When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
*VQ35HR motor w/ VQ37VHR crank (Eagle rods, Wiseco pistons IIRC)
-It measures out to 3.7L
*ARP goods all over (OEM head gasket)
*GTM Stage 2 TT Kit (was originally putting down 505/496 before the engine floated a valve)
-Coated the hell out of the kit with appropriate heat dispersing/containing coatings
-GTM TT 3" TD exhaust
*Turbosmart Upgraded Actuators - 12# base boost off 2 spring combination
*GTM Stage 2 turbo cams (272)
*BC Full Valvetrain
*Southbend 590TQ VQ35HR clutch
*Z1 CSC Elimination Kit
*ID 1000cc injectors
*Custom return fuel system
*485 fuel pump single
*Z1 Oil Cooler and lines
*Upgraded radiator
*RevUp from GTM TT kit install will suffice for idle and code clearing
*Dynosty Haltech Elite 2500 kit and goods for EMS
*Ricer hood for cooling, magnetic blue oil pan nut, front bumper mod to feed air to oil cooler, and rims + blue lugs just cause
*Innovative Motorsports SCG-1 52mm black gauge
*91 octane
Car has been down for over 2 years through 2 disaster shops and finally being built by a buddy of mine in CO. Motor fired up for the first time in Christmas Eve and hoping to get the car broken in, done and tuned in the next month or so... Wish us luck, it's certainly been a what feels like eternal build and problem after problem.
The start....
Before the rebuild when I used to live in Denver....
Pistons coated
GTM Intercooler coated to dissipate heat
Heads coated
More heads...
Turbo's coated hot side/cold side appropriately
Coatings continued...
ARP...
Crank time!
Motor was good for something...
Various assembly and test fitting
Update 9/12/14 - Long block is finally re-assembled. Only took 2 years to get to this point after being in pieces sitting through 2 disaster shops for that period of time and that scare with the valve/piston contact.
10/29/14 - Slight Updates
The manifold is now on 'for lyfe' thanks to some different bolts:
Turbo's are back off for upgrades to Turbosmart IWG-75 actuators since GTM never came thru with the external waste gate kit I ordered from them like 7 months ago now due to the whole bankruptcy thing and what not (7# outer an 5# inner so 12# springs total):
Slight problem if you order the GT28RS actuator kit - the rods in the actuators are too short, and GTM had to make custom rods to to rotate the gate and clear the motor mounts. So builder is going to have to make some custom ones as the thread pitch is different in the GTM actuators vs. the Turbosmart. I tried ordering longer rods from Turbosmart but they said they didnt offer that, doh! Otherwise though, their customer service is awesome and they shipped same day as the order!
So other than that hiccup, once that's fixed, I believe we got in some missing turbo coolant lines so more continuation of assembly once the actuators are addressed properly.
The actuators are all done and the engine at this point is done as far as custom stuff that was on the list now that the actuators have been modified and are working good with pressure tests.
Just a matter now of reassembly and some last bits of custom fuel return system stuff to finish. My builder may swap to black couplers as the blue does look off now that everything is temp coated black but that's if couplers don't cause delays. Home stretch is in the midst!
Slight Update - 11/26/14
Test fitting of the piping etc. Lots of small odds and ins and return fuel system working ongoing. Glad to see it coming back together looking more like a Z lol.
12/7/14 - Slight updates
Fuel system is run, just a slight bend that needs to be finished up with some ends near the rear tank. 385 pump in the tank.
In NM, about half of the stations have 90 octane while the other half have 91 octane. Going to look to have the car tuned probably on 90 octane to just cover the bases and run 91 whenever possible for some padding. So the definite power limiter will be the sucky NM octane, but ah well - should still be a bruiser.
While it would be great to have a race gas tune and all that (stage 5 clutch is a limitation either way @ 590TQ capacity) it's a bit impractical as the nearest E85 or race gas station is about 30 miles away. I fully intend to just enjoy the car with what gas is immediately available. Pretty much all other street cars around are in the same boat anyway and back when it was at 505hp/496tq on stock motor it whooped everything that tried to race it - those were pretty funny times.
If it's too hard to find 90 octane in Denver/surroundings, which I don't recall seeing at all when living there for 12 years (just seems to be a NM thing even though we are probably a little lower in altitude than Denver by a couple hundred feet), then 91 octane tune it is and I'll just need to be mindful on fuel up stops.
The oil cooler was a bit of a beast in size, so it's proving to be a little challenging to fit along with the GTM intercooler. Don't worry, planning zip ties were replaced with actual custom brackets.
Ended up losing the fog light on the passenger side to help feed the oil cooler more air, ricer mod +2 (the other was a magnetic ricey blue oil drain plug). Air filter will now need to be accessed via wheel well cover, but ah well - 1st world problems.
Last parts to go on aside from just final assembly and tuning:
*Replacing the brakes all around
*Innovative Motorsports SCG-1 52mm black gauge; perfect for a sleeper setup not requiring a pillar pod as its mounted on the OEM center console cluster (has both AFR & boost in 1) - http://www.innovatemotorsports.com/products/scg1.php
*An EMS solution for better engine protection and tuning features possibly if I can find one (eyeing Dynosty Haltech PP w/ VQ35HR Kit) otherwise UpRev it is...
Still a little nervous to get the motor running and broken in and making sure that whole nightmare that it was is a solid motor and won't **** the bed immediately or shortly after ugh -_-. This type of waiting part is where it gets tough with a motor build, waiting to see if all the money spent/lost through 2 disaster shops turns into a reliable and brutal Z...
Car is SUPER close to starting to make some noise:
For now we're going to see how far we can get with the UpRev before going all-in with the Halttech. Will keep you guys updated there once tuning starts. For now my car will continue it's stare down with a "one bad *****" Rousch thats been getting some teeny tiny pully love for daaaaaaasss boosts haha:
1400whp twin GT35R's was the latest power put down by that black devil....
Car fired up for the first time! Rev's and idles okay, but that's as far as were going to get for now. I'm working on getting a hold of Dynosty to get the VQ35HR haltech ordered up but in the interim I really need to get the UpRev flash going.
But we've hit some snags there as simple as where can we get the Tuner/Cipher software to tune it???
My builder can only pull the tune down or upload a tune but not change stuff.
But at least after all this time, it did fire up for the first time on Chirstmas Eve!
While we wait for the Haltech setup from Dynosty, my builder worked on some of the misc items:
Oil cooler rotated to allow the lines to be run as the other way they werent working out.
Some of the lines from under the car.
Little bit of a gap near the headlight which allows the oil cooler line to be slightly seen, no biggie. Could rub the inner bumper down a little but nah!
I'm trying to find a rally antilag setting (with an external switch non clutch) to work as a rolling anti lag on haltech. I will let you know if I figure on out. If you have the new haltech box it might come with that built in.
Yea my builder is going to be tuning as well. He's tuned the Platinum Pro before but will be a little learning with the newer ECU and there will be time for that.
Not really any big updates, just continued odds and in's getting addressed. Brakes done and ricey lugs on
We're going for full control of the cams wired in wise with the elite ECU as can't get those adjust with UpRev (I don't care to shell out another $700 for that considering the license is already on the car ugh) and the GTM cams are pretty aggressive. So looking forward to seeing that capability of the Haltech ECU.
01-02-2015, 11:10 PM
Project Hitomi
