Fen

yes that was me, was looking at getting a second hand motor, but have now decided to get another vehicle an sell the car as is,I have just listed it on ebay, im gutted because the rest of the car is mint but I don't have the time, space or the resources to sort it out, I have taken It off the road for the mo, as I don't want to possibly make things worse but I need a daily driver for getting to work.

Just spoke to a guy called Sol at EUROJAP engines in manchester. He said it wouldn't be a problem and I'd be looking at 2500+vat for a rebuild. Would involve a strip, measurements etc, order new parts and fit including remove/reinstall engine. Would take 2-3 weeks to complete. He also said I'm welcome to come view the workshop and look at current jobs that they are undertaking, before opting for them to do the job, which sounds promising.

If anyone is local to Manchester it would be ace if you could drop by and check them out, maybe a group rebuild for lower prices?

I'm potentially thinking of checking EUROJAP engines out in manchester. Had anybody had any experience with these, good or bad? Thinking of having some work done, and said I'm welcome to drop in and see what they do. Can't seem to find any reviews etc online, but seem pleasant enough on the phone.

If anybody could shed further info that would be great

Yes Paul Gardner is based near Preston and redmans is in flee. Waiting for word back off redmans

Ok guys, thanks for your help, I wallet in touch with him this week

H-dev or abbey would be my number one choice if I had that kind of cash available.

I'm in northwest too, very limited in people that are willing to go near the vq. Spoke to redmans engines and Paul Gardner engineering. Redmans, they will both be able to do it they reckon, but couldn't get a price as redmans main man is on hols til next week and Paul Gardner said he can't price it up till he's stuck in there.

Hi matt, that sounds good, he does sound fairly knowledgeable, let me know what you find out, I'd head over but he is about 3hrs away. But it's good that he is willing to show you the premises.

Maybe if we could get a group discount that would be ace

I I'm going though a similar scenario at the mo.

Spoke to a bloke called Jeff at nissan 4x4 centre in Tyne an wear. They have a 350z in gulf colours. Advertise on eBay aiming at repairs for navara and Elgrand but know the VQ35DE apparently.

He told me it's about 2k for a rebuild including

- engine will be stripped and all parts cleaned

- All piston rings are replaced

- Crank is re-polished and re-ground if needed and refitted with new bearing shells

- The head is pressure tested and skimmed, valves cleaned and re-seated, new seals fitted

- All head and engine gaskets are replaced with oem equipment

- Injectors cleaned and tested

- Radiator checked and flushed

- Coolant replaced

- Oil and filter replaced

Possibly add price of new pistons and rings(of your choice) if cylinders need reboring.

He said he can collect my car but would prefer if if I took the car and checked out thier workshop and meet the guys who would be doing the work. Which sounded reassuring as the known dodgy rebuilds don't want you seeing anything. He said a drive in drive out in 2 weeks.

What do you guys make of that?

Ok then, does anybody have any thoughts on A1 jap spares? Offered a complete motor with 43,000 for £1600 2 month warranty or nippon with a 64,000 motor for £2400 fitted, 3 month warranty. Or a drive in drive out rebuild at nissan 4x4 centre (with the gulf 350z and navara etc) for 2k with 12month 12,000 mile warranty

I'm swinging towards a,used motor, as realisticly it's going to be 4.5k for a legit rebuild.

Not tried breaker link to be fair,may have a gander today. Does anyone know what vege engines are like? And prices?

not completely, although the symptoms are pretty much still the same as my original post, just varying in severity when she feels like it. today, masses of smoke on start up, not so much whilst driving about. i managed to get my borescope back into a couple of cylinders and managed to get it point upwards with a piece of string. looking at the valve faces they seem carbony but dry, i would expect to see them darker black if they were wet with oil. the latest oil consumption news as of saturday is about 220 miles over 2 weeks = 1.5l of oil. im trying a 10w40 in it see if it makes any difference. it seems to be getting notably worse every day but the car still drives fine and smooth tickover etc. would stem seals and guides equate to that much oil loss? bearing in mind, the car is bone dry underneath so no external leaks

you don't happen to have any cats available do you?

that's what i was worrying about i have a friend in the trade trying to find me a motor, i have found one with 61,000 of the shelf at a breakers for £1300 with a 30 day warranty. would much prefer to see it running first. its a real shame because the rest of my car is mint. if i could get the thing sorted for less than 2k, it will prevent me sticking some cats on it and rolling it to a dealers and exchange it out for something else.... had one offer of 5K, but it defeats the whole object of me getting the thing.

if you hear of a motor or such out there i would be very grateful. i believe you are the go to guy for bits and advice, nice to make your acquaintance.

Hi thanks for that, I think that's the best option over a rebuild. Do you know of anyone who has had dealings with nissan 4x4 centre in Tyne and Wear? They offered me a drive in drive out rebuild at a rather competitive price.

The oil ring problem is where they get stuck or damaged and don't scrape the oil off the cylinder wall ahead of the compression rings. Resulting in mega oil consumption and smoke

Hi folks, I am potentially on the lookout for a low mileage motor for my Z. I have the dreaded oil ring problem, and may need to get hold of a motor as it may be cheaper than a rebuild. If anybody knows of one let me know.

Thanks

Fen

Well, after some more investigation, it's looking more likely to be the oil control rings...not a happy bunny. So new question is, can I get new rings fitted for sub £1500? Or buy a low mileage engine out of a car at a breakers?

Hi, are the studs snapped at all on these? Can't quite see

i understand what you're saying, i have already been through the pcv system as you mentioned and have installed a baffled catch can in the idle/low side. just dont really know what tack to take, risk forking out to do the stem seals and potentially not cure the underlying problem

I run a cold compression test, all seemed good, didn't have equip for a leak down test. It's the oil that's appearing in the bores overnight that's the concern, a 10w40 oil is going in today just to see if there's any difference in smoke and consumption

hey, would be good but otherwise engaged this weekend unfortunately. anyways i have now posted the issue in some detail in the tec section if anyone has any ideas?

Hi Guys, i just thought id throw it out there and see if i may be able to move towards a solution.

Car Background :

She is an Azure blue 05 roadster non rev-up de motor, has done 62,000 miles with fantastic service history. Of the 40-odd various cars i have owned, by far the tidiest. list of mods include:

• full de-cat stainless exhaust (hence being able to notice smoke)
  
• plenum spacer
  
• air induction pipe and cone filter
  
• baffled oil catch can.
  

Symptoms:

• a rather large amount of blueish smoke on start up, clears after 30 seconds or so. (park nose up, not too much, park on the flat, a fair bit, park nose down, quite a lot.
  
• front 2 plugs rather gunked up, mid 2 plugs a litte gunked and rear 2 plugs looking fine)
  
• drives and pulls faultlessly not missing a beat.
  
• after standing in traffic on tick over, puff of smoke when i set off, nowhere near as much as cold start.
  
• no smoke after a warm start
  
• has used 3l of oil in 1300 miles and decreasing.
  
• started about 2 months ago, steadily getting worse.
  
• spark plug holes are dry
  

Recent service items (within 2000 miles)

• Fuchs Titan Pro S 5w30 oil
  
• K&N oil filter
  
• new iridium plugs
  
• new pcv valve (even though old one seemed to work with the suck/blow test)
  

Todays work/findings

with how the car seems to be smoking i was leaning towards it being a valve stem seal issue, so i took it upon myself to get an ebay borescope and dive in to check whats going on in the pots. I drove her to the garage last night, ( some spirited driving and no noticeable smoke either) to make sure that any liquid oil had been burnt off. left the car over night and dig in taking the coil packs and plugs out today. using my borescope i wanted to check see if any oil had migrated into the cylinders overnight. as expected i did find some oil in there. obviously not on top of pistons, because of being canted over for the V. all oil was seen on the outboard side of the bores. (photos attached). one thing that did surprise me is that all of the cylinders had wet pools of oil, to varying extents. the amount of oil seen relates to the condition of the plugs as above, forward 2 cylinders, quite a large amount of oil, lessening for the mid cylinders and even less in the rear, but both banks appearing pretty much equal.

i did a cold compression test whilst i was there just for peace of mind ( i know it wont give me an idea oil consumption) the results were very consistent at 150psi per cylinder.

My ponderings

i am by no means a qualified mechanic, however i am an aircraft engineer and am relatively competent at undertaking most jobs on cars, even though it takes a while and many, many cups of tea.

my reasons for thinking it is the valve stem seals is the fact that the car was laid to rest last night hot, no smoke, which would suggest to me that there would be no wet oil in there (burned off) and over night oil has seeped into the bores past the valves via potentially knackered valve seals. and the fact that this was not a sudden issue but had been worsening over the past few months. deteriorating rubber seems to do that kind of thing from my aircraft experience, until it finally decides to fall apart.

i dont think oil could have crawled up past the pistons and rings over night because of two reasons 1, gravity and 2, i didnt park my car on its roof (or lack of).

i have tried to explain the situation as best i can, and was hoping that some of you more knowledgeable Z-ers may be able to either correct me if im wrong or advise on the next course of action. i could just about justify the cost of of a valve stem seal replacement, definitely not a rebuild though, would rather take her off the road and do an LS1 corvette conversion over the nest couple of years, haha.

Questions:

• if tackling the stem seals, would there be anything else to renew/ check whilst im in amongst the timing gear etc?
  
• to minimise cost was thinking of doing the job in car with heads on by using the Jim wolf technologies valve spring tool, does anybody have experience with these? have one for rent?
  
• once the timing covers etc etc are off what seals, gaskets etc would i need for camshafts etc, and where is the best place to source them?
  
• OEM valve seals or the uprated ferra ones?
  
• autodata says 6 hours to do the job, is this per bank? and is it realistic?
  
• is there anything i have missed?
  
• what happens if i have a bolt left over? haha
  

anyways thanks for reading through this not too short post. I tried to give as much information as i can at the mo to accept some good advice

I eagerly await your replies, thanks

Fen

Thanks olly, Im pretty sure it's not the plug hole seals as it's dry down there and I doubt that 3l per 1300 miles would work through that way. I'll raise the issue with full explanation in technical tomorrow.

Rob, good name by the way! From another Rob!!! Yeah, would be handy to get to know a few north west Z'ers

Hi folks, thanks for the welcome.

randy, you're not missing anything, I just didn't want to go into it all in my little intro message.

But I may raise it as a topic in technical.

I see there have been some other posts about valve seals, but there are a few more things I may enquire about alongside.

Anyways thanks for the tip. You seem like a friendly and helpful bunch you Z'ers!

1.HiVarley16 - Stoke

2.martinmac - Southern Lake District

3.Unabashed - Northwich

4.AK350Z - West Cumbria

5.HEADPHONES - Manchester

6.Ricey - Chester

7.Greeny - Chester

8.ChrisS - Corwen

9.ste01 - St. Helens

10.Matt L - Stoke

11.Quavey - Lancaster

12.LukeaJones - Rhyl

13.Clarkie34 - Wigan

14.JetSet - Chester/Deeside

15.ray350gt4 - St helens/Rainhill

16.Marzman - Macclesfield

17.Brown7758 - Chorley

18.Jenni86 - Bolton

19.threefiftyz - Preston

20.Bakseedaa - Preston

21.M13KYF - Altrincham

22.370nel - Warrington

23.rogerxp - Stockport

24.|Chris| - Manchester

25.haz65 - Leicester

26.Beavis- Newcastle Under Lyme

27.Dillydot82 - Preston

28.iram - Manchester (black edition no.123)

29.ianphampton - Hyde (Gtr Manchester)

30.xstric9x - Wrexham

31.RichieB - NW Cumbria

32.cowie - West Cumbria

33.88291 - Chester

34.andyh83 - Bolton

35.Goodatcrashing - Altrincham (only during holidays)

