chris holford

warwick davis. Im 24, 5 years no claims, 1 conviction, costs £950.

I aint driven it since 2nd january and havent seen it since 6th january. Its so depressing, maybe not when its crap weather like today, but last saturday we had a bright sunny day (not hot but not too cold) there I was driving in my crappy old escort I see people washing there cars and others out in there convetibles with the roof off for the first time this year. Its so despressing!

Well was hoping to get it back this weekend but phoned garage up today and they are missing one bloody gasket and they are hoping to source it friday or monday and then theyve got to reassemble.

Well recon engine and turbos later I should have zed back at weekend. Havent driven the car since 2nd january. Will be bit of a change from my runabout 1989 escort diesel estate!

Having a look on ebay I came accross this obviously with these being the 300zx forum Its not the place to find GTO experts but I think I am pretty clued up on them and as far as I am aware a 3.5 litre twin turbo version does not exist? So hes not lying when he says its rare! He clearly does talk a bit a rubbish as he claims over 500bhp but doesnt provide details of how this has been achieved. I dont think that the HKS filter will acheive this figure!

Yep only brought the car in November but after ive paid for the work to be done, and with a few other things going on, im gonna be struggling. I would be a lot better off if I can sell for a good price and get something a bit more practical. Also, ive gone from a nice 15 mile commute to and from work to my new job which is 40 miles each way. At the moment I am doing this journey in an F reg Escort diesel estate! This is not a very nice experience! But then when I get the Zed back, although it will be fun, it will be very expensive to do. So If I can get a good price for the Zed and buy something thats more practical but a bit more fun than the Escort!, then although id miss the Zed I cant ignore the fact that I wont be using it enough and I will have £2500-£3000 more to pay off the credit card. But when I get the car back I may change my mind completely - I never choose the sensible option.

As title suggests, I am thinking about the option of selling my Zed. Just to make this clear I am only considering it at the moment. Im sure you are all familiar with my car, its the candy red sparkly one. Click on my ride to see several pictures. The car is currently in the process of having a reconditioned engine fitted along with two reconditioned turbos. Both the engine and the turbos will be covered by a 12 month warranty. The reason why I am thinking of selling is becuase I wont be in a particularly favourable state when I have paid for this! Also, I have recently changed jobs and now have a longer commute which I would not be using the zed for. Basically , I am considering all options at the moment. The car has covered 65,000 miles, has a load of service history since being imported in 2000 (although obviously anything in the block is irrelevant), a summary of modifications and the pictures (which tell a thousand words) can be found in my rides section. For now I would like to get an idea from other members how much the car is worth in the current market.

Dont bother with these, they are cowboys. The cars look ok in the pics but when you get there you will see that they are grade 1 cars that have just been plonked on there forecourt without any work been carried out.

owned since november, having reconditioned engine put in (all checked and 12 month guarantee) but one of the turbos as it had it too. If its was a NA then I wouldnt have any turbos to replace and the engine woudnt need replacing either (due to the previous owners stupidity), as it was turbo related. BUT. My brother has a NA and hes spent an estimated £3000-£4000 on repairs and servicing in 3 years. The head gasket accounts for near enough half of this but its still a lot aint it. Begs the question, why did I buy a twin turbo Zed knowing that he had to spend so much on his NA. Well, im mad!

Ive emailed him asking if he wants to do a straight swap. He hasnt replied, maybe hes holding out for a better deal. Hopefully he will do a deal with me, even if I have to put a couple of grand in as well I think il still be getting a good deal. I can see were hes spent the 6k I mean its got some flashy lights inside. Im not gonna be able to sleep tonight with the excitement that I may be the new owner of such a lovely pile of chaved up shit. Do you think he took my offer seriously?

