Tech Support - Import and Tuner - Super Street Magazine

Ready for the month of June? Then so are we. Now that it's starting to heat up outside (thanks to a little friend who goes by the name of global warming), nothing beats lying under your car on jack stands in a hot garage with the fan blowing hotter air at you, forcing you to sweat profusely. Sure you can try to wipe the perspiration from your eyes with your greasy paw, but that'll just make it worse. Summer sure is great, isn't it? Don't worry, we're over here suffering right along with you. Wipe your hands off on your mom's guest towels and hit us up. If you think you have good penmanship, send your written inquiries into Super Street magazine c/o Technical Support, 6420 Wilshire Blvd.,

Los Angeles, CA 90048. Using a pen would be nice for a change. When you're done letting your friends know that Microsoft and AOL are working together to give away free money, hit us up at tech@superstreetonline.com.

The Technical Support Inquiry of the Month gets a SARD Sweeper that reduces the load on the battery. It's brought to you by Kure Motorsports (www.kuremotorsports.com).

Question Of The Month

Q What's up, fellas? I have an '05 Subaru STi and have run into a little bit of a problem. I guess the fan wasn't working and I was driving around town in traffic during the summer which caused the car to overheat. I didn't notice for a while-since the car is only two years old I don't keep an eye on the water temp gauge. So here I am driving back and forth like an idiot, with my temp needle pegging the red zone ready to shoot out of my dash. I finally caught on when my car started running funny so I turned it off right away to let it cool down. I was almost home so I limped it back and tried to figure out what was wrong. It turned out that my amplifier was tapped into the same power as the fan and it blew the fuse. I fixed that, but the car sounds really messed up when I start it. Save me.

Shaun Simmons
Phoenix, AZ

A Ouch. That sounds like a bad deal all around. Overheating a car that long is damn near fatal. The first thing to go is probably the head gasket. Then you have to worry about whether or not you warped your head and block, which is very possible depending on how hot it got in there. Of course, you have to think about the internals too, like the pistons, rings and rods and whether or not you scorched the cylinder walls. Expect the worst because it looks like you're going to be in a world of hurt.

Q I know that when you are looking for a tuner car a turbo engine is the best choice, but what I don't know is why. If a turbo engine is putting out 200 ponies and so is a NA, why choose the turbo? Would the NA not gain more from a turbo than the turbo? I'm talking potential. Well, either way hit me back with an answer. Thanks.

DJ Gemini
Via the Internet

A Turbo cars aren't always the best choice when looking for a tuner car. It's mostly a matter of preference. Turbo cars start off with more power and are easy to add onto and for fairly cheap. Merely opening up the intake and exhaust and then throwing a boost controller on can add globs of horsepower in the blink of an eye. The main thing to keep in mind isn't the peak horsepower (though that's the only thing people look at), but where the power kicks in and for how long. Usually, a naturally aspirated engine hits peak power sooner because it doesn't have to deal with issues like turbo lag. And if you were just looking at a 200hp all-motor car, then you would have a very fast street car. But when you get into a higher horsepower naturally aspirated setup, then it's not as easy just to throw boost on top of it. There are other factors to consider like a higher compression motor with more aggressive profile cams and completely different fuel and timing maps.

Q I'd have to say that I love your magazine and even more when you do projects on the Nissan 240SX. But I got a tough one for you: I have an '89 240SX and was wondering how my friend with a '93 fastback without power steering can still turn and all that. Is that possible? Because he said that mine doesn't have power steering, either. I have the shell and I'm putting in an SR20 motor so is it true that my car doesn't have power steering? And if it doesn't, where can I get it. Because I was in his car and I tried to steer it, and I did but it was kind of hard. Help me if you can.

Minh
Via the Internet

A Amazingly enough, there was a time when cars weren't equipped with power steering and people still managed to turn. From what we remember, all the 240SXs came with power steering, even the base models. The thing with your car is, since it's an '89 and came with the single-cam motor, you won't be able to use the original power steering with the engine swap. You'll either have to, A) live with no power steering and get buff arms, B) get some custom lines made, or C) order the power steering lines off of a '91-94 240SX from the dealer. We'd pick C and we would go through Superior Nissan (626.965.5060, www.superiornissanmotorsports.com) because they know the exact parts you need to make everything work, plus they carry all the SR20 parts in case you break something on your swap.

Q Hey, Super Street, what's up? I have a '98 Mitsubishi Eclipse GS and I want some more power out of it. Do you guys know about any good turbo kits? What parts would you recommend to make my slow GS into a sleeper? Thanks for being such a good magazine.

Travis Hotz
Valrico, FL

A We spent some time trying to figure out why you'd buy a non-turbo Eclipse but eventually gave up. It didn't take long for us to find a couple of turbo kits for your car. Check out Hahn Racecraft (www.hahnracecraft.com) for some pretty cool bolt-on kits. Their stage 1 and 2 kits boast up to 275 hp on just 10 lb of boost. If you wanna get into a more detailed system that upgrades the fuel and eventually the internals, you can find that from them, too. While you're at it, go ahead and take a gander at the Turbokits.com (www.turbokits.com, duh) Web site for their Eclipse turbo kit. It's a really complete setup with all the fuel upgrades and hardware ready to bolt-on, and you can look to gain up to 100hp. We're sure there are more options out there, but these two companies will give you a push in the right direction and we can't be doing all the leg work for you.