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Valves came out today, excessive carbon buildup on the valve seats cause these valves to leak... wire brush, some harsh cleaners and some lapping took care of the carbon to reveal some pretty decent condition valve seats.
valve-seats before cleaning
valve seats after cleaning,valves getting ready for lapping
good ole fashion grinding compound with a suction cup on a stick, go ahead and hate, I dont care
Valve looking good, almost done lapping, a few small pits left to remove but im tired and have work in a few hours so more to come this week with the second head arriving tomorrow.
nissan did a good job with the valve area with smoothing and flowing coming from the factory, but there are still improvements to be made, grinding and smoothing out the high spots
heres the before the final grinding, i posted them backward on accident.. oops. grinding areas will be left rough since apparently air flows easier this way. the science behind it is that air wont tumble on a slick surface creating swirls and disrupting the rest of the airflow. Ive never used this method, ive always polished but ill give this method a try on this engine.
Similar build for me is happening shortly after I get home from overseas. In the air on cams, plenum is in the air Kinetics or modded OEM , PPE headers I already have and a few other tricks.
Looks like we both hit the same area's on porting those heads. I did mine about a month ago, and like you said, there were a few spots that needed smoothing out.
I've got to get to my fathers shop, and finish facing my valves. I had a problem with the old Black/Decker valve machine as the valve stems were too small to tighten in the chuck.
I was able to make a sleeve for the valves using a piece of copper tubing. Worked great, just ran out of time that day.
However, I'm NOT looking forward to reassembling the heads as I don't have a good spring compressor, just one that I made using an old socket.
Man does my triceps get sore pushing those springs down with that socket rig.
Similar build for me is happening shortly after I get home from overseas. In the air on cams, plenum is in the air Kinetics or modded OEM , PPE headers I already have and a few other tricks.
hell yeah, plenum setup is still in the air for me, ill probably get something i can purchase, and then fabricate something else and get it re-tuned afterward.
M-train: I invested in the jwt spring compressor kit for these heads, although its not in yet it makes life super easy apparently. id look into that if i were you, or if youd rather save the money get the tricept workout lol, or if you hit me up ill send you mine to borrow so you can reassemble your heads
Alright, just an update on the build, its been awhile since I've been here and a few things have changed since then. Work has been super busy for me so I havent had time to post up here... So, as the heads sit right now everything is complete, viton valve stem seals, polished and cleaned ready to be mounted. The Tomei 272/11.0 Exhaust cams came in.. still waiting for the intakes to arrive... Back at home in NC, apparently 3rd gear took a **** in the Z while my brother was driving it So, I took the liberty and ordered a used cd009 tranny out of an 07 G35 base (apparently the DE was still being put in the base models) Along with a Z1 lightweight flywheel and clutch kit. The cost of the tranny and clutch I was not accounting for so that took out of the bottom end build funds. So, the new plan is i purchased some ARP Con-rod Bolts that I will be installing on the stock bottom end while the tranny is out and everything else is pretty much out of the way along with a Rev-up oil pump to help the higher rev-limit I will be running on the stock bottom end, I have a feeling that Im going to eventually find the RPM limit of a stock bottom end with ARP rod bolts and be pissed off when it goes but oh well. Going to run 7500 rev-limit and adjust depending on where power is made. BUT the rev-up oil pump, tranny, clutch and ARP Rod bolt will be started on the 22nd of this month, and after that is complete I will drive the car to the port to get it shipped over here to Italy (takes about a month ) When it arrives here in Italy is when I will just swap on the built heads and headers along with a (sigh, anyone want to find me an uprev tuner in italy??) basic e-tune from uprev just to get her running.. logging with cypher and hopefully getting a decent tune through that untill I can find an Uprev tuner to have a proper tune. So timeframe as it stands I am expecting the built heads to be bolted up sometime in late-febuary.. cant wait. Meanwhile back at mama's I haven't decided what to do with the extra long block I have lying around for when this NA motor decides to die... I'm thinking maybe an FI build on a re-freshed, otherwise stock motor? Decisions, decisions.
Last edited by thekyledeg; 12-13-2014 at 05:29 AM.
The cost of the tranny and clutch I was not accounting for so that took out of the bottom end build funds.
