t power but GTR weight there. Actually even then I think they're too heavy, Motortraders says the R32 GTR is only 1430kg, and R33 1530kg. If the figures you quoted were really for a GTS-t, they would run into the 16's I reckon Also only the S13 1.8T Silvias are 1140kg or so. S14 2.0T are around 1220kg. Anyone curious about power, weight, and standard features of grey imports should have a look at Motortraders Network. It might not be 100% accurate, but I think it's pretty close, and it's definitely the most comprehensive list of these cars and their features that I've seen. XPL_Vspec, here are some other things to consider when comparing the R32 with R33. The R33 has, compared to R32: Bigger injectors Better flowing engine head (it's not all just about the extra 500cc) Stonger gearbox Better brakes (except for compared with R32 Type M, which are about the same) Smaller boot space (battery is in boot, along with a lot of HICAS gear) More room More weight If you plan on upping the power, the R33 is probably a better base to start with. However, if you can pick up a bargain on an already modified R32, that may be the way to go. Especially if you can find one that has already had an RB25 conversion with gearbox.

Haven't you already asked this?

102500 on mine now, bought with 84000 on it. Only real problems are the slightly crunchy gearbox, plus some surface rust around the bolts in the engine bay.

Yeah it's all about the badges (ironically the cheapest part of the upgrade). The kit is fine, so are even the flared guards front and back if you can afford them. But leave the GTR badge off! That said though, I think Skylines are one of the least re-badged cars I've seen. Everyone's seen zillions of "HSV" Commodores and "Evo" or "GSR" Lancers which simply weren't. Probably because the GTS-t's are respectable in their own right and don't usually need to be upgraded with a badge

What Craved said The hole in the top of the overflow bottle is just there so it doesn't explode should too much coolant come out of the radiator. But it also gives an avenue for the water/coolant to evaporate from. I wish I had some spare coolant, I would top it up and see if that disappeared as quickly (well, not that it goes too quickly from mine). If it disappears slower, then it must be evaporating out the hole because coolant has a higher boiling temp than water. I might convince one of my housemates to do a coolant replacement and then scab some of their coolant

What is the fuel economy like with this? Both city and highway how many L/100km?

I just looked up the A3 and A4 turbo specs and I can't figure out why anyone can think they are fast cars. They put out either 110 (A3) or 120 (A4) kw, that's at the flywheel. The only thing going for the A3 is its weight which is 1175kg which I guess isn't too bad for 110kw, but the A4 is a slug at 1415kg. The 3.0 engine versions are a lot more respectable at 162kw, which is starting to get into the realms of "quick". But I would think that unmodified, any GTS-t would smoke any turbo A4, and probably an A3. Maybe the A4's that win aren't as unmodified as people think? Or maybe they had the 3.0 engine in them.

Sydneykid, wouldn't most of the under bonnet heat come from the exhaust manifold and turbo exhaust housing though? Wrapping the dump would help to a certain extent, but I would think that it'd still get pretty hot under there. Also is this stuff re-usable? How does it attach? I was going to wrap my new dump pipe when I could afford it, but now I'm thinking if I can re-use it, I may as well buy the wrap now and just re-use it when I can afford the dump pipe upgrade.

You will have 0%. NCB is what it sounds like - a bonus given for not making any claims. Usually you accumulate it at 10 or 20% per year of not making a claim, up to 60% or in some cases 70% (the 70% ones don't apply to us really, mostly pensioners driving Camrys). So you at 17 and without previous insurance will have 0%. Sometimes you can get the NCB that your parents have even if you have none yourself, but these usually only apply to the big insurance companies that don't touch Skylines. If you got offered $4100 and you're only 17, that is pretty cheap. Some guys here have been given quotes of over $10k.

AFAIK=As far as I know

Of all the Skylines I've seen, they all move about that much. AFAIK it's completely normal.

Rob77, he paid $1800 including piping and labour. I don't think that's too bad. I take it the price you quoted from Nengun was just the cooler? Add in import duty, GST, freight, labour and piping and I'd say it'll be well over $1800. Of course, you can still do better than that too, my setup cost closer to $1500 (600x300x70). Btw WLD747, there is no way that cooler is 700x400. I measured it on my screen and the ratio of length to height is around 3.2:1. The ratio of a 700x400 cooler is 1.75:1. It's more likely something like 700x220 or 800x250.

I took a friend who owns an A4 1.8T for a spin in my car, and he was blown away (like, "holy shit!" type stuff ) My R33 only had around 185rwkw at the time. He also took me for a spin in his A4 and it didn't seem all that quick so I could understand why he was so impressed. But then, I've never gone for a ride in a stock Skyline before so who knows