nickz32

Well, for the first time in nearly 5 years, my Z has an engine in its bay.

Ok, so a bit of a photo dump. plenty of progress recently, and I think the engine is pretty much ready to go back into the bay.

Reduced to £550

Used pair of Z1 motorsport GT525 0.54 A/R turbo chargers (4 bolt downpipes) for Z32 generation Nissan 300zx. These turbos made 519 WHEEL horsepower at 22psi in their current condition on my Z. Ceramic coated turbine housings, with ported wastegates. No broken studs One compressor wheel has been damaged by a rogue washer, however new CHRA’s are available from Z1 motorsport for $600. The turbo with no damage has acceptable radial play and zero axial play. Replacing the damaged would result in 2 perfect health turbos for the fraction of the cost of new. Will work with OEM turbo oil feed and coolant lines Neither turbo smoked when running. 11psi wastegates Packing and postage not included £650 ono

Back from my family holiday to find goodies awaiting New turbos by Pulsar. They’re GTX2860 Gen 2 with a 0.64 AR. They’ll provide plenty of boost headroom at the top end and get the most out of my head/cam/valvetrain set up. I’ll no doubt lose some response, but the GT525’s used to build boost too fast resulting in issues with boost control and boost spiking in the midrange and they ran out of puff after 6,000 rpm where they were effectively choking the engine. With these and my Haltech setup, I should be able to have progressive boost build early on but still a strong midrange and not have boost taper off at the top end, and not have to push them to the absolute limit to get the performance levels im after.

Haven’t messed with Play Doh for probably 40 years 😅. Cam timing has been finalised, so was time to check piston to valve clearance. Turns out I’ve got LOADS. 4.4mm on intake and 4.9mm on exhaust. Finally day of tinkering complete before the family holiday to Sicily. Straight back to it when I’m back, and hopefully take delivery of my new Singapore swirly boys

More progress. Verifying the cam timing and found the exhaust cams were off by 3 degrees. Surprised that the intake cams were spot on where the should be considering the new block and heads being skimmed. Next job is adjust the cam timing to get it to spec, then pull the heads off and play doh the pistons and check Piston to Valve clearance. Will also advance the intake cams 10deg to simulate VTC activation and make sure everything has plenty of room

I was hoping to push on and potentially make this, but my turbos that were meant to be delivered tomorrow have been pushed back until end of the month

More tinkering yesterday. Spent some time finding true TDC ready for timing the cams up. New oil pump arrived courtesy of @conceptzperformance (brilliant service as always) and got the cylinder heads on. Next job will be set up cam timing and measure piston to valve clearance. Once complete I can order the new set of head gaskets and start the final assembly

Bit of a backward step this yesterday. Got the short block back to my unit and installed the BDE engine mounts, water pump etc. After spending a ridiculous amount of time clearing the crank timing gear (wasn’t smooth going on the crank snout) I span her over to start working out true TDC, when I felt a gear like notchyness at a certain point in rotation. Given it was smooth as silk when I span it over prior to pump install, I instantly thought oil pump. Removed the sump and pump, and all spins over smoothly again. Pump was a replacement sent by EPR immediately after its failure, and clearly wasn’t new as it had very little assembly lube inside it. Having taken it apart I can see it galling inside the pump on the leading edge of the small gear, so in the bin that goes and a new pump on order….. dear lord they’ve got expensive!!

Goodies courtesy of CZP and SZ 2.5” turbo intake kit BDE low profile engine mounts CZP replacement lower rad hose, clutch booster hose and intake valve cover crush washers Gates Kevlar belt Upper plenum gasket New turbos have already been ordered, hopefully be here before the end of the month

I’ve had the same issue mate, had to back fill the lines from the oil cooler and remote oil filter housing Make sure you prime it without the spark plugs in, much less strain on the starter motor and effectively no load on the bearings as it’s not building any compression

Bottom end is now complete. Hopefully get it back to my unit soon so I can start work on the heads and get the long block complete

Pistons and rods installed. Just waiting on a set of STDX King rod bearings to make some adjustments to my big end bearing clearances…. Unsurprisingly, the STD size bearings EPR used produced 0.0017” clearance not the 0.0035” quoted in the build sheet. Targetting 0.0025” for this build. Also reinstalled the @brettdempseyengineering oil tree. Oh and I will never use a ratchet piston ring compressor ever again, these ring compression sleeves are SOOOOO much easier to use!!

Crank back from OCS and happy to report she’s straight as an arrow with less that 1 micron of runout. went with Torco MPZ assembly lube after numerous recommendations from engine builder friends of mine. Main bearing clearances came up nice and even at 0.0026” give or take a couple of ten thousandths, and the crank spins over nice and smooth

May have missed it, but what turbos are they?

New bearings arrived Now waiting on the crank to come back from OCS. I checked the run-out and while it was in Nissan spec (0.0039” limit!), it had too much runout for my liking, so OCS are straightening the crank to get it as close to 0 runout as possible

If in doubt, count teeth on the belt between the marks

Very very true

Well a rather annoying twist in the tale. Installed the crank the other day after completing all pre assembly prep. Everything seemed ok bar a slight bit of clearancing needed on the girdle plate. Took everything off and found a whopper of a scratch on one of my main bearings. Annoyed doesn’t come close! I know the block and crank were crystal clean so I can only assume that my old pot of assembly lube had become contaminated with a bit of grit or who knows what. What are the odds?!? So, yet again, a thorough clean of block and crank before sealing away on clean bags while I await new bearings to arrive….. and a NEW bottle of assembly lube by @torcousa via @nimbusmotorsport

JWT lifters??? Are you sure about that?? I can’t find any trace of JWT lifters on their website or anywhere on the net

Block prep is now finished. Primered and painted in VHT Cast Iron Grey and new freeze plugs installed. Picking up a set of micrometers this eve to take post micropolish measurements of the crankshaft and then assembly can begin!

Make the Hour drive to PowerZed in Bristol mate

UPS are awful for importing stuff. I insist on fedex every time I get stuff from the states, never had a problem with them and import duty is paid on your behalf and then you’re invoiced after delivery