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The block has been completely deburred
using various carbide bits and sanding drums to remove
sharp corners at bearing seats, bottom flange, cylinder
roots, deck edges; literally any sharp corner was rounded
to reduce possibility of crack formation as well as
reducing risks of injury - those edges can be amazingly
sharp! Additionally, the entire inner crankcase surface
was ground smooth to help remove any leftover casting
sand in the metal and provide a smooth surface for the
oil to flow freely back down into the pan. The block
has been coated with a polymer material to seal up the
metal and provide a slick surface to aid in oil return. |
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The main cooling galley in these engines typically
has a lot of casting flash that definately isn't helping
the flow of cooant to the back of the block. All of
the flash has been removed and the galley has been
ported out.
The cylinders were bored out 0.040" over for
the 88mm Wiseco's and honed for a 0.0038" piston
to bore clearance. The block deck was measured for
flatness and was well within spec.
New freeze plugs were installed using Permatex aviation
style non-hardening sealant. This baby was bagged
up and set aside until final assembly. |
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For the crankshaft, I wanted to get into some performance
modifications for it - namely lightening the part
as well as knife-edging the counterweights to minimize
windage losses. In order to do this, significant milling
was necessary. But, you can't just put a crankshaft
into a mill and start working away - so I built a
milling fixture from two old cylinder block main cap
girdles and a Cushman steering box for a gear reducted
drive. A degree wheel was produced to aid in the milling
process and installed using an oil pump center gear
to mount the wheel to the crank.
Construction
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After everything was said and done in the mill,
what originally started out as a 40-pound part now
weighed 32# and ready for final balancing.
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The parts of choice: Pauter E-4340 Chrome-Moly,
single-rib design and a custom set of forged pistons
built to my specs by Wiseco. These Chrome-moly rods
are 100grams lighter a piece than OEM, the wrist pins
are 25 grams lighter than OEM as they feature a tapered-bore,
and the forged pistons weigh in at 333grams for a
140gram benefit.
Each of the pistons were balanced and the rods were
balanced at three points (big end, small end, total
mass). |
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Once all of the components of the rotating assembly
were balanced to each other and weighed, the bobweight
mass was calculated for a 47% balance factor. The
rotating assembly was balanced to within less than
a gram for each end. The crank was further semi-polished
during this process as well.
After the balancing was complete, all journals were
micropolished and measured for out of round, taper,
and to determine journal grade for bearing sizing..
Construction
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Here is a good picture that shows some attributes
of the custom pistons I designed for this build. The
crown has been modified to include the quench pads
that match the combustion chambers. Quench design
technology has been used successfully for tens of
years in the hotrod industry and I wanted to give
it a shot to see what it will do for us.
The design has a modified skirt profile that has
been more aggressively cut to reduce mass, the wrist
pin bulkheads have also been modified for the same
reason. 8.5:1 compression ratio. |
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Shortblock was assembled using Nissan OEM bearings
and all tolerances were brought a bit to the tighter
side with about 1.1 thousandths for each journal.
A healthy dose of assembly lube was applied to each
journal and main caps torqued to OEM spec and Pauter
rod endcap bolts were torqued to 50ft/lbs as per their
spec. An OEM oil pump was used
Construction
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These cylinder heads turned out to be works of art
that came with a time penalty of about 60 hours to complete.
All intake and exhaust ports were extensively ported
with special focus to the valve bowls. The spark plug
bosses were removed and the combustion chamber outer
profile at the valve shoulders were rounded to deshroud
the valves to improve airflow at low valve lift. The
combustion chambers were dropped 0.030" due to
the reground camshafts (JWT 500s) having a smaller base
circle. This was done to maintain proper lifter lash.
The combustion chambers were also polished to help reduce
carbon buildup and provide a slick finish to improve
airflow. |
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In the assembly, new intake valves were used, exhaust
valves were R&R'd by refacing them, JWT high-tension
valvesprings were used to handle valve control for
use with the higher-lift 500 cams, and NA plugs were
used.
In the picture you can see the difference between
the TT and NA plugs (TT on right, NA on left). The
shorter NA plug fits flushly to the combustion chamber
when the boss is removed. This will prevent the plug
from becoming an obstruction to the flow of air in/out
of the valves |
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The longblock has been assembled and all cosmetic
parts were painted with Dupont ChromaColor basecoat/clearcoat
paint system with matching color to the body. |
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The exhaust manifolds were produced using 321 stainless
steel mandrel bends and mild steel flanges. There
is about $500 in materials involved to produce them
and about 50 hours of my time in cutting all of the
pieces and fitting them together. I had them professionally
TIG welded and post-weld heat treated for a total
cost of around $1100.
Construction
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Turbos mounted and new coolant lines were made
for them. Heater core pipes were modified with placement
of the turbo cooling line nipples. All metal pipes
were bright nickel plated using a Caswell Nickel Plating
Kit.
Construction
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Fuel rails were modified by welding 6AN fittings at
the back of the rail - the OEM hose barbs were removed
and the rails were bright nickel plated. Nismo 740cc
injectors were installed. |
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I wanted to go with the Super-Split design that
is produced by SpecialtyZ, however, since the custom
manifolds place the turbochargers in a different location
from stock, they would have no way of producing the
downpipes with proper fitment. So, the downpipes were
fabricated and with a bit of an uprade done to them
as well. The turbine outlet pipe is 1 7/8" diameter
which changes to a 2.0" pipe just after the initial
70-degree downbend. The pipes are brought down into
3" collectors and 3-bolt flanges are attached.
