Z31 Turbo Engine + Gearbox rebuild

rhanagar

rhanagar

Well-Known Forum User
Ok its not a big and impressive thing but I have always looked at various show cars and envied the just rolled out of the showroom look they have. Now I don't ever think I will get everything on my Zed looking like that but due to one or two issues I thought to myself I now have the perfect opprtunity to at least make a good start to getting there.

Now the Exhaust manifold cracked sometime ago and I know the rocker head on that side (passenger) has a snapped stud in at least one hole and one of the others is badly cross-threaded. A thought occured to me that seeing as I have to remove the engine ideally to make a proper job of repairing it I also have the opportunity to get at least the engine and gearbox a new lease of life. Anyway after sourcing a hoist off a friend of mine and stand I set about removing the enigine and stripping it.

Here is what I started with:

Enginebefore.jpg


As you can see its pretty filthy under there and plenty of rusty parts, dust, dirt, leaves, etc etc. Armed with a trusty can of WD40 a box full of tools and a complete disregard for personal safety I went about taking off pipes, flanges, bolts, belts etc and managed to get the engine out.

EngineRearDirty.jpg


Now this also left me with a veritable pile of bits all over my garage floor
 
rhanagar

rhanagar

Well-Known Forum User
So the cleaning starts

Inlet manifold before

InletManifoldDirty.jpg


Inlet manifold after

InletManifoldClean.jpg


Not much difference I know from the photo's, but its amazing to see the difference in the flesh.
 
rhanagar

rhanagar

Well-Known Forum User
All pretty dirty and some of those bits have been wiped clean already from 22 years of oil and grime. Big game plan is to strip the engine completely and replace all the gaskets. Get everything all cleaned and painted to give a showroom like appearance. I was mainly thinking the main block and gearbox in black. Rocker heads in silver (leave as is probably) and the rocker covers in a nice contrasting red (as the should be). The other bits in silver with red highlights (i.e. intake collector in silver, cover plate revamped with red/silver etc etc.)

After that I plan to remove all the bits around the engine bay one by one and give it all a thorough clean. The paint is pretty good in there so a bloody good clean should do the trick. Replace all the wiring shrouds with nice new stuff (cheap replacement) and cleaning all the components back to new condition. Yup a lot of cleaning needed but the end result should be well worth it.

Other ideas I have had was to replace all the brake lines while big bulky drivetrain stuff is out of the way. Underseal all over the place. Oh, as Sean might remember, patch up the roof lining as its still hanging down from whenI bought it lol
 
M

markz312+2turbo

Well-Known Forum User
the start of a good rebuild thread me thinks :thumbs:

i like the color scheme you maybe going with, and i really should do the same to mine but i dont have a garage to pop my car in, just a 8x8 shed i could probably put the engine in to work on.

how much trouble did you have getting the exhaust manifolds and turbo off? mine look rusted on to be fair.lol

and is it me or was there silicone used for the oulet manifolds?eek! good job you plan on a whole gasket change :thumbs:
 
rhanagar

rhanagar

Well-Known Forum User
Well the exhaust manifolds came off really easily once the engine was removed. Some of the studs came out of the block, some stayed in. Either way I will be replacing some of them. The sealant was a temporary thing I did some time ago, but I very luckily managed to get a complete engine and manual gearbox off ebay the other day for 99p. That shoud prove invaluable as a source for spares. At the moment the car is in the driveway and all the engine work is in the garage. So I can work in the dry at least. If it gets too cold I will get a gas heater :D
 
M

markz312+2turbo

Well-Known Forum User
i read that thread, lucky bugger!l 99p? bargain of the year!!

i hope mine come undone as easily as yours did, keep the pics coming bud, nothing like a thread with good pics :thumbs:
 
rhanagar

rhanagar

Well-Known Forum User
Not much progress due to having to pop out, but I did get a helping hand at least from a keen friend who wants to know more about cars, so I got her cleaning :D

Getting In:

GettingIn.jpg


Before:

SteeringRackDirty.jpg


After:

SteeringRackClean1.jpg


Dirty Hands lol:

PeanutDirty.jpg


And after all that, all is needed is a nice coat of paint to make it look all shiney and new looking.
 
rhanagar

rhanagar

Well-Known Forum User
While this was happening I attacked various bits and pieces that needed scrubbing clean ready for more paint. From the first picture in the first post you could probably see that a lot of the gubbins were caked in dirt, grime, muck, and rust. Well after attacking them with a wire wheel I ended up with these

Thermostat outlet before

ThermostatOutletDirty-1.jpg


After:

ThermostatOutletClean.jpg


Couldn't believe the amount of muck that was inside that pipe. All full of nasty, crusty, rusty cr@p. Blasted it through with carb cleaner as well to make sure it was all free of rubbish so I don't have it pumping around the engine when it all goes back together.

Then there was the wierd pipe that bolts onto the front of the engine that sits behind the auxilary belts, the one which has the two flat areas on it. Now before I started it was in a very bad way as you can possibly tell from the very first engine bay shot. Well with a lot of determination I got it to this state, and will be painting it up to hopefully stop it from returning to the state it was in

FrontCoolantPipeClean.jpg


Finally there was the metal pipe that bolts onto the front of the turbo and goes to the airflow meter. This is usually black. Mine was a mixture of black, rust and oil. Anyways I ended up with this

AirPipeClean.jpg


Much better and again ready for a coat of paint. Not much done as said but rewarding none the less. One thing I did also get done was to get five out of the six flywheel bolts undone. However the last proved to be a real sod and no matter how careful I was it just rounded off. I will have to see if I can drill it out tomorrow. Got some stud extractors so will play it real careful with them. I can always replace the bolt with one off the engine I bought off ebay recently.
 
M

markz312+2turbo

Well-Known Forum User
nice bit of cleaning going on there :), that pipe that has the two flat bits on, is it steel or aluminium?looks like aluminium from the pic, mines a mild steel pipe.

glad to see a lady getting her hands dirty!

that engine will definatly come in handy, especially for odds and sods you would struggle to find :thumbs:
 
rhanagar

rhanagar

Well-Known Forum User
Its definatly steel, considering the amount of rust on it. I just got it up to a very nice shine :D

The early turbo's had two fans on them, and also the import models. California tends to be warmer than the UK I suppose was the reasoning. You can get another fan and bolt it in. There is even the wiring for it. All it does is kick in at higher temperatures so really get the coolant temperature down. Some people just slave it in to the original one.
 
M

markz312+2turbo

Well-Known Forum User
i see :)

i thought some daft sod took one out but i sopose it was installed like that?

i have 2 spare fans kicking about from a rover 600, im sure they use the same connectors, probably not but il be putting the extra one in to be safe.......well, when i get a new radiator, mines fooked. i left my engine running for a good 30 mins and she took a piss on the floor as it were :rofl:
 
rhanagar

rhanagar

Well-Known Forum User
Tough break mate. At least yours was running. I hope you switched it off before any other damage was caused.
 
Chas

Chas

Z Club Member
If you would like a double fan from a Z31 turbo, I have one for sale from my 300ZXT I broke.
 
M

markz312+2turbo

Well-Known Forum User
rhanagar said:
Tough break mate. At least yours was running. I hope you switched it off before any other damage was caused.
Click to expand...

yup, knocked her off straight away, it wasnt gushing out but enough that made me think '' New Rad Needed! '' im not going to risk bodging it up and hope for the best, i plan on taking her around europe next year so its gotta be a '' proper jobby '' :D
 
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