My TT Project - Build Thread (Shibui)

[StockTurbosFTW]

well, the Genie is already there... so basically free.... and the bends would only matter if I was going to really max out the HP, but for 30-50hp over stock I believe it will do the job. Thanks for the info tho! that is a good looking exhaust

Right, that's the reason I still have my Stillen. I can find a lot of other ways to spend 1,200 bucks. I just thought I would throw that out there if you are looking for that last bit of power. Don't quote me on this but I believe Seb (from SZ) said the the SZ would add 10 rwhp over the Stillen and the 3" would add 10 rwhp on top of that (on the top end only.) Also I like the sound of the SZ, but I don't know how the Genie sounds. My Stillen sounds like crap.

[Ziggy1621]

well, unfortunately I couldn't find any youtube vids on it, and I'm a few weeks from hearing it on mine... guess I'll have to be patient

[Ziggy1621]

Alrighty.. after suggestions and much, much reading... I've decided to do a mild rebuild. Below is what I have come up with. Any guesses on HP I should be seeing with the mods I already have listed earlier?

- Z1 Ultimate Rebuild kit
- Machining block and heads (boring for the 88mm forged pistons in the kit)
- Amsoil Fluids
- New Oil squirters (since I'm switching to forged.. thanks for the info 300ZXttZMAN)
- New Belts
- New Spark plugs
- Rebuilding stock turbos ( I know I'm going to hear it for this, but I've got a wife and 2 kids and I don't want to be saving for 6 months.. and I can't go without eating like some of you bachelors do to save up cash for the goodies
- Injectors rebuilt (fuelinjectorconnection.com)
- Z1 Fuel pump
- Z1 Test pipes
- Z1 Divorced downs
- Godspeed smic
- Ash-spec ECU
- EGR Delete
- AIV Delete

All together with doing the work myself, I'm looking right at $4k. Next weekend I'll pull the motor and begin the trek! I'll be posting pics, so don't be offended if later I pull comments as I want it to be good info for guys like me who are trying to do the build on a budget.

[z32loverboy]

i think that's a smart move. you can always change injectors and turbos later down the road. I really wanna see this thing done, you're doing it like i will eventually! yourself and kinda on a budget

[Ziggy1621]

Thanks! I'm getting real anxious!! Waiting for the price from the machine shop. Did change on the injectors tho... Since I have old style, I'm putting in new. Since I'm going new, I just as well go to the 550s. So that's where I'm at now.

Question... I got a guy on craigslist that's selling some t28 turbos that need to be rebuilt for $200. How hard are these to make fit on the vg30dett?

[StockTurbosFTW]

With those mods you should have no problem reaching 330-350 rwhp. Personally I would go with SZ stuff but if you are on a budget, I can see why you are going with those. I would also suggest the Selin Dual Pop set up. I got 13 rwhp from that over a single pop on a low compression motor. My rwhp is actually right at 330 rwhp so you might want to check out my thread. Have fun.

[Ziggy1621]

Cool, thanks brother, I'll check yours out. I'll google it, but is there a way to buy the center section and extra filter? Or do I need to just sell mine and buy the double?

[StockTurbosFTW]

https://specialtyz.com/shop/300zx/selin ... w-kit.html

If you look there they give you the option to buy either the whole set or just the pieces you need.

[Ziggy1621]

schweet. Thanks bro. going pickup the last couple of tools tonight, then Friday she is coming out! I'll have pics then.

[Ziggy1621]

Wooo, trip to the hardware store for some last minute tools. Going to remove the AC, PS and steering components tomorrow. Then Friday I'm hoping to finish pulling her out!

[Ziggy1621]

Ok, got dirty today. Got the PS pump, most of the AC (still need to get the back one out). The crows feet isn't being my friend, so I'm going to wait until I have the motor up a hair so I can angle the motor a little.




There was one bolt on the test pipes that hung me up for 30 min. You can see the top one in the picture. Look at the front of it.. you will see grind marks The guy had the car so low he jammed them up to where I couldn't access the top bolt. But they aren't going back on... so GRIND!!!!



Here's a pic of the drain.. You can see how fun the filter was to get off... and yes I was expecting a little oil in the water



So Friday I'll finish up with the drive-shaft, transmission, the rest of the AC, then pull her out!! For anyone going to do this, the best purchase I made was a set of ratcheting wrenches... they were AWESOME!

[Ziggy1621]

Another update. Spent some time this morning pulling the driveshaft, starter and transmission. Fluid smelled real burnt, so going to crack it open later. Getting a friend's cherry picker tonight to pull the motor in the morning! First quote on machine work came in today... $1100... seems a bit steep so I'm shopping around.

[Ziggy1621]

Got it pulled today WOOO! Spent the rest of the morning bagging bolts. Got down to the heads, but I don't have the big allen head to remove the head bolts... So back to the hardware store tomorrow. I don't have a garage, so working under a carport in 100+ Florida heat is no fun. So hopefully in the next couple of days I'll have them pulled and then finally know what I'm working with. Here are some pics of the progress..

[z32loverboy]

well looks like youre making good progress. she's a wee bit dirty when you start getting under her hood, if you know what i mean

[Ziggy1621]

Yeah, and a bit of a downer with the amount of rust. The guy blew the gasket, and it obviously sat a long time. Wondering what the block looks like... not good if its anything like the amount of rust on the cams.

Here she is with a 750+ lb diet... either that or someone installed hydraulics in the front And that's my other baby behind it

[Ziggy1621]

Yeah!!! Heads are off thanks to the 10mm allen socket I picked up this morning!! Word to others... I missed the removal of the dipstick tube and got a little hung up for a minute because I was removing heads with headers/turbos connected for now (pistons were my main goal today). So make sure to remove the dipstick tube first

Once I got them off, I saw what I figured I would see... stock pistons that were rusted stuck... So some penetrating lube, wood and a BFH were put into action... after about an hour of lubing, hammering, turning crank, repeat.. I got them unstuck!!!! Boring to .040 with 88mm Wiseco's. Below are some pics.. The crank is pretty messy, but I'll let the machine shop make that determination...






Worst of the rust pitting



Crank

[Ziggy1621]

Another update, I took the exhaust manifolds off the heads and the down pipes off of the turbos to inspect the turbos. I'm still going to rebuild them, but they look great after a quick clean. Anyone know what they are? T3 or T22? They say "687 9X7 Garrett 272-2" on exhaust side and "Garret a/r 48" on the intake side. Exhaust side says 63 and intake says 48.

[300ZXttZMAN]

Yea those are stock 5spd turbo's.

[Ziggy1621]

Nothing really special today.. trying to clean up mostly. Cleaned the tools and cleaned some of the parts.. the car had a huge oil leak with the previous owner, so this was a job in itself. Now to go cut the grass.. pretty long as you can see

[Ziggy1621]

Ok, my last day of disassembling. Pulled the crank, pistons, mounts, oil squirters. I still have two brass colored items in the bottom of the block to pull, but I'll need some input as to what they are and how to pull them from the Sensei's of Nico when I get the pic

Here are pics of the bare block












Crank sitting in WD40 Rust Remover



WD40 Rust Remover sample... pretty sick stuff!!

[canadian booster]

great progress! i don't have a garage either, but where i live it doesn't get close to 100+ often so i'd have to do an engine pull/rebuild over 3 days at most before the weather turned sour *lol* i've asked the wife a couple of times if i could put the engine stand in the kitchen, or maybe move the dining room table to the basement for a while and set up shop in there, so far no dice..

[Ziggy1621]

Lol, nice! Yeah I'm under the carport with a fan. Keeping wifey happy by balancing a kitchen remodel at the same time ong be buying parts till I'm done with that, or when my NA sells, whichever comes first...so is life

[Ziggy1621]

Checkout my eBay find. It is the same year my car came out, 1990, so I thought it would be cool to have with the car!

[Ziggy1621]

Bonus Buy today! Found a guy last week on Craigslist that listed a block and heads that had just had the heads rebuilt. Of course I was skeptic, but I needed a set of heads and he was only asking $325 for the whole thing! So I drove down to Miami today and picked it up. Took the valve cover off and it doesn't look like a lick of oil has touched anything! Woooo! Took off the oil pan and the pistons look brand new as well! I'll take the heads off tomorrow and post pics, but I'm thinking I'm going to X-ney on the Wiseco's if this one has new pistons. Would be sweet if my machine work, head work and pistons are taken care of!!!!! looks like fairly new lifters as well.

[300ZXttZMAN]

Checkout my eBay find. It is the same year my car came out, 1990, so I thought it would be cool to have with the car!

Thats bad a**!!!

Also rock on with that WD40 rust remover. The rods are actually shine now.

[300ZXttZMAN]

Bonus Buy today! Found a guy last week on Craigslist that listed a block and heads that had just had the heads rebuilt. Of course I was skeptic, but I needed a set of heads and he was only asking $325 for the whole thing! So I drove down to Miami today and picked it up. Took the valve cover off and it doesn't look like a lick of oil has touched anything! Woooo! Took off the oil pan and the pistons look brand new as well! I'll take the heads off tomorrow and post pics, but I'm thinking I'm going to X-ney on the Wiseco's if this one has new pistons. Would be sweet if my machine work, head work and pistons are taken care of!!!!! looks like new valves as well.

I can't wait to see the pics of the pistons! That appears to be a great buy I'm happy you pulled the trigger. I guess someone was building it and ran out of money midway?? Were you able to get any info out of the guy that had purchased it from an auction??

[Ziggy1621]

He said the flywheel was broken. But from looking around the motor, it seemed it just got moved around a little too roughly in a shop after the build. He sold the turbos off of it. I'll be pulling the heads and hoping for crosshatch!!!

[Ziggy1621]

Well, you win some and lose some I still needed a good set of heads. And at least this one should only need a good honing rather than the big bore I was going to do on the other block because of the pitting. I only pulled one side off today, but its had decent mileage on it since a rebuild, but not too bad. Was burning some oil in one piston (the third pic.. that pic is after some cleaning). But nothing a set of rings couldn't fix. Now the debate in my mind will start again whether I want to go forged, or save the $600 and keep the stockers... I'm thinking for this build and the hp goal I have I may just stay with the stock pistons and do a ring job on it. So some pics of what was behind door number two







walls look good

[Ziggy1621]

So you may think is pic is not related, but it is very related... Because once I finish the kitchen renovation, I can start spending money in the car!! Cabinets in and countertops ordered. About 2 weeks left, then it's car time!!!!

[Ziggy1621]

Alrighty, the kitchen is done with the exception of the backspash coming in next week, so today the Z got some love I didn't take BEFORE pics, but over the weekend I started pressure washing under the hood ( I think there are some above). Today I removed the bumper, headlights, hood, and a few other goodies to start on the core support cleaning and painting. Here are some after pics:







Under... the guy had an oil leak for a LONG time, the crossmember and steering had nearly a quarter inch of oil and dirt




Hicas Removed while I was cleaning. The lines will be pulled when I get the kit from Z1 for the rear




Hey guess what.. The coilovers are supposed to be red, not black.. go figure




Some paint on! Guess what color I'm going to paint the car.. you get 3 guesses and the first 2 don't count










Got a little ambitious with the dremel and polishing... Guess I have to do the other one now



Next on the agenda, I will be removing things under the hood one side at a time to paint. Got some rust repair to do in a couple of small spots, the body work where the hicas was. Hopefully going to start ordering parts for the build in the next week or two. Plenty of work to do in the mean time.