Duncan

Absolutely, turbos had a heap more lag back then, the big aftermarket twins of the 90/00s are pretty bad. Mitsu and nissan went small twins, mazda and toyota went small/large sequentials to try and improve it. You'd have to drive a factory Exa or Cordia Turbo to remember the full lag/whoosh 80s experience. I have to run factory plain bearing N1 turbos for racing and they get full (boost 12psi) around 4,500 Good to see HKS doing R&D on the twin setup and providing some explanation, not sure if aftermarket pipes will work for the purity crowd though.

Anyway, I decided to fit it anyway since the car was dead (I do have a spare factory hanger, but what is the point if the pump draw causes problems again) So to address the baffle issue, I did some test fitting in the fuel tank (yes, of course the tank was about 2/3 full of fuel, and yes if it is 2o outside a tank full of fuel is also 2o....), and worked out if I spaced out the provided baffle plate from 3mm (it is supplied as 2x1.5mm laser cut stainless, very nice) to 5mm it sat firmly in the holder. I made the new plate the whole size of the baffle, not just the mount size to help it all sit flat on the floor and reduce strain on the tank mounting. I can confirm stainless sheet is expensive, and cutting with an angle grinder does not give the same beautiful finish as frenchy's laser cutting After adding 2x 1mm extra sheets, total height of the holder was 5mm and a great fit Other than that, after properly seating the level sender, new properly sized power from the relay and earth, wiring the sender to the factory wiring and adding higher foam to the underside of the boot floor cover it was all in and good to go again. The good news is the pump that was in the tank (Aeroflow 525lph) fit straight in the holder which was nice. For reference the stagea factory sender wiring is: Pin 1 - Red wire - Fuel level to dash Pin 2 - Aqua/black - Low fuel Light Pin 3 - Black - earth for sender/light The fitting instructions say see the wiring section of the website for wiring diagram, there is no diagram for v2 hat but the v4 hat instructions https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0014/5856/9281/files/FPG_V4_Wiring_Guide_for_R32GTR_In-Tank_Surge_Tank.pdf?v=1617411172 say: Pin 1: Red Pin 2: Black Pin 3: Grey Note those instructions don't say what each pin in the hat is for with the sender, just some colours (which don't match either 32GTR or Stagea). Their R32 wiring colours https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0014/5856/9281/files/BNR32_Factory_fuel_hanger_wiring_identification_and_testing.pdf?v=1673844784 says: Blue/Green: Level Sender Red: Fuel Light Black: Level Sender Again, no pin numbers to cross check, first and third description are the same, and the colours don't match what is listed in the fitting instructions. Bottom line, I wired it as follows for C34 and the sender works properly (but not low level light of course): Factory Pin 1 - Red wire - Fuel level to dash - Frenchy hat pin 3 Factory Pin 2 - Aqua/black - Low fuel Light (now inop) - Frenchy hat pin 2 Factory Pin 3 - Black - earth for sender/light - Frenchy hat pin 1 So, it is all working now, but was much harder than it could have been due to design and instruction issues. The (im)perfect crime:

So, that is what happened next. I had bought their previous model (v2) hat and baffle for the race car, but did not install it when it arrived because I wasn't happy with how the baffle connected to the tank for heavy race use; I was concerned it didn't have enough support in the factory pump mount to hold such a large baffle with a half fuel tank and high Gs....so it sat on the shelf until now. One of these To get to the point, I though it was a pretty mixed product. The hat itself is excellent with quality connectors and the overall design was good, but: - it includes a level sender but deletes the low fuel light. No good for a thirsty cruisey car, no mention in their listing - the baffle mounting plate did not sit firmly in the factory tank. Kevin responded to a weekend email by 6am monday which is awesome, but only to say 'yeah nah that's how they are, try bending your car a bit' - the level sender does not sit snugly in the holder and would fall out. Instructions show a cable tie holding it on but I could not route it they way they showed, had to disassemble and drill for cable tie to hold it properly - their supplied printed instructions included (barely legible) wire colours for 32 GTR but not stagea - the hat does not fit under the factory cover (they do say it "might not" in the listing) Also note, their newer design seems to resolve some of these issues, so good on them for continuous improvement Frenchy's instructions for fitting are here: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0014/5856/9281/files/Nissan_R32GT-R_Baffled_Kit_Installation.pdf?v=1617089123

See, that is awesome, good on them for doing the R&D for something R33 owners have needed for years! Yes, not cheap, but for a smart solution to a real inconvenience I think it is reasonable.

One thing to consider with that, since the early 00s I had something similar in the stagea. While it was single DIN, when the screen is open (all the time while driving), it blocked the climate controls and partly blocked the air vents (or in 33 GTR the triple gauges) anyway

Welcome to SAU, it looks pretty tidy!

unless you had it for a reason, I would give the tyre goop a go.....not like you can make a wrecked tyre more wrecked.

