Lexx

The pins will be the wrong way round on that one from China. You'll need to create a wee length of wire with a male and female spade on each end. Have a look in the Tech section. There's a good explanation in there.

Yup.

Our great leader over on 350z-uk has just had confirmation of his order for one, and expected delivery is early 2015.

I'm Chief Officer of a tug at Hound Point on the river Forth. Previous to that I did 9 years deep sea on containerships and tankers, and then a year with SFPA, a year as Chief Officer on a cross channel ferry, and then on tugs around the UK as Chief Officer or Skipper. If you're ever up around the Forth in your yellow taxi then seek us out. I'll give you a wave. With more advanced notice, I could probably arrange one of the boats for you to play with.

Stolen from Marine Traffic, but this is my old boat working with you (or one of your colleagues!)

I've worked at sea for almost 15 years, and I can't even begin to explain the gratitude I feel towards people like yourself from around the world. I've been unlucky enough to witness 3 major injuries onboard vessels when miles from land. Each time there has been a helicopter rescue in less than ideal conditions completed with the utmost professionalism and speed. I hope to Christ I never have to be one of the folks who gets winched up, but it's nice to know in the UK that we have yourselves and the RNLI available to come to the rescue when needed. It's also pretty cool to see you guys in action on exercise. When I worked for SFPA we used to do winching exercises with the Stornoway Sea King, and I've also done a couple of exercises with you guys since I have worked on tugs (apparently tugs make nice practice).

265 wheels look fine, but you start to get tyre pinch at that size and it will ruin the handling of the cars rear end.

How about a borders meet with the NE/NW guys?

A few events added.

Meeting time is 1200 Afternoon gents, There will be a static meet taking place at Falcon Performance in Middlesbrough on Sunday Feb 2nd 2014. It will be a joint event with ourselves, 350z-uk, and Z-Club. The majority of the facilities will be open to us, including some of the current project cars that they have in the shop (couple of classics for full restoration, a porche powered VW camper, and whatever else in the shop at the time). Car washing facilities will be available, including demonstrations for those who are not sure about detailing. Coffee and Donuts will be provided (possibly even bacon sarnies if the numbers look good). Afterwards will be a trip round the corner to Teesside Aerodrome to watch some drifting action. Or possibly a wee shot of karting which is just around the corner too. (I know of one member who certainly won't be attending this meet. Can I ask you don't post on this thread, as it's about a meet not the garage's reputation for work).

Wet MAF. On the Scarborough run in the summer it was tossin down, and I was following Stevie and he was throwing up a hellish amount of spray. My splash guard had detached itself, and the filter and MAF got soaked. Caused very lumpy idle, and intermittent hesitation when it was on the move. Took 20 minutes of driving on dry roads for it to clear up.

Probably worth having a chat with your regular MOT tester too. He will be able to shed some light on what he would deem acceptable.

If you are attending any joint 300/350 meets in 2014 you could donate it to a raffle? (we have one at LakeZ if youa re attending)

