1994 300zx build thread

[georgeworley]

Thought i would make a build thread as i would like to show any progress i will make and its an easy way for me to keep order of everything i will do to it and have done to it. It will probably be pretty slow as i just graduated high school and don't have a job yet.
I'm really wanting the car to be as comfy as possible and a good daily driver. Reliable and just fun to go drive around in.
Anyways, I got the car 6/7/2013 after the guy said he would take a lot less for the car since it wouldn't go into gear, and that was on may 30th. So i sold my 240sx vert and went to go get it. It looked a lot better in person than it did in the pictures he had sent to me, so i was even more excited to get it and bring it home, it even had the wheels i wanted on it until i save up for some nice ones too.
So here are the pictures of it the day i got it.
The car is NA, 212k miles, and doesn't smoke one bit. Looks like the previous owner has taken it somewhere to get the timing belt done at 199k and the oil changed at 212k from the stickers that are under the hood/on the windshield.I don't know how safe i feel about the belt so i may end up replacing it so i know its new.









So i got it jacked up and took the transmission out



Getting to the top drivers side transmission bolt proved to be rather difficult... so me and my dad made a huge extension and it worked.



I had a feeling the problem would be the same problem i had when i had my hatchback 240sx... One of the springs in the center of the clutch popped out somehow.



So i have a new clutch ordered and now i'm waiting for it to get here.
I also think my rear seal may have a leak and i think would be worth it to go ahead and replace now while its easy. so i'll probably go to the auto parts store tomorrow and pick one up.
You can also see the oil on each side of the block from the valve covers leaking.



And while the exhaust is off i thought i would at least clean it up and make it look a little bit better until i get an aftermarket exhaust.

[BigTDogg (MA)]

Nice, always love watching build threads.

One tid bit though, your jack stand points in the front are bad. You will damage the radiator bar that way. I'd suggest placing them as shown here.



Welcome to Nico!

[gsrteg]

subscribing! looks good i love build threads aswell. good job cleaning up the exhaust! keep us posted.

[georgeworley]

Thanks! I plan on putting everything i do into this thread as it will be a good, easy way to reflect back on everything.
Yeah, where the jack stands are right now is actually on this pretty thick piece of metal on the front subframe, not ideal, but my floor jack sucks. Wasn't sure if i would have been able to move it around to get the transmission out with it with the jack stands on the frame rail. But for future times they will be there. : ) Would hate to ruin something so good.
I'll probably try to change out the rear seal tomorrow.
While i was out today i got a new head unit, the one that was in it didn't have an aux port and i hate having cd's laying around.
So now i have a radio with bluetooth and an aux, will post up pictures of it tomorrow because the pics dont turn out too well in the dark with a flash lol.
But here it is before i installed it



I also gave the car a light hand wax and it already looks 100x better. I'm sure with a good detail this car would look close to new.
Along with that i took the seat covers off, just because seat covers seem cheap to me and id rather rock the seat with a few rips and cracks. They're actually not too bad, though i think i may try to find some cloth ones because i'm not super big on leather.








And a pic with my pretty much brother in laws bike and v8 s10

[DCaff300ZX]

Wow, love the color and it looks even better after the wax and even has the lighter tan color interior I like as well- NICE find.
Looks like she is in good hands, go to work!

[georgeworley]

Thank you!
I love the color also, and the tan and green look really good together in my opinion.
And i plan on making everything about the car clean, i wire tucked my engine bay on my Honda and cleaned the engine block and transmission up. I plan on making the block and everything else look new on this one aswell, but on this one im keeping everything like power steering, ac, and all of that.
Here's my hondas engine bay



Put a new rear seal in it today and cleaned it up a little
took it out

new one in


And here are the pictures of the new head unit i put in.

[georgeworley]

I got my clutch in today!
A lot of people hate on xtd clutch but when i had one in my 240 it seemed to be just fine so i got another. And if something happens to it oh well lol, it was cheap and its not too hard to replace.
Now i just have to wait until Monday to register it and get tags so i can legally drive it on the road.



