JimX

I got the turbo back this morning and put it back in the car this afternoon, it was a lot easier than taking it off because I knew where everything went and where to get the spanners in. Including getting everything like the exhaust sealing compound on it took me around an hour. The whole wastegate was replaced, apparently the old one was pretty stuffed. The new one operates very smoothly and with no freeplay at all. I noticed that the spacer for the turbo mounting isn't normal because it causes the nuts to not go all the way down on the studs. I tried taking it out but then the turbo touches on the engine, so I put the spacer back in and did the nuts up a bit tighter than they were originally. I haven't gone for a test drive yet because after all this I took the fuel pump out, but it all starts up and runs ok. I did a big coolant flush and put new coolant in and bled the system. The new fuel pump should be in tomorrow afternoon so I'll see how it goes after that. Oh, the big thing - the rattling noise is now completely gone! Obviously the dud wastegate was the entire cause of the noise.

I didn't know what Enzed was, but I looked it up in Whitepages and it says "ENZED TOTAL HOSE & FITTING SERVICE". That's pretty much the same thing as Pirtek. Enzed's a fair bit further away from me but I'll try there if Pirtek can't help.

Thanks for the extra info Steve. Do you think Pirtek would have everything I need to connect the hoses? (adapters, banjo clamp etc) There is a Pirtek right near my home which I'll swing by after work, but I don't know of any performance shops in this area. Most of them are on the south side and I don't think I'd be able to make it there before they close. I would like to fit the pickup, because I don't want to run out of fuel with 5 litres left in the tank I was just thinking worst case scenario if I couldn't get any adapter for it. I forgot to take note of where the stock pickup goes in the tank, but is it really that important? I was just going to aim it generally downwards to get the fuel from as low as possible. Are you saying that it will sit too low because of the extra hose and adapter? I might try bending the metal pipe out of the way completely. If that fails then I think I can still cut it and re-use it with the original pump if necessay, it should be fine with a longer bit of hose and a tighter clamp (since the bump won't be there anymore).

I don't think it's your imagination, I would think that power delivery would definitely be smoother. I only upgraded mine for 2 reasons - to help stop leaning out up top, and to provide better off-idle response (smoother foot-to-floor power). I also hope it will fix the stalling problem that plagues mine and so many others. I'm going to go to Pirtek, Jaycar, and Mitre 10 for all the parts I need tomorrow. The adapter for the fuel pickup is looking to be the hardest thing to find, but hopefully Pirtek will sort me out for that and the hoses. Jaycar is for the electrical terminals (grr, I've got spade terminals but no round ones!) and Mitre 10 for the 2 small nuts and washers to mount them on. I toyed with the idea of making the pump run a constant 12 volts even at idle, but the 044 is apparently so loud that I think I will welcome the peace and quiet when sitting at traffic lights with the factory setup It should have more pressure at the lower voltage than the factory pump anyway.

Well I got my turbo sorted out and while I had my groove going I decided to tackle the fuel pump again. Attached is the pic of where I'm up to so far. As you can see I planned for being able to put the old pump back in should I ever need to, and I didn't cut the metal outlet off. I will bend the bottom part out of the way when I attach the pickup tomorrow. I also need to get a bigger hose outlet and some sort of adapter to fit it to the rest of the hose out of the tank. Hopefully it'll be up and running tomorrow night! Yes this pump is overkill for my current setup, but I got it direct from Bosch and it was dirt cheap, so I figured I may as well go for it. Edit: Steve, what's a banjo connector? Also, do you actually *need* to put the pickup back in the new pump? I had a look and it doesn't seem to pick up the fuel from much lower than the pump itself. I might run out of fuel a couple of litres early but I can't see why I actually need it. Looking in the end of the pump I can see a screen in there already so I shouldn't have to worry about the pump sucking in a lot of crap.

No, the one I read was on the gtrowners.co.uk site. It's now not working, but I believe copied elsewhere on the net. It didn't include the Sard pod either. That review is still interesting, it'd be more interesting if I could read Japanese though! Edit: It's excellent to see roughly the same test results of these pods from 2 different sources. The former review was the only one I'd seen and I was always dubious of the results because there was no one else to dispute it.

I'm not sure how you find dirt getting through, but the inside of the filter is spotless. There is some residue on the inside of my intake, but this would be from the crank case ventillation when it was hooked up. (which it actually is again now). There was a pod comparison on the net awhile ago, but I can't seem to find it. They tested HKS, K&N, Blitz, and Apexi, and the Apexi came through the best on both air cleanness and airflow. It was actually the reason why I decided to get one.

