dicky96

TBH this is what bothers me the most. Undoubtably I had a blown turbo - which I shouldn't have had really as I asked that they were checked and the best ones selected and this engine and turbos were supposed to be 'mint' as described on here - yet for some reason one of the turos failed almost immediately - probably the first time I applied boost Yet this does not explain all the oil in the cylinders on the nearside and Jeff could not offer an explanation either Mark you tell me it ain't valve stem seals as the amount of oil present prohibited that explanation. Jeff you say it is a mechanical mystery and offered no explanation Can I ask - what was the condition of the cylinders and plugs prior to the engine geing fitted. I requested that a boroscope was used to check the engine before fitting and a compression test so the plugs must have been out. So Jeff if you did this work as asked, what did you see? I would assume no problem otherwise you would have called me. Assuming the checks were made.... I've been doing a bit of reading around the net and also the guy who owns the garage near me told me a story that sounds very silmilar (this is the guy who checked the compression for me here) So here goes another theory from a non mechanic who has been reading and listening ... is this feasible The guy over the road fitted a replacement engine to a car, the old engine had been standing a while but was a known good one. When fitted and fired up the car was smoking it's nuts off. Symptoms suggested broken piston rings or similar. After a short while the engine was stripped and this is what they found Now I only learned this from the conversation - I had heard of ringlands but did not really know what they are. This guy tells me the ringlands are the grooves you see around the piston, and the rings sit in these grooves to hold them in place, but they are not 'fixed' in position as the ringland is wider than the ring, so during operation the piston ring 'floats' in the ringland and it is this floating that makes them work properly. On this engine, a build up of residue and old lubricant had formed a sticky mess in the ringlands, so the rings were stuck in place. They cleaned all this mess off (prob used WD40 or similar I guess) and then refitted the pistons and rings and all was fine Now he suggests I could have had a similar problem, but in my case, running the engine a bit (I guess it's done 140 miles now wince the engine was first fitted) and the rings have freed themselves to some extent. Hence lots of oil in the cylinders with no apparent cause or bore damage once the engine was first run, yet good compression results. And now the faulty turbo is fixed there is less smoking and no or little apparent oil loss on the car now so I just need to burn all the crap out of the cats He says if that's the case the problem could fix itself with a bit more running, or the engine will have to be stripped to see if this really is the problem, or if the rings are still partially stuck Does that sound realistic and would it explain the conflicting symptoms and tests? Rich

Forgot to answer - about 65 miles Actually which makes me think, are there any meets, summer convoys or whatever (even if a few of you just fancy cruising around with me in an impromptu last minute sort of way) planned for this weekend which should be sunny? If so I would love to join in on one as far as it is not one corner of the UK or another (I live in the middle lol) Also what if I change my front pipes for decats (like on my old Z) to get rid of all this oil and shit in the cats. They were not too expensive and passed an MOT as on the log book it just says nissan coupe (being an import) so they have no figures to compare it with Rich

Yes it's bloody distressful but I am £14k+ in on this car (£2k to buy it, £10k on rust/rot removal, bodykit, respray and to get this car exterior and interior into show condition) plus £2.2k on swapping out my old engine which ran fine but had a bottom end knock that annoyed me rather than causing any actual problem to replace it with this this 'mint' one bought and fitted from/by respected members on here So this car is not for sale!! I'm a pragmatic sort of person and those who have followed my forum posts for any period of time, or have met me, will probably know that - shit happens and sometimes it happens to me. That's life. Really I just want to get this sorted, prefereably at the minimum of further expense and really would hope that other parties involved plus maybe even the goodwill of this forum will see that happen. Before the wife kills me for what this car cost, she being rather less pragmatic than me!!! Regards checking out the silica content in the oil I am quite happy to pay to do so if is the next recommendation and if that proves something for once and for all Cheers for the help and advice so far it is much appreciated Rich

