Surprised no one has asked this yet. In the 10 minute attempted test fit before she was towed off, looks like they're fouling like a bitch actually. But given my chassis issues, I'm not sure the issue lies with the ducts themselves. Worst case, I'll take to them with an Angle Grinder and show how much I had to take off. If the amount taken off is equal to both sides, I'd say the ducts are partly the issue. If its not symmetrical... not the ducts. I get the Zed back today from the Exhaust Shop, and anxious to get to work on it so we'll see. MoulaZX
Just came back from the Exhaust place after swinging by to see progress... not f'in happy. While under the car I noticed something else. Not sure how this happened, but the Oil feed line to the Passenger side Turbo has been crushed somehow. Now to figure out how to fix (most likely replace entirely) this piece with the Engine in. The Exhaust is coming along reasonably well. Not 100% happy with that either, but eh, I'll explain later. MoulaZX
If that wasn't the case before the car left your garage, it could be from the transport or most likely from the exhaust installation itself. Did you ask Bruno? Not eff'in happy myself! That'll be a b*tch of a job with the engine now in... Arvin
Nah, I don't suspect Bruno at all. He wouldn't have been working in that area. Whatever, it happened. I'm over raging at every single setback, there have been plenty already. No use crying over it futher, now to fix it. MoulaZX
Positive outlook, great to see. What do you think would cause scratches on the paint like that as well.? Could it have happened while fitting engine? Either way realy good to find it now before you start driving and the turbo seizes. Lucky break! Just a PITA to have to replace it.
The turbo can be unbolted and the line replaced in the car, but the turbo can not be removed completely as it physically will not fit out.
I have attempted to 'uncrush' the line, and it seems to have worked for the time being. My reasoning for this, it feels back to its old shape, and the oil pressure gauge doesn't seem so erratic now (much smoother and linear), because coincidentally the crushed line is only about 15cm away from the Pressure Sender, and prior to the 'fix' I noticed the gauge was behaving a little erratically... which I guess should have been a clue something was up. Regardless, I will replace the line. And while it still is a PITA to change, I don't think it'll be as difficult as I first thought, reason being is the line does not directly connect to the Turbo, it connects to a Banjo Style fitting, so I'd have to disconnect off the fitting, not off the Turbo directly. Also unrelated, just prior to taking her to the Exhaust Shop my Dad noticed it was running on only 5 cylinders. Long story short, seems one of the pins on Injector 2 had bent, and as a result only 1 pin was going into the connector. I was hearing a strange ticking noise, exactly like lifter tap, except I guess somehow the Injector was doing it. Once I straightened the pin and plugged the connector back on, cylinder 2 came back to life and all was well again. Not sure how it happened, I'm suspecting I mustn't have put the connector on properly in the first place while in a rush. Anyhow, all is well again. Finally got around to putting the Fan + Shroud back on, just need to put the Radiator over flow bottle back in and shes pretty much ready to hit the road... minus Headlights and a Front Bar lol. I'll be taking care of those most likely Saturday. MoulaZX
A wouldn't use any braided line that has been crushed. While the outside may have returned to normal looking shape or appearance, the inner tube (teflon I would assume) will still be extremely restrictive and may not have returned to it's near normal shape. If anything, it may have been pinched to a degree that it may have a crimped hole in it which would allow for fluid to pass in between the teflon core and it's protective sheething. I wouldn't chance it at all considering the amount of time and $$$ that have beeen invested thus far. On another note, is it possible you could give a post install analysis of the AMS and MungyZ intake and intercooler piping kits? Would you consider that (in hindsight) the install was not really that big of a pain in the arse given what you know now. Would most of your install aggravations stem from a lack of step by step install instructions or that the unforeseen body damage / improper repair by the previous owner was the biggest caveat or a combination of both?
