| I figured I would wait and do a huge megapost since the general consenus seems to be that repetitive update posts are teh suck. So here is what I have been up to since about this time last year, and the overall evolution of the car since I bought it 4 yrs ago. Damn, this will be long, I maybe should have done update/progress posts. Before I begin what will inevitably be a long-winded post, I want to give A LOT of thanks where thanks is due. What you are about to see pictures of is only possible because of this site and some of the great residents who make and have made the site what it is. Without them I never could have taken this on with any hope of getting it right, well not anytime soon anyway. I have mooched my way into owning the 300ZX I dreamed of when I was 16. I wish I could contribute something useful back, but for now a heartfelt thanks is the best I can do. I want to personally/publicly thank in no particular order;
Courtesy Nissan--There is a lot to be said about a Nissan dealer that supports the Z32 the way this dealership does. I dread the day they have a change in management or it just becomes too unprofitable for them to continue doing so. Kyle @IPP--Kyle was really patient with me, answering all my questions about my parts I ordered from him and advising me when what should have been obvious, wasnt obvious to me.
Greg @ SpecialtyZ--Greg I can't thank you enough for going out of your way to help me out. You never even met me before. I was not a "big-ticket" customer, but Greg treated me as if I was. These guys are the absolute best, hands down.
Kuah @SPL--The coilovers are great, and Murphy's law being what it is, Kuah was on vacation when I realized I didnt receive a "cheat sheet" to set them up. But he returned my messages as soon as he got them and saved me a lot of further trial and error. He was also pretty patient answering what were likely dumb newb questions concerning useful gauge selection. Bernie Bilski--Bernie got me out of every pinch I found myself in. It seems like he always has that weird part you clumsily broke or just need to replace. He also took time out of his life to answer my questions about things that werent necessarily related to parts I had bought from him. I cant thank him enough either. Woody75 (Tim)-- Jesus, I mean Tim was practically my online guidance counselor in the tech forum. He is obviously experienced wth these cars and his help here on the board and via email was very useful as well as his write-ups. Coz @CZP--In retrospect it is really gut-wrenching that Coz did what he did concerning the fuel rails. I probably sent 40% of the total $ I spent on this overhaul to Coz when I returned home from Iraq in mid-march. About 2 weeks to a month later I read here about what took place and was shocked. Over the years I have ordered plenty of miscellaneous OEM and AM parts from CZP, received excellent service, and considered CZP a true asset to the Z32 community. To be fair I still received good service this spring/summer from Coz, but I am not happy about what he did. I wish to leave it at that and dont want this post to delve into it any further please. Dane Miller--Dane is a good straight-up guy to do business with. Sold me a rear diff which I am having rebuilt with Leader gears. His dual pop/MAF write-up is very handy Ahmed and BigTDogg (Tony)-- These two pricks seemed to be a step or two ahead of me in everything I was about to accomplish this spring/summer and posting all these gorgeous pictures. Thunder-stealing bastids. Seriously though, what better motivation could a Z owner ask for but see other Z owners accomplishing the very jobs to be tackled, and with excellent results. Every time I wanted to say "fuck it" and there were MANY, I pressed on whenever I logged in and saw the photos of the great results these two recently had. I think I might have almost bought something from Tony once too. Don Wood--Don was simply great to deal with. He did all the powdercoating and was in touch with me and accomodated my very finicky wants. He got the job done exactly how I wanted it and I truly appreciated it. He is a member here (SN "daytona93" IIRC) but you can find an ad for his services on 3ZC. I was hesitant about paying shipping to PA from OK, but in the end it was certainly worth it, and I'll continue to use him for any future PC needs if he continues to offer it in his spare time. Thanks Don, the Z looks awesome in large part to you. Robo--I got lots of great ideas and Robo's site is fantastic for cleaning up and simplifying the engine bay. Good write-ups and candid assessments of mods on his site. Thanks Robo! Joe Allison (Spddracer)--Joe was a huge help as well. His splash shield are such a slick design, I feel really stupid for ever being sitting on the fence about buying them. His straight forwardness about what to expect from the Southbend clutch kits was also a huge help. I cannot believe how easy and nice this clutch engages. I swear it feels like the OEM clutch from my old NA. Definitely lighter pedal effort than my JWT clutch which wasn't a very stiff clutch. Very pleased, thanks for taking the time to speak with me and answer my questions candidly Joe. Damon & Greg--I dont know how time consuming it actually is to keep this site maintained these days, but I am very glad you guys do it just the same. Thanks for keeping the site up that makes owning a Z32 a far better experience than the other cars in its class. Ok, I think that is everyone whom I owe a debt of gratitude, if I missed you please excuse me. Here's the list of what was done just this past year, with 90% of it being since March: -SPL coilovers
-ES master kit
-Powertrix rear AUCA's
-Arizona Z car Wilwood BBK (front) w/ Wilwood race pads & -Hawk Blues for oem rear brakes
-Leader gears in a second rebuilt diff (yet to be installed)
-Dual pop/MAF
-Apexi S-AFC
-Defi "Racer" pressure, temp, boost gauges
-300 degree Din gauge panel
-Deatschwerks 740cc injectors
-Ztuner eprom
-300 degree fuel rail w/CZP hardline kit
-Chrome hardpipes
-Z1 oil cooler
-Southbend DXD FE-X clutch balanced with JUN flywheel
-SS braided clutchline
-Spdracer SS black powdercoated engine trays
-Jspec fascia (shaved)
-Stillen nose panel repainted
-rear bumper cover repainted
-new exhaust gaskets (turbo-back)
-MS manifolds with HPC Hipermax Extreme ceramic coating
-Original alternator cleaned/rebuilt
-Hose Techniques silicon vaccuum hose kit
-replaced all PS lines and oil lines with reinforced silicon lines (fingers crossed)
-PTU relocated
-Unorthodox Racing Underdrive pulley w/ Bilski HI water pump pulley
-EGR delete
-Carbon Canister delete (including hardline tree)
-Upper clutch-line-bleeder delete
-New PCV valves
-PCV rerouted w/ aluminum hardlines
-New OEM IACV w/ reinforced silicon hoses
-New OEM fuel filter, dampener, pressure regulator
-Moroso coolant overflow tank
-New OEM accessory belts
-Coolant flush
-New PS fluid (yes, dexron III AT fluid)
-Redline MT-90 manual transmission fluid
-NA speed sensor spline
-New OEM motor mounts
-Optima red top battery (fingers crossed)
-Z1 SS engine bay bolt kit
-Chrome PS reservoir
-Chrome coolant pipes
-Chrome compressor outlet pipes
-Chrome balance tube
-Upper plenum & rear calipers powdercoated glossy black
-Valve covers powdercoated red
-Wiper arms powdercoated satin black
-CZP brushed aluminum fuse box covers
-New OEM timing belt covers and throttle cable cover painted KH3 with TTnet store "NISSAN" lettering & stripe w/logo
Good lord, I think that's it.....onto the pics.
The Z when I drove it home late one night a few days after Xmas (gift to myself) from Austin, TX. Story is, I had 3 payments left on my NA, had rebuilt the suspenision, and was planning on looking into having it TT-swapped in early 2006. Car was in fantastic condition, I was browsing for parts in the classifieds here that I could use post-swap, and I saw the ad for the TT. Located in Austin, I google mapped it and turned out the guy lived in the same neighborhood as my sister whom I was about to visit the following week for Xmas. I couldn't NOT at least pop by to check the car out. 75k miles, suede replaced with vinyl, seats re-leathered, stage 3 plus flywheel, AVC-r, Racelogic TC, and Greddy IC's along with various other minor mods. For 14k-ish I'd be a fool not to, right? On the way home the transformation began when I stopped by Courtesy Nissan and bought a new third brakelight panel, a Jspec center panel to replace the indiglo panel, and an OEM shifter knob.
First night and following day
 The Z stayed pretty much in this form until shortly before ZCon 06 in Dallas. I bought a set of four 17x9 FN01R-C's from SPL, some Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3's (excellent tires, excellent price) from Luke @ tirerack.com and later that summer I replaced the gutted cats & gutted pre-cats with some SpecialtyZ supersplit downpipes and test pipes. Painted the calipers red and called it a year.
 2007 brought big changes in my life and the Z and all my wishlist items for it had to go on the backburner for the next year or two. I got married, took over running the OK Z club chapter in OKC, and set out to get my personal matters completely in order, or at least somewhat close. If you have a Z club near you, and your personal life isnt completely frenetic, get involved. It is a lot of fun and Z owners, by and large, are fun people to hang out with. Fat forward to mid 2008, my 2nd year of heading up the OKC Z club, I managed to put together some driving events at the local sheriff dept's training facility, a small 1-mile roadcourse. It was during one of these events that I became incredibly frustrated with ludicrously excessive understeer, and heavy brake fade. My front tires were absolutley scrubbed on the outsides. Track time was literally pointless and not fun. I decided the eibach/oem combo and my oem brakes with drilled oem rotors, SS lines, weren't going to hack it. I had the cash and the club was putting on Midwest Z fest later that summer with a day at Hallett. Perfect time/reason to upgrade. I bought the Energy Suspension Polyurethane Bushing Master Kit, SPL coilovers, Powertrix adjustable rear upper control arms and the Arizona Z car Wilwood BBK. Also purchased an Z1/Earl's oil cooler from a 3ZC group buy, chrome hardpipes from CZP, and Deatschwerks 740cc injectors with the adaptor kit. I started installing everything the start of August and did not have enough time to do the injectors and oil cooler prior to going to Hallett. Installed the hardpipes even though I didnt do the injectors. They looked pretty stupid in there with the rest of my engine more or less filthy. After installing the ES kit on my NA, I told myself there was no way I'd ever do that job again. Taking an air chisel to your subframe is a damn near traumatic experience for a total newb, but I easily convinced myself the 2nd time around would be easier since I knew what to expect, while true, the job is still very time consuming. Took the opportunity to scrub clean the entire subframe and rear suspension. At the Sheriff's track:
 Dirty old rear suspension out
 Shiny clean suspension back in.