36.andylb - Preston

37.Squee - Chester

38.manphibian - Blackpool

39.reddog6 2 st annes

40.Sickboy123 - Bolton

41.Philw99 - Macclesfield (Gtr Manchester)

42.dragon - Bury

43.Chee350 - Southport

44.blahblah - Wrexham

45.yellowspeedster - Colne

46.Mr mav - Wirral

47.bobmac - Lancaster

48.dave/cath - Manchester

49.Hubris - NW Cumbria

50.JohnPaul - Liverpool

51.TomS - Manchester

52.Swifty - Manchester

53.Bodeboo - Wirral

54.JAMIE MOY - Dundee, Tayside

55.LiamR - Lancaster

56.the.man - preston

57.Sharpen - Manchester

58.Patwudz - North west Cumbria

59.ray350gt4 - St Helens

60.Badger - Crewe

61.kew777 - Southport

62.MikejUK - Bolton

63.jhutch - Stockport

64.Moo8774 _ Crewe.

65.Gravy- Preston.

66.Mike - H Runcorn.

67.N9JAH - Stockport

68.Diab2005 - Chester

69.ian9r - Sandbach

70.Ridz - Wilmslow

71.Louisa911 - Kirkby Lonsdale

72.Flyboy - Stafford

73.Devilz101 - Stalybridge (Gtr Manchester)

74.Phil370z - W Cumbria

75.Hash - Bradford

76.Woods1 - Leyland

77.MrRoper - Leylan

78.Dayy - Warrington

79.csscallum - Lancaster

80.duke17_22 Holmes Chapel

81.Easty - Lowton (Warrington Area)

82.Chris "Doghead" Dorgan - Crosby Liverpool

83.maddog1982 - Sandbach (Cheshire East)

84.misterchris-Stockport

85.DJB55 - Grappenhall / Warrington

86.Andygore - Warrington

87.westy1304 - NW Cumbria

88.Spatt - Bury

89.Briggsybriggs1- clitheroe (blackburn area)

90.Patwudz - North West Cumbria

91.lbeddowscbr - warrington

92.Wayne370Z - Astley FINALLY, AT LAST, AFTER 6 MONTHS OF WAITING, HAVE MOVED TO LINCOLNSHIRE ......

93.SHEZZA - Newcastle under Lyme

94.Stanski - North Manchester

95. paulp4als- Cheshire

96.370Z-Warrington

97.Floydbax - Knutsford

98.Wilster - bolton

99.Varley16 - Stoke

100.Black bear - Bentham

101.VRichie - Manchester

102.cearnshaw85-Preston

103.G-girl -Lytham

104. CoximusMaximus - Lancashire

105. Ponsonby - Natwich

106. scooterboy - Rochdale

107. 98duffa - Warrington

108. GenralTB - Wigan

109. marmitethecat -Wigan

110. K155CHF -Clitheroe

111. A2Zed - Holmes Chapel

112. Jonnymonno - Stoke

113. Smc1992 (Scott) - Bradford

114. Slates - Colne

115 carquake - Chorley

116 TT350 - Gtr Manchester/Rossendale

117 Fire_eyes - Knutsford

118 350z_reside -- Cumbria

119 1101 (Nick) - Wigan

120 Simon A - Preston

121 Veilside Z - Gloucester

122 teejay - stoke

123 peggers350 - altrincham/manchester

124 hibbz (danny) - Rivington

125 flat4matt - Leyland

126 Carty - Helsby

127 Rob - clitheroe lancashire

128 Fen - Preston

Hi guys, just thought i'd drop by and introduce myself. Im Rob and i bought my 05 350Z Roadster about 3 months ago, not the first RWD Jap car, had a few 300zx's and 200 sx's as well as others.

really pleased with the car, its in great condition for its age, and it handles alright for a wobbly one.

just one issue which i need to pin down and if somebody can point me towards the right area for clarification, that would be ace.

im 80% sure its the valve seals but need to get some feed back on some things. if anybody could help, i should be eternally grateful.... well maybe not eternally, but grateful none the less.