fisheric

Sorry but what do you mean by RTV?

well, i am having some trouble getting the valve cover off. The current gasket is a "gasket-in-a-can" type. I have removed the other bolts and cannot find a good spot to pry the valve cover off. Then i just gave up for awhile cause I got busy, but tomorrow I am gonna attempt it again. I am really hoping that the screw did not bottom out. Any tips on getting the valve cover off without damaging it?

Its okay... I just spent a year and I only just yesterday got it to say all OK for the first time. I didn't have washer fluid and It seems like I had to put coolant into an extra reservoir which seemed stupid, but I just wanted to try to get the red light to go away finally.

One more question. Do I need to use specific cutting oil or can I use 3-in-1 general purpose, or wd-40? I am currently unemployed so if I can do something cheaper than I need to. However, I do understand that by spending too little to begin with you will spend more in the long run. Unfortunately at this point if I can save $5 by not having to buy a bottle of cutting oil than I would need to

grumpyvette, Yeah the reverse twist is what I meant when I called it a lefty bit. I don't have any but... The thing I am worried about is I really cranked that bolt down because as I am sure you all know the design of that valve cover is terrible. There needs to be 1 or 2 more bolts at the very end of the cover because oil leaks out. Thats why I was really putting alot of torque on it. The reason I bring this up is why get the reverse twist(is that the same as a left handed drill bit?) if I put so much torque on the bolt that I broke the head off? Why not use a standard bit and then use the easy out? I was not familiar with the easy out until I followed the link you sent me. I think I might actually have one in my tool box and just never knew what it was. waddiejohn, Sorry I wasn't more clear. I was tightening a new gasket down and the bolt did break off flush with the umm.... what do I call the part that the valve/crank cover bolts on to? Anyway it is broken off flush with that. Hitting the bolt with a center punch so that it doesn't walk on me is a good idea I wouldn't have thought of. Thanks for that. Could you elaborate a little bit on what you mean by: Well tomorrow or the day after I am actually going to attempt this procedure. I am really dreading it. What really irritates me is that the whole reason I was putting a new gasket on is because oil kept leaking out the end closest to the firewall. So I was trying to fix it and just made things worse. Thanks alot for everyone's help so far. I am gonna read those links from grumpy and then check back here before I start drilling.

I bought a can of gasket material because my valve cover was leaking out of the top left corner and the guy at the store recommended the stuff. While applying it I broke off a bolt flush. I have a nice cordless drill and a couple cheap bit sets. I don't have any lefty bits, not that I think it would help. I don't currently have a tap/die set but I think I could get one. What is the proper way to do this procedure? Car is an 81 280zx, bolt is the upper right corner if standing at the front bumper

ok then. We both experienced the same problem after working on the turn signal switch. We now know for sure that is where the problem is.

So did you have your problem before or after you changed the switch?

I am still having the same problem that I had before which is the same as yours. My whole problem started when I took apart the turnsignal branch off the steering wheel and put it back together trying to fix an unrelated problem. First the buzzing used to go every 20 secs. Then it became a constant buzzing. It goes away in reverse, my radio is just fine. When i turn the turn signals on the buzzing will buzz to the beat of the turn signals. Buzz, buzz, buzz. But the turn signals don't work. I have looked at the turnsignal branch several times, but just cannot figure out what went wrong and where.

I appreciate everyones responses, but I think that I am going to have to limit my options to northern california. I just can't afford to ship all these parts. Also Id like to find one person who has a doner car that I can get all my parts for. And if anyone local has all the parts when I do the swap they can have the auto and parts. my tranny has 125000 on it and runs great.

Nick, What year is this gear? It looks like it is in pretty good shape.

