Hi Everyone! My name is Josh, I'm 22 and live in the SE Suburbs of Melbourne, originally growing up in the Dandenongs. I work full time as a Registered Nurse in a big hospital in SE Melbourne. I am a passionate cyclist and grew up working in bike shops as a bike mechanic (which is where I started playing with tools). I have always been a little interested in nice cars, but it was my zed that truly started this passion and it is with the zed that I started to modify cars. My first car was a 2001 Peugeot 206 which was a bit rubbish, it was bought cheap and began to fall apart and eventually was going to cost more in repairs then the total cost of the car to keep it running! So I sold it off and kept 'euro' by going and upgraded to a really nice 2004 Peugeot 206 GTI 180 - a really 'hot hatch' that I enjoyed way too much! Sadly an accident in the hills during heavy ran saw this girl written off - due to a dodgy insurance company I actually didn't get a cent for this car - them blaming my apparent 'unroadworthy' tires - copping that one on the chin I had a small budget for a new car, enter the zed. I purchased my Zed in 2012 after looking at RWD & AWD cars but simply not being able to afford anything from the popular S & R chassis' the zed seemed like a nice cheap sporty car that could be had for not a lot of cash! I paid $5,500 for my Zed, a 1990 2+0 Slicktop NA Manual from a young guy out in Geelong - coming complete with a spare set of hideous 20" wheels (Which I later sold for $500) and a horrid set of cannons! Bringing the car home I was very excited but blissfully unaware of the typical zed problems that many of us owners faced - the first major thing to conquer was of course the Victorian RWC! From what I can remember, the main things I needed were engine mounts, a few indicator lenses & new steering rack boots - A friend of mine who is a mechanic helped me out, we replaced all the parts and I opted to go for a full reconditioned steering rack as opposed to a bandaid fix. With the zed now registered it was time to start the modifications! Unfortunately I don't have photos of the early days of owning my zed, but I will list what modifications I have done at the bottom of this post, as this build thread is going to be covering from this day forth. After a year of owning my zed I decided it was time to undertake my most major automotive mechanical work and replace the timing belt & other major service parts as a bit of preventative maintenance. Eager as ever, I ordered a timing belt kit from COZ and got to work, taking a fortnight or so to get it done. This is when disaster struck! I missed an important step when replacing the timing belt and did not set the tensioner correctly - I went ahead and cranked the motor over thinking I was all finished - BANG! :bash: timing belt slipped off, my valves had a party and decided to invite the pistons - the motor was done. I went ahead and pulled the heads off from advice from other forum members, with the intention of sending them off for reconditioning. - this is when I found that two of the pistons were quiet pitted from the valves snapping and I decided it was going to be better to replace the motor completely It took a few months to source a new motor, I was thankful that my mums car isn't driven much so I had something to get around, but after a while I found another NA motor for sale on the forums in Melbourne for $400 and went over to the northern suburbs to get it with my mate. The engine looked like it was in okay condition, seemingly untouched since it left the factory - I got it home and over the next few weeks stripped all the new service parts fitted to my now broken motor over to my new motor, making doubly sure to set the tensioner correctly - I think I hand turned that motor 100000 times and checked the gap on the tensioner just to be sure. I sure had learnt my lesson. Whilst the engine was out all the usual deletes were done. I decided that I would be an idiot not to replace the clutch at this point, so I got a upgraded NA clutch from Z1 shipped over and fitted that up (FYI the 'Z1' branded NA performance clutch pressure plate is actually made by Exedy). At this point I also replaced spark plugs, fluids, fuel lines, fuel filter, centre tail shaft bearing and the radiator (my stock one was cracking from previously overtightened hose clamps). Eventually I got around to fitting this new motor, it fired up first crank and sounded great - then the car went into storage whilst I went over to Denmark for a 6month exchange program. When I got back, the car had a flat battery, a simple charge (Optima Yellow Deep Cycle Battery's are awesome!) and the zed was back on the road running great! After a bit more driving and a few other bits and bobs the zed had to have another unplanned break off the road after cracking the inside barrel on my Beautiful Kakimoto Super N-GT wheels - I opted to fix it properly having a new barrel machined by Craig at 'Whitehorse