Project wife's birthday present: Sketchy's Z32 TT

My wife had a red 89 TT Z32 that was written off by a drunk driver in 2010 and as a result hasn't driven much since, or had another nice car. I decided to do something about it and get her back behind the wheel. The red car was just too far gone body wise to be worth repairing but still has a good drivetrain and interior which I intended to use in a NA > TT conversion.

As luck would have it, after some gumtree stalking a local TT manual car with a dud head gasket turned up at a great price in the right colour (black). Score!

And so begins my education on Z32's, skinned knuckles and swearing at ridiculously tight engine bays.

Hauled the car home this weekend to get started on stripping it down. Have copied and pasted from the thread made over at PF.

So now have a car in our possession and works have begun in earnest. Car got delivered Sunday morning, wheels got yanked and went on to shifty ' s ute.





While the wheels were off I gave everything in the wheel well a scrub and an eyeball. The car has new shocks and springs at some stage. Will see how it drives with this stuff before making decisions about coilovers. Could use some more lows though.






The car also has some bolt on spacers presumably to fill the guards out with the previous wheels. It looks as though one of the nuts has seized and been bashed off st some stage but they can stay for now until road testing time.



Threw the set of 350z wheels on from the red rig, looks really bloody good I think.





Also pulled the front bar off to realign and reattach the aftermarket intercooler. Whoever fitted it used horrific thin shitty mild steel brackets that simply rusted through and broke. Just shifted the brackets to pull it all back together and bolted it back on. Will make some proper brackets top and bottom once the car is running. These will also form the basis for some ducting to channel air through the coolers and radiator.

Then got stuck in to stripping the motor down to pull the heads. What a **** of a job. Got the radiator and fan, front off the motor, inlet gear and down to the bare heads with exhaust manifolds attached. Could not get at the turbos or manifolds for the life of me so did some research on the 300zx forums. Apparently it's easier to just drop the motor and do everything on a stand. Well ****, would have been great to know that first. Now I have to put half the shit back on so I can lift the motor out.

So, decided to shut up shop on the black car for the time being as the red wreck is taking up precious garage space and needs to go. Currently pulling the smashed bits off and getting ready to drop the subframe and drive train. Even more of a prick job because this one has no access at the front from the smash and is covered with spiders and shit underneath from sitting for 4 years.





Just going to chip away at it every night while the motivation is running because I want this thing done and driving so I can get back into the Benz (I also have a 1972 300SEL Mercedes 6.3 saloon project because I'm a sucker for punishment)

So thats where I'm at currently. Aiming to have both drivetrains out, the red car out on the driveway and the black one in the garage under cover by the weekend. Will be plenty of cheap parts available from the red wreck once everything is sorted.

I'm also putting together a list of things I should do while the engine is out and make a reliable 400rwhp to ensure years of trouble free running once its resintalled.

So far looking at the 100k service kit, water line and EGR delete, under drive pulley kit, injector upgrade, larger oil cooler and of course all the gaskets needed as part of the head gasket change.

Any advice or assistance is appreciated, aiming to have the car back on the road by the 27th for my wife's birthday.:br:

 

Can I suggest, get the angle grinder out and remove the panel that goes across the front of the top of the radiator. Can then just pull the engine/gearbox straight out the front on an engine crane. Piece of piss

 

So you're taking 3 weeks off work then

 

He's from performance forums, the man knows all about cutting cars apart

 

Stalking for 4 years? I suppose that thread about posting third party Zed bargains, could focus on the Zed graveyard, to speed up the rebirthing.

If the engines are both out and one has a blown gasket versus one that hasn't run for 4 years, how will you choose which one to rebuild. They are both coming apart, right.
Did you post compression results for both in another thread?

Good thing about Birthdays, it is reasonable to assume there will be another next year. Looks like that thinking has been working for 4 years so far. Birthdays just below one of the big 0's sometimes repeat too.

 

exactly what I had planned to do last night but grinder is fritzed so will borrow a spare and get stuck in tomorrow night.

Yup. I'm more about making enough power for big roll on powerskids than cutting shit up for no reason. This thing has less room in the engine bay than my 6.3l v8 Mercedes though which is something new.

I should have probably filled in the story a little. My wife had the accident a few years before we get together and until a month ago has sat under her fathers place. He built a new deck which meant that if the car wasnt moved it would have become part of the furniture so I made the decision something had to be done quickly. We are getting married next year and I have a long term Merecedes rebuild project plus my 2JZ E30 BMW project and impending house renos so the Z32 is going to be banged out as quickly as humanly possible to avoid yet another project car sitting in the driveway doing nothing.

I've only been stalking gumtree, here and ebay for a few weeks. Certainly not 4 years!

