jt1

Man. What a heartbreaker. That makes me sick on my stomach to read that after your recent thrash to get it freshened up. No accusump here either; and two pretty knowledgable guys opined that my bearing troubles might not be entirely related to debris from the rocker tip failure. At least the resort was positive, and you didn't bring it back with a rod hanging out the side of the block. I'm in a bit of a lull myself. Parts scattered everywhere and it's getting warm enough the jetski is starting to call my name! John

Just a combo of hard brass and a generous chamber. Although it looks bad, the safety risk is very low. Accuracy will suffer and of course the brass is junked. John

Krescent, I think that is an excellent idea. It's really great that your father is going to give you a straight 71 Z. This is a very cool car, but also a 30+ year old one. You need to check it over closely and make sure it's ready to be driven on a regular basis. Check the brake system over closely, replace the rubber lines with braided stainless, check the pads, shoes, and calipers, and completely flush the system and put in fresh fluid. Check all the wheel bearings and U joints and replace if necessary. Check the oil in the trans and diff, change it if it looks bad, and check the seals. Then move on to the suspension, there's a good posibility there's worn rubber bushings that need replaced. If the struts haven't been replaced in the past, it may need struts and possibily springs. Check out the cooling system and electrical system. It's a good idea to replace all the rubber lines on the car. Detail and clean up the interior and exterior of the car and get it looking good, maybe with some sharp new wheels. Learn to adjust the valves, timing, and carbs, and clean up and detail the underhood area. Buy the JTR book, a factory service manual, and hang out and read and learn here at HybridZ. This is the premier resource on the internet for good tech on Z cars. All this is going to give you a much better idea of what's involved in a V8 swap. I think $2500 is an absolute minimum to budget, and you're going to need garage space and access to tools like a cherry picker, floor jack and jackstands, and there's a pretty steep learning curve involved. I think two months is a lightning fast time period for a swap, and you're not going to be able to drive the car in this period, which is going to interfer with a job, hanging out with your friends, and escorting the occasional young lady around. Building a V8 Z is a substantial commitment of time and money, and the last thing you want to do is wind up with a disassembled car, no time and money to finish it, and your parents mad at you. A V8 Z is a wicked fast car, but a nice looking, nice running 6 cyl is no slouch, and will get a lot attention and provide you with a lot of enjoyment working on it and driving it, and you will learn TONS of stuff that will help with a V8 swap when the time's right. I'm not trying to beat you up at all; this is just friendly advice from an old guy who used to be a really stupid young guy!!!!!!! John

Check and make sure you have some free travel in the throw out bearing/fork/slave cylinder setup when the clutch is released. If there's free travel, you're probably ready for a new clutch. If you don't have any free travel, the TOB putting pressure on the pressure plate fingers can cause exactly the symptoms you describe, and a new clutch won't help any, you'll just burn up the new one and be back where you are now. John

I think removing a rusted strut is a rite of passage for Z owners. Mat needs to post up the pic of the truck again, that was a classic!!!!!!!! John

It seems to me a good quality stock clutch would hold a warm 305 with no issues at all. Are you certain everything is set up correctly? John

Steve's right, just swap the flange. This job generally requires a stout air wrench. Why a 180 instead of a 200? John

Stock Car Products have some nice braided stainless ones. I used one on my car, nice stuff. John

Congratulations!!!!!! I remember his previous post about this, and am glad everything worked out well. Now to build two more Z cars!!!!!!! John

And probably one of the select few in the 160+ mph class!!!!!! Have a great weekend, Buddy, enjoy yourself and be safe. I will raise a cold one in your honor as I am cutting grass and wishing my junk would get back from the machine shop. John

There's a guy here in NC who has swapped a maxima diesel into a 280. I saw it at a track event but don't recall his name. He said he got 30+ mpg and the performance was only slightly less than the gas engine. Pretty wild to see a 280 go by and hear the diesel sound. John

No new projects here.....I seem to work full time on the one I've got, trying to keep the motor together! The light weight of the aluminum block is interesting though. I saw it on another board, corner carvers, and thought it would interest some people here. Going to the track anytime soon? I was going to go to Rockingham June 4-5, but the motor's still in the machine shop and it looks like it would be a major thrash to make it now. John

I think this is an incredibly cool car. He's got a ways to go on it yet, but has an excellent start. http://www.ls1tech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=321623 John

