dicky96

Right. Option 1. Get the local garage to remove the turbos is a non starter - for some reason they seem very reticent to get involved with this job. However I will ask them to drop the exhaust from the downpipes and have a look as you suggest, if it is going to be worthwhile. How much does it cost to rebuild my spare turbos? and I believe this is something you could do Mark? Rich

OK Mark thanks for the advice Silly question no doubt, I know the intercoolers feed the opposite side bank of cylinders but am I right in thinking that as the passenger side exhaust is the one chucking out all the smoke then it is the same side (passengers) turbo that would have the faulty exhaust seal? And that is the easiest one to remove to see if there is oil leaking from it? As I see it now I have a few options: 1. Ask the local garage how much to get the turbo off. If it is faulty then I just may get out of this mess for now by fitting the tub off my old engine until I have the money to get them rebuilt properly. But I don't understand how that is gonna stop the oil getting into the cylinders as the intercooler pipes are all clean unless as you suggest, here are at least two faults with this engine. So far they have been really good to me and only charged me £40 for the investigative work undertaken. 2. Remove the plenum myself and then hopefully see what is going on and with advice and maybe some help from here and with a bit of luck on my side I may be able to fix the problems. I did get the plenum off the old engine and also this one has had EGR and various cooling pipes bypassed so it could be within my ability to do this. But bear in mind I am not a mechanic - so is this something I should be attemting myself? Don't try this at home folks lol..... 3. Get someone who really knows what they are doing to sort it out and pay them accordingly. Just to really p*ss me off for once the weather is sunny here, perfect driving weather and my car is off the road!

It is oil wet - because it has sat like that since it was removed yesterday and is still wet, fuel would evaporate wouldn't it? @taff Re mix of plugs - it is possible as when I first had a problem with cylinder4 (plug was wet and black) I took a coil pack and plug off my old engine and put that it

Mark I just took a couple pics of other plugs removed from the engine. These have a different appearance to that one with the oil pool but a dry blackened end The ends on these look wetter (but nothing really rubbed off on my finger when I tried the one still attached to the coil pack) Do these pics shed any more light on this? Cheers Rich

Hi Mark From what I understand of your post do you think there are two separate issues here? Are you saying the oil could be running down the plug threads and into the engine that way because of a leaking cam cover? The boroscope shows lots of oil coating cylinder 6 in particular. What's involved in diagnosing and fixing this if it is the cause. Now you mention it I do recall Jeff saying he had selected the two turbos with the least chaft movement. How much of a job is it to to check the turbo seals on the exhaust side? Is it a matter of unbolting the exhausts with the car up on a ramp to check that? It's still at the garage across the way so I guess that could be done next if it's going to prove where the problem lies. What would be involved with swapping the turbos off my old engine on to the new one? Does the engine have to come out to do that? Rich

Hmmm well.... in that case I feel there is another show meet to organise then.... Let's have a new 'shugborough' thread (in the morning lol) I am 100% up for it if my car is back on the road, I'm no longer a show virgin! Rich

As I explained before and to Jeff when I dropped the car off, I simply don't have the funds right now to rebuild the turbos Maybe in the autumn that will be a different matter as I am self employed and my business is seasonal.... but I wanted to get the car running well for the summer so I can enjoy it (or a least I hoped to) and that was the best I could do. The turbos fitted were the ones that came with the new engine I asked that the best two be selected. Whether the two off the new engine are better than the old ones i don't know but I will say the old ones worked really well and Jeff in the past you mentioned to me how well they were pushing. Jeff showed me the impellers (or are they turbines) in the ones attached to my old engine and they were dry and you could turn them with your finger. He told me the ones off the new engine were the same condition though obviously I never saw those. TBH I am suprised at how small they are!! But other than that I am no mechaninc so that is all I can comment on the turbos It would appear to me I have between my old engine (which had a knock on the bottom end but the turbos and head seemed fine) and the new one (with its oil leak) all the ingredients required to sort this out - I've not asked for this on the forum before, and I don't mind mucking in with the work, but what I really could use right now is some help to fix this mess Rich

The local garage (who specialises in Jap cars actually) had a good look for me today, so now there are some facts to go on The compression result is 180 for every cylinder - which he tells me is perfect There is a lot of oil getting into the nearside bank of cylinders, especially the rear one (cylinder 6 I believe now someone pointed out the correct numbering) I have some pics of the some of plugs - the one from cylinder 6 is the one with the most oil as seen in the attached pics, he tells me that all came off the plug! The dry one is of the offside bank. He had a borosacope down each cylinder and can't see anything obvious wrong apart from number 6 is coated with oil and there is also some oil in 4 and 2 There best diagnosis is either valve stem oil seals or fauklty oil rings on pistons Due to the amount of oil combined with the perfect compression results he favours valve stem oil seals being the culprit. He says this is especially likely if the engine has stood for a long time. Does that sound likely? Rich PS here's some plugs to look at......

It would be my second!

