evildky's Z32TT

[evildky]

just thought I'd put all my info in one placeI bought this car out of Alabama. it was a little rough but running driving and about 200k on the clock (200927 to be exact) back in september 2005 and drove it home. the drive was interesting. The suspension was completely shot, every bump in the road felt like a near death experience. I foudn I had the IACV issue and that the drivers door had a bad sensor causing the alarm to sound when I unlocked ti with the key.

The car looked OK but the hood was a steel replacement, the air dam was split at the bottom and the fenders didn't fit right and it had the wrong hatch. The car was cheap enough I thought how could I go wrong?

The first thing I did was replace the struts on all 4 corners, as wella s new brake pads and steering rack bushings, all new OE units form Nissan of Gastonia (buynissanparts.com).I also replaced the rotors with new ones from napa, and various hoses and whatnot.

I found a local guy willing to trade hatches, I replaced the hatch struts as well as the old ones would not hold up the hatch, and delt with minor issues like rekeying the passanger door and replacing the lock sensor ont he drivers door so it wouldn't set off the alram when I opened it with a key. I also added a decent MP3 CD player and some Kenwood coax speakers front and rear. I also bought a new antenna mast that I have yet to install.

I also did the timing belt, tensioner, waterpump, thermostat, bypass hoses, idlers, studs cam adn crank seals etc.

the car dyno'd 240whp in 5/13/06, not bad for a 200k mile bone stock motora few misc items that I also had to replace:Fuel pump New OE form Nissan fo Gastoniaused FPCM form Z1

In June of 07 one fo the stock turbo's took a dump. I located good used turbo's from a local and then decided I'd go ahead and replace the 200k mile engine while I had it out. I bought a "LOW miles JDM engine" from tiger japanese (do NOT buy these things! they are junk and you are taking a risk!). It came with a Jun 11lb lightweight flywheel, I did the timing belt tensioner seals studs idlers hoses etc. ..... again. I should have known there'd be problems when I found it had siezed turbo's, I swapped on the turbo's I got local (known good) and before putting the einge in I added Competition Clutches Stage 2 clutch, Megan DP's and test pipes (great qulaity), HKS Hi Power exhaust (low quality), an ebay cone air filter adapter with K&N cone filter, and UR pulley. I also bypasses the plenum coolant hoses, deleted the EGR's, AIV's and relocated the knock sensor to one of the EGR bolts. I put the engine in.........and had no oil pressure.

I took the engine back out, replace the oil pan, pickup and oil pump with new OE units again from Nissan of Gastonia. I put it back in and the oil pressure issue was solved, now I had a mystery misfire in #3, so out came the engine again.......rebuilt the head, found 1 cracked exhaust valve seat in #3, put it back in and this time it ran right. Right untill the waterpump locked upa nd the fan exploded. I replaced the water pump and cluthc with the units I had on my odl engine along with a new OE fan.

I also upgraded to Stillen front and rear sway bars, and Zeigen fno1rc 17x8 front 17x9 rear with falken azenis 615's, so I went back to the rollers on 4/26/08.....keep in mind still stock boost levels, stock turbo's and ecumods include:11 JUN lightweight flywheelUR pulleyMegan DP's and testpipesHKS Hi Power exhaustK&N cone air filter and the car put down 278 whp, the torque and HP Notice curves are much smoother and flatter than before.So I'm done right?......wrong! That "low miles JDM engine" developed a severe rod knock.......I took my old 200k mile stock engine to the machine shop (this thng looked good on the inside and honestly didn't need rebuilt). Rebuilt the bottom end and the other cylinder head (remember I already rebuiilt the passanger head). Total cost fo rebuilding the block and both heads was right around $1000. Total cost to buy that "low miles JDM engine" was about $1500 shipped (you do the math).

I put it back in.....again. This time I had severe lifter noise fomr the passanger side head. I oepned it back up, replaced every lifter in taht head with new ones from Nissan of Gastonia. Put it back together the noise came back. I opened it up again, this time I bench bled all 24 lifters form both heads. Upon restart it was tickaing again but after a short drive and winding the engine out the noise finally went away.

