datsunlover

Heh.. funny I see this post NOW... Read my last post on 'firing up new motor..' and I just tosed the oil slinger cause it was.. ah, really f'd up. I was wondering if I was going to have problem without it on there, good to know I don't need that little bugger!

Wow.. bad things have hapened. pulled the front cover off today (had to anyway cause the stinking chain tensioner poped out last night) and found a mess. Looks like a small piece of the balancer (metal from the rear key section) broke off, got caught in there and smashed around a bit... Oil seal got trashed, oil slinger took a hit, came forward and fnished off the oil seal and THEN a woodruff key joined the party and punched through the slinger plate. Meanwhile in the top end, all this comotion down below caused too much tension/stress on the timing chain, causing the cam sproket pin/dowel to shear off. I assume after I fix all this I will now have bent valves... The guy who built it has been here yesterday and today tearing down and re-doing all of this and I'm not giving him any more of the $$$ I owe him till he makes this right. Seams like it's all taken care of now aside from putting the rad/fan/dizzy/ect back in.. but I think I need a new balancer now.. MORE time waiting for parts.. I should have just done a V8. Would have been done by now and not cost as much/caused as much stress.

Actually, it's much worse than that. I'll explain in 'my' post, don't wana hijack this one.

Going from bad to worse. Seams that an engin will not work properly if the timing chain/gears are out by 90*... and now I have to rip the motor apart (that was just rebuilt) to get the chain/crank/cam set properly. Assuming I have any energy tomorrow. I worked 8.5 hours today, came home and worked on the piece of crap for 11.. and I've been up till 1am the last 3 nights messing with the car too.. This sucks. I'm thinking maybe I should give up and just burn the thing to the ground. What the heck, it's insured for fire and theft!

I'm another person to add to 'the list' of friggin idiots who took off the cam gear and can't get the thing back on. SONOFAF$%BASTARDPOS!!!!!!!! I just spent 3 days trying to start a motor that the dumass rebuilder timed wrong. (Crank key pointing up, cam pointing down ) I have no idea how I've managed to crank the thing over and even get backfire through carbs AND exhast (but no start) and NOT heard any valves go bang.. I just gave up after 8 hours of messing with evrything, and I'm going to have to pull the front cover off tomorow. I am so pissed off... Just for the record, I don't see how the hell some people have simply 'pried on' that pos cam gear. There is just no way, unless the chain is maybe really stretched...

It5 would apear my no start is a combo of ignition or electrical.. I'm working on it right now (gota search for the firing order.. not sure if I'm right) I'll post later if I can't get it going.. its the weirdest thing I've ever encountered.. spark fuel and compresion but no go.. grr...

Update: Well, the new starter works great.. too bad the friggin battery is crap. I put the charger on it for a good 30 mins, and it cranks good for about 20 seconds. then. rarararraaaaw..... click. I have spark, I KNOW there's fuel.. BUT; Plugs are barely wet.. I'm thinking that because I can't keep the engine cranking long enough, it's not sucking enough to pull some fuel through the carbs. It 'tried' a few times and made a couple farts and pops out the exhast, but no real starts. Just when it was almost gona kick and go, the battery gave out and starter would slow down. This sucks...

Well I work in a machine shop, and I did my own. Although for swaping a bearing, milling a bit out of the back side (of bellhousing) and drilling out a shift rod hole.. $225 seams a bit steap.. It's in the car, but I'm not on the road yet so I can't give any feedback as to how well it works.

yah, it WOULD be nice to have my car road worthy.. to bad I'm missing the driveshaft still.. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get that done and bolted back in. I'm gona put the new starter on it tonite and just see if it's gona crank over (83 280zx starter.. nice and light!) and recheck evrything else.. (mechanical, electrical) Hopefully I can be driving this thing by the weekend!

