Bringing a z back to life build

[Zinprogress]

Alright everyone, I wasn't going to do a build thread because this really wont be anything special and my progress isn't very fast thanks to my 1year old son but here we go I guess.

I have always wanted a twin turbo z but justifying the cost of what they go for has always been impossible for me but the opportunity finally popped up one day when a friend got ahold of me. He offered to trade me a red 1990tt with a bad motor and a blown turbo (and an ugly body kit most of which is not pictured) to iron out some issues with his black 1990tt and install a z1 400hp kit. I couldn't pass up the opportunity and got to work.




I got about 90% of the issues taken care of and one night the car got away from him and his skill level couldn't keep up and straight into a tree it went.




He didn't think the damage was that bad and bought a parts car and started hacking away and quickly realized he was in over his head. He decided to take a break from the z life and bought a 2011 bmw 135i and 250 miles into owning the car the engine locked up. He gives me a call and offers to trade me both the parts z and the wrecked one in exchange for swapping the motor in his bmw and I got to work!

Now that I have most of what I need to fix the red car I no longer had a reason not to work on it so I finished ripping off that awful body kit, cleaned up my little parking nook and got a harbor freight canopy to keep me out of the elements.








So heres where I am now. The motor is all plugged up and ready for a thorough cleaning, Ill be replacing all the top end gaskets while its out except for the head gaskets and ill pull the pan and check the bearings. The motor had great oil pressure and compression tested awesome so if the bearings look good I wont be tearing into it any further. I ordered an engine harness and egr delete kit from z1 and now that I have the green light from the wife ill have a lot more stuff on the way. Im excited to get this thing running so it can go to body and paint and become the z I never wanted to pay for. Well anyway, thanks for looking at my long winded post and I hope to get some feedback and input from you guys!

[LIBRILZ]

Honestly if you're going to "check" the bearings, might as well just replace them, I would be leary about disturbing them otherwise

Depends on mileage of the engine though, I would just leave them alone, especially when you already know it was running and with good compression

Nice thread though, and good luck, seems like you'll be fine working on the car

[abazz009]

looking forward to see your progress! your friend has some terrible luck but it turned out well for you

[Zinprogress]

He for sure has some real bad luck, but Im pretty sure it worked out well for the both of us. The closest place that will even work on a bmw around here is a bmw dealer and they are 50miles away. I don't know how much they would have charged him to replace that motor but i have a feeling that even after the trade he still came out ok. He put a tuner on it and gave it to me to drive around last night and its a pretty fun little car.

Well I ordered some more parts from z1, a set of silicone idle air and pcv hoses and their upgraded knock sensor sub harness. Any other suggestions on good things to buy while the motor is out? Im waiting as long as possible to order the bumper cover. Id really like to put a stock one on it but cost wise its looking like ill be going with the jspec cover. Anyone have a decent stock tt cover they'd like to get rid of?

[abazz009]

i would replace those hard to get to hoses with the silicon ones, like the heater hoses,and there is this small little hose on rear for the turbo water lines. also maybe the formed power steering line, its on the bottom of the bay. not sure how hard it would be to replace with the engine in the car but its the only hose i somehow missed that isnt silicon. maybe even replace the knock sensor itself getting to it now is easy and they are cheap.

[Zinprogress]

Alright guys and gals, time for an update. Boxes started rolling in from z1 and the more I bought the more I wanted to buy but we got a call that cut my budget in less than half, my wife is being considered for a job in Phoenix so we might be moving there about 2yrs before we had planned. Well i got everything i need to get it running just had to postpone bigger turbos, intercoolers and 2.5'' piping, injectors and some other odds and ends. Oh well.

Alright well I got the good engine all cleaned up with a little purple power and some steam.



Friday I managed to get the bad engine out of the red car with a little help from some liquid sunshine.



Start to finish it took me just under 3hrs to pull the motor, thats dropping the trans and disconnecting everything and having it set down. It helped that several bellhousing bolts were missing and i didn't care about saving any of the metal clips on the harness since I have a new one going in. I found a lot of evidence that this is not the original engine. Tons of mix matched hardware in a lot of really hard to reach places and all the hardware on the turbos look original and undisturbed.

