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!

We need to do a HFEC NDT inspection of that weld Nick, if that fails, you’re up turd creek!

 

A what now? It’s TIG welded by someone ive used many times, it’s solid!

High frequency eddy current non-destructive test, it’ll show any latent defects in the weld that might later cause a failure. I’ll do it for you for $1800 cash.

High frequency eddy current non-destructive test, it’ll show any latent defects in the weld that might later cause a failure. I’ll do it for you for $1800 cash.

 

Sounds like a bargain. Given the stock brackets are 1mm steel held on with two very small spot welds, and mine is 8mm billet 5056 TIG welded on all 4 sides, I’m sure it’ll be fine

Had to google 5056 as I’d not heard of it before! It seems to be an equivalent of 6061-T6 which is the same material used in the skin of helicopter rotor blades. If you ever crash this car, that fuel tank lid will chop you in half! [emoji1]

Well, the car spent a few hours on the dyno today. After a couple of boost leaks were solved, we started pushing some boost..... and yet again the fuel system is spoiling the party. Above 1.3 Bar of boost the fuel pump runs out of puff and pressure drops off. So it’s been knocked back at the top end to 1.2 Bar of boost and makes....

 

 

So I’m probably going to look into either a swirl pot system with a secondary pump, or just try a Walbro 485lph (which is the cheaper option). I’m pretty sure it has a boost leak aswell as peak boost is now 4/500 rpm higher up the Rev range than it has been previously

 

The potential is still there to breach the 600 mark (at 1.6bar of boost), so im a little disappointed. However, it’s now usable for the Lakes trip, so I’m happy on that front.

Edited May 12, 20187 yr by nickz32

So last night I did some calculations to figure out why I thought my pump was man enough for the job, and figure out how much fuel flow I actually need (and then find a pump that’ll do the job)

 

I used a calculator a motorsport engineer friend of mine sent me which showed...

 

I need a pump that can deliver 330lph at circa 70psi (I’ll only be running a max fuel system pressure of 67psi, but speccing to cover over boost scenario). So I had a look at my spec sheet of my AEM 340LPH pump

 

Low and behold, The AEM only flows circa 270lph, a good 60lph less than what I need without considering head room.

 

The Walbro 485 and 450 (they flow the same, the 485 is E85 compatible) is apparently the highest flowing in tank fuel pump on the market, so I had a look at the spec sheet

 

 

As you can see, it flows 355lph at 70psi, which gives a 25lph headroom (so at my running pressures, more like 35lph). But, the Walbro has a 5amp increase in amp draw compared to the AEM. A quick check of a wire gauge calculator....

 

Show for 15ft (my battery loom is probably about 12ft) of length at 18amps I’ll need a 14awg thickness wire. I’ll probably over spec and go to a 12awg. I’ll also need a new connector for the fuel pump as my current one is only rated to 16amp.

 

I’ve got a couple of parts I need to sell to fund the new pump setup (as I went a bought a new headunit for the Z the other day)

 

I’ll look at swapping the fuel pump after the lakes trip. Now I need to prep for the MOT next weekend

Edited May 13, 20187 yr by nickz32

Interesting stuff, where do you think you went wrong with your initial calculations?

 

Also I love to hear what you think of the head unit as I was looking at that myself for the 300. One thing I didn’t like was the front USB port, I’d much rather connect the iPhone via a hidden hard wire (not a big fan of Bluetooth). Will you be running it with amps? I was looking at ditching the amps for the speakers and fitting standard size units in the original mountings and running an under seat 8inch sub.

Interesting stuff, where do you think you went wrong with your initial calculations?

 

Also I love to hear what you think of the head unit as I was looking at that myself for the 300. One thing I didn’t like was the front USB port, I’d much rather connect the iPhone via a hidden hard wire (not a big fan of Bluetooth). Will you be running it with amps? I was looking at ditching the amps for the speakers and fitting standard size units in the original mountings and running an under seat 8inch sub.

 

I used a online calculator (deatshwerks) which said I only needed to flow 266LPH, which was close to my upper limit but should have allowed me to be mapped to pull potential. Furthermore, as I’m only getting a tiny pressure drop from pump to rail (thanks to my fuel lines) I thought I’d have enough margin for the time being.

 

Re Head Unit, it has the Alpine connection on the back should you wish to hard wire a iPhone cable. Sub wise, I’m looking at an active sub underneath the passenger seat

Brilliant! Are you going to run the speaker of the headunit or an amp?

Brilliant! Are you going to run the speaker of the headunit or an amp?

 

No, I’ve already got the alpine inline amp, which sends 45w rms to 4 channels. That’s enough for me

What are these 4 channels you speak of Nick? Not rear channels I hope?! Ah no wait, you wouldn’t be that silly, you must mean 2x component and 2x tweeter, that’s ok then.

What are these 4 channels you speak of Nick? Not rear channels I hope?! Ah no wait, you wouldn’t be that silly, you must mean 2x component and 2x tweeter, that’s ok then.

