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Heh, I need to get a second engine stand so I can get my other block ready... The Zombie is looking nice, can't wait to see progress on the engines.

Ask and ye shall receive. This one's from yesterday. Cleaned, honed, prepped, and painted.


Put the main bearings and crank in today, I have the wrong ring set, so I've gotta wait to get a new set before I can put the pistons back in, then I need to start cleaning up the head.

*Edit* Yes, I know there's a fram filter on it. It's an old Fram Racing HP1 filter I had sitting around. used it for painting purposes, and it has now been replaced with a Mobil 1 filter.
*End Edit*

This post has been edited by TexasDemonZ on Mar 14 2011, 07:16 PM

did you order your rings from nissan directly or some vutozone

No, it was a set I had laying around in the garage.
Almost finished cleaning up the head, gotta wait an extra week for the rings.

I do normally buy my engine parts from a main stream auto parts store, BUT i do not buy any essential engine parts from Auto Zone, unless they're name brand parts, such as Sealed Power or Felpro.

This post has been edited by TexasDemonZ on Mar 19 2011, 09:11 PM

Head is finished as of tonight. (minus the valve adjustments I need to make)
Block, head, front cover, and Turbo valve cover are painted.

I'll post pictures tomorrow when there's decent light again.
Still need to get the piston rings before I can close it up. found them, but have to wait till friday before they can be ordered.

Damn, you work quickly. As opposed to myself, where I plod around for several weeks to months putting things together until something is needed then begin waiting on parts to arrive...

13 hours straight in a storage unit is my record for disassembly, cleaning, painting, and reassembly.

I'm actually behind my schedule already thanks to some missing parts....


Also... There was a very interesting turn of events lastnight.
About two years ago, I had a ZZZap project which, thanks to money and girl problems, I had to give to a friend of mine to pay off a debt.

Well, last night that buddy posted it up for sale. After 2 years of waiting, it looks like the 'ol ZZZap has found it's way home.
In the 2 years he had it, he didnt work on it, so it's still basically a rolling chassis, but tomorrow, I'll hopefully be picking it back up as a project for one of my roommates.

(it's the yellow one in my signature)

Yeah, I remember that one! Pretty sweet that its coming back full circle.

Geez how are you going to get rid of the rust totally?, that'll take heaps man-hours just to buff it out

Even that is a project in itself mind u

Finished the head, minus the valve adjustments.
Piston rings are in the mail, just waiting on those before I can close up the motor.


Test fitted everything, including a fragged place holder turbo. (Holset HX40 I have laying around for educational purposes)


For the zombie, now I play the waiting game on getting a few essential parts and the fuel system.

Handed off money to re-acquire the ZZZap this morning, which will be trailered to my garage on monday. Going to be getting my other roommate Ben into Z's so it'll be his project with my assistance.
Also was "commissioned" to build an L20 motor for a 60's 510 Wagon, but not 100% sure if that's happening yet, so we'll see.

Gonna be helping out at a benefit event at Harris Hill Road raceway tomorrow, and will hopefully have pictures of that too. (not in either of my cars unfortunately though)

If you're asking about rust on the zombie, right now, I'm not that concerned about it. It's got minimal rust for a 280Z. granted there are one or two spots i need to address in the next 5 years, but nothing that is compromising the structural rigidity at the moment.

This post has been edited by TexasDemonZ on Mar 26 2011, 05:51 PM

Let me guess it's gonna be the 3.1 right???

no intention of doing the 3.1 stroker at this time. I dont have the budget for it, and if I really wanted/needed more displacement, I'd just use a SBC. Blasphemy, I know.

I think the SBC would actually be the most logical thing to do...
...And you said to keep the cost down Then what are you waiting for?

The L type is a b1tch to work with anyway

SBC is always the logical thing to do when concerning power to dollar ratios. Desirability is another thing.

How is the L series a b*tch to work on? It may be a pain finding good parts nowadays but its stupid simple otherwise...

3.1's are cool, but its a lot of modification and added risk for little benefit.

This post has been edited by Oddmanout84 on Mar 27 2011, 04:38 PM

I'm with Oddmanout84 on this one. Having worked on at least 3 different L motors there's really not much to them. And while 'amazing' aftermarket parts might not exist like they do for some other motors, their parts (for the most part) are relatively inexpensive and the power numbers are proven.

Could you just throw a SBC in and call it a day? Sure. But...why?

Power and cheap parts, really. That's about all the reason some people need.

L series motors are actually extremely simple to work on, straight 6, SOHC, nothing really difficult about it.

As for an SBC, meh... dont need one, dont plan on one. I can get just under 300hp, reliably with an L28et and have more than enough power to keep up with, and out run/maneuver pretty much anything on a technical track. The only reason I would do an SBC is if I was planning on going way too fast in a straight line. The S30 is not aerodynamic enough to warrant doing that and it's not my kinda thing.

For now, that's all I'm gonna say about it. Spent 12 hours at the track (twisty, not drag) and I'm fragged. I'll post pictures probably tomorrow after I'm done recovering.

What paint did you use on the cylinder head? High temp 500*F? I was wondering how well that would hold...

[COLOR=red]anything has potential if you 'run with it'

zombie i liek dat[COLOR=red]

What is this I don't even

Ok, so Harris Hill Pictures first:






I didnt get to take many pictures, because I was trying to help run the benefit event we had running all day.
Yes that helmet is signed by Mr.K, belongs to my good friend/our club's President Rob.
Also, yes that is Mark Rolston's RB26 240Z. Unfortunately after 10 laps on the track it started smoking and pissing oil. He didnt blow the motor, the car is ok. A few of us looked the car over with Mark trying to find the culprit. But there was so much heat wrap on all the lines we couldnt find it at first. I took a look under the car and discovered the oil feed line to the rear turbo was resting against the wastegate and pretty much got fried. Exiting times, and luckily an easy fix.

Next, finally got my old ZZZap project back, which I have given to my roommate Ben, wheeled it into the garage last week and started making some progress:










The car is virtually rust free. Granted, no Z is ACTUALLY rust free, but this one is really close. There are a total of 4 places with actual rust holes, the rest was easy peasy surface rust.
We finished stripping out the sound deadening (which i had started 2 years prior, before I lost the car) and then decided on prepping the engine bay next. Addressed all the surface rust with a 3 step process; heavy duty wire brush, rust converter, and then primer with a rust inhibitor in it.
As for painting the engine bay, we used my favorite. Truckbed liner. (for those of you who remember, my Zombie is actually painted entirely with this same truckbed liner.) This means a durable, and easily repaintable engine bay coat.
This is important because we ARE doing an engine swap on this car.
Currently Ben is trying to decide between a 5.3 V8 and a stock JDM 2JZTTE.

Well, that's all for my update.

I have a new girlfriend, and I'm job hunting, so progress has come to more or less a standstill, but thought I'd update with a pic anyway.



Still need to do the headlight relocation, build a grill and a few other little things.

You need to tell your girlfriend that her spot on the list of priorities is below the 40 year old car.

Did a few little things.
Completely removed the fusable links, and replaced them with a maxi fuse setup.


Also, Finally found a suitable light to use for my headlight relocation, and then had a brilliant idea about hollowing out the stock turn signals in order to make mounting much much easier and fluid.



Lol, please ignore random wires.


[ Post merged on Jul 18 2011, 08:47 PM ]
Some night pictures for good measure:





These lights have an RGB LED in them, so random red lights for good measure:

1gzfe !!

or some v12 of sorts!, BREAK THE MOLD AND BE ORIGINAL!

unless he's already decided and gone ahead with it by now ...