As it sits now, just about every gasket and seal has been replaced besides the head gaskets, all the timing is replaced and done, lots of z1 sillycone is on and the egr delete and coolant bypass is all done. Today ill be finishing up the fuel injectors and ill get the 3" expansion downpipes on and get the engine bay all cleaned up new harness ran. Hopefully tomorrow i can get the engine in and trans stabbed and mounted, and fired by thursday. Out of four sets of injectors, I had a total of 7 individuals that tested in spec.

Working on this little slab of concrete hasn't been terrible but it does make me miss having a fully equipt shop. This was our setup just a few months ago, but we started doing business with someone our landlord didnt agree with and regardless of paying every single payment for the last 7yrs early, we got the boot.

[Zinprogress]

Also does anyone have a pair of upper timing covers they would like to sell? Mine were really faded and i tried to paint them and they turned out less than satisfactory.

[Zinprogress]

figured i should do an update since its been running for a while now

got the engine bay all cleaned up and deleted a bunch of stuff


motor ready to drop in with ams 3" expansion downpipes



motor bolted up, managed to get the timing covers to look ok


cleaned up trans and ams downpipes fitting good


stock boost hoses were severely deteriorated and this ebay hard pipe kit was included with the car so i figured id give them a try. had to do some trimming and slight modification to get them to fit right

[Zinprogress]

I turned it over with the coils unplugged and an oil pressure gauge hooked up to verify pressure and all looked great so i plugged in the coils and cranked and it fired right up but ran real rough. I disconnected the coils one by one to determine what cylinders were firing and which ones weren't. Cyl 1 and 3 had no spark. Ohmed out the coils and checked the plugs and that all checked out, swapped in coils just in case and plugged in a spare cas and manually turned it over and still no spark. Great

Got a wiring diagram and started checking continuity between the ecu and plugs and everything checked out great, wtf. Finally after an hour of wasting my time it hits me like a brick wall that when i tested the spare cas i used the cas sub harness that was already hooked up. Checked for continuity on the sub harness and found two wires with zero continuity . Hooked up a verified spare sub harness and it fires on all 6.

So car runs great now, starts instantly and tps and timing adjusted with zero problems. Cruised it around for a bit to make sure everything was copacetic and as soon as i decide to try and get into boost, it makes 3psi and BOOSHHHHH. Ebay coupler blows apart, so i order the z1 hose set.



Boost leak test up to 20psi with no leaks! Car runs hard now, spins pretty easily in first and second. Got the ac charged with duster spray (152a) and now im just trying to tie up a few things to get the car daily drivable. Cant wait for it to go to paint so it can look as good as it runs.

[Zinprogress]

On another note, i read so much bad about the ams downpipes that i bought them ready to have to cut them apart and weld them back together. With the price difference between the specialty z and the ams, i was more than willing to modify them than pay over double. When the pipes showed up they were actually exactly what i was expecting. Pretty at a glance but a lot of little things like warped flanges and rough transitions from the wastegate pipe merging with the downpipe (this makes a hell of a lot less of a difference than most people try to make it out to be).

A few moments on a belt sander and the flanges were perfectly flat. Tried to bolt them up and the lower stud on the passenger turbo was too long for the downpipe to mate up flush to the turbo. trimmed about 1/8th of an inch off the stud and the downpipe bolted up flush with no problems. Drivers bolted up with no problems. Once inside the car the rest of the exhaust bolted up with no problems whatsoever.

For the price difference and the small amount of work to get them to fit, i definitely recommend the ams downpipes.

[NolimitZ32]

The reason most informed people hate on AMS is because the company does no R&D, they reverse engineer other people's parts and mass produce their own versions in china.

[abazz009]

nice to see you got it up and running!

[Zinprogress]

The reason most informed people hate on AMS is because the company does no R&D, they reverse engineer other people's parts and mass produce their own versions in china.

I actually was unaware of this, now i feel a bit ashamed.

[NolimitZ32]

Don't be, plenty of people run their stuff on the hush hush, and even more run their stuff and don't know about the history. Just stray away from their stuff in the future. Them doing what they have done has forced a lot of the pioneer companies to lower their prices to be more attainable to the majority of the market.

