-
Posts
1457 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
4
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Blogs
Events
Gallery
Downloads
Store
Everything posted by datsunlover
-
Where to start w/ restoration?
datsunlover replied to 78280z's topic in S30 Series - 240z, 260z, 280z
My suggestion is to first be very sure HOW MUCH rust/frame repair you are going to be into. Seriously.. if it looks not too bad, it's bad. If it looks bad, its most likely VERY bad! Once you get into it, it WILL 'snowball' on you, trust me. It's best to be somewhat prepared to find some areas a lot work than you anticipated. Not trying to be a jerk, just speaking from personal expiriance here. It took me 6 months just to fix the frame/floor/body on my 75, partialy because I was learning as I went, partially cause there was a LOT of work! I'd take on the metal/body work stuf first, and you'll probly cause/find a few more electrical issues along the way. Also, if you spend time and $$$ on the electrical stuff first, then discover the rust monster is going to take BIG time/$$$ to fix, you may be in trouble.. Good luck. -
Looking for help/hints/? w/sbc in my rx7
datsunlover replied to datsunlover's topic in Gen I & II Chevy V8 Tech Board
Well, strange and wacky, but this afternoon as I'm messing with the car, the guy who built the motor shows up at my house out of the blue! So we go through evrything again, and evrything seams to check out... Hes saying because of the big cam/overlap, 18" of vacuum is not bad, and it does run/rev pretty well. Above 2k rpm it screams and makes very nice sounds. Idle? blahh.... SO we're talking, and it turns out one piece of the puzzle is now solved; The 8" damper he used on this motor is intended to be timed with the line facing UP, like through the 'window' area between a stock water pump and timing cover. (apparently, there are several diffrent styles) However, due to engin bay constraints, I have a 'short' style water pump which sits flush on the timing cover. Now, I didn't even think of this at the time (ha ha.. no pun intended) but I got a generic timing tab and bolted it on the SIDE of the timing cover, assuming it would work. So basicaly, the timing light is usless (for now) so we turned the dist. to put as much advance as it would take, and still crank/startup. Then we moved on to the carb, and it seams there are some gremlins lurking in there... sitting at idle, if you gently touch the accelerator pump lever, it cleans up and runs very nice.. for a few seconds. Not even a throttle blip, just a slight preasure on it. My engine builder says he's seen it a lot with older q-jets; idle circuit doesn't work properly anymore, (dirty, worn out, ect) causing bad idle/stalling, and also a bad transition from idle to power. It's not fouling the plugs, and after it's past the first few degrees of throttle, it's fine. But the poor idle condition, combined with the stock convertor dragging the motor down in gear, AND the big cam, all adds up... So I'm still wary of the ignition, but I think I'll be looking for a better carb first. (condition I mean, not just saying q-jets are crap cause mine's out of tune) Really, I'm ok with a rough idle, but the stock 350th tranny doesn't like it.. (still have to two-foot it a bit) and I don't like the 3 gear either, it's just what I had lying around. Really, this wouldn't be much of an issue if I had a stick, cause I'd be reving it up to take off, and the bog/miss wouldn't affect it much. I just had it out tonite, and it is quite a monster! Bogs from a standing start if I jump right on it, but a smooth steady push to the floor seams to work nicely! And even still, a light throttle take off is actualy quite a quick affair in this little car.. I'm gona have to watch it. -
Looking for help/hints/? w/sbc in my rx7
datsunlover replied to datsunlover's topic in Gen I & II Chevy V8 Tech Board
Yes, and yes. This is also parts of the mystery... With motor idling, and the light on it, the timing mark on the damper is a LONG ways away from the last mark on the tab, which is marked 16* 'before' (which I take as meaning BTDC) IE; it's almost on the other side of the water pump, putting it roughly 28* advanced by my guess.. which makes sence to me, as far as the hard starting/cranking issue. Now, with the vacuum guage on it, (pluged into the intake port that ussualy feeds the tranny vacuum line.. it this ok?!?) it tells me the opposite thing; the guage I have is marked in Inch Hg starting at zero, going in increments of 2. 0-10 has markings saying 'late valve timing or leak at intake manifold' 10-14 says nothing 14-18 says 'late ign. timing' 18-22 says 'normal' At idle, its showing between 16 and 19, which would mean my timing is late?!? But that can't be because if I try to advance it anymore, it just wont start! Am I missing something here? I must be... -
