vern936

Car.Mad - what sort of electric heater you thinking of? Is there any heater I can use that will do anything when it's on the drive? I'll give the ideas a go tomorrow morning.

Yeah it's been -6 today. Really caught me out. I could start the car with no exhaust on if it would help I suppose but if the block is full of frozen slush is it likely to just snap the water pump shaft? It's a lesson learnt though - and for anyone that thought anti-freeze doesnt make that much of a difference - it really does! Check you've got a strong enough mixture of antifreeze and water in your engines!

At the risk of been flamed - the water in my zed appears to have frozen solid in the rubber hoses from the radiator - is there anything I can do to minimize any further damage? The zed isnt running - its got no exhaust on and it's on axle stands at the moment on the drive so I've got no way of thawing it out that I can think of.

Hmmm. Can't find anythin do to show whether I was supposed to renew or have a subscription. I had both options available to me. Re-newed now though so I'm sure they'll let me know if there's a problem. Cheers *Edit* - That was quick! Must have been ok to renew as I've been changed to subscribed instantly!

I've been a member before so already have the membership pack but I had a gap from subscription last year - do I need to pay the first time subscription fee or just a renewal fee? James

You're definately loosing out if you were to straight swap the evo for a mondeo diesel estate. My dad just bought one for £1750 - although that was cheap off my brother in law but I don't think they're worth anything like £3k are they? If so I'll tell my dad he'll probably sell it on:lol:

In my experience it depends what sort of thing you're going to use them for. If its for a daily driver then they seem to be OK and if its for a stripped out track car they seem to be ideal but if its a normal car with drains from alarm systems and i.c.e equipment etc and you're only going to be using it at weekends etc they don't seem to be very good. They don't cope well with even the slightest drain over a period of time at all. Used to have to use a booster pack to start the s14a almost everytime :) HTH

AFAIK the octain rating of fuel has nothing to do with the energy of the fuel its purely the resistance to detonation. The higher the RON the less likely you are to get detonation - often incresed RON fuels actually have less energy content per volume :)

PaulC - you wouldn't believe how many local tool shops I've tried phoning today to find that none of them have these drill bits in singles they only have kits of them and some of them dont even stock the cobalt bits. I can't believe how cheap they are on that site you've linked to - gotta be worth ordering a couple of the sizes I'll need from there at that price.

Is it normal HSS bits that you used then groover? Or do I need these cobalt steel bits? And should I have the drill on the low speed setting? It's not too bad on axle stands to be honest - the car is still pretty low so I was on my back with the drill on my chest could almost have fallen asleep lol - thats how long it was taking to make any progress at all.

For any of you that have had the misfortune to snap a bolt on the downpipe end of the turbo elbow - what have you done to remove it? I've got 2 snapped on the nearside sticking out a few mm from the flange and 1 on the o/s thats snapped flush. Trying to drill them out is proving difficult to say the least as normal HSS drill bits dont do much - it took me about 20 minutes of drilling to get about 1mm into one of the bolts. What are my options? I thought about removing the elbow from the turbo but thought if a stud there it's an engine out job to correct and I dont have an engine crane. My brother reckons I need a cobalt steel drill bit and that should speed the drilling up because they're used to drill stainless? I have no idea where to go from here lol. Any help appreciated.

Is it getting fuel? If not it'll be the wiring to the CAS or the CAS itself I'd have thought mate - it controls injection and spark though so if your injectors are clicking away then its not the CAS causing the spark issue. Just a thought :)

Most likely to be the tension rod bushes - not too bad to change to be honest the hardest part is deciding what to replace them with i.e. standard or polybush. With mine you couldn't really feel it at low speeds but braking from higher speeds 70+ it was quite bad!

Could be the cam cover then - I'll try and have a better look/feel tomorrow. Cheers for the quick reply. Thanks again for your time replying to my email about the prop the other day as well - still not put it on yet as I'm painting my suspension arms and undersealing the car first but I'll let you know how it goes when I do.

Hope you dont mind me borrowing and changing this picture a bit Jeff. What is it I've put arrows to in the picture? Noticed I seem to have quite a bit of oil leaking out of the left hand one of these and it's dripping round the gearbox and onto the floor - I wondered if there was meant to be something on the end of it but I didn't even notice there was one on the right hand side - perhaps I could get some clues from there. Any help appreciated, James

Where did you get that from mate if you dont mind me asking? Can you just build it up round the car or do you have to do silly thing like checking with the council first lol. Also-does it have a floor mat sort of thing? The drainage isnt very good on my driveway and if it doesn't I'm likely to still get puddles in it from the rain coming under the sides:hammer:

Just realised in your thread boldy you put that you wish you had a garage - did you cut the wings out on the drive then? Thats one of the things that's stopping me undertaking any serious work myself is that I only have the driveway. I can borrow a welder off my brother but I'm terrified of cutting parts out one day and it raining for weeks as soon as I do it. That's why I'm getting someone to do the sills for me but I don't suppose it would be too bad to weld a square inch in on that turret mount. Suppose it helps for you that the engine is out of the way at the time as well where even if I wanted to get my engine out I have no hoist at the moment - something I might have to keep my eye out on eBay for :)

Really upsetting to see pictures like this. Was the garage in Stoke as well mate? If so whereabouts?

Well mine aren't the same colour as the ones I linked to in that ebay link - mine are a dark grey around the outside and a lighter grey in the middle - or the other way round lol can't remember. I'll perhaps try putting them in the washing machine to clean them up first then see if I still want them the navy blue colour.

Has anyone ever sucessfully dyed their original fairlady mats? I've got the early original dirty grey coloured ones and whilst I like the feel and quality of them I dont really like the colour and I was wondering if it would be possible to dye them to a darker colour like the later version in this eBay Link.

That's it SuffolkZX! Cheers for that mate. I knew I hadn't imagined it. Musn't have come up under search cause I put free mods instead of modifications :hammer:

Sorry mate I think I'm confusing you - must be the way I'm wording things cause it's late. I'll try again - I thought there was a thread containing links to guides etc telling you what improvements you could make to your zed without the need for any new parts. Although I'm sure it's all actually in the FAQ somewhere I just thought I remembered there being a list so that I haven't got to read through all the threads to find out whether they involve buying new parts or not. Thanks for looking and trying to help anyway.

Cheers for the link groover. I have looked at the FAQ and used the search facility but can't find what I seem to recall being a link to specific mods and removals that didn't require you buying anything to do them. Or is it just a case of everything's in the FAQ section but its no longer under a 'free mods' thread?

That needs rephrasing - obviously things under the bonnet are structural lol. What I meant was I wasnt sure if the rust that was there was affecting the structure. I think the only part that has actually damaged anything important from those photos is that small patch I've zoomed in on on the turret mount which is actually only about 2cms*1cm. The rest is only battery tray which I arent too fussed about personally and surface rust. I'll see if i can get hold of a welder for that small patch. Thanks for the advice.

Yeah I know what you mean - thats why I'm having the sills done professionally. But I wasn't sure if any of what was there under the bonnet was structural to be honest. I'll try and get a better look tomorrow.