BRAAP

Which car is this, 240-Z, 260/280-Z, or 280-ZX? When asking for advice such as this, each car has a different procedure so we need to know which car you are working one in order to help out. Also, reference your shop manual, i.e. Haynes, Chilton, Clymer, Nissan manual etc. If you don’t have one, please get one. For the 260/280-Z, remove the center dash panel, then remove the short piece of duct work that feeds the center vents. Now you can access the three small gauges. Each one is held in with a metal strap, one screw holds each metal strap. Good luck,

Another simple approach, depending on where you live and how tolerant your family is to the black sooty smoke/fumes, (DON’T breathe the smoke), using the propane torch in a WELL ventilated outdoor environment, outside, away from any buildings, preferably over gravel, letting the rubber material of the bushing to burn long enough that the inner steel sleeve just “falls” out from gravity and the rest of the rubber bushing material has either fallen out as well or just needs to be lightly brushed out. Allow to cool, prep for paint, etc. etc etc.

Me, just after my first solo in a Cessna 152, N69016… Wife took this shot of me telling Ron Tyler, aka Slider, that he is in need of a shower… Me on the right in a flight briefing with a designated "Civilian" FAA examiner named Charlie

Capt, Reverse does NOT have synchros. How to keep reverse from grinding. When shifting into reverse, be sure the car is stopped. Put he clutch ALL the way in. Then put the shifter in another gear, any gear, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, (I think most people just use 1st, which I will use in this example). With the clutch pedal pushed all the way in, the car at a complete stop, put the transmission in 1st gear, but only for a split second as you only need to stop the input shaft from freewheeling so reverse wont grind when you select it. Now put the transmission in reverse, and it should drop right in, no grinding. If it doesn’t drop right in, i.e. feels blocked, the gears aren’t aligned correctly so just put the shifter in neutral, let up the clutch pedal, put the clutch back in and go through the same process. That is to re position the gears so it should drop into reverse. I didn’t mention using 5th gear, though you can use it to stop the input shaft from rotating, but the later ZX trannies have reverse lock out which is bypassed by going into neutral, over towards 1-2 before going back into reverse i.e. it wont let you drop directly from 5th into reverse for obvious reasons. Have fun, Paul

Naviathan, Probably not the best time with all the valve train woes right now, but… Happy Birthday…

Hmm.. Good point… If this is/was the valve train and valves that were originally in the head that ate the cam, the reason the cam lobes went away very well could’ve been coil bind. When the valve springs hit coil bind, they wont allow the valve to open ANY further AT ALL, thereby causing the cam lobes to disappear, like RIGHT NOW, and possibly other damage such as twisting the cam, busting/stripping cam towers from the head, etc.

Did someone just say "freeze plug"? I’m known around here for getting my panties in a wad when core plugs are erroneously referred to as "freeze plugs". Honest mistake, we all made it at one time. Now you know, they are not freeze plugs and offer no insurance if the coolant/water freezes in the block. They are core plugs, soft plugs, etc. (there is another thread on this topic here somewhere...) What you are you are referring to are the oil galley plugs. Go to any performance oriented automotive machine shop and they should have exactly what you need on hand. As for the plugs with the tiny holes, were those oil galley plugs or core plugs for the coolant cavities? Some times in performance/racing applications, builders will drill a tiny hole in the main galley plug under the timing cover in an effort to get oil flow to the lower end a little quicker on initial start up. How that works is the hole allows the air in the oil system to escape quickly which in turn allows the pump to fill oil galleys quicker with oil thereby pressuring the system quicker. The hole is small enough it does not adversely affect oil pressure or flow to the engine once oil pressure has been established and is quoted as also helping lubricate the timing chain at the same time, more important for cars that only accelerate robustly, i.e. dedicated strip cars where the oil is flung to the back of the engine while in hard working operation. Hope that helps, Paul

