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Hi all, thought I'd share with you guys.

You may have seen my threads over on .org where there is a big diesel community but figured although its not a v6 or yellow some of you may still appreciate it.

So, Ive had my current ZS for three years now and over that time its evolved into something pretty unique I think.
Ill just talk about the latest episode of modifaction here...

I took it off the road in Feb this year and got an awesome little clio 172 to drive round in while the ZS was under way. The Clio was sold at the end of summer and the ZS is now back on the road and better than ever. I do miss the Clio and would suggest that if you havnt tried one to do so at some point.

Anyway, back to the MG...

All this was brought about because back in February when I took it off the road the standard clutch couldn't cope with the torque from the VNT (didnt help that the release arm had seized), one of the exhaust valve seals began to leak so it was burning oil and I had an LSD gearbox to fit along with a CG stage three clutch from dark ice designs.

It was originally the plan just to do the work described above but being a perfectionist I went a whole lot further as the following pictures show...

Old vs new
http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/k...ps9ec10389.jpg
http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/k...psd179951d.jpg

Those pretty brakes needed some pretty wheels to sit behind, behold the pro race 1.2s
http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/k...psd964c7aa.jpg
http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/k...ps33cb8510.jpg
http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/k...ps32088461.jpg

New Kumho tyres 40,205,17. They are the Ecsta sports, best tyres Ive ever had. Grip like nothing else!

http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/k...ps188bae69.jpg
http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/k...psacf9880c.jpg

Back to those horrible bits of bodywork at the beginning, I finally found some skirts in the right shad of silver but the bumpers and front splitter are like hens teeth in this colour, never mind finding them in mint condition. I therefore settled on a genuine splitter in blue and had that along with the bumpers painted professionally:
http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/k...psbe7ed604.jpg

Off they go in the other halfs 45 TD
http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/k...ps808a594e.jpg

New plates
http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/k...ps71453470.jpg

Powder coated mesh
http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/k...psa189a026.jpg

Old vs new again
http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/k...ps1291b7bc.jpg

Bargain mats from rimmers and chrome kick plates
http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/k...psae4b66a6.jpg

Christ mate, impressed isn't the word! that looks brilliant and your attention to detail is phenomenal! Great thread too! Was actually gutted when it finished :(
Good luck with the rollers, what sort of numbers are you hoping for? I think i want your car :)

Awesome mate .... Great work.

very nice work looks great
would love to have the intercooler like that at the same place behind the bumper

Thanks for taking the time and effort in posting up, good pics, when I bet all you wanted to do, was get that bit finished and to start the next.

Great thread, and what engineering skills.

Awesome car, think I'm doing well fiddling about with my derv, but this has left me gobsmacked.

Will be interesting to see what torque and BHP you get from the remap.

Love it.

:thankyou: :clap::clap::clap::clap:

Great thread mate and your zed looks a different car from when you started that is a credit to you looks amazing now .

That was a really good read, some great pics as well.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZS Phil (Post 322886)

Er yes - simply stunning attention to detail.

she looks well mate great job done on it the v6s are great but you just cant beat an L-series diesel

Thanks for all the kind comments :) appreciate it. Likewise though, if there is anything people dislike dont be afraid of letting me know, may well be constructive.

Quote:

Originally Posted by carmadbaker (Post 322897)

Was actually gutted when it finished :(
Good luck with the rollers, what sort of numbers are you hoping for? I think i want your car :)

Haha I can bore you all with the electronic controller for the VNT mechanism if you like...

With regard to figures Ill be pleased with anything over 160 bhp and 250 ft/lbs torque- that seems to be the max achieved with the standard turbo so anything above that is new territory.
Must admit though a 50mpg ZS 180 has a certain ring to it ;)

Im booked in with Dakta at Darkside developments first thing Monday morning so figures may be closer than anticipated. Hes crazy busy though so hope all goes to plan.
Darkside specialise inVAG stuff but Dakta (Kris) has played about the VNT stuff on L series cars himself and has a sound reputation on .org so Im fairly confident Ive got someone who has suitable experience with this type of thing.
The only other option was Reidy but given the distance its not an option, like I say, Kris seems a sound guy.

