Right, thought I'd start this. As some of you may know my cars a bit broken at present and I have a pile of parts ready to fit that gets bigger without it making its way to the car.

 

So lets start with what's up with the engine. Myself and gaz pulled the engine about two winters ago now, as one of the turbo's had failed. Compression was tested at this time with a very even 170psi across the board. Pulling it all apart we found a multitude of issues, egr hanging off causing an exhaust leak old sockets rolling about etc etc. We took that time to replace every damn crusty water and vac pipe and delete just about anything I considered a waste of space.

Water plenum bypass,

EGR,

AIV,

PRV,

Cruise control,

Aircon,

Think that's all. The turbos were rebuild by myself and for the first 50-100 miles things were bob on and I didn't give it too much stick. The first couple of pulls it detonated, new plugs, reduced the issue but it still did it a bit. Changed to a smaller gap and great the det was gone. The car was pulling very well at this point with virtually no lag and was dyno'd at 289hp bone stock, no extra boost no chip. Not bad for an old auto engine. Sadly it had started to smoke on over run, I assumed id cocked up one of the turbos during the rebuild. So I had been putting it off for months, well actually years now to pay out for brand new turbos. Anyways as the tax ran out I thought id do some more inspecting as the symptoms just didn't fit the pattern of failed turbos. The first thing I found was that lovely even compression was no more, cyl had a rather lame 115psi. Cue further inspection to work out exactly what block I had, manual/auto etc I assumed it was auto. That's when I found this...

That head casting reads R-10Y, wtf is that I thought. It's supposed to read 40P this was one of those penny drop moments. The piston crown sealed that moment of realisation and many dots connected.

That's right its an NA, 30p pistons are NA and 30p1 are TT defiantly no 1 on that code. Turns out r-10y is the later spec NA head aswell, so yeas 100% an NA block. Now this engine was fitted by a garage 4 years ago a few months into my ownership and we wont go into that too much but it wasn't a great experience and it transpires it was worse than I first thought. Anyway whilst they refused to reimburse me for that error, a good will gesture was sent out to me in the post of a few quid.

So a replacement engine is going to be sourced and fitted this winter. More of that and what's happening to the current late spec NA block.

 

So now more about that shelf of parts. I purchased last winter a full rear subframe assembly off Jaffa, the one off his time attack car. Loads of goodies already polybushed to death etc. So I stripped it down to bare metal and started painting it all with a few coats of lovely hammerite. This is how it stands at present;

So this winters aims are.

Remove front and rear bumpers, re underseal all of that and rip out and guff.

Delete HICAS system

Reloacte PS reservoir and fusebox

Switch over all suspension to new units from the shelf

Fit 354mm diameter brembos

Change engine out and preform various mods

It sounds like a lot, but hey winter is along time. Don't expect it to be coming through thick and fast. Im lazy haha

Congratulations Stephen :pint:

Probably best not to frighten Stephen too much at this early stage on costs!!!:scared:

He is still in the land of thinking that 300ZXs are expensive!:lol:

 

Yeah, and more troublesome. :lol::lol:

Edited January 25, 20178 yr by redwine300

Congrats Stephen, that sure is some winter works! Hope all is well [emoji106]

Number one project is settling down and we're getting some sleep, I've managed over the last few days to get bits for here and there but sadly now have a cold. My candles been well and truly burnt. The car however is together up front;

Still got to sort the under tray and intercooler ducting, which I'm unsure on the take I'm going to employ still.

Got these to sort out too, bit manky;

Edited January 30, 20178 yr by Stephen

Number one project is settling down and we're getting some sleep, I've managed over the last few days to get bits for here and there but sadly now have a cold. My candles been well and truly burnt. The car however is together up front;

 

Give it a bit more time Stephen and you could have a team on the job!

 

:lol: here's hoping. If i could teach them to catapult bait and fetch spanners that would be ideal.

http://gilflyfishing.com/alaskan-silvers-mean-gold/09/24/2012/img_4386/

Congratulations Stephen....... now I see why you have been so busy.... lol

Get some Bilthamber rust treatment DEOX-C ..... works so well on rusty metal. Just wire brush and treat surface rust..... soaks in the powder and warm water.....