I've not done or posted any compression test results. The black one apparently only made 90psi or so on the passenger side bank and the engine in the red one was a good runner with a recent rebuild before the accident. The accident only hurt the radiator and fan, everything else was fine. I'll be doing a comp test when I have both out but the drivetrain from the red car was going to be a backup in case there was something catastrophic wrong with the black one.

Will be testing and offering everything from the red one up for sale as soon as the black one is running.

 

Forget the zed, moar e30!

 

You know what they say mate, happy wife happy life.

E30 does ok as it is for now, makes around 400rwhp but will be getting E85, 550cc US injectors, Haltech, GT4088 and a mental head with 288 cams, Ferrera shimless bucket conversion and stuff to punch out an easy 500-550+ at the wheels once the Zed is done and wedding over with.



This is the previous setup with weeny Trust turbo and haggard motor. Much better now with GT35R and fresh guts in the block

 

I watched a US Muscle Car makeover TV show, they did that and then welded some tabs on that piece before putting it back on with bolts. Looked OK
Is that kind of mod allowed in Australia?

I also watched a British TV show where they cut the equivalent section from a VW Beetle and welded it back after the engine was back in. Looked dodgey.

 

Don't know, but I was only suggesting that for the red car, the one that's been crashed and will be scrapped. I wouldn't suggest this for the one going back on the road.

 

Chipping away. Complete exhaust from turbo dumps removed, starter motor out and most lines and wires disconnected.



Exhaust is a really nice 5Zigen cat back. Must be the most bracketed muffler set I've ever seen. Two at the rear of each muffler, one at the each of the flange joins and again at the cat bolt up section. Unscrewable bolt mounts is a nice touch though.

Will give them a tub and chuck them up for sale. Whats the going amount for something like this? They're in really good nick, just dirty from sitting under a car without moving for a while.


Starter motor, much easier to remove than any of the euro chariots I usually work on which was a nice surprise.

Still picking 4 years worth of shit out of my eyes and hair, plus I got donked with the muffler when one of the mounts broke while I was sliding it off.

Next up, tail shaft, engine mounts and bust out the grinder to give the front end a hair cut. If any Brisbane forum members are around this weekend feel free to get in touch and come have a few beers while telling me what I'm doing wrong.

 

Got stuck back into it this arvo after working half the day.



Got the exhaust out and gave it a tub. Came up mint.



Started attacking the front end with a grinder. Everything got smooshed good which makes it near impossible to pull anything off.



You can see here how the rails are bent.

http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14/10/11/f1715420073b28745b1428fc14b22caf.jpg

Belted the rail with a sledgehammer to free up some space and cut some more steel out. Got the air con, rad and most of the pipework out. Plenty of space now to pop the engine out.



Loom off and out the way. **** me is there a lot of hidden plugs under the manifold.



The passenger door copped a big hit and couldn't be opened after the accident so I chopped the door up to access the latch internally.



Success. Also started pulling the interior and stereo out to flog off some spares.

Feeling a bit poorly today so progress has been a bit slower, plus I keep stopping to watch the race. Tailshaft is out, gearbox cross member is out, engine cross member has been lowered and engine mount nuts off. Something is still holding though as the engine seems to keep lifting the whole car when I try to get it out. Might just need a good jiggle. Have pulled the power steering rack nuts and all the engine crossmember bolts out but it doesnt seem to be dropping enough. I'm really at the stage where I need a spare pair of hands to get it all out so if any local zed guys are around this week I'd really appreciate a second set of eyes to see what I may have missed.

 

So it appears I'm currently stuck. Everything that I can see is disconnected from the motor and box and the motor is moving around fairly freely but the engine crossmember refuses to drop down even after all four bolts are well loose. Steering rack is also unbolted and the motor is off its mounts. I cannot get the motor over the rack and cross member.

Is there some secret bolts I've forgotten? Does the crossmember need some special brute force lever action to drop it away?

 

http://www.pexcom.com.au/z32cms/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.261

See if that helps

 

Thanks for that mate but ended up getting it out. The cross member had shifted slightly which was holding everything in. A few pics from last nights effort.



Getting there.



Crossmember out finally.





**** you buddy I win. Tonights works will involve splitting the motor and box and giving everything a solid clean once the engine is on the stand.

 

once the crossmember is disconnected just let the engine sit on it. normally the weight of the engine will press the crossmember down

 

give that man a medal

 

Not much happened last night, just split the motor and box and got it mounted on the stand.





Tonight's job is degrease of these bits and then a garage clean up. Tools and gear all over the place like a mad woman's shit.

 

Did you order a new wiring loom? or are planning to remake the best one with parts from the other one? S1 PTU there.