After i got it all back together i took it down to the house and washed it real fast, sadly it was getting dark so there will be better pictures tomorrow in the sunlight : )

[DCaff300ZX]

Lookin' good, bet you can't wait to start driving her!

[Rager]

id like to know where the rear clear corner lenses came from. the look much more "clean" and "crystal " looking than the ones i got from Z1 , mine just look dull and yellow compared to what you have

[georgeworley]

I'm super excited to drive it, tomorrow i will probably drive it all around town when i get it registered. Before i got it back on the ground i drained the clutch fluid reservoir which was a mistake i should have just put new fluid on top of the existing and flushed it out...
So now my clutch pedal is very weak, but works. Gunna try to bleed it some more tomorrow from both bleed points.

Took some more pictures in the daylight today, but was cloudy so still no good pictures of the paint in the sun : (






And Rager, i just went into the carport and took it out to maybe find out what they are. If you can get anything out of these pictures here you go





They're completely clear and have the rainbow look from these weird bulbs.

[z32loverboy]

That's a really good starter Z and you seem to know your way around Nissan's! Good find! Love the color and "JDM" tails. I'll also be keeping up with this.

[georgeworley]

Yes it is and i'm really glad that I got it, i plan to make it clean as can be and keep it stock for the most part. Gunna go job hunting within the next couple of weeks and then ill start saving up for parts. Going to try to get an exhaust and start just getting things to make it a clean, reliable, awesome car.
z32lover you're not too far from me, im in Cumberland City, about 65 miles west of nashville.
And i think i know my way around most cars pretty decently by now, i had a 240 hatch and a 240 vert for a little while and swapped motors in them while i had them. Sold both of them and bought this and have some money and my lude left over.
So the tails are jdm? They dont have the little pinstripes in them. And sadly the drivers side one has a small crack : /

[Rager]

i was talking about the REAR i guess you would say "side" indicator lights.

as far as the tail light, they are jdm copies but look to be of be of good quality. most of the time the white plastic doesnt match up well. .

those might be the jspec corner lights not to sure. the fact that it says nissan on its is interesting

[georgeworley]

Ah Ok, i misread earlier and completely missed the rear in your post lol. ill go take a picture of those, ill edit it into this post in just a min.
Here ya go, and yeah that is interesting that they say nissan
And sometime down the road i plan on getting the real jdm tail lights

[z32loverboy]

Oh sweet man! If you ever need parts or any help I know pretty much all the Z32 guys around. There's a pretty awesome meet monthly in Mt. Juliet in the east side of Nashville. Theres some pretty awesome cars that come around, Supra's, Z32's, 240's, Honda's, ECT... There's a few 900+ cars that show up usually. There's another on in Murfresboro that has 1100+ hp supra's, Lambo's, GTR's and such. Me and a buddy swapped in a supercharged KA24 into his s13 hatch that ran E85 and it was a torque monster. It holds the world record still i think on highest hp on a supercharged KA. When we dyno'd it after it blew a ring in cylinder 3 it put out 190hp and 180 tq on a screwed up dyno. a SR on 14 lbs put down 170 hp on that dyno. When we first got it and it was running right it put down 272 hp and 250tq still on stock drive train with a single plate clutch out of a 350z. That's what I started on was a 240. Yeah, those are jdm copies but who cares? they look pretty dang good even with the crack in the lens. Good to see someone else in the area that's doing a Z32 justice. There's so many out there trashing them.

