PapaSmurf

I'm on the left coast, I'd rather stick with an l28 thanks though

I might take you up on that scott, maybe next month when my tax return comes what do you got? I have to get her back on the road, I'm driving a 96 taurus!

So I had some trouble installing an aftermarket cam last summer, it snapped in half - that's what I get for being in a hurry. My best guess is that when the cam broke it came down hard on the valve at the wrong angle, I didn't notice any damage to it and since I had just spent 2 days working replacing the timing chain, tensioner, head gasket etc. I was in a hurry to get it over with. Big mistake, I should have checked everything again but I didn't. I bolted the old cam back in place and fired her up. Ker thunk ker thunk ker thunk - what the hell is that noise? the block became seized, and I haven't had the time or energy to touch it again until now. I got the head removed today, I found a chunk of valve in the exhaust gasket, that's when I felt that sharp pain in my gut and knew there would be damage to the block. I continued removing the head hoping that there would be no damage, that the pistons were forged out of some magical unobtanium, but alas here is the damage: Always take your time. Even if the wife is rushing you, the snow is falling whatever take your time for the love of God! I need a new block, there is damage to the cylinder wall and I don't have the money or time to completely rebuild it. Looks like my Z is going to be grounded for the summer. I guess I'll continue rebuilding the spare head (e88) the n42 is now scrap metal. hopefully I can find a block in good shape for a reasonable price. I don't have enough time for the Z these days, I recently became a dad and it's difficult to find time for anything or money for that matter *edit- Wow my engine bay is ugly I need to paint

Hey guys, I'm looking for a complete cylinder head to bolt on to my l28. The one that is currently installed is an n42 but I'm willing to take anything that keeps the compression normalish - I'd like to run pump gas thank you. I'm located in Kelso, Wa, 45 miles north of portland I would prefer a local sale so I can take a look at what I'm buying (not to mention skip the shipping costs) but reply anyway and we'll see what we can do. I want something in good shape, I'll probably end up replacing the stem seals before bolting it on so it doesn't have to be a fresh rebuild. I want to get my Z back on the road

The last motor I built up for this car I bought in portland where everybody buys 260z's and tosses the l26's and shoves in l28's for emissions purposes. I was stuck there building engines for months. The first one I got was an l26 some ******* scratched the 6 into an 8 and was trying to be clever. I had to buy what was available though because I wanted to get my car home. That engine turned out to be a box of rocks, engine number 2 was an l28 with painful cam wear. The block seized up on me a few months back, with the head removed I still could not rotate the crank. Now let me be specific - I will never buy anything from YOU sticky All I want is a good running l28, preferably with a square port head no cam wear, no cam lobe wear, good compression indicating recent valve stem seal replacement, no burnt valves etc. The people on this board who are actually serious about selling an engine to me, the people who are not just trying to raise their post count and flame others know what a good running engine looks like. I can make any l28 fit into that engine bay and in a pinch I'll just take the block and leave you with the head if it's not in good shape. I have plenty of valve stem seals and 2 spare heads that I could piece into something useful. I am a new dad, I don't have TIME to dink around with less than worthy engines. These things are all 30+ years old - we know that smart ass. Bottom line you know what a good running engine is and you do not need me to be specific. I can replace pistons, valves, heads etc. I can bore and I can port, I just want something to get me by for now. Something that I can work with in a year or so when I get the time to build it up right. I miss throwing my z around so if anyone is serious give me a pm

I'm looking for an l28 in great shape - no amateur mechanics have stripped bolts etc. Most important I need it to have a head on it with no cam or valve wear - none damnit! I have purchased 3 engines off these forums in the past and every damned one has had cam lobe wear that I didn't catch in time. I'm willing to pay for an engine that will last me. I hate my Z in that it only runs 1 month out of the year. It takes all the fun out of it. I have a newborn son now and no time to dink around with these bargain engines. I will probably end up going with a crate engine but I figured I'd see what hidden gems you guys might have.

