That demon bolt is a bitch. I've only had luck with a bunch of 1/2" extensions and an impact socket. The regular sockets won't stay on the bolt.

^^THIS^^

Make sure to painter tape off the intake manifold if you are going to leave the upper portion off.

Yup! Intake ports and injector ports are both sealed off!

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We couldn't even keep it on with impacts... The bolt actually deformed one impact socket when we turned to the big impact gun. That's when we decided to go with the extractor. That bolt was never going to come out gracefully without a torch.

Edit: Pass side came out relatively easy with just impact socket, 1/2" extensions, and breaker bar.

I've done 4 different Z's, and have never really had an issue with the demon bolt. Granted they broke 3 out of 4 of the times lol, but it took me about a min and a half to do both of them. I used 2 1/2 craftsman extensions (maybe 15 inches each), craftsman impact socket, and a craftsman breaker bar.

Luckily whatever I was working on didn't need those bolts anymore, so breaking them rather than fooling with trying to use PB blaster and all of that was the better, quicker route.

Yeah you should be good to go then. You could wait until you started routing the intercooler piping of you wanted before you put that stuff back on.

Anyone know where to pick up pipe taps? Need 1/8" NPT and 3/8" NPT.. I'm at Grainger and they only have super expensive ones.

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I got mine from Harbor freight. I got the 1/8 NPT from a tap set and the 3/8 NPT from another set of 6 NPT taps.

Dam!!! What insurance company do you have???
They closed you out that quick and got you back on the road in two days???
Or did you just buy the new one and will recoup it from the crashed car later?
Anyhow, congrats on the new pick up and for those scouring at 80 mph in the rain, its really not that uncommon, I do it all the time, just not in my Z cause it never touches the rain :happydance:

Wow this thread is delivering in so many ways! Where are we meeting to help out? :)

I went ahead and bought another.. Even if they repair the great pumpkin I'll just sell it ASAP. Not a fan of driving a previously wrecked car..

Right now my BIL and I are in a good rhythm working together but as crunch time approaches I may take you up on this! I'm definitely now for a party at JTRAN for the tuning though. We are shooting for the 28th.

What oil do you guys run in your forced cars? Need to pick some up next time we are out.

Also, we drained the radiator... Doesn't say to in the manual, but we figured it would alleviate some mess when we run the coolant lines.

Rotella Synthetic. Get it at Autozone.

If you have the room after the filter sandwich plate, IC piping and lines I recommend using the Pathfinder oil filter from the bigger V6. Same diameter but it's longer so you get a little more filter area.

Weight/visco?

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Only one option. It's T6 I think and I believe it's 5W-40. It's diesel but don't worry it basically eliminates blow by.

It's the blue bottle

Rotella T6 Full Synthetic for me TOO! Good stuff...

Might as well go to less coolant and more water when you fill it up. Those turbos are oil and water cooled, right?

These guys have the right idea. Works great, and a hell of a lot cheaper than Redline of Amsoil.

We are struggling to get the passenger side turbo manifold on. A heat shield covering evap and fuel hard lines hits the manifold. Any ideas? Going to take pics.

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Solved. There is a fuel line and shielding mod THIRTY PAGES LATER in the instructions that should have put in right after tear down. It's pretty clear to me that different techs wrote different sections of the manual and they were assembled together without a ton of thought.

Not solved. The shield we replace covers a fuel line and an evap line. The fuel line gets extended and the shield is replaced, but the pictures show the evap line just disconnected. Are we supposed to leave it that way?

I've uploaded the instructions to my google drive, here is the link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9s...ew?usp=sharing

The procedure in question is on page 77. On the other kits does the evap hose just get left unconnected?

Gamma has set up a two hour window tomorrow for phone support. It is a Christmas miracle. Today was a rough one with all the snags... All we really accomplished was getting the drivers side manifold snugged into place, not even torqued. I am concerned about the time line but hopeful it gets easier after the manifolds.

They did confirm that the purge hose is connected even though the instructions do not show it. Our fuel hard line is positioned in a way where we can not fit the gamma heat shield so we are still stuck on the passenger manifold.

Wish us a little more luck tomorrow. Time to rest.

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Yep.

Thanks for the suggestions guys we will do that!

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Another long day. We Finally got tech support as promised this morning and it has been a HUGE help. It doesn't feel like much got done today, but it was productive in getting us over the hurdles that have been plaguing us.

Got the drivers side manifold torqued, drivers side lower water hose replaced. Broke a clamp on the upper hose. Finally understood WTF is going on with the fuel/purge lines on the pass side. Removed main harness cover on pass side and begun rewrapping it, finished preassembly and wastegate tensioning for both turbos.

While under the car I noticed that it also already has SPC front and rear camber arms. Not sure if the springs are factory or not.. didn't really notice if it was dropped and I only had it for a matter of hours before we started tearing it down.
Picked up some T6 oil as folks here have suggested! Thanks!

