MG ZT-T260 - Parts Availability
Discussion
Hi All,
Yep Im another person looking at buying a ZT-T 260. Hope you can answer a few queations.
Im used to Yank cars and the motor servicing dosnt scare me at all, having had the same engine in my wifes 96 Mustang GT (Its was her shopping car :-)) and many other yanks over the years
But I now need an estate, and Im not giving up an American V8 just because of that :-)
But what about the rest of the running gear parts? What spares are available and what are not?
Just got to put my mind at rest before I take the plunge
Cheers
Fin
Yep Im another person looking at buying a ZT-T 260. Hope you can answer a few queations.
Im used to Yank cars and the motor servicing dosnt scare me at all, having had the same engine in my wifes 96 Mustang GT (Its was her shopping car :-)) and many other yanks over the years
But I now need an estate, and Im not giving up an American V8 just because of that :-)
But what about the rest of the running gear parts? What spares are available and what are not?
Just got to put my mind at rest before I take the plunge
Cheers
Fin
Hi Fin,
Needless to say, most of the engine parts are standard Mustang parts, so will actually be easier to source than any of the MGR engine parts. This also extends to the majority of the aircon system, which in MGR terms is particular to the 260 (there wasn't sadly room for the excellent system the other 75/ZT models have) but shares many of its components with other Ford models.
With regards to the brakes, the rear calipers are made by AP Racing, and spares are available, although you may need to appeal to the better nature of an AP dealer to get the individual parts for you rather than whole calipers. In terms of pads, the rears are the same as the front pads on an Elise, VX220, Lancer Evo V and various others, so no problems there. The front calipers are the same as on the ZT190 (although mounted on the trailing rather than leading edge of the disc) so are as easily available as the 190 parts.
There is a heater hose which blows in as little as 10k miles. One of the members of the Two-sixties owners' club found a company able to manufacture an improved part for less than the cost of the OEM original, so that's covered. The technical director of the MGOC (and a couple of his colleagues) also have 260s, so they have a personal as well as club interest in helping to track parts down.
In terms of shocks, should you need to replace them, these are Eibach parts, so no reason why you shouldn't be able to source replacements. The rear diff is the same as that fitted to may Tivs and Holdens, so again few issues, and the gearbox is made by Tremec and again fitted to loads of vehicles in the States, albeit with an MGR specific 5th gear ratio over here.
For all the body parts and electrics that the 260 has in common with other 75/ZTs, there seem to be few or no supply problems now. MGR sold the parts division (XPart) to Caterpillar before they went under, so it remains a going concern.
Last, and not least, we now have 190+ members in the owners' club, which, considering there were only 883 cars made, is a pretty serious percentage! There is a public section on our new forum where you can ask further questions. as well as a V8 specific forum on xpowerforums.com which is worth checking too. You'll find me as Womble on both of those.
I've had by ZT-T 260 for just under 18 months, and I still can't ever imagine replacing it. I've driven faster cars, but I've not driven any which are faster, rear wheel drive, without traction control, ESP and other electronic gubbins which come anywhere close to being as involving to drive. The huge - in percentage terms - owners' club membership should also helkp confirm that you're making a sound choice!
Needless to say, most of the engine parts are standard Mustang parts, so will actually be easier to source than any of the MGR engine parts. This also extends to the majority of the aircon system, which in MGR terms is particular to the 260 (there wasn't sadly room for the excellent system the other 75/ZT models have) but shares many of its components with other Ford models.
With regards to the brakes, the rear calipers are made by AP Racing, and spares are available, although you may need to appeal to the better nature of an AP dealer to get the individual parts for you rather than whole calipers. In terms of pads, the rears are the same as the front pads on an Elise, VX220, Lancer Evo V and various others, so no problems there. The front calipers are the same as on the ZT190 (although mounted on the trailing rather than leading edge of the disc) so are as easily available as the 190 parts.
There is a heater hose which blows in as little as 10k miles. One of the members of the Two-sixties owners' club found a company able to manufacture an improved part for less than the cost of the OEM original, so that's covered. The technical director of the MGOC (and a couple of his colleagues) also have 260s, so they have a personal as well as club interest in helping to track parts down.
In terms of shocks, should you need to replace them, these are Eibach parts, so no reason why you shouldn't be able to source replacements. The rear diff is the same as that fitted to may Tivs and Holdens, so again few issues, and the gearbox is made by Tremec and again fitted to loads of vehicles in the States, albeit with an MGR specific 5th gear ratio over here.
For all the body parts and electrics that the 260 has in common with other 75/ZTs, there seem to be few or no supply problems now. MGR sold the parts division (XPart) to Caterpillar before they went under, so it remains a going concern.
Last, and not least, we now have 190+ members in the owners' club, which, considering there were only 883 cars made, is a pretty serious percentage! There is a public section on our new forum where you can ask further questions. as well as a V8 specific forum on xpowerforums.com which is worth checking too. You'll find me as Womble on both of those.
I've had by ZT-T 260 for just under 18 months, and I still can't ever imagine replacing it. I've driven faster cars, but I've not driven any which are faster, rear wheel drive, without traction control, ESP and other electronic gubbins which come anywhere close to being as involving to drive. The huge - in percentage terms - owners' club membership should also helkp confirm that you're making a sound choice!
Well thats good news :-)
Thanks for the detailed reply.
My minds now made up, and the money to buy one cash should be in my hand quite soon thanks to a house sale going through
One thing the car is going to be for us, apart from a family motor, is a Demo car for our exhaust business(I wont spam it on here), I take it the exhaust system is vertualy the same as a mustang system,ie a Dual 2 1/4" system with (H pipe) balancing pipe. and 2 silencer boxes. The mustang also had 3 x Small Cats on each side of the system....
Im looking forward to playing with this a bit, Wants a proper V8 Growl with out the Rasp...I have a plan :-)
Thanks again
I'll check out the owners club :-)
Thanks for the detailed reply.
My minds now made up, and the money to buy one cash should be in my hand quite soon thanks to a house sale going through
One thing the car is going to be for us, apart from a family motor, is a Demo car for our exhaust business(I wont spam it on here), I take it the exhaust system is vertualy the same as a mustang system,ie a Dual 2 1/4" system with (H pipe) balancing pipe. and 2 silencer boxes. The mustang also had 3 x Small Cats on each side of the system....
Im looking forward to playing with this a bit, Wants a proper V8 Growl with out the Rasp...I have a plan :-)
Thanks again
I'll check out the owners club :-)
I think you'll probably find the exhaust very different to the Mustang, certainly up round the headers there is a lot less room, and by all accounts is pretty awful. If you could improve on that, you'd certainly have a lot of people interested in the results, as that is reckoned to be one of the major throttling points, although given the space, you might find it a challenge to make cost effective.
As for the cats, there is just one per downpipe as far as I can tell.
From there, the system joins, and then splits again to twin backboxes. The standard ones are remarkably quiet, to the point where you would never, ever guess at the size and configuration of the engine as being much more than a 1.6 4 pot! In terms of competition, you have 3 options that I am aware of....
1. Xpower - MGR aftermarket backboxes. Apparently pretty poor quality materials. Very much louder, but with pretty intrusive resonance right around A road cruising speed. A few people have had them fitted and later taken them off. Have twin oval pipes, rather than the quad round pipes. Can be picked up for peanuts.
2. Zero Exhausts - Originally commissioned by Roger Parker, the MGOC technical director. Identical in appearance to the OEM backboxes, but of a far higher quality, and with far, far better noise. Still some resonance around 1,800 rpm, but easily manageable. They are around £450 for the pair iirc (I got mine second-hand), and I seem to remember seeing a figure to say they've sold around 30 pairs.
3. Powerflow - I only know one person with these fitted, so I can't tell you much about them. They have a rather more rasping tone than any of the others. No idea on price.
One thing you should be aware of is that the backboxes on the tourer are 20mm (iirc) longer than those on the saloon. I'm not sure if any of the difference is in the boxes themselves or just the pipes.
As for the cats, there is just one per downpipe as far as I can tell.
From there, the system joins, and then splits again to twin backboxes. The standard ones are remarkably quiet, to the point where you would never, ever guess at the size and configuration of the engine as being much more than a 1.6 4 pot! In terms of competition, you have 3 options that I am aware of....
1. Xpower - MGR aftermarket backboxes. Apparently pretty poor quality materials. Very much louder, but with pretty intrusive resonance right around A road cruising speed. A few people have had them fitted and later taken them off. Have twin oval pipes, rather than the quad round pipes. Can be picked up for peanuts.