brilliant thanks

howdy guys, well I finally got my new l28 in the orange beast and she won't fire. Seems nothing ever works right the first time eh? Ok so I put it together and forgot that tdc on the crank wasn't nessecarily tdc on the compression stroke doh! So my question is this how to I verify now that she's all together that it's tdc on the compression stroke? I've got about 3 hours to get this thing running so I need some help

if it was any of those it should be the 262 just because of the compression ratio but ya can't trust the po knew what he was doing.

thanks but I'm not seeing the 686 grind number on cranes site..

new clue: on the end of the cam it says 686

It says "cwc" and "d2" on it pulled from an n42 head it's obviously aftermarket but I'm lookin for specs. I tried eyeballing it against the stock cam in the n47 and the lobes look like they protrude about the same distance out but they look fatter which is good. I'm hoping I lucked out with a good cam here tell me what you know about it or maybe give me some suggestions on measuring differances between it and stock.

lol naviathan sorry to hear about that. I think I'll just run a 2mm gasket on the n42 and premium if that gives me problems at normal timings I'll try some lead additives or get drastic with it. Though my elevation is only 75 feet... maybe a 3mm gasket lol

Haha thats why I got this block/head for so cheap $200. The guy was tring to run it with regular at normal timings and he decided it must be a devil engine because it wouldn't freakin run. I was in racing mode forgetting that this is ALSO my daily driver, I was thinking premium isn't that much more if I'm payin 3.00 a gallon any way lol but premium wouldn't really have the juice I'd have to retard her and she'd have no power when I wasn't splurging on race fuel. I could always run a thicker gasket on there 2-3mm any problems there?

Ok guys I'm still tryin to get a runnin motor in my Z, the l26 I tried to swap in was doa and now I've got me a nice re-manned dipped l28 to stick in. She's got flat top pistons standard bore as far as I know though it may have been bored by the po I'll have to compare with the other l28 anyways I got an n42 head with it, it's been gone through valves replaced etc and I'm wondering wether it would be better to go with it or the n47 or e88 I got in the driveway. It's been gone through and it looks perty nice but as long as she's apart I'm lookin into some options. I checked it out on l6 engine builder 0.1 from zcar club australia and from what I'm seeing the n42 is identical to the n47 in every way except that the exhaust ports on the n42 are square ports vs the n47s round ports. I'm also seeing that my n42/47 both get slightly better compression ratios than the e88 with my block. I'm thinking I'm gonna go with the n42 since it's all nice and shiny but I just wanted to hear some opinions from the guys that know, is it a good head is it a bad head as far as reliability and performance. Lemmie know what ya think. Also What head gasket should I go with? According to this program the felpro gasket raises my compression ratio 10.08:1 rather than 9.82:1 for the standard. I like power power is good... vroom vroom baby

I just "finished" swapping an l26 into my 78 z. I changed the timing chain, the distributor, starter, everything to correct this problem and I can not figure it out. At low rpms, there is a loud rattle from the rear of the motor, I thought I didn't tighten the intake/exhaust manifold on well enough. I did though. Nothing seems to be lose or rattling. However the flywheel can move about half an inch in either direction, up or down with no resistance.... Shouldn't be able to do that should it?? The rattle goes away when I put the choke on the rear carburator closest to the noise. It doesnt seem to do much when I choke the front carb. The car seems to need a chance to wind up before any acceleration is felt like my vacuum advance is not functioning. I have a brand new distributor, I installed it TODAY. The vacuum line isn't leaking from anywhere. And the last symptom is when the motor is shut off it diesels for a few seconds LOUDLY with lots of rattlin clankin horror. Is this a bad motor? Did I somehow manage to put the timing chain a tooth off again? I stared at that timing for days trying to find something wrong with it...

I ordered a new distributor overnight so it should get here in a few days lol then I can test it. I also took off the starter and tested it and the selonoid was working properly but maybe inside the flywheel it's a different story.

