DuoWing

Alright, I'm going to convert my Hydraulic Lifters to the solid ones. So I know I need to change the cam. I'm planning to just go ahead and toss a N/A cam in there as I hear an N/A works nicely. I've also read that the 260Z's E88 head cam is supposedly the hot cam to use, but does that require a spraybar? Valvetrain work is new to me, so I'm going to learn this as I go. So what are your guys suggestions? Otherwise I'll just go with an internally oiled cam. I know I remember seeing somewhere what heads were internally oiled and needed a spray bar, but I can't remember where I saw it. Advice guys?

Ok again, I'm still pretty much a noob when it comes to valvetrain stuff and such. I'm learning as I go along, but basically unlike the hydraulic lifters, the solid lifters never actually wear out? I mean you never need to replace the solid lifters themselves? Just the rocker arms, lash pads, etc?

One other thing I've been wondering is, I'm trying to figure out if it's lifter tick that I have and hopefully not worse? I'm assuming it's lifter tick simply because it only lasts for a few seconds at most. I'm having a hard time telling lifter tick and rod knock apart. I'm trying to search videos on youtube, but it seems like in some instances the lifter tick sounds the same as rod knock, etc. Watched Big Phil's video on the solid conversion. Conversion looks really simple. Probably would take way less time anyway than trying to pull and clean the hydraulic lifters.

I must be having trouble or something. I know before I found the guide to convert to the solid lifters just by searching Hydraulic Lifter Ticking or Tick or something along those lines and I can't seem to find it now. Can any of you direct me to it? From what I recall is that you also need to change the cam as well. I found a thread over on zcar via a link here on HybridZ. Perhaps that's why I couldn't find the conversion, but man the conversion sounds super easy to do. Maybe I'll just gather up the parts and just focus on doing a straight conversion. I'm planning to pull the motor from my ZXT and swawp it into an S30 over this summer, so I'll have some down time where I can drive my Z31 while I do the motor swap and this sounds like it can be done quite quickly As for the solid lifters themselves it's still something I'm learning, but can you guys point me in the direction of a thread or some info of what cam is good to use and where to get the lifters? Can you purchase new lifters relatively cheap?

For oil I've always used 10w-30 in the car year around. I could see possibly going to a 5w-30 for the colder winter months, but for the most part I've had no problem with 10w-30. Is this a bad weight to use? Really it's at most maybe 30 seconds and this was on a really cold day where the temps were at about 0 degrees possibly below 0*F and they were showing -30 with windchill. Most other times it's a second or two at most. Although that's not a bad idea for converting to solid lifters. At least may be cheaper or at least easier/quicker than having to locate a solid lifter P90 head then swap it when I know the P90a is perfectly fine.

Ok with the cold weather...some really cold weather, lifter tick is really apparent on startup on cold days. I have an 83' 280ZXT with the P90a and I've confirmed it does have the hydraulic lifters. Anyway I've done a search and found the threads about how to pull the hydraulic lifters and manually clean them which seems fairly easy so come spring when I can drive my Z31 again I'll put my 280ZX aside and do the lifter cleaning. I was mainly wondering though, has anyone found a replacement for these things? I know that Nissan doesn't carry or even make the Hydraulic lifters anymore, but I was wondering if anyone has any ideas if maybe there are other lifters very similar that would work, or even possibly lifters from a Z31? Also what do you guys think. Should I try and stick with the Hydraulic lifters or would I be better off going with the solid and trying to find a P90?

Alright I was trying to search on here, didn't find anything. Maybe I wasn't searching right. I tried to do some searching on google, but I couldn't find a definitive answer. I have a 76' 280Z 2+2 that I'm most likely going to just go ahead and run with. I want to do a basic suspension upgrade. I'm planning to go with the Tokico Illuminas, but I'm unsure of the springs. My Z31 is running front and rear illuminas with the eibach springs which I like. I also see that MSA at least sells Tokico springs. I've heard some people say the Tokico's would be better as they're made for the tokico's, but then I read that the springs aren't actually made by Tokico. Anyway some have said the Tokico ones will give you better handling because they're a set stiffness, where the progressives will give you a softer ride, and still handle well once you start to get on them, but supposedly the Tokcio's will be best for handling because they don't change. There's not a big price difference, and I'm thinking about just running the eibachs as I like them, but I figured I'd see what you guys have to say about them.

Thanks for the info. I don't know enough about the 2+2's, but I did think that the springs were different at least in the rear. I figured the shocks themselves couldn't be too much different, but you never know. I'll probably end up going the Illumina/HP and either Eibach or Tokico springs route. I have the illuminas and eibach setup on my Z31 and I really like it.

Hey, I was just curious if I decide to go ahead with my plans and just start modding my 76' 280z 2+2 can I buy Illuminas for it? I was looking on Motorsport's website and I'm not sure if I can just buy the illuminas for the 2-seater? Also I was looking at the springs I see the Tokico springs actually have a set for 2+2's were the Eibach springs don't? I was trying to search but 2+2 never seems to work correctly in searches

Honestly you guys have inspired me. I've been trying to sell my 76' 2+2 because I wanted to get a coupe for my L28ET that's going to come out of my 280ZXT Daily. Anyway I figured since I can't seem to sell it maybe I'll just work on building it up. You guys have definitely made me feel good about going the 2+2 route!

I'm curious now. I've been debating on just going the route and building my 76' 280Z 2+2 or trying to sell it and get a 2-seater S30. I saw one person weighed their 76' I believe on one of these pages and it came out 2850 lbs. I'd like to know what it weighs when you drop the bumpers and the A/C. As far as I can tell it looks like the 2+2's really didn't weigh that much more than the 2-seaters in full stock form?

Yeah 2.0 is really small for a 6-cylinder. The only real reason Japan did the 2.0s were to get around tax laws. There's a reason why we always got the better engines.

I don't care what anyone says. Z31s are Awesome. Nice find!

I actually need to do this to my Z31 as well. I've purchases a new CHTS, I just haven't messed with installing it yet. http://z31.com/repairs/chts.shtml That's also on Xenon's site, just not in pdf.

maybe itsaprothing got lucky. Maybe his belt just happened to snap and make it's way out of the engine bay without slapping a whole bunch of other stuff? Either that or he got lucky in the way it snapped and got caught on something? As for the overheating thing, if you've ever noticed say when you turn your car off after a drive and come back just a few short minutes later usually the temp gauge will be alot higher than when it's running, and once you start the car it'll very quickly come back down. So you lose your cooling system, keep driving for a few moments, start to heat up and finally shut the car off. It doesn't take long to overheat. Especially at freeway speeds/higher RPM.

I just went to the junkyard and on the advice of others just pulled a harness from a GM motor. I forget which type, but I know they looked nearly the same and had the quick release feature. They look exactly like the ones in the first post.

Interestingly enough I had actually been thinking about this idea not long ago. I probably wouldn't do it, but I was figuring. I love the L28ET, it's so accessible, the Z31 body sits a little wider, has a better suspension setup, lower CD and doesn't weigh too much more than an S130. The only thing I wonder, would there be much difference in say the L28ET vs. the VG30ET. I've only had experience with my L28ET with the auto and 3.5 rear, so I'm not really sure what kind of a difference it would be with a 3.7 rear and the 5-speed. I bet it's definitely quicker.

Thanks for all the info guys. I went ahead and purchased a high-speed buffer from Amazon.com. It had decent reviews, had variable speed settings and wasn't too expensive. I figured even if it's not the best high speed at least it'll be something to start out and learn with, I could eventually then go high end. I've been sanding and sanding away. I've got the paint smoothed out alot. It's super smooth and when I look at it, I don't see the orange peel. When the water is over it the reflection is very clear cut where before you could just see it wasn't a smoothe reflection. Now I've just got to bring the color and everything back. I've searched for some tutorials and stuff, so I'm ready to give it a shot.

I'm not sure what's good to go with. I've been looking at Sears's Website and I've noticed that most of the craftsment high speeds have a variable 1400 or 1650 RPM. I see they have a Clarke don't know if this is any good 7" High Speed with a variable 1000-3000 RPM. I'd like to get one to start using. I see what you guys mean, my el-cheapo 6" orbital I got from the autoparts store really doesn't do much as far as helping me. I know it looked better after I really rubbed like crazy by hand. I mean it worked good for when I used some rubbing compound on oxidized paint, but I assume for any real polishing I need to go better. While we're at it, can you guys give me advice as what to use when it comes to polishing? I've been using a microfiber bonnet and turtle wax. I used a wool bonnet when I was using rubbing compound.

