A few weeks ago I stumbled across a craigslist ad for what I considered to be a very cheap non-turbo. I spoke to the owner who was very uninformed of its condition so I just decided to take the trailer, some cash, and go look at it. The symptoms were that the engine wouldn't turn, etc. It seemed in pretty good shape so I decided to take on the project. This is the lowest mileage Z car I've touched to date. It has 47k on the odometer and was a 1-owner car. It was an older lady who recently passed away and the car was just setting. The man I brought it from was her brother who had power of attorney. Immediately I got to work 
Cleaned up the engine bay while it was out 
Found the usual. The rodent actually chewed off the entire knock sensor harness! 
Then I found the real meat and potatos 
The root cause was a botched injector job. When I pulled the fuel rail I found the #2 lower O-ring ripped. The hydrolock must have happened instantly because there was 0 collateral damage to anything else other than the rod I decided to use this engine and freshen everything up. I replaced the piston and rod and installed all new rings along with the entire slew of OEM parts (120k kit, injectors, etc) I also got rid of the AIV's, EGR, Plenum coolant lines, etc. 
The piston is non-OEM because I had a set of brand new STD NA pistons a customer had left behind. 


I missed a few steps because I got pretty hot and heavy into my labor (worked solid from 10AM-3AM yesterday!) 
I got the engine and everything else installed today and went out to work on seating the rings. So far the car drives really well (as well as a stock non-turbo does) 




Before anyone sais it I know the wheels are on wrong. I gave the older guy an education session on how and why the wheels are setup the way they are, he seemed confused The plan is to put it up for sale after I fix a few of the smaller issues and convert the AC over. I'd like to see it go to a good home being the good example of a Z it is. Cheers!

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