Edit: tons of photos added.
Some might know I have a 7M in a Z car. I first completed the swap in April of 2005 and drove it to the West Coast Z car Nationals the week after I completed the swap. Having a MHG and a box of ARP head studs ready to go I opted to wait until I returned from the show (in 05) to do the MHG and Studs. This turned out to be a bad decision. I didn't help things with my style of not taking it easy on things (the motor). Anyways in 05 I blew the headgasket and cracked a piston at Chiraco Peak in the middle of the California desert. I was able to nurse it to Anaheim and get a one way ticket back to get the Truck and trailer to tow the Z back home. I was in transit and completely missed the show. On the way back it was sheer torture watching my 3 friends in there quick Z cars zip around in traffic like bumble bee's, while I floored it just to have old lady's in minivans box me in while towing the Z on a car hauler.
I broke a piston in December of 05 again and Clifton continued to taunt me (into getting it done) and come over and help me as much as he could. I had a ton of things going and couldn't get on it until a couple weeks before the event in April 2006 and I just did an in the car rebuild with a stone hone and some WD-40, (done this several times with excellent results on other vehicles, just never on a motor that saw 20+ psi) bummer thing was the motor smoked a little bit when I was done (3 cylinders were better than 95% on the leak down test the other 3 were less than 80%) and I was so pissed about it I called and canceled my reservations. Again I missed the show.
Feb 2007 I was determined to make this show and do everything RIGHT!!! I rebuilt the motor with Forged JE pistons, Forged Eagle rods, and completely balanced assembly, I plastigaged everything, I came up with a bigger oil supply line design, installed a crank scrapper, and a new oil filter adapter, shimmed the oil pump and plated and polished everything that was reasonable to do. I had such a nice looking motor I had to paint the engine compartmemt, that ate up a lot of time and it was going to be a crunch.
I finally get it finished with no time to spare and almost no time to break it in but its done and Im very happy with the results, I run around at the last minute and get the A/C charged in my 35 year old vehicle and it works great. Man am I excited to finally make it to the car show after trying for 3 years.
Everything goes fine and as always I am late meeting the friends (about 30 minutes) I will be caravaning with on the west side of Phoenix (usually a 45 minute drive from my house) I make awesome time and do that same distance in 24 minutes in 9:00am traffic no less. They get fed up waiting for me and leave, but Im making good time catching up to them and catch an Eclipse that makes me squeeze it up over 100 mph to pass him, he just wanted to play (and it was only the 2 of us at that point) and got off at the exit right after I pass him. When I let off the gas the blow off valve makes a funny noise and I dont think much about it until I step back on the gas, I had a few seconds to coast back to a reasonable speed. It spits and sputters and stalls. I let out the clutch in gear and it starts and idles fine but wont pull a load at all. I pull over and pop the hood and see the lower transition elbow has a huge rip in it from nose to tail. Catastrophic failure of the silicone elbow, I push the pieces back into place and am able to drive about a mile to get under an underpass for shade (lucky for me we were having almost record temps, it was almost 100 degrees out LOL).
I called Clifton on the cell and he and Brian came back for me and brought some Duct tape and saved me. Cant believe I forgot the duct tape. The charge pipe that broke was a 90 deg transition from 2.5 inches to 3.0 inches. When I bought it I remember it took me a while to find someone that stocked it and it took even longer for that guy to ship it. I called a couple friends and and had them call several places and no one had one in stock in town, and all gave the obligatory, "I CAN ORDER IT FOR YOU." Sure guys, I will wait right here under the Gila Bend exit ramp till you ship it LOL.
Finally I called DRIFTMOTION, Aaron said yea I have 4 of them on the shelf. I said "OMG I you are the greatest, Ill take 2, How do I get to Pomona". My wife and I watch the boost gauge for even the slightest increase. About a thousand times my wife says "Whoa, your boosting!!!" She was right to do so after the first stop it looked like the silicone was starting to slip off and the duct tape was severely melted. Again my friends buzz and zip thru traffic as I lumber along with less acceleration than a diesel VW Rabbit. At least they stayed with me until Riverside they split off and headed for Anaheim and we headed for Pomona, directions were excellent and easy and we felt a huge sigh of relief to arrive in good hands.
