calpoly-z

My console was in pretty rough shape so I pulled it out and made my own. Attached are a few pics. I also built an arm rest with some storage space but i don't seem to have any pics. I have a post here abut it somewhere if you search my screen name.

Really tried hard to get an EFR ordered for my car, but they are basically unobtainable. Most places are quoting a 4 to 8 month backorder. Quite a bit longer than I want to wait. Looks like I'm going to end up buying a GT3071 with a 0.63 ar Ford T3 housing and use an ATP ultimate internal wastegate. Piecing this turbo together makes me realize how great a deal the EFR is. The garrett is going to be almost $1600 by the time I get the wastegate and actuator. And I'll still be short a BOV and boost solenoid. The 6758 is listed at around $1450 or so. Oh well. Should still end up with a great turbo for what I want out of my engine.

I saw an article somewhere where someone had built a mount into the dash of their pickup (i think it was a late model dodge Ram.) and mounted a Nexus 7 (a 7"android tablet) as the main stereo interface. It was very cool and a 7" size might be a bit more manageable to fit in place. Definitely something I will keep in mind for the future. I have yet to see someone do this in a Z though.

Just drove past you a couple days ago while on vacation with the little lady. Unfortunately I was in a rental car and I'm flying back so way of getting it back. Any chance you'd be willing to hack it up into smaller pieces that could be fit into a box and shipped? I'd pay for the whole clip and your time. Thanks.

Bump.

If the engine came with the stock turbo dizzy then you would need the ecm to run your ignition. If that's the case then you might as well just use MS to control spark. If you're planning in running an N/A dizzy then you could get away without MS controlling spark but then you timing will not be optimized for boost and you will end up having to run very compromised timing to prevent detonation. Why do you not want to run MSnS?

I have had the rubber rip apart from having the car up on jack stands with the suspension hanging for an extended period of time. So not indestructible, but as long as the wheels stay on the ground most of the time you should be fine

The front of my car has been in a front end collision or two and the very front of the chassis in front of the radiator support has been crumpled beyond repair. If anyone has a parts car that they wouldnt mind taking a sawzall to, I would be very much appreciative and would happily compensate you for your troubles. Hopefully the pics below will clarify what I need. I really need the driver side the most but I would prefer both sides. Thanks.

I don't have an answer for your question exactly but I would recommend picking up some cam tower shims to equal the amount of material removed from the head. My head is only shaved 20-30 thou and the machine sop that did the work highly recommended the use of shims. They are not expensive and any machine shop should be able to order them for you. I am fairly sure that just changing your sprocket position to 2 or 3 will not alleviate your issue, though I could be mistaken.

Good to know that pistons should be available regardless of how much needs to be bored. All I have are the stock L28ET rods right now and they have already been balanced and prepped with ARP studs so I would prefer to stay with them. The main issue I think I'm going to face now is finding a machine shop locally with some experience working with these engines. West Texas is pretty much a domestic only market.

Finally got around to tearing the short block apart and discovered the culprit. Cyl 3 lower oil control ring was pretty mangled up, destroying the piston and deeply grooving the bore wall. Definitely going to have to find a machine shop locally. I'm already bored .5mm over so hopefully it only needs another .5mm of bore to remove the grooves. I know +1mm pistons and rings are available, but I'm not sure thats going to be enough to take out some of these grooves. Anybody know what the largest oversized pistons that are available for a standard crank L28? Not sure what would cause this to happen. I assume I screwed up somehow when assembling this engine several years. Any idea what I did so that I can avoid this issue in the future?

Did you replace your AFM? With one from the correct year? Not all of them have the fuel pump contacts in them. If you don't already have an FSM the link below has digital copies of them. In fact I sent this guy one of my FSM's to copy. http://www.xenons30.com/reference.html

First of all, stop taking advice from guys at pep boys and auto zone. Most of those guys have no real experience working on cars. They sell parts. That's it. Next, last time I was at auto zone or oriellys they had fuel injection test kits that you could rent that would have the gauge that you need. You will have to pay for it up front but your money will be refunded when its returned. If its not available, make one out of pipe parts and a cheap air pressure gauge from the hardware store. Finally, soaking your injectors in carb cleaner and then opening them with a 7 volt battery (where the hell did you find a 7 volt battery?) does not mean your injectors are clean and flowing properly. In fact you may have hurt them if you held them open too long. Rule #1 when diagnosing cars is never assume something is working properly just because it was working previously (especially when its been 2 months since the car ran and you just tried some homemade quick fix.) Now, verify you have constant fuel pressure when cranking. About 42 psi without vacuum on the regulator if I remember correctly. If so, verify injectors are firing with a noid light. Sounds like you did this though. Check and clean ALL electrical connectors under the hood, especially injectors, AFM, and coolant temp sensor. If that fails find an FSM and work through the troubleshooting checks. Just curious, why was the car not started for 2 months? Were you having issues with it running poorly or was there another reason?

Seriously considering the 6758 for my build as well. I'm not looking to make a ton of power, but I want a very responsive motor. I love how quickly the stock T3 responds but not how inefficient it is at higher boost levels. I dont like that the 6758 only comes with a T25 flange but I know there are adapters out there for that. To bump up to a T3 flange requires going with the 7064 which seems like far more tubo than I need. A physically smaller turbo appeals to me as well due to the fact that I've got an A/C compressor mounted on that side of the engine too that has to be worked around. Plus the 7064 is about $300 more. The ~$1500 for a 6758 really doesn't seem that bad considering there is no need for an external wastegate/plumbing (~$2-300), the intergrated BOV makes intercooler pipe routing clean and simple (~100), and the included boost solenoid is just one less thing to buy (~$40) and I can control it with MS (most likely). It was going to cost me at least $7-800 to get my stock turbo rebuilt and turned into a T3/T04E. Or I can spend an extra $6-700 and get a brand new state of the art turbo that should help me better reach my goals with a limited investment in time from me. (Time being the hardest thing for me to come by right now). Hell, I think I may have just talked myself into it. Now the problem may be sourcing one. Most suppliers I've seen so far are out of stock.

