Day 3:
The saga continues.....
Some good news though. Most of everything is installed and I was able to start her up today. Happy to say that there are no leaks, no CELs, , no overheating condition, no funny noises. I'll let her cool down and let the fluids settle before I recheck levels in the morning. I'm beat.
Things left to do - Z1 undershroud, master cylinder brace, plastic trim pieces, fender liner, and clean-up.
Several test drives to verify operation and levels close to home before venturing out into the real world.
Total coolant used - 3.5gal; total oil 6qts (with room to spare, about halfway between L and H); total blood loss approximately 2 FL oz. These values may change after some initial runs tomorrow. But the air lift worked pretty well so (fingers crossed) I might be good to go.
More lessons learned:
- Follow the procedure. Yes, I know a lot of you are engineers, master mechanics, and NASCAR/F1/WRC racers, BUT really, the directions are there for a reason. They may have included stuff that you haven't thought of or may have missed.
- The positioning of the oil cooler sandwich plate was a pain and time consuming. Not only are the hoses difficult to work with, you really have to get creative with your spatial ability to make it work. The one fitting choice didn't help either.
- Putting on those plastic pieces sucks, but is necessary for airflow. Unfortunately, you won't/can't use all of them again.
- STAY ORGANIZED AND CLEAN
- The Infiniti/AMS expansion tank is stupid. I'm serious, it's dumb. There's no window (I'm an idiot for not knowing before I installed it). How do you check level? By opening the cap, and sticking a stick inside until you get to the bottom. Then measure two inches from the top. Sure, fine and dandy once you get the level set, but not when you're expecting it to change. I'm just going to eyeball it, I'm not sticking a stick in there (you're not the boss of me AMS)
- The Infiniti/AMS auxiliary tank is HUGE
- When you think you're done and everything is connected, YOU'RE NOT. Check again. Then take a break for 15-30 minutes. THEN CHECK AGAIN.
- When ordering a large amount, do an inventory and separate things out. I seriously thought some parts were missing from the oil cooler. Turns out they were just in a different box.
Stock oil cooler adaptor is off. Yes, that's a Nismo magnetic drain plug. Yes, it's also useless, but at least it looks nice, you know for all those people who are going to go under the car and look.......
Stock oil cooler and all pieces-parts.
There's a bracket you have to remove for the oil cooler hoses. Get your wobble extensions ready.....
Oil cooler line hose routing. I'm glad I had as much out as I did. Even had to remove the passenger side horn.
That's how you get the bracket out.....
Oil cooler installed
Front crash beam going back on.
It's a tight fit, but thankfully the people at Z1 made all the brackets with a great amount of adjustability.
Oil cooler hose routing into the engine bay
DON'T FORGET TO LUBE UP YOUR O-RINGS