JimX

Yes, Fairfield Midas.

I think Jaycar has a kit which does exactly this.

I think there has just been a flood of them lately as people are starting to realise how easy and cheap it is to buy your own from the auction yards in Japan. Two years ago I didn't think it was something you could do yourself, but now I (and lots of other people) know better. Prices seem to have settled over the last year or so - R33 GTS-t's are going for roughly the same as they were this time last year ($16k for a '93 model, $28k for a '97 model and everything in between). On my insurance policy the agreed value is exactly the same as it was last year too. Also, consider the owner of your old car - if it devalues the same amount again in the next 17 months he'll only be able to sell it for $2000. I don't think that's likely.

Just for changing pads and machining discs, try Midas. It's a franchise so every store is different, but I've had good experiences with Fairfield. I got them to change my clutch, diff, and gearbox fluids and I only got charged like $30. I was expecting them to charge me for a 1 hour minimum or something (it was 2x15 minute units of labour I think).

I don't think it's so much that Fords are more reliable than Holdens just because of the manufacturer, I think it's just that the inline 6 engine design is better. I remember even into the early-mid 90's I would occasionally see an old HX or HZ Taxi. If the VL came out in a wide body then I think we would have been seeing more of these as taxis around for longer than subsequent Commodore models. KDR33, as for the Volvo beating the XR6T, just because something is faster on paper doesn't mean it's faster in real life. If you let the engine bog or if you can't get traction, then a much slower car can beat you. That's why people actually race, not just compare figures and say "yeah ok, your car wins" Speaking of Volvos, I know a guy whose dad had a twin turbo Volvo a few years ago (might still have it) and he would occasionally put slicks on it and hoon around the neighbourhood in the middle of the night. One time this guy borrowed the car and reversed out the driveway too fast, the turbos kicked in and he ended up mounting the gutter on the other side of the street

A lot of the cheaper blue bulbs (I think this includes Narva) work by running the bulb out of spec to make it give off enough light to get past the blue filter. If they didn't do this they would look too dim. Because they are over-powered, they die a lot quicker. I imagine there are some "white" bulbs which are also driven out of spec and also die early. A lot of REALLY cheap blue bulbs don't even bother with over-powering them, and they look dim from the outset. The "good" blue bulbs use correct filters and filaments and give off enough light to look bright, without having to sacrifice bulb longevity. (Osram and Philips are 2 of the "good" brands of blue bulb manufacturers, there are others.) There are some interesting articles about blue bulbs on Daniel Stern's Lighting site, but the links about good and bad blue bulbs are currently down. Hopefully they'll be up by the time you read this, if you're interested.

Yes, it's the bridgeporting that makes them unreliable. Stick to the stock ports and add a turbo and it'll be as reliable or moreso than a normal engine.

Dammit, I finally give in to curiosity and sign up to the Commodore forum and I can't find any of the threads. At least one seems to have been deleted due to too much abuse flying around, has anyone got any direct links for any remaining ones?

Thanks Roy. I can't afford an ECU replacement anytime in the near future, but when I can I'd say the closed-loop version will be out and I can take a much closer look at it.

Could just be wheel alignment. Get both checked in a good suspension shop.

I need one of these too. I rang up Just Jap in Kirrawee and the guy laughed at me! As if they are almost impossible to find or something.

EVOIV, I don't think you read what I wrote properly. You have half the power at the wheels using 4WD, but you have twice as many drive wheels. What does a half times 2 equal?

If you're not importing it yourself then it doesn't need to be complianced. Unless there is some uber-dodgy dealer there selling uncomplianced cars somehow.

Power is rate of work. If you have 4 wheels spinning on the dyno, you have half the power going to each end as you would if you just had the rears on. Of course you have to throw in a little 4wd drivetrain loss as well if you're running all 4 wheels, but it should work out to be roughly the same.

The best way I have found is if you hit a decent sized bump, the steering wheel will shudder. It depends on the size or angle of the bump you hit (ie, it may not do it every time), but if the suspension is good the steering wheel will never shudder on any bumps. You can also try bouncing the car, if it rebounds more than once then your shock absorbers are gone. But they can also be gone and still only rebound once. A suspension shop test is the best way to tell if you think it might be worn. They are usually free or very cheap.

