wstar's Journal

wstar · 06-30-2009, 05:44 PM

I'm telling you guys, you saw it start here first. I present to you the new fashion trend in 370Z mods, the Stripped Oil Pan

:

Josh@STILLEN · 06-30-2009, 07:44 PM

Actually this is my keyboard.. called a das keyboard.. I chickened out and got the labeled one..

Anywhoo.. so this stuff stripped your pan like this? Or you found something else to complete it?

wstar · 06-30-2009, 08:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Josh@STILLEN

Anywhoo.. so this stuff stripped your pan like this? Or you found something else to complete it?

Yeah I just sprayed it down with "Gasket Remover" counted to 10, wiped it down with a paper towel, and blew it off with an air gun. I'm a little worried about corrosion now of course, but I don't have any good high temp paint here at the moment anyways. I may pull the pan and repaint it at the next oil change.

Anyways, I just finished up with the oil pan business, it took a lot longer than I thought it would owing to a fitment complication of sorts. The pan spacer fits on the engine fine, and our engine with a spaced pan installed on it would drop in our car fine too. However, you can't really install a spaced pan on this engine while it's in the car.

There's a metal tab, whose purpose in life is to be the backing for one of the 16 bolts for the plastic undertray, which sits directly above one of the oil pan bolt heads. It's merely a pain in the *** when removing the stock pan, but after making the pan stick out an inch further, there's just no way to tighten the oil pan bolt behind it. You can't even get the bolt in there to start it unless you bring it in with the pan (already sunk into the spacer), but even after that there's no way to tighten. I tried everything, even shaving down the sides of a small 10mm open wrench, but no go.

The only thing I think might work for tightening that one oil pan bolt would be to hoist or jack the whole engine up a couple of inches on its mounts to give more temporary clearance while tightening. Then maybe you could get it 1/16th at a time with an open wrench. It would still be a total pain in the ***.

I tried a few variations and gave up on doing it nicely. So I got out the trusty dremel tool with a heavy duty cutoff wheel and gave my plastic undertray one less attachment point. Problem solved, now I can move on

Pics of all of this will be coming, much later tonight.

miguez · 07-01-2009, 06:00 AM

Nice update, thanks!

semtex · 07-01-2009, 10:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wstar

No, this is the same kit they've been selling. I'm hoping the smaller core will suffice with the extra oil capacity from the spacer, but we'll see what happens in practice. I do want to upgrade to a thermo sandwich plate later though.

I've already started on the oil-related work today. I'm doing it in small chunks while I do other things, it will drag on all afternoon/evening

Pics will come eventually.

The only really notable thing I've learned so far: I saw a mention of "gasket remover" (as in, a chemical) in either the Service Manual or the AAM install guide for the oil pan spacer, and figured I'd pick some up at the parts shop and give it a try, see if it makes it easier to completely remove the remains of the oil pan gasket.

Result: OMFG, I have never encountered such a nasty, volatile chemical for retail sale to the general public in my life. And I'm the kind of guy that doesn't mind cleaning my hands with Varsol. Even Birchwood Casey Gun Scrubber doesn't hold a candle to this stuff. The rather extensive and scary warning label should be re-written to simply say: "Warning: Do Not Use".

There was some jibber-jabber about keeping it away from painted surfaces, so I donned some nitrile gloves and tried to spray some lightly on the edge of the oil pan (where the gasket was) and shield the rest with some paper towels. This was totally insufficient protection for the paint, much less my hands. Nitrile gloves turn brown where it touches, and then your skin gets cold and then starts burning, had to go wash that off first. When I got back, anywhere it had touched/dripped onto the oil pan's paint, it began violently bubbling and boiling and krinkling up the paint and eating it. Pretty much it destroys anything that isn't metal, very quickly.

So having already destroyed some of the paint on my oil pan, I just went ahead and went all out for a "new look" and stripped the rest of the paint from the pan

Now I just hope my hands don't fall off two days from now.

This stuff sounds like it'd make a good weapon! Forget pepper spray. Spray some of this stuff at an attacker and watch his flesh melt! Okay, that sounds kinda psycho, doesn't it?

wstar · 07-01-2009, 10:49 AM

Oil project is in limbo, should get finished today sometime. Waiting on some instructional clarifications from Stillen, and I had to run to the auto parts store this morning on foot for a single M6 bolt

wstar · 07-01-2009, 06:09 PM

Engine is running on the full new oil system, and seems to be doing great. No oil leaks that I can see so far. Haven't driven the car yet, just ran it in the driveway so far with the bumper still off. Lots of semi-scary work involved, so I'm taking my time and triple-checking everything a lot right now. But the good news is the engine is purring along fine through the Stillen cooler and with the spaced out oil pan.

