TwinTurbo.NET: Nissan 300ZX forum - The Life and Death of an old z and new z PIC HEAVY!!!
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Subject The Life and Death of an old z and new z PIC HEAVY!!!
     
Posted by Russell.DiVittorio on July 03, 2011 at 6:52 PM
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Message Well hello tt.net I posted some pictures of my old z about half a year ago. And got some heated replies about the way it looked. It seemed that some liked it and of course some did noft.

Here are a couple pictures of it.


Well Im sure most of you could guess I wasnt satisfied with the power and wanted more! So I had made some friends through facebook and met someone names Dan Nicolski and Mbuchi Thiani. Who helped me with the knowledge of how a tt swap works.

Mbuchi and I had worked out a deal that I could purchase a brand new longblock rebuilt by him and he would help me do the tt swap over a period of 3 days. One day to pull one day to assemble motor and one day of install. (and testing).

Well Of course I could just drop a stock tt engine in. So I bought 740 nismo injectors and a fmic, new wiring harness, bovs, walbro fuel pump, boost gauge, boost pipes, mbc, gasket set, ecu eeprom, new knock sensor and sub harness, cheap ebay manifolds. Of course the stock turbos. Well Since this was the start of my work with the turbo z swap I was being cheap and wasnt knowledgeable of what to use and what not to use. As I would progress and grow I would learn that alot of those parts would be trashed and better ones purchased.

The weekend came back in march when I would do the twin turbo swap as we had had two weekends where it was postponed by a month since a break in and a couple of other things. since he was going to drive from Raleigh NC to Bryan TX!

Once he got here was went ahead and pulled the motor. Assembled the new motor And dropped it in.

MIND YOU I WAS BUILDING A MOTOR ON THE 3rd FLOOR OF MY APT BUILDING. I used the elevator ;). And I assembled the engine in my living room!!!!. My fiance was so pissed after from the oil stains!!!

Here are some of the pics of the process.

Well of course It ran flawlessly! And I had to break in the motor. So I proceeded to drive it softly and do the oil changes. Blah blah and seat the rings. By giving it some boost but not driving it hard.

Well 351 miles later I had a wheel bearing go out on it and I had to replace it because it was howling like a spider monkey!

Well in the mean time I had bought a 93 Mazda Rx7 FD3S In mint condition perfectly factory stock. With only 59000 miles manual for 12,500.

Heres a pic of both of them together.

Gorgeous cars. Anyways That day the night of March 23rd 2011. I had just finished replacing the wheel bearing that picture was right before me and a friend drove them to my house. That night I was going to wash the z since it had not seen a car wash in two weeks due to the twin turbo swap and the wheel bearing incident. I was driving around 11pm.

I was waiting at an inter section well the light turned green I paused then took off at a normal pace. Before I could even shift to second at 13mph. I saw a flash of white and that was all she wrote. A drunk driver had ran the red light and turned in front of me and crashed into my z!!!!

I was on the verge of tears as I parked the z on the side of the road. While my fiance had a straight head and I was weaping and wondering what I would do if my car was totalled. She stormed out of the car and walked up to the toyota 4 runner and screamed at the top of her lungs "DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU JUST DID!!!!!"

I got out of the car and looked at the front end. And shook my head and exclaimed "F&$#ing great." All my work for nothing! And I hadnt even got to get on the throttle!!!!!!

I ended up having the cops come and have my car towed. While the kids in the passenger were able to drive the 4runner withought even a ding!!! My poor car was towed away. Heres the pictures from the wreck and the tow yard.

Well of course the insurance company took their time to contact me. Well eventually they contacted me and told me that my car was totalled and that they would give me $6,124......


I laughed and said that would be a great deal if I wanted to take the 6 grand I just spent and burn it in a trashcan and chant in a circle. I said "no deal"...

I did some research and found out that I could have a private appraisal and provide the insurance company with all the reciepts. To hopefully get what I was really owed.

Well After tons of hours researching and producing the reciepts that I needed (thank god for paypal). I was able to muster an astonishing at the time $10,417 in add on improvments to the z!. I then proceeded to write a brilliant letter in which I claimed my z to be worth 12k to 14k. Of course I shot on the high side because I knew they would not take my higher offer.

Well two weeks later I received a call stating that they wanted to hire an independent auto appraiser out of Austin Tx name Kent Wheatley. Meanwhile I had let the move my car to a salvage pool. Located 1 1/2 hours away from Bryan, Tx in Temple , TX. (Later found out this was the worst thing I could have ever done) Well Kent wheatley looked at the car and I furnished reciepts. the process took about a week then he sent off his paperwork to the big boys up stairs in his company. Where they contacted the insurance company and told them that it would take another week. Mind you this was around mid may. It had taken a month and a half for me to make any head room on my z with Snake Farm (Cough Cough State Farm)....

