Gday , I am seriously looking to buy a nissan skyline which was made between 1988 and 1991. I heard that the equivalent one to the VL calais was a Nissan Skyline Sillouette. Am i correct? Does anyone recommend this car? If so, how much would a good one be worth at themoment roughly? cheers lozza

The equivilent would be the Skyline TI, the Sillouette was a performance model, similar to an S, bodykit, exhaust, chip and different interior i think were the differnces.

I am after a skyline with the equivalent extras like the VL calais. i.e electric windows, power mirrors, power steering, air conditioning, cruise control etc. how much is a good one worth? also, is there anything to look out for when buying one of these cars ? is there any niggling problems that these cars have? ( for instance, the VL 's blew head gaskets . do the nissans have the same problem? ) cheers lozza

Skylines had tailshaft vibration problems in the manuals at least. Go the Silhouette GTS in red.

I think the skylines had a better cooling system, so they don't have the same head cracking problem as VL's

Yeah the reasoning for that Gavin was the RB30 sat lower in the Skylines than in the VL's. Because they sit higher in the Commodores they had issues with flowing the cooling system hence the head gasket issues. All RB30's use an Alloy head as well, making in them more vulnerable to heat issues.

Quote: Originally Posted by my88vl Yeah the reasoning for that Gavin was the RB30 sat lower in the Skylines than in the VL's. Because they sit higher in the Commodores they had issues with flowing the cooling system hence the head gasket issues. All RB30's use an Alloy head as well, making in them more vulnerable to heat issues. Yes the RB30 sat lower in the Skyline etc etc but the 100% proven reason for VLs doing heads and head gaskets has never been established. Another theory I've heard is that GM was having trouble paying for the RB30s at the time because the yen was skyhigh. So they got heads made cheaply with poor quality metal and hence the head problems began.

Yeah you're on the money there Aus, there are ****loads of theories getting around. The most common seems to be the height and flow thing. But you're right... at the time the Yen was apparently sky high and Holden weren't in the best position.

Cool ! so the car i need to look at that is similar to the calais is the Nissan Skyline Ti Silouette. Am i correct? What is the GTS ? is it different again ? The one i am after deoesn't need to be a high performance veichle. How much should i expect to pay for a good one roughly?? cheers lozza

Quote: Originally Posted by lozza Cool ! so the car i need to look at that is similar to the calais is the Nissan Skyline Ti Silouette. Am i correct? lozza No , the Ti and Sillouette are different models. The Silouette is 'sporty' but motor is same as normal Skylines. The Sillouette GTS has more powerfull motor ,different body kit etc. The Ti is what you want. All Skylines will have driveshaft/centre bearing/Centre CV problems wether manual or auto, (just like VLs) Ti's are auto only. A Ti can be had for $2000- $8000. Budget around $500 incl labour for driveshaft repairs if driveshaft etc is original . cheers

I have heard of Skylines cracking heads too,one person in the Zoom magazine a few years back said he had a mate with an R31 Skyline which happened to him "twice". Having said that,I have had 2 Vl's in the last 6 years,my current VL motor is out of the first but I have never had a head problem as the cooling system is always bled and I never touch the radiator cap unless I am refilling the radiator with new coolant and flushing the old coolant out. What I have heard is poor maintenance contributes to VL head cracking. I'd like to see how the twin cam R33 head goes,I think it is a better head than the RB30E head anyway.

I agree with RB30DEVL that poor maintenance is responsible for head cracking on the VL's. I wouldn't ever trust a mechanic to bleed my engine properly. Always pays to check it properly yourself. Corsa

OK.. All R31 skylines had the same chip/exhuast/cam, EXCEPT for the GTS2 &3, which were the sports models which had 130kw and 140kw respectively. The TI Model is the luxury, with cruise, power windows, trip computer etc. It also has the LSD. Pretty much same for the Silhouette, which came with a spoiler.. The GX and GXE were the base models, non LSD. All models had aircon, power steering, 4 wheel disc brakes. Lookout for leaking power steering pumps. Oh yeah, the GTS models only had 200 cars for each model released. They had better suspension/interior, and as such, are about 9-10K.

The R33 GTS-T is definately the VL Turbo of today. A similar engined car, but with a smoother shape and cheap price tag has made it a new age VL Turbo

The price tag may be cheap but what about insurance costs! Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

They are also similar to VL Turbo's in that way, no one has full insurance!

mate has a passage model HR31 (jap import) this has an rb20e in it and i believe used to be turbo, dunno much info about it but it has electric everything and a very comfy velour interior, and green lights on the edges of the bonet facing the driver