Aaron and Jose were so hospitable, it was unbelievable. They pulled out a few customers cars and handed me some power tools to make the job easier and were nothing but help. They even let me work right in front of the fan, remember that "almost record heat thing?" It was hot as hell, but they were so helpful it made everything alright.
It turns out that another Arizona customer of theirs was in town and his car was very close to being finished, and looked amazing. 1JZ swap, full paint job and all the love from Aaron and Jose. He came back to the shop and we talked Supras and cars and I finished wrenching.
Aaron hooked me up with a ton of other little details to clean up my swap and generally put my wife at ease. Sometimes your wife has a hard time believing you about the sound ness of your motor when you break as many as I have. He had everything I could possibly think of needing, t-bolt clamps in every size Silicone in every size, clamps, covers, zip ties are just a few of the things I needed but they really do have everything you could possibly need for an intercooler plumbing installation, of any kind.
I couldnt leave without taking Aaron for a spin, lucky it was after 5:00pm on a Friday in their industrial complex. We did a few quick bursts and I took him back to the shop. We really wanted to stay and do dinner with them but didn't have the time, we still needed to meet up with our friends at the Hotel and check in and register.
The next day was an all day Autocross for Z cars only. We all got as many as 10 runs in, it was a total blast and we used up plenty of our tires.
We hit the Show the next day at a beautiful park just east of Irvine Lake. Beautiful drive thru the hills was tons of fun. Clifton took home 2nd best 240Z modified. I finally got to see all those sweet Z cars I had missed the last 2 years in a row.
We left Monday morning at 7:30am to miss the rush hour and it was perfect timing. We all made it home without incident and we traveled at about 85+mph. Checking my distance on the odometer I was very surprised to see I averaged over 24mpg at over 85mph.
HUGE HUGE THANKS to Aaron and DRIFTMOTION.com I will post photos and links tonight.
Thanks again Guys for making my 3rd try a charm, I couldnt have done it without you guys!!!!
Some might know I have a 7M in a Z car. I first completed the swap in April of 2005 and drove it to the West Coast Z car Nationals the week after I completed the swap. Having a MHG and a box of ARP head studs ready to go I opted to wait until I returned from the show (in 05) to do the MHG and Studs. This turned out to be a bad decision. I didn't help things with my style of not taking it easy on things (the motor). Anyways in 05 I blew the headgasket and cracked a piston at Chiraco Peak in the middle of the California desert. I was able to nurse it to Anaheim and get a one way ticket back to get the Truck and trailer to tow the Z back home. I was in transit and completely missed the show. On the way back it was sheer torture watching my 3 friends in there quick Z cars zip around in traffic like bumble bee's, while I floored it just to have old lady's in minivans box me in while towing the Z on a car hauler.
I broke a piston in December of 05 again and Clifton continued to taunt me (into getting it done) and come over and help me as much as he could. I had a ton of things going and couldn't get on it until a couple weeks before the event in April 2006 and I just did an in the car rebuild with a stone hone and some WD-40, (done this several times with excellent results on other vehicles, just never on a motor that saw 20+ psi) bummer thing was the motor smoked a little bit when I was done (3 cylinders were better than 95% on the leak down test the other 3 were less than 80%) and I was so pissed about it I called and canceled my reservations. Again I missed the show.
Feb 2007 I was determined to make this show and do everything RIGHT!!! I rebuilt the motor with Forged JE pistons, Forged Eagle rods, and completely balanced assembly, I plastigaged everything, I came up with a bigger oil supply line design, installed a crank scrapper, and a new oil filter adapter, shimmed the oil pump and plated and polished everything that was reasonable to do. I had such a nice looking motor I had to paint the engine compartmemt, that ate up a lot of time and it was going to be a crunch.
I finally get it finished with no time to spare and almost no time to break it in but its done and Im very happy with the results, I run around at the last minute and get the A/C charged in my 35 year old vehicle and it works great. Man am I excited to finally make it to the car show after trying for 3 years.
