Intro -

After more than 15 years of ownership, many great meets, road trips, and track days, my Fairlady is going through a full top to bottom rebuild. During many of the meets I discussed building the ultimate NA with Slick Pete as we shared the love of high revving NA motors. Almost everyone recommends going TT conversion or LS swap as the easy way to high power but I wanted something unique. So after securing some workspace with NickZ32 the tear down began. Its been slow going but continues to move forward. 

Will provide updates as I pull together photos and details 

 

Edited July 5, 20242 yr by madmarco
redundent

Getting ready to tear one of my projects back down and it reminded me of your project. Did you receive word back on the failure?

On 21/11/2025 at 18:07, protoj said:

Getting ready to tear one of my projects back down and it reminded me of your project. Did you receive word back on the failure?

Yes, main bearing was fouled by some contamination. Current theory is that some loose metal was in my remote oil filter tree/cooler set up and that I didn’t adequately flush it out after it sat in the lock up for over a year. The debri from the damaged bearing spread throughout the motor damaging all crank and cam journals. Engine has been fully stripped and now going through a fresh rebuild at TDI. This was a very costly mistake and to say I’m gutted is an understatement!

23 hours ago, madmarco said:

Yes, main bearing was fouled by some contamination. Current theory is that some loose metal was in my remote oil filter tree/cooler set up and that I didn’t adequately flush it out after it sat in the lock up for over a year. The debri from the damaged bearing spread throughout the motor damaging all crank and cam journals. Engine has been fully stripped and now going through a fresh rebuild at TDI. This was a very costly mistake and to say I’m gutted is an understatement!

Ah, no that's rough! Sorry to hear that. Something preventable always feels the worst. I am sure extra care will be taken on the rebuild to avoid this type of thing happening. An expensive mistake for sure, but don't be down on yourself too much about it. Stuff happens. Now you / they know for next time and can build it better! Any changes while it's apart or sticking with same setup?

Engine rebuild almost complete. Updated to 88 pistons and Tomei cams. Should be back on road in time for summer, will update as she progresses.

Black Sunshine part 2 begins! Picked up the motor from TDI yesterday and installed today. Taking my time but should be back on the road soon.

She’s fully assembled and running sweet! New cams are a bit more lumpy and she has a nice rasp when reved. Feeling really positive, dyno check next week at TDI and assuming all is well a full summer of track days and meets are in the cards.

Clean bill of health at TDI, good to begin the new motor break in! Full tune and power runs scheduled for August.

Continue to log miles in preparation for the full tune and power runs by RaceCal later this month. Made a run out to Didley Squat farm yesterday to see what all the fuss was about. Had a good burger but no way I was going to wait in the queue for the shop. Expected to see some cool cars but my Z32 was the only sports car or classic there!

Swinging through and checking up on your progress! Everything still behaving as expected? What's the word on the tune?

-Cheers

Back to TDI for the RaceCal tune. Ran into the same problem we had with the last motor (before it went bang), loss of hp above 6K. Power builds really well to that point and if it continued at the same rate it is likely I will hit my 300bhp target at 8K. Consensus is that my exhaust system is not flowing well enough so header research and new cat back system is next. Good news is engine is solid, with fueling and spark behaving perfectly. I always knew a fast NA would be a challenge!

Well done mate. 40hp gain on an NA is no joke!

12 hours ago, madmarco said:

Back to TDI for the RaceCal tune. Ran into the same problem we had with the last motor (before it went bang), loss of hp above 6K. Power builds really well to that point and if it continued at the same rate it is likely I will hit my 300bhp target at 8K. Consensus is that my exhaust system is not flowing well enough so header research and new cat back system is next. Good news is engine is solid, with fueling and spark behaving perfectly. I always knew a fast NA would be a challenge!

Great post! Very interesting. So I've been dealing with similar concerns on my build as well before I decided to tear things down and make some changes. I have also been in talks with a local performance custom exhaust builder and discussed with him my concerns with the typical aftermarket header setups available for these cars. Is the same shop going to do the research for you or are you taking it to another company? I would be interested in testing some stuff as well or can provide further data if necessary for my race car NA 300ZX slicktop. Our projected power ceilings are not so dissimilar. My machinist shop and I are currently still in the build phase for the new setup.

14 hours ago, protoj said:

Great post! Very interesting. So I've been dealing with similar concerns on my build as well before I decided to tear things down and make some changes. I have also been in talks with a local performance custom exhaust builder and discussed with him my concerns with the typical aftermarket header setups available for these cars. Is the same shop going to do the research for you or are you taking it to another company? I would be interested in testing some stuff as well or can provide further data if necessary for my race car NA 300ZX slicktop. Our projected power ceilings are not so dissimilar. My machinist shop and I are currently still in the build phase for the new setup.