I want to leave a bunch of notes for GrooveStyle (Same kit, a few days behind us) here while they are fresh in my mind before sleep... Also, our support suggested we might be able to help refine the manual when we finally finish..

Install the replacement water hose (above drivers side manifold) BEFORE you put in the drivers side exhaust manifold (manual has it after). We did it after, and it took some pretty out of the box thinking to get the damn hose on (dont even want to try and explain). The hose won't block access to any of the manifold nuts.

Also, you will need to remove the pointless bracket which is held on by two bolts at the back of the head on the drivers side, otherwise the hose and manifold do not both fit. there is no mention of this in the manual.

Speaking of the manifold nuts (drivers side), the bottom three and the rear top are accessed from the bottom of the car with a socket. The top front two have to be turned about a quarter turn at a time with an open ended wrench. We had to bend the hard water lines away from the block a few mm to reach.

The fuel line mod (page 76) should be partially performed before the passenger manifold is installed (somewhere around pg 45). The manual just shows you a picture with no purge hose and tells you to do it like that and it's impossible. 1) the purge hose stays on. 2) You have to bend the fuel hard line a little more than it is, then bend it toward the chassis/back of rhe car so it isnt pointed directly away from the chassis (which will make it impossible to install the new heat shield). We increased the factory bend with a tubing bender, then I bent it towards the back of the car (and closer to the chassis) with my hands.

When you add the fuel line extension, you have to push in that black piece and slip it over then release and it should be on there sturdy. DO NOT just try to force it on... that is what we did and it crinkled the epoxy coating on the hardline. Support suggested we strip it back all the way to the second bevel but we werent able to peel it and we ended up having to burn the coating off with a torch. Not fun to put a torch on a fuel line that still has some gas in it (got a little vapor flame). We are considering adding a soft clamp to hold the lines against the chassis as the instructed setup will still make contact with the heat shield. You'll want to put the supplied shield on AFTER you get your passenger manifold on.

Speaking of the passenger manifold, mine made contact with a plastic casing over the main wiring harness. As instructed by support, we've removed that casing (one bolt, one clip that you will need super long needle nose to reach) which required a lot of wrap to be cut away. We are rewrapping the harness and will heat wrap it and zip tie it in place. Hoping to get the passenger manifold on tomorrow when we complete all the dressings.

We also plan to heat wrap the AC line on the drivers side as it hangs a little close to the turbo, though it is more on the compressor side so not a huge worry.

When you are prepping the turbos... The drivers side the manual says to hook up the water feed line with the straight end. This line does not exist. There is a water line with a straight end, but this is the crossover line. I assume they meant the feed line which has a 45 on one end instead of two 90s. I guess I'll find out when I put them in.

On the passenger side turbo, my wastegate actuator rod didn't clear the bracket (could hook it up, but it made a little contact in the full closed position). I think this might have been a manufacturing defect, as the metal had ballooned out a little when the bracket was bent. I ended up having to grind a couple of mm of the bracket to give the actuator rod free movement. Also, orient the actuator so the nipple is facing the the heat shield you install on it. I got confirmation this is the proper orientation from our support guy.

I think that is everything we went through today... I hope it helps you man!

Wow, awesome notes, thanks for that! I'm to the point where the manifold is removed now, and had to head out for the holidays, but will continue next week.

Merry Christmas boys and girls! I am exhausted, but I believe we are finally getting over the hump. I'm going to start writing these notes up like a blog so I can go back and redline the manual when this whole thing is finished... and also for anyone who might be working their own build (Groove!) before the instructions are rev'd.

We finished rewrapping the main wiring harness and heatwrapping it. My BIL did a great job with it and it looks damn near factory. We tied this up with stainless bailing wire, wasn't sure zipties would hold up to the heat.

The stupid fuel line / purge hose / heat shield debacle is finally over. That portion of the install has been very problematic. Either the spacer provided was too long, or the bolt provided was too short. Support (who has been amazingly awesome and very responsive since our first issue) suggested we shorten the spacer or get a longer bolt. I ended up doing both. The shield is difficult to place in because of the add-on fuel line. It has to bend along the chassis and thus wants to push the shield away from the chassis. If you get a looong bolt (no reason not to), you can thread it in loosely and then torque the shield and lines into place. I was a little worried that over time the shield may begin cutting the lines, so I wrapped them in a couple of of layers of heatwrap to protect #MOARHEATWRAP (can you ever have too much?). One note for GrooveStyle, the shield contacted the manifold in my case and could not be installed the way it is pictured in the manual. Support suggested I move the shield to the next hole back. Doing this you end up using that "middle" hole with the spacer. I like this better anyway, keeps the lines in place.

With that done, we were finally able to get the passenger side manifold in place and torqued down (I feel like I have installed and uninstalled the damn thing 3287486 times).

After that, we went ahead and installed the passenger side turbo. The back two mounting nuts are super easy, but the front two are a bitch. The higher one you can gently get your fingers in there and thread it on, then torque with the closed end of a combo wrench. The lower, front nut is a two person job. One person has to get a finger on the stud from the bottom of the car, the other person needs to place the nut on the stud with some kind of reaching tool (tweezers or.. we actually used a magnetic pick-up tool). The person under the car can hold it in place, and the person on top can get a finger on it and between the two you can get it threaded on. Torquing is similar - the person under the car has to blindly feed the closed end of a combo wrench up to the nut and the person over the car can guide it onto the nut. I highly recommend a ratcheting combo wrench for this.

We went ahead and installed the union for the pass side water feed as well.

Tomorrow we'll get the drivers side turbo mounted. I test fitted it this morning so it shouldn't be terribly difficult getting it mounted. Getting the waste gate and waterline in place could be a different story but support thinks we wont have issues. He suggests, in addition to what the manual has you connect to the turbo during prep, adding the inlet coupler, the outlet coupler, and the outlet pipe before mounting. We didn't have all that on during test fit this morning so there may still be some adventures waiting for us.

Overall, the fit and finish of the kit is excellent. Passenger side manifold/turbo looks factory the way it fits in there, though it is tight. Hoping the drivers side looks just as good. I've been very impressed with the quality of all the parts and have only had to make small adjustments here and there. The instructions are another story, but I'm also pretty sure I am among the first group to DIY this kit so they should get better over time. The support guy Gamma has hooked me up with (who is one of their builders) has been exceptional and I don't think we could have gotten this far without him (again, this will become less necessary as the instructions improve). I call or text him about 6 or 7 times a day.

I am seeing a light at the end of the tunnel and as of tonight I am feeling optimistic about meeting the timeline. There have been so many instances during this build where I have felt overwhelmed just standing there dumbfounded why I just took apart a car I bought only a few days ago, but just keep plugging away and as you overcome hurdles one by one, the finish line starts creeping into view.

Oh one more note for Groove.. I thought I was missing the drivers side compressor outlet pipe, but it just turned out the part number in the manual doesn't match the label on the packaging.

Thanks for reading! Sorry no pics yet.. We are taking them, just don't have a ton of time to size, post, caption, etc...

Again, thanks for the notes, this is gonna help me a ton and should save a ton of time for me next week.

Not much today, we only worked about 4 hours on the car because of Christmas.

Got the oil distribution block and drivers side turbo installed. Looks F$%king awesome having both turbos in. The compressor housing hits the the water pipe for the 2012+ factory oil cooler, something not accounted for in the initial design of the kit. We had to grind a bit off the compressor housing (on outside around a bolt, there was tons of extra material) and we also had to bend/ding the water pipe but we were able to full torque the turbo in place and you can slide a single sheet of paper between the compressor and the pipe now.

Groove - when you prep the turbos try to visualize where the oil and water lines are going to go and what orientation you want on the fittings on the other end. Our pass oil line wants to face 180 degrees from where we need it to go, so we are either going to have to put a twist-loop in it, or CAREFULLY try to reclock the crimped fitting... or pull the pass turbo and reclock the line completely.. but getting the last nut on the pass turbo was such a b#$% we really dont want to pull it.

Little too late now but couldn't you have just remove the stock oil cooler for a proper one and eliminated the issue?

Also you think your making Monday tuning?

Probably, but I decided not to install an oil cooler yet as I want to see the results with the GTM oil pan which is essentially a big aluminum heat sink with three more quarts of capacity.

Won't make Monday tuning :( we continue to run into issues. The AC lines on the drivers side prevent us from installing the inlet pipes and the instructions don't mention anything about it so we'll have to get with support tomorrow. There is a bracket in the way on the passenger side but it looks like we can just delete it.

We did get the oil feeds, water feeds, and water crossover plumbed in today. Still have to do all the intake and intercooler piping, fuel pump, and injectors.

Support told us we are pretty much the first DIY install of this kit and they have only done a few installs themselves. I probably would have waited till next Christmas if I had known so I could get the benefit of more refined instructions, etc. It has been a rewarding experience so far, hopefully we can keep pushing.

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There are several of us here in Houston that have extensive experience inside that engine bay if you think it might help.

i need to move to H-town...

