| Engine reassembly pt1 is HERE On February 13th 2006 myself and aliaz started my car. The following weekend (February 18th and 19th) after I had to leave, he had everything else buttoned back up and drove the car under its own power. If you look back to my original build up post HERE and look at the date nixit and I drove from St. Louis to Dallas it was exactly one year to the day that the car once again moved under its own power. Not too bad for a project we originally thought would be only 3 or 4 months!
I don’t really care about the downtime so much since the last year I have been really too busy with moving, house stuff and work to completely enjoy the Z anyway. But, as you can imagine I am REALLY excited to be finally finishing up this project. I plan to go back to Dallas in a couple weeks to hopefully install my CarPC, all the data acquisition / logging gear, and put a base tune on the car via Zemulator with aliaz, guapo if he has time, and any other Dallas tt.net guys who want to attend. If all goes according to plan I will finally drive my Z out of Dallas for about 2 months until I bring it back for ZCON in May. I’ll let the pictures guide the of the rest of the story, and there are many, many pictures. 
The lethal Duo: my 95tt ALIAZPSEC stage 2 heads and swain coated preproduction Mike Smith exhaust manifolds.
I close up of the duo. You can see bolt clearance is a bit tight. I know they manifolds have already been through NUMEROUS slight revisions since this set to address little things like this. Really, not too huge a deal though as we got them bolted up.
The front of the engine with the wrinkle red valve covers. Note the location of the PCV. For details on the PCV mod see part 1 or search for Woody75’s write up on the relocation.
Back to back: Mike Smith’s manifolds...
next to stock. That speaks for itself.
A rear shot of the engine. Note the newer style fuel rails installed with -6 NA fittings welded to them. Mike Smith also made us some custom hard pipes for the PCV mod (gold things in back). Word is there is a chance he will come to market with these too. No, like everything else I have no idea when.
Behold, test fitting my super wet black powercoated, and nixit super tricked out plenum.
It shows fingerprints, dust and scratches pretty well, although simply wiping it off and a quick polish with a microfiber rag and it would look tons better than this. To go back I probably would have done the plenum in a fine wrinkle black (like the fine wrinkle red on the valve covers) along with the TBs but I don’t regret this color at all – I just don’t necessarily recommend it either.
You always need to make sure the pretty ones look good from the rear as well.
Hey baby, where you going?
This PITA is the AC evaporator. I lack the skills to figure out how to undo the wire clip at the top of the unit and was unable to remove it myself. I think aliaz took this picture do demonstrate his superiority over me. Well noted! We pulled and cleaned out the entire A/C system since it was improperly serviced by my old roommate back in 2004 and the high pressure valve blew up.
I know, you asked me to remove it and I gave up after messing with it for 45 minutes in the hot 105 degree Texas sun and you conquered it in under 5. I SUCK.
Whats this? I’m sure aliaz was sick to his stomach to see such a filthy AC condenser.
It was quickly cleaned. I misplaced the “after” shot but take my word for it that it looked much better.
New EFI harness courtesy of YugoBernie’s stash o’ parts.
A bit later in the day…my Z finally releases the 15 year old harness unscathed.
Just a bit off the top please.
Locktite…yummy. Set to open at 17psi, should roughly equal 15psi manifold pressure. I was originally exploring HKS and Forge wastegate actuators with SpecialtyZ for a while. But, I came to the conclusion that even with these turbos at full tilt they probably won’t be generating more than 23-24psi in the manifold – and probably even less due to what should be incredible VE from all the work done to the engine. The stock wastegate actuators should hold just fine at those levels.
Stock 5 speed turbo (not mine) vs. GT28RS w/ .64 AR exhaust
Anyone who thinks the stock 4 bolt housing don’t hold you back at high power levels is nuts. Come one LOOK at those differences.
From the side you can see the T04B compressor housing is quite a bit bigger.
