EverRude

I'm currently swapping the L28ET motor from the 81 ZX into my 75 280Z. The ZX is an automatic ofcourse so I don't need the tranny. Should I try to save the rearend for later? Or just scrap it with the rest of the body. It could be a long time before I would use it and it'll take up precious space and likely need a rebuild before it could be used (167k miles on it). The ZX could bring about $150 scrapped it I tow it in myself. If I remove that rearend I have to pretty much give the car to an auto scrapper just to get them to haul it off with no rear suspension. So basically it's like paying $150 for a rearend I don't need. Ofcourse I haven't driven the 75 Z yet. Could be that R200 is trashed.... If I had more money and space it would be a no-brainer. But with limited space I have to set priorities. That $150 could be a new brake bootser I'll probably need or some sheet metal I definitely need.... Is the turbo rearend worth the cost, so save for later? Or easy to get later, so scrap it? Oppinions? Thanks

I gotta say this Nissan engine is impressing me. So easy to work on. I can just glance at a bracket or part and know exactly what I need to do to remove it including wrench sizes. The oil pan and oil pickup design alone is impressive. I pulled the valve cover and oil pan. Inspected everything as best I could. Aside from a black tint to most of the non-contact surfaces the motor is amazingly clean, despite the fact I found some pretty think sludge in the oil pain. Cam and rockers all looked nice and turned smoothly. No uneven wear on the cam lobes. Timing chain looked tight and and in fact looks almost brand new. I suspect the timing chain might be the reason the crank pulley was off and reinstalled without a key. I hope that's it. I can't find anything wrong with this motor mechanically. Crank end play was .010" which according to the DSM is good. Compression seems good but I can't be sure till I get it installed and can spin it with a consistent speed with the starter. I found quite a few broken sensor wires or bad splices. Aside from that crank pulley key this motor is in nice shape for 167k miles. I'm behind schedule once again. My wife wants to redo the kitchen floor. I asked her to give me two weeks to get the car and the road and I'll be all on it. She agreed. But she's already started tearing up the old tile. So I get pulled to help her and some of the more heavy lifting items. Between that and the rain I don't get more than an hour or two a day. Which sucks. Still making progress though. Later

I got the oil cooler system off the ZX. Think I'll be able to splice the supply and return lines and use that stock cooler on the Z and mount it in the engine bay on the passenger side behind the radiator support. I'll post pics ofcourse if I do it. I inspected the turbo. The turbine fins all look good. The turbo spins smoothly and there is absolutely no detectable play, radial or axial. Found atleast one reason that motor wasn't running. No key on the crankshaft pulley. No sheared pieces. Nothing at all. The pulley just spun. I didn't realize it till I cut the old belts to remove the power steering pump and a/c compressor. I grabbed the crank pulley and it just spun. Removed it and there was no key. If I had to guess someone worked on that pulley at some point and forgot to reinstall the key.Atleast that's what I hope happened. Think I need to pull the oil pan and valve cover. I'll post progress as I go ofcourse. Later

Eh. I changed my mind about the clutch. Just couldn't stand the idea of installing a worn clutch. Due to rain I'm behind schedule. But both motors are out. Picking up my new clutch kit and rear main seal today. Should go in tommorrow. Cleaned up the engine bay and painted everything with Zero-Rust. Gotta clean up some wiring. There are several grounds that are burned. Clearly someone wired something backwards at some point. I'll rewrap that loom with tape and call it good for now. Rain permitting I should have the motor and tranny in tommrrow, or thursday, the latest. Then provided I do quick work with the wiring mods I should have a running car before the end of the weekend. I'm taking pictures as I go. I'll post some later. Thanks

