Big Rod

Was in a Shogun going between offices so couldn't make myself known. \o

I've borrowed a tester but haven't tested it conclusively yet. I now know how to work the thing properly, (ain't the internet great?!?!?), so will do that the morrow night.

Of course the temp' guages on these are like a chocolate fireguard in so much as they don't tell you there's a problem until it's too late. It did happen once last august after the timing belt was done and it sat in traffic after a bit of a hoon in very hot weather, but it's been absolutely fine since. I'm still not absolutely convinced it's the HG, but it's quite likely and other than losing a wee bit of water with no obvious leaks it's running a treat.

I have a car, but if it manages to get there under its own power and not with the aid of a trailer, expect to see the clouds of steam before you hear or see the car. I've only got about four miles to travel too!!

Couldn't the metal brake pipes be spliced and re-routed through a more spanner friendly route?

So what lets go afterwards? I had a Senator that mixed its oil and water so I repaired the head gasket and chains on it, (very expensive job too!!), then about 6 weeks after it the bottom end grenaded because apparently the big ends don't like exposure to H2O. Shame noone told me before that!!

It's just the way I bought it. There's no evidence of it having been breathed on from the outside, (other than the exhaust and aircleaner I bought from you.), so I assume it's standard internally.

I'd been reading on here that it's a PITA to do. Really in a quandary now.

Really?!?!? Dammit, it's running so well just now too!

Strangely enough Mikey, I just left a post on your thread enquiring about the state of the engine. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't interested in the manual conversion, but I kind'a like the auto as I commute over the FRB daily and the box was replaced quite recently anyway by the previous owner. Might be wanting a couple of other bits too, so maybe we could meet up one evening on my way home from work to chew the cud' a bit. What say you?

Hmmm, just thinking........ Might it be easier to have Jeff rebuild me an engine and have that couriered to me for replacement with all the extra bits and bobs? May not be particularly cost effective though. Oh, and it's an auto so no clutch type stuff to worry about.

Okay, I've yet to confirm it, (have borrowed a gastester), but I strongly suspect I've a blown CHG. I'm currently girding my loins for the impending onerous and no doubt costly exercise of having someone remove my engine and attend to the busted components. It may already exist, so apologies if it does but I couldn't find a comprehensive thread. So I'm after a list of jobs to attend to while the engine's out and, (where appropriate), any 'how to's' that might be available and a list of parts I'll need to buy in advance of the 'operation'. NB:- The timing belt and all associated stuff was done about 8 months ago at Zedworld. I look forward to collating the list with your help. Thanks in advance!

There were a couple, but I've stemmed the leaks. I'm starting to think it's more likely to be a blown CHG as the top rad hose does seem to be a bit pressurised, (I've seen worse mind you!), and when I released the rad' cap last night after having left the car standing for three hours with the bonnet open, there was still pressure in the system. So, how difficult/expensive is a CHG job? (I'm not about to dive into it, I WILL get it checked out properly before I do anything stupid.) Or is it easier/more cost effective to buy a replacement engine from Jeff and have it shipped up here?

Well, it did overheat once to my knowledge but that was last July/August and it seems to have been fine up till recently. Does the type of antifreeze antifreeze have an effect? What colour should it be?

And again this morning on the exact same bit of road.

I ask because for a wee while now I seem to have been chasing coolant leaks around the car, culminating last night in the heater matrix letting go. There's no water in the oil and so far as I can tell, no oil in the water and while the top rad pipe gets a bit 'firm' after a drive I don't 'think' it's unduly pressurised. So, am I potentially looking at a blown cylinder head gasket?

Well, irrelevant of how big a pinch or salt you take it with, JC on TG did say that the new Jaaaaaag', (OK, it was new a while ago!), suffered from having a lip spoiler fitted to it's bootlid so as to mount a brake light. Apparently it made the nose light at speed due to the extra push on the tail. My only referrence is to a Supra I had a number of years ago which was very twitchy with a hard tailwind but one of the most planted cars I've driven at high speed in still conditions.

Looked like a late model, ('99?) Spotted you, flashed and blasted my horn 'cos you had your window down.. I was southbound in my Zed and I think the driver of the car in front got the ar5e with me a bit 'cos of the flashing and beeping. MEH!

Hey Mikey, Sorry, I might have missed this bit, but will you post the tickets out to us or will we meet beforehand?

Strangely enough, I've just replaced the 18" wheels my Zed came with for a set of 17" so I've gone from 225/255 F/R to 235/255 and I noticed the car wandering a bit at motorway speeds the first time I had it out. I put it down to a bit of tramlining, but I'd never noticed before. Now you've got me worried about a busted HICAS.

Hey Groover, that's pretty much what I did although I used different +12v and -ve tracks. I 'broke' the signal track and soldered the wires on to them according to the instructions. Although I used a multimeter to identify viable ground and switched +12v tracks, I'll maybe have another crack at it using the speedo connectors for the voltage supply once I can be bothered to pull the cluster out again!! Thanks for the info. I've saved that PDF locally, I hope that's OK.

Well, having spent more than my fair share of time in my past repairing ribbon cable tracks I thought this would be the way to go. Different strokes eh?

As the car's an '89 I think it's fair to say they're S1 clocks. I've taken a +ve feed from the track arrowed in red and a -ve from the track arrowed in black. I've split the track circled and soldered the yellow wire to the plug side and the green wire to the speedo side. I'd cut the yellow wire to reconnect the speedo back up and it still works in K's. Over to you.

From that diagram, would I be right in saying then that pin, 11 = +12v 14 = -ve/ground? TIA.

Can any of you shed light on this? I've installed the converter, http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=370221451404 as per the instructions but the speedo doesn't register anything when it's connected up. The instructions say to connect..... Red wire +ve feed, Black wire -ve/grnd, Yellow wire signal feed from sender, Green wire signal feed to speedo, Grey wire unused. So has anyone used one of these and had the same issues or have I a duff converter or are the snakeoil? For the record, I'm quite proficient with electrics/soldering and the like and I've checked and double checked what I've done.