Mr. G. Brettin's Slow Motion Leg Hump

Rusty

I had to use a burr bit with a pencil grinder.

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浪人 - 殺し屋
"The Difficult Anytime, The Impossible By Appointment Only"
http://www.the370z.com/members-370z-...o-journal.html

Elmo370z

Pag

gbrettin

My machinist buddy brought a special bit to the shop and had the hole cleared up in about 5min. 100% worth having him do it. Time vs Skill trade off there. So all that means that I could put the head on and torque it down.

Next move was to put in studs. I cut the head off some bolts and then found out that 30mm was not nearly long enough. I hopped on Amazon and ordered 60mm. The extra length can easily be adjusted down into the head. I can patiently wait for that vs cutting off heads on bolts. One bolt disappear because the cutting disk had a small break and then shot into my chest and rolled off somewhere. I of course was wearing gloves, face shield and safety glasses which helped. Soooooooo, that may have influenced the decision too. lol

After having the engine back together, it looks like the yellow/green on the block isn't overpowering for an accent color. More importantly, it IS an accent color not dominating the entire view. What do you guys think? Too much? Keep in mind I have one more yellow/green item going up top on the valve cover, the smart coil bracket.

My vision is to get Varis Arising 2 side skirts and have a small section of that painted Yellow Green. Only a thin section on the image below. Yeah... I think about this stuff way too much.

gbrettin

Threaded my 60mm studs in with a liberal application of Red Loctite. The intake is still a PITA but... less of one now. I ordered some 20mm threaded nuts because the little baby nuts are impossible to tighten down.

Parts have been put back on the engine. I did a quick inspection of the water pump and need to order some NPT to AN bungs for that. No biggie. Engine is looking pretty close to complete now.

I'm moving parts back into the engine bay now, starting with the Clearview filter. Brake booster will need to be put back in along with the power steering line.

gbrettin

Put the brake booster and master cylinder back in it's home. Being under the dash with broad shoulders was a real treat with having cluster phobic issues. I was wedged in upside down under the dash with the door cracked open with extremely limited arm movements. I was pretty happy being done with that...

I then moved onto simpler pastures and put my coil pack mounts back on my valve covers. Shockingly, the powder coating is almost the same. I did the shade from memory blending paints. The accent color is the perfect amount, not too much. Yeah it's a loud color... but this whole thing is ridiculous so why not.

I was about to put the engine in after I did my power steering cross over line but hit a snag. The Sikky line is not at all low profile for my needs; however, the line going to the PS pump looks top notch with AN lines and such. I reached out to the LS Z/G swap community and received a few suggestions from people. There's a guy in California that works on drift cars that is about to do a low mount option for the 370z. I told him to stop f*cking around and take my money so he is going to MAYBE have something made next week (as seen in the picture). I also talked to Bryan Settle and he said that I could have clocked my PS rack... You know, I could have used my Morosso pan if I knew that? 100% would have done that. I'm not doing that this late in the game. Pshhhh. Pshhhhhhhhh. PSHSHHHHSHS.....

lol

On a different note, I've ordered my Black Sheep Industries 45mm waste gates. They have been sold out since November. The owner reached out to me and told me they were in stock. I had to snap them up quick because I suspect they will go back out of stock in short order. The BSI. wastegates are really cool because they have a piston instead of a diaphragm and are pretty much bullet proof for my needs. I was going to use VS racing... but... that's made out of Chinesium and have had some pretty bad failures with people. I wanted the piece of mind.

Last item. This one is a pretty big bomb. I was torn on what to exactly do with my rear diff and axels. I have my answer. I am a proud owner of a Winters Quick Change rear diff. This will address any gearing issues and breaking issues with my rear end. My specific Winters has ALL the bells and whistles for hardening. I fell into it. My buddy was going to use it for his sandrail but had to go a different direction. I put a message out to MA Motorsports about the rear subframe. I'm not going to get too excited about this because I can't use it until next year. I have other commitments with my car.

gbrettin

A decision was made to put the engine in despite not having the PS crossover line. I figured it's going to work or... I have a lot more work in front of me. SO the engine went in... but the motor mounts are on backwards.

I had a few people helping me and we all agreed to comeback the next day.

gbrettin

Engine pulled... Mounts fixed... Engine placed.

lol

The accessory bracket had to come off just so I could put a 1" NPT block off on the water pump. A 1" NPT to -16 went into the top of the water pump fine but the fitting I ordered for the bottom doesn't work because the nut hits the sides of the housing. SO, Mezeire has a special 1"NPT to -16 long neck that has to be used for that. Guess I'll order that and a 90deg elbow (so that the coolant will be directed to the swirl pot)

The steel threaded inserts for the aluminum head, stainless steel 60mm studs and 20mm nuts made life a little easier putting the plenum on... But it's still a PITA.

A lot of the stuff made it back into the engine bay. Man, the colors look awesome in person.