Ok.. I'm not sure if this is a carb or ignition issue, hence the post here... here's the rundown; 350 chev, bored .040, cam is 'likely' (engine builder doesn't remember, it was a year ago) around a 480 lift 280*, 197 valve heads, everything is new in the motor.. maybe 100 miles on it now. Custom (read- homemade in my garage) Y pipe and single 2.5" exhast into a j/y muffler. Q-jet carb and stock HEI chev dist. Stock 350th/convertor. I know this isn't the best 'performance' setup, but I'm just trying to get it to run half decent here, and its in an 85 mazda rx7 so it SHOULD go like a bugger, even if it's not as powerfull as it COULD be... Anyway, I've had her out for a few runs now, and I'm pulling my hair out. It'll go like a bastard at wot, but won't idle well and almost sputters and dies sitting in gear. I can keep it running at a stop by two-footing it, but that gets tiresome. I 'think' the carb is set fairly close, as the exhast doesn't stink of fuel, and the plugs look good... but I admit I know little of q-jets, and I'm sure I'm not the first guy to mess with this particular one. I've cleaned it up and set the two screws about 1.5 turns out, evrything moves freely, and it seams to be in working condition... That said, I'm still leanign towards the ignition.. This is an old distrubiutor with new cap/rotor/plugs/wires/coil. When I start the car, it seams like there's a LOT of advance waww...WEr...waww...WEW you know? hard to put into words... anyway, once it does fire, it runs as if there isn't ENOUGH initial advance! Idles around 800-1000rpm, but drops to around 400 when in gear, Also, the aftermarket tach I have keeps going out.. IE; it reads just fine, and suddenly the needle drops to around 1000rpm and just sits there... ?!?!?! So I changed out the ign module, and coil and guess what? NO change. Car still bucks slightly at cruise, needs 'help' to stay runing while in gear, and refuses to idle at all. At this point, I think I'm just going to bite the bullet and spend another $179 on a BRAND NEW distributor (although I've spent over $100 on this one already... ) and go from there... unless this whole issue could be a carb problem? I dono.. anyone got an idea?
-
I'm sure you will pick up a little bit switching to an electrical pump, just not having to use engine power to drive the mecanical one... how much I don't know... Same principal as running an electric fan, as oposed to a mecanical. And I've heard of people running a lower oil level than normal, just so it's not in the pan 'dragging' on the crank/rods as it flys around, but I don't know if I'd want to chance it myself. Sorry if I missed it, what are you running for a rear end? I'm just thinking if you don't want to do more major engine work to gain power, could you use the power you HAVE but do more with it by running a higher (numericaly) rear gear? Or would you 'run out' of gears in the transmition to soon?
-
Your '4 core' rad.. is it a decent size? Also, is it mounted completly vertical, or is is tilted back some? (I havn't done a Z V8 yet, don't know what the clearence's are like..) My 85 RX7 V8 had a major overheating issue when I orriginaly built it, in part, because the rad, a 4 core stock car unit, had to be tilted back (foor hood clearance) which makes for a bit of a problem getting air THROUGH it. Also, I had NO shrouding or duct work of any sort, so a lot of air got around it, and the one electric fan I had pulling through wasn't quite enough. It ALWAYS ran around 200 and over. Recently, I have 'rebuilt' this car, again with a simmilar rad, but now I have TWO fans; one in front pushing, one behind pulling. (just 'junkyard' fans from frond wheel drive cars) The sides are a lot more sealed up, and I am going to mount a piece of stainless up top to stop air from getting over the rad. However, even though the top isn't sealed up yet, I had the car out for it's first road test the other day and with a 160 stat it ran steady around 175-180. I was sitting in traffic and it climbed to about 190 at one point, but I think it will be fine once I finish sealing it off up top. Also, I plan on building an air dam of sorts in the front of the car which should help as well. Oh, you could try some additive too, called 'water wetter' and it will drop your temp by 10-15 degrees or so. (I've run it in a few cars now, and yes, it really works)
-
Wow.. kinda sad to see such a fine vehicle 'cubed' and all.. but hey, it wasn't MY car! I don't agree with calling it 'art' though...
