Stephen

Trouble is with aftermarket ones is if they are cheaper than that they likely aren't that great. These cheap rose joints are all well and good but so much more likely to fail. :( I dunno what to do about my lower arms ATM.

Iirc they're an expensive part period.

This is the trouble with these Chinese knock offs, the reduced quality control means that whilst one persons is fine another's might be crud. Is your competition clutch a puck one? Or the stage 2 normal looking one like mine?

Order one from MJP cheap enough mate, would suck to take it out then realise it's duff and you have to wait to put it back together. You will also need some loctite instant gasket, the black stuff. Don't remember if there's any actual gaskets down there, don't think there is. Btw the thermostat has a wrong way up and a right way up, the toggle bit goes up top.

;) well done mate, defiantly replace the thermostat. While your there the two short water pipes are a cheap and easy bit of maintaince.

http://www.japspeed.co.uk/nissan-300zx-non-turbo-decat-downpipes.html You can use these with the stock turbo elbows I believe, less risk of side effects less chance of snapping an awful to reach stud and looks wise it could be a hi flow cat, could be...looks mot friendly doesn't it.

Exactly, so many are weird parts or declared as later spec than they are, you telling the mot guy its supposed to a 96 but after research it isn't...I honestly think if you popped on a set of decats take it in as a grey import no one would question it. You could fit japspeed non turbo ones that way there's still a box, andits an easy swap to a set of cats if the issue arose.

What a shame, all that hard work and the bottom went.

Prove it's a 96, it's a grey import...;)

Yeah looks like Vera duckworth decorated it.

Correct :) it's only because the stock one loops the fluid through the radiator. Just remember if you buy the rad from zcentre that 120 is plus car plus delivery...it's the same Chinese made rad sold by various companies. So just find the cheapest price, I bet if you phone japspeed and mention the group buy price they would honour it if they have stock.

The main issue with the stock rad is the brittle old plastic end tanks, the top hose tends to snap off! I too purchased an alloy one from japspeed, I phoned up and got the group but price outside of the group buy offer ;) it offers a touch of insurance in terms of cooling ability and it's one less old part to break. The downside is that you may or may not get lucky in terns of how easily the fan shroud fits back on it(yes you do need it, a aftermarket is about effective with stock without. With the shroud were cooking on gas) the other side of it, if you have an autobox esp Jspec ones you will need to make a provision for the autobox cooler.

It will just be a redundant loop mate, so you can just trace and remove. Bleeding the system is nice and easy, jack the front up nice and high, just like doing the coolant system. Cap off then roll the steering from lock to lock, bubbles will come up if there are any, I doubt there will be much if your careful. Keep topping it up as it goes down, once you think it's looking good fire up the engine and continue, the fluid level may change at this point or even froth so be watchfull, it's a job that actually is a lot easier with two of you.

So let's get this straight? You've got aftermarket bovs on the intercooler pipes up top between the rad and the plenum. The original recirc should have had it's two feeds capped or plugged, have you got open holes?

I think everyone has been guilty of laying down a big smoking 11 at some point.

Nothing broke that's always a damn good sign, glad to gearbox went ok.

Working on assumption and what I do know, as I've not done this job myself yet. You should have 3 pipes associated with the hicas. A feed from the rear of the powersteering pump to the hicas rear steering rack, a return from the rack to the solenoid and a return from the rack to the pas resivoir pot. So to bypass it all, you should require to take the feed from pump that goes to the rack and short it to the return to the pot. This is then just cycling fluid round as a loop. I would defiantly expect to loose some fluid and bleeding it only seems sensible really.

Is there much weight to be lost gutting the tailgate bob? I have intentions to cut all the unnecessary metal out the tailgate. As far as I'm aware there isn't really any structural benefit to the tailgate itself. Ie binning it completely would make the overall chassis flex anymore. The only thing I would wish to do, which you probably had no interest in is retain all the plastic trim etc. So it's as light as possible but still looks stock.

Have you held the stock wing? Incredibly light, I'd be surprised if saved enough weight to offset a mc Donald's. The tailgate as far as I'm aware isn't what many think it is...correct me if I'm wrong but it's only a section that pops into the oem tailgate, so again you won't save much and much like a tub it fills with water. ;) a Perspex rear window would be better, I'd go that route myself but don't want to loose the heated rear screen.

Sorted, after inspection I found the top one whilst a little loose was fine, the bottom however was completely stripped. So I sorted out a longer bolt for the top. The bottom I took a 10mm drill bit and ran that down the old stripped thread, there was actually enough room to do this with my drill, spot on, (There wouldn't be enough space to do the top one in this fashion.) tapped it at m12x1.75. I then used a depth gauge to gauge the material thickness of the box and the starter motor, 20mm and 15mm respectively. Then shortened the Allen head bolt to 35mm the 2mm thick washer helps to stop the bolt popping out the back. Obviously I had to open up the slot on the starter to accept the new bolt, a set of files soon sorted that. So that's it done... The Allen head bolt makes getting the starter on and off much easier, being nurled it's nice and easy to wind in. Next time the box is out il do the upper one I think just for symmetry.

Ok that's good to know, tbh I think il pull the block for my new tubs anyways, being bigger space might be a PITA. Always good to know, having done some work up the recently it spiked my curiosity.

Fantastic idea mate!

Agreed it's dreadful to navigate

7psi is what's known as safety boost, it restricts boost level to prevent engine damage after seeing knock signals or bad connections to the knock sensor. You can run your ecu codes, I expect you will get code 34. There's a how to on that in the teq section. Once you've identified that as the issue you can work out wether it's the connections/loom fix it and reset the ecu to clear the code, or is the sensor itself is junk you have three options because it's in a god awful place, fit a resistor inline, fit a new one in an easier the access location as a temporary fix or dig the engine bay apart to fix it. Conversely it might be working and telling you there's an issue, with the car being new to you and of an unknown I would recommend doing a boost leak test and inspecting the coil pack and injector connections for corrosion, it's also worth having a look at the plug condition. 12psi should net you about 330hp if it's all working correctly with a generic chip, a lot of them art much cop though so be very careful and keep an ear out for detonation, ideally if it's all an unknown it would be a good shout to get a rolling road to look at it and assess your air fuel ratios etc to see it's running safely. Oh and ditch the short shifter, change the gearbox oil for some quality stuff line redline 99 and the shifting problem will disappear.

7psi is what's known as safety boost, it restricts boost level to prevent engine damage after seeing knock signals or bad connections to the knock sensor. You can run your ecu codes, I expect you will get code 34. There's a how to on that in the teq section. Once you've identified that as the issue you can work out wether it's the connections/loom fix it and reset the ecu to clear the code, or is the sensor itself is junk you have three options because it's in a god awful place, fit a resistor inline, fit a new one in an easier the access location as a temporary fix or dig the engine bay apart to fix it. Conversely it might be working and telling you there's an issue, with the car being new to you and of an unknown I would recommend doing a boost leak test and inspecting the coil pack and injector connections for corrosion, it's also worth having a look at the plug condition. 12psi should net you about 330hp if it's all working correctly with a generic chip, a lot of them art much cop though so be very careful and keep an ear out for detonation, ideally if it's all an unknown it would be a good shout to get a rolling road to look at it and assess your air fuel ratios etc to see it's running safely.