A few years ago I noticed a super clean white 300zx (NA) with tan interior always parked in the garage at my work. It made me excited to see another Z brother and I wanted to meet the owner or at least leave a “nice Z!” note on the car because it was in such good shape. Eventually I met the owner, Amir, at a conference and turns out that he has always been a fan of the Z32 since it was released in 1990! I mentioned ZCarGarage to him and soon enough this pretty Z32 was getting some love at the shop. Amir’s Z came to us with 114k miles on the clock and virtually no major problems during it’s ownership. Routine maintenance was performed and a few choice performance parts were installed including:
-Powertrix tension/control arms
-SpecialtyZ exhaust system
-Twin-Turbo Z32 wheels
-power steering hoses
-timing belt service
-full steam cleaning of the underbody
SpecialtyZ exhaust system:
Powertrix parts:
New tension rods installed:
The dyno revealed impressive numbers for this 20-year young Z. 197hp/184tq at the wheels for a bone stock engine with 114k miles!
We have a feeling that Amir might have caught the mod-bug so stay tuned for more pictures and updates.
Long Live the Z32!
That is what the license plate reads on this 240z that belongs to Mark and Michelle G. Although the Z may have ate money it has been loved and fully supported by the family for about 10years. The Z is at ZCarGarage getting a full mechanical restoration before going to Williams Auto Body for body/paint. It is being built for the street with occasional track use, so brakes and suspension had to be upgraded. ZCG installed a full Arizona Z Car suspension from front to rear including robust control arms, sway bars, and bushings. The entire underbody was also prepped and undercoated:
The 200rwhp L31 engine features triple Mikuni 44 carbs, a rare Clifford 6-2 exhaust header, and a ZCG triple-carb heat shield. The stock transmission was replaced with a 240sx gearbox with a JWT flywheel and heavy duty clutch. In back an R200 LSD diff along with a Porsche 930 CV conversion round out the drivetrain modifications:
The rear portion of the exhaust was made to be removeable making adjustments/work easier:
The Z featured Porsche 993 Twin-Turbo calipers at all four-corners and though it is an incredible braking system it needed some work/proportioning so ZCG did some fine tuning.
Soon these gorgeous brakes will be encased by shiny new custom made 17″ Panasport C8 wheels!
Finally, a nice touch that is both functional and good-looking are some new pedals. Let the Heel/Toe boogie begin!
Stay tuned for more updates after the Z comes back from Williams with fresh body and paint!
Lots of detailed pictures of the suspension below:
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Jose E hails from the SF north bay and is the owner of this Jim Cook Racing body kit-prepped Z which is affectionately named, “The Egyptian”. Check out the numerous bodywork details like the front/ rear fenders, rectangular headlights and pinstriping. The interior also sports some very old-school appointments:
When the Z came to ZCG it was powered by a really old draw-thru setup. Some of you ZCG blog readers might remember these types of systems from the early Rob Fuller days with his Turbo Tom’s Draw-Thru L20b( shown in a 510 on left ).
These setups can make power. The Egyptian was on its last leg(on right) with an engine that had a blown headgasket.
The setup used a holley carb with a really old Rotomaster turbo and NO wastegate!!! No boost control except the engine and your right foot. Good Stuff!
TIME TO MAKE THE CHANGE
We shopped around and found Jose a donor car, a 1983 280zx turbo. The engine was in good enough shape to be our donor so we removed it and prepped it for break down.
We sent the engine long block to Rebello Racing for a full build. The engine is ready to go in the form of a built 3.0 with forged pistons, a nice set of rods and a street cam to work with our medium turbo upgrade (Specs on this to come later) . We will be using JWT engine controls with upgraded injectors. ZCG will be providing a custom intercooler and piping.
The engine is in the mock up phase outside of the Z. While the engine gets its final details the chassis will receive all new suspension to help cope with the added power and torque.
More updates to come as the Egyptian gets a new heart!
You all have seen this car here before and I’m sure you are aware of it’s on track antics, if not then see the links below for a refresh.
This car sees tons of track time. In fact it pretty much only sees track time, and like most track cars, after awhile things need to be refreshed. In this case the StopTech Big Brake Kit was in need of a few new parts to prepare it for the Norcal UFO trackday the following weekend.
As you can see from the pictures, the hats for the two-piece rotors have seen some massive heat. Enough in fact to destroy the original black anodizing. These parts, while discolored, are still perfectly functional. The rotors on the other hand had seen better days and were replaced with new ones.
The other part of this rebuild comes in the form of replacing the main seals for the four pistons in each caliper. From the pictures you can see that the old ones were covered in debris and brake dust and were starting to weep, not a good thing when a race car relies on repeatable pedal pressures for optimum performance.
The seals were replaced with the new gray pieces and the entire system was reassembled and given back to the owner just in time to thrash on it at the Thunderhill Raceway. Pics of the track event are still to come and are well worth the wait.
See all the photos of the entire rebuild after the read more (there are 30 or so)
Merry post-Christmas
ZCG
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This car belongs to the one and only William of William’s Autobody fame. The 240 came into the shop with a noisy valvetrain so we (Josh) removed the front cover and discovered that the timing chain tensioner had dismantled itself over the last few hundred miles. Uh oh. Normally this would result in the chain jumping a tooth or more on one of the gears which would cause terminal engine damage, we happened to get lucky. Part replaced, Long live the L-series engine!!
Turning our focus towards the rear of the car, we have a slight overhaul in order. What you see here are a set of T3 (Techno Toy Tuning) fully adjustable rear control arms. These new pieces are light years ahead of the stock stamped pieces in terms of stiffness and adjustablility. The perfect alignment is now achievable. To accompany the control arms and their new bushings are a set of 250lbs/in springs (up from 175lbs) to firm up the rear a bit.
The new rear suspension pieces and and replaced tensioner will help our faithful painter enjoy one of his Z cars to its fullest. ZOOM ZOOM (He has a Miata as well) Long Live the Z!!
