Reassembly has begun.

http://www.the370z.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1370748000

http://www.the370z.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1370748000

Oil cooler is way to small.:tup:

I know right? haha.

Long day...

Well, I got the engine bay re-assembled.

Hit some really frustrating road blocks that prevented me from firing her up.

First, I can't get the steering shaft back into the collar... Just wouldn't go in. Anyone have any tips on that? heh.

Second, my shiny new Fast Intentions exhaust doesn't fit.

It isn't their fault, it's PPE's fault. My driver's side header sits about an inch lower than the passenger side (which is at the correct height).

Modifying the header is out of the question, so I'll be taking that section of the exhaust to get a couple flex pipes installed in it so that I can wrangle it into position.

I took the cockpit-side parts of the steering apart so that you can literally look from the driver's foot well into the engine bay and see the steering collar, so hopefully when my buddy comes over, the two of us can get the damned shaft to go in.

If I can get that taken care of and the exhaust sorted, i'll be ready to fill'er up with coolant and fire it up...

http://www.the370z.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1370831476

From my dealings with the steering shaft. It will ONLY go on one way. The shaft is keyed to the coupling. Look for a blank tooth on the shaft and the matching spot inside the coupling.

What kind of radiator hoses are those? Me like.

It's corrugated stainless steel hosing. Gotta cut it with a saw/cutting wheel.

You use silicone couplers to attach it to the radiator and engine.

I went with this option (over Aluminum pipe + silicone couplers) because I didn't want to go back and forth with the various parts to make everything work, because I couldn't find a bending reducer in the sizes I needed, so I'd end up with several couplers/reducers in line with tiny sections of actual pipe... imagine a top radiator hose with 6 or 8 hose clamps holding everything together... no thanks.

I've yet to get the engine started up and get everything up to pressure, but I'm pretty confident that it'll hold.

I'm a little beat down with this exhaust issue... More $$$ more waiting. The difference is large enough that I'm pretty sure I'll need a pair of flex pipes for the thing to be flexible enough to work. fckin annoying.

Maybe that's what is going on? I dunno. I work from home on Mondays, so I'mma go take a picture of the end of the shaft (I completely disassembled the steering column so the shaft is out of the car at the moment). I am pretty sure mine isn't keyed (I've heard more than one 2011+ owner mention that theirs is keyed, but I'm pretty sure mine isn't).

I'll report back!

I've been anxiously waiting to hear this thing... PPE's and F.I. should sound intense. I wanna go and measure my PPE's now lol, everything lined up perfect on mine, but of course my MD Y pipe has flex couplers.

You and me both...

Yeah, I dunno what PPE's process control is like, but it's pretty bad when they're off by this much.

Crazy part is, we sent them back to have the header nuts clearanced (couldn't even tighten down the nuts due to welds being too fat) and to have this issue addressed. They came back with the nut issue fixed and the collector was maybe a quarter inch closer to "right" than it started, but the cost of shipping them back and forth was so huge that we just leveraged the old exhaust on there (it had flex pipes) and called it "good enough".

Well the FI exhaust has no flex pipes and its made of very strong materials..meaning it doesn't flex. At all.

Thinking to get my fabricator guy to cut and re-weld that one pipe is going to be more cost effective than throwing a flex pipe or two at it.. we'll see.

Soooo. Yeah. I think your'e right, Rusty.

Here's the photos, clearly it's keyed. I think the reason I was of the belief that mine wasn't keyed is because when the shaft is collapsed (like when you push it up out of the way to do headers) the upper and lower shafts are no longer engaged internally, so you can actually spin the lower shaft completely independent of the upper shaft. That's how you can end up with your steering wheel misaligned even though the shaft is clearly keyed. What a pain the ***! haha.

http://www.the370z.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1370873275

http://www.the370z.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1370873330

http://twilight.ponychan.net/chan/fi...7076973667.png

Yeah I'm pretty sure somewhere in the Service Manual, or in the directions for one of the sets of headers I put on the car, they talked about that. The "easy" solution (not that it helps you now) is to mark the steering shaft and where it inserts with a paint pen before you disconnect, so you can put it back the way it was.

I suppose, but it's actually already marked in teal paint (you can't really see it without taking the shaft out) and it can really only go in one way, since the bolt path is cut into the shaft. The key is to make sure the wheel doesn't turn (steering wheel) while you have the shaft collapsed, otherwise you could de-index the upper shaft with the lower.

Now if I can just get the damned thing to slide back in to the steering rack joint.

Another thing that's goin' to bite you in the a$$. Your traction control light will be on because of the steering shaft mess. The sensor on the rack will have to be reset. ;)

HA! I have no traction control system, so it'll be on either way. :P

Thanks for the encouragement, I was able to get it reinstalled on my lunch break and get the entire steering column back together without issue.

Also got the rest of the chassis grounds connected (there are a bunch!) and began the process of filling up the radiator. She lit up just fine, sounds shitty with the exhaust leaks due to the non-fitment, but even so... this bitch is going to be loud as hell even when the leaks are closed up... Holy Moly.