nickz32

As with most projects and rebuilds, they all start in the same place, mine was no different. However, this isn’t truely the start of my forever ongoing Z project. I’ve owned this car (my second Z) since 2008 when I purchased it from a former member. For the first 5 or 6 years I did the usual mods with suspension parts and basic bolt ons. For reasons unknown, whilst running stock boost, piston 5 cracked a ring land during a track day at Castle Coombe. A forged build and a remap later all was well until a sunny October’s day 2013 at Bruntingthorpe killed that engine with what at the time was a suspected head gasket failure at 181mph..... And this is where I shall start my journal. The Z was stored off the road from Oct 2013 until March 2015. I’d had a major knee operation at the beginning of 2015 which meant I was going to be off work for 6 months. I’d saved up enough to start thinking about a parts list to rebuild her and frankly, after a couple of months of staring at the same 4 walls, I was going stir crazy! I employed the help of a good friend and decided to pull the engine and see what was what.... just a head gasket my arse! March 2015 Problem 1: It turns out stainless steel, exhaust wraps and condensation don’t mix well Before I’d even got the engine out, a new set of downpipes was added to this list. These AMS items were only 2 years old, so I was far from impressed! I contacted the retailer and after a bit of tooing and froing I secured myself a set of replacements for free... how long they will last, only time will tell!

My experience in GTST’s is reasonably limited, I’ve been out in a few and driven a few at the power level your friend is looking at, and I’ve always found them quite peaky, all top end not much low or mid range which makes attempting to driving them quickly in damp and wet conditions a bit of a handful and ultimately slower than the Z... they seem to lack that tractability in their power delivery the the Z has in spades. There may be a ways to improve that with some of the new developments in Turbo technology with thing like the second hen GTX turbos.

Which is precisely why I had that level of balancing done when I built my engine :P

And I seem to recall that RB oil pumps seem to shit themselves with any notable increase in torque, so I’d certainly research around that and find an suitable solution. Re balancing, I’m sure there probably is a gain due to parasitic losses, but to PROPERLY balance an engine it has to be completely stripped and each part of the rotating assembly to be weighed, equalised and then dynamically balanced (including crank pulley, flywheel and clutch pressure plate)

I suppose it depends on what aspirations he has for the car. As you’ve mentioned that he is thinking of stroking it suggests that he’s thinking of chasing some serious power. If that’s the case then I’d suggest that he’lol probably end up pushing the engine as it is to the point of crapping itself..... in which case I’d say build it now while parts like the crank and cylinders are in good shape rather than waiting for it to pop and potentially causing irreprible damage to the crank and block. As for how long they last, depends entirely on who builds it and subsequently tunes it.

* pretty much maxed out my zed (poxy auto correct!)

As some of you know, I pretty much my zee out at bruntingthorpe at 181mph through the speed trap at the 1.65 mile mark. It was still pulling And with a bit more space i should have breached the 190 mark, but I don’t think it would have done much more. I seem to remember I was at about 6800rpm at that speed on 255/35 and 295/30/18’s at 570hp at the crank. Gotta day though, she was as stable as a stable thing at those speeds

Was one of the nicest on the forum for quite a while

I’ve probably got some on my PC. I’ll have a look when I get home tomorrow

Cracking stuff, both cars look fantastic. One curiousity Joel, what’s with the not for sale hashtag that I’ve seen you use here and your FB posts?

Unless you have either OE cam gears or BDE cam gears, you cannot use the VTC system. The mechanism inside the cam gears is what changes the cam overlap

Sounds like an air lock in the coolant system?

Doh, my eyes must have autopilited that tech drawing to the ones I’ve been looking at for glass seals! To be honest I always thought the inner boot seal was one long piece

Fairly sure Joely has, and I will be in the next week or so when the screen comes out. Popping to the bodyshop tomorrow to see how things are moving

Hi Dan. I did call AF and unfortunately you were £130 off the best price I had, another year with Sky Insurance for me

Fair play

Happy birthday Mike

No buddy, I hadn’t specified what type of policy I was after. From previous experience I’ve not been eligible for classic policy due to the extensive modifications to the engine, never because of how I plan to use the car

Well aware of that mate. Wasn’t asking for track cover to be included or anything. Just wanted normal private vehicle insurance. They refused to quote purely on the basis that I said I may take my vehicle on track at some point during the length of the policy.

Correct. I wasn’t asking for track day cover, just normal private vehicle insurance. They wouldn’t offer me a quote or cover purely because I planned on doing one or two tack days next year

Just a quick one for anyone who’s looking for insurance quotes in the near future. I just spent a bit of time on the phone reading out the spec of my car in order to get a new quote, to which I was asked the question “are you planning on taking the car on track?” , to which I replied “yes, maybe once or twice a year”. Their reply was “Sorry we cannot offer you cover as you plan on taking you car onto a track”. My response was “I could take any private car on track, what’s the difference here?” To which I couldn’t get a straight answer. I’ve never had this issue before, and frankly I think it’s ludicrous! So a warning to those, if you’re asked if you take your car on to a track, regardless of how infrequently that may be, they may refuse to cover or quote you

Saved those for the future! Cheers Pete

Cheers buddy. I’m not sure, it looks like the 180deg fitting sits a bit proud of the plenum that might stop it from fitting back on

And yes Joely..... one day I will docs whole build thread, I think it’ll take me a month to write it up!