tomfromthenorth

I've done mine twice, here is what I learned. Pitfall number 1!!! Make sure you can get the fill port open, before, you drain the oil. The first time I had a mate and a length of hose, I filled it from above the engine bay with the hose threaded down to the box. The second time I bought an awesome pump from halfords, made by laser, just pumped it in. This is the better way by far :lol: I used redline MT90 and it was fine, perhaps slightly better feeling after the change, but not some sort of miracle oil like people say it is. More recently I have used normal oil to OE spec, plus a tube of slick 50 molybdenum toothpaste stuff squirted in. That definitely made the box softer on gear changes. Less like sticking my hand into an office fan :lol: I also once had a choice of 3 oils for my MX5, normal, a bit racey, extremely racey. I bought the fancy racing stuff. It was very thin and did not do my gearbox any good at all. Olive oil would have been better.

It's important to use and find joy in these cars though. You could go out on the hottest driest day of the year and have someone write your car off at the lights, whatever your rust-state was on that day wouldn't matter. That special feeling of doing an ordinary commute in a zed is a little nugget of life. I used to take mine from Bishop to Lossie and occasionally met snow or broke down in the cairngorms. Those 8 hour segments of life would be otherwise forgotten and filed under "autonomous commuting". Do what you can to look after them, but never miss a chance to use them.

It could be that. But loose wheel nuts develop very quickly. A few miles from fine to wheel not on!

Further to my last, as much as that wobble could be a million things, it will be the most common and obvious thing. Don't go down a rabbit hole of convincing yourself it's a driveshaft, or the diff or a subframe bush or something. It won't be, it'll be something obvious, a common problem, or something you have fiddled with recently. It'll get sorted :)

Be very careful driving with a wobble! It could be a few things, somewhere like an ATS may put it up a lift for free and have a look. I've had that service from them before. My advice for checking such things. "However violent you think you or a garage are being, prying with long bars, or by generally riveing-on at the wheel or suspension. It will be less violent than oversteer in the dry, which these cars can take." If you need coilovers or were getting them anyway Tein is good stuff. It will be fine and as far as I can tell is the same spring rates as meister r. All of those tyres will be safe good tyres. "cough" get vredestiens :wink: With the wobble, if you can feel or see it doing it, by pushing the wheel top with your foot for example, it is a 'BAD' problem. Looseness in suspension that you can hardly detect is dangerous, never mind a one inch clunk" :clover:

There was a member called carmad who made them. You need to track him down.

I understand there are many benefits to a stand alone, I reckon I will fit one at some point, as the plan is to keep car till roughly 2070. I spose there will probably be a rebuild in that time too :lol: I am kind of at the power levels I want. My build has been an ethos of efficiency and "is that the best way, or best part to do that task." I will get some power in this next run of upgrades, but it's not stressy boosty lots of fuel power, it's free breathing power. I don't want bigger turbos or anything, I like the car how it is now, this next step is just like my car after 3 months of avocados and gym, the same but a bit leaner, fitter and healthier :biggrin: It's time to reveal my glovebox of fantabulous wonderment... Look at that work of art, made with coat hangers hot glue and a bucket, just made really well by me :) So the reason I bring it up, is that is my protection system. The gauges are Water temp, Oil temp and Oil Pressure. They go blue when low and red when high. They flash when they are very low or high and when all is well they go white. Low oil px is orange not blue. But even better, they link into the two LEDs that some soldering ninja has put in there! One is blue, the other is red and when all is in limits they are both out. They are my master caution system, to make me open the engineer's panel ! I mean glove box :biggrin: And the other two? Fuel pressure against boost. And no, they are not pissed, they are rotated so that at full throttle both needles go straight up and down like a little white 11 to glance at. The switch between them is the gauge backlight. I love my car :):biggrin::)

I now have a house!!! I'm going to build an extension and paint the floor with hangar floor paint Isn't it lovely :) It has good electric lighting, that side door and it has a separate detached two storey living building :thumbup1: [Duplicate picture go away!]