I will be sure to check them out. Much appreciated!

Where did you find pistons for $180? The ITM sets I'm finding include rings and are about $280-300 for a set. I got the engine out yesterday. Unfortunately I'm spending the weekend in Lubbock at a redneck wedding so I haven't had a chance to get the engine on a stand to begin tear down. I read about 3/4 of the cylinder Head cooling thread last night so now I'm planning on tapping the 5-6 cylinder coolant passages. I really want to see how an 8.5-1 turbo engine responds with these modifications. Seems like I should be able to get away with more than 14-17 deg advance at full load like recent posts have suggested.

I contacted them through ebay and just got a rsponse saying to call them directly. Haven't had a chance yet. I may just go straight to the source and contact Cometic. I am familiar with the company but have never purchased through them because their prices were always too high. The website hasn't changed since the last time I looked many years ago either

Perusing ebay the yesterday I came across someone claiming to be selling Cometic MLS headgaskets in 1 and 2mm sizes. The link is below. http://www.ebay.com/itm/COMETIC-MLS-Datsun-L24-L26-L28-New-Head-Gasket-240Z-260Z-280ZX-1mm-/310412419331?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item484605a103&vxp=mtr I'm a little sketched out by the pictures used, as 2 are clearly not for an L-engine and one has a BeckArnley copyright on the pic. The 4th pic may actually be the product but its impossible to tell. Going to contact the seller today and see what they have to say. The gaskets are certainly not cheap, but Cometic makes some pretty good stuff from what I've read.

Well I've been mulling this one over for a bit and decided to just bite the bullet and pull out the motor. Hoping to get the motor out tomorrow and at least partially torn down to look for damage. I've never seen any other large metal shaving during oil changes so I'm not expecting any broken piston skirts. If I do find that though I'm seriously contemplating swapping my dished pistons out for some flat tops. I like the thought of a little more off boost response and I'm not planning on building a monster. 300whp sounds like plenty to me. I'd like to get my hands on an "A" cam or a mild turbo cam while I'm at it. And I will probably finally get my stock t3 sent off to be turned into a t3/t4. I'm sure there will be plenty other "while I'm at it" purchases as well. Which is a big part of why I didn't want to pull it in the first place. Oh well, no time like the present, right?

This weekend I had an opportunity to do a little work on 77 which has been sitting on stands for basically the last 3 years while I tried to find the time to upgrade a few items that have been on the to-do list for a long time. Anyway one such item was an Arizona Z-Car aluminum oil pan that I picked up used here a year or so ago. I had the car up in the air anyway so I decided to tackle this project since it was one of the last things I needed to do from under the car (By the way, installing this cast pan with the engine in the car is a major PITA. Highly recommend doing this with the engine out.) After the install, when I was cleaning the old pan out for storage I noticed a small piece (~1" in length) of broken piston ring sitting in the bottom of the pan. I rebuilt this engine about 6 or 7 years ago while a broke-ass college student so the rings were something I picked up at a local Parts Plus and I did the install myself. Entirely possible that I screwed something up. I have no idea how long this piece of oil ring has been sitting in the bottom of my pan, and the engine seems to run fairly decently (well it did about a year ago which was the last time I had running and took it for a quick spin around the block I'm). So now I'm curious if I should worry about this or just go ahead and leave the engine alone until something worse pops up? I did a quick compression check this afternoon and everything looks ok for the most part. (~120 +/- 5 PSI across the board) Cyl 3 & 5 spark plugs definitely showed signs of burning a little oil but all plugs had nice tan tips so at least my tune is pretty close . I'm trying to build a somewhat comfortable but still quick car that I can use as a mostly daily driver in the future, so I just installed a Vintage Air A/C system into the car and a 240sx trans. I'd like to stay with the L6 but if it becomes necessary to rebuild this engine again I may just pull it and try to get my hands on an SR20DET or similar turbo 4cyl to save some weight and get better fuel economy (best I was getting with the L28 is about 17/24 which ironically is about the same as the 370Z I'm currently driving) Your thoughts guys? Run it till it blows, or go ahead and start the engine swap process while I already have the car down and I'm not used to driving it anyway?

Check out "Mike Kellys z car project" in the members project section. Tons of info on his car there.

Love the green and gold. I went with the same theme on my car. Even have the same wheels. And a black interior. I wish I had a father that had worked with me on restoring a car. I bought my first Z at 16 and then had to figure out how to work on it myself. Thank God for the Internet and resources like HybridZ or I never would have had a running car. Funny thing is I actually taught my dad how to work on cars. Now he does his own brake jobs and maintenance on his cars.

Agree 100%. Recently purchased a 370Z to drive while working on my 77 and the forums for that car are just terrible. HybridZ certainly has spoiled me. Many thanks to the moderators that keep things in line around here.

A couple of my Rustoleum paint job I did a few years ago. I think the color was hunter green. I've always loved the darker green cars. Unfortunately she doesnt look this good anymore as I got plowed into about 3 weeks after these pics were taken and I still havent painted the replacement panels.

If you can get access to a welder I bet you could weld in a stud where the stripped out nut was.