nickz32

Have you got the rear screen at all mate?

Well after a summer of fun on two wheels, time to focus on the Z again. I’ve pretty much decided on what I want to do this time round and what I’m going to do differently. I’m going to stick to the ethos that I had before, in that I want to build an engine that’s capable of way more than I ever plan on achieving. I’m still yet to find out a definitive cause of the bearing failure, so I can only assume that while I triple checked my bearing clearances (using Plastigauge) and found them to be on the “loose” end of the factory guidelines, they simply weren’t wide enough for my application. Given that factory clearances are designed for a circa 300hp engine, where my engine generates double that, it’s a feasible explanation. There’s potentially another couple of contributing factors to premature bearing failure. 1. The Eagle Rods. EP racing posted an interesting series of videos recently around issues with Eagle rods. The long and short of it is that he has now seen more than a few examples of Eagle rods where the specified torque value for the ARP bolts (43lbs/ft) is insufficient to gain the required bolt stretch (0.0050-0.0055in). Sounds negligible. However, the amount of bolts stretch evidences how much clamping pressure the bolt is applying to the rod cap. If the bolt isn’t stretched sufficiently, it’s not holding the rod cap in place causing two potential outcomes. First is that small levels of movement/deflection occurs causing movement in the bearing (so possible bearing-journal contact). Second is the bearing isn’t compressed to form the correct shape, again potentially causing bearing-journal contact. By no means am I saying eagle rods are bad, or they all do this etc. Just that it’s a evidenced problem, and a potential cause of my premature rod bearing failure. The only way for me to check whether this has been an issue, is to completely strip the engine down, again, and inspect the rods and measure the amount of bolt stretch. 2. OE Crank Gurdle It’s seems to be generally accepted that the stock girdle should be upgraded above the 550whp mark (634ish at the crank). This is due to the girdle deforming under higher loads causing bearing-journal contact. Now while I’ve not quite been at those levels, I’m not going to be far off. To address this, I’m going to be installing an EPR billet cap kit (rated to over 1500hp) to make sure nothing moves that’s not mean to move. 3. Lightweight crank pulley I’ve always had a niggle in the back of my mind about solid crank pulleys. Nissan decided that the OE crank pulley should be dampened, yet for the sake of rotational mass, I stuck a lightweight item on. Now while I, and many others, have run lightweight solid crank pulleys with no problems, I reeeeeeeeally don’t want to be doing another bearing set again. So, to minimise any harmonic damage, I’ll be fitting an ATi Super Damper crank pulley this time rounds. Im also going to install an EP Racing extended sump aswell as having my crank and oil pump converted into a High Speed Oiling System to ensure my bearings maintain a nice thick oil cushion for my widened bearing clearances (0.0030). Instead of using Plastigauge I’m going to be as accurate as possible and have everything measured with micrometers and Dial bore gauges. While the engines out, im also going to upgrade the steering rack bushings to Whiteline items aswell as replace my AC condenser and straighten out my radiator support (to resolve my less than perfect bonnet shut gap) I’m hoping to get the block into Roland Alsop before Christmas and my crank off to EP racing in the next week or so..... and having seen some of his head work on a set of 48p heads, I’m very tempted to send my 48p’s off to him for some work aswell.... depends how much overtime I can smash in the coming months. I’m aiming to get the car driveable again for May time, but I’m not going to stress over it if I can’t.

Scalpel?

Hmmm. I wonder how common this is with auto converted cars?

How’d you get on Lee

I’m looking at coming up on the bike on the Saturday

Spa classic has been on my bucket list for a long time now.... I’d be interested

The condition of the brake fluid also has a huge impact on pedal effort. Most dot 4 is meant to be flushed every 2 years.... dot 5.1 is more regular than that as it tends to be more hygroscopic that dot 4.

If my car was running I’d genuinely be up for this.... although I’d ask for the stipulation of a handful of laps to better learn the circuit

A few more...... not a bad turn out for a South Central meet!

I seem to remember that he had an old minature cannon.... and got a bit ambitious with the amount of black powder he used.... that was the end result

Yeah I remember that.... and the visit by the boys in blue afterwards! You can see my car towards the back. Sussex Stu aka shrapnel Stu was there.... can’t remember who else but I’ve got some pics somewhere

That was a blinder

I’m happy to put my name down for this

Sounds like a good idea

Not a lot to update everyone on. Engines out and in bits with no “smoking gun” of why I had metal in the oil. Bearings all show an even, if slightly excessive amount of wear, but nothing that I think correlates to what I found in the oil. For the time being I’m taking a well earned break from working on it and am enjoying being back on 2 wheels again (BMW S1000RR if anyone’s interested). Anyway, before I discovered this little issue, a new “car media” company asked for my car for a photo shoot.... here are a few of this pics of my car

Cracking weekend had by all (I believe) Gutted I wasn’t in the Z and was very envious when we went for our tour of the Dales/Pennines/Lakes, they all looked fab going down the road. Deffo fancy this again another time, but think a 4 day trip would probably work a bit better, there’s a lot to cram in in just one day. Thanks to all who organised, attended and visited. A great advert for what club meets can be!

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

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

Yeah, I’m paying about £1.30 for Vpower at the moment, although I’ve seen it around the £1.38 mark in my general area.... Bloocy yanks messing it up for the rest of us!

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

I’ll post up on my thread later, but I’m more than a little gutted