2. Zero Exhausts - Originally commissioned by Roger Parker, the MGOC technical director. Identical in appearance to the OEM backboxes, but of a far higher quality, and with far, far better noise. Still some resonance around 1,800 rpm, but easily manageable. They are around £450 for the pair iirc (I got mine second-hand), and I seem to remember seeing a figure to say they've sold around 30 pairs.
3. Powerflow - I only know one person with these fitted, so I can't tell you much about them. They have a rather more rasping tone than any of the others. No idea on price.
One thing you should be aware of is that the backboxes on the tourer are 20mm (iirc) longer than those on the saloon. I'm not sure if any of the difference is in the boxes themselves or just the pipes.
Sounds like a fun system to make :-)
We produce our own custom stainless silencers for each application, and tricky systems have been done... You should see the total lack of room under a 1978 Trans Am.... Massive car with absolutly no room for an exhaust.
The after market systems for the Ford engine are always 2.5" od full dual system's with an X pipe. And of course most Mustang owners fit tubular headers....
A normal system should be quite a straight forward Job to get the right.
Of course normal wont be the way for us on the demo car. We have a little 50s hotrod trick to adapt & use...:-)
The system on the demo car will have Active silencers, So Quiet on the motorway / pulling onto the drive. Then at the touch of a button you can bypass the silencers and go to hooligan mode :-) A proper V8 sound.. Great for the BMW that pulls along side at the traffic lights (scares them into submission..lol)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=XvHV7Dzal3I
Here is a link to a funny video an American customer did with the same valve(DODGE srt8), gives you an idea of what Im talking about.... The trick is to make the bypass pipes re-merge with the main system so the exhaust always exits at the back.
We call the valve an ERV in the uk
We produce our own custom stainless silencers for each application, and tricky systems have been done... You should see the total lack of room under a 1978 Trans Am.... Massive car with absolutly no room for an exhaust.
The after market systems for the Ford engine are always 2.5" od full dual system's with an X pipe. And of course most Mustang owners fit tubular headers....
A normal system should be quite a straight forward Job to get the right.
Of course normal wont be the way for us on the demo car. We have a little 50s hotrod trick to adapt & use...:-)
The system on the demo car will have Active silencers, So Quiet on the motorway / pulling onto the drive. Then at the touch of a button you can bypass the silencers and go to hooligan mode :-) A proper V8 sound.. Great for the BMW that pulls along side at the traffic lights (scares them into submission..lol)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=XvHV7Dzal3I
Here is a link to a funny video an American customer did with the same valve(DODGE srt8), gives you an idea of what Im talking about.... The trick is to make the bypass pipes re-merge with the main system so the exhaust always exits at the back.
We call the valve an ERV in the uk
I will need to price up the components on the car before I can quote correctly.... has any one got a picture of the underside of the car?
Have a wander around our web site for now www.dynoflow.co.uk (yes its getting ready for an update in the valve section, Im a better welder than I am a web man..lol) This gives you an idea of what we do and the quality of the components we use and sell to home builders / trade customers
You could fit the valves onto a stock system
For full active silencers (bolting onto the original system pipe work)the price is going to be around £500 to £600 fabricated, inc vat, so not cheap Im affraid.....
There will be cheaper ways of doing the valves, ie a single valve and Y pipe fitted in the single section of the stock exhaust and just dumping the gas down on the floor. A full valve Kit would cost £195 + £50 for us to fit it if you wanted
Have a wander around our web site for now www.dynoflow.co.uk (yes its getting ready for an update in the valve section, Im a better welder than I am a web man..lol) This gives you an idea of what we do and the quality of the components we use and sell to home builders / trade customers
You could fit the valves onto a stock system
For full active silencers (bolting onto the original system pipe work)the price is going to be around £500 to £600 fabricated, inc vat, so not cheap Im affraid.....
There will be cheaper ways of doing the valves, ie a single valve and Y pipe fitted in the single section of the stock exhaust and just dumping the gas down on the floor. A full valve Kit would cost £195 + £50 for us to fit it if you wanted
) so I'll be watching this space
We have had a change of plan....Thanks to a unmissable deal on a Chevy Tahoe 5.7 we will not be getting the MG ZT-T 260 :-( (For now)
Thank everyone for your help in gathering Information on the car
With regards to exhaust fabrication.....
My web site is listed in the posts above,
Give me a call if you need any info
Cheers
Fin
Dynoflow
Thank everyone for your help in gathering Information on the car
With regards to exhaust fabrication.....
My web site is listed in the posts above,
Give me a call if you need any info
Cheers
Fin
Dynoflow
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