The work JWT does to the T04B compressor housings is very impressive and well done. No wood screws here. But in the end, these parts are required to look good, only perform well. BTW, if you are looking at GT28RS turbos for your Z always make sure there is some evidence of modification to your compressor housing. If not you are probably getting the slightly less than optimal GT28R compressor housing instead. Word to the wise!
This is one of two stock compressor outlet elbows. We hate them. Notice in part one (if you scroll half way down) you will see I was already complaining about them back then.
Aliaz too was not happy with the restrictive design of the elbows so he performed the secret “weld on the outside and grind on the inside” mod that he had previously done to his own set. I was pretty impressed by the work, but it seems it it gets even better than this….
It looks a lot better to me for sure!
Close up
No, it is not a large mouth hand puppet…
From the other end…any guesses?
That’s right – another upcoming “who knows when” Mike Smith performance product.
Cast Aluminum intake pipes. These babies are NICE. We are expecting similar gains from when moving from standard POP charger intake to a dual or XStream intake.
So smooth!
Such girth, note the smooth down taper to the compressor inlet.
Speaking of girth, did you know where the biggest restriction on the stock fuel system is?
Aliaz seems to always have a problem with holes that are too small for his mighty shaft. Open her up booie!
Oh yeah look at that big gaping hole. Aliaz was here.
Timing belt is on right…good - no need to pull the motor apart later to double check.
But unfortunately on the rare Fischer pulley I obtained the timing mark was NOT on right. Now the debate is over - the Fischer dampened pulley IS safer and here is proof: it retards your timing 2 degrees. Oh well, I prefer 15 degrees over 13 so it was corrected.
Big heavy stocker for comparison
One thermostat is 10 dollars and the other is 110 can you tell the difference?
Duh, the Billion 65degC high-flow thermostat is made of Gold fool. Got to sport my bling foo. Pimp master Kauhdog says the only jigglers you need’n be on his hoes!
The MSP cast intake pipes slip in there like a glove. Also for you Noltec haters, my manifolds and turbos are swain coated and the manifolds are wearing the factory heat shields. We are betting the Noltecs will be just fine and dandy down there.
Passenger side for comparison
Here is good shot of how the cold side of the turbo set up comes together. A good shot of the weld used to fill the compressor outlet elbows. Here is a little known fact for you guys. Did you know the compressor out let elbow on the passenger side and drivers side use a different OD? Yep that right, one side is 2” as you would expect. But the other side is actually 1.75”!! So, Don put me on a wild goose chase looking for 1.75” to 2.25” silicon transition couplers, and after I finally found a set he tells me not to worry about it as Mike Smith had a better solution…
We were so proud of the weld on the outside mod to grind away the access divots on stock aluminum elbows that we were shocked when Mike Smith widdled out of these bad boys on his lunch hour and sent it over. He apparently thinks is faster to make your own parts than search for work arounds on the internet. Suddenly, the welded elbows we were so proud of look like poop compared to this modified for 2” end Mike Smith compressor elbow. This thing actually gracefully tapers out to the 2” OD outlet. Mike Smith has amazing skills, no doubt about it.
You can see where it has been modified to a 2” OD so the 2” to 2.25” silicone couplers (to adapt oversized intake piping) would fit without issue.
I am off to the right taking in the last few moments of the almost 12 month long sight of my Z’s empty engine bay. Enter Mr. Guapo. You see sometimes Aliaz and I like to have long discussions about how a part works or waste a lot of time spinning the turbines on turbos and saying “vroom vroom”. But, when we told Guapo we were planning on dropping the motor in one night he decided to come over and make sure it got done. With Guapo on site you get no time to rest. If your eyes go blank for a moment or you glance at something too long he yells FOCUS! That’s right, my engine was getting dropped in this evening if I liked it our not.
Guapo and aliaz inspect the rear of the engine. They decided the much loved “lube up the hole” method will be the best way to remove the old pilot bushing (camera phone series starting here).