I think my meisters are at max extension and it clears all speed bumps, it looks like this... I know it's moving, but it's accelerating in 4th or 5th there so not really under any load. In my other pics I have 100s of Kgs of tools in the boot! Tyres, get Vredestein Ultrac or Sessanta. Awesome sporty grippy tyres but not so soft that they will rub bald in a year. Avoid Maxxis tryres, they crack and let go in a weird (although very progressive) way. Toyos T1s will probably be alright as would Yokohama Parada tyres, but the Yokohamas are a bit slippy in the wet and both can be overheated and overwhelmed... albeit probably only if you're me or a getaway driver... I have Vredestein Vorti on the front and Kuhmos on the back... but that's a terrible idea (and I love it :biggrin:) That is because if you put lots and lots of grip into a car, if and when it lets go, it does so quickly and at higher speed. My rear tyres are safe and durable, but my control at the front end is fabulous.

Although many many things have stopped working on my zed. I have 6 coil packs that have worked flawlessly since 1990.

We had a good forum chat about and explaination of offset in this thread https://www.300zx.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?188396-Just-bought-some-wheels-help-please

Mine has meister R coilovers. It handles really well, it isn't uncomfortable and it doesn't bottom or scrape. And! It can do speedbumps. I have never had it catch on anything. I set the car up to hustle around small lanes in scotland and wales so compliance and suspension travel has been important. The camber angles are fine too, as I don't think it's much lower than stock. Meister Rs were the shocks to have at one point.

Have you got a picture of the engine bay?

Hello mate, welcome to the club. That looks a lovely car :thumbup1: I like the wheels and the leather interior. Brakes Back when I had 330hp ish, I had brembo pads and ebc drilled discs and I set fire to them at Croft. I was getting 3 laps then softness creeping in. I did about 6 consecutive laps after mid day and had a huge brake failure and smoke billowing from my front wheel wells. Do not skimp on zed brakes, they are powerful and heavy cars, particularly as an auto. Buy once and buy them well. I now have K sports, overkill for your car I am sure, but I use Yellow Stuff pads and they aren't bad at all, I have used Reds and they weren't anything special as I recall. Blackstuff pads however, not good. Wheels I also used to have 17 inch, 235s all round. Not really enough stability if you ask me, even at 300ish hp. I now have 235/40/18s and 265/35/18s and they did require a small adjustment to the arches in order to fit, however I am slightly lowered. They only needed a little bending and file-ing of the little lip inside the arch. You'd probably be alright on standard suspension. Do not skimp on good tyres! The ones that were on when i bought it... wheel spin in cruise control :lol: Maintenance Alic has recommended some good places. But it isn't a hard car to service yourself. What I would watch out for in you car is rock hard and brittle hoses, both fuel and power steering. And Vac/boost lines for that matter. If I were you I would do this: Fuel filter, genuine OEM filter, I get them from my local motor factors a few at a time because they aren't expensive. It is honestly easy to do if you do it right, but it's also easy to explode high pressure fuel into your face if you don't vent it first so ask on here before you do it. Then ring merlin motorsport, they're really good, and buy 2m of this stuff, https://www.merlinmotorsport.co.uk/p/high-spec-rubber-fuel-hose-by-cohline-per-metre-2240-0600 Good fuel hose that is, (don't skimp on cheap hose it goes hard, cracks and squirts fuel everywhere) You can even plumb your power steering system with it... Top tip for fuel hose, use massive garden shears to cut it. At some point your car will get fuel leaks so get ahead of the game with that new hose. While you're at it get some new jubilee clips https://www.merlinmotorsport.co.uk/p/stainless-steel-fuel-hose-clip-10-5-12mm-sfhc-11 Then get some vacuum hose. A very small vac leak can make your car run terribly badly. For that I use Auto Silicon Hoses, not the best pipe quality but for Vac line they are fine. I bought yards of it in red so I could see what I'd replaced and just refreshed all the hard horrible lines on the balance bar etc. If you don't believe me, take one off with the engine idling! Again, more small clips for that. Then it's just Plugs. I use BCR8ES and they have been fine for many many miles. Other people use other plugs. Oil and Filter Again, I use an OEM oil filter, and I use 10w40 Semi Other people use fully, but I have put 4.4l of 10w40 Semi in my engine every 2/3000 miles for 40'000 miles. Gearbox oil and filter is probably a good idea too. A water pump with the cambelt is a good idea, mine 'proper' failed at 6000rpm! Threw a belt and everything. Just my advice mate, you have bought and awesome car, I hope it gives you many years of happy motoring.

