DJZ

T5 was factory behind some of them in earlier turbo Z31s, the Nissan code was FS5R90A. Late turbo Z31s had FS5R30As which are the same internals as VG30DETT & RB25DET boxes. You can also get FS5W71C boxes which are pretty much the same internals are RB20DET boxes etc. I'm not sure what comes in the utes/Narvaras/Pathfinders etc Nissan used the T5s in the 280ZX turbos and Z31s because they didn't think their gearbox was strong enough but lots of people in the States think the FS5W71C box can actually handle more power and shifts better.

Pretty sure I got mine from Jaycar or RS Components would have some.

Had this thing on the dyno today, pretty interesting. Zac and I took it out last night to try and do the learning mode on the boost controller. It didn't go very well and in the end it seemed to be hitting some kind of cut out or the pressure relief valve was opening. We had a quick look at it this morning, wound the pressure relief valve in, fixed a broken hose going to the factory boost sensor (I really need to replace this hose as it's getting shorter and shorter), moved the pressure source for the boost controller from the inlet manifold to the compressor housing, while trying to do this I had to remove the wastegate actuator and found out the wastegate flapper was stuck half open! I'll probably have to remove the wastegate flapper and hone out the hole that the rod runs through to fix it, I got it moving again but in the first maybe 1/4 of the travel it still felt notchy. I really need to pull the turbo off and swap it for the T3/4. Anyway, with the boost controller set at 0.8 bar boost was creeping up and it was going dangerously lean so I set the controller down to 0.5 bar, it was still creeping up but we got most of a run out of it, up to about 6300rpm I think it was, final result was 158kW. Time for bigger turbo, bigger injectors and an SR computer swap I think!

I'm interested to know why the L series has more potential N/A than an RB?

It really comes down to what you want to spend and what you are doing with the car. Sticking with the L series depending on what else you are doing with the car means you don't have to cert it. For the price of a well build 3.1L with throttle bodies + gearbox I'd guess you could get 50 - 100% more power out of an RB25 or 25/30. There are things I miss about my old 3.1 with throttle bodies but I wouldn't go back from the RB in the Z. I would like to build another turbo L series at some stage though.

How much money do you have and what are you wanting to do with the car in the end?

According to the ACL catalogue they use the same gaskets so possibly? I can't help any further than that.

Swapped the BOV springs yesterday and took it for a quick drive, managed to pop one of the intercooler pipes off so I ended up pulling all of them off and ran a couple of little beads around the ends of all of them to help them stop falling off. I made up a mounting bracket for the last piece of piping near the BOV and also remade the pipe on the outlet of the turbo so it's one piece all the way to the intercooler. Made up two mounts for the cooler too so it's pretty solid now. Took it for a bit of a drive around today, was do some reasonable speed then I heard a bang, couldn't figure out what it was till I got home and found this piece bent completely backwards, I've bent it forwards again for the picture. One of the little plastic mounts at the front had snapped of. It's pretty much rooted so I pulled it off.

Been doing a couple of jobs on this thing. Installed the boost controller the other day, it seems to be working but I think I need to run through the setup again, with it set at 0.8 bar is going up to over 1 bar. I replaced the intercooler pipe after the radiator support. Chopped up a long leg 45 degree bend then welded it back together so I've gotten rid of the 45 degree silicon bend. Also welded on the blow off valve flange, I fitted the fake Tial valve I had, it works but not very well. I'm going to borrow the spring out of the real Tial one possibly tomorrow if I've got time. It's $50 for a genuine Tial spring. Got a little bit more work to do to get the piping perfect, but it's close. I also got a 3" bend to connect the air filter to the air flow meter. And tonight I made up a pipe to get rid of the cat converter. The front pipe measured about 60mm OD and the rear about 70mm so I got some 2.5" pipe and two new flanges. The cat still had all the guts in it but when I was moving it around bits started falling out. The car sounds a bit better in my opinion, it seems to be a bit more burbly when the revs are dropping but I haven't actually driven it yet, maybe tomorrow. Yes, it does have wheel nuts at one end. I wasn't planning on finishing it tonight but got most of the way there and thought I'd chuck it on and those are all I could find at work.

Be aware that if you are having new outers made there may only be certain sizes that you can get which is the problem that I had. I asked for one thing and got something different because they only had the formers to do ½ an inch either side of what I wanted.

Seen this one? http://www.trademe.co.nz/a.aspx?id=508238585

After you've looked for leaks (front cover, sump & rear main) I'd try changing the valve stem seals to fix the oil consumption before doing anything else serious. Does anybody know what happened to the Wats that used to be on it?

