Right thought it was about time that I got round to doing this.

 

Having had the car for a few years now I have finally given in to the urge for more power.

 

The original engine in the car runs superbly only 66k miles with a proven Dyno run @ 357bhp, with boost jets and a uprated chip & air filter. Not bad at all for a 300ZX, but I was bitten by the bug and was set on going for more bhp and reliability, (I know why fiddle with it if it ain't broke). But having been lucky enough to have many nice high powered cars in recent years I wanted to keep the Zed long term and the engine is the first part of the project so it need's to be a good strong/reliable build.

 

After looking at various options of buying a part built engine form the US I decide to also keep my eyes peeled for the poteintial of purchasing an uncompleted project rebuild.

 

Back in March/April 2012 an ebay listing caught my eye regarding a nearly completed forged engine rebuild. The only problem with it was that the rebuild wasn't exactly completed by the most reputable of Zed engine builders known within the Zed world. In fact the seller had been caught up in horrific events where parts when missing, work was never finished and finally the garage was broken into and his engine was stolen. Retrieved from a nearby field 24 hours after going "missing". see here for a bit more http://www.300zx.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?140946-Surprise-Police-find-in-Rotherham&highlight=s+mochan

After talking with the seller for sometime we struck a deal and I waited for the day when the pallet with the engine would arrive.

 

It came with forged internals, Wiseco pistons, Eagle rods, ACL Duralite white metal bearings ARP main con rods and head bolts, Tomie 260 degree camshafts with solid lifters & harder springs, SARD 850cc injectors with a Border fuel rails/ new Turbo's, s/steel manifolds, new oil pump, heads polished, exhausts ports and valves shimed & lapped.

 

Didn't look all that great mind when it finally arrived to be honest, and I still had my doubts as to whether I had done the right thing in buying this.

 

 

 

After stripping down the engine as far I was prepared to take it anyway,

 

 

 

 

 

I wasn't going to attempt to go much further, soI thought it would be best to get this done properly!

 

So a call was made to Jim @ PowerZed to arrange a date to get everything to him in order for him to work his magic.:cool3:

Edited January 27, 201312 yr by bigh
Added more details

Well as many of you may know Jimmers skills & service are in high demand and I had a long wait due to Jim's other builds etc that he had already committed to. Indeed it was several months before I was able to get down to his workshop to deliver my engine and parts. The upside to this wait was that I had now added a few more important and shiney new parts to take to with me.

 

Garrett 300ZX GT2871R Ball Bearing Turbo Kit (800HP) .86 A/R w/ Forge Actuators, Blue Spring

 

 

Lost the photos of the other parts but, you get the idea, lol....... BDE low profile engine mounts, AMS manifolds, S/steel clutch line Splitfire coil packs, Selin Dual translator kit.

Edited January 20, 201312 yr by bigh
more detail

Just a little update...... well it seems like that my concerns regarding the standard of build were justified.

 

Once Jim had removed the pistons and rings etc he found that cyl 6 had a chipped scraper ring installed. But things got far worse once he checked the bores, they were way to big!

The compression ring gap was 17 thou, should be 3 thou and the scraper rings had a whooping 25 thou! Also the crank bearings were smeared with what looked like regular grease no sign of any graphogen, this engine may have fired up if I had left things as they were, but it wouldn't have run for long or sounded pleasant either.

 

Luckily for me Jim had a used block in good condition that we could get re-bored to the correct size to take my pistons etc. So another delay in the the scheme of things but at least this engine is going to run as sweet as a nut!

Edited January 27, 201312 yr by bigh
extra stuff

Interesting read and well done for staying committed, bringing Jimmer in was clearly the best thing you could of done and it will ensure your cash is well spent.

 

Actually followed the horror story of the zed this engine came from originally and has been well documented in years gone by, we helped recover the remains of the car but not the engine for the previous owner, sadly for him he basically lost everything and despite police, solicitors and insurance companies involvement nothing got resolved.

 

It will be of little consolation to the previous owner that the block was scrap but he may concider that some parts of his will eventually be used in the way he expected some 3 or 4 years later, I have no doubt that many are aware of the culprits identity but it still surprises me when he is described as wicked zed mechanic that just had bad business accumen... this engine and I beg to differ.

 

Keep up the good work and nice one Jim for sorting it out.

 

Jeff TT

Thought it was about time I updated the saga.

 

Unfortunatley the heads were machined to the same crappy standards of the block, i.e no allowance was made for the shims. So we started again with new heads, with correctly fiiting valves and Jim had the shims machined to match everything. As Jim put it " if we would have started this up as it was, it would have rattled it t*ts off". So everything is now in place for the install.

 

My new clutch arrived yesterday :thumbup1:

 

Got the car in the garage and have just started on the engine removal.