As I hinted at last week, Brett's 180 has been losing fluid from the hydraulic clutch, since he took delivery of it in fact. At first we figured the fluid must be leaking out of the slave cylinder, as no obvious leaks were visible from the master cylinder. Although we couldn't see any fluid around the slave cylinder, we assumed that was the ( Read more... )

Well we cured the noise. Not quite the way we hoped, but it is gone. Once we had pulled all of the induction piping off we could get a better idea of the work required to pull the turbo off, and it didn't look easy. Basically the SR20's exhaust manifold joins to the turbo in such a way that the two studs closest to the engine are near on impossible ( Read more... )

The turbo is fine. Saturday we pitched early to Turbotech to glean their opinion on what was wrong with the 'charger. These guys are the top dogs when it comes to turbochargers, their workshop is really something to behold. After a short drive one of their mechanics told us that the turbo was fine, because it was boosting rapidly and didn't blow ( Read more... )

For a while now the red 180SX of Brett's has been making a kind of tweeting noise when on boost. At first it was only at fairly high boost level but recently it has begun happening earlier and earlier. Initial thoughts were rubbing of induction hoses or the clutch thrust bearing. I think we also had in the back of our minds the thought that it may ( Read more... )