WillieO

Your balance test fail should point to what cylinder is down and you can then examine the injector connector and coil pack connector for that cylinder as one of those could be favourite for dropping that cylinder. The grey waxy substance could just be some previous attempt of radweld or similar stuff. If you are way down on oil and its not leaked then its being burned. Remember the zed engine does not hold a lot of oil, only about 4 litres max. So burning a little oil could soon drop a litre and make it look like its gone right off the dipstick. Your coolant is clear so hope for the best. Also your compression test was good. If it was an oil way to water jacket break the oil pressure would soon put oil into your water giving major salad cream and the pressure would collapse leading to a siezed engine.

Mines an auto and the zed is a brilliant auto if alls working properly. Like the man says check the auto box fluid in particular, The clearer the better.

Thanks for the comments. Just waxoiled inside the rear panels and got all the boot interior refitted Had a really nice drive today with the tops off and the sun shining. The car is going just so well and handling so brilliantly that I just want to drive and drive. Even felt a bit embarrased at all the looks the car gets. I had forgotten about that.

As my car had been off the road for almost 2 years the 3G grooved Brembo discs had rusted just too much to salvage so I thought I'd put on some cheap ones meantime to get it MOT'd. These are sound discs and £20 cheaper now. I prefer the quiet braking of the stock non grooved type. You can sometimes get more than you paid for! http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NISSAN-300ZX-3-0-TWIN-TURBO-90-94-BRAKE-DISCS-FRONT_W0QQitemZ220363031241QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM?hash=item334ea902c9&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

Pleased as punch to announce my zed is back on the road after nearly 2 years off. Small rusting bits at the bottom rear of each sill turned out to mean a lot of metal and rust needed cutting out and inner sills, inner inner bit and the part of the heavy bit of floorpan needed doing one both sides. The place I use for MOTs is pretty thorough so I expected a fail on brake pipes and other stuff but no it was a pass with a few advisories on slight rust on some rear brake pipes and superficial rust near seat belt anchorages. I dread having to drop the rear subframe but I can see some pipes still have the green paint on them whereas others have started to rust a little. Oh and a noisy exhaust but that has always been noisy - lt looks like it came off a space shuttle. Looking forward to driving it now. Pity the summers just about run out.

Best recheck those compression levels - one reading double does not make sense but if 3 cylinders on the same bank are on zero its a pig pointer to the head gasket going between cylinders. Was the boost pressure way up?

I think for £400 you'd find a good second hand engine

about 3 miles and a third of a tank as it was full when it was put on the drive. After a 18 months off the road and shedload of weekends with a mig my zed is nearly ready to get MOT'd and be hopefully shortly back on the road. New sills and inner and inner inner and the innermost bit as well! and bottom of rear wing wheel arch bits and back edge of rear wheel arches and a couple of small bits at the floor next to the front sills. Once you start it goes on and on but hopefully now at an end. Daily driver is a 4.6l V8 ford engined rear drive MG ZT. Loads of torque and a nice noise but only about 260-270bhp. Think it might have to be fitted with an LPG kit tho as 22-24mpg can be a bit heavy these low carbon days for a daily driver. I know the lpg burns as much carbon, its just that there isnt as much tax to go with it!

Apexi rear cans on fabricated 3.5" pipes - bit loud and droney at speed but fine when slow. Going to change it for a Japspeed system shortly

Zed power steering is speed sensitive so should be light at low speed and weight up as you go faster. Like others have said the kph/mph converter upsets the relationship making ot too light when you would want it heavier.

Also when getting them balanced ask the guy to do it for zero unbalance. I had unbalance vibs which I thought I had to live with until I explained it to the guy and he said he could get to zero. They usually settle for a small remaining unbalance that is unnoticable on most cars. Once balanced properly to zero it was smooth as silk at any speed. I think the "feel" the zed steering has exacerbates the feel of unbalanced wheels.

even upping boost and changing the chip can add hundreds. On mine the wheels added about £30pa, the exhaust, and intake about £40pa but a chip and boost upgrade would have cost £300 extra. And to add insult to injury the wheels are not covered if they get nicked. The premium increase was only because the car became more nickable.

Was it the engine dipstick or the autobox dipstick? The autobox one can do it when it is slightly overfilled.

In order to extend the oil change interval on some cars the sump is made bigger. We have a family renault scenic 1.4 which has a 6 litre sump but only needs a change about every 12000 whereas some argue the 4 litre oil content in a zed needs changing every 3000miles.

Honing adds sort of diagonal scratches to the machined bore surface so that oil tends to stick better and piston rings seal better. Its not good to be too smooth in a glassy sense.

Euro spec cars work from 30mph to about 90mph. It can be sort of entertaining if you have been on a road where you can set it to 90 then slow down to 30 and press resume. The sensation that its running away with a mind of ots own when it gets on boost on its way back to 90 can be a bit scary. Obviously not to be tried in inappropriate circumstances!

National tyres do an oil change with full synthetic and a good brand filter for £39 ie about the price Halfords charge for the oil to do it yourself. I had the oil in my 4.6l V8 Ford engined MGZT done this way 3 times now with no hassles.

Careful use of a hairdryer can help soften it.

The ones with the fins were alloy.

than left o2 sensor doesnt flash under test so assume it's running lean that side. Clean the O2 sensor connections - they also get oxide in them and re do it. Also I think you need steady 2000rpm to check it iirc.

I did notice that the upper radiator hose seemed to have some hissing from it when I turned the engine off, now I've pinched the jubilee clip up and it no longer does it. Watch that you have not just tightened up over a crack in the hose. If it was hissing there it would also have been losing water from there before. It could be your leak. You better hope not a head gasket!! Check that the system pressurises when the engine is hot. Firm hose. Good seal on the rad cap. Watch out for ejection through the overflow tank - this would point to gas entering the water jacket and expelling the coolant via the rad cap - bad sign..

I found also that when the rear sills were like that there was what looks like a small rusty bit under the front sill floorpan side roughly where front door edge is that also needs attention. Better to cut it out and do it now before it spreads.

The AC system has a lock out when the pressure is below about 30psi. Its there to stop you wrecking the compressor by running it with a dry system with no lubricant or refridgerant left. The lubricant oil is mixed with the refridgerant. If there is enough pressure to make it work it can still work badly if the levels are low. You can tell a lot by seeing bubbles in the little sight glass when its operating. Ideally you should see fluid flow and minimum bubbles. Also a good condition system will have the pipe to the condenser very hot and the one coming back from the comressor very cold. The section in the manual on the AC system is huge 168 pages. It also has diagnostics. http://www.300zx-twinturbo.com/cgi-bin/manual.cgi?list=ha&dir=&config=&refresh=&direction=forward&scale=0&cycle=off&slide=112&design=default&total=168 You probably need it recharged with drop in replacement if R12 or E134A if your is a later converted system.

It still can be warped discs or discs with pad marks on them. The surface can heat unevenly when really hot and then the warp or high spot or high friction spot is evident. Even air temperature has an effect and when the weather is really warm then the disc temp is those few extra degrees hotter. The zeds calipers (probably any at 16yrs +) are known for sticking pistons especially on the inner side. The failure mode is piston dust seals perish, moisture gets in, the bit of piston sticking out rusts and seizes in the cylinder. Effect is maybe only 2 of 4 pistons are actually applying braking effort and if the two are only on one side of the disc the heating effect on that one side of the disc creates the stress that warps the disck and causes the shakes under hard braking. You can now get some pretty low cost replacement discs for zeds. If all you want is to replace the stock ones they can be worth a try.

watch also that the allen screw you took out from below the housing is not the top one for the lower thermostat housing and you might have just left in the one for the top part. The 2 screws are right next to each other and hard to see or feel which one you are removing. Hope you get it sorted.