nickz32
Well-Known Forum User
Thought id put up a thread showing some work that Jimmer is carrying out on my zed.
For a little while, my zed was smoking blue smoke for no apparent reason. Compression was good, no obvious sign that the rear turbo seals had gone. My initial thought was valve stem seals or very early signs of a cracked piston ring land.
My initial brief was to make the stock setup as efficient as possible, staying on rebuilt stock turbos. However, after consulting with Jimmer and looking at the finances, i decided that i would "do it once and do it right". The engine has never been out before, and i dont want to do it again. The brief was still to make the engine as efficient as possible without going for mahoosive turbos. Road drivability was priority over peak power.
So back in April, i bought the parts that i wanted to go onto the build, as documented here: 300zx.co.uk Club Bulletin Board
At the tail end of May, I dropped the car off with Jimmer. He has kindly taken several photos of various states of the build for me, which I shall share with you in this thread.
As for the source of the smoking.......... inconclusive. The valve stems were hard and brittle, and there were obvious signs of oil being burn in the combustion cycle, but the engine was in very good condition (which is proven with its 340 hp at the fly on STOCK boost with basic bolt on mods) with no apparent sign of piston, ring or turbo failure.
So, the engine was stripped down:
A GT525 turbo next to a stock turbo for comparison. I went for the "auto" turbos with a .54 A/R as i want a quick spool and strong mid range over peak power
While the engine was being stripped, i decided to take my Plenum back home. Whilst I love the look of the polished plenum, I was getting a bit bored with the time I had to spend maintaining the finish. I therefore decided to paint it. I chose a Semi Translucent paint made by VHT. It purpose is to give an anodised finished, however, I decided to put clear cloat ontop which has given it a red Chrome like finish...... As Isherwood will verify, it looks MUCH better in the metal
Now some pics of the build coming back together:
Crank back in with ACL bearings, note the freshly re honed bores
Jimmer also Ported and Polished the heads for me, again aiming for maximum efficiency (Pic of the porting finished):
Wiseco pistons and Eagle rods in with the Cometic head gasket:
Heads back on with the block painted Silver:
Turbos and AMS manifolds on:
I also bought some new 3 inch Decats to make my whole exhaust system from turbos back 3 inch bore
Camshafts and Pulleys back on
Cam pulley covers and rocker covers back on. I have painted the pulley covers Gloss black for clean look, but painted the rocker covers satin black so they distract from the colour of the plenum
Finally plenum back on with the throttle bodies (excuse the masking tape lines on the throttle bodies, but you wont seen them once the intercooler pipes are back on)
For a little while, my zed was smoking blue smoke for no apparent reason. Compression was good, no obvious sign that the rear turbo seals had gone. My initial thought was valve stem seals or very early signs of a cracked piston ring land.
My initial brief was to make the stock setup as efficient as possible, staying on rebuilt stock turbos. However, after consulting with Jimmer and looking at the finances, i decided that i would "do it once and do it right". The engine has never been out before, and i dont want to do it again. The brief was still to make the engine as efficient as possible without going for mahoosive turbos. Road drivability was priority over peak power.
So back in April, i bought the parts that i wanted to go onto the build, as documented here: 300zx.co.uk Club Bulletin Board
At the tail end of May, I dropped the car off with Jimmer. He has kindly taken several photos of various states of the build for me, which I shall share with you in this thread.
As for the source of the smoking.......... inconclusive. The valve stems were hard and brittle, and there were obvious signs of oil being burn in the combustion cycle, but the engine was in very good condition (which is proven with its 340 hp at the fly on STOCK boost with basic bolt on mods) with no apparent sign of piston, ring or turbo failure.
So, the engine was stripped down:
A GT525 turbo next to a stock turbo for comparison. I went for the "auto" turbos with a .54 A/R as i want a quick spool and strong mid range over peak power
While the engine was being stripped, i decided to take my Plenum back home. Whilst I love the look of the polished plenum, I was getting a bit bored with the time I had to spend maintaining the finish. I therefore decided to paint it. I chose a Semi Translucent paint made by VHT. It purpose is to give an anodised finished, however, I decided to put clear cloat ontop which has given it a red Chrome like finish...... As Isherwood will verify, it looks MUCH better in the metal
Now some pics of the build coming back together:
Crank back in with ACL bearings, note the freshly re honed bores
Jimmer also Ported and Polished the heads for me, again aiming for maximum efficiency (Pic of the porting finished):
Wiseco pistons and Eagle rods in with the Cometic head gasket:
Heads back on with the block painted Silver:
Turbos and AMS manifolds on:
I also bought some new 3 inch Decats to make my whole exhaust system from turbos back 3 inch bore
Camshafts and Pulleys back on
Cam pulley covers and rocker covers back on. I have painted the pulley covers Gloss black for clean look, but painted the rocker covers satin black so they distract from the colour of the plenum
Finally plenum back on with the throttle bodies (excuse the masking tape lines on the throttle bodies, but you wont seen them once the intercooler pipes are back on)