:Biggrin: it's a good advert that one :) Do you guys drive your zeds like that??? What do people like to do with them? I'm not a polisher, or a poser, or a racer. I don't care about high speed either. I just like to scurry about and wrestle with the car. I don't nail around like a dickhead, but I do use the performance if I find a bit of alone time on the road. I'd never have the car out of shape across two lanes or into the unknown, but some twisting with throttle takes place on a lot of corners. I like to think it wouldn't be eye catching if anyone saw it, unless they knew cars. If I've done a drive right, no one will remember the car, in the context of "this red car was close behind me/ over took me/ came flying past etc..."

I drove it :) probably it's final run of 2017. I'm going to do an excitable tale of grinning wheelspin, so if you will indulge me... Stick "Speedway at Nazareth" on ^^^ and skip to 3.03 :biggrin: that was very much the feel of the drive. The engine started sharply but did it's normal thing of burbling stiffly while cold, the engine feeling like it's taken a massive, hyperventilated-lungful and is slowly relaxing down from it's awkward high idle. Red and blue lights went out on the dash, needles centralised and the suspension suppled; the brakes began to bite as did the clutch, soon it was time for 50 litres of 99 Octane and a touch more air, in the still track-ruffled rear tyres. I barked out of the fuel station, turned left where the world was turning right and settled into a quickening pulse of lunges, long dips of throttle in 3rd and 4th. I'd found some room and worked with the car to simply 'delete' the 150m straights, one after another. My eyes 'pushing' ahead and mapping the dark slick wrinkles of tarmac, my ears squinting to measure to the split, between wheel speed and road speed. The still exciting NA ratios suited the roads perfectly and gears were a simple choice of 3rd or 4th, corners or straights. A succession of confidence building curves, filled in the gaps with all I needed to know about grip levels and throttle response in the day's cold air. That's when I found myself at the start of the local hill-climb. Two busy miles of two narrow lanes, hedges, chevrons and SLOW painted white. I had reached that Zed heaven, of revs singing high and smooth in 3rd, with ever shortening intervals between big throttle and big braking. The final test was the local dodgy corner, most of a hairpin but long too, half worn shell grip and chevrons to be taken seriously by the scars and paint dragged across them. Pointed squarely at it 100m out I managed to hit the floormat in 3rd, then braked hard, kicked the revs up as I took second with the car stable a 1/4 second before a large armful of right, the cars nose still a bloodhound to the apex. From there 1/3rd throttle rode a steady 5000rpm VG gargle for about 50m away from the corner, 110' of left hand lock but tracking straight. The car floated there, calmly, before I straightened up and shifted up, letting the momentum wash away through a bobsleigh-run of calming long bends. Then that strange moment, where you once again become aware of the interior of your car, the guitar melody fades back into the scene, as if it had been turned off seconds before and you find that you are once again, just travelling, rather than driving. I really love my Nissan. It is worth all the pain, no other car could do that for me, it's the car for me :)

I wasn't meaning ultimately Alic, that would be a can of worms! :lol: I just meant in the 400-500hp real world. I like a good meaty car discussion lads :) :thumbup1:

Si, I totally get that :) A stock R33 GTST is an ugly car. That's why Adam's has a bodykit he likes. Thankfully his hasn't been drifted, but that is another scene influencing those of us after, as I put it "a supercar", meaning, go to jail fast and useable every day, primarily on the road. It's mostly the S world who pay the price, the drift tax. I don't know how the GTST price has beed affected. His goal is inspired by my zed. Bloody fast, useable everyday, he prefers the shape of his to mine. But then again, he thinks an EVO 5 is an attractive car! I like ferraris, astons, porches and zeds, he likes stuff designed with rulers and set squares! Bloody, GTRs, Evos and spikey lambos.

He is doing it all himself spread out over 2 years so far. The car cost him about £6000 and was as it turned out hiding rust. So in his absolutely commendable journey down to bare metal and back in his small garage he has removed the engine. Having gone through all that work, he has a "while it's out" attitude, coupled to a "do the job once and do it thoroughly" mindset. Here is my anti-GTR argument, which to me is obvious. They are 10% better and 300% more expensive. Having spent £6000 to join the GTR club and then the rest on ATESSA 100ml of displacement and a front bumper. You have a car, that is still an old nissan, desperately wanting to rust away given half a chance, with the ever present threat that it will catastrophically shit itself, somewhere after the next gear change, but is a GTR and so all the parts are priced as such. But, I may be wrong, I'd like you to say, for these reasons Tom, they are not simply 10% better GTSTs, the next box up on Nissan's option list, with clever 4wd and a slightly stronger engine. My Zed must be measurabley better than a stock R33 GTR, so his GTST can be made to be, lighter, faster, grippier as well. Which is not the ultimate measure of a vehicle, but in these cars that's 90% of their appeal. Pure performance in all of its guises. Obviously a GTR can be built to be measurably better than my zed, but then so can anything. My point is, all of these cars are individual cars, taken on a path beyond and away from OEM spec. Adam has saved on paying to own a GTR, in order to build something to a performance level he desires.