Tell me about it

Thanks for the offer! My BIL and I are working pretty effectively together and Gamma has provided excellent support so far via phone/text so I'm trying to limit the number of "cooks" in the "kitchen" so to speak. =) I hope you do not take any offense to it! I would still love to meet you guys even if I only have time to do so during tuning. =)

We got answers from gamma, the AC lines need to be slightly bent up and out of the way.. they are super soft so this was easily done by hand. The passenger side bracket we thought we could delete was indeed deleted to make room. It did hold the main alternator cable in place, this cable needs to be tucked closer to the motor and to do so the connector on the alternator needs to be clocked. The cable needs to be tied away from the manifold and we will also probably heat wrap it.. (we have been heatwrapping damn near everything as a preventative measure)

We got the fuel rails reinstalled with the 600cc injectors. The manual instructs to lube the o-rings with "included superlube" product but this product was left out of the kit so we just used a dab of royal purple. Turns out the superlube application was clogging the injectors in the first installations so they removed it but forgot to update the manual. Using motor oil instead worked great and isn't all gooey like the Superlube grease so I recommend going that route.

We got the drivers side inlet and outlet piping mocked up and the drivers side wastegate installed (goes on after the turbos are installed and oil/water plumbed) as well. We started mocking up the passenger side inlet piping, and were about to reinstall the power steering cooler and intercoolers when we realized Gamma neglected to include the replacement power steering lines in the kit. It was already getting late in the evening so we decided to call it an early night so we could go buy the power steering lines at the autoparts store tomorrow.

We didn't put a ton of hours in today.. I was starting to feel burnt out so we took it a little easy today and spent some time relaxing to recharge. I am feeling better already and my enthusiasm for the project is returning. We are way behind in time, but we are going to keep moving at a steady pace and whenever it's done it will be done. I am not the kind of person to start rushing.. I have already started moving other plans around to accommodate the extended timeline (and told JTRAN we are behind as well). I am determined to do this thing right the first time as best I can.

Remaining to-do list (in order):
Install power steering cooler and lines
Install intercoolers
Mock up intercooler piping
Drill/tap/barb upper intake manifold and reinstall
Mark/Drill/Tap/Barb inlet pipes for PCV and install PCV lines
Install Passenger turbo heatshield
Finalize intercooler piping and tighten
Run wastegate and BOV lines.
Install new oil pan and plumb turbo oil drains
Install exhaust outlets to turbos
Reinstall "X" pipe sections of exhaust
Put wheels back on and take car off lift
Install new fuel pump
Base tune
Start car, check for leaks, drive around block
Reinstall engine cover
Reinstall crash bar
Reinstall strut tower brace and cowling
Reinstall front bumper
Reinstall undertray
Party at JTRAN, put up nice dyno numbers

Alot of those things are small, quick jobs but I just wanted to post them so I don't forget anything. We have also started to become lax on taking pictures, so I will try to get better about it. I want to load this thread up with pics when this thing is over with.

No worries here. I have no issue relaxing in my couch but figured to let you know help was out there.

600cc injectors aren't a lot. Think you'll be limited on power with those.

Aren't 600cc only good up till about 500-550ish hp...?

Depends on how conservative your tuner is with timing. I'm close to maxed with 750ccs.

I'm only after about 475. Hopefully it will be enough.

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We keep pushing. I can't believe I thought we were getting over the hump 3 days ago. Every time I think we are going to cruise to the finish line, we just run into more issues that aren't covered in the instructions.

Got the Power steering cooler back in with the new bracket. The mounting bolts for the cooler-to-bracket were too short (scavenged from stock bolts removed to keep moving), the button head bolts which mount the bracket (and intercooler bracket) to the radiator supports were too long (drilled holes in the plastic behind them to clearance), and Gamma forgot to include new power steering lines in my kit (went to auto parts store ad bought some generic). We also had to cut a hole in the plastic next to the PS cooler and bend the inlet down so the hoses ran through cleanly.

Got the intercoolers installed - the horn will need to be relocated (not sure where yet), support suggests we just find a spot around the area and bolt it there, but that the horn needs to face down or to the side so that water does not intrude into it. I also had some sensor sticking off the middle support - the tab it was mounted on was bent back to clearance. Had to remove the supports for the hood latch points. We filled the gap with washers to keep them positioned properly - hopefully those supports being deleted wont cause a huge issue. The intercoolers now become support structure, but their mount points are more inboard compared to where the other supports were.

Got much of the intercooler piping mocked up.. Gamma labeled the turbo inlet pipes as if they are identical, but it turns out they are slightly different. We blew a bunch of time banging our heads against the wall there and still aren't sure we have them as Gamma intended, though we seem to have them in a workable configuration so I'm not sure how much I care.

Another thing missing from the instructions, engine mount spacers. No mention in the manual.. I sent a picture to support trying to figure out their purpose and that's how I found out. Groove - make sure you align the slot of the spacers so that the little nubbin on the bottom of the engine mounts fits into them (you'll know what I mean when you put them in).

Tomorrow we're hoping to get the upper intake mani modded and reinstalled, and finish the IC piping mockup and get the inlets drilled and tapped. If things go really well, we'll install the new oil pan and plumb the turbo drains. This project is taking forever, but we are steadily clearing each hurdle.