Good on them for the response

So, it turns out, as always, preventative maintenance is bad idea! A while back I grabbed a set of new Plug and Pins for the race car fuel hat when Kudos advertised them, and a set of the Stagea while I was there. So, while everything else was in parts, I had depinned the old f**ked shells and swapped in the new ones. Perfect, nice to plug and unplug, and firmly clipped (old ones no longer clipped in, they were held by 400,000klm of grime) Anyway....turns out for some reason I ended up with a high resistance connection between the new plug and the factory fuel hat which melted the new power plug, the wiring at the pin, the outside of the fuel hat AND the inside of the fuel hat too......basically the sort of issue that could burn your very unique car to the ground. So not good....plus the car was dead again. It never ends

So, at the end of all that, I put the dash/console back together, turned the ignition on started the car. Except it didn't start. Again. And again, it sounded like a fuel problem. So after a bit of stuffing around, I confirmed no power to the fuel pump relay. Traced that back, no continuity from the source near the battery back to the relay in the boot (yes Matt!) and found to my surprise that a shop somewhere along the line had used a pair of black/red wires as the feed to get enough current carrying ability. Not exactly dodgy but a single wire of the right size would have been nice. However...it wasn't a problem, just a surprise. Checked the fuse just upstream.....and found a very melted 30A min blade fuse And holder Hmmm....that is a big fuse to be melting, clearly some real issue here somewhere. I put a new fuse holder and 20a fuse in (full size so it actually matches all the other fuses/spares in the car) and followed the wires back.

So the ATOTO head unit has been mixed, Android features are great, bluetooth handsfree total rubbish (too noisy, went back to the Parrot). I am no audiophile, but it was also clear that it just sounded worse then the old but expensive Sony head unit that had been in there for about 15 years. So, I added this little amp to the head unit, basically plug/play through supplied patch cable, optical audio link and a power run from the battery to supply enough juice. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005432564767.html?spm=a2g0o.order_detail.order_detail_item.3.6cf2f19cKEfUXr So all up, the new head unit has been about $1300, not cheap, but I like all the 4g/wifi/hd reverse/full android apps like tomtom/racedash/TPMS etc etc. I also got the factory speakers in all 4 doors replaced, although when I pulled the door cards off to measure the available depth I found to my surprise a set of pioneer speakers had been installed back in Japan. Anyway, audio is not my thing (although speakers obviously are simple) so I got BDL in Canberra to install them, set up the amp gain and also add soundproofing to the doors. plastic removed and door thoroughly cleaned deadening installed on outer skin, and starting to seal the pods to the inner card All done, it was a very detailed and thorough job And the good news is, between the Amp, better quality speakers and the sound deadening the audio is much better, even in a very noisy car. No idea which of those made the difference or if it is a combination. One day I'll add deadening to the rest of the car, but I need a reason for the dash to be out first

Yes unfortunately I think it needs to go back. Diffs apparently need to wear in a little but they should not whine

Ahh that suck to hear, sadly these engines can be difficult for oiling, they don't call RBs Run Bearings for nothing... What oil pump are you running? I guess advice should come from your engine builder, but these days we run bigger clearances and heavier oil 20/50, the last engine in the car is the only time I've pulled it out before it broke...got 3 seasons from it

I have to say.....80s Nissan engineers were still extraordinary (and so were the accountants for letting them do it), even if one of the cutting edge techs has not stood the test of time. You just have to look at how the larger Toyota failed in the performance space (other than making a better inline 6 engine) at the same time, or Honda's NSX or Mitsu's GTO.....

I can't see how sticking stuff onto a VAG would make it look better

Not direct experience, but they are at the good end of the cheap range of suspension, would be fine for street use (assuming that is your need, you didn't mention race/rally/drag/drift etc)

@34GeeTeeTee any thoughts about single piece motorsport tailshafts

They are both in the gearbox.....box out if they need replacing

Yeah some of the aftermarket alarms installs are terrifying. My Stagea has had 2 different ones in addition to factory remote start.....on day I'll take the dash out and fix it all properly.

I can't see spigot bush on your list, it is worth always changing that when you do the clutch

Easy question, but hard to answer Generally, in road use, you would not notice the difference in the same tyre but 20% wider. In flat out use like racing, absolutely, particularly in hot weather and more than 1-2 laps.

It takes tyre height out of the measurement (as it can vary with tyre size, pressure etc)

So the potential issue with the pump is that it has 2 stages, the first is for power steer and the second for hicas. If you just block off the second stage outlet it will kill the pump. You need to either: -Open the pump and remove the rear pump vanes, then block the outlet, or -Reroute the power steering lines so the second stage feeds the PS cooler (then back to the reservoir) and the first stage just does the steering rack. -replace the factory pump with a single stage pump, keep in mind the number of ribs in the PS belt are different between R32 (4 rib) and R33 (3 rib) -loop the HCAS feed back to the HICAS return near the diff, although this keeps a lot of unnecessary weight and leak opportunities

I'm pretty sure the difference is RB20 vs RB26. R32 GTR service manual says

You'll also need to consider what resolution the head unit accepts - no matter how good the camera quality is, it still won't be good if it is SD. 720p is sometimes supported through AV inputs for some head units, but 1080p or higher will need HDMI support