i was having a play with my zed today on my day off and i noticed it wasnt running real great . But there is nothing unusual there is hasnt run well since the rebuilt ( lots of electrical gremlins but im slowly sorting them one by one the sad thing is its relaxing fixing those and i enjoy it ) but today was different so i walked to the back of the car for a listen an i noticed one bank sounded different and the gas was cooler . so i pluged in my laptop and the o2 sensors had a different value one .3v the other .5v so i did poped off a coil plug and of one bank very little differance in idle. So i poped on off on the other bank and it nearly stalled. Im thinking this is ok i have a stuffed coil pack or plug and i thought while i was there ill have a look at the coolant and oil. I opened the radatior cap and no coolant in site. So i looked under the car and no puddle ( it hasnt been driven in a week ) that was when it hit me i might have done a head gasket so i toped it up and started the car again and let her idle for a bit and the coolant disapeared and i had puddles under the exhust. That was when i knew what had happened i belw a head gasket. The wost thing is this happended after blowing 25 grand on a rebuild 1017 km ago . lets just say im not happy.
Shit thats shocking news....... Who did the engine rebuild??? Surely they'd have to answer to it if it's only 1000k's in??
these are the kind of stories that everyone on the forum dreads, especially those that have just got or are going to get and engine rebuild done, it really is unacceptable workmanship from a supposed "professional" company, whoever it is
Which is entirely why I'm doing my build myself. I may not have the experience of a professional builder, but I know I will be completely pedantic about everything and if I stuff it up I only have myself to blame. Sorry to here about your troubles mate, hope you get it all sorted.
Yeah 25 grand...I didn't even know you could spend that much on a Z engine...Seriously lol. I hope your including new turbos in that price cause my GOD!!! And if you spent that uch, they should have checked all the gaskets etc. were fine. No reason it should leak so soon.
thanks for the thoughts as far as spending 25 g thats not hard ask people that have done it and trust me its not a stardard rebuild the oil isnt milky so i think the bottom end is ok im gonig to try and retorque the head and pray i dont want to tow it back to brisbane for a waranty i spoke to the mechanic and he is happy for me to try this and will still honor the waranty on it all so this weekend go the head retorque ( mental note buy lotsa beer )
I wouldnt expect anything less than completely forged internals, big ass fuel system, standalone engine management system, monster turbos and lots more including 10 second 1/4 miles for that money and even then it's still hell expensive for all that! I'd be taking your car back to whoever did that job and chew their ear off myself, that is just WAY too much money man.
im not going to explain what i have under the bonnet lets just say i was happy to pay that kinda money and the thing it the that people who havent built a motor like this dont think about that costs the money but if you want it done properly you pay for that im just pissed off about this problem and i had the block decked and the heads had a lot dont to them an ARP head studs i cant understand why this happened ill keep you all updated
Out of interest, what sort of head gasket is it? Just your standard graphite one (I think they're graphite) or a metal one? If its just your standard head gasket could it be possible that it was just a dud one and you happened to be the poor fella who got it. That or yea, head bolts needed torquing or the 2 mating surfaces haven't been milled properly. Hopefully a torquing of the head bolts will fix your problem.
Unless you can run 10s you got ripped off, sorry... You should pay whoever did that engine build a visit and make them fix it, unless it was your fault of course...
Dude I know the costs of engines and related parts associated with building big power, $25,000 is just a ridiculous amount of money to spend on an engine unless it is making SERIOUS power. Labour of course comes into it especially if you need them to do simple things but still, you paid way too much. Dont just take my word for it, search around for the price of parts yourself and see. You could of imported a JDM Z32 already with some serious work done to it for 2/3s of that. It's bad luck (or poor workmanship) what happend to you sure, but that's just far too much money period.
1st point i dont want another z this one has personal ties to me if it costs me another 25 to sort it i dont care 2nd point i bought all the parts my self 3rd point the labour and machineing came to 10 grand and yes it will make decent power once finished
So what now? Can you pull the engine yourself or is it going to have to go back to them? Determined what caused the headgasket to go? Too much boost? Overheated? If it's neither of those then I'd be inclined to think that they didn't torque the head bolts right and if that's the case then they should fix it all for free.
if i have to pull the motor i will the main reason some one else did the work was i didnt have time to do it . Now the story is different i have a little more time and the mechanic seems to think a retorque will fix it so ill do that if there is any more to be done ill talk to him and work it out then
