Stephen

Back face of the fuse box by the accelerator pedal. See Andrew’s reply. The targa drain goes in there, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s got damp.

I did not know wet apply wax was a thing, certainly not an effective product anyway! Thanks for sharing that. Living where water is more chalk than water water marks on dark cars are a thing of absolute frustration.

Personally looking at the prices currently as I am, 18k for a clean 99 sounds pretty good. An average price now for a manual TT (I appreciate this is an automatic) is around 15k.

Just to add to that, the car actually runs pretty nicely now. It’s just a case of I know it can do better. It’s kind of like an unticked box.

Agreed and I don’t wish to be negative in that context, just wanted more information about the options. If someone came along tomorrow and said il buy it for what I’m after I’d sell. What I do seem to be seeing though is a lot of cars, not just Z32s are not selling particularly quickly. That said I’m also not 100% on what else I’d want. I flip flop between a C6 corvette and a 370z but honestly both have compromises, the LHD thing is a real put off for me and the 370z feels very similar but also slow and making power from it is not cheap. I did start looking into a Maserati Grandturismo but that’s a money pit, bad parts availability, still deprecating etc. The Cayman also appeals but I don’t like the sound or the Boxster association.

Wastegate to 16. I got a reply from Sebastian at SZ. Basically he encouraged me to go dual maf with a translator and said their version will be ready very soon. Then said that our 99ron is probably equivalent to their 93RON. And that because of the stock ECU it prone to running rich, double check for boost leaks. The dyno print out wasn’t one he is used to seeing so can’t say much. I wouldn’t go as far as to say it was a disappointing reply but it didn’t really help.

Wastegate to 16.

You can run a proper twin intake like with the Selin via Nistune, you need a dummy maf and it’s not quite as accurate but… choices…

It’s actually 2.5” according to the blurb, maybe it 2.25” ID. In terms of the exhaust the biggest bottle neck would be the turbo elbows.

That’s a from a draft of the spec for the sales advert.

Engine and Drive train 120k service with belts, cam seals etc performed in 2015. Iirc. Replaced all coolant and oil flexible pipes. Stock Turbos rebuilt and Balanced by CR Turbos with 360 thrust bearings and step gap seals. Stock size Fuel injectors. Chipped and socketed ECU to suit 16psi. Manual boost controller. SFS Silicone boost hoses. Full delete list, EGR, AIV, Aircon. Underdrive lightweight pulley. Aftermarket uprated radiator and oil cooler. Cone filter intake. Bailey DV26 dump valves. Godspeed intercoolers, ducts modified to suit. Japspeed exhaust full system, divorced turbo elbows, decat and 2.25” system. Competition Clutch Stage 2 550lb rated, braided clutch with new master. Fluids all changed during conversion in gear box and diff. New seals and gaskets on diff and g box. New shifter bushes. Suspension and brakes Power tricks front and rear camber arms Torsion rods. Driftworks toe arms rear. Energy suspension full poly bush kit. Driftworks HICAS delete kit. Solid subframe and diff mounts. Solid steering rack joint with energy bushes. Stillen front and rear anti roll bars. Cusco Front coilovers from an R33 and Tien rear from an R32. Solid top mounts with 6k front and 4K rear springs. Evo 8 Brembos callipers front and rear with 335mm front and 345mm rear vented and drilled discs. Braided lines, brake master brace, new OEM Master Interior Series 2 suede door cards with the electric passenger and driver. Series 2 Leather seats passenger and driver. No radio. Boost, oil temp and voltmeter gauges. Body Stripped back and coated in galvanised primer, the majority of the underside. Hammerite and Gravitex stone chip applied. Extensive cavity wax protection. Foam spoiler replaced with OEM copy in fibreglass. Orange indicators switched for white with orange bulbs, crystal rear lights. 9x18 AVS Model 5 fenders rolled F&R. Roof bars wrapped black.

That choking out observation was one the dyno operator mentioned too, but that it’s cause could be numerous.

I think a lot of the above highlights the issue. The ability to data collect with the stock ECU is really limited.