The Z's motor and transmission are out. The ZX motor shoulda come out but the ball style exhaust flange is rusted onto the manifold/turbo. The bolts came out fine and the flange is loose but the darn tube won't drop out. I can't use the entire exhaust anyways so I'll probably cut the exhaust tube just aft of the bend and yank the motor. Other than that it's going smoothly. As expected I'll need a new clutch. That one has some life left but not much. Probably better to just swap it now. However dropping the tranny is pretty easy. I might just wait on spending money on a clutch till I'm sure I have a running car. Yeah that's a good idea. I might need that money for something to actually get the car running. Anyways that's the update. No real problems or nasty surprises with the mechanical parts of the swap so far. I hope the electrical goes as smoothly. Including engine and engine bay cleanup and painting I should be done with mechanical stuff this weekend. Later

I intend to do the entire swap. Turbo and all. But I'll inspect the turbo once I have the motor out. If it's fried I'll consider a rebuild but I may just go NA to avoid more costs. Besides since I'm going to end up doing alot of troubleshooting and wiring changes (for alternator and EFI) I might as well add the turbo. Guys I appreciate the tips about the rounded bolts. And I agree with pretty much everything you said. In fact using a large screw driver through the universal to hold the drive shaft was natural. The prybar on the back of the wrench to wedge it onto the rounded bolt really did the trick. The question I have now is just how much of the emissions crap can I remove from this turbo motor without causing it to run badly and throw up error codes? The thing is a mess of vacuum hoses and wires. I know it could be cleaner. Thanks

Really? Wow. Hadn't thought of that. Sears has mechanics too I'll bet. Maybe I should go pick up a few of those. Because since I apprently don't know about swivel adaptors I should certainly have someone else do it. I sure hope your comment was sarcasm. Mine reponse was if ya couldn't tell. I tried the swivel adaptor. With the socket it's too long to make the angle and won't seat. That's why they make swivel sockets, they're shorter. Besides, as I said. I got the driveshaft off using a prybar to wedge the wrench on the rounded bolt head. BTW I bought the prybar at Sears.

Camera finally dried out so it's working now. A bit easiesr to explain what I'm talking about. Yes I have a metric set of tools. Just not swivel sockets. Or gearwrenches either but I'll get those for sure. Here's a pic of the tight space I was referring too trying to get those drive shaft bolts out. I ended up using a prybar wedged against the wrench to seat it enough to break torque. Went smoothly from there. Still a major pain. Here are the cars I'm working on. The blue 81 ZX donor and the green 75 Z patient. Dr. EverRude expects a full recovery for the patient. The donor is DOA. Here's a couple of pics of both motors.

That portion of my harness won't be affected by this swap. Only the engine harness and EFI harness. I'll check the ZX. It may have a simular setup I won't be needing.

Using this thread as a guide to wire it up once I have the engine swapped. It's nice since my turbo motor is an 81. Currently yanking the Z motor and working on the ZX pull as I wait for Deep Creep to do its thing. One problem I've run into is the driveshaft bolts. What a pain. Why couldn't the mount the bolts facing forward so you could access them better. It's just my luck someone rounded off 2 of the bolts slightly and I can't get a wrench fully seated on them to get them broke loose. I'm seriously considering a dremel but I'm afraid in the very small space I'll cut the shaft or input coupling. Has anyone managed to use a swivel socket from the back? I don't own a metric set but would be willing to buy some if I knew it would work. At this point it's really just a matter of tunring wrenches till something brakes, then fixing that enough to work past it, then rinse and repeat. But this is my first Datsun engine pull. Heck it's my first Datsun. So if anyone has any tips they can send my way I'd appreciate it. Maybe you'll educate me on something before I can manage to mess it up on my own. I'll be posting pics and such but my camera broke yesterday so it'll be awhile.

