DJZ

There are some pictures of the car in this album from the NZ Hondas track day http://www.flickr.com/photos/56977529@N ... 588316764/ I don't think I mentioned that it looked like the motor had been apart before, there was heaps of red silicon sealant everywhere, oil pump, sump, rear main seal holder thing, on the threads for the oil pressure sensor, around the rocker covers etc when we rolled the motor over to take the sump off a suspicous looking washer fell out of the head, I thought hmm that looks like a head bolt washer. Pulled the head off today and some dick has put one of the headbolts back in without a washer on it and left the washer floating around in the head. Looks like it's been run hot/low on oil, there are detonation marks on the pistons and head on cylinders 1, 2 & 3, those bores are also rooted. Found some 1mm over 2nd hand JE forged pistons and some Tomei Poncams pretty cheap so I'll be buying those, getting the block bored and the head skimmed to try and get rid of the detonation marks, they are only on the quench pads by the looks of it so it should come up alright.

Well I'll be spending more on fixing the motor than I would like so will probably have to stick with the twins for a while, I've heard they are good for 400hp but I'd be happy with as much as the L series was making for the moment.

Yeah I don't think it's such a good idea doing it especially when RBs have a well known history of oil supply problems, anyway the crank will more than likely just be replaced with a standard one, looks like I can one for less than getting the rooted crank ground. Looks like I've found some 2nd hand JE forged pistons and some Tomei Poncams for $1200.

Decreased surface area FTL

Oh and this was the L28 when it was running 278whp.

Yeah, the bottom end will be getting a bit more of a work over, the crank will need to be ground and the rod more than likely replaced, so I will probably just end up with another crank so I can stay with standard size bearings. I'm investigating forged pistons and H/I beam rods but that's going to add $$ to the build. L28 ended up getting split up which is a bit sad, I sold the bottom end and throttle bodies. I'll keep the head for the moment. A VQ30 would end up pretty much inline with the strut towers, they are pretty awesome motors, my mate has a nearly standard one with a GT3540 that makes 430whp, it's going back for tuning in 2 weeks and will probably end up with 500+

Motor turned up today, pulled the rocker covers off and the cams look fine. Turbos look/feel fine. Pulled the sump off and no real suprise, number one rod bearing is rooted, oil pump drive is a bit worn, drive surface in the oil pump is worn. The two halves of the bearing were actually on top of each other = not good. Sorry about the crappy pictures, didn't have a decent camera at hand. Maybe I should have gone with VQ power?

You could try Cylinder Head Specialists if you are feeling rich, they sell the fittings and you can assemble it.

Needs 1 less turbo and no trumpets. The motor has a knock, I bought it cheap. It's out of a R32, hopefully it won't be too rooted when I pull it apart, I've got an N1 oil pump for it and some ARP rod bolts. It will be getting new bearings but I don't really want to pull the head off or pull the pistons out, but we'll see what happens.

I've collected a few parts already, I have a 200ZR sump and oil pickup, apparently the sump will need to be modded to clear the main bearing girdle or something like that, will have a look once it comes apart. Also got an N1 oil pump and some ARP rod bolts.

So I've had my 280ZX for about 7ish years now and it's been through a lot of development throughout that time, some things worked quite well, some things didn't work at all. I decided recently it was time to pull the 320hp L28 out before I dump more money into it with little gain and start fresh with something a little bit newer. So this: Will be combined with this: (the RB, not the Sigma) Motor has a knock so will be pulled down first for inspection, hopefully it's not too rooted inside. The car will also be receiving if I can afford it: A T04Z turbo or GT3582R, still need to do more research Stainless manifold A new front mount (600x300) if I can get it to fit Some new suspension & brakes, the plan is for S13 coilovers with the R33 front calipers I already have Forgies plus cams maybe, depending on how much I have to spend fixing the motor

Car should be driveable tomorrow. Spent all of today working on the exhaust, it's pretty much done just have to do a couple of final adjustments as something must have moved when I welded it up and it's sitting against the diff. Sounds very quiet for having 2.5" all the way through and only one muffler at the back. Finished lots of little jobs, my mate Zac whipped up a pretty awesome downpipe/divorced wastegate setup for me. I mounted the power steering reservior and bent up some tubing for the return from the steering box, still need to get a high pressure hose made. Swapped back to the original front suspension. Shifter comes up in a pretty good place. Still working on some wheels for it.

