Introduction and My build

[JesseDM]

Greetings fellow NICO members!

Recently returned home after ending active service with the Marine Corp. While away on my travels a friend of mine was selling this beautiful 1990 N/A 300zx for the bargain price of $1000 and I scooped it up. Been sitting waiting for me for a year now.













As the wiser members have already deduced, that means it didn't run. Your so smart but I love working on cars and this was a steal deal for a DIY'r like me. So I got home and started tearing into it. They said they couldn't get it to crank and had checked everything, starter, battery, fuses... I immediately checked the clutch safety switch and bypassed it just to be sure it wasn't that. Still nothing. In a moment of brilliance I thought, I'll check the oil. MUD. Well now things area starting to make sense. Pulled the plug on cylinder 1...



She went 3 for 3 on the left bank. Complete destruction. I'm in the process of tearing the motor down and removing it. Nice way to learn my way around the VG. I wanted to start out auto crossing it N/A but since it needs a motor I plan to just do a TT swap over the next few months. It's a solid car, just needs some love.

I'll have some OEM parts to sell and I'll also be looking for TT swap parts, as well as an engine. I've checked the reviews on engine dealers both here and on other forums. Everything I've found seems so shady so I'd like to find a member with a TT motor for sale. Anyone in the SC area or surrounding states with a motor or parts pls PM me.

I really want to get it to some auto cross events, so after getting it running I'll primarily be focusing on building it towards that, as well as fixing the wear and tear on the car. Get it back to like new condition. Thanks for looking!

[canadian booster]

those plugs are nasty! LoL
sounds like you know a thing or two at least, will make for a fun project! the body is in great shape by the looks of it. i have the opposite problem, my Z is finally running great, but the body is terrible

[DCaff300ZX]

Welcome, and still a nice deal for a straight Z and a Jspec bumper!
BTW, a little hard-learned advise: get the bumper primed at least- it will become a paint problem if left naked too long and cause your painter (or you!) to have to go to extremes to get paint to stick and stay.
Had to laugh at those NASTY plugs, I've never seen the electrodes gone before! WOW!
GL with everything, sounds like you are pretty knowledgeable about things but be sure to ask around here if/when you hit any snags!

[JesseDM]

I haven't gotten the heads off the motor yet but it looks completely mangled inside but the damage didn't break through the block or oil pan...that i can see. lol Didn't know that about the bumper. Ill just rush and get it painted. Truth is I don't know how long that bumper sat unpainted. Hopefully not too long. I know several fellow automotive savvy friends have said that urethane bumpers have to be "baked" before painting, maybe that'll help. I was really happy to get the j-spec bumper with it, made deciding on "a look" much easier. Just need to find some skirts that'll go well with it, a wings west or Kalimari look a like. Something simple.

[DiesILL]

Congrats on the car! Those plugs are pretty bad... Looks like one was cross threaded at some point. My guess is that there was a plug fouling (probably the stripped one) which caused it to burn up and start to overheat. I would be surprised if you had burnt rings. In any case you have a great platform to build off and I'm interested to see what way you end up going with your car (loads of engine choices if you end up doing a swap)!

[Ziggy1621]

welcome.. and thank you for your service!

[JesseDM]

I've bought most the hard to find pieces for a TT swap so far. Stock recirc valves and a whole slew of OEM piping and the OEM intercoolers. Next is a good TT motor, The rest is pretty easy to find from there.

I had guessed over heating too. There was a ton of new hose clamp hardware, so he was prolly fighting a losing war against Leaks from the aging hoses. Lol it was def detonating like an SOB when it finally went. Kid was prolly trying to drift it or something and skipping the needed maintance

[JesseDM]

So I've been reading on the differences between the auto tragic and the manual TT motors. I just need to know if I got this right in my head. Auto TT motors are much cheaper but have a different intake cam. They also seem to be the only motors I can find without the transmission, I don't need the trans because I already have a manual and intend to buy the starter shim and go that route. My question is this, Can I use the intake cam from my NA motor and swap it in? Yes I will be getting an ecu reflash. I'll still lose a little power from the "smaller" turbos but I don't think it'll be that bad so long as I can get the cam swapped. I'd imagine it'd also be dependent on what model year the two engines are but I can fix that too because I have the cams and gears and electronics from my NA motor to swap out also. Just wanted to check this before I buy a motor. Thank you for looking!

[NolimitZ32]

Check page 69, EM section in the FSM, from what I'm reading you should be good using the NA cams but that just doesn't sound right to me for some reason.

[JesseDM]

It doesnt make sense to me either. You'd think a turbo motor would have different lift, duration, etc; cuz they usually do. From everything ive read so far...its the exact same.

