As with most projects and rebuilds, they all start in the same place, mine was no different. However, this isn’t truely the start of my forever ongoing Z project. I’ve owned this car (my second Z) since 2008 when I purchased it from a former member. For the first 5 or 6 years I did the usual mods with suspension parts and basic bolt ons. For reasons unknown, whilst running stock boost, piston 5 cracked a ring land during a track day at Castle Coombe. A forged build and a remap later all was well until a sunny October’s day 2013 at Bruntingthorpe killed that engine with what at the time was a suspected head gasket failure at 181mph..... And this is where I shall start my journal.

 

The Z was stored off the road from Oct 2013 until March 2015. I’d had a major knee operation at the beginning of 2015 which meant I was going to be off work for 6 months. I’d saved up enough to start thinking about a parts list to rebuild her and frankly, after a couple of months of staring at the same 4 walls, I was going stir crazy! I employed the help of a good friend and decided to pull the engine and see what was what.... just a head gasket my arse!

 

March 2015

Problem 1: It turns out stainless steel, exhaust wraps and condensation don’t mix well

 

Before I’d even got the engine out, a new set of downpipes was added to this list. These AMS items were only 2 years old, so I was far from impressed! I contacted the retailer and after a bit of tooing and froing I secured myself a set of replacements for free... how long they will last, only time will tell!

Wow so sorry for you, what a horrendous nightmare, keep fighting they must not get away with bad workmanship.

4 hours ago, Bones28 said:

Wow so sorry for you, what a horrendous nightmare, keep fighting they must not get away with bad workmanship.

Thanks bud. If I can ask people to comment on the YouTube vid and share it so I can play the “algorithm game” and get maximum exposure, that would be massively appreciated!

Well I’m happy to say I’m about to start the rebuild process of my engine!

im hoping to drop my block and internals off to my chosen machine shop in the next week or two (work permitting). Im scrapping the EPR block and starting again with a donor block I bought from Banzai Breakers months ago. Fortunately, as my billet main caps measured tighter than they should, there is sufficient material to be able to correct the oval and non-concentric issues with them to make them reusable.

So, the plan as it currently stands is to machine my donor block to 88mm for my CP pistons, remachine the billet mains, resurface the block faces, balance the replacement crank and rotating assembly. Then I can start the assembly process while I have my heavily worked heads resurfaced to a proper finish.

I will be assembling the engine myself. They one positive that has come from this while EPR saga is the knowledge I have gained about machining and engine assembly, meaning I’m very confident I can build a solid engine.

I won’t be reusing my GT525’s are they suffered too much damage from the bearing failure, so this time I’ll be using a set of Pulsar Gen 2 GTX2860’s. It became apparent during tuning that the GT525’s fell off a cliff at 6200rpm and meant I lost out on the performance my head and cam package should deliver. The 2860’s will easily flow what I need and very little sacrifice of spool, so it should be a more complete package that makes over 600hp with less effort.

In short….. positive updates coming soon… with pics

Best wishes for a great end to your saga Nick, and as you say, your knowledge has been expanded as a benefit, despite the hassle and cost to get there.

Good luck Nick - hope it all goes well mate!