Right, thought I'd start this. As some of you may know my cars a bit broken at present and I have a pile of parts ready to fit that gets bigger without it making its way to the car.

 

So lets start with what's up with the engine. Myself and gaz pulled the engine about two winters ago now, as one of the turbo's had failed. Compression was tested at this time with a very even 170psi across the board. Pulling it all apart we found a multitude of issues, egr hanging off causing an exhaust leak old sockets rolling about etc etc. We took that time to replace every damn crusty water and vac pipe and delete just about anything I considered a waste of space.

Water plenum bypass,

EGR,

AIV,

PRV,

Cruise control,

Aircon,

Think that's all. The turbos were rebuild by myself and for the first 50-100 miles things were bob on and I didn't give it too much stick. The first couple of pulls it detonated, new plugs, reduced the issue but it still did it a bit. Changed to a smaller gap and great the det was gone. The car was pulling very well at this point with virtually no lag and was dyno'd at 289hp bone stock, no extra boost no chip. Not bad for an old auto engine. Sadly it had started to smoke on over run, I assumed id cocked up one of the turbos during the rebuild. So I had been putting it off for months, well actually years now to pay out for brand new turbos. Anyways as the tax ran out I thought id do some more inspecting as the symptoms just didn't fit the pattern of failed turbos. The first thing I found was that lovely even compression was no more, cyl had a rather lame 115psi. Cue further inspection to work out exactly what block I had, manual/auto etc I assumed it was auto. That's when I found this...

That head casting reads R-10Y, wtf is that I thought. It's supposed to read 40P this was one of those penny drop moments. The piston crown sealed that moment of realisation and many dots connected.

That's right its an NA, 30p pistons are NA and 30p1 are TT defiantly no 1 on that code. Turns out r-10y is the later spec NA head aswell, so yeas 100% an NA block. Now this engine was fitted by a garage 4 years ago a few months into my ownership and we wont go into that too much but it wasn't a great experience and it transpires it was worse than I first thought. Anyway whilst they refused to reimburse me for that error, a good will gesture was sent out to me in the post of a few quid.

So a replacement engine is going to be sourced and fitted this winter. More of that and what's happening to the current late spec NA block.

 

So now more about that shelf of parts. I purchased last winter a full rear subframe assembly off Jaffa, the one off his time attack car. Loads of goodies already polybushed to death etc. So I stripped it down to bare metal and started painting it all with a few coats of lovely hammerite. This is how it stands at present;

So this winters aims are.

Remove front and rear bumpers, re underseal all of that and rip out and guff.

Delete HICAS system

Reloacte PS reservoir and fusebox

Switch over all suspension to new units from the shelf

Fit 354mm diameter brembos

Change engine out and preform various mods

It sounds like a lot, but hey winter is along time. Don't expect it to be coming through thick and fast. Im lazy haha

Nice Stephen, .......... do you have a sweet tooth?

 

Haha, actually the top ones full of lifters and the bottom one is full of crack cradle and head bolts...

Haha, actually the top ones full of lifters and the bottom one is full of crack cocaine and heroin bits...

 

...:scared::scared:

If that was true I'd have enough money to finish the car :lol:

If that was true I'd have enough money to finish the car [emoji38]

Everyone knows you cant afford a heroine addiction when you have a z addiction

Been a bit busy recently with family stuff and the house, finally bit the bullet and brought a new kitchen so the house is all over the place. Our old 80s kitchen is being recycled into my utility area which will allow me to start a proper work shop at last, (sadly not big enough for a car to fit).

Springs are all switched over and the struts rebuilt and installed. So that's 6kg front 4kg rear, should be much more compliant now and maybe faster on real roads.

Some more components for the rear brakes arrived so watch this space on that. Slight cock up on the adapter piece to convert from flare to banjo, so there back to my mates shop for tweaking.

It's a similar issue to this;

Some shinny bits and sweets turned up from Driftworks, still got to assault the rear bumper tab though. Die grinder might be a good shout.

I cleaned up the PS pump and went to fire up the engine to spot the leak. Sadly there wasn't enough juice to start her up. Checked back to see if I could see the drip and tbh it still isn't clear. Annoying but not a big issue.

Someone has a proximity alarm I swear and on a recent daddy morning would wake up and cry if I moved more than five feet away. Meaning I was working in two minutes bursts. To the point I stuck her on my lap to do up the last screw. Anyway snapped this for future prosperity.

So what's been going on over the last few weeks. Despite me doing some longer days at the moment at work, being half way through the kitchen refurb and sneaking off over the fields with the rods whenever I can some slow progress is being made.

 

The rear brakes are now on, thank christ, it's taken a while and there's still some fettling of the caliper offset in relation to the disc to get it perfect. The caliper shifted toward the wheel arch when it was fully torqued down leaving the outside pad closer to the disc. Some going forward and back and discovering that Driftworks no longer stock the brake lines a call to Hel Performance directly revealed the only option was a trip the Exeter to get things done in time. That sounded a crap option and thankfully my local hydraulics shop came to the rescue. With a different option.

