I had my car now since sept 18 of 01, (sad I still know that) anyways drove it up to about 4yrs ago when something broke in the motor. 276kmiles. but I've been sitting on sets of z32 10.5:1 .30 over pistons and eagle rods and spare motor I got off a fellow org member with less than 5k on heads.
so it took me 5 yrs yrs to send it out and this story is going no where but when I get my bottom end back this week im gonna upload many pics of the work and those shiny pistons. Im just wondering if anyone went aftermarket lighter pistons and rods or just with the oem. im just trying to get back into my car its been tool long and im gonna end up flipping my jeep if i keep taking those onramps too fast. but equally the max got me a bad driving record so kind of afraid of registering it. maybe just dragway or road course would be real fun to experience.
anyone give up on there max for a awhile and just kindof missed it

 

Cool deal!

I gave up on my Max for a year or two and just recently got back into it. In fact, I bought another VE 5 speed a few months back

That's awesome about the engine, can't wait to see the pics. I don't recall many (if any) .Org members ACTUALLY doing said work to a VE. At least, if they did, I don't recall any posts about it

 

i thought matt had a set of Z32 pistons in his VE

im sure ill get yelled at

oh what is the compression of the Z32 TT pistons. 8.5 right ??

 

yes 8.0:1 on TT and N/A is 10.5:1

and N/A is SEFI and TT is MPFI

 

yea matt has the 10.5:1 z32NA pistons, and iirc chrome-moly rings.

 

Well, yeah, but I believe he had an issue/problem with his engine builder messing some stuff up pretty bad on it, and I don't recall an update/resolution to it other than him proving the engine builder was at fault

Of course, he may have finished/fixed it for all I know as I was gone for a year or two

 

I have some z32 NA pistons in my engine

 

Thoughts, impressions, dyno #'s, etc?

Like I said in my first post, I don't recall any tangible follow-up posts

 

actually the thread title is quite similar....

matt93se's thread:
http://forums.maxima.org/all-motor/3...hop-today.html

 

I haven't dyno'd it yet, but the guy that bought the engine from dyno'd it. Supposedly, it put down 199 whp corrected and 205 whp uncorrected with an safc and bolt-ons. I don't think a 0.5:1 increase in compression really helps hp that much. It probably only adds 2-3 hp. Increasing compression has a much greater impact when you install a more aggressive cam.

I'm not 100% sure, but I think the pistons in my engine are forged. I noticed this when I removed the oil pan. I spray a NX 150-shot (wet) fairly often with pump gas and it doesn't have any problems. I plan to spray a 200-250 shot with race gas when I go to the track...

 

I had a set of JE pistons in my car. 10.5:1 compression, 87.5mm bore. (more like 11 or 11.5:1 compression after I checked compression post-build.)

The end result on my engine is that the builder fixed the heads for free. I fixed all the little crap and drove it daily for about 2.5 years... around 35k miles total.

I don't think the rings ever seated properly, as the engine kept burning oil (It's a known problem with moly rings.. they're just too damn hard).. I also nicked the head gasket around the timing chain area so the timing covers leaked oil. so I don't know how much oil was leaked or burned, but I had to put a quart of oil in it every 1000 miles.

The other issue is that I ALWAYS had to run 93+ octane in the car, and it would still ping with the JWT ECU in the summer, even with retarded timing. I think it's just too much compression for stock cams. I have a head and cam set all boxed up to go to a cam sup and get ground, but I just lost interest in working on a 20 year old car all the time.

This spring, I gave up working on it every weekend to keep it on the road and bought a G35...

But the engine RAN great.. it just drank oil like it was gasoline!!

 

Yeah thats SUCKS! Glad all the engines I built are still running like champs even my little D21 DD with it's 332,000 miles and still rolling hard...

 

 

block decked bored honed full ballanced bottom end crank glass bead old plugs drilled out to clean oil passages and then plugged inside lobes reworked

 

Be sure to put that much work in the heads. the bottom end just doesn't make much power in these cars. it's in the head and cams is where you're going to have to look.

 

What brand rod bolts are those... ARP 2000's?

 

ARPs are cheap insurance for our cars. like $60-80 a set or something. considering a failed rod bolt is what blew my old engine, I wouldn't mind paying a few bucks for a set (and I did on the last build).

