bantambunny

That's brilliant news mate, congratulations and wishing you the best :)

Thank you everybody for your support. I really don't know what to say to be honest! I've never had anyone do anything like this for me before - usually it's the other way around :) I'll will make sure every one of you gets your money's worth in bacon, burgers, steaks and beer when it's warmer :hyper: As said in my email, thank you mate i do really appreciate it. Thank you Andy it's very much appreciated :) - even if you're across the pond and miss the BBQ i'll send you a sausage on express delivery :rofl: Thank you so much mate - I don't know what to say! :bow: Mikey, i can sympathise with you 100% and just showing support is enough to make a difference in my book so thank you mate :)

Thank you mate, hoping this is the last layout of time and money to get this car on the road finally! Thank you mate, much appreciated :)

Davy you're a star, thank you very much - extra burger for you :rofl: and thanks very much for the donation :)

Looks fantastic mate, really looking forward to seeing and hearing it on the road :)

Well you guys and gals have motivated me to push on till the end so last night spent the evening stripping the new engine down and boxing things up then loading the old and new blocks up into the back of the estate and i'm taking an extended lunchbreak to drop them off at knight racing services to be honed out. Peter remembered me amazingly enough from the last time and knows exactly which block it is but they're in the process of building 35(!) race spec LS7 corvette engines to run in the various events this year so estimated time is 2-4 weeks. That would take me into mid/late feb and right to the knuckle as i lose the current house on the 28th. I'll give you more news as i know it but hopefully my mondeo will be a little bit lighter on the way home tonight! :lol:

fpmsl :rofl: That's awesome!

Wow, i'm overwhelmed guys i really am! :lol: It never ceases to amaze me with the club the generous bunch you are and 5 years down the line nothing's changed. I started off building it for myself as a challenge and slowly it's ended up that with all your support and interest it's pushed me through all the crap that's happened and i'd feel like i'd let myself and yourselves down if i didn't finish it now. I want to catch up with everyone again at the shows this year - it's been way too long since the last show i went to! :) I do admit it would help, especially right at this moment in time to get it finished off without stressing how i'm going to cover the bills this month but i'd feel awful if i didn't give you guys something back for it so i'll offer this: My paypal account is the hotmail account in my user profile if you want to help and in return i'll host a big BBQ for you all this summer when the weather's nicer and hopefully my bank balance will have recovered by then so - how does that sound?

1) Gonzo 12c + 1 2) Vern936 +1 3) Vectra 666 + 1 4) Evolution 3 5) ZX-TT +1 6) Daffy 7) Peach +1 8) Mikey Bean 9) Big Jim 10) Murt 11) Artztogo 12) brillomaster + 1 13) TonyB & Jan 14) IanL 16) Richard Smith 17) Manta V8 18) Boldy 19)VicThaRealest +1 20)Tony C 21)Scotty is ace 22)andyzx 23)Hollandrob81 24)AlanZ 25)Kaza Steve + Niki + 26)wet nose 27)Andyb +1 28)Rustysills (hopefully) 29)Leo-r32gts maybe + 1 maybe not 30)King 31)Lorenzo + 1 Sorry guys, wont have a zed ready and only just realised it's the saturday not sunday and it's my other half's birthday weekend so i'll be down south :(

Allan, thank you very much for the offer - it does mean alot that 2 people on here and another on zclub have offered to help me out with £20 but i'm too proud to accept it. I had a long chat with my dad about it tonight on the phone and he thinks the same as me that i'm that close i might as well complete it. In the 2 weeks till it comes back i can be doing things that bring in the revenue to cover the costs. It's going to be one hell of a push to get this done before i lose this house and garage and have to empty it out but i'll do my best. Worst case scenario i have all the parts to build it but nowhere to put it back in again, best case scenario i finish the engine and get it back in again before the end of my tenancy here. I'll pack the old and new block in the car tonight and go down in my lunch break tomorrow and drop it off. If i ask him to bore it to the same spec as the block before it should mean i no longer need to grind the rings and it's just a case of getting clearance on the bootom for the beams and give it another clean. I'll keep you posted guys and thanks for all your support to get me through it :)

300zx syndicate anyone? :)

Cheers hun :) What's the numbers on your ticket this week? :p

The only problem is the price of petrol is going up and up, what could cost 70 quid to fill a tank now could be £140 a litre if i leave it any longer so i want to get it on the road while i can economically enjoy it. I'll just have to bite the bullet and cough up the last £180 and hope it's the LAST £180 :headvswal

Sounds shadier than a shadey thing :rofl:

Cheers buddy, i don't expect something for nothing so i'll have a search through the garage and house for anything worth anything and post up a list tonight. First come first served

Nothing for breakfast mate, i didn't sleep half the night tossing and turning over it and got up late :( It's either got to be finished now or never so looks like i'm going to have to get selling on here tonight when i get back and get £180 notes in my pocket to cover the work and hope i can get the block back in time to build and fit it before i lose the garage. I think i've got every right to get disappointed in this project though, it's just brick wall after brick wall with it whenever i'm even remotely close to finishing it. I'll crack on and just have to push it out while i get the other cars done in the next 2 weeks while i'm waiting and prep the parts for assembly.