-
Man, I wish our 'new' skid steer loader was an 'in frame' job.. My boss got this New Holland 985LX a few weeks ago, (in about a million pieces!) that the previous owner had pulled the motor out of, along with a few other things, after it sunk. Yah, sunk in a lake; POP goes the motor! (it was left runing on the ice, which I can only assume was a bit thin!) Oh, and the towing company that pulled it out in the spring MANGLED the cab/link bars/mast. Evrything is bent and 'tweeked' including the main frame. Blew the #4 piston to bits, bent the rod, and put it through the block/cyl wall in a few places. Head is 'ok' but the block is toast. This is just a 'little' diesel motor, 4 cyl 5.0L and it is HEAVY... Hell, it took two people just to pick the crank up! And it must be worth it's weight in gold, cause myboss called around for a 'new' motor and it's about $9K. So a used block/piston/con-rod it is!! That's still over $3000, plus now WE have to put it all back together, after someone else disassembled it! Good luck with the re-build man.
-
Need some TPI help. Not Z related
datsunlover replied to jasonZ's topic in Trouble Shooting / General Engine
My first guess would be the ignition coil breaking down. Heat causes it to crap out, and once it cools down a bit, it works again. I have seen this quite a few times, so it's my 'guess' for starters. -
Sounds like what my 280 did when I first put the SU's on. I used the stock 280z fuel lines, and it started and ran fine. Problem was, (I think..) They were too BIG and once the fload bowls filled, there wasn't enough presure to 'pop' them open again as the fuel would just go down the line to the return. After a hard pull through 1st and second, the car would run out of fuel and start sputtering. Sounds stupid I know, but to test this theory I clamped a small set of vice grips on the return line (right after the carb) and the car drove perfect! No sputtering while runing up through the gears hard anymore! I found some stock 240z fuel lines and switched them over shortly afterwards, and havn't had a problem in 3 years. Sounds like you should be changing those fuel lines anyway!
-
Makes me wonder if your dad knew my dad.. heh heh.. I have an old poster (actually hanging on my fridge right now!) that my dad had from years ago... that is that exact quote!
-
Wow. Chimps seen making spears out of branches
datsunlover replied to auxilary's topic in Non Tech Board
Heck, give them a few years and they'll be making tools just as good as the chineese (sp?)/offshore crap we're being sold! (sorry.. I've gone through about 4 cheep/crap impact sockets, a ratchet, and 2 extensions in the past two days working on the front end of my mazda.. I'm a little pissed right now!) -
Not a Z, but another V8 hybrid about to hit the streets!!
datsunlover replied to datsunlover's topic in Non Tech Board
Well, I'm back.. I actually got back two days ago, but no sooner had I drove the beasty in to start 'playing' again, and I had a neibour walk into my back yard and get on my case about weeds/trees/vines growing and killing her hedges (beside my fence) blah blah bla...seriously, this crazy old bird just walks onto my property (from the side yard where there was no gate), suprises the heck out of me by appearing in my back yard, and then TELLS me I 'have' to cut those trees down, and pull those weeds, and 'you gota get this stuff cleaned up kiddo' or 'the by-law will come and charge you'.... (yes, I took that as a threat.. and I don't take kindly to that) She is very pushy and wants me to get rid of all the trees.. but interstingly enough, they're growing from HER side of the fence, THROUGH my fence, and up... Guess her hedges were in the way, so the trees found another route. Oh, but she has already sprayed some sort of 'killer' in the corner, and what was all green is now DEAD. I'm talkiing the trees, brush, and even grass in the corner of my yard is now BROWN. Niot to mention a few trees she reached OVER my fence to chop off... SO, The last two days have been rather buisy, cleaning up the mess in my back yard; various wood/building materials, a few car parts here and there, and general yard care.. (I'm assuming she's already called, and the by-law will be showing up to 'have a look' very soon..) so not that I was doing it