labrat

Naw, i have to do all the cooking, and fetch? Ya right! But what do you expect? At least we can spend quality time together in the garage;> You should have seen her helping me pull the tranny out of her 89 camry. I don't know why, but some girls look good when they're greasy!

Mostly luck, i guess. She's a 5th year engineering student at the University of Texas, and she's really interested in mechanical stuff. The cool part is i only have to explain things once, and then she knows exactly how it works! I guess she can use all the mechanical experience she can get, she's going to be designing oilwells soon... Not only that, but she's cute, too! Bill

Well, judging by the reaction of the motor when i pulled off #3 and #5 spark plug wires (none at all), i deduced i had a bad headgasket. Not that i was entirely sure, but close enough to warrant a closer inspection. I bought this motor running in a truck, and had been driving it for about 3 weeks daily to and from work (amidst HORRIBLE vibration), and had never pulled the heads. Got off work on monday at 10 pm, with tuesday and wednesday off. Stayed up till 4 am monday night watching my girlfriend pull the heads (she wanted to, so I let her!) in order to get them to the machine shop first thing in the morning. Come to find out, both head gaskets were blown! 3&5 were completely dead (hg blown between them), 4&6 were leaking compression back and forth, but still firing a little, and all the ex valves on one head were burnt, the other head had been replaced at some time in the past (heads were mismatched, and the bad one was painted the same color as the engine). So i was getting full compression on 2 CYLINDERS, number 2 and 8 only. 1 and 7 had burnt valves, and severely worn guides, 3&5 were a lost cause, and 4&6 were blown between them. Picked up the heads at the machine shop on wed, stayed up till 12pm getting them back on and everything running properly, and DAMN! what a difference! Runs like a sewing machine now! It was about 20 hours of hard work, but it was worth it!

The way those rw37's tubes are reversed, they just might be the header for me to clear my power steering gearbox on my 81 ZX...

I just finished (well, almost finished. Is it ever, really? I drive it to work everyday, at least) a sbc swap into my 81 280ZX. In the ZX's the firewall is 3" closer to the engine mount crossmember, so there are no "JTR" style setback plates involved. Just use enough spacers between the motor mount and block to clear the crossmember with the oilpan. Also, depending on your steering configuration (recirculating ball vs. rack n pinion), you may need to adjust this height. I have the recirculating ball type power steering, and it blows because i can't find headers to fit between the block and power steering gearbox. The cast iron manifolds work O.K., but i'd really like the power gain from headers. I'm running a mostly stock motor, though, so i don't know how much difference it would actually make.

Thanks for the input, grumpy! I knew someone here would stop me before i really screwed something up! This motor has to be back together and driving me to work on thursday, so i don't think i will be able to do what really needs to be done, i was just hoping for a quickie solution, i guess. All this started out as a simple headgasket job, then turned into "While i'm there...." At least i will have a good valve job, and running on all 8 cylinders. Headgasket was blown between 3&5, so those two cylinders were completely dead... Not to mention the two valves burnt up. Hopefully this will keep me running for a while. Might just buy a shortblock. now that i have good heads. btw grumpy, you can ignore my similar post on chevytalk, i was just looking for a quick response... Bill

Ok, here's the deal. I had a blown headgasket on my motor (which explains the vibration problem i've had) and have both heads off and at the machine shop. upon looking a little closer, the cylinder walls don't look that bad. No ring groove at the top to speak of, just a little smooth, with no grooves or anything big enough to catch a finger nail. I know this needs some crosshatching, and i've been getting a little smoke out of my breather, so i know i'm getting some blowby. My question is: Is there any way to reseat my rings and restore my "rough" cylinder walls without pulling the pistons? The motor is still in my 280ZX, and i can't pull the pan with it in there. There just isn't enough room between the pan and crossmember. If i had a hoist, i'd just pull it out, but i don't... My thoughts were to use a cylinder hone on on cylinder at a time, then turn the motor over and flush the S*%T out of them with light oil to remove the metal shavings, but i'm worried about what this will do to the motor when i start it up. any thoughts on this? All help is, as always, greatly appreciated! Bill

I'd buy that for a dollar!

I did my swap for about 1200 bux not including the car, but i'm really not too happy with the way it turned out. I bought a 69 chevy truck from a friend getting a divorce for the drivetrain, and then rain a cheepie 2" single exhaust, etc. and i'm not too much better off than i was with the 6 cylinder... I'm going to redo everything again, but use a t56 instead of a th350 and build or buy a fast burn 385 instead of the old smoker i got now. Just depends on what your going to do with it. Mine is a daily driver, so this sux...

I don't know what else it came in, but the 4 pin was definitely in a 72 chevy 1/2 ton truck w/350 motor. Whenevery i buy engine parts, i give this vehicle (except my ignition, which is points, so i tell them a 68 truck with 327). But before i went with points, I used HEI with 4 pin module, and this is the truck i got it out of. I still have a spare 4 pin module laying around (used the distributor as a core), so i will send it to you if you want, just pay shipping on it. I would send it to you free, but i've been out of work for a while and cash is in short supply... Bill

Okay, i've been investigating the clunk from my rear end, and have some questions for those of you who know these systems intimately. I have an 81 ZX with a clunk in the rear when i shift into drive, drive to reverse, or when i slowly pull out from a lite (brake barely on). Sometimes hits on the 2-3 shift, too (i think 1-2 is just too fast to feel it with the shift kit). I jacked the car up and with the e brake on, the driveshaft has about 1/8 inch of rotational play. drivers side halfshaft is solid, no play at all, but passenger side has about 1/8 to 1/4 in of play. My question is this: would the play be coming from the diff itself, or possibly some kind of slack in the hub assembly on the passenger side? the halfshaft will rotate slightly with the ebrake on, which doesn't seem right. Is there anything in here to get slack? I know it's not the ujoint, the entire shaft slips. Thanks for any heads up on this one! (I just don't feel like taking it apart to see....) Bill

thanks for the info on the t-5's, i think i may just bite the bullet and go with a t56. It has all the power handling capability i will ever want, and if i get one used it shouldn't cost me both arms and legs. I'm thinking about just stealing a new Z28 and getting it over with!

All I have to say is DAMN! I thought 400HP was too much in these cars....

No, the car wasn't running, and the water pump was removed. I had a thermostat in, but it was gutted out anyway (spring and stuff removed) so it was basically just a 1" restriction in my hose. You would probably want to remove yours. I left the upper radiator hose connected to the water neck, and the lower hose connected to the radiator to use as filler spouts. I removed the radiator, and flushed with a water hose for about 15 minutes or until i couldn't get any more sediment out. Then i poured in about a quart of muriatic acid and using the hose as a handle, swished the acid around as much as possible and let it sit for about 10 minutes. Flush for 10 minutes, spray acid off of the driveway, repeat as necessary till sediment stops coming out of radiator. This is a copper radiator, I have no idea what would happen with aluminum, probably bad things! Acid really eats aluminum! After getting tired of messing with the radiator, i moved to the block. Using the upper radiator hose as a spout, i poured about 1/2 gal of acid into the block, and let it sit for about 15 minutes. I only flushed the block once because of my aluminum intake manifold. After spraying off the drivewa again, i flushed the block through the upper (manifold) heater hose. It fit over my hose nozzle perfectly. Just wedged a bolt in the nozzle handle to keep it spraying, and let the water come out the water pump passages. Waited 15 minutes or so, and considered it flushed! When i reinstalled the radiator and water pump the next day, i noticed a little bit of debris floating around in the water, so i'm going to run it for a few days and then repeat the operation. It worked like a champ, and now i can cruise the highway all day long at 180~190 degrees! Just watch out for the acid. It will remove skin, and it will eat your driveway. It will also kill any plants it gets sprayed onto... I hope this is as much detail as you need!

There is a gasoline additive called RxP that i have successfully used in the past to help pass the sniffer test in dallas county. I think it's a fuel oxygenator of some sort. I think it guarantees on the bottle that you will pass if used according to the directions. With that high of compression, i figured you would fail for Nox. Is there a clause in the emmisions laws in your area that if it would cause excessive financial hardship to smog the car, you pass by default? I know a lot of friends have scraped by using this loophole. Spend 3-4k on a motor build up, then get it to pass smog because it would cost more than 500.00 to make it legal. Just a few thoughts, it's late here...

