hey all ive now decided that im going to involve all of you guys/girls. first abit about me, im a 16year old male student (year 10) from thornton nsw, short and sweet... now about the zed, i brought it off ebay for a cheap $3000 with as i was told "just a blown head gasket" & "some rust on the spoiler (boot)" i brought it for somthing to do in my spare time and to spend some of my $$$'s on. its a 1990 i think a aus spec, been in australia since 1990, one owner brought brand new, looks stock to me apart from the spoiler, interior in almost new condition for its age, small rubbing on the driver seat, split on the dash (near the window) and material on the T-tops if sagging and thats about it... brought on 27 june 2011, been in the shed since about the 30th of june. the tortoise rebuild (slowly but surely) on my to-do list. 1- take motor apart find and fix problem 2- clean and remove rust from engine bay respray white (stock colour) 3- put motor back together & reinstall 4- fix rust on boot 5- pull car park dints out & respray whole car white now to the work at first i done what you have to do to take a motor apart taken all wires and hoses off motor, then started taking it apart part by part (while still in the engine bay) not the best idear me and my dad have had but it was to late to change our minds so we kept at it. lots of anoying bolts, clips, wires & parts later the intake timming, radiator and some little bits down to the top intake. more hoses hidden inbetween the motor and the firewall (had about 20-50mm of room to work) but surely we got it off. working our way down the motor we taken lower intake off (more hoses and hidden bots). we finally made it to the heads, taken them off (more hidden bolts but i wasnt surprised at this point of the rebuild) looked at the gaskets nothing wrong with them so we had to take the heads to a mechanic, we got them there and thats where the bad news started, heads were bent (off memory) 7000 of an inch (once again only off memory could be wrong) but nun the less it was bent quite badly. he kept them for about abit over a week and by then he had takent them apart to check the valves it was up to me but he said it would be good to replace them now while the motor is apart, so i gave him the ok, im not in much of a rush to get the car back together so the mechanic has all the time in the world to fix the problem/s. around a week or 2 later i had takent the block off and taken it apart, pistons started out looking good.. 1st one was fine no damage. (yes some good news) 2nd was also good (yes a win for me again) and down hill from here 3ed piston some scratches, 4th was the worst damage, in the form of scratches down the whole pisten top to botom couldnt move rings. 5th a littbe bit better but still couldnt move rings and 6th was same couldnt move rings.. so down to the mechanic again, this time with the block, pistons & crank. crank is fine pistons can be fixed but for $200 im getting new ones. and the block.... just what i needed.. more problems, 4th piston bore is warped.. just what i needed. dont remember numbers but it was (lets say) 1000th one way and 2000th another, abit higher was 2000thand 3000th (lets say of an inch dont think its was of an inch, or even if it was in the thousands.. but you get the point it looked like and egg (i was there when he did it so he is not just ripping me off) so bigger pistons (i would assume) and more money. so that makes you guys & girls caught up on my progress, thats 4 months worth of work for me. ive most likly missed some things but you get the drift... ill get some photos up tomorrow night, and add onto this thread through school tomorrow (thank you all that pay tax i have a nice laptop to play games with through class) feel free to ask any questions (and with my spelling dont worry i cant spell to save my life...) ill keep you all updated on my progress as i get it done. benjamin p.s i hope this makes sence to all of you because im tired. ill read through it tomorrow and fix what i can
Certainly sounds like a pretty good little project. More than I would have taken on at your age that's for sure Remember you can't reuse the head bolts. Might be cheaper and easier just to buy a running NA motor from here. They go for very little as many people pull them out to put a TT in. I sold 2 nearly complete for ~$450, one running ok, one with a head full of bent valves. I wouldn't rebuild a NA, not worth the money.
yea i thought about doing that, but then i could just buy another problem. and have to take it apart anyway and have it cost me more, this way im putting a almost new motor back in and hopefully have no problems. but yes i did have a good think about it even before i brought the car, so far its only going to cost about $1700 to fix the motor (including gaskets, pistons and 200,000km timming kit with pullys, water pump, belt ect) and i have $0 out-going so it doesnt bother me to spend more money if it gives me somthing to do
I wouldn't go pumping an absolute shitload into it as of yet. Keep it in good condition, serviced regularly and don't thrash the crap out of it like most of us younger drivers do. I'd be saving what money you can in the next 3-4 years for a TT once you get your full licence. It's what i'm doing too
2nd update just updating on some of the things i had misses last night exhaust was taken off with rust - catback and i have started on the rust (boot) taking plastic covers off, broke some clips then going well taking the spoiler off, then the last 2 screws.. (1 each side) one is rusted it looks like a brown dint, and the other one has broken 2 hand screwdrives and 1 bit for the hand drill... dont worry guys the screw is 100% fine no damage done... tryed drilling it still with no luck, (bit keeps slipping off) and thats about all i can think of.. will upload photo very soon, of rust and motor and jamie. yea im just hoping to get it looking new (+ some things to make it unique to me) and for saving for a TT my mum is getting one sometime next year (when she gets some more money) so ill buy that off her when i get my blacks... and with thrashing the car. been brought up around some nice cars and been told that you dont need to race to show you have a better car. ben
photos http://s1102.photobucket.com/albums/g447/ilikeshineythings/rebuild/ *pick heavy* but you cant have to much of a good thing.. even if it is broken, had to snap crank off due to rust :/
your link needs a password to access ....????? i really admire your efforts and application at such a young age .... by the way, does anyone else find those bloody Photobucket pop-ups annoying ??!!!
hey you said your dad was helping and you certainly have got a long way, when I was doing it I took thousands of photos to work out what goes with what on the way back together, the only really tricky thing is timing those cams, read the threads on it but get someone to check it loke a mechanic before you start her up, because that is where some people go wrong, hey and buy the way Lillford exhaust has a 300ZX TT at bero and he was good to me gained about 40KW at rear wheels on TT
.. Well done shineyzx. And welcome to my world. Im still a student, at age 23 however, Its good to see some young enthusiasm and the new life of another zed. But I can say you have a long and expensive road ahead of you (like me ) But keep at it. BTW, pics still dont work... Cheers Alex
another day of money needed to be spent i got the spoiler off last night (up till 12) pics have already be updated. hole is about the size of a 10c and 5c coin next to each other (give or take) getting my mums old boss to have a look at it (tow truck driver with exp as everything car related) hopefuly it can be fixed, if not ill look at getting a 2nd hand one. with respraying the paint is 21 years old and has lots of little scraches and some fadding. but i wont be doing a full respray till around mid next year, (depending on damage). last thing, going to mechanic on monday to see how the motor is going, hopeing to have it back within 2 week and back together and in the car by xmas or earlyer ben
a quicky just a quick update. having a bloke come out on sunday to have a look at the rust and paint. he is going to do the dints, scratch's, rust and respray the WHOLE car pearl white (doors boot engine bay ect) for 2000-2500 (depending on rust). cheap? it has to be done in my shed, i have to help and it will be done in his spare time (he works 6 days a week). no updates on motor as of yet. ben
the car is going to be painted a blue pearl white is some what of the colour. whole car minis most of engine bay for $2200. time to start marking dints and taking doors, boot, bonnet, and what ever else i can get off...
In the OLD DAYS for those of us that Ancient and before Pearl paint, that used to be called Egg Shell Blue a favorite of the Coppers nearly all the Division cars where that color :br:
