Awesome!!!! :D

Think I might have to plan something like this one day. :)

Wow, road trip to end all road trips.

Great story and great pics.

Wish I had the guts to do it, even the planning would put me off.

Glad the car went well, just shows how good they are. Didnt look out of place anywhere.

:hooray::hooray::hooray: :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

I saw it on FB, but these extra pics are mighty :)

And I thought my road trip to Norway* was going to be adventurous.... although granted mine is currently still at risk of HG blowing lol

I didn't get to the post office - but got a box ready for the injectors, so will get them sent Monday AM hopefully...

Epic trip though - rather Jealous :D

*Won't be happeneing now as friend I was going to visit is moving back to Sweden

Not jelous at all - you need to name the countries or you didn't go there!

What sort of accomodation were you using?
Did you book it beforehand?

Your stats make our euro road trips in the F look pathetic, but we can only get 2 weeks off work at one time so it becomes a bit restrictive and this year was the first time we've gone for 2 weeks.

I think the closest we've come stat wise was
7 days
3500 miles
8 countries
13 border crossings
1 largest bridge in europe
1 longest tunnel in the Alps
3 laps of F1 circuit (Monaco 2 weeks after so all the barriers were still up).

This year we had more time so drove to Naples and stayed there for a week.

My advice to anyone who fancies a euro road trip - do it.

Do it! As the MG slogan goes, "life's too short not too".

Glad we did it but could do with a holiday to recover from it.


Cheers Peter :).

Yeh, the car did well considering its age and mileage. A chaffed pipe and a master cylinder could go on any make or model of this age.



When you go to Norway, whatever you do, make sure you do "Path of the trolls" it was probably my fave part of the whole trip. Absolutely stunning. Geiranger is a must.

No rush with the injectors, the ZS needs to come off the road for a bit, I'm not quite happy with it at the minute to such an extent I'm looking at another "sensible" car whereby the 2 ZS's will be toys.

It needs bushes, brakes, a ball joint, indicators fixing, coilovers re-furbing and a bit of paint which the Swiss jet wash removed for me!
A gasket between the wastegate and manifold has just gone while I was setting up my new boost controller too.
All I'm saying is I wont be in a position to put your injectors in straight away I'm afraid. All these problems have become apparent literally in the last couple of days :(

Your stats sound pretty much the same as ours if you double them- we were away for double the time though. Your trip sounds really good too.
I just re-read your post. 3500 miles in SEVEN days! Makes us look like we were messing about.

OK, since you asked!

1. England
2. France
3. Belgium
4. Netherlands
5. Germany
6. Denmark
7. Sweden
8. Norway
9. Finland (and Lapland)
10. Estonia
11. Latvia
12. Lithuania
13. Poland
14. Slovakia
15. Austria
16. Switzerland
17. Italy
Then back up through France.

We just took camping gear for when it was nice weather, if it rained we went on booking.com and found the cheapest place we could in a given area.

Nothing was pre booked other than the ferry crossings.

As we do the euro trips in the MGF* we don't have room for camping gear, and Mrs TC hates camping so it's hotels all the way for us.

We have done the UK without prebooking but we're not brave enough to do this in Europe.

*except going to see the mother in law and of course we stay in her appartment.

Just shown Mrs TC this and she's asking what the weather was like on the northen part of the trip, i.e. Norway/Sweden/Finland (although she wants to see the northan lights which of course are not visible at this time of the year).

Yeh, we really want to go back for the Northern lights... the price to pay for the 24 hour sunlight.
The weather in the Scandinavian countries was ok. Obviously it depends how far up you go as to how cold it will be but we just crossed into the arctic circle and went to the Santa Claus village. That is where the pic of the arctic circle sign was taken and you can see what Nadia was wearing. Probably about 13-15 degrees at a guess.
When we did the highest point of the "Path of the trolls" it was a bit cooler up there as you can see from the depth of the snow.

If you want to do the northern lights, the main "town" next to Santa Claus village is supposed to be a good place. There is a big glass viewing tunnel or a big hill (which is supposedly mosquito infested). The town is called Rovaniemi.

If you pre-book there are plenty of deals to be had with little wooden cabins which are basic but really well kept and clean. Suppose it's just a step up from camping.

I've been swamped with work all day so not been able to get out yet either - I've got the injectors boxed, but will keep hold of them until you are in a position to test it. It might be that I am ready to try again sooner than you, so saves us a bit of postage.

ping me on FB or here once you are in a position to swap em in I reckon will be the best bet.

