#ZedShed Saul’s Aero Princess - 2.8TU & 6-Speed package

[Lee]

Trying something different with the prop shaft this time. Last time with Dino’s 6-Speed I used propshaft services in Hayes, but it cost me £300 to be reduced by 100mm. I noticed they didn’t re balance it, maybe due to how short it was. So this time I’ve gone to a competent welder. He’s used two Vee blocks to keep the prop square.

Dinos prop, cut at the end

Then this time I’ve asked to cut it in the middle.

the final test would be to spin it in lathe to make sure it’s true. Weights are in the same place so let’s see. £30 vs £300 got to be worth a try

 

[Duncodin]

Trying something different with the prop shaft this time. Last time with Dino’s 6-Speed I used propshaft services in Hayes, but it cost me £300 to be reduced by 100mm. I noticed they didn’t re balance it, maybe due to how short it was. So this time I’ve gone to a competent welder. He’s used two Vee blocks to keep the prop square.

Dinos prop, cut at the end
View attachment 353479View attachment 353477

Then this time I’ve asked to cut it in the middle.
View attachment 353481
View attachment 353489
the final test would be to spin it in lathe to make sure it’s true. Weights are in the same place so let’s see. £30 vs £300 got to be worth a try

£30? wow. That's cheap. If somebody quoted me £30 before doing the work the old saying "If it sounds too good to be true . . ." would spring to mind. But I'm actually quite impressed by that cut - looks like it'll be a good un.

Don't let him see this - He's too cheap!!

 

[Lee]

£30? wow. That's cheap. If somebody quoted me £30 before doing the work the old saying "If it sounds too good to be true . . ." would spring to mind. But I'm actually quite impressed by that cut - looks like it'll be a good un.

Don't let him see this - He's too cheap!!

Mates rates. Total cost of all the work is more. He’s done the linkages, gearbox bracket and trialing the prop.

 

[Shelim Miah]

What a build!

 

[Delk]

I used Bailey Morris for my shafts and would recommend them if needed.
They separated the first one for the return shipping but didn't mark the shaft alignment a rebalanced it without question.
The stock sized joints didnt like the power level I am at so they built me a custom shaft with larger joints that should last my lifetime.

 

[Lee]

So today was a very testing day, think I need to stop working night shifts and then working on cars. None the less it makes for an interesting read. I’ll start with the successes of today.

Gear linkage in and fitment looks really good, linkage needs painting and all the bushes replaced before final fitment. Note the measurements for this linkage were from Dino’s build and confirmed when I checked the other day.

fitment looks good but you can see the first issue, the studs on the yellow bushes are long and hit the flex disc. Worth noting for this build we’ve gone from the small flex disc up to this larger 3.0 disc, this will become relevant shortly.

checking the gear stick position and it looks good inside the car.

not enough gears on the the knob now

so a quick trim removing the excess threads gave us a few MM clearance. Perfect now, bushes are 180* out in this photo, cap head should sit in the slot to stop any radial movement.

much better now

now this I where I made a big mistake, I consulted my notes on Dino’s 6-speed swap and made too many assumptions, the main one being that the measurements would carry over to this build, the reason they didn’t was due to Dino’s being a 2.8 already and has larger diff size over the 2.2 in Sauls. Also my datum measurements were based off a prop shaft up against a ZF gearbox and Sauls here used the Getrag so my measurements were out. Long n short of it I didn’t need to cut out 100mm from the front section of the prop it would have fit fine. So it looked like this.

Luckily I have another front section for another 6 speed swap just need to collect it. Was a facepalm moment for sure. Moving on I assembled the inlet manifold next.

fresh 3.0 throttle body, all new CCV system. New manifold gaskets. Idle valve also cleaned. This is then mated to the larger 3.0 purple injectors.

this now leave me to sort the birds nest wiring loom.

another job today was to remove all the brake assembly’s and also fit new track rods n tie rods. Leaving all this off gives Saul a chance to clean n paint everything.

Saul has a set of 8 pot callipers, that’s not a typo he really had 8 pots. These are very small pots as not to disturb the brake bias, I checked this as it made me raise an eyebrow.

many many hours of progress today. Felt good to make use of the mild weather.

 

[Althulas]

Demonstrates your integrity Lee posting up mistakes, but your skill set speaks for itself self. What make are those 8 pots? Are the carriers made for them or some oem off the shelf were a good match?

 

[Lee]

Demonstrates your integrity Lee posting up mistakes, but your skill set speaks for itself self. What make are those 8 pots? Are the carriers made for them or some oem off the shelf were a good match?