IG video that I thought was funny:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CMx0N9Nn..._web_copy_link

https://www.instagram.com/p/CMx3MO9H..._web_copy_link

cv129

Ryobi fan club will worship you if they see the engine bay picture

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Setrab | RE-71 | SPL | JRZ | Nismo | ARK | Whiteline | RacingBrake | CJM Oil Pan | Ti shield

ZontheRocks

That one was good for a hearty chuckle.

__________________
'16 Pearl White Sport | Stillen Gen. 3 | Motordyne ART | Motordyne Shockwave | ZSpeed | Powertrix | EVO-R | Aeroworkz | Nismo | Z1 | EcuTek | Tuned by Seb @ SpecialtyZ

cv129

Im in a Ryobi group on facebook, the love for that color is real

On a serious note, i am digging the loud color in small doses theme, showing restraint while standing out.

__________________
Setrab | RE-71 | SPL | JRZ | Nismo | ARK | Whiteline | RacingBrake | CJM Oil Pan | Ti shield

gbrettin

Thanks cv129! Appreciate the feed back. That was 100% what I was going for. Having an idea and trying to translate that sometimes can go horrible wrong. I'm glad the color didn't get out of hand.

Another post with pictures. If it feels like I'm posting pictures everyday... that's about how often I am at the shop putting in the work. I'm trying to do what I can when I can. I figure, something is better than nothing.

I put the lower air box on a couple days ago. It's two bolts that go into the frame. Very simple. Yesterday, I brought back the radiator from my house. The bottom of the radiator was drilled for a -16 line. That was keeps the path of the hose simple. To keep the aluminum shavings to a minimum, I tapped my shop vac really close to the hole I drilled. That worked beautiful. 99% of all the shavings were sucked up.

I think something should be said about the simplicity of the radiator mounting. There's literally 4 bolts holding it down, 2 in the top crash bar and 2 at the bottom, with a bolt. Easy Easy just the way I planned it. Not that I'm trying to take the radiator out all the time... but ease of maintenance will be a good thing. I know I said it before but I actually got to experience the ease of putting it together instead of being mid fabrication.

gbrettin

I was on the fence about posting this... but it appears I must pull my engine one more time. The thrust bearing appears to be cocked up and not allowing the crank to spin easily. One step was missed when putting in the bearings: The main bolts needed to be snugged a little on main cap 3 (location of the thrust bearing) and then I needed to seat the bearing by tapping the crank back and forth. After that, I needed to do the same on 2,4 and then 1,5.

The only good news about this is that I can leave a lot of the engine intact. Heck, I think I can even leave the intake on (I hope so anyway.) The engine builder will be with me this next time because I'm 100% going to burn my car down if I need to pull the engine again.

On a different note, my Meziere fitting came in for the water pump. All of the water pump stuff is ultra clean compared to where I first started.

If you're thinking about making a crack about me pulling the engine again. Consider this. I was at the shop by myself for hours last night pulling the engine while dwelling on how I have to go in reverse again. I've taken time off of work so I can work with the engine builder today to make sure that this is the last time ( hopefully... but I'll do what ever is necessary.) Needless to say, I am a bit raw at this point.

ZontheRocks

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but those connectors look a TAD TOO SMALL.

__________________
'16 Pearl White Sport | Stillen Gen. 3 | Motordyne ART | Motordyne Shockwave | ZSpeed | Powertrix | EVO-R | Aeroworkz | Nismo | Z1 | EcuTek | Tuned by Seb @ SpecialtyZ

gbrettin

So not to be a Debbie Downer and leave everyone on a downer note from yesterday. I was able to get the engine apart and together very easily. I was going to drop the engine in last night but I decided to spend some time with the wife instead.

My pushrods finally came in. The shop likes to place large performance orders so I was waiting on a bunch of people to get their orders in. Now I can drop in the push rods and TQ them down to spec with the engine out!

IG of the mains sat in:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CNBAZAan..._web_copy_link

gbrettin

Looks like I lumped a few pictures in with a different day above. Probably a good thing. When I turned the engine over one of the lifters slid up. Push rods were put into the engine, last component, and all of them went in but one. The plenum and head had to come off so that I could seat the lifter back in. After that, the push rods were added in.

So... that was fun...

I also twisted one machine head off on the shaft mount rocker. I didn't even take a picture because I was so pissed off. I was completing the TQ specs on the bolts. 50in/lbs is not 50ft/lbs ... Yes I know the difference. I glanced at a sideways picture of the TQ specifications and only saw 50. I was already tired and irritated that the plenum and head was removed, then I started to rush. I even made the comment (in my head) "Gesh, that's a fck ton of TQ on a machine screw" ... Yeah, that's because it is.

I talked to my BTR rep about my sob story and they are sending me a new hardened machine bolt, along with MLS exhaust gaskets I paid for. They sent the machine bolt for free.

SO...... Either that bolt is coming out or I am going to run it as is. I'm NOT going to drill that out. The bolt that twisted in half was in a spot where it will have little to no effect.

This build has been completely transparent. I hope that is all the proof you need. Also, I can't stand stuff that goes sideways like that. I knew there was something wrong and I pushed forward.


GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA