What have you done to your zed today? Part 3............

The usdm 8.5" rears came in, just need to source some 245/45/16s prolly go for the toyo proxes @ $270 each.

 

Very nice mate. I'm a big fan of these wheels. They change the look of the rear half heaps IMO. Where did you get them from?

 

Pearwhite94ttz from the us had them up for sale along with a heap of other bits, been after a pair since I got the zed a bit over a year ago, I'm surprised more members don't go down this route. I'll get some before & after shots when I get them put on & a brief write up of any noticible differences when driving.

 

Starting to strip engine

Car's been off the road for almost a year now, de-registered, driving a Hilux around CQ and zed is in the backyard on car stands having overheated on the way to CQ. Moving house in 2 weeks and suddenly got the urge to fix and register her.

She pissed all the coolant out when overheated, since refilling after overheating the engine, whenever the thermostat opens it bubbles gas out of the radiator cap. 120psi in all cylinders thinking either piston rings, head gasket or cracked or warped head.

Working 12 hour days so difficult to get much done but just doing at least one thing per day. About to knock off today so hoping to get heaps done this arvo and over the weekend.

7/1/14:

Removed plenum, fuel hose assembly, cam covers, radiator, accessory belts, RH timing belt cover.
Hand brake cable is snapped so took front section out and bought another one from Tektrader.

8/1/14:

Emailed Nissan dealer in Mackay a list of parts to get price and availability -> no reply yet, is there a better place to get parts like idlers/studs, tensioner, water pump, timing belt, gaskets and seals from?

Removed water inlet and outlet (this was a bitch as I didn't have the best tools for it). Removed LH timing belt cover.

9/1/14:

Tried to get the lower timing belt off for a couple hours and ended up having to give up, can't get one screw/bolt that is behind one of the pulleys. Will borrow a more appropriate tool from my neighbor today and have another go.
Tried to remove UD pulley but car's on stands and has no handbrake so I was just spinning the wheels.. Will put it down and chock it this arvo.

Really keen to find out what's wrong with it and more so to hear it fire up again. Working in the engineering and maintenance department at a mine and having the workshop supervisor living next door I have all the technical advise and tools I need, apart from that specific to 300zx's.

 

These guys can often be cheaper than Aussie dealers even after postage from the US.

http://www.conceptzperformance.com/

http://www.z1motorsports.com/index.php

Delivery usually only takes a couple of days (if parts are all in stock).

 

This. CZP & Z1 much cheaper, postage for a box full is usally around the $40-60 mark but your paying about 1/3rd of what you would pay from nissan, got my timing belt kit, egr delete, knock sensor bypass & rear strut boots from them, usually arrives in 7-10 days, always quick to reply to emails as well. definitely should explore this option before sourcing the parts from nissan au imo

 

Alright, thanks guys. Have checked out Czp and racked up an expensive shopping cart haha. Will have to send an email and sort something out, going to wait until I know what the issue is first though.

Acid cleaned my chromies and put them back on first thing this afternoon ready to move it undercover in the morning. Really tired tonight so was just going to have a go at the small timing cover bolt I couldn't get yesterday and leave it at that. Got that off, then 3 more cover bolts, then the crank UD pulley bolt, then grabbed a pulley puller from my neighbour and removed the crankshaft pulley.

Marks are all lined up but I think I'd better leave the timing belt 'til tomorrow. Is it just me or is working on cars and bikes addictive? Can't stop thinking about what I'm doing next.

 

Well UAS finally got a new dyno printer after the other one broke down shortly before Christmas when I had my last tune and now John has just emailed me my dyno graph that I've been waiting on since then. I post the graph below (before Christmas is a busy time for a mechanic so I understand the delay).

I had previously gotten 258.6 rwkw on 29/11 at UAS after having my SZ 3" dumps installed (by Andrew ASR) and before that won the stock turbo class on the UAS dyno day in July with 252.1 rwkw.

I took the car to UAS to get my UAS center muffler fitted (Andrew ASR an ex-UAS employee is my usual mechanic - mainly because he does pink slips and UAS don't - but I use UAS for fabrication and dyno tuning work that Andrew doesn't do). I also had Dave fix my Z1 cat pipe that didn't quite fit right and was scrapping on the ground over speed bumps (Z1s fault not Andrews).

Anyway as I was picking the Z up Dave tells me that he thinks I should switch the Selin translator to average instead of add (easy to retune in Nistune just a parameter to change) and that it would solve the unstable AFR he had encountered in the previous Nov tune. He said he thought it would also give a bit more hp (he'd mentioned this at the previous tune but I didn't agree to the switch then).

I'm still not sure why that would make a difference but I let him do it. To average the Selin is just adding and dividing by 2 with electronics which your Nistune then mulitplies by 2 so I'm not sure why that is different than just adding and sending to the ECU. Averaging also allows more air to be metered not that that is relevant at my hp level.

Anyway Dave was right switching the Selin to average and retuning the Nistune (don't switch your Selin to average without adjusting Nistune to multiply by 2) did increase the hp as I now have 271.2 rwkw. Well done Dave.



My setup is: Stock engine (as far as I know).

Stock turbos: Supposedly rebuilt and probably auto (car is an auto to man conversion).

Stock injectors.

Nistune (tuned by Dave at UAS).

Dual 3A Racing pods (AFM on both with Selin converter set to average).

Z1 BA SMICs

Turbosmart manual boost controller (set to 18 psi but drops to 15 psi by 5500 rpm so the max 271 rwkw is occurring at 15 psi).

SpecialtyZ 2" to 3" expansion dumps.

3" turbo back exhaust (high flow cats, straight through mufflers including AUS centre muffler).

Clutch: RPS Billet Carbon Twin

Fuel: Shell VPower 98 (with Nulon total fuel system cleaner added to raise octane - I add to every tank - over 100 bottles in 2 years - an extra $23 per tank but one of the best boosters out there - and probably has saved the engine in the past and helps achieve that 271 rwkw - probably raises octane to 100).

 

Wow that's 360hp...

Niiice (can you tell I'm an old fart!)
I put a new radiator in and washed the engine bay and as many bits and pieces I could get to... fan shroud as well.... looks all pretty now!
Took it for a nice spin down to Tooradin and back and temp's holding beautifully!

 

yesterday i took off the stocky i had on for the roady and put back on the momo replica steering wheel,

made a huge difference,
at least 5hp increase in power
and cornering has improved substantially.

makes the cockpit feel a lot more modern too

 

Took the Z for a spirited drive along some twisty roads down south. God Tasmania has some great roads! Lots of groups of motorbikes on the same road having a squirt, but didn't see any other performance cars.

Did however see two Z's I have no seen before. A yellow 2 seater t-top with black wheels near my parents place. And at the bottom of my road a red Z with no front bar, big FMIC and GT style ironing board on the rear.

 

more bling, thanks to Rob260

Chromed Cruise Control Caps
and chromed Fuel regulator and Damper Enjoy
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Removed headlights, done the low beam globe conversion. No more sh*tty globes, nice bright 100w H3's that fit perfectly and can be bought at pretty much any store. Best part is they are a hell of a lot easier to explain than HID's

 

They look great and the engine bay is heaven!! Well done sir!!!!!! Did you get those new chrome bits from Chris Karl?

 

I love the seats Erik! 97/98 oem Recaro's?

 

Thanks mate.
2k Specs

 

Thanks Mate

Got the new chrome bits from Rob260

 

Nice. I know some of the bits are GZA ones that Rob sells for ArubaDave. Specifically, I was curious about the latest additions - the Fuel dampener and FPR. Those were a Chris Karl project, I believe. I was very close to getting a set myself but had concerns that perhaps the chroming process might have compromised the internals.

 

What can I do with this spare OEM undertray?



I had a mangled OEM undertray (is that what we call it?) that I got from one of the Mikes (or Trent) so I cut along the dotted line and bolted it up in the reverse direction using the existing (3) bolt holes.
I then bolted the rear of my existing under tray over the top to complete the under tray from the front bar to the rear of the engine bay. Tied the back edge to a few of the brackets that were there. Drove to Sydney and back to Brisbane, it hasn't fallen off.

I know we can buy aftermarket but someone would have tried this, couldn't find any mentions and it seemed like a good template for a DIY fab, but then I just left it because it almost looks like it belongs there.

 

Did a compression test and still around 150 accross the cylinders hasn't changed so that's good.

Will chuck in a walbro 485 and try 100 shot at the strip. Also thinking about selling my turbo kit as want to go bigger thinking twin billet td06 20g's