That looks very schmick! You have inspired me to have a go at putting my 044 in. If trying to put my turbo back on tomorrow doesn't demoralise me too much I'll try it on the same day

You can get bearings from most Auto spare parts shops (Repco, Auto 1, etc). Just ring them up and specify the make and model and they should be able to get them in. I don't think there's any advantage to buying genuine Nissan bearings. Whatever you get should last more than 100k km. I'm not sure what they look like on Skylines because I've never had to replace them yet, but if they're the same or similar as a Torana's, they will look like 2 rings with a series of ball bearings separating them. I'm not sure if there are 1 or 2 per wheel, but the Torana had 2 because the disc actually mounted on the bearings rather than having a central hub to contain them. Are you sure your bearings are gone? You can check it yourself by jacking the suspect wheel off the ground and try wriggling the wheel around. Best test is to grab the top and bottom and rotate it in and out (ie, push the top in and bottom out, and vice versa). If the bearings are gone you will feel movement. If there is no movement, check the wheel for buckling (take to a tyre place and get them to balance it), or damaged suspension parts or bushes. You might also just have an alignment problem.

How well an air filter filters has nothing to do with the shape of it (ie, flat or pod), but the material it's made from. A lot of high-flowing pod filters are made from low density substances like foam and so they tend to not filter as well as other filters. As already mentioned, the Apexi pod is an exception. It uses paper, but not your standard type. It's some sort of pressed paper mesh (from what I can tell, looking at mine) which supposedly lets it flow a lot better than a normal paper filter. Apparently the funnel design also helps improve flow. Paper filters filter the best because they have the smallest holes, but the usual drawback is they flow the worst. Apexi seem to have gotten around the restriction with their design.

WazR32GTSt, I can say the opposite. I was using 10W-60 oil then switched to 5W-30, and the engine felt more free-revving at the top. Not by a huge amount, but noticable. My fuel economy also improved by around 0.3 to 0.5L/100km. There is no doubt that thinner oil will give you better economy and power. It's just physics! Everything that adds drag to your engine will reduce its power. Thicker oil creates more drag than thin oil. You can't go too thin though or else it would all drain down the gaps in your rings and not lubricate properly and/or burn excessively. That's why as your engine wears, you need to use thicker oil. There is generally no harm in using oil that's too thick. Aside from the cold weight - if it's too thick it won't reach the upper parts of your engine and turbo quick enough and create excessive wear on cold starts. But if you use oil that's too thick for the condition of your engine you will be sacrificing power without any extra engine protection (see my exception above about uber-powerful engines). Thinner oil is free power. Thick oil doesn't provide better protection unless your rings are worn.

Gunner, if you are not burning any oil and don't have much blow-by from the crankcase (check the inside of your intake, or oil catch can if you have one) then the thinner oil will be just as good. Better even, because there will be less drag on your engine internals and you should get slightly better power and economy (that is the main point of using the thinnest oil that your engine will tolerate). Do a compression test on your cylinders if you want to be doubly sure. If it's all good then 5W-30 will be fine.

If you believe Autospeed, you just need to do the exhaust and ECU. If you don't have a lot of money to spend on the gearbox, then the factory one is more than adequate. It will handle 11 second quarters easily.

I think the water pump is the same on all RB series engines. This includes VL Commodores! My original intent was to buy the aftermarket VL Commodore replacement from Repco for around $70.

I like Formula R too. Currently using 5W-30 but used 10W-60 before that with no ill effects other than losing some power. It's not the best synthetic oil out there but still excellent IMO. If you change your oil often (5000km or so) then you can get by with the cheaper stuff. It's only $50 for 5 litres anyway (5W-30). Gunner, the numbers are the viscosity numbers. The first one is the cold (starting) temperature viscosity, and the second number is the hot (operating) temperature viscosity. I'm not sure at what exact temperatures the numbers are rated at or what they directly translate to, but generally speaking a "10" is fairly thin, and thin oil (cold weight) is required on modern cars, especially with turbos. It can go down to 0, which is ultra-thin. This seems to be ok with Skylines with engines in good condition. I wouldn't want to go any thicker than 15 or so for the cold viscosity in a Skyline. The second number is less important. It can be thick or thin (to an extent) but most Skylines are happy in the 30-40 range. Any thicker than this and you tend to lose power. Thicker grades are generally only for engines with worn rings. The thicker oil doesn't get past the rings as easily and you burn less oil. If your engine is in good nic you should be able to get by with a fairly thin (30-40) oil. Thicker oil is also required in extremely powerful engines. I don't know where to draw the line, but it's not at my car's power output (approximately 200rwkw). RedLineGTR, the 5W-30 isn't too thin at all. It's designed for high revving 4 cylinder cars, including the SR20 engine, which has larger pistons than the Skyline's. So you could even say that the RB series of engines are more of a 4 cylinder engine than an SR20 The factory spec for Skyline oil is 7.5W-30. There are plenty of people running 0W-40 with no problems so obviously you can go lower than this (cold weight) without any problems. Edit: If you are burning oil in your engine, or you have buckets of it in your catch can, you probably need thicker oil (50-60 or so). If the engine is tight as a drum, the thinner stuff (30-40) is fine. Even with 5W-30 oil in my engine there wasn't a drop coming out of my crankcase breather for over 2000km.

