Bit unexpected was this, yesterday at 2500rpm, noticed a VERy slight vibration and quiet knocking from the engine bay, checked oil, was about 1/2 full, filled it up, vibration and knocking went away.

 

Driving tonight, quite hard, all of a sudding, VERY LOUD knocking from engine bay, pulls over, revs from idle, slight knock from 1500revs, and got LOUD at 2500, limped it home.

 

Anyone else thinks its spun a shell?

 

Also just had a hunt on the net, and cant find anywhere that sells Z32 cranks, as im guessing its shot as driving it on full boost at about 5k rpm as it went. :(

 

Also, what would labour be on a job like that? Im good with engines, but anything past simple on that monster just scares me :)

doesnt sound good mate, tho someone recently had a spun shell which looked a mess, but the crank wasnt too bad IIRC, if youve caught it in time, it may just need re-shelling & poss crank grind.

 

you need to get someone to listen to it - dont drive it any more!!! :(

yeah, it dont sound good!

 

spun a shell on a pug 205 before and sounded exactly the same, although that wasnt such a nightmare to fix :rolleyes:

 

and no, after limping it him, stuck it straight in the drive, the missus golf is now my chariot till this is done!

Sorry to see you have an engine problem!

I spun a shell last year!

U can drop the sump & ave a look. Thats what they did on my Z. I'm no mechanic!

There are different ways as you possibly know, of fixing or replacing bits.

Half engines are cheap too.

Arthur

yup, thats what im gunna do, HOPEFULLY i caught it in time, could only have done it for 20-30secs or so before I noticed it, then limped it home reaaaaly steady.

I did it! i spun a shell :( made a nice mess of the shell, fooked the crank, and cracked the rod :(

ok, you guys that have suffered the same, how much did it cost to repair?

Drain the oil out, see if there is any shell bearing in there. Should be quite obvious, just look for the shiny bits. :(

 

Bought my Z with blown up engine, repaired it myself. Crank, No.6 piston & con-rod bust too...

 

These Z32 cranks are nitrided/tuftrided, so that makes them quite tough and wear resistant. Mine was JUST about running with NO shell bearing, and the conrod endcap was held on with 1 nut with 2 turns of thread on it :D

 

I took the crank to a regrinders, and it JUST failed to clean up, but before i took it it was a total mess. Just proves how much abuse it can take.

 

So I got a short engine to solve my problems, took crank out and No.6 Piston & Con-Rod.

 

Oh, ALSO GET A NEW OIL PUMP!!! As the Z32 pumps have steel gears but aluminium sides. The steel backing from the shell bearing will wear these quickly.

 

If your Con-Rod is scrap, you will need to take a head off to get it out, they do not come out from the bottom :(

 

At this point I was advised to change the one-way drain valves at the rear of the engine block. I never bothered lol.

 

Have a look here ---> http://bagpuss.swan.ac.uk/dunk300zx/Z32_Stuff/ These are the photos I took while I stripped and rebuilt my engine. I hope it might help someone.

 

Hope this little lot helps someone...... :D :D

 

Robert

Now that depends on you!

Is it a big upgrade job or a normal replacement job!

I replaced the whole lot! Got a replacement TT engine from a firm in Hythe Kent who deal in Jap engines.

You could do a half engine replacement. If you are doing alot of the work yourself your cost could be halved.

Arthur

doesnt sound good mate, tho someone recently had a spun shell which looked a mess, but the crank wasnt too bad IIRC

Yep that would be me. My knock was quite quiet though. But I did drive it for about three months with the knock!

 

The crank polished out but if yours sounds that bad you might have bigger worries. I did it all myself and added loads of performance bits while I was at it. But if you were just to pull the engine and do the bearings, you're probably only looking at a few hundred pounds for parts.