Dat73z

@240zturbo in the video I posted earlier, I'm fairly certain all of the studs had stretched. I think the root cause was spiking egts when I was throwing fire out the exhaust with retarded timing when the crank pulley was walking off, but also I am running inconel shielding all around which traps the heat into the hot side. The gasket is actually a stamped SS piece with a raised lip, but it's only good for one use (attached a pic of the new gasket I have). I agree simpler is better, but I also didn't want to order the same hardware to slam it together and have the same issues down the line which is why I'm now at resbond, inconel studs, and stage 8 hardware. Edit: also for reference after going through all this and doing the research, the next iteration of this build with the next turbo will be all vbands and no gaskets including the manifold. No gaskets, studs, or hardware to fail.

Been feeling under the weather so I cleaned the house and garage a bit. My buddy designed and 3d printed a L6 RMS install tool for me which was really solid of him...hopefully I'll pick it up this weekend, and I found a supplier in CA with fresh Resbond 907ts within expiration so I ordered a small quantity of that, just enough to do the turbine studs and nuts at least. After some research (and it was pretty interesting, at least the materials aspect of it), it seems the turbine m8 nuts should be torqued to 21-23ft-lbs or so with resbond, and the m8 studs to 30-40% of that (~9ft-lbs) with resbond into the turbine housing. The key so far as I can tell is to not overtorque as that will cause the studs to yield/plastically deform thereby defeating the purpose of preloading the stud in tension. Since there is a range of torque the plan is to torque the nuts to the lower limit, and give them a bit more to line up the stage8 hardware against the wastegate housing. A lot of words to lay out a plan to torque a few turbo studs and nuts but there's a lot of conflicting information and opinions out there on what works/doesn't work so if this doesn't work for me then I'll document that here in the build.

Out of time tonight but I got all the studs trimmed to seat on the chamfered shoulders. Something always comes up but I think I'll course correct this week and hit all the turbine housing holes with my counterbore bit, carefully by hand just to clean up the seats. Order some resbond, and test fit/clearance my inconel shielding as the stage 8 hardware does add some volume. I really don't want to be pulling apart the turbo components again anytime soon. Either way, things are looking good to get back on the road next month with a more bulletproofed setup.

This evening I started shortening the inconel studs which has proven difficult as it's a very hard material. Like everything else in this build, I'm learning a lot as I go. The shoulder on the studs are fairly precisely machined to I believe 45 degrees or so, I'll need to confirm this with the manufacturer. It seems this mating surface is critical to also ensure it is prepared on the turbine side. According to a lot of fast track turbo miata guys online, resbond 907ts on the inconel studs and stage 8 hardware is the way to go. Now to find a vendor who sells Resbond in small quanities which is not expired, as it only has a 6 month shelf life.

@240zturbo yes that is what I ran before and I'm actually tempted to run them again instead of this stage 8 hardware. Copper coated deformed head nuts from ATP turbo. They didn't loosen on me and so far as I could tell the failure was the grade 8.8 studs stretching perhaps from spiking egts and other failures I've documented in this build thread. I'm sure the inconel shielding didn't help either by trapping the heat in. Moving on with the build, my inconel studs came in today. They definitely feel quality and the threads are well cut/are not loose at all, but the length of the studs into the turbine housing are a thread or so too long. Based on some research, I shouldn't let the studs bottom out and instead be able to torque the stud onto the shoulder. So I'll need to trim the studs down a thread or so before installing.

And a quick detail shot of how the hardware had to be modified. The base of the stage 8 hardware, the head of the nut, and the locking ears all had to be ground down to allow assembly once everything is in the car for 4 of the 5 wastegate housing mounting points Hopefully I can get the turbine reassembled tomorrow after work. Then the rest of the week will be driveline reassembly

After a long wait it seems my inconel studs will be in tomorrow so tonight I dusted off some parts and started back in on the build. The stage8 hardware needs to be clearanced to hug the ATP gate.

It's been a nice long weekend. Some more parts came in including a new trans mount. I figured I would easily spend a day measuring and fabricating a mount from scrap so I ended up buying one. My engine and diff mounts are all poly, and my sus is all poly or spherical bearings so I think the trans mount is the last rubber piece. The last item I'm waiting for before final reassembly are the inconel turbo studs, which are apparently waiting to board an international flight so hopefully they get through customs before Feb.

Been rained out and waiting for parts so I started investigating meth injection again. I'm thinking if I could set up a system by rewelding the BOV on the cold side charge pipe so I'm not venting flammable vapors followed by some bungs for the injector nozzles all pre surge tank. It'll be a tight fit but I think workable. I'm a bit worried about even distribution across all 6 barrels but perhaps the meth would flash off in the surge tank inlet, I'm not sure as I've never run this type of system before. The PO of my car actually had an oldschool meth spray system on the car when it was drawthrough turbo in the 80s but I have long since sold all of that system.

There is some adjustment in the Jbolted straps but tucked up like OE is better imo. My OE tank is cut and welded similar to how you have it up top for a fuel cell plate and the dimensions are similar to OE with the OE rubber pads. Since you are fabricating all of that as well see if you can match the OE dimensions, so your tank is appropriately level and doesn't hang low.

@AydinZ71 in my experience welding the cast s30 strut material you'll want to preheat and ideally have a big bucket of sand or something to cool it slowly. It welds really easy but it will crack out if you're not careful.

This AM I started gettings things ready for reassembly. The new Nissan flywheel bolts won't require grinding down like the original 240z bolts I had used prior, as the OS Giken spec on the TS2BD is 8-8.5mm. I'm still waiting on some parts, mostly international at this point but there are some minor reassembly items I'll be tackling this week.

I think you have it pretty well covered. Hopefully someone can chime in on the EFI side. If you're going to push more power in the future I'd uprate the fuel lines to at least 3/8 or -6. For the turbo make sure you look real close for any cracks. I think I've had bad luck with the two OE 280zxt Garrett air research turbos I had, both showed significant cracking on the hot side after removing the wastegate housings.

@240Z Turbo I'm actually having a custom square set of wheels barreled for the 245s once my centers get to the builder from Japan. They went via seamail over a month ago so it's been a long wait. They will likely be 16x8-9 +10 front +12-20 rear with my suspension and no flares, but the plan is to do the final measurements once I get a center shipped back from my builder.

Getting rained out again so I put some more time into the build. Tonight I pulled the leaky RMS, retapped all the hot side bolts, and test fit the stage 8 hardware. As with everything on this build I'll need to clearance some of the stage 8 hardware to fit is tight for a couple of holes.

Looks like parts are finally going to start trickling in starting tomorrow. It will likely be another 2-4 weeks until I get everything I need in. This AM I removed the turbo studs. Whatever was left of the nickel antiseize had turned into black dust. None of them came out clean but the threads are still there, so I'll need to chase or retap the hot side. I'm thinking when I was losing timing and throwing fire out the exhaust, my egts were likely spiking contributing to all of this. I'm tempted to pull the turbo and replace the hardware with inconel and stage 8 as well since I'm already this deep. I guess I'll simmer on it over this next couple of days.

Did some more tinkering this AM before work and realized I should probably add some bracing to the downpipe or midpipe as well. Although I welded in a flex on my downpipe I suspect the movement along with the heatcycles, especially with the inconel shielding isn't helping. Likely in its current configuration, I doubt the setup would last a few 20min track sessions.

I couldn't resist just continuing disassembly, since I need to measure out the studs for their inconel replacements. All of the studs were still tight in the turbo and none of them backed out as I removed the nuts. I think I had torqued the studs in at 30ftlbs or so with nickel anti seize. The copper coating had burned off on all of the nuts which I suppose is expected when things get glowing red hot. What I suspect happened is all of the studs stretched. Hopefully inconel studs and stage 8 hardware will mitigate this. 20230103_181925.mp4

This evening I removed the surge tank to gain access to the turbo. All of the carbs and barrels look good. I'm thinking after I get things reassembled, I will run things in NA for ar least one heatcycle and check the sync on the carbs before putting the surge tank back on. If I can squeeze in some time in tonight I'll start removing the heat shielding over the hot side.

Last night I cleaned off the rear of the block. For sure the rear main is leaking, but it is questionable if the pan is. The new OE RMS should be in later this week, and flywheel bolts maybe next week. Since I'm waiting on parts again, the (hopefully) last thing that I found on teardown which needs to be addressed is the loose wastegate housing. After some research I went ahead and ordered stage 8 locking nuts which were quite expensive but basically like safety wire as it prevents the nut from rotating off. I also found a supplier for 718 inconel studs. Basically the idea is the materials selected should have similar thermal characteristics and also be resistant to high temp creep as to not lose tension and let the wastegate housing come loose as it has for me. I'll need to teardown the turbo hot side and measure all of the dimensions before I order, so I'll start on that later this evening.

Thanks @rossman I'll take a look and weigh the options. After getting my holiday lights down I went ahead and quickly cleaned the clutch and trans for reassembly, at least the areas that matter. No leaks from the trans as I had fully resealed it after machining and assembling, so the light oil I saw on the front edge/corner of the bell housing was likely dripping from the rear main as there's no way I can see how it made it there from the pan with the bellhousing plate in place. This PM I'll start the removal process for the RMS as I've already ordered a new OE Nissan RMS. Hopefully it doesnt take a month to get here.

Yeah @rossman, a poly mount would be more ideal. Do you recall which Jeep mount you used? Thinking about this more, I think I have some steel tube stock and remnants of a few ES master poly bushing kits for various cars in my shed. I may consider just fabricating something since that would basically cost me nothing.

Got the clutch pack off without difficulty. All of the bolts were still tight which is good, and the wear looks normal to me for a few k street miles with some launches and burnouts but I've only ran an exedy multi plate on another mostly track focused car before this. One interesting finding is it almost looks like my RMS has been leaking and not the pan gasket as I thought. I didn't install the RMS so I guess I'll look real close and clean the whole area off to see. On past Ls I've always just installed the OE Nissan RMS and never had any issues so I may give that a try since I'm this deep into it and at this point the driveline teardown is for peace of mind and to fix that pesky oil leak I guess. Later today I plan to tear down further but need to get the holiday lights down before another storm rolls in this AM

This AM I started back in on the driveline disassembly. I noticed that maybe my trans mount has been making contact with the trans xmember. The zinc coating on the nuts isn't worn through, but the xmember has some marks which is interesting. Maybe it is minor enough with the good condition OE trans mount that it self clearanced, but because the power and trq levels with the turbo and stroker are much higher than stock, maybe it may get worse over time and should be addressed now. I'll investigate further once I get the clutch pack off.

Finished the transmission pull tonight and everything looks good so far. I'll take my time and paint mark everything on disassembly, as to ensure I reassemble the clutch pack and multi-plates in the same order and direction it is currently in. The tiny oil weep I noticed before is more visible now as well so I'll investigate and see if I can fix it while I'm in there.