Industries' in Lilydale, Victoria - These guys apparently bought the old tooling from Simmons wheels and they can machine up barrels for just about any 3-Piece Wheels. After what was meant to be 3-4 weeks turned into 10 weeks I finally had my wheel back and the zed was back on the road. Fast forward to a few weeks ago and the zed was getting prepared for its track debut at what was forecast to be a wet weekend at Winton Raceway. The following was done in prep - New Fluids all around New Thermostat New Radiator Silicon Hoses (thanks RGS Performance) New Energy Suspension Rear Control Arm Bushings Solid Z1 Subframe Bushings Solid Differential Bushings New O2 Sensors It was a great day on the track and although I was slow I learnt a lot about the handling of the zed and am looking forward to my next session out there - Also the O2 sensors not only tripled my fuel economy, they also fixed my high idle, with the zed now purring away at 600rpm! Of course, after the track day, learning that the zed out handled a lot of cars up there, I needed to do something about the speed. With a now full licence, it was time to start finding a TT motor to swap in. I looked around, and there wasn't anything in my price range available in Victoria, being inpatient, and not wanting to travel interstate, I decided to back burner the idea and wait until something suitable comes up for sale. Eventually I found something promising, an old forum member in country Victoria asking $350 for a near complete motor that was sitting in his shed. I asked for pictures. Hopefully I can find the pictures, but what he sent me were photos of a rust covered hunk of sh*t - I told him I wasn't interested but after a while he said $100 and I could have it, I agreed and went to pick it up, with the intention of parting it out. When we got there the engine hoist was broken, so the three of us had to LIFT the engine into the ute! [TIS] We got it home, my mate was quiet amused that I would even consider putting it into my zed, but I saw some potential. The next few days I stripped the motor down & was greeted with pools of water in the cylinders and rust pretty much everywhere! The positive was the turbos were in good condition, with minimal shaft play - there was hope yet. The plan is to have the machining shops opinion on honing the cylinders - there is no 'pitting' from the rust in each cylinder, its almost like the rust has actually grown away from the base metal, so a light hone *could* save this block. Here is what greeted me when I pulled the heads off... Heads appear in good condition, going to have the opinion of a local head refurbishing shop and have been quoted $560 +valve seats for both heads to be refurbished. Turbos are in good condition, apart from some sludgy coolant I'm hoping I can flush the gunk out of the CHRA's and they'll be right. Here are the banjo nuts for the turbo coolant lines - gunky! The oil looked ok, no sign of coolant & the intact head gaskets make me thing the engine hasn't been overheated. Block after a bit of a clean. Sump off, everything looking good down here... Someone vomited in the sump I think? All the pistons out, two of them were hard to remove due to the rust. Rust on the piston from one of the stuck cylinders. A few stubborn flywheel bolts are stopping me from pulling the crank out and getting the block checked out. Over the next few months I plan to rebuild this engine and get it in, will update as often as I can. Here is what has been done to the zed so far... Kakimoto Super N-GT 18 x 9.5 +17 with Archillies ATR Sport II 265/45/18 ARP Wheel Studs & Project Mu Lug Nuts Exhaust Generic Ebay thing that was cheap & much better then the cannons! TT Calipers (rebuilt) + Project Mu Pads, Vented & Slotted Rotors. New Clutch Master & Slave with braided 1-piece line. AMS Coilovers Powertrix Front Tension Rods Energy Suspension Rear Control Arm Bushings Solid Subframe Bushings Solid Differential Bushings Adjustable Rear Camber Arms Adjustable Rear Traction Arms Solid Steering Bush Short Shifter with brass bushing GK Tech Steering Wheel Viper Alarm with Remote Start Boot Mounted Battery with Optima Red Top (Under a false floor) This is where I will finish my first post, props if you've read all the way to here, I promise that I will keep my next postings shorter with more photos! Thanks! Josh
Few more pics before I retire for the night. For those of you wondering where the name is from, this little guy is hand made buy a Melbourne ski bum that I knew through a uni ski trip - its now my little lucky charm that keeps me company in the zed. And here are some photos of a the track debut at Winton earlier this month.
I'm 99% certain you're the guy everyone thinks is me. Past month or so I keep getting texts from people saying "hey saw you here... But you didn't wave back" and such. Our cars are pretty similar and I'm in the same area. So have you had a bunch of people driving past and waving?? Thinking who the #### are they??