Engines/injectors will only use what they need. You can have too much pressure, but the pressure regulator will usually take care of excessive amounts. I was going to get a Walbro pump, but the 255 litres per hour flow rating is not done under pressure. Apparently with the normal pressures used in fuel systems the flow rate is well under this amount, and thus does not make it capable of flowing the 500hp claimed. I read this in the Trading Forum (when I was looking to buy one) and saw dabigbolf's thread. Some people are running these pumps at up to around 220rwkw (as jampac says in this thread), which is roughly what the stock GTS-t pump will flow. It might flow a little more than the factory pump, especially if the original pump is quite old. But I wouldn't view the Walbro as an "upgrade", merely a replacement. They are meant to be very easy to fit into the existing bracket. At around $170, I think it's a pretty good deal if your old pump is getting a little tired and you want something around the same or a little better.

Well you can definitely feel it kick in, a lot more than getting to the sweet spot on a lumpy cam on a NA engine (as I get on my bike). It's just not as harsh as some cars I've been in, which makes cornering a little more predictable. I dunno, "feeling" of turbos kicking in is very subjective. One person might think the turbo kick is excessive, when another will think that the car doesn't even have a turbo. If we are ever at the same cruise I'll take you for a spin and you decide

Well that's the thing - it always felt like it was making boost early, but with my foot to the floor, it never got to full boost until around 4500rpm (maybe 5000). Going from what other people have posted here it should have been 500-1000rpm earlier than that to be considered an "early boost" type turbo. I won't mind if it's around the same after it comes back, it was a gradual transition to max boost rather than a punch in the kidneys. Fixing the wastegate should at least reduce the strain on my poor EBC, which has been fighting against this sticky pivot for well over a year now. If it brings full boost on earlier then that's a bonus.

Update: Garrett just rang me back, and quoted $140 to fix the wastegate. It's a done deal, I pick it up tomorrow morning.

Did you secure the clamp with anything to stop it working loose and sliding down? I don't like the idea of trying to retrieve a pump that's fallen off its bracket :blah:

Steve, where can you get hose clamps big enough to fit the pump? Auto 1?

Thanks for the info Pred, if I have enough energy and enthusiasm after I put my turbo back on on Wednesday, I'll give it another go. Out of interest, how did you get the plastic cap off the tank? I ended up using a screwdriver and hammer to punch it off, but I ended up putting a few dings in the cap. I would rather remove it in a less damaging way next time.

After looking at that 910 pic I'm thinking of trying to put my 044 in again myself. I have a couple of questions though When you mount the pump internally, it needs some sort of screen doesn't it? Where can you get these from? I am guessing you don't want to use any old screen that will disolve in fuel over time, and it needs to fit properly over the fuel line pickup. Also, how do you get the fuel pump out of the tank? A long time ago when I first attempted this mod, I took the big plastic cap off my tank and then couldn't figure out where the pump mounted. I since found out that it's at the bottom of the metal bracket I can see in that pic, but where is it affixed to at the top?

Actually Jay, you're the first person to ask This is probably because before today, I didn't even know what my turbo was. The engineer guy at Garrett instantly identified it as a T04E without even noting anything unusual about it, so I'd say it's the full standard unit and not a T3/4 hybrid. The previous owner advertised it as a "450hp T04" but I forgot to ask any more details about it before buying the car. I've always liked this turbo, but there's nothing else I can compare it to really (aside from some poxy TX3 turbos I've driven from waaaay back). Benm's car with the factory turbo was slightly faster than mine when I got it, but he had a better intercooler and air filter. Since I upgraded my cooler and plenum I'd say they are at least on par again, and now I can also run higher boost due to the steel wheels. My turbo seems to start spooling fairly low (maybe 2000rpm?) but it doesn't seem to hit maximum boost until 4500rpm or so. I always thought this was an anomoly of the turbo, but now I've found that the wastegate wasn't working properly it could just be that. I'll re-evaluate it again once the wastegate is fixed. Maybe it is a lag monster relatively speaking, but it doesn't seem to bother me. I can still pull up a hill in 5th gear with a carful of passengers, so it must be doing something at lowish revs.

Oh, one other thing about my turbo - the "bodgy" bit about the install wasn't the turbo itself, but rather the weak spring used to pull back the sticky wastegate pivot, as well as the welded-up and cut pivot. Once this is fixed I won't need the extra external spring and it won't look bodgy anymore It is a standard T04E turbo.