Originally Posted by thekyledeg
I will be running on the stock bottom end, I have a feeling that Im going to eventually find the RPM limit of a stock bottom end with ARP rod bolts and be pissed off when it goes but oh well.
I hope you dont find that failure point? Would it kill your build schedule if you save up a little more cash and built the bottom end? Can your brother chip in a little bit (not the whole thing) of the cost of the tranny/clutch/flywheel? After all, it was on his watch when the tranny crapped out.
It'd be a shame to do all this work/spend all this money only to have it go up in smoke?
I hope you dont find that failure point? Would it kill your build schedule if you save up a little more cash and built the bottom end? Can your brother chip in a little bit (not the whole thing) of the cost of the tranny/clutch/flywheel? After all, it was on his watch when the tranny crapped out.
lol, your really beating my *** about the whole money not a problem thing,. I didn't account for a blown tranny so itll set the build back a little.
It'd be a shame to do all this work/spend all this money only to have it go up in smoke?
Great progress - love the pictures and thread
yeah i hope i dont find it, all the guys run 7500 regularly on the maxima 3.5 botom ends and they say its holding up fine so ill probably stick right there and be good, but the bottom end will get built in due time. That'd be nice if he paid but i cant really blame him because the early trannies are **** anyways! and more pics to come as i fly home on monday to do the rest.
Last edited by thekyledeg; 01-03-2015 at 08:28 AM.
Little update, got suuuper bored, and its hard to find a feeler guage here.. so... yes... I measured the lifter clearance with sheets of paper...no I am NOT going to use this measurement method to legitimately check clearance, just to check the consistency of the clearances. LOL, Im sure the look on the face of people reading this is priceless right now.But they were consistently between 2-4 sheets of a gap and paper is about .1mm thick, the spec being .26-.34 cold... they are probably close... but rest assured the feeler gauge is in the mail to my post for accurate measurement, Clappy tappets are happy tappets! I just got super bored here's some Tomei **** though>
wow, we dont have to host images anymore my350z does it for us thank the lord! Ill be on my way home for the first time in 9 Months on monday so ill start the work on the z! Oh by the way if yall care, a gentleman by the name of Daniel M on here.. (yes thats his my350z name) is getting me hooked up with an UpRev tuner here in Italy i owe him one big-time so there should be a Dyno at the end of this thread!
Last edited by thekyledeg; 12-20-2014 at 11:24 AM.
alright i am back in Italy now and i wont be seeing my car for another 45 days as its getting shipped to me.Good news and bad news here. Went home and solved a whole host of problems on it (found them after seeing it for the first time) Headers were a PITA even with the valve covers and upper intake removed. But they are on.. only other problem was they rubbed the steering column a small amount then turning to the right, so they got a little trimming from my die grinder and everything is well now. other problems I found were.. A massive oil leak from what we thought was just the valve cover gaskets ended up being from the front timing cover.. where it was missing 10 bolts.. yes 10 bolts... i guess thats what happens when you buy a car from a dude that blew up a turbo motor, swapped a stock one in and was just trying to get out of a loan??#fail. The rest of the process was pretty painless.. the LTW flywheel,new clutch, and tranny took about four hours to install and made putting the headers in with the tranny off very easy. She also got a new themostat and headlights while she was apart. BAD NEWS: the flywheel pulley (unorthodox racing LTW) seems to be stuck on there (yes it was on when I got the car, I dont trust ltw pullies so i tend to keep stock harmonic balancers especially with high rpm) The blue point impact (700 lbs/ft breakaway torque) broke a couple sockets trying to spin that **** loose. SO, i didnt really have the time to put the wheels back on and put it in 6th with the e brake up and a take five foot pole to it.. so needless to say the rod bolts and rev-u oil pump didnt get done.. oh well.. more for me to do when the car gets here if i can get the crank pulley off.
sorry for the crappy pics, I was flyin through this as I didnt have time to get much done. All this work was accomplished in about four days of work for the record. (with the help of my best friends of course, having extra hands always helps)
here she is, front end off (those a/c quick disconnect lines suck! i want to get some bolted lines or find a solution for this cause im pretty sure i ruined the one line trying to release the QD with those stupid tools that are supposed to work) the oil in this pig was disgusting.. this car has evidence it has been sitting for a minute too.
