JeffTT

Spoke with Leo today and not good news unfortunately, Leo also agreed for me to post the results of our investigation whilst he decides his next move. So we had a zed that appeared to be running only on three cylinders and all on the drivers side bank! a quick check of the cambelt to be sure and then move on, we quickly established cylinder 2 and 4 where not firing due to been flooded and the plugs saturated in fuel. Once these were replaced with a good pair of test plugs and the cylinders blown out with the air line it fired up on 5 cylinders which of course was a bonus but not a final fix. Here is where it goes down hill, number 6 plug was dry so not flooded, a compression test revealed a zero result! a leak down test was then done which again was a total fail, one or both the inlet valves appears to be the issue with all of the air been lost into the inlet when the piston is at top dead centre, no way forward other than a strip or replacement, the pictures below are of the tests been done with the last one been a leak down test of a good cylinder to show what it should look like. Jeff TT

http://www.300zx.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?160963-LeoA-idle-issue-results&p=1636537#post1636537

Posted by Ryan........complete service belts and all can be as much as £800 Maybe at a Nissan dealer, not at a specialist. Jeff TT

What code reader you using? those codes do not relate to any I have seen, look more like OBC2 ones. Jeff TT

:laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh:

Yesterday the extreme wind and rain where I live hit us hard with numerous trees downed and even hedgerows blow down, the rain was relentless all day yesterday and the local area looks more like paddy fields! the wind was flipping scarey, we have large trees on our property and surrounding area and was watching them sway back and forward just hoping they would not come down!! then our power went off and stayed off for nearly 12 hours, no central heating, no light, no kettle! and of course no internet connection !! argh!! our flippping garage roof did not fair to well either, madness that 6 or so miles away where the workshop is was less effected! Looking at the flood warning for our area and rain and wind forcast for tonight seems mad as presently enjoying blue skys and sunshine? looks like it may be another long night....any one else have it bad? Jeff

Below are some pics of a couple of clutch options we supply or supply and fit, manufactured for us in the UK to our own specifications so no import duty and no silly delivery times, all brand new. The first picture is a 25% upgrade item mainly used to replace a standard unit with a little extra clamping force and material strength. The second picture is a paddle clutch and is available in 5 or 6 puck depending upon spec required, the clutch cover features upgrade fingers and steel inserts, the plate has progressive double shock springs which makes this paddle clutch feel almost stock unlike others which end up been like an on/off switch the friction material is stable to very high temps and load. Matching lightened flywheels available from UK stock too. Jeff TT

Whilst dealing with a faulty handbrake with next to no holding force I was not suprised to discover poor brake shoes, in fact one shoe had the entire shoe material missing but what was unexplicable was there was no matrial in the drum area, which means at some time someone either DIY or garage have replaced the drum Knowing there was shoe material comletely missing!! as the present owner has no interest in working on the mechanics of his zed means this occured during its previous ownership...just shocking!! Jeff TT

Seriously though well done, not an easy job. Jeff TT

Whilst dismantling a new breaker I chanced across one HUGE induction kit, not seen one with such a large intake pipe before, the filter section frame and adaptor section is all alloy and looks very particular to the zed but given the massive intake size I am not sure, looked up ITG and although they have an extensive range the one they list for the zed is different, the flow on this will be impressive, good for someone with big power in mid I guess. Jeff TT

Some of that sentence I would not agree with, have pictures! Jeff TT

Not sure Mark, new owner with no details. Jeff

Multi job zed in today including the regular cambelt change, all standard change until the lower belt cover was removed. Previously someone had fitted a new pulley bearing to the belt adjuster, unfortunately the wrong one! the pulleys are not interchangable and this one was sticking out too far as can be seen in the slightly blurred pic. Problem, maybe not, but then looking at the bottom cover and the contact damage the pulley had caused, in fact much further it would have punched right through and goodness knows where the metal would have gone! Bad mistake that must of made a right racket when first fitted, cannot believe it was left like it..! another lucky escape though!! Jeff TT

Worth doing a detailed inpection of all the pipe connections you can access, as I said the intercooler ones are a good place to start. Jeff

Over the years I have become increasingly peed by spam email and have educated myself on sourcing the pests who do this with their many fake schemes and reporting them to their ISP. I have several software options available to me and reading headers etc ( basic search) but one thing I come up against occasionally is loop back address`s, I understand the purpose of these on a network and the industry recognised IP address 127.0.0.1 allocated for loop back for say admin work within the network but thought no direct access is allowed to outside of any given network Is it that a loopback address can be used for hiding email source by commanding any search software to stop at that point? or is it a network issue allowing the loopback to be visible outside of the network when it should not be? Jeff TT

Be sure you know the difference about a remap and a mapping session, very different both in cost and requirment. A remap or chip change / upgrade is a straight forward job with little or no requirement for a rolling road session and will give good results from a mildly tuned engine and will cost around a little over £200. A mapping session on the other hand is best for any hybrid engine mods and takes the collection of after market parts that have been fitted and gets them working together as best as possible , the map is saved, burnt on to a chip and can be always modified again with any extra changes, cost of that is as you have been quoted. Jeff TT

Sounds like you have a boost leak that only shows up over 10psi, as the boost rises much quicker it then leaks from wherever and dumps all of the boost and hence the 0 psi, most common place for this type of leak is the intercooler cuffs been pushed away at the higher boost. Goose honk is not the problem just a sympton of having an induction kit fitted. Jeff

There are two washers, a flat one behind the lower sprocket and one at the front, interestingly on later zeds the front washer is also flat to suit the different metal lower cambelt cover. Jeff TT

What seems like a minor mistakes when working on engines can all to often end up with serious consequences, sometimes though early intervention can save the day. Case in point, a zed in today for a straight forward cambelt service, early on I noticed the engine had clearly been rebuilt with lots of new parts and the block and heads all painted different colours, as it was stripped I wondered why we we doing the belt? What ever the reason it was a lucky day for this zed owner, when the build had been done a new Nissan belt had been fitted as it should be and all tensioned correctly etc. but quickly it was discovered something was very wrong. The cambelt was damaged along the front edge, so much so the width of the belt was reduced enough to expose the front edge of the belt pulleys, as the strip down was done, more and more belt debris became evident, and eventually once all covers were removed the lower area was covered in belt fibres. Upon closer inspection it was found that the bottom sprocket belt washer had been fitted the wrong way around, this had caused the beveled edge to cut into the belt. A simple mistake or oversight? no excuse really when doing a rebuild, just wonder about the rest of the build now!! Jeff TT

Spot on. Jeff

Cannot see too much from the pics, not much oil about that I could see, is the shaft wobbly? has the impeller hit the housing? The shaft journel condition will be the area the turbo company will inspect as this is where any oil issue will leave evidence, side wear normaly suggests start up starvation, all round wear normaly suggests low oil pressure whilst boosting. Intake damage by a foreign object will be more clear to see and could be the cause of any major unbalance that would wreck the bearing, of course it could be a manufacturing fault but knowing turbo companies its unlikely in today`s tight tolerances. Jeff

Yes it is a pain to get into place, the clamp was tight but not that it did any good. Jeff

Boost leaks are part and parcel of zed ownership and one of the most common causes of erratic running issues. When refitting any hard pipes its essential they make good sound seal and are fully tightened up, the turbo side pipes are very often the culprits but on this particular occasion ot was the outer intercooler to turbo pipe that had been fitted wrongly at some time. The faulty fitting had inverted the rubber pipe into the steel section and was causing a massive leak, the pipe been semi hard rubber needed to be warmed for a few seconds with a heat gun to return its former shape before refitting, and soon all was as it should be. Jeff TT turbo pipe

Wheel nut removal hell Had a zed in whilst the owner waited for us to look at a nosiy front suspension, the car had been looked at previously at another garage and the wheels removed and refitted. Unfortunately they had clearly used an air gun to tighten the wheel nuts, they were solid! managed to coax three off but two were not for budging. Eventually with the largest breaker bar we had the nuts sheered off! not good but at least we had access to drill them out then, 2 hours to be honest of a ball ache job, the main issue to not damage the alloys. After they were released we had to refit new studs which was the easy bit, once done all was as it should be but what a pain just because of a silly mistake with an air gun. Jeff TT

Ok there is a simple and fool proof way of removing the standard zed steering wheel and despite all of the well meaning suggestions your hitting it the wrong way! I know it sounds mad but tapping it on will release it, 5 second job everytime of you get it right. So with the nut removed sitting square on in the seat place your clenched fists on the wheel rim at the quarter to three posistion ( opposite each other at the sides) next to the spokes, now beat down on the wheel like a gorilla beats its chest, rapid and hard, it will then release, trying to pull it towards you will not work as it locks. Jeff TT