Has anyone gotten vbulletin to work wih utf-8 db tables?

[baraban]

I am running vbulletin 3.6 on linux, php 4.4 and mysql 4.1.13. The database server and tables are already setup as utf-8 and have properly formatted utf-8 data in them, as is evidenced by looking at the data using phpMyAdmin (so please do not reply with links to threads that talk about converting the tables), however, this data does not get rendered properly under Vbulletin.

I have noticed that there are settings:
$config['Mysqli']['charset'] = 'utf8';
$config['Database']['dbtype'] = 'mysqli';

However, this seems to only apply to php 5 and mysql 4.1.3 and above.
How do those of us who must use utf-8 tables with php 4.3+ and mysql 4.1+ get around this problem?

Potential solution could be simply force vbulletin to establish all of its mysql connections as utf-8. I am guessing that since this is not in the configuration file, I will need to add a line in class_core.php, but I have not been able to figure out exactly where this would be. If there is a better solution for dealing with a utf-8 database - please speak up, as well!

P.S. I originally ran into this problem over a year ago and gave up on upgrading to this newer environment from an old vbulletin 2 installation. Now, a year later I am trying again and can still find no additional info. Please help, somebody...

[baraban]

Folks, please help out! I should just be able to "SET NAMES 'utf8'" on line 277 class_core.php in the db_connect routine for mysql and be done with it. However, vbulletin crashes as soon as I attempt to do that or even simply "SET character_set_results = 'utf8'". This type of thing worked for many other applications. I guess vbulletin team worked really hard to make sure your database could not be utf-8...

[Dismounted]

Have you tried contacting vBulletin Support?