JeffTT

Yes, in the middle of fitting a zcentre wide body kit now, the template is very, very basic, a few sheets of paper clipped together with the outline drawn on in biro?? will post a pic tomorrow to show you. Jeff TT

The top one is a twin turbo, there is no operating rod coming out of it as the TT uses a booster. The botom one is non turbo with operating rod beem part of the cylinder, the two cannot be swapped. Jeff TT

Oh yes. Jeff TT

Manta you have it, the larger mouth and the lack of number plate exposed the unsuitable filter. Sir Charles, yep the seal issue was where the water ingress was coming from too. Jeff TT

Big clue, not the actual bumpers but you should get the idea! This was changed for THIS Jeff TT

You may need to flush again after a few miles,but well done in the meanwhile. Jeff TT

Some interesting thoughts there! Znut you understand it correctly but that was not the cause, dougal200 your very close in essence but not quite there. The paint work was on the "new" bumper (clue) Jeff TT

Oh yes, rest assured that both myself and Jamie will be giving value for money..well free actually but you know what I mean.:clap: Jeff

Running problems can present themselves slowly over a period of time and as such when trying to resolve them it can be difficult to accurately pin point when something actually started playing up. So the humble air filter or should be say induction kit / system, over the years these have been marketed as upgrades with no mention of the down sides that can occur, one of which many here will know about or have encountered ....rain /spray when driving in bad weather. But what about dry sunny day issue?? we have seen many more zeds with issues in the Summer time than in the bad weather months with running issues due to faulty or incompatible units. An opportunity presented itself the other day so grabbed the camera to demonstrate this phenomena,the first pic. shows the unit split into three parts, the filter and adapter, the seal and the afm itself. Nothing too high tech, looks about the right size and shape, not keen on the fine metal filtration material but looks in reasonable order. Oh and to just add, the zed in question would run fine around town and when on a steady run on the motorway, and when cold would boost and respond well, however when fully warm and the loud pedal was used fully this zed became a bucking bronco! and with NO error codes. So on to pic. two, the unit end section is very corroded which is not an issue in itself other than to confirm this filter has been getting very wet! again from experience not fond of end on filters as this can lead to air flow issues. Pic three is now telling more of the story, there is no vortex control funnel, to those not familiar with this, this usually is an inverted cone shape section within the filter which is designed to disturb the intake air and channel it through the afm in a more mixed manner, this way the centrally mounted sensor can be more accurately read. The last picture demonstrates the problem more clearly, the end section filtration is less than useless, and will lead to massive increase of directional air over the afm sensor wire as the revs rise, and as previously mentioned the system works on disturbed air flow this direct air leads to a huge hole in the performance as the system suddenly goes extremely lean and moments later extremely rich, this can be felt as something akin to a misfire at best or an almost engine shut down at worse. In the particular case above, a temporary fix was to cover the end of the filter with duct tape, this gave immediate results and a chance for the owner to purchase a better designed filter at a later time. So the question was asked by the owner, why after three years did the filter “suddenly” become unsuitable when previously it was fine? good question want to guess the answer? Well it involves paint ................. ok guys get guessing Jeff TT

Thanks Gio nicely worded there:whistling: I cannot believe that meet at the Boat inn was 8 years ago!!! jeez and I had chrome headlights too! Jeff

Well as Jamie mentioned we have seen this before, one case in particular was booked in for new turbo`s and on the way to the workshop they freed off, and that over a year ago. The main reason turbo`s seize is lubrication problem to the bearing, another one bit less know is debris caused by induction kits with too large filtration, maybe ( defo maybe) your in this position and the debris cleared and released the impeller, I would be inclined to leave it, but monitor it, check out what air filter you have too. Jeff

Kris, seen this so many times, compromise is the key here, any sports car is a compromise with performance and comfort been just two of the many things to concider. Personally I would alway suggets standard shocks with slightly lowered progressive springs, this gives good handling with a decent ride height but more over a more reasonable comfort level. Coil overs are by their nature track based and as we all well know UK roads are not track smooth, in fact a very hard set up on bumpy roads results in wheel hopping and tyre to road contact been lost and hence grip, not good in anyway. Sure many guys are happy to trade off the comfort against a car that handles like its on rails but I must say I dislike the look of any car bobbing its way down the road, esecially when the headlights are on and they are behind you. Standard shock ( good ones) and 50mm lowered progressive sprins rock! Jeff

What induction kit do you have? try a quick blast out with no air filter fitted, have seen some odd ball effects with many types of induction kit, in fact I have a tech thread I will post later with pictures to demonstrate what I mean. Jeff

