OldManZ350

iTrader: (23)

My Mains are:
#1 .0023"
#2 .0023"
#3 .0026"
#4 .0027"

15/50 Mobil 1 Full Syn

New Nissan UpRev Pump with Boundary Gears

bealljk

iTrader: (13)

I appreciate it Tim - I went with standard size king bearings and I'll be more diligent to measure my rod & main clearances. May bump up to a 5w/10w - 50wt oil too.

Its been a fun few days - finally got some time in the garage ...

Nothing crazy but everything 100% disassembled and I've been cleaning parts/hardware and organizing everything. I think I'm gonna buy a larger ultrasonic cleaner ... found one on FB market place that 'I think' will fit a head in it! ... it's about 2hours away from a jewelry store that bought it and it's too big for them.

Decided after cleaning the valve seats to do a round of clean-up with valve grinding compound/lapping - I thought I'd go through at least two tubes but ended up only using one. There are many methods I saw online but I went with the suction cup on a stick method as to not put excessive pressure on the valve and it was benefical to hear/feel the compound working. Took longer (about 4 hours) but I think it was worth it. Cylinder #1 Exhaust Valves were the culprit in the compression test failure so I decided to do them twice and everything else just got one round. I reassembled the valves and filled the exhaust cavity (behind the valves) with water - I'll know more tomorrow how well they held). Overall everything cleaned up well and I hope this fix works. I can get another compression test and see how much the compression improved - previously I was around 110 to 120psi relatively consistent between all the cylinders (it should be noted that Im running 9:1 pistons - so dont freak out on me over 110psi!).

Had a few calls to Total Seal and got a new set of custom rings ordered for the Arias Pistons - the ring set (with the newer 'gas ported' top ring) - total cost for new rings was $330 for the set. I wasnt too worried about cost and I'm excited about the 'gas ported rings'. They have to machine the rings down a touch as my ring depth was too shallow for their shelf 96mm piston rings.

Next step will be to hone the block. I do have a 3.7 VHR engine that I think I'm gonna practice on first and get a feel for the flexhone. I probably should get a set of measurements on the cylinder walls too.

Next Day Edit:
The exhaust valves didnt seal-up ... so I'll be taking the head in for a formal diagnosis.

bealljk

iTrader: (13)

Productive evening ...

decided to get the block flex-honed and measured. I have a blown VHR block that I can use for practicing on and this was a smart idea but the learning curve is pretty friendly. The 3.75" Flexhone was (on paper) a little undersized but worked perfectly! Was very happy with the results. Sorta made a mess but it's all good. I may re-hone after mic'ing the cylinders as the bore gauge left a few minor scratches in the walls.


After the flex hone I measure three points (top, middle, bottom) on two axis(lateral and longitudinal). My baseline setting for the bore gauge was 3.7800" and my top and middle measurements were anywhere from -.0003" to -.0010" I need to check the factory service manual to see where those fall but it sorta doesnt matter, I'm continuing with this build regardless. The bottom measurements (which makes logical sense) were between .0020" and .0035" which is pretty high ... we'll see. It breaks my heart but this might be the last refresh on this engine before I replace it.



On to the heads ... I think my heads are shot. I lapped the seats and still they are not fully sealing. Machine work and replacement parts are going to be expensive and will take a few months to get back. I can purchase a refurbished set and the shop that has them will install my springs/shims/cap/clips along with my cams into the aforementioned refurbished heads for free. The cost is around $800 - I think this is my best bet, I'm gonna sleep on it over the weekend and see how I feel about it. I may go ***** crazy and buy a set of built heads ... not sure - who knows!?!?!?!

OldManZ350

iTrader: (23)

What does Aeris Piston's recommend for clearance?

bealljk

iTrader: (13)

Piston to Wall??