Is that based on the badge or the performance, come on Si I honestly want to hear your genuine review, based on mechanical and structural facts. I've unfortunately never had first hand experience of a GTR. I have had of GTSTs, one of each. His is a 33 and feels a lot more fun and 'zedlike' than the totally dull R34 I was in and far more modern and capable than the R32 I was in. He can't afford a GTR and neither could I. I appreciate that the 3 old models of GTR were awesome vehicles but are they any better than an Evo? They are no more powerful, they have the same clever 4WD stuff. He had a mildly tuned Evo V and didn't like the 4WD handling characteristics. If he won the lottery, he'd probably have a GTR. But I think the car he is building himself from a GTST start point will be comparable in performance and will suit him better.

Funky Si, I know it'll be different to mine, but I genuinely am interested to hear you review of GTSTs :)

:) Cheers S13, I thought you were joking but had to stand by my mate :thumbup1: The GTST in my opinion, which is the opinion of a man used to cheaper and older cars, is a good car. His has a reassuring build quality, the doors thud shut, I found it quite comfortable, it drives quite well other than the slightly numb steering which he is working on. It's fast and exciting in the way it revs out that high. Annoyingly it makes bloody good use its 350ish hp with that high rev limit and better gearbox than mine.

He works very hard but I don't think it's fair to say he wipes his arse with 20s mate. He earns his cash and supports his home and family first, himself and his car second. But I appreciate the advise and agree that he does not need to go that big to get the power he wants. And to be clear when I said "bottom end" I meant torque and area under the graph. Not the crank. Si, it's a nice car his GTST. GTR's are stupid money and he wanted the RWD rather than the 4WD. It isn't a beaten up drift missile like a lot of S cars are. NickZ, that's what I thought, it is Formula one, cosworth stuff to do to an engine.

My cousin is an electrician, I don't know how deep his pockets are, he does OK and works additional jobs and crazy long cold hours to generate extra car funds. So he could probably put a few thousand into this, but he would be grafting very hard for the money. Before he took the engine out to do rust work around the engine bay. The car hadn't been dyno'd but it was bloody fast, 350 hp-ish, certainly above stock with just a few exhaust and intake type mods with an unknown ebc and chip we think. Importantly it was a good and powerful feeling car. He is after 400-450hp, he basically wants it to feel like my Zed. I have told him and told him that a good road car is not about a big turbo and a dyno sheet. Its about bottom end and set up. I think that is what inspired the stroker kit. To quote Alic "How long will a forged engine last? As long as a oem engine will" I know that is the theory, it just seems like so many fail quickly, but I s'pose that's down to the builder. I think he could achieve his build stock. It's not like you get more power from forging unless you have lost compression. And there was no proof that he had and he didn't test it before pulling the engine. He aslo mentioned, GTR pistons and balancing the crank. Surely balancing the crank gets you the last 0.5% of performance when you have done everything else. Wouldn't a light flywheel do more, or it may give you a higher rev ceiling, as part of other similar mods?

I have a total 180 degree disagreement with my cousin, regarding his R33 GTST Skyline That one ^^^ He is doing a big rebuild on his car and has the engine out... I helped him do it... it was minus 5 and he lowered it onto my hand :-# Anyway, here is the main disagreement we're having, He wants to crack open a 70'000 mile perfectly functional stock RB25 and replace internals, possibly stroking it and all sorts. Whereas I think he should leave it alone. In my opinion as I have done with my zed, he should replace everything supporting the engine, radiators, alternators, oil and fuel pumps, etc etc, and get all the life out of the original engine that he can. So that come the day it fails at 120'000 miles, he can rebuild it, supported by an awesome set of accessories and things like oil temp sensors and good experience of how to properly maintain the second engine. I just feel that I have read a lot of stories where people have rebuilt engines and had them smoking withing months or years. So, my questions: 1) In your opinion, leave a working engine sealed, or rebuild it prematurely/preemptively while it is out? 2) How long should a forged or rebuilt engine last, compared to OEM ones. 3) How long do they tend to last? Thanks guys :)