Flying Machine

It sure was, I spent a lot of money getting it how I wanted it. At least its going to a good home! I will definitely be having another one though, the value for money of these cars is a best kept secret!

Just sold my zed, bloke's coming around tomorrow with the rest of the money to take her away, already given me a deposit of £1000. I'm heartbroken, cos I have had to sell her just to pay bloody stamp duty on my first house! I feel inclined to drive it down to Westminster and just hand the bloody keys to Gordon Brown! :cry: Anyway, the good news is I good a good price for it, and the new owner was looking around for ages to find one. He is a newly converted Z nut and will doubtless be on here soon! And the better news is that as soon as I have saved up (ie early next summer) I will be looking for another to grace my new driveway! I have seen some really fantastic cars for sale on these forums of late, maybe I will find another one! Back soon! Derek

I installed a TEIN flex suspension kit along with some new tension rods and adjustable top links. I too scrubbed the inner edge of my fronts out, but it was the camber. They were running at about 2 degrees negative! I set them that way to try it as the tyres were old anyway, but I think I will stand them up a bit when I fit new ones... ;-)

Hi there! Haven't been here for a while... I started my zed up the other day for the first time in about a month, and almost immediately it started puffing out from the passenger side of the downpipe, where that little branch is welded into the main downpipe. (Can't remember what it's for, but I did read somewhere...) Anyway, it's an HKS stainless exhaust, but for some reason these little pipes look to be mild steel so have rusted at the weld. What are your recommendations for a set of downpipes? The ones fitted at the moment have a small baffle in the middle of the pipe but I am happy to fit straight through 'de-cat' pipes (it never had cats anyway). I don't want to buy new exhaust headers (or flanges or whatever you call them), trying to keep the cost down. Cheers Derek

Don't forget though, the settings will vary from car to car depending on lots of variables... State of the turbos, bigger and more effective intercoolers. The big advantage of an electronic controller is that it will always give you about the same boost regardless of atmospheric pressure, something boost jets will not do, hence the danger of them. Electronic controllers are 'absolute pressure' controllers, not 'relative pressure' controllers. So don't worry if you end up running different settings to everybody else. What works works. But GET A BOOST GAUGE!

Red screen is overboosting, and it is totally depenadant on what you set the warning to. If the gain is tweaked up too high you will get a spike that will send it straight into overboost, so turn the gain down a little if it's spiking. Also the start boost setting controls when the bleed valve starts to open the wastegate, so that will affect overboosting. You want a compromise between rapid spool up and overboost. You really need a gauge to tell properly, as you can watch the needle overshoot and drop back. Trying to watch the digits moving quickly on the unit itself is almost impossible and also bloody dangerous as it will probably be well out of your line of sight.

Ok, here are the settings from my Profec B spec 2, to achieve 9psi in LO and 14psi in HI, on stock turbos:- LO:- SET=16%, GAIN=18%, SETGAIN=48, WARNING=110 with a drop of 20% HI:- SET=33%, GAIN=21%, SETGAIN=85, WARNING=155 with a drop of 20% The boost signal is tee'd in from the right hand side of the plenum balance tube. Also I have a dual friction clutch which seems to be able to handle it. Cheers Derek

I had the same problem and the same worries on mine, put a digital aftermarket gauge in it, and it is almost double what the stock gauge reads... Rock steady at roughly 23psi/1000rpm. I've seen 75psi with the stock sender reading almost zero!

Hi guys I'll post my settings on here tomorrow for my Profec B Spec 2, set up for 9psi and 14psi. Just off out now and not back til midnight... All I can remember is that my settings were a fair bit lower than the others I read in order to achieve the boost I wanted. At first it was just going into boost limit mode constantly until I decreased them a lot...

Thanks. Think I'd like to put it on a rolling road sometime anyway. If I find it's only producing 300bhp at the wheels with 1 bar of boost then it's coming appart! :mad:

Yes I agree... I wasn't about to rip it appart! :shock: The car isn't a daily driver, there's nothing wrong with it but I wanted to know where the compressions were as a general indication of the wear. There's no oil consumption or smoke at all. I've done a lot of work and mods on the car, Greddy boost control, ecu, new coilovers etc etc But I've never driven another z with 1 bar of boost so I have nothing to compare it with. Spose the thing is to get it on a rolling road sometime and see how it fares, then at least I'd have an idea of where it is in the performance stakes. If it's down in a big way then I'll look at taking the lump out and rebuilding it, and doing some major mods at the same time. Any suggestions for somewhere to take it for a rolling road check? Someone who knows our cars well? What about Z tech (no rush, I know they're busy...)

Ok thanks. It was a dry test, but on a warm engine... I'm gonna check the gauge though, as another car I tested (a Volvo) also had quite low figures but again all even. So, to fix this properly and if I was flush with cash (which I'm not!), what are we looking at? Engine out, hone and new pistons/rings? A re-bore? New liners?

Evening All I finally got around to doing a compression test on my TT today, 11 years old but doesn't use any oil at all, runs very well and totally smokeless on start up or otherwise. Anyway, on a warm engine cylinders 1,2,3,5 = 120psi 4,6=110psi. I wasn't looking for a particular problem, just doing a check. From a search on here though I see that is below manufacturer specs, although they are all close. Do you think this is more likely to be through using a 16 year old gauge?? :-) If the pistons / rings were all that worn uniformly wouldn't I have oil consumption problems as well? :(

Talking of sills, my Z had an advisory on the MOT saying that the rear sill area around the suspension mounting had some corrosion and needed repairing / replacing. I'm gearing up to get it done. Is it a HUGE job, or is it the sort of thing a good body shop can do, and not neccessarily a Z specialist? Cheers!

It's a 90 degree elbow plug for the oil pressure sender. Very nice shrinkwrapped loom that I don't really want to cut. I may have to take the plug appart and poke the contacts through, then reassemble the plug on the other side. Alternatively, I had a look at the grommet on the website. If it comes out of the firewall like the one on the passenger side, I can remove the grommet, cut it and feed the sensor through the hole in the metal, then put the grommet back in around it...?

Nice one, thanks! Do you think the bonnet release is big enough to get the plug through? Maybe 3/4" size?

Hi I just got my SPA dual digital water and oil gauge, and I need to find a good route through the firewall on the driver's side for the sensors and wiring. The oil pressure sensor plug is quite bulky, so the hole needs to be a descent size, maybe 3/4 " minimum. Any ideas? I already found a good place for the passenger side, but the loom isn't long enough to reach that way. Oh, and I would rather not have to take the wing off to reach it too... ;-) Thanks in advance! Derek

You guys on here that had sill replacements, which part of the sill was it? Just got my car from MOT and told it had a bit of corrossion by the driver's side rear suspension pick up, on the inner sill. Is this replaceable? Or is it a 'cut a bit out and patch it' area? I want to replace entire panels if they are corroded, I hate patching bits up... Especially as it seems so hard to find bodyshops that will do a job to last... The number of times I've had to argue and say "Ok, I know it's 14 years old but I've spent a lot of money on it and I'm keeping it, so don't tell me again to patch it up and sell it!!" Any recommendatiosn for a GOOD body shop that knows our cars is greatly appreciated, don't mind travelling up to 100 miles from London...

Hi! You can get the drive and aerial from any dealership - probably find a cheaper source from the US but they aren't that expensive. It's a bit of a pain in the a** to change though - you have to remove it from within the boot, and remove a small grubscrew from the drive body so you can slide the old aerial out from its sleeve. All straightforward when you see it though. ;-)

Dave, just a bit of feedback, have adjusted my BOV's to 5mm (from the stock setting of 15mm!) and it idles like a beauty now, and only dumps when you have built up decent boost pressure, ie not driving around town! And no symptoms of stalling / popping and banging on the overun and downshift... I think the AFC tuning is the answer. ;-)

I have just removed an aftermarket breather kit (turbo technics) after adverse comments. It is now back in standard pcv setup, with new valves. It idles better and the dump valves work properly... The old setup, having studied the plumbing, was an obvious way of generating a vacuum in the crankcase - not a good thing??

Hello All Just got my car MOT'd today, got an advisory of some structural rust on the INNER sill, near to where the suspension link bolts onto the chassis. Anybody replaced this before? Is it a straightforward job for a good body repair shop? I want a repair to last obviously, so don't mind getting the sill replaced rather than patching it over. Any good body shops near to London? Cheers Derek

If it's clicking, it's probably the teeth in the drive mechanism slipping, or the plastic drive may be broken. You can buy just the aerial and drive without the whole motor unit, if it is broken.

I just switched from Tesco to Elephant, and mine went down from £1285 to £465!!! With some mods declared (induction / exhaust / spoiler) It's on a 3000 mile a year limit, but it's my only car, not on a 2nd car or classic policy...

Alex, just sent you an email with all the info and piccies for fitting the Profec B. Don't use the fuel pressure regulator for the boost signal, and the solenoids are disconnected anyway when you fit an electronic controller. You can just about see the actuator if you shine a torch down the side of the engine from above, or look underneath! Don't need to touch them though.