Stock By Appearance..

[SoFreshSoClean]

Hi all,

Recently I was given a nice little yellow sticker by our friendly law enforcement officials, and was told upon going over the pits that I must obtain permits for all the performance based mods on my car (intake plenum, injectors, afpr, high mount kkr480 etc. There is a five week backlog to even obtain permission to get an engineer to sign off on it all, so I have decided its not worth the heartache and I will be returning it to (nearly) stock.

I have just ordered a HKS GT-RS kit(going to be painted black and invisible), and I'll be putting the standard intake/exhaust manifolds, fuel rail etc etc back on

A couple of questions though:

1. Will the standard exhaust bolt up to the HKS dump? (My 3" is ever so slightly too low, by about 2mm at the cat so I will swap it over again after)

2. Boost contollers- I am guessing that these are illegal as well?

3. Intercooler - It is a genuine greddy so no issues with cut bumpers etc but are these legal?

4. Oil catch can - Does this interfere with the emissions side of things or will it pass?

5. BOV - Is the standard one likely to handle 18psi? Or am I better off getting a GT-R one fitted?

Thanks for your help

[Nic_A31]

1

No.

high mount dump pipe won't mount up to a low mount turbo + manifold.

2

Yes, ability to modify a vehicles performance on the move is very frowned upon.

Same as coilovers, since you can leave the pits and wind the boost back up, you MIGHT pass with a manual boost controller, but be prepared to have to take it off.

3

Yes legal, provided you havent hacked up your reo bar.

4

Paint it matt black, use black hoses, etc and you shouldnt have any drama's. No bling.

5

Since you'll need to remove the boost controller, just use a stock BoV over the pits, the revert back to whatever you want.

Get a GTR one fitted later on if need be, say away from massive shinny aftermarket ones, they look and sound like shit.

Edited May 2, 2010 by Nic_A31

[Kaido_RR]

1. Yes stock front pipe will bolt up to the HKS GT-RS dump pipe

2. Hide the Boost Controller or remove the face etc to go over the pits

[Nic_A31]

^^ mis read his question.

1: what he said. Downpipe will bolt up to the bottom of the dump pipe no drama's.

2: Depending on who you get they might still see it has a boost controller from looking at the wastegate actuator line. depends how much attention theyre paying. If its all painted black and nothing is standing out, you can probably pull it off, aaand like I said, alot easier with a manual boost controller, no line running back through the firewall.

[SoFreshSoClean]

^^ mis read his question.

1: what he said. Downpipe will bolt up to the bottom of the dump pipe no drama's.

2: Depending on who you get they might still see it has a boost controller from looking at the wastegate actuator line. depends how much attention theyre paying. If its all painted black and nothing is standing out, you can probably pull it off, aaand like I said, alot easier with a manual boost controller, no line running back through the firewall.

Do aftermarket dump pipes look much different to standard? It just worries me that when the get under the car they might spot it..

[Nic_A31]

Stock dump pipes have the same texture as your exhaust / turbo housing. Most aftermarket pipes are polished, just go get a can of VHT high temp for headers (about 1000 deg C), about $13 or so, easy fix.

New exhausts are favored at the pits, and aftermarket dump pipes arent illegal (unless they're screamer pipes obviously), so as long as it looks newer than factory and doesnt look like cheap bling shit they'll see it as a good thing.

[SoFreshSoClean]

No worries, thanks for your help

[NA_Goodness]

5. BOV - Is the standard one likely to handle 18psi? Or am I better off getting a GT-R one fitted?

Mine is holding up very well with 18psi. Otherwise, get an aftermarket plumb back BOV. Its still legal.

[ossie_21]

Heard about you doing this Shae They even had a 3/4 week backlog back when I get my first yellow sticker on my old 33 a couple of years ago...way to keep on top of it lol. Danny recommended to a mate to avoid something like this happening (due to the way it is these days with police & any modified import), the best way to go would be a GTR with aftermarket low-mounts tuned for around 330hp. Reliable, not hard or overly expensive to achieve, and for a 4wd car a decent amount of power for the street. Maybe a good option if you sell your car when the reverse-work is completed?