I think it's .004" / .1mm

I ordered rings from Total Seal last week and ordered an electronic ring filer (went with the $300 ProForm setup, couldnt afford the Total Seal setup).

bealljk

iTrader: (13)

Oh hell it’s been a long few weeks…

been stupid busy with work, moving, and planning a future shop here at the new place.

I have made decent progress over the last two weeks and I think I can get the engine / transmission back in the car tomorrow or Tuesday … it’s my secret desire to drive the car from the old placed to the new place under it’s own power …

Flexhoned the block again and it came out just fine … got the crankshaft bolted down and used plastigauge to approximate the oil bearing clearance for the mains and they were between .0015 and .002 … pretty much on target for OEM specs. I think that my clearances were too loose last time and that caused issues with the bearings - happy it didn’t lead to a failure. Had an evening of shuffling parts around on the crank but I was able to resume the build…

Next big step was to grind the new rings - they came in and looked really good. I took some basic measurements to ensure they were going to fit (didn’t want to grind them only to find out they were too wide). I bought the ‘pro form’ electric ring grinder … way better than a manual grinder but not the deluxe Total Seal grinder either. I used my only set of rings to practice on and it wasn’t hard at all. I calculated the top ring to be .026” and pushed them to .027” to .028” for a little added security. The second ring needed to be a little bigger than the top and I took them to .028” to .030” and the oil rings have no spec, put them in with no work. It went pretty well and I’m glad I bought the grinder along with ring pliers - made life wayyyyy easier.

With the rings installed, I next installed the pistons onto the rods … nothing special here … except I had to remove/reinstall the oil ring set to get the wrist pin caps installed.

From here I got the pistons installed into the cylinders and did a quick round of plastigauge on the rods … I’m running a little tighter oil bearings clearances - around .0025.

Got the oil bearing clearances checked and had to button in the main caps enough to rotate the crank and keep it in place to bolt in the rods. Used the dial indicator to gauge the stretch of my big-end rod bolts and Pauter says to stretch them to .0055” or 35ft-lbs and I was using about 40 to 42ft-lbs to get .0055 inches of stretch.

With the rods bolted in I was able to snug the main caps and dynosty main girdle in. Nothing to crazy, lubed up the hardware and put them to 75 ft-lbs … ARP says do 65ft-lbs and I wanted to cinch them down a little tighter.

I think I got overly confident after this step and I got a few things out of order (for reassembling) and had to redo a few steps - I put the lower oil pan on too soon. Since been removed.

Next step was the heads and while drilling out the head gasket the passenger side got all bound-up in the drill press and completely got fed-out…so I jumped on Z1 and got one ordered … My order got completely screwed up…I’m pretty upset with Z1 at the moment and I just picked one up locally …

I ended up getting a set of replacement heads from a buddy, I disassembled them and installed all my JWT cams & valve train and things cleaned up and I can see a tiny bit of light out of cylinder #1 but the remaining 11 ports are good … I took them to my machinist who does my heads and he wasn’t all that impressed with them but gave me some good pointers for inspecting heads.

So I installed the drivers side head first and waited for the other gasket to come in. Also got the cam shafts installed and the cam caps … Z1, really dropping the ball on this one…the package is somewhere in Kentucky and no sign of life.

Life moves on … got the replacement gasket drilled out and installed along with the passenger side head. I’m still using the original L19 head studs and torqued them to 100ft-lbs (ARP suggests 85). I continued by installing the cam shafts and cam covers. Last thing of the night I installed the rear timing chain case, got it RTV’d in and bolted in snug, then torqued down.

Next day I got the timing chain components installed … it’s pretty neat how Nissan did the timing chain on these cars with the cog gears and secondary timing chains. Water pump installed with new o-rings and a little RTV, along with the timing chain guides and tensioner. Did a few once-overs on everything and put the front cover on, RTV’d snugged in, and then torqued down. Took the the time to install the upper oil pan too - wasn’t too bad. Finally got the order right. I had the energy and got the lower oil pan installed too (previously installed the oil pick tube with the pump and packed it with assembly lube).