For those of you who haven't been following all the drama I've been going through with this project here is a brief explanation. My l28 was shot, the tooth that holds the crank pully in place chewed the hell out of it's slot and the pully was moving around, the rings were bad my highest compression was 90psi and my lowest was 60, my front and rear crank seals were bad, etc. I took her down to portland and the engine seized up on me allowing me to notice these very bad things. So I embarked on my quest to replace the engine as quickly as possible. The best engine I found was an l26, the seller was the worst kind of person. They scratched the 6 in l26 into an 8 and tried to fool me. I bought the engine anyhow as I was desperate. I tore it apart and put my intake manifold on it and all my accessories except the distributor. I even put my round port exhaust manifold on it as I couldn't find a square port to match the e88 head. I adjusted the valves and replaced the timing chain because it was stretched quite badly. Thats about where I am now. I finally got the timing chain and the ignition timing where they need to be. I was thrown off thinking the timing chain was out of place due to a strange knocking noise that persisted until I either put the choke on one of my carbs or richened that carb up with the fast idle. I decided to assume the timing was correct as I had checked and double checked for many many days. After adjusting the carbs to normal and re-wiring my ignition coil and distributor the knocking got better and all I had to do was rev the engine to 3k rpm and it went away entirely. I took it on a test drive today and verified that the vacuum advance on the distributor is not functioning. It takes time for the timing to catch up, she has lots of power from a stop but accelerating takes time. Worse though I found that the knocking sound seems to be related to my cluth, flywheel, or starter. With the clutch pedal in I feel the knock as a vibration from the pedal and it seems to get worse with the pedal down. Also when I switch the motor off it continues to run making quite a racket until it finally stops. I have several ideas: When I suck/blow through the vacume advance nothing happens, there is no air moving through it. It seems to be seized. It is certainly causing the acceleration lag but what about the other problems? perhaps the starter selonoid is not retreating from the flywheel and is making the noise perhaps (God I hope not) a bolt came off the pressure plate on the clutch and is rattlin around Worse yet maybe my timing is still off which could cause the engine to continue running, say if the cam is retarded. I just don't see it being off because I checked it a million times and it looks perfect.. Please somebody help me I know I must have more than one problem here but give me some ideas. I gotta get this thing running, it's my only mode of transportation.

turbo charging carbs is a hard thing to do lol they have to be tuned by God and you've heard of nitrious right? Well you'll need to do a wet injection of holy water instead to keep it running right.

I'm having the exact same problem, the timing has to be advanced way high to start and run but I hear that poping noise too. I thought I had not bolted the exhaust manifold on right because it was loud but I checked it and it's fine. 2-3k rpm the noise goes away. I am however running SUs and I'm running the vacuum line directly from the port on the carb to the distributor (which I've always done to great success)

lol 180 out. I've done that maybe 3 times this month doing my engine swap. It's easier to do than you'd think... I wish the damned thing would just fix itself sometimes.

Remember that the l24 and l26 (if the heads are original) Have square exhaust ports and most l28s have round ports. So you'll want to find the correct header. I bolted a round port header onto a square port head and boy is it loud and leaky.

Well I corrected the timing chain, it's now exactly right. The iginition timing is correct as far as I can tell also. However for some strange reason she'll start and try to catch unless I advance the timing and then she'll ping and knock loudly until I rev the engine to 2-3k rpm. New plugs, new cap and rotor, new oil, new everything. The only thing I would suspect would be the vacuum advance on the distributor. I reused the 260z distributor because it has dual pickups and I had to rewire it but it works great. The only thing I am not sure of is the vacuum advance. Any thoughts would a bad advance cause this? Also another question the distributor shaft when properly placed should be straight up and down at tdc with the fat side on the right facing towards the transmission.. correct? thats what puts the rotor on the #1 cylinder point, or should I retard it a bit? Thanks for all your help guys.

I was just jokin around not being huffy, the chains stretch (thats why there is an adjustment for tension on the cam sproket) it was adjusted already on the 3rd pin hole. I adjusted the valves and set the crank to tdc and come to find out i had somehow put the distributor gear shaft on 90 degrees off (what i get for letting people help) i got her started but it ran poorly. Turns out the timing chain was a tooth off hopefully ill have her running today.