I brought it from Charlie in Ipswich but he brought it from Hoppy who is from Nottingham. Charlie is a member on here, 300horses (but he hasnt posted since selling the car), I like to think that all members on here are good honest people but I think he knew he had ****ed the engine when he sold it. He told me it was running 0.8 bar (standard boost guage) but on his rides it says 1.5 bar and 2 pistons are ****ed. I think one was already ****ed when he sold it and a car running 1.5 bar with a ****ed piston could be passed off as running 0.8 bar? The bleed valve was fitted 4 years ago so my feeling is the car had a sensible mechanically careful owner in Hoppy then Charlie brought it and got a bit carried away with the bleed valve. Sorry if Im sounding a bit dramatic after the event but I do beleive he knew what he had done because when I looked at the car he told me he had set it to 0.8 bar himself but then when the engine gave up I emailed him and he denied knowing what the boost was set at and suggested I ask Hoppy, passing the buck basically. Its fair enough private sale sold as seen atleast it will be all good when its sorted (without the bleed valve of course!). Back to the actual subject, I do apologise I did have better ideas for spending £2000+ ! It has got some nice ice in there Audiobahn sub and 6x9s and Legacy amp. Im not overly into ramming a car with too much audio but I like this. My plans for the car were, and still are once ive got some money together, to have a retrim inside, as its tweed, tints to protect from chav twats, some of those vented wings from Z centre, Z world chip that raises the boost to a safe level and sorts the rest out too.

Give Warwick Davis a call on 08717502107. Im 23, licence 4 years, 4 years no claims, one speeding convinction (in a Rover 400!), and it costs me £950 for year fully comp and its still "only" £1050 for the year with me paying monthly (interest). Most, well I beleive all, of the insurers only offer "classic" policies to those over 25. I was with Adrian Flux before. It would have been for this year £1450 before interested and then, wait for it, £1800 after interested for paying monthly AND they charge £25 everytime you change anything on your policy AND thats after youve waited half an hour (no exageration) to speak to anyone. Warwick Davis on the other hand I cant fault. They are cheaper, dont rip you off with interest and they have been really helpful with tempory cover for a cheap runabout whilst my zed is off the road. Reminds me, when you look at a Zed DO NOT buy a zed with a manual under bonnet boost controller (bleed valve) with the standard boost guage inside the car. I beleived the seller when he said it was running 0.8 bar, it was actually running 1.5 bar but had ****ed 1 piston and the other was on the way out too! I was overwhelmed with the cosmetic work thats been done on the car and even when driving it I thought I noticed "slight" running issues (exhuast popping etc) but didnt want there to be a problem. When you buy one DO NOT ignore "slight" running problems because they get worse" and become ****ed engines!

The red sparkley ones mine, having engine rebuild at moment as two pistons have had it. I didnt own it when that picture was taken. Cant wait to get it back.

I only earn approx 14k but by prioritising (and still living with parents) I can afford to do 10 mile there are and back drive to work each AND go for a good drive both days at the weekend AND, by planning ahead, service the car. People look at in me in disbeleif when I get out the car in my Halfords uniform (yes I know Halfords sells a load of chaved up tacky shit you dont have to tell me that I have to try and sell the shit whilst im there!) people my age dont seem to realise that for the price of a 2 year old Fiesta you can get a good Zed and if you dont get pissed EVERY night then you can run it and insure it too. Similarly I have other people who persist with telling me that "I spend too much money on that car and you can get a nearly new car for the price of that". Stupid stupid people! The average price for a good Zed I beleive is not much different to what it was two years ago. You buy a two year old fiesta for say £6000 in two yeas itl be worth £2000-£2500 and you will get bored out of your mind driving it!

Do not fit one of these crude awful little things! They will **** your engine and the money saved by choosing the cheap option now will be spent x 10 when you need a replacement engine / rebuild.

Obviously a non turbo is gonna take longer to reach 100mph but in what way does it not get to 100mph? Do you hit a limiter and the power is cut for a second or so and speed drops down around 5mph? If so, id say that your car has still got its 112mph limiter installed and your speedo is reading to low and you are actually "hitting" the 112mph limiter. Or if its just not reaching 100mph because the power doesnt seem to be there id say its to use the technical term, ****ed! Or on the other hand are you just running out of road? In which case id suggest that the supermarket car park is not the best place to do a top speed run - dont mean to suggest you may be a bit chavvy or anything but a Senator a 1980's Chavellier aint it?

