Hi

 

Literally just bought a 300zx twin turbo and done a 300mile trip to get it home. I didnt notice anything at first but when i was closer to home i decided to floor it and see what the car was made of. Did about 100mph in third gear and it filled the whole road up with grey smoke!?

 

Im guessing this is going to be bad news .......?

im in worthing mate, mine gives smoke when i boot it, but has no issues, it could be that the engine is clearing itself out, if you want to drive over to the other side of worthing at weekend i will have a look it for you.

stu

When I first bought mine it chucked loads of black smoke out the back under boost!

I checked all the connectors, cleaned them, and fixed the boost leaks I found now it doesn't smoke.

im in worthing mate, mine gives smoke when i boot it, but has no issues, it could be that the engine is clearing itself out, if you want to drive over to the other side of worthing at weekend i will have a look it for you.

stu

 

Im actually in worthing also! Just put brighton cause no one knows worthing ha!! Really appreciate the offer mate, i may take you up on that. Im quite a newbie when it comes to these engines

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

Few checks you can do.

 

First of all, check the coolant in the rad, make sure there is no mayo type substance in there, also remove the oil filler cap and check that also. check the dip stick is still in its little tube and secured in there.

 

next up

 

Start the car and take it for a pleasant drive, no boosting or anything, just get the temp up to normal. get back home and get out the car, let it idle for around 5 mins, then check the exhaust for smoke, if its smoking then make a note of the color, if its turbo seals it will have a blue ting too it and be heavy ish. if no smoke, give it a rev to around 4 to 5 k revs. and then ease off. again checking for smoke, if it smokes on revs, and the smoke is blackish and sooty, then its over fueling, if its condensation it will be white but dissipates quickly, if its turbo seals, it will have a blue ting too it and be quite heavy.

 

Pay attention to the car temp, if you have a after market temp gauge installed, this will be better, but if its the stock one, normal temp the needle will sit around half way up.

 

Does the engine idle smoothly, any juddering or anything like that? it should idle with minimal body vibration.

 

Tell tale signs of turbo seal failure are.

 

Smoking in idle after 5 mins of idle when engine is up to temp.

Remove intake pipes to throttle bodies and check for oil on the intake pipes, heavy oil means you have oil vapor getting into the intake system, usual suspects are the turbo seals.

Smoking on boost.

 

Other causes of car smoking

 

Too much oil, the oil needs to be around 3/4 up the dipstick check block. too much oil can actually cause the car to smoke.

knackered PCV valves, the PCV valves, knackered valves can lead to oil vapor built up in the upper plenum, this then condenses in the plenum and can form pools of oil, under hard acceleration, this can get thrown down number 5 and 6 cylinders from the valves and burn under ignition.

 

Bad piston rings, take it for a drive, bring the car up to temp, give it some good boost, pull over and check to see if the dipstick is still in the tube, if it had popped out, then most likely the piston rings are knackered and not sealing correctly and you are getting positive crank case pressure, you can also check by opening the oil filler cap (turn car off then do this) and seeing if there is any vapor coming out and if it smells like petrol. to confirm, you need to do a compression test and check the compression of each cylinder.

 

HG blown, usually accompanied by poor running engine, very lumpy idle and lots of white smoke out of the rear, can also be accompanied by mayo type looking substance in not only the oil, but also in the rad, or even a film of mayo on the exhaust exits, you can get a block tester kit to test this and do a leak down test.

 

To be honest though, the biggest cause of smoking from the rear is turbo oil seals, which is an engine out job (it can be done with engine in, but much easier to just pull the engine)

 

Cheers for all the info!

Another stupid problem now

Locked car last night went to bed got up this morning and car locked keyless entry so how to get into it looked at posts and got in the car assuming the battery had gone flat

Engine started so remote battery dead ? new remote battery and still wont work checked the forum for advice and still no idea as to whats gone wrong now

nvm ignore me, just checked your photos and re read what you put.

 

you might just have to use the keylocks for now until you can get the alarm system check over.

Edited March 22, 201312 yr by vodkashots

Cant use keylocks as they have been removed by someone else only have keyless entry

even the one in the boot?

im in worthing mate, mine gives smoke when i boot it, but has no issues, it could be that the engine is clearing itself out, if you want to drive over to the other side of worthing at weekend i will have a look it for you.

stu

 

Stu if you get this and is free this weekend I would really appreciate if you wouldn't mind having a look at it. My number is 07595484769. Give us a text if ur free

Always happy to help but for your info Zedworld is in Coleshill not Leicester http://www.zedworld.co.uk

 

Jeff TT

 

Cheers jef I think I need to bring it to you guys for a once over. Are you open weekends.?

zedworld open saturday morn

Awesome looking Zed, but the eBay ad and forum thread (if seen in time) should have made anyone approach with extreme caution. Funnily enough, another recent thread made me think about this very Zed and I was actually watching it on eBay...

