Oddmanout84

Dude, don't do it. Not only is it a huge waste of money and time just to have something a little more "JDM," but its also completely impractical in a country built for LHD cars. The only place its practical is where it comes from; Japan. Also I don't know about you, but after driving LHD cars all my life it was just weird and uncomfortable driving the RHD cars in Oki.

Well, last night I finally got the motor. Time to go to work. And I don't say this lightly. There is much work to be done on this little gem. Some goober tried painting the head baby blue at some point. Not only did he do a crummy job (flaking paint, and non-high temp), but he also failed to mask off the parts that he didn't want to paint. You really can't see much from the pictures, but there's overspray on some of the valve springs, lifters, and even the camshaft! Trying to get the downpipe off the turbo is an endeavor all its own. One of the nuts is positioned stupidly so its impossible to fit the box end of a wrench, and of course its the one thats stuck. The good news? The turbine seems to spin freely, as does the rest of the engine. The timing chain looks damn new, but I don't know if that's an indication that I'll find anything else new inside the block or head. I'd hope so, but I'm not holding my breath. Mainly, I'm just hoping nothing is seriously wrong in there. Besides that, I have almost no clue how i'm going to get it running! Hopefully I can track down the needed sensors (the crank angle sensor is gone, for one) and megasquirt it (another thing i'm only beginning to understand).

Your car makes me so excited that I want to punch my own mother in the face for no reason. By the way... what is that small opening just above the Datsun emblem on the driver's side?

I was thinking about giving the UV thing a try after I made my post. Seems like it *should* work. Its either that or I figure out how to make an electronic speedo work in place of my mechanical one. I think option A might be easier, and cheaper.

The gauges look great, especially while retaining a stock layout. But... If speedhut can't figure out a solution for the invisible needles, count me out. I'd rather sacrifice my turning indicators and brake warning for something I can see at all times at a glance. Plus, I'll get to upgrade to an odometer that actually shows my mileage! Speedhut had a good idea, and the idea of having a reverse glow gauge set in your z is great. But if they're going to make a stock (improved) replacement, they shouldn't be doing it half-assed. Has anyone approached them about this before?

Bringing new life to old components I was silly and forgot to cover the threads The blue appears lighter in pictures than it really is I found out differentials are heavy... And everything was covered in oily filth... I wonder if I'm going to have to drain the fluid and service it... Hidden serial... Mustache fire

All I know is that it WORKS... and it works good.

Well, from what I've seen on video, its 1 teaspoon of baking soda for every pint of water. But really, it doesn't matter terribly if you put in more baking soda. Its just your money. The baking soda from my understanding is just a medium to make the water more conductive. As for power, I have a car battery recharger hooked up supplying a constant current of 2 amps. It was enough to kill a fly that landed in the water but to me it only tickled. Just don't mix up the polarity (pos goes to sacrificial metal, neg goes to what you want clean) and don't let the metals touch directly. You can also reuse the baking soda solution for at long as you want... it just gets dirtier, but it still does the job. I'm going to do my fuel tank soon, before I add the POR coating to the inside.

Holy crap batman! 2099 views? Ummm... think theres any way I can change the title of this thread? Something like... I dunno... Oddmanout's 280Z misadventures? It's not exactly a *new* project anymore...

I wouldn't know...That assumes the car actually turns on... I still haven't solved the problem...

By the way, I ASSUME you're also reading the FSM and or Haynes manual ,like you should, and removed the lockpins FIRST. But then again, we all know what assuming does...

