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I FINALLY have my Z back. Ive had it back for a while but just now finished this writeup and got pics from Z1. The short of it is that Z1 did a great job. There were a few minor entanglements but overall, I would definitely take my car back there for future service. These guys put in an impressive amount of time every week. Following is the whole story with commentary, beginning to end, followed by the full mod list, pictures and dyno charts. I will also try to post a link to this for the morning ppl tomorrow mornign so they see it too. Back in March, my JDM engine died. May I had the car towed to Z1 for a basic engine rebuild. They were having problems with the machine shop they were with (the whole Wiseco piston markings thing) so right from the start my wait was elongated. June passed and I started to get a bit antsy. I called Z1 on a bi-weekly basis to check on the status of things. John was always VERY good about answering my questions in a friendly way, and I never once had problems getting a hold of someone. To this day he still answers questions happily. At the end of July they FINALLY picked up my block from the machine shop and started assembly. From there out things went more quickly. In the middle of the month I went out to GA and while I was there I stopped by the shop to check things out and get my car. Unfortunately I was not able to pick it up at that time. The motor had already been broken in and when we went out to boost it for the first time, there was massive clutch slippage. I opted to leave the car there and replace the clutch and flywheel to have brand new parts. I was pretty mad about this because the clutch was not slipping when I last drove the car. Fortunately, Russell was excellent about making the situation better with me. He exerted a professional attitude during a somewhat awkward situation and did a really good job of making me feel all was fair. Then after the new clutch and flywheel were installed, there was no slippage, but the car started to smoke. A compression test and some other things showed that the engine itself was fine. We were afraid the set of turbos was causing the problem. Fortunately after dropping the exhaust, they found that the smoke was coming from the exhaust. Z1 washed out the exhaust really well, and now it no longer smokes. Also, I had them install a HKS EVC boost controller. They did a VERY clean job; I was impressed. Unfortunately, it appears they incorrectly made some wastegate adjustments while the car was on the dyno and so now my EBC doesn’t work until I can loosen the springs on the wategates. This really doesn’t make me happy, as right now the only boost pressure I can get is 19+psi depending on gear. Yay! On to the dyno for tuning!
Although the car builds reasonable power, these initial dyno numbers were a bit of a disappointment for both Z1 and more so myself I think. Fortunately there are some good reasons:
The car is still on a full factory exhaust except the downpipes. The test pipes have already been ordered, and the cat-back will come soon after, but this is a major source of restriction right now. Because of this, they were only able to get the turbos to build about 17psi on the dyno, or so they say. I think they were shooting for about 20psi, so with the exhaust and 3psi more of boost, the car would probably produce in the neighborhood of 40-50rwhp(?) more, and hopefully A LOT more torque than last time. Ive put about 550 miles on the car since Ive picked it up. It seems to be running well, and Im just thrilled to have it back. They forgot to put the pump gas chip back in the car before I left so I had to wait for it in the mail before I got on the gas. I also spent some time cleaning out the engine bay, etc and I had smelled some fuel so I checked for any leaks. I did find one of the fuel lines going to the FPR had not been tightened all the way and was leaking pretty badly. Fortunately, I was able to get to it rather easily. A list of the work Z1 did:
Z1 basic longblock rebuild
Z1 550 hp stage I turbos
555cc injectors
Z1 downpipes
Z1 hard pipes
RPS sport clutch and flywheel
New wiring harness installed and various pipes replaced
HKS EVC and installation
Bought new alternator (will install later)
Ash tuning on the dyno. To say something about this set of turbos: They seem to have reasonable power production, and can run 20psi on pump gas without a problem…But they just seem to be VERY laggy. Once I get the exhaust in place it should help some, but for now, Im not getting full boost until like 4500 RPM. With several people here running almost 500rwhp on Sport 500s and near stock lag, I wonder if that may have been a better choice…The exhaust could totally change things though; Ill keep everyone updated but for now, Im am not pleased with the turbos. After all this, my total, rebuild, parts, and other labor, came to close to $12,000.
There were some other miscellaneous charges that came up during the rebuild. Oil changes, and labor that I thought were included in the $2,000 labor fee. Russell, again, was really good about working things out with me. It was my recommendation to Z1 that they build those into the price of the labor for the rebuild and break-in. And here are some pics of the rebuild followed lastly by a dyno chart with pump gas and race gas runs: 
Hope you enjoyed the writeup and pics. If anyone has any questions/comments, please feel free to post or email me; I’m more than willing to talk to people about my experience with Z1 and help out with questions… Thanks for reading
Josh
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LIBERATION: My Engine rebuild, comments on Z1 , DYNO charts - 