Just an update, but it worked like a charm! The Z is no longer overheating on the highway! I think the major trick was removing the radiator from the mount and angling the filler cap end up at 45 degrees to get it higher than the motor in order to fill the system completely. When i took the thermostat housing off, i noticed a large air pocket in the intake, and i think this air pocket was moving to the radiator when the engine was on. It was impossible to fill completely because the radiator filler cap was lower than the manifold and upper hose. But the cooling system works great now! I highly recommed the muriatic acid flush for those of you out there doing it on your own. I flushed with plain water for what seemed like days, till nothing else came out. Added the muriatic and let it sit, and sediment then came pouring out when i flushed it. I'm running plain water right now, i plan another flush (both block and radiator) in about a week when everything has a chance to get knocked loose. Better yet, instead of recommending this flush, i recommend starting with a new motor in the first place, not one that's sat forever! Bill

The one thing I am beginning to regret in my 350/TH350 swap into an 81 ZX is the fact that i tried to do a 1200.00 conversion. Well, i succeeded in doing that conversion, but in cheaping out on the donor parts (bought a used 69 chevy truck for 400 bucks) and in exhaust work (good exhaust costs more than 250.00), that i've pretty much replaced one worn out old motor and transmission with another worn out old motor and transmission. :< It was great for a practice run, and i really know what i want now, but damn did I waste some time! I know it's a drop in the bucket $$ wise compared to what this is gonna cost me to really do it right, and i now know first hand what it takes to do the conversion right, but that was a lot of work just to have to do it again! Bill

I replaced a set of points on a customer's car about 4 months ago, and we bought blue streak points. I haven't had any problem at all getting them. Are they out of business, or just no longer available in your area? If they are out of business, i'm buying a couple of sets today!

I snagged the trunk badges off of a 325i and a 750i and rearranged them to 327 and glued them to my deck lid with trim adhesive, and it looks good. Not too garish or obvious, no one really knows what it means till i tell them, but cool anyway. And BMW numbers are very high quality, made of real metal, not just chromed plastic. Just twisted the numbers apart, and sanded the "sprue" where they were connected.

Is there any way to get a mustang t5 to bolt up to an older sbc? If these are essentially the same transmissions, can you just get a bellhousing to adapt them? GM t5's are fairly rare around here, while mustang t5's seem to be falling out of trees. I understand there is a difference in the ratio's, but they are both overdrive, so that's much better than my TH350...

I figure it's likely that some sediment did remain in the lower part of the block, but my aim here was to rinse out anything small enough to be carried into the radiator and clog it up. Where i live, i have VERY high water pressure (water hoses don't last very long) and i'm confident that i got enough of the smaller chunks out that can wash into the radiator. Enough to last for the year or so I plan to run this motor (gotta save up for a fast burn 350).

Ok, here's what i did, and it worked great! I removed my radiator and left one hose attached to use as a filler spout. Poured in about a quart of muriatic acid, and let it bubble for about 10 minutes, then rinsed and fluse=hed well with fresh water. then, with water pump removed, i poured about 1/2 gal into upper rad hose attached to manifold. let sit, and then flushed for 10 minutes or so through upper heater hose, letting the water drain out through the holes where the water pump sits. i let all the water drain through an old piece of window screen to catch all the debris, and ended up with enough gravel and scale to fill a coffee cup! the water pump wad leaking, so i replaced it. The inside of my copper radiator is now so clean it looks like a new penny! it was definitely a cheap $3.00 fix for a problem that was driving me crazy! If this doesn't solve my cooling problems (I haven't tested it yet, i wanna wait for the sealant to cure), then i definitely need a bigger radiator.

Ok, as everyone here knows by now, i've been having some cooling system problems. This motor has been sitting for a while with plain water in radiator (no antifreeze) and the water jackets are full of rust. I believe this is what is clogging my radiator (I felt cool spots in the rad once i took the A/C condensor off). I want to flush my radiator and the water jacket of my motor. Can i use dilute muriatic acid to do this, if i flush with plenty of plain water afterward? I think it would be great for removing all the scale and rust flakes in the block, but i don't want to shoot myself in the foot. Will this fubar my motor? I just wanna get some opinions before i really goof something up...

Thanks for the input! At least this lets me know when I need to pull over and cool down... Bill

Okay, with my sbc in my 280 ZX, i'm having some heating problems at highway speed. i've moved my tranny cooler lines to an external cooler ( not radiator), put a gutted thermostat in to slow down the water through the rad., and replaced the old wore out carb with another old wore out carb i had in the garage. My question is, how hot is too hot? what temp should i worry about the eminent failure of my engine? How hot is just too hot to run? Thanks guys, i appreciate the input! Bill