Well, the title says it all. The burgundy bullet has finally had a bit of TLC with Eric at A2ZED. With purchasing a new boat around Xmas this year (no an actual boat not another Z ), I have only have the funds available recently to put into the Z, so I've been babying it over the last 12 months or so, just driving round like grandad PEX, clutch slipping and unable to make over 14 PSI due to perforated diaphragms on one of the external wastegates. Leading up to the fix, the biggest problem we faced was repairing the wastegates. I have Type-S Trust External Gates, and due to the Trust Turbo kit fitted, nothing else could be put in there to replace the existing gates. To compound matters, they never made available any spare parts in regard to the diaphragms either. It had Eric and I scratching our heads over the last few months as we formulated our plan of attack. I hadn't really spent any coin at all since purchase so I can't really complain. The scope of the job was basically, New clutch (+ rear main seal) Centre bearing if required Braided one piece line (made by Eric) Install 4 STD brake rotors (supplied by GSL Rallysport) Install rear adjustable camber arms (supplied by eBay LOL) Install 3 x new drive belts (PS, AC, WP/ALT) Fix Power steering fluid leak Find fix boost leak rear of engine passenger side fix or replace wastegates. 4 new tyres wheel alignment (pays since new tyres and new suspension components) Anyway, total cost parts and Labour came to $2500, which is very reasonable, especially as Eric found and fixed several other things on the way through without additional charge. Very thorough job if I do say so myself. After actual dismantling of the wastegates, Eric was able to find a suitable replacement diaphragm of the exact size and exact materials from a totally different and surprising (Secret) source. This means that potentially thousands of discarded Type-S wastegates could be rebuilt by Eric, so I will put this next sentence in for search engines to find. Eric at a2zed in Brisbane Australia can rebuild Trust Type-S wastegates. He has available a source of diaphragms to replace any that are perforated/split. Anyone who needs to be put in touch, contact sales@pexcom.com.au or sales@a2zed.com.au Eric decided and convinced me of a cushion button clutch custom made, which is an absolute blessing. So Smooth and light to use in traffic and holds the HP really well. The old Clutch was worn to the rivets (apparently) . Goes to show how careful I drove it. I've been keeping away from cruises, else what lasted me a year, may have only lasted me a day The Nexen 6000 tyres (as recommended by Eric) all round are excellent. On alignment today, I had the camber reduced to -0.2 degrees all round with 1mm toe on the rear. Toe on the front is 0.02mm, so the car rolls with little resistance, and the weight is distributed across the tread-face relatively evenly. Grip is awesome, and it's nice to get all those KW (about 330rwkw) to ground without too much loss of traction. I'm back to running about 1.2 BAR of boost as a base level, and 1.6 BAR on high boost. It wants to break traction just by dropping the right foot in 3rd gear at speeds greater than 100Kmph but just seems to hang on with the new Nexens and the camber setup, so just what I was after. The old set-up was dangerous. Traction loss at 110 kmph is not recommended . Currently in 3rd gear at 100KMPH or more, the car feels like it's twisting under the forces of an impending apocalypse. Totally awesome. This would be one of the only times I've been to a vehicle mechanics workshop and been happy with the car when I've driven home. Thank you Eric for your time, skills and product recommendations. I don't give my recommendation lightly, Eric did a fantastic job, exceeding my expectations. If anybody needs any further information about the work done or what parts I have on the car or had added, post up here or PM me.
Thanks for the feedback Greg. Was definatley a good find with the gate diaphragms. Was certainly happy with the clutch, I got together with NPC and nutted out a clutch that will work well in a 450hp daily driver, not a combination that you usually need to think about when putting a clutch together.
