Steve

Have you done a diagnostic on the ECU? If a contact cleaner says lubricant - I wouldnt touch it with a barge pole, I would bet its residual.

technically it is a street car, I would be interested if you could get a 9 second car that is very streetable, let alone legal.

To quote the latest HPI, an article by Martin Donnon, 'It was alwayst the same story: the gers, particularly third gear, losing teeth. Coming towards the dep end of the track, Munor would punch the H-pattern shifter into third ger, and the thing would simply go 'bang'...... The problem was then narrowed down to the trust gearset simply being too small and spindly for he job at hand, a problem clearly identified when we visited Active Garage in Kyushu. These guys had a collection of Trust boxes lined up to swap when the one in the car went bang. I kid you not.' Went on to say the answer was a Holinger E6S six speed sequential. If anyone is interested in running a 9 sec GTR, it would be well worth the few dollars to get some back issues (if they dont have them already) - could save thousands, literally. Footnote: hope Martin Donnon or HPI dont mind me quoting their fine publication?

Just make sure the contact cleaner is non residual. Either that or go a good non residual brake cleaner. If you pull the AFM and O2 plugs and give them a good squirt too, it may help. Good luck

If its intermittant, the first place i would be looking is wiring. Have you checked your electical wiring going into AFM? The stock ECU will put the car into 'limp home' mode if it detects a fault with the AFM (limits revs to about 2500?). Perhaps you bumped the plug when you messed with the pod? And now it has an intemittant fault - loose plug or wire? You could also do some diagnostics on the ECU, or try an ECU reset. Is the O2 sensor plugged in OK? this is only guessing, but it usually pays to check everything that has been touched when changes are made, as this is the most likely place problems will occur. Nothing very definitave but hope it may be of some help.

I think you will find that modifying a car is not cheap, so if people can save a few dollars for exactly the same product - they will. I have imported things privately, and I have purchased through shops when they can come close (never seen them beaten) to the price that I can import for - for exactly the reason of supporting aust business AND if I want a particular shop to do the work, I will pay extra to get the parts because they will give me a guaranteed result. Bottom line, I dont think there is anything wrong with dircect importing and saving a few dollars. I have spent close to 20k on my car, and if I had payed full retail, it would be alot more than that. TODA AU, do you pay more than you have to for the same products? Not just talking about for your business, but in private life? Because there is no point. Perhaps if the govt gave better deals to businesses, there wouldnt be the problem. I really think blaming the guy trying to save a few hard earned dollars is constructive. We dont all have unlimited dollars. As you pointed out, there will always be people who want the comfort of guaranteed goods, and being able to take delivery immediately. Perhaps if you offered a discount to SAU members, that would encourage the fence sitters, or asked for an opportunity to beat any genuine quote - all good. If you come on hear saying, these are the downsides to private imports, then you are helping people make informed decisions. By having a go, or making negative generalisation, all you do is put people offside. I am all for supporting Aust industry, and will whenever possible/economically viable.

Mitsi symbol and trust ID plate? Is that normal?

PCV is there to stop blow by pressurising the crank case. the reason I believe it would be better to put it through a filter first is that the contaminants in the crank case fumes can be somewhat removed by the process of filtration - so a catch can would be better than just plumbing those gases straight into the plenum. Any contaminents in the gases would effect the combustion process and therefore reduce power and economy - very slightly though, but none the less, would be detrimental. Unfortunatley it is not legal to vent these gasses to atmoshpere, so you would have to plumb them back somewhere. I do know what you mean about coolers getting coated. I noticed on mine when I fitted a front mount that the intake side was black from oil and contamination - hardly helpful to the cooling process. All of this would be from when driving on boost, as when not on boost the gases plumb directly into the plenum. The problem is the oil/contaminates that gets suspended in the gas from the crankcase, coat the cooler. Thus the creation of the catch can, or breather if you want to vent to atmo. A good catch can will remove this contamination, therefore making the only downside to recirculating burnt gasses that there is no oxygen, but at least all the nasty rubbish isnt going directly into the plenum, so combustion would be effected to a lesser extent than if the gasses were plumbed directly into the plenum. So, in summary, the amount of oil and contamination should be well within the capability of any decent catch can, as it is moving at low velocity, and isnt of a sufficient quantity to have a negative effect on the cooler - this only may happen if the catch can isnt particularly well designed, and when on boost, not when at idle/cruise conditions. Basically, everything to gain and nothing to loose.

