Duncan

well...I'm not volunteering to be said guinea pig.....but who buys things made somewhere other than china these days???

But in any case, your flywheel starts going out of balance the first time you use the clutch and material wears, then it gets worse when you have it machined back. If balancing worries you have it rebalanced after machining. I'd agree loosing a plug that large is likely to make a difference.

lol midnight pics! yeah it's big. and comfy. why not a dodgy ram or similar? Firstly of course they would not be a nissan. From there, the yanks are a bit wierd and call trucks 1/2, 3/4 or 1 tonne. Has nothing at all to do with what they carry these days but rather it is historical. Titan, F150, Ram 1500 etc are all half tonne and despite being big are still ute/patrol style to drive, park etc. Once you get to 3/4 and 1 tonne (ram 2500, F350 etc) they are different again (read way worse) to drive. Since the 1/2 tonne size is more than enough for my towing at 4.5 tonne and 1tonne in the tray I stuck with that. Also, in Titans, the first series from 2004 to 2015 is half tonne and 5.6l petrol only. They released the second series in XD (3/4 tonne) and regular Titan (1/2 tonne) in 2016/2017. The XD has a 6l cummins diesel option or both of them come in 5.6 direct injected (vk56dd like the current patrol). It's jumping ahead a bit, but (dash reported) fuel economy has been 14l/100 driving over 5,000klm and 24l/100 towing over 1600klm. The XD diesel titan only makes the same figure at 14l/100 highway so the extra capacity and weight mean no overall economy benefit from that engine. Finally cost. This was about 90k on road (yes damn expensive), but a diesel XD titan in the same spec would be about 135k or a 2500 ram about 150k. Way out of control for something beyond what I need.

yep, got a new tow car. it's good https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/470881-duncans-hge70w-car-rhd-titan/

So what’s next? Well the main reason I went with something so big was to make towing the race car around the state a bit easier, so fitting up a proper height towball and converting the trailer wiring to Australian plug is up next (BTW I can’t believe it, the yanks still have combined brake and turn lights on trailers….) I’ve already fitted a backflip f1 cover which seems to work pretty well. Actually it must have had a cover in the past sometime (removed before sale) because I can see the old marks on the side of the tub. And, obviously they must have had to flip the utilitrack rails upside down (as I had to do again for the backflip) because whoever did the job was a butcher and cross threaded about half of the utilitrak mounting bolts when the put it back on with some sort of impact wrench. I guess it’s nice to know some US mechanics are as bad as some Oz ones….. From there I’ve some side steps to put on, and also a full exhaust + nismo airbox + uprev to install. Partly because I’d like it to go a bit better and mostly because I’m pretty juvenile and like stuff to sound good. And also a bunch of electrical stuff to make race weekends more convenient, maybe a slide on camper etc etc….stay tuned J

So it left Indiana, Pennsylvania in September 2016 and started the long swim to Australia. Funnily enough I was in Gibraltar the same day the truck was doing a stopover in Morocco so I did come within about 20klm of it last year…. It arrived in the docks in Brisbane on Christmas Eve which was a mess timing wise…anyway, in mid Jan it made its way to MJH imports on the Gold Coast, the only RAWS in the country with compliance for the Titan. Total cost for the conversion was $38,500, non negotiable. Considering the amount of work involved I actually think that’s quite reasonable….but still….ouch…. The truck was finally ready to pick up just after Easter, but due to racing commitments (mostly Kelly doing Targa Tasmania, but also the Kempsey state Hillclimb round) and being in the middle of a house move, we just didn’t have time to go pick it up so we had it trucked back to Sydney. This is how it looked with the steering wheel on the right (wrong?) side In the end it finally arrived in Sydney Monday 1-May (yep, 226 days after I bought it….). I’ve bought a couple of cars from Japan over the years so I’m used to waiting, but man this was a different world again. I went to sort the rego the same day. While driving back from the weighbridge to the blue slip inspection station I noticed that sweet sweet smell of burning coolant, and the temp gauge heading towards the roof. I took a chance, nursed it the last klm to the mechanic and parked it up crossing my fingers no real damage done. Turned out the guys who did the engine conversion left a hose clamp off a nasty heater hose and it wasn’t obvious on their short test drive. Easy fix, no sign of damage done. Otherwise first impressions have been good. I mean, it drives like a truck but we are on a pretty rural property so it suits. Lots of space, great room in the back for the Kelpie kids and secure storage when we are needing things, and the king cab size tray is swallowing plenty when we need it to. It’s nice and stable on the freeway, chews petrol and terrible around town or trying to put it in a standard size parking space at the supermarket. Pretty much everything I expected so far. Here’s how she looks next to the old tow car (and yes, she stole the plates off the other car too).