just showing how tight some of the header bolts are.. such a pita.. by far the LONGEST part of anything on here. Transmission was removed, flywheel and clutch back on, and the tranny was back in FASTER than it took to get the headers done. Look at all that gunk from the valve cover and front cover timing leak.
parts pile, new headlights were also put in it was a might as wel thing, the guy that owned it before me was lowered so he took out the fender liners (PORQUEEEE?!) at least fender liners for this car are only 80 bucks a piece and ill be running a splitter in the future so i guess its not too bad. The OEM headlight went out because the ballast was filled with water that was getting up from the wheels straight into the headlight housing making it a fishtank. PS if you guys are buying new Headlights, and already have an oem xenon HID setup, go ahead and buy the Halogen OEM housings ( about 200, good quality too) and just swap your harness form the hid headlights, cut a hole where the ballast wires run through and walla you have OEM quality headlights, OEM HID setup/wiring and your saving 400
She got new shoes too, Falken/Ohtsu FP7000, great tires and great price for them too. 245/40/18 rears and 225/40/18 fronts. Next set of tires is going to be 245/40 or 255/40 in the front and 265 or 275/40 in the back, i wasnt a fan of how stretch and low profile these had with the track rays.
grinding the ports on the insides to match the gaskets (looks like it had already been done but theres always some imperfections to fix)
Old transmission on the floor and out the car, gave it to a friend for his s13 drift car build (and yes, i gave it to him for free, hate on me, im a nice guy)
z1 Clutch disc, LOVE the feel of this sprung 6-puck, clutch started getting a little wierd after the four hour drive.. felt like at the end of the drive the clutch became really light and the engagement point moved close to the floor, it couldve been because its new and breaking in still or (my guess, and no it wasnt air, it was freshly bled with new fluid right after i put it in) is the master/slave/clutch line need to be replaced (after 160k and judging by the mechanical or lack of mechanical skills from the guy i bought it from i doubt he ever did) I went ahead and bought a master and slave cylinder rebuild kit (about 50 bucks from concept performance for both) and a SS Clutch line that should solve the problem)
old clutch disc looked like a rainbow
Heat wrapping the fuel lines and electrical lines here, they came awful close to the exhaust in some spots.
Ridiculous fitment of the headers by the steering column... headers eventually had to have a very small amount shaved off for the column to clear. Clutch line also got the same treatment with the heat wrap. Surprisingly for this being a lowered car the underside is in good shape, not to much **** got drug on the ground.
Last edited by thekyledeg; 01-16-2015 at 03:40 AM.
Measuring valve lash on the exhaust cams. FSM states .26-.36mm on the exhaust side for cold lash. I prefer a little on the loose side so they have some room to tighten up as the valve faces wear a tiny bit, so if anything is out of spec its OK to be a tad loose, A TINY BIT. As it wears it will tighten and not loosen.
No, im not actually measuring in this pic. Here's what she looked like before her voyage down to Charleston, SC.
Ill just be swapping around intake and exhaust buckets, mixing and matching until I get as many buckets within spec that I can, then I will order new ones if I need them (Hopefully not)
One tight, one loose.
Last edited by thekyledeg; 01-16-2015 at 03:59 AM.
Instead of do all that from post #1 to post #32, just buy a nice HR Z.....
haha, built not bought sir. It feels much better when you build something that can beat something anyone can buy. You should try it sometime, it feels good...
Originally Posted by waldo36
Looking good sir.
Wish I had the time, garage space, skills, expertise, tools, spare engine, money, and knowledge to do this.
Thanks man, its relatively cheap to get started on the heads you can get a complete pair off of ebay for around 250 bucks. You can learn a lot while you work on the spares and if you mess them up, no harm no foul cause they were extra. Just something to think about.
Last edited by thekyledeg; 01-17-2015 at 01:16 PM.
I plan to start tearing down my DE motor this week. I have a bad spare in the car I purchased/got screwed on Craigslist. Smokes and has a bad ticking noise. Buyers beware on Craigslist! If you need any parts let me know since I have 2 cores. I plan to have the heads done by my local guy.
built not bought sir. It feels much better when you build something
well said...I'm not sure how, if at all, but the sense of accomplishment knowing you fought through just about everything to the light at the end of the tunnel...
Awesome stuff.
The only thing I noticed was the plastic zip ties holding the heat wrap next to the headers, wouldn't it be better to use something that won't potentially melt ?