 

Nope, two coaxial fronts and two component rears with tweeters.... not quite sure what I’ve done wrong there....

Nope, two coaxial fronts and two component rears with tweeters.... not quite sure what I’ve done wrong there....

 

The rears is what you’ve done wrong there! Unless you’re kindly providing music for people in your back seats? (Or you’re watching movies?)

Oh and the coaxials in the front. So most of it really! [emoji13]

The rears is what you’ve done wrong there! Unless you’re kindly providing music for people in your back seats? (Or you’re watching movies?)

Oh and the coaxials in the front. So most of it really! [emoji13]

 

I’ll be changing the fronts to components in the future..... to be honest it’s all irrelevant as the cars so effing loud!

MOT’d the zed on Friday, and as expected it had a couple of advisories (loud exhaust and play in the hicas tie rods, the latter being replace on Monday), but otherwise a clean bill of health for the next 12 months.

 

Something I am quite proud of is the emissions side of things, specifically hydrocarbons (which indicates how much oil the engine is burning), is a good indicator of the health of the engine.

 

 

125ppm, the limit is 1200ppm, for a car without catalytic converters shows how little my engine now burns oil. Very happy with that.

What's the CO limit for reference?

3.5%?

Edited May 19, 20187 yr by Alic

Yes mate, 3.5%

This is not a sight I thought I’d see again for a long time

 

 

What on Earth I hear you ask..... well I’m very much asking myself the same!

 

The long and short of it is, a couple of weeks ago I noticed a little rattle while moving the car, a rattle that appeared on lift off of throttle. It disappeared as quick as it appeared and I couldn’t replicate the noise again. Drove her around and all was well.

 

With the upcoming lakes trip I decided to do an oil change, again for Motul 300V. Started her up, great oil pressure as always. Repositioned her to make room for my friends car in my workshop and that same rattle appeared again. Again, after a rev on lift off of throttle. Again it disappeared and I couldn’t replicate the noise.

 

I slept on it and the next day (yesterday) decided to cut open the oil filter and check for any nastys

 

 

Gutted doesn’t really come close. Wasn’t expecting to find so much metal in the filter. This is its 4th oil and filter change since the rebuild and the engine has just over 2000 miles on it, so I was expecting no problems.

 

My initial feeling is that I’ve caught the very beginnings of a big end bearing failure. I spent the afternoon prepping for engine removal, which I should have it out some time on Friday.

 

From there it’ll be a case of open the sump and check each bearing for damage. Once the damage has been identified, I then need to try and establish what has caused the bearing failure. I know my clearances were where I wanted them to be and every oil galley had been thoroughly cleaned in the block and head prior to assembly. I have heard of ACL’s failing on a number of different manufacturers engines, so a manufacture fault is entirely possible. Regardless, I’ll be looking into a new choice of bearing.

 

Trying to take some positives from the situation and I’m going to look a doing some more small modifications. An EPR extended baffled sump is on the shopping list, as well as modifiying the block for a couple more AN fittings for an Accusump system. I’d also like to address some thermal management issues to help keep Intake Air Temps down, potentially ceramic coating of the manifold and intake tube to the turbos.

 

But before any shopping takes place, I need to be sure that the crank is undamaged and there’s no other damage to the rest of the engine such as cam journals.

 

One of these days I’ll get to enjoy DRIVING this effing car

not good after all your hard work, and i know that sinking feeling when you hear an unexpected rattle, having just experienced similar.

 

at least you have hopefully caught a problem early to prevent further damage or catastrophe.

Hopefully some new bearing and maybe a new oil pump and you should be up and running again.

Ah man, that's rotten luck Nick:no:. These cars are headwreckers and heart breakers:sad: Keep the chin up mate, you've a beautiful car that will be epic:thumbup1:

Bad news Nick and I would like to think you are over reacting but you know your car better than me. Hope its not to bad mate.

Whilst you are going through all the heartache Nick, might be worth getting something like this to protect the

lovely paintwork:

 

 

http://www.airflow-uk.co.uk/Wing-Cover.html

 

Save you from being even more p*#@^d off than you already are.

Whilst you are going through all the heartache Nick, might be worth getting something like this to protect the

lovely paintwork:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]112414[/ATTACH]

 

http://www.airflow-uk.co.uk/Wing-Cover.html

 

Save you from being even more p*#@^d off than you already are.

 

I’m going to remove the wings to besafe I’m yet to come across one of those wing “protectors” that hasn’t marked the paintwork

Really struggled to get motivated today, but I dragged myself up to my workshop to finish off the engine removal.... then promptly decided that I was fed up of working on my back and pushed the car round to my mates workshop and used his ramp for the final stages.

 

Despite far from being in the mood, the engines out.

 

 

While it’s out, I’m going to look at sorting a few other bits out. Now is the perfect time to fault find my AC system, potentially replace the rad support cross member and sort a small power steering leak.

 

Once I’m back from the Lakes I’ll look at bringing the engine home and finding out what’s gone wrong