Hairsy

Yeah, I'd definitely agree with removing driver aids. And I think those turbo 1.5 litres used to get well over 1000 bhp in qualifying setup. Personally I don't watch it for spins & crashes. Give me close racing with no crashes any day. I'd be less keen on reintroducing ground effect (or active suspension) due to the dangers involved in it when it stops working (e.g. hit a piece of gravel which lifts you 3 mm, lose your vacuum from underneath the car and then 'go Mercedes'). But I do think that a lot more can be done for the spectator by changing the format / scoring of the competition. How about scoring every position ? If someone is 10th and it's 15 mins to go, they're better off taking it easy and ensuring their sponsors get their full race time then trying to overtake 9th.

This is a really difficult one. I'm as anti processions as the next bloke but I'm more anti the kinds of weekends which happened in May '94 at Imola. F1 is not just about top cars, it's also about top drivers. Letting anything go will mean that the ranking of the cars is driven by budget and that doesn't make for good racing. How about this for an idea ... there's a one hour GP race based on qualifying and run the same as the others. This gives 60% of the points for the weekend. For the remaining 40% of the points. There's a half hour 'sprint' race with a reversed grid. Points are added and removed based on the number of places gained or lost in that race. Every passing manouver gains a point for the one overtaking and loses one for the one being overtaken. No points for passes involving team mates. Just an off the top of my head idea !

Waz, have you got video of our 2001 Le Mans trip ? If so, can you mail it to me at home (or give me a link?). High quality if poss ! Cheers m8

That's the one. And probably why this is the only car forum that gets multiple hits when searching for goose !

Roy, that rings bells with me. I'm sure I've had the problem but can't remember which car it was. I think it may have turned out to be a vacuum leak. Sorry - not much help but maybe a starter for 10 ...

Nah, that's definitely native South African. (just had to get you back for the mini-chimp shot!)

Joining this forum has driven me to drink. Thanks Nelson.

Just a thought Harve, but would it be possible to create some elongated pipework for the standard setup to see if you can notice a difference. There'll be a cost to it but it might save significant wasted development of new ic's if the lag is unacceptable. My gut feel is that it won't be huge but that is based on absolutely no knowledge or expertise on the subject ! Great to hear new ideas being tried. Tempts me to get another Z !

Stick a post in Bob's forum and he'll give you advice. There's a possible group buy soon as a few of us are after a sub / amp package. Dave

Taken at face value, this sale is from a place in Wales (close to me actually - maybe I should go check it out!) but is being offered to the states. IF there were a problem (and of course we have no evidence that there would be) then it would be quite difficult and expensive to resolve. I don't believe that ebay can be held responsible. Also, I saw a thing on Watchdog last night saying that their customer service centre is in Germany and only contactable by email !

Harve, I can't think of a hard and fast reason why not but one thing you need to watch for is disturbing the airflow. The intake is designed to get the air in with some slight turbulence (to assist distribution of the fuel in the mixture) but not too much. By inserting a balance, you would have an effect on this airflow. It might be a good effect or a bad one - who knows ? But I suspect there'd be one ! Dave

I'd hazard a guess at head gasket given the combined oil & water problems at the same time. You're doing the right thing re not driving - if you've got no oil then turbos will be the cheap bit - the bottom end will be the killer !

If it's really worse after changing to steel wheels then I'd suggest wheel bearings - if they're knackered then the increased weight of steel wheels could make the problem worse. When you say 'not wheel related', what do you mean ?

Just to add to the Group Emptying of your wallet, I wouldn't replace only one - always do an axle at a time. Dave

Sorry ! There's no true science to it but I would suggest that boost jets only, done safely, could give you something in the order of 30-40 bhp. With an ECU as well you could go a bit higher with boost and have more adventurous timing so probably looking at 50-60 bhp. However, it's normal to also be doing intake & exhaust with these sorts of mods. All IMHO ... Dave

Come on guys - lets be a bit balanced. I ran boost jets at 14 psi for a year / 15,000 miles on standard ECU and retarded ignition. Power increase was a lot over standard and didn't have any noticeable fluctuations. It didn't cause any damage and I never got detonation (unless it only happened when the music was turned up!). There are many others who have had no problem. When I had the ECU upgraded then power went up yet more of course. I then had the car for another year / 15,000 miles on that setup and never had the slightest problem (apart from blowing the auto 'box but let's not go there). I know it ran for at least another 12,000 miles after I sold it as the guy who bought it kept ringing me with questions ! I don't disagree for a second that if someone can afford to go the boost controller route then that's preferable and allows you to be a little more radical with the boost settings. But IF boost jets are done right then they CAN be a relatively safe and cost effective upgrade. Dave

Sorry - yes, my comments all related to boost jets. Cost - 4p or so ! But don't be tempted !

With all due respect, if you're not sure on the bleed valve route then you shouldn't consider doing it DIY. There's some discussion on this thread about it ... http://217.158.136.46/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=14081 Notwithstanding that, I would say that it is the best £ per bhp upgrade and providing it is done with a sufficient safety margin it can be very reliable. Definitely worth considering IF you have faith in the person doing it. Dave

WOW ! :cool:

No Warren, the SE is from scratch. Well, my one was anyway as I was there when it was done.

Jeff, of course you're right that retarding ignition removes some of the benefit but I had this done and it was still a huge improvement. I ran for about a year without any detonation before going for a custom chip - this gave another big benefit too :) On the issue of fuelling, when I was having my chip produced, I had the opportunity to watch the accesses to the various parts of the fuel map as the car was run on the rolling road - i.e. I could actually see which fuel reading was being used. The Z ECU does not fuel based on boost - it fuels based on air flow through the AFM. Contrary to popular opinion, the stock fuel map DOES have fuel settings for the AFM readings which were being achieved when I was boosting at 15 psi. However, re-advancing the ignition brought in detonation and the chip was then re-mapped to increase the fuelling to remove the detonation despite the now optimised timing. Hope this is of some help. Oh, and Andy & Jeff's point is an excellent one. We don't always want to pay to money. Boost jets and retarded ignition CAN be a safe way to a power gain. But, as Jeff says, it needs to be explained. And I think the idea of putting a sticker in place under the bonnet is an excellent one. Dave

That's really interesting stuff. I expect the code differences are indeed for different models. Not sure if SE continue to use the same naming convention but, if so, I believe that the one you have will be for an auto which achieved 470 bhp on the rolling road. Dave

Not only that, it's one of those REALLY expensive ones that can blow up more than once !

Clarkey, when you say grey, is it light grey or dark grey ? Smoke is a very light colour. If it's dark then it's fuel. To be honest, what you describe sounds similar to rear seals but not exactly the same. It's an odd one. Oh, and bouncing off the limiter probably isn't a great idea !

Stuart is right. You won't regret it. I've had 4 months of it and will be shortly moving to somewhere that doesn't have it. My life will not be the same !!!