Got sick of the squealing from the front brakes so I bought some more. I'll keep the other ones for the DR, might end up swapping the rotors for some correct ones to match the calipers. These are the biggest of the non Brembo Skyline brakes, R34 GT-t at 310x30mm. The rotors are Znoelli ones with the fancy thermographic paint on the sides. Will try and get them on this weekend and hopefully no more squeal! I have to drill out the caliper mounting holes to 14mm to match the calipers which shouldn't be too hard.

Here are some pics of the intercooler, will try and get the last piece of pipe this Saturday and either a mushroom type air filter or another 3" right angle silicon to replace my current not very sealed air filter setup. After the rain the other day I discovered about 10 - 15 litres of water in the side well in the boot. Had to drill a hole in the bottom of it to drain it out, after all the water was out I had a better look and it seems somebody has welded a patch in there where the original bung should have been (probably because it's started rusting) and then hasn't drill a hole in it, idiots.

Decided to put the intercooler in tonight. It's not 100% finished but it's in and plumbed up. Seems to have made a bit of difference, the car feels a bit torquier. I need to get one more length of the shiny pipe to replace the piece of thicker walled dull finish pipe and I found an ali 45 degree so I can replace one more silicon. Also bought an almost complete N/A FJ20 for $112, might have to find some twin carbs and a 1600 to put it in.

Yeah, non Brembo R32 GTR rotors are 296x32. R33 calipers might work as well but they are made for 296x30 rotors.

Ended up just recutting the thread on the temp switch, it was definitely 3/8" BSPT by the looks of it. Fans both come on now when the gauge gets to about 3/4 of the way up. I yanked out the air con today and the intercooler is going to end up something like this. I had to remove the headlight to open up the hole for the piping a little bit and ended up breaking one of the studs off, they were really rusty. I drilled it out and tacked a bolt in it's place. The only part I'm not really happy about is the pipe between the intercooler and throttlebody just after where it comes through the radiator support. It's a bit annoying as the power steering tensioner is really high on the motor as you can see in some of the pictures so I have to have a 90 degree then a 45 degree to meet up with the other pipe. I'm probably going to weld on a 90 degree bend to replace that silicon then still have the 45 degree. I'll be welding the pipes together to try and get rid of as many silicons as possible. The other problem is the air flow meter piping, I might have to change my filter from the K&N to something a bit smaller to fit in the gap that I have and get another silicon bend to hang the air flow meter over the pipe out of the turbo. There is heaps more room with the air con pipes out of the way. Things aren't going to stay like this forever anyway once I change the exhaust manifold and turbo.

Got this thing back together today. Bought 2 new rear hubs off a guy in the Z Club, measured up the where the inner bearing runs and it was pretty much spot on 30mm where the old one was 29.85ish, swapped the long studs out of the old hub into the new one, went to press on the new outer wheel bearing, tight, tight, loose. Busted out a few swear words and then the Loctite bearing retainer. I can't be bothered trying to get it sleeved or find another one at the moment so this will have to do. I got the only bearing kit that Saeco had left in stock, doesn't really matter as the bearings are still available on their own and the seal was the wrong size anyway. Put the whole lot back together with the new 8Kg springs in the back, it looks like it's sitting slightly higher but that's to be expected as I didn't adjust the height at all. The funny noise that appeared after I took the companion flange off last time has gone away, I'm wonder if it was the dust shield on the companion flange touching on something because the wheel bearing was loose? Not sure. The weather wasn't really great for winding it out in 1st gear but I think the companion flanges aren't hitting on the body any more, I'll have to check on the ride height and possibly lower it and bit, then check again.

1. What kind of RB are you after for a start. RB20E, ET, DE (3 or 4 types), 20DET (3 or 4 types), RB25DE (3 or 4 types), 25DET (3 types?), RB30E, ET, RB26DETT 2. I'm 99% certain the where the mounts bolt to the block is the same for all RB engines. The physical mounts themselves are different depending on year or if the motor was 4wd etc. 3. The mount on the autos is either futher forward or back from the manual mount, can't remember which but I think it's like 50mm out one way? 4. The yolks may be the same for the "small" boxes but the driveshafts are different lengths from memory and most of the shafts are 2 piece. Manual yolks are pretty easy to come by. RB25DET 2wd & RB30ET boxes take bigger yolks, the 4wd boxes are wacky. 5. Yes

Got my intercooler today, it's pretty averagely made and feels pretty light but it'll do the job. I jammed it in the front to have a look, definitely going to have to remove the air con which is a bit of a shame but it doesn't work anyway. The cooler looks quite good in there, I'm going to try and get it as centered as possible, I don't like things being offset I got a new fan switch as well, drained all the coolant out, removed the old switch, went to put the new one in and it looks like the thread is different. It looks tapered (possibly 3/8") where it should be 16x1.5. I'll have to ring up Tridon tomorrow and get them to check their other ones as it's the right part number and the description says it should be 16mm. Took some photos but I can't be bothered going through the rigmarole of trying to get them off the fancy camera tonight, I'll do it tomorrow.