OK guys it is time to resurrect this one and keep you all up to date Jeff offered to fix the problem free of charge after reading this thread, if I took my car back to him Unfortunately it was not in a drivable condition so I had to pay £120 get get the car taken down to zedworld on a flatbed. Their guy had quoted £140 The car went down on Weds 27th June After about a week, on Weds 3rd July I got a call from Zedworld The gospel according to Mark Mark called me from zedworld to say he had looked at my car and diagnosed the problem. He asked me whether the plenum was cleaned out after powder coating, and tells me that sand from inside the plenum has been ingested by the engine and got into the oil. According to Mark this gritty oil has circulated all around the engine and trashed the piston rings and probably worn all the bearings in the engine very quickly as well. In his opinion this causes pressure in the sump which in turn has forced oil out of the turbo seals and other places. In his opinion I now need another new engine. He tells me there is evidence to support this diagnosis. Also there was a lot of oil found in the nearside cylinders and the sparkplugs were fouled. The compression is 180 on all cylinders and Mark says the only reason for this is the amount of oil in the bores making a good seal. There is no bore damage seen on the boroscope. The intimation appears to be (though not stated in words) that this is my fault. I pointed out that the plenum was supplied wrapped in bubble wrap and Jeff knew it had been freshly powder coated just before I delivered it so, as my instructions were to check everything out and let me know of any problems, this should have been checked before fitting to the engine. Also I pointed out that if there were any problems the plenum from my old engine could have been fitted instead. Mark then told me that Jeff would call me back. I then went down to the powder coaters and without telling them there was a problem, I asked them if the plenum had been cleaned out after sand blasting as the garage who were fitting it were concerned about sand deposits in the plenum. I was told that whilst they could not absolutely 100% guarantee there were no remaining deposits in the plenum, it had been through a wash tank after blasting and should be clean. Also they said that the grit they use for blasting is very coarse and heavy and any that was in the plenum would come out if it was shaken or jolted. The gospel according to Jeff On return the same afternoon I called Jeff and he tells me that he very much doubts the diagnosis from Mark. He said he had fitted lots of powder coated plenums over the years and never seen this problem. Also he told me (and I can confirm this as it slowed down the fitting of the engine so I had already been told) that the powder coated plenum had coating in some of the threaded holes and he had spent a lot of time cleaning the threads out. This meant having the pleunum upside down, on end etc while being worked on quite vigorously and no residue had come out of it. Also the bubble wrap packaging was completely clean from residue when it was unwrapped. Jeff says that the problem is a blown turbo on the nearside. However he could not explain how the oil is getting into the nearside cylinder bank as the intercooler pipes are clean Another near on two weeks go by and Jeff called me to say the turbo was off, the cat on the nearside was so full of oil it had to be poured out, and he had left the exhaust up on end to drain over the weekend On Monday15th July Mark calls me to say the turbo has been replaced and the car is ready to collect. He says that there is still a lot of smoke but less than before, says I need to run it for a couple hundred miles to see if it clears, and still suys he thinks sand from thje plenum damaged the engine. Two new sparkplugs fitted as they were fouled with oil I went down to Zedworld to collect the car - Mark was not there but Jeff told me he thought the smoke was now due to oil residue still (mostly) in the nearside cat. He said out o nthe road the car was running well and not smoking so much unless you give it a good boost in which case it would chuck it out. Jeff tells me it is all a bit of a mystery as the smoke and oil in cylinders would suggest piston rings but the compression is 180 all round which would suggest not. On free revving the car I didn't think it was much better than before, apart from it is running well on all six cylinders with no misfire Bringing the car back up to Stoke at first there was a hell of a lot of smoke and too be honest i nearly turned back, but then got onto the M6 and stuck in a lot of traffic. Gradually I noticed less smoke so carried on. Once I was back (about 55 miles) there was much less smoke. I have checked the oil level a couple of times yesterday and today and it does not appear to have lost any more. However what I find now is this. When the car has been standing overnight or all day I get huge amounts of white smoke once I start it and free rev it to about 3000 If I drive even just a few miles till the car gets up to temperature I then get much less smoke Here are three videos of me free revving the car first two when cold after standing all day, last one once up to temp. On the raod she drives well enough, and only seems to leave puffs of smoke when I accellerate on boost, even less than when free revving On tick over it is pretty clear especially once warm Oh and I have not had a cylinder drop out yet but I haven't pulled the sparkplugs to look at them Ohh and it sounds OK..... but it did with a blown turbo So there we go - two completely different verdicts. Which is correct? first one cold second one cold, half a minute later after going to the car wash and back, about 4 miles. Engine up to temp Opinions and suggestions on how to proceed are sought please. Rich

As mentioned above I think a big opening party come bbq should be in the offing while the weather is still good - which given the UK climate is pobably this week or next - so what you waiting for? Rich

Well for what it is worth to the numbers, my deposit will be in tomorrow 100% for sure :biggrin: Rich PS Princeking - that looks awesome IMHO!!!

I actually drove it!!!