Some light would be good.... if i could see it through the smoke ROFL Rich

Not a complaint, and thanks for the info - hopefully it will help. I'm not the one havinfg to breathe this stuff afterall Rich

Ahh well it is a big stately home near Stafford and same organisers as Trentham show. I was gonna suggest doing this one as well, but wasn't gonna push my luck lol http://www.transtarpromotions.com/ShugboroughHall2013.html However now it comes to mention.... I'm up for it if anyone else is assuming my car is back on the road :biggrin: Rich

My aplogies, I can see the rubber mat over the top coiled up

OK if I can help The engine was kept stored indoors and locked away, same as is the old one I got back from Jeff. Noz you remember where we dropped the egine off and covered it with a plastic sheet? A couple days later I moved it into the old car wash behine my m8s garage and there it stayed. I did remove the plenum to get it powder coated (even rang jeff as I could not get it off - turned out I had missed one bolt) I did take the cambelt covers off to get them sprayed red - you can see that from my engine pics. I did not remove anything else from the engine. Noz you did send me the CAS unit a week or so later. I still have it here as I forgot to take it with me. I did mention this to Jeff and asked if I should post it on but he said he could use the one of my old engine. My instructions on fitting were to check it all over, replace bottom end bearings while it was out, fit the best of the four turbos (ones from new engine and from my old one) as I simply could not afford to refurrb them, and to phone me if there was anything important I needed to know about. I then went to Spain for four weeks Nothing else was removed from the engine by me Re smell of smoke - it's pretty choking but I would not call it 'acrid' enouh folks got a lungfull at the show perhaps they would comment? Geoff - the engine did not arrive in that condition - it had rags stuffed into various orifices to stop anything falling in where it should not and a rubber mat over the top where I removed the plenum and it had blue rope wrapped around it not that white strap thing which I do not recall ever seeing. Ands what is that grey pipe thing over the top with a blue thing in the end???? I honestly do not know what has gone wrong here Rich

hmm all it really tells me is I shouldn't be having the major problems I seem to have got.

Good idea Brian, I found the thread when the car was sold by Ken to Noel http://www.300zx.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?167187-cheap-compleate-TT-For-spares-with-mods-may-break-myself&highlight= and Doesn't really tell me more than I bought in good faith from two trusted members Rich

OK 'nuff said! And there is lots of oil going somewhere Compression test tomorrow morning..... Rich

Damn... and I thought I had found something :blink: The other side pipe (non smoking bank) is dry though and this is wet, does that say anything?

OK some more info and at last something different to report. Now I did actually know in the back of my mind that the tubs feed the opposite side bank of cylinders so why I originally looked down the wrong ones I don't know. Having removed the offside intercooler hose there is hardly any difference to the nearside one - OK maybe a touch more black in the photo but nothing to write home about But looking down the metal pipe that feeds from the turbo towards the intercooler I can see it looks blackish and a bit 'shiny'. I took a photo but it is a bit dark to see down there however you can see the 'glistening deposit' I think on the edge, but sticking a thumb down there got me a nice sticky oily feeling brown/black thumb which shows up great in the next pic! I then went to the same intercooler pipe on the nearside and took that off. Though there is a little bit of deposit rubbed off when putting a thumb down there, that one it feeels dry Rich

No blow torch sorry. Got five more spare plugs on my old engine but can't get at them until the morning now. I'll go and check the opposite side intercooler pipes now (silly me lol)

Ran it for five mins on a dry section of road but could not see any evidence of oil leaks, so if there is one it's very small Rich

Save me messing about with a compression tester the guy at the garage at the end of the street is going to test for me tomorrow, and it was no more than me buying a tester from Halfords I'm expecting the compression to be OK tbh, but let's eliminate that to be certain Now I'll go and put a sheet of cardboard underneath and run it for a little while..... Rich

@ruishy1 Just moved the car from where it has been standing outside the house since I returned frm the show yesterday One tiny spot of wet oil on the tarmac, but I couldn't say for definite it cam from my car. If it did come from mine the (having marked a couple sratches on the curb and moved the car again) it's come from somewhere towards the rear of the engine, nearside. Imagine a direct line down to the road within 4-6 inches of where the nearside windscreen wash jet is on the bonnet, if you get the idea Don't know if anyone spotted anything on the grass after I left the show yesterday? Rich

How do I perform this test? Cheers

Good to hear from you Jeff, given all the various info from my posts on this thread can you suggest what has gone wrong? Yes I am asking about the engine from before I had it. The engine wasn't that bad at first, it took a run up to Stoke first. But it was smoking white from the nearside exhaust as soon as I pulled of the estate so my m8 tells me. I can't figure why my m8 in the van behind didn't call me on my mobile as I would have turned back tbh. Once we reached the top of the toll, the M6 was busy and I lost him as I got into the inside lane and must have made a couple of mailes on him so didn't find out till I got home I was getting boost on the motorway, but come to think of it yesterday my boost controller is only showing +13 at best, and I wasn't hearing my dump valves at all, which are plenty loud enough as you will recall. Just checked - oil on dipstick now at 50%. Was at 100% 10-12 miles ago, before Trentham One of the guys looking at the car yesterday says the oil has a bit of a dark colour when you rub some between your fingers, not what he would expect for new oil Rich