Pharaohabq

There are Z clubs in Cali, just search about a bit... So yeah looking pretty good, You need to pull off the rear bumper shocks and bumper cowel back there, it'll clean it up a bit. Who'd you have do your paint?

Wow! I'll say that was fast progress on the paint n body work. Very nice. I've got those same wheels 16" Probably going with a 215-50(55)R16 tires. I didn't like the billet grill, I'm going to take stock 280 grills and weld them together to close the gap, and I've got a set of 240Z bumpers that'll be on my 280Z. I like the black though on your grill. Phar

Good luck with that puller, that's the kind I broke 2 of. You could keep trying with the grease and dowel. Worst case there's always dremel.

Oh man, that's rough, but before you pull the engine, try checking your compression. With the new damper on there and timed right, how does it run? Wet plugs do not necessarilly mean oil, especially when the timing's been off. Could just be excess unburned gas. If your timing was messed up a bit it could have sucked up some oil, but if you have good compression then you may not have bent a valve. it depends a lot one how far off the timing was. The Engine has a timing chain that should have kept the valves and pistons timed apart correctly. The damper is just that a damper to eliminate vibration. A compression check will tell you what condition the engine itself is in. if a cylinder is particularly low then you may be looking at a refresh. if not, you may have just popped a valve seal. but it'll tell you where to look. As for replacements, there's a thread on here about L28 valve seals and replacing them with Ford Viton seals that work much better with unleaded gas as is available now. It's unlikely you harmed the rings at all, but we've seen stranger things. Again a compression check will tell the tale. Once you get the compression #'s you can pull the valve cover and check the physical timing marks on the cam, with the crank at TDC. You'll then be able to see if any of your seals are torn. The valves you'll have to pull the head for, but if you're going to do that, you might as well pull the whole thing and do the complete refresh with rings and bearings et-al. Just trying to save you some work. Phar

Things are looking really good, gotta give you props on your initiative. Just some cautions here: Read up a bit about Welding. it's all good till you put real pressure on bad welds. I hope you're confident in your welds. You should sand back any rust or paint before you weld sheets of metal togeter like that, you'll get a much stronger cleaner weld. I'm not saying yours are bad, just that a dirty joint often won't be as strong or clean with good penetration into the metal to bond the two together. Practice is definitely a good thing though. Also Weld in a good ventilated area. Welding releases a lot of really nasty heavy metals into the air. and especially becareful around things like brake parts cleaner or starter fluid, Burning those can give off benzine which is highly toxic and frak up your lungs in only a breath or two. Phar

Pretty nifty redneck rotissery. How'd you keep from bending/denting things while lifting/lowering the car? Not bad otherwise. What was the pain about the brakelines? Just getting them bent in properly??

Pretty cool, Wish I had a lift. As for the frame rails, just tap on them with a hammer, if you bust through anywhere then you'll need to think about replacing/covering them. but since your floor pans are in good shape, I doubt your rails are bad. The rails aren't very thick, you will dent them jacking the car up on them w/o a 2x4 or something to spread the weight out a bit. On the food side, most rails look pretty dented by the time you get the car so it's not so big a deal. the Bad Dog rails might be a good idea anyway since you're going with the LS1. You should read through the V8 forum on here about chassis stiffening to prevent frame twisting. They've got some good advice in there. That v8 mounting kit is well worth the cash too, so consider that. it'll save you a ton of time. Safety notes: Always use jackstands before crawling under the car, in addition to keeping a jack under it. if you pull off a tire, place it under the car if you're going to be under it. Don't make me find the car crush picts. Phar

It is easy. The trick is getting a tight fit, just like TonyD said. Oh and if you use grease you can use brake parts cleaner to clean it all up before putting your clutch back together, you don't want any grease on your clutch surfaces.

Yipes! Lag bolt... I've used a dremel to cut a pilot bushing out, and it worded but was a pain and I have perminent scars from a bearing puller, not to mention Autozone said they wouldn't loan me any more after I'd broken the teeth of two of theirs. Much later I had to pull one again and found that a 14MM deep socket was just the right size to fit in the center of the bearing, pumped in a bunch of grease (no chilling) and smacked the end of the socket (now also filled with grease) and an extention to plug the hole and pop! out came the bearing easy peasy...