[georgeworley]

Awesome, ill definitely have to make my way out to one of those meets one day, gunna drive it around for a little just to make sure everything would be good to drive it for an hour or two. Sounds like a pretty fun KA haha ; P, probably ridiculous. I liked my 240 but i wanted a good daily car and these have a little more space between the seats so you don't hit your passengers knees when you shift lol, and the 300 just feels more solid to me. I know, i cant stand to see such nice cars get trashed, this thing will probably get babied for the most part by me, want it to last a looong time

[z32loverboy]

Yeah, The MJ meet is on facebook as "rendezvous point". They post on there when their meets are. There's one on a sunday night every month all summer. Music City Car Meets is another one on facebook and that's over by the stadium in Nashville, it's a good one we all usually go to. The boro one is word of mouth since a good bit of "racing in mexico on closed streets" goes on. They make a LONG drive to "mexico" OF COURSE to race. Most of the guys are really cool up in MJ, I know most of the guys running the thing there. Last time we had 5 or 6 Z32's there and they're a cool group of guys to hang with. They always have parts and are really knowledgeable about their stuff. I'll be back in the states in August so I'll be there starting then. I'm in Canada till then.

[jbracy7]

Great start man,there is a ton of info in here for you.what u planing for your nose panel,oem,jim wolf tech has a air box that can be moded in to a true ram air.if your interested

[georgeworley]

I have the stock nose panel i just had it off for the mean time because the screws that were holding it were roofing screws lol... so i drilled the holes out and re threaded them today. I'll take a look at the intake sometime.
Right now i have a few issues, i think my rotors are warped because when i brake the car shakes a loooot.
And ive bled and bled and bled the two points for the clutch pedal and its still staying low but i can drive it. I'm thinking i need to adjust my pedal but i cant seem to get anything up there to loosen the 12mm bolt to adjust it.

Took some more pictures today since it was nice.

[georgeworley]

Been a while since i have done anything, but i just got done putting on new front rotors and painting my calipers.





Also threw in a weighted shift knob that i got from a buddy

[georgeworley]

Been a little while since i've done much but a went and bought another z a couple weeks ago .
Here it is, bought with a rod knock and rebuilt title, 120k miles, and a few goodies.






Got it home and started swapping out better parts onto mine, Swapped out the wheels since my 350z ones are just about done and the stockies have brand new tires. Swapped the seats too, now i have some nice cloth ones in my green z.



Got it into the garage and started on taking the motor out.

Exhaust off


What are these little pipes on the sides for? Goes into the big mess of stuff in the wheel well on one side.


When draining the transmission fluid i found this mess, assuming the big piece is part of 4th since he said 4th grinds.


transmission out


Motor out





Whenever i drained the oil it didnt look like more than a quart... but the dipstick showed it was where it needed to be, anyone know of any problems with the dipstick reading?

Anyways, took the oil pan off and found this



Hoping ill just have to buy some new rod bearings and polish the crank and call it good.

Here are some pictures of my green z as it is right now.






And I got my energy suspension differential bushings in today, hopefully it will get rid of all the clunking around back there when shifting and when i take off in first and reverse.

[zcar93na]

Looking good! I ordered a few parts today and differential bushings were included. Mine clunks pretty bad in first, reverse and when it breaks loose.

What's your plans for the car with a bad motor, just using it for a parts car?

[georgeworley]

Thanks! Yeah, when i take of in 1st or reverse you can hear it back there clunking away, I can also sometimes feel it when i change gears. Gunna give me a chance to clean up the differential too. I have a youtube video of what mine sound like ill put the link below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87z1e957hxk
And I'm probably going to fix the motor, paint the door and fender and sell it. After i sell it I'm gunna look around for a 240z shell to play around with.

[zcar93na]

That's exactly what mine sounds like, I thought it was my drive shaft carrier bearing because it was shot. But i realized my diff bushings were bad while I was under it taking the drive shaft out.

Here's a pretty nice write-up on how to replace them if you have a few things you aren't sure about. http://www.yugobernie.com/images/SubFra ... nstall.pdf

[georgeworley]

Well, its been a while.
Haven't done too much with my 94 just been keeping it clean and driving it every once and a while.



And i just started putting my 90s motor back together, got the bottom end put together for the most part. New main and rod bearings and i got the crank cleaned up.





And i'm probably going to end up selling my 94 z and then my 90 when i get done rebuilding it so i can fund a new project that i picked up in the winter from a scrapyard.