 

Which "Apexi ECU" is it? SAFC II? If it's running one of those piggybacking the stock chip, the huge amount of smoke could be due to a cracked ringland on 5th or 6th as already mentioned in this thread. Compression test it first of all. The Mikalor-style hose clamps won't be helping keep the boost inside those pipes, either.

 

If it was indeed "running over 400bhp at 13psi" (or 14psi in the later ad), then the turbos aren't stock. There is no mention of larger injectors.

 

Stop booting it. It's not going to get any better ;)

 

*Recently went for a dyno just to make sure there were no issue's but there were and these have now been fixed, She ran 316 BHP with the following issue's 2 of the hose clamps were loose and needed replacing losing over 5 psi. Fanbelt was lose and was squeaking it's headoff, The dyno chap could not get traction at all and we ended up doing the dyno in 5th gear and it was still spinning, also she was only taken to 4500 rpm when the optimal range would have been at 6,000.

 

There's so much wrong with that paragraph I don't know where to begin. Sufice to say, the usual reason to abort a run at 4500 RPM is due to detonation or leaning out. A car that spins up on a dyno either has no tyres fitted, isn't strapped down properly or is running Herculean power levels. Find someone close by and get the fueling & timing/knock checked ASAP. Keep it off boost until you know what's going on.

 

Good luck :thumbup1:

Awesome looking Zed, but the eBay ad and forum thread (if seen in time) should have made anyone approach with extreme caution. Funnily enough, another recent thread made me think about this very Zed and I was actually watching it on eBay...

 

Which "Apexi ECU" is it? SAFC II? If it's running one of those piggybacking the stock chip, the huge amount of smoke could be due to a cracked ringland on 5th or 6th as already mentioned in this thread. Compression test it first of all. The Mikalor-style hose clamps won't be helping keep the boost inside those pipes, either.

 

 

If it was indeed "running over 400bhp at 13psi" (or 14psi in the later ad), then the turbos aren't stock. There is no mention of larger injectors.

 

Stop booting it. It's not going to get any better ;)

 

 

 

There's so much wrong with that paragraph I don't know where to begin. Sufice to say, the usual reason to abort a run at 4500 RPM is due to detonation or leaning out. A car that spins up on a dyno either has no tyres fitted, isn't strapped down properly or is running Herculean power levels. Find someone close by and get the fueling & timing/knock checked ASAP. Keep it off boost until you know what's going on.

 

Good luck :thumbup1:

 

Thanks for that it sounds like you have a wealth of knowledge. Ive never

Seen a dyno and didn't realise those issues, thanks though. This is sounding like it will be expensive!!

+1^^^ my mate has a dynodynamics and ive seen him run rwd cars with 500hp+ with no wheel spin in 3rd so unless this fella was running on his rims or maybe his idea of a dyno was a couple of metal bins with some drain pipe running through them then I doubt very much it was spinning up in 5th

+1^^^ my mate has a dynodynamics and ive seen him run rwd cars with 500hp+ with no wheel spin in 3rd so unless this fella was running on his rims or maybe his idea of a dyno was a couple of metal bins with some drain pipe running through them then I doubt very much it was spinning up in 5th

 

Sounds like I have been lied to...! Cheers

Ooooh only just seen the pics I like the off pearl white, hope it's gonna be a nice easy fix for you although the one thing I've learnt about zeds is that it's rarely cheap or easy lol

 

At least it's heading to the right place jeff's a magician when it comes to these things he'll have it sorted in no time flat

Ooooh only just seen the pics I like the off pearl white, hope it's gonna be a nice easy fix for you although the one thing I've learnt about zeds is that it's rarely cheap or easy lol

 

At least it's heading to the right place jeff's a magician when it comes to these things he'll have it sorted in no time flat

 

 

 

 

Praying its not going to hurt the piggy bank to much!

Nick read your messages.

stu

Nick read your messages.

stu

 

Stu Thanks again for your help today it was massively appreciated. Catch up again soon

Did you guys have any joy with it today?

Did you guys have any joy with it today?

