Tricky-Ricky

Why is it a pig of a job? changed mine in 15 minutes.

Any 5w30 semi or fully synth oil will be fine, and NGKPLFR5A-11 plugs are the cheapest, but will need to be changed 6 to 10K mls, if you want to leave it longer then the platinum or iridium equivalent with last up to 60k mls.

As already said if your not sure on quality its a PITA job to change them, and besides unless they are genuine performance enhancing properly designed tried and tested items, you are more likely to see a loss in power.

The logical progression of the ram air effect...... :p

Wow this has got rather involved, with intakes as long as you can get a reasonable amount of air at atmospheric temps into the engine, and not sucking in the air from the engine bay, you will not loose any performance, as for gaining any.... you wont! well none that you would actually notice. The reason for cooling FI as much as possible is solely due to the amount of heat generated from the compression process, and if turbocharged the extra added heat from the exhaust side of the compressor, although its mainly just compression that adds the heat as once the airflow is moving fast enough the boundary layer effect comes into play and the moving air intakes very little heat from the walls of the tubing and compressor metal, which is one of the reasons for intercoolers being not all that efficient, and having to be a trade off for flow, pressure drop and gallery design. Water injection on a like for like basis is probably better at cooling charge temps, and has the added benefit of in cylinder cooling if done right, however I doubt you would actually notice the difference on an N/A engine in the real world, in fact I had this from the horses mouth so to speak ( Richard Lamb) who developed the Aquamist xterm of WI, when I asked him if he thought I should bother adding WI to my DE on the Skyline. Besides modern engine ECU will adjust fuelling to compensate for intake temperatures by volume MAF and IAT compensation

If your going to paint with a brush, Smoothrite is probably your best bet, if you can spray good old 2K will be fine for engine heat.

There is always a lot of oil vapor from the low load side of the PCV system, due to the high vacuum at idle, this is one of the reasons a lot of people fit a sealed catch can to help reduce to amount that sits in the plenum low spots and gets gradually drawn into the combustion process and back into the throttle plate gumming it up. As I said due to the way the air is distributed by the design of the plenum, not one or two cylinder draw more oil vapor than the others, and there is certainly not enough to cause your smoking symptoms, unless there is a problem with piston/bore ring seal.

Incorrect! apart from the fact that due to the way the plenum works at distributing airflow, the outlet of the PCV valve is positioned in the middle of the front lower plenum, which is nowhere near the runners, your problem was not the PCV.

IMO your friend gave you the right advice, any paint that is coming off that easy is always suspect and its just false economy to shift the loose stuff and hope the rest stays put. If the original paint is good and you can key it without putting scratches into it, and the colour is not too dissimilar you can usually get away without using a primer, just spray a fairly wet first coat to give the solvent a chance to etch into the old paint, this is assuming that the original paint is a solvent based 2K which going by the car almost certainly is, however if you are looking for a nice blemish free long lasting finish then I would apply a primer/filler first to give it a good base.

Only just seen this, yes you need to remove ALL the previous paint, for the reasons you mentioned, IE its not been keyed to the previous paint coat, otherwise you will eventually end up with the new paint coming away with the old, a DA sander with 380 grit will shift it, but if there isn't not going to be any primer it wants going over with 600 grit wet n dry before its base coated.

There are no gains to be had from any add on without a remap.

Just fit a std grade plug, iridium, platinum just provide a longer service life than std so called copper core, (they all have a copper core by the way) there is no such thing as an upgrade plug, they all do the same thing, its just peoples opinions that are different.

Yes two sealed cans are the best option if you feel you need two, but as the low load side is the one that generates the most oil vapor due to the high vacuum at idle, most people just use one catch can on this, believe it or not if you don't bother with the high load side you wont see any further oil reside in the throttle body, as its gets draw from the plenum by reversion, so one can is sufficient.

Unfortunately by what your describing its more likely to be a piston and/or rings that have gone, in any case its still going to need a re-bore and new pistons and rings at minimum, so still not a cheap fix.

Did you read the info in the link? just what is your reason for changing the system? You cannot mix the plenum side which is closed with the open intake side as this will result in bad idle due to unmetered air being drawn in and affecting idle and higher loads, so you will literally be creating an air leak.

so you want to do away with the PCV system? why? its very beneficial to ring and oil seals, just run the idle/low load side (plenum) to a sealed and baffled catch can and back to the plenum, this will eliminate pretty much all of the oil that collects in the plenum low points, the full throttle/load side is best left as is, but if you feel the need you can also add a catch can to this. A lot of info here, http://www.350z-uk.c...n/#entry1349925

Don't know what your on about, the bucket is a valve lifter, the terms are many, and I used follower to clarify things for the OP, yes we know they are not hydraulic, hence the comment on it would take one of the camshaft oil feed hole to be blocked to cause noise due to lack of lubrication, which was the other possibility for explaining lifter/bucket etc noise.

Glad you have it sorted now, sorry but I am always a little cautious of garage mechanic diagnosis, when they come up with statements like "blocked filter" etc, for the follower/lifter to be noisy due to lack of oil it would have to be a blockage in the camshaft oil feed, if they told you it was a hydraulic lifter they are feeding you bull as they are not.

Agreed! I would be asking the garage exactly what they mean and ask for a full diagnosis, and apart from modern oils not forming sludge, and are fine to sit in an engine for years without a problem.

You have to remember that with a diesel engine the fuel is pre determined by the ECU the airflow is secondary to this, and not primary like a petrol engine, and it will run without the MAF connected. I am not anywhere near as familiar with diesel engines, even though I own one, but there are other factors that influence the diesel combustion process, the EGR valve is a major player in affecting performance.

The drive belt needs re tensioning.

As said, get it checked sooner rather than later, it doesn't go into limp mode for minor problems.

Some older cars will run with no MAF signal because the idle control is handled by TPS signal and IAC valve, however it still wont always reveal a faulty MAF, and its not always any sort of calibration fault, usually the circuitry of the MAF. I am pretty sure the DE uses the the throttle body IE the stepper motor to control idle, so if no MAF signal is detected the engine wont run, could be wrong, but in any case its wouldn't necessarily indicate a problem with the MAF, as in order to control fuel ratio its not only the MAF that's involved, its IAT and lambda signal too. Why do you think you have a MAF calibration problem?

Although some installers will allow the central locking to lock with the engine running/ignition on, its not advised for various reasons, apart from the fact that you could end up locked in the car after an accident, you will also find that your insurance company wont cover you should you walk away from the car and leave it running.

I usually remove turbo timers, as they are more trouble than they are of value, as they will keep the engine running whether you have been hammering it or not so a quick trip down the shops proves a pain when the engine refuses to turn off and you have to just sit there as the central locking wont work with the engine running. Apart from that modern oils are unlikely to coke up when subjected to extreme heat anyway, and if your allowing for cool down it not a problem anyway.