Naviathan, Hmm… Dang bouy.. Your cylinder head woes just keep coming don’t they? I truly feel your pain. Ouch.. Here is the scenario as I see it; Valves are shorter and as such means your spring installed height is now that much shorter; you are now that much closer to crashing the retainer into the valve guides and/or stem seals; you are that much closer to coil bind; spring “seat pressure” and “over the nose pressure”, (if the cam will open the valve at full lift before coil bind), is considerably higher. “If” all is clear, so to speak, spring life will also be considerably shortened as they are now being asked to work MUCH harder than they were designed to and with aftermarket springs on a stock cam, is a total waste with all that seat and over the nose pressure. Stock cams with beefy springs is OK especially with highly boosted engines, but not to this extreme. Options; 1) Install the proper length valves, (these appear to be too short). 2) Possibly locate spring retainers that allow for higher spring installed height. 3) Disassemble the head and using stock springs and retainers, (stock springs now will be stiffer at this much shorter installed height, but most likely be at coil bind which wont work any how), verify spring installed heights, retainer to stem seal/guide clearance, verify coil bind doesn’t happen to long after max lift, at least .080”. "If" they will work, spring life will be considerably shortened as they are now being asked to work out of their designed element. My best professional advice is to verify without doubt that those valves are indeed too short, (remove them and measure them), and install the correct valves. Here is a snippet from this thread… A look into custom cylinder head building and set up..

Slowz, Welcome to HybridZ. There are a few RB Z-32 swaps, at least one is a member here, "Booztd 3" and runs his own Z-32 forum. He might know of any 2jZ conversions. WWW.RBZ-32.com I did find this.. 2JZ conversions Anyone else?

Just take the hubs as well. They come out quickly and easily. I just removed a Q-45 R-200, half shafts and rear hubs in a very short time from the local U-pull-it a couple weeks ago. Just unbolt lower control arm from the car, and remove the rest of the arms from the hub. The parking brake cable quickly comes disconnected, as do the brake calipers and lines. Once home, you can then remove the hub and sell them or better yet, keep them as I plan to do myself and build your own double A-arm arrangement utilizing those lightweight aluminum hubs with 5 lug bolt pattern, the Z-32 aluminum calipers with the NISSAN script and rotors fit perfectly, lots of great Z-32 brake upgrade kits for inexpensive, etc etc. etc..

Edit.. Sorry fellas, I stand corrected. I just found where COZY Z COLE used the drilled method for his R-230 conversion and filled the old holes back in. My point is, if you drill, at least fill the old holes back in.

I realize this has been done and will continue to be done, but I wanted to throw in my $.02 as I see drilling ANY holes in the mustache bar of a high powered Z car a bad idea. I redrilled my R-200 mustache bar for my V-8 280-Z when I raised the mounting position of the R-200 in my car, and on the test drive, only a mere few miles from the house, “lightly” playing, the mustache bar broke in half through the original diff holes, thus dropping the back of the diff. I was able to limp it back home with the half shafts rubbing on the control arms. I then built an adapter that bolted to the mustache bar utilizing the original holes using a steel plate for the diff to attach to. Never had an issue after that with over 15,000 abusive miles including 4th gear stomp and dump burnouts with the Lincoln Locker R-200. Pictured below is that abused mustache bar and adaptor after it has been sitting in the spare tire well of a parts car for a few years, hence the rust. It used to look nice, grey and black. Moral of the story… Drilling the mustache bar substantially weakens it and if you are installing an R-230 for its strength qualities, you really should have a new mustache bar or rear plate built, or at least an adapter that bolts to the mustache bar that doesn’t require drilling the mustache bar. A drilled R-200 Mustache bar WILL break before an R-180 would bust, let alone the R-230 or even the bullet proof long nose R-200, i.e., the R-230 is doing you know good if the mustache bar wont hold. Here is a picture I just took of that adaptor mustache bar and adaptor. Something similar could be built for the R-230 and using the poly mustache bar bushings, or a combination of the OE rubber and Poly mustache bar bushings, the mustache bar can be raised or lowered depending on how high/low you want the diff mounted in the car and how the bushings are trimmed, stacked, etc. Sorry, no pics of the original busted mustache bar.

Naviathan, Now keep in mind, that trick using the shim stock is only for “finding” the correct wipe pattern in an effort to determine the correct lash pad thickness so that you can order the correct lash pad. Whatever you do, do NOT run the engine using those snippets of shim stock under your lash pads. For a stock cam, .200” does seem a bit much and should be investigated further. Dane, Post #18 in this link below talks about the process with pics, that Naviathan is referring to. Click ME for valve train set up..

