One of the Twins needed a transplant

Discussion in 'Member's Garage' started by DoubleZX, Oct 17, 2010.

  1. DoubleZX

    DoubleZX Double Trouble

    Some of you would have seen my thread under Technical where my 2+2 started developing a knocking sound :(. So I decided rather than risk any further damage, given that the motor only had about 25,000 since the last rebuild I wasn't going to risk it so out it had to come.

    So I decided I should start a thread on progress and to see want this gremlin noise is, but first one last look before she comes out.
    [​IMG]

    And then the drain of bodily fluids.
    [​IMG]

    The work begins.
    [​IMG]

    Out it finally came. It wasn't that difficult except for the stupid bolt at the rear of the AirCond.
    [​IMG]

    Now have to wait for my temp motor that I bought from Silver300zx to arrive and then swap over Turbos, exhaust, dumps, the 650cc injectors and polished plenium. I will keep you posted. Hope this motor gets here soon:eek:
     
  2. dydy

    dydy mr ed

    Is that 2 nice zeds you have or a helper over?.

    Nice cars hope your one is nothing too major
     
  3. DoubleZX

    DoubleZX Double Trouble

    No, that's the other Twin, a 2+0. Both mine. Its going ok touch wood. No unfortunately no helper, had to pull it all by myself :( not a big problem.
     
  4. dydy

    dydy mr ed

    I envy 2 zeds. one for each of my personalities..good luck with it. they both look great.

    cheers eddy
     
  5. DoubleZX

    DoubleZX Double Trouble

    Thanks. And they too have different personalities.
     
  6. mafi-zed

    mafi-zed the resident hoon

    only 25k on the rebuild is a bit worrying, who did the build?
     
  7. whoppersandwich

    whoppersandwich Le Canon De Douche

    Was definitely good for me as I still had the reliable NA to cruise in while the TT had all the work done
     
  8. DoubleZX

    DoubleZX Double Trouble

    Don't know, the car is ex Cairns, although I bought it recently from Warwick in QLD. It appears to be a good job, but I won't know what the issue is until I start stripping it down, that is after I get the temp motor in. Have to say I was a bit p%ssed off. The knocking noise is metal against metal and coming from the centre (little end bearing maybe) but it doesn't seem to be consistent with RPM, which is odd. But I wasn't going to take the risk of further damage.
     
  9. DoubleZX

    DoubleZX Double Trouble

    Time for update.

    Engine Bay tidied up and painted where needed. Ordered plenty of stuff from the US, gaskets etc and new engine mounts.

    Temp motor arrived from QLD.

    [​IMG]

    So better do the cleanup thing

    [​IMG]

    Then the fun began. See I thought stupid me, that rather than just drop the temp motor in and russell up a temp exhaust system and swap ecu (nistuned mapped to old mootor) that I might as well swap over the manifolds and turbos as well the 650 injectors and dump on my polished plenium. Currently I am running a none stock manifold, hypergear highflow turbos through split dumps to a 3 inch system. So the exhaust wouldn't fit std dumps so I thought oh well it shouldn't be that hard to take a few things off and swap them over. Famous last words.

    Well first all my oil lines are setup slightly differently, but that was easily fixed. Next I noticed that my oil pressure sender had to be swapped over as well. But the real hassle began when was getting my old hypergear turbos and manifolds off. Right hand side was a bitch but they eventually came off. But the left, even with the motor out these are a bugger to get on and off. There is very little room and the manifold bolt under the turbo....well not easy and still not off yet. The previous owner when the manifolds where fitted got the manifold bolts tack welded to the studs. Trouble is I have to grind off the tac weld to get any spanner or socket on to the nut. My little demel thingy works wonders but in that small space behind the turbo is a pain. Will have to leave it now until next weekend.

    As you see not a lot of room.
    [​IMG]




    easier said than done, seeing that I all
     
  10. mafi-zed

    mafi-zed the resident hoon

    what year is that zx?
    i noticed no hicas, no egr and the balance tube is of the later model color..
    btw how do those hyper gear turbos pull up?
     
  11. DoubleZX

    DoubleZX Double Trouble

    It's an 89er. Yep most of the unnecessary things removed :) The Balance is polished, although it wasn't very polished in the photo.
    The hypergear turbos take a bit of getting used to as there is a bit of lag and the power doesn't really come on till late, but they pull very nicely. Haven't had them above 18 psi.
    But totally different feel to my 2+0 that is running different diff internals and has instant acceleration and an Apexi boost controller. The 2+2 is running a Gizmo EBC which I am not real happy with and the power at low revs is a lot more sedate, that is until you put your foot down and the turbos spool up.
     
  12. DoubleZX

    DoubleZX Double Trouble

    Well I got the other turbo and manifold off eventually. Not good, the turbo was full of oil!!!! Like alot of oil.... and when I checked for play in the main shaft well it moved about 4mm each way :(, so I found out why I didn't have as much power as I thought should be getting. This car is starting to give me the you know whats!!!

    So back to the original concept drop in the temp motor without changing anything except for the exhaust.

    I haven't even got to the stage of pulling the motor apart to find out why the engine knocking noise happened yet. But I at least I know that I need a new turbo or a major repair. Well that was news I didn't need :( Not happy over this Hypergear turbo given that it only has very limited kms on it and have only been on the car for just over twelve months!!!

    Hopefully by my next update I will have made more positive progress.
     
  13. HyperGear

    HyperGear New Member

    the bearing slap stands for bearing wear this is generally related to engine oil starvation, low oil pressure, drain issues, and oil contamination. Those were built with original Garrett bearing kits.

    You are welcome to send them back for analyses or repairs. We still give you the warranty if it is a part or manufacture related fault.