because she said so, but I want to cover my but. Oh yes, and I also build a nice little gate in the side yard, so hopefully 'people' will get the hint and stop trespassing. And damed if I'm cutting any trees down! Personaly, I like them! Whew... Anyway, I finaly got back to the car tonite and ripped the front suspension/brakes apart, so with any luck I could have it drivable by next weekend.. Also found a nicer cowl/scoop for the hood, so I'll try to get that done this week too. And yes, this has a solid rear axle (factory 4 link setup) BUT: I have a chev '10 bolt' (8.8?) rear end swaped in, mainly for gear ratio changes. (and cheep drum brakes) The stock RX7 rear end would handle the power (in most cases) but the 4.11 gears would have the poor 350th SCREAMING just to do a reasonable highway cruise. Currently, it is an open 3.73 diff which should work ok, and I'm looking into a posi unit or maybe a locker.. I'll see if the girlfriend has uploaded the camping pics/vids from her camera, and if so I can get som shots tomorrow. -
Well, I havn't been on in a while.. Spent the last 8 months or so working on my house and working 5-6 days a week at the day job (so I could afford the house renos.. ) But about two weeks ago I decided I needed a vacation of sorts.. more of a 'stay-cation' really.. I didn't go anywhere except the garage (which has new siding, soffit, facia and a nice new r12 roll up door now!) and went to town on my 85 RX7. Readers digest condensed version: 7 years ago, I bought this car, and with very little knowlege or skills, (no wleder or air tools, just a sawsall and brute force and ignorance) slaped in a crusty 305, made it work, and drove it for about 6 weeks.. afterwhich, I ah.. ahem.. had to 'hide' the car we'll say.. local law enforcement.. *cough* you know.. so eventually, I sold it. 4 years later, I found it in a neighbring town, and bought it back. Didn't have time, money, ect, so I sold it to a friend. (who helped me build it in the first place) but for the next two years, it sat rotting in his yard. He made a few attempts to get it going, but failed (and messed it up more in the process.. ) so last year, I bought it back AGAIN.. (And the ownership is STILL in my name! ) It was missing all the exhast, the wiring was shorted out/burned, and the motor was junk. The poor thing spent ANOTHER year sitting, in MY back yard.. So I decided it was time to do it right... Two weeks ago, I pushed it into the shop (heh heh.. it's cool that I have a shop now!) and started instaling all the goodies I've been collecting/hanging onto for the past few years; -350 4 bolt I got through a deal (guy owed me money, I needed a motor), fully rebuild .040" over, big valve heads, 480/280 cam, about 9:1 c/r, 'K' rods (?), otherwise stock. 'ram horn' manifolds, HEI dizzy and quadra bog carb.. for now. -350th w/stock camaro floor shift (I had it, so it's what I'm using for now) -Howe racing rad, 4 core aluminum -tach, oil and temp guages.. cheep aftermarket white face, but they look good and work. Basicaly, I've spent about $300 total.. tune up stuff (cap/rotor/ plugs, ect) and a bunch of exhast pipes from a junk yard that I cut up and welded into a custom 'y' pipe and full exhast system, complete with a cherry bomb 'turbo' muffler. (slaped a chrome tip on it, looks stock/hack-tastic) Filled all the fluids, doble checked all the clamps and electrical, and after a minor issue with timing (180* out.. ) it fired right up! Smoked out my shop, driveway, back yard, and prety much the whole street for about 20 minits.. It was cool. It left 2 black marks on the floor as I backed it out.. and that was just droping it into gear! (high idle, bad brakes.. must do something about that!) Nothing exploded, no major leaks, no fires.. It's almost like I know what I'm doing now! The only unfortunate thing now, is that me and the girlfriend have a campsite booked for this week, so the car is back outside again under a tarp till I get back next week end.. I didn't want the Z left in the driveway while I was out of town, you know.. Hopefully I'll be able to drive this thing for what's left of the season. Anyway, this got really long.. and I need to sleep now.. I'll try to get some pics of the beast when I get back. Later
-
Changes are a comin' at the Kelly Garage...
