For anyone interested, here’s a summary of my two years of owning my 1991 Z32. After finally settling on which car I wanted to go for (GSX, VR4, early 90s Mustangs/Camaro were the other strongly-considered options… really anything cool I remember from junior high and high school), and after several months of searching, I purchased the Z from an original owner in June of 2018. I drove to Baltimore, flew to Cincinnati and drive the car home. She had 116k miles then – 123k miles now. The gentleman I bought it from only had a Specialty Z quad-tip and R32 front calipers installed. Otherwise, the car was completely stock. I’ve taken a fairly gradual approach to mods, doing what made sense to me at the time. Visually, I wanted to keep an OEM appearance… which is still the plan… for now. From the Autotrader ad:
There weren’t too many negatives on the car, especially considering the age and compared to what I’d seen on other Z32s for sale. She had a hunting idle, misfire, slipping clutch, minor oil leak(s), early-style spoiler rot, and non-functioning A/C. Also was approaching the 120k service, and I don’t think the engine bay had been touched since it left Japan – Cosmoline still everywhere. Major plus was the fact that it wasn’t ever stored outdoors. Paint was in very good condition, as was the interior, save for wear on the driver-side seat bolster. This is the first picture I took at home of the Z, the day after I drove her home:
First mod was a high-flow intake. The filters looked like they hadn’t been changed in 10 years. This wound up being the cause of the hunting idle. I also started cleaning off the Cosmoline – WD40 and a heat gun are your friend if anyone has struggled with this. Before:
After:
Next was to remove the rotting spoiler. Replacing with a fiberglass OEM replica is on the to-do list. For now, I cruise with Gorilla tape and plastic plugs… at least I upgraded from duct tape.
In January 2019, work began on the timing belt. Overall, it wasn’t too bad. Was my first time, so it obviously took longer than normal… that, and I’m slow. Good experience in learning about the car.
Summer 2019 kicked off a good amount of work. I wasn’t planning on getting into all of this, but someone had a different idea. Parked the car at a gas station one day and got a nice, hefty whiff of coolant. Here’s a close-up of the split coolant hose:
So came the time to do the clutch, down pipes, test pipes, valve cover seals and engine bay deletes.
Slipping clutch – flywheel before:
After resurfacing. Thanks Bernie!
Here’s the pile of crap removed from the engine bay from the deletes:
Valve covers off, which also make the final decision on deleting the EGR and this portion of the PCV system. No way I was going to fight holding the EGR tubes out of the way while trying to get the exhaust valve covers with the gasket maker RTV. For the PVC, the fittings pressed into the exhaust valve cover just fell out, so those got plugged (I left the “front” PCV system as-is).
Upon re-assembly, the misfire, which had gone away previously, came back. I assume due to the car sitting for the month or so I spent doing all this work. #4 injector sounded “off” when listening with a screwdriver. I gave it some time to see if it would clear itself again, but no such luck. So, in the fall of 2019, using Bernie’s injector/rail kit, I changed from the original old-style injectors to the new-style ones:
I think my back still hurts from bending over to do all the soldering:
Finally, misfire resolved! Night and day difference between 5 cylinders and 6. From this point, I haven’t done anything too major – just enjoying the car! I got a chip tune from Scott at Zshack, replaced the deteriorating boost hoses with silicone ones and replaced the cargo cover with the plastic caps – thanks, Chris(bsox0407)!
Here’s how the engine bay looks now. Still needs some cleaning, but definitely much better than when I bought it:
Recently, I picked up some TT rears to put on the front – just have a little cleanup to do before they’re ready. Looking to put on a fresh set of Toyo R888Rs eventually.
So far, they’re turning out pretty good. Just takes a lot of acetone and elbow grease:
I have a manual boost controller and gauge on the bench, which I’ll get to after the wheels are cleaned up. Notable items on the longer list are ceramic tint, dual intake, intercoolers and piping, fixing the A/C (suspect bad compressor clutch) and spoiler. I also have a small turbo oil leak on the PS – hopefully that doesn’t get worse too quickly. Of course, never a better excuse to get new turbos! …and a current pic:
I’d like to express my sincere thanks for all the help I’ve gotten from you guys over the past couple of years… and for the help I’ll need in the future. This is an excellent community – so glad I jumped on. I’ve learned a ton since I bought my Z. I hope you’re all doing well… and again… thank you!
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