My 86T project

[NissanEgg]

Some of you guys might recognize me from other Z sites. Some of you might recognize me from when I lived in Orlando while attending UTI, and from when I attended the 2006 Orlando Z-Fest.

 

Anyways, my name is Justin, and currently live in Auburn, Alabama. I am 26 (27 next month) and a graduate of UTI. I completed the Nissan/Infiniti school while there and work at Lynch Nissan of Auburn as a technician.

 

I bought this car in August of 2006 in Orlando, FL, with only 86k miles on it for $2800. I talked the guy down from his $5300 asking price because the outer tie rods were shot, the struts/shocks were blown, and the left rear caliper was seized and needed new brake pads all around with rear rotors. Other than that the interior is a 9/10 and the outside is a 8/10. The car was an original Florida car until I bought it and registered it in Alabama.

 

In November of 2006 while in Orlando, the timing belt tensior stud broke, causing 11 bent valves. Since I was in school, I didn't have the money to get all new parts for a head rebuild. So it sat at school unitl I graduated in December of 2006. I then towed it home to Dothan, Alabama, where I got $700 cash for Christmas (by selling the Rota wheels-Nismo knock offs) and ordered all new stuff from Nissan. I got the heads rebuilt and the car running by myself in my grandad's bus shop with no heat on Jan. 2nd of 2007. I had to redo the timing belt 3 times because I had the tension too tight that it whine like a supercharger. That sucked because I finished up at 3am with it 20-something degrees inside the shop (I refuse to work on a car unless it's on a concrete/ashpalt floor). The next day I drove it to Tifton, Georgia where I moved to for a Nissan job. Talk about being nervous and crossing your fingers hoping that you didn't screw something up on a "maiden" voyage of 140 miles.

 

All was well until February 14 2007, when the stock T3 turbo crapped out. The next day I yanked the engine and trans out to get ready for some serious cash-infusioned speed parts. I acquired a portion of my parts until things went sour at the dealership. In August, I moved to north-east central Alabama to work at a steel fabrication shop. So I once more towed the Z along with me. Then in March of 2008 I bought the remainder of my speed parts.

 

But during storage, rats had invaded my empty engine bay and destroyed every single wire in the harness, not to mention the power steering lines, A/C lines, and front brake lines. So then I towed the Z again to Auburn where I currently live and put it into a 10x20 storage building. Now I am waiting till it warms up so I can rebuild the motor and swap out the engine bay harnesses. All I lack now is a full gasket kit, and bearing kit (Nissan).

As the car sits, it has 90k miles. I miss her so badly, it's been apart in boxes for almost 2 years now along with the mountain of goodies in their boxes. Now that I am back at Nissan in Auburn, I should be able to get her put back together soon like humpty-dumpty.

 

Current mileage.

 

The night I got her.

 

Dyno sheet from UTI, car had about 87k miles, K&N filter, and old ass HKS cat-back exhaust. This was 2 weeks before the bent valves.

 

Pics with my old Rota P45F fronts with P45R rears. 18x8.5 front/18x9.5 rear.

 

 

T4 turbo, 62-1 compressor wheel, p-Trim turbine wheel, with V-clamp exhaust housing

Modified Stock manifold w/ HKS 40mm wastegate(5psi, 10psi, 15psi springs)

3" Downpipe with V-clamp

40mm dump tube pipe

3" CF intake tube

SS inlet oil line

I plan on using the stock fuel system and ECU with 5psi until the motor is completely broken in and running right, then I will purchase NisTune, bigger injectors and pump/regulator.

 

Eagle Z32 Twin Turbo H-beam rods, picked these up myself from Z1 Motorsports in Carrolton, Georgia.

 

Z31parts.com rear lower spring seats

 

Z31parts.com rear upper spring seats

 

Z31parts.com engine mounts. Also fits S12 with VG30, and Z32's, may fit other VG-powered vehicles.

 

Z31parts.com manual transmission mount. Fits all Z31 stick shifts

 

Z31parts.com manual transmission isolater

 

Z31parts.com rear diff mount, unassembled

Z31parts.com rear diff mount, assembled

 

Z31parts.com bump steer spacers. Fits S12's also, may fit S130's. Goes between the strut housing and steering knucle to promote better steering geometry on lowered vehicles.

 

Z31parts.com front spring seats.

 

Z31parts.com tierod end boots and ball joint boots.

 

Z31parts.com steering rack bushings.

 

Earl's stainless steel clutch line from Motorsport Auto.

