Bigpower

Hey guys it's been a while


At last I've found some time to start sorting this bloody engine issue.

The family and I have all up'd sticks and moved from Hereford to our new home up on top of a remote Welsh mountain. The new place came with a workshop so I spent most of last week getting that sorted and today I got cracking on stripping the VG down.


This is what it sounded like just before the strip down:





I couldn't quite put my finger on where the blowing was coming from but could tell that it was somewhere down at the back of the engine near the firewall.

There were tell tale signs of oil out the back with small splashes on the bell housing and was showing zero boost on the boost gauge


So off with the plenum and as suspected, the gasket had failed. I figured that was what was causing the blowing however it appears that it's the opposite bank that is caked in oil and crap?






Is this likely to be turbo seal failure (on the shitty side) or maybe a PCV failure?






The exhaust is blowing clear (no blue smoke etc) but it was really getting through the fuel.


The idle demonstrated in the above video clip is with the passenger side turbo outlet pipework disconnected, it appeared to be slightly better with this removed?


With all of the pipes connected the engine would cough and splutter and would cut out unless you kept the revs up with your foot on the throttle.


I'll upload a video clip shortly of the engine running with the passenger side turbo outlet pipe still connected....it basically runs really rough, seems to be on the vurge of cutting out but would then catch itself and would then cut out. The over fuelling was clearly not right.



The MAF is all good, FPR is good, fuel filter, injectors and coil packs are all fine.




any suggestions what the issue could be, I'm not convinced that the plenum gasket is the sole problem here. I think the blowing is caused by the failed gasket but suspect that there is something else going on???

No idea about the issue or fix, but living on a remote Welsh mountain sounds excellent

Stuart wrote:No idea about the issue or fix, but living on a remote Welsh mountain sounds excellent

You know you're old towny' lifestyle has gone when you let the dog out first thing in the morning and find that there are sheep running around in your garden....and then realise that this is perfectly normal!!


This engine won't beat me either

Ok well here's a lesson learnt for future reference: Note to self 'Read the friggin' small print'.

For the last week or so I've been stuck in a rut and not able to make any more progress with getting the VG roaring again, despite having all of the replacement gaskets shipped and delivered within 24hrs.

Having worked flat out deleting loads of 17 year old Nissan shitty rubber hoses and pipework it all came to a grinding halt due to my waiting on the replacement Samco water, oil and vac hoses and pipes needed to put it all back together. These hoses and pipes are literally all that's required to get the zed back on track, nothing special just regular high temp Samco hoses.

Everyday for the last week I've waited for the knock on the door from the postie' or courier with my parcel of bits.....still nothing!

So I figure that maybe there's been a mix up, slow dispatch etc. Off I go to check 'My Ebay' to make sure that I haven't cocked up and forgot to pay yada yada!

Alas no, the payment went through without a hitch and so I checked the small print....no problem at first glance, the parcel should have arrived on my doorstep by the 21st

Strange I think to my self as it's now the 27th.....oh wait....best double check that small print

In a nutshell "We don't actually have any in stock and basically we wait until we have enough orders before getting the manufacturer to supply us again (followed by a quite stroppy tone!) and if you can't wait until 21st OF OCTOBER then don't bother buying off us" and this is in the actual listing?!?

but the company/seller are clearly stating that they have "4 in stock" or "last one available" etc etc which is entirely the reason that I placed the order with them and not with the others, and of course due to the fact that it's an established and well known company

So there we have it, there won't be any progress for at least another month. Fuckin' awesome!!!!

Not impressed!!!


and here endeth' the whinge.....

Thats a real shitter mate...but as Alan always says 'there's always a silver lining'. At least now you know it will be another month so at least you've now got a month to spend on the new house.

I suppose that's one way to look at it mate

The thing is I've achieved more on the car in the last few weeks than I have in the last 9 months or so and was just getting into the groove so to speak.

There was a lot more going on than a simple blown inlet manifold gasket as well, I ended up replacing all 6 fuel rail to lower plenum seals as they were all completely shagged.

The PCV's were completely clogged up with shit and near as damn it all of the PCV hoses were fooked' (really brittle and fell apart with the slightest bit of force)

It's good to see that others are getting theirs all sorted now though....won't be long now I'm sure and of course next year is a whole new ball game

Good work. Glad to hear it's coming together finally, can't wait to see this car in the flesh:coolgleamA:

Well it's absolutely pissing down up here but needs must and all that.

I woke up with the motivation to get cracking on with getting the car finished, and that's a rarity, so I'd best not waste a second of this new found enthusiasm


Here are the old injector - upper plenum seals, I think it's safe to say that they are fooked'! These have all been replaced.

I assume these would have contributed to the major vacuum leak and over fuelling issue?







I've fitted all of the new Samco vacuum lines (those that I have at least...) and I now know exactly what hoses go where so my VG knowledge has doubled by doing all of this myself.

It's so much easier to work on now after deleting the PCV's and completing the water bypass. The zeds engine bay is so tight that I couldn't find anywhere suitable to mount the FPR so eventually settled on (of all places) mounting it on the strut brace?!?









Well after many hours of graft I'm happy to report that the old girl now has a freshly rebuilt gearbox fitted along with a reconditioned starter motor, as the previous starter motor was starting to play up.


I've also bought in some of this Gucci looking heat reflective tape, not sure how effective it is but I figured the loom in the engine bay at the rear of the engine needs as much protection as possible so even if it only provides a fraction of the 800 degrees protection that it advertises I'm of the opinion that something is better than nothing






She looks a bit rough, tired and neglected around the edges but she's in better health now than a few weeks ago.....testing shortly I hope

Well done mate almost there:thumbs: Any idea as to where you'll be testing?

Ideally I could do with the initial shakedown being somewhere fairly local, Castle Combe would probably be the safest bet. That way if it went bang early on it wouldn't be too much of a wasted day!

I think driver coaching has proven to be money well spent, so once I'm certain that the car is reliable enough for a full day on track I'll be heading down that route for sure