Hello everyone, I'm new to the forum but not new to the Z world. This will be my first time actually building a Z though. Anyways I recently purchased a 04 350z with 180,000 miles for a good price. I know that's a lot of miles but my plan for the future is to do a complete engine rebuild to make it a reliable daily/track car. So my question is would it be safe for me to track my car with such high miles or is there some internal parts that I can upgrade for now to make it safe and reliable for a few more years until I decide to completely rebuild my engine?

 

Wouldn't it make sense that you rebuild it since you're replacing the internals?

In terms of a reliable daily track car... Depends on how well the motor and all moving parts was maintained by the previous owner(s). No leak-down or compression numbers, its difficult to guestimate the health of the motor. Your car could die just getting on the freeway the next time you drive it for all we know, or not. It would also depend on how hard you drive the car at the track, Terrasmak would have more insight to the longevity of a motor at the track. He's our resident track *****.

 

Agreed- OP needs to do a full assessment of his VQ35DE before going any further. Besides compression and leak-down checks, I'd suggest pulling a used oil analysis (UOA) for the engine to judge its health. The good thing about VQs is they are pretty durable with regular oil/filter changes and standard maintenance.

Assuming the VQ is healthy, I'd suggest adding an oil cooler as one of the first steps to making the Z track worthy.

 

Thanks for all the information. If I had all the money needed to rebuild it I would but all I have right now is 2k.

The engine is healthy no problems at all. I guess for now I'll just use it as my daily. Don't want to blow it and then have nothing to get around with haha.

 

should also check out the for sale section because ppl often sell built engines.

 

I'd start with maintenance and replacing all fluids. 2k is not going to get you very far with a Z. You could always fix the camber if this is going to be a track car. lol

 

If it's your DD, I'd agree it's not a great idea taking it to the track. After spending your limited budget on assessing the weak areas on the car, upgrading the lubricants would be my next priority:

-Go though the brakes carefully and be sure to completely flush the system with a good quality DOT 3/4 brake fluid (ATE Gold 200 is my choice). Use the same product in your clutch master.

-Redline MT85 has the viscosity the factory recommends and is a synthetic lubricant with enough friction engineered in to allow the syncros to do their job.

-If you've got a VLSD, swap out the rear end lube to a synthetic product. I like Motul's 75-140 diff fluid.

-Get a UOA and check Resolute's thread on the subject to select a better engine oil for your Z.