Amazing stuff....

 

The Z parts...... not the baby....... lol

Cheers Russ, people say it's life changing. I've come to the conclusion it's simply more of the same, there's never been enough hours in the day and I'm always tired. Now there's less time and I'm more tired. :lol:

I've just purchased some Builthamber Dynax S50, that will do nicely for the chassis rails and front cross member. Be interesting to see how far a can goes really. I also picked up some Gunk to clean a portion of the under side I didn't under seal last winter and apply new Shultz. Back bumper off next.

Assembly wise the radiator etc is back in and only the front bumper is missing from the front. Still got to sort out the intercooler ducts and splitter. Although I may end up with a 99 front end, we shall see. I've gotta save for a new kitchen and a new bumper won't make the car any faster/better, just looks nice.

Well it's raining today so no after work car fun. I did however recieve my successful charity application for a local Half Marathon, which will be my first with a view to do a full next year. It seemed like good idea at the time...

This morning I was up and in London for breakfast time so I arrived back to a very sunny afternoon and took the opportunity to use the Builthamber stuff. At £20 a can (tax and post accounted for) it's not cheap. However I had a few questions about the product and I have to say the response from Mr Hamber himself was prompt and informative. I was impressed with the swift delivery and the fact it comes with an accompanying sheet all about the product. So onto the product, a 750ml can was enough to do both front rails, rad support member and front subframe, so I recon to do all your cavities you'd need about 6 cans, they do do a liquid for compression application. Looking down the rails it spread well and dribbled out here and there so I think it's safe to say cover and penetration. Highly recommend and il be using more for all the remaining cavities. Anyone got drawing that shows them?

This will help Stephen:

 

 

Do you have a long flexible wand with a 360 degree nozzle? You won't need to drill any holes to get in all of the sections.

Did my sills yesterday with Dinitrol ML but slightly easier for me since I have holes them from side skirts fitment. a 500ml can (£10) was enough for each sill, probably excess since a lot of it drips out the bottom.

Literally a cross sectional view:

 

BTW Stephen Spring starts on the 20th March, so you will need a new thread soon!

Literally a cross sectional view:

 

I got a scale model of one of those on my front lawn!

Edited February 18, 20178 yr by Alic

BTW Stephen Spring starts on the 20th March, so you will need a new thread soon!

 

At this rate your right :lol:

This will help Stephen:

 

 

Do you have a long flexible wand with a 360 degree nozzle? You won't need to drill any holes to get in all of the sections.

 

Cheers Joel. Yeah the Builthamber comes with it.

Flicking back to page one really helps, I'm constantly having to remind myself of the initial priorities. My mind is changing on a few things, with time an finances changing the order of things. I've definitely got side tracked here and there, what I mean there will quickly become obvious.

Rather annoyingly when I fitted this engine last year the steering rack started leaking, the seal below the column knuckle. Maybe there's something I did wrong? It hasn't been an issue though and I thought it had stopped. Upon firing the engine today I discovered it's drained the pot and rack over winter. So looks like that's a job at some stage. So options? Reseal? Replace?

Bearing in mind I have no hicas could it be wise to switch to an NA rack, pump etc. I seem to recall the NA rack has a slightly larger steering angle?

Na rack has quicker steering yes.

 

Did you use crush washers when you reinstalled the pipes? Or did you not remove them? Might just be worth a try to put new seals in them

 

It is difficult but not impossible to replace the rack with the engine in.

Edited February 24, 20178 yr by Alic

It's the shaft connection Ali, no washers there. The lines did have new copper crush washers though yeah.

Is this normal? Can't see a purpose for it and can't recall seeing it on others cars.

Intercooler inlet ducting Stephen, an important component in keeping that cooling air doing its job efficiently [emoji106]

:pinch:

Yesssss, lol. That little rubber flap on one, normal?

Haha sorry matey, I did think it was a bizarre question for a man of your caliber! As for the rubber flap, bear with me a minute whilst I have a think...

 

 

[emoji1]