Well, I admit that this was going to be a more informative post, I just felt like being silly first. So, as I discovered in my project, spindle pins suck. They're also known as transverse link pivot bolts or whatnot in the FSM. Same thing. In fact, the whole disassembly & reassembly of the suspension is a b1tch. If you're doing this little project, you have a few options: First and foremost, if you have some sort of strange godlike powers that none of us could even hope to have, all you have to do is look at the FSM or haynes manual, and realise that all that needs to be done is this; However, most likely you're mortal like the rest of us. If you found this by searching the forums, you've likely already hammered the sh1t out of your pins already, and severely d1cked them up by turning them into mushroom heads. Or maybe not. Your "maybe not" option (if your threads are still good) is to find someone on this website that's willing to lend you a spindle pin puller. Great little tool. You could also buy one, likely on ebay. Try to soak the pins in some PB Blaster as long as possible to kill the rust, as this will increase your chances of success. You can also try heating the area with a small propane torch, which will shock the rust and break it down a bit. Do this in several heating/cooling cycles to get a good effect out of it. From there on you should be able to follow the directions given with the spindle pin puller tool and *hopefully* extract the little buggers, in a reusable condition. Your options go downhill from here... Next is what I'd call the "Real Man Method". I call it that not because its the path I went, but simply because its the most brutal, frustrating and AAAAUUGH! method. You've already destroyed your hopes and dreams of ever getting these mothers out the nice way, so now its time to remove them by force. Your pins are destroyed, you will have to buy new ones, so there's no harm in destroying them further. I used something akin to this method here; http://atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/suspension/rearend/index.html, except I did not bring it to a machine shop first. Many of you are lucky enough to own a sawzall, this will make your job easier. However, if your budget doesn't include one (like me), your other option is a good old hacksaw. This will take a while. Put some angry music on your radio, you will need it to help keep you pissed off. Saw as shown inbetween the joints of the transverse link where it connects to the brake/strut/wheel bearing assy. However, do not let your rage prevent you from cutting true; in this small of a space there is little margin for error. Cut only the pin. When done, you will most likely be able to pop out the two end pieces from the transverse with a small tap. Hah! Your work has only just begun. These shots are staged, as I was too pissed off to use a camera during the actual process... Now you have to pound this sucker out of the middle. This is also a lengthy process that involves plenty of cursing, Blaster, smashed fingers and loud noises. Your weapons of choice big honkin' bolt... You will be using this as a drift. Make sure they're tough, but the expendable kind. You may need more than one... A good hammer. If you're lucky enough, blessed by Thor himself. Brace the assembly on some wood so it won't move or get damaged by your righteous pounding. Get the pin to give a bit one direction, then hit it the other way if you can. This will help unless something is seriously screwed up. After much effort (amount of effort may vary!), Victory. Take the remaining pin parts in your hand. Get your face really close, yell at them as loud as you can, assuring them of your dominance. Throw the haggard pins across the driveway, preferably into something hard. Yell again, to let the world know of your triumph. Light cigarette, drink beer. There is a third option. Begin by watching Silence of the Lambs, paying close attention to the character "Buffalo Bill". There is a scene he's in towards the end that you must study. Once you feel confident and ready, do as he does and tuck your, uh.... tail... between your legs. You can even use makeup and put on a little dance. Then bring your stuff to a machine shop and have the real men take care of it for you. Ok, light ribbing aside for those that chose this option. The real reason I didn't was because I wanted to avoid what happened to the owner of that blue Z in the posted link. Unless you really trust the guys, there's a always going to be a risk of them damaging your stuff. If you're careful with your own tools, you can mitigate this risk. Congratulations. You have defeated the enemy. Now make sure you grease and antisieze the piss out of the new ones when you reassemble. And of course, clean out the areas where they once resided. If you're installing new bushings, you now get to remove the old ones. As you can see, they're almost as fun.

I finally removed my first set of spindle pins... am I a big boy now?

Search google or Ebay for a spindle pin tool. If that doesn't work, get a hacksaw/sawzall and cut the mother out from inbetween the joints to separate the transverse link from the strut/brake/wheel bearing assy. The end pieces (threaded ends) will most likely easily be removed from the transverse link with a deft tap from a hammer. The center portion is more fun. Soak the things in PB Blaster for as long as you can, then get a nice big bolt just the right size to use as a drift. Prop up the assy nicely or put it in a vice because it likes to get squirrely while you hammer away at the pins. Hopefully, you'll make at least some progress. Hammer from the other end to help break up the rust, use more blaster on it. After several hours of hammering, cursing, and bashing your own fingers, you're done! Hopefully through my innate powers of time travel this message will reach you in the past... BTW the future sucks.

