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!

Haven't a clue what all that means Nick but you know what your doing so good luck mate. ?

Engine dynos FTW! Nice work well done [emoji1417]. What’s the target of your build - track/drift/fast road?


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1 hour ago, naz27 said:

Engine dynos FTW! Nice work well done . What’s the target of your build - track/drift/fast road?


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It’s just a fast road build, however I wanted an understressed engine. The engine is built for 1000hp and 8500rpm, but I’ll only be running at 60-70%ish of that power and a lower rpm, so should enable many miles of thrashing without any worries about the components being close to their operational limits 

2 hours ago, Gaz 300 said:

Haven't a clue what all that means Nick but you know what your doing so good luck mate. ?

It just continues my ethos of having the best quality work and the best quality map on my engine.... however the proof will be in the pudding.

 

there may be an opportunity for some interesting testing on the engine aswell, will just have to see if things pan out

Edited January 4, 20214 yr by nickz32

For those of you interested, here is a good video about the Superflow SF902 engine dyno

 

 

It’s just a fast road build, however I wanted an understressed engine. The engine is built for 1000hp and 8500rpm, but I’ll only be running at 60-70%ish of that power and a lower rpm, so should enable many miles of thrashing without any worries about the components being close to their operational limits 

Under stressed engines always last so long so will be really interesting to see what the final set up is and a build spec list one day.

So what kind of gremlins as an example, were you having with the current set up?

This is all quite interesting to learn really, before I start building my engine!


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1 hour ago, naz27 said:

Under stressed engines always last so long so will be really interesting to see what the final set up is and a build spec list one day.

So what kind of gremlins as an example, were you having with the current set up?

This is all quite interesting to learn really, before I start building my engine!


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The full engine spec is listed, probably a couple of pages or so back. I don’t know if you have, but it’s worth going through the whole thread, I detail all the finer details of the build, the hows and why’s throughout.
 

The limiting factor in terms of peak power is the turbos, which I’m fine with because they will give super quick spool and a really wide power band..... it’s still going to be primarily a road car, so peaky top end power is of no real use to me.
 

There’s a long standing belief  in the engine building world that if you build an engine as you would a high performance NA engine, the benefits are amplified when boosted (rather than just strapping big turbos on a fairly unimproved long block in terms of valvetrain, porting, etc) and that’s what I’ve done with my engine, I’ve specced the long block as highly as I can to maximise what the turbos can deliver.

Edited January 5, 20214 yr by nickz32

On 05/01/2021 at 22:37, nickz32 said:

The full engine spec is listed, probably a couple of pages or so back. I don’t know if you have, but it’s worth going through the whole thread, I detail all the finer details of the build, the hows and why’s throughout.
 

The limiting factor in terms of peak power is the turbos, which I’m fine with because they will give super quick spool and a really wide power band..... it’s still going to be primarily a road car, so peaky top end power is of no real use to me.
 

There’s a long standing belief  in the engine building world that if you build an engine as you would a high performance NA engine, the benefits are amplified when boosted (rather than just strapping big turbos on a fairly unimproved long block in terms of valvetrain, porting, etc) and that’s what I’ve done with my engine, I’ve specced the long block as highly as I can to maximise what the turbos can deliver.

Great cheers, I'll have a good read of the build spec then. Yeah agreed top end power no use on the road really, all about response! Keep us posted, looking forward to the updates ?. 

Having scanned back through a fair few pages, it appears that I haven’t written an up to date spec of the car for some time.... so here goes...

 

Engine spec

 

88mm CP forged Pistons, Diamondyze anodized black

Saenz Forged Con Rods

King XP main and big end bearings

EP Racing Thermal Barrier Piston Coating

EP Racing High Performance Bearing Coating

EP Racing Billet Crankshaft Cap kit

EP Racing High Capacity baffled Sump v2

ARP main crank and head studs

EP Racing modified crank

EP Racing modified oil pump

BDE oil tree

Improved Racing remote oil filter housing

Dash 10 braided oil lines with AN fittings

Setrab 23 row oil cooler

ATi Super Damper with EPR trigger wheel and Hall Effect sensor

Ross Performance Camshaft Trigger Kit (CAS Elimination kit)

EP Racing “Street” profile CNC Head Port

EPR “street profile” 3 angle CNC cut valve seats.

EPR Genesis 1 camshafts (272 deg 10.1mm lift)

Manley 1mm oversize valves

SuperTech dual coil valve springs and titanium spring retainers

Solid lifters (replaces hydraulic lifters)

Ferrea valve guides

BDE v2 intake VTC pulleys

BDE v2 exhaust pulleys

Power Enterprises Kevlar timing belt

EP Racing belt tensioner

AMS exhaust manifolds - ceramic coated

Z1 GT525 turbos, modified with enlarged wastegate port - ceramic coated

AMS 3in expansion down pipes - ceramic coated

Custom 3” stainless steel exhaust system using Vibrant resonators and silencers and stainless steel V-Bands (yet to be built, but have the parts)

