Old Tech Epic?
I loved your Engine Epic series and wonder if you can do a similar series
dealing with underdog engines, such as OHV (‘underhead’ cam) and carburetted
engines. There are a lot of people still racing the Nissan A-series engines and
I am curious if any other manufacturer has something equal to - or better than -
this awesome engine series.
Joe Schwinn
USA
As you have probably already seen, we
have begun an updated Engine Epic series – but we won’t be covering old tech
engines.
Well I liked it...
In your response to Charlie
Driver's email Response...
You said, "Obviously, different stories will appeal to different folk - for
example, the Harry Watson interview that you liked has rated quite poorly..."
I'd just like to let you know I rate it very highly!
Ian
Armstrong
Australia
More Personal
Love the e-mag! I would just like to encourage you to provide more 'emotion'
articles, rants and raves about topics from the editors and writers. I love to
read what real-world people are looking at when buying cars and modifying them
on very limited budgets. Keep up the good work!
Spencer
Lieberfreund
Australia
V6 Stinger
I wanna know what V6 engine will go in to my Mitsubishi Scorpion – I would
like it to be a Japanese engine.
David
Shaw
Australia
We don't know your budget
or how much power you're after but we'd be looking at the Mitsubishi 3.5-litre
24-valve V6, the Mitsubishi twin turbo 3000GT/GTO engine, Nissan VG30 turbos
and the various Mazda V6s (including the supercharged Miller Cycle
engine!). You'll need to take lots of measurements to see if any will
fit...
Skyline Smarts
Re the article on the Nissan R31 Passage GT Turbo
Nissan R31 Passage GT Turbo... Quote: The most successful
cars produced by SVD were the Series 1 and Series 2 GTS Skylines, which are
painted all-white or all-red, respectively. The Series 1 produces 130kW thanks
to extractors, a high-flow exhaust, cam and an ECU remap.”
Hey, where did this info come from? I've pulled the maps from my GTS 1 #080
ECU and they are exactly the same as the stock manual ECU maps. In fact,
according to a guy I know that repairs ECUs, Nissan could not modify the stock
ECU for R31s due to warranty agreements with Bosch. That is why the GTS 2 runs
an auxiliary ECU for the ‘Stage 3’ equivalent camshaft and
headwork
Matt
Brown
Australia
The
info we obtained re ECU changes for the GTS came from road test data made
available when the car was new. So your maps are the same as a normal Skyline?
Very interesting - can any other readers can shed some light on
this?
Piggy on a Platter
I read with great interest that you mentioned a Do-It-Yourself ECU piggyback
tuner. I am hoping the final design will be released in the near future. Is
there any date when that product may become available? I am holding off buying
other piggyback ECU tuners to possibly buy this unit. Thanks for your great
website.
Jeff
Short
USA
We expect the kit
(developed by Silicon Chip magazine) to be released mid-year. All work on the protypes is finished - they are performing flawlessly. Kit pricing from Jaycar Electronics includes the Digital Fuel Adjuster at around AUD$80 and the Digital Hand Controller at AUD$60! Take full control over your mixtures for under AUD$150... Stay tuned to AutoSpeed for real-world applications once the kits are released.
Warm Walky
I own a VL SS Group A
Walkinshaw and I just changed the thermostat when I flushed the cooling system.
I don’t think there was anything wrong with the old thermostat but I thought,
while I had it apart, I should change it as it was 15 years old... With the new
thermostat in place the car runs a touch hotter on the temp gauge but the
underbonnet temperature is a lot hotter. Holden don’t have the same thermostats
that the cars come out with, so they give you a new one that corresponds with
the car... Do you think there is anything to worry about? Should I put the old
stat back in? The only thing I can think of is that there was something wrong
with the old one and it was opening too early and not letting the car warm up
properly. Your opinion would be appreciated.
Andrew
Costa
Australia
We’re not sure if there’s anything to
worry about because we don’t know how hot it’s running or how hot it’s supposed
to run...We’d certainly try refitting the old thermostat and take
note of the temperatures back-to-back. Also bear in mind that different coolants
offer different cooling performance depending largely on their
ethyl-glycol concentration. This might be a contributing factor.
RB26DETT Strength
Does any of the AutoSpeed team
know the strength of the Nissan RB26DETT? How much power can it withstand? Will
the stock rods go flying apart while being tuned to1000hp?
Kyle
Kuhlmann
USA
In
short, the RB26DETT is extremely strong. We imagine the standard rods might
survive depending on the combination of rpm and torque used to achieve that
1000hp figure. Detonation is also an engine killer. For specific details tuning
the RB26DETT we suggest you contact AVO or Nizpro – also check out our archived
articles for RB26DETTs tuned by each of these workshops.
Bye-Bye VVT-i?
First of all I'd like to
compliment you on your reporting integrity. I read your magazine every day and
have just subscribed for another 100 issues. I have now ceased reading other car
magazines because of the low cost availability of AutoSpeed back issues and
because other car magazines I used to read propagated - or at least did not
refute - many myths that I have seen dispelled on AutoSpeed.
I have a query about aftermarket management that does not appear to be
mentioned in your articles on programmable management (possibly because this
isn't yet catered for in the aftermarket). It is concerning modifications to
forced induction cars with electronic variable inlet timing (such as the VVT-i
JZZ30 Soarer). If specific modifications require an ECU remap or aftermarket
management, does the VVT-i stop working its magic, or is this function still
controlled by the factory ECU? If the latter, does the fact that the factory ECU
is being bypassed make the effects of the VVT-i less efficient? Your
thoughts on this would be appreciated, as the answer could save me many
thousands of dollars in the future.
Michael Machin
Republic of Korea
The “magic” of VVT-i will
not be lost if you remap the factory ECU or add a piggyback ECU. An interceptor
can also be an effective way to achieve fuel, timing and boost changes without
any sacrifices. As far as we are aware, only the top-level stand-alone
aftermarket programmable systems – such as the latest MoTeCs - are designed to
control stepless variable cam timing
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