Ethan's Thread.

[es.biggs]

Some or all of the cylinders are out of round. I don't know the exact measurements right now but I will measure it on monday probably. I guess I'm looking at boring the cylinders out, new pistons, the whole nine. Murphy's law is owning me.

Anybody know a ballpark price for a typical bore/hone? Is an average one about .030 over?

[z32pilot62]

Some or all of the cylinders are out of round. I don't know the exact measurements right now but I will measure it on monday probably. I guess I'm looking at boring the cylinders out, new pistons, the whole nine. Murphy's law is owning me.

Anybody know a ballpark price for a typical bore/hone? Is an average one about .030 over?

In these engines I do believe they go by .5 mm which is roughly .020 over, .0196850393701 to be exact.

[es.biggs]

Talked to the machine shop the other day, I think they bored it .020" over. He left a voice mail...I trust this guy a lot and I kinda told him just bore it, clean it, and give me some QUALITY pistons with a decent price. I'm pretty sure he got the Tomei pistons/rings. I will pick it all up on Monday!!!!

I am so excited to get it back. I need to order my bearings still - I forgot to write down the grades before I dropped off my block (Doh!) so I'm waiting til Monday to order my OEM bearings. Minor setback, no biggie though. Re-assembly will soon follow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I need paint/color ideas. Should I go with blue silicone hoses, or red, or black? My Z is silver, and I want to paint my valve covers and intake manifold. Thinking about just spraying the manifold a nice silver, doing the valve colors blue, and getting blue hoses (heater core, PCV, AIV)

What do you guys think?

[es.biggs]

Alrighty so I picked up the block today. New pistons (ITM, not Tomei, big price difference but ITM has a good rep). I also had the plenum cleaned and they sprayed it a nice silver color for me.

They installed the pistons on the rods for me. I noticed a couple of the pistons were easier to rotate on the wrist pin than the other 4 - like 2 of them were much tighter feeling. I don't think it is a problem, it still moves freely, just not as free. Does anybody know about this and/or ever experienced it?

I think I'm going with red hoses/valve covers. I also painted my calipers red and cleaned up the engine bay a little tonite. Brake clean and a rag works wonders on the grime.

I need to wait until Friday to order my bearing set and a last round of parts (hoses, bottom end gaskets, etc) - because I am pretty broke after the machine shop bill and other bills haha. Such is life

[es.biggs]

yay progresssssss

[es.biggs]

I found a new home for my t-top bags for a little bit. They were stiff from sitting so long



Side note, I was checking out my RPS flywheel I bout used for $250 (from eBay) and I noticed the teeth were pretty badly chewed up. The I looked at it and realized the helical gear part was facing toward the engine, rather than toward the starter. What kind of idiot....ugh

So I am going to take it to somebody who is better than me at working with metal. The gear is welded to the bolts that hold it to the outside of the flywheel, so the weld would need to be cut through. I will probably get the old ring gear off of my stock flywheel to put on the RPS one, since the teeth look a lot better on that one.

[vulcanrush]

there are lots of good pistons, not just tomei pistons, ethan, so no worries.

cp pistons are very good, wiseco's are very good, etc.

[es.biggs]

Yeah I have read a lot about ITM pistons and they seem like the best you can get at a low price.

This gave me some piece of mind

Plus like I said before I trust my machinist; he's been around for a while and he's had his hands on plenty of pistons!

I can not wait to get this car back together. My buddy invited me to a small car show at a grocery store at a town about an hour away from here. It's in early October - my work is cut out for me!!!

[es.biggs]

Update time:

Timing belt went on a few nights ago:


The top water pipe here took me 30 FREAKING MINUTES to get on. Gahhhhhh I was dripping sweat all over everything and I scratched up the fresh paint a little


Getting closer! Borrowing the engine stand on wed, hoping to get the motor back in this week and still shooting to be done in early October! I might have missed the summer, but autumn is even better here in North Carolina

[vulcanrush]

Talked to the machine shop the other day, I think they bored it .020" over. He left a voice mail...I trust this guy a lot and I kinda told him just bore it, clean it, and give me some QUALITY pistons with a decent price. I'm pretty sure he got the Tomei pistons/rings. I will pick it all up on Monday!!!!

btw, Ethan, tomei pistons aren't cheap, like 1.8k+ easy.

http://www.vividracing.com/catalog/tome ... 75878.html

[es.biggs]

http://thmotorsports.com/tomei/tomei_pi ... 61-03-1990

That's what I was looking at

[es.biggs]

yummmmm

[vulcanrush]

http://thmotorsports.com/tomei/tomei_pi ... 61-03-1990

That's what I was looking at

those are just the piston rings, ethan, no pistons.

but it just gives you an idea of how crazily expensive tomei products are, the piston rings alone are 400, a set of wiseco pistons with rings, pins, etc. aren't that much more (500+).

[es.biggs]

Wow that's crazy man.

[LIBRILZ]

So is putting on the timing belt that hard? I would think you just need to line up the marks on the gears and all with the belt and it would be good. Am I right? Never done it so just wondering.

[es.biggs]

It's not that hard really. Setting the tension right can be confusing, so I had a very experienced friend (who has done engine work to plenty of Z32s and J30s) help me with it. I'd feel comfortable doing it by myself after seeing him set the tension right.