This is a cut n paste from a Vosa directive issued in 2012: "In the Department's view it is not legal to sell or use after market HID lighting kits, for converting conventional Halogen headlamps to HID Xenon. If a customer wants to convert his vehicle to Xenon HID he must purchase completely new Xenon HID headlamps. The reason for this is that the existing lens and reflector are designed around a Halogen filament bulb, working to very precise tolerances. If one places a HID "burner" (bulb) in the headlamp, the beam pattern will not be correct, there will be glare in some places and not enough light in other places within the beam pattern. The following is the legal rationale: The Road Vehicle Lighting Regulations 1989 regulate the situation in the UK. Under these Regulations, HID/Gas Discharge/Xenon headlamps are not mentioned and therefore they are not permitted according to the strict letter of the law. However new vehicles have HID headlamps. This is because they comply to European type approval Regulations. The UK cannot refuse to register a vehicle with a European type approval. These are to ECE Regulation 98 (for the HID headlamps which are tested on a rig in a laboratory) and ECE Regulation 48 (Lighting Installation on the vehicle). For the after market, a used vehicle cannot obtain type approval because it is only applicable for new vehicles. However we feel that saying "HID is banned in the after market" would not be reasonable. Instead we should make analogies with new vehicles. It would be reasonable to require HID in the after market to meet the same safety standards as on new vehicles. The same level of safety should apply. Therefore a HID headlamp unit sold in the after market should: 1. be type approved to ECE Regulation 98 as a component. 2. when fitted to the vehicle should enable ECE Regulation 48 to be complied with (although no government inspection will take place). 3. Comply with RVLR as far as "use" is concerned. In practice this means: 1. The headlamp unit (outer lens, reflector, bulb) shall be type approved to ECE 98 and be "e-marked" to demonstrate this. That can only be done by the headlamp supplier - Hella, Valeo etc. who must test the headlamp in an independent laboratory. 2. Once fitted to the vehicle it must have headlamp cleaning and self-levelling (which can be for the headlamp or can be in the vehicle suspension - some expensive estate cars have "self-levelling suspension" and that is adequate). Also the dipped beam must stay on with the main beam. 3. The headlamp must be maintained in good working order, kept clean, and aligned/adjusted correctly like any other headlamp. Under the Road Traffic Act 1988 it is an offence to supply, fit or use vehicle parts which are not legal. In summary it is not permitted to convert an existing halogen headlamp unit for use with HID bulbs. The entire headlamp unit must be replaced with one designed and approved for use with HID bulbs and it must be installed in accordance with the rules stated above." If you are found to be using lights which don't comply, in all likelihood, you may be reported to the Procurator Fiscal and may end up with a fine. The above seems to be a precursor to the new MOT criteria slated to come into existance on New Years Eve 2011 (for 2012), this is from the MOT Testers VOSA bullitin explaining the new EU MOT regulations which were ratified this year, and includes amongst other things, the testing of wiring harnesses, the testing for illegal HID kits and, wait for it, chipped ECU's, whatever that means The article is quite long, but here is a small extract ..... "As far as changes to the test content are concerned, VOSA has already been analysing the requirements of the new Directive and working out how to implement them. We started this earlier in the year by talking with representatives of the MOT trade at our regular Trade User Group and VTS Council meetings. Both VOSA and the Department for Transport (DfT) are keen to ensure that any changes to the test are introduced in as practical a way as possible, keeping the burden on the trade to a minimum and ideally keeping the changes cost neutral. In many cases, the changes shouldn’t necessarily lead to an increase in average test times. A good example is the malfunction indicator lamps on the dashboard that indicate defective electronic power steering, electronic stability control and secondary restraint systems. Testers already check the dashboard for other lamps, so no extra time would be required for this addition to the test. Electrical wiring and batteries are now included in the test’s scope, but testers already check the vehicle structure where wiring is secured – often along the same routes as other testable items, such as brake pipes in the engine compartment. So again, this doesn’t look like an additional burden on the tester. In the pre-computerisation days, testers often (wrongly) failed vehicles for insecure batteries, so they must have been looking at them then! Now, it means that when we implement the new Directive, vehicles can legitimately fail for battery insecurity, for no extra tester effort.Other items – such as headlamp bulb and unit incompatibility, headlamp levelling devices and illegal engine ‘chipping’ – will need further thought before we can get a workable solution for MOT stations."

Have a look at my how to in the Guides section mate. It shows you where to clamp to. Drop me a PM, or bring it round my place on Christmas eve if you need a hand.

Gearbox mount could be shot. Diff mount bushes, or the prop bush (if you still have a 2 piece) could also be the cause.

That's LakeZ weekend. (The dates in my Sig are one day out. really must correct it)

Made a start on sorting out the wiring I shorted last month. Weather turned against me, so put her back in the garage where she will.now stay until February.

The thing about starting a show, is you need to start small. Especially when you are looking at a less than central UK area. It's also the wrong time of year to attract interest. Everyone is either in the cells after assaulting their boss at the office Christmas party, in bed for the 5th day in a row with a hangover, or in bed for the 6th day in a row with Tina from sales who they finally got the courage up to ask out after the 8th shot of tequila at the afore mentioned office party. After January pay day is the time to start asking around and probably think about doing it on 2015 rather than 2014. Just my thoughts mate, good look and I hope you put something together. I'll support it 100%

And people wonder why Zed prices are so low. When the owners themselves are putting values like this on them it's no wonder the prices are so low.

The lack of digital AC is because it's a 96 Series 4 (95) onwards have manual climate controls. Digital ones were discontinued.

I can invite the 350z-uk guys for you if you like. It's a busy time of the year over there though as we have the Wales weekender last weekend of May, and LakeZ late June.

Mind on you will need the LED flasher relay too.

I love my NA. But I'm not a fan of FI at all really. Obviously an NA has a fair chunk less power, and no turbo kick, but I don't view that as a bad thing. I just drive to the cars ability. There is obviously less worry involved with an NA too as there are no turbos to worry about. You need to drive both and see if you like an NA compared to a TT

VH45 was always a lead option, since the sump and engine mounts are available from Performance VH. However, I have no issues making my own, so an LS1 conversion is still on my radar. Buy a old camero for a few £k, strip engine and loom out of it. Flog the rest of the bits to Cam owners. Myself and Bizz Phillips would be doing the work.