Mike Duffy

Well that makes a lot more sense than my lateral loads theory! Sounds definately like the connector though.

As my car should be ready again next weekend (fingers crossed) I'm going to be reinstalling the nut behind the wheel. I can see this being a real problem as my nut is likely to be very over eager from having no Zed for over a month. Why did the bloody weather choose now to have a bloody Arctic freeze wave??!!

I'm looking to replace the two 10mm ID (I think) hoses going to the oil cooler from the engine. The Nissan replacements are extortionate. Anyone know where you can get plain and simple oil hose from quickly? Is there anything different about hoses designed to carry oil compared to hoses designed to carry water, or can I just buy normal water grade hoses? Ta.

Does it drop by a lot and does it fluctuate at all. If so, it sounds like the first signs of a temperature sensor about to break off. You may have caught it when under the bonnet. Don't worry if it's that, they're not too expensive. They start to read funny when under lateral loads from acceleration or braking.

Hi mate I've replaced all the main and big ends with ACL bearings. Apart from that, it's mainly been a case of replacing all the hoses, oil seals, etc, and cleaning the thing up with a bit of detailing. I've also changed the detonation sensor, pumps, and all the 60K service stuff. Found quite a lot of pipework underneath the plenum and round the back which was a leak waiting to happen. Oh yeh, I totally removed the EGR system and the stock actuators for the turbos. I took the opportunity of putting the boost controller in while I had an empty engine bay to work in. It's also got a full set of gear from Smithy to go on it. RPS Max Series clutch, lightweight flywheel, hard pipes, radiator pipes, fuel hoses, etc. And the brakes are coming next week. Got 10 groove discs for the rear with EBC Greenstuff pads. And got big 310mm 6 groove dimpled discs for the front with EBC Redstuff pads. So all in all, it should be quite a bit different! All that remains is to get the engine and gearbox back in (and obviously the propshaft and the exhaust). Should get all that done this weekend. Going to put the rear brakes on also as the pads have nothing left on the ones that are on. The fronts aren't coming for another couple of weeks so it'll have to be a bit unbalanced for the time being. Oh, nearly forgot, got some nice shiny de-cat pipes from Luke as well. Think that's everything.

Engine's ready to go back in now. But it's going to be next weekend before I get the time to do it. So no more Zed for another week.

It might help people by saying it's not Justin Timberlake.

How cheap's cheap? What did it cost?

Not sure about resistance tests. I'm sure someone can dig some out. Iain (MAC1) managed to fix his with some handy soldering however. There's no way of fooling at because it is relying on the TPS as a substitute for the AFM data. As the TPS doesn't have any idea how much air is being boosted by the turbos, you've got to keep the revs very low so that it can make an "educated" guess without being too far out.

Cheers mate. The plenum's already off for other work. The problem I've got is I didn't order gaskets for this stuff from Courtesy when I got everything else. Nissan wanted £62 for each of the lower intake manifold to cylinder head gaskets when I enquired recently, so I was kind of bricking it that the rocker cover gaskets may be similarly priced! Anyway, if I take off the rocker covers, it still sounds like replace rather than repair, which is going to add up to something even bigger. So I'm thinking it's probably best all round to try and repair them in situ.

It's more likely to be the AFM itself mate Whatever it is it's definately AFM related. If you can, swap it for a known good one. This will isolate your problem straight away.

Look he had this joke the first time he came on here. It's not funny anymore so everyone pack it in. I think it was on a Monday that he first came on here. Some other sh1t happened in between but by the Sunday he was chilled again.

This sounds like the sort of easy fix I like! Does anyone know how these are attached inside and, therefore, how they could have become lose? If no-one can give me a good reason why the epoxy job won't do the trick, that's the route I'll be taking tomorrow I think. Cheers mate.

I've got a slight concern over part of my PCV system. Can some people give me a hand on this by checking something on their Zeds for me. Where the metal pipes leave the rocker cover to go to the air intakes, mine have some play in them on both sides. In fact the left hand one (looking at the front of the engine) has more play in it than the right. To investigate further is going to involve me taking the covers off and buying more gaskets to put them back on again. But if there is a problem, I need to do it now while the plenum's off. So... could any helpful people try "wiggling" these pipes on their Zeds to see if theirs have any play in them as well. Try pulling them away from the rocker cover and pusing them back towards it. Then try any up and down play. My left one moves in and out about 2mm. The right one just moves up and down slightly. I've attached pictures so you know which bits I'm talking about.

I did exactly the same thing mate. Took it to loads of garages who said they couldn't do anything. Nissan said they could do it for several hundred pounds! Eventually some scouser got them off by hammering an undersize socket onto the bolts! He got them off in five minutes for a tenner!

Do you mean you've lost the locking wheel nut key? This would make a lot more sense!

You won't get anywhere near enough boost doing that. You need 3000rpm at least in fifth to give it a good work out. Get maximum boost in fifth and let go of the throttle. The revs shouldn't suddenly drop but should gradually fall with the speed of the car. If they suddenly drop, it's the clutch and nothing else. When these clutches first start to go, very often you don't get the mad rise in revs without going anywhere. The initial gradual slip gives exactly the problem you're describing. This problem is your clutch mate. It will probably last for a fair bit longer. But when it starts to go properly, you'll really know about it then.

That'd be me then. Oh well... Welcome back boll0cks!

Sounds exactly like clutch mate. It slips when in the torquier part of the engine range then stops slipping when it reaches higher revs. This is the drop in revs you see. I presume from your description that the car doesn't slow down when the engine revs drop?

No problem. This much... http://www.redlineoil.co.uk/products/mt90.htm

Hi mate I'm not a mechanic no. But I've always maintained my own cars and I've had several in a lot of pieces (and got them back together again!). I also used to own a Lotus Carlton which was fun to work on. But now you come to mention it, I do have a friend who is an excellent mechanic. He's not a Zed man but he's done a hell of a lot of work on mine when I've been busy. We have been thinking about setting up a garage up here in the north west specialising in Zeds. Still trying to work out whether the market for the work is big enough to justify the cost of setting up on our own though. But to answer your question, at the moment I'm a normal Joe with a ramshackle garage having a go! Cheers Mike

Yeah I've had no problems at all really. At the end of the day a car's a car. This one's just got a bigger engine than most and a few extra bits hanging of it! Take your time and do your homework is the only advice I could really offer someone.

Been out on the p1ss all weekend so not done much this week. Took the crank to the machine shop where Middlehurst send their Skyline stuff during the week. It didn't need regrinding and a quick polish sorted it out. They also supplied a full set of ACL bearings (main and big end). £120 for the bearings and the work. I've just put the crank back in today as I'm off work. I'm also waiting for all the extra gaskets, seals, etc which I overlooked and had to order from Middlehurst. They should arrive on Wednesday morning so I'm hoping to get the engine back in this weekend. It's going to be tight and I'm still waiting for a few other bits and pieces from other suppliers. If not, it'll be next weekend. So Stu, Hopefully after this weekend you can borrow whatever stuff you like! I'll see how it goes.

Stu Started to write a big reply here but I've cut it and I'll paste it into another thread. Didn't want to hijack this one with a lengthy reply about my rebuild!

Cheers boys. Ordered some from Delta Oil this morning. Vijay, I only just read your post regarding a discount. Doh! Ordered four of the 1 American Quart pots so that should be plenty for the box.