Screen Name: ArticZ
Real Name: Gary Yang
Phone: 714-914-9013
Location: OC, CA 92817 USA (He lives in Dublin, CA now North of San Jose)
E-mail: supraz32tt@hotmail.com
Here are links to his ads
[ [ http://twinturbo.net/nissan/300zx/forums/classified/view/175599/1993-300zx-TT-52k-miles-Reduced-to-8900-MUST-SELL.html ] ]
[ [ http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/cto/4831506017.html ] ] I needed at the very least a short block for my personal Z and his Z seemed like a good candidate. I could take the engine I needed and part out the rest to recoup some funds. Unfortunately it was a 9 hour round trip to see the car. After numerous texts, calls and emails I made the trip today and what a disappointment. He is either one of the most ignorant Z owners I've ever met which is saying a lot when you consider he's owned the car since 4k miles(52k miles now) and his brother was the one who bought it new. This is going to get long so grab a beer if you care to read all the way through. Otherwise the cliff notes are the car is a POS and so is Gary. Through our phone calls I was clear that the exterior cosmetics were not an issue for me as long as the frame was straight and the car drove straight without any major pulling or vibrations. You'll see in his ad he claims the car runs and drives straight with no suspension damage. The car pulls left and right slightly but the biggest issue is the vibration that gets worse and worse with speed. Again this didn't really bother me as the engine and turbos were what I really wanted. I already have a set of super low mileage HKS2530s but wanted to sell his to recoup some funds. The Enkei wheels were described as mint even though they had some curb rash. Nothing major though and these were actually the high point of the car. The tires were described as near new with 80% tread remaining. The suspension was so tweaked that the tires had worn down to the chords in the inner half due to extreme camber. The interior was described as excellent but was missing the toneau cover,ashtray, ttop straps as well has having a couple cracked trim pieces but overall not horrible. Now to the main issues. I was clear that I really was only interested in the engine and turbos and could really care less about the condition of the rest. He assured me it ran and drove EXCELLENT! He sent me a video of it running and it sounded fine and the idle was rock solid but he did mention that he recently took it to SZ to have the idle fixed but it had intermittently come back. Well apparently between the night before when we took the video and the next morning I came to see it it had returned with a vengeance. It bounced from almost dying to 1k+ constantly. You could hear an audible vacuum leak that sound like they are coming from the turbos on both sides. Also the core support was far more than a "little" pushed in. I'm not happy so far but ok lets take this thing for a test drive and as long as the engine and turbos are good I'm still ok with it. Well the very first time I got on the gas in 2nd gear I see a huge puff of black smoke out of the exhaust. This has OEM exhaust and cats from the DPS back by the way. The trans had the typical grind here and there but it wasn't horrible and I didn't plan to use it anyways. I take the car back to his place and get it in the air and both turbos are covered in oil and the seals were obviously shot. Not only that when I checked the boost controller peak hold it was at 1.5 bar. The timing was also advanced a couple degrees. He of course claimed he never boosted it that high and only used it as a DD for the last couple years. BS! Who knows how much damage he's done running 20lbs of boost on 91 to the engine. He destroyed the turbos for sure. My stock turbo Z would have ran away from his. When it was running of course :( He offered a measly 500 bucks off our agreed upon price of 8500 and I said I don't think I could justify even giving you 6k and he said no way because someone already offered him 6k for the engine alone, no turbos, accessories or anything. I call BS on that as well and if that is real whoever you are please contact me for more details so no one else has to waste their time and money with this clown. I doubt the offer was real though because he texted me numerous times on the drive home dropping the price eventually to 6600. What really pisses me off is he claimed he is a doctor and has a very limited schedule and the only time I could meet him was between 6am and noon Sunday. So here it is 4pm on my day off and I just got home after leaving at 5am this morning dragging my poor younger brother along thinking I'd need someone to drive one of the cars back all for nothing. I don't want a JDM engine so I guess my only option is to part out my Z or save up 10k to have SZ or IPP build me one. I know it's not quite 10k but when all is said and done it will be close especially since my current block isn't an acceptable core which adds 750 to the price. I'll keep hunting on CL and hopefully find a wrecked TT I can salvage the motor from or else I may be leaving the Z game because dumping another 10k into this after just purchasing a HKS2530s, 3" SZ 5bolt dps, SZ clutch and FW, Nismo 740s, and more odds and ends that are now just sitting on my garage shelf is a hard pill to swallow.
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