I mean you gotta have a good knowledge of how an engine works and what TDC means etc but the job isn't that bad really. Just a lot of crap to move out of the way, and put back in when you do it in the car.

[vulcanrush]

what compression ratio on the pistons, Ethan?

[es.biggs]

They are OEM replacements, so it should be around 10.5:1. May be a little higher because the heads were decked but not much.

[vulcanrush]

They are OEM replacements, so it should be around 10.5:1. May be a little higher because the heads were decked but not much.

i don't think they're 10.5:1, are they domed (higher-compression)? they look like they're dished.

[es.biggs]

Yeah they have a dome shape to them. Not dished, may look that way though because of the crappy photo and shadows.

[es.biggs]

I have been worried about where to find an EGR plug for my driver side header....and I decided to check out the drain plugs where I used to work. Turns out one of the diff plugs fit great and I didn't even have to pay for it! :P

[DCaff300ZX]

Looks like you're making good progress Ethan, keep it up!
You seem to work at my speed for this kind of stuff, I'm interested to see how it all works out for you...

[es.biggs]

I've been working so hard man...if my life wasn't so busy I would have been done a long time ago...But I volunteer at my church (2 nights and a big chunk of Sundays), I have school full time (14 credit hours), I work full time (35 or more hours a week) and I have a girlfriend who I definitely need to cut some time out for. If it weren't for her I'd be the most stressed out guy in the world LOL

I'm really only getting to work on it 2 or 3 times a week, and I usually end up staying late at night because of how rarely I get to go out and work on it! And it's hard getting transportation to the garage it's parked at.

It's been soooooo hard, but I think I am finally getting there. I just need to get a couple things done before I can move much farther...

1 - EGR blockoff plates for intake mani welded shut
2 - Rear water pipes welded shut (cut the hose fittings off for the TB coolant bypass)
3 - Pick up my flywheel from the shop after resurfacing
4 - Get a few TB bolts that I lost
5 - Get nuts/washers for the Ford motor mounts

After that (hope to get all of that done tomorrow) the engine goes in. I need to get in touch with my friend with the cherry picker, but she's been very under the radar lately and I dunno if that's gonna happen :/

Hope I can find one soon though, I can't wait to hear the sweet rumble of Zeba again!!!!!!

[LIBRILZ]

Hope you gets yours running by the end of october. I can't wait for mine to be done either. Oh, why did you weld the coolant pipe? Usually it's just easier to connect them. But I understand it's really clean and all to have them welded so yeah.

Anyways man, jsut wishing you good luck to get done soon, we all need it.

[es.biggs]

Figured weld = less coolant lines, less possible leaks, less clutter, more space in the back where there is usually none.

I just hope the stainless will seal up good. I don't want that to start leaking you know? it would suck. I have heard stainless is hard to weld. I'm very far from being a good welder and I'm not doing it myself, so I don't even know. I want to find someone who is a good welder lol

[es.biggs]

I ended up using JB weld because I couldn't find a competent welder around here on a Saturday. It should work fine...I cleaned them up real good and everything.

I had to order another motor mount Wed so I chose 2 day shipping so it would get here on Fri. Welllll I called RockAuto and they are like it only counts after the item is shipped and there's the weekend so blah blah blah and you will get it on Monday.

wtf? gahhhhh I mean it makes sense but if I wanted to wait this long I coulda just got regular shipping.

[z32pilot62]

jb weld in a pressure fitting = a bad idea, hope it works out for you tho, i just connected everything with new hoses to be on the safe side.

[es.biggs]

I am going to pressure test it before I install. I know, it sounds lame and looking back now I probably should have just connected the hoses. All the places I called said they couldn't guarantee that it wouldn't leak so I didn't know what to do. Worst case scenario, I will have to order new pipes from Nissan for $30.

[es.biggs]

Engine is back in...to do list:

re-route/cap vacuum lines from the deletes I did
Install pilot bushing, flywheel, clutch kit, transmission
Install starter, slave cylinder, driveshaft
Reconnect harness (ugh)
Put my Labrees back on


break in timeeeee!!!

I'm excited. I'm gonna make a list of everything I did during this fiasco

[es.biggs]

OEM 120k kit
Rameyz idler studs
OEM crank sprocket and plates
OEM Throwout bearing
OEM Pilot bushing
Luk ProGold clutch kit
Resurfaced OEM flywheel (bought RPS flywheel from ebay, but I got ripped off and I can't use it)
Energy tension rod bushings
Energy steering rack bushings
All engine gaskets were replaced (OEM & Beck Arnley)
OEM head bolt set
Z1 silicone PCV hoses
Z1 silicone heater hoses
Z1 silicone bypass hoses
OEM fuel rail/plenum insulators
OEM rod/main bearing set
ITM oversized pistons, rings, pins .020
Dayco accessory belts
Purolator PCV valves
Ford motor mounts

Machine work:
Valves cut
Valve stem seals
Lifters bled
Heads decked
Block bore/hone .020 over
Paint heads and intake manifold

Work done when waiting for money to buy more parts:
Paint valve covers, timing covers, CAS
EGR delete, welded my own plenum block-off plates
AIV delete
Carbon Canister delete
PRVR delete
TB coolant bypass
Motor mount bracket and crossmember mod for the Ford mounts

I can't think of much more but I'm sure I missed some things!
That's probably most pf it though