You mention that if the pressure is high on cold start up then oil feed hose may be cracked, well, before this happened the oil pressure was right up at the top to start with before slowly dropping down to 50psi for normal driving once warmed up and until I had both 50psi on the oil pressure guage and in the middle on the factory temperature guage I dont drive above 2000 rpm and the first five minutes of driving would be 30mph or less as I have to get out of town. What would you call high pressure for a cold engine? And is 50psi right for normal up to temperature driving?

I am suspecting this is the one because I cant see it from above the engine and I cant see any cracks or anything elsewhere and as you say would explain loss on oil pressure. Which leads to the question of where exactly would my aftermarket guage get its reading from? I spoke to zedworld today and they have suggested that it may have just been the dipstick giving way under pressure. The car has had a manual boost adjuster valve fitted by a previous owner, I am thinking that its running higher than standard boost but with no mapping done to account for it as I have been getting popping from exhaust (quite a bit) when coming off throttle. The problem im having is there are know specialists anywhere near me so, as i dont want to drive it to avoid further potential damage, Ive gotta get it transported somewhere such as zedworld which is £150 before any work even begins. I am fairly competent mechanically but I dont want to make things worse by taking things apart myself.

go on to http://www.consumabulbs.com and use the search for bulbs by reference. If you scroll down the list you will find PJ452 H3C. This is the jap spec bulbs for 300zx. The next one down PJ453 H3C 100W is the same bulb just brighter.

Yeh checked that out that was my first thought and I wish it was that.

Hopefully. They were replaced recently by the previous owner.

Happily driving along when I notice a constant reading of 25psi on my oil pressure guage (its an aftermarket one not the often faulty original equipment one) whilst cruising along. Going on what ive been told the reading should be between 30-60 on a warm engine and it usually sits at 50 most of the time obviously up a bit when I accellerate with aggression. I pulled over to look under bonnet and there is a fair amount of oil splatted in the top right corner over the battery, fuel filter, the hoses there, and the underside of the bonnet. Its not absolutely everywhere but you can see that its squirted quite a bit. I was only round the corner from home so did drive home, which perhaps I shouldnt have. I have only knowingly driven less than a mile with the problem but, although I do usually keep an eye on the guage I dont know how far ive driven with it like that. Im assuming that its gonna be a break in the turbo hose, or maybe a broken seal, or well it could be a gasket. Any ideas to what is most likely would be gratefully received and how much work is likely to be involved? Also is it likely that I am gonna have permenant turbo damage?

After searching the internet I am getting conflicting answers so I am asking those in the know.

Just some ideas what are going on in my head: - 1. could it be a bad connector or faulty sensor causing delay in full boost? 2. a boost leak? 3. badly set up boost controller valve? 4. an exhaust blow confusing the ecu? 5. is it going into "safety boost mode" because of the overfuelling? I am not an expert but I know from reading posts on here that a lot of you know pretty much everything there is to know about zeds. I can try and have a look at these tommorow I just want your opinions on my thoughts and / or your suggestions.

Just been out for another blast. I am hitting full boost between 3500rpm and 4000rpm according to the guage. If I accellerate in third (full throttle) from 2000rpm im getting about 0.5 bar by between 2500rpm and 3000rpm then 0.6 bar between 3000rpm and 3500rpm and then 0.7 bar between 3500rpm and 4000rpm. If I then keep my foot down till the end of the rev range it maintains 0.7 bar. Without an aftermarket guage I dont no if it goes higher than that. Obviously the fact that 4000rpm to 6500rpm in 3rd gear goes by pretty quickly combined with the fact that im approaching 100mph and running out of road makes it dofficult to say whether it feels like there is an increase in boost after its reached 0.7 bar! The general delivery of the power is smooth. Without driving another zed with the same spec I cant be sure that what is being displayed on the guage is what is actually happening. It does feel a bit laggy when accellarting like I described from 2000rpm in 3rd gear so id say that its likely that the guage is giving an accurate reading of whats actually happening. In which case id say ive got atleast one problem. If its running rich would this contribute to the boost not coming in as it should? Or maybe when the boost upgrade (if there is one) was done maybe it was set up like that? In which case you would think that they would have set up the fueling accordingly? Or are my turbos just coming to the end of there life (I hope not!)?