JimX

I want to upgrade my pads. I was going to go for the RB74's, but it seems they are very loud (squealy) and create a lot of brake dust, neither of which I particularly want. One of the other primary candidates is EBC Green stuff, but in my opinion they cost too much and wear out too quickly. I think I'd rather put up with the dust and noise of the RB74. However I was wondering, the people getting noise from their RB74's, do you have slotted discs? The slots are meant to help with glazing/noise but I don't know how much, if at all. If slotted rotors fixed the noise problem I could put up with the dust. I will also consider other options! (but not Bendix pads)

Hehe, until you get to a corner

My biggest problems are with V6 Commodore Executives rather than V8's! (although there is the occasional V8 that wants a go). Utes also seem to have more idiots attached to them. It's always funny to watch them try really hard. Once I had a VP Exec sedan come screaming up behind me, then whip around and cut me off without indicating (well he was doing 30k's+ more than me so not really cutting me off in the usual sense). Keep in mind that he changed lanes directly in front of me even though both lanes were empty! Obviously he just wanted to piss me off, probably jealous that his own chunk of sh*t wasn't anywhere near as good as my car. So at the next red light I just changed into his old lane to get them lined up. I let him launch first because I knew he needed it, and then I proceeded to serverely embarrass him all the way up to the speed limit (70kph) and then backed off. A few seconds later he managed to catch up and then accelerated up to like 140 or so (obviously he thinks this makes him the winner). In my opinion, this was the best way to make sure a moron didn't have to be near my car I also seem to have problems with Camrys. They tend to be either clueless in their driving habits (cutting you off, not indicating, driving too slow in the right lane, etc) or think their car is more powerful than it is. Maybe they've been brainwashed by too many of the "big V6" commercials. Fords seem to be more respectable than both the above for some reason. I don't know why this is because it's not like I'm a Ford fan or anything. In fact until I bought the Skyline I was more of a Holden man myself. I think one of the things that put me off Holdens was the increasing amount of tryhard bogans that own them. But I don't know what it is with Camrys.

Have we got a rough price for the kangaroo paw style unslotted ones yet? I'll be interested in the fronts if the price is right.

If these can be done in plush pile instead of loop pile, I'll definitely be up for a set. It upsets me that the factory mats are in the cheapass loop pile style, covering up the really nice plush pile carpet underneath!

I would go the Skyline unless funds are going to be tight. For the same amount of money spent (including purchase of the car plus some mods) the 180/200sx is probably going to be a tad faster. Don't forget they've got a 100kg+ weight advantage too! But if you want a "nicer" more refined car with more potential, then stick with the 'line.

I don't know for sure but it looks very similar to what was on my previous VS Commodore with airbag. If that's the case, then the whole front panel should come off with a couple of screws holding it down from behind. After the steering column should be visible, just undo the nut and use a puller to get the wheel off. Oh, disconnect the airbag wire before you do all this, you don't want it exploding in your face!

Yeah dude, that's not a Type-M bar.

I did the exact same thing! I'd only heard of UAS, so I went there to get my airbox/partition. I was then going to get them to program my S-AFC and fix my intercooler piping, but they don't program the S-AFC and they referred me to Silverwater I think. So even then I still hadn't heard about Hills. Then Prank or someone mentioned Hills Motorsports in a thread, and I went and saw Mark and I haven't looked back since. I couldn't afford the intercooler piping, but in the end I just got a whole new intercooler anyway. All the guys at Hills are really helpful and friendly, when my car wouldn't idle properly at the end of the night after the plenum/cooler upgrade, they all hung around until like 9:30pm trying to sort it out. In the end they made up a little vacuum hose restrictor for the idler motor, because the adjustment was bottomed out on the plenum and it was idling too fast. Now it's all perfect, and they didn't charge me any extra for the restrictor or the time spent on it. These guys are really dedicated to their work and won't brush you off for the bigger projects like some other workshops do. Whatever they start they finish properly and for that reason my car will always be going back to Hills unless it's for something they can't do (dunno what that would be yet, they're miracle workers). I'm not saying that there aren't any other workshops that are also like this, but now that I've found one there's no reason to change.

I would say the moral of the story is to go a few doors down from UAS and get Hills Motorsports to do it Nothing wrong at all with mine done at Hills. Looks excellent, the pipes are all perfect, all custom made in their metalworking shop. Shiny polished aluminium pipes with a small silicon joiner up to the throttle body. I can't imagine it being any better.

You can get 4 door GTR's but they cost a bomb. If you're after more power, just sell your old turbo for around $500 and buy a new Garrett for around $2500. It'll work out to be around the same cost as adding another turbo (assuming that's even possible). Also, for some reason insurance companies don't like twin turbos put onto cars that didn't come that way from the factory. My insurance company don't care that I've got an aftermarket turbo on, but they wanted to be sure that I didn't put a twin setup on. They don't actually care what the single turbo is though! Can't wait until I can afford a T88 For some stupid reason they seem to think that going from single to twin turbo makes it insanely powerful. I didn't bother telling him that it's often the other way around.

I would go with SydneyKid's suggestion of 2nd hand GTR cooler, but if you want something shiny and new that flows just as well or better, and is still good value for money, then buy a locally-built one. With the Japanese brands you're mostly paying for the name, you can get one just as good for a lot less. I got a brand new Mick's Metalcraft cooler last week and it is da shit. There are other locally made ones just as good or better, just depends on how much you want to spend and what you want it to look like (with endtank inlet/outlet location etc). Sub-Zero do some bigass ones for fairly cheap too ($1500 or less)

Touring cars have dog engagement boxes with no synchros. Same as with most modern sports motorcycles. You can actually shift back without the clutch as well (I do it on my bike), it's just more awkward and you're more likely to lose traction.

Weren't you going to get plumb back? My GReddy's volume is dependant on how much pressure it needs to release, so if I drive moderately it doesn't go off at all. Good for driving past cops

S13drifter, "get the gears angled which would make it like straight cut gears but not as severe"? I've got no idea what you're on about. I also don't know what a "double synchro" is. Can you elaborate on both?

With all the manifold work you'd have to do, plus the price of the extra turbo, you're probably better off selling your original and just buying a bigger turbo.

$80 for an aftermarket VL pump from Repco. That's retail, I should be able to get it at trade price somehow.

$124.30 from Hunter Holden for a VL pump. Didn't bother confirming the part number because it wasn't any cheaper

Timing belt's already been done. But I think I will get the pump changed and the bearings checked and replaced if needed, after Brody's story

If he's a good friend of your dad's then I doubt he'd rip you off on the parts if he did a good price on the labour. The bearings and seals must have cost the most. Timing belt, 2 hoses and thermostat shouldn't cost more than $250 or so combined. I'd be a bit worried about that oil though, if he's used standard pricing on that like most other workshops do you'll find that he's probably put in something inferior to the GTX2 you can buy in Woolies. If however he's charged as if you bought it from Auto 1 or the like then it'll be a high grade mineral oil or an average grade semi or full synth. Try to find out what he's put in exactly.

I've never had a blown head gasket or warped head on any of my cars and I've always drained the oil with the engine warm or hot and filled up with oil straight away. I'd be more worried about caning the engine while it's cold than putting cold oil into a hot engine.

Ok, I'm thinking I'll just do the pump and thermostat at 100k then. Apparently VL Commodores use the same pump? Would they be any cheaper from a Holden dealer than a Nissan?

Labour at $180 seems pretty cheap to me considering what they did, that's only about 2 or 3 hours work. The parts cost though I've got no idea. Do the idler and tension bearings really need to be changed? Even though my timing belt was done at about 80k, I'm wondering if at the 100k I should also do the bearings.

Unbolt everything and keep cables and wires etc safely secured and you should be ok. There is a gasket in between which is copper and rubber, make sure you don't lose or damage that. It's reusable. The plenum might be kind of stuck due to the seal.

I've done a search on water pumps, and it seems that at the 100k km service it's a good time to change the water pump. I'm just thinking though, why not just wait until it starts leaking? That is the normal sign that the pump has worn out and needs to be replaced. It should be good for a few hundred km after that so you shouldn't have to worry about being stranded anywhere, once you realise that it's leaking then just top up the radiator and replace the pump at the next opportunity. Is there any downside to this? I had a leaking water pump on my Commodore which I noticed after it started leaking but I drove it several hundred km before I got it fixed under warranty. Also, when my alternator belt broke on the Commodore, I noticed afterwards that it looked very worn out, and was all cracked and missing about half its teeth! If a belt "looks" ok, I'm thinking that it shouldn't need to be changed. (incidentally, it broke when trying to jump-start another car. The extra strain on the electrical system did it) I ask all this obviously because my car is coming up to the 100k mark, and I don't want to go overboard replacing things that I don't have to at this stage. For all I know some of them could have been replaced along with the timing belt a couple of thousand km before I bought the car. For example, the Commodore's alternator belt had done about 80000km, and the Skyline's belts look a lot better than it did despite having more km on it. I'm pretty sure they've been changed at some point previously.