Ok so I bought a 04 single turbo built off another member here and its got problems who would've guessed!

jsut to start off here's info on the car

Seller stated that he had all work done at vivid racing. i am not too sure about this, but have contacted jeff and inquired. as well as todd w/ built z motors

built longblock from builtzmotors.com
arias extreme duty
eagle
rev up oil pump
pathfinder cooling mod
assembled by todd so i dont know or think that is the problem

turbonetics single turbo- straight T4
utec with map selector
380cc injectors
255 walboro
greddy profec-b

plenum spacer and mrev
jic single exit exhaust

JWT clutch and stock flywheel re-surfaced


the moment i got the car I sent it to z-car garage to have it tuned and check it out. whoel bunch of little things wrong but not worth mentioning


so the first problem is:

will not stop overheating!

rob flushed and filled the system and drove it around for a couple of days to make sure that everything is cool. when i picked it up I let it warm up and drove it around. did a first gear pull hit second peddled it out and bamm started over heating. went back to shop rob burped it. then he and I took it out for a 10 min drive everything was fine (consult II hooked up). So i take it home spend about an hour and a half in traffic. then start driving around the street for awhile getting used to the car. I did prolly ten 1-2-3 pulls and it was not overheating so I thought maybe I just had some bad luck. Of course on my way home I'm at a stop and decide to open it up again.... its a gradual left turn but i do it anyways 1-2 i keep second at about 40% throttle hold through the turn and Bamm MY HEATER BLOWS COLD AND STARTS OVER HEATING AGAIN!

so problem is how does this devil of a bubble keep presenting itself. is there some way I am sucking air into the system. or what I cant get it...?

SECOND...

after heavy throttle on decel it blows OIL SMOKE. it doesnt billow out but is a considerable amount. doesnt smoke when just driving around or on the throttle (or at least a noticable amount)

two things I have in mind...

OIL CATCH CAN.. it doesnt have one.

TURBO SEAL.

ANY help is greatly appreciated. PLEAE HELP ME OUT GUYS!!!!!!!

i posted in FI because its the only place where things get done. so dont move it!

 

I stopped reading an surmised your problems when I came across these two issues:

"work done at vivid racing"; and
"built longblock at builtzmotors.com"

/thread

 

possible leak in the radiator/hose?

 

Built Z motors =

mine went boom! valve clearances = teh suxed. it was so poor forged just basically gave me a new block to rebuild. without sharif's help i couldnt have afforded to do this all over again.

i feel your pain brother. good luck.

 

you can't just burp the coolant system on these cars. it takes several times. To do it properly cna take a couple hours if you really get the car up to temperature and then let it cool all the way down....and do it all over again! you will have to do this several times to get the air out.

download a service manual for the proper technique!!!

 

+1
I would start there. It sounds like it wasn't properly burped after the coolant flush.

 

BuiltZmotors + Vivid = Mega Fail!!

 

Keep an eye on your coolant overflow. If coolant is being pushed in there excessively then it's a headgasket issue. Leakdown test the engine. If it's high, there is your oil. If it's good, probably turbo or poor oil return setup

 

well hey I assume you got a good deal with the economy being shitty, time to build again. it always a gamble buying a fi car. gl it might something easy to fix hopefully

 

The turbo seal may be leaking in response to crankcase pressure. The VQ35 doesn't vent very efficiently under boost.

 

+1 on Vivid Racing being Mega Fail

Before I met the guys at Intense, I had Vivid install my sway bars. Within a week or two, I had this god awful clunking going on under the car. When I took it to my Infiniti dealership, they found out that my sways were not torqued to spec and were way loose. The dealership tightened them up, and I have had no problems since. If Vivid can't even install a set of sway bars properly on a G, I shudder to think what they do with a turbo kit.

 

Sorry to hear your problems, try properly flushing the coolant, hopefully that is it, but I think it is time for a leakdown/compression test

 

****...

all the aftermarket pping rubs everywhere. the BOV hits the hood and a t-bolt rubbed a hole in the hood. the control arms for some reason were takin off and put back very loosely. heat wrap doesnt even look like it was wet when installed just wrapped and clamped. didnt bother to trim the excess off either

I got it for pretty cheap and was ready to re-do all the bs but need to make sure the motor is solid. then I will go from there.

he also had the car checked out at toybox auto and they compression checked it (142,150,150,150,150,150) I talked to the guy there personally. but I am also weary of toybox because all he mentioned were the control arms. and now Rob found a whole buncha ****.

well I am pretty sure z-car flushed it right. and plus when I did my silver one's radiator I ran into the bubble problem too. it took me about 6 hours to work out the bubbles but in the end i got it to work. Last night when it overheated I had my handy dandy screwdriver and opened the valve and a tiny bit of air came out and then all coolant.

 

we have got to make a freakinlist of alll the shops and then have everyone either give it a plus or minus and have a percentage next to that. kind of like a grade to help ppl choose the better shops. Only ppl that have directly had a negative or positive experience should be able to grade them. So its accurate.

some computer savvy person needs to get on this!

 

Easier said than done. There's no way to stop non-customers and nuthuggers from posting and f*cking up the votes. There is no practical way to validate the votes and opinions in a single thread. Such a thread would just become a shop pissing contest and get locked.

Hind sight is always 20/20, but IMO you should have researched BZM and Vivid before you bought that car. There is plenty of info about them here if you search. Or you could have PM'ed any of us Arizona guys and we would have told you that Vivid is teh sux for the local VQ community.

 

you can't check it while its hot!!!! that's what takes so long to purge the system.

 

good call. most morons don't know that you are supposed to soak the wrap before wrapping it. I have seen several wraps that were done dry. I swear......some people just don't understand why there are instructions!!!!

Good luck with this car. It doesn't sound like you have any major issues.....just some small ones that you can fairly easily fix and then start to really enjoy your ride!

 

held out until toybox said that car was good, then I got excited... like a douche

i take it I wasnt the first one to think of the rating ideas. unless you had to have a code to be able to leave feedback... provided by the vendor

 

It sounds like this is an Arizona car. Did you buy from a member here in AZ? If so, post some pics and the screen name, or PM them if you want. We may know more about this car personally or we can search at www.az350z.com for you.

 

My prediction; boost + instant overheating = combustion gases in coolant jackets. Head lift of whatever you want to call it.

Wonder why they sold it...?? Ive done the same thing