AMS smoked timing covers

Zspec fasteners

WinFactory top feed fuel rail with Injector Dynamics 1050x (1065cc) injectors

2x APEXI air filters

Concept Z Performance 2.5” intercooler piping

Z1 motorsport 2.5” intercoolers

HKS SSQV4 dump valves

 

TRANSMISSION
SZ segmented flywheel

RPS street max

350Z clutch fork and chromoly pivot

braided 1 piece clutch line

Bronze linkage bushings

 

FUEL SYSTEM

 

Dash 8 stainless steel braided fuel lines from tank to rail with AN Fittings

Billet fuel pump hanger

Ti Automotive 525lph fuel pump

TurboSmart FPR2000 fuel pressure regulator

FPCU bypass

ENGINE MANAGEMENT 

Haltech Elite 2000 stand-alone ecu with associated sensors

Haltech WBO2 Wideband controller with associated wideband sensors

Haltech 4 port CAN-BUS module

Haltech 12 position map switch

Haltech 3 bar MAP sensor, boost solenoid and IAT sensor

AEM 150psi fuel pressure and oil pressure sensors

 

CHASSIS

 

Varrstoen ES2 wheels (18x9.5J front 18x10.5 rear)

Brembo front and rear calipers w 355mm discs

Braided brake lines

CZP rear subframe locking collars

Power trim front camber arms

Tein front tie rods

NISMO front tension rods

Whiteline Suspension rear camber arms

Whiteline Suspension Anti Roll Bars (front and rear)

 

BODY

 

Stillen GTZ front valance

Twins brake ducts

Stone guard finish removed from sills and back bumper and smoothed

Rear arches flared

WinFactory CLS-R spoiler

Carbon fibre scuttle panel

New Nissan roof and door mouldings and rubber seals throughout

Full “glass out” respray in original KH3 Super Black (original colour)

 

INTERIOR

 

OMP dished steering wheel

Defi oil/water/boost gauges

Blitz turbo timer.

Edited January 7, 20214 yr by nickz32

 

Progress at last! The other video EPR posted on YT looks (and sounds) even better.

Yeah, unfortunately it has been halted yet again......

the Elite ECU has been sent back to Haltech for inspection.... the best way to describe the problem is that the Elite thinks the ignition switch is being turned on and off rapidly, which in turn is triggering a safety mode that stops the engine revving past 5000 rpm.

 

one of these days everything will go smoothly

 

She’s coming home 

Great news Nick.

With the engine on its way back home, it’s spurred me on to sorting other bits and bobs on the car.

 

the first was an irritating problem of the interior lights staying on regardless on door being open or closed. Even with the lights turned off and the boot light unplugged, it still drained the battery after a couple of days. I’ve had this problem since the car came back from the respray.... which was the first source of confusion as they didn’t remove anything that should have effected this electrical circuit

After lots of checks, many messages with JoelyP, I managed to track the problem down to the boot switch. On removal and inspection the issue was obvious. The boot release hand had been pulled too hard, bending the mounting bracket. This meant that the rocker arm that breaks the electrical contact wasn’t getting the nudge it needed from the lock mechanism. A quick tweak on the vice and it was good as gold.

 

I can only assume that whilst in the body shop when they’ve refitted the boot they’ve had an issue with the disengagement of the lock and pulled the lever too hard.

Looks like you had a similar problem to Richard:

 

On 19/03/2021 at 23:27, AndrewG said:

Looks like you had a similar problem to Richard:

 

Yup - looks like the same issue I had.....!

Even with a brand new OEM boot catch, I still had to bend the lever slightly, so that it didn't keep tripping the circuit every time the boot lid jiggled as I drove over the lumpy roads around here.

20 hours ago, RichardS said:

Yup - looks like the same issue I had.....!

Even with a brand new OEM boot catch, I still had to bend the lever slightly, so that it didn't keep tripping the circuit every time the boot lid jiggled as I drove over the lumpy roads around here.

If it keeps happening I might look at reinforcing that section of metal to stop it from bending. It looks like there would be plenty of room to weld a triangle on the back of it that should reinforce it sufficient 

Hopefully the first of many parts deliveries turned up to day.

My Haltech elite managed to win the race with my engine and turned up first, aswell as the exhaust tips for my custom exhaust system

 

These are APR TPK0006 exhaust tips. They’re 3.5” slash cut, double walled tips originally intended for APR’s Mk7 Golf R exhaust system. I think they should look bloody awesome.... not too big like R35 GTR tips but big enough to nicely fill the space in the back bumper. They weren’t cheap, but they’re REALLY nicely made, pics don’t really do them justice

If you look very carefully there is an engine in that photo!

More goodies today!

 

First up, I bought and fitted these Forge Motorsport’s turbo blankets. These tied with the ceramic coated hotside (manifolds, turbine housing/downpipes) should do a nice job of keeping engine bay temps down... whether there’s a performance benefit, who knows.... there has been a few papers published to suggest that there is, but I’m more interested in increasing the longevity of the hoses and loom around the hottest parts of the engine

Then I got home and found more goodies had turned up.

My back boxes turned up, Vibrant Street Power silencers (3” inlet 2x2.5” outlet).

 

they’re REALLY nicely made and look awesome with the APR tips.... can’t wait to hear what they sound like