Old Zed

Hi mate, just to let you know that we (me and Jimmer) bought an engine off this guy, he is in Waterlooville, near Portsmouth, and it was a cracker. He did describe it as a complete engine less turbos and it turned out to be a complete engine less everything, no water pump, no cambelt covers, no flywheel, no plenum, no nuts and no bolts, no hoses, in fact just a absolutely bare engine. If he took anymore off, it would have been in bits. But, it was a brilliant engine. Oh, and by the way. if you buy it, make sure you have three shredded wheat and a can of spinach before you pop down to pick it up. He is a well suited and booted dude that does not get his hands dirty, and them engines are fooooooooooking heavy. Ask Jimmer.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder......she definitely needs glasses, well actually binoculars...........

Sounds great, but it will only become a gem if it actually does what it says. They use to sell things like this in the 70' and 80's and they were rubbish. Technology has improved tho'.............somebody buy one !!

Its not just Zeds that are suffering. I know a guy who bought the low spec Skyline from a dealer for £10K and he really looked after. After 2 years he wanted to buy a house and was asking silly money for, so it did not sell. His missus got pregnant so the house purchase became urgent, and he went back to the import dealer he bought it from. They said the max they would offer was £2K because that is what they could now get them for. He was gutted. He sold it through Autotrader for £3400.

I forgot to mention, this car has changed my life.......I used to have more money than brains.......I now have more brains than money......very typical of a Zed owner.

Although I had driven my sons (Jimmer) car (92TT manual import chipped) on many occasions, it had usually been around the suburbs and not very appropriate for a really good blast, besides I was not very familiar with the beast and so treated it with great respect. In my early days of driving cars I was involved in the Rallying and Autocross scene, so am certainly no stranger to speed and exillaration or bending them either. The preferred stead in those days was a Downton tuned 1275 Mini Cooper S which was a cracking car for motor sport and on the road as many cars in those days were still sedate motor carriages with a top speed of 70mph or so. In recent years I had become accustomed to turbo cars, sadly all were diesel due to the high mileages that I was driving to earn a living. They were still fairly brisk when driven seriously, but the models that I had settled on were not very good handlers. A Clarkson once commented 'the Xantia handles like a liner' and he was right. It also suffered from a Zed trait, which is poor headlights so night driving was tortuosly slow. I returned to petrol type motoring after my achilles tendon snapped (twice) and had to buy an automatic to able me to continue working as I was self employed. No work, no money. It soon focuses the brain and deadens the pain. This was the start of my return to the fast lane especially with the occasional sprint in Jimmers Zed. It was not long before the 'must have one' syndrome kicked in and having more money than brains, it was not long before I was bidding on Ebay for selected cars. All were TT and most were manual, but all definitely an import. I lobbed a bid in on a car in Belfast which was a late 93 TT auto with only 62000 kilometers on the clock and finished in the more unusual colour of blue. Being quite busy at that time, it took a phone from Jimmer to tell me that I had in fact won the beast at a bargain price. I was totally elated and soon organised flights for him and me to go over and collect my prize. We were hoping to catch the ferry from Belfast to Liverpool as it would be nearer afterwards to drive down to Bristol. No chance, it did not leave till 4pm something and did not arrive in Liverpool til about 9pm. We subsequently caught the Larne to Stranraer ferry which only took about an hour and a bit but entailed a long drive back from Scotland. The road from the ferry at Stranraer to the motorway is an absolute windy B road which was full of trucks etc., which had also come off the ferry. The Zed made mincemeat of these and anything else that got in our way. I soon got use to the power and agillity of this brilliant speed machine. Once on the motorway, all hell let loose, we were flying like being on the cannonball run. We flew past everyone, totally oblivious to speed limits but keeping an eagle out out them orrible pig mobiles that frequent these busy highways. Occasionally the odd Focus would come steaming up behind, and even a Jaguar but they most certainly did not like being forced to push their pedals to the floor and through the sound barriers upto 140 mph. The roads seemed quite busy at these speeds but we completed the trip from Stranraer to Bristol during the rush hour period in 4 hours, and this included the mandatory stops for refuelling and of course our own bunkering as well. It drove faultlessly, returned about 25 mpg and had put a very big smile on both our faces. A credit to what is now a 13 year vehicle. Long may they reign........