Nice writeup, but this link really gets me: http://www.zhome.com/ZCMnL/tech/turbo.html In here he states That "You MUST use water injection if you want to use more than about 5 psi of boost". Um, consider me noobish, but 5psi seems like a measily piss-poor level of boost to have a "required" water injection system. Its less than stock! Is this guy just being overly cautious or what? From what I've heard about water injection, it does nothing but decrease the life of your engine. Then again, I do not have much experience with it. Any advice is appreciated, as I'm out to do this swap soon and would *really* like to improve on the stock boost of the L28ET. This article seems almost like its made to scare me out of the project. Furthermore, my uncle has a Porche 944 which he's been tooling around with for a few years. He's rebuilt the entire engine, and as far as I know has not changed the compression ratio, he just got it ported/polished. His setup has a larger turbo, and an intercooler. The thing is a monster, it runs off of pump gas, and the only reason it didn't push almost 500hp at the dyno last time was because the in tank fuel filter imploded (it couldn't take the additional pressure). An axle was also snapped under load at a later time, but NO detonation. And NO water/methanol/nitrous injection either. Granted, its a Porche, but come on... Newer imports even do that without water injection... For me, I'd like to get to 15psi before I start messing with meth/water injection, and up at that point I really don't need to go more than 20. That's of course with an intercooler and oil cooler, as well as some advanced form of ignition management. I'd like to test the waters close to 10 with the stock setup, but limiting to 5psi doesn't even get me out of the kiddie pool. Correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I've read elsewhere you could push 10psi into an engine with a static compression ratio of about 8.3-1 before you'd want to think about lowering the compression ratio to accomodate more boost (reliably). This is from general reading on turbocharging, not specificly an L28, but I'd figure the principals would remain the same. I'm off to research this a little more.

That and really... Think of the ergonomics of it all... Its not even convenient.

This says it all. The Z doesn't deserve to be mutilated like that. Even if it is asian, its not a ricer.

I bought this while ordering a new ignition coil online from black dragon. Unfortunately it was late at night and I had several beers in my system prior to ordering... so... Yeah, I love how it looks. But really it has nothing to do with my current goal of getting the car back on the road, it was just a waste of money that could have been spent elsewhere. The next images are just of random progress, if you can call it that. I may have all day every day to work on this car seeing as I still don't have a job, but it seems like things are moving slower and slower. And I'm running out of money. New shocks, springs, and my new rear disk kit. New bushings are out of the frame. Its killing me that these aren't installed yet, but battling with spindle pins, outer control arm bushings and killing rust have taken their toll, and refuse to die. One spindle pin is out, finally. Both, however, are destroyed. Failure to remove them intact with my tool forced hack saw surgery, then driving out te remainder with a drift. The remaining one refuses to budge now, despite being halfway out and soaked in blaster for several days. My second control arm, bathing in my mad science experiment involving baking soda and electricity. I'm suprised this method doesn't seem to be more widespread, its very effective AND cheap for rust removal. This is the other control arm. I might put it in the solution again, as you can still see a slight brown tinge. Most of the rust is dead though. I wish i took "before" images...

Its not what I'd consider "fun", if that's what you're after...

Lack of info... make/model/series/year etc..

Bwahahahaha! I did that myself a little while ago. Residual pressure stays in the fuel system for a time. One way to remove it (sans geyser-to-face) is explained in the FSM. What you do is take two wires from the battery and connect them to the two contact points on your cold start valve (after removing its connector). I actually found it was easier to take a 9 volt battery with two paper clips attached to the contacts. When you touch it, listen for a *click*, which should be your CSV opening. Thing is, this will dump fuel into your intake manifold, so I'd suggest pulling the injector side of it out of the manifold first. If I'm not explaining this clear enough, both the Haynes manual and the FSM and EFI bible have decent pictures of the process. As for your other problems, I'd suggest finding and cleaning EVERY SINGLE connector and ground in your fuel injection wiring harness. Corrosion will inhibit the continuity of your circuits. Maybe your problem is that the fuel isn't leaving the injectors then? Before you go out and buy new ones (usually $250 and up for a set), run the tests described in the EFI bible and the fuel injection section of the FSM (Factory Service Manual or Full Shop Manual). You can download both from the internet, in fact if you search for it here you will easily find a link to it. Electrical issues with this car suck, and you will find no infrequency of them.

Thanks for the info! Yeah, I've been thinking this was a retrofitted 280Z motor the more time goes on, just something the dealer/someone added later to cope with the southwest climate. Same with the mystery "T-tops" that seem to be retrofitted onto my car and a good amount of other guys'. I still have yet to ID the transmission, so far my scraping has only uncovered what looks like a serial number on the bell housing. Not the part number. So I'll have to do some more investigating to see how the (eventual) L28 turbo is going to mate up. I have plenty of dielectric goop for my project, but I haven't gone crazy with it yet as I'm waiting until my testing is done with the electrical system. That way I can be certain that my problems are being caused by a bad sensor/connector/wire, rather than accidental coating of a component in grease.

Speaking of rust! I found this vid while I was searching for a solution to my bushing removal. This definately qualifies for the budget resto: http://www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?title=572020791&channel=537308532

Truer words have never been said... I'm killing everything before it has a chance to get worse.If you get distracted by all the cool stuff you can put on your car you forget about the cancer that will destroy everything you created.