Dat73z

What a ridiculous week, I'm glad it's the weekend. Tonight I trimmed the throttle cable wire to fit and verified WOT. The new cable is silky smooth. Hopefully it doesn't melt in this new position. I also silver soldered the end of the wire to keep it from fraying but it's been a while since I've soldered wire ends so it wasn't perfect but seems to be holding. Just a couple minor reassembly items, the heatshield, and I'm back on the road.

Thanks @madkaw and super clean engine bay, I've always liked how you did the valve cover airbox. Yeah it's pretty apparent especially with modern fuels the most challenging aspect of this setup is managing the immense turbo heat. Fortunately, there are many non-asbestos products available on the market now to mitigate this. I was chatting with my friend the other day and he stated the ridiculousness of it pretty well: Imagine this setup in 80's Japan...boosting down the Wangan at 300km/h...everything melting 🤣

Last night I was able to get the throttle cable reroute bracket prototyped. I started with a paper template and transferred the general profile to some scrap AL. The angle of approach was pretty tricky as the cable not only needed more clearance from the turbo hot side, but also had to run through a 1/4" gap between the carb heat shield and the surge tank. As with everything on this build, ridiculously tight but I made it work. I also took into consideration for the angle that the cable should be fully controlled in the bellcrank between idle and WOT. Hopefully I can get a break tonight and work on making the bracket look a bit better.

I pulled vacuum on the system for an hour and ensured there were no leaks then proceeded to fill. I think I'm going to bleed the car traditionally as well with a no spill funnel and the front elevated as I had the entire system apart and fully drained. So now we have rerouted and shielded turbo coolant lines, new tstat, and new wpump. I am confident the heater core branch won't be boiling anymore since the turbo is no longer hooked up there, but I'll keep monitoring for any issues with the new setup. Last major things to do are finish fabricating the throttle cable bracket and carb heat shielding. Hopefully I can get to that tomorrow. I should probably also change the oil as I'm sure I've flooded it out with gas reworking the throttle setup.

Tonight the turbo oil feed extension and Tstat came in so I installed them. Normally I don't like additional fittings/potential leak points but in this case I think it's worthwhile as the oil line now spaces an inch or so off the turbo hot side. I also verified both the new 170 Tstat and prior 160 Tstat were opening and closing at the proper temps. The new Tstat is some Wahler/Borg Warner unit. I'm surprised at the size difference in the opening over the former (I think) Motorad unit. Hopefully tonight I can vacuum test and fill the cooling system...then the cooling system reconfiguration will be complete.

That looks really good @AydinZ71. Looking forward to seeing the bodywork finished 👍

In reconfiguring my throttle cable last night, I was manipulating the linkages to check throw and as a result found some fuel leaks from the carbs as I was actuating the pump circuits. Not a major issue, but it seems to jive with the feedback I had received from Rebello where at higher boost levels past 10-12psi fuel would start leaking from the carbs. It seems the casting area behind these threaded ports is glass thin with the venturis sitting directly behind. I'm planning to seal up all the threaded holes with grub screws and loctite 567. It feels like there are just a lot of time consuming fine details on this build, but I'm glad I caught it now instead of a fire later.

Yes you do see the fender lips a bit on the bottom like that. I think you have them close enough where I'd say position where you think it looks right and go for it. When you trim the fenders, leave the bottom portions alone such that when you look at the car from various angles it'll retain the stock body lines at those lower areas. If I can find some pictures I'll send them to you

Thanks @AydinZ71. After thinking through your points, I ordered a 1" 4AN straight adapter to space the oil line off the hot side. I also decided to sheath the water lines as well. I'm not sure if it'll help but I thought I may as well since I'm still waiting on some parts. It will also keep the line from abrading items around it. You can call me Dat73z, Eric or whatever Lol. I'm also on some FB groups and IG.

Over lunch I picked up my heat sleeving material and resleeved my oil feed line. Supposedly the DEI Titanium sleeve can withstand 2500F of radiant heat. Not sure if it'll hold up but I like it better than the aluminum sleeving I had on there before.

Can you hammer and dolly out the patched area? You have another Z right? I'd template the curvature for that area in paper and match it the best you can. The hammer and dolly work will save you days, try and get it to just a skim coat. Edit: also I recently examined a set of marugen shokai flares in person a couple weeks ago. Your fitment looks a bit off on the front but maybe that's due to the patches on the rear. If you can, I'd recommend fitting them on a 100% OE body as a reference/0 point and transferring them from there.

And after playing with the new cable a bit and starting the fitup/trimming process it is fairly apparent the SS cable is much higher quality. I ordered some DEI titanium insulation sheath from my local O'Reillys that said they can get it in tomorrow. I'm already missing driving the Z so hopefully I can get this all back together before the weekend.

Tonight I was able to pull the old throttle cable off with the assistance of my wife and inspect a bit closer. Surprisingly it looks like there's no liner in this lokar cable or maybe it melted off over time, I'm not sure. I think I installed it maybe 7 years ago and recycled it over a few setups so it's about time for a refresh anyways.

Congrats Joe post some pictures when you're out for a drive 👍

I got most of the cooling system back together last night but I'm still waiting on the new thermostat to come in which is apparently still delayed before buttoning it all back up. My lokar cable came in today so I'll see if I can get started back in on that later tonight. Not sure what the inner liner is made of or if it'll melt but I'm thinking I should heat wrap the cable as well once I get it in.

You could also likely clean up the routing a bit as well and gain some space in that area. The muffler was added due to California Vehicle Code 27150 I believe which requires all street vehicles to be equipped with a muffler

On my friend's former turbo nitrous LS he dumped it out the pass fender. I'd rather do that than the hood. It'll keep fumes down and your windshield cleaner.

This afternoon I installed the new water pump. The cut water had to be slightly modified to clear the new impeller. Hopefully my thermostat comes in tomorrow and I can button everything up and get back to street tuning.

Another busy weekend but I managed to squeeze an hour in this AM and pulled the water pump. Comparing the Bossa water pump to the stock cast impeller unit is impressive. Supposedly the Bossa will outflow the diesel pumps which are nla and keep temps 5-10deg cooler. After driving around this past few weeks it has become apparent I need to do everything I can for cooling and heat shielding. Hopefully I can modify the cutwater and get it back together tonight. Tomorrow the thermostat comes in and the cooling system reconfiguration will be complete.

This afternoon I was able to fabricate the new turbo to tstat coolant line. The entire run now gradually rises uphill so hopefully there won't be anymore backflow boiling issues...although I'm now wondering what happens if I park on a downward slope 😂 My Bossa Design water pump came in today so tonight I'll start installing it.

I had a 30 min window this PM so I made a new line for the block coolant feed. Hopefully I'll have an hour or so this evening to wrap up the Tstat line as well.

This AM I started draining the coolant down and started back in on bracket fab. I think for the throttle cable I'm going to route it just in the space between the surge tank and heat shield. Hopefully with the new stainless cable and heat sheathing there will be no melting from the turbo heat in that location. Later today my Bossa Design water pump should come in, and my new Borg Warner Tstat on Mon so trying to get everything ready for that. Always something to do.

Today I was able to measure and trim the heatshield material. It was quite challenging to do as it is 321 stainless with an internal ceramic liner/air gap. Supposedly it can withstand 1800F continuous and 2000F+ intermittent. I hope it works to reflect and redirect the heat rising off the turbo into the carbs. The whole sheet needed to be unfolded, the cuts made precisely with overlap, and the overlap then folded back over. I haven't folded it back over yet as I'll need to punch a few holes in the stainless and fold those edges over for the vacuum lines, throttle cable, and mounting brackets. I decided to make this a multi-piece heatshield which will be assembled on the car as it was the only way to be able to snake it all in with the surge tank installed.

After more fitup and consideration for serviceability it is becoming clear that the heat shield dimensions will be critical. The surge tank must be bolted on before the heat shield otherwise there is no way to access all of the surge tank fasteners. I have some designs in mind, hopefully I can get to a final template later today and keep moving forward.

Thanks @rossman, always appreciate your insights. My AN fittings come in today and I get today off so hopefully I can get that back together. This morning I received notice that my heatshield material may be delivered early so I started templating things up. I think I'm going to fabricate some brackets to hang the heatshield off carbs 1 and 3 since carb 2 holds the throttle cable for which I'll need to make a new bracket for that as well to move the throttle cable away from the turbo. As always, everything on this setup is ridiculously tight with considerations to clear everything and serviceability. I've also attached a pic of the radiant turbo heat carnage on the throttle cable. I'm hoping the stainless cable, relocated away, and heat wrapped will be ok but we will see. I thought I was done with fabrication but I have to remind myself that just a couple months ago the car was in pieces on jackstands with no driveline. Just need to keep pressing forward and developing/improving the setup.