[SoFreshSoClean]

Heard about you doing this Shae They even had a 3/4 week backlog back when I get my first yellow sticker on my old 33 a couple of years ago...way to keep on top of it lol. Danny recommended to a mate to avoid something like this happening (due to the way it is these days with police & any modified import), the best way to go would be a GTR with aftermarket low-mounts tuned for around 330hp. Reliable, not hard or overly expensive to achieve, and for a 4wd car a decent amount of power for the street. Maybe a good option if you sell your car when the reverse-work is completed?

Yeah it's a bit of a pain in the arse and wallet, but to be honest my car is a bit of a lag monster at the moment, I was planning to change the turbo anyways. I should be able to get at least an easy 300rwhp, and the only visual bits will be the intercooler, exhaust and pod. The car is otherwise very clean looking and hasnt attracted too much attention.. The only reason I got a yellow was for my BOV and bald tyres which was my own stupid fault (even though it was booked in that week for new tyres ).

What have you got these days Nathan?

[SKYRYAN]

I have the HKS GT-RS, it's got a cute whistle to it.

[NA_Goodness]

You can get the stealth intercoolers which uses the standard piping in the engine bay. The cooler piping and exhaust (if you know what your looking for) is the only thing in my engine bay that points to extra power. Pod as well. Even the exhaust is super quiet, so it's definately possible. That's with the high-flowed tubo and remapped ECU.

[MLCrisis]

3. Intercooler - It is a genuine greddy so no issues with cut bumpers etc but are these legal?

4. Oil catch can - Does this interfere with the emissions side of things or will it pass?

5. BOV - Is the standard one likely to handle 18psi? Or am I better off getting a GT-R one fitted?

Hi, from my experience, an oil catch can is legal if it drains into the sump and the breather is plumbed back into the intake.

Similarly, an aftermarket BOV is legal, if it is plumbed back into the intake - assuming that it meets noise level requirements, which all but a few would with this arrangement.

Regarding the intercooler, there is nothing illegal in WA about fitting an intercooler, as long as you have not altered the car's structure to fit it in (i.e. cutting into your structural cross member or carving up your front bar so that it flaps in the breeze).

Also, there is nothing illegal about shiny pipework. It will draw attention to other mods, though, and may attract a demand for an engineer's certificate and even an emissions test (although the latter is not so much a problem, as the demanding test is temporarily on hold - see other threads).

So, not much to add to what others have said. Hope it all helps.

Cheers.

[stormtrooper]

I went over the pits a few months ago when coppers mistakenly stickered me for my car being too low. I had boost controller in plain view smack bang on the top of my steering column and my apexi pfc hand controller was still mounted to the dash, the guy didn't care. Depends who you get on the day you take it but yes, having a boost controller in the car is definitely frowned upon, and if you do have a PFC controller... hide it heh.

[SoFreshSoClean]

Yeah, I'll have the hide the boost controller somewhere.. I'm also slightly concerned about the test drive, as I have read that the HKS actuator is set at 1 bar minimum? Hopefully the inspector doesnt put too much of a boot in

I am thinking I will just leave off the catch can until I pass, not worth having to go over again.

[SKYRYAN]

as I have read that the HKS actuator is set at 1 bar minimum?

Mine doesnt seem to want to go below about 0.7 - 0.8 bar with the EBC turned to 0

[heller44]

Last inspector I had said " how the hell do you drive this thing in the city "... awesome.

[SoFreshSoClean]

Well, went over today and finally passed

6k of parts and labour later..

Was dodgy as because my reverse lights only work if I hold the gear lever slightly to the left

All the positive of the day was ruined by getting a speeding fine for 58 in a 60 zone.. the boys in blue are in my bad books at the moment :

[Hanaldo]

All the positive of the day was ruined by getting a speeding fine for 58 in a 60 zone..

What? did you actually get the fine or did you just get flashed? If you just got flashed then don't worry about it, they would have just been calibrating the camera. If you actually got the fine... complain!

[bryno]

That's a huge amount of money to spend to get a car over the pits without spending on handling/safety modifications.. seems like the point of actually getting a vehicle road worthy has been lost in the political legislation jungle.. flawed system indeed.