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Hi All,

 

I've decided I want to start documenting more of the journey with my 300zx, I've called it the No-name 300zx project, because I've never given the car a name other than 'The Nissan'.

First of all, a little history:

2013

I've owned the car since mid 2013, the only mods were different wheels and a Nistune ECU and map

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My first bonding experience with the car was when the starter motor decided to detach itself from the gearbox a couple of days in to ownership. A small job of drilling and tapping the stripped hole from m10 to m12, and a replacement bolt solved that easily.

 

The slippery modification slope began a few months in to ownership. MeisterR suspension fitted, the handling was much improved.

 

Adjustable camber arms, tension rods, Hicas removal, Whiteline anti roll bars, drop links and an exhaust with an X pipe soon followed.

 

2014

In 2014, the car did its first track days at Goodwood and Brands Hatch. At Brands hatch, the clutch started slipping, and so a competition cluch and ultra lightweight flywheel were chosen as replacements. At the same time, I installed lightweight underdrive pulleys and a single piece prop shaft. The weight that was removed from the drive-train made a huge difference to the engine, it revved much more freely and transformed the drive once again.

 

With more track days in mind, mods such as bucket seats, strut braces and brake upgrades came with the territory. Evo 8 calipers and after a number of poor pad choices, Pagid RS29 (now RSL29) are now my go-to pad of choice.

 

2015

Nurburgring and the clutch. again. I took a trip to the Nurburgring with my Dad, and had an unforgettable trip for many reasons. On the drive home, first gear was getting harder to select, and by the time we pulled up on the driveway, the clutch wouldn't release. Very lucky!. Another gearbox pull, and an upgraded 350z clutch fork later and the problem was solved.

 

 

Fast forward to October. BEST TRACK DAY EVER - After a full day of flawless lapping at Goodwood, and a quiet afternoon allowing 3 back-to-back 15 minute sessions, one of the turbos let itself go. I still went home grinning, knowing that the car had started to perform how I had hoped, and that it was time for upgrades.

3c44406f72e66f0788cdc5c42a77a70a.jpg

 

Queue my first engine pull, on the sloped, uneven driveway at my parents house. The turbos were removed and taken for a hybrid rebuild, and I performed all the remaining deletes to simplify the engine bay. Removed a few buckets full of wiring and plumbing that was no longer needed, and tidied and cleaned anything I could. 555cc injectors were ordered from the sketchiest retailer I could find. Changed the gearbox oil.

 

2016

 

Engine back in the car, and a map saw 494hp in February. By the end of Feb, one of the turbos was starved of oil and seized. Thankfully it was the left turbo, that can be removed in about 2 hours with the engine still in place, so I rebuilt it in my shed with a service kit bought from ebay. It's still going strong now.

f2f143d7ad736ecd2c735774d0eae3c1.jpg

 

In April, my Dad had a 'meeting' with a tyre wall at Goodwood, with me in the passenger seat. We both walked away fine relationship still intact.

 

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I replaced and repaired the panels that were damaged, and then vinyl wrapped it in light satin blue. The wrap has covered most of its scars and gave it a new lease of life. I had only intended and expected the wrap to last for a year or so, but it is still holding up over 2.5 years later.

 

Fitted Michelin Pilot sport 4s for the first time, if you need a recommendation of tyre choice for road and the odd track day, that's it.

 

2017

 

2017 was spent saving for a house and so was relatively uneventful for the car, I think I did one Goodwood track day. Dad and I purchased a Westfield, which is a completely different animal, and much cheaper on consumables. But nothing beats the feel of The Nissan when it's on top form.

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2018

A flawless track day in Feb at Brands Hatch was the first outing of the year. We had both the Westfield and Nissan on track at the same time, allowing us to swap between cars meant you had to re-calibrate your brain for each session.

 

Another Goodwood afternoon track day started to show that some of the suspension components fitted with rose joints were in need of some TLC and so replacement rod ends were ordered from Mcgill motorsport and fitted, reducing creaks and knocks drastically. Additionally, the car's idle was getting progressively rougher. It sounded like an aggressively 'cammed' v8. Which is cool if it is a cammed V8, but not so much if it's a V6.