 These should settle my brake fade issues while running 0.95bar of boost. SPL coilovers + ES bushings made the car beautifully responsive to my inputs at Hallett.
 Ear-to-ear grins even with an IC duct bolt missing, whistling boost & hp into the atmosphere.
 Following MZF I fixed my boost leaks, and took to the local drag strip to see what sort of traps the car would manage. I bought a set of OEM TT rears (along with a BlaZt cable and software license) from member "whatsthegoodword", and some Mickey Thompsons from Jegs. I went to the drag strip, revved to about 4500rpms, let the clutch go and watched my tach shoot to the redline and bounce off the limiter. Clutch was done. Was a JWT clutch, bought by previous owner, white pressure plate, had around 50k on it. I figured it lived a good life. The next month I was headed for Iraq, to do Convoy Comm throughout the entire country. So the car went from the dragstrip stright to the jack stands and there it stayed. The injectors, oil cooler, and engine dress-up would have to wait until I returned. Mid march rolled around and I was home again. I had a set of Leader gears I bought from Bernie and a diff I bought from Dane awaiting me, and I went ahead and bought up the rest of the parts I would need to complete my long-term overhaul of the car. STUFF
 Getting started
 plenum off, filthy in there
 plenty of sludge, dust, and grime
 this is NOT how you are supposed to drill these connectors out
 EGR defeated, take that Al Gore
 My custom designed fuel rail leak testing device, not yet ready for public retail release
 BLING!
 Comparison
 
SNAP....this set me back at least two weeks after I snapped off an "easy out" inside of an already-hard-as-shit inconel bolt and ended up dropping the fiasco off at a local machine shop
 this location was much too close to the tire for my comfort, it didnt appear as though there would be room for the liner to go on without being bulged by the tank, so I moved it to where the CC was located. Still better than than huge OEM overflow tank.
 Alternator good as new
 Engine out. I had not originally planned to do this. But I got worried that the motor mounts might be worn out, so I figured I might as well replace them and be done with them for another 15 years. They were fine, but it gave me a great excuse to put on some MS manifolds. TTnetter Kris Snow (SnowmanZ) recently moved into town and I suckered him into helping me pull the motor out by telling him I had Season Two of Sex and the City on Blu-ray DVD at my place, HA! Thanks Kris! He told me all about how he missed driving his Lexus RX300, it really connected with his inner 50yr old female real estate agent side apparently. I told him I didn't have that side and to please crank the hoist up slowly.
 Lookin great, thanks Don
 Here you can see the location of the little o-rings which some say necessitate cracking open calipers for powdercoating. It's debatable whether it is a must, I decided not to chance it seeing how I planned to track the car now and again.
 PCV rerouted
 I opted to switch from the SZ braided fuel line kit to the CZP hardlines. I didnt understand how or where people were relocating their fuel dampener/regulators, it seemed to me the space behind the motor was already cramped enough and I decided to just leave them in stock locations. I didnt want the lines, braided or not, rubbing on the plenum underside, and these hardlines seemed to be the best option I was aware of.
 Stockers cleaned and bolted up to their new MSP pals.....
 ....minor grinding required
 Getting there....dual pops installed
 I HATE wiring shit up. What a nightmare. This was where I was fully expecting a failure in execution.
 Sensors for new gauges in place
 Really cluttered back here even after all the deletes
 Defi Racer gauges & 300 degree DIN panel installed, looks sharp! The gauges portrude a little more than what I was expecting, but nice nonetheless. Gauges are spliced into the clock harness with signal wires run through hood release cable hole in firewall.
