JimX

Ah, the good old "bottom of the tank" thing again Here are my ideas on it: (1) Your fuel pickup is already at the bottom of the tank. It doesn't float on top of the fuel or anything. If there is any shit down there to be sucked up, it will be sucking it up constantly! (2) When you fill up your tank, any "shit" that is supposedly in the bottom of the tank will be swirled around and thus mixed in with the rest of the good fuel. It may settle down eventually, but not by the time you drive away from the servo. (3) There is a fuel sock on the pump, and on some Bosch pumps an extra screen in the pump. These filter out big particles pretty well. After the pump is a fuel filter which filters out finer particles. (4) I had a good look down the bottom of my tank when I was changing my fuel pump, and it looked clean as a whistle! Not that I had a perfect view, but with a torch it all looked pretty good from what I could tell. So I think this thing about not letting your fuel run low is a complete myth! If someone has proof of otherwise then please tell. I think the biggest thing is number (1) above though. The *only* thing I would be wary of is running out of fuel completely, IF you have a cheap pump. Some of these cheap pumps require the fuel to keep them cool. Once you run out of fuel, there is no more cooling happening and they burn out completely within a couple of seconds. But Skyline pumps are pretty good, I've not heard of one dying in this manner yet. And any good quality aftermarket pump (Bosch for example) will also be ok. Kia is the biggest offender I have heard of with pumps dying by running out of fuel, and it probably applies to a lot of other cheap small cars.

I have no idea why you would replace an SR20 with an RB20 even if you blew it up. If you're going to go that far surely you may as well do the RB25? If you go the RB20 you're just adding weight and maintencance/upgrade costs (2 more cylinders to cater for) without any real advantage surely?

Yeah first thing to do is test it in your driveway (revving engine) with an accurate multimeter. If the voltage is definitely over 14.5V or so then get the regulator fixed asap! Seriously, you will start to blow your car's electronic stuff up if you let it stay over 15V. I know someone who had an old Magna that was running on about 16V and one by one his gauges started dying, and then his CD player. A new regulator should be around $100 or so. A nice auto electrician will replace it for you for free (should be a 5 minute job).

Of all the globes that would burn out in the dash, I would think the fuel light would be least likely On the R33 it only comes on when your fuel is just about on the empty line, which usually means you have about 10-15 litres left

I've got a hose from radiator to overflow bottle, but I think there's another hole which is square that doesn't go anywhere. I can't remember anymore, I'm going to have another check when I get home. Maybe I'm just deluded (or maybe the overflow hose is split or something).

I'm wondering - there is a hole in the top near the cap to let too much overflow out isn't there? Couldn't it just be evaporating out the hole over time? Mine seems to lose coolant over time too but whenever I check the radiator, it's always full to the brim.

I want the factory seatbelts! Well at least for the front, who cares about the rear passengers Incidentally, even though my car was registered as a 4 seater, the compliancers nicely left the middle factory seatbelt in place, but under the seat. The previous owner probably didn't even know they were there Does anyone know if the S14/15 200SX front seatbelts are the same as the R33's? It might be a good way to get some nicer seatbelts legally. Ones that use the seatbelt light, retract properly, and have that plastic thing to hold the belt off your shoulder.

Pred, surely a well-tuned S-AFC would help with emissions though? I mean yeah hide it if they're going to ask questions about it, but because it leans mixtures out, in theory that would mean it'll run cleaner.

Nice! The only "bad" thing about it I would say is it now reminds me of a Falcon But still very nice. You got a Ford colour from Holden? That's just weird!

Oh, not too late at all. I think I will loosen mine off and tighten them up again tonight.

How are they constructed differently? How do they behave differently? I'm not talking about something fundamentally different like a 60 weight mineral oil mixed in 50/50 with a 5W-30 synthetic oil, I'm talking about similar oils (synthetics of similar viscosities whether different brands or not) with the old oil drained out completely. How does the 1% of the old leftover oil fundamentally interfere with the performance of the 99% of fresh oil?

Depends. If you have stock injectors and stock engine internals, I am highly dubious that you have 260rwkw.

Compressed air bounces off closed throttle body. Usually it vents back through the BOV and into the intake again, but if you block it off it goes back through the turbo and gets chopped up by the turbo. You then hear it out your pod. So it's kind of like this: Air bouncing off the TB gives the noise its "power source", the turbo impeller blades chop up the air and create the noise, and you hear it out your pod/air box because that's where the air escapes. If it makes the normal bov noise at high revs chances are he hasn't sealed it properly and the higher amount of compressed air is able to force its way out the bov.