Just need to up the boost to 24psi in the mean time from the 20 Im running at the moment. Apparently 24psi is conservative for the 1852v but conservative sounds good to me as its my daily ride so needs to be reliable as well as fun

Haha, if you really want my car, come round with your turbo and Im sure a deal could be done ;) Only playing, mine isnt quite in that legue just yet and couldnt bear to watch her drive away after all the work Ive put in, sure youre the same.

Wow!! Excellent work, great pics showing the road to your zs's return.

what an excellent thread,a lot of time/money/effort has went into bringing your car back,and better,well done,think youve done very well,car looks great.

Great thread. These kind of threads help motivate others do stuff to they're cars. Good work :thumbsup:

Second read through still sdoesn't stop me from being impressed with the work :)

I think that while i know Kris and Reidy dont see eye to eye anymore, You do not have to worry about his work. If you have seen what he has done with the some of the VAG stuff his attention to detail is incredible too - You should get some nice figures out of it.... tho as we know Kris smoke levels may be the controlling factor to what they are precisely ;)

Can't wait until i get my turbo sorted once and for all - but it is still at the 'in the pipeline' phase - but getting ever closer :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by peterzs (Post 322966)

scare me off!!!!

You've already done quite a bit to yours Peter :) Unlike mine which i've hardly touched never mind driven since i've had it :laugh:

Quote:

Originally Posted by welshone (Post 322978)

You've already done quite a bit to yours Peter :) Unlike mine which i've hardly touched never mind driven since i've had it :laugh:

Trust there'll be a thread?

Awesome Sunday morning read.

Tell you what Welshone, one of the downsides, with my one at least, is that you have to wash the back end down after a spirited drive!!!!

But its worth it!!

After all the work and upgrades, ZS Phil's will be awesome.

:clap::clap::clap:

Great thread, looks great

Superb attention to detail - a really enjoyable read. I notice you had a Mk2 grille though - did you decide against fitting it?

Number crunching

Thanks again for all the comments, really does mean a lot :)

Had the car on the rollers on Monday,
Ill let the figures do the talking.
Standard: 101 PS / 177ft/lbs
Monday: 132 BHP / 230 ft/lbs
Now: 166 BHP / 300 ft lbs

That was 28psi boost but the exhaust manifold pressure was 26 psi so a ratio of less than 1:1 which is brilliant. As Im sure p_b82 will testify.

Exhaust manifold pressure on the standard turbo was 30 psi at just 19psi boost and that was before extra fuel was added.

The clutch held the torque no problems so a worth while upgrade.

Was very little smoke with the fuel pump maxed out on the SDI injectors so fuel is the limiting factor here.

Got some different injector nozzles on their way to experiment with so more to come :D

http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/k...psd249bfce.jpg

Good results, bet it goes.

:smile1::smile1::smile1:

nice results - same as my car currently runs up top - but without an exploding HG. well done to you and getting the ardino setup correctly.

you trying the 300TDi nozzles then, or darkside got something magic up his sleeve for you?

Im going to try a few things because Im really in the unknown now. On the list to try is:
Wingy injectors
200tdi nozzles on standard zs bodies
300tdi nozzles on standard zs bodies

Beyond that Im a bit stuck for ideas really. To be fair if non of the above work its not the end of the world, she pulls like a train now but doesnt smoke like one so I suppose I should be happy with what Ive achieved and stop there. As we all know, its never the way with cars...

Ive been meaning to ask by the way, what are your experiences with injectors over the years?
Ive only ever run my SDIs so far.

Yeah, it is never easy and a lot are unknown.

I would be wary about long term issues unless the spray patterns are verified to be correct - just because they are unknown really. the angle might be right but they may not squirt it into the correct location on the bowl.

I have used wingy's that I felt were not running right as they smoked and smoked and smoked. Matt could not get the torque up on them.
I sold them to byronstigly on .org and in his SDI they were slower - I got my hands on a second set and sold them to him and they worked for him.

