Drax240z Posted November 30, 2008 Share Posted November 30, 2008 (edited) First, some photos of the car when I first got it. There have been about 10 years of changes of and on, put in a turbo motor and raced, drove the car daily for more than a year and a half, slowly turned it from a street car into mostly a race car with street legality. In November of 2006 the first turbo motor gave up the ghost at about 40,000 hard miles. Undergoing some changes over this winter, but here is the starting point: Chassis: 1972 240z 4pt Roll Bar Stripped interior Engine: L28 Turbo – F54/N42 8.3:1 CR SDS EM-3E Stock T3 turbo 440cc/min injectors NPR intercooler 1G DSM BOV 232rwhp/281ft-lbs @ 6psi Drivetrain: CF duel friction clutch Lightened stock flywheel (17lbs IIRC) 77 280z 5 speed 3.54:1 R200 Quaife LSD Suspension: Illumina 5 way adjustable struts (sectioned) Ground Control coilovers (225f/250r) Urethane bushings mostly Aluminum offset rear control arm bushings 1” front sway bar Front camber plates 15" snowflake rims with A032's Brakes: Vented 4x4 fronts/PBR pads Rear drums Other: Recaro seats Satin black paint Edited May 15, 2009 by Drax240z Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drax240z Posted December 2, 2008 Author Share Posted December 2, 2008 Slowly making some progress, doing a lot of research on turbo's and engine building at the moment. Sent out my SDS ECU for a software upgrade, nice to see I'll have the ability to log AFR's afterwards. Adding a wideband to the list of things to add this winter. Ordered a whole mess of electrical stuff from Del City too, after seeing 240hoke's recent wiring work I felt extra shamed about the condition of mine. (especially since I have spent so much time fixing other peoples wiring on their cars) Time to address that to my satisfaction. Getting close to turbo and piston orders... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drax240z Posted December 5, 2008 Author Share Posted December 5, 2008 Ordered a new turbo today... GT3071R! Standard setup, 0.63AR on the turbine side, external waste gate planned as I have an older HKS kicking around I might as well use! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drax240z Posted December 12, 2008 Author Share Posted December 12, 2008 Some goodies from Fedex today... PLX wideband and controller Updated chip on my SDS ECU from v9 to v17 - Wideband data logging - Electric fan relay - Some other minor updates More to come! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drax240z Posted January 10, 2009 Author Share Posted January 10, 2009 Well the turbo never shipped, and I told them to cancel the order. Not impressed with the customer service, so I'm going to hold off for a little bit before ordering. Did get some other goodies though, pics very soon! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drax240z Posted January 11, 2009 Author Share Posted January 11, 2009 Some new parts... finally finishing off house reno's and able to spend some time on the engine. More to come tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drax240z Posted January 11, 2009 Author Share Posted January 11, 2009 Some wiring goodies to clean things up a bit... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drax240z Posted January 31, 2009 Author Share Posted January 31, 2009 Work has been insane lately, so this stuff isn't getting as much attention as I'd like, but I am still getting a bit of work done today prepping the block... Casting Flash Before: Casting Flash After: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drax240z Posted February 14, 2009 Author Share Posted February 14, 2009 Well, lots of bad news about the engine parts I purchased off a member here. The Crower rods are in need of resizing on the large end due to physical damage to the rod. Should clean up with some machining work. The small ends are shot and need to be bushed, more cash... what can I say. Block came out ok, except for the crack at the oil pan which was welded poorly, but can be fixed. The crank has both mains and rod journals ground undersized, but the 'package' contained standard sized bearings, so those are useless to me. Pistons were unknown compression ratio when I bought them, and after cc'ing the domes they are way too much, so I am having the domes machined almost off. With all this there needs to be some rebalancing obviously as well. A lot of extra expense, probably as much as I paid for these crappy parts to begin with. I'm certainly (sadly) going to be unlikely to buy used parts off the web again, but I took that risk, so I will live with it. On the bright side, once I have way too much money into this bottom end, it should be very, very good. No idea yet when the machine shop will get to it... My goals of having this done and on the road before this summer seem in jeopardy, which means the 2-3 years the car has been sitting will probably sit another 2-3 years... (first kid due this summer) Annoying, and nothing I have time to deal with. Still pondering legal action against the seller for misrepresentation of the parts being sold. Biggest lesson in all this is that it would have been cheaper for me to buy all new parts if I had done so in the beginning, and I wouldn't have any of these issues at this point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drax240z Posted April 2, 2009 Author Share Posted April 2, 2009 Well here we go again. Bottom end is still in machine shop jail, but, I actually ordered a turbo yesterday. Went a little cheaper than the original plan however. Pretty standard: T3/T4e - 50 trim, 0.63A/R, 360° thrust bushing, stage 3 wheel. Also have new JE piston pins a week away, got sleeves for the crower rods, which have also been resized, pistons have had the dome machined to yield a 8.45:1 compression ratio, new bearings are in as well... 11 weeks to go until B-day... need to have the engine in before then! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drax240z Posted April 7, 2009 Author Share Posted April 7, 2009 A bit more news, turbo shipped today, should see it soon. Spent last night disassembling P90 and E31 heads to build my new one. Hoping to start head assembly tonight. Sounds like the shortblock is getting out of machine shop jail tomorrow, but we'll see if that happens or not. Once the turbo arrives, I am going to start making downpipe and wastegate plumbing. With 6 days off in a row starting tomorrow, the timing could be very good... watch this space! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drax240z Posted April 10, 2009 Author Share Posted April 10, 2009 Well I've been working like a demon the last couple of days, and making decent progress. My goal of getting the car on the road by Monday doesn't appear to be likely however, apparently my wife wants to do the Easter dinner thing, and we're supposed to host. I just assumed it was a 6 day weekend without an actual holiday in the middle. The car as it sat yesterday morning... Basically how it has been sitting for 2+ years, except now it's under cover for the first time. Wednesday was spent assembling the head, new "special" cam (LOL), valve lapping, checking wipe patterns, fixing a broken spray bar, deburring, cleaning etc. I had this head machined a while ago (it's a P90) an put on about 20,000km before swapping for the N42 on the previous engine incarnation. I did that mostly to bump compression to the 8.3:1 area, but the new setup will be 8.5:1 with a P90. HKS wastegate, and some general fab stuff for downpipes, WG dumps, etc. Love those 304SS sanitary bends!!! Polished inside and out. General flanges and merryment... 3" Sanitary bend... may be part of my new downpipe system, but my turbo outlet is only 2.5" so I may go another, similar route in 2.5". Shiny and new... T3/T4E, 50 trim, 0.63 AR, stage 3 wheel, 360° thrust... The car as it sat 5 hours later... Another pair of hands would have made things go a bit faster, as would a level concrete pad! What's that under the orange garbage bag behind the car? We'll see soon... As you can see, I've got some work to do before the new motor goes in. Todays task is to have the new motor in the hole though. More to come! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drax240z Posted April 11, 2009 Author Share Posted April 11, 2009 Well, didn't quite make the intended goal. Ran into more cleaning and prep work doing the new motor than expected, which set me back a bit. Tomorrow should be a productive day though. I found out putting the wire in an O-ringed block is a very frustrating process however. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drax240z Posted April 15, 2009 Author Share Posted April 15, 2009 Well got a bit more done over the long weekend, not a lot for pics mind you. Engine finally assembled New engine into car Refinished strut towers to seal them up All in all things took a lot longer than I expected, but most of that can be attributed to the lack of a real shop, and the time required for cleaning. Now starts the fab work and mockup, for the wastegate and new downpipe. Painting and cleaning everything... takes a lot of time. I guess this is what happens when you leave a belt on too long... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drax240z Posted April 24, 2009 Author Share Posted April 24, 2009 (edited) A quick update. It's been a very busy week or two with not much done on the car itself, but at least I've been sorting out a few things I'll need later. Spent last night removing the studs from the exhaust manifold, only to break the last one. Drilled it and leaving it soaking in penetrating oil overnight, will have to pick up some EZ outs on the way home and see if I can get it. Managed to mount a few things, starter, alternator, did a bit of wiring, working on a new rad mount, sourced a whole bunch of SS bolts, new studs for exhaust manifold and turbo mounting... Hopefully this weekend will see some progress. Also managed to buy 2 "new" cars in the last 2 weeks, (though I sold 3 in the same period!) it's amazing how time consuming it cam be to buy and sell cars. The first a 2000 BMW 528i touring model, 5 speed wagon. Immaculate car, well cared for and should be excellent with the new addition on its way. The second car I picked up today, a 1993 BMW 325is, 5 speed. Not quite as cherry as