 

The power steering leak was located, turned out to be from the redundant hicas feed banjo. Except it wasn't, it was in fact the block that bolts to. Closer inspection left me with a pile of bits as it sprung apart. Turns out it was the pressure regulator valve. I was under time pressure and rather than pull the pump and proceed with caution I reassembled it, you guessed it right, wrong. Breaking it in the process. So new pump o clock. So I actually ended up further behind where I started. :taz: alternator out and some other pipes etc.

Thankfully another local afflicted person had a pump which I collected today, cheers again Gaz.

 

Turns out my battery is shot, over a day or so it drops from 12v to 10v, useless. It should still be under its 4 year warranty so il be off over Halfords for that debate this weekend. Hopefully by the end of next week we will be on the floor again. Just depends on how distracted by life I get in the mean time.

I've been annoyed with the state of my wheels for a season or two, some curb rash combined with the colour which was supposed to be graphite, it was actually a steely navy colour in some lights, not a good look on a red car. There a unfortunate offset for how low the car is and I've had to add some spacers to get the fitment right at this height compared and accolade the brakes. At 8j and 9j respectively there a touch narrow for my ultimate aims, in short I'm not planning on keeping them longer term. A tin of black hammerite has been waiting patiently on the shelf for just this job.

Before;

After a few coats.

Leave them now for a few days to harden before I hit them with the compound polisher. Not perfect but better.

Edited July 6, 20178 yr by Stephen

Surely it's time you replaced those old heavy things now. ;)

Long over due Si, there just not what I want anymore but the budget isn't there ATM. Still undecided what I do want though and there's a secret squirrel idea floating about that would make any wheels that fit now totally useless.

Big brakes then!

 

What's your realistic budget likely to be? Used forged wheels are the best option.

Combined with a relatively small inner barrel compared to wheel diameter. I will probably go that way and would ideally some period Volks or similar. Who knows on the budjet, one for next year I'd say. The kitchen has wiped me out ATM.

I've had this car now the best part of ten years, it's lived outside that whole time pretty much, covered but outside. It's been a daily driver when I first got it, a second car used every weekend regardless, in all weathers including snow at least once. Now a days it mostly doesn't go anywhere, because I'm working on it but in seriousness when it is on the road it's used for the fun of it. This has taken its toll on the body work, gravel scars, stone chips, car park *******s and worst of all a paint reaction when my original bonnet started peeling. The drive train and underside are, aside from one area that needs some attention still, bloody good. The top side of the car is letting the side down these days. Here's some highlights or lowlights if you prefer.

I've pretty much resigned myself to the fact that half the car needs paint again, it had a blow over in 2007 by the previous owner. He reckons it was a full respray but I can tell you quite clearly it wasn't. I really can't decide how to progress on this. I had sort of decided on wrapping it. Why? Because I could do it myself with minimal time input and the cost was low, sub £400. No poisonous gasses to worry about and it would give me a few years to save up a few grand for a full job. A recent BBQ with some mates though and they all really put me off the idea. The scars are still there underneath. One friend who is way more body work savvy than I am reckons it's half a car essentially that needs painting. His recommendation was to chat to his body work guy because for the kind of money I'm talking a deal could probably be done to sort it all out.

So what do you guys think? I'm not building a show car, I just don't want it to look like a shit box. Good from 5 feet is fine by me.

Paint......good

 

Wrap......not good.

 

shame you are not near me I could soon sort that bonnet out. Solid colours are very simple to paint.

Even if you go for shitty wrap you will need to fix all the cracks in the bonnet as the wrap will not adhere properly to it.

 

IMO of course

Cheers for that Pete. I don't mind doing bits myself but full panels is just too hard to make safe and controlled with my set up. I'm honesty my compressor is not large enough either. Il have a chat with this guy and hopefully we can come to a good outcome.

Cheers for that Pete. I don't mind doing bits myself but full panels is just too hard to make safe and controlled with my set up. I'm honesty my compressor is not large enough either. Il have a chat with this guy and hopefully we can come to a good outcome.

 

The bonnet is a large panel. I struggle with air supply on one and Im on a 3hp 14 cu ft/min 50L compressor.

Just do it once and do it right.

Paint...Paint...etc

It's been a few weeks since I've made much progress forward with the car, missing Beaulieu was a disappointment but it took the time pressure off. I've decided that I simply won't be putting the car on the road this summer, it's something I've been fighting but I simply don't want to use all my free time getting it on the road for what two months? Plus the cost, to then take it back off the road and continue what I was doing. This way I can chip away and aim for next March/April and actually achieve what I want to achieve. I do enjoy working on the car but driving it is what I enjoy most and tbh working on it feels like a bus mans holiday at times and I'd much rather be fishing.

 

In better news, it's looking like it will finally have a winter garage to hibernate in and for me to work. Next summer this car is going to be in a much better position and it's going to get used, heavily....

It’s been over six months since a spanner was turned on the Z. To be quite honest I have just lost interest. Time has been at a premium like never before and what little free time I’ve had I’ve really not wanted to spend it doing more stuff that’s similar to Work. Anyway today I can confirm two things;

 

Firstly the car is safe (for now at least) looks like we are officially moving and the car will finally have a home. Unless things go wrong it’s not being sold.

 

Secondly today I lifted the cover and....wait for it.... actually worked on it for a bit.

The plan is to get it Road worthy again, it’s the best way to transfer it to it’s new home if nothing else.

 

Today I fitted an expansion tank, I removed the stock one to allow the new intercoolers to breathe. This left a problem and my initial plan to fit a new one in the wing, quickly became obvious a no goer. After some umming and Arring, I found this little beauty, and it’s sat where the sitcom compressor wheel was on the chassis rail. It’s been in the shelf a few weeks but no that’s complete.

Next up, I’d decided to make some modifications to the brake brackets for the rear. When I fitted the spacers this caused a discrepancy as the disc sat further home. The caliper was no longer central on the disc by 2mm. The brackets went a chap I know for some modifications.

Brakes finally complete and torqued to spec a preliminary bleed was preformed with a one man kit I’ve got. Have to come back to this with a buddy and finish the bleed.

With the increased offset on the wheels it’s a bit touch and go for clearance on the rear bumper tab so that’s had s hair cut today.

My friend Stanley helped create some air flow from the intercoolers outlets. Nice big hole in the arch liner now.

 

Left to do,

Final bleed of Brakes.

Fix the heater blower issue.

MOT...

I do tell a lie a little while back I made a trip to Bognor Regis and picked up a bonnet off Edd. That solved some of the cosmetic issues.

Excuse the dirt;

It’s been over six months since a spanner was turned on the Z. To be quite honest I have just lost interest. Time has been at a premium like never before and what little free time I’ve had I’ve really not wanted to spend it doing more stuff that’s similar to Work. Anyway today I can confirm two things;

 

Firstly the car is safe (for now at least) looks like we are officially moving and the car will finally have a home. Unless things go wrong it’s not being sold.

 

Secondly today I lifted the cover and....wait for it.... actually worked on it for a bit.

The plan is to get it Road worthy again, it’s the best way to transfer it to it’s new home if nothing else.

 

Today I fitted an expansion tank, I removed the stock one to allow the new intercoolers to breathe. This left a problem and my initial plan to fit a new one in the wing, quickly became obvious a no goer. After some umming and Arring, I found this little beauty, and it’s sat where the sitcom compressor wheel was on the chassis rail. It’s been in the shelf a few weeks but no that’s complete.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]111832[/ATTACH]

Next up, I’d decided to make some modifications to the brake brackets for the rear. When I fitted the spacers this caused a discrepancy as the disc sat further home. The caliper was no longer central on the disc by 2mm. The brackets went a chap I know for some modifications.

Brakes finally complete and torqued to spec a preliminary bleed was preformed with a one man kit I’ve got. Have to come back to this with a buddy and finish the bleed.

With the increased offset on the wheels it’s a bit touch and go for clearance on the rear bumper tab so that’s had s hair cut today.

My friend Stanley helped create some air flow from the intercoolers outlets. Nice big hole in the arch liner now.

 

Left to do,

Final bleed of Brakes.

Fix the heater blower issue.

MOT...

 

Interesting. Would that expansion tank have fitted where the OE one would sit? (Or was that that you meant by inside the wing is a no goer?)

 

It’s something I want to look into (clearing space being the intercoolers)

 

If you need any help getting it back on the road, give me a shout

Cheers Nick. I’m very much nearly there now. At least for this round of faffing about.

 

I did try popping it behind there, it kind of fitted esp if I had used a 90’ elbow on the hose port. Alternatively a bracket could be fabricated to allow it to sit behind the intercooler itself, didn’t like that option. My original plan was to shove it in the AIV hole, this was smaller than I though. I decided that all in all it would be far more serviceable on the chassis rail. Next time the block is out il look at a more permanent installation with Riv nuts, it’s currently secured with fixings I have from Work for unistrut, it’s solid.

 

As an aside note, Summit do an ideal solution but it’s pretty, esp including shipping, expensive for a plastic bottle.

Heater blower sorted,

Brakes bled,

Just got to reassemble the dash, wheels on, on the floor and torque up the strut tops. Then it’s MOT time!

 

But wait, one hick up still... the rad has a tiny pin prick in one of the cores. I suppose it’s lasted 10 years nearly but still. Grr. Not the end of the world but none the less it’s an item on the list.

Il leave this here;

Il leave this here;

[ATTACH=CONFIG]112120[/ATTACH]

 

 

But are the wheels back on the other side Stephen? :tt2:

That’s some serious offset and ride height there Stephen! Stance what? Simpleh Loveleh!