Excellent work so far. Always a joy to see people take their time and catalog the achievements. Good work with the rear heater hard lines. When i tidied my bay up i too cut and bronzed them shut. Makes life ever so easy without them - and associated other hardware/hoses. Keep up the fine work.
I know how you feel,wish I was 50 again because I am a real old dreamer with a stuffed back I find it imposable to do heavy work on my 320 RWHP TT ZX anymore but I still like to drive the old red girl on club days, good luck on your future time waster fix ,yours ,72 year old Bob.
Update: My god thats dirty - Part-2 Well after drowning Kitty, We removed the grubby cam covers. Revealing the lower mess to clean up. We cleaned the heads where the Can Covers seal. The ideal tool for this is NOT a scraper, but a semi blunt wood chisel, and a scotch bright pad. In the valley between the inlet and exhaust cams, we used petrol and a brush to scrub the surface clean. First lay a rag along the upper side of the exhaust cam to collect any splashes of petrol. Don't want that stuff getting in the oil A handy tool to use to get rid of the excess petrol is a el'cheapy sand blaster from supercheap, with a small hose attached to the suction pipe. It just sucks that crap straight out of there. Now thats more like an engine of mine. 'Bout time - Let the reassembly begin First to go back in is the fresh Injectors. Damn, thats looking good.:zlove: Opps sneak peak of some bling I hadn't told you about
Update: Fitting the Cam Covers My young fella giving me a hand. Its starting to come together. And with all the Cam Covers in place. A bit of added bling. The poor old thing was a little bit rusty and grubby. A good cleanup and a bit of paint lifted the whole thing. There's a chrome cap to go on there later. That's the first part done. Just gotta drop the spark plug guides in place. :zlove: Next, get the throttle bodies attached to the plenum.
hahah... Why Thank you sir. The sand shoes are a bit of a blow out at the moment. The timing cover throttle linkage cover, and balance tubes will be in phase II. This is just the plenum pull components, and associated bits under it. I am attempting to build Rome here, and we all know that wasn't done in a day.
Update: Plenum and throttle bodies Now that the cam covers and plug guides are on the engine and the EGR is gone, its time to turn to the plenum. Cleaned up the lower plenum surface, by using a scotch bright pad. Great for getting the gunk off and not gouging the surface. Make sure the inlets are plugged with rag before starting the clean to stop bit falling into the cylinders. The before and after shots of the throttle bodies. I had to clean the dirty greasy things up. Thought of going polished, and wanted to make them presentable for ZedFest. So I painted them with VHT anodized red paint. After fitting to the plenum the red does not seem to work with the theme. I have finally decided on powdercoat white the same as the plenum, but that will happen later. After pulling all the springs and bits off the shafts this is what we have. Once the throttle bodies were painted, how do we put all those bits back on. First start with this inside retainer. Next was to put on this spring assembly. If you have assembled the inner spring correctly the butterfly will spring closed. The outer spring bush wascracked and I didn't have a replacment. Fit the outer spring, and outer bush. Then fit the nylon washer. Finally the linkage piece, and hock the outer spring to the linkage piece. The spring washer and the retaning nut to complete that side. The other side is a lot simpler. That completes the drivers side throttle body, and is ready for assembly on the plenum. The passenger side throttle body is the same proceedure, except it has the TPS attached. With the throttle bodies and linkage attached to the plenum. This will do so far, but powdercoating will be done later to replace the "soft" paint. Net the Braided Fuel lines.
Update: Braided Fuel lines (cosmetic) This part is using the actual braided fuel line, with dress caps. Not the hose covering set, as they will discolour in time. You can normally buy the braided hose and caps (in varous colous) at a hydraulic hose business, like Pirtek Measure the hose you are replacing, and wrap some masking tape where the cut will be. This will keep the braid from fraying on the end and make it easier to get the cap on. Secure the hose in a bench vice, and use an angle grinder with a thin cutting blade. Make sure you use safty glasses while using an angle grinder, as the 4" long neddles to remove metal piece from your eye at hospital is NOT nice Been there done that. Smooth any loose frays on the end of the hose, and blow air through the hose to remove any rubber particles. Wind open the worm clap in the cap and slide the hose inside. Notice how the cap on each end has the clamp is in opposite directions. Changing the clamp so the screw heads are in the same direction is simple. Do the clamp up so it can be pulled out of the cap and turn it around. Undo the clamp to maximum to slide the hose in the cap. Now the screw heads are both in the same direction. When you fit the braided hose to the car you want the screws to face the back of the motor to hide the clamp. With the braided hoses in place. :zlove: Next: the Air intakes.
Bah! By following on along here you are convincing me that I can almost do all of this stuff myself - which I'm sure is not the case and will result in epic fail thread. Those timing covers... They. Must. Be. Addressed. I'm imagining more candy red(?) with red/white intake pipes? I can't tell any more what they are, the pics in the "whaddayadun2yaZt'day" thread are gone?
Update: Air Intakes I had to make the custom air intake for Kitty. Here is the link for the step by step of how i made the pipes. http://www.aus300zx.com/forum/showthread.php?t=314710 The pipes are 2" alloy coated exhaust pipe, that have been powdercoated in "Cool White". The T clamps are from a group buy run on the forum. The Red silicone 45 degree elbows were imported from the UK via Ebay. And here they are fitted. Getting the lower elbow in the existing air pipe was an absolute PITA But after a fight and a half they are in. Its starting to come together :zlove: Balance tube, rear engine wiring (plus earths), and vacuum tubes left to go. The rest of the bling up can wait till after ZedFest. Suggestions welcome for the timing covers, Radiator shroud, throttle cover, and power steer pump.
my suggestions. red as per timing covers smooth the plastic ridges out on top of shroud, then red again. a fresh white fan in clutch fan (new oem are bright white) will break up the red of the timing covers/shroud combo red or anodised red as per throttle bodys leave the pump alone, BUT anodised red for the RESEVOIR (spelling?) as per throttle bodys radiator hard pipes in white with some red silicon rad hoses will also look sweeetttt also think you should leave the throts in the anodised red, they look good and by using more of that colour it'll tie the whole lot together.
+1 to all of Jinxed's suggestions. Pure win all the way! Especially with the pimped nose panel. Mmmmm. 'Reservoir', for Jinxed's benefit.
ill be honest, its a great job for sure but the red + white doesnt really fit against the black engine bay. Maybe its the new vs old thing but i dunno... just seems too random to me... IE plenum and throttle bodies should match, piping has always been polished, the colour difference between painted red and anodised is something that would bug me. to be the white is just too bold, and thats coming from a green zed owner lol if the timing covers and fan shroud go red as well i think it will be too much
Ummm yes I would agree with L&P, concrats for efforts but doesn't go with the grey. It would look awesome, (a million bucks) if your z was painted that metallic red..... & also try re align or fit the gaps better on the front bumper before you respray it. Ha ha I'm looking into the future for yah. Food for thought:br:
Consider tossing away the steel fuel tubing (at rear LHS of plenum) between the fuel line sections and run longer braided fuel lines. Looks neater and reduces the number of clamps and leak points.
