seattlejester

Doesn't really matter what exhaust you have if the header gasket is blown, but sounds unlikely. This sounds more like it being a vapor issue. Next time it happens, try cooling the fuel rail by fanning it or applying a cold cloth (I hesitate to say water as the injector plugs are right there and the exhaust runs right under it) and see if that helps. They have a little fuel rail cooler that they sold on 280zx cars that may help the issue.

^I think that has been a question for a long time that hasn't been answered.

Depending on the level of body work, the little spray can primer will all be removed by the body shop that tackles the job. If this is over a long haul, you might just consider primer/paint combo cans to just coat it a bit to keep the moisture out and expect them to sand blast the car before paint in the future. Seems like you have a good groove, keep it up!

Easy. Two things Broken/holey gas pickup or worn out fuel pump. If your pickup is broken/rusty/holey as is likely due to how much rust seems to be inside your tank, then once you expose the hole in your tank (probably about when 5 gallons is used) you start getting a fuel delivery problem like sucking through a straw with a hole in the middle. Alternatively your fuel pump might be tired/worn/clogged/not getting enough voltage. Once the gas pickup level starts to dip and the pump has to actively pull up on the pickup tube then the pressure can drop. Alternatively it could be a cracked/loose fuel line that without the additional pressure from the full tank is leaking more, but that seems unlikely.

Sounds kind of like a cracked exhaust pipe/header gasket like miles said for the second video, although if it only occurs after an hour or two that kind of makes me wonder. Noise is really hard to find. You kind of have to give us a bit more input, especially when you are capturing the noise on a phone with a tiny microphone. Little inputs like, louder at certain road speed, at certain revs, location front or back, will help us out a bit.

I would suggest posting in the WTB section sir.

So I wanted to start with addressing the front and moving back. There was a squeal on startup that was a minor annoyance. I decided to step down one size to give the belt a little more tension. Since I had the belt off I decided to tackle the water pump. After futzing around for a while I caved in and removed the hood. Drained the radiator Undid the bolts and with a little persuasion with a rubber mallet I managed to pop it off. Goodness, the silicone. Really need to go through an engine when you buy one. The casting seemed to be in good shape, a little rust, but the coolant came off clean and the water pump was intact. Pulled the new water pump and added the a new gasket. I went to the parts store to buy the smaller belt and decided since the front lip was off to get access to the alternator, I might as well tackle some problems I had with that. So the fairly infamous folding lip problem. The polyurethane lip is really nice in that you can run into curbs and what not without much problem, but it makes a problem when at speed they cave in. (Image borrowed from Yorgee) I didn't want to go with a splitter just yet, so I decided I wanted to add some reinforcement I started out with this 50$ lip I have been using It is quite flimsy, I transported it to my friend's garage by folding it in half and putting it in the trunk. Bought a steel rod and bent it into shape to run along the bottom of the lip. Then bought an aluminum plate to reinforce the flimsy center section. Drilled some holes along the bottom to mount the reinforcement rod And I bought some polyurethane adhesive to bond the aluminum and lip together Unfortunately I am not sure if it was due to heat or what not, but it didn't want to bond very well at all. I ended up just drilling holes and mounting it was some hardware. I figured if I wanted to I could run some rods from the hardware to the bumper to further reinforce the lip if needed. Then I *tried* to paint it using the duplicolor version of plasti dip. It turned out terrible, it was really bubbly and came out really rough. Either there was something that it reacted to on the entire lip or it just really wasn't a good product. It does seem like it wants to peel off which is a small blessing. I think I'll just stick with what I know and go with good old plasti-dip next time around. With the reinforcements in place this things is pretty rigid. I can hold it on one end and it won't flex on the other. Now I have to deal with the turn signals I managed to break the stud off of while pulling it off the lip. Tempted to go with a clear lens.

Hmm, how about the coil? I want to lean towards that, a weak spark could cause some problems. A failing coil could start loosing spark under load. Without an AFR gauge or spark plugs I don't really want to say it is flooding via fuel.

