Leethal's GQ - Neville Nissan
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You never know who’s reading thisAuto all the way... still would have been happy with a manual but there’s no way I’d change it, loving the auto. Well suited to a solid TD42.
“Slightly refreshed” lol
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Dreading the day come for my old girl.
But for now I'll keep trying to tidy her up bit by bit.
GARDENS have special place.
If I'm lucky my young fella might claim mine in 10 yrs once he got his licence.
Rip old Neville.
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But for now I'll keep trying to tidy her up bit by bit.
GARDENS have special place.
If I'm lucky my young fella might claim mine in 10 yrs once he got his licence.
Rip old Neville.
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@Leethal, seems like there's a few of us here that have some understanding of what you're going through. I'm sitting here with a big lump in my throat just thinking of how hard it was to see my first car go off to live another life. It was a VW Jetta that my dad bought brand new on 30 August 1991, and I bought off him when it was 10 years old. I had to move it on when we packed up and left South Africa to move to Aus. That was 8 years ago and I still miss the bloody thing. It was a big part of my life for 21 years. It would be 30 years old next year and I think it sucks that it's not with me anymore.
If you haven't done so yet, get a box of tissues and watch Eric Bana's movie "Love the Beast". If you have seen it, watch it again.
If you haven't done so yet, get a box of tissues and watch Eric Bana's movie "Love the Beast". If you have seen it, watch it again.
I know that you do not often venture into the tech sections, so would not have read my gearbox thread. So I will post a question for you. With my 5 speed auto, I find that the engine is doing the same job as before, but doing it easier. I think the combination of always being in the right gear instead of the mug owner having his manual box in the wrong gear, and the effect of the torque converter as well, means the engine is always in the sweet spot.
How do you find your engine performs with the 4 speed auto???
Hard to say Shayne with too much accuracy. It doesn’t get off the line quite as well as I’d expected, maybe too much slip in converter? Doesn’t bother me though, I’m not 21 any more. Maybe it’s just getting heavy. I have no doubt it would go significantly harder with a manual, but I also have the issue of the factory TCU. I can’t get any more ashustment in TPS, and if you floor it, you’d really like it to change sooner than it does, instead of sitting on redline for a couple of seconds and thinking about it. But once again, I don’t treat it like a drag car so not overly fussed.
Whete it shines though... sitting on 90kph behind a road train, with camper in tow, to overtake you floor it and it just launches in a fit of torque and you can’t wipe the grin off your face.
For my purposes that’s real world, minimizing time spent on the wrong side of the road.
So basically it comes down to shift points. I haven’t done too much research into aftermarket TCUs, Wholesale Autos want your first born and a kidney for theirs, put me off looking.
Maybe a decent valve body would help? I have a Keas unit but not fitted yet, a year ago the auto guru told me there was sparkly bits in fluid and I’d be lucky to make it home so he advised not to fit it.
Done 15k kms or so since then and nothing’s changed, so not sure what I should do. Can get second hand RE4s for $400 all day every day, or rebuild with all the fruit for prob $4 or $5k I’d imagine, plus extra for triple plate lock up converter.
Disregarding all that, to drive it normally in town, or a week down south to a log fire chalet with plenty of exploring, it’s bloody magic and changes are right when you’d expect up to say 80% or even 90% throttle, just a bit late after that, but I’m not losing sleep over it. Bigger fish to fry at this point.
One day this will be revisited 👍
Whete it shines though... sitting on 90kph behind a road train, with camper in tow, to overtake you floor it and it just launches in a fit of torque and you can’t wipe the grin off your face.
For my purposes that’s real world, minimizing time spent on the wrong side of the road.
So basically it comes down to shift points. I haven’t done too much research into aftermarket TCUs, Wholesale Autos want your first born and a kidney for theirs, put me off looking.
Maybe a decent valve body would help? I have a Keas unit but not fitted yet, a year ago the auto guru told me there was sparkly bits in fluid and I’d be lucky to make it home so he advised not to fit it.