I think mine needs a new IC hose - it is looking like boost leak is not a long time away from happening - and where it is, will be a bumper off job I reckon!

The 'joys' of project cars :laugh:

To be honest, I think that is a good idea. Don't want you to send them under false hope of what I'll have chance to do with them in the near future.

All sorts of ideas at the moment about which way I'm going to take the car now I'll have the luxury of it being a second car. Some of which are pretty naughty but we'll see.

Hope you get the boost leak sorted :)

It's been 4 years since I updated this thread!
Upon our return from the road trip in 2015 I thought there were a few "niggles" to sort with the car. A proper strip down revealed a bit more work than that was needed! So much so in fact that the sensible thing to do would have been to scrap it. Being a sentimental old fool, that was never going to happen.
So, after lots and lots of work (which I will try to document with pictures at some point), 4 years later she was back in action.
I've done less than 100 miles in her since the full rebuild but just had to get her on the dyno.

On well used SDI injectors and a "max fuel" map she pulled a healthy 203HP / 373Nm.

Can update the spec list if needed.

:bow:

Sounds like me and my MGF - we returned from Rome in June 2016 needing to replace a holed wishbone, 3 years later, a scraped TF and more money than the car is really worth and she is now back on the road supported on TF running gear.

I'm sure there must be more to the rebuild than just maxing out the mapping side, I'm not aware of many people who'd been able to get more than 180bhp out of SDI's...

So you've either found a hidden thing no-one else has, or you've done something sneaky :D

still 200bhp and 275lbsft must be a nice drive!

The map is still the same as when I was running SDIs with the 2056s turbo which would have given 180 bhp at the very best.
Its now got a really healthy low mileage engine and fuel pump and the turbo has been hybridised into a 2060.
I think the SDIs have more potential than people give them credit for as long as the gas can get out!
With the standard 2056s turbo at 30 psi, EMP was about 45 psi I seem to remember (it was a good while ago now!). With the latest turbo at 30 psi, EMP spikes at 28 psi. 38mm external waste gate is helping massively with this as well as a decent 60mm billet compressor wheel.
I'll have to find a way of getting the graph up, it's a really nice curve.
Did you ever get yours back on the road? You were going vnt I seem to remember, did anything ever come of the controllers in the end?

At least you got an upgrade out of it! I just bury my head in the sand when it comes to money spent vs what these cars are worth. Logic doesn't come into the equation anymore haha.

Interesting - a lot of people have stuck bigger turbo's on, but really struggled to break 180-190 with SDI's regardless of the turbo used.
Guess the existing manifold is a big issue.... I did think about looping in a "blow off" pipe to divert some exhaust gas while I was running the tiny hybrid, but felt the control of it to not loose too much boost was going to be an issue....
Going "big" on the exhaust side with an external waste gate solves that one tho :D

Bit of a long story with mine, but it's off the road currently, all the parts are plumbed in; controller included, though my car required a complete re-evaluation of the approach due to a very dirty signal for some of the critical sensors...(without those working properly, no decent vane control) plus a few physical issues with the exhaust manifold and turbo...

But we're getting much closer so shouldn't be too much longer now.

Yeh, I had the same issue with my VNT, only managed 170ish I think with SDIs, never had it on the dyno with SDIs and the 2056s but it didn't feel any quicker with the SDIs in but at least it didn't keep sooting up a vnt mech!
With 200tdis and the vnt (1852) with loads of smoke it did 198bhp but that was with high EMPs and Kris did something to the rollers to encourage the boost to build (added more resistance somehow). With the rolling road in its normal setting it only managed 180 because the boost wouldn't build in the same way as it did on the road... The joys of vnt control as it sounds like you are discovering. I'm sure you'll get there though, would be interesting to do a rolling road session together and compare notes once it's in that position.
Next step for me is more fuel, going back to experiment with 300tdis which are on the shelf, just need to get them set up with higher opening points. Not sure how well they will work but still not found anywhere that can hone the standard/SDI nozzles which would be my preferred choice.

As a side note, how are we uploading photos these days?

Yeah - it was a case of "do we continue to persevere with these issues, or just take that step back and generate our own signal" ... we've done the latter, and things are looking up.