Okay just to get 100% in my head I rang Peter Knight at Knight Racing Services who's quoted me £180 to hone the pistons out by 800 hundredth of an inch. It's less than i thought it'd be but timeframe is 2-4 weeks. Problem with that is i've lost the garage on the 28th of feb. If i have a serious ebay and sale on here of everything i have lying around I could actually just about scrape that together. Hmmm i'll have to have a think

Enthusiasm - something i've had all the way through the project from day one and it's kept me going. It started as fun and excitement and something to look forward to and slowly it's turned a bit sour in my mouth. I have to admit all i've been thinking of this morning is just getting what i can for it, clearing some debt and saving up for a TVR tuscan which is what i wanted in the first place

Cheers guys, the club's always been behind me on this one and I feel gutted for you as well :( I wouldn't get anywhere near what it's worth breaking it. I've spent over £12k on it so far and the costs keep rising, i've spent over £800 this month gettingthis far that i couldn't afford to spend. No way at all buddy, it's too small for an escort cabriolet let alone and engine, parts and a zed That's the problem, it won't be a few months - i can't see any way of sparing that money especially if my bro loses his job then i'll be having to find an extra £400 a month extra. lol, after last time i think i'll bring my crash helmet - sweet jesus i've never been in anything so quick in my life! And it'l be even faster now! :shock:

Cheers guys, the problem being i've sunk over £12,000 into this now and I can't justify breaking it for bits and giving up but with mortgage payments due to rise in a couple of months and everything else i may not get a chance to finish it as daft as it sounds for the matter of £300 now :(

With the move looming up this Friday and 4 weeks left of having a garage to work in I've been pushing on to finish the engine off and get it running before I left. Unfortunately I've had a bit of bombshell which is going to stop the project for the foreseeable future and I can't warrant spending any more money or time on it for at least 6 months. When I originally bought the car and parts I was told the pistons were 30 thou over and that's the figure I've always had in my head. When we found the original block was duff a replacement was found by the previous owner and I was just told to take the piston to check clearance. At no point what i told the block was any particular size and good to their word the engine and block fitted perfectly together with perfect clearance and ran beautifully. When it cracked I went out looking for, found and purchased a 4.030" bore block, crank clearance was spot on and then I decided to double check the bore. On the new block i was getting a consistent figure of 4.030" as I'd expect whereas i was getting 4.038" on the old one. This puzzled me but i assumed the machining had been sloppy or there was some wear and all that was needed was the 16 rings reground and refitted and all would be well. ...until i measured the base of the pistons which turned out to be 4.037" and checking them against the bore bare they don't fit. After looking up the part number - what do they come up as? 4.040" bore pistons :headvswal So without £200-300 to get the block re-bored and the time to get it there, back and rebuilt ready to leave my current house I'm left with no other option but to shelve the project, tow it to the new house and stick it under a cover to rot. The engine and parts will sit over at my gran's empty single garage until a point where I can get the block bored out and start the rebuild but without a garage big enough to pop it in the car and without a transporter to move it it's going to be close to impossible to finish until I've got at least another grand in my pocket. I've just bought a house with my bro who's facing being laid off so I'd have to take on his half of the mortgage, I owe my dad over a grand for the Mondeo I've borrowed money to buy to replace the rover, I've spent every last penny I could lay my hands on to get all the parts in, I owe a few hundred to the inland revenue at the end of this month, £400 on solicitor's bills and i have to build a driveway which'll cost me a few hundred. So sorry guys and gals that's the last you'll see on the 600zx thread until further notice :cry:

**** me - they're gorgeous! :shock: excuse my mouth :x:

Cheers mate, i think the best and only way to do this properly is just to take a cast ring off the piston gently and sit in the bore and measure the gap. If it's to spec in both bores on both blocks i know for sure everything will fit if not then i'll have to regrind the rings before fitting each piston. It's a pain but not too bad with 16 rings and i've got the tools to do it. Cheers for the offer mate :) These are dodgy chinese ones from what i can see and nowhere near as good as the good old dial ones :)

Cheers buddy :) Blimey that looks like a substantial piece of kit! The engine has come from the same engineering shop so the tolerances should be very similar and from measuring they look about the same as they're both supposed to be bored to 3 thou over although my old engine looks a little looser. I think i'm going to have to resort to taking the rings off each piston and regrind them or at least check a couple of them to see just how far off they are. If the ring fits back in with no difference in gap i should be alright to fit the pistons straight back in as is. Unfortunately i don't know any engineers round this way with that sort of kit so i'll just have to do it the old fashioned way.

Cheers daffy, finished checking tolerances last night and journal bearings are perfectly to spec. Bore never gives me the same reading twice - I'm not keen on these digital Verniers I've had to borrow. Wish I'd remembered to pick up pete's clock one up on the way out Thursday :headvswal