That RB looks familiar. Chuck it in the Sigma.

Err I see, time for new turbo then I think.

I've rebuilt the TD06 and the T3/4 that I'm using, it was pretty easy, there are plenty of guides on the net on how to do it. You definitely want to mark the shaft, wheel and nut if you aren't going to get it balanced again. Then it's just making sure everything is clean and not worn. There isn't really that much to them once you've got them apart, I've never done an RB turbo but as long as it isn't ball bearing it should be pretty much the same as a normal old T3.

If it's only seals then rebuild it yourself, you can get kits for like $80, I bought one from eBay to rebuild the TD06 that I had. As long as the shaft isn't rooted it's pretty easy. What kind of turbo have you got?

Got it running again, removed the horribly installed alarm, about 12 meters of speaker cable that was doing God knows what, some 3 core polyflex cable that ran from the ignition switch to where the stereo would have been, about a dozen other wires that weren't doing anything. Filled the gearbox and diff up finally, had to go buy another suction gun as I can't find either of my other ones. Filled it up with water for the first time as well, only one small leak from one of the washers I used on the banjo fittings for the turbo water lines, replaced it with a new copper washer and it's fine now. Have to weld a bit of pipe onto the intercooler piping for the idle air valve thing, it's sucking unmetered air at the moment. Tried the wheels off the Z on it, they actually fit pretty well and look not too bad. I sold the wheels that were on it with the 260Z so now I'm wheel-less for a couple of days, apparently Osaka Auto are getting in a set of R32 GTR wheels this week so I'll keep an eye out for them. Here's a little video of it running, still running a little bit rough, keeps dropping a couple of cylinders now and then and idling a bit funny. It sounds better in person, not as rattly Got to swap back to the original suspension till I get the new brakes sorted, will probably run the wheels off the Z on it as they are multi fit 4 & 5 x 114.3 and put the GTR wheels on the Z if I get them. I have to build an exhaust and finish putting the interior back together and it'll be ready to take for a drive!

Got the fuel pump all mounted, had to buy a banjo & nut kit for it to make it fit from NZ Performance, replaced some dodgy looking fuel hoses too at the same time. The new KAAZ 2 way is in the Z now, thanks to The Diff Shop for fitting it in last minute 2 days before Christmas and doing it rather cheap too! The HR31 diff out of the Z is now in the Skyline, axles are only bolted in loosely as I'm still trying to find some 5 stud wheels to put on it, the wheels that are on it are going to be sold on my 260Z so I need to do something soon. Other than that things are going pretty slow, I popped an exhaust gasket on the Z while out at Ruapuna so I've got that in pieces and am trying to figure out whether to change the turbo now or not, anybody want to buy a TA51/T04 hybrid turbo? This thing came up on Trademe again and I completely missed it, I was watching it when it was on there maybe 6 months ago? Apparently it's been sold to a dude in Christchurch, if anybody knows who and they get sick of it let me know!

I got some spacers made for the diff finally, they ended up being 10mm ID, 13mm OD instead of 10x12 like the diff in the Z. Going to try and get it set up sometime this week so I can get them swapped. I need a 3.7 & a 3.9 L series speedo cog if anybody has some spares? I think one is white and one is blue. Did a little bit of tidying up and painting in the engine back, trying to decide whether to find a paint that matches the cream in the bay or just paint it black. Got some 0 gauge cable so I can mount the battery in the boot, crimped the connectors on at work. Tidied up some of the wiring (alternator etc) in the engine bay and removed the original battery cables. Finished bolting the turbo together, got some sweet staino bolts for the exhaust housing, got a 2.5" multi bend thing from Chase so I can start building the exhaust. Need to sort out some banjos for the water lines for the turbo, the RB turbo ones are too small for the older Garrett center section I'm using. Finished making some bottom brackets for the intercooler & put the front bumper back on, looks pretty good. I'll get some photos up in the next couple of days. Washed out the intercooler piping, had all sorts of crap in it from when it was made/bent. Tried to mount my new 909 fuel pump, it didn't fit in the original bracket so I've unbolted all the OE fuel pump stuff and made up a new bracket, need to find a banjo & enclosed nut thing so I can put it all in. Still on the lookout for some R32 GTR wheels if anybody knows of any for sale, the closer to Christchurch the better, or some Enkei RP-F1s or some BBS LMs.

Could do with another 50mm of lowerage

Intercooler mounted, well at least at the top. I love the fact that Bunnings sell aluminium that is perfect for mounts and brackets. My mate Zac welded on the extension bits for the inlet and outlet, it fits perfectly now. I got the bottom mounts for the radiator made & welded. Need to make a couple for the top now. Forgot how much of a pain in the ass getting a diff out is, but I got it out on Sunday afternoon and took the center out of it, gotta get some spacers for the crownwheel bolts and get it set up then jam it in the Z. I ported the wastegate hole in the exhaust housing, this was after I realised I couldn't use the Nissan wastegate flapper bit that bolts on to the exhaust housing as the flapper was in the wrong position and a couple of milimeters of hole wasn't covered so I'm having to use this one that somebody has made, it's probably a good thing as it will flow a million times better.

Got back for the weekend again and got a bit more done. R33 brake calipers, they will be going on this: And the R32 GTS-t calipers on that will be going on the R30 Intercooler piping pretty much finished, turbo inlet and air filter sorted too Intercooler goes here once the inlet and outlet are extended about 50mm Probably going to mount the power steering reservoir here, the L20ET pump has the reservoir built in so I can't use the original one. Got all the hose clamps I need and also some power steering hose and some more EFI fuel line. I need to run a pipe from the p/s reservoir to the pump and then another pipe from the reservoir along the LHS chassis rail, under the motor and then back up to the steering box for the return. I bought a KAAZ 2 way LSD which will also be going in the Z and the R31 LSD out of that will be going in the R30! I need the yank the center out of the R200 shortnose it's in now and get it setup in the 3.9 longnose in the R30 and then swap the two diffs. There's still a fair bit left to do but I've got 3 weeks off after Christmas so that should give me heaps of time to get it sorted. I need to: Port the wastegate hole before I can finish bolting the turbo on, then start building an exhaust. Finish the wiring so I can actually start the motor again, now that the loom is through the firewall I need to mount the relays for the fuel pump etc and finish wiring those up, the battery is also going to be relocated to the boot as the intercooler piping is in the way so I need to wire that up. Finish mounting the radiator and intercooler. Fill the gearbox up with oil. Sort out the brakes, I haven't decided what to do yet, whether to do another front Z31 5 stud setup, or use the setup off the Z and put S13 front suspension and coilovers into the Z. Get a high pressure line made up to go from the power steering pump to the steering box on the other side of the engine bay. Err that's about it I think, and a million other little jobs.

Got a little bit more done before leaving, pulled the wiring loom through the firewall which I wasn't looking forward too but actually ended up being not that bad. Now I can mount the ECU and finally finish the wiring. Took the turbo off again so I finish bolting up the exhaust manifold, then realised I should probably make the heat shield for it first. Got a battery box so I can relocate the battery into the boot, the intercooler piping is in the way now. Realised I don't actually have a power steering reservoir for the RB so I'm on the hunt for one of those. I've bid on an LSD as well which hopefully I'll win. Also order the rest of the intercooler piping bits that I need.

It's alright, Damien and I work together. At least this thing will probably be drivable some time next year!

I thought about getting a front facing plenum but it would have been extra $$$ and I kind of like having the factory one there. They reckon this car was somewhere in the 415rwhp range and it still has a factory plenum (probably heavily ported though)