Jan. 19, 2007 - Purchased Car and took to Clark Crawford at Z Cars by Clark. Clark replaced the lower radiator hose, some rear bushings, a new battery tray and a used distributor.
Jan. 29, 2007 - Car was back in my possession
Feb. 10, 2007 - Tracked inoperable brake lights to horn fuse (!?) and replaced fuse - it's now legal to drive!
Feb. 25, 2007 - Replaced a couple of missing fuses, got dome light working. Replaced shifter bushings and both rubber shifter boots. Shifter is MUCH better now, and there's less noise from that area, too.
April 2007 - Replaced steering wheel with Grant GT with Z horn button (courtesy of Motorsport Auto)
April 2007 - Acquired a set of 15x7 Konig Rewind wheels with graphite center and chrome lip
June 2007 - Acquired a used 3.1L stroker engine with 5-speed trans and 3.90:1 diff.
November 2007 - Acquired recently recovered seats in the correct color - they're perfect!
April 2008 - Removed interior from Z and hunted for rust. It's not TOO bad. Also had tires mounted to new wheels. Getting ready for the body shop...
Long time, no update:
~January 2009 - vehicle went to Westside Group in Torrance, CA for body and paint.
December 2009 - engine went to Clark Crawford for inspection - ended up being rebuilt with a slightly less aggressive cam (MSA Stage II) and 9.3:1 compression. The engine came back during the Spring.
June 2010 - Z returned from CA in AMAZING condition, now wearing Infiniti FX Beryllium paint and clear coat, fiberglass replica 240Z bumpers in black and with all the unused bumper holes filled and wearing Eibach springs, ST sway bars adn Tokico Illumina shocks.
August 2010 - Swapped on the Konig Rewind Wheels and bled brakes and clutch. Added fluids and started attempts to get the stock engine running.
December 2010 - I started the engine swap prep after failing to get the stock engine running. Sent header out for ceramic coating.
January to March 2011 - swapped in 3.1L stroker engine with help from friends. The physical swap took two weekend days - one to pull and one to install the new engine, but there was a lot more time in reconnecting things, refinishing heat shields and other underhood bits, installing header, intake, etc. I also replaced various bushings (steering coupler, steering rack, mustache bar, rear control arms). Most were urethane, except the control arms were stock replacements.
July 2011 - Finally got the diff, prop shaft and half shafts back in with help from friends. There were a lot of little tasks in between.
December 2011 - I finally gave up on trying to start the new engine and sent the car to Clark Crawford, who quickly figured out a couple of wires to the coil ballast were reversed from the body shop...it pretty much started right up.
January-February 2012 - Clark diagnosed a jumpy tach as the ignition box. This solved a problem that went back to before the swap. Luckily, I had an extra one. We also replaced the air flow meter to get it running better. It still runs rich over about 4K rpm, but might be the best we can do with stock EFI.
March 2012 - I got the car back, cleaned it up and drove it some.
April 2012 - I entered the Z in the 2012 Zattack (Middle TN Z club show). Good times!
May 2012 - I moved to Irvine, CA from Nashville and the Z has been a regular at Irvine Cars and Coffee ever since. I have also done a few little things - got turn signals working, found and stopped some noises, caused some others, etc.
Soon: I'm going with AEM stand-alone EFI to best tune the monster engine!