The pipes and bottom flange are stainless steel and
the turbine flange is mild steel, the flange courtesy
of Greg Dupree of SpecialtyZ. These were later wrapped
with thermal tape prior to installation to keep under-hood
temps down..
Construction
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After seeing impressive results from other Z32's
I have tuned with a full 3" exhaust, I would
choose nothing less. The exhaust midpipes and resonator
section were built as a complete length without intermediary
flanges and flex-bellows were installed to relieve
weight loading of the pipes on the downpipes. Flanges
and piping are completely 304 stainless steel.
Construction
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I found it terribly difficult to locate mufflers
that had both 3" inlets as well as proper dimensions
to fit the Z32 - not to mention, finding a set that
had the "look" I wanted. The solution: BUILD
THEM. I used an old set of SS Naxos mufflers and using
a plasma cutter I gutted them completely to obtain
just the SS outer shell. 304SS 16-gauge sheet was
purchased to make the endplates and mounting flanges,
2.5" spiral core dampening tubes were used and
3" expanded flange pipe came together to make
these. A set of 304SS tips were purchased online and
everything is TIG welded. The rear flange is fastened
with SS bolts to allow disassembly/service/tunability
of the muffler.
Construction
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Turbochargers are delicate, precision devices that
require ample amounts of fresh, debris-free lubrication.
Freshly rebuilt engines are filled with a lot of small
metal particles left over from the machinng processes
involved and the last thing you want is for this debris
to go through the turbos' delicate bearing assemblies.
To combat this problem, custom teflon-lined SS braided
lines were custom built and AN fittings were used
in combination with an inline sintered-bronze filter
unit that is serviceable. Custom oil return lines
were fabricated and bright nickel plated prior to
assembly.
Construction
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The original plan was to use a large front-mount
intercooler, however, these setups have proven to
be problematic for the Z32 for a large list of reasons.
I ditched the FMIC and decided to build my own SMICs
that feature 2.5" inlets and outlets with cast
aluminum endtanks and using a core with dimensions
larger than any other intercooler offered for the
Z32. These fit with OEM mounting brackets and a complete
2.5" intercooler piping setup was fabricated
to compliment these pieces.
Construction
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The OEM intake piping set is produced from 50mm
(2.0") piping - trying to push 600+ horsepower
through this strangulated piping makes for overworked
turbochargers, so, a complete 2.5" intake piping
set was fabricated using mandrel bent aluminized pipe.
This also includes the turbo inlet piping which is
terribly convoluted and restrictive. Tial 50mm BOVs
were used and flanges attached, pipe ends have been
bead-rolled and the complete set has been powdercoated
in gloss black.
Construction
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For cooling, I chose to fabricate my own performance
radiator with a double-pass design, electric fan with
shroud, and endtanks that fit significantly better
into the vehicle than OEM or any other aftermarket
radiator. The double-pass design eliminates the lower
hose completely and an OEM lower hose was trimmed
to proper length. A fan shroud was constructed from
fiberglass to take full advantage of moving air through
the entire core. A 16" 3000CFM fan is mounted
to the shroud.
Construction
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of Pouring Molten Aluminum (2.5MB MPEG) |
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In trying to eliminate parasitic losses on the
crankshaft due to accessory drives, an electric water
pump was fabricated. An OEM housing was modified and
used as a casting template and a new housing was cast
from aluminum. The drive motor is a Stature Electric
12VDC brushed unit rated at 1/4 horsepower. A custom
impeller wheel was designed and CNC machined along
with the front bearing housing to hold a carbon-fiber
reinforced PTFE rotary shaft seal.
Construction
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To handle the control of the electric water pump,
a temperature-based speed controller was fabricated.
This controller employs a thermistor that is mounted
into the inlet of the radiator to monitor coolant
temperature. The adjustment knob on this unit is used
to set the desired operating temperature. The controller
automatically regulates the pumpspeed to maintain
the user-defined temperature.
Construction
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of Operation (7.1MB MPEG) |
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To compliment the massive SMICs with 2.5"
inlets/outlets and the full 2.5" piping setup,
the plenum was modified to use early-model Stanza
60mm throttlebody units. The OEM units are 50mm, so
this upgrade is adding nearly a half-inch to the total
diameter of the unit, times two! Significant modification
was necessary to pull this off, but it came together
wonderfully.
Construction
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In order to sufficiently handle the fuel demand
of the engine, a dual fuel pump setup was fabricated.
The OEM bulkhead was modified to fit twin Walbo-style
fuel pumps.
Construction
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Final Assembly: Many fasteners have been copy-chrome
plated using a Caswell plating kit that was purchased
online. The XStream dual intake was nickel plated/polished
and anything aluminum was buffed/polished for that
show look.
Braided Stainless Steel 6AN fuel lines were installed
using a Nismo adjustable fuel pressure regulator.
Construction
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Enthusiasts soon understand each other. --W. Irving.
Are you an enthusiast?
If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor.
Albert Einstein
AshsZ-II Ultimate Street Z COMPILATION V1 - 