....I hate this engine

I suffer from the "while I'm at it's". This time I decided to build my own engine sling as I'm getting tired of pulling this engine.I also added new OE engine mounts and trans mount, Southbend Cluthes stage 4 clutch (noticibly heavier pedal than the stock or even the CC unit but it grabs and does NOT slip!), more various hoses and whatnot oh and this time I decided to modify the thing since the engine was fresh and strong, it got:JWT sport 500'sDeatschwerks 555 cc injectorsCZP ECUI also located a good stock aluminum hood and bougth new fenders. While the frame itself was straight the sheetmetal forward of the strut towers was a lil out so the car spent some time on the frame rack while the engine was out. I also took this time to replace ALL of the O rings in the a/c with the nitrile ones compatible with the R134a and also replaced the reciever drier and condensor.

Oh and somehwere along the line I replaced:the high pressure power steering hosethe high pressure hICAS hosethe low pressure power steering hoseshifter bushingsshift bootNew Nissan battery cablesNew Nissan carrier bearingA/C idler pulley bearing

I also shortened the shifter moving the fulcrum up

[Z32TT]

very nice write up on your Z, i been working on mine since october 08 and litterally spent thousands upon thousands$ on new parts all i have to do now is paint almost have anough money for the material and its done...well for now

[jschrauwen]

That's quite the history. I'm very impressed that you stuck with it. But then again, judging from the other cars in your stable it appears that you've been accustomed to this sort of thing.I also agree with the rebuild process as opposed to the JDM replacement engine process - much more reliable and predicatable.

Looking at your last dyno I would have expected much higher numbers for a TT in the same condition with similar mods. At least something around 330whp or so.

[billabong093]

Atleast now you literally know your car inside and out. lol. That sucks though about the motor, i would of been pissed. did you ever fix it and sell it to get some money back?

[evildky]

Looking at your last dyno I would have expected much higher numbers for a TT in the same condition with similar mods. At least something around 330whp or so.

not at stock boost levels, perhaps a better condition engine woudl have added a few more hp but not 300, nto at stock boost with stock turbo's, I plan to dyno again soon just not sure when with the current setup i am currently running only 12 psi i would think would put me int he 330-350 whp range, and with the boost maxed otu I should be able to get around 400-420 whp

[evildky]

update, I replaced of of the deatchewerks injectorsreplaced the heatercore hoses with silicoln units fomr Z1replaced the pcv hoses with new nissna onesand finally replaced the antenna shaft

[Z32TT]

how are those deatchewerks holding up so far i want to purchase those and want more feedback on how well they are, what was your reason for replacing them did you have others detch's in their that went bad quick?

[evildky]

one died, and when I tk ti apart another read 24 ohms, mike at deatchewerks was pretty easy to work with just tricky to get ahold of, he supplied the first injectorw with pretty much no questions asked he was quite suprised to find a needed a second, I'd guess it's not all that uncommon to find one bad injector in a batch, I've heard they are more prone to failure, it would be a good idea to clearance your plenum for injector access before putting it back on for future issues

or at least bypass the coolant lines and remove the egr's so remova is quicker and easier which is what I did

[Z32TT]

yeah i already bypassed the coolant lines next would be the egr, if their customer service is easy to work with thats more of a plus for me along with that warranty

[evildky]

had a third injector fail, should have brand new injectors in a day or 2

[Z31toZ32]

damn 3 injector failures on the DW.. I was thinking about picking up some DW 615s with teh adapter as soon as one of mine goes (ill be upgrading turbos later). anyways this failure rate isn't putting a wealth of confidence in dw.

[bartZ32tt]

So evil, you do any tests before you pulled your heads to find out about the cracked valve guide? Did you have any oil leaks indicating that?

[evildky]

it wasn't a cracked stem seal, it's the valve seat, it's a metal ring pressed into the head that the valve seats against to seal the combustion chamber, in diagnosing, I hd a misfire at idle that cleared up at higher rpm's, the injectors wall tested good as did the cop, plug, ptu and cas, that left a mechanical issue, compression test came up good so I knew it wasn't in the block, so I pulled the head and took it to a machine shop, had them to clean and check it they foudn the cracked valve seat, I had a full valve jpb and ptu the head back on and the problem was gone