Awesome stuff.
The only thing I noticed was the plastic zip ties holding the heat wrap next to the headers, wouldn't it be better to use something that won't potentially melt ?
eh, i dunno.. i figure theyll hold unless they come in contact or theyll just become brittle over time. Bad news though guys... so the shipping company decided to **** up my car pretty bad on its voyage over here.. the front bumper was ripped off spider-webbing the paint in the process, one of the wheels (brand new paint mind you) was curb rashed to hell on more that 1/4 of the lip (the other four have at least two inches of paint missing down to bare metal) NOT EVEN THE WORST ****ING PART.. whatever dumbasses were unloading and loading it onto the trucks managed to smash it so hard that it cracked the headers
so, im a little angry, and of course... i will be compensated.. less than adequate of course.. i find out tomorrow what they consider is fair. Anyway.. I started on a few small things this evening.. no pics.. self explanatory stuff. cursing at people.. putting on wheel spacers, pop chargers.. ill be doing a stainless steel clutch line install with master cylinder clutch and slave rebuild tomorrow along with a stainless steel brake line install and flush tomorow after i get it inspeted and all the claims sorted out. oh and i got a pair of DC sports SS headers of amazon for 400 bucks shipped, what a steal!! also replacing a lower control arm ball joint(not the one from the steering knuckle the bigger one that the wrist pivots on) (not farmilar with the z's suspension layout just yet) And Poly Rear diff bushings in the mean time while im waiting for my uprev tune in the mail.....
eh, i dunno.. i figure theyll hold unless they come in contact or theyll just become brittle over time.
they'll melt first time out but before you take them off, go to the hardware store and buy a spool of rebar tie-wire (in the concrete section) and use the tie-wire...works awesome!! Then clip off your zip ties...
if it makes you feel better - on my turbo build I popped a oil line (or something) and there is a trail of oil through my neighborhood that leads right to my garage...the hose pissed oil on every component on my passenger side...I'm so frustrated Im not even going to look at it for a week...
they'll melt first time out but before you take them off, go to the hardware store and buy a spool of rebar tie-wire (in the concrete section) and use the tie-wire...works awesome!! Then clip off your zip ties...
if it makes you feel better - on my turbo build I popped a oil line (or something) and there is a trail of oil through my neighborhood that leads right to my garage...the hose pissed oil on every component on my passenger side...I'm so frustrated Im not even going to look at it for a week...
hey, zipties amaze me every day, but ill get something else when these pop... they went a whole four hour road trip and they've got an oil change and theyre good i feel like they wouldve melted by now.
10-19-2014, 01:16 PM
Back at home in NC, apparently 3rd gear took a **** in the Z while my brother was driving it
So, I took the liberty and ordered a used cd009 tranny out of an 07 G35 base (apparently the DE was still being put in the base models
) Along with a Z1 lightweight flywheel and clutch kit. The cost of the tranny and clutch I was not accounting for so that took out of the bottom end build funds. So, the new plan is i purchased some ARP Con-rod Bolts that I will be installing on the stock bottom end while the tranny is out and everything else is pretty much out of the way along with a Rev-up oil pump to help the higher rev-limit I will be running on the stock bottom end, I have a feeling that Im going to eventually find the RPM limit of a stock bottom end with ARP rod bolts and be pissed off when it goes but oh well. Going to run 7500 rev-limit and adjust depending on where power is made. BUT the rev-up oil pump, tranny, clutch and ARP Rod bolt will be started on the 22nd of this month, and after that is complete I will drive the car to the port to get it shipped over here to Italy (takes about a month 
) When it arrives here in Italy is when I will just swap on the built heads and headers along with a (sigh, anyone want to find me an uprev tuner in italy??) basic e-tune from uprev just to get her running.. logging with cypher and hopefully getting a decent tune through that untill I can find an Uprev tuner to have a proper tune. So timeframe as it stands I am expecting the built heads to be bolted up sometime in late-febuary.. cant wait. Meanwhile back at mama's I haven't decided what to do with the extra long block I have lying around for when this NA motor decides to die... I'm thinking maybe an FI build on a re-freshed, otherwise stock motor? Decisions, decisions.
here's some Tomei **** though> 
(with the help of my best friends of course, having extra hands always helps)
