WillieO

The engine driven fan is pretty good itself for cooling and the aux one will never come just on idling unless it is really warm weather and a high aircon demand is also going on.

Only on the later models Mine's a 92 and the diagnostic makes them operate.

UK ones have a motorised actuator on the top only on the rears that turns a gizmo in the hollow shocker shaft to change the damping from normal to hard. (USA ones also have on the fronts) You can also fit the import type which are much cheaper and bin the actuators. I did get UK ones for mine. There are various theories as to how they are supposed to work apparently with theories like changing to the stiff setting when you plant the throttle to help avoid squat at the rear. There is a diagnostic to prove the actuators are working. Basically when the handbrake is on or more accurately when the handbrake warning light is on then the actuators go to the stiff setting. You can feel the difference on a bumpy road when you bring on the handbrake light. This of course needs them to be working! You can also just about hear the actuators when you bring on the handbrake with ignition on but engine off. When mines failed it was the nearside and it was skipping over manhole covers and potholes and making the back end skip sideways a bit. Not nice. New ones brought things back to how it should be. Fairly easy job to replace. Best with a mate to push down the suspension when you refit the new ones.

What values are you getting? The ECU temp sender must have a special characteristic otherwise they would have dual purposed it for the guage as well. I would imagine that they only need the ECU to know when the engine is up to temp for fueling, boost and emissions. I dont think they had safety features to indicate overtemp etc. So it might not be a linear characteristic like the guage is supposed to be.

You seem to have too many conflicting issues. First the engine runs and ticks over - If you had a holed piston it would not run very well if at all. Oil on the outside of the engine is strange but might fit the holed piston possibility by blowing out oil from burst or pushed out PCV hoses. Oil pipe feed to turbo broken might have explained outside engine mess by spraying oil directly on to hot turbo? But if its inside the exhaust then it points to exhaust side turbo seals gone in a big way or the holed piston again and wet plug on 2 supports this. Which ever it is it sounds expensive sorry! Maybe classic case of inadequate fueling for raised boost pressures melting and holing a piston?

Sorry Ossian, I cant get my zed finished in time! Might drop in with my MG ZT 4.6 V8 if I can!

Thanks, Now got sills and inners and gas for the MIG welder and even cut one away but where can I find more time to get it sorted?

What did your insurance man say to all that?

Me too. Think it might have been a mistake tho -it had insulation in it to stop the battery getting roasted by the heat from the turbo nearby!

Beautiful piece of work - might as well have gone and put in the diffuser fins as well to channel and accelerate the airflow before it exits the back.

You can't get the underside of a zed as smooth as that for start. So basically what's on a fast VX Astra and what's on an Enzo is the difference between show and go!

Would concur there. My UK Euro spec expired at 140k miles plus and was replaced with a box from an import that had recently been reconditioned. It works exactly as before using the UK box ecu.

supaflex poly bushes on several years now and no cracks on track arms!

just ordered the inners and outers. Thought it would be quicker and neater that way. I'm going to have to fab some bits for one side tho as its a bit of a mess inside the o/s sill at the back.

Don't wana lose that cooler. Try reverse flushing it with a hosepipe, then rinse it with parafin or white spirits and blast compressed air through it. But if its totally blocked up tight it might never flow enough air again. Plus you do not want any bits coming loose and getting into the engine once its up and running again. You should be able to see inside the ends once its off the car.

If the cooler was blocked inside then the performance would be terrible on full throttle. Manifold boost pressure would also be down. If a turbo seal had gone before it is possible for oil (and dirt?)to be in the IC or bits of disintegrating turbo as well but unless you have no airfilter there should not be anything else in it. If it was external cooling to the IC then the performance would still be normal for short term bursts of acceleration but would fall off as the cooler heated up. Your temp gauge issue is nothing to do with the intercooler- more likely a slack connection on the temp gauge sender that moves when you were accelerating hard before - its not uncommon. If you have knocking and serious smoking thats probably nothing to do with turbos then you have a rogered engine I'm afraid. Its nothing to do with your IC. Any decent mechanic can diagnose that one.

You also need to be sure that there are no stuck pistons in the caliper. I found the inner pistons quite bad with corrosion and sticking and this can mean the disc is heating unevenly under braking which can lead to warping. Also rubbish braking! A seal kit and new pistons can make the calipers good as new. I used the 3G discs also and they have been fine with some slight noise under breaking and I guess they cheese grate the pads a bit.

just re subscribed - hadnt noticed it was out - hope to hear shortly - I think the PM sys is working

I heard about that system too. Does the car have to be new? I mean could you also take a recent V8 and add an LPG kit to it? You can get conversions for £1800 ish the fuel economy is then diesel like in cost terms

Yes any progress on sill panels?

Would have like to bring mine along but the sills need done. In fact I have chopped lumps out of the bad side with an angle grinder. A bit of work needed then. Anyone know where to get the repair panels now?

Not a proper job but as a temporary fix until my replacement centre bearing came I gently jacked up the prop in the middle and tucked thick rubber strips into the bellows rubber part of the under the support part to lift it up and give it some support. It worked fine and cured the vibes. Lasted a few weeks too before it worked the strips out of place.

re bush the upper link with Nismo parts. It takes a couple of hours with a vice and mallet and drift and costs maybe £160-£200 for the 8 bushes needed to do both sides. Maybe same in dollars from USA. I remember getting them from Nissan in St Helens http://www.middlehurst.com/ There is also a bulletin about the top link and it explains that for MOTs a certain amount of play is permitted. do a search

Where are you? There's a one man company that comes to you and did mine with a drop in compatible replacement refridgerant, not the R134 or whatever is usual these days. He is local to Falkirk and west central. The zed runs at very high pressure as it is and the system locks out the compressor once the pressure in the low pressure side drops below a certain level, 30 psi I think. The cost to fix a leak depends on where its at. Probably the condenser in front of the rad or possibly compressor seals. He should have been able to see this actively during vacuuming and pressure testing. i'e the tests fail! Mark who did mine injected fluorescent dye but mine was sound - till the engine had to come out and they let the lot go! So I need to get him in again. Autokool was his company and location Bonnybridge. maybe 01324 815525

reasonably easy to fit the Nismo Skyline replacement bushes in the stock arms. There is some waffle about the Nismo ones being intended for track use but they looked pretty much the same as the ones that came off. Watch out for some of the pretty coloured anodised adjustable stuff - some are dangerous and fold up. Some nasty pictures probably findable here.