Bro feel free to come on up and get the whole engine with the entire EFI harness attached... after the Z is running with the ZX motor I'll say this. The injector connections on the Z harness are crap. Very loose and corroded green. Probably part of the problem I was having getting it to start. And I had considered using the ECU casing for a Megasquirt later. A waste of what might be a good ECU but I tend to collect far too many parts. Seriously if you need any of the harness bits after the Z is running I got no problem sending them to ya. You pay shipping ofcourse

Actually I don't. I noticed the bracket on the ZX but the Z doesn't have one. I'll fab something. No the Z currently has a 5 speed and I'm sticking with that. As far as the alternator goes. I followed the other links listed with the EFI bible. There's a guide posted there. Guys I appreciate all the help. Gonna let this post die and start updating the engine swap in the engine section. I'm sure I'll be asking a few more questions there and probably coming back here when I complete the swap but find it aint gonna run

I'm in the process of doing the engine swap. I'll be installing the turbo and using the upgraded alternator so I'll do that mod as well. My thread in the troubleshooting section explains why I am starting this swap finally. If you haven't read that recently you might wanna check it out. I'm hoping that this turbo swap guide will do the trick for me. Seems a little vauge on a few points but it'll be a big help especially since he's swapping from an 81 ZX like me. The odd ECU harness would be trickier without his guide. Having pulled the harness for my 75 Z now I finally see the whole thing and how everything was connected. Harder to visualize seeing it all one connector at a time. Expect more posts about the actual swap soon. Including pics. Eventually. Left my camera out in the rain this afternoon. Now it refuses to work. Dang. That's a first though. I usually drop them to break them.

The sand was in the 75 Z. When I removed the lower hose chunks of white sludge came out. Like slimey soap balls. No sand though. I think I could flush it but I'm not going to bother. I managed to get more of a start but it didn't run. However that start was enough for me to decide it's time to do what I was thinking of doing in the first place. There was a loud knock on the bottom end. The PO wasn't lying about that. I'm swapping motors. I'll be installing the 81 ZX Turbo motor complete. Including doing the alternator upgrade since I need one anyways. I already have eveything but the driveshaft, motor mounts, and transmission crossmember disconnected or removed. Although not sure about the engine ground. Can't find one. My Mitchel manual mentions one but I don't see it. I'm used to seeing a copper braided strap on US muscle. No idea what this car would have if anything. I do need to know the best way and place to hook the chain to the motor for hoisting out the motor and tranny. I'll probably wait till tommorrow to actually do the pull. Meanwhile I be getting the ZX ready for pulling. Both cars are parked beside each other on the small slab in front of my shop. Too bad the Mustang is on a rottiserie and can't be moved. Would sure be nice to do all this in the wonderful shop I own.

Dothan, AL ... far southeast corner.

Ok. Forgot to mention that as I continued to troubleshoot using the EFI bible I found the following problem. The Air Tempeture Sensor Ohm came in extremely low. Like it should be reading somehwere in the neighborhood of 1000 Ohms. Mine is reading 57.1 Ohms. I did the other checks. Like the Air Flow meter resistance checks and they came out fine. Did it several time. With my reading of 57.1 Ohms it would mean the air temp would like to be like 180 to 200 F... ouch. Could this bad sensor be part of my no starting problem?

Ok so now 3 steps back. Decided to hook up the ground from that condensor at the coil. Took the wire from the ZX condensor bullet connector since I didn't have any to make a new wire. The ZX had it hooked to the distributor bolts so I tried to do the same. Went to loosen bolt. Turned twice no problem then snapped off. No warning and I wasn't twisting very hard. It's the adjustment bolt. I'm just going to drill it out and use a bolt and nut setup to fix it for now. But... To get room to drill out the bolt I removed the upper radiator hose. Alot of corrosion around the water neck on the block but still solid. It's all flakey and white as expected from corroding aluminum. What wasn't expected was the sand I found in the water neck. Sand! Like someone took a bunch of sand off the ground somewhere and just poured it into the neck. I can feel the thermostat still in place. If all goes well the car didn't run after that and the sand has just been sitting in the neck. I'll pull the lower hose and check for sand there. It'll be there if it circulated at all through the system. Now it raining again so I have to wait. Here's a tip. Never buy a car a guy retrieved from his divorced wife.... Did I mention yet that this was fun?

