280zex

ok well I got my piston wrist pins pressed for me for 30$ I also picked up a oil cooler and water injection kit for the turbo Z. Now its time to hone the cylinders and flush the block!!

Ya I know, I actualy was running MS FI before the turbo/carb setup. I was after something different and I have that now. I'm shure there are others with the same type of setup, however I have only seen one other. Swecrazy I think has one, or atleast he has posted pix around here somewhere of a similar setup like mine. I just like the simple look of what I got and I'm sticking to it!!

I got my new pistons and radiator in the mail. Now I'm off to find a shop to press the wrist pins for me as I dont have a press. The only thing that realy bothers me is that there is small pieces broken off the worm gear that drives the oil pump shaft. I didnt find them yet..... I am also picking up a MSD 6530 ignition box with adjustable rev limiter and fully programable spark curve.

well the oil pump was new,turbo type, and the guade is an autometer mechanical type. idle is 10psi, freeway @3500 rpm's was about 60psi, or so says the guage. I'm wondering if there is a blockage somewhere?? I dont realy know, but this time the block is getting 2x the checks, thats for shure..

I provided the parts to the shop. They were not the parts I found in my engine during teardown. cyl's 23456 show signs of scuffing, not bad, you can see it with the eye but they mic ok. The guy from the Portland shop and I have been friends for 15 years, so I'm suprized that he didnt just fix my issue. However he does have a point that the engine lasted for 5 years and I cant realy prove anything other than I have receipts, but no real way to prove that the block in question was the block they machined for me. So its a stale mate on that issue. His best guess is that the excessive high rpm's and incorrect setup had caused the 2nd ringland on piston 3 to brake. Its a small piece, mabe 1.5 inch in length right under the 2nd compression ring that broke. I didnt even notice until I was checking to see if a ring had stuck or something, then a small piece came off in my hand. I had the Z on a dyno with plenty of equiptment checking fuel and spark curve, and the knock sensor hooked up. Nothing ever showed as a problem from the day I assembled the engine. My shop friend doesnt believe that detonation was the cause, but who realy knows right??? I never had a hickup, pop or backfire of any sort. I am changing out the air/water innercooler for water/meth spray, just to add piece of mind. The people who showed me how to turbo blown thru a holley had a mustang on the dyno with NO INNERCOOLER, NO METH SPRAY, 92 octane, NO SPARK ADVANCE/RETARD, pushing 25lbs of boost, on pump gas and ran 850rwhp. I am fairly shure my issue was too many rpm's/ improper parts / oil lubrication...

ok so the guy from the Portland shop stoped by and took a look. He agreed that the parts installed WERE NOT the parts I originaly provided for the lower end rebuild. However the issue is that I cant prove the lower end I currently have was the one his shop suposedly built for me. It has been 5 years. He did agree to re-hone the cylinders, press new pistons for me, and replace all the gaskets. Looks like I'm out just a set of pistons and some R&R time. This time I asked that the shop make a mark on the block, to properly identify it, just incase things go wrong again. In his opinion the damage was due to improper lubrication at high rpm's, or just way too many high rpm's in the first place. Gota keep it under 6500 if I want my engine to stay together. Yes I run a O2 sensor, with datalog. never had a lean out. The setup never showed signs of an issue until I noticed alot of smoke out the back when getting off the freeway. I had spunt it to 8k, so thats probibly where the issue came from. Atleast the shop in Portland is going to make things right, thats all I asked anyway.

Usualy this part will slip off the end of the crank, USUALY, not always..if not you need to use a gear puller, but be careful not to mar the crank end!! I'm waiting to hear back from z240 for the part... My thanks for the HybridZ help!!!

anybody?? I can't finish my rebuild with out this part!! I mean I could bt that would be foolish...........

Try reading up on the subject. blo thru is old skool yes, but puts out the power at less than half the cost...

The pistons I bought were wiseco forged 86.5mm turbo pistons. The pistons I just pulled are??? I will take some pic's and post them here later. I also got a kameari(sp?) crank, and that is not the crank in my block. I will not say what shop did this until I get some resolve from the Portland main shop. Problem is that the work I had done was several years ago and I didn't have an issue until now, so kinda hard to prove things on my end. The tune on my car is/was solid. The engine issues I face was from too many RPM's, not too much boost. My setup was suposedly built to withstand 9k rpm's, but seings how the work I got was shoddy my engine broke. I have one guy in Portland supoda come here this weekend to inspect things and look at my receipts. I should have taken pic's but I didn't...oops..

Ya thanks Nigel, I think too many RPM's was the main issue.....