Xav2075 -Hi mate, I bought two Aussie HID kits, one for me and one for Jimmer my son, they are fantastic. We can now drive the car after dark above 30 mph. We both have imports though.

I did it from work and got ......106 spooky

It might be quite a rare car but I think this one would be rarely out of a garage and your wallet would rarely have any money left in it. Definitely one to walk away from.

I think what is meant is what is known as a 'top end bypass' which is carried out by removing the inlet plenumn to reveal a 'orrible mass of little pipes which usually end up leaking because they become perished through exposure to so much heat. They do not actually do much and are better stripped out and the system bypassed. A well worth excercise.

Cheers fellas. At the moment its too Brrrrrrr to be messing about in the garage but come saturday I will not be able to resist trying to sort it out, especially as I have also just got my wheels back from being refurbished and can't wait to put them on and just cruise......well for a minute or so and then get them turbos working hard.

Zed failed to start this morning but was OK last night. It has been playing up recently and was Green Flagged home through lack of fuel a couple of weeks ago. I purchased a new fuel pump relay and thought that was it. It has started and been OK excepting for a hessitation at about 3500rpm when pulling hard. Is it fuel starvation ?. When you switch on, should you be able to hear the fuel pump humming continually. This morning I listened for it purposely and there was a renowned silence. Does the pump need replacing. : :headvswal

You can also have them folding in automatically when you lock the car, which is activated via the immobiliser. Well, it does on mine...........

Someone has bought it ?????

If you buy 3 years its only a oner.

You need to go to your local DVLA and have the number put on retention. This removes it from your vehicle and the DVLA provides a certificate bearing the registration number which I thinks last for 12 months. The fee you pay for this includes the fee for transfering it to another vehicle so make sure you include that amount to be added to the final price it makes on Ebay. So, all the winner gets is a DVLA certificate bearing the reg number and is known as 'on retention'.

Excellent meet, well organised and a brilliant turnout. Pub was good too........a good social motor mix. It gotta be the way forward. Well done all concerned.

It was owned by a gentlemen farmer. He left his pint and came out and moved it. A real gent. It took 20 minutes for the smoke to clear afterwards.

If the car has been derestricted by use of the usual component attached to the clocks, I would check this. Some of these delimiters seem to fail quite readily with some unusual symptons. If in doubt remove it to see if it improves.

This sounds cheap, ask him the make: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/300ZX-TIMING-BELT-89-96-ALL-VG30-Z32-ENGINES_W0QQitemZ8029773909QQcategoryZ72205QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Me and my lad done the conversion in 7 hours, excluding the pedal/master cylinder bit which I did previously so as to keep driving the car. It is pretty straightforward once you have got ALL the bits.

When we converted my car the ECU was not touched. There is a switch attached to the gearlever which requires restraining in the 'in' position with a tyrap. Apart from that, the only wiring mod was the reverse lights that will need to be sorted from the loom on the lefthand under the bonnet which goes down under to the gearbox. When I stsrt up, I do momentarily get the power light on the dash flicker on for 10 seconds or so, and then stays off.

Usually, you only have to declare bans and points to the insurance company for 5 years, no matter what for.

P.S. Thanks to Gruntpa for stopping and offering help with the above.....top man.

There could be a question mark over my appearance. Zed stopped on roundabout at Longwell Green on Sunday.......no fuel. ?? fuse OK, relay ? Got Green Flagged home, eventually. Hopefully, it is the relay which I think the Thatcham alarm also uses, as lately it has been playing up....noisey b****y thing. fingers crossed.