TheNeedForZ

Did you put the pan back and test run the engine again?

If the problem is indeed piston slap, over time, the pistons could slowly "chip away" when they experience slap due to the impact between corners of pistons against bore wall. But they might not. The cheap and temporary fix is to knurl the pistons and turn down the diameter to fit the bore.

That car was featured in May 2006's Sport Compact Car in an article named "Rebirth of an Icon". It has 90.5mm bore but only 79mm stroke. Edit : I thought it was in the April's issue because it says "display until 04/25/06", but the magazine itself is May issue.

Whooo, HOT!

Haynes manual lists several causes of engine noises : 1. Wrong valve to rocker clearance 2. Worn crankshaft bearings 3. Worn cylinders(piston slap) 4. Slack or worn timing chain and sprockets Before you open up the bottom end, check #1.

Great question, I have no idea why. Maybe your car is a female and she's punishing you for leaving the gas door flap open....5 months ago I can't even tell how much air can pass thru a S30's radiator at cruise without the aid of a fan, not to mention a ZX which is what you have IIRC. IMHO the large radiator opening on S30 might allow it to cool unaided at higher speed, but a ZX is altogether more aerodynamic with smaller frontal opening and a integrated G-nose feature. I suspect there is lesser air that can pass thru the ZX rad opening unaided at the same speed. Perhaps the direction of wind plays a role. When you travel against wind, the wind-to-car speed is more than 60, so you pick up some good cooling. When you travel with the wind, the relative wind speed is less than 60, less air pass thru the rad, less cooling. If you were travelling slightly uphill then the engine requires a heavier load to maintain the same speed and generates more heat. If you cruise with top gear then the water pump is driven at a low speed which leads to slow circulation and higher temp.....etc etc.

She sounds like a keeper, try not to mess it up heh,good one.

I asked about the gasket but I wasn't wondering about a bad gasket, but rather a "wrong" one. The F54 block requires a head gasket unique to its own. The F54 head gasket blocks a water passage to re-distribute coolant flow. But since the problem started after a water pump change followed by FAN REMOVAL then we'll start from there.

Dude, signature size limit....nice pic tho.

I want to see an SBC going all out, built by collective expertise of the board.

Is the fan working properly? No belt slippage? Is the viscous coupler of the fan still feels very sticky? Did you change the head gasket before having the overheating problem?

I wonder what sorts of fuel produce lesser heat but more gas compared to pump gasoline?(No, not chili beans:eek:) If a fuel generates more gas compared to gasoline but creates lesser heat, in theory, there should be less problem related to knocking. There should be an improvement in efficiency as well since lesser heat is wasted into exhaust. Fuel that contain -amine group (-NH2) might have this sort of characteristic but am not sure. Any comments?

Hey Happy B-day to both of you. They are both "Mike", they are both admins, they both have and enjoy Z cars, and they were born on the same day of the year. Coincidence? That's what we call "birthday twins."

The pump draws from the bottom of the radiator. After being circulated, the coolant is dumped back into radiator thru the top.

Dave, You might have better luck searching using the term "dashcap" or "dash cap". It's a really common fix for S30 with a cracked dash. My 280Z came with it when I bought it. There isn't many choice really, either pay a few hundred dollars for a non-cracked dash, or use a dashcap, or buy a fiberglass one without any mounting brackets.

great job Chelle, it's the best 250GTO Z I've seen.

Sure:roll: you have "trouble" deciding now. Go for the TT setup, you'll never be late for anything...EVER. Congrats on the great find, looks like you stumbled upon a hidden Z weapons cache.

I meant all the plug sockets between all three ECUs are the same. Some VG ecu can be reprogrammed, some not so reprogram-friendly(IIRC, with the reprogram-friendly ECU. you can change one factor and all the map will change. With the not-so-reprogram-friendly ECU, you have to change every value in the map, IIRC) You have to ask either "Bernardd" or "GrayZee" for the specifics as I have a long way to go before my tuning begins. Can it control everything properly?---The Z31 ECU chip uses more bit than the L28 ECU chip, the control is finer. Go see the Z31 MAF/ECU swap sticky...

Heheh I was thinking about that video too.

The answer to "Does EGR hurt performance?" can be answered with another question "Is part-throttle performance considered Performance?" To some, yes, to some, no. What we can all agree on is that EGR does not HELP performance. On the other hand EGR is said to improve efficiency according to this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EGR Is efficiency = performance? That is an entirely different question...

Just so we don't hijack this thread any furthur than we already do. Keep us updated in another thread about your personal project. I don't see the "4L" Z in the website or any other high displacement I6 Z car, it was hidden somewhere? From what I have heard from "1 fast z", who sonic tested 2 LD blocks, an LD block can only be safely overbored 2mm before requiring special liners. http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=107456&highlight=%22diesel+block%22

When I got my VG30E(from a maxima) ecu, I checked/compared all the plugs against my 280Z ecu and then later against an L28ET ecu. They are all the same.

The lines are very clean. Your bodyshop did a great job. So 2.5 years huh? I guess I can't complain about mine, 1 year and counting....