From a super-drained state (oil pan was off for hours, and btw there is a considerable amount left in that pan after a normal oil drain through the drain hole on a level surface...) I ended up pouring back in a total of roughly 8.5 quarts of Motul 300V during the refill process. I think I may be a little overfilled at this point (by half a quart or less), going to let it fully cool now and recheck whether I need to drain a slight amount to get it back to right on the full mark cold.

I know, 8 quarts sounds insane, but if you figure a normal 5 quart oil change, +1 for the cooler system, +1 for the spacer, and +1 for being super-drained with the pan off, it kinda makes sense. I can't wait to get to the test driving for temps.

wstar · 07-01-2009, 06:13 PM

Oh and it may be a while before I can get any pics, which makes documenting DIY stuff here kinda hard. Apparently using your phone to take pics of a car work in progress has more downsides than shitty images. I think I may have contaminated the touchscreen with some fluid or other, and killed it. And I need to use the touchscreen to unlock the phone, but the hard buttons otherwise work and I can receive calls

. So my phone is kinda half dead with my pics of the earlier parts of the process on it :/

miguez · 07-01-2009, 08:52 PM

Bummer about the phone!

When you refilled the 8.5 quarts, did it stop filling at one point, requiring you to wait for it to fill the cooler, to then continue, or was it in one shot?

RCZ · 07-01-2009, 08:52 PM

so?

wstar · 07-01-2009, 09:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by miguez

Bummer about the phone!

When you refilled the 8.5 quarts, did it stop filling at one point, requiring you to wait for it to fill the cooler, to then continue, or was it in one shot?

I had to do it in steps, yes. I initially poured 6.5 quarts into the cold engine for the first startup. Started the car, let it run about 5-10 seconds, shut it off, dipstick was low again. Added another quart, ran it a *little* bit longer, shut it down again, added another quart and warmed the engine up fully. Right after shutoff I checked the dipstick again and it was slightly over the full mark, so I knew that meant it would be overfull once the engine drained to the pan as it cooled off.

Just now I drained it back to the correct "cold" level, ended up taking slightly over half a quart back out (did this by loosening the oil drain bolt, letting a little pour, then screwing it back in and checking level, took a few tries, but eventually nailed it without going too far).

Quote:

Originally Posted by RCZ

so?

Car is definitely healthy. I've checked and rechecked and rechecked everything a bazillion times, done lots of testing in the driveway. Bumper is still off the car and no test drive because I'm lazy and tired now

I learned *lots* of interesting stuff I'm going to have to post about doing DIY installs of the oil pan spacer and the oil cooler kit. Was hoping to put some photos up with them, but the damn camera/phone :P. I'll make a DIY thread about this project regardless sometime tonight, with or without any good pics.

wstar · 07-01-2009, 11:17 PM

First test drive done (without the plastic undertray, so that I could inspect things easier). It was a relatively tame drive, with stops about once every two blocks to pop the hood, check fluid levels, stare under the car with a flashlight, etc. I'm paranoid

Anyways, nothing leaked, everything worked fine. I got in some harder acceleration runs a few times near the end of the drive, all was smooth. Oil temps are definitely going to be way better. It warms up a lot slower, and stays a lot lower. Seems to stabilize at around 195 when cruising around at night now (which is about what our coolant stabilizes at isn't it? doubt that's a coincidence), although it takes its sweet time getting up to that.

No serious oil-temp-stress testing tonight though. I want to go through testing the car at this point in stages so that I can hopefully catch any small problems without them turning into catastrophes

It's worth it to avoid a $10K engine bill or whatever it is if I blew out a line during a hard driving stretch.

travisjb · 07-01-2009, 11:46 PM

That's great, congrats on successful install... sounds like all is well so far.

wstar · 07-02-2009, 12:45 AM

Pic-less DIY thead on the pan install for now:

DIY: Oil Pan Spacer

The oil cooler install really needs pics even more than that one does, and needs me to organize my thoughts about all the little gotchas along the way. Coming soon

wstar · 07-02-2009, 10:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by miguez

Bummer about the phone!

Phone screen is alive again this morning, seems to have sorted itself out once whatever chemical evaporated away or something.

