Vg30de

[Boswell]

I purchased a 1990 300zx Naturally Aspirated 2 seater from a douche bag named Fernando Ramos (stay away from this guy if you ever meet him... Ramos isnt his real last name either, haha) down in Hollywood, Fla. This was a while back, so i've gotten over the whole getting screwed part. Anyways, car was described to me as "MINT condition" when it came on the flatbed, it was deffinately NOT in mint... not one part of the car was. Only advantage, the car had a straight body. When I fired her up she would make a noise similar to this... "TICK TICK TICK TICK TICK TICK TICK (rev to 1000) TICK TICK TICK TICK TICK TICK (rev to 1500) TICKTICKTICKTICKTICK (rev 1750) TICKTICKTICK kljafdkljdsafkljaf *stall out*" and it would stall. My mechanic performed the "breaker bar" to the head test, and determined that it was the intake side of the heads, and I would need to replace them. So I began to tear the VG down to bare metal. Remove harness, cut all tubing (dry rotted, no use anyways) removed plenum (wow that was fun... no no it wasnt. ) removed the spark collums, removed cam covers, radiator, fan, and shroud, and radiator hoses (ones which lead into water pump) and then removed valve covers... So now I am awaiting my mechanic to come over and manually turn the engine over to see what is wrong in there, he is also going to perform a leakdown, and compression test. But I know I am going to need these parts so far in:

1. New Harness***
2. New tubing
3. Refurbish kit (includes new pulleys, water pump, new belts etc.)
4. New or repaired heads
5. I will need to bead blast up the lower and upper plenum... Intakes arent suppose to have black gunk caked inside of them eh? (personally I think the car was dropped into some water... And removed, and the owner convienienty forgot to mention it to the cops... No report, nothing shows up on carfax... BAH)

- Does anyone else have any ideas? Post any comments, or idea imputs, I can use any and all. I personally think that the timing belt either broke, or skipped time. What are the possibilities of this? If this happened, chances are that the heads are just going to need to be replaced... Any ideas? Peace foo's.

[Gradyman25]

how many miles does this motor have on it, it might be worth your while to just take the thing out and buy a newer one with less miles for around a grand and put that in

[Boswell]

It would be cheaper If I had the shop (the local community college's facilities) at my disposal. Which I will not have untill this summer, and I cant wait untill this summer... Dig? So im in between a rock and a hard place. But i'll see how it pans out.

[rizzspeed]

you should do a 60K anyway since you already have everything apart. If you have the cash, replacing the underdrive pulley with a lighter aluminum one would be convenient at this time. Along with some other stuff if you wanted, upgraded radiator, lower temp thermostat, strengthened timing belt, K&N filter or equivalent, n/a headers and so on. If you pull the motor, you can do more driveline type upgrades since you'd have all that apart. As always good luck, buddy.

[Boswell]

yea ive been pondering it lately. Here is my wish list (o and my car has 104k on it... I have a feeling that there was some "roll-back" action there though. Heres my wish list though:

1. N/A headers
2. TT injectors
3. TT MAF
4. Aluminum underdrive pulley
5. Injen intake system
6. New harness (engine)
7. New hoses andtubing
8. Z1 refurbished heads
9. Cam gears (whats the most ideal {cheapest/effective}
10. Upgraded Radiator
11. Aluminum radiator hose (lower)

-Thats about all I can think of... But wow, this is some kind of project. You'd think first cars would be a little easier... Haha 'sall good. O and Riz, I figured out how to upload pictures off the JVC now, so maybe one night when im not so lazy i'll upload them. Give you all an idea of how far I am along. Any help is appreciated. PEACE

[rizzspeed]

well, I'll be looking forward to finally seeing pics. It's only been like half a year already! LOL

[Boswell]

Haha, good news though. My mechanic is finally coming over tommarow to see if my VG is fixable, or if I am about to loose 2g. (Tommarow is thursday) peace foo's

[Boswell]

Mechanic came over today... YAY good news finally. Lower end is in prestine condition... But the front end was deffinately dropped in some water, looks like a ditch drop... No frame damage though, so it should be good... So what I need to do is get some new heads, harness, some silicone tubing. And he says the engine should be straight. I wanted to have her ready for the first snow... Yea that didnt work out (snow is forcasted for Friday... Sucks eh?) when you got 10.5 inch wide rubs in the back, life is so much more fun, haha. Aight if anyones got anymore imput feel free to shout out. Peace foo's

[Gradyman25]

it always sucks when good news is just bad news thats not really really really bad, but congrats on it not being a total loss