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when the temp gauge started heading north. I knew my time was up and headed for the exit. Long story short, right side head gasket is blown. Wont know for absolute sure until I pull the heads next week. This will be an interesting ride along as I swap one used motor for the original with high miles... 185k to be exact. So the story begins a few years ago when I decided to re-enter the Z world with a nearby find in St. Augustine Florida. I bought a non-running near original black 94TT that was parked as the result of a failed injector. The PO tried to fix it but bailed when the water got deep essentially leaving it as-is for 8 years. It stayed in a couple different garages with a cover over it until I bought it. I brought it home and parked it for another year while I completed the restoration of my Jeep.
My intentions were to pull and rebuild the motor once the Jeep was done and while I had another car to drive. During that time I found a motor locally that was also a lost project from a conversion. The owner of the motor purchased it from a wreck in Orlando and planned on using it in his NA->TT swap. I thought what the heck, I got the motor with turbos for $500. I figured I'd run it for now which will give me some time to rebuild the original motor at my leisure. Turns out the used motor had a brand new set of Z1 Gt525 turbos and accessories installed. I sold the turbo kit and put that money back into other stuff. The wreck motor needed an oil pan and pick up so I swapped the 94 parts over. Before purchasing the used motor I saw that it was 30p NA block and heads running turbos. Also noted was a rebuilt tag epoxied to the left aft cylinder block. While inspecting the used motor and swapping pans it appeared to have about 50-60k miles. I based that on the condition of the timing belt, idlers, and amount of dirt and grime. During the pan swap the lower end looked like it was built yesterday. Very clean, also whoever built it knew what they were doing in that they used turbo pistons and the correct squirters, turbo oil filter housing and pump, etc. It was also configured with the full compliment of original emissions stuff. I cleaned it up and did a 60k service. I didn't pull the heads to inspect the exhaust valves as I had to draw the line on how far I was going to dig into a used motor and it appeared outwardly to be "good nuff".
Maybe had I removed the heads I wouldn't be here today writing the obituary for my $500 engine. Anyway, I installed new manifolds, turbos, injectors, intercoolers, boost controller, and so on, fixing the PS and anything that needed attention. It ran for about 10k miles when I started noticing a dribble of coolant from the overflow after I parked it. Didn't think much of it as it never got bad, but I knew it was a sign of things to come. I planned on driving it till it failed anyway because if I was going to pull that motor it would be for parts anyway and not destined to be reinstalled. Well, it just made it past the 20k mark over the past year and a half when she decided to let go.
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