 Ready now for the new fascia. The pre-shaved jspec fascia purchase proved to be a very educational one. I was under the assumption that these things are ready for primer/paint. they are not necessarily so. First off there was some additional filling/smoothing that needed to be done as there were low spots. then once it was perfect, it received paint and upon baking in the booth, the material filling the seams shrank and left what I can only describe as a "ghost"-like outline of where the bracket used to be. It might not be noticeable on other colors, but it was noticeable as shit on black. My body shop ended up refinishing/repainting this fascia 3 times, and after the third time it did not shrink to a point where the "ghost" was noticeable anymore. Food for thought for those of you who also are very detail conscious and have black Z's and are thinking about going this route. Coz made good for the unexpected extra labor and through a mix up on my end I ordered a second jspec from him with the bracket intact. I decided to keep it and if this shaved one continues to shrink in the summer heat over the years to a point that I cant tolerate it, then I'll replace with the bracketed fascia. Plus if I ever find myself in a situation where a front plate is not going to be avoidable, then I'll be set as well. So 4 years, thousands of dollars, and countless curse words later, here's the end result: 
Engine bay progression:
When I bought the car
 Cleaned up a bit circa 2007
 Last summer at Midwest Z Fest
 current
photo posted by maxboost83
I am very pleased with the results. It did not come to a conclusion without any hitches however. I come to find out that when I did in my clutch, I also did in the 2pc driveshaft's center bearing. Shakes and shudders to an extreme when engaging 1st. Bernie to the rescue AGAIN. Thanks Bernie I hope to have the replacement installed this weekend if it arrives this week. My AC system has started clicking loudly as if the compressor is going on and off. I think this means I need a recharge, I hope it doesnt mean I damaged a refridgerant line during the engine-pull process. I also have a fairly noisy exhaust leak on the drivers side. It can be heard coming from the area near the firewall. I am dreading to find out which side of the turbo it is coming from. And finally, my completely rebuilt rear diff with leader gears is still not installed, so my speedo is off. Once all these things are done then I plan to up the boost a pound or two and learn to recalibrate the Racelogic TC. I feel a good tune is in order too but need to look into whether tuning with the S-AFC or by using something like Nistune is more effective and suitable for my situation (bang for buck).
Looking back what did I learn? What would I do differently? -I don't know if I would do the PCV reroute. I don't track the car enough to make it a real issue, and it does add another two bulky lines on top of the plenum and clogs that upper center area up between the motor and the firewall. I don't regret it, I just dont know if I would do it again. -Powdercoating/chroming the engine bay generates a lot more heat. Maybe I'm remembering poorly, but I do not recall the motor generating so much damn heat in the engine bay prior. I did not have a gauge installed back then but tonight, while photoshooting, the car was idling at 200* coolant temp. I couldnt imagine how much hotter it could possibly be after spirited drives if those manifolds were left uncoated. -Shielded wire is a bitch to source locally. I sure wish the new connector/translator for dual MAF's had come out three months ago. -First time solderers: BUY FLUX. I did my first connections without it, completely unaware it was necessary, what a PITA. Easy as pie with resin flux. -Bolt turbos to manifolds, THEN bolt manifolds to heads....or do it the hard way. I hope this doesn't turn out to be the cause of my exhaust leak. -Make sure your gas cap is actually threaded on not just resting into the hole. You will never feel stupider. -Print out your write-ups. Much easier. - The motor makes a shitload of lifter noise when first started up after being completely drained. Maybe this is common knowledge. I didn't get the memo, I almost freaked out. -WD-40 absolutely owns Simple Green when it comes to cleaning engine parts and the engine bay itself. Cleaning time cut by at least 75%, maybe even 90%. In fact, Dawn dish detergent owned Simple Green when removing sludge off my valve covers. I'm done with Simple Green. If you have read this whole thing, I apologize. But dammit, I'm so proud of myself and what I was able accomplish with the help of so many here at TTnet. I am not and have never been a fan of putting ANY logos ANYWHERE on my Z. But I felt nothing short of obliged to put the TTnet logo on my motor. I actually initially bought a plain red throttle cable cover stripe from Greg & Damon and when the project started winding down it really struck me how much I had literally depended on the site to get me through it. I am very grateful to those who helped me reach my goal for my Z car. Thanks again for reading this and I hope this maybe inspires some of you who want to make changes to your Z but aren't confident in your ability to pull it off yourself. Take it from me, a Z owner who never even changed his own oil prior to owning my first Z in 2002, with the resources found here and the proper tools, I am convinced just about anything is doable. Just take your time and don't be rushed.
 "Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery." "There is no such thing as public opinion. There is only published opinion." "We are all worms. But I believe that I am a glow-worm."
--Winston Churchill "To err is human. To air guitar is divine."
--Zac Munro
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My complete overhaul of my '94 TT (VERY long) - 
