Project 630z - V8 powered Z32

[Bantambunny]

Well bit of an update for you folks, I'll be starting the engine build this weekend and i'll be aiming to get the bottom end finished off by the end of sunday.

All the parts for the first step are on order at Real Steel ready to collect this Saturday morning.

So final specs for the engine are:

• 1969 350 block overboard by 40thou and stroked to 383 CI
• SRP Hypereutectic Pistons
• Forged Summit Racing Crank
• Edelbrock performer rpm heads (185cc Intake/70cc Exhaust)
• Larger BB Crower springs with titanium retainers
• 1.5 Ally roller rockers and solid roller lifters
• Comp Cams Xtreme Energy Solid Roller Camshaft (230/236 with a 112 degree lobe separation - nice and lopey!)
• Edelbrock 1407 - 750CFM with a manual choke
• Cross flow intake

Aim for this weekend is to get the crank and the entire bottom half of the engine built and sealed up with oil ready for the final push.

If i've got the money to buy them and i can find the sizes out i'll get the head gaskets and roller rockers too so i can get the push rod checker in and measure the sizes i need.

Next step when the engine's complete is take it down to Peter Knight Engineering in Daventry where it'll be going on the test bed to be broken in, jetted and dyno'd before i bring it back and connect it all up.

I've replaced the standard borg warner T5 box with a Tremek TKO500 (can handle 500ft/lb of torque!) with 2000 miles on it, the previous owner says it was still bedding in when he broke the car! Very short postive shift to it

I've also got some nordskog gauges for the interior with all the senders and some 99 spec lights to fit with the Halogen conversion kit for the front.

A couple of pictures of the block while i've been cleaning it and spraying it up to wet your appetite....

 

[Russ]

Car porn, I like!!

I used to just read the Real Steel catalogue all the time drooling over parts in your shopping list, lots more pics please!

 

[Bantambunny]

lol, my house looks like some sort of car porn shop. Catalogues for real steel, summit racing, competition projects, and books on small block with "big cubic inches" (good book i might add lol)

I'm going to do a large write up on the engine build this weekend and get my bro to take some proper shots of the engine build with his SLR.

I've got an HD Camcorder so when it goes for it's dyno session/first start up i'll be recording the whole thing in its glory

 

[ollyc]

I must say I love this thread! keep on going matey looking awsome and by the spec this thing will be an amazing piece of kit.

 

[Bantambunny]

Cheers buddy, well plan is to complete the build with engine and gearbox hooked up in the car running by the first of June. The only snags i have are wiring in the dash (hundreds of wires!) and the prop shaft which i have premade but it's 6 inches too long so i won't be able ot get that measured up until the engine and box are in but then after that it's off down to the mot station and on the road

Insurance is already sorted with my current insurers at no extra cost (amazing really seeing as i'm going from a 3 litres with nitrous to 6.3 litres!)

I'll still ring around though and see what they can do

Gauges are as follows:

 

[ollyc]

Bloody hell! That looks fantastic! Did you have a Knightrider thing as a kid? Lol Id spend all my time lokking at the dash instead of the road, I can't believe your insurance is staying the same though thats great. May add even more tuning to my Saab then ring up your guys Lol. Ever increasing car porn Love it!

 

[Bantambunny]

lol, well fully comp for me with all mods declared including the 6.3 litre v8 on a limited policy at the ripe old age of 28 comes to £870 fully comp (about 90 a month after interest) with cover to replace AS NEW if anything happens.

I'm 29 in september then just waiting until i hit 30 next september then i can move it to a classic policy and use my other no claims on something a little bit nicer for my day to day car

 

[Zed2k]

Great work!!

 

[Bantambunny]

Cheers buddy, not long to go now (as i keep telling myself!)

 

[Bantambunny]

Well after all the waiting and saving we finally got started on the engine build yesterday morning.

First job before rudy got there was to get the freeze plugs in place and just finish painting the front face.

