I thought i'd drop you a link to a slideshow of all the progress on the car so far plus a few new photos to show you where it's at at the moment.

 

Just having a mass ebay then ordering new parts in the next couple of weeks.

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/600zx/

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope i never have to put another speedo sender into that gearbox again. It's a simple one bolt system that holds the cover in place so you'd think 5-10 mins?

 

Nope - had to jack the gearbox, undo the gearbox mounting bracket which is covered by the exhaust so doing it by touch to remove 8 bolts, finally squeezed the sender in, aligned it and tightened up the nut then had to get the loom into place. The bracket had then moved so i had to get a screw driver with about 3 inches of room over my face and crank it back into place while trying to start the bolts off with my fingers then spin the spanner round in my fingers to do it up.

 

Total bloody nightmare and took me 3 hours all in all :( To top it off then i had to connect up the reverse switch to turn the reverse lights on so managed to finally get a spanner big enough to undo the sensor, cut the wires, spliced and soldered them, made up a loom and fed it up through the floor and bolted it back in to find i'd just wired up the neutral safety switch - doh!

 

Eventually got it right and wired up the reverse switch at 12.30am last night having been in there since 6pm so i'm knackered today but at least it's done now!

you should know by now nothing on these cars is a 5min job :lol::lol:

Well i get back on the site and what do I find, Nick has created a monster!!

 

HOLY SNAPPIN DUCK S@&T

Nick , get this Z done! I have been following and reading all along and Im getting a little anxious.

Top work mate, well done.

you should know by now nothing on these cars is a 5min job :lol::lol:

 

Especially when nothing is supposed to fit in the first place :rofl:

 

Nick , get this Z done! I have been following and reading all along and Im getting a little anxious.

 

I know, i know :rofl: Well good news is i'm dropping off the front bumper and nose panel at the sprayers (helpful chap that he is ;) lol) so should have the car with the correct colour bits on it by the end of the week. I'm finishing the last tidying up underneath tonight, changing the exhaust manifold gasket and bolts and starting to put the interior back tonight then should be booking it for it's MOT on Thursday morning :)

 

Well i get back on the site and what do I find, Nick has created a monster!!

 

HOLY SNAPPIN DUCK S@&T

 

haha :rofl: have you not seen this thread yet buddy or anything before? :D

 

Top work mate, well done.

 

Cheers Steve, hoping i'll have it running and bug free for saturday because it's the Miss Banzai tunnel run in london and i'm determined to make it this year! :wheelchair:

Mate it's been two and a half years since I left blighty, all my time this last 18 months has been taken up with building my house and I'm still not finished, but the itch is back

Perhaps time to build your very own V8 muscle zed buddy ;)

 

If an idiot like me can do then surely you can do it :rofl:

Well took the bumper and nose panel up to Pete's house last night and was busy prepping and rubbing back the bumper with 400 grit till 11ish. Everything's now prepped up for spraying today in 2 pack so finsgers crossed i should have them back before the weekend to refit.

 

Luckily i still have the original nose panel and bumper to use in the meantime so i'll just slap those on for the time being.

 

Back onto the car tonight and get that exhaust manifold finished and the interior back in :)

 

 

 

Almost there mate :duffer:

Veeeeery close now. Just have to figure out the fuel breather issue, change the exhaust manifold gasket and i'll be done mechanically then it's just wire up 12v to the reverse switch and pop it up to the reverse light and i'll be ready to refit the interior and get it over to the MOT station on Thursday morning :)

Well underneath is finished although i've found the brakes badly need bleeding again after the leak so i'll be doing that tonight.

 

Indicators and all lights are working fine now, just the exhaust manifold to finish then i can start on the interior and we're done.

