| I recently just got my car back from Z1 in temple and at the time I was absolutly amazed at the car they built for me. It was the quickest car I've ever been in in my life (18 1/2 years). Dyno charts showed 516, and after spinning going 60mph on the highway, I had no doubts at all. Well, after running it for a few weeks, a problem occured, that still hasn't been resolved. It's smoking like madness. I figured it was a headgasket. I don't know how I could have blown it, but anyways. So I call Z1 and talk with John and he says bring it out their next saturday for them to check it out. We ended up taking it out Sunday of the next week and dropped it off. Russell seemed really surprised to see us. He had no idea we were coming. They aren't open on Sundays, but Russell listen to the car and gave us a guess that it may be a turbo or something minor. He assured us pretty well that their shouldn't be anything wrong with the motor of my car. So we left and were expecting to come pick it up the next weekend on the way back from nopi. So i call on Thursday and asked if it was going to be ready, and John said that they were not going to be able to get it done, because the hurricane had knock their power out or something and it would be the next weekend before they could check it out. So the next week they told me that the pcv valves were clogged and they were going to remove them and install a catch can and it would be ready by the weekend. When we arrived on saturday, we expected everything to be ready to go. Well it wasn't(guess we should have called before we arrived). John brought my car up to the garage and began removing the intake hoses and did something. Said whe was rerouting the pcv valves hoses I believe. Then he got a catch can and said that he was going to give it to me, all I had to do was install it. That didn't go over too well with me. I didn't say anything, I believe John went and talked to Russell or maybe he just thought about it or maybe he was just messing with me when he said that, but he came back and said they were going to go ahead and do the catch can. We left for lunch and came back and they bout had it installed. After they were finally finished, he started the car and it smoked worse than it ever had smoked before. I mean tons of white smoke was coming out everywhere. Couldn't hardly see. So he took the catch can off and just left the tubes that are suppose to connect to the catch can inside. He said "no catch can". So he started it again and it didn't smoke much at all. He took it for a test drive it. Well it smoked a little bit, but it was a lot better than it was before. I was pleased somewhat with everything now. So I asked them what the problem was and they said my pcv valves were clogged. They also said that my car would smoke a little until it burns off the oil that collected in my intake when they were clogged. They asked me if I went around any sharp curves or anything that could have sloshed the oil in the pcv valves. I haven't, but then I thought about something my dad did. He took it for a drive and he said he did a few donuts in the road on accident. I told them that and John figured that was it and he got onto my dad a little bit and gave him a little bit of a hard time. They did everything for no charge. Well we came back home and now I've realized that my power, even with race gas does not feel like 516 hp. It doesn't throw you in the seat no where near as good as it used to. I've also put drag radials on the car to help with the grip, but the way it's running, it doesn't need the drags for grip. Don't get me wrong, the car is still fast, but it's no where near what it was. Tonight I called a friend up. He's got mad fast supra and he's got a pretty good knowledge about cars and his dad owns a local shop. So i met up with him tonight at his house and as soon as i hit the gas and the smoke came out, his dad's first words were "Head Gasket". He said it smells like coolant. It's either that or and he said something to do with the transmission. He asked me if i put any coolant in or any trans fluid in lately. I haven't touched anything. So a head gasket. That's what I and a few other people thought from the beginning. Sure the pcv valves were indeed clogged, but that wasn't the main problem. I'm going to call them tomorrow. I'm not downing Z1 in anyway. I like the people and I absolutly loved my car when I first got it. They have the knowledge, just I think they're getting covered up and don't have much time to do everything the way they are suppose to.
Maybe the boost was just up a little high on my car for the pump gas setting on my boost controller, because they only tuned it on race gas. John just guess where pump gas was and left it at that. Maybe it was still too high and it caused it to blow, i don't know. I would still do business with them again, but i just think they need to spend more time with my car and figure out whats wrong with it. Hell, gave them 18 grand. I've done made 3 trips out their and I'm 5-6 hours away. My friend suggested I bring a shotgun with me this time. Anyways, just my experience with them.
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05:32:05 09/29/04
