DiggZ Posted April 15, 2009 Share Posted April 15, 2009 Hi all, Car engine started to pull back on the throttle this morning when accelerating, like engine braking but without the gearchanges. Then the rev limiter kicked in at 2000rpm and the engine started to overheat, with eventually coolant spilling out everywhere. Just had the AA man out and looks as though there is a leak somewhere in the system as traces of oil in the coolant. This leaves a few possibilities ranging from head gasket or valve fault, possibly a cracked cylinder head! Sitting here now waiting for a tow so I can get it into a garage to run some compression checks on the cylinders to find out more. Fearing the worst I have to be honest Does anyone have knowledge of any known faults or similar issues? Cheers Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZMANALEX Posted April 15, 2009 Share Posted April 15, 2009 I can most definately help you out with this but there are so many possibilities that may be best to wait and see what the "garage" has to say about it first. Unfortunately finding a "garage" that has extensive informed knowlege of the 350Z will be your biggest challenge. This will not be a job for an ordinary run of the mill mechanic. I have all the parts available to solve your issues including any thing from a head gasket to a cyl. head but hopefully it will not come to that. Is it a U.K or JDM ? What year ? What mileage ? Keep me posted with the diagnoses and I would be happy to talk it through with your technician if required. Good luck. Alex. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stew Posted April 15, 2009 Share Posted April 15, 2009 I can most definately help you out with this but there are so many possibilities that may be best to wait and see what the "garage" has to say about it first. Unfortunately finding a "garage" that has extensive informed knowlege of the 350Z will be your biggest challenge. This will not be a job for an ordinary run of the mill mechanic. I have all the parts available to solve your issues including any thing from a head gasket to a cyl. head but hopefully it will not come to that. Is it a U.K or JDM ? What year ? What mileage ? Keep me posted with the diagnoses and I would be happy to talk it through with your technician if required. Good luck. Alex. What a man! Alex, you have a habbit of saving members a lot of money! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R35LEE Posted April 15, 2009 Share Posted April 15, 2009 Hope you get to the bottom on this soon Chris! Sorry your having problems Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DiggZ Posted April 15, 2009 Author Share Posted April 15, 2009 Thanks Alex, comments much appreciated and good to know Im not alone I think youre right and I now have it booked in for an inspection on Monday at a local garage to try and find out what the problem is. Difficulty is like you say, not too many specialists around but hopefully I can get a diagnosis first without too much poking around involved. I have it provisionally booked in a week later at a local Japanese specialist so will see what the first Monday brings and if we can diagnose the fault. Its a 2004 UK GT model with 65k on the clock. One area of note is that when I bought it there was an LPG conversion already fitted to the car. This seemed ideal as I do a fair few miles. Wondering if this may have contributed to the cause of the problem as the fuel runs at higher temperatures therefore more stress on the cylinder head, gasket and valves etc. But given it was a professional install by Greenfuel all of this should have been checked out previously. The conversion was done at around 24k and I have had the car from around 35k with no problems. Funnily enough I was going to take it in next week to get the throttle body cleaned and the exhaust system swapped! Best laid plans and all that...... Cheers Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZMANALEX Posted April 15, 2009 Share Posted April 15, 2009 Thanks Alex, comments much appreciated and good to know Im not alone I think youre right and I now have it booked in for an inspection on Monday at a local garage to try and find out what the problem is. Difficulty is like you say, not too many specialists around but hopefully I can get a diagnosis first without too much poking around involved. I have it provisionally booked in a week later at a local Japanese specialist so will see what the first Monday brings and if we can diagnose the fault. Its a 2004 UK GT model with 65k on the clock. One area of note is that when I bought it there was an LPG conversion already fitted to the car. This seemed ideal as I do a fair few miles. Wondering if this may have contributed to the cause of the problem as the fuel runs at higher temperatures therefore more stress on the cylinder head, gasket and valves etc. But given it was a professional install by Greenfuel all of this should have been checked out previously. The conversion was done at around 24k and I have had the car from around 35k with no problems. Funnily enough I was going to take it in next week to get the throttle body cleaned and the exhaust system swapped! Best laid plans and all that...... Cheers Chris Chris, head gaskets are not prone to failure on the VQ35DE or HR even at higher than normal temps. Perhaps you are correct regarding the LPG potential pitfalls. Might also be a good idea to run this past Greenfuel to establish if they have had any issues but I doubt if there are many converted 350Z around. Alex. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DiggZ Posted April 15, 2009 Author Share Posted April 15, 2009 Good thinking, been on the phone to them and they remembered the car but werent able to offer much help as no faults have been reported on any conversions fitted to this engine (so far). The system has a flashlube system which should keep the valves etc lubricated. Not many 350zs which have been converted but there are a few Murano's about which have been converted and are running OK. Fingers crossed for Monday, will see what the inspection brings.......hopefully a quick and relatively painless fix Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DiggZ Posted April 21, 2009 Author Share Posted April 21, 2009 Bit of an update...... Had the car in the garage for the past day and they cannot identify any specific fault without starting to strip down the engine etc. They have not found any pressure loss in the system so possibly not a head gasket problem. Nor are there any indications of oil in the coolant system as indicated by the AA technician. They have had it out for a test run and the car does not appear to be overheating as before, temperature gauge is rising to half way but no further, is this where the needle should be under normal driving? Thoughts seem to be that there is a small leak somewhere in the system or maybe a thermostat/solenoid problem. They have suggested I can take the car back and see how it runs and feels for the next day or so. Not sure how I feel about this as I dont want to risk damaging the engine further. I have not had it in to a specialist as yet but am not sure what my next move is to be honest. Still have my suspicions it i something to do with the lpg system as I have been running it on petrol for the past few weeks and the problems seem to have appeared when I switched back to gas. Engine warning light is still on showing a misfire although the car itself runs smoothly. Any views would be appreciated. Thanks Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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