five&dime

Machinist is currently working on the engine this eve and said the piston mold should be done tomorrow or Sunday. Stopped by the body shop to drop off some parts and took some photos of my own. It looks fantastic! The next updates should be good stuff!

I have to trust the tuner and the power numbers would probably be very similar. However, with higher compression I at least have the ability to run race gas or E85 if he decides to make a tune for that. He can even have a switchable dual tune for either.

New final render as I decided to keep the rear 1/4 window trim. The render also shows the shortened rear facelift/kouki bumper and JDM side markers I just got from Japan. The body guy is almost done with the exterior work and will soon start cutting out engine bay sheet metal to replace with perfectly smooth sections. I want it to be as minimal as possible. The machinist is ready to make the custom piston molds and they should be ready this weekend. He will machine the top of a stock piston down below deck height at TDC and drill a hole all the way through to the bottom. He will then assemble the entire engine minus the valves. Nitto stroker forged crank, Nitto H beam rods, aftermarket "loose" tolerance main and rod bearings and the stock milled piston. Then the mold material will be poured in from the bottom through the drilled hole. A center punch will be used through the valve guides to get the valve center location once hardened. The kit came with a full spec sheet to add all the valve information including clearances while open/closed. The worksheet and piston mold will be sent to CP where they will 3D scan it to make custom CNC'd high compression pistons. The tuner is still saying that 12:1 should be ok on pump gas with a safe tune. I decided on the Haltech 2500 stand alone ECU and once the engine is in the car and I get the Injector dynamics 550's and the R35 GTR ignitor less coils, we can spec out the custom made harness from harness specialties. I also decided on the R34 GTR N1 oil pump with upgraded Spool gears.

Great work on this 86!!! You are doing a number of similar mods to me and I look forward to watching this progress! Glad to have another Z31 fan here as there seem to be very few!

Sorry, I had copied and pasted the full response from another thread. But yeah, I want this low profile louver set for the Z31 and the guy who owns it won't respond to my inquiry about where it came from. I want to see the kevlar seats through the back glass anyway..

Stopped by my machinist. He is rolling now. Made a nifty tool to get the stock lifter shims out just to save himself $140 :rofl He machined the tool and put 2-2mm rare earth magnets in each hole. Look at how much bigger the new valve openings are. That's the stock RB26 valve in the photo after the tool. Dropped off some parts with the body guy too. He had done more than I expected. Shaved the antenna, rear side markers and replaced the bit of rust in the rear quarters with inner patch panels thus far. Epoxy was drying and then he will tackle the outer sheet metal. Soon he will drop the front and rear subframe and build a rolling cart for it so I can get some stuff powder coated.

Progress on the head. You can see the line outside the bore diameter where the entire chamber will be opened up for the larger pistons too. He said it would be done in a week. Last two are the before and after.

The painter sanded my tail light lenses completely smooth, removing all the raised letters etc. Then he polished them before Xpel clear wrap film was applied. They look amazing! Brake lenses will be done next week.

It was towed over today. So exciting!!!

Cartoon renders

Car is raised up with the old wheels on and outside for the first time in many moons. Ready to be towed to my painters! Working on degreasing the engine bay today.

My machinist said all the port and polish work is done. Valve seats are cut. Now he is just going to work on the combustion chamber to smooth it out and open it up a bit to remove some of the quench bad in order to unshroud the valves. He will take a mold of for the custom pistons. While waiting for the pistons, he will clearance the head for the larger Tomei cams and figure out which shims we need for the Tomei lifters.

Can't wait to see the whole car. My biggest fear is the quarter window trim delete but based on the side profile render, I think it will look great in the end. Finally got both tail lights completely dismantled. It was a bear getting the lenses off. You have to keep cutting into the adhesive and slowly prying. Hardest lights I have ever taken apart by far. The first set I tried to bake melted at relatively low temps ? These are getting wet sanded and Xpel clear wrapped. I can't wait to see them all finished with the LED boards.

Took some more photos. Because I can't stop obsessing over the color..

Indeed! I was amazed how much stuff was on the Z31 VG. It will be refreshing with a simplified inline 6, no AC. I plan on eliminating anything not needed under the hood and doing as much wire tucking as possible.

This was just a test spray out to make sure 100% that I wanted the color on the car. This is the MZR Roadsport spray out method. Concept Color here in Richmond went ahead and did the body work on it to shave the side marker and fit the later year body parts but he will sand and reshoot this fender with the final car soon so no need to buff. He did a mighty fine job on the simple spray out and I am very excited that he is painting this car.

Base clear with 3 coats of clear and no buffing. Also, my license plate came in and the color is close to the 920!

920 Safari gold with shaved side marker on the Z31 fender. I cannot wait to see the whole car in this color!

Engine bay is stripped other than the front subframe with steering lines and the gas lines since I have the rubber hoses capped off. The subframe and steering will come out when it gets painted. The painter is going to build a rolling cart for it while he does all the body work and paint.

My body guy made a perfect fit patch panel to fill the side marker on the front fender he is doing a sprayout for. I pulled the engine harness, master cylinder and starting to pull the brake lines now. Going to paint soon.

Coilovers are in and couldn't be happier with the stance and fitment. The front will come down a hair with the engine and trans to closely match the rear. I will even be able to run spacers to fit some larger brakes!

Thanks, Jeff!!

Out with the old and in with the new. [/img] [/img] [/img] [/img] [/img]

Indeed! Can't wait! Current state..

ZedHead, the blue car belongs to Eiji not my dad. That's a very popular style in Japan and Eiji is Japanese. Not to everyone's taste but there are plenty out there who love it. I love that about the 240z. There are so many different styles/directions you can go with it.