When he did arrive we started by putting in the shell bearings and testing the clearance of the crank shaft

Next job was crank down the caps and using plastigauge (which squishes out to a certain width) inbetween the shell bearing and the crank you can work out the clearances at the top which were absolutely spot on from front to back:

Santa's little helpers Rudy and my dad Chris (soon to be a zedder)

ARP studs installed and torqued down with bearings and assembly lube:

Windage tray and oil pump fitted to test fitment and clearances:

Next job was check the oil pan fitted:

Next job was to assemble a piston with rod and fit the spyro-locks then get it in the cylinder to test for clearance as the crank rotated:

Disaster, (well not really) the clearance as with most strokers was impaired by the cast block and the bolt in the end of the con rod

Out comes the grinding stone....

Ooh it fits! Just! Still a bit of grinding to do but just about there:

Camshaft goes in:

We moved everything to cylinder one to find the highest point to check the cam against and test fitted the timing gear:

Luckily although it's not a small base diameter cam it clears perfectly with base timing. A few tests to do but should be fine throughout.

It is incredibly close in there though!

Better picture of the cloyes billet timing gear, not cheap but very nice setup:

Overhead view of the base of the engine:

And a rotated view of the engine:

Sump back on ready for storage till i get back next weekend:

 

[Bantambunny]

Well i've taken a week off work to finish off the V8 so here's what i've achieved today:

Started off by fitting all the pistons and conrods and grinding every cylinder to fit for clearance. It took about 4 hours but i got there in the end.

All pistons in:

Timing chain on and cam degreed ready to test the clearance and amazingly the conrods clear the cam on every stroke, i'm so relieved!!!

Conrods all attached to the crank finally:

Now to test the clearance of the waterpump on the timing cover eek, works just fine with a bit of fiddling:

Head number one in place and test bolted down:

Both heads on now to test fit the alternator and serpentine belt pulley:

Harmonic damper and bottom pulley in place:

Test fit of the belt, still missing the power steering pump but gives you an idea of the fitment:

Distributor in place but more to do tomorrow, more photos to follow tomorrow night.

Day one over with and made huge amounts of progress Can't wait, end of the dry build finishes tomorrow then it's to be stripped down to the bare block and cleaned thoroughly ready to transport over to my house in lutterworth and drop it in the car:

 

[Wyn]

Lookin good
Have you got all the other parts to drop it in?
Ie manifolds n mounts etc?

 

[datsun dave]

WOW love the engine !!!!

 

[Bantambunny]

Cheers Dave

Lookin good
Have you got all the other parts to drop it in?
Ie manifolds n mounts etc?

Yep, manifold, rockers, carb are all going on today to test fit then everything's being stripped back to the bare block again to clean out all the metal filings and gap the rings.

Hopefully the engine should be in by the end of the week fingers crossed just depends on the missing spirolock i need

 

[racer]

Huge cut outs in those pistons! Are you running a big cam or is that just for future development?

 

[Russ]

More porn!

 

[Bantambunny]

Huge cut outs in those pistons! Are you running a big cam or is that just for future development?

The springs are high lift and the cam is reasonably meaty for a road car 230/236.

The idea is later to think about a bit more carb and a bit more cam so always worth investing in the best you can get for the lower end.

I didn't realise but the con rods are titanium and cost $3000!!!!

Brief update on what's cracking of...

Sorry guys, wanted to post up a bit more about what's been going on. Just had a run of bad luck really

Firstly the belt broke on the compressor and i've been chasing around to find a replacement but unfortunately to no avail so going to have to buy a new compressor which has held me back a bit so i could clean the block ready to pop it in the car.

Also managed to scratch two of the main journal bearings so have to replace the whole set at a cost of £80. So all in all £200 out of nowhere.

In the meantime i've been busy restoring the paintowrk on the front wing and door and tonight fitted the new 99 spec lights which look much MUCH better

 

[Bantambunny]

Well i'm running out of time to finish the build, i leave my lovely little cottage soon to move to an apartment in rugby so need to get the car finished and on the road. I don't really want to leave but having had the person i wanted there with me disappear on me back in february/march i don't really want to keep spending the money to live there on my own

The last few weeks have been spent proactively working on the project by getting a site done to get some money in to fund the build and also working with a company that can give me a hand with some of the aspects of the build. Gelscoe Motorsport and Star Motorsport both work on custom one off rally and race cars (Star motorsport more safari rallies and Gelscoe work on 50-60s leman classic cars (some absolute beauties there and about 2million parked in the garage alone!)

