350Butcher

Bit of an update! So I went down to Surrey to collect the heads on Wednesday, porting work and cnc valve seat cutting all finished. Stayed down at the shop Thursday/Friday to get the all the valves lapped in and the valve clearances set.........building up the heads, measuring clearances, stripping back down, grinding valves, rebuild, recheck clearances........proper ball ache work but all done now! Got home to find this, which was good news too. There's a few pics now! First up is how much meat has come out of the heads from the porting Heads all washed out, oil and water ways blown through and left to dry in the sun A few pics of the head work. First pic is one sent through from Steve showing the inlet cnc seat profile vs std. Then a few of the finished job, inlet and exhaust port work, The shaping has removed the "wall" between where the port splits to the 2 valves and also the short side on the exhaust has now got a far straighter run from the big angle it has as stock. So back at home and heads all washed it was actually time to start putting stuff together!! Got to say its felt like ages so I've really enjoyed making some progress with it..............so much so I forgot to take many pics! Who knew oak furniture land made build benches! and the new tomei springs vs stock.......trick oval wire thats allows for lower height at full compression due to the increased lift Heads fully assembled, time to grab the manifolds from the loft and get out in the garage! Had to get my new engine mounts in and the manifolds in place before heads went on Spin in the ARP studs and get the Cosworth gaskets in place then drop the heads back on torque them down and get those long tube manifolds bolted up! And to finish up this weekends work I got the cams laid in (nice of tomei to remind you of what you've ordered), got the oil gallery gaskets fitted and started the horrible part of siliconing the parts together which I must say after being rather apprehensive of this and the fact this engine uses a lot of the stuff it really isn't as bad as I thought it might be..........I did make life much easier by getting some M6 studding and cutting off a couple of 6" long lengths to act as a guide to slide the rear timing chain cover towards the engine so to get it on perfect first time and not drag any of the silicone off while trying the locate the factory dowels........worked a treat! Next up to start putting the timing chain on!

Ahh thought you said you were gonna leave the engine stock for a while. In that case it makes sense, the stock design does have that weak spot and like me I'm sure you don't want to be worried about it breaking up instead of enjoying driving the car.

Selling really cheap! Bargain for someone

Don't let me stop you but if you're leaving the engine stock then it won't be worth revving over 6800rpm as it doesn't make any power over that and the standard gears are plenty up to the job for that. The standard gears have a square profile on one face of the outer pump gear and when revved higher this becomes a weak spot and is the first place to go as a result (you'll see that in the pic you attached). I think all the horror pics to see of the gears in pieces aren't from standard cars and don't tell the full story. That said no harm in building in strength and reliability either.

I wish it was £200! Here is a link to where I ordered mine http://www.boundarypumps.com/nissan/nissan-oil-pump-gears

Makes sense to install the Koyo rad then. Its a quality bit of kit and the fit is absolutely spot on. Part no.V2999 is the one you want, thats the 36mm core competition rad. Pics of mine are on page 1

Sounds hopeful then Had 5w30 when it was blowing blue smoke, just ordered some 5w40. Yet to order the PCV valve yet. Every chance it is that.......I wasn't sure and thought the worst cos nothing ever is both cheap and easy to install that actually fixes a problem!! Good to go thicker, I've always used 10w60 Millers CFS in both my Z's, how thin must 5w30 be when its at 100 degrees+! It splash's like water when its cold.

He says it pulls hard from 5-8k now which is good too know and he's on totally stock intake from plenum, runners and heads and I know that looking at mine now there are definitely gains to be had from porting and profiling that lot. I think the 3.9 will be loads better than the 3.5 on track while still remaining a good cruiser when heading off on road trips so that's why I went for that. Think if I was going for a more track focused build I would've gone with the 4.08 instead.

I had a friend say my old DE car was blowing bit of blue smoke intermittently seemingly on lift off/gear change and I swapped out the PCV valve and was job done so hopefully you get the same result. What oil rating do you use normally?

Well I always work out how long I think it's going to take and cost then double it (and with more recent mods treble it!!) and I'm usually far closer to the reality. We wouldn't do it if we didn't love it though eh!!

I thought it would be a bell housing adapter to stick with stock 'box, fair play to swap out boxes too then with modded prop etc too. As you say makes sense to stick with a factory unit that was made to handle the engine from the start. Don't blame you for not going there on a top speed run, nothing to really enjoy there and a lot to lose/break if something goes wrong! Knowing it'll do it should you ever want to will do eh. A few track days in it to just enjoy it and learn it would be far far more enjoyable and beneficial I'd say. Good to hear the Z's chassis is still feeling good with the new (do I have to say "motor" now?) engine installed. When I've looked at some of the conversions to RB engine, huge cast iron lump sitting further forward I think it must ruin the handling. This seems more win win to me PS I did try to flick though the many pages of this build to find all the pics and techy highlights that went into the conversion. If its not an absolute nightmare to do could you do a post with a few pics of the progress from VQ - LS? The more engineering, nuts and bolts of it all the better. Cheers

You can update your location now too..................the wait is over!

Some impressive numbers. Should be a able to make far better use of the super long gearing that the Zed has, must be a 180mph car now! Sounds like it mounts up nicely so no negative effects to the handling either. Enjoy it!!

In a world of downsizing and turbo charging it's good to read about something sticking with proper n/a and just making the numbers bigger! What power are these 400+? Out of interest is the V8 engine much heavier than the VQ and does it mount as far back and as low as the standard engine? Congrats to all for the effort and commitment to see it through and get it finished

Banana/Compression arm has got to be done as it takes such punishment. I'd say that one and the rear diff and subframe bushes make the biggest differences to the handling but then while it's all apart it seems daft not to do the rest as you go. More money and time as always though. SPL's in a few choice places, Whiteline and Superpro for the rest I went with and am happy with. VX. Elise are great fun especially with 300Hp, AP brakes and Nitron shocks.......its a little missile!

It's really interesting to see how the smaller valves used in the HR head actually improve the low lift flow on the intake, hopefully I can keep that line climbing from there on mine though!! It does highlight just how much work they did on the later engine and its not just some letters. I've gone for the road ones too, the guy said the track ones are really hardcore and seriously unsuitable for road use with the additional noise/vibration. Read a lot about the torque solutions mount, what is too much for some seems ok for others but I'll see how I get on with this one they're making up for me. I've got the B&M on mine and I'm really looking forward to a tight shift. My old Evo gearshift was so so sweet so thats my benchmark and so I hoping its like that after. Went for the whiteline kit, didn't want to go for the solid mounting as thought again bit too hardcore for road trips etc and I've been really happy with them. Absolute pig to get the old bushes out though, you just have to cut and tear them out but then the whitelines press in in 2 secs!

I always call mine "The pie eater" but it was 1505kgs on the scales with half a tank of fuel and before I swapped the seats out so its a sub 1500kg car now and as you say when I briefly considered M3's E46 at 1500+ and E90 at 1700+ with no one saying anything about it! Even hot hatches are touching 1400 ish these days. The amount of movement in the factory bushes is criminal, definitely a decision was made for comfort over performance at Nissan HQ. My chassis is night and day different for rebushing it. I regularly drive my brothers Vxr220 on track fitted with Nitron 3 way race sus with track geo and my 350 doesn't feel understeery after hopping out of that and back into mine.............feels MASSIVE but not bad mannered or boring. For what they cost a few choice bushes are well worth it, especially at the 'Ring with the huge high speed crests and compressions etc. Always good to get a pre 'Ring track day in just to check everything out. (Shameless pic of Bro's VXR No.10 and the only Moonland Grey they produced..........he's had it since the beginning of 2006!!) Cheers, appreciate that. I really like doing all the work on my cars and so this time round I thought I'd share it and I'm glad people are enjoying reading through it. Nothing stays standard for long, especially when you track it!! Enjoy all your toys!!

How do you find the mounts, much noise and vibration increase with them? and is the gearshift slicker? Yeah the HR heads are quite a bit better than the DE but they still leave something on the table. Pulled this image from OnPoint website, shows fully ported DE heads vs stock DE and HR heads...... Inlets Exhaust and I agree, I did speak to Sasha and Jenvey regarding these http://www.onpointdy...-now-available/ but there's not much point before doing what I'm doing now but next year if all's going well I may add a set for the cherry on the cake! They're the 2 main ones to do. If you can get the subframe bushes done, considering my bushes had only done 26k miles too, the difference was massive. Tightens up the rear and stops that floating/disconnected feeling when really pressing on. Does firm up the normal drive too but well worth it for the plus points. Just look at how far the subframe hangs when you next jack your car up! I'd liked to have done a bit of the porting work myself too but given the time scale and the fact you can't add what you accidentally just took off I was quite happy to let Steve just hand them back when he'd finished working his magic. Well.............all going to plan.............heads I collect next Thursday/Friday, then I'll be getting everything back together through whats left of March and April, ready for mapping start of May and then off to Anglesey on the 29th to see what difference its all made.

Yeah I think so too! Really have no idea what the results are gonna be though.........looking forward to finding out. Everything is coming together, waiting on the heads now. They've been a bit more work than was expected and he's a very busy guy doing them for me too. Apparently the port sizes are all good but the shaping can be improved on. Intake port has a "wall" between where it splits to feed the valves (see pics) and the exhaust port short side is quite an angle so he's reshaping and reducing the angle there. Sadly his flow bench is in the process of moving workshops so I'm not able to have a before and after which would have been great, he's predicting a 7cfm improvement per cylinder from his experience, which he added I should gain roughly 0.5hp per cfm, which x 6 I'm happy with. Other than that everything I can do is done, parts are all cleaned up and ready to go back together...........just wanna get stuck into again now. Got some Vibra Technics engine mounts and a prototype gearbox mount I asked them to do for me (which was great they said yes to, service doesn't get better than that!) which I'm looking forward to getting fitted on. That'll mean every single bush and mount on the entire car has been replaced now! I've also taken the plunge and gone for the Stllen gen3 intakes for it as I've been reading some good things about them and didn't want the factory airboxes ending up being the restriction in everything after doing all this work to get it breathing........we will see, I'm still not completely sure on some of the claims from them but they have to be freer flowing so worth it. Pic of inlet port before Roughed out after

Nicely put together vids.......wish I knew how to do that! Was a pretty close call with your spin glad you only need a pressure washer to put it right again! Was especially lucky the front end got on the grass before it came back round! Glad you're enjoying the Zed on track, I've always been impressed with mine considering its such a pie eating bus. I've never suffered from such bad understeer like you've mentioned and always felt the front ends been good, some corners required a bit of trail braking to get it backed in a little to keep it neutral but its never properly ploughed on to the point I've been left waiting to get back on the power. (I'm sure you have but thought I'd mention it as a thought) Have you checked the bushes on the front sus are in good shape? The Zed front setup is quite unique and leans on the bushes more than most so your geo goes straight out the window with a bit of load through it and may account for excessive understeer. Considering you're on AD08's and 245 all round too, which I found a really nice setup to the point that when these tyres are done I'll be flogging the 19" LMGT4's and going back to 18" on the front at least Replacing the diff is something you wont regret either, pricey but as you say well worth it. Get on the power loads earlier, no inside wheel spin just drives out the corners so much better. I binned the standard diff after my first trackday in my old 350z and didn't even drive my new one before I replaced it for the os giken unit. Brakes have been covered a lot on hear recently but with a few changes and proper pads the stock brembo's are well up with dealing with a standard power car. I also fancied getting a tyre pressure monitoring thing for the very same reason but how accurate are they given that I've found 1psi difference can change things so much..........I'll be keen to see how you get on and find it compared to good ol fashioned manual gauge.

Wouldn't know what side that is from looking. Not sure if they are different but you'll need to make sure the splines all locate in the diff properly. I'm sure a bit of googling will give you the answer. Yes mine is fully rebuilt, did the side bearings and seals when I fitted the diff and the pinion bearing/seals etc all replaced when fitting the final drive. You could reuse your bearings if they are low miles but for the sake of a couple of ££ I'd always say better fit new. If I had of opened the bottom end up I think I would've fitted a 370 crank/rods custom pistons but you've got to stop somewhere and I'm not sure you'll gain much, bit more torque mostly I'd guess. Think you're right to do all the chassis mods first, that is where proper speed comes from and losing as much weight as poss, being I'm trying to keep mine as a road car too I wont be going down the stripping out route but as Colin Chapman says "Adding power makes you faster on the straights. Subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere." For me my cars chassis is very good, with all the huge movement taken out from rebushing everything and the suspension mods allowing more aggressive geometry it's where I'm happy. What really highlights as a down side is the engines really strong midrange with the frustrating fall on its face at 6700rpm ish so hopefully with that put right I'll be happy with mine for years too!!

I'd be very interested in these but this is a 370z kit though? Any pics of it fitted to your 350 that show how they route? I agree that these will fit but there's cutting and CUTTING!

Here you go, location and part no. My flywheel is steel, didn't fancy an ally one with the insert to be honest! I did read somewhere that the ally ones transmit more noise than the steel too............if you care about the noise that is

I meant to add, in my opinion any more than a 25-30mm drop and it has a negative impact on your handling so might be worth resisting the urge to slam it to the floor!

Good stuff! Yeah sounds like you've got a busy weekend. Thanks