Yah the 5 gear would be a cheep replacement if the Z box explodes.. I think the rear diff might be usefull, brakes, heck probly the seats if you're still using stock Z benches (I assume minor mods and they would fit a Z)

Ok, so no idleing on start up.. gently blip between 1k-2k rpm for first 15-20 mins then? And by 'cheep' I did mean non synthetic oil. (My understanding is synthetic's do not allow proper run in for a new engine.. correct?) As for the cooling system, I'll be filling it AS I'm doing the initial engine start up seeing as I just put the engine back in.. I don't see how I could fill the whole system without starting it anyway... ?? It's on hold for tonite anyway as my stupid starter solenoid decided to explode... and I don't have a driveshaft yet.. not that I'd want to try to 'bump start' the car for the initial start up anyway..

Well I finaly got the motor back from the engine builder friday night. (it's been 3 months of bull$#!* and headaches) It's in the car, evrything is hooked up and ready to go with the exception of the carbs. I got tired after all weekend and tonite puting evrything back in/together, and didn't have the nerve/energy left to fiddle with tiny nuts and linkages. ANYway, it's an SU carb'd L28 'freshened up' with new seals/gaskets, valve job, and a hotter cam.. (Colt cams regrind; 510 lift 280* duration I think.. I'll have to find the sheets.) Here's what I'm thinking; I'll leave the carbs as they are cause the thing ran good last year, just had oil burning/leaking issues... well, maybe richen them up a little to be safe. I got some cheap oil and a new filter and plan to fire it up and let it idle till warm. Shut it down, drain/change oil and change filter (gona be contaminated with assembly lube) re-check head bolts and maifold bolts torque settings, and I should be good to go. Planing another oil change within 1000Kms. Or.. ? Am I missing anything important here? Anything else I should do?

Could be the rust monster has got your zx.. IIRC the rear subframe is attached to the car by two rubber mounts at the front, in the floor/unibody just behind the seats. It's kinda like a body mount in a typical pickup truck. From my years of Z ownership in salty Ontario Canada I've noticed that particular spot can get quite weak over time and basicaly rot right through. The sub frame being heavier guage steel, ussualy lasts longer. Hopefully this isn't your problem, but I wanted to mention it in case you havn't thought of it. Could just be one of the rubbers has worn out.

Whaaa?!?!? You mean.. I have ratchet sockets and YOU dont?!? Like I said in the other thread, I bought them a day ago and havn't stoped using them. Those are by far the coolest safety glasses I've ever seen.. gota get some of those. Would have helped today while laying under the tranny trying to line things up (puting motor back in) although I'm not sure if my eyes or mouth got more crap falling off the car...

I'm just trying to get a fairly STOCK engine back in my Z and costs are getitng up there! I do agree with buying tools though.. it can't be added totaly to the 'cost of a project' cause you'll always use the tools again.. Today I spent $90 on some wrenches.. The cool ratcheting ones. Good thing to, cause I needed them for a whole whack of stuf I was doing today! Ok, well.. some stuf I could have used a regular ratchet and socket, but I wanted to play with the new tools..

I whent with the simple solution in my Z; Exterior is white, all chrome left ont he windows/drip rails/ front bumper. Flat black engine bay and under side of hood, motor block/front cover/rad is all shiny black, polished valve cover, carb 'hats' and a few little things (master cly + caps, coil bracket) and evrything aluminum (head, dizzy, intake) is just clean. Basicaly if I couldn't make it shine, or at least look good cleaned, I painted it black. Here's a shot from last year before the motor rebuild. (notice the ugly rusted exhast manifold and master cly caps) Pic was taken on an overcast day inside my crappy 'portable garage'

Do NOT tell those guys about this site PLEEEEEAS!!! All we need is another influx of idiot sticks...

I don't think that will work... If you 'splice' into the high beam curcuit and run aditional lights off it, I'm pretty sure you will pop fuses, and simply replacing with higher amperage fuses would be dangerous IMO.. I had an 85 200sx a few years back, and when I got it the fog lights (added aftermarket by P/O) had no bulbs. I poped in new bulbs, tuned on the lights and promtly blew both head light fuses. Upon trouble shooting, I discovered the driving lights had been wired up to the main head lights just as you describe. The factory wiring is pretty small to begin with and really isn't intended for any extra load. I have to ask..why don't you want a switch inside the car? It's very simple to wire up, and you don't have to even touch the 'spaghetti' mess...