So back to the project!

Had a chat with keith today on the phone regarding the subframe/steering etc. Lots of choices to be made, had a good long think about it and decided i'm going to stick with the custom frame that came with the car. I'll see how i get on with it, i think it might just have the edge on the handling and in terms of the way i want the engine mounted it should work. It is 50/50 though

I had two options on this, either use a lightly modified 300zx front subframe (keith's) then work on getting the brackets made up for it to fit it in the car. Only problem with it is if i go for this option the engine will site about 2" higher up in the engine bay and that means chopping the air filter down and having that refabricated and every time i need a new air filter i have to go through that again and again unless i run a mini pancake filter. With the size of the carb that's not an option so i'm sticking with the hugely heavy 3" drop subframe the car came with.

So that poses problems with the steering rack which means custom pipework. Luckily Gelscoe can make up the pipework for me using the original connectors and it's off to them next week to have that finished off so it can go back in the car ready to drop the engine in.

Next problem is the manifolds. The manifolds i have to go in are custom made for a 300zx with a chevy small block so it would be insanity at this time to go for different ones only problem being as they are "block huggers" they interfere with the custom sump. SO having chopped most of the sump off to get it to fit i made the executive decision to chop one of the wings off the sump and a triangular corner off the other side to get it to fit but keep the depth the same. Working out the maths means i still have 7.5 litres plus the oil in the pipes to and from the oil cooler at the front which should be enough for the high revving cam i have in the engine so no oil starvation. Also the trapdoors in the front hanf and right hand side of the sump will stop the oil slumping to one side.

So again off that goes this week to be fabricated by Gelscoe then that's the two main fitment problems over. The starter motor is a tight fit and doesn't clear the manifold but it only needs a few taps with the hammer clear then that's done as well.

So once the sump and subframe come back the subframe goes back in the car and hooked up to the power steering resevoir pot and we're ready to rock and roll!

Next thing after that is to clean the block one last time and then i'm ready to assemble the engine. All the pistons are now gapped and numbered ready to slot straight in, the clearances of the block are all complete and there's a little bit of painting left to do then it's done!

I'll transport the block over next weekend to Star Motorsport then i'll get everything assembled. Then it's just a case of organising a day for Lawrence to come over with his van and load the shell up then we'll spend the day dropping the lump in and hooking up the gearbox.

SO fingers crossed we're still on for August to get it on the road, not entirely sure if it'll be for the 1st but close to then at least.

Some pics to follow when i get back but i'll keep you all updated as exciting stuff happens!

 

[Bantambunny]

Well it's all cracking off now, i'll post some pictures later but i've been flat out and haven't had time to do anything apart from dash about organising things.

Well the subframe is being picked up tonight, i had to take it to a guy in coventry who specialises in power steering pipes, i was having aeroquip hoses made up but it turns out they were underated by 250psi so i couldn't use them so managed to find a chap in coventry who makes them up to 2500psi rating! All for the pricely sum of £70 which i think is pretty reasonable.

Meanwhile i've finished all the dry builds of the engine, cleaned the block thoroughly to remove all traces of metal particles, finished all the grinding work and built up the bottom end of the engine.

The windage tray just needs the last few tweaks (when i say tweaks what i mean is a lump hammer and the angle grinder) to get it to clear then that can be torqued down and locked in and the sump can be mounted.

The adaptions to the sump are complete, i've lost a wing but it still holds 6.75 litres of oil plus the oil in the pipes/oil cooler.

The starter motor is huge and so i've had to heat and beat the drivers manifold to fit it in, slightly worried about the heat coming off it but it's wrapped in ceramics heat wrap until i can get those custom stainless headers made up later this year but that's for another day.

The engine should be going in next week then when the car comes back to the house i can get on with wiring up, prop shaft alterations etc

All i need is the last £800 from thin air to finish the build..... lol

 

[ollyc]

Good luck mate sounds and looks amazing can't wait to hear you've finished her. All the best and play on th lotto just incase Fingers crossed for you.