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R31...

They are better sorted from factory.

Lower diff ratio that accelerates the car quicker.

Better cooling system setup.

Nicer stiffer chassis.

My sister recentlyish bought a NA VL that had done a genuine 137,000km's. It was spotless.

First thing we did was throw a bran spankin new radiator in it, new genuine nissan thermostat, new clutch fan and gave the whole system a power flush.

~9months later without a warning it started to run on 4cyl's.

No overheating nothing, it sat solid on the 2nd notch. 1 nasty arsed cracked head. The cooling system was perfect, there was ZERO reason for the crack.

Now its sitting in the old mans shed next to her previous VL that also has a cracked head. :S

I prefer the exterior look of the VL, especially a nice dark coloured VL Calais.

Edited by Cubes
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When you swaped the radiator/cooling set up

did you blead air out of the system?

There is one little bolt that you losen to let air out after you have added the fluid. oppsite side of the engine to the alternator should be a little yellow sticker

How did you pick the cracked head:

Oil in cooling fluid?

Big mofo visable crack?

Running on only 4 cyclnders i.e. missing when ideling?

Compression test?

Sounds like a good time to swap heads or even engines!

Edited by NAman
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Yes Cooling system was bled.

Running on 4cyl's is zero compression in cyls 5 & 6.

There was no oil in the coolant or vice versa.

The head simply cracked, lost compression in cyls 5 & 6 and 100psi in cyl 4, it ran like a pig, sis drove for 10km's to home.

VL's can sometimes run for months with cracked heads and no tell tale signs, depending how bad its cracked.

The water in the oil usually shows up in the PVC valve before anything else all though there was none in there.

I was hoping a headgasket as it went so suddenly, no tell tale signs like usual. It simply cracked and cracked bad.

It wasn't using any water, it was running perfect and not thrashed prior to the head crack.

Ripped the head off.. she's cracked. :P

Its simply holdens lack of R&D in fitting the rb30 in to the VL + the fact the rb30 head does have a weakness. R31's crack heads too... just not if the cooling system is good unlike the VL's.

A mate of mine had the same thing happen to his VL. Perfect working order then crack.

The VL I bought when I was 18 never cracked but I did sell it within 9months to upgrade from that yucky interior.

My RB20DET was cooking and I didn't realise due to just purchasing the car, just smelt hot and spewing out coolant. It ran like that for a complete summer, replaced the temp sender realised it had been driving around on the H!!! That still ran fine for many years after and a solid 100,000km's. :D

Edited by Cubes
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If you wanted un un-biased opinion, this isn't really the place to ask.

Wow, what a surprise, everyone says "go for the Skyline"

Now go and start a duplicate of exactly the same thread on http://www.calaisturbo.com.au and see what sort of response you get.

:P

I vote you got for the VL.

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My only worry is that he will just assume we are all biased because this is a Skyline forum. Its not all bias, the reality is that the Skyline is the better car. I'd be interested to hear what points someone could put forth to say the vl is better, other than they like the look of them better.

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I can't say I'm a fan of the R31 looks (apart from the coupes).

None the less here's my argument against the VL.

OMG... WHAT CHASSIS RAILS!!! No wonder they have been known to pop windscreens and flex like buggery.

Which would help explain why they weigh damn close to the weight of an R32 that is a smaller car.

Edited by Cubes
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