Smithy

Price wise Fidanza flys tend to be the cheapest mate if you shop around. Personally i favour the RPS but it is pricey and 2nd to that i generally put the JWT. But the Fidanza is in a shit load of zeds, so they are okay like ;) Oh and they should be on ebay no doubt.. cheers smithy

I spend around 8 hours travelling there mate and half of that is on a boat, lol Anyway plenty of cheap B+B's around Tamworth and it is quite a nice place. Cheers Smithy

Hi mate, yep wiseco piston sets like most, come with the rings as well. No idea personally on price as i don't sell em any more, but you can check with Danny or shop around bud. Just noticed your other post, i suggested the above simple because of cost cos i thought it was an issue. Hence why you considered breaking. Anyway if you go for 88mm pistons then you will need a re bore, whereas 87.5mm pistons is a basic bore clean. smithy

Welcome aboard ;) oh come and live in the IOM, i only pay £150 a year fully comp :D smithy

You'd be crazy to do just the rings mate, deffo 100% pistons as well. Wisecos piston and ring set ain't expensive, then a head set and your done for a basic job, but stronger pistons. Bore wise generally a hone and deglaze is all that required and you can wap the 87.5 pistons in :nana2: If you wern't on a budget obviously other items too, but just the above will see you good. Finally if you think theres oil pissing down your exhaust still and smoking, drop the catts off and run the engine, bit noisey like, but i done it to find out it was oil in the system and not another kanckered turbo :) smithy

Well to be honest, you wouldn't really fit braided lines unless you were fitting ball bearing turbos and even then they should have restrictors in them to prevent over oiling the turbo. I only know of 1 company for sure and possibly 1 other who do these to suit our car and range of turbo's. As for the design of the ones in that pic, nope. Oh and seen yer other post about sensors, for sure whilst doing turbo's, fit some new ones cos even if they test okay now, nothing surer than down the line they will fail, unless you know how old they are. cheers smithy

Just curious why yer wanting one fella, oops 2 of them. You taking the engine out and fitting new turbos then ? Oh and our stock ones are T22b's ;) cheers Smithy

Most of the pics on their website are generic, however the pic in this link shows exactly what the struts look like that i have. You'll see the little yellow rubber rings/mounts on the top, simply universal from halfords type shops. No more than a fiver as they are so small, similar to what other suspension has. http://airbagit.com/product_info.php?cPath=276_313&products_id=4287 Now on top of what you see there normally you buy the tank and compressor seperate as i had to http://airbagit.com/product_info.php?cPath=198_200&products_id=3057 Now though my compressor is worn, again it's a univerasl item and could be purchased for less than 40 bucks here in the UK, but it stil currently works. You may decide in the future to buy bigger and quicker version. And i have a black tank as in this link. http://airbagit.com/index.php?cPath=71_73 HTH ;) Smithy

Firstly what causes them to die is simple, age! They are not designed to last for ever and i would expect somewhere in the service schedule they should be replaced, i know other cars do. That's why it's becoming more common on here to see peeps having issues with their 02 sensors, our cars are now 20 years old at worst. I would suggest anyone who has an engine removal for what ever reason, replaces them whilst it's really easy to do, knackered or not. As for moving them, well yes you could, but bare in mind they are placed where they are meant to be to make them most effective, close to the turbo. The sensors are constantly sending signals to the ECU, that signal is effected if you remove them, disconnect them or move them. Whilst they work for the emissions and cat convertors at the same time. The primary role is tell the ECU what air/fuel mixture to run. The mixture is extremely rapid in it's changes and these changes are based on what the 02 sensor is telling it. For the odd few who have them disconnected and say, "well mines okay" how do they know? unless you are running something like a conzult as you drive and know what it should actually read, you won't know! Though it does cause running rich and poor fuel economy. Phew :) hope that helps, lol smithy

Okay you have a tank in the boot and this is connected to a small compressor, with the use off a 1 way valve, the compressor shuts off soon as it knows the tank is full, your now ready to flick teh front up and down as you like, each time you go down, the air in the struts comes out with a whoosh like a dump valve ;) the compressor will start up when ever it knows the tank is getting low. It's wired up in the boot and in the glove box is a gauge, what for god knows, lol If you look at the pics in my rides, theres a pic of the interior showing my AVC-R, next to that is the 2 black rocker switches, for left and right and up and down. Oh who's doing your manual conversion for you? cheers smithy

Oh i still have it mate :) Only problem being is the car is at Jeffs at Zedworld, yer not going there for one of his free check overs are you ? The cylinder struts are in the boot, the tank and compressor and in there but still connected to the plumbing and wiring. It's just if you were there, you could remove it so you know how to fit it, but i do have instructions, lol Oh for the whole lot which cost me about 700 quid and does the front up/down and left to right you can have for say £150 if you remove it. Compressor is worn, but still works and cheap to replace and the struts need new rubber mounts for the tops about a fiver a pair and that's it. Just pay when you remove ;) Cheers Smithy

If the sensor does not send the correct signal to the ECU either through faulty wiring or a faulty sensor, the dash lights come on and the AUX fan comes on because it thinks the car is overheating and excess fuel helps cool things down. You could do an ECU diagnostics check, but bare in mind it will show that sensor as a fault cos you've been removing the connector, be interesting tosee what other codes you get. Seeing as you have the plugs, i'd stick em in sooner rather than later, you never know :) Will give it some more thoughts anyways. smithy

Hi mate, Zedworld are in Tamworth (Midlands) and are traders on here. Phil isn't a member, but is highly regarded as a fantastic mechanic. Blackmoor Service Station 363 Manchester Rd , Astley, Manchester, Lancashire M29 7DX Tel: 01942 883348 Jimmer obviously send him a PM, that guys knows how to build an engine too:) smithy