Comes to tonight … chased the header bolt threads in these new heads and installed the header and was able to install the flywheel (finally got new flywheel hardware) and also installed the clutch & pressure plate. Aligned the clutch disk and torqued everything down. Stopped there for the night. Next will be installing the transmission to the engine and getting it flown into the car. After that it’ll be putting on the turbo setup, the coolant setup, and the oil lines/filter/cooler. I spent about $500 on all new fittings and hoses … all my vac lines will be the same AN-4 but I’m going back to rubber hose with push lock fittings. I’m sick of steel braided hose and I like the aluminum hard tubes for vac lines but they look like ****. Also going to relocate the oil filter to the trunk area. At some point I may switch over to a Peterson inline filter but for now it’s an OEM filter setup.

also going to drop down in turbo size … thinking one of those CX Racing X-series turbos … I’ll still keep my Garrett but I want a faster spool-up

bealljk

iTrader: (13)

More progress … replaced the clutch pressure plate to flywheel bolts used blue lock tite and put them to 35ft-lbs.

took me about 45seconds to get the trans mated to the block - god bless the clutch alignment tool!

bolted in the starter and realized I bought m8x1.25 nuts and not m10x1.25 nuts … so I gotta get nuts to get the headers bolted on.

hope to get it dropped in, bolted in, drive shaft, wiring/sensors tonight.

bealljk

iTrader: (13)

shes in ... working on getting things connected/rebolted

I was going to revamp the oil lines, turbo coolant line, and vac lines by transitioning to 100% push-lock fittings and aeroquip blue hose but my shipment got all forked up and went from Illinois to Hawaii ... I think I am going to have to do this at a later date. I have plenty of steel braided hose and I can make everything work but it's ugly, unmatched, and looks like junk.

I'm gonna have to remake the 4 or 5 vacuum lines too ... so I ordered another round of 1/4" aluminum tubing ... oh well

next few days will be getting everything reconnected, a 3min to 5min idle (with inexpensive mineral based oil) to flush out the assembly lubricants and anything that found it's way in the engine during install and then 60 to 80miles with formal break-in oil and after a few conversations with driven a semi-synthetic 5w-40.

Im making progress but Im feeling the stress of Zcon ... it's about a week away.

bealljk

iTrader: (13)

Forking A man …

knock on wood just about everything went right with the engine rebuild … If I had to botch & moan about something it’d be that I probably cut my 2nd rings a little too much … like in the .03” range rather than the .028” to .029” range and possibly that I am not 10,000% sure I ‘clocked’ the rings properly when I put them on the pistons … they just made their way on the pistons as I was doing them … not gonna freak out

but after all this crazy f’n work it was a absolutely no-start / dead battery (and I’m using a 650cca battery) issues that stopped me from getting to the last day of ZCon … It was a stupid busy week and taking time off from work wasn’t an option but a few late nights could have made it possible. I had a crazy high of highs and low of lows Friday night into Saturday morning … Link helped me out and reviewed some trigger scope data logs and confirmed that my crank signal looked great while my cam signals sucked … and told me to chase ground connections … I found locally new hitachi brand cam shaft position sensors and bought bank 1 and bank 2 and then a duralast crankshaft position sensor (for good measure) earlier on Friday and got them installed (but still no start).

I disassembled the top of the engine and cleaned the terminals of the wire harness, and sure enough the car fired right up … I was ecstatic and it was looking like I could make it Saturday Morning…I was so excited and on cloud 9 that I figured, at 11pm I might as well get my first phase of the engine break it (under 2500rpm, 10% throttle, 20minutes/20miles). I did this and the car felt great … wasn’t leaking, wasn’t smoking (too bad), and it was a great little drive in the country in pure darkness.

I had to shuffle some cars around and get another Z (the black track) off the trailer so I could get my car on the trailer … so I unhooked everything, and just let it roll off the trailer … didn’t give two **** how it came off (likely a part-out car) and I hooked the trailer to the pickup, moved everything and went to start and move my car and surer than **** my car would not start whatsoever … by this time it was 12midnight and I gave it about 10minute -15minutes of trying to get it up and going and absolutely wasn’t catching … I was so dejected I locked it up, shut the garage down, unhooked the trailer and went home (mind you, I’m working out of my old garage while living in a new house about 20minutes away).

Saturday morning came and I was able to start the car but it was pretty hard and took about 10seconds of cranking. I ordered a few sets of driver & passenger side VTC sensor connectors a while back and I spliced them in and this helped quite a bit - the car starts within 2seconds of cranking.

Sunday morning and I am bound and determined to get the car over to the new place … I was able to start the car pretty quick and I let it idle for about 3minutes to get it warm…shut it off and had to do a few more things before I could leave. I was going to move the car and do phase 2 of the break-in (2000rpm to 3500rpm 30% throttle, 20mintues/20miles and putting the car in aggressive vacuum as well). I did this but about 10miles in I started reaching temps past 220degrees … So I stopped the car and pulled over into a neighborhood and let the car cool down. Opened the passenger side window, and popped the trunk and it was crazy hot in the hatch area … I gotta do something about evacuating heat out of the hatch. But sure enough the car did not start on the crank … I did two sessions of 5seconds each and nothing … luckily I parked on the top of a hill and was able to bump start the car and was able to drive the remaining 8miles under 220degrees and still perform the break-in.

I’m not entirely convinced the harnesses are the issue … I think I am going to start re-wiring this harness one set of connectors at at time … meaning require them exactly how OEM has it but do them in the smallest of all baby steps … it wont be pretty initially but I think it’ll be worth it when it’s all said & done. I might try to pick-up a nice harness as a fail-safe if I need to operate the car.

Also gotta determine a solution to get hot air out of the hatch … might be some holes the sides of the bumpers with reverse naca ducts.

I did have some issues not getting parts in, in-time, but I was able to re-use my previous setup (oil lines and vac lines) to get the car up and going but I am transitioning every oil hose and vacuum line hose to the blue Goodridge line and new Goodridge push lock fittings - 100% over steel braided hose.

GreyZ

iTrader: (2)

Sorry to hear about the issues. I am going to VERY strongly recommend against push lock hose. I have had multiple name brand push lock hoses fail, nearly costing me an engine. Push lock hose, specifically Goodridge, is only rated for 100 C. Oil gets way hotter than that, especially in a half mile type pull. The hose gets hot, expands, and pops off of the push lock fittings. Don't do it. I am super tedious and by the instructions, and I also always try to go with the simplest and cleanest path to not add complication but this is a place to do a proper captured hose end.

bealljk

iTrader: (13)

Sorta … whatever doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger … and good thing I love working on this car! Most my friends think I’m nuts / a few understand

I’m committed now - stuff has already started rolling in! I’ll keep my steel braided hose lines just incase and I do appreciate your advice and insight.

I went with the 536 series - per spec it’s a 250psi max operating pressure and a 1ksi burst pressure, max operating temp of 302degrees so maybe the hose you had was a different spec?

I think I’m gonna start a wire harness build thread … it’d be good to document the process and see if I can’t crack nissan’s code (especially with the injector and ignition coil wiring … start small and take baby steps.

also ordered that CX Racing Xseries turbo … went with the T4 3584 .84 AR ceramic dual ball bearing billet impeller rated for 650hp … excited to see it come in! We put this turbo on a handful of cars and it does well … I’ll need to redo my exhaust, make a new turbo>IC charge pipe, and get a new filter but it’ll be cool to see how she doesn’t with a smaller turbo.

Rinzlark

I have the part numbers for the OEM ECU connector pins if you need them to start with fresh wire, let me know. The coil and ignition wiring isn’t as complex as it appears. However I highly recommend keeping the power and ground wires of all the coils the same length and coupled at one point respectively, I had a nightmare of a time before I figured that out. I would also recommend a dedicated 4-10 gauge dedicated ground wire to the battery for the ecu in addition to the oem grounding point. But with you being on the link G4 ECU it may not be as finicky as the oem one. I still haven’t broken out mine to play with yet, I’m planning a dedicated harness for it too

bealljk

iTrader: (13)

oh hell yea!
Do you have a source to buy OEM pins / OEM connectors?

I have a handful of new replacement connectors but it’d be nice to have the two or three styles of pins Nissan uses.

I got messed up constructing a harness a few years back and I think that weird capacitor messed me up…I’m a little smarter and have a few tools in the belt this time I also bought about $300 of Tefzel wire in anticipation of this (and to have on hand) and I might need a few spools of 10ga to 14ga … I bought 18ga and 20ga already.

I’ll definitely take resistance measurements and length measurements (as advised) and mimic them for the new harness. I almost want to do one set of inputs/outputs/triggers at a time to ensure everything is working right.

It’s gonna be a fun winter … many fun things to get in to!

Rinzlark

ok there are two socket sizes and multiple pin sizes depending on the wire size too, lets see if i can make this as clear as i can search digipart.com to find who has them in stock
MQS type (Small Pin Sockets on Connector)
968220-1 20-24AWG wire size
968221-1 18-20AWG wire size
JPT type (Big Pin Sockets on Connector)
964282-2 20-24AWG wire size
964286-2 17-20AWG wire size
964273-2 13-17AWG wire size

bealljk

iTrader: (13)

Any leads (NPI) on the pins on the opposite side of the ECU? I think there are two or three sizes?

I never knew DigiPart.com existed ... that's sweet!

Rinzlark

Just 2 types
pins 1-5 & 114-121 are the JPT type
pins 6-113 are the MQS type
Any of the pins listed for each type will fit in the appropriate socket just match the pin for the right gauge of wire

bealljk

iTrader: (13)

understood … but on the opposite side of the ECU … meaning the pins that go into the connectors that click into the sensors, solenoids, outputs, (cam position sensors, VTC solenoids, throttle body, coils, etc)?

I can find some complete rebuild kits but not them all…I can reuse the connector bodies but need new pins.

Great info and I would be lost without it - much appreciated!

Rinzlark

Oh ok I misunderstood yeah, a lot of them use the same pin types save a few like the MAF and injector connections, Ill male a list and i get them from bmotorsports.com and wiringspecialties.com.

From bmotorsports
OEM ignition coil
-Pin Part # CONN-100580
-Seal Part # CONN-100581
Cam,Crank,Oil pressure
-pin Part # CONN-100950
-seal Part # CONN-00193
MAF
-pin Part # CONN-100719
-seal Part # CONN-100655
ECT,EVAP,VVTsolenoids,Knock(connection at sensor)
-pin Part # CONN-100580
-seal Part # CONN-100581
Manual Transmission Output shaft speed Sensor
-pin Part # CONN-100719
-seal Part # CONN-100655
Throttle Body
-pin Part # CONN-11656
-seal Part # CONN-00145
-connector kit Part # CONN-76021
Alternator
-pin Part # CONN-101233
-seal Part # CONN-101234
-connector kit Part # CONN-76209

from wiringspecialties (make sure you select parts and not pigtail in options for each connector kit)
F1 Connector
-connector kit Part # WRS-VQ35-F1
F2 Connector
-connector kit Part # WRS-VQ35DE-F2
F3 connector
-connector kit Part # WRS-VQ35DE-F3
Dash plug SMJ 102
-connector kit Part # WRS-350Z-F102

Let me know if i forgot anything

bealljk

iTrader: (13)

Damn this is helpful!

I’m totally going to order stuff this week

Rinzlark

I highly recommend getting the kit for the alternator connector. Somehow every time I’ve tried to depin one I’ve f***ed it up