Website/content/blog/lake-report/001-mizumi-origin-story/index.md

title	date	draft	tags	categories	summary
Lake Report 001: Mizumi's Origin Story	2026-04-24T23:47:00-04:00	true	Mizumi Nissan 300ZX Z31 project car cars	Lake Report Cars	How a Craigslist Z31 became Mizumi, and how one breakdown turned into the beginning of an engine-swap project.

What is the Lake Report?

The Lake Report is my blog where I detail work on my project car Mizumi, a 1986 Nissan 300ZX. みずうみ (mizūmi) means “lake” in Japanese.

Mizumi at home in the driveway.

I've been interested in cars ever since I purchased my first car at 16 in the South Hills of Pittsburgh. Eva was a 1993 BMW 325i with a five-speed transmission and an uncomfortable 190,000 miles.

Eva broke down a lot. But in keeping that car on the road, I found a passion for wrenching away on cars that has seriously shaped my life. Eva was my first time working on a car. I did the simple things, like fabricating a cold-air intake and changing valve-cover seals. I had some harder jobs too, like ripping out the entire dash to change a heater core. Eva eventually found her way to the gas station in the sky when, during state inspection, the frame of the car was described as “crispy” from rust damage. I, as a minor, was no longer allowed to own that car after that point. I, as an adult, can respect that decision.

Eva, the 1993 BMW 325i that started all of this.

Now, since you're on my website, you've probably seen that I'm a mechanical engineer by training. I completed my undergraduate education during the coronavirus pandemic, with COVID putting a real damper on my freshman spring break plans. Instead of completing online school for the entirety of my sophomore year, I leveraged my experience with Eva to land a co-op position at BMW in Upstate South Carolina. My first co-op rotation was in the spring of 2021, right in the middle of my sophomore year. BMW was the first time I was making any real money, and without any other serious expenses — and only paying dirt-cheap rent — I started to collect a nice little piggy bank.

This piggy bank was quickly dispatched when I found Mizumi. On a weekend trip to NC State, I decided to check the local Raleigh-area Craigslist. I found this 1986 Nissan 300ZX listed for sale at $4,000. In the Z community, this car is called a “chuki 2+0 N/A analog dash.” What that all means is the car is the old body style (zenki), but with the tiniest of changes: the bumpers were painted, it has just two seats, it is naturally aspirated, and the dashboard includes typical analog instrument gauges. This generation of car, called the Z31, came in two body styles: a 2+0 coupe and a 2+2 coupe with barely viable rear seats — think Mustang or Camaro back seats. I had always wanted a Z31. And now, I had just set up a meeting with a guy to buy his.

The Craigslist Z31, shortly after purchase.

This Z was the exact spec I was looking for, too. The N/A engine was perfect because I had always been planning an engine swap. It was the regular two-seater, and had the best feature of all: T-tops. I convinced my roommates — who at this point I had known for maybe two months — that I absolutely needed to see this car. They agreed to the side quest, and off we went to meet the previous owner.

When I went to purchase the car, I arrived at a house with several large dump trucks in the yard. To me, this was naturally a good sign, as Eva's previous owner ALSO had dump trucks in the yard. Upon looking at the car, I saw that it had essentially no rust. This was the moment that I decided I was going to purchase this car, unless something crazy happened on the test drive. A rust-free car from the ’80s is hard enough to come by on its own, let alone one in the exact spec you want.

This Z was a royal blue color, which was not a factory option. There was some minor paint damage around the car, almost certainly from a shoddy paint job. Nonetheless, the car started right up and ran, and only had one minor fault: the brakes. The pedal was soft, and it was clear that something was not all there in the front brakes. The car stopped safely, but in retrospect needed the front calipers rebuilt. I offered the previous owner $3,200, and became the owner of Mizumi.

I started to drive Mizumi from the previous owner’s house and immediately noticed several issues. First, the tires were old. They were significantly underinflated, and would need reinflated within a mile or two unless I wanted to destroy them. Second, the previous owner had installed 5% tint on all the windows except for the front windshield. This was almost certainly not legal, and gave the impression of standing at the front of a movie theater and staring directly into the projector. Your eyes would adjust to daylight out of the front, and as a result, you could not see basically anything out of any of the other windows.

Third, and most pressingly, Mizumi overheated within 10 miles of leaving the previous owner and broke down.

Mizumi, making a strong first impression.

At this point, I'd like you to imagine being one of my roommates. You've just met this Pitt student a couple of months ago before moving in with him sight unseen, several hundred miles away from home, at your first real adult job. He, on a road trip three hours from your temporary home, convinces you to meet an unknown man from Craigslist to buy an old car. You are assured that this is all normal. Then, the car your new roommate has bought immediately breaks down and leaves you all stuck for hours waiting for a tow truck. Frankly, I'm beyond grateful they did not leave me behind.

Mizumi never ran again in South or North Carolina after that. I towed the car to a Nissan dealership in Cary, NC before paying a silly sum for new tires and brakes. I traveled back to Cary to try and make the road trip to SC, but once I collected the keys, the car just refused to start in the dealership parking lot. At that point I decided to have it shipped home to Pennsylvania.

I did eventually get Mizumi running somewhat better once I returned to PA, but I discovered a nasty truth about my overheating issues. I had a significant head-gasket leak in cylinder 3 that was burning all of my coolant. I took stock of the situation, and decided my long-term plan of an engine swap had become the main plan. I removed the engine from the car, and it's been a work in progress ever since.

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In the Lake Report, I'll bring you up to speed on how the engine swap is going.