The only issue I really had was with the ECUs and that turned out to be a bad ground from the engine to the chassis. For some reason, the ground from the engine goes to one of the powdercoated brackets or the Momentum kit. When I installed the kit, that bolt backed itself out after driving and I never knew about it.

Nothing at all wrong with Dynosty or their work at all, I'll stand behind it 100%. It's near impossible to say why the valve dropped or bent, all we can do is speculate at this point or just accept it for what it is.

It's definitely a valvetrain issue, likely DS head. Going to just throw some used heads on for now and work on building up some spare cash to build the block for now.

The HR is a fantastic engine, I've seen it swapped over. I'm not really building my car for a specific power output tbh though. I just want to have fun for now, and I'll eventually make my way into GTA RWD Unlimited at some point. I definitely wish I could have more time driving in track, but working on the car is kind of fun at the same time. I'm not even remotely mad or upset that this happened. Tbh, it's probably for the best since it's my senior year and I'm absolutely swamped with projects.

Thanks, bud! I might still be able to make it to ZDayZ! We shall see :icon44:

Thanks! I really appreciate that. It's going to continue progressing for sure.

loving the build I'm doing something similar with the front and rear part of the car. cant wait to see results

It's been a while. I think I've come up with a plan for the most part. Things have been mostly difficult due to the fact that I was graduating and had no idea where I was moving to/how soon I would be moving. So I still have yet to move, and I still have no idea where I'm going.

But the plans are after moving I will be swapping some heads on for now while having a longblock assembled by Dynosty. This is going to be expensive, so I'll be taking my time with it. In the meantime, I've been working on getting everything else dialed and taking my time.

Removing the sound bar has been something I've been taking my time with. I need to go get some spot weld drill bits so I can finish this process. After this is complete, I will go pick up some dry ice and remove all of the sound deadening from the interior. After I do that, I'll be priming and painting the interior as well as the rest of the roll cage. Going for gloss black all over just to keep everything uniform.

Before cutting anything out:
Attachment 456941

In the process of cutting things out:
Attachment 456942


My Kognition wing came in, so I've been toying with marking that up as well. I want to mount that up before painting the interior so that I can make sure I'm not drawing on my freshly painted interior. This thing is incredibly difficult to mock up/mount, but it's coming along. I need to buy hardware for the mount to the frame, but once that is done, we will be squared away.

Base mounts:
Attachment 456943

Wing stands:
Attachment 456944

Wing element:
Attachment 456945

Test fitting picture. I realize the wing is in the stands and the hatch is open. This is because I am test fitting/mocking where the stands will sit so that it can be accurate, then I need to put some toothpaste or something on top of the stands, or crawl in the hatch while the hatch is closed and mark out where I'll be cutting at. Probably the latter as it'll be more accurate that way.
Attachment 456946

Had to remove these to get the mounts to sit properly on the floor of the hatch.
Attachment 456947


Some other things I've done - I've finally changed my slave cylinder and master cylinder. I went with the Z Speed Wilwood master cylinder. Installing this was a day long process thanks to the turbo kit. Since I have the AT turbo kit, the pipes sort of rub on the slave cylinder, so I need to have this fixed. Something that will need to be fixed if I do in fact decide to put heads on the car before building a long block.

Pics of the crossover pipe to up pipe not mating properly due to the AT/MT difference. Going to have the guys at Dynosty fix this. It needs to be pulled further away from the slave cylinder so I'm not overheating my slave again. Need that to stay cool so I can actually put down laps...
Attachment 456948
Attachment 456949


Additionally, I have gutted the doors. So no regulators/motors, no wiring (it's pictured, but I've removed it). I still have the glass in case I need to put it in for transport or if I'm at a windows up track (they exist).
Attachment 456950


That's pretty much it aside from the fact that I'm picking up my sheet of Tegris here soon so I can finish the front splitter, also looking at picking up a diffuser soon from a company. Going to mock it up and see if it fits the Z. It's honestly a massive diffuser that has been CFD tested. Just unsure if it will fit the Z since it's for another car initially. Going to try and see if I can run with it given that the mockup goes well. Will have more details at some point I'm sure.

Ho-Lee Crap. It has been FAR too long since I have posted anything.

So some life updates. I accepted a position in my field after college making good money, found a place to live that's super close to work. Got a dog, moved into my house, started working, and have made progress on the Z in random areas.

Dog tax:
Attachment 456760

Picking up like 6 spot weld bits from Harbor Freight to drill out the rest of the sound bar stuff and dry ice this weekend to remove sound deadening to hopefully finish the interior stuff. I've finished the rear wing, finished the splitter template, and have picked up a rear diffuser from a local company for a great deal (I got lucky and got the last one).

The new garage is amazing, TONS of space (which I've never had). Two car bay, really tall ceiling and enough room to fit the Z with a 5" extended splitter, 12" extended diffuser, and still have ample room to walk around the car.

Attachment 456761

Here's some diffuser pics. The diffuser is from a company called Velox Motorsports (going through a name change soon I think?). This diffuser was made for the GT86 chassis, but they had one lying around and I wanted to test fit it.

Attachment 456762

For reference, this is what it looks like on the 86 chassis.

Attachment 456763

Attachment 456764

This was our first test fit (we ended up pushing it further towards the axles). Thankfully our cars are longer than the GT86 :)

Attachment 456765

Attachment 456766

This is where we pushed it to. Since it mounts fairly low, being below the spring buckets should not cause any issues at all. We've checked travel at full droop and we've got plenty of clearance. Plan is to mount the front of the diffuser to the floor of the chassis. We'll be running aluminum up to the chassis with 90 degree bends for the chassis side, and then we will have a hole drilled in the aluminum for the part that mounts to the diffuser.

Attachment 456767

I went ahead and installed some splitter support rods for the rear to keep it in place as well. These extend further back so that we can adjust the height of the diffuser to where we want it. We're looking at about 4.5" clearance at the moment (the picture is probably 3.5"). The diffuser will slide back a bit further to give it the extra clearance, and then we will mount it to the chassis at a level height.

Attachment 456768

I've got the valve covers off of the car for now as well. I'll be taking the exhaust stuff off here soon (have to buy some more jack stands) and then I'll be able to get the heads off of the car and find out if I'm able to just swap heads or not.

So far I have yet to see any chunks of metal in the oil, so that's a good thing. I can also tell it is not an intake valve as those look just fine (not bent). So I'm assuming it's an exhaust valve and I'm fairly certain it's the back cylinder on the driver's side. I'll find out more shortly as I'm still tearing into the car at the moment. But it seems like we're much closer to getting things done than I had thought.

Oh! I supposed I should mention that I sold my Tomei since it won't really fit with the diffuser and I don't want to ruin the diffuser. So I'll be going side exit in the pursuit of going flat floor eventually.

This means that I'm also cutting my gas tank in half so that I can keep heat away from the fuel tank, but can also cut weight this way. The plan is to go with an oval exit from the side, I'll paint it black to keep it somewhat concealed, but I'm having a professional shop do that work for me.

exciting stuff ahead !

So this is where we started at the beginning of the week:

Attachment 456747

Two days ago I got back in the garage and starting pulling things apart.

Attachment 456748

And this is about where I left off yesterday.

Attachment 456749

With the help of a friend this is the progress of the week (but plan on making a lot more progress next week of course). I'm also planning on getting some work in tomorrow to try and HOPEFULLY get the driver's side head off of the car and see where I'm at with the engine.

We also finished pulling all of the AC stuff out of the car, so the car no longer has any AC hoses,compressor, etc. That gave me a lot more room in the up-pipe area.

Still looking for someone local-ish to work on my exhaust for me (fixing the up-pipes/crossover pipe) as well as doing my side-exit exhaust and cutting the gas tank in half. I plan on switching radiators, doing the pathfinder mod, and replacing hoses, etc while everything is apart. I've got to fix my oil temp sensor as well and a couple of other things to button up.

Slowly but surely... :thumbup:

Edit: Dog tax

Attachment 456750

Didn't go thru the entire thread, your rollbar, what it a bolt in with extra welding ?

Yeah it's not really a "bolt-in" solution like the name suggests, but that's okay. Basically the front bars bolt in and that's all that bolts to the chassis. The main hoop and the rear bars weld in, the door bars weld in. But the other bars which connect the front halo to the main hoop are bolted together.

Tbh it really may as well just be a weld-in cage. I'm going to go full custom cage at some point.

Anything new on this bada@& build? Absolutely beautiful...

Very nice build thread!

updates!