HizAndHerz

Well, seven years after I wrote this I came back to look up the information for getting another alternator because the cheap AutoZone 10SI that I put on my wife's '76 280Z went out after probably 20K miles. The 12SI on my '78 280Z has worked great for the same amount of time and over 50K miles. I'll be replacing the bad 10SI with a non-remanufactured 12SI.

I'm coming back to this old post for an update. For 8-cyl, I believe pin 7 ground should be used for signal return to ECM/MS and would also serve as the shield for VR sensor. Then use the 1N4003 series diode between pin 10 and chassis/star ground.

Be aware that the contacts on the Scosche fuse blocks can corrode over time. I did this upgrade on two of our 280z's a few years back and both cars have had trouble with headlights going dim and worst of all, leaving my wife and son stranded late at night in both of their Z's. The corrosion problem was not obvious and hard to diagnose because the fuses would check fine and just removing and replacing the fuses would make the problem go away... temporarily. I think the problem is that moisture can easily get to the fuse blocks when they are mounted on the outside of the relay box. The hood vents on 280's make the moisture problem worse. To keep their cars going, I've had to clean the contacts temporarily and use dielectric grease to help protect the contacts. On my 280Z, I replaced the relay box with its ancient relays and fuse links with a fuse/relay box from a Dodge Neon. It had just the right number of relays and Maxi-fuse holders for my setup. The box has seals so there's little chance of problems with moisture. No problems after 3 years. It was a major wiring project but I'm happy with the results.

For some reason, I was under the impression that there was another relatively inexpensive head gasket that would work with 89mm pistons. I didn't know what kind of deal I had when I bought my HKS gasket for only $45. So, it looks like Kameari or Tomei and yet another unaccounted expense building the stroker motor.

I'm finally ready to take my stroker engine parts to the machine shop and can't find my HLS head gasket. It must have been thrown out in the last garage spring cleaning Now, it seems that HKS are no longer available. Is there anything else out there for 89mm pistons besides the Kameari 90.5mm at $260????

Even worse to deal with is the crazy water channel that is spot welded on and gives the section its rigidity. I had this trouble on 2 of our 280Z's and hunted down a car being parted and found another at the junk yard that had decent metal there. I whacked out as much as I could so I'd have plenty to work with and welded the pieces in. Before this, I tried repairing and it was more trouble than it was worth. It may be tough to find a car without rust in that section since trash collects in the water channel keeping water from darining and the whole section rusts out. Another thing I thought about was cutting bad metal out which included the water channel, welding new metal in and reinforcing it with some square tubing. Good luck! It is one of the Z's "most likely to rust" areas.

That article is in the Members Only section. You need to have an account and be logged in over there to view the article.

Okay, nevermind. False alarm! My son parked in front of a strip center where two of the businesses are apparently fueding over parking rights. One business had my son's car towed to make a point. The other business owner said he'd help pay the $200 towing bill. Resting easy now!

I just got a new motor together and am in a similar situation. I rebuilt the bottom end with flattops and used a Felpro gasket set. I was going to rebuild a Maxima head but got impatient and threw on a nice-n-pretty N42 that someone else had rebuilt having no idea how much it was shaved. Heaven knows what the compression ratio is. My new motor pings on 91 octane with 32deg full advance. It sounds fine with 93 octane and 28deg. I've got to experiment so I can drive the car until the MN-47 is done.

Check the connections to the sensors on the water inlet housing. If you knock the water temp sensor loose, it will run like crap.

I am shocked that no one mentioned the Chevy El Camino - THE classic beach mobile.

Wow, it's great to find deals like that! I bought a used Lincoln Synergic Pulse MIG from a metal furniture manufacturer for $250. Also have a Lincoln 135-amp MIG so I can weld where 220v is unavailable. Too bad I weld like crap! At this point, I think I need some personal instruction or a video. Having cool tools is great, but they're wothless and frustrating without skills!

What's wrong with Felpro? Have you had problems with them or are you just wanting to go all metal?

Some other vBulletin sites that I know of allow posts to edited for 24 hours. I like that!

To follow up, I checked 3 factory manuals from different years and 5 aftermarket manuals. 6 of the 8 manuals show that when properly adjusted, the mark of the sprocket should be to the right of the oblong groove on the thrust plate. Just like everyone on the forums says it should be. Like this: ___ ---V With the milled head and new chain, I ended putting the sprocket on position #2. The only thing to worry about is valve to piston clearance. I've been messing with these engines for some time and thought I knew what I was doing, but that "How to Rebuild..." book by Monroe really confused me with its incorrect picture. Especially when the caption says "Courtesy of Nissan Motor Co".

My 1978 FSM states: Confusing statement, but I'm pretty sure that they're only talking about matching up the timing chain marks, not the sprocket marks.

Hmm. In Tom Monroe's "How To Rebuild..." book, he says the marks should line up: There's also a picture on page 131 that shows the V being slightly to the left of the groove before adjusting the sprocket (cam is retarded), and a picture that shows the V directly under the groove after adjusting the timing by moving to the next dowel hole. The 1978 FSM says the marks should line up as well. Hmmm.

Yeah, the leading spaces got removed from the post so I just changed the spaces to dashes.

I recently had a machine shop check an N42 head that came off a a rebuilt engine I recently acquired. They ended up milling the head "slightly" to remove surface imperfections. The head was installed with a new timing set on a low milage F54 block. After I got the front cover and damper on, I noticed that the damper mark was 1/2" to the right of 0-degrees with the cam marks lined up. I figured I jumped the chain one notch so I moved the chain. Now, with the crank at TDC, the sprocket notch is not directly under the center of the groove on the thrust plate, but the notch is to the right (cam timing is advanced). The notch is still under the groove, but it looks like this: ___ --V instead of this: ___ -V- I am assuming all of these issues are from the head being milled too much. I asked the shop what the minimum head height should be, and they just said "it'll be fine", they didn't have any Z-engine specs. This engine is for a daily driver and has flat-top pistons (0.20 over) and a Felpro head gasket. With the cam timing advanced this much, what performance ramifications are there? Should I pull the head and check the valve to piston clearance? TIA!

Tony D, where are you? Bubbles is at it again

Here is a post at msefi.com that has the mod instructions and pictures in it: http://msefi.com/viewtopic.php?p=167375 You have to be logged in over there to get at the attached files.

Two things that I like are: 1) A removable piece that runs the length of the bench at the edge to keep stuff from rolling off. Most of the time I clamp a long 1" x 2" board to the bench with c-clamps. 2) A 2" hole at one end that allows a transmission to be placed on the bench with the shaft down the hole.

If you go to the trouble of replacing the oil pan gasket, you might as well check the pan for warpage. I'm in the process of building a couple of engines and found that on both of them, someone had cranked the pan bolts down so that the pans would never seal. I spent about an hour carefully hammering the flanges flat checking them with a straight edge. This process is definately worth the effort!

I can't believe it. The pistons arrived today even though I never received a single email from the eBay seller. Just as Dan said, the pistons were drop shipped from ITM. ITM flattops 0.020" over with rings Total cost to me $204 Total paid by eBay seller to ITM: $162 I may see if I can use my DBA # to order directly from ITM next time. So, off we go to the machine shop tomorrow for engine build #3: second shot at a high compression engine for my wife's Z. We didn't expect a tired engine to hold up very long to the high compression of a fresh Maxima N47 head! EDIT: Dan, when I said "I should have known better", I meant that I should have read the feedback thoroughly so that I'd know what to expect from the seller. I didn't mean to slight you at all. Afterall, you never endorsed the seller, you just stated what you ordered and what you received. Sorry if what I wrote came out wrong.

Well, I needed a set of .020" over flattops and I tried contacting the eBAY seller twice with NO response. I went ahead and ordered from them to save $60 over Black Dragon. After not receiving any emails acknowledging my order, I went back and reviewed horsepower-wd's feedback ratings. The majority got what they ordered but the seller doesn't repond to emails and sometimes take weeks to ship. Who knows what will happen next. It may be a long wait before I can get my wife's Z motor back together. I should have known better and stayed away from this seller. I hope they come through.