Most oils are designed to be compatible with others. I would be wary of topping up half a sump full of another type of oil (even though I've done it myself) but if you do a full drain before filling up with another type then you'll be ok.

On my DBA sheet I've got it the other way around - R33 GTS-t rotors being 296x32 (runout 30mm) and any GTR being 324x30 (runout 28mm). The R32 GTS-t rotors are 280x30. So unless this version has a typo or 2, I think that <30mm on an R33 GTS-t is definitely too thin (DBA manufacture their discs as per the factory standard - they are OEM replacements). I've run with too-thin discs on a few of my Toranas (probably all of them!). We're talking like 1-2mm too thin here. The only problems I had were easier warping of the disc and they overheated very quickly and also caused my brake fluid some problems. But I ran regular pads and didn't brake too hard and often so I think that's why I could get away with it. I wouldn't want to use too-thin discs on a car that did a lot of braking and with some upgraded pads.

If your car isn't turbo then yeah mineral oil is fine. As to whether Shell is synthetic or not, it depends on the exact type. They make lots of different stuff.

Yeah you should do a wheel alignment. However I've found that the car steers pretty well without one after putting my new bushes in, so I'm leaving it for now. I'm probably wearing out my front tyres faster, but they are cheapshit ones which I don't intend on keeping their whole lifespan anyway so I'll just wait until I can afford new tyres and do the alignment then. Also have to put the rear bushes in at some point (preferably before the alignment too).

Pred, love your new signoff! But the guy's name is Daler Mehndi, not Sameer

Seriously once you get the wheels off the ground you won't have a problem. You'll need a bit of muscle but since you've already done the rear bar you'll already have used the same muscles successfully Just be careful! Make sure the car is securely on the stands before you start pulling the suspension arms. You don't have to move them much but it won't take much to knock the car off the stands if it's not on them properly. Chock the wheels, keep the jack in the middle as a standby support, etc.

Tony, do UAS re-use the old bracket or do they make their own up? And is that $440 installed and including extra fittings? If so that's a very good price for the pump, if you minus 1 hour's labour and ~$50 of fittings. I'm seriously thinking of making my own bracket, and then give the plans out to anyone else interested in fitting a Bosch pump. I just need some motivation on the weekend, at a time where my fuel gauge is below the empty line.

I've been told that my power dip/surge problem is also possibly due to compressor surge. I get different symptoms though, it's all fine until about 5000rpm, then the power starts to fluctuate (and even then this problem didn't happen while the car was <190rwkw or so). No weird sounds or drops in boost, just alternating loss and gains in power twice before redline. Does this sound like it could be the same thing? When you say to get the exhaust housing machined out, do you mean the bit that bolts onto the manifold or the bit that bolts onto the dump pipe? I had a look at mine when it was off and it didn't seem like the latter would accomplish much because I'd still be stuck with the smaller wheel (it would just open out to the dump pipe a few millimetres sooner). And to do the former I guess the manifold would also need to be machined out to be of any use.

What part doesn't line up about the castor rods? My biggest issue with mine was getting the tight as hell bastard nuts and bolts off. Once they were done it was pretty easy to take out and put back in. To line them up with the lower suspension arm you may have to pull the suspension arm around to get the 2 bolts to line up, then it just drops in. I put the big single bolt into the chassis mounting point first, but done up loosely to give it the most amount of freeplay possible. Then tighten everything up once it's all in. OH! I just noticed you backed the car up onto ramps to do the rear. Did you then put the front on the ramps to do the front? If so then that's your problem. The suspension arms need to be hanging down (put it on axle stands) so you can pull them into the right position.

Buy new seals, push pistons out with compressed air (or take caliper off and pump the pedal until it comes out for the bush mechanic version), clean out inside of caliper, hone it if necessary, replace seals, re-assemble. Repeat for other calipers, replace brake fluid and bleed system.

The breather line goes to the charcoal cannister which is meant to stop petrol fumes getting out. If you get pressure in your fuel tank then it's all working properly.

Yes, I have an a/m bov. Hmm, so **** means it's been doing nothing all this time. I'll try 5% 10% 10% and see what happens. I think it needs to be a bit more than 5% extra fuel, because when I'm trying to stop it stalling myself, I need to put my foot on the throttle a little more than the 6-7% I quoted earlier. Maybe 15 or 20% then. I get the feeling that all I'm going to accomplish is waste more fuel but keep stalling anyway