| TruBirdman300ZX/Brandon had his Z stolen last summer here in Denver. It was recovered and of course stripped of a lot of stuff. The kid was caught which is a good thing. I got the fun task of puting it back together and getting it running for him again. Let the fun begin. He had the car towed over a few weeks ago. Because of the stolen items the car was not drivable. The issue that started the course of events was a fire on the passenger side. He pulled over and put it out and left the car over night as he wasn't sure what caused it. That night the car was stolen from the lot it was sitting in. 
From what I can tell it was probably just something that got sucked up off the road and started buring on the turbo/downpipe. He said his turbos had been blowing smoke and such before so he went ahead and got some replacements. I made a post on these a few weeks ago in the Techinical section. He thinks they were AMZ upgrades, but I don't know the specs as he got them used. But the wategate setup on them were garbage. They had hacked up the stock wastegates to make them "adjustable". They were way over preset to the point where they would not even open all the way and the wastegate arm alignment was terrible. He got some HKS wastegates and I had the wastegate arm removed and rewelded into a better position on both sides. Before
 After
 He also got some AMS manifolds to install as well 
He already had upgraded injectors, ecu, ics, clutch etc so he should be good. Also found a fixed a few other minor things I found. I replaced a few "caps" with real ones. I hate it when I see these homemade "screw in a hose" caps done by shops. Just put a real one on there dammit! 
Turbo coolant line reroute. Pipe was just cut, no barb. Got to bust out my Eastwood flaring tool I got a few years ago. Comes in handy if you do a lot of custom line work (pcv, fuel, coolant line reroutes). 
Found this when I took the harness off. Just put another used one on. 
They stole his bovs and oil cooler and lines so had to replace those. 
They also stole his intake, maf and just cut the wires, ugh. So I spliced on another connector and he bought a new intake and another maf. 
Good as new 
The oil pressure sending unit would not bolt back on as the turbo oil drain pipe was in the way. not sure if it was the manfolds making the turbo sit lower or what. So I had to rig up a few parts to get it out of the way 
Back together and ready to go in. I put on some stock turbo heatshields I had as well. 
They stole his whole exhaust, hangers and all. So I had to dig through my parts bins and bolts and piece it back together. He got some midpipes and he thinks he actually bought his own stolen exhaust back from a local guy on craigslist. 
Also repalced his drivers side door window as they broke it to get in. Went to install the replacement he got and found the rear guide was snapped off. Luckly his old one was still in teh tract in the door as it just fell down whe they broke the window. I just swapped the parts. 
All back together with the bumper back on. Put on some Z1 hard pipes and started it up. Only had to adjust the TPS (was way off). Other than that it runs great. Nice and smooth. 
He came and picked up this week. He has a lot to put back together and parts to buy still but at least the car is drivable again.
JackB nimble JackB quick JackB can suck my dick =P - james-lee 11/02/01
Arrogance is the #1 weapon against Supra Owners - MikeH 08/06/02
Dallas with a Z: I like the bulge dude 05/02/03
Bezbefootball: Does dick have anything for me? 10/21/03 |
Resurrection of a stolen and recovered Z. - 