When I drove my car on the street a good bit, it was in a ~325RWHP state of tune with a 700R4, 0.70 OD, and it would get 20-22 mpg if you drove it sensibly. Currently, on track, it gets about 5-6 mpg. John

Hey Larry! Dan hooked us both up!!!! Cool!!!! Thanks SuperDan. John

Larry, thanks for the feedback. When I get it back from the machine shop, I'll try the blue trick on the valvetrain. That's a good idea. I talked to the guys at Canfield a good bit, they said if the guideplates need clearancing, to do it all to the inside of the guideplate. I know I touched them up some originally, but I smoothed them out in both directions. They're not a big fan of the Comp promags, they prefer Crane Gold, but said thet really shouldn't be an issue. I'm certain the rocker geometry sofar as rocker height, roller sweep, and pushrod length was dead on the money. I think the lateral alignment was my downfall. Pete, my machinest said the rings were just plain wore out. They've been run almost 4K miles, 95% of it on track, so they haven't lived an easy life. Other than the metal in the oil accelerating the wear, it seems the compression is unrelated to the rockers. John

......hmmmmm....... I don't think I've ever had any green dots. Bad sign, huh? John

Larry, thanks for asking for his input. Lash is 16/18, no significant changes until the rollers began to wear. Rocker/retainer is approx 100, with no evidence of contact. Pushrods are straight, but showing guideplate wear on the two rockers in question only. Rollers are centered at 0 lift, but not at max lift. Both are 7/16". The two guideplate slots related to these two failed rollers both show significant, probably 60-80 thou, wear where the pushrod is at max lift. Pete, the lifters and cam are fine. It's all apart and at the machine shop for a good cleaning. Mains bearings have debris scratches, rods have copper showing. Crank doesn't have any damage, some bearing metal deposited, and will be checked closely. Two of the rod bearings, 5&6, were hammered pretty badly. I don't know that it floated any, just that there was a lot of clearance with the worn rollers. John

Yes. Yes. The difference, so far as to how quick the engine will rev, is so small that for all practical purposes it's insignificant. The main reason I got a 6 1/4 is to give plenty of clearance to the steering rack. You pretty much get what you pay for, although there are bargains to be had. That one appears to be a chinese copy of a Fluidamper, but it does say it's SFI certified. I wouldn't run one that's not SFI certified. John

If your rotating assembly was internally balanced, 99% of 350's are but you should ask whoever did the balance job, then you want a neutral balanced damper and flywheel. Neutral balanced damper and flywheels are sometimes (incorrectly) referred to as internally balanced. "External balance" means the damper and flywheel have weights on them to help balance the rotating assembly. Normally this is only done on 400 and 454 factory cranks, or to keep from adding mallory to a crank. As you mentioned, 7.25" or less. I use a 6 1/4" Fluidamper. John

I know Stoptech makes some really good stuff, but: I disagree with their theory that rotors don't warp. Now, there is absolutely no doubt that pad buildup on the rotors cause all the same symptoms as a warped rotor. One of my good friends has a brake lathe and does all my rotor work, and I've seen rotors that from the point the cutter first touches the rotor it takes 15 thou more cut to get the cutter cutting all the way around the rotor. There is no doubt that the rotor itself is warped, not just a matter of pad buildup. I've never had to turn a Wilwood rotor, I'm speaking of stock vehicle rotors, mostly Dodge pickup stuff since that's what we use in my business. Regarding the Wilwood rotors, I've been thru six sets since I put the DPR kit on my car, Superlites and 12.2 x 1.25 rotors, and I haven't had a new one have any shake to it yet. The DPR kit uses the GT48 series rotor and they've all been straight as a gun barrel. John

Try backing some timing out and see if that helps it. If so, you may need to reconfigure the vacumn/mech advance curves to have a little less timing at the rpm the surge occurs. John

It's even better when the question is: What kind of %$#@&%$ 240Z is this? :biggrin: :biggrin: My best answer so far: "A 73" John

When you pass a guy driving a $130,000 GT3, and he comes over after coming off track, looks at your car and says: What kind of 240Z is this? It will all be worthwhile. John

Grumpy, how's the quality of Motown stuff? Nobody around here seems to have any first hand experience with it. Have you used any on buildups you've done? John