Cool man, that would be great! Where exactly are you? Seriously, I'd drive a few hours just to pick them up if need be; Like I said, tts a long story.. and I'm really pissed off.. I just want to drive my stupid car this summer but evrything seams to be going bad right now.. Let me know man, thanks again.

Its a long story, but my motor mounts have vanished.. got lost.. moved on without me.. (the timing chain guide/guard took off too.. I assume I can get another one of those easily) I have the rubber mounts that bolt to the cross member, and the thin top pieces (1/8" thick, two lilttle bits of rubber on the ends..wtf is the point of those anyway?!?) but the metal 'brackets' that join the mounts to the block are awol. Are these availible anywhere? Or am I gona have to buy a used set/make my own? Stock 75 280z, L28 btw.

Guess I'll see you all in hell! Really it won't be that bad.. warm weather, evryone I know will be there..

Or when you grab a set of Vice-grips to get a stubourn nut/bolt off *voice of HAL* "Tim.. I wouldn't do that..." I'm probly the worst for leaving things lying around, but I'm getting better. Getting a real tool box last x-mass really helped. Until then, I had all my tools in various boxes, tins, small containers, ect. I have sockets and ratchets/extentions on the top (on those little post things.. great inventions!), wrenches in the first two drawers, taps/allen keys/pullers/files/ect (my 'machinest drawer) third down, and the big drawer on the bottom is my 'bashing and cutting things' spot. Hamers, punches, chunk of brass, body work dolys, a few razor knives. Bottom roll around box has 2 drawers; One with screwdrivers/pry bars, the other with vice grips, pliers, metric adjustable, ect. Big storage under that has a drill, grinder, hack saw, and a 'travel' set of sockets/wrenches/assorted pliers+screwdrivers for scrap yard visits. Still not as much space as I'd like, but I'm young and working on a budget.. Eventually I'll have to buy another or bigger tool box for my not yet purchased air tools.. Grumpy, I think you're pretty well set.. only thing I'd do is have the dial indicators with the mics/calipers. Just my personal preferance.. at work I have a dedicated drawer just for my mics, indicator, digi-calipers and a scale. Anything I have to measure or check, I open that drawer.. assuming I put the calipers BACK and didn't leave them on the lathe again...

OUCH!!!! WTF were those fools doing?!?! Well.. one fool anyway.. I mean.. was the guy trying to hit the kids on the bikes with the car door?

Here's the deal; I'm gona be getting my L28 motor back tomorow, and hopefully instaling this week. I'm using a 240sx KA 5 gear with the 280z bellhousing, all seams well. I put the tranny in tonite (bellhousing held up by rope tied to the hood latch.. it works) and from what I can tell, I'd have to shorten my driveshaft by 1.125" to fit. Now, I'm thinking I could 'adjust' the trans mount to push the tranny forward the required amount.. (not the trany x-member, the rubber mount with the stud) This would also put the enigne forward, so I'd have to slot the engine mounts as well (on the x-member) BUT my reasoning is this; I find it easier and cheaper to slot/redrill a few holes than to cut,weld,balance a driveshaft.. ALSO; if I ever want/need to changed back to a Z gearbox, the driveshaft is stock and will work fine. My main concern is that moving the engine forward will have adverse effects on handeling, but will I really notice? (I know the ussual thing is to move the engine BACK...) As is, I have a HUGE whale tail on the back and I had issues with the front 'hunting and darting' and being generaly twitchy at higher speeds.. Maybe a little more weight over the front end would help out? What do you guys think?

Cool. I'm more into that kind of drive than 1/4 mile blasts.. I like the g forces you get in hard corners. Probly why the 914 had the advantage on you there to; mid engine AND decent suspension/tires. I remember reading something about the 914's being capable of 1+ lateral G's in corners.. I think a well set up V8 Z will be close (and personaly I like the looks of your's better than a 914 anyway ) but not quite as well balanced as the 914. Still.. must have been fun!