I agree. This is why I posted reasons for why I believed for the short time being I'm comfortable using it to get around. I'm already looking to source another piece to replace it with. Sure. But I feel any feedback I give would be null given the history of the car, so strongly advise anyone reading this to understand that they may just get away without having to modify some pieces... but I doubt it, lol. It's definitely not a simple 'bolt on' job. I have a feeling though, had my Zed been in perfect condition the experience would have been a bit more pleasant. Secondly, I'm not a professional, just an enthusiast. This is a hobby. I've never done any of this sort of in-depth stuff alone before so its been a very big learning curve to go it alone and discover as I go. Were I to do this again, its easy to say I'd avoid so many needless minor set-backs. Over all, the Pipes did fit. I did run into quite a bit of headaches, some of which are currently unresolved but again I believe this is because of my particular Zed and I will be going back shortly to make some minor alterations to fix the issues. Mungyz's pipes are the only pieces that slipped on without any real hassle. One large potential issue I could have had with his pipes were on the Driver's side (Passenger for any Americans reading) where the P/S is located, if using the larger TT P/S pump, it would have fouled on the Turbo Inlet piece, and I believe impossible to get to clear, you have to use an NA Pump. Glenn warned me of this prior and I agreed to go with an NA Pump and everything else needed to remove HICAS. I also pointed one short coming of Glenn's pipes regarding the breather pipe on the Driver's Side Accordion replacement piece, but in hindsight I believe its again caused by the condition of my Chassis as the other un-damaged side, lined up perfectly in that sort of little grove just between the backing of the Timing Case and Rocker Covers. The last minor thing was for the Turbo Inlet pipes it was necessary to lightly modify the OEM Heat Shield to have it comfortably clear it. Had to cut off parts of it, and bend back a little more. Sounds like a lot, but relatively to the rest of the work done, was very simple, then again I did this while I had the Engine still on the stand and was fitting the Turbo Inlet pipes onto the motor before I dropped it back into the car. Rest of the stuff below is on the AMS kit. Right now it has been all bolted up. How well, I am not quite sure as I haven't done a boost leak test yet. I have noticed now, in hindsight, that there are a few pieces that would fit much better if I was to trim a few mm off the ends. The biggest one on this topic right now is the piece on the passenger side that runs along side the Fuse / Relay box. It is rubbing against the box. If it was about 10mm shorter it would clear quite easily. I can take a video later explaining it better. I have yet to mention this before as well, but for the Turbo Outlet pieces... I ended up having to lightly crush the pipe to give it a very slight oval shape (easy to do, just wrapped the pipe in thick cloth and put it into a vice and slowly tightened till I got my required shape), to fit comfortable alongside the Strut Tower , Engine and Plenum. I suspect having seen the 2nd revision of this piece, I think the Coned version that got so many people all riled up may have been a result of them figuring this out too. Also, I would have liked if they did something similar to the pipes that run along side and down next to the Radiator as those of us with larger aftermarket Radiators would certainly appreciate it. For those of us with Oil Coolers, you can not re-use the Oil Cooler hardlines section that bolt up off the lower Radiator support as they foul horribly with the other one of the pipes that run alongside and down the Radiator (sorry for not being more specific, just much easier to do this in a video which I'll do when I'm off work again). Having said all that, I did re-use the hardlines, but only some of it. I cut most of it away and lightly bent the lines so that they come out under the Intake pipes and used other random hardline pieces to hook up the existing rubber lines off the sump & engine to the modified existing hardlines. (I opted to just keep the original rubber hoses off the engine as they contoured properly to start off with and if I was just to buy longer rubber hoses to replace them I'd have to figure out another way to get them to clear comfortably to reach the cut back hardlines.) Hrm, what else... Oh, as I mentioned in the video the opening for the Intake Pipe to pass from Engine Bay to Outer Edge of the SMICs that had to be widened. I'd strongly recommend that be done and am sure even with a Zed in perfect body condition is still going to find its incredibly tight