I'm a moron. Had starter disconnected for troubleshooting the pump. After reconnecting I shoulda known to check starter wires first before assuming the worst. I accidently disconnected the small starter solendoid wire while hocking up the main battery wire. Duh. Fuel pump now working and motor spinning. Starter fluid in the intake it will fire off. So now it's the EFI system for sure. Back to the bible....

OK...one step forward two steps back. I primed the full system finally. Full is pumping through the fuel filter and into a container. So I hooked it back up. Decided to see if I could start the car with the pump hot wired to a separate battery and running. Engine won't turn over. Dang. I check power. Battery is a little low but should still turn over. Disconnected my hotwire to the pump and reconnected the harness to it. Try the key. Pump starts! Wow. Still the engine isn't turning over. Dang! So close... Gonna let the battery charge awhile and do some searching about the engine not even attempting to turn over. Just a click of the relay and nothing else.

Here's a few of the pics I promised. Not too bad I think. Definitely needs a cleaning and the top of the dash is massively cracked as usual. Daeron you wanted this pic. Don't look all that special too me. I know some people like these lace wheels but I prefer 5 slots (ansen sprints). No curb rash I see but definitely needs cleaning and polishing? These appear stock by chance? This pic and the next show condition of the rumber bumper ends. This bumper is coming off. If someone wants them just make an offer. Same with the spoiler on the ZX. Ben280ZX has dibs on the spoiler tho All this rust is fairly shallow. Nothing rusted through here or in the floors. Yet. Eveything was well on it way to being too far gone. Here's the windshield rust I mentioned on the ZX. If not the only rust just the worst. Floors are solid but the driver's rear quarter is rusted through in front and behind the rear wheel. Passenger aint bad tho. Anyways there's more pics. Feel free to stop by the troubleshooting section if you want help me get the Z running

Ok so your saying I should get the alt replaced. But would this affect my fuel pump not coming on? It doesn't matter if the injectors are firing or not with no fuel to them. Also doing the troubleshooting using the EFI bible with the "No fuel pump" guide I get power and continuity everywhere it says. Next step? Replace ECU. That aint happening till I sort out the wiring. There's also another issue. The clutch is stuck engaged. I got no pedal. But the slave has the clutch fork maxed out. Either the slave is rusted open or the clutch has siezed to the flexplate. I know there's an interlock that forces you to depress the clutch to start the car. But would that prevent the pump from getting power? Oh and I have been trying to get the pump primed. I have about 6 gallons in it now. And I used an airhose to slightly pressurize the tank. Used a spare battery to power the pump and it works. But no fuel is reaching the fuel filter at the engine. I removed the hose to the pump and it definitely has fuel going to it. I guess I could disconnect the surge valve and see if fuel is coming out of it. Still whether the pump is actually sending fuel or not it isn't getting power. I'm troubleshooting 3 different things at once and all interelated. I want to go step by step and stick to one system. So I think I'll concentrate and being sure the pump is sending fuel forward. Then sort out why it gets no power. This is fun

Quick alternator question. Since my alternator is gone and some of the wiring is hacked I need to know what I need. Here's a pic from AtlanticZ for the alternator swap guide. It shows are condensor mounted to the ground "E" connector. Is it required to run? Or can I skip it till I find a local salavage with these cars?

zpizzaman: It's cool bro. My fault for not specifying the car year. Daeron: You're awesome. I appreciate all that info. I may just hotwire it after I get more fuel in the tank. Only about 2.5 gallons in there now. I don't wanna risk overheating it unprimed and with too little gas. Now that I'm awake I"ll be getting the new multimeter. I wanna see if I can figure out the pump issue correctly. But it will be getting fuel before the day is out. Thanks

Pic 4 shows the condensor according to the schematic. The disconnected wire is supposed to go to ground. The ZX has the same thing and it grounds to the block at the water neck. I'm sure that's what Naviathan meant I just didn't catch on.

Finally found the red and green wires on the schematic. Helped having a component to look for rather than just random wire colors. EGR solenoid. THanks Only seeing one fusible link in engine area of the 1975 wiring schematic. I may be missing it.