DJZ

So after mucking around with this a little bit more and having a better look at the crankshaft after paying to have it "polished" and then superfinishing it at work I've decided it's actually fucked and would need to be ground undersize to be usable. While weighing up my options this popped up on Trademe and after thinking about how much it was going to cost to finish this with the twin cam in it I thought it would be worth trying to buy the whole car and transfer the bits into the red one then sell it as basically stock. I ended up going a over what I was originally thinking of paying, I was actually surprised it got that high. Managed to get the guy to deliver it as well, the running gear is good but most of the panels are pretty much fucked, when it turned up and the guy opened the door to get out I could immediately smell how wet it's been inside. The good points are: It's allegedly had an engine rebuild 7000Ks ago that cost $6000, the guy I bought it off is trying to get the receipts for me It's a factory intercooled model It has a factory LSD It's got a TC06 turbo Dominic It's 5 stud and has the original wheels It's got live reg which might help somebody else Etc etc, basically I need all the running gear from the gearbox forwards, I will probably just end up dropped the engine/gearbox/suspension out from the bottom. Everything else is going to be sold or scrapped and I'll start selling the bits already on the red car that I'm not going to use like the coilovers etc.

I took as much off the back of the flywheel as I felt comfortable doing, I didn't actually weigh it beforehand so I don't know how much I took off. I'm going to put a big chamfer on the front which I'll do after I've redrilled it. I probably could have just measured it manually but I put the cover in the mill and probed it, I thought like some of the Nissan covers it may have only fit one way but it turns out the holes are just on a 276mm PCD and 30 degrees between the holes, then 60 degrees between the three sets. I removed the dowels from the flywheel as well so when I get some time I'll chuck it in the mill and redrill it. The original pattern is on a 265mm PCD (I think).

Makes a mess but seems to be cutting alright. It's pretty inconsistent on the back side, I'd be surprised if it was actually in balance before.

Not really ready for it but I bought a clutch for this. I did a bit of googling, the standard Starion clutch is 225mm, some of the 2.6L ones had 240mm clutches, which from what I can figure is basically the same clutch that goes behind 6G72 engines in like Tritons etc, and is the same as an FC RX7 clutch. So I got a 6G72 clutch, the friction surface on the flywheel is large enough that the 240mm plate will fit, I'll just have to redrill the pattern for the cover. I'm going to lighten it a bit as well and get it rebalanced. The clutch I bought needs to have a 0.5mm step in the flywheel so I'll do that as well.

We are using these in the cars at work now, but $$$ and you need special chargers for lifepo batteries, we have a couple of the ones they sell and also some Ctek ones. https://www.racetech.co.nz/shop/racing-products/super-b-batteries

Got the bits, and they actually correct, very dirty but correct so that's good. I had to drill out the hole in the oil pickup that goes over the stud as it wouldn't fit, I'll have to wait until the main cap is on to see if it needs any other mods. That's pretty much everything I need to assemble a long block.

Been lots of other stuff going on so I haven't touched this, I bought a 2 seater Z31, bought a Z31 2+2 which I then swapped for a 280Z that I used to own, sold one of my other 280Zs, and have been finishing up another 280Z that is sold. I knew if I waited long enough I'd find the bits I needed, was browsing Trademe last night and found the oil filter/cooler housing and the oil pickup I need (I think) off a VR4 in the background of a photo so they should be on the way today. I've been thinking about going e throttle on this, the Hitachi throttle bodies are pretty cheap brand new from Rockauto, and I don't have a throttle body that fits it at the moment. We put one of my mates crankshafts in the super finisher at work and it came out pretty nice, I'm going to modify the bracket that holds the cranks so the 4G one fits and then chuck it in there. There are still lots of little bits and pieces I need to track down but I've got just about everything I need to put the engine together, I think I'll probably do that at work in the new year rather than in my dusty extremely full garage.

I think Andrew Hawkins runs (or ran) a standard pump, but yes, stay off the limiter or you'll end up with multi piece pump gears like I did. I ended up buying a second hand Tomei pump after destroying the N1.

Ordered the cam belt bits and pieces and a water pump, haven't done anything else on it recently.

Amiyama dicked me around for the second time for parts for this, I tried to order the later model oil pickup which after waiting about 2 weeks for it to turn up at their warehouse I find out it's NLA. So it's back to modifying the one I have. They did have the castle nut and o ring in stock though.

Fitted the ARP main studs, I think it's too cold in the garage to measure the clearances so I might have to take it to work to do that. Dicked around a bit with the timing stuff to make sure I've got everything I need either already or on order, it's quite a stupid/complicated setup in my opinion but oh well, if it works it works. Fitted the OEM blanking plug for the right hand balance shaft as well.

Ordered the DOHC oil pickup, was twice the price of the SOHC one but oh well, easier than cutting up and welding the SOHC one to fit. Got the castle nut and the o ring to suit it at the same time. Still need to sort a water pump, timing belt kit, turbo and manifold.

Started having a look and assembling what I've got today so I can get anything else I'm missing. The main cap bolts turned to crap, tried to order them from Amayama and they cancelled the order for some reason, checked with Mitsubishi Christchurch who were 3 times the price, only one in the country and a 40 day lead time on the remainder so I ended up just buying some ARP main studs from NZ Performance last night. There must be a difference between the oil pickups which i didn't realise, the Starion one that I bought just touches on the sump on the inside so I'll either have to modify it slightly or get a DOHC one. I bought a non turbo sump so it doesn't have the oil return port as I'm not sure what turbo I'm going to run just yet. I'm missing what they call the castle plug in the oil pump so I'll have to get one of those. Also the early oil pump that I've got doesn't have the bolt holes for the crank angle sensor, I'll try and figure out another way of mounting it or change to a different one. This spacer replaces the balance shaft belt pulley on the crank. Here's the oil pump dummied up on the block.

Got all the bits that I'd ordered yesterday. New sump, oil pump, flywheel bolts, oil pickup, spark plugs and the VR38 coil.

Ordered a brand new sump, oil pump, spark plugs and a VR38 coil to have a look at for my Z.