the wagon, but with a bit of TLC it will be an awesome daily driver for me. As it stands now it will do that task admirably, and it just needs a few interior bits and bobs in order to be a 9/10. Z stuff planned for the weekend though! Edited June 28, 2009 by Drax240z Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drax240z Posted April 26, 2009 Author Share Posted April 26, 2009 (edited) Well, not as much done Saturday as I would have hoped. Had some out of town guests, and that took me off the Z for most of the day. Did manage to do some port matching between the turbo, spacer and manifold though. Had to take out as much as 1/8" of the manifold to open it up the same as the turbo and spacer!!! Talk about potential flow restrictions... its the little things like that which end up giving you more power then the same setup next to you... New studs, spacer and turbo in place. Just checking clearances here. Time to reclock it, and do some wastegate mockup/fabrication! Edited April 26, 2009 by Drax240z Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drax240z Posted May 15, 2009 Author Share Posted May 15, 2009 (edited) Not a ton of progress lately, spring has meant a lot of work around the house to get done. This weekend should see some results though. Exhaust has been modified and the new downpipe is done however... Edited May 15, 2009 by Drax240z Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drax240z Posted June 28, 2009 Author Share Posted June 28, 2009 (edited) OK, it's been a long time since an update. It's been a busy time around home, that's for sure! On June 20th, we had a minor interruption to progress on the Z: Our first child, daughter, Maxine was born... But there has been intermittent progress on the Z up to and since that point as well, my goal is still to fire it up this year and spend a few days breaking it in before summer is up. Last major hurdles were some fabrication work to complete, and now that the wastegate is mounted and plumbed, straight WG dump pipe is in, we're officially just reassembling. Hopefully I'll get some time in July to wrap things up, though my time is obviously limited to a few hours here and there as time permits. At this point the todo list isn't that bad though, and I think a few hours will go a long way. I am going to have to make some adaptions to my intercooler piping and air intake, but we'll take that on as we get there. Edited June 28, 2009 by Drax240z Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drax240z Posted August 17, 2009 Author Share Posted August 17, 2009 (edited) Well today was the day... first day back at the Z since my daughter was born. My wife's a trooper, forced me to go out and work on the Z while she baby sat. I got outside early and was making tons of progress all day long... Unpacked my new wheels to make sure they were all the should be, and they are great. They won't make it onto the car until next year I suspect, just too good a deal to pass up. Rota RB-R's, 17x9 -13 front, 17x9.5 -19 in rear, gunmetal centers. Front Lip: Rear Lip: So once I took a good look at those, it was back to work. At first I didn't think I would be able to, but by 3pm I was almost ready to start it up! Ran out for a new Optima Redtop, some 94 octane, and a few odds and ends... Put coolant in, and *#@$ there was a leak... bad news... Head gasket is seeping from both sides around cylinder #2. My best guess is the O-ringing/O-ring wire combined with the Felpro head gasket just won't sit down enough to plug the coolant passages. No point in trying to torque it down more... so it will have to come apart. Everything I did today was undone, what a frustrating end to a productive day. Going to remove the O-ring material, leave the O-ring groove, and get a Nissan head gasket this week. Corky Bell recommends the option of the groove, no O-ring and a regular gasket, so I'll give it a shot. Clearly the PITA that it was to put the O-ring material into the groove, was not worth doing. Hoping I can get another chance to work on the car soon, but it's hard for me to break away from my wife and daughter at this early stage, when we are so "busy" all the time. Edited September 3, 2009 by Drax240z Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drax240z Posted August 18, 2009 Author Share Posted August 18, 2009 Ordered a 2mm metal head gasket and a timing chain block (can't believe I've never had one!!) today from MSA. The dealer here wanted $129 for a Nissan head gasket and it was going to be 14 days away. $189US for the metal one seemed like a no brainer. Going to remove the O-ring material and just run the metal HG as is with the ARP studs. Turns out I have another felpro head gasket kicking around home, but I am not going to tempt fate again. On the bright side (as well), I forgot my head was planed 0.015" when I calculated earlier, meaning my CR was up to 8.67:1. My goal was 8.5:1 or slightly less. The 2mm gasket change will bring things back down, to 8.31:1. Not exactly where I wanted, but it will allow more boost in the end. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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