Anyways, so I bought the car from this 65 year old GENTLEMAN right? I flew out to arkansas from texas just to pick it up I was so excited. Keep in mind I am pretty mechanically inclined and after a few discussions on the phone about the car I wanted to fly out to and drive back on my own I decided to finally go with it. All is good when homeboy picks me up from the airport. This guy was a Z enthusiast and really didn't want to sell the damn thing. We parked at the hotel I made reservations for so I could check it out and go on a drive. All looked nice, the interior is a 10/10. EVERYTHING works!! The only minor thing I noticed about the interior is that there is a relay for the a/c that cuts on and off sometimes when it is on full blast. Other than that, Perfecto!!! The outside is aztec red I believe, no chips or scratches except for obvious 22 year old wear n tear, but there is a faded white blemish of some sticky stuff he said he woke up too on the left front fender. Not noticeable in the picture but noticeable in person. So I took it for a test-drive and the thing drove like really awesome!! haha the throttle was a lot more heavy than my prelude because you actually had to put a little bit of weight on the pedal to get the appreciated response but I felt good to drive something different anyways. I drove up through a couple lights, hauled a** a couple times, then drove back to the hotel where I agreed I wanted too buy it. Everything seemed perfectly cherry about the car. No odd noises, immaculate interior, oil was a little black but he said it was due for an oil change anyways.. no biggy.. And plus he gave me 2 binders with about a hundred reciepts on everything he had done to the car along with a lot of faq's printed out from a lot of the websites ive found on google.
He had the reciepts for the NEW JDM transmission, NEW wiring harness, NEW SYSTEM, NEW leather seats, Oil changes he's had since he bought the car... What I'm trying to say is that this Z seemed like the most legitimate buy someone could ask for. Think about it, the paperwork on hand to proove his every word.
So.. I hand him the cash, he signs the bill of sale, title, blah blah blah. I start driving the long 8 hour drive back into texas when about 2 hours in I'm driving and I hear this loud !!!POP!!! I see white smoke in my rear view, and my temp. gauge skyrockets! So I know automatically I definitely blew a hose or possibly blew my radiator cap because there was too much pressure in the system or something. I pull over and found out the alternator serpentine belt snapped and smacked my upper flow radiator hose causing it to blow. Hours later, a tow truck picks me and my car up. We take it to his ma and pa's shop, then go to autozone to get 3 new belts and a new hose. When we come back it takes """"US""" about an hour to replace all 3 serpentine belts. Yes I helped him through the whole process. I had to throw away my white t-shirt. We go back inside and he charges me the full price as if he sat there for 2.7 hours and did it himself. I didn't really complain because I did get to learn a little bit about my new car and he was a cool enough old hippie dude. Whatever.
I start driving back.. Then I hear this "ticking" sound coming from the engine.. I'm like wtf is this really happening right now!!!??? The noise resulted into me spending the next 6 hour drive on my phone reading and researching everything I could find out about hydraulic lifters ticking and how to fix them. In the end I decided to flush the engine with ATF and the regularly used synthetic mobile 10w-30. So I go do that, start it up, let it run for a little (ticking is still there) then drain it out. The oil is still the color of deep space.. Pitch Black! I do it one more time and it's still.. Pitch black!
I end up taking the Z to a shop called deepstage where I got a lot of my previous work done on my prelude. Great guys! I went in and asked them to do there motor flush stuff for about 100$. (they did this to my prelude and after driving 3000 miles on synthetic the oil is STILL gold.) Awesome!!! So they do the flush and the oil is gold as it could be but the ticking is still there!!! I didn't know what to do. I planned on taking the plenum and valve covers off myself to make sure everything was to spec and see if I could find out whats wrong, but before I did that I decided to take it back to deepstage the next day to get a second opinion. So I talked to drew, the owner who knows less about his own mother than he does cars specifically all models of imports and he told me right off that it was a rod not a lifter. I have never had a rod knocking on me so I never knew first hand what it sounded like. We did a couple other tests and we verified that I had spun a rod bearing and the sound was just going to keep getting worse and worse. (which it has) So I decided that the labor and parts was going to cost just as much as if I bought a new JDM engine. So I did. I found a jdm engine, tested, and ran with oil for about 1000$. Comes in today, they start working on it on monday and should have it back by next friday.
Kind of a s*** situation that I bought this car that seemed sooooo perfect when I inspected and drove it, and then it all of the sudden craps out on me like that. I'm ending up putting as much money into the new car I bought as much as my prelude is worth.
The real reason why I came to this site and posted a new topic is because I've been searching for hours on google and other forums but I can't find anything. Does anybody have a legit photo of a 90 and up 300zx with the rear window louvers they have on sfx performance? I really got a thing for louvers and to be honest I think they would make the Z stand out even more. (obviously)
But yea, whats up peoples, hope to learn a bunch of cool stuff on these forums! While your here, check out my new ride:
I actually had a '92 prelude myself. Bought it for $300 with a rod knocking h23. Swapped in an H22 vtec motor. Repainted it all charcoal metallic grey. I loved that thing (especially the feel of vtec)
So I save an extra 500 something not having to replace that.