All will be revealed soon

 

[ktnez99]

This is an interesting thread and thanks for taking the time to post updates @Lee
I’ve always believed my Z naturally feels like it needs a sixth gear. Pity BMW didn’t think so, too.

 

[Lee]

Finally an update: weather has been so cold I’ve not even been down to the shed, last week the door was frozen shut.

So today started off final fitting the prop shaft and linkages.

new Meyle prop shaft bearing, really tested my patience getting the old bearing off. Turns out the rear section of the 2.2 and front section of a Z4 make a perfect fit for the 6 speed conversion.

while under here I fitted a new Fuel filter.

then all the under trays went back on. Looking impressive

next up Gaz was fitting the aircon pump. We would have put the belt on but had the wrong tensioner.

while Gaz did that I fitted new backing plates n bearings. Then fitted the Big brake kit.

this kit is something else, cleverly made actually, they’re 8 pot callipers and the pots are so small they don’t disturb the brake biasing and no need to fit a larger booster.

they do look good

and for sanity I needed to test fit a wheel. Luckily no issues.

in other news the ECU is away being updated to run a 2.8 engine amongst other mods. Hoping the mild weather holds out for more time getting her back together.

 

[AntStark]

Those brakes are a bit of kit !

 

[Synclare]

.

 

[Lee]

Them discs on the correct side Lee?

Yes mate. These discs have curved internal vents. Annoyingly the lines externally go the opposite way. Annoys my ocd too mate

 

[Synclare]

.

 

[Lee]

Another big progress day today. Finally getting onto the car now it’s not silly cold, quite important for this stage as it’s the wiring.

Not a huge amount photo wise but enough to see new items bolted on. Here the plugs are all wired in, and lambda’s ready

Other side we have the main loom.

you might of also noticed the racing radiator from Mushimoto. It’s actually a really good fit and the hoses crossed over. It’s quite a bit thicker so the fan clearance is very tight.

was also a good opportunity to fit the aircon pack and get the main loom fitted to the panel.

today highlighted a few items were missing. Nothing big, aircon belt, intake boot. Also need to chase up where the ECU is, really keen to start her up.

 

[Lee]

Been a crazy few weeks at work work. Finally got some time this weekend to make a huge step with this build. This weekend we went for a start, always with builds this complex we run into complications.

First problem was a real weak crank giving the impression the starter didn’t mate with the flywheel. So off came the gearbox to double check all our measurements and check the starter.

Starter motor bench tested fine and flywheel

Once I saw the dash was dim when cranking I knew I had an earth issue. I hooked up a temp earth and she cranked fine. On closer inspection I can see paint round the main earth point, so we can tidy this up next weekend.

off the back of this I noticed the 2.2 battery is 550CCA (cold crank amps) and now it’s a 2.8 it needs 700-800CCA. So with tidying up the earths and a new battery we should be grand.

little clip of her running, really hurt my ears.

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Onwards now!

 

[Lee]

Today we got some good time with the car running. We are now at the snagging stage. I suspect we have multiple earth issues due to paint in wrong places throttle pedal not working but works manually, will add a few new earth points to see if it solves it.

First snag we spotted was the re-built steering rack is leaking, very annoying for a supposed rebuilt item.

the main engine earth point is here so will try remove it and investigate.

for the time being we’re using the 2.2 Maf till we can source a 3.0 airbox, this will also need to happen before mapping.

we also managed to find another fan unit that fits perfectly in the Z3 housing. Saul moved that over earlier this week.

the 3.0 disa died while it was idling, started sounding like a kettle also the brakes are now connected.

so in all just some fettling and earth chasing before its wheels down n test drive. We only have a handful of parts left to fit.

 

[Jack Ratt]

Excellent thread, really enjoyed catching up. Great work chaps

 

[MarkPlant]

Looks so very clean

 

[Lee]

Huge progress. The car has come as far as it can with us, next stage is custom exhaust fabrication. I took a few snaps detailing final bits. We had a right struggle with finding someone who could load a base map onto the ECU, took 4 attempts.

Saturday we left her to get up to temp. I was concerned over the waterless coolant we’re running, normally when you have airlocks the water boils indicating an airlock well when you don’t have water in the coolant this stuff boils 120* and above, my worry was we could damage the block if we didn’t get the airlocks out. So 45* lean on the nose should sort it.

checking for leaks, as we also had to do the sump again this time we did away with the gasket and just used a sealant.

was also a good opportunity to check she shifts ok when running. Odd seeing 6 gears in a Z3.

Even though the tracking was miles off still worth doing a test drive to make sure everything’s fine.

brakes looking massive.

test drive was really good. Map is way off and the exhaust is blowing but the car drives fine and temps stable.

been a long 7 months with this in the unit.