 

looking good on the VE build. when i did my engine swap my car was down for almost 4 months and damn did i miss driving the old hag. then i jumped into my 335i and let it rest for like another few months and when i got back into driving it; it felt so much roomier and i had to get use to the driver seat again since i was use to my 335i seat hugging me like a race car. if it makes you feel any better i've had my 3rd gen since Dec. 1999, and still driving strong.

Matt: since you retired your 93SE; what are your next plans on it? parting it out or selling it?

 

I have "special plans" for it. don't know if it will ever come to fruition or not, but I have something in mind.....

 

in for PM

engine looks great OP.. so clean for an iron block. are you going to paint the exterior or put an anticorrosive something on it so that it won't rust?

 

i like where this is going, im even afraid to ask whats on your mind for your 93. but im in for a PM as well.

 

the heads actually only have less than 5k on full rebuild bought the motor off julio with the turbo 92' like 5 yrs ago but dont really know much to do with the heads and afraid of porting but I am running juice the rings are gapped for mild nitrous i think je had a whole chart to go by i would like headers even if i gotta get soem z32 or vq headers and send em through a bandsaw a few times and weld ve flage on it its just time little bit here and there.
oh yea and the rods are eagle so the bolts is whatever they use

 

24 hrs of LeMons?

 

heh.. the car is ugly enough to run in LeMons, but I couldn't do that to it!
I have a 240 parts car for that if I wanted to...

I'm not telling what I'm planning to do with the car. The people that know already know. It's been sitting there for a year already and hasn't moved, so I'm not going to make any promises I don't intend to keep. thus I'm just keeping my mouth shut until its done.

 

looks and handles a helluva lot better than mine does! tho based on pics i presume your car was repainted? doesn't appear to be quite the same shade as Cliff's car.

also i was curious what made you go with the chrome moly rings in the first place? was the non-seating an unforseen consequence?

 

The car was repainted at some time before I bought it, although I think there are several shades of Aztec red over the years. Mine's almost identical to the Red 4th gens I've seen and same as many of the other 3 gens. However I've seen several 3 gens that are much darker in color but still called Axtec Red. :shrug:

And the car's not as pretty as you might imagine. the rear spoiler is lifted on both sides, the top of the entire rear bumper is yellow. clearcoat is peeling on top of both fenders and the roof.. there's door dings all over the thing from going to college, and then there's that big chunk of yellow front bumper that I sprayed some sorta-matching Krylon over... IT's really not as pretty as you might think.

Back on topic... The moly rings are what came with the 11:1 JE pistons I installed. They're tougher and can handle more abuse and seal better. however they are harder to break in. We figured it wouldn't be an issue due to the strength of the VE & VG's cylinder walls, but they were just too smooth I guess. The machinist said if I wanted to bring it back to him, he'd leave a slightly rougher hone job on it and replace the rings, which should get them to seat quicker and easier. sometimes it's a bit of a guessing game with those kinds of rings and the engine's metallurgy. I just got tired of working on it and I wasn't about to spend the time to pull the engine back out and tear it down. I can put more oil in it...

Eventually I'll get back around to it and go through the engine again. I will have to for what I'm planning.

 

i was forced to give up on my max for a while due to career relocation, but will be getting it back in november

 

fair enough, i would do the same as well as keeping my mouth shut and let the car speak for itself when its done. carry on Matt. just don't let her turn into a metal cube at the recycling yard. it hurts to see that happen.

now back on topic.

 

RWD/AWD TT conversion?

 

so most likely ill be burning oil for a bit
and should i go nissan gasket sets or is there better

 

For the VE, nissan gaskets are about as good as you can get. the head gaskets are good for 400+hp, so I wouldn't worry about that. just make sure you install everything properly and don't put the heads on until you have the lower timing cover together. (because of the chain, the head gaskets have holes in the ends for the chains to go through. you'll see when you get there... but basically you need to put the lower timing gear together, stick the upper chains in the holes, install the lower timing cover, then install the head gaskets/ heads and finally the upper timing covers and valve covers.

I tried to install the lower timing cover after the heads were put on and wound up fubar'ing the end of the head gasket where it seals the chains.

It'll make more sense when you get there if it doesn't already.

 

ok thanks