If I hold really still the camera phone will take some OK looking shots.
The best way to waste a 60U filter. That filter will have the engine run for 20 minutes and them be disposed of. Beats wasting your time explaining a fram 100x on tt.net – right Ash?
My camera is not capable of displaying the amazing job nixit did with the throttle body mod. It looks as if the car came stock with them. I love it. Many thanks to teh nixt!!111
The magic hand of guapo applys liberal amounts of grease into the rear end of my engine. During this process there is a strange hush in the room. Guapo’s hands move quickly, smoothly, meticulously – one gets the distinct impression guapo has done this a time or two before.
Scroll this window up and down quickly. You should get an idea of the experienced technique guapo demonstrates here.
Oh yeah, just like that.
The engine no longer bolted to the stand for the first time in a long time. Floating in air. It is scared, so I loan it my childhood safety blanket. Do you feel better now little motor?
Wheel it up.
Keep it coming….
Yes, we pause for the obligatory: get in the engine bay before we drop this mofo in shot. But there is more, you can spy sir guapo’s UZ2BNA in the background and he is in the process of sliding under the car to be the much trusted butt man. I can’t even make up poop like that folks.
Guapo tells us what he thinks of being the butt man, and of 18” wheels used on a roadcourse.
It looks as if my motor is about to crush gaupo’s head. Unfortunately, the “fuxor” jack used to pull my motor out had been demoted to fence post pulling duties sometime in the last year. In the process it seems to have meet an untimely end. I am sorry DFW Z guys. Supposedly it will be repaired and put back into service. In the mean time we had to locate another engine jack and this particular one is not quite as user friendly and at one point the jack slipped a few inches before contact was made and guapo’s head was almost crushed. I am 100% serious here – a very close call. He was amazing very cool about it as were both very startled and concerned. Guapo is a stand up guy even if he does occasionally own you or me on tt.net. My hat is off to you sir.
The engine is in! And it fits, awesome!
Plenty of clearance with the steering shaft.
A bit blurry but there is room on the passenger side frame rail too.
Closer up shot of my engine finally back in its home where it belongs
I can’t get enough of this new sight!
One final picture before we turn in for the night. A very productive day indeed.
Slight delay caused by intake pipes not quite lining up. I love the bleeding edge!
Passenger side is much better.
My oversized intake piping. Quite the little PITA. They are necessary though. If you can get it though, I would recommend trying to get it all mandrel bent from one source and pay extra for aluminum of you can swing it. And no, aluminum won’t rust but it will be a whole heck of a lot lighter than these heavy mild steel pieces.
This was very preproduction work Ash was helping me with, we eventually ironed out the bugs in the design. For the record I requested the intake piping be made not in all 2.5” as Slowninja/TheDevil’s Z intake piping was, but rather wanted a more gradual increase in diameter for the compressed air on its way to the intercoolers. Since the modified outlet of the compressor elbow is something like 1.8”ID (up from the stock 1.67”ID) I decided the jump to 2.5” OD pipe at that point would be too much. Also, it makes some sense to the have the diameter smaller while the air is hotter and larger after it is cooler. So, I had the pipes that go from the turbo to the intercooler made of 2.25” pipe. From there they use a 2.25” to 2.5” transition coupler to the 2.5” inlets on the AshSPEC massive ICs. From the outlet of the IC up to the 60mm Stanza throttle bodies is all 2.5”OD (~60 mm ID) pipe.
2.5” pipe should really free up a lot of restriction. Pay no attention to the battle scars. I will make them pretty.
2.25” pipe that comes off the compressor outlet.
Gives offloading in the bathroom a whole new meaning!
I had to clean the inside of every pipe by hand for over an hour. Mandrel bending lube and welding crap was all caked inside them. Count the pipes. It was a long day.
AH, at last it fits! But it looks like bump transitions would be better suited to this task.
passenger side checks out too.