Duncan's HGE70W car, RHD Titan Well, for the observant among you (yes, I mostly mean you Charles…), Neil and I kind of both let on about my new tow car in the good tow cars thread last year. Since the damn thing is finally on the road I think it’s time to update what it is and what happened…... So here’s the new girl, a 2015 Titan Pro-4x with Luxury pack. Ain’t she mighty purdy? For the non-seppos among us, a Titan is Nissan’s “answer” to F150/Ram/etc etc etc pick up trucks that are sold by the billions in the US. The A60 Titans were made from 2004-2015, this is the last of the first series trucks, they’ve now by the 2nd gen ones which have an XD (“3/4 ton”) and regular Titan (“1/2 ton). It runs a VK56DE, same base engine as the Altima supercar, and makes 240kw and 520 nm. Seems to be a reasonably capable 4wd too with proper low range, electric locking rear diff, plenty of ground clearance etc. The King Cab has a 6”7’ bed which I preferred to the dual cab model. While it looks pretty much like a Navara the pics don’t do justice to how big the damn thing is, its 5.7m long, 2.03m wide and 1.95 high which is both roomy and a pain to park at Coles. Fuel economy is terrible too, it gets about 14l/100 on the highway which is (incredibly) more even than the Stagea! I bought it from Mark Arbuckle in Indiana, Pennsylvania (yes, google maps required for that one) in September last year. The salesman wasn’t too clear but I get the impression the original buyer was unhappy and organised some sort of buyback deal so the truck ended up back on their lot only about 18 months old. I had it checked out by a local inspector who didn’t see any issues, and without looking too far ahead in the story neither the conversion nor my first month’s driving turned up anything out of the ordinary either. I ended up paying $34k US for it ($AUD 45,000)

A lot of skylines leak fuel at track days, but it sure ain't Nissan's engineering. Just dodgy work at compliance when the fuel neck restrictors are fitted. If it troubles you remove the restrictor and fit it again with a fuel safe sealant.

And I'm running 32 GTR rear and ATTKD 330mm/8 piston fronts with the standard booster and master cylinder without pedal issues. What problem are you trying to solve? Because mushy/long pedals almost always come down to bleeding or sometimes pad break in

Looks like you are in WA, even so I'd talk to Steve at Just Jap. He has lots of specialist contacts and finds plenty of special things

Yes it is direct swap, I have a 33 GTR one on my 32 GTR race car.

with the cas you just mark where the bolt is in the slotted section, it should be good enough to start and run. you should always check it with a timing light after though (or get a mechanic to) and be aware that the alignment marks Callan was mentioning under on the timing gear backing plate, you won't see them until after you take the timing belt cover off.

my advice would be...return the dodgy thing to whoever sold it to you!

I've got to say that is not my experience, I use the type pictured all the time, and as long as you have the correct length bolts screwed all the way into the balancer I've had a lot of success; that style means it pulls off nice and straight. 3 jaw ones can be difficult to get under the balance lip evenly because of the oil pump lip, and if they are not even and central they pull the balancer off at an angle making it way harder...

Yes. I had the nismo cluster in mine for a while. But in any case the auto one works fine, it just won't get a signal to the gear position lights

Thanks Ben, should have double checked the correct voltage before posting

No. Either the sensor is f**ked or your car is running very lean at idle. It should swing quickly between about 1 and 5v, going towards 5 when you floor it and 1 when you suddenly close the throttle. Changing the sensor is the cheap and easy way to start trouble shooting....

Great to see this car is being worked on again Not so great that the info is facebook only.... Either way, all the best!

AFAIK neither the rotors nor the calipers are a "copy" of the AP racing caliper, it's just that the pads are the same shape and thickness as the AP racing 6 spot caliper. I've replaced the rings on the stagea after about bllion klm and at least 5 years, I just got new ones from just jap.

Thanks mate

you can use the auto computer. the only real differences are that the auto computer will retard timing if it gets a gear change signal from the auto computer (which it never will again), and perhaps the tune is a little more conservative (it seems to go rich and retard the timing sooner)

you need to use the gtr rotors as well as calipers. that's what i have on my rs4. when you say "don't fit" what specifically is the issue?

lol, I did say apparently....source is unvalidated information I picked up on here sometime over the years....

@PranK can you please have a look into this Christian? I can't find anything wrong with the profile in the admin control panel, his primary usergroup is members... When he tries to post through the app he receives a message "You don't have permission to reply".

I'm not certain about rb30 hybrid, but all other RBs (except apparently rb20) are interference.