Once again another problem to solve, I'll start from when I bought the car. When I went to look at the car before I bought it, it ran fine with no smoke at all and it sounded as sweet as a nut. After a short time the car started to cut out on boost so I gave the car a full 60k service, I noticed the spark plug (the one next to the battery) was pretty dirty compared to the others. To cut a long story short, the car cutting out at high boost was down to a loose turbo pipe (problem sorted).The car was running really well but I did notice smoke on start up coming from the left side exhaust (standing behind the car) but the real problem started when I was coming home one night. Came onto the A1 and the car started to misfire so I took it real easy and got it home, lifted up the bonnet and engine didn't seem to be over hot but the coolant was coming out of some of the coolant pipes ( like there was too much pressure). I put the car to bed over winter and started to look for a performance rad. Yesterday I looked at the coolant and it has not gone down at all so I thought I'd start up the car to see how it would run (hasn't been started for over five months). Started no problem but was running really crap not very smooth so I turned off the engine and had a look over the engine. Couldn't see anything wrong so I started it up again and it run the way it should nice and smooth but after about 20s it started again. When I had a look around the back of the car I saw what seemed to be black water that had come out of the exhaust (pic one and two), I had a look at the coolant and it look good no oil and it was very clean. Next job was to look at the spark plugs and they also looked ok (pic three). It seems like some water has gotten into the exhaust and when I've started the car up it has blown out all the crap that has built up in their. The other side of the engine is fine but this side seems to have a problem. Does anybody have any idea? why is this happening? I'm going to replace the PCVs and see what that does, the engine still seems ok it doesn't look like there's any blown gaskets but I think it's more like a turbo problem.

Don't worry about the 'black water', water is a byproduct of burning petrol. When it's hot you don't notice the steam, but what you're getting is the steam condensing in the cold exhaust and washing out some soot.

Thanks bud you have really put my mind at rest. Do you think the car just needs a good run for the ECU to re-learn?

Some fresh fuel would be good for it

Some fresh fuel would be good for it

Yes it's been standing around for a while.

rainbow , its all fun owning a zed, if nothing cures it take it to macdonald racing (lanchester ask 4 peter D) tell him Ken sent you

rainbow , its all fun owning a zed, if nothing cures it take it to macdonald racing (lanchester ask 4 peter D) tell him Ken sent you

Cheers bud, does he know his Zs?

When my PTU was knackered it left the same mess on my garage door

When my PTU was knackered it left the same mess on my garage door

Mmmm…. Interesting I wonder if that’s why my car isn’t running very smooth?

try wiglling the wires near the ptu , the ones that plug into it ,

see if the engine note changes ie gets better or worse ,, also worth cleaning up the wires that coneect to it , if green and fury suspect this could be the problem ,

 

common faults on 300 zx ptu old series one that is ,,when it warms up starts to fail ,

 

 

im speaking from experience of owning my own zed , hope this helps ! nice motor by the way !! ie yours !

try wiglling the wires near the ptu , the ones that plug into it ,

see if the engine note changes ie gets better or worse ,, also worth cleaning up the wires that coneect to it , if green and fury suspect this could be the problem ,

 

common faults on 300 zx ptu old series one that is ,,when it warms up starts to fail ,

 

 

im speaking from experience of owning my own zed , hope this helps ! nice motor by the way !! ie yours !

Thanks Bud :D