[fastVG30DETT]

Looking good

[LIBRILZ]

awesome z, I would stay away from AMS

also, charged the A/C with a can of spray duster? Idk about doing that man

[Zinprogress]

Yeah no worries there. I have no problem paying a price difference to support the pioneer of a product. After we move, I plan on upgrading to a larger turbo with a 5 bolt exhaust so ill make it right and switch up to the 5 bolt szp downpipes.

As for charging the ac with duster spray, im glad you mentioned it. Duster spray is 152a which is listed as a compatible refrigerant with r12. Did a little research about 3yrs back when we heard a rumor that duster spray was essentially r12. After a little digging, found that some cans are in fact r12 and most others are difluoroethane which is HFC-152a. Charged our 1992 dodge Dakota shop truck with it after 3 years its blowing cold with no problems. Now its becoming more common and you are seeing more people posting about it.

As for where the z sits now, i drive it on occasion and havent had any problems with it. I messed around with diagnosing a hicas issue where after a bit of driving it would blow the 15a fuse. I thought i had it figured out by replacing the hicas computer which made me actually get a hicas error but eventually blew the fuse. Still cant get it to go into hicas diagnostics mode, so i need to do a bit more testing with the ole multimeter. Found a convertible car that was totaled but the damage was minimal, purely cosmetic. Offered the guy $1,000 for the whole car and the guy turned me down saying that he had a manual conversion pre sold from it for $1,000 so he couldnt do less than $2,000 for it. I asked him if he would take $1,000 after selling the trans swap from it and he said he would probably do that so on monday i might be picking that up. My wife wants it and i have everything to swap it over to a tt from the engine all the way back to the rear end besides id do a new wiring harness and silicone the hoses.

[DevilZ32]

How's the build coming along?

[Zinprogress]

Build has sadly been at a standstill. I have been driving the z since I had to pull the heads on my daily(2000 sierra 1500 that had 5 exhaust bolts broken in the heads and an exhaust tick that would drive you insane) and its proven to be really reliable! It got down to about 20 degrees and was snowing like hell but she fired right up and got me home without an issue!

Got the heads back on my dd and used it to take both my shepherds to get neutered today and went right back to driving the z. I really do love the way this thing drives and feels. Ill be doing a remote start install writeup here real soon, one that involves a safety feature for manual transmission models, so be on the lookout for that.

Other than that i have been doing a lot of side work, remote start installs and random mechanical work. I sold my 2005 sti to a friend who brought it back to me to do some wiring and make a few changes and it really has made me miss the car.

Its a 2005 sti that i converted to the 2006-2007 front end. I welded in the core support, installed the roof spoiler, did the rear lower diffuser, retrofitted all the 2007 headlight wiring to work with the 2005 aiming selector switch and painted the whole car from silver to aspen white. Car ran pretty good with 850cc injectors on e85. Oh well, shes in the past now.

[NolimitZ32]

I miss my GD, they are some of the most fun cars to drive.

[DevilZ32]

That's good, the z is atleast running. STIs are nice cars. I remember when my friend and took a sit from his uncle when I was 14 lmao. Are you going to do any power upgrades or just keep it stock?

[DCaff300ZX]

Hey, looking really good there Zinprogress! Nice to see someone who takes the time to do most things right, and learns well from the inevitable bad things that happen.
Keep it up!

[Zinprogress]

Well i havent updated in a while, all thanks to some rough news. My 1.5yr old son needs surgery and i was hit with the harsh reality of the cost. I have been tossing around a lot of ideas and its looking like i will probably have to sell the z. As much as id like to keep it and continue this project, I want to keep my family financially ahead of the game. So this may be the end of the line for this car in my hands.

[DevilZ32]

Oh, s***...Hopefully your son gets better, and also hope you can someway you can keep the Z.

[Zinprogress]

so i posted the z for sale and had tons of people come look at it, i had one guy come and made and offer and i asked him to let me think about it. I got cold feet and my wife told me she didnt want me to sell it so i backed out on the offer and decided to keep it!

Decided id drive it to a doctor appt today and started it up to let it idle and after it warmed up it idled high. wtf. Goosed it a few times on my way the the appt and it was definitely low on power (usually spins the tires with ease in first and second just rolling into the throttle). Got it home and did a boost leak test and sure enough its got a huge boost leak down by the drivers turbo. Its like its punishing me for almost selling it.