I'll hopefully have some figures of it on SDI's and then the custom injectors - as you say clean burn is more critical with VNT, so hopefully we get some good figures that don't require de-coking every 200 miles :D
the comparison of the curves will be interesting, I've always been worried that bigger units is pushing boost/torque too high up the range for every-day driving.

I use google photos; you can share the direct link in img tags if you open the "long link" by viewing the image itself.
Others I think use one of the apps that enables photos to be attached using that, but I can't comment on it.

Thanks for the tip regarding the photos, had a play and think I've managed to link one picture... the most important one!
You're right regarding bigger units pushing the curve to the right but I suppose when the power does come on its more linear than a smaller unit which can give almost a bell shaped curve as it runs out of puff higher up. Swings and roundabouts I guess.
Cant wait to try some different injectors. Got some new nozzles in the garage to try, just need to get them set up with raised opening pressures. If you still want yours testing (you mentioned it a few years ago) Id be happy to, although I guess you're not far off testing them yourself from the sounds of things!
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Q6...g=w493-h657-no

You're still over stock peak torque at 2400 rpm - but given that you've only got a 1200 rpm band of peak torque/power by the look of it, it makes that sweet spot smallish.

That said, if you're not giving it full beans you're not going to notice that in real world with the extra torque that you do have on tap. so looks good :)

We're looking at peak torque around the 2k mark - inline with the crappy stage 2's; with the aim to hold it flat until 4k (might not be possible but that's the aim), maybe 4200.. but unfortunately our head design just doesn't make sense to tune it up to the 5500 limit as you can see it just runs out of puff.

RE the offer of testing, I think at this point we're close ourselves so I'll pass; I'm happy that they flow enough fuel as I fitted them previously, the issue will be what the combustion is like...

There are more nozzles that can be tried in the catalogue than there were a couple of years back, so if they don't work, I may well fire these ones your way (not having the soot aspect to content with) if we end up doing some trial and error. If you're interested in experimenting that is.

Always up for a bit of trial and error so just keep me posted. Last week I dropped off some spare injectors and new bigger nozzles to a local specialist to rebuild/ balance and most importantly play with the opening pressures. We'll then see what happens.
Regarding the graph I can see what you mean from how it looks but actually (and I agree it's a very personal/subjective thing this), having come from naturally aspirated petrol engines which all like to be thrashed to make progress (cammed v6 race car, v8 ZTT and recently added vx220), I actually like the linear power curve. There is something satisfying about building the revs and the more you work it the more power you get. My hardcut is set to kick in between 4800 and 4900 but you can see from the graph there is still over 190bhp at the limiter. Also, the fact that power and torque gradually build puts less stress on the drive train.
That said, a huge lump of low down torque does make the car feel "muscular" and with a vnt, assuming it can be properly controlled, I guess you can hopefully make it cling on to the top end too and have best of both worlds.
My 330d always felt like that, a low down hit but still pulled and pulled up to the top.
Hopefully you'll make it to POL or similar at some point as I'd love to see how they drive differently.

Tbh - I think the aim is to be looking at about the same sort of torque peak as you've got, just starting a bit earlier in the range.
Like you, I've got a bit of awareness of mechanical sympathy; but we'll se what the pressures are all looking like as well as smoke/soot levels etc.

venturing into the unknown, but the test bed runs all suggest it'll spool like a 15 and is an 17/18 hybrid so should also give me more up top.

It is not going to pull as hard as the mustang regardless what I do, less torque & fewer revs; but I think it will corner better and be more "real world usable" with the power/torque it will have.

As you say it is all subjective & once it's on the road more than happy to meet up, hoping to make more events when it's allowed on the road again!
Worst case mini meet half way one time!

:trampoline: 200+ bhp L series?

Wouldn't mind seeing the complete spec list for those mods that got you those gains? + price of parts.

:trampoline:

still loving my derv

158 and 238 but goes like a train.

great cars.

ZS Feels more planted than my 160 TF AND I HAVE NEVER HAD A TWITCHY moment going fast round a bend. Not like the TF where I have to keep my foot down to keep it balanced.

I agree.. They do handle exceptionally well for a 15 year old car! :bow:

Although their 'refinement' especially at lower speeds does leave a little to be desired. :horse:

I'd say I love my mk1 ZT190 a lot more overall but when pressing on and taking twistys , the ZS TD feels far more fun and rewarding than the big ZT190 .

As a track car, I bet the ZS is a real hoot to race on track!.. Just wish it felt more like the ZT in all the other areas . :)

:):):)