 

Had a good day, all seems good with the engine, a few things sorted, Nick your zed is superb, its clearly had lots spent on it, and a few very rare goodies.

Even has a fully working electric Ariel now and some trim that was missing thanks to me.

Good to meet you mate, couldnt believe how close are zeds are together, yours on the driveway, mine in the workshop in the next road. Will try and gets the other bits of my old zed and call you.

Stu

Cheers stu thanks again, i owe you!

Just a quick hello as I am the chap that was selling the car so I'll address a few points.

 

Gary Wilson you will note post 18 of my original thread was in reaction to some 1 being a bit of a divvy.

 

Now to the car, the section about the dyno, every bit of it was true, it's the 1st time I have ever had a dyno done and yes the car was running on awful tyres which were quickly replaced. The original owner had it running at 400 BHP not myself I could not get the power down in this weather. When I bought the car it was running 13psi, (not 1.3bar) and at that the car was bloody silly fast and hard to do anything with in the wet.

 

the remote, I spoke to Nick about this or his dad and I honestly cannot figure out what had happened. I had owned the car since late November and the only real issue I had ever had was a squeaky fan belt due to a lack of locking nut. Hopefully you got the remote sorted?

 

Same goes for the smoke, I had had no issues of smoke from the car ever other than when it was floored on the dyno and the chap at the dyno place said it was due to a mod that had been installed which put a little more fuel in to it to prevent detonation??? Knowing very little about these mods or tuning in general I took his word for it, after all the car has had a fortune spent on it and I had done around 2000 miles in it since purchase without issue.

 

Furthermore I would not post a reply on here if for a second I ever thought the car would or will cause you any problems, instead I would be running in the other direction. I genuinely hope you enjoy the car and it treats you well, it is without a doubt 1 of the nicest and quickest cars I have ever owned and the reason for sale was simply for funds to finish my 240z. After the text I received I am assuming all is well and your not worrying any more :) good luck with her and stay safe, I would not hesitate to buy the car back in the future should I have the funds available. Best of luck regards James

How come the dyno run was cut short at 4500 RPM?

Because it had boost leak and was pissing oil from 1 of the blue pipes, the clamps that secure the pipes were as tight as it would allow so I had to buy some new ones for the main leaky bit. As said to Nick if hes going to ever run it at 13 psi again then ideally a full change of clamps would be a good idea. This is the only reason it was ran to 4500 RPM I did not want to risk it. Once the 2 clamps were replaced it was fine. But really the clamps that are on it are not the best as they are all fully tightened and should be tighter.

Just a quick hello as I am the chap that was selling the car so I'll address a few points.

 

Gary Wilson you will note post 18 of my original thread was in reaction to some 1 being a bit of a divvy.

 

Now to the car, the section about the dyno, every bit of it was true, it's the 1st time I have ever had a dyno done and yes the car was running on awful tyres which were quickly replaced. The original owner had it running at 400 BHP not myself I could not get the power down in this weather. When I bought the car it was running 13psi, (not 1.3bar) and at that the car was bloody silly fast and hard to do anything with in the wet.

 

the remote, I spoke to Nick about this or his dad and I honestly cannot figure out what had happened. I had owned the car since late November and the only real issue I had ever had was a squeaky fan belt due to a lack of locking nut. Hopefully you got the remote sorted?

 

Same goes for the smoke, I had had no issues of smoke from the car ever other than when it was floored on the dyno and the chap at the dyno place said it was due to a mod that had been installed which put a little more fuel in to it to prevent detonation??? Knowing very little about these mods or tuning in general I took his word for it, after all the car has had a fortune spent on it and I had done around 2000 miles in it since purchase without issue.

 

Furthermore I would not post a reply on here if for a second I ever thought the car would or will cause you any problems, instead I would be running in the other direction. I genuinely hope you enjoy the car and it treats you well, it is without a doubt 1 of the nicest and quickest cars I have ever owned and the reason for sale was simply for funds to finish my 240z. After the text I received I am assuming all is well and your not worrying any more :) good luck with her and stay safe, I would not hesitate to buy the car back in the future should I have the funds available. Best of luck regards James

 

James I had one of the guys off here check over the car. He seems to be running good mate. Think smoke may have been wet Roads or condensation or something I have had no issues since. Small oil leak which I'm getting fixed today. Very happy with car. Its bloody quick like you said, scares shit out of me lol. Thanks again James. I plan to put it on a dump myself soon after I've worked out the boost controller