Thanks protoj, quality aftermarket headers for the NA are nonexistent these days. TDI has offered to do the math to determine ideal pipe lengths and a better collector and then fabricate on site. I’m looking at options for the back half, the HKS Hyper looks the most promising but a custom valved set up may be the way to go.

On 29/08/2026 at 05:10, madmarco said:

Thanks protoj, quality aftermarket headers for the NA are nonexistent these days. TDI has offered to do the math to determine ideal pipe lengths and a better collector and then fabricate on site. I’m looking at options for the back half, the HKS Hyper looks the most promising but a custom valved set up may be the way to go.

The Hyper has always had one of the top flowing designs, at the expense of a more polarizing aesthetic style of twin can.

Yes, regarding the headers, that's been a huge issue, right? The original Stillen headers were decent at the time, but with only poor quality copy rip-offs only existing these days it's no wonder people have lost faith in the performance benefit of them. We need a new design that has been properly researched and engineered to help extract a bit more from this engine. Interestingly enough, I've never seen a longtube style available for this car w/ it's own mid-pipe cat/de-cat section. I guess the shorty designs are more popular to adapt to already owned cat/decat sections.

Time to reduce the under bonnet heat, didn’t want those horrible plastic vents so had proper louvres made at Cool Louvres in Crawley. Will drop off for paint tomorrow.

Gratuitous engine shot while the bonnet is off…

Bonnet painted and installed. Exhaust uncorked with a Z1 race pipe, if this doesn’t solve the 6K + lack of power gain then it’s not the exhaust!

Looking good! Are they still drawing up a custom set of headers?

Are you going to pass noise testing with that system? Looks like there’s not much silencer at all.

Also what was the reason behind switching to Tomei cams from the JWT? Weren't the JWT's more aggressive? Or did you go to a non-solid lifter cam profile?

15 hours ago, protoj said:

Looking good! Are they still drawing up a custom set of headers?

Not yet, want to see if a change to the end pipe shifts peak power first. TDI is great but they’re not cheap.

15 hours ago, Stephen said:

Are you going to pass noise testing with that system? Looks like there’s not much silencer at all.

It is insanely loud even with the baffles, it will be close to the limit at a 105db track day, but my god does it sound good. I have a dyno session scheduled today, will post the results and the noise later.

13 hours ago, protoj said:

Also what was the reason behind switching to Tomei cams from the JWT? Weren't the JWT's more aggressive? Or did you go to a non-solid lifter cam profile?

Two reasons- the JWT cams had some marking on the bearing surfaces after the last fail, and they didn’t match the claimed specifications for duration. Could have polished them up for reuse but the Tomei (also solid lifter) looked more promising.

Edited September 18Sep 18 by madmarco

Test dyno runs complete. Result 260.6 at the flywheel, pretty good and a big step from stock but still have some work to do… Cam timing is probably next on the list. Can’t load the video as it’s too large but trust me it sounded wicked with the baffles out!

On 18/09/2026 at 04:04, madmarco said:

Two reasons- the JWT cams had some marking on the bearing surfaces after the last fail, and they didn’t match the claimed specifications for duration. Could have polished them up for reuse but the Tomei (also solid lifter) looked more promising.

Cam duration doesn't have a universal lift measurement location, sadly. Brand cam duration is based on "where this company measures from, and sets their own standard for all cams", so a bit of a subjective art to it. A bit weird, but true. Many companies will swear this way or that is the best way for measuring duration. I think lift is a more valuable measurement. JWT and Tomei are both top notch, you can't go wrong either way. Personally, I went with the JWT cams because I know and trust those guys and their long term experience working alongside Nissan / Nismo factory racing programs and trade secrets, especially regarding the VG / VQ platforms. I'm sure you'll have good results either way once the cam timing gets tuned in.

Currently, your dyno graph looks solid and a good start. Very curious to see how things look after tuning, especially over 6k rpm. Keep us posted!

So what's the next step for you on this? Still waiting to hear if you're going to do custom headers?

On 01/10/2026 at 18:20, protoj said:

So what's the next step for you on this? Still waiting to hear if you're going to do custom headers?

Custom headers and cam timing are next, if that doesn’t break the 6K barrier then intake revisions (plenum and throttle bodies) are probably next. For now I’m just going to drive it and enjoy the ride. Just had a great time at Japfest Goodwood followed by a track day there yesterday. Black Sunshine got a lot of attention and held its own on the track, what a great car to drive!