itzgoten

Gollum, I dropped off that wing in the trash like you said.. So when is the next get together? Sorry I couldn't make it last time but seems like Toan won his "pretty car award".. Damm that guy and his sparkley car. LOL

We're working with NCRC to rent out an entire run group. My buddy decided to have a track day as his bachelor party. I will have to give other people rides already unless I get in on another run group. Bill needs to clear me for Open group anyway so that might be a possibility. We'll see when the time gets closer. Would you have another car drive or maybe even Bill's car if he goes? And if you could tell Bill also. Would be nice to meet up with him again.

I'll fill you when I see you at the track to explain what happened. She was tuned but my lack of experience and bad luck made things the way they were. This time around I came in knowing more. I'll be doing the NCRC track day on June 30th if you can make it out there will Bill. Would be nice to officially meet!

So I spent the day at my Tuner's house and he finished building the bottom while we were out BBQing. It nice see things coming together again and FINALLY picking up. I took a bunch of pictures of the motor being put together in stages. Nothing too crazy but in case anyone was interested in the general process. Only if pistons could stay this nice forever my pistons on the table before the rings got measured and cut This was the block as I got it back from the machine shop. We took off the girdle to get the oil squirters, bearings, crank in. Oil squirter installed bearings are in crank put in main caps are on. girdle put back on and torqued down all the rings were put on and checked And in they go! The rod bolts were checked and torqued.. Look a SR20 STi!! FINALLY! I hope to have everything back together in a few weeks. We have some other projects at the shop but once that is done we're going to focus on the Z to get her back on the road again.

Mike, I'm not sure what the fuss is all about. They are crazy.. or maybe it is me that is crazy. I have no problem with the braking power and it is great daily. But then again, I don't mind crawling out of the car because of the roll cage, sitting in a fixed bucket seat daily and having no radio. So I guess I'm just rough around the edges. But all kidding aside, the brakes work fine daily and with a (somewhat) gentle foot breaking is fine without any issues. I haven't ever once thought to myself "damn, these brakes are just too much". In fact I would have went 6 pot if anything. Gotta brake as good as you accelerate right? Well.. just my honest opinion. I would just get the AZC brakes, you'll adjust if you drive it often enough.

Jesus it has been forever. The block ended up going to the machine shop because they didn't line hone the main journals properly. We got the block back the beginning of this week and the proper bearings just arrived today. Hopefully the block will be assembeled this weekend and I can have her up and running soon. Aside from the motor work I've been wanting to get a APR GTC-200 wing for quite some time. I plan on using this at the track only. Kinda like Mark Rolston and his RB Z. It's a long time coming but I ended up getting the wing. Here some pictures of the mock up and what the spoiler looks like. I got it for a steal and I'm completely satisfied. Now I just need to look for another hatch to mount this wing on. Nothing fancy with the spare hatch. I was thinking about maybe reinforcing the underside/inside of where the spoiler is going to be mounted to. The hatch feels kinda flimsy and I'm not sure if it will be stable enough with the wing pushing down on it. I was also thinking about using plexiglass or some other material instead of glass. Any how.. here's the wing!

Damn, that chassis is coming along. I'm a bit jealous and can't wait to see this puppy at T-Hill! VERY NICE! Is Bill helping or giving any input on the build? I'd imagine he has lots to offer.

This is my Z w/ a SR And at the track..

Thanks for the props man.. the car REALLY slowed down. I got into some other hobbies and it's taking up most of my time and interest. BUT, the project isn't over. I sent the block out last week to get line honed. I had to use different main caps that wasn't from the original block. Also ordered some ARP main studs, new Apexi 1.1m headgasket and a mishimoto racing thermostat. Should be a few more weeks will the car is back together again. I'm hoping mid-March at the latest. I want to make the MSA show this year so lets hope that it'll happen. And my Buddy got this decal for my rear view mirror. I love it! hahaha! And before anyone asks, no I'm not African.. my other friend is from Ghana and it was a souvenier that became my cars "g-meter".. hehe

I had a feeling it was Bill's car but the video wasn't from "SilverStreak" so I thought it was just coincidence.

Please let me know if you do a NCRC event with your Z (when it's done). I would love to see your car in person. My buddies and I try to do as many NCRC events as we can a year. Would be a pleasure to meet you and see the car. Great build so far.. SUBSCRIBED!

Well after quite a bit of research I've decided to go in slightly a different route. I'm going to gold coat the top of the pistons and possibly oil shed the rods.. but I'm going to get the piston skits, pins, rings, bearings, oil pump gear and rocker arms micro shot peened at WPC Treatment which will significantly reduce friction. A bit more expensive but I'd say it's worth the money.

Hey Guys, I know it has been awhile. A lot of stuff going on here on my end. Family member passed away and then my tuners wife's dad passed in the same month so we're putting the car on hold for a lot longer than we initially anticipated. But I did have a question.. maybe someone here has some experience with parts coating... I was going to use this downtime to send out my rods and pistons to get coated by Swain Tech. I was thinking about going the gold coat on top of the pistons and the PC-9 coat on the piston skits. I was also thinking about having the rods coated with their "oil shedding" agent. My main concern is that I've already had the block sent out to get bored and honed. If I get the skirts coated it'll add about .0008 to each side.. so it'll add .0016 total. I THINK I can have a difference of about .0010-.0014 difference with my pistons. Anyone know if it's standard to have the block re-honed or if it's OK to slap the pistons in there as is? Logic is telling me to get the honed another .0010 so that I can be within tolerance of the .001-.0014.. Please.. If I could have someone who's familiar with the process elaborate.. Also I would like to add that I called Swain and they said to contact the manufacturer of the pistons.. I called Brian Crower (where I purchased my pistons) and he said I should call Swain but told me the tolerances (which I forgot.. but I think it was the .001-.0014 as I mentioned). Lastly the pistons are CP Pistons.. 86.5mm (9:1 compression) and I bored the block .5mm over to accommodate. I know they're all set now but after I coat it'll be a different story.. HELP!?

