This page is a chronology of the trials and
tribulations of owning my 1995 300zxTT, ZPOWER1995 300ZX Twin Turbo (2 Seat US Spec Model)
This page is a chronology of the trials and
tribulations of owning my 1995 300zxTT, ZPOWER
For the initial plot, see roadtrip a tale of two Brits and a Z as they cross the US in search of the perfect pint. For those of you who don't wish to read the whole gory details, suffice it to say that the Z was in an accident with a deer before the trip and had an overheating/oil breakdown problem on the trip whilst in the middle of the high desert of New Mexico..
Everything was going fine until one fateful day in
April just after the Bob Sharp Z Car
club's spring car show, a number of Z32's went for a drive in the
country. Unfortunately someone noticed that ZPOWER was puffing a fair bit
of smoke and started overheating and losing oil pressure again. Upon
return it was noted that ZPOWER's oil had broken down completely and was like
water. It was then that a compression test was performed... low low
numbers on a number of cylinders, not a good thing.
One sunny day in late June, after five hours of grueling labour the engine was out (thanks to Doug for all the help). Within two days it was on a truck and heading to SGP in Texas for some rebuilding and massaging.
Here are some pictures from the engine removal:
Looking at the pics below you can see why the turbos were smoking, I'm sure the service manual didn't mention anything about oiling this part!
Fortunately there are replacements waiting in the wings, they are huge in comparison. These are the Ballistic Concepts ball bearing T28 turbos and are equivalent in size to the JWT sport 650s but should spool better due to the ball bearings.
Well, it's been nearly six months since the engine was sent out and every weekend has involved some project or other (in fact you'll see some of them in the tech session at http://www.bobsharpzcarclub.org)
I'm still waiting on a few parts to come back, the leather seats which were promised to arrive the first week in September still haven't arrived and it's the end of the first week in December. Similarly the gauges that were being worked on since August haven't arrived back yet either, very frustrating. Hopefully I'll get everything back in time for the cranking her over and before the snow arrives.
Got the final bill from SGP Racing and the engine is shipped, a few teaser pictures until I get it all installed. Click on the thumbnail for bigger pictures.
Looks good doesn't it!!
Here are the exhaust manifolds and the downpipes. The manifolds are ported and polished and coated with Swain Technologies thermal barrier, the downpipes were custom made by Primespeed in Massachusetts and are coated with Jet Hot's sterling thermal barrier. Click on the picture for bigger pictures.
Today is a good day (17th December, 2001) .. a large box came on the back of a truck and look what was inside!!! The installation will take place this weekend.
Decided that as it was too cold to do anything last weekend that I'd put the twin pop charger in with the braided 'driveability hose'
29th December, 2001. Decided life would be much easier if we put the engine on the stand. Doug and Turtle are pictured helping in the process. Doug designed some fancy Engine Slingers which did the trick and made hoisting the engine a piece of cake. You can see the ported exhaust outlets from the heads and the valves in the latter pictures.
Well.. hopefully a Z which doesn't smoke, has good compression and will go a damn sight faster than before!
GO FASTER:STOP FASTER:
HANDLE BETTER:
COOLING:
LOOK NICER:
SOUND BETTER:
MISC: