Was this in the chevy towing truck? Whose truck does it belong to?

Was this engine temps / struggles or was this transmission?

 

Yup, currently looking at that. We could monitor the egt, tranny and boost with that computer and it was okay. The egt would get pretty hot in regen, which it did alot, but trans temps only got up to the low 230s, which the Allison manual says is totally fine to happen while towing up grades.

The guy with the GTR also owns the truck. Yes it was the truck that was having the issues on the drive back. The trans was fine, it obviously got warm climbing grades, but well within the Allison manual's range of acceptable temperatures. The coolant/engine temp was the concern and I am guessing it was a combination of a very old DPF filter and probably a partially clogged radiator.

 

I’ve heard some horror stories with chevy diesel towing and factory TSB fixes to cover-up / mask problems…Happy everyone made it home safe!

 

Nice pics and great looking crew to drive those beautiful roads with! Wish I had my Z when I was up in NC a few weeks ago, but it was a family trip so had to take the Pilot.

Surprised to hear your car did well in the rain. Mid-mount setups look like they're just asking for trouble.

 

It is still my daily in south Louisiana. I am not sure I can claim the highest mileage turbo car, but I can just about guarantee that I have the most turbo Z miles in the rain. Ive had more issues with the red ecoboost f150(in the photos) in the rain and waterlogging the intercooler than I have with the Z.

 

So I had been wanting to do the following project for a while, and finally got around to it.

I added a trailer hitch to the Z.

I bike quite a bit, but I got pretty tired of having to remove my passenger seat to fit my bike in the car. I do not like strap style bike carriers, and I am not a huge fan of the seasucker mounts. I feel that they put too much weight on the rear hatch hinges and latch. I also don't like the idea of a suction mount on the paint. The goal of this is to be able to use a small hitch mounted bike rack.

I bought the receiver and adapter from Harbor Freight and the rest of the hardware from Home Depot.

I had to remove the rear bumper cover. It came off surprisingly easy, and I did not break any of the tail light taps which I was worried about. The hidden twist lock mounts for the bumper were nearly impossible though. Quite difficult to get those especially with the age of the clips.


This shows what the plan is. I mounted the receiver vertically to the rear crash bar, and then will use the adapter that is cut and welded into a 90 to be the actual receiver in use for the rack.


I mounted the receiver with two holes going directly into the bumper bar. The lower holes on the reciever hung too low, so I used an aluminum angle stock to bolt those to the bar. I used blue painters tape spiraled up to pull the bolt through each hole.


This is is mounted up.




The top edge of the hitch needed a notch cut out to fit this high, there is about a .25" gap from the hitch to my underglow.



When the adapter is removed the hitch is completely hidden from sight, which was my goal from the start. Ill make sure to show a pic once I have my rack and Bike on there.

 

Got the adapter welded up and the bike rack mounted. Worked out really good. This is so much better than taking my bike apart every time.

With the adapter removed, the hitch cannot be seen which was my goal.

 

nice dude!

 

It has been a long time since I have taken good photos of the Z, but a friend of mine that knows his way around a camera convinced me to go out and take a few shots. The Z still cleans up nice for 16 years and 207k miles. It is nearing the last few weeks of daily duty though before getting to spend most days in the garage.



photo credits go to my buddy, lsxmack.

 

looks awesome, timeless

 

It was time to clean up the valve cover gaskets. The originals had started to weep slowly and began leaving a drip mark in my garage. I had just done the covers on my xterra and the spark plug seals were trashed on it with 180k miles. I was able to get oem nissan covers for it for cheap. I expected the Z to be the same way, but the OEM covers for the HR are 200$+ each which I felt was a bit high. I was very tempted to try OEM HR Maxima covers, but I ended up going with some SKP covers. I also got a set of the Felpro Gaskets. The install was pretty easy and took about 4 hours. I knocked out the spark plugs while I was there, but the old ones actually looked really good. The inside of my engine was remarkably clean. Much cleaner than I expected. I guess my endless number of 3k mile oil changes paid off. Here are a few pics.

 

Pretty sure my valve cover gaskets are also on their way out. 124k miles here.

 

Great thread, and thanks for sharing your journey. I saw your build list. You're using a full face organic clutch disc and it's holding up fine to your torque? I ask because I'm going to add GTR oe turbos to my HR and I'm trying to decide on a clutch. This is a street rod.

 

I have had zero issues with the JWT clutch. If I was adding significantly more power I would look for something else.