Man there's a lot of orange peel in my red paint. I just put way too much on, but I started going at it with 1000 grit. It takes alot of work, but eventually I got my test spot super smooth and like usual looked all crappy once dry, but just by hand I polished the crap out of it and the color came back and it made the surface reflective. I'm psyched that I can do that rather than going with like 400-600 grit sanding, then putting a coat or two more, than 1000 and polishing. This just cuts alot of work out. Finished up my last coat of black today, doesn't look bad, but all it needs now is just some wet sanding, polishing, and my car should look nice. Hopefully in a few days I'll have some pics of the finished product.

Maybe a little off topic, but TexasZX is that your Z's engine bay? That's sweet. I love the use of blue on the valve cover, with the wires, and is the J-pipe Blue as well? That's really cool. To go along with HowlerMonkey I'd say to try this out. I had a very similar problem. Car ran great all the time, most of the time I was just low speed driving to work so I never noticed this problem. Then I got on the freeway and once I started to get under boost or up to higher RPM generally over 3000, it may have been closer to 3500. The car would start popping and just losing power like it didn't have enough fuel. This drove me nuts for a while. I remember pulling out the MAF and checking the boots, and checking the clamps on the boots, and making sure the J-pipe connection at the turbo was connected, checking vacuum lines, etc. Everything was fine. I unplugged the ECU connectors and plugged them back in. The problem was gone. Then next thing I knew it came back again. I reached down and shook the wiring at the ECU. Problem went away. I cleaned the ground connections to the intake manifold and this seemed to help. After a while the problem came back. The problem was related at least in my case to 2 ground wires on I think it's the bottom ECU plug? Anyway it's two black wires one over the other. They run separate and then into a metal crushed connector where they connect to a real big wire and two other black wires. These our the main ECU grounds. It just seems like this type of connection was fine at the time, but over time gets corroded or the wires must start to move a bit. I tried to use crimp connectors, but the one wire is so big it's hard to do it properly. So finally what I did was to just take the 5-wires. Twist them all together really well and solder them together. This finally got rid of my problem.

Quick question on the buffers. Where can you buy them, can you get one at a regular auto parts store?

Thanks for the info guys. I see one of the problems is just the fact that I'm sanding with way too low a grit. Like I said I was using 600. I haven't one clearcoat on mine as I'm going the regular rustoleum method, but now it makes sense. Since you're smoothing the clear out. Very good info that I'll keep in mind.

Ok, here's a question that I'm curious about. I know wet sanding smooths the surface out, gets out dust, hair, or whatever has fallen in the paint. I also know that by having a smooth surface is how you get the surface to be more reflective/shiny. Anyway here's what I'm wondering after wetsanding my door with 600 grit paper. I try to use plenty of water and make sure the paper doesn't get clogged. Once I'm done and the door dries it looks like crap. You can see marks and the way the paint doesn't look too hot after all that sanding, but it'll be smooth. I also kinda judge by letting the water run over it, and seeing that it runs over even. Now when you have water over it the color is bright, looks great, and is super reflective. Now is there any way to then polish that and make it look like how it looks when the water is run over it? Or do you just need to then lay another coat of paint at this point? I've heard of people saying that they've had really orange peely spots with their paint, then after wetsanding in the end it turned out to be the shiniest and best looking spot. Or can this only be done with higher grit? Oh also I only have like a cheapo 6" orbital buffer. That might be part of the problem? I'm mainly curious to see if I could get away with just wetsanding my orange peely paint and polishing it back, or if I'm going to have to wet sand it all down, then throw another coat or two on.

I've received much flack for it, but my 280ZX is a daily driver and it does go through the Ohio weather. The body is not in fantastic shape so it's going to eventually be a donor car, which makes this great for testing out this kind of paint. So it'll be a few months, but I'll be able to give you a report of how it holds up through snow and salt which should be a good test. Although from what I've heard that as long as you take car of it, wash it every once in a while and wax it. The guy who did it on his corvair on a site he made I remember gave a year later report and the paint he said still looked as good as when he had finished the paint job.