Well some of you have heard of my plight with a black convertible 300zx that was purchased from Florida from this person. To avoid any libel I will simply post what Brett/Tim found when the car was sold to me as "immaculate". Suffice it to say that I have spent >$10000 trying to un@#$% this car in the past few months.
Their assessment when it arrived on trailer.

General comments/parts required:

TT clutch fan, fan, and fan shroud to replace current electric fan set-up
(wired with speaker wire)

TT upper radiator hose, currently NA hose cut and stretched to fit

Battery hold down - battery not currently secured in any fashion

Battery cable ends- starter lead eyelet missing, jammed into positive cable
end for makeshift fix

Drivers side headlight - all mounting tabs and adjustment assemblies broken

PCV valves and hoses - appear to be original from j-spec motor, hoses hard,
valves likely clogged

Fuel hose - current aftermarket hose is not proper pressure rated

ECU - Mines ecu currently in car, not suitable for US applications - Eprom
epoxied into mother board, can not be altered. Timing and fuel mapping can
do long term damage from detonation.

Drive belts - incorrect belts or stretched beyond adjustment. All 3 belts
are at maximum adjustment.

Upper radiator bracket

Intercooler piping mounting tabs, not currently secured in any fashion.

Lower engine splash shield

Front bumper support - this is a structural item that has been removed in
order to install the front mount intercooler. The piece is structural and
will result in long term core support damage if not corrected. Will likely
require a quality design fmic or switch to side mounts as by design.

Power steering rack seals lightly leaking

High pressure power steering hose - leaking

Structural chassis brace missing, located on floor pan directly in front of
the rear differential. This piece is especially important on a 'vert due to
additional chassis stress

Water Pump - Would be best addressed by a full 60K maintenance to address
water pump, drive belts and vtc noise.


Idle Issues

Multiple open vacuum ports and boost leaks

* Vacuum ports at both throttle bodies open
* Vacuum port on passenger side accordion pipe, open
* 2 of 4 ports from the original recirculation valves, open
* 2 of 4 ports from the original recirculation valves, welded but leaking
heavily

Main EFI harness ground not secured to frame rail, eyelet removed and wire
was 'wedged' into open bolt hole on drivers side inner fender

* Two EFI harness ground points on plenum, not in place or properly
secured
* Incorrect spark plugs, Autolite Double Platinums of incorrect length,
replaced with proper NGK PRF6B-11B gapped to .035"

Other Notable Issues:

* Oil pan severely crushed, common on jspec motors resulting is oil
starvation as the oil pan is pressed against the oil pump pick up tube.
* Transmission ground strap not in place or secured
* Transmission harness laying loosely on top of passenger side exhaust
* Jam nuts on adjustable suspension components not properly torqued, rear
trailing arm jam nuts backed off by ~1/4"
* Tokiko shocks on car are not adjustable-I believe you were under the
impression that they are

Clutch:

* Clutch master cylinder not properly installed during auto/5-speed
conversion

* OEM cap plate left in place, must be removed to install master
cylinder. Drilled through cap plate to install master cylinder resulting in
binding during actuation

* Pedal travel - unknown binding within bell housing; will likely require
transmission pull to fully diagnose.


Air conditioning:

* High pressure switch missing from a/c drier
* a/c compressor not plugged in
* unknown expense and replacement required for a functional a/c system

Impact damage openly visible in drivers side headlight bucket

Compression test results:

Cylinder #

1- 155
2- 155
3- 160
4- 150
5- 156
6- 147

Once all of the vacuum and grounding issues were corrected, the car idled
smoothly. However, after ~5-10 minutes at idle the passenger side turbo
began to smoke profusely. Pictures of smoke issues to follow.

Baseline recommendations:

Motor Pull for turbo replacement: $1,500 labor, turbos expense will be
dependant on turbos of choice. I would be happy to discuss options to best
suit your goals.

Full 60K service: ~$350 in parts and $275 labor

New EFI Harness: ~$375 in parts and $100 labor (if done with motor pull)

General materials: ~$200 which includes all new vacuum hose to correct all
of the current routing and splicing, oil, coolant, etc

To utilize the potential of larger upgraded turbos, larger injectors would
be required. I would recommend updating to 95+ style injectors to avoid
risks associated with the failure prone 90-94 injectors.

Upgraded side mount intercoolers to correct the current issues resulting
from the installation of the front mount intercooler.


Buyer Beware

Can you regulate that with the lemon law? Im guessing the car should have been a long term project for a DIYer but some d!ck was trying to rip someone off for a quick buck. See those are the kind of people who deserve to get hit in the face with a downpipe.
That drives me nuts because when I bought the Z the guy did not disclose a GIANT METAL BOLT clogging the WHOLE driverside turbo leading to many issues resulting in a full motor overhaul.

All that bad...and you didnt notice anything on purchase...

damn good lesson on inspecting a car before you buy. good luck getting up to speed... you are in good hands with brett and tim.

Z32TT wrote:All that bad...and you didnt notice anything on purchase...

^^ No kiddin' , buying a TT is Buyer Beware in my book...I've only seen a few legit TT's around here among the dozens or more being sold, TT=Gold to many people apparently...

i could never buy a 20 year old car without inspecting it in person first..

How much did you pay for this car? I'm sorry man.

How did you not notice all the things wrong with it?

is this zfever?