Well once they received the call from the ADA (Auto Damage Appraisers) They contacted me and told me that the car had been valued at $14,114. I cried a triumphant whoopee. And said "So my car isnt totalled then because the damages are at 6k." He then replied "Mr monfore. We are willing to give you cash for your car." I said "No... I do not want cash I want my car fixed. Its' not about the money its about all the blood sweat and tears I've put into this machine." He then retorted with "Well mr monfore Im sorry But I cannot reverse the totalled claim on your vehicle." So I said with some gusto and confidence "Then I will be contacting your superiors. Have a nice day." Well literally 5 minutes later He contacted me saying that his boss said it was ok to repair the vehicle as long as the repair bill did not exceed $9,000.

Well a week went by and the car was moved to the body shop of my choice. When I went to inspect the car since it had been sitting in a salvage pool for literally 2 1/2 months!!! It was in horrible condition. They had damaged my rear bumper lip and broke the pod housing on the dashboard, Im assuming with their knee....

At that point I really started to think if this car was worth fixing... Since the frame to begin with was already bent and the front core support had been welded together many times.

The car had been in 6 accidents. I started to realize that my best choice should have been to take the money and buy the car back and build a new one.

Well after some deliberation I called the insurance and asked them to total it. Of course since they never do what "we" want they said "no mr Monfore the car was deemed repairable." So of course I started another month long battle with them. Eventually we were able to amount damages beyond the $9,000 dollar threshhold and I was finally given the check for the total car. And Retained possession of the car. this was around Mid June 2011!

In the mean time when the broken z was at the body shop I had begun to look for a good chassis preferably Factory Twin Turbo. To build my cars platform on!

I had found one back in may of 2011 in austin Tx for $800. Red tt with black interior. Never been hit factor twin turbo. Of course no motor trans or ecu.

After driving 3 hours to look at it and buying it I returned a couple of days later to drive it home.

Here were the pics.


I was super excited to start the work on the new z. So I soon got it home stripped the engine bay and scuffed the paint so I could paint the engine bay the right way!!!! Heres the pics!!

Of course I had to wait about a month since the shop was busy and I was busy still trying to sort out the insurance company stuff But I had decided on a very special color that I love.

Lexus Glacier Frost Mica.

Beautiful Color imo.

Here are the engine bay pics!

Engine Bay looks sick. Well I started assembly and got alot done to the engine bay every part cleaned and painted basically. Heres the pics of that!

Of course at this point I was super stoked to see everything coming together so nicely. Well These pics were taken around mid June 2011.

Well I had received my money from the insurance car finally I decided to go big when buying parts for this car. So I purchased GT2860Rs Turbos, Z1 Intercoolers, 2.5 5 Bolt Downpipes, Earl Oil cooler, Koyo Racing radiator, Jspec Front bumper, 99 Spec intercooler ducts, Kaminari Side skirts, Every hose in silicone, and of course a new JWT Intake. I spent a total of $6,000. While I waited on the shipment to arrive....I did this.

Of course I wanted my tan interior from my old z in the new one So I swapped all that over and even mounted the 94 style seat belts in the 93 TT Chassis since I dont like them on the door. Here are the pics. And of course the suspension stuff transfered too!!!

Of course I still had to transfer the Na Rear end subrame over to the new z since I was using the Na Rear end for better acceleration. That is scheduled to happen this week. Anyways I received my item around June 26th 2011. Here were the pics of the items!!

And Of course My beautiful Fiance holding my new turbos!!! Bahaha.

Well after I got my stuff the next day I drove 2 hours to Killeen Tx where I have my cars at and have been working on them there. And installed all my new parts minus the body panels here are the pics.

Yes I see the oil line is not attached in the picture. I of course wasnt finished with the motor ;)

Beautiful Motor!!!! The motor is now ready to drop in the car this week. Once I get the whole drivetrain installed the car is going to the paint shop for the remainder of the paint! So hopefully by the end of July I should have my z again!!!. And finally get to break in the motor fully!!.

And yes I did notice I dont have msp manis.... I cant afford them. And Im about to order the selin intake also. But there are a couple of little things Ive had to do since my donor orange z was a 94 and the twin turbo is a 93 like the clutch line support bracket on the passeneger frame is mounted in two different spots so I had to cut that off and bolt it on the new z. And I had to switch hatches since the tt one had lots of rust. Im also getting the paint job done right so all the jams and everything are getting painted.

Tell me what yall think of the progress!!!!!!

     
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