Garrett76Zt Posted September 3, 2005 Share Posted September 3, 2005 You guys will never believe what happened this week! I am not making this up. My turbo setup has been up and running for a couple of weeks and I wanted to bring it up to Zgad's house for some tuning/dyno time/track time . . . so i took the car up to Orlando (2hrs from Sarasota) on Wed morning. WED: 10:30am- Got to Mikes house and we started tuning a bit on the street. The car feels sluggish, no midrange torque and boost comes on really slow. We tune for a few passes and then we begin to loose boost. only make 9 psi, then 7 . . . We heard a wierd "pop" and then every time we got into boost there was a very strange "supercharger"ish whine. But the car still drove decently well and we were at a steady 7 psi and we were late for our dyno appointment . . . 1:00pm- We arrive at the dyno. Strap it down and no matter what boost controller was on the car, electric or manual, the car would only boost between 5-7 psi. On a mustang dyno, we were getting 200hp consistently. Obviously something is wrong with this picture. Mike was able to do some great midrange tuning which brought my torque numbers back up. But something is wrong. 2:30pm- Car is off dyno and idling at 1400rpms! What the . . . Mike and I begin to put things together and sure enough when we got home there was a large vacuum leak at the manifold. Ok so we turn some wrenches the rest of the day and get the car back in tip top shape and go out for a spin that night... 9:30pm- Out to dinner, car is at a healthy 13psi with AFR's very nice and the car really moves out! Felt very strong for only 13psi. Go to bed very happy! Thursday: 9:30am- Wake up and spend some time wrenching on Mike's car in the morning but my fun is over and I pack it up to leave for home. 2:30pm- I'm about 30 miles from Mikes house when I begin to notice a noise. Starts as a light tapping noise when I give it a little throttle. It gets louder. Crap i thing i have an exhaust leak, gasket blew or something. Within about 30 seconds it becomes verry apparent that its a much bigger deal than that. Its really loud. I yank the car off the road on the side of the interstate. Call mike up and tell him its not good, i think the motors gone. 3:30pm- Mike arrives at the scene to confirm that there is some major bottom end knock happening . . . Triple A is called to get a tow back to mikes house 5:30pm- Triple A finally picks us up. Meanwhile Mike has been on the cell phone non-stop. I'm thinking, I'm only 2 hrs from home I can call a friend and we can rent a trailer and tow my car back to Sarasota . . . . OH NO . . . .Mike gets off the phone and says," OK heres the plan!" A Posse of hybrid Zer's has been assembled and the plan is to have another motor in my car in time for me to be back on the road the next day! 7:00pm- Car is back at mike house. His wonderful neighbor Jimmy, lets us use all his tools and his garage. I begin the process of pullin the motor out. 10:00pm All showered up and ready to hit the sack. The motor is just sitting on the mounts, its ready to get yanked first thing next morning. Friday: 7am- We are in the car and headed for Merrit Island where Rick Bowers and Ken Jones have their shops setup. Ken Jones is the one gracious enough to donate a spare N42 L28 to the cause. . . except its still in the parts car . . . 9am- We start yanking the motor, making decisions as we go. What we will reuse and what we will replace... in the end we leave with just the N42 short block in the Back of Ricks Pathfinder . . . Thanks Ken! He gave me the motor for free! MEANWHILE: Jaymar came down from Jacksonville and is working with Jimmy back on my motor, pulling the manifolds and the head off my blown motor. 12:30pm- Back at Mike's. The craziness begins! We clean up the new block as best we can and begin swapping parts over. We reused the following parts off my motor: P90 head/ARP studs w/ new gasket Oil Pan w/ new gasket Oil Pickup w/new gasket Crank Pulley Exhaust Manifold/ Turbo setup w/ new gasket Intake Manifold Alternator Thermostat Housing Lower coolant port w/ new gasket Oil gauge sensor pickup Crankcase breather Sat 1am- We finally fire up this mystery bottom end and it purrs like a kitten! I mean after it got nice and warmed up it sounded fantastic! I basically packed it up and hit the road at that point, Got back to Sarasota at about 3:30 am this morning. Car ran like butter!But I'm very tired. So I still have my bottom end to go through but it looks like the turbo sucked in a piece of rubber of the K&N filter which in turn munched the compressor wheel, sending pieces of wheel into cylinders 2 and 5, which pitted up the tops pretty well and scored the walls pretty bad, which in turn killed the connecting rod bearings, since I pulled a palm full of copper shavings out of my oil pan. I could move the pistons back and forth in the cylinders by finger! Piston Slap bad! Hopefully i can still reuse some of these Ross forged pistons, I'll know when I yank em out. Another trip to Orlando to get the block back . . . . What a week! BIG THANKS GO OUT TO: -Jimmy for letting me work in his garage for two days -Ken Jones for donating the motor -Rick Bowers for lending a hand and haulin the bottom end from Merrit Island -Jaymar for turnin wrenches and being the whipping boy if anything ever got lost . . .."Jaymar!!" hahaha And most of all to my good buddy Mike Gadwaw (Zgad) for being more friend than anyone could hope for in a situation like this! Thanks so much! HYBRIDZer's ROCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b__sosick Posted September 3, 2005 Share Posted September 3, 2005 way to go! that's amazing work man Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J Taylor Posted September 3, 2005 Share Posted September 3, 2005 Sounds like lots of fun! Like I said, I have a couple of buildable turbo shortblocks sitting around. You are welcome to either one if you make it this way anytime. JT Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