I'm with Edward.. I don't run with tint. I've never been a fan really.. but I guess it's just me.

I own a miata too and I'll tell you that the Z will be a money pit. I've gotten my Z to drive and handle real well but I had to spend a lot more and spend much more time with the Z. My pic will be my Z over the miata but at the same time I've only spent 8kish on the miata when I've spend 4 or 5 times that on the Z. One thing that'll never get taken away from the Z though. If it's clean you'll always turn heads and it's just a great vehicle to be in. The miata feel great but it's just another car. Track wise the Miata weighed 2240 and the Z weighed 2260. Handling feels close but the miata's turn in is better. But at the track the my Z will destroy the miata. Even a Z with a fairly stock motor and decent brakes and suspension will be faster than a miata. I guess it just depends on you. My miata is my daily and the Z is my weekend/track car. Here's a video of the Z at the track in the wet. This was with my old 250hp SR setup.

OMFG that is HOT.. I hate whale tails but that looks freggin clean. It all come together nicely. Great job and keep it up. Definitely a head turner!

I'm JEALOUS! That will be the motor to run for sure!

My Z never went over 180 even when I tracked it at Buttonwillow. When it went a little over 200 I flipped out. I figured 250 would be overheating but I just want to make sure it never gets there.

mr jdm, I am using a s13 sr20 radiator and it's very tall and I boxed my subframe as well. This whole time I assumed the Koyo was a 3row but I found out it was only a 2 row. I just want to find something just as tall and wide but more rows of cooling. I like what you did for the radiator support though. I might just copy it. I have considered this but I wasn't exactly sure how reliable it is going to be for daily use. My tuner said that it would UNLIKELY to fail but if it did I would be SOL. So for now I'm going to run the OEM water pump to see how it goes. If it doesn't work. I'll smash the impellers and get the electrical water pump (which attaches to the lower radiator hose).

Speaking of which, I think I almost overheated at the track as well. The car hit 200deg at the track. The track has some close corners and I was at 6-8k RPM for the last part of the track often. I read that the water pump cavitation happens after 7k RPM. The water pump isn't efficent any higher and since I took the car all the way up to 8.5k that might have been the reason why. Now that I know this I'm only going to use 7-8.5k as a trump card and not beat it up as much. Another option is to get the Stance ST6 oversize water pump pulley but that would mean that I would not be able to drive the car day to day in traffic. That would make the water pump spin too slow and cause it to over heat. With that said it wasn't a viable option. This car gets driven often as I love to drive it as much as possible. I was thinking maybe a 4-row Champion radiator with a 140deg thermostat being a good combo. Who knows.. We'll see when the car is back on the road.

SleeperZ, I was under this asumption as well. And I mean, they said it works.. but was it designed to work that way? But I learned something new. Never did I think it would even work. Sorry TheMission if you feel like we are thread jacking you. I'll stop now.

So after all of my research I've come to the conclusion that SR's biggest enemy would be oil lubing and cooling. So I'm going to do anything I can to assist with heating issues and lubing of the motor. Spun main and rod bearings seem common for us. I saw the GTIR main journals that MazWorx does and was thinking about going it too. I lack the "know how" and don't want to try anything new with this build. Maybe next time when I do a SR23VET. We shall see......

mr jdm, this is interesting, I read the first page of that link and I'll finish it up later. I never knew that was possible but that would make sense.. and I guess it would be true that it only reads air flow and not pressure so essentially that would not matter. Good info though. Are there benefts in HP doing it that way? Having a blow through setup?

(I'm typing this on my iPad so sorry in advance if spelling is a bit off) So what I'm going to do this time around is get a colder Mishimoto thermostat and oil cooler. I'm going to run the oil cooler in front of my intercooler.. not sure if that is going to be a bad idea or not. Second, I'm going to drill holes in the side where the BMC and battery tray area so air can vent out of the high pressure areas to the fenders. I am hoping this will cool the ambient air in the engine bay and help out the turbo and my brake fluids. Lastly, I'm planning on chopping the front radiator support area and just keeping the top support. The frame outline (looking at the front of the car) will be cut out to accomadate more air flow to the engine bay. Then I'm going to try to find a way to force all that air through the IC, rad, and oil cooler. Maybe cut some panels out of sheet metal and paint it with primer so it won't rust. I'm not that far yet so it'll develop as it moves along. I know BJHines did a badass setup but it seems a bit hard to reach him. If you see his thread on cooling (i think) you'll see his awesome setup.

Thanks for reminding me! I totally forgot. I just got the motor back on Tuesday. Engine is good and cylinder walls looks awesome. I'm going to pressure wash and simple green the heck out of it to make it looks a new as possible. Also the crank came back balanced and the journals are awesome and shiny. No pits on the journals either. At this point I'm just waiting for my tuner to finish up his other projects and I'll be underway. I HOPE to be up and running in 2 months so I can make it to the track in November. I wasn't sure if I mentioned that metal from the spun bearings got into the turbo as well and I had to get it sent out to get checked. Luckily it came back ok and they said that it didn't take on too much damage. Hopefully more updates in a week or two.. but for now.. She says HI! LOL