Adam W

Fuel pumps are rated in Gallons per hour at a given fuel pressure. They will pump less GPH as you increase the fuel pressure in the system that they have to "pump against". The actual fuel pressure is not determined by the pump at all, but by the fuel pressure regulator. When trying to get more fuel into your engine, you have two choices - 1: increase the line pressure to squirt more fuel through small injectors or 2: Get bigger injectors 1 is not recommended - the injectors have a set operating range and if you exceed this pressure (about 50psi base pressure at a guess) there is a danger they will permanently lock open or closed, plus as the pressure goes up their spray pattern is affected, along with atomisation of the fuel mixture, hence combustion efficiency etc. 2 is the way to go! The "550" or "680" for injectors means the cubic centimetres per minute of fuel they will flow at max safe "duty cycle" (the proportion of the time that the injector is open) and a set fuel pressure (you may need an adjustable Fuel Pressure Regulator to achieve this pressure). At the website for RC engineering there are calcs you can do to work out what size injectors you need for a set horsepower. Say you want 450bhp, you might need six 550cc/min injectors running at 45psi base fuel pressure. These injectors, when fully open, will be flowing ~50gallons per hour (work this out using density of petrol, volumes etc). Your max fuel pressure is determined by (base fuel pressure) + (max boost pressure). As boost goes up, your fuel pressure regulator will increase the fuel pressure by the same amount, so that the pressure differential across the injector (ie between the fuel rail and the manifold) stays constant. (Steer clear of rising rate FPR's, these increase fuel pressure by, say, 1.5 or 2 psi for each 1psi boost increase. From what I've heard, they're a nasty bodge. ) So, if your base fuel pressure is 45 psi and your max boost is 18 psi, your max fuel pressure will be 63psi. This means that your pump will need to be capable of flowing 50gph@63psi. Simple, innit? At this point you may also wish to consider buying a fuel computer, such as the Apexi SAFC, to allow you to fine tune your fuel mixture. Following any fuelling mods, you should get your fuel mapping checked on a dyno by someone with a WIDEBAND O2 meter, this will tell you if you are in danger of running lean or not. I have just upgraded the fuel system on my Mk3, hence I had to do all the research above, and I discovered that replacing one item without upgrading the whole lot will have minimal benefits. On nearly all cars, the whole system will be pretty well matched - the pumps capacity will match the peak flow of the stock injectors at a pressure determined by the stock fuel pressure regulator. If you increase fuel pressure to try and force more fuel in, you may knacker your injectors. Also you will quickly reach a point where the stock fuel pump can't supply that much fuel at that much pressure. You will also exceed the stock pumps flow limitations if you try and run really big injectors. It's one of those jobs you just have to do properly, or not at all, if you don't want a melted engine at some point.

Like I said, talk to Matt, he's an alarm installer by trade and he'll probably give you a step-by-step guide or something. Are you sure it's not the alarm timing out after you've entered the wrong code too many times or something?

Send a message to Matt Harwood on this site, he is an alarm GOD! He helped me out big style last week getting my alarm sorted after I lost my keys.

Oh, and for chrissake don't bother with EBC red or green pads. Greens on the front of my supra were OK to use, but lasted less than 4000 miles, and a friend of mine used reds on his BMW and was equally impressed. I think you'd get much better results investing in UK discs and pads all round. I haven't heard very many good things about cross-drilled discs either . . .

It sounds like your old BOV was starting to open under boost, and some the air was escaping through it - hence, your turbos were working really hard but some of that air pressure was being squirted out into your engine bay.

I got what looks to be a really good rad from Chris Wilson for my Mk3. 160 row vs 120 row, and a very good price. Don't know if he can source anything for a IV or not . . .

I also came to the conclusion that it was too complicated for me to mess with, but before I bought one. Sorry. But if you're hitting the boost you want, and it's holding it nicely, then what more do you need to know?

Don't know much about them but try http://www.lexusclub.co.uk for the UK Soarer owners group. The Supra and Soarer OC's had a bit of a barney a while back though so you might want to avoid mentioning what car you drive!

That's all there is to it Mark. It's likely that some of the bolts under there will be all rusted up though, so use plenty of WD40 and get your hands on some six point sockets.

I can't help thinking it would be well worth re-doing these tests with a bit more scientific rigour than using an old vacuum cleaner. Between us we probably already own most of the filters on the market, so we wouldn't have to buy them. All we need now is a suction device that accurately mirrors how the engine "draws breath", and a way of assessing how much dirt is let through. I think I have an old vacuum cleaner in the garage somwhere . . .

I think there is an american product for targa top Mk3's which acts on the same prinicple as a strutbrace, but ties the front and rear halves of the car together somehow. Never paid much attention as I don't have a targa so I couldn't tell you what they looked like or even where they bolted on, but it may be worth investigating. "Targa wobble" won't be affected much by tieing the suspension turrets together IMHO, you need more stiffening front-to-back rather than side-to-side.