That's just up the road from my work. I can possibly have a look on Monday if you can't find anyone else.

My new injectors plugs showed up from the US today so tonight I chopped the injector plugs and also the water temp sensor plug off and soldered on the new ones, I also cleaned the terminals on the injectors and temp sensor, 3/5 sets of connectors had quite a bit of corrosion. The car seems to run a little bit better now, doesn't seem to pop/miss at idle which it was doing a little bit before. We'll see how it goes tomorrow when it's cold. Hooked a boost gauge up today to see what vacuum it's pulling so I can order a new spring for my fake Tial BOV, looks to be around the 19 - 20 inches mark which is not too bad, it goes up to about 22 - 23 after I blip the throttle. Ordered my intercooler finally today, it should be here tomorrow or Wednesday. Will have to have a look at mounting it and see if I have to remove the air con dryer(?).

So ignore those posts about changing the alternator, managed to kill the alternator yesterday trying to fix the battery light problem. Took the car around to Zac's for him to have a look at and after trying a few things we decided it must be a fault within the alternator, we must have left it a bit too long with the sense and lamp wires backwards, there was a bit of smoke and now alternator no worky. I put the original one back on today - the battery light goes off like it's supposed to now. Got my front 5 stud hubs today, thanks James! Now I just need to fix the rooted rear one, buy some new brakes and wheels and chuck it all together. Easy as that! Had a bit of a play with the fake Tial BOV that I bought for the Z originally, I cut down the spring too short so ended up buying a real Tial. I connected it up to vacuum on the DR while the car was running and it was opening a couple of millimetres so I shimmed up the spring until it was just closed at idle, only problem is the spring looks like it's binding up now as I can only open it about 6mm. Time for a new spring, just need to find my boost gauge that works and see what kind of vacuum it's actually pulling when warm.

So I've managed to get another pair of Z31 rear hubs, just need to get them down from Auckland and get a new set of wheel bearings for that side and chuck it back together. Rung up Euroblast to find out about metal spraying, guy I talked to wasn't interested at all and did nothing to talk up the process and wouldn't even really give me an estimate just told me it was "expensive" and "not worth it". I've got the 8Kg springs for the rear, I've installed one, the spring perch is now only about 20 - 30mm from the top of the shock body, I don't really think it'll cause any problems. I don't really know much about it but will a short 8Kg spring bind faster than a longer 8Kg spring? I guess once it's back in the car and on the ground I can see how much the spring is compressed. Still thinking about whether to install the new Nolathane rear control arm bushes I got ages ago, I probably should as one control arm is almost out and it's not really that big a job to remove the other.

Alright, got the new alternator mounted on the weekend, used a modified L series adjuster which unfortunately isn't a threaded locking one, just a slotted bracket but it seems to work okay! Upgraded some of the wiring including the output of the alternator to the battery and a new much, much thicker ground cable. So I checked the output of the old alternator before I took it off and it was around 14.2V with nothing on, with the new alternator with the high beams, radio and heater on full it's making 14.4V. Only problem is the car doesn't think it's charging even though it clearly is. There is a bulb check relay that lights up most of the lights on the dash which is triggered by the alternator so it knows when the ignition is on but the car isn't running, but the lights are on all the time. I pulled out the relay and the battery light is still on all the time, I've been driving it around since the weekend and it's running fine so I'm not quite sure what the problem is. My late Z31 5 stud hubs have arrived so I'll have to find some rotors and some new wheels, I'm leaning towards R32 GTR wheels or possibly another type of BBS wheel, nothing too flash or expensive. I'm thinking about buying some R32 GTR calipers to try and fix the squealing from the Z brakes so that would make the R33 calipers spare so they might end up on this. Ever since I've had the car the temperature gauge has been acting weird, I had a bit of a look the other day and the wire going to it broke off in my hand so I crimped on a new terminal but no change to the gauge reading, had a bit more of a look at the sender and the hex was rounded off and the resin part in the centre was loose and was able to turn. I looked through the catalogue at Repco and of course there was no DR in there, closest thing was an S12 with an FJ so I got one of those senders but it must be the wrong resistance range as it would barely read above the first bar. I had a bit of a think and I'm pretty sure the gauge clusters are the same between the HRs and DR30s so I had a dig around in the garage and found a brand new Z sensor, kept digging and found the threaded collar that the Z's use to hold the sender in, had a measure up and it had a 16mm thread too, chucked it in and the gauge seems to be reading sweet. As it heats up it sits pretty much half way on the gauge, sitting in traffic it goes a little bit higher - I'm not actually sure that the fans are coming on, I've tested the fans themselves and they do work. Might put a couple of little LEDs running off the fan wiring so I know when the fans come on. The L series setup looks like this: