Rebuild Complete (long and lots of pics)

After over a year of blood, sweet tears and empty bank accounts my Zed is finally back on the road.:thumbup:

Just to bring you all up to speed, I took my car off the road in October last year with a broken piston ring. I decided to do the rebuild myself with a bit of help from a good mate. Now I'm not (well I wasn't) very experienced with mechanical work. My sum total of mechanical experience before embarking on this project was a couple of oil/filter changes, coolant flushes, an alternator swap and replacing the head gasket on a side valve Briggs and Stratton lawn mower engine.

I did a full rebuild with forged internals and did everything myself except for the machine work. I've learned a hell of a lot about zeds in the past year and though I would have preferred to have the zed on the road all this time it's been a good experience.

Anyway on the the important bit, yesterday morning I turned the key and bugger me if it didn't start first turn. The engine roared to life with a screeching fan belt and extremely erratic idle, caused by me forgetting to hook the brake booster up to the plenum.

But apart from that, a bit of lifter noise (which seems to have cleared up now) and a small coolant leak from the temp sensor, all seems to be in order and I can't tell you how happy I am to be driving the zed again.

Ok now for the pics, you'll have to excuse the quality, they were all taken with my phone, which is 3mp, but still doesn't work that well all the time.

Engine removal:







Tear down:











The Culprit:



New Bits:



Assembly:











Bit of a comparisson:















Installation:
We installed the engine and box as one, you need to drop the cross member but I still think it was easier than trying to hook them up once in. Of course getting the right angle does require some unorthodox methods.:biggrin:













And the finished product, well nearly, fan shroud and battery are missing:



Well that's it. I'll see you Tassie boys at Campbell Town on the weekend.

Oh and a big thanks to anyone that answered any of my silly questions along the way.:thumbup:

 

hey well done , im sure you saved yourself heaps of bucks doing it yourself , much repsect dude cause there is no way i would attempt it .

 

awesome stuff, some questions...

great work.. I do have some questions though as I am embarking upon this myself over the next couple of years with my TT rebuild...

Firstly, if you dont mind me asking, how much did it all cost?? and what components did you change from stock?? stock turbo's etc etc??

I'm still in two minds about rebuilding the bottom end myself (with help from a mechanic friend) or just getting the place that is doing the machining and block preparation to do it..... what are your thoughts on this?? did you assemble the bottom end yourself or did you get it professionally done?

did you do anything else while the engine is out?? I'm thinking of replacing the whole engine bay wiring loom, but still decided if its worth it....

Cheers

 

Well done mate! Glad to hear that it's all up and running! Must be a great feeling to know that you've got a fresh beast under the bonnet ready for many years of strong and hopefully trouble free motoring!

 

LOL, i saw that pic and i thought of homer simpson riding a nuke for some reason

great work anyway, and good to see it came out nicely in the end

 

Well done

Always a good feeling when you fire them up for the first time.
After doing that, there is nothing on the Zed that should phase you now.:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

 

well done buddy, The Z has Risen!!!

looking forward to checking her out on the cruise, and catching up.
cheers Ben:zlove:

 

All up I probably spent about 10k. A quick list of stuff: Wisco pistons, scat rods, block bored, honed and decked, heads decked, valves de-carbed, stock turbo rebuild, bit of bling, 100k service kit, gasket kit, oil pump, I know there's more, but it alludes me at the moment, I posted a full list in rollin's rebuild thread.

I did the bottom end myself, I guess time will tell if it was a good idea or not. When it comes down to it though, it is no more difficult than the rest, you just have to be very clean and methodical. It's really your decision, but I'm glad I did it, well at the moment I am anyway.

Didn't really do anything in the engine bay. But of course having the engine out is the best time.

 

Dam fine effort

TasZedder

 

Pretty good job

Hello...
Just want to know how long take u to rebuild from begin to end.??

Cheers thanx..

 

Well, the car was off the road for about 14 months. But it only took me that long cause I had to save the money to buy parts at the same time. I reckon I could have done it in 3 months if I had all the money up front. Even less now I know what I'm doing.

 

so what made u want to try and do it urself?? did u have mech friends helping?? lol i just dont see it possible for someone like myself to do this even in a year

big congrats anyway!!! lots of :zlove: :zlove:

 

Congratulations! We would like to see power figures and 1/4 runs asap! :zlove:

 

Well done man, i'd NEVER go that deep, haha.

Loved the pics, never seen inside of the zed engine :zlove:

 

You must have been almost climbing out of your skin to drive it again. It's only been six weeks for me and I am itching to get back to boost

How do you find your pistons from cold start, a bit noisy or rattly or quiet? The Wiseco's did not get to a good start some years ago but supposedly have had their issues resolved with the help of Ash Powers. I am using Wiseco's in my build so hope to get a good result.

 

Well done mate, the feeling of triumph never goes away, no matter how many engines you build, it just becomes more subdued.

Remember to run it in before you thrash it though and put some load on it or you will glaze the bores.

 

Can't say I've noticed any piston noise, though I wouldn't know what I'm listening for. There is an annoying tick at the top of the engine somewhere, lifters or injectors, it's better than it was originally though.

Well umm, it got an accidental thrashing this evening. I was giving it a mild run and the throttle got stuck open and I hit the rev limiter when I went to change gears. Seems to have gotten through it ok though.

The other thing that happened today, which I might start a new thread about is the steering developed a tight spot. Happens when the steering wheel is upside down, the steering gets really hard and feels like it grinding on something. Think it's time to get the jack back out.

 

Piston noise will sound like lifter ticking and goes away when there is a bit of temperature in the block.

 

thats awesome work.
i wish i had the money to do something like this, would be a bit of fun - later down the track i think.

 

a top effort that!

I assume you followed the service manual torque settings for the head bolts, oil clearance settings, bearing grades etc etc?