datsunlover replied to Mikelly's topic in Non Tech Board
If you have the hight, build some 'mezanean' (sp?) style shelving, about 8 feet above the floor, suspended from the celing, so as not to take up floor space... I'd say mainly in areas along the outside walls, where you could simply use a ladder to get to when you needed.. I'm goin to do this in my tiny 22x24 garage for parts/ect storage. I only have about 10 foot hight, but in a lot of areas, it's wasted space IMO. Obviosly, you want the full roof hight where the lift will be though.. -
Well, it's taken over a month, but I've FINALY got a daily driver again! Picked up my 'new to me' 2001 Nissan Xterra tonite, and wow.. this thing is alomost too nice for me! I don't think I've ever owned something so shiney.. Body and paint are mint, and the interior has only a few minor marks/scuffs. The truck rides decent, has amazing brakes compared to what I've been used to, evrything works well (power windows, locks, mirors, cruise, A/C, ect) and it even has a decent CD stereo! Basic guages/controls, but easy to use and lots of tie downs and storage compartments evrywhere! Now, some say the 3.3 lacks 'umph' but I find it's just fine. Basicaly, I think it just 'seams' slower than it is.. it just sits high and is quite smoth (for a top heavy looking SUV) so you don't 'feel' it going, but I had to keep backing off cause I'd be over the speed limit without realizing it! And besides, it's AN SUV, NOT A SPORTS CAR!! I have a Z for hard acceleration and diving into turns at speed. I'm pretty impressed with the suspension too.. I ended up driving through a pretty rough construction zone, and it didn't upset the truck at all. I also tried to get it a little muddy, but the dang thing has mud flaps that realy work!! Oh, it seams there's an LSD in the rear to.. I two wheeled through a muddy section of my works parking lot (where the boss's toyota got stuck in 2wd today) with no issue. My girlfriend took some pics, I'll try to post them tomorrow.
-
How would your car scare a future owner?
datsunlover replied to 280Z Turbo's topic in Non Tech Board
Lets see.. I have the reverse lights wired to the original 'defrost' switch.. Cause it was there, the rear defrost didn't work anyway, and I had to get the lights working quick for the safety check. Fuel pump is on a rocker switch, not even fused in for the first year.. It's fused now, but still 'hard wired' to the battery.. IE; It will run if the car is on or not.. realy gota fix that.. Right signal doesn't cancel on it's own, and I instaled two tiny led's beside/behind the el-cheepo walmart tach, (stupid 280 tach w/signal indicators in it..) so sometimes I don't even notice I've got the signal still going for miles after a turn.. Rear brakes are not totaly..opperational. Well, the e-brake works.. but the line blew above the diff last summer, so I simply pluged the thing off at the valve on the firewall and havn't got back to it yet! -
Please help me sell this 1960 Harley that I have on ebay...
datsunlover replied to a topic in Non Tech Board
I dono.. but I would change the 'wording' of the ebay auction.. If it sounds like the situation's grim, people may lowball offers, and/or may not bid as high.. just my .02$ worth. Nice bike though, and I could see getting say 10-12K for it, IF you could wait for the right buyer.. Hell, my buddy got $6000 for his 78 sportster (it was a bit of a basket case too..) which I've heard called by some people, the 'little' Harley, or the 'chick' bike.. Good luck with the sale. -
OMFG!!! YES!! It takes my girl about FIVE trys to get the friggin thing to latch!! I don't understand it...
-
Ok, I've been dying to use this silly smiley..
-
YES!! Ok.. I'll need directions to your place for the upcomming 24 weekend.. I'll bring the beer! Nice grill.. but I'd move it a little further away from that very DRY looking fence man!
-
Opinions for a second car and can tow the Z!!
datsunlover replied to proxlamus©'s topic in Non Tech Board
I too would say pathy, or a 'king cab' nissan truck with the V6. I towed a few cars/trailers full of scrap and dirt with my old 93 pickup, never had a problem. The older pathys have rot issues sometimes in the rear frame over the suspension (depending on climate obviously..) but are a pretty solid overall vehicle. Reliable and cheep to run. Forget the Forester.. nice CARs, but I think 2200 pounds is the towing capacity, so that might have trouble hauling the trailer alone, never mind the car on it! Now, depending on how often and how far you're going to tow, a bigger rig may be something to look at, but if it's not an everyday thing, why spend/waste more on fuel simply 'driving' a bigger vehicle? I had a 91 GMC dually 1 tone, which would haul almost anything.. but for the most part, I drove around empty.. Big heavy truck, big motor, used the same amount of fuel EMPTY or loaded. And rode like a bag of ass, and took two blocks to turn around! So now, I'm actually in the process of buying an 01' xterra as it will be better on fuel and a nicer ride, but still able to tow a trailer or something IF I need to. I look at the Xterra as a sort of 'replacement' for the old pathys, as the new ones are BIG and EXPENCIVE suvs now.. but even still, the early model Xterras are still upwards of 10K for anything decent , so I'd say that's a bit out for your price range... -
SO.. what am I buying now? Well, new would be nice!