 

Couple of updates. I finally put a proper 200tw tire on the car. I have run the M PS4S for 30k miles and have been very happy with them for daily use, but with the car spending more time in the garage now, the times it does get driven are more spirited. I went with the Nexen Sport R in a 275/35r18 based on the recommendations of a few guys running Zs is GTLC. So far they seem great.

This past weekend I did a track day at my local track (Nola MSP) with a couple of friends who came into town and had an absolute blast. The weather did not cooperate though, so the first session had some sprinkles followed by some steady rain for the second session. The final session was an absolute deluge with more time spent hydroplaning than having grip. Turns out haveing the intake 4" above the ground does have its limitations at a certain amount of rain. I have driven many thousands of miles in really bad rain with this turbo without issues, but being full throttle through 1-2" deep puddles lap after lap was too much and I ended up getting some stumbles in the deepest parts. This is not my first time with turbo water ingestion and is identical to the feeling experienced with a Ford ecoboost when towing heavy in the rain. I pulled off and let the car idle for 10 minutes to dry out the intercooler and we were good to go.

It was an absolute riot, and was the first time I have personally gotten into the 140+ on track. Hopefully someone from the event posts some on track pictures, but here we are in the paddock with my brother in the lotus, and two good friends in the M3 and GT4.

 

Few more pictures from the track day that finally got posted. These photos really highlight how my Stillen lip is on its last leg. It has sagged badly. I would like to do a Nismo front bumper cover, but finding one in good shape is a challenge.

 

Got tired of the Stillen Sag and the beat front bumper, so I finally replaced it with a Nismo front. I used the oem bumper, and undertray pieces from Z1. Oddly, the corner brackets are a bit harder to find on Z1's website, but I got those also to keep it as OEM as possible. The fitment was perfect and the paint guy was happy with the primered finish that it came in. Here are a few shots.

 

Maybe its time I changed my username??

 

Went to the Dragon again and did ~1300 miles in the TN/NC mountains. Such a nice area of the country. While out there my Motordyne Nova muffler decided it had enough and split. It sounded horrible. I spent a while very low in the past and have had to weld up the muffler a couple of times, but it was beyond repair. Not neccessarily mangled, but needed rewelding on nearly every joint of the muffler. The ports and top and bottoms of both end caps had splits, along with the repair panels that I had previously welded in. I reached out to Motordyne and they had an extra muffler that they were able to send me and I replaced it. I also added some additional V-bands to make it removable without dropping the sway bar and W brace. Huge improvement and I am happy with how it came out. While it was dropped I also redid my diff by restacking my Tomei LSD plates to soften it a bit. Last year and this year I had a few times while driving that I could feel the diff unlock mid corner and it is an unsettling feeling. I hope that by softening it's lock a good bit it should make it a more gentle engagement. Anyway, here are a few pictures. ​​​​​​​

 

More time on track! This past weekend we did another NASA HPDE event at Nola Motorsports Park. The weather was fantastic in the high 60s and clear skies. We did five sessions in HPDE2, with one session being a 30+ minute on track session on maintaining lane choice and peripheral awareness when 2 cars wide on track. Both were really good and emphasized the Z's blind spots.

Since the last event, I had restacked my diff to be less aggressive hoping to reduce the high speed chatter I was experiencing. This seemed to be the ticket as the car felt really good mid-corner this event. This is the second event on these tires (Nexen N'fera Sport R 275/35 square) and I continue to be impressed. The warm up in 1/2 a lap or so and maintain feel for the full 25 minute sessions. I also added some huge under car brake deflectors that allowed me to have zero brake issues for the whole session. This is an improvement from last time where I would get some fade with multiple hot laps back to back. I am running the DS2500 pads, so I was impressed that they were able to stay cool enough. I also added a spal fan to my 34 row oil cooler to help with the oil temps and pressure. This seemed to help significantly as my coolant temps stayed lower and my oil pressure stayed higher. I don't monitor the actual oil temp. I probably should.

In the past at NOLA I have run a 2:06.8X as my best time after a repave for the Indy car event. This was the first completely dry event I have had since boosted and I was only able to run a 2:02.40. I had hoped to nic the 2:00.00 minute mark but could not quite get it with the bumps. It has gotten ROUGH. I was running on low boost which helps keep the temps at a stable 99-101C. I figure with high boost I may have been able to hit my goal, but its always a good day when the car can drive home and not on a trailer...

Here are a couple photos. I should have some from on track to upload at some point.