I’m assuming you did find in the Haynes manual where it shows a depiction of the injection relay as it is installed in the 280-Z, (my manual shows it on page 228, figure 13.32), and from that picture alone, I agree, is hard to discern its exact location. It is under the dash drivers side. Sometimes it is one long relay with two large square connectors as shown in the EFI schematic a few pages earlier, (page 223 in my manual, upper right corner), some are 2 individual relays next to each other, same big blocky connectors either way. In that picture of the relay location on page 228, you can just barely make out the hood release cable bottom of the picture, which should help narrow down locating it in your car. FWIW, the only relay that controls the Fuel Pump is this all-encompassing EFI relay, which can be traced out in the wring diagrams in the back of the manual. Hope that helps, Paul

Grumpy, Here is the book this info comes from..

Grumpy, Glad you like it and I am glad I had something to offer to you in return for all the info you have given us over the years. Thank you, Paul

The 90 degree V-6

The BBC, Mark IV and Mark V Gen IV… Gen V…

Per request, dimensioning prints of a few Chevy engines. The SBC, BBC and the 90 degree V-6. Up first, the SBC… 18 degree heads..

Ask and ye shall receive... Only Chevy SBC, BBC And 90 degree V-6 though.. Chevy Dimensioning thread..

Papasmuf, Take it easy there fella. Not everyone knows what you were talking about. If you go back and read your post, you specifically quoted a “belt” not once, not twice, but all three times you made mention of the part and even claimed the “belt had stretched”! Being somewhat versed in Datsun L-series, my first thoughts in reading your post was what belt is he referring to? You wrote it, these guys “politely” asked for clarification. No need to get huffy at someone else for your terminology swap. Back to your dilemma. A few things come to mind. One in particular being as you replaced the timing chain, that means you pulled the front cover. Is there a chance that when you reinstalled the quill shaft and distributor that it could be out of time now?

Ok, Ron Tyler and myself stopped by the GEARS show today to see this years miniature engine show. As expected, some cool miniature engines were on display. All are scratch built and run on gasoline. We’ve posted on these shows before, here are some highlights of this years show. I’m sure Ron Tyler will post some of his pics as well.. 1/6th scale SBC 327, EXACT replica, sounds GREAT!!! Note “AA” battery in foreground at bottom of pic… Another scale EXACT replica SBC, (1/4 scale I think) my Z-32 key for scale reference at the bottom under the header collector… One of the blown V-8’s on display. Cranking compression was quoted at 140 lbs with 9:1 Comp ratio, produces 10 bs of boost, runs on race fuel… All brass overhead valve 4 cylinder.. V-16!! Idle quality was glass smooth.. Running in this photo… Misc parts, cranks, cams, Roots blower-rotors,etc. Z-32 key for scale.. Crankshaft for a scale “Miller Straight 8”…… Gattling gun, fires .22 cal Rim fire. There were 3 or 4 of these this year! COOL… Another .22 cal Gattling… scratch built 2:1 reduction gear sets for cam/dizzy drives… L-8. Similar valve train to the L-series.. Sounded nice, very cool!! SBC intake manifold casting mold and rough casting.. Radial, nuff said… An exercise in engineering and machining gears, and they mesh perfectly!

Gents, How many times do you have to be reminded to let this thread run its course as it was originally intended to run? This is NOT kindergarten. Keep this thread on track, post accordingly, or don’t post in it!!!

Depending on how you plan to use the car, when you plan to drive it and in what part of the country it will be driven, and with your life experiences driving and riding in cars, using the heater during those times, you should be able to deduce whether or not you will need it. I live in Oregon, similar climate to New York, less snow. For my F-prepared 240-Z race car I elected to remove the heater/blower and I feel that was wise choice for that application. For my daily driven V-8 280-Z, I elected to retain, again I felt that was wise choice for that application. Good luck, Paul

Are you serious? Have you been tipping back Grandpas Cough syrup? If you are coming to us because you can’t figure out if you need any sort of climate control in your car at any point that you may in that car, you probably should just hand the keys and signed title over to one of us. Possibly could you have left out some vital information relating to your question that would help us offer forth to you information so that you in turn could go about making a rational well informed logical educated decision? That is like asking if the tires should be reinstalled on the car when reassembling it? Yes if you want to drive it, no if you don’t want to drive it.