OKay Hey, finally I got a reprieve from my landscaping weekend chore/second unpaid job that I buy all the supplies for. So I finally got time to work on the Z. I cleaned up the garage and spent Saturday pulling the old engine. Hood off disconnecting things Draining all fluids 6 hours later actually pulling the engine. This was suprisingly easy, I would have had it done more quickly if I wasn't being so careful. I want to sell the old parts so I didn't cut anything, and I've been labelling parts. Old engine sitting in my truck. Next I've got some cleanup to do, powerwashing the engine compartment. Removing more of the old now unneeded old parts like the Coil, vaccuum canister, misc bits here and there. I haven't decided yet how much of the new wiring I'm going to use, such as 350Z signals and headlamp circuits. I have the harness, but I'm not sure yet of the integrations between the 350x/280z harnesses, or if hydridizing the two is worth the trouble since I found a lot of the 280Z connectors are 30+ years corroded in some of the less sealed connections. I also left the 280Z AC pump and system intact. I may be able to build a bracket and change the AC pully to use the old system since it still worked, and I wouldn't have to worry about refridgerant issues and seals. May not be worth it, but we'll see. Oh the U-joints on the 350z sttering shaft look like they'll be awesome for redirecting my steering linkage. I am concerned about the VQ35HR intake height. it's a tall plastic plenum. On the good side it may be easy to shave a bit off the top, though worst case I'll have to build a custom intake like Mark's thinking. Any Questions let me know. Pharaoh

seems expensive to me, but I'm a cheapskate and I'm doing it all myself. I would ask what kind of warranty are they offering, and does that price include painting the car? Suspension upgrades? or is this ONLY engine/exhaust? A lot of people DIY for about half that. I'm about 2800 into my swap including engine and the car.

Okay, so here's a question then, yeah you're selling the Z, sad, but understandable. I am suprised you're still standing after a 7 figure bust like that. I hope you're persuing legal action over it. But that's another story. My question is: Is your next track car going to be a Z??? I'd like to see what you would build in a Z with the LS3 driveline. That would be fun. Not as pretty, but fun. You could check out Mark's thread in the Nissan V6 forum here on hybridz for a couple ideas. Phar Oh and YAY! lucky me is your 400th reply

Might need to bench bleed the Master cylinder. Sucks about your DD. I've never had one explode like that. could you see what caused it, or was it too far gone to tell?

WOw! that color looks pretty amazing on the car, not to mention you guys did a really good job with the shaving in the rear. Me likee... If I hadn't already chosen my color I would seriously be considering this one. But you got it first anyway! Are you going to put the original chrome bumpers back on it? Very nice Phar

Are you using the stock Speedo/tach?

Which front skirt is that? Did you have to modify much to put on the 240z bumpers with it? Sorry, I didn't realize you'd said Venus Automotive earlier, I had just read 8 pages. phar

Pull off the hose from your brake booster and plug it with your thumb. See if the noise goes away. If it does then it's your brake booster. Cheaper to replace than to fix. Consider going with a ZX booster/MC. that way you won't have to deal with the reaction disk. There's not too many places you can have a vaccuum leak loud enough to hear it. Another way to find it is to get some tubing and hold one end to your ear while listening to other points on your engine. Watch the fan though. My money is on the Brake booster Phar

Yes the Condenser shoudl just be a Cap. Basically it just evens out the noise generated by your spark discharges to eliminate noise on your radio. It really sounds to me like there's a ground that's not connected right. you shouldn't be getting burning anything wirewise.

Not to threadjack, but yeah the registry isn't perfect. I'm not sure why it's listed as Blue. I got the same Nissan Sport mag. Could change that I guess. it's public editable.

Your Fan clearance is about the same as my 280Z fan. so it's looking much much more like it's just a old, brittle and now quite busted fan. Sucks it took out the rad with it. Definitely made me check my blades. mine are still mildly flexible, but I wasn't trying to break it.

........Cheap ......./.......\ ....../.........\ ..Easy------Fast Pick any Two... (yeah, had to add periods, everyone is affected by those eventually)

Hey Mark, I've gotten a lot of good info from the writeups from Forged Performance. Check out some of their posts on My350z.com. I've read enough that I don't want to take apart my VQ35HR unless I really have to. I've gotta give you kudo's there. These aren't simple engines. Yours is going to be a beast and a half, so you might want to talk to them about some of the work they've done. You were thinking Twin Turbo right? Have you worked out your custom intake plenum yet? How much shorter than stock do you think you'll need? Keep the Pictures coming, I'm loving your progress! Phar

I thought I've posted this before.. I've had: 74' 260Z (First Z @ 16yrs ~1985) 78' 280Z (Second Z) 84' 300ZX (third Bought w/ a GF, bad idea, she got it @ split) 86' 300ZX (favorite year for Z31, love the flares) 92' 300ZX (DD) 77' 280Z (VQ35HR project in pieces) If you guys have records, please consider adding your Z's to the Zcar registry. It's interresting, and you might even find history on your car. Z CAR REGISTRY Phar

Nice job. I can't help thinking that hood needs some knightrider lights. I can't really say anything though, my Z project is still in a huge pile of parts. my summer project was landscaping the back yard. So again, nice job. It looks mean.