MY guess is that if either of the wing sensors is going backwards (or even slowing down) while the central sensor is going forwards then the airbgas go off - similar to the ABS sensors where the difference in wheel speeds is more important than the actual speed. You could always try shaking one really hard to see what happens?

I've never used scotch locks (at least I don't think I have!) - are they the thing where you put the wires parallel to each other in a plastic housing, and then push a little blade down so it cuts halfway through both the wires? I use those connector blocks for all non critical wiring (stereo etc) and never had a problem with them - are they an offense in the eyes of the electric gods too? What's the best way of t-ing into an existing wire? For example, I need to tap into my ECU wiring to fit my apexi gizmos - I don't need to sever the connection to my ECU, I just need to run another feed into my SAFC and RSM-GP for things like the speed and rev signal wires.

Well, yeah, I was gonna say all that but I didn't want to go over peoples heads with it Seriously though, some good info in there - I sort of knew that's what was happening but I couldn't have written it down so well! Like Ian and Branners have said, probably overkill on a largely stock system with many huge restrictions in it anyway.

Oh yes. I think my next door neighbours learnt a few new words while I was putting mine back together last week. "You sodding bolt, you can just *&$% the £%^^ing %&$^ buggering $*&& bandit !$!*$$ toss piece arse &$$^% and **** it you little *£^!, then !£$% until the handle breaks off and you have to call a doctor to pull it out again!" I love it really

Well, maybe it wouldn't be the "done thing" to have a first attempt on someone elses car, but when it comes down to it,. it's just nuts and bolts and wiggling stuff until it fits. No real mystery to it, you just need nine inch ratchet fingers, 360 degree wrists, and five arms with reversible elbow joints!

Surely the best part of an upgrade like that would be fitting it yourself? Rather than spend £2.5k getting it fitted, bring the whole lot to my place, I'll bolt it up just for the fun of it, than you can pay someone £500 to check I haven't made a cock up! Sure, pay a mechanic to do the boring stuff like oil changes if you want, but I reckon you don't fully appreciate your car until you've had it in a thousand pieces and put it back together again. It's a joyous occasion when it fires up and doesn't explode or anything! Kinda like when your first child is born I would imagine . . .

"Dimly lit blub" sounds like most of the dumbass drivers that I have to overtake to get to work on time

You might also want to check out Clutchmasters clutches - I have been doing loads of research on a clutch upgrade for my Mk3T, and from what I've read on Supraforums etc, the RPS is good . . . but the CM is better. More expensive though All IMHO, not knocking Pauls product at all, I'm sure it's a good clutch, just pointing out that there are other options available. Theres a good list of what's out there at http://www.suprastore.com - I wouldn't recommend that you buy from them though! btw, Paul is right in saying that the RPS clutch is identical to the TRD clutch. At least it is for the Mk3.

Well, the effect of fitting "bottlenecked" downpipes (like Chris makes) is to restrict the amount of exhaust gases coming out of the engine, and therefore the amount of exhaust gases which go through the turbo spinning it up. The result, less boost. If you were to enlarge your wastegate or fit an external one, this would flow more exhaust around the turbos (as opposed to spinning them up). The result, less boost. The downpipe method is cheaper and easier. I think Alex has a pair of Chris Wilson pipes for sale, making it cheaper still!

It makes a huge difference to the handling of the car, and you're talking about a 50% difference in weight. I couldn't tell you why though, except to say that F1 teams don't use incredibly light, incredibly expensive wheels and suspension components for show! Some passing expert or other will be along in a moment to expand on this . .. .

I ran on optimax exclusively for about three months, and then had to put a tank of BP SUL in. The car ran like utter shite, really rough sounding, missing at idle and under boost, very tractor-like. As soon as possible, I went back to optimax, and five seconds after I turned the key on the forecourt, it felt silky smooth again; I've never used anything else since! I know it sounds dramatic, but it was such a huge difference that I'm positive I didn't imagine it. It's as addictive for engines as crack cocaine and bent VCR's are for scousers

I spoke to Chris recently about this very subject (for my Mk3) - he reckons Pace are best avoided because their cores are very low quality. He recommended Docking and Co, based at Silverstone, http://www.dockingengineering.com/ Chris says . . . "They do a lovely job, albeit at a price. But you get just what you pay for with ali fabrication I'm afraid" I don't know whether I can afford to have a lovely job done or not, so I might yet end up going with Pace, or perhaps this company you've discovered if their rates are reasonable. Do they have a website?

You can try a tube of that instant gasket stuff - it has held up well on my thermostat housing for about six months, but I wouldn't recommend it for extended duty . . . should be fine for a couple of weeks. Mines Loctite, blue goo in a white tube.

If you start losing coolant from your expansion tank then there is a problem, otherwise it's nothing to worry about.