[DCaff300ZX]

so i posted the z for sale and had tons of people come look at it, i had one guy come and made and offer and i asked him to let me think about it. I got cold feet and my wife told me she didnt want me to sell it so i backed out on the offer and decided to keep it!

Decided id drive it to a doctor appt today and started it up to let it idle and after it warmed up it idled high. wtf. Goosed it a few times on my way the the appt and it was definitely low on power (usually spins the tires with ease in first and second just rolling into the throttle). Got it home and did a boost leak test and sure enough its got a huge boost leak down by the drivers turbo. Its like its punishing me for almost selling it.

Oh man, the Z32 God again...mine has always been just the same and only now is nice to me after spending ungodly $$$ reworking everything, and even then likes to poke with the battery and fuel hose clamps. It caused me to do all of this as after getting a bunch of work done and working well, the next day it lost all boost and a massive leak just as you have, and the cause was below.
In my case and possibly yours, (but still do all "normal" boost and leak testing!) it's the two connected clamps holding the intake coupler to the turbo and intake hardpipe. REALLY hard to get to and work on unless it's been separated and oriented for ease of service when any turbo work was done, these both come loose from heat cycles and time and cause a massive leak as you have found. Check all couplers and clamps, best access to DS is from below-ish middle after removing/moving a ton of stuff around, and the PS from the front after removing hardpipe and moving AC and other items on the intake plenum. Gives a great opportunity upon reinstall to tuck items and make return trips easier and be able to see things, BTW. Have patience and use a snake light from below or front PS that you can point at your subject as you work to get hands and tools to it.

[Zinprogress]

I was actually hoping it was that coupler and when i put the car back together i made sure to clock every clamp so it was as easy as possible to get to. But somehow i didnt think it was going to be that simple and the leak sounded lower than that coupler so i climbed under the car and sure enough the compressor housing was covered in oil.

I have a feeling ill be pulling this motor back out which doesnt upset me one bit. Just means ill be getting the snails i wanted in the first place. Ill get back under it tomorrow with the compressor hooked up to find out for sure where its leaking and clean the oil up so i can be 100% sure. Itll probably be sometime this spring that i get around to swapping the turbos since my next project is to turbocharge my truck, Ive been wanting to do this for a long time and i really want a funner dd while i work on the z.

[Ace2cool]

Yikes. If you've got a boost leak through the turbo CHRA itself, that's a mother of a leak. Good luck with the build though!

[DCaff300ZX]

I was actually hoping it was that coupler and when i put the car back together i made sure to clock every clamp so it was as easy as possible to get to. But somehow i didnt think it was going to be that simple and the leak sounded lower than that coupler so i climbed under the car and sure enough the compressor housing was covered in oil.

I have a feeling ill be pulling this motor back out which doesnt upset me one bit. Just means ill be getting the snails i wanted in the first place. Ill get back under it tomorrow with the compressor hooked up to find out for sure where its leaking and clean the oil up so i can be 100% sure. Itll probably be sometime this spring that i get around to swapping the turbos since my next project is to turbocharge my truck, Ive been wanting to do this for a long time and i really want a funner dd while i work on the z.

Aw crap, that's bad news. Glad you found the problem area though, sucks when problems aren't known for making the plan moving forward.
Looking forward to seeing your project when you resume!

[Zinprogress]

So i found my vac leak, it was the oem metal t that is in the middle of the hose from the charge pipe to the wastegate. The one t that i thought would never fail since it was made out of metal blew apart.....crazy. Also found that one of the recirc valves was leaking so i swapped that out and she holds pressure now. I cleaned the turbo off and ill drive it around later to see exactly where its leaking from, Its not the feed line for sure and it really doesnt look like its coming from the return. It looks like its coming from the bottom of the compressor housing where its mated to the chra. Guess we will find out soon enough!

So while my truck is my next project (which shouldnt take more than a day or two), i need to figure out what turbos id like to go with. I have been tossing around the idea of running the jwt sport 500's and was really wondering what you guys would recommend. I like the price of the sport 500's but i think id get bored with them pretty quick. Anyone here running the disco taters and could give some recommendations?