DIY: Oil Pan Spacer <- updated with pics now

06-30-2009, 05:44 PM	#196 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3594	I'm telling you guys, you saw it start here first. I present to you the new fashion trend in 370Z mods, the Stripped Oil Pan : __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details

07-01-2009, 10:49 AM	#201 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3594	Oil project is in limbo, should get finished today sometime. Waiting on some instructional clarifications from Stillen, and I had to run to the auto parts store this morning on foot for a single M6 bolt __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details

07-01-2009, 06:09 PM	#202 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3594	Engine is running on the full new oil system, and seems to be doing great. No oil leaks that I can see so far. Haven't driven the car yet, just ran it in the driveway so far with the bumper still off. Lots of semi-scary work involved, so I'm taking my time and triple-checking everything a lot right now. But the good news is the engine is purring along fine through the Stillen cooler and with the spaced out oil pan. From a super-drained state (oil pan was off for hours, and btw there is a considerable amount left in that pan after a normal oil drain through the drain hole on a level surface...) I ended up pouring back in a total of roughly 8.5 quarts of Motul 300V during the refill process. I think I may be a little overfilled at this point (by half a quart or less), going to let it fully cool now and recheck whether I need to drain a slight amount to get it back to right on the full mark cold. I know, 8 quarts sounds insane, but if you figure a normal 5 quart oil change, +1 for the cooler system, +1 for the spacer, and +1 for being super-drained with the pan off, it kinda makes sense. I can't wait to get to the test driving for temps. __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details

07-01-2009, 06:13 PM	#203 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3594	Oh and it may be a while before I can get any pics, which makes documenting DIY stuff here kinda hard. Apparently using your phone to take pics of a car work in progress has more downsides than shitty images. I think I may have contaminated the touchscreen with some fluid or other, and killed it. And I need to use the touchscreen to unlock the phone, but the hard buttons otherwise work and I can receive calls . So my phone is kinda half dead with my pics of the earlier parts of the process on it :/ __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details

07-01-2009, 11:17 PM	#207 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3594	First test drive done (without the plastic undertray, so that I could inspect things easier). It was a relatively tame drive, with stops about once every two blocks to pop the hood, check fluid levels, stare under the car with a flashlight, etc. I'm paranoid Anyways, nothing leaked, everything worked fine. I got in some harder acceleration runs a few times near the end of the drive, all was smooth. Oil temps are definitely going to be way better. It warms up a lot slower, and stays a lot lower. Seems to stabilize at around 195 when cruising around at night now (which is about what our coolant stabilizes at isn't it? doubt that's a coincidence), although it takes its sweet time getting up to that. No serious oil-temp-stress testing tonight though. I want to go through testing the car at this point in stages so that I can hopefully catch any small problems without them turning into catastrophes It's worth it to avoid a $10K engine bill or whatever it is if I blew out a line during a hard driving stretch. __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details

06-30-2009, 07:44 PM	#197 (permalink)
Josh@STILLEN The370Z.com Sponsor Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Costa Mesa, CA Posts: 1,197 Drives: 2004 G35 Coupe 6MT Rep Power: 534	Actually this is my keyboard.. called a das keyboard.. I chickened out and got the labeled one.. Anywhoo.. so this stuff stripped your pan like this? Or you found something else to complete it?

07-01-2009, 06:00 AM	#199 (permalink)
miguez Enthusiast Member Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Columbus, Ohio Posts: 359 Drives: '04 Cavalier Rep Power: 181	Nice update, thanks!

07-01-2009, 08:52 PM	#204 (permalink)
miguez Enthusiast Member Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Columbus, Ohio Posts: 359 Drives: '04 Cavalier Rep Power: 181	Bummer about the phone! When you refilled the 8.5 quarts, did it stop filling at one point, requiring you to wait for it to fill the cooler, to then continue, or was it in one shot?

07-01-2009, 08:52 PM	#205 (permalink)
RCZ A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Miami Posts: 6,403 Drives: '09 370Z Rep Power: 1119	so?

07-01-2009, 11:46 PM	#208 (permalink)
travisjb A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: GSO Posts: 2,803 Drives: VIR Rep Power: 188	That's great, congrats on successful install... sounds like all is well so far. __________________ 2009 370Z #104 For Sale

07-02-2009, 12:45 AM	#209 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3594	Pic-less DIY thead on the pan install for now: DIY: Oil Pan Spacer The oil cooler install really needs pics even more than that one does, and needs me to organize my thoughts about all the little gotchas along the way. Coming soon __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details

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