Different strokes for different folks

[louis]

hi,

yet another of my recent modifications to share.

it all started with an email to Tony aka x88racing sometime in feb about his experience with supercharging and his thoughts on the ESS twinscrew kit... it eventually evolved into him offering to sell me a few spare parts he had lying around...

it arrived via sea freight close to 3mths later.

first things first, my old engine had to be removed:

all that was left was a gaping hole, the gear selector rod and a disconnected drive shaft:

the entire exhaust system was removed too, as was my front suspension and several heat shields:

naturally, the clutch had to come out too:

hope you've enjoyed it so far.

 

[louis]

since the engine i got from tony had a damaged airconditioning bracket, the decision was made to use that engine as a donor engine and strip it of its components.

my engine was stripped as well; here's the old M54B25 manifold:

blocked was cleaned. i'm re-using my original block since the donor one was damaged.

old 2.5L crank removed and replaced with this:

donor pistons were not brand new... they had seen some 500 supercharged miles. i had thought that the pitting was a result of detonation but a more technically savvy engineer friend of mine was convinced that they were caused by ingested foreign objects. :? how they got inside the combustion chambers, i'll never know.

in any case, i took the cheap (and faster) option and decided not to replace them as they were largely unmolested. we machined off the raised edges and went ahead with the install- the pits will eventually be filled with carbon anyway.

new head gasket installed:

you can see the gap between the cylinder wall and the piston. its up to the piston rings and engine oil to seal this:

here's a view of the bottom of the block and the oil-pump-nozzle-gizmo thingy:

more to come!

 

[zee42]

I've been thinking about the ESS Twinscrew Supercharger myself....might be a real treat.....about 7,000 for the whole kit I think.Only thing Is...I don't know anyone I would trust to Install it. There is a place in York New York but That's about 500 miles away

 

[louis]

next, we focus on the cylinder head

the head was cleaned and resurfaced for a good seal. cams were already installed by the time i got to the workshop:

DVANOS mechanism, i think:

make a guess, which is the intake port and which is the exhaust port?

not boring you guys yet i hope.

 

[louis]

I've been thinking about the ESS Twinscrew Supercharger myself....might be a real treat.....about 7,000 for the whole kit I think.Only thing Is...I don't know anyone I would trust to Install it. There is a place in York New York but That's about 500 miles away

i was one of the first few to jump on the wait list for that kit but after more than a year of waiting, i decided i had had enough. the power/torque figures and several other small discrepancies were also push-factors for me.

in the end, for the same price as a TS1, i got a 3.0L engine plus a small centrifugal supercharger kit.

the adage, there's no replacement for displacement still holds true imho. whilst the TS delivers great low end torque, it only does so when you're in boost and you're really only in boost when you're flooring the throttle, which is what, 5-10% of the time?(for my style of driving at least)

with increased displacement, you can feel the torque even under part throttle situations, which in my opinion, is what makes increased displacement superior to forced induction. besides, if you look at ESS figures: the torque from a M54B25 TS2+ is still lower than torque from a M54B30 with TS1. :thumbsdown:

of course, i started with the M54B25, but if you already have the 3.0L, then for the same money, you can have a lot more options and a lot more power/torque as well.

but then again, if i had the money, i would have gone for the racing dynamics R35 motor. 3.5L, 285hp.... :evil:

cheers

 

[louis]

ok, back to the build:

head, block, oil pan assembled:

stock exhaust manifolds installed. yucks. but not many options exist for right hand drive cars...:

can you identify all the different pulleys?

ignition coils don't look like coils afterall... :?

M54B30 manifold with larger throttlebody attached:

stock flywheel assembly, still thinking abt whether to fit a lightweight one or not:

the mechanics hard at work:

Getrag 5 speed gearbox attached:

it took them a good 15 minutes to position the engine at just the right spot below my zeddy.

stay tuned.

 

[louis]

this is day 16 of my engine build and finally the engine is back in, and suspension re-installed. whee!

gotta hide the registration plate from prying eyes. green ones too. you guys aren't gonna tell, are you?? :silence:

drive shaft connected. rear wheel drive yo!

heat shield needs to go back on too:

and meanwhile, this arrived:

they were promptly fitted on:

332 x 32mm slotted 2 -piece floating rotors. 4 piston calipers. stainless steel brake lines. front set only as stoptech doesn't make a rear set for the Z4...idiots. :chairfight:

hmm, just a little more to go

 

[louis]

infinitas sk plus supercharger fitted:

and Aquamist 1s kit installed as well for cooling and detonation control:

THE END!!!








































































yeah right....how i wish....

actually, this happened :

zeddy lasted about 100km before the main belt came off. i tried putting it back on but it just kept coming off. no belt = no water pump = danger of overheating = tow back to the workshop. bah.

turns out we took off a little too much material when grinding one of the pulley brackets. it eventually bent, causing the pulley to go out of alignment.

 

[louis]

no biggie though, zeddy was fixed in a day and up & running again. whee! just in time too! there was a huge downpour and my Z4 taxi service was activated by the girlfriend.

the other 2 trusty cars that kept me mobile throughout this period:

and here's how i paid for some of the stuff:

by enrolling in a pfizer drug trial as a test subject... i kid you not. :dizzy: you'll have me to thank in a few years time when you need only pop one combined pill for both hypertension and hyperlipidemia.

that's it folks! hope you've enjoyed my zeddy's heart transplant!! and oh, if you skipped the bits in between, here's a summary:

1)stroked up my 2.5L engine to 3.0L
2)added supercharger.

cheers
Louis

 

[tehdarkstar]

Thanks mate! I really enjoyed your photo-narrative of your Z's heart transplant.

 

[20ducks]

Superb....this one should be preserved in the vault.

 

[Rolex]

Good stuff

 

[Wondermike]

louis great info

 

[louis]

i'm glad you guys ejoyed it!

 

[Flycaster]

Although I never ever expect to do something like this to my cars, I still very much appreciate and envy the outcome. Furthermore, the narrative pictorial was excellent. BTW, Louis, do you like to drive fast? LOL.

 

[Andy]

awesome.. really enjoyed the narative too.

any chance of youtube's of the final result... and i don't mean the drug testing.. =)

 

[zee42]

Did you change the rear brakes to stop tech and if so what size to equal out the front big brake? and what type of supercharger was that Name and number please.I'm thinking of these mods for my "Z"

 

[fire-n-ice]

Hi Louis, I thoroughly enjoyed the transplant tour. I do have one curiosity though: Why was the donor's block damaged and in what way and why? That's one of the toughest parts to damage.

My brother and I rebuilt the engine in my 88 Silverado late last year and the block was the one thing that was perfectly beautiful.

So, is it running better now? Looks awesome !
T.

 

[louis]

BTW, Louis, do you like to drive fast? LOL.

only on the track :wink:

 

[louis]

awesome.. really enjoyed the narative too.

any chance of youtube's of the final result... and i don't mean the drug testing.. =)

i've posted some videos in other threads abt my exhaust and my day at the dyno. that's all i've got for now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moRwiSAfiOY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuAdojmEFoY

cheers