JimX

I checked my TPS voltage too and it was just under 0.5V at 0%. I too would be interested to know if this is normal.

Actually, I don't think Commodores and Skylines *are* completely different. Half the reason why I like the Skyline is because it has its roots in a family sedan. I just think they've taken up the "sports car" upgrade much better than any other. The only thing lacking on the Skyline when compared to a Commodore is interior space. Well, price of the car and spares is also in the Commodore's favour I guess

The thing is even if there is a tiny bit of water/coolant left in the oil, it will eventually burn off. Won't take very long at all in the general scheme of things. Blind_elk's suggestion of running it hot will get rid of it quicker, but I don't think it's too important considering how long the engine has been fed water/coolant up until now. Be careful of overheating the engine if you shut the fan off.

I am changing from Torque Underwriting to Famous with my renewal in a couple of weeks due to a much better quote and more flexible conditions on my vehicle mods. The biggest caveat I can find in the policy (aside from the no on-street parking within 500m of your home already mentioned) is they won't cover "Loss, damage or liability arising whilst the vehicle is parked in a public car park or open space, overnight between the hours of 11pm and 8am the next day.." (number 7 of the General Exclusions) Looking at the definitions of these two locations, "Public Car Park” means "any Car parks relating to any hotel/motel, licensed premises, (unless the Insured is in residence or attendance), train or bus station or depot" and "Open Space" means "any area of native bush, reserve or sports oval or open Public Space." This doesn't bother me at all since I would never leave my car in any such spot during those hours even if the policy DID cover it, because I would rather keep my car than make a claim. I sure as hell would never even park it at a train station car park during the day! Thus with these exclusions I believe they are helping reduce the idiot factor on their insured customers and are able to offer a much better deal most of the time. There are only a couple more things I'm wary of. One is that the policy puts an 8000km/year limit on anything listed as "limited use". I am not sure if my policy is set up this way because I don't have a copy of it yet, because I told the girl I only drive it around 3 times a week, but no question was asked of the kilometres I travel in a year (I usually do around 12000-15000km per year). I will need to clarify this before forwarding my payment. The other is that I can't seem to find anything in the policy about whether or not I am forced to use their chosen repairers or if I can choose my own. Again I would like to clarify this before forwarding payment. If the above 2 things are fine then I will definitely go ahead with this policy, they have given me a premium which is $550 less than Torque's, and Torque ($2250) was already cheap compared to Just Cars ($2700) and NRMA ($3500+).

Degreaser IN your ENGINE?! That is one of the worst bits of advice I have ever heard! I can't even fathom why you think that would do anything anyway - the problem is water and coolant in the oil, and degreaser doesn't do anything to water or coolant. All you will be doing is disolving your oil and leaving more water to **** up your engine! A more normal fix would be to drain the oil completely, replace the head gasket, refill with fresh (cheapish) oil, let it run for a few minutes, then drain and refill again with good stuff. If in doubt then refill once more with cheap stuff before the good stuff.

https://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/clenq/index.jsp

The polariser sat on the Commodore's dash/firewall on the inside! It wasn't a fuel catalyser at all, it was meant to affect the whole car via some mysterious energies. It was also meant to improve handling and braking. What I want a lot more than the polariser are the drugs that Brockie was on when he thought the polariser actually did something

I had something similar in my previous car, called a Triple Charger. I was under the impression that it helped with my exhaust emissions after testing it a few months after installing but now I'm starting to think it was the better grade of oil I swapped to at the same time. It was also meant to improve power and economy. I put it on my Skyline a couple of months ago and monitored the economy. About the only difference I noticed was that it was now harder to start, because it was mounted vertically and the fuel would drain back down the line. The fuel pump has a preset timer on it to fill the fuel filter and prime the injectors when you switch the ignition on, but with this extra reservoir installed it obviously hadn't primed the injectors yet and thus more cranking was needed. It was hard to say if my fuel economy improved or not, because I installed it around the same time I did some mods to my car. But a couple of weeks ago I got sick of the hard starting and so took it off without doing any other mods. Voila, my fuel economy went from about 14.5L/100km to 13.8L/100km. So I would say it and all things like it are a crock of shit

Positive is better. If you run it through the earth then a thief can instantly bypass it by running a wire from the negative terminal onto a nearby part of the chassis. If it's on the positive then he'd have to find the closest 12v line and run a wire the entire length from there.

Only SOME people say not to use WD40?! Jeebus man, who have you been speaking to?

V8 is heavier still.

I had owned nothing but Holdens (Toranas and Commodores) for over 10 years. I had always been a fan of GTR's but never thought I could afford one. Then I found that R33 GTS-t's were affordable, and while obviously not as good as a GTR, they had RWD which suited my driving style, and lots of power and good handling as well. So I sold my last Commodore and bought an R33, and I haven't looked back. There is nothing wrong with Commodores, I would readily own one again if I needed the space for a family etc. But I would still keep the Skyline for the fun factor. I wonder how many Skyline owners have "upgraded" to a Commodore for improved performace, handling, and (2 door) style? I think the only reason someone would do it is for the extra space or because they wanted a newer car for the same money.

Are you serious?!

The ceramic turbo will be fine as long as you don't run more than about 12-14psi. If you want to go beyond that then steel is in order.

That plastic "lid" thing either needs a special tool to get off (some sort of spanner that fits), or you can punch it off with a screwdriver like you thought. I did the screwdriver method when attempting to swap my pump, and slightly damaged the lid. It was also an absolute BITCH to get back on, being plastic it kept popping off before I could get the thread started. After I got the lid off I couldn't see how the fuel pump could be removed easily. I decided to quit while I was behind and just put the whole lot back together again. It was a learning experience Even though I've since found out how the fuel pump comes out (it's on the end of a long bracket) I'm going to get the workshop to do it. It took me around 2 or 3 hours to get the lid on and off, and even though I'm sure it wouldn't take me that long to do next time, my workshop is only going to charge me $80 to do it. I'll gladly pay that much to save some strain on my hands and my back. Edit: Sorry, misread what you were going to do with the screwdriver. DON'T use it to lever the lid off, use a hammer on the screwdriver and punch the lid anti-clockwise on the thread. It takes farkin' ages because it's a long thread and it's even tougher to get back on. I presume most workshops have the correct tool and can do it in 30 seconds.

Handle in what way? Either the turbo is going to be fine or it's going to break, and steel wheels are generally ok with any temperatures most engines can dish out. There may be some exceptions (I don't know anything about the old Formula 1 turbos, for example), but some turbos can get so hot the steel casing itself glows but still remains intact. The big killer for normal ceramic turbos is too much boost/speed and steel doesn't have this problem.

Hehe, you make too many assumptions about my driving style But yeah, I agree you won't much difference on the highway cycle economy. But with a lot of stop-starting, it can be slightly improved with the S-AFC, especially if you have your foot down a lot.

I think the Skyline has to have the edge in the performance stakes. It used to be that everyone was comparing their "fast" cars to WRX's, but these days more and more people are comparing them to Skylines. Why? Stock, Skylines are slower from 0-100 (GTS-t's anyway) but the fact of the matter is that most Skylines aren't stock. So now people compare their "fast" HSV's and XR8's etc to "stock" Skylines, because the numbers are in their favour. But deep down they have to know that their cars still don't stand a chance against Skylines like what are owned by most people in this forum. So they go on quoting the stock figures. Skylines tend to have more potential than WRX's because they run mild boost in stock form, whereas the WRX is already starting at 14psi on a smaller engine. WRX gearbox fragility is another reason why it costs more to go wild on WRX mods. The GTS-t's box is strong enough to handle over 250rwkw. In the twisties and offroad the WRX probably has the handling edge over a RWD Skyline. But that's what ATTESSA is for Personally I like the WRX, at least the older, smaller version. I think it copped a lot of unfair flak because of perceived wankerness of its drivers, but to be honest, I have hardly ever seen a "wanker" in a WRX! I think I have gunned my 'line more often than I've seen WRX's gunned, so in theory I'm more of a wanker. Although I have also seen more Commodores and Falcons gunned than anything else, so go figure on that one If I wanted a performance cargo carrier I think I would get a WRX wagon. Can't see it happening though, unless I somehow come into a lot of money so I can buy a car for every occasion.

Don't be too worried about a hot engine igniting the petrol, it's actually a lot harder to ignite than you think. Especially premium fuel. I work on a cold (or moderately warm) engine for my own safety, I've had more than enough burns due to a hot engine to learn my lesson.

Yeah I'm definitely going for something thinner this time round. The car doesn't use a drop of oil so I'm pretty sure thin oil will be fine. At least I know I can fall back on the 10W-60 once the rings start to get a bit worn, hopefully for not another 100 000km! Only 300km to go before service is due

Ye gods, that white balance is awful! Can you manually set it on your camera? Nice spot for pics though.

Whenever I change the fuel filter I just let the car sit overnight. ie, get home Friday night, then change the filter next morning or afternoon. There's never any pressure in the line, I just put a towel underneath to catch the stuff that drips out.

Lots of negative camber can also make straight line handling unstable. More stable in corners though

Busky2k, where can I get Mobil 0W-40 Trisynth from for $13/litre? At that price I'll give it a go. I've been using Castrol Formula R 10W-60 for the last 2 changes, but this time around I'm going to go back to the 5W-30 I used on my first oil change. I didn't know much about oil viscosities until only recently. For the 10W-60, Castrol's site said it was for (among other things) "highly stressed competition engines", whereas the 5W-30 was for "high revving 4cyl engines". The first time I bought the 5W-30 I just went off the shop guy's recommendation (he was unbiased, he sold me the cheaper oil!) but for the next change I read up on the synthetic oils on Castrol's site and felt that my car would better suit the "highly stressed competition engines" description But on reflection, I now think it suits "high revving 4cyl engine" better, because each piston in the Skyline is actually smaller than that in an SR20 engine. So it's actually more of a 4 cylinder engine than a 4 cylinder engine, as far as the oil should be concerned! I believe that the factory spec for Skyline's oil is 7.5W-30, so 5W-30 isn't far off from that. Keep in mind that this is for a new engine though, not a worn one. I will see how much oil gets used with the 5W-30, and if it's a significant amount, switch back to the 10W-60 or try 0W-40. Not having any problems with the 10W-60 at present but I feel I am wasting power forcing the pistons through the higher viscosity oil. Hopefully my power and economy will improve with the thinner oil.

Skylines have chokes?