Dennis, you are pretty paranoid about fumes going into the cooler. I dont know how you could say 98% of the time the fumes go directly into the plenum, unless your car is a lag monster and you rarely hit boost. I cannot drive my car with out going on boost, even driving sedately, just keeping up with traffic - if I am accellerating at over 2k rpm, she boosts. Perhaps you have a restictive exhaust system? The amount of oil mixed with the crank case gasses is pretty minor when not on boost, if at all. This is why its only really necessary to fit a catch can when you wind the boost up, because otherwise there is insignificant amounts of oil going through the system - in a healthy engine anyways. you only have to say it once - its your opinion, my opinion differs. Perhaps if you could give examples of actual problems you have encountered it would add more weight to your statement. But at the end of the day I wont tell you what you have to think, dont try and tell me what I have to. I listen, I evaluate, I compare statements to my own personal experience - and it takes alot more that a repeating a statement over and over, with out qualification to make me change my mind. I am really sorry if this upsets you, as you do seem to be getting a little upset? Agreed the pcv valve does nothing for emissions, I really dont know what your getting all upset about there. All I was getting at is that it is illegal to vent crankcase gasses to atmo. Agsin you seem to be getting a bit upset? Why?

OK, dont do it then. But just to clear it up. The breathers are joined, but in the stock form, the line from the rocker cover to the plenum comes out of the side of the rocker cover, not from the connections on top of the rocker cover. If you have a close look at the engine, it will become painfully obvious. Just so you understand, PCV is positive CRANKCASE ventillation, there is a one way valve to stop air being forced from the plenum into the rocker cover, ie, prevent a boost leak, BUT it doesnt matter what path the gasses from the crank case take, as long as they go through the induction system and get burnt in the cylinders. This is only done, as previously mentioned, to appease emissions requirements.

Air is drawn from the air intake pipe before the turbo. From a legal point, if you block the line from the plenum to the rocker cover, it does not make the car illegal, as the fumes are still being plumbed (via catch can if you have it) back into the plenum through the air intake and not just being vented.

Shore posting, up edinburgh way.

no worries, thought there might have been a fellow submariner with a skyline hiding over here that I didnt know about:)

There is no way I would take my car on a track until it has a cooler, besides - learn in someone elses, then perfect in your own:D Do they do rally courses here at all, that too would be a blast.

Shannon, submarines? what rate? which boat? or are you ASC?

Just need to find out how to fit a blower without loosing the AC or putting a massive hump in the bonnet? Would definately be the ultimate combination.

Browny, if you do it that way, air will just follow the path of least resistance, so you wouldnt get clean air going through the rocker cover - not that I think its necesarry - so it would be easier to just block off the line to the plenum as adam32 suggests.

Hmm, interesting all the attacks on commodore drivers - perhaps it has something to do with the V8 supercar series - lots of cars that hardly resemble the version on the road, except for similar body panels. Makes the young fellas think they are driving a car that performs well beyond its capabilities???? Food for thought. It would be good to do something like the BMW course - would be worth saving for, anybody got any idea when the next one over this way will be? Or if there is anything similar?

Typical beaurocracy - lets have a street drag meet, so the guys who want to do it legally can, then we'll defect them for driving the cars there. How does this encourage people who want to drag race to keep it at the strip? I am all for cars on the road being roadworthy, but at the end of the day, what is the greater problem, the car or the driver? How hard is it to drive a bog stock gemini irresponsibly for example - woudnt have to push it very hard before it becomes a danger.

Between the rocker cover and the turbo inlet pipe.

Can you clarify this please, I am not sure exacly what you mean by 'bait for this kind of response' Cheers Steve

No not thinking of ET, cos the ones I have seen on dynos were skylines, not vl. Perhaps they had been chipped, cos they ranged from low 120rwkw to mid 130 rwkw. Underbonnet and exhaust seemed stock -wish I had asked a few more questions at the time! Roy, I do believe variety is the spice of life, and there is a place on the roads from everything from mightyboys (always make me chuckle) and mokes (good fun to drive) to Camaros, Cadilacs, mustangs, thunderbirds etc. All good, depends on what you want to do. I have read about the corvette in HPI, and yes the engine sounds quite nice, but to me using so much more cubic displacement to increase performance just isnt my thing. I look at it like comparing a fingerpainting to a work of art. Both can produce the same result (an image), just one uses alot more finness.

Just get some hose, and pop it out of the way somewhere. It is suposed to join the inlet, so if it just disappears you might be safe.

I wouldnt hurt anyone in a fight, as I just dont beleive in it - so were both safe there:D As for comparing power figures of the engines, spose my 'produces less power' comment was not explained very well. Put an exhaust and EBC on an RB25 (or even better RB26) and see what happens - they have been strangled from the factory due to power agreements. Well the RB26 was, but you couldnt have a single turbo produce more than the twin godzilla engine now could you? I am really not sure about more power from a Buick engine to RB30E - seen them pull well over 100rwkw (RB30E) on dynos, more than once, in what I believe (dont know for sure, anybody got the acutal figures) was stock form. Sorry if you took my posts as any sort of attempt at antagonism, just getting into the debate/discussion Do you have any links to info GENIII engines that is similar to in your car craft mag, I would be interested to have a look. Cheers

Dude, what is on the rego sticker - havent had a close look at one lately have you?