K20 motors can make a bit of hp, but struggle in the torque realm, the k20 base model and the k20 type-s/r models actually make a similar amount of torque despite the varied valve train/v-tec engagement point/compression ratio/etc. Would be very cool to see if the L - K combo yields the nice torque of the L-6 and the higher hp generating numbers the heads are known for. Keep up the fantastic work sir.

Along the same lines as phantom, I think I see a problem right there. If you have rust in the inline fuel filter in the engine bay, then that means you probably have rust getting past your pump. Your pump depending on make/model/style should have a pre-filter in front of it. If rust has made it all the way to the engine bay in the fuel lines, then either you don't have a pre-pump filter, or the pump filter has failed and your fuel pump is eating rust. Depending on what style the pump is that could mean the pump is taking extra amperage or the internal teeth are all chewed up, once it gets to a certain point the fuel pressure can drop with either situation. Vaporlock is also a good point, but if that was the case I imagine just idling for a while, turning the car off and starting it back up should yield the failure to start problem. That would also be a good check. Where abouts are you located? Is it pretty hot when it fails to start? A fuel pressure gauge would help us out, AFR would be useful. Part number for the fuel pump is also a good piece, and the presence and condition of the pre pump filter would be all good pieces of information. Draining the fuel tank would also help us out with the condition. If rust flakes fall out in a decent number then the culprit highly points towards If the spark plug has been swapped then if the order is wrong it could cause a stutter not to mention make the engine run pretty poorly. Just do us a favor and double check, I believe it is 153624 going clockwise.

Does the car stutter if you leave it idling? Or do you have to be driving it? Is it stuttering or rattling or misfiring? It really would be nice to get a nice landscape video of the problem if you can manage safely. Well the 4 things a car needs is air, fuel, spark, compression. For an engine to stutter one of the four things is off balance. Fuel, the clear fuel filter is a good indicator another nice indicator would be a fuel pressure gauge. A sudden drop in fuel pressure could cause the car to stutter or miss. This is caused by a few things. A leak or crack in the fuel line, a clogged fuel pump filter, a dying fuel pump, varnish in the fuel lines, rust in the fuel lines, clogged injectors etc. The car stalling and not starting up after a while could indicate a rich condition. Air, a less likely culprit, but insufficient air can also cause a car to stutter and die. The fact it is running points towards this not being much of a problem. Compression, also not a likely culprit as the car is running. Spark, it doesn't seem like you have done any work with the spark. An intermittent stutter and a car being able to start backup after a while points towards a weak coil or spark. Taking out the spark plugs and taking a picture of them in a row would be really useful information. Also the voltage of the car when the car stutters, when the car is running, and when the car is off would be also helpful. If everything checks out, then the culprit would seem to lie in the old electrical connections or the ECM. That can be quite an ordeal, so I would check the easier tasks first.

So a fairly comprehensive rebuild. I would say just plumb everything up and run the waste gate as designed and just stay off boost. You won't build much pressure even at high rpm unless you really give it a lot of throttle quickly. Broken in well you will have plenty of time to enjoy it. Seems like you have a few things to check off before hand though.

Yup, titles are thrown around nowadays. I met a chemical engineer at the mall. She was the girl selling makeup. Makes me a bit upset as an actual chemistry major. If you just run straight through the screamer pipe with no waste gate it will be loud as balls. That might not bother you, but don't really need to make a bad name for yourself you know? If you let it run the normal path with a waste gate with the compressor to charge pipe coupler disconnected the turbo will still spool a bit and circulate oil, but you won't be putting boost through the engine. Ideally you just leave everything hooked up and functioning and just drive it as instructed in the break in procedure. How rebuilt is your engine? I don't really see what you did to it in this thread. There are certain myths regarding certain break in procedures, and some things are out dated. There are also very specific ways to break in new individual parts depending on what you are reusing etc. I think I generally followed the "how to rebuild" book along with several oil changes. I believe you drive normally and try to vary the RPM's. That doesn't mean throw it under max load all the way to red line and bounce it off the limiter, but it also doesn't mean to put around town at idle.

Sounds good, and update your damn blog, it's been ages!

It's been a while. Figured it is time for an update. So my storage locker flooded. I came in to start taking the doors off and take a look at the new doors and I walked into a couple inches of water on the floor near the back. They were doing construction next door and seems like they did something, it flooded out a few rows of the storage place. Luckily I had some racks so a lot of things were lifted, but turns out that the locker was flooding from the middle and the water was running backwards, so a lot of the boxes and such were ruined. I have insurance so hopefully they don't screw me too bad. Lost the entire interior lining, carpet, the snap in panels, along with a bunch of switches and electronic stuff that was waiting to go in. Not to mention all the spare suspension pieces I had standing upright got even more rusty. Tweaked my back from moving all the stuff over the next few days, so progress has been real slow. Did manage to get the boost controller installed, but haven't seen a large increase in boost pressure (maybe 2 or 3 vs the 6 I was expecting). Asked around and apparently a symptom of a tired turbo. So a replacement and maybe more power planned in the near future. Well a couple friends were planning on taking their project cars on a road trip down to california late summer, maybe hit up a race track. I would really really like to take the datsun, but I haven't driven it more then 40 miles one way since the new engine. And the new swap added quite a few more squeaks and rattles that I have been meaning to chase down. So a bit of a revival, time to get the old girl more road worthy. Short term plan, make the car more reliable/comfortable/less sketchy to drive. Long term plan, make the car bullet proof. Short term: Replace water pump X Aquire shorter alternator belt X Replace starter Install shifter relocator Install new trans mount Oil change Radiator flush X Spark plug change Secure all fuel lines Start spare parts collection (fuel pump, assortment of bolts etc) New clutch/flywheel Fix up more of the wiring Put on new door Make water proof New seats New harnesses Heater or blower at least Install oil catch can Install radiator overflow can Secure/shorten all wires Long term: Replace rear end with something more robust, I'm thinking LSD and either beefier 27 splines to 300zx axles or something along those lines Coil over suspension to prevent springs from popping out while driving Fancy mount for the coil packs

Yea, don't do that... You can just drive the car off boost if you are breaking in a rebuilt engine, you really shouldn't be romping on it anyway so that shouldn't be too hard. If you don't think you can control your self, just unhook the turbo cold side and put a filter on the charge pipe. The turbo will build boost and blow air out without it making it to the engine, and your engine will just breath in air through the charge pipe. I would also make sure your gauges are up before playing with it too much, a local friend just seized his rebuilt motor from a lack of oil pressure.

Not the h4 relay kit is it? That could be the culprit right there. My full ideas if you really need something to read... Hmm just throwing out my train of thought, not trying to baby you or anything. It was working as intended when pulled apart, then you are unfortunately down to two main options. You plugged in something incorrectly or something failed. The H4 has two filaments. I want to say the low beam shuts off when the high beam circuit is in play. A huge assumption here, not based on your intelligence, but because I am not there to inspect the wiring, let us assume that everything was plugged in in the correct orientation and focus on the failure points first. So swapping the bulbs did not produce a change (just to verify, did it not produce a change as in the high beam was on, on one side, you swapped the bulb, and it was on on the same side?). That would say the bulb is out of the equation. Next we can check the plug that feeds the bulb. If the bulb is working as intended the output is being fed incorrectly. The plug has 3 prongs, one ground, and two power. I believe it should have 3 colors going to it, 2 of them being the same regardless of left/right orientation (one I imagine is black for ground, and the other is red/black for high beam). The different one of the three (I believe one will be red, the other will be red yellow), will be the low beam. So to summarize on the plug you have 3 prongs, on the driver side you will have a ground (black or brown), a low beam (red or red/white), and a high beam (red/black). On the passenger side you will have a ground (black or brown), a low beam (red or red/white the one not used on the driver side), and a high beam (red/black). Ground should have continuity to the chassis. The low beam should read 12 volts when the low beam are on, and the high should read 12 volts when the high beam is on. I am pretty sure you will find one of two situations. Your low will have voltage on the low only on one side, the other side will have voltage on the high. Or you will find the low will have voltage on one side, the other will have voltage on both the low and the high. Basically the info about the voltage to the prongs will really help us out. Also unplugging one side and plugging the other side in will also help. You can also check continuity between the the prongs, the left and the right low beams should be separate, and the high beams I imagine will be continuous to each other. The high beam and low beam should not be continuous with each side or on opposite side. The above two pieces of information (where the voltage is going, and which prongs are continuous to what) will really help narrow down/shape what the assumptions are. Other then that you can trace it back and look at the fuse box (left and right have separate outputs) and trace it further back to the headlight/high beam selector. The contacts to the switches are open in that if they bend the wrong way a wire can easily short. And as mentioned the switches themselves are pretty cheap so it wouldn't be surprising if there is a cross contact (headlight wire running across high beam selector) or a broken/malfuncitoning switch.