Lol, i've been with me Zed nigh on 10 years now mate ;) I also sold brake pads for about 5 years too, so that helps :) Cheers Smithy

Dohh, but yeah yer right Mark. Calipers now are coming up to 20 years old on average. After all what in the world works as well 20 years later after it was first made? so good point :) Cheers Smithy

The only reliable ones that spring to my mind are Phil in Manchester and Jimmer down South, so either way yer looking at a bit of a trek :) I would suggest perhaps though, drop your car at Zedworld, they whip the engine out and pallet it to where ever and when it returns back, Zedworld re fit and set the car up and give the whole car the once over. Numerous rebuilt engined Zeds end up at Zedworld anyways for their final settings etc. Hope that helps Cheers Smithy

Is that stationary with engine on or off ? smithy

Well certainly after reading your other posts, it seems to be fuel related. Your 100% sure you Aux fan is working correctly ? when ever you pull the plug it comes on ? Belt wise as you mention above though, possibly only the Alt belt as this may not be not fully charging the battery, hence the lights on the dash staying on till the battery has gained a full charge and it only just had enough energy to simply fire it up. I guess the only way to test this theory is either by swapping batteries, or 5 mins before you fire yours up, put a set of booster cables on from another car, leave them on for a few mins and fire yours up, any differences and you may have found your problem. One last thought, what spark plugs are you running and how long since their last change ? smithy

Have you checked the belt tightness, as your turning the sterring wheel and certainly on full lock, it can give a kinda bumpy feeling in your hands if it's a tad loose or badly worn. Smithy

Well done mate, Ash seems to be getting better then :D Seriously, a great guy with often good products, but man, he can't run a business :x: smithy

I've run the old version redstuff and wasn't impressed at all, though it was many years ago. I've used Porterfield which for years were very highyly regarded as being very good and for a long time, which is why i was importing them :) For the price you pay for them they still are a good pad. The R4-S which everyone was using, is a street pad, with the R4 grade being more expensive. During trials on the SXOC this pad was better than the DS2500 and tested on the track. Jumping up quite a bit in price, obviously gets you a better pad and i ran the ferrodo ds2500 for about 2 years, mine squeeled a little and then when braking hard and when hot, this squeel was loud! They covered my wheels with shit loads of dust all the time. But performance wise, i couldn't knock them and never have done, as i said though, at a price! Then i used the Mintex 1144's, a cheaper pad than the ds2500's but slightly more expensive than the Porterfields, no mega dust, no squeel and happy with braking performance. These are the obvious choice for a sub 100 quid set of pads. Last thing though, we all have different expectations and opinions on whats good and what isn't and we shouldn't forget 2 other things. 1) Often overlooked is the age of the fluid and the old lines, not changed and they can make a great set of pads underperform. 2) Sometimes it's the material combination, some pads work far better with some types of discs more than others, certainly the better and higher price branded discs seem to work with many types of pad well. Point being, the pads are only 1 part off what i call, a 4 part braking system. So trial and error for yourself ;) Cheers Smithy

The airbagit kit is what i had on mine for about a year. I bought it solely because i live on an Island and getting on/off the ferry is somewhat tricky. The kit works by ensuring you have air in the struts at all times, how much air determines the ride feel. Because of the naff plumbing i constantly had small leaks and had to put air in quite often. No massive biggie as the compressor kicks in every time it thinks there is no air in the main tank. It is a trick bit of kit, not hard to install and at shows you can slam it on the ground :) Handling didn't seem to be effected at moderate and reasonable high speed, no idea about really pushing it hard though. The kit and cylinders are sat in the boot of my car at Zedworld cos i was meant to sell it to someone and now i've forgotten who, lol The topsecret kit clearly is the better option, however despite it's literature, it does use air, however it's only to pump up the "cups" on top of the struts. When not using it, the cars ride is as per the coilovers you have fitted, whereas the airbagit kit replaces your struts with air cylinders. HTH Smithy

In that case mate, a T25 hybrid waps straight on with no mods required what so ever and is sufficient enough to take a boost upgrade, de-catt, decent exhaust system, chip and induction, should you wish to add those at a later date. All of them combined is a very fast Zed ;) BTW, why are you rebuilding the engine? smithy

Before you get to excited at the thought of BHP, seriously think what you want from the car, cos it will all come at a price! If your reasonably happy with the cars performance now and only fancy a little more, then the most common simple turbo is the T25 hybrid, matched to you new build is quite ample, assuming you need the rebuild that is? Once you start going the bigger turbo route, you also need different turbo pipes, then bigger injectors to get the use out of those turbo's, then another Chip to match the bigger injectors, then your in heat soak mode and need better coolers, it goes on because once you start, you need other items to make them all work right or at their best otherwise you risk damage else where. For some ideas on simple turbo swaps and your back on the road in no time with a gaurantee, look down this page http://www.zedworld.co.uk/wizzd.html You really don't wanna know what Stu has thrown at his mate :p smithy

Very sad to see mate and certainly not good when we throw big bucks at our cars to see this hapen :confused: You can appeal agaisnt the bodyshops value and an independant assessor is sent around to value, armed with a valuation report of your own in advance will greatly help BUT, it may also work against you if the insurance were not aware of all mods and also they may beleive it was under insured, so either way you may be fooked in that respect! That said, i beleive you can take a civil case out against the other driver for the difference in value between what your insurance company say and what your valuer says. Jeff at zedworld also may be able to help with valuation, i know he has been working on a scheme with a major insurance company, who will not charge different prices for jap spec zeds, who will insure the car based on the amount Jeff says it's worth and that the car is repaired at the approved list of garages and will allow second hand parts to be used for that repair. So some future help there for others at least, Cheers Smithy