He said there was no point as it was plateaued, that if the power had dropped off there must be an issue as it should pull through the redline. He wasn’t comfortable pushing it past this apparently. Compared to other maps it seems I’ve looked at it seems that that plateau is pretty typical of stock turbo cars. It is on a series 1 PTU but it’s never caused a problem, especially not the stereotypical issue of hot misfire the issue I had was the opposite. It would misfire unless the engine was hot hot.

As it happens I was passing Horsham Developments so I popped in and had a long chat with Jez about the options they would recommend. I haven’t had anything back from SpecialityZ yet. I may just go Nistune and then the ability is there for future wether that’s me or someone else and the tube will be far better than any generic chip.

I’ve pinged them over an email and asked some questions. In all fairness, I drove the car last night and the mid range pull, especially since re-gapping the plugs is great, very smooth and responsive.

Like what though? The JWT ones and variants therein are all pretty poor. I could potentially get something from the US but I’d need to be careful about what fuel is mapped for etc. I have had a chat with Horseham Developments but I’d need to go Nistune.

There was one present at the time but it’s not on the print out. However there’s an old graph from a few years back, the car is in the same state as then having covered very few miles 1000 would be generous. The only difference really is the plug gap, decreased from 1.1mm to 0.85mm and a pair of Godspeed SMIC. So it’s pretty relevant data and what I saw on screen reflected the reading on this. I have done a boost leak test and didn’t find anything. It does run very rich as soon as it starts boosting. The chip is one that TurboNoz made as a generic.

A recent shot on the drive.

Higher figure is at 16psi, lower at 5psi

It’s all been done to death to be honest, I can’t really be bother to go over it. There’s so little experienced and skill on the tuning side of these cars and we go round in circles. Owning a Z is a different path, the different path is never the easy path. You have to be prepared to trail and error things and seek out specific people and have trust in them and even that isn’t constant as the go person is often like an annual bedding plant. Realistically to make a worthy gain from here I need a custom tune and that realistically means at the very least going Nistune. Of the limited amount of people prepared to do that for the board and map it’s a grand, which is a non insignificant amount for a gain of a 30-50hp and no real safety benefits. Nistune is so basic now compared to stand alone stuff which would not only offer greater power but greater safety for the engine. If you’re in for stand alone then running stock turbos and injectors is a waste of the ECU. I’ve been doing some thinking after the events and I felt pretty despondent, still do, being frank it’s a miracle I found enough motivation to reattempt the MOT this after after the first one being a cock up. That lack of motivation in the main Is due to personal things. Whilst for a while I thought my lack of ability to make a decision was down to not finding the right car, I think the real issue is I’m just not that interested in cars anymore.

Had the car on the Dyno today. Mix bag really. I found a fault, the boost controller was jamming so the first couple of rolls the car was pushing about 20-21psi, luckily all quite safely. With the controller disconnected a base line was set. First run we ran on wastegate pressure, about 5psi. So less than stock boost, safety boost basically, and she made a very healthy 286bhp more than it should. Then the boost was set to 16psi and we had a roll. Peak torque and hp arrived around 4500rpm at 320bhp. The car was running rich AFRs at this stage and no detonation but the car wouldn’t continue to pull progressively through the curve to produce more power into the 5k, 6k range. Why I’m not sure but if it had continued to build power at the same curve it would have produced about 350 maybe. So there lies the conundrum. There’s plenty of boost left, plenty of fueling left but we’re out of puff by 5k. On the positive a 35 year old car makes more power than new in virtually limp mode and there’s a very solid mid range performance. The question really is why doesn’t it make more power and what on earth will I do from here because the road to more is an expensive one, especially when my intention is to sell. Perhaps I should leave it as a solid car at near stock power and leave those questions to the next owner.

180 miles covered, €400 in tolls 😂

On the tax/insurance aspect the Vette is much cheaper. Tax is almost half, for almost twice the displacement:lol:

The series 1 I agree. The series 2 has the Recaro C1s or whatever they are called which I like a lot.