Yer it's round at the mechs now and I'll be going round after. I just rely want as much info as what it most likely is so I can give him some direction. I'm a good two and ahalf hours from Melbourne so z shop isn't looking to good. Also I saw a thread warning about the Melbourne one. The guy said good parts on his zx were being taken and put on other cars. Also was told his turbo had gone when really the z shop had over filled it with oil. My Mech is a good guy and is the only one I trust locally with my car. It's just the lack of zx experience that I'm concerned with.
If your bloke needs any assistance, he could look at our Tech section, and of course the on line Z manual, its all in there, good luck.
Depends on how the gasket split. a) It can split between chamber and coolant galleries, causing water to enter the combustion chamber, and exhaust gases to enter the cooling system. - Usually you can smell fuel in your radiator or a mechanic can test the water for traces of hydro-carbons. Also you will exhibit steam out of your exhaust. b) It can split between oil galleries and water galleries, causing water and oil to mix. Your radiator will look like a chocolate milkshake, only oily, and your oil will be milky. If this is the case, don't start the car again, water/fuel effected oil has heavily reduced lubricating ability and will strip bearings in no time. c) It can split between coolant galleries and the outside world, cause coolant leaks in the engine bay. If it's A) then yes your idle will be effected, and it will often be hard to start, or misfire on a cylinder where the gasket has torn. If it's b) could be, but you've got bigger problems than that if your still driving it. if it's C) no. After reading all your posts and how it happened I put Head Gasket at the bottom of the possible lists. If it happened at that sort of engine load, I would be looking at piston rings. You've blown straight through at least one ring/ring land or crown hauling ass at 200 clicks. The oil getting sucked up through where the ring used to be and straight into the exhaust. Your misfiring on that cylinder which no longer has compression to fire. You need to get your mechanic to do a compression test, and then if I'm right, you will need to either rebuild your motor, or get a 2nd hand one off a wreckers and swap them over. I've done it, I melted a hole through a piston from a bad fuel batch hauling at Eastern Creek down the main straight. Big plume of smoke from the exhaust, and a bad mis-fire. Intake off and could see oil pooling in the offending cylinder and a thumb sized hole in the side of the piston.
Mech said thinks gaskets. Only he doesnt want to touch it. So mite have to look at getting it towed down to Melbourne.
I'll check the oil and radiator. I haven't drive the car since it happened and it's only been started twice since
"thinks".... Head Gaskets are reletively easy to diagnose with a few tests, these cars aren't rocket science, they are actually extrordinarily simple compared to modern cars. Just shoehorned into a tight space a requires a little more labour hours to get to specific areas. Tell your mechanic to suck it up and do a hydrocarbon test on the radiator and a compression test if you don't want to do it yourself.
Yer I was looking thru the service manual and thought a comp test would be able to give me a better idea of what's wrong. I hate living in the sticks
