VTA BOVs - pah! Begone with you (pair)

Another of those things the car had when I got it was a pair of Vent to Atmosphere (VTA) Blow off Valves (BOVs) and I don't really like them. There is the argument that on a car equipped with AFM there is always unmetered air going into the engine when you release the throttle. While this is maybe true the fact that these valves 'dump to atmosphere' when you shut the throttle means there is no fuel being injected either so it kinda isn't a problem. However that's not the issue i have with them. The issue I have with them is not only do they dump air when lifting off the throttle after being WOT, the darned things sound like they are dumping on part throttle as well almost to the point of leaking when not hard on the gas. Anyways, managed to find myself a pair of OEM BOVs complete with the mounting bracket so I figured not many moving parts, 30yo or not they should work. I did buy new rubber hoses for them ha, OEM from Japan no less. I forgot to get the top hose but mine was ok to re-use and saved a bit of faffing around with the top one.

So how does it feel and sound after the changeover. Wonderful, so far. Nice and quiet though you can still hear some intake roar when on the power but no phsssssssssst when driving part throttle, no PHSSST when lifting off under heavish throttle loads. It does actually feel slightly smoother on gear changes as well, feels like it doesn't stumble / pause like it did before as the recirc works and likely the OEM units shut faster and stay closed more than the HKS units. Try and give them a bit of clean and then see if anyone wants them

Front indicators

Been a long time since i added to this blog and a few things have been done. Let us start with last years light update

So yes one of the Nissan clear indicators has had a crack in it since before i bought it and while it's not like the car gets driven in the rain, or power washed to death it did look a big naff. I would have gone to the OEM amber but they are kerching if you find them and even the Figaro units (which Nissan used) aren't exactly common on the ground either. I did however find that many R33 owners have used crystal clear style front units which are available at a reasonable price and should match near enough the clear wing mounted units. So, first issue was getting the lights out which could have been a total nightmare but in fact the single fixing screw per indicator unit came out no bother on both side. Much happiness.

Below is the first choice i bought next to the cracked OEM unit

then I managed to source a pair of clear front from the Figaro

choices were middle OEM Nisssan Figaro (which is the source of these lights anyway) or go crystal clear with the amber being less noticeable until actually in use. Anyhow, I made a choice, tada

and then finally fitted back onto the car once i was happy the alignment was equalish on both sides. Looks nice enough I think and always the option to go back to the Nissan units should I want to.

I quite like the end result but you'll have to excuse all the white space in the post, it seems that is how google likes to do the formatting. Time to revists my long forgotten HTML coding skillz.........