    How ever if they turns out to be a oil related failure you will need to sort out that issues before installation of new turbos regardless of what they are as they will be affected based on the same manner.

    Below is a copy of CAC fundamental guide to read at, which explains and reasons some of the typical causes.

    http://www.digi-hardware.com/Turbo.zip

    Reference: Page 18,19,20
     
  14. DoubleZX

    DoubleZX Double Trouble

    Thanks, much appreciate the advice. I will send down the turbo in a few weeks for analysis or repair. Oil pressure was very good, as I said it was full of oil so I don't think oil starvation was the initial cause, drain issue - doesn't look like it, oil contamination - possible - but the car had been serviced in QLD before I bought it only three months earlier. I had only driven the car about ten times, very sedate driving except for one strong pull up to fourth on its second drive. No issues other than I didn't think it pulled as strong as my 2+0, which has a bit work done to it.

    So I will box it all up and send it down. Again appreciate the fast response and the advice.
    Steve
     
  15. DoubleZX

    DoubleZX Double Trouble

    Update time. Have been fairly busy lately so haven't made alot of progress until about three weeks ago. Decided that it was too much mucking around to swap injectors given that the motor was only going to be a temp until I got the old motor fixed before Goulburn at Easter. So I got the temp motor in as you can see,

    [​IMG]and everything in the engine bay reconnected except the wiring harness and turbo piping and then realised that the connectors to the injectors didn't fit. Not a problem I'll just order a new set from the States.

    However by this stage with the parts still not here I thought for this temp motor I have to change connectors, install a new ECU, modify oil and fuel lines and the list went on and on....
    So now that Xmas has arrived and still no parts, I have decided to just get the old motor looked at, which again hopefully is just bearings, get the turbo repaired and the other one serviced and then drop it back in hopefully in around early March.

    This has been an expensive and time consuming exercise, but at least I have of a good back up engine that I might, in slower time fit bigger injectors to and fit the two other hiflow turbos I have sitting in the garage. That way next time, it should be just be a straight out and in. Famous last words.
    I might just check the extent of the damage on the old motor before I pull this motor back out!!!!!
     
  16. DoubleZX

    DoubleZX Double Trouble

    Have had to sell one of the twins :(

    Things have taken a turn. Firstly my eldest son has decided he wants to buy my 2+2 :( with the temp motor and as a result I basically have had to bring everything back to stock. This has meant removing the dumps and fitting the std exhaust dumps and std exhaust. Had a few issues with the RH side turbo heat shield hitting the exhaust dump but nothing that the demel couldn?t sort out. Will also have to remove the SAFC and Nistune ECU given the maps are for 650cc injectors in the other motor.

    Then have had to rewire in new injector connectors. I noticed that I had an extra connector in the wiring harness, but no plug. Oh cr%p!!! In putting in the temp motor in I hadn?t noticed that the Det sensor cable wasn?t connected. Bugger!!! Ever tried to reconnect the cable again with the engine in the engine bay. Impossible. So off came the plenum and guess what there wasn?t a sensor. So whilst I had to install a new sensor and cable, I replaced the water tubes and prettied up the timing belt covers. Starting to look normal.
    [​IMG]

    Got the gearbox back in eventually. The gearbox pilot bush at the back of the crank is a bitch. Bought a Nismo Needle bearing replacement but after a bit of research I have decided to put another OEM bush in.

    Hopefully we will have it all back up and running this weekend, fingers crossed.


    Now to the old motor. Those following this thread would have known that this project all started by my main engine suddenly making a loud knocking noise only after a couple of drives after buying the car. Well I found the culprit.
    [​IMG]
    A spun bearing that shows signs of either high rpm or bad combustion. Seen here
    [​IMG]

    Interestingly all the other bearings were ok. So it maybe an injector issue on that cylinder. Unfortunately, the rod cap had also suffered some slight damage. The FE forged Pistons stilled look brand new.

    The Turbo was also inspected and the problem was obvious
    [​IMG]
    Cooked shaft and bearing :(

    So looks like I will be up for a bit of rebuild over slower time. Maybe to drop into my 2+0. Thought I might go wild and build for around 450rwhp. Will keep you posted.

    So now that I had to sell one of the twins to my son, I had to fill the gap?. With this :D It may not be a 300 but at least it is still a Zed. I pick it up on 26th :zlove:
    [​IMG]
     
  17. Nigel300

    Nigel300 New Member

    [​IMG]

    Loving it! Looks hot!
     
  18. CUSTOMTT

    CUSTOMTT HKS 2530

    OMG! I honestly can't believe it - I had Eric - (DRZ400Y) at a2zed do a pre sale inspection for me as I was very keen on buying this car & he advised me to steer clear of it, even though I kept thinking it's got a new forged rebuild/ turbo's etc he convinced me out of it & kept saying there's something not right about this car -

    Many thanks to you Eric, once again you've shown that you da man!

    one of the best/ smartest $150 I've spent.

    DoubleZX I'm really sorry to hear this mate, hope you sort it out - my advice - send it back to QLD for Eric to fix!
     
  19. R31 Gagz

    R31 Gagz Harden the F#%K up!!

    Geese!...don't make it sound like your so hard done by with one of the 300ZXs going to your son and your getting a new 370Z in its place! :eek: :cool:

    All the best with the engine rebuild! :)

    Cheers,

    Craig
     
  20. DoubleZX

    DoubleZX Double Trouble

    Goes to show I should have done the same :( But the engine is in good nick except for this one bearing and the turbo which may have been caused by a pinched water line, maybe. So it won't need much to get it back to spec. The rest of the car is in good condition. So it was unfortunate, but like all zeds be cautious.
    I have a good engine rebuilder down here who knows these engines inside and out. He has two 300s himself but mainly builds GTR race engines. So no need to send it up to QLD.
     

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