The damage wasnt due to poor tuning. The holley carb I built works perfect with the turbo. My problem is that I paid a shop for upgrades and machine work that wasn't done correctly. I USED to be friends with the people who did the work, I trusted them and got screwed over. Just a life lesson: if you can do something for yourself then do it, don't trust somebody else to do it. I know the parts I purchased and the parts installed are not them. I didnt think to check the lower end parts after I got it back from the shop that did the work. MY MISTAKE. THEY WERE FRIENDS. oh well. atleast the block is ok! I'm just going to order some ITM 86.5mm turbo pistons and rings and rebuild the lower end myself. I just gota get a press for the wrist pins, no big deal. Hone out the cylinders. Probibly should get new bearings while I'm at it, just to be shure everythings fresh. note to self: NTA = never trust anybody ;-(

I need the worm gear that drives the distributor that fits on the crank. My current one has a couple of chipped teeth. I'm located in Auburn, WA for shipping location..

yes I keep all my receipts. the shop in question couldnt stay in business in this economy. They do have a shop in Portland,OR tho. I called them and aparently there was some shady things going on in the shop here in Seattle so they closed up. Figures.

ok well I got realy lucky with my blo thru holley/turbo Z L28. Looks like all that happened is the 2nd ring land on piston number 3 broke off. This did not cause any further problems other than loss of cylinder compression. The cylinder wall is a bit funky but I can hone that out. The shop that did the .5mm over bore and piston upgrade SAID they used forged pistons, now I know they didnt. I have no way of getting them to fix the issue. Thats what I get for trusting a shop to do work I should have done myself. On a side note: The flywheel bolts came loose again!! I even used new bolts and red lock tite. Aparently my engine does not like the boost I was feeding it. I realy did get lucky this time that the engine didnt eat itself with a broken piston. Time to loose the turbo and go back to just being happy with a Z that runs, without the extra HP;-(

I'm stil waiting on getting a hoist to pull the block. Sence I did the turbo upgrade I had strange happenings. The flywheel had radial cracks from the center going outward causing the bolts to come loose. That ate the entire clutch/flywheel/throw bearing and transmission input shaft/front main trans seal. I fixed all that and upgraded the clutch and flywheel to a 240sx 6 puck carbon composite disc and a pressure plate thats for 450ft lbs torq. This barely holds up to the power my Z is putting out. Now that I'm looking closer to the cylinder bores it seems that my crank thrust got knocked out of adjustment, as I can see some strange wear marks in the bores. I cant feel anything bad with my fingers but I will know soon enough when I get the pistons out and mic the bores and check the main bearings. I have never had such a hard time with ANY L28 like this! However this is the first time I have made so many modifications to an L28. I realy believe that I have something stuck in an oil passage or something wrong with the pickup in the oil pan, or mabe the oil pump went hinky?? So far I do not see anything that looks like upper engine oil loss, and the cam lobes look fine, so do the rockers and lash pads. After I get the block out and check the cylinders I'm going to find a shop that can hot tank the block. I want to make this block squeeky clean!! I hope I didnt have anything major happen on the bottom end. I have owned this block and custom crank/rods/pistons for 25 years now and I'm realy attached to it

dist timming 20 deg flat no advance no retard, cam timming 4 deg advanced I.E. hole #2 on the cam sprocket. The filter definately got too hot as the end was crispy. There is nothing on the engine side side with the filter that would leak on it, or atleast I never seen anything leaking on the filter.

1976 280Z F54 block, 10cc dished pistons N42 head, ss valves, 280 deg duration .480 lift cam T3/T04E 60 trim turbo blow thru Holley 4bbl carb @ 20psi boost I noticed that my oil filter looks burnt, crispy paint, and 1 spot closest to the block is now bare/paint gone. I do have a large size Hayden oil cooler, 10 x 15 inch, that cools the oil BEFORE the turbo. I started loosing compression on the #3 cylinder, 115psi hot, 90psi cold, all other cylinders at/on 160psi hot/145 psi cold. The head checks out ok, so does valve lash = .008 inch, cold, at the valve/lifter adjustment. No metal particles seen in the oil, head gasket checks ok. Never seen more than 230F coolant/wetter water. So far the cylinders look ok from the top side, piston tops look good, #3 piston top is oily, so is the spark plug, waiting to pull the block, I just need a hoist. So what are the tell tale signs of excessive oil temp?? I don't have an oil temp guage yet. I have been reading that about 300F oil is where problems start. The fact that the oil filter looks to have been burnt tells me that my oil is getting too hot, what else do I need to look at? This is a street driven/ weekend toy, not a race car, but I have gone max boost/rpm/5th gear many times. So I push the limits... I can post pix later when I get home if thats needed...

I will 2nd the Hayden fans and controllers. I currently am using 2 different adjustable fan controllers in my z. 1 for the main rad fan and 1 for the fuel line/carb cooling fan. Easy install, set the adjustment and no worries!!

Took the Z outa the garage and washed it, then took it to a guy that wanted to buy it. He said I wanted too much so I drove the beast to work!!

How has good after market pad compounds for the toyota 4x4 calipers?? I would like to get some for more wet conditions, mine take to long to "warm up", kinda scary on the street. No I don't race my car so I don't need some super racing compounds.. I stoped by a local parts store and asked if EBC had anything, they looked it up and said no.

Devil_s30 that was me you seen prolly, anyways I'm just down the street from you in Auburn. I know you seen my Z rolling around, its got the big whale tail spoiler on it!!

"Some are looking into involving electricity by mounting a motor/generator into the center section of a turbo and recovering energy as electricity that can be used to charge a hybrid vehicle type battery. " Brilliant!! why didnt I think that??

Yup! this is the info I was looking for! I knew it was a sticky but just couldnt find it, thanks Leon

I see there are many good FAQ's at the top of the page, but I dont see any for the camshaft?? Mabe we could start one? I bring this up due to my searching around here for some cam/degree/timming issues I had. I did find what I was looking for but the info is so spread around.