| With regards to rebuilds, we have all read it before...”it took a lot longer than I thought it would”. I was no exception! I finished Oct 10/2008. I started Dec 28/2006. = 22 months flat. I’d like to thank twinturbo.net and all you guys & gals for the technical information that made my rebuild possible! After working on my car for many months, last Oct. I finally turned the key and to my surprise she fired up! I guess I shouldn't have been that surprised, but I figured there would be something I forgot or did wrong. However I was very careful when rebuilding…hell it took me 22 months! I was only able to put 200 miles on her before it snowed, but so far so good… no knocks, no stalls, just runs like it should. If you are thinking of rebuilding the engine (as well as doing the deletes, making the bay and engine look pretty) and you have a full-time job and kids (like me): be prepared for a long project. Although this was my first rebuild I was no stranger to tinkering with cars. I had
worked on other cars before this, but never a rebuild. So given my experience and the fact that I could only work on it on the weekends I figured it would take me approximately 6 months – was I ever wrong. Here are some time consuming items that I didn’t account for:
1) Simply put: the 300zx is a bitch to work on. It is simply ridiculous. I read this on the forum, but you don’t fully understand the situation until you actually work on the car. There is zero to little elbow room in the engine bay and you will find yourself fighting with the car since some items are nearly impossible to reach…even with specialized tools. You will need a lot of patience to work on this car. My Mitsubishi Eclipse, which I previously thought was a tight fit, is not even close. 2) Prep and Cleaning – sanding, stripping, priming and painting the heat shields, valve covers, timing belt covers, battery tray and portions of the engine bay is VERY time consuming. Cleaning many of the parts (ex: intake plenum) / brackets that came off the car is also very time consuming. 3) Doing it by the book – I took no shortcuts. I pressure tested the fuel line / injectors, I did the leak down tests, I plasti-gauged the bearings, checked for clearances, torqued everything to spec with a torque wrench. 4) Labeling – I labeled all hoses and wiring connections so that I knew how to put them back together. I placed all bolts and small parts into labeled zip-lock bags. I took pictures at various stages. I also hand drew a few diagrams since I find the vacuum hose diagram that comes with the service manual unreadable. All of this takes time. Although this does take a long time, when you are just working on the car on weekends and haven’t done a 300zx engine rebuild before it will be critical. Believe me after 3 months you will not remember exactly how the parts go back together and sometimes the service manual is inadequate. Overall I am happy with the way that things turned out and rebuilding this engine was something I wanted to do. Not sure I would do it again, but if I did the 2nd time around should take half the time (11 months!). Anyway here are some pics of the rebuild. Tear down stage: 
Rebuild Stage:
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Another engine rebuild ends... - 