Here you can see the nipples we had added to the j-tubes to utilize Mike *W* Smith’s
( [ http://mwsmotorsports.com ] ) boost controller hardline kit to minimize boost spikes and give the Electronic Boost Controller as quick and accurate a signal as possible.
coming together
Here you can see we had to utilize the accordion tube as the final leg of the Mike Smith turbo inlet wasn’t yet available to us.
Those inlet pipes definitely look like they will flow some air.
Once again compared to their ugly stock counterparts
Wow, that design is SO bad. If you are pushing high HP and you don’t think these pipes are holding you back, you had better think again.
We experimented on where we would place the massive Tial 50mm BOVs. This is the location Ash put his. He used a later version of the oversized intake piping on his car and they fit in that location on his set. On my set though, this location was a joke as the hood would not even come close to closing with them placed here. Looks like my IC’s will get hotter between shifts on the road course but at least I will have minimal velocity reversion….
Also of note this picture has my Z1 doolz intake before it was swapped out for a AshSPEC XStream intake.
Yep, no way its closing. So we decided to get the BOV flanges welded to the “hardpipes” and just hope we can get it to work / fit there.
So, we do. And get the last batch of expensive power coating completed. Looking pretty good if I so say so myself. Note the most noticeable (according to Mike Kojima) of the exclusive SPL suspension collection, the Chromalloy SPL fender braces. These braces are supposed to stiffen the front of the car noticeably more than a strut tower brace.
All the pipes are back from powder coating including the Xstream intake Ash almost cut his finger off while making it for me. You can see that on the new version Xstream design the cross-sectional area is MUCH increased. Very much like going from a Stillen to a SpecialtyZ x-pipe designed exhaust. Also note, the freshly wired true dual MAF setup as well. I love how almost every exposed inch of the front of the car is covered with heat exchangers.
The fuel system and battery are now installed as well.
My very expensive rotors are definitely NOT made of aluminum. Sorry, very old and tired joke.
We then retired the camera and got to work getting the car started. After toping off all the fluids and doubled checking everything it was finally time to build up some fuel pressure and then crank it over to build oil pressure. One problem, no oil pressure. It seems even thought the engine was primed on the engine stand it had somehow became unprimed. So, we tried the “blow” method where you pressurize the oil pan via the dipstick while cranking the engine. No dice. So we are left with no choice but the suck method. For those unfamiliar it requires one person to sit in the car cranking the motor while the other (lucky me) gets underneath the car, removes the massive 60U oil filter and uses his hand to seal a shop vac around where the oil filter goes until oil comes running out of the side of the pickup. Yes, that procedure was successful in quickly priming my engine. We replaced the filter started up the engine and kept the RPMs above 2k for an extended period of time to break in the cams. After that was done we shut the car down and drove a different vehicle over to celebrate at the local fox and the hound. Quite a few monster beers were consumed and all was good with the world once again. Unfortunately, the next morning I had to leave Texas as my other life responsibilities required my attention. Since then aliaz has been breaking in my car. As of the picture below the car has I believe 150 miles on the engine. 
Wow, its pretty much done. A very few minor intake leaks need to be addressed. College Boy needs to drop of the missing throttle cable cover and I need to install my gloss black powder coated megaZ radiator Air guide. But you know, I am really exited to be this close. And if you are still reading I’ll bet you are really exited to be almost done with this post as well. Thanks for reading everyone. Expect another update towards the end of the month with some rollbar, CarPC and Zemulator installation pictures and hopefully the results of some dynotesting/base tuning. 
Guess who’s back?
As always very special thanks to aliaz for all his help and direction throughout!
m a g l i t o
Build up COMPLETE break-in in progress NOW
sig photo by me effects by ZXRider(SoCal)click here for latest build update post
|
Engine reassembly p2 completion – IT RUNS! (MANY pics, LONG) - 
19:11:20 03/02/06