speeder Posted September 3, 2005 Share Posted September 3, 2005 Glad to hear you made it! Blown motor's no problem when you have an army of Z mechanics (and a spare short block) to help. Not to mention the excellent teamwork and coodination! Hey, I also get credit for coming up with the idea of getting Ken's motor to swap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Confused Posted September 3, 2005 Share Posted September 3, 2005 Wow. I was filled with so many emotions while reading this. All in all, thats some pretty quick work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
v8dats Posted September 3, 2005 Share Posted September 3, 2005 wow i missed all of this?! im like a mile from mike work has me soo tied up im glad that u guys got it all knocked out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Z-Gad Posted September 3, 2005 Share Posted September 3, 2005 Whew, I am tired from just reading that!! I think we all agreed that the bottom end coming apart on you couldn't have happened in a better place. And Rick, you do get credit for the engine build idea. We started coordinating right after I hung up with ya Garrett, but I wanted to kind of feel you out first to see if that was what you wanted to do prior to setting all the wheels in motion. HybridZ powers activate!! Let's not forget the patient wives/girlfriends involved in this escapade either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kj280z Posted September 3, 2005 Share Posted September 3, 2005 Garrett, Glad to hear it all worked out! Amazing how those old Z motors hang in there when the bodies rust away around them (the donor car was the worst rusted Z I've ever seen). It was basically cut into 3 peices when Mike and Garrett arrived. I was "pretty sure" the motor was ok but ya never know. It gave me chills to hear it purred like a kitten. I love that kinda thing! Sure wish I could have come over to help ya re-assemble everything, but Katrina related work stuff has me real busy these days. Nice job "Z team" that was a real nice thing for you guys to do. It's great when Z people come together like that. I'm glad I was able to be involved. Now Mike... Get that Toyota powered beast running!!! Ken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
speeder Posted September 4, 2005 Share Posted September 4, 2005 Here's the scene of the donor short block extraction. I was going to post this under the SEZ Thread as: " I think I can get this ready". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ON3GO Posted September 4, 2005 Share Posted September 4, 2005 lol at the Miller Lite beer case just in the middle of all the Z parts mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wigenOut-S30 Posted September 4, 2005 Share Posted September 4, 2005 WOW,, You guys are correct.. Garrett there is NO PLACE BETTER TO HAVE THIS HAPPEN!!. Z team heck.. Z DREAM TEAM!!.. heh. ROCK! Glad you are back up and going garrett. The Z community is an awesome thing.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CruxGNZ Posted September 4, 2005 Share Posted September 4, 2005 I can't believe this! Makes for an almost unbelievable story... I'll call you tommorow to get filled in on "the rest of the story" as Paul Harvey would say. !M! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garrett76Zt Posted September 4, 2005 Author Share Posted September 4, 2005 i know, its crazy! These guys are the best there is. Still hard to believe my car is running already. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EZ-E Posted September 4, 2005 Share Posted September 4, 2005 I think that is just great the work you guys did in a weekend, way to pull together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kj280z Posted September 4, 2005 Share Posted September 4, 2005 Hey guys... My cell phone takes lousy pictures, but here's Garrett cleaning out the tops of the head bolts in preparation for removing the head... On a funny note... Remember I had said the car was in 3 peices when they arrived? Notice the silver thing standing to the right of the car in the garage? That's the firewall! Talk about easy access! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wigenOut-S30 Posted September 4, 2005 Share Posted September 4, 2005 hahahah Garrett , are you going for the Wolverine (snit snit) look, bub? heh.. Great pic Ken!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garrett76Zt Posted September 4, 2005 Author Share Posted September 4, 2005 Man I was so interested in reusing that Intake manifold too . . . haha Yeah i get lazy and I turn into wolverine, everybody says that . . . car is running well Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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