scalveg

I love you guys! Within hours of my question I get BOTH the easy-to-understand answer AND the way-more-data-than-I-could-ever-want-but-still-interesting answer. Thanks!

I don't know if I mentioned it, but one of the problems with my Z is that the PO cleverly/freakishly/meanly installed the wrong engine, an L24E apparently out of an old 810/Maxima. Naturally I didn't notice this until I was trying to fix the poor high-RPM performance and the PO was nowhere to be found. Incredibly, it runs okay (although poorly at high RPMs) *with the original L28E ECU*. It even passes smog, somehow. I've got a line on recent rebuilt long block out of an '82 ZX. My question is this: I know the pistons were changed to flat tops instead of dished (in 81 IIRC). I don't mind a bit of extra compression, but I would like for my ECU to actually match my cams for a change. So, are the cams the same between 78 and 82? Thanks for any info!

What I'm worried about is that it's *not* in good condition, actually. It has a big hole on top, and I can't imagine fresh rainwater is doing the visibly frayed wires any good. I have a selection of small plastic boxes through work. Maybe I will see if those will fit.

After finding lots of water on the driver's side carpet in the recent rains, I embarked on trying to figure out what was going on. I took off the grill panel just in front of the windshield because I could see some sheet metal in there with a strange-looking rupture. Once I got the panel off, I determined that the 'sheet metal' was actually a plastic bag. The metallic appearance was due to overspray from the PO's crummy paint job. Through the hole I could see some frayed and cut wires. I stopped there and went and looked at the FSM. Apparently this is part of the wiper system, but no bag was shown in the manual. Also not listed in the MSA or Black Dragon catalogs. I'm reluctant to mess with it too much at the moment, since it has been raining a lot and the wipers are currently okay. That said, clearly something needs to be done. 1) Is the bag OEM? 2) Does it need to be there? 3) Well, it's broken, so what should I replace it with? Something that can be taken apart in a few months so that I can get back in there in the dry season and fix the wires, preferably. Maybe a little plastic box of some kind? Thanks for any advice! Chris O Oakland, CA