James Z31 Engine Blueprinting

[85_Z31]

Hello I am James

This is my 300zx Turbo Build, owned the car for ages, its coming along ok.

I would suspect the only modified Z31 in the South Island, If its not I would love to hear from the other ones.

The Car As I got it

[85_Z31]

Pulling out the old donk

SOHC VG30ET single turbo, 7.8 to 1 compression Bottem end is good for 450 Wheel HP as proven by many setups in the USA



Rebuilding the bottem end



Things Looking sharp



Porting and polish on the Cylinder Heads , Kelford Cams and schneider Racing Cams double valve springs

[85_Z31]

The Snail

Hotside from a RX7 and a T4 front cover, should do well at a conservative 15psi for a reliable track day car





Built some headers but these are more a longer term project and need finishing





Getting it all back into the car

[85_Z31]

Some of the Suspension and Steering Work

Rebuild and cleaned up Power Steering rack with new boots and tie rods



Spent hours getting the engine bay nice and clean ( this all happened before the engine rebuild )



Koni Adjustable Shocks, King Springs, urethane bump stops , machined rotors and new pads



New Ball Joints and new bushes in the control arms

[85_Z31]

Built my own Mandrel Bent 3" exhaust system

1x Straight through muffler and 1x massive long resonator







Spent some time to paint it up with ceramic 1200deg header paint, it wont stay pretty but at least it wont go rusty and look like shit after a week

[85_Z31]

Some pics while the gearbox was apart for its full rebuild, Its a Borg Warner T5 as found behind many Ford and GM V8's







Clutch industries Heavy Duty Clutch, not a puk but im going to see how it holds up



Having a full rebuild of new Bearings, new syncro's and having all the preloads and shim stacks done professionally made the gearbox the best one i have ever felt, and for $1000 it wasn't even that expensive.

[85_Z31]

When I got the car it didn't have a front under tray, as far as i Understand it forms part of the radiator cowling system and needs to be in place for it to cool efficiently

so i knocked one up out of some panel steel, welded some 5mm rod on the inside to give it some strength and bolted it all up, currently primered to avoid rust but it really need powder coated



I think it looks pretty tidy under there




and the wheels i am awaiting delivery on,

Ellipson 3pc mesh, i believe these are a mid eighties Japanese wheel

16x7 front and 16x8 rear but i have been in contact with arrow wheels so i can get more dish and better offsets

looking for 16x 9.5 rear and 16x8 front with the new wheel halves i want to order

[85_Z31]

For engine management I am using nistune, which is a modification of the origional ECU to make it fully adjustable with 90% of the features of a Link G3 and the ability to keep wiring stock this is a great product.

and it also means if my car is ever worth anything it can be restored to stock easily ( but who would do that )



And you can see the USB port in the old 1985 original ECU



For Road tuning and data logging I have ordered a Wide band oxygen / Data Logging unit

This will allow me to do 90% of the tuning myself , and then get final checks and tweaks done on the dyno.



I also spent some time to tidy up the turbo intake into the Air Flow Meter

[85_Z31]

Fewf that was a lot of work posting all that,

So that represents about about 1year worth of work completed over the last 3 Years, I am taking my time but I was only 17 when i got this car and now im 21 & 1/2 I can appreciate things much more

I'm not a hoon and have never been in trouble I just like my old and fast cars

My Current project/job is the front brake upgrade


These are the pentagon Hubs simialr to many datsun hubs, I have spoken to a certifier and it is cert legal to have the corners turned down on a lathe so it can fit Inside a 280mm R32 GTST brake rotors

the 30mm thick rotors ones not the wussy 25mm thick ones

you can see here what i mean about the pentagon shape



My Awesome Missus got me these for Christmas Last year, as before 280x30mm thick, these can fit under my stock 15" wheels which is a bonus. The old rotors were 276mm x 20mm and for a heavy car that is simply not up to it for track day work.



And I have had the R32 GTST 4 pots for quite some time meaning to get around to this, I will be rebuilding them myself

( its easy as , just done the 4 pots in my Hilux the other day )



Probally not doing anything at the back, the fronts will be slotted by the same engineer doing the Hubs

[gingofthesouth]

Wow good thread. Looking forward to seeing the fitting etc of those brakes.