 

I've had to put the stock bumper and nose cone on for the time being but apart from that it's looking good :hyper:

 

I also need to get that air filter sorted out pretty sharpish - bugger! :(

 

The ultimate sleeper......... :D

 

 

Suppliiiise! :rofl:

 

Just bumped into my MOT tester for tomorrow in Morrisons while i popped up for a sandwich and had a quick chat as to what he'll be looking for tomorrow.

 

According to him, all i need working is:

 

Headlights - TICK

Indicators - TICK

Brakes - TICK

Fog light on switch with a light somewhere - TICK

Speedo - not needed

Reverse light - not needed

Emissions test - not needed on a carb engine this old

Interior - Only seatbelts needed with seats bolted firmly to the floor

 

Looking good for me passing! :rofl:

Okay so where was i yesterday then you may ask?

 

Well where i was supposed to be was at the MOT station for 12.30pm - unfortunately i didn't make it.

 

I had to make the filter fit the carb which involved making up several brakets to clamp to the top on and make it fit the carb then i had to wire in the fog light and tidy up the interior.

 

First drive out at 11.30 was awful. The car was sluggish the leaking exhaust gasket was noisy and the steering was scary to say the least.

 

Got it back in and set about getting the wheels to point vaguely the right way!

 

I rang the mot station and moved the appointment back to 4pm to give me some time and phoned my boss and took the rest of the day off to get it done.

 

Each time i took it out i got closer and closer to pulling straight but the worrying thing was the bump steer from the lowered steering rack. Not ideal! :(

 

Rang centre gravity and from what they said it sounds like i need to play around getting the outer arms the right shape to get the car to neutralise so more manufacturing to do but it is drivable :)

 

Got to 3.30pm and finished wiring in the side lights but by that point it was too late to cover the 20 miles to the MOT station i was heading so decided to work into the evening doing all the last bits ready for the morning to take it in again.

 

Initial impressions were at that point that it needed tweaking but the power was definitely there on half throttle without opening the secondaries so with the secondaries opened it'll be devastatingly powerful! :hyper:

 

Spent the evening changing the blown exhaust gasket and put the new bolts in which fitted much better. A quick start up showed no signs of leaks and it ran a little nicer.

 

Woke up at 6am this morning and got the car out the garage about 7am with dad in tow. Problem I found was the car was cutting out and the base idle fuelling was way off now right off the far side of lean so tweaked the tuning until i reached 13.6:1 and it started and ran fine.

 

Got up to temperature reasonably quickly and held it with no leaks for a good 5 miles then suddenly it started to creap up from 88-90 to over 100 degrees C!

 

Stopped and let it cool down but the manifolds were glowing - damn timing was out with no timing light to correct :( So tweaked it slightly clockwise to retard the timing slightly which worked and brought the temp to a reasonable level (94-95) but now the fueling was overly rich so dialed it back but the idle had crept up so completely screwed up the tuning and managed to limp it back home.

 

When i was 12.5:1 on throttle the pickup was immense! I can sit at 50mph in 5th at 1700RPM and even at 1000RPM it hauls you into the back of your seat. The sound is intoxicating and running through ibstock there were a few turned heads and slack jaws as i came passed the school crossing :)

 

I'm at work now but dad's trying to book it in for an MOT today or tomorrow morning but the tunnel run this Saturday night is looking very doubtful but overall i'm pretty happy with the results - with a bit of tweaking here and there i'll get there in the end :D

Good news! As of the last phonecall from my dad - apart from the waterleak it's sprung from the top hose of the rad (and i know what that is) - the zed flew through its MOT with only a fail on a loose trackrod end (not enough screw thread in there).

 

However dad asked them to track it properly and that side is a country mile out where it should be so they're adjusting the toe out which should increase the thread and get it through as a pass AND possibly sort out the bump steer i was experiencing! :hyper:

 

Just the taxing to do and we're done and project voldemort/630z/600zx will hit the roads! :D

Congratulations Buddy!!

 

Hopefully see you and the car tomorrow night for the tunnel run!!

 

Andy

Well still waiting on dad but they so "no news" is "good news" - so lets see what happens :D

 

Hopefully it should be alright fingers crossed and that wobble was just the loose track rod end :)

getting close mate but what are you going to do with all your spare time when its finished:duffer:

It passed! MOT and TAX but it's overheating and the prop is working its way loose. Will fill you all in more later

Alright Nick! Vid please?

Haha, i knew you were going to ask that Andy :D Unfortunately we did film a vid but the sound effed up royally (which was the main point - doh! :rofl:) and it was overheating badly plus the prop bolts were working loose :(

 

However - I've done a bit of reading up and found where we could actually be going wrong.

 

The damper is marked with timing marks of which my dad yesterday set it to 10 degrees TDC which is about what it should be setting base timing HOWEVER that means nothing as when you're off idle you should be running 32-39 degrees on mechanical advance when the engine's about 3-4k. Now, what i didn't factor in was turning the dissy clockwise actually advances not retards the timing and it ran better after turning it clockwise to get back and the temp calmed down a bit. So what i need to do is turn clockwise until revved up it's touching 35 degrees i've found recommended for 383s and bugger the idle timing because it means diddly squat. From what i remember when i set it the first time i was only getting 26-28 degrees before TDC so far to retarded which would make it run incredibly hot as you're allowing the flame to be pulled down the water jacket absorbing the heat as it goes.

 

Anyway you're probably not interested in the science of it let's talk about how it drives :rofl:

 

My dad drove it on a long route back from its MOT yesterday and my bro recorded the action so by the time i got my hands on it it was just starting to rain. HIDs worked brilliantly, took it to morrisons down the road to get a battery for the garage remote and gave it a bit of welly coming off the roadabout and whoo-hoo instantly stepped out the back end. Lifted off and grabbed it quickly and came back in line pretty easily, reminded me a bit of my MR2 (remember i've only had LWB zeds till now). The steering feels acres better but the car feels nervous and needs setting up with softer springs on the back to get it to handle right.

 

My impression is i need to fit my ohlin rear shocks from the silver zed temporarily to tune the response as the ones that are fitted are WAY to hard for the SWB so i'll try that tomorrow when i get back from the other halfs. What i really need is the Meister R coilovers to get everything right but with buying the house i can't really do that till after the new year and i've paid off my tax return.

 

Even with the wrong timing and weak jets it hauls like a train. You hardly ever have to go over half throttle or 1500RPM to get anywhere it just pulls instantly :) Floor it 3/4 throttle (and i did try it on the open road yesterday) and it just picks up and flies up to 60 from 30 in a nats crotchet :D lol

 

Bearing in mind i'm only using the first 3000RPM and the first half of the carb and it feels as quick as my tuned NA was so double that and you'll get an idea of what the engine's going to be like when the secondaries open up :hyper: They don't open till the last 10% of the throttle and i've put a bump stop in place to stop me being silly and killing myself till i've got it set up.

 

Right off out to the garage to tighten the prop bolts, drill the thermostat, and tune the engine for a bit. I might take it off to a local garage to see if they'll tighten the diff bolts for me to the correct spec on a ramp because i can't get enough ground clearance to use the breaker bar but i'll get bro out with the cam later and we'll get some video lovelyness for you guys and gals :D

Edited October 16, 201015 yr by bantambunny

And as if by magic..... :)

 

[YOUTUBE]O0JYnN2R1-Y[/YOUTUBE]

:punk::thumbup::thumbup1::clap:

Nice one Nick but cant wait till you get it into warp speed:thumbup:keep at it mate

Cheers guys, believe me i won't be hitting warp drive until i've got a dry road, mixture right and the suspension sorted out :rofl:

 

Nearly there though, i've got to make some hard decisions about whether to raise the engine and use keith's subframe and mounts to sort out the handling or go with a completely custom suspension setup.

 

Right off to see the other half but back on the car tomorrow guys and gals :)