[DCaff300ZX]

You do lose a couple of HP in stock config with the AT turbos, but they have less lag due to the smaller housing size so if you do go with bigger smics and dual intake and ECU upgrade, you can still get good HP you want but with less lag- up to the stock turbo boost limits anyway.

[JesseDM]

The turbo size didn't worry me too much, it was the camshafts. I've decided against buying a used JDM engine, especially after comparing the cost of buying one vs building/piecing a "turbo swap" together myself. Especially if the engine that's in the car is in repairable condition. With so much between the TT and NA motors already being the same it really doesn't make sense to buy another engine in completely UNKNOWN condition. The parts can be found, you just gotta search and be patient. Plus even with replacing the necessary parts with completely brand new, even performance versions, its not much more money to do. I'll at least get something I know is in good condition, maybe even better.

PLEASE CHECK my Want To Buy thread in the classifieds section!

wtb-tt-fuel-pump-and-tt-oil-cooler-t587673.html

[JesseDM]

*Update*
So during the tear down i found a few things. First a small squirrel cache in the intake box...





Then I found the culprit for the engines failure...



The bearings were completely blown out and all over the inside of the timing belt cover.



So then I got the motor out of the car. Not as hard as other that Ive done. Got the head off of the damaged side and found this...












Just as I had feared and worse. This motor is completely shot. Good news Is ill get to disassemble it and scrap it, may even cut parts of it in half and post pictures. Who doesn't wanna see a cross section of a VG? lol The moral of the story... dont skip the maintanence on a car with 250000 miles on it and if its making a noise figure out what that noise is! lol

[Ziggy1621]

Wow! Destroyed is an understatement!!

[StockTurbosFTW]

Jesus Christ...but for a grand, I'll take it! This is what I want for one of my boys if they are into cars when they get older.

[zswap0429]

Holy s*** man. What a find.

Good luck with the build and semper fi

[JesseDM]

Small project from today. Started re wrapping my top trim pieces. Went much better than expected. Took it from the worn out "custom crome" look we're all familiar with to this...





turned out pretty good.

Also, got the oil pan off. the carnage in the bottom of the engine was impressive, timing failure for the win!

[A Paratroopers 300zx]

First off, welcome back to the real world Marine! Thank you for your service!

Second, damn. That's some pretty good damage. Doesn't look like much of that is salvageable.

Good luck with the rebuild... these are fun cars. Good call to stay away from JDM engines. They are hit and miss. Mine turned out to be pretty bad. Bought the car with it though, so at least I'm not out any money haha. You seem to be pretty knowledgeable, but remember the FSM is your friend (as are the fine people of NICO!) A guy even made a downloadable version for the android market on the Google Play store!

[JesseDM]

So flash forward 3 months. After getting the OBLITERATED motor out of the car I got it towed home as i waited for the replacement motor. BIG THANKS TO t.mcginley.jr for the new motor and doing a great job with shipping!






After getting the motor at the house I had to assemble it. It came loosely assembled for shipping. It got all new gaskets from top to bottom, heads re surfaced, and ARP hardware top and bottom. 120k timing components including oil pump and water pump.





I've timed several different motors and types including the son of the VG, the VQ, and this was by far one of the easiest. Probably only the single cam Honda was easier.















Gave the whole motor a paint job. Cleaned everything the best i could and did rust busting. Car has acceptable rust for a 24 year old car. Got the valve covers and metal timing cover powder coated and the plastic parts painted.









Ended up really needing new hoses, so i got pretty much all new silicon hoses for the PCV and coolant system. Deleted the hoses under the throttle bodies, as well as the annoying EGR system. Got a MAF adapter and put a K&N cone filter on it. Had to fix a small fuel leak after the first start up.



I got in the last little package of parts that included speed bleeders for the clutch, upper radiator hose, the clips for the hood prop, the block off plug to delete the clutch damper line, some Motul brake fluid and bronze shifter bushings. I installed pretty much everything but the shifter bushings. Filled it with coolant and even manged to maker a lap around the neighborhood. I'm amazed at how well it runs. It needs a paint job and an exhaust. Its running open cats and its WAYYYY too loud. Doesn't even sound good except at idle. Gave it new trans fluid, and the transmission shifts like butter. Which I'm really thankful for because neither me or the previous owner had it running when we bought it. So we had no idea the condition of the trans. Greddy magnetic oil plug, ill never not have one of these. Especially after a rebuild. I had to completely cut out the battery tray. It was rusted to pieces and there was a hole rusted through underneath. I haven't replaced the tray because I'm considering relocating the battery. Deleted the air valves on both sides as well as the charcoal canister. Car still has a ways to go but its off to a great start!

[Ziggy1621]

Looking good homie!