300ZX Tech: 120k Mile Maintenance (Pictures)

[JohnC]

Alrighty... As most of you know, the car is back on the road with only a few minor issues left to be worked out (hunting idle, small ps leak, and inconsistent and tiny coolant leak that might not even really be there). I did take *some* pictures of the maintenance work - the mostly-complete album can be found here. Still missing a couple of my "after" shots which will be uploaded tonight hopefully.

Planned on replacing the timing belt, cam seals, crank seal (front main), idler pulleys, water pump, thermostat, t-belt tensioner, accessory belts, VTC o-rings, VTC springs, spark plugs, fuel filter, air filters, pcv valves, and a few other things. My only planned upgrade in all of this was replacing the stock radiator with a Howe.

Ended up replacing all of that plus the intake valve cover seals, almost all vacuum lines on top of engine, all fuel lines, throttle body hoses, crank pulley (yay for the underdrive pulley!), fan, woodruff key, all t-belt cover bolts (somehow I lost half of them), VTC cover bolts (snapped), radiator cap, and half a dozen other pieces. And we changed all the fluids too.

Things I wish I had done - replaced lower radiator hose with a hard pipe, bypassed TB water lines, removed EGR and carbon canister, removed HICAS lines from engine bay... I just didn't want to mess with anything else - but I'll probably do most of the rest of this the next time I get in there deep...

Here are some highlights:


The engine bay before I did anything.


Wrapping the cam sprockets with the old t-belt to facilitate their removal. This was a cool trick from tt.net.


Most of the parts that came out. I forgot to take a picture of the plenum sitting on the floor too...


Upper plenum removed and driver's side intake valve cover removed. Looks pretty good for an (allegedly) 131k mile engine!


Maeng filling the diff with Redline 75w90 and his belly with oh-so-yummy Coors Light. Note the ghetto rig - there's actually one in the album thats even more ghetto, see if you can find it!

So there you have it.

[JohnC]

As promised, an "after" picture:


Haven't gotten the fan shroud back on yet - needs to be cut down in order to fit properly.

[ScottyB]

good grief that radiator is thick....and blingy!

[WRXtranceformed]

Looks great man -_-

Growing up, I used to sweat that car so bad, it was like my dream car hehe. Then I found Subaru, and the rest is history 8)

[JohnC]

IT IDLES!!! Had the connectors switched on the Idle Air Control Valve - swapped 'em back and she idles perfectly at 750rpm... Finally.

[navin]

congrats, idle problems are a bitch!

[BLINGMW]

the only problem I see is too many cam gears.

[bassmangrammy]

bravo...the chevy place could never get my moms old minivan to idle correctly. That's impressive.

[navin]

It's impressive that it was such a simple fix, I've been hunting down an idle problem [well not really trying] for 3 months or so ever since I got my new motor in..

Now that the motor is out, im gonna take a thorough look at it, or have RJ

[Mike]

civics with swaps always seem to have idle problems, but integras don't... it's kind of weird.

[navin]

My motor idle perfectly before I took it out :hammer:

[Mike]

mine jumps until it warms up in the winter...

[mpg9999]

Idle control can be really complicated. On my car there are at least three devices directly related to it. The Idle Air Adjusting unit, which is made out of the AAC valve, and the FICD solenoid valve, and the Air Regulator. Then you have everything that can indirectly affect the idle, like the EGR valve, the injectors, the ignition system, etc etc.

For the problems people have when swapping engines, my guess would be that most of that is vacum line related.

[navin]

i actually think mine is a intake manifold gasket leak, i'll be buying an insulate gasket and using the correct torque sequence this time!

[Mike]

meh, i don't care enough... i've cleaned the IACV, didn't work, so i'll live with my jumping cold idle.

[JackoliciousLegs]

work looks awesome... i want a ride on track!!!

[Mike]

work looks awesome... i want a ride on track!!!

you have to be there in order for that to happen.