 

Tie rod boots

 

Rear sway bar end links

 

Front sway bar end links

 

Front sway bar bushings. Came with 22, 23, and 24mm versions.

 

Rear sway bar bushings. Came with 22, 23, and 26mm versions.

 

Front lower control arm bushings.

 

Front tension rod bushings for 84-7/87 Z31's.

 

Front tension rod bushings for 8/87-89 Z31's.

 

Rear lower control arm bushings.

 

DXD (South Bend) Stage 1 clutch good for 390lb-ft torque. I was suprised it is an Exedy disc. From Z31parts.com

 

Crankshaft timing belt sprocket and guide plates for the timing belt. These parts are what were seized to my crank and I broke the snout off the crank trying to remove them with a pulley puller. From CourtesyParts.com

 

New OEM center console lid. These are common to find broken at the hinge, and getting expensive too. From CourtesyParts.com

 

New OEM fuel level sending unit for the digital dash Z's. These are another common failure part on original Z's. My fuel level on my digital dash sometimes worked, but would drop off rapidly till it read zero, knowing damn well I still 19 gallons left. So I would drive till "bitching Betty" would say "Warning, Low Fuel", then get some gas. This new unit should also make my Distance to Empty meter work correctly again. From CourtesyParts.com

 

My new Certified Muffler aka CM Performance Exhaust. It is 3" mandrel bent aluminized piping with Thermal Research stainless steel muffler with 4" tip. Test pipe is aluminized too. Got a whole CM turbo exhaust system now. Wanted to get full stainless to match the stainless DP, but saved $350 by going aluminized version.

 

Z3R front springs from Z31parts.com Lowers front by 1.5", spring rate is 300lb/in.

 

Z3R rear springs from Z31parts.com Lowers rear by 1", spring rate is 325lb/in.

 

Prothane Z31 rear subframe bushings. Big ass bushings and uses a 4" washer on top.

 

Tokico Illumina rear shocks. 5-way adjustable, better than the stock electric 3-ways. Now I have complete suspension mods minus sway bar kit.

 

Here are the pics of the center panel that was ordered thru Nissan. I have never seen this color on any Z31 before. So it possible that Nissan got their part numbers screwed up?

But it does match the shade of the tail lights pretty good.

 

Note the sleeve in this bore. This is cylinder #2. The boring machine broke when boring this hole, gouging the bore very badly. The machine shop had to over bore, then relseeve it, and rebore to +.020" like the rest to match.

 

Bottom view of the sleeve. You can tell where it stops. This is done right.

 

Tag from the machine shop way back when I worked at Greg Isaac's Nissan in Georgia. Long time I was without a block.

 

New slugs to go in those pretty holes.

These pistons are made for a Z32 Twin Turbo VG30DETT. Note the 4 valve reliefs in the top of the pistons. Z31's came with the VG30ET, which 2 valves per cylinder. They will work for any VG30E/T, but will lower compression on a VG30ET by around a full point lower than stock. So now my motor will have around 7.5-7.8 C/R. This means I can run hella boost without hurting the engine as long as I got fuel to match. For the Z32 pistons to work properly in a Z31 engine, you will need Z32 style connecting rods, which are full floating wrist pins. 1984-1987 1/2 Z31's came with pressed fit pins and different pin diameters. So I got Z32 TT Eagle H-beam rods too.

 

Now to the heads. Bone stock with brand new valves with less than 1k miles on them. They are dirty looking because the turbo seals on the stock T3 turbo went out, making the car smoke like a mosquito-fogging truck. I plan on refinishing the valve covers in wrinkle red. The stock burgundy wrinkle finish is starting to wear off.

Intake ports. Notice the shiny port on far tight. I attempted to gasket match, but kept killing Dremel bits, so I just wound up "polishing" it, more like getting the casting marks and pits out.

Exhaust ports. Alot to be gasket matched, haven't even tried them yet.

Passenger side head. Cylinder #5 has some marks form foreign object damage. I noticed this in December 2006 when I had the heads off to replace the valves after the T-belt tensioner broke making the belt fall off and whacking all but one of the valves. Didn't hurt the bores, but the stock piston looked alot worse than the head.

 

Does any one know if this can be cleaned up by milling the heads? I just don't want any hot spots in the motor causing detonation with lots of boost.

 

Loteck 3-gauge A-piller replacement.

 

I also have Signal12's old HKS Z31 intercooler kit from his SS, Victor-Reinz head gaskets and a N62 MAF to use for when I Nistune it.

 

Now I just need a crankshaft, gasket kit, bearing kit, and HKS bov to fit in the hole on the HKS i/c kit and the engine should be running.