 

Late 2018, friends and I found a garage unit to rent, which would allow dry storage and working on the cars. I'd never had this luxury before, and it makes such a difference to be able to work on the car whatever the weather or time of day. Until this point, everything had been done to the car on my parents wonky driveway. The unit is a time machine - you 'pop over' to drop something off and leave 6 hours later.

 

The idle got progressively worse, to the point where it could barely keep itself alive, but up in the higher rev range, it still ran like a dream.

 

For Christmas, I treated myself to a new MAF and Series 2 PTU with new plugs. fitting these and new coil pack connectors bought the engine back to it's former glory. My guess is the culprit was the MAF, but all of the new connectors must have made a difference considering the poor state of the originals.

 

2019

 

This brings us up to the present day, where I will try and update this thread with the work, findings and adventures of The Nissan. It begins with pulling the engine again because of a small rattle that could have caused a big problem.

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Thanks for reading

Edited by kaned
pictures added

Featured Replies

  • Author

Aww, shucks, you're making me blush!

 

I had hoped to edit the post with some pictures, but it's not showing me an option to edit?

  • Author

The engine pull:

 

The car has had an annoying exhaust rattle for over 1.5 years, like a loose bolt sound. I'd had the exhaust off a number of times to try and diagnose it, but could never find it.

 

I had one last idea that it could be the wastegate flapper inside the turbo not shutting fully, allowing it to rattle and echo down the exhaust. I wasn't wrong.

 

The pivot between the wastegate actuator and the flapper was seized completely on the Right hand turbo just enough for the flapper to rattle, and there's nothing that could be done about it while the engine was in the car, there is no access to any part of it without pulling the engine.

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I managed the pull in 5 hours on my own and I was exhausted! Earned a few beers that evening!

 

Jobs performed were:

 

The wastegate pivot hole was drilled out from 6mm-6.1mm and it moved perfectly. I did this on both turbos as a precaution, the LH wastegate pivot was tight but not fully seized.

 

Changed the cam seals again to try and solve the leak behind the VTC gears, but it seems to be the gears themselves, so I will live with the small leak until the full engine rebuild happens

 

A friend kindly helped clean up all the filthy engine parts and rebuilt the power steering pump with new seals, so there's no more leaks making a mess over the alternator

 

Made some new engine ground cables and tidied a few connectors in the engine bay

 

Replaced the engine mounts with Hardrace pieces as one had torn in half

 

I was going to reuse the 3 year old timing belt as it looked fine, until I was about to refit it and saw daylight through it! It seems a piece of debris has been catching a ride around the timing belt, as there's small marks around the rollers in the same position as the hole. I'm lucky there wasn't more damage to the pulleys, or even a snapped belt. Dodged a bullet there!

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I changed the Diff oil and rear handbrake shoes and some more worn out suspension rose joints.

 

The engine went back in fairly easily, the hardest bit is always getting the gearbox lined up while laying on the floor under the car.

On testing the engine, it only seems to be able to make 17psi of boost, while it had always made 19psi. I'm all out of ideas after boost leak tests and wastegate checks. I'm going to check that the wastegates aren't pushing open from exhaust gas, as even without the wastegates plumbed in, 17psi is the maximum it will reach.

 

I've also treated it to a new set of Michelin PS4's

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Edited by kaned

  • Author

Just thinking out loud, I'm going to check the det sensor bypass resistor, to check it hasn't been come loose. The car doesn't have safety boost solenoids, but the timing and fueling would be pulled back if it had, possibly effecting boost?

 

Will plug int to Datascan to check also. It's a theory... I'm probably wrong

I track-day'd my previous 300zx at Brands Hatch. These cars are EPIC on a circuit !!!

 

Mind you....cresting Paddock Hill Bend at an insane speed, dropping off the face of the earth into the hollow, go for a gear and snap the bolt holding the gear lever to the shaft......now that'll focus the mind !!! What amazed me is just how incredibly capable and balanced these cars are.....beyond my skills for sure !!

 

Kind of a shame the current car is an auto :-(

  • Author

So results from plugging the laptop in:

 

No code 34, resistor is still firmly in place.

 

I did notice the TPS only gets a maximum of 4.04V. Should I adjust the throttle linkage stop so it can make it closer to 5V?

 

Sent from my CLT-L09 using Tapatalk

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