New guy here. Just picked up a 1990 TT 5spd RHD 2+2 90,000km/56,000miles:




I scored it pretty cheap, because the motor and trans are out and the interior is disassembled for race car prep... But the deal came with a 2nd silver z32, 5 blocks, 5 manual gear boxes, 8 intake manifolds, spare heads, turbos, and everything in between.

In reviewing the head, the exhaust port blew out and started sending coolant through the turbo. I was told it didnt run like this for very long:



Its too bad because the head is reconditioned, decked within like 1000km apparently. Is this a common failure for the heads? I'll pillage all of the valves from this head, and send it off to scrap and start reassembling one of the five blocks we have.

Plan is to keep it basic for the time being to just get it operational, then start messing with power mods. It came with green coil overs, meagn? 5zigen full exhaust/DPs, LW front rotors. I'll delete the AC and rear Hicas while putting the motor back in.

The interior is the scariest part, as everything except the seats and console were stripped out, padding removed, acid cleaned and painted black. I dont know why people do this, it looks terrible. I have the carpet, but not sure about all the other bits and pieces though. This will probably take the longest time, but going to focus on getting the car operational before really diving into the interior.

My buddy took the second 2+0 that came with the deal, which just needs a transmission and interior re assembled more than mine...


Looking forward to any input/feedback. Super excited to get some updates too!

Congrats on the snag. I love the pearlglow. Don't be put off by the interior, its not a huge job just a bit tedious because everything goes in in a specific order. Word of advice, take the steering wheel off to do the dash, its takes an extra 10 minutes and makes the dash job so much easier.

Ditto to NoLimit's thoughts, VERY nice snag.
Nice to see a good one going to be put back into good condition, Good Luck with your project!

Thanks guys!

If it wasnt so clean, I would have definitely just walked from the deal. And the fact that it is so clean, I can get past the Pearl Glow. Head is disassembled, and will be going through the rest of the parts this weekend to see if there is a candidate I can use and what parts i'll need to put it back together. Came with ARP studs, so i'm good there. Head, exhaust VC gaskets for sure, been thinking about a TB kit, but all the parts look sooo new!

Nice find! Just a note, green coil overs could be Tein. Would love to see how it's going.

Thanks. It turns out the coil overs are PowerTrix. Not sure what level they are, but some reviews seem decent all around. I also found some rear aluminum subframe bushings that are installed, and Z1 side mount intercoolers and an Olins intake!

I managed to find a used head in the stock of parts we had, but it doesnt have all of the original cam caps. How critical is it to have the original cam caps? I would say its pretty serious, but not sure if the tolerances on these motors vary from other manufactures that line bore. I'll be taking it to a machine shop shortly for their input as well, but figured I would check here as well.

I started putting some of the interior back together, man, what a pain, they ground off/cut out all the mounting points for most of the trim. They didnt even bother filling the tears in the body! They just cut s*** out and painted over everything! what hacks.

If you're missing the original cam caps you'd have to get fresh ones line bored to fit, you cant just swap camp caps.

NolimitZ32 wrote: ↑

Wed Nov 27, 2019 6:04 am

If you're missing the original cam caps you'd have to get fresh ones line bored to fit, you cant just swap camp caps.

I was thinking of maybe plati gauging the caps, but its probably not even worth the effort. Since I wouldnt know what to do for a repair.

You could but its risky, like "lock up a cam at WOT and see pieces of engine everywhere" risky, heads for VG30DETTs are pretty cheap in stock form, its the shipping that kills you. I have 2 sets of heads in my garage right now, lots of heads out there, best bet is to just buy a used or rebuilt one.