Finally got time for the Z

[el_roy1985]

Been a while since I've spent any time on the Z. Got a lot of stuff done around the house, so I finally have time to get the Z back to road worthiness. Not sure how long it will take right now, just gonna go with whatever I decide to do while I'm working on it. First, I'll post some recent pics...









So that's how it sits for the moment, well mostly... Engine is slightly more disassembled then in those pics. Engine hoist is just there because I was too lazy to fold it up and store it somewhere else at the moment.

Sooooo....

What I plan to do is port match the manifolds, get some 1999 3400 injectors (because that's what my ECM is tuned for), build headers (180* headers to be exact), get rid of abs (for header room, and I don't want it anyways) and get it back on the road. Plans are subject to change (hopefully to add to the list, not subtract), but it should be finished by then end of winter if not sooner. As long as something else important that needs my money doesn't come up.

So, on to the manifolds...








As you can see, dis-assembly lets us see how clean it is inside the engine. Reason for tear down is coolant in oil, aka bad LIMG. Engine only had about 20,000 on it, but overheated, and is probably what caused it to go bad so soon. Took the opportunity to look for other problems, but so far so good. Had a weird missfiring problem (causing bad shuttering/jerking while driving), but I'm guessing that has more to do with a sensor issue and not mechanical. Would get worse the more I drove the car, replaced crank sensor(along with plugs, wires, ICM, crank sensor wire, coil packs...), but might have to try it again... Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated. Been trying to trace the problem almost ever since I swapped in the 3400.

Then, here is some of my work with port matching...












So there it is. Comments, questions and suggestions?

Nice to be working on it again, will be even nicer when I get it back on the road.

[3X00-Modified]

I do not miss all those little fine aluminum chips... lol, I made such a mess doing my heads last year.

Glad to see you back and that the car is still around.

[woody90gtz]

Go back to Beretta St and get me a sign too! haha I see you're Getrag hoarding. Atta boy!

It does feel good to get back into it...and then it gets old again...and then it's fun again when it's on the road.

Did you buy a house or something? If so, congrats. I did the same last year and it does soak up some of your free time. I was glad to get back to work in the garage this spring.

[3X00-Modified]

I'm surprised you noticed everything else but missed the M90 on the shelf... LOL

[99GaGT3X00]

nice car still looks good.

haha i have one of those m90's on a shelf in the garage myself. got one of the ones they put on the tbird. eventually want to stuff it or some other blower where the ac compressor is/was.

[el_roy1985]

Thanks, it's good to be back. Too many times have I sat back and looked at my Z, longing for the day I could get it back on the road.

Got the Beretta st. sign a few years ago, with the help of another Beretta enthusiast. Not sure if he is on this forum, but he has the other one. Would love to get another set, but I don't know that I would do what I had to do to get it again... I did get a house, it's so nice to be out on my own. Keeps me way busier then I would like at times, but it's worth it. My mom can't complain about my cars anymore either; however, my dad still comes over and tells me to get rid of my collection (he calls it junk...).

As for the transmissions and supercharger... Only one of the transmissions pictures is a getrag, the other is an Isuzu. I do have another getrag that's not pictured, though. It isn't a 282, it has something to do with the M62 (not M90) on the shelf...

The porting is definitely making a huge mess. One question on that too, how do I go about porting/smoothing out the entire lower intake runner? Haven't looked too hard yet, but I'm guessing there are tools for that? Maybe it just isn't worth the hassle?

[woody90gtz]

It's a beautiful thing to not have to beg/borrow/steal time in your dad's garage any more! haha

[3X00-Modified]

I did not smooth out the whole LIM runner... But you could try to use the bendable attachement for the dremel, that gives you something much thinner to get up in there, but still very hard to get all the areas.

Yeah I wasn't sure if it was an M90 or not, but that was just the first SC number that came to mind.

[scd88ga]

I do have another getrag that's not pictured, though. It isn't a 282, it has something to do with the M62 (not M90) on the shelf...

That looks like a Cobalt SS/Ion Redline Eaton M62 and I'm guessing the other Getrag you have is an F35 MU3 with possibly the optional factory LSD?

[berettaboi]

welcome back! good to see more older members crawling out of the dust! (or coming back from daily life...)

[1988GTU]

WooT!

[el_roy1985]

I do have another getrag that's not pictured, though. It isn't a 282, it has something to do with the M62 (not M90) on the shelf...

That looks like a Cobalt SS/Ion Redline Eaton M62 and I'm guessing the other Getrag you have is an F35 MU3 with possibly the optional factory LSD?

Got that right, but it isn't the LSD optioned F35 unfortunately. I do have a LSD unit to be installed though... That will be a different thread, over on ecotecforum, when I start that little project.

Right now I'm on wot-tech looking at header flanges, and drooling on my keyboard...

[scd88ga]

Ha! Super fantastic! ^^^

[el_roy1985]

Did some playing around with header design the other night. Kinda hard to tell what's going on in the pics, but a very rough mock up to test possible routing.






I left what I think is ample room between the wires, so I think the tubing could be tighter together. I also need to take measurements for the rear header, to see how much room I actually have back there. Not worried about the front as much, since I'll just go to a different fan setup to create more room. I'll even move the radiator forward if I have to, but I really don't think that will be necessary. Now it's time to look for tubing while I wait for the flanges to arrive.

[3X00-Modified]

Tubing is easy to find, but if I were you I would try to get SS and make it so you only have to do this once.... If I were to spend that much time doing a set of headers I wouldn't do anything but SS.