Well can be a difficult one to call of course but in this case the saving got close to £700 over an engine change so based on that it was a good alternative route and took around the same time too. Always happy to post the tech threads, good therapy for us too, its like a big debrief at the end of the job / week.:biggrin: Jeff

Oil way blocked by black sludge, could be due in part to late oil changes, but most modern oils have properties to counter black sludge, so could just be bad luck, oil choice and long changes, not cause by heavy foot in any way. Jeff TT

Might find you water leak returns after this, especially with adding antifreeze (has searching properties) as the brown sludge may of sealed up that earlier leak. The running issue could still be air flow meter related, the loud bang could of been unburnt fuel lighting up in the exhaust. The air flow meter can cause overfueling when it is failing, no code will be produced as the unit is still effectively be outputing signals albeit wrong ones. That said electrical connections are the devils own work on the zed engine as we all know only too well, boring I know but you may need to start again and methodically go through each and every engine connector cleaning and refitting, oh and have you done any code check just a a pointer maybe? Jeff

Oh yes:whistling:. Jeff

Cool, pm coming your way later!! Jeff

Your welcome :D Jeff

Thanks guys, Jamie TT and myself will work out a schedule of meets and will post them up as a main sticky thread but give updates and pics monthly. In the meantime any meets already set up or any suggestions are all good. Jeff TT

Exactly what Jamie mentioned might happen, seen this before. Jeff TT

Follow on form this thread http://www.300zx.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=141126 So a seized cam and a stripped cambelt can spell disaster but having faith in the robustness of the zed engine can often be rewarding. The zed was recovered to us from another garage that had partial stripped the engine, mainly the radiator and cambelt covers which had revealed a destroyed cam belt and a seized right hand exhaust camshaft and of course the remaining cams and crank all wrongly timed. Removal of the plenum, upper and lower injector assemblies, the timing sprockets with back plates and both of the camshaft (rocker) covers reveal the camshafts. With the cam bearing caps and the camshaft itself removed the damage was clear to see, the camshaft front camshaft bearing, cap and head location bearing were mashed! and with a completely blocked oil way to that journal it was no surprise, in fact they amount of black sludge in there was no doubt part of the problem. So before any more time and cash was poured into either replacing or repairing the engine we needed to see where we stood damage wise. So by loosing the camshaft up enough to stay in place but now rotate albeit not very smoothly the engine was re-timed and an old cambelt fitted on. We then turned the engine by hand and noted that all of the lifters were operational and no sign of any tightness when rotating, and by the use of a camera scope no internal damage was evident,a compression tester was used for tdc checking and finally a leak test supported what we already thought from the beginning .... the engine was repairable. So the strip begins, removal of the exhaust, n/s turbo, n/s exhaust manifold and with the plenum and front already stripped it just left the head to be removed, this now gave us conclusive proof that no cylinder or piston damage had occured. With a replacement head complete with cams and lifters prepared , it was a case of rebuilding the engine, whilst this was done it made sense to do an egr valve removal and a plenum water by-pass. The build up of course included a new timing belts inlet hose thermostat etc. once the covers were all on and the exhaust refitted an oil and filter change was done, the oil return pipe removed from the n/s turbo and the engine turned over until a steady return oil feed came out. So there you have it all built up with new fluids both oil and coolant replenished it was time to start up, and it fired up almost immediately, a single injector connection required an extra clean and was soon firing on all six cylinders. Well after the usual initial noisy lifters waiting for the oil to jack them up all went for a smooth settled tickover, warmed through and fully ConZulted the engine purrs and on a test drive pulls strong and smooth, one pesky lifter is doing its best to upset the day but sure it will quiet down once its had an extended drive. So in essence what looked like a doomed engine brought back to life, this again reafirms what we know that this is one fine engine! Oh and top marks to Jamie who performed 99% of the work with “Dad” holding the camera......nice one son!! Jeff TT

Good news ken :hyper: Follow link http://www.300zx.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=143544 Jeff TT

So what to do do if you wack your sill on something, well below is someones idea of what to do COVER IT UP! Spotted during a regular MOT test, the cover up was not unsafe in any way but as it was starting to peel away it had the potential to be rotten behind so had to be pulled off to look. The repair had been done with little preperation but was surprisngly convincing and in fact had been in place for a few years before showing out. So the only way was to get the metal work pulled back into shape, then the lightest skim of filler and then underseal and paint, should have been done this way the first time around. Jeff TT