Has anyone thought of cutting a couple of small holes in the cover and installing a small fan to help with cooling the coil packs? It's just the overclocker in me.

Iridiums are gapped at 1.1 by default. I am using them at 1 bar boost and have absolutely no problems, the mixture is perfect and there are no flat spots or anything, so I'm not sure why you'd need to regap them when running any normal sort of boost. Maybe with even higher boost you might need to gap them a bit smaller, I don't know. Ths only platinums I've used are the old ones that were in the car when I got it, so I can't really say if the Iridiums are "better". But everyone seems to need to re-gap their platinums, so for not having to re-gap the iridiums makes them seem worth the extra couple of bucks to me. Not for the time/effort saved, but the fact that you can have a more universal gap (ie just forget about it).

What are the advantages of the LT-12 over the PowerFC? I used to think it was just the price that was better, but Edge said it's $1650 just for the unit, without installation or tuning costs. That sounds bloody expensive to me. So you combine that with no closed loop mode and less accurate MAP sensor and in theory you get something with a rougher power curve/AFR as Joel's dyno chart suggests, as well as worse fuel economy. And there are also several people who have experienced difficult cold running/starting with it. It doesn't seem to me that it does anything better than the PowerFC. Can someone please elaborate? Note: This is not a flame or badmouthing of the LT-12, I am genuinely interested! I am only going off what people have said specifically in this thread, I don't know much else about them apart from what people have said in this forum.

What 1 bar barrier? He's only using 1 turbo on 3 cylinders, which means for the same pressure, the turbo is spinning only half as fast (in theory). It's not going to be 100% efficient like that of course, but each turbo will definitely be able to run more than 1 bar of boost reliably.

What problems is your HICAS giving you?

Are you sure that $9990 price wasn't including all compliancing and shipping costs? $9990 is more than what the GTS-t's get sold for in the auction yards. I'm pretty sure at an auction yard a non turbo would sell for around 300 thousand yen or less, which is only around $4000. If it's $9990 all-up, then that's a pretty good price. If you need to pay for more stuff on top of that, then find yourself another dealer because he's ripping you off bigtime. A good condition GTS25t will cost around $8000 from the auction yards, so around $15000 or less landed/complied/registered.

Supercharger units themselves don't actually cost that much more than turbos. You can get a Yella Terra roots style blower for around $2000. Even the Vortech centrifugal blowers aren't much more than that for a smallish one. But then you need the manifold mods, the belts, bigger injectors, computer reprogram, water injection, etc, which is why you usually see Commodore (etc) supercharger kits for around $5000-6000 (or more). The advantage of turbos on our cars is we already have everything there - when upgrading/replacing the turbo (unless the replacement is a huge monster) then we just have to buy the turbo unit itself. We also get a small refund if we manage to sell our old turbos The main reason why superchargers tend to cost at least a little more than a cheap Garrett turbo is because they're mostly made in America. But compare a Vortech or Powerdyne blower with a HKS or Trust turbo and you might find the superchargers are quite a bit cheaper. EVOIV - I think the main reason that turbos are more popular than superchargers with performance enthusiasts aside from the cost savings on cars that already have turbos is because you can play with the boost. If there was an NA car that you wanted to put forced induction on, a turbo would be the way to go for big power gains, although it would generally cost more to do properly than a supercharger. A supercharger is generally a budget option because they have relatively low boost and drain power from your engine to run (cost more in fuel, less power from same pressure as a turbo). It's more of a "set and forget" mod.

That is debateable, but whatever the case, the Supras, NSXs, and GTRs tend to dominate the JGTC in Japan. Looking at the results of rounds 1-3 it's GTRs, NSXs, or Supras in the top 5, with the best RX7 result being 18th in round 3.

I often need a back seat, so the R33 is better

Well, if the car is blowing great plumes of smoke at the auction yard it wouldn't even sell, so that's a good incentive at least regular oil changes. Most of the rest of it can be done as a cure rather than a preventative operation - ie, coolant, plugs, brake fluid, etc. The engine oil is the important one, the rest can (generally) be skimped without affecting the car too badly.