I then swapped out to the hybrid injector - been using that ever since and have little smoke on them as it stands.

I have never used standard SDI's, so i dont know, but I was told by Matt that he did not think the hybrid flowed quite as much as SDI's... .org didn't think that should be the case.

I know for a fact they are a lot less smokey based on a number of people popping them in after using SDI's.

So did you never run with the second set which you sold to Byronstingly?

Ive won a complete set of 300tdi injectors on ebay which are on their way and Im bidding on a set of 200tdi injectors so plenty of experiments to come.

Ive no idea how to test or get the spray angles tested for similarity, you dont have any ideas do you?

No never put a set i was comfortable with in, and didn't need them on the hybrid injectors (sdi nozzle on zs body) got me up to 170 and 270 and no smoke....

well as we know that is more than the turbo can take and the rest is history.

I would think you need to get them sent off to a specialist - though you *might* be able to set up your own test bed on a bench with a spare fuel pump - but no idea on how you go about working out what the patterns are and if they would be suitable I am afraid.

Kris may be able to help give you pointers on that one though.

Time for an update,

So, since the rebuild she has been such a joy to drive and own, no other car has put a grin on my face in the same way this one does, especially since the remap.

The turbo is still working a treat with no seized vanes and the controller is still reliable and working well with the external wastegate.

Other than the routine maintenance, the only other mods have been carried out today and are possibly of interest to a few...

The picture below shows a few of my sets of injectors, in addition (not shown in the pic) are another set of standard 210 bar ZS injectors and the SDI injectors which were in the car when that picture was taken.

Top left, another set of standard ZS injectors
Top right 200tdi injectors
Bottom left, Dans clamps (before I finished them off)
Bottom middle, 300tdi injectors
Bottom right, 300tdi clamps (no use but they were sent with the injectors)
http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/k...psa776f2d6.jpg

So I first made a set of hybrids using the standard 210 bar bodies and the nozzles taken from the 300tdi injectors.
Looking at the holes on the end, I double checked the angle which the injector needed to be rotated, it correlated perfectly with the angle Dan's clams were set at:
http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/k...ps8849978b.jpg

The difference in angulation required to place the spray holes correctly
http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/k...pscea3646b.jpg

http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/k...ps1e730bb9.jpg

The finished 210 bar/ 300tdi hybrids:
http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/k...psfae0e043.jpg

And the clamps:
http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/k...ps24562a5d.jpg
http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/k...ps92f1b23e.jpg

I fitted them this morning:
First impressions were not good, lots of white smoke on start up and it was slow to start too, even once warm but it did get quicker as they day went on. Idle wasnt great either, fairly lumpy.
That is where the bad news ended though, I did a 70 mile drive with them and they were so much fun, in-gear acceleration can only be described as savage, much quicker than the SDIs.
Despite my car being quicker than ever, they need more work before Im happy with them so as soon as I got home I was straight in the garage making the second set of hybrids:

So for these, I dug out a second set of standard 210 bar ZS injectors and mated them with the nozzles from the 200 tdi injectors:

Left, 200tdi injectors
Right, second set of standard ZS injectors
http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/k...psba37252b.jpg

Unlike with the 300tdis, you can see here the angle is the same between standard ZS nozzle and 200tdi nozzle:
http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/k...pse3c690bf.jpg

So there we have it, the completed 210 bar/ 200tdi hybrids on the right:
http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/k...psf02eeafa.jpg

First impressions of these are much better. It still pulls really hard (not quite as hard as the 300tdi hybrids lower down though) but it idles like standard and should hopefully fire up like standard too, Ill report back once Ive done a proper cold start. Being dark, I cant see exactly how much smoke they make but Im willing to bet there is a fair old cloud on hard acceleration.

So far though, the 200tdi hybrids are looking pretty good and the 300tdi hybrids have potential but I think require better atomization to improve the idle and starting, maybe increasing the break pressure above 210 bar would help? They are definitely amazing fun though just not for a daily driver in winter!

Good read, good luck with it.

What does it sound like at tickover???