Seems like you either switched the high beam low beam output for one of the lights, but If I recall it should be a plug that is actually directional (3 prongs oriented in 1 way) I doubt it, but maybe you bought two of the same side if that is a thing, sealed beams would have to be oriented to prevent blinding traffic I imagine that seems odd that they would swap the outputs though. Alternatively you could have had a fault with the selector switch. It is old particle board and it can break. Although if that was the case you would probably get a failure to light rather then an alternating light situation. If someone modified the sealed beams into H4's or if someone got rid of the plug it could very well be a problem at the headlight itself rather then with the wiring diagram and harness.

Thanks for the pics, that solves the question of what they do for the transmission mount, seems like they sell you some plates so you can just drill holes and bolt it into the tunnel and bolt to the plates. Congrats on the snipe!

Isn't that Pnuts old Z?

^Or borrow one. Rebekahs has a point, wheels are all different as well as tires, no one can definitively say something will fit without more specifics and with your specific requirements it will be hard to. If one inch drop is all you are going for with a stretched wheel and pull a 9 will fit. I think you do run out of offset inboard though. The number I have the 8.5+4 was a hair from touching the spring perch if I remember in board wise that is 4 inches +10mm, a 9 +0 will be 4.5 or 4 inches +12.5mm. Frankly it is in a realm of too close to call and our different definitions. I would call a 225 on a 9 a bit of a stretch, others will say you aren't stretching until you go 205 on a 9. If you can't find the wheel or can't afford a test wheel, take a tape measure and figure it out. It really isn't too hard. Once you have the numbers, call up the owner/seller of the wheel and have him measure and see if it will fit.

Depends on how low you are. If you jacked the car up as long as you didn't hit the spring perch and your spring was stiff enough you could fit outboard whatever you wanted. It would look pretty bad though. We really don't do slammed cars here very much, at that ride height your axles are going to be pointing up and you are going to have some awful handling characteristics, but to answer your question you would be kind of hard pressed to run without camber and fit the wheel/tire combo under the stock fender. You might have to pull the fenders at the minimum.

I forget the exact number, I think it is 8.5 wide with +4 where it leaves a quarter between the spring perch and rests against the fender with a decent drop. So if you are trying to fit a 9 wide +15 you will run into the spring perch. If you spaced it out from the spring perch with a spacer, (either longer studs or bolt on spacer will be needed since the stock studs are pretty short) then you will be nearly an inch into your fender at a lowered ride height. If you ran some really thin tires and a large amount of camber you may be able to tuck the top under the fender if you space out a little further, but your contact patch is going to be quite poor.

I want to say the yoke for the nissan T5 is it's own thing and I believe the one you have pictured will not work. If you are cheap you can shorten it yourself if you can/have the abilities do your best to keep it straight, and eyeball the counter weight, be prepared for some serious vibrations. If you don't you can take it to a smaller shop and have them shorten it for you with no guarantees for 50$. Or you can take it to a driveline shop have them shorten and balance it for you for 100-150$. Or you can have a new one made with replaceable joints etc for ~300$.

Excellent sir, just excellent. I need to do a driving video as well.