Done 15k kms or so since then and nothing’s changed, so not sure what I should do. Can get second hand RE4s for $400 all day every day, or rebuild with all the fruit for prob $4 or $5k I’d imagine, plus extra for triple plate lock up converter.
Disregarding all that, to drive it normally in town, or a week down south to a log fire chalet with plenty of exploring, it’s bloody magic and changes are right when you’d expect up to say 80% or even 90% throttle, just a bit late after that, but I’m not losing sleep over it. Bigger fish to fry at this point.
One day this will be revisited 👍
Mate normally I’d say yes but I work away two weeks at a time so it’s not like I need the car in the mean time. At least I know this one drives well to start with, so minimal surprises I’d hope.
I told my mate who I used to race with, he has an Re4 behind an 1100nm FTE (obviously not standard).
“Shiny bits?”, he laughed, “SHINY BITS??”
He was pissing himself.
“Mate mine has BOONDIES in it that won’t even fit through the drain plug!!!!”
He changes oil every race and rebuilds it every year.
Admittedly it does occasionally end a season with a box full of neutrals but meh...
I told my mate who I used to race with, he has an Re4 behind an 1100nm FTE (obviously not standard).
“Shiny bits?”, he laughed, “SHINY BITS??”
He was pissing himself.
“Mate mine has BOONDIES in it that won’t even fit through the drain plug!!!!”
He changes oil every race and rebuilds it every year.
Admittedly it does occasionally end a season with a box full of neutrals but meh...
100nm? Yep, sounds like a Toyota!
Should have made the front end into a bbq!
Ah yes, I had forgotten that you used the factory stuff. Not really fair to compare it to mine in that circumstance.
Being able to alter the shift points changes it dramatically. In my case, I started off with basic settings, and the difference when they are dialled in is considerable. Changing gear keeps it in the right rev range, which loads the engine and allows it to produce boost etc. Very different to drive.
I do not recall the price of thew Wholesale Auto TCU for the RE4, but the Shiftkits TCU I believe is also a good option and may be priced better.
A torque converter suited to your engine will make a difference too. The TD42 will make it stall differently to a ZD30 or TB45. In my case, I had a TD42 converter, but my engine makes a lot of torque, and the normal converter that they use was not really up to the task. It took too many revs to get going with my motor. So I sent it back and they actually designed a new one, just for me. Certainly cannot complain about that for service. No doubt they will be able to use it in the future for other customers too.
Yep I used the factory stuff (TCU, TPS etc) because at the time I was more concerned with getting the engine in, getting it driving and getting to the point I could take it camping so things like suspension, drawers, aux batteries and the fridge took on a bigger priority since it was a blank slate.
I‘ll look at the other TCU that you mentioned, WSA want seperate coin for TCU, harness, another adaptor harness, TPS and something else I forgot, I don’t see why a unit and and adaptor can’t do the job, using existing TPS. What if you still had a ZD30 and just wanted an aftermarket TCU so you could program it? Because that’s basically what I have as far as TCU knows.
My converter was certainly not a cheap job and is modified from the ZD unit with the stall as low as they could get without introducing unacceptable heat. A few months later they developed a triple plate lock up which I wish had been an option when I got mine. It certainly doesn’t over rev when you take off at full throttle, it just seems to take longer than I’d expect to get a wiggle on, and has about 600 to 650 odd nm so that should be ok. This mob make plenty of converters for drag and race cars, including TD42s and FTEs with RE4s and a truckload more grunt than mine, so it’s not their first rodeo. Not really bothered, I don’t really have need to launch it like a drag car and to be honest I still have a list of items to sort out before I get too excited about it. However if an aftermarket TCU is a reasonable price and straightforward to fit I’d move that up the list so I’ll google the other one you mentioned 👍
Think I see a familiar silver Vitarda in that pic.
I'm sure you do...
Ok, cool, so the converter should be pretty right. Certainly the shift points made a massive difference on my vehicle. Shiftkits are a WA company from memory, and I know about them because that is what Snatchy used with his conversion that was done a few years ago.
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