Everything goes fine and as always I am late meeting the friends (about 30 minutes) I will be caravaning with on the west side of Phoenix (usually a 45 minute drive from my house) I make awesome time and do that same distance in 24 minutes in 9:00am traffic no less. They get fed up waiting for me and leave, but Im making good time catching up to them and catch an Eclipse that makes me squeeze it up over 100 mph to pass him, he just wanted to play (and it was only the 2 of us at that point) and got off at the exit right after I pass him. When I let off the gas the blow off valve makes a funny noise and I dont think much about it until I step back on the gas, I had a few seconds to coast back to a reasonable speed. It spits and sputters and stalls. I let out the clutch in gear and it starts and idles fine but wont pull a load at all. I pull over and pop the hood and see the lower transition elbow has a huge rip in it from nose to tail. Catastrophic failure of the silicone elbow, I push the pieces back into place and am able to drive about a mile to get under an underpass for shade (lucky for me we were having almost record temps, it was almost 100 degrees out LOL).
I called Clifton on the cell and he and Brian came back for me and brought some Duct tape and saved me. Cant believe I forgot the duct tape. The charge pipe that broke was a 90 deg transition from 2.5 inches to 3.0 inches. When I bought it I remember it took me a while to find someone that stocked it and it took even longer for that guy to ship it. I called a couple friends and and had them call several places and no one had one in stock in town, and all gave the obligatory, "I CAN ORDER IT FOR YOU." Sure guys, I will wait right here under the Gila Bend exit ramp till you ship it LOL.
Finally I called DRIFTMOTION, Aaron said yea I have 4 of them on the shelf. I said "OMG I you are the greatest, Ill take 2, How do I get to Pomona". My wife and I watch the boost gauge for even the slightest increase. About a thousand times my wife says "Whoa, your boosting!!!" She was right to do so after the first stop it looked like the silicone was starting to slip off and the duct tape was severely melted. Again my friends buzz and zip thru traffic as I lumber along with less acceleration than a diesel VW Rabbit. At least they stayed with me until Riverside they split off and headed for Anaheim and we headed for Pomona, directions were excellent and easy and we felt a huge sigh of relief to arrive in good hands.
Aaron and Jose were so hospitable, it was unbelievable. They pulled out a few customers cars and handed me some power tools to make the job easier and were nothing but help. They even let me work right in front of the fan, remember that "almost record heat thing?" It was hot as hell, but they were so helpful it made everything alright.
It turns out that another Arizona customer of theirs was in town and his car was very close to being finished, and looked amazing. 1JZ swap, full paint job and all the love from Aaron and Jose. He came back to the shop and we talked Supras and cars and I finished wrenching.
Aaron hooked me up with a ton of other little details to clean up my swap and generally put my wife at ease. Sometimes your wife has a hard time believing you about the sound ness of your motor when you break as many as I have. He had everything I could possibly think of needing, t-bolt clamps in every size Silicone in every size, clamps, covers, zip ties are just a few of the things I needed but they really do have everything you could possibly need for an intercooler plumbing installation, of any kind.
I couldnt leave without taking Aaron for a spin, lucky it was after 5:00pm on a Friday in their industrial complex. We did a few quick bursts and I took him back to the shop. We really wanted to stay and do dinner with them but didn't have the time, we still needed to meet up with our friends at the Hotel and check in and register.
The next day was an all day Autocross for Z cars only. We all got as many as 10 runs in, it was a total blast and we used up plenty of our tires.
We hit the Show the next day at a beautiful park just east of Irvine Lake. Beautiful drive thru the hills was tons of fun. Clifton took home 2nd best 240Z modified. I finally got to see all those sweet Z cars I had missed the last 2 years in a row.
We left Monday morning at 7:30am to miss the rush hour and it was perfect timing. We all made it home without incident and we traveled at about 85+mph. Checking my distance on the odometer I was very surprised to see I averaged over 24mpg at over 85mph.
HUGE HUGE THANKS to Aaron and DRIFTMOTION.com I will post photos and links tonight.
Thanks again Guys for making my 3rd try a charm, I couldnt have done it without you guys!!!!
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