while trying to accommodate the larger diameter pipes. I think lastly on the Pipes directly, there was that bit I showed in a video where the Outlet fitting (I referred to it as an Inlet in the video, sorry, I was very tired) off the pipe, that is used to feed the Idle Control junk at the back has been moved to much further back on the pipe. No real modification neccessary aside from throwing away that existing hardline alongside the Plenum, and sourcing a new, longer rubber hose to use instead. Oh the subject of a set of instructions. I'm not so sure if it would have solved everything, but a small write-up/guide on a fold out piece of paper showing some possible fouling locations / potential areas where modification might be or definitiely needed would have been very much appreciated. And of course a simple overlay of which pipe goes were, as it took me over an hour to figure out which pipe goes were... but I was up for 40 hours straight at that point and towards the end figured out I was missing a crucial large piece which finally made everything make sense, lol. But yea, just a small bit of paper with some information on it would have been great, can't remember the last time I bought something that required so much work to assemble without a single bit of paper telling you even the most basic thing such as how many pieces to expect in the kit. MoulaZX
Update: Random Loose Ends So I know there hasn't been much progress lately. It has been due to 2 things. The excessive rain, and the fact that after the recent screw ups, it almost physically hurt to even look at the Zed. Anyhow, since I did not mention the issue before I might as well make a formal entry into my 'build diary'. During Graham's visit on his 'meet the club' day, my Zed decided to throw a wrench in, and it turned into a mini-tech day for my Zed. The short story is I screwed up, twice at that... Now that was last week, in the last week, been busy trying to get my new 280km/h Speedo calibrated so the Gauge Cluster can go back in, look at getting the Front Bar fitted and other small silly things. Gauge progress shots. Had to drill the holes in the top of the Cluster and run the wires for the Gauge panels/fascias out. Figured I could get this ready at least while I wait for the Speedo to finish. More to come. PTU Temporary Relocation. Looking to move this again, not happy with the spot, but to move it around for the short time being it'll be fine. Now for the other big headache. Some of you know I bought a pair of SMIC Ducts for my Japtek. They were marketed for 2K Front Bars. But as you'll see, even with all I cut off, it still made fitting the Bar incredibly tight (hell to even fit the Reo Bar, you have to cut or seriously bend one section pretty far out of the way) and I may just go back and cut a little more off later when I buy a new Front Bar as my old one is just old and falling apart. Bar in question... Ducts Progress Shots. All the pieces I cut off. Semi Final shot. Anyhow, thats it for now. I'll try and get some better pictures some other time. Weather is making it difficult to work in peace. It's very slowly (now) getting there. Pace has definitely been taken back a few notches. Just about at my wits end. MoulaZX
Hang in there. Sometimes things grind to a slow pace and the weather lately would drive anybody mad. So pleased to see you got to the bottom of the misfiring cylinders. Thats got to give you insentive to press on. Thanks for the update.
Not that it's absolutely necessary, but it might be worthwhile now to switch over to the series 2 PTU from your series 1. Keep your series 1 as a back-up in your spares bag. Glad you found the faulty lower o-rings for the injectors.
Cheers mate. Yep, its on the 'very soon' cards. Have a local supplier whom is also a good friend so yea, no problem getting a hold of one. But to be honest, I almost get a kick out of every year that little thing refuses to die lol. We went through 3 unbearable summers recently and it never hiccuped once. And on this note, I'm planning to mount the S2 exactly like you have. Saw last week one of your posts was linked and I saw the pictures... so kudos for the idea. And yep, I'm almost grateful the issue arose now rather then later... like during Tuning... or one day randomly while wringing her neck down the Drag strip... MoulaZX
KKE ducts Hey mate, I've been trying to fit my ducts at the moment too and like you I've trimmed an absolute bucketload off the front but I think I'll need to trim the lower outer corner like you did as otherwise the bar fouls it and you can't get it high enough to actually bolt it in on the side of the bar. According to Korey I've trimmed the most out of anyone he's seen but I'll need to trim further. I imagine mine will look almost identical to yours when done.