datsunlover replied to datsunlover's topic in Non Tech Board
Well like I said, I simply can't afford ANYTHING 'new' at this point, so the 'wimpy' 01' 3.3L will have to do for now.. I'll probly be puting some sort of exhast system on it (ever seen an Xterra with dual exhast? Heh heh...) and a decent air intake/filter, but either way I won't be towing most of the time anyway so I don't see it as an issue. Also, if I can work things the way I'd like to, I 'could' sell this one in a year or two and at that point afford something new/more powerfull. I may end up really likeing it and want to keep it in the end.. heck.. if it's paid off, maybe V8 the sucker? -
SO.. what am I buying now? Well, new would be nice!
datsunlover replied to datsunlover's topic in Non Tech Board
Actually, I've been thinking of building my own trailer.. basicaly a small car trailer (big enough say... for the Z..) with a fuly covered/flat deck. On the sides I'll put holes for poles to slide in, and with a few pieces of plywood, it would convert to a decent size box trailer for hauling whatever I need. I can stick it in my backyard when it's not needed, so it doesn't take up space in the driveway. A GMC dually and a cavilier (my renter) was TIGHT in my 1.5 wide driveway! As far as the Exterras go, evrything I hear/read says pretty much the same thing; Reliable, good 4x4, decent ride/control, but noisy under heavy aceleration and lacking a little in the power department. Personaly, I don't need 300hp on tap for my daily driver (..cause if its there, I'll use it.. ) and I know 175 horse isn't much these days for an suv, but I feel that it moves well enough for me... like I've said, I'm trying to SAVE money on fuel costs here! (I have a Z for 'spirited' driving anyway!) As for the engin 'noise' I don't mind it much, as it's still a very quiet vehicle IMO compared to what I've been used to lately! I figure at 125k, it has plenty of life left in it anyway. I test drove another extera two days ago with over 200K and it didn't feel too bad, but they wanted almost as much money and I didn't like the pushy salesman. Anyway, I'm picking it up tuesday or wednesday next week (parts are apparently on order to complete the safety check, and won't be in till monday) so I'll post some impresions after a few days of ownership, and some pics maybe.. Just gota make it a few more days with the Z.. (poor car is hurting.. thats a whole other story!) -
SO.. what am I buying now? Well, new would be nice!
datsunlover replied to datsunlover's topic in Non Tech Board
Well, I'm shifting gears a bit, but after doing some # crunching and looking at what I REALLY need as far as a vehicle, I've made a chioce. I just can't afford to finance a 4x4 pickup, insure it (full coverage as it's borrowed monies) AND put fuel in it every week. AND keep renovating/fixing my house. Basicaly, the times I actually USE a truck 'for truck stuff' don't equal out the higer cost of having it for a daily driver. Anything I can afford to pay cash for (no financing, therefor only basic/cheeper insurance) is high milage and rough, and I'm done with older high milage trucks.. Cheep and fairly simple mayeb, but they're ratty, clunky, TERRIBLE on fuel, and for me, not really comfortable to drive for any length of time. Granted the newer ones are nicer, but it comes down to the simple fact I just can't afford one right now. But I still want something newer, reliable, decent on fuel, and 4wd. So, being a Nissan guy at heart, I'm going for a 2001 Exterra. Found a really nice one owner, low miles and fully loaded model for a decent price. (a/c even works!) It's certified, emisions tested, drives nice, should be at least twice as good on fuel as the 454 dually, and it's got a trailer hitch. If I need to pick up something fairly big, I'll borrow a trailer. Another thing about this vs. a pickup; I won't be 'that guy with a truck' anymore... IE: I won't get roped into helping people move crap, hauling stuff for my boss, ect. It's a little more than I can pay cash for, so I'm going to still be into a finance payment, BUT it's a lower payment than a newer pickup truck, and a cheeper vehicle to insure.. and put fuel in! Again, it's an open loan, so in 4 months or so the little 'black mark' drops off my credit history, and I'm good for a 20K line of credit, I'll pay off the higher intrest car loan with it, finish my house off, and hopefully sell next year for a decent profit. Oh, and I'll also OWN this 01 Exterra with low milage at that point so I could sell/ trade it while it's still worth something if I want...