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!

I do like the way that all of this extra engineering has been put in place simply to maintain the air conditioning system, without compromise to your reliable power goals - hats off to you matey!

 

This is OEM+ on steroids!

Edited August 28, 20196 yr by Joely P

Just to recap why the above came to fruition.

 

I wanted to change to a proper crank and cam trigger setup to replace the OEM CAS setup. Why change? For two reasons, performance and engine safety

 

It’s fairly well documented that there are issues with the OEM setup with regard to its a accuracy. Given the OEM setup is designed to work out the crankshafts position based off the position of the camshaft, both belt tension and harmonics can cause +/- 5 degrees of inaccuracy in the engines position, and therefore ignition timing. As a result this can cause either suboptimal levels of ignition timing for power, or worst case, too much timing leading to det.

 

The only way to solve this is with a proper trigger setup using a sensor on the crankshaft for crank position and a sensor on the camshaft for its “home” position (usually TDC CYL 1). For every 1 rotation of the camshaft, the crank rotated twice a la 4 stroke engine cycle.

 

My initial plan was the Ross Performance Parts harmonic dampener and CAS elimination kit. However RPP only currently offer 2 levels of crank Damper, street and race. The street is rated to 600hp and Race to circa 1000hp. As I am anticipating to be over the 600 mark, I had to go with the Race Damper. However, the Race Damper has no provisions for AC belt due to the extra dampening material. As my car is most definitely a road car, losing AC wasn’t an option I was willing to consider.

 

So, after speaking to Mitch, I changed to an ATi Super Damper, which again is rated to circa 1200hp but had the provision for an AC belt. That lead the to design and implementation of the above trigger wheel and adaptation of the RPP sensor mount.

 

I’m positive this new setup will not only lead to more power, but will ensure my ignition timing is completely optimised to prevent unnecessary det

Edited August 28, 20196 yr by nickz32

The time has come to ship it home to me!

 

Hotside parts ceramic coated to help fight the war against heat in the engine bay aswell as improve spool in these GT525’s. The exhaust ports and manifold have been gasket matched to optimise flow.

 

FedEx should collect it on Wednesday this week, and 6 days later it will be in my hands

 

Will it be transported on a pallet resting on a tyre?!

Will it be transported on a pallet resting on a tyre?!

 

Yeah, a quality tyre as well, something like a Wang Li or Triangle :lol:

The time has come to ship it home to me!

 

That's great news Nick!

 

Would look really nice on an engine stand next to the car at the NEC, or on video to show a highly modified engine.

Would look really nice on an engine stand next to the car at the NEC, or on video to show a highly modified engine.

 

Kinda need the engine in the car to get to the NEC :lol:

 

But I know what you mean, would be a cool thing to have on a stand.... I should have had two built

Can you do a video of it before you put it in the car, walking round it in a circle, so we can show it on the screens at nec rotating (idealy against a plain backdrop)

Can you do a video of it before you put it in the car, walking round it in a circle, so we can show it on the screens at nec rotating (idealy against a plain backdrop)

 

I’ll see what I can do

Thats a work of art Nick :thumbup1:

thats a really nice job there, looking fantastic

That's pretty bloody special! Fantastic work

Cheers guys.

 

Shippings all booked, fingers crossed it’ll be here beginning of next week.... not sure it’ll be fitted quite as quickly as JaiKais was mind

So while I’m waiting on the engine, I have again decided to wage war against heat soak.

 

The first battle front is the Plenum. While everyone like a polished Plenum, I’ve decided to take it one step further

 

 

Yes, that right, I’ve started polishing the underside of the Plenum.......

 

But why I hear you ask?

 

Ok, in the engine bay we have to battle against two types of heat transfer, conductive heat (something hot touching the part) and radiative heat (something hot near the part). When it comes to the Plenum there’s nothing we can do about conductive heat transfer as it has to be bolted to the engine.

 

Radiative heat transfer on the other hand, we can do something about....

 

Most will know that Gold is the best substance for reflecting radiative heat..... and I shall be using this on my intake pipes on the engine bay. However, wrapping the Plenum would be a serious pain, require a lot of tape and probably look a bit ****. #2 in the substances best at reflecting radiant heat is, as luck would have it, polished aluminium..... which is generally rated at anywhere between 95-98% as effective as gold at reflecting radiant heat transfer. Highly polished aluminium has an emissivity coefficient of 0.035 vs polished gold 0.03

 

Given that polishing the underside of the Plenum costs me nothing but time and effort, I figured it was worth a crack. I don’t think I’ll reasonably be able to polish the underside entirely (tricky areas around the PCV, water pipes etc) so I’ll focus on the runners and anything else I can get to with a polishing wheel.

 

Can I prove it’s of any benefit..... no.... but there is science behind what I’m trying to do, so it’s worth a punt. Even it reduces intake charge temps by 1c, it’s been worth the effort

Edited September 3, 20196 yr by nickz32

I watched a car show on Turbo tonight called JDM Legends, they were finishing a 240z for someone and converted it to 3 Webber carbs, the problem was they were above the exhaust so he made a stainless steel panel to go under the carbs and covered the bottom in gold tape, he said if NASA use it it must be good.

Can I prove it’s of any benefit..... no.... but there is science behind what I’m trying to do, so it’s worth a punt. Even it reduces intake charge temps by 1c, it’s been worth the effort

 

While you are at it, why not paint/coat the top of the manifold black to to improve heat dispersion and apply a thermal barrier

coating to the lower manifold to heads mounting surface?

While you are at it, why not paint/coat the top of the manifold black to to improve heat dispersion and apply a thermal barrier

coating to the lower manifold to heads mounting surface?

 

I’ll more than likely ceramic coat (like my hotside parts) the Plenum in the future. But time is of the essence at the moment and I do t have time to sort that before it goes for mapping on the 30th Sept.

 

As for painting the top of the Plenum black. I’ve pondered it. While black is quickest at loosing heat, it’s also the quickest at absorbing heat. The air charge going through the Plenum is probably doing a more efficient job at removing the heat from the Plenum (to the detriment of the air charge temps) so I think I’m better of focussing in reducing the amount of radiative heat penetrating into the Plenum than increasing its ability to absorb and then radiate that heat.

 

I think in an ideal world, there would be some sort of heat shield underneath the Plenum, but I think that would be really tricky to make so it fit around the cam covers, coil packs etc etc etc

Edited September 4, 20196 yr by nickz32

As for painting the top of the Plenum black. I’ve pondered it. While black is quickest at loosing heat, it’s also the quickest at absorbing heat. The air charge going through the Plenum is probably doing a more efficient job at removing the heat from the Plenum (to the detriment of the air charge temps) so I think I’m better of focussing in reducing the amount of radiative heat penetrating into the Plenum than increasing its ability to absorb and then radiate that heat.

 

Might be worth contacting this guy on his experience:

 

http://www.twinturbo.net/nissan/300zx/forums/general/view/2629817/Ive-had-my-plenum-heat-dispersion-coated.html

Coming on nicely

 

Beautiful.

Here's to a safe journey home.

Is the Piston/Oil cap a permanent feature Nick?

Haven’t decided yet

Came out OK