Steve-o

K dude, sorz if I offended you. Anyway, who the fook is this guy who started the post lol :D

Well some of you that I've been speaking to on MSN will know that I have been stripping out the e30 for the past few days. Below is a pic of what it looks like now as promissed, wish I had taken some pics of it when I started! Most piccies are self explanatory, except the one in the garage. Thats the neat pile of shite I removed from the bimmer behined the Mazda in me garage. And yes, it really does reach all the way to the floor lol! You would not beleive how much weight has gone so far, I weighed up a load of it and its easily in the region of 80-100 kgs just for the back half of the car stripped (where's nelson lol!). Going to start on the front tomorrow and I'll post up some more pics. Never stripped a car out before, but I can tell you, it is an addictive expeirience! I was really suprised actually by the clean-ness of the paint etc underneath, some of the rear needs tidying but its getting there! Drifts like a goodun atm, less weight in the back so you have to faint more into corners, but it's soooo controllable now without all the lard in there, great fun, infact, the best fun I've had in years! Can't wait to get the new shocks/springs, rollbars, bushes on and get eh new engine in :D :D :D

Dude you are taking this far to personally, I was driving a Z and a member on here 3 years before you even registered. It's much more than just a '300zx' owners club, it's a community, I know loads of people who have owned Z's have nothing to do with them anymore and still frequent here. And in no part did I ever mention 'your' car, I don't even know you. I mentioned a fact about NA z's? I love Z's hence why I owned one and still stay in touch with people on here. I've even said I would buy another one, one day. I even said in some way's the Z is better than an M3 and I don't own either now? I was not being funny about my missus 106 either, she has just upgraded from a shitty 1.2 to a 106 gti which has a few engine mods. It's putting out around 135hp over the stock 120 and weighs around 900kgs (150hp p/ton-ish). Now correct me if I am wrong but a NA Z 2+2 is best part of 1500 kgs with 220hp (146hp p/ton-ish). I'm not slating anyones car, if you take offence then that is your problem. Love your own car and each to their own? Ask yourself what were the real reasons you bought an NA over a turbo? Running costs? Insurance? Price? Value? the looks it had? Was I really a million miles off? If anyone wanted a fast Z they would buy a turbo, period. I drive a shitroen saxo FFS as my main car ATM, yes it's nippy, yes I like it, but I would not get offended it some called it a shitty little french hot hatch, I know it is? But it's good for what it does and why I bought it. Not saying an NA Z is shitty, far from, but I think I must of hit a nerver somewhere? Chill out dude! End of :rolleyes:

Sounds reasonable to me, even if it is *****cks, what have we got to loose?

lol I have a saxo as my DD for my sins :headvswal But if your in the local area you are welcome to thrash it anytime :D

Ok ok, friendly banter, it'a all good! Average Z price = 3.5k Average M3 price = 9k Enough said! (yes you can buy shit box M3's for 5.5k the same way you can buy Z's for 1.5-2k I'm being generous here ;)) Have to agree E36's are a favorite with the penyless though, because it is all too easy to spend a couple of quid to make it look like an M. They are the ones who make M3's look bad because they badge up their 316's etc with kits and badges to look like an M3. Then you get some idiot in a car flying past one saying to his mates 'I just blew away this M3 in my (insert what car you like, it's all been said)' Do you know, in the time I owned that bimmer, people never beleived it really was a real one! I remember I had one little shitter in a red saxo at the traffic lights ask me what it really was, when I told him he laughed and said 'no really, what is it'? I even had a guy at the local petrol station ask me if it was a 320 or a 325? When I told him it was an M3 he said no it's not it's a 320, the front bumper isn't right lmfao. Made me feel like I actually wanted to copy the log book and hand it around to people lol. Was funny though because in the end I did actually give in and badge it up as a 318 for laugh for a bit, got into a little play with a green E36 that looked like an M3 Evo, very genuine all the bits an anorak would spot, what happened? He was bouncing it off the rev limiter (sounded aweful) when I flew past him and all he could see was a 318 badge flying into the distance, justice at last! Very, very bad though........ My totally unbiast view though as I own neither of them now and it is all in the past, is that TBH the Z is a great car, I may even buy another one day, it's fast, fun, looks good and sounds great, cheap to buy and to service, but the build quality is nothing compared to an M. Performance wise I would say the performace was equal to my old Z, which was around the 340ish mark, the Bimmer was around the 320 mark with a couple of hundred kilos less weight, a decent 'real' M3 could easily outrun a stock Z, but a Z running boost, no, it would stay with it. Best thing about the Z performance, decent boost and peak power low down, the M3 only really took off over 4k and it took AGES to get used to just not planting my foot and getting the right gear for the job. If you think your Z's are expensive to repair, never buy an M3. I had to replace the catalytic converter section alone with a genuine BMW part (3rd parties did not guarantee an MOT pass and still cost around 500.00), how much? 1200.00 in the end. 400 for an inspection 1, 800 for an inspection 2 (no extra work, just normal checks etc). And if you want to service it yourself, fine all good, but you'll never sell it, first thing people ask on them is if it has the factory warantee (all decent owners extend it) and if it's all dealer services, and selling M's is a competative market. Anyway, enough of hijacking this thread, im off for a beer lol! :D Cheers!

eh? I meant NA Z's not bimmers, they are in a different class completly lol ;)

Can't remember really, was gonna say shunter, but I'm sure I met him after billing one year, so it couldn't have been him. Might possibly be Greg?

Very true, mine was UK spec, but the UK one's still die easily after 60-70k and a bit of boost.

Lol thats what I was going to say, 200ish hp from the best part of 1600 kilos, good luck, of course it's not fast, my missus pug 106 has better power to weight lol. (sorry NA owners, a Z is a Z, but most people buy an NA for economy and the looks not performance).

Bitch of a job, you need to really get it done somewhere recomended that have done it before like PPS or similar. I fitted mine, and started to blend it in, ran out of time and gave it to a local body shop to do. 200.00 lighter, and it looked great, but lasted all of about 6 months before the paint started cracking and the padding / filler started to crack and lift. The tailgate skin looks great when fitted, but for ease if you just want to get rid of that nasty spoiler I would whip it off, and put the replacement pannel in the hole that Z centre does.

Det sensor?

The autoboxes are brill upto around 60-70k miles, show them some boost and hard driving and they will fall apart. I know someone who killed his stock box in two weeks of ownership, and killed an SE /Nistek one within four weeks running a bar of boost. I loved my auto, yes they are good boxes, but most are well over 70k now and won't take you running high bhp or giving them a good caining for long. No stock or rebuilt auto boxes (like the ex nistek one) will take high boost for long. You need to get a propper purpose built one for it to last. Cheers!

Had turbo XS on my Z, best sounding BOV's on the plannet, especially with 16psi running through each :) True BOV's are for nothing but noise and show, but they do sound cool at times. I've no doubt the factory recircs are much more efficient than a vent to atmosphere one. Cheers!

On a serious note, ones in a rubber pipe just down beside your battery tray on the side of the engine towards the bulkhead. One end has a large Hex nut on it (the end facing front of the car) the end at the back nr bulkead is just pushed onto a copper L peice. The pipe is probably only 5 inches long if that. IIRC to locate the other one look under near where the CC unit is, similar place basically on other side of the engine. If I remember rightly one is smaller in diameter than the other. Cheers!

Sounds like your car has a bit of an addiction, start by weaning it off of the stuff slowly. :wack:

Just as another thought, before you do go any further take the thing apart as much as you can, well, what I mean is check as much as you can so you know what you are looking at, if you've already spent that sort of cash, you should have replaced some major parts already that you won't need to worry about again. If you get her fixed, don't forget the little things like hoses etc, whilst your making her good would be a shame to spring a coolant leak or oil leak etc and cause more probs for the sake of a couple of quid. Much easier to replace all of that stuff with the engine being done of course too. If you don't mind me asking how much did you pay for the Z and how many miles has it done?

Ello, I haven't read the whole post, could not be arsed. But I personally think better the devel you know. You could go out, spend another 5k on a Z, have it inspected, and something still die on it a week later. TBH from experience, 9/10 you are lucky to get a good Z. As said, you can buy a car which is running mint, and something can just give out on it weeks down the line. I'm not sure what you have already spent on her, but at least you know whats wrong with it, and whats right. You know what's been replaced so that won't be a problem anymore. I sold my Z to a friend, it was running mint when I sold it, a month down the line the turbos decided to spit an oil feed off of them, and starve the turbos, unfortunatly the car was driven with no oil for abit which resulted in the car dying totally and needing a rebuild. But the point is, it was fine when I sold it, no one could have forseen that would have happened, and boom a 5k bill. Exactly the same could happen to anyone. Another friend of mine spent over 6.5k on a Z, had it all checked out and all was mint. Four weeks in autobox gave up, got a replacement by SE 1.7k, four weeks later gearbox gave up but they wern't around to replace it, another place and another 1.5k. You need to bare in mind that all of these cars are the best part of 15 years old, unless you buy one which has had new tubbies, engine rebuild, box blah blah blah there is no guarantee any of it will last. Like I said most of it is down to luck more than judgement. I say if you like Z's then keep it if it's not totally ****ed that is, and get it sorted, otherwise you could be out of pocket and in the same postition again with another 1. Good luck!

What have these got to do with a game of checkers? :headvswal :headvswal :)

That's some good work there, fancy doing some of my cars? Not Z's but hey it's all cash to you :)

Nah M3's long gone just can't be fooked to change my sig. Bought a golf GTI mk2 absolutely mint with only 42k genuine miles on the clock, ran it round for a bit and took it to some shows, then bought a Saxo VTS as my daily driver and kept the Golf for best for a bit. Bought an E30 coupe Bimmer not so long ago to use as a road-legal track car, so working on that atm. I must admit, I have been tempted to get back in a Z a few times, but it's not come to anything atm. Having fun just plaing around with other cars atm. You'll have to let me know when the next meet is, I'll pop down and say ello! ;)

Ello James, how you doing mate? Yup i'm in Swindon fella, and you changed your name Marcus? How you doing buddy?

Fitting the new engine in my old E30 coupe? Few beers in it and some cash! Probably take a couple of days max. And whilst I am on here, hello to all I have not seen for ages if any of you are still around ;)

S13's are the best 200 IMHO I've owned a S13 pre face lift and face lift and an s14. But this one was the nicest of the bunch (although a little ott for my taste these days). Cheers!

Haven't read the thread but I can think of 20 better cars to own in this price range. Cally is utter shite, the chasis is fine, the gearbox is good and the handling is not bad, but they are rust buckets and the engine isn't all that strong, neither is the transfer box. They die just by looking at boost. The tom cat is ok, but poor chasis means big wheel spin, not much power to the road, and sloppy handling. They also leak oil and burn oil like a diesel. Just my 2p and I have driven and known both cars before. Cheers!