PMs sent and Replied to

Hello, I have a 1981 280zx turbo with the stock 3 speed automatic . I basically need all the parts required to do the swap. Right now I have none of them. I need the parts to be in good condition of course. Especially the clutch and transmission. If one person has all the parts I would need I can work out a good deal with them. Im located in Sacramento, CA Thanks Everyone. I Look Forward To Hearing From You.

therustedguage I am experiencing the buzzing on my 1981 280zxt. it goes away when my 3 speed auto goes into reverse. I have all the same symptoms as you except my radio works fine. It is a stock nissan radio. Please tell me what you did to solve it. It is driving me crazy.

sorry to dig up a old thread but did you ever get any info from the plastics shop?

that is interesting. Because I put on my after market cat and no less than 10 miles later had the smog check and the numbers were so low that it seemed impossible. i forget which categories, but somthing like 0, 2, 7, 22. in my case when I first got the car it was running rich and the damage was already done. its been a couple thousand miles now I wonder what the results would be like today. does any know an approximate life-span of those cheap after market cats?

Oh and everyone realizes that I am in California which I believe has stricter smog rules than other states. So in some states maybe a car can pass more easily?

I believe that the car ran rich for a couple years before I bought it. When I got done tuning it up everything was running perfectly and I still failed my smog. It was literally one day I went in and failed. Then I left and got the cat changed came back the very next morning and passed with "flying colors" whatever that means? I couldn't find a shop who would do the job for less than $150+tax. He did it for $90 out the door and was able to see me the same day. Which was important because my tags were expired. Honestly I knew that shops kept cats so they could recycle them. I just didn't know that you could get so much for them. That is a surprise to me. Oh and mine may have been changed before because it was welded in place not bolted on like someone mentioned. I only started this thread in case someone was in a similar position as mean and having trouble with their California smog. I appreciate everyones input. I had no idea there were so many ideas concerning this. Thanks everyone.

yes you are correct. Im sure it was clogged. They car had been running rich for some time and i think that is what did it. hehe, i bet they do. There was a poster at the shop I went to that said "catalytic converters do not get used up. if your cat is bad, something else caused it" it was a poster from a cat company i think.

yes, too bad they have a test at all! now they even outlawed the sale of new two stroke lawn equipment. so we, the american public, who pays these politicians salaries have them do nothing but bother us and take our money while factories, The Main Cause Of Air Polution, in the united states get to spew forth their toxic venom into our air and rivers and drinking water. I always wondered what kind of a person would sell out the planet they live on. on a positive note I had a non-original gas cap and the smog tech told me he could have failed me because its not part of the oem emissions set up. I told him he shoulda mentioned that before he took my money 3 times

You talked to him too? Im getting the feeling that he is feigning ignorance about vehicle to dodge responsibility. i pm'd you

he said the car ran and wanted 800 i already talked him down to 5 i could probably get him down to 4. I really only wanted it for the 5 speed. but I thought it was the t5 5 speed the turbos came with. now I gotta do some more reading on the n/a 5 speed. as far as i can tell the n/a will fit fine into my car. my plan was to swap the transmission and then try to part the rest out. offer the big stuff locally. anyone want some t-tops?

the guy who has the car seems like he doesnt know/care. Its about a 50 minute drive to go check it out. Oh, i see now that the non-turbo models had the same hood. I thought the hood scoop was turbo only. So it is probably an 82/83 n/a

Hi everyone I just wanted to share with you my experience smoging my 1981 280zx turbo. I had done a complete tune up and then failed my smog. Next I turned my attention to all of my vacuum lines and also clean the engine with seafoam and then ran the car nearly empty and put two bottles of injector clean in and let them run through till the car died. I failed again, but this time I passed/failed the opposites test that I did last time (The tests I failed and passed last time were reversed this time) I didn't know what to do at this point and I had pretty much run out of options and I read that changing a catalytic converter would not help pass smog. Not pass my ass! It cost me $90 and 20 minutes to have a guy swap out catalytic converters. My car ran sooooo good afterwards, it even has a nice rumble now When I passed the numbers on the test (i cant remember exactly which ones) that were 20 - 50 points above passing were down to a reading of 3, 6, one was like 33. The car is virtually zero emissions. I just wanted to let everyone here know how I passed. In case you are having trouble passing smog I highly recommend trying this low cost fix. Oh yeah, and the last test I had to do extra testing because my car had failed so badly before it was considered a gross polluter.