Yes and errmmm probably lol Rich

That kinda makes sense - when the fault happens my speedo needle goes all the way to the top and it goes bong (must think I am driving too fast though as I say - this only ever happens at low speeds) and then the speedo drops all the way to zero and I lose my power steering - then after a couple of seconds it all comes back to normal I will get the clocks out and look for dry joints on the PCB as explained - when I have my car back that is. I know how to do it, I've had them out before and even managed to put it all back together again too! If I can do it then it must be pretty easy lol Rich

Yep that is what I wanted to know, but is the advantage the other way round, seeing as the Zeta-R is £50 more than the Zeta-S so it must be 'better'? One or two on this thread spent the extra for the Zeta-S maybe they can explain? Rich

Interesting read as I have an intermittant problem that may also be related I can be driving along and somthing goes 'bing' behind the dash. The speedo goes all the way up to 180 then drops to zero, and I lose the power stearing. Then after a second or two the speedo goes back to normal and so does the steering. This only ever happens at low speed when driving round town. The thing that goes bing is like a single chime of the noise you get if you leave your lights on with ignition off and open the door Is this due to the same reason, dry joint behind the clocks? Rich

Classic car show like the one we did at Trentham I thought was a great day and would be up for visiting (and organising more) as long as others want to go along The convoy to a beauty spot sounds good to me and I would be very interested in this type of meet Would it be possible to organise one fairly central in the UK (Say Peak District for no other reason than it as it is the nearest to the middle) http://www.nationalparks.gov.uk/ and have several convoys coming in from arranged pre-meet points in other areas? Then lunch and a drive around the area all together as one big convoy. That would be a perfect day for me Oh.... and the day I actually get my car back repaired!! Rich

My deposit will be paid within the next few days Could someone explain to me in laymans terms what really is the difference between the Zeta-R and Zeta-S? Yeah I know it says *Zeta-S Aluminium Top Mount with Harden Rubber Bushing *Zeta-R Aluminium Top Mount with Spherical Bearing (Camber Adjustments Included on Applicable Models) But TBH that means absolutely nothing to me in terms of what I would actually gain or loose from the point of view of driving the car when fitting either one or the other Sorry for being so thick, it's just me. Rich

You will have no problem if you payed through paypal As an ex trader on ebay I can tell you that a buyer can get a refund even if they received the goods, and are under no compunction to return them either unless you want to personally take them to court. For example an overseas buyer we sent two parcels (as part of the same sale) one via airmail and the other via surface mail as he requested, got a *full* refund on the entire transaction (which was debited from our account) when the remainder sent by surface mail failed to arrive after six weeks even though he himself said he had already recieved the first parcel and lewft positive feedback for it, and the second parcel eventually arrived a week or so afterwards Another one got a refund on a satellite reciver that he had signed for (and we had proof of delivery) because he said he had not had it. ebay/paypal are just not interested in these cases. Probably this explains why we closed our ebay business a couple of years ago? The customer is king it seems Rich

If I may play devils advocate here - but I am of he opinion that the only people who should be in jail are those who are a danger to society. There are lots and lots of people in jails because (for example) they didn't or couldn't pay their poll (sorry I mean community) tax. Now if some of these lifers who commited far worse crimes are of such an age they could not possibly represent a risk to society any more then is prison (which is the most expensive option) the place they should be ad infinitum? discuss OH on a different but similar subject I note that Abu Qatada's family were not on the plane with him when he was deported Since he argued so long and passionately that he has a human right to a family life, surely they should have booked tickets themselves, if the UK was not going to do them a favour in maintaining their human rights and insist they went along with him - as that is what they have argued they wanted. Double standards or what? Rich

Is it true as I heard, that the fine / points for not displaying a number plate (say like it fell off or broke in half or was covered in mud) is actually less than those for getting caught speeding?

And I hear where you are coming from I hit lucky with organising Trentham Gardens, and I will certainly try and repeat that success next year (plus try two other events from the same promoters) but at the end of the day it really requires the good will and interest of the car owners and a determination to promote our 300zx marquee. I am totally 100% behind that principle though I am not an REO and soon as I get my car back on the road (bad story no doubt most have read all about it here) I I will be shouting out the 300zx brands loud as I can. Why? Because I love these cars. Simples. PS Vods you were einvited to Trentham and I know you could not make it - but hopefully next year we can put this event firmly on the club map! Rich

Last drove: before it all went tits up for me in spectacular fashion Last showed: Trentham Gardens Meet/ Classic Car show(and I'm hoping to make Shugborough classic car show if it is back on the road) totally depending on the folks I am relying on to sort all the mess out

It sounded like a bad idea to me - however, now I have seen it I like it! But can't you get the black spoiler a bit more glossy?

My deposit will be in before 19th July cut-off date but won't be for about 10 more days, so expect around the 14th. Rich

Price accepted by PM and sold, if seller is happy Rich

Are you trying to buy one or sell one Paul? If the latter then once you have worked out a fair price would you give me first refusal as I am looking for one of these cheers Rich

Oh and just remebered, can I have my car back before you go lol :wink:

Good luck Jeff & all, and don't forget the sun lotion! Rich

pink for girly owners?