Tricky-Ricky

When you say worn down, what exactly do you mean? does the electrode look like the edges are rounded? also what type of plugs are you using? it could be down to an injector not supplying the correct amount of fuel at high load,so slight overheating or det, or even bad valve or ring seal, The plug colour is not a very good indicator unless you cut the engine at the RPM/load your trying to read, once its been at idle the reading colour will be contaminated and incorrect.

Terrible news.....again! i am wondering just how long its going to be before big city police all carry guns 24/7, and there will be a call to shoot suspected terrorists on sight, serious detective work,vigilance and no quarter is the only thing that going to work on these scum!

It will be the fan motors, if you confident you can refurbish the motors, but most just replace them with the mishmoto fans.

Decent new or uprated engine mounts do exactly the same, but without the vibration transmission.....i have fitted several different types to several different engines, and taken them off again...IMO if you need to fit torque dampers to feel what your engine is doing you need a course in mechanical sympathy.

Most so called torque dampers are just a metal shaft sandwiched between pieces of very hard rubber and washers, and actually don't do anything except transmit engine vibration to the bodywork, i would avoid unless you can actually find a real gas or hydraulic damper, VAG/BMW used to fit them to the 2 and 3 series. If you can fabricate mounts for a mountain bike damper, it will work much better than the ones you can buy...snake oil!

Cant say i have seen anything about the VQ crank being specially coated, it could be Nitrided but most forms wont preclude grinding, yes a decent engineering company that is used to crank grinding will grind the journal to the tolerances for the manufactured oversize bearing, which means it will fit and have the correct crush tolerance when fitted without ever having to use plastiguage or similar.

Look for a machine shop/engineer that does a lot of engine work, they will have all the data on what the crank should be ground to in order to accept the correct manufactured bearing shells,which are all made to a std size, that way you shouldn't need to check the clearance.

All the performers of my youth seem to be popping off lately,http://edition.cnn.com/2017/05/27/en...lman-obituary/

Thermostatic take off plates are made to allow a certain amount of oil bypass to prevent thermal shock when the preset temp is reached and the valve opens up completely, its not about viscosity, however that one looks like its open quite a way, so is likely to keep the oil a little too cool in winter, what is your normal oil temp?

Hope it helps, i was prompted into this because of the 2JZs habit of spitting out the front main oil seal, along with most of the content of the sump, with often disastrous results. It happened to me, but i caught it in time, there was so much rubbish on the net and in dedicated forums i thought i would get to the bottom of the problem, and although the Americans don't agree, it all down to the oil pump and its wear and a small drain hole, the yanks all say it down to boost pressure and blow by but i don't think they realise that piston ring seal actually increases with boost pressure, but anyway long subject. Have you got to the bottom of the mapping problem, unfortunately i am not at all familiar with the ECU your using, and as they all seem to have there own foibles i doubt i would be aby help.

A lot of modern engines do not produce any crankcase pressure anyway, its more emissions based these days, sure there is a air movement (pulse) within the engine due to the reciprocating mass. I have actually tested a 2JZ motor with the PCV system sealed of and accurate pressure/vacuum gauge attached, and the result was no decernable reading in either direction.

RIP sir.

Surly you can change the load points for the MAP in the ECU maps?

Did some measuring last night the arm on the servo is too short got to make a new one again.. Did wonder about the angle and resulting ratio on that set up, but I'm sure you have it under control, i'm sure all your work will pay off soon, cant wait to hear it running.

If the garage are trying to bleed the system using the built in bleed screws,and cant get any coolant out then it sound more like the system is air locked, there are several threads on this problem, so if you do a search, you can either DIY or tell the garage, who should know how hard some cooling systems are to bleed, Do this before proceeding any further ae you need to get to the bottom of the problem before throwing silly money at it by just wading in and replacing the water pump, which may be unnecessary, I would take it to somewhere that knows more about Zs.

If the thermostat has been replaced or removed, you can check with either, and its still overheating, then its more than likely the fan/s if only one is coming on with the air-con switched on and the engine up to running temp, the its definitely the fan, its a well known fault, the fan motor brushes get stuck/worn and can be DIY fixed if you know what your doing. I would first eliminate these before letting the garage charge you big money for replacing what probably a perfectly good water pump, you can also test this by letting the car warm up and seeing if the bottom rad hose is hot or cool, if cool it likely to be the water pump, although unlikely IMO.

Had a Tien system on my Supra, don't think i ever adjusted it once i had it the way i liked.

I think its mainly down to what underwriters the insurance company deals with, and what mark ups they apply on top, i was with Flux for my Civic and then they tried to apply a silly increase so when elsewhere and got the wife added as a learner as well for less then Flux wanted, But come the time to insure my bike and Flux where by far the cheapest!

Its just a case of unbolting and disconnecting the throttle body, however sometimes it may be necessary to do a throttle relearn procedure, but if you disconnect the battery before removing it, you should be OK, no need to clean the PCV,.

It may be worth removing the throttle body and cleaning, the idle is controlled through the throttle stepper motor, and as the VQ generates a lot of oil mist due to its low load/idle PCV system, it tends to gum up the back of the TB which can cause problems, not saying its that for definite but worth a try.

The main thing that makes me angry about people on the internet is the ones try and treat you like a fool to bolster their own ego, i guess its my pet hate about people in general, along with bigots, idiots.................................

Awesome! certainly does a realistic crush, but not surprising given its weight.

I have used meths on a very soft artists brush to clean MAF for years, just be careful and gentle.

Dan's right, however if the pressure drop only occurred when you changed the oil that's OK, but if its happens over the course of a day or two it can indicate bearing wear, but as Mark has given it a clean bill of health its unlikely, but something to bear in mind. Changing from say a 10w30 to a 10w40 should not make a big difference in oil pressure maybe 5-10 psi at 4,000rpm, idle oil pressure is not an ideal indicator, 3-4,000rpm is where Nissan's pressure guide is taken, so it always better to check at the same rpm.

Ran Shell Helix semi synthetic in all my cars, turbo an non turbo, great oil, had it analyzed once came back with flying colours, i ran the 10w40 in my VQ, never noticed anything like that with mine, the difference between a 10w30 and 10w40 is not great, so if the op is looking for a slightly thicker oil 10w40 would be fine. Trouble is VI is not normally mentioned on oil cans, other than being lumped in with API GF CK FA etc classifications, and i have not seen anything lower than 80 mentioned, and most is 110, most modern oils are designed to be long lasting with higher mileages between changes, so the VI is very stable and doesn't normally degrade much in normal use/temps If used hard on track i would use a fully synthetic due to the higher heat tolerance, and monitor oil temps before deciding on a diferent grade.