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Did you have any trouble bleeding the clutch this time? If not, any suggestions for the rest of us for our future trials? Also, any chance that the ticking is an exhaust leak? Try retorquing all your exhaust connections including the head-to-header bolts. I think the torque recommendation into the aluminum head is pretty low, so don't go crazy, like only 25 ft-lb(?). My 3-bolt flange on the collector was bad to loosen often. You've probably already tried that, though so I'm not trying to be a know-it-all.

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Lol I did the same thing trying to bleed it and eventually just stopped. Went outside to warm it up to operating temp before it got down in the single digits and tried to put it in gear and it went so I drove it around and it worked great so if it's not broke don't fix it lol. My exhaust is one single piece all welded together minus the tri-bolt flanges and where it bolts to the heads so I'll check them but it sounds like it's a lifter on the pass side near the firewall. Tried marvel mystery oil to clean it but it came back yesterday. Gonna change to 5w-30 and a new filter and see where that gets me tonight.

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5w-30 oil change and no difference after i go a few miles down the road. It starts ticking after heavy acceleration. Other than that it started sputtering last night... Never done that before, but let's just say nearing the bottom of the tank it's a go fast car only or else the fuel goes away from the pickup and was dropping fuel pressure bad lol. Time to go to the gas station

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  • 1 month later...

Well I have a small update after 950 miles I didn't know what went wrong with my car. Mainly the brakes and they were fine all day going 450 miles round trip to Nashville from Knoxville to the z attack. Everytime I kicked it out of gear and pressed the brakes it would pickup a vibration through the pedal and the rpms would drop down to ~350 rpm and then catch itself before it almost died. I searched online and this was a brake booster issue.

There are 2 boosters (8.5" and a 10") and good luck trying to find somewhere in stock refurbished. Advance auto and autozone were unavailable and I got the last one at Oreillys.

 

New 280Z 8" Brake Booster Install

Anywho I got it installed today in less than 2 hours and it is a night and day difference! I still have to bleed the brakes at all four corners but now with my hawk front pads I can lock up my fronts and stop on a dime with no change in idle rpm of 800-900 rpm. I went from squish to perfect brakes. Apparently it's suggested to change out the booster every few years but mine was quite old and the paint peeled off the bottom like it had been on fire/master going bad so I'll be replacing that fairly soon.

Overall no complaints just a lot of complements, couple handful of offers to buy it and tons of fun taking turns!

Edited by EastTnZ
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  • 3 months later...

5.3 Oil Pickup Tube O-Ring Replacement (Huge Improvement)

 

Finally decided to fix the low oil pressure issue whenever my Z sits at idle with the rear of the car lower than the front.  Oil pressure would stay around 30-40 psi while driving but when I let off the gas it gravitates to 0 psi.  Not good.  PITA to remove the oil pan after the LS was installed but I finished it tonight finally.  You can see the difference from the original 2002 factory o-ring vs the new felpro red O-ring.  $3.37 shipped.  

 

Fel-Pro 72401 Engine Oil Pump O-Ring

 

Now my engine when started up reads 70 psi and falls to the mid 50's.  Tested it out on my nearly 45* driveway and stopped at an angle which usually resulted in oil pressure dropping to zero but it stayed at 50 psi.  It worked!!!

 

Next, I'm currently installing Vintage Air in the Z because the fiance doesn't much care for the heat... Two trips averaging 800 miles a piece she was wondering when I would buy the ac kit...  Well at 4000 miles I'm installing a mini evap and sanden 508 compressor with the vintage air universal mounting brackets modified.  I thought their would be enough room and their is just barely (less than 1/4" in almost all directions for it to fit).  Granted I don't think it would've worked as smooth if I didn't leave the truck spacing and changed over to the car depth.  TRUCK depth shown in pictures below.  More info soon as I'm still finishing it up.

 

Vintage Air Universal Brackets - Sanden 508 Comp Fits!!!

 

Vintage Air Parts (Mini-508-20x14)

 
Thanks for the roll bar Keith!!!
 

Roll Bar Install - Thanks Keith!

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Currently it's $986 shipped to the house plus a guy around Knoxville said $100 to charge it professionally. But it's the only quote I've had so far. Do not charge a fresh system off the cans because r134 is so pressure critical is what I've been told. I need about 14 crimps done because I don't have the $200+ crimping tool so I'm not sure on pricing for that but $986+100+crimps. Not too bad and I tried to part it out like the build to save money but the guy I bought from is all original vintage air and beats the msrp by 10% plus out of state no tax. Hard to beat for an actual sanden compressor and I was not about to spend $450 on a no name compressor I couldn't source in the future and a set of brackets I'd have to modify for the truck layout. I think I saved about $200 going with the $48 universal mounts. And it's supposed to blow about 43* out of the vents and I can't wait!

"Wheels of Time" is the place I bought my vintage air from.

 

Locally I found a hose shop that would crimp the fittings on for $2 per crimp but if I bought the fittings from the local performance shop then they'd crimp them for free.

 

Sadly my condenser from Vintage Air couldn't be purchased with an 8 fitting on the drivers side top and a 6 on the pass side lower so I didn't have an aesthetically pleasing finish so I had to order a 180* size 8 fitting for the top to have enough hose.  Compressor, drier w/ binary safety switch, and condenser are mounted.  Plus I had to buy a smaller diameter air filter to not interfere with the compressor serp pulley. 

Smaller diameter filter to clear ac comp

Drier (with binary safety switch) mounted

Ac comp installed

Vintage Air Parts List + Pricing

Vintage Air Layout - Travis Franklin's Setup

 

Edited by EastTnZ
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  • 2 weeks later...

While everybody is all like "turbo this and turbo that" I'm over here like "I've got AC!!!" Lol

And here are some pics from the install. Pretty straight forward. Should have it charged before the weekend and riding around with the windows up for once in the summertime! And btw there's room under this compressor and over the alternator for a turbo setup...

Note: I purchased the extra long hose kit and thought I'd need the extra 4' of size 6 and 4' of size 10 but after I ran all the hoses I had some left over. I had exactly 5' 4" leftover of 6 and 5' 4" leftover of 10. So the extra $10 is not worth it.

 

Vintage Air Install - 5.3 with sanden 508

Vintage Air 280Z Dash Shot

Re-engineered (rough) middle ducting...

Vintage Air Evaporator Installed

Vintage Air Heater Hose Valve Installed

Vintage Air Heat/Cool/Def vs 280Z Heat/Cool/Def

Almost complete! Vintage air cheap control set is a near perfect fit!

 

I've got it all hooked up and it runs great so far, I'm getting it charged within the next couple days hopefully then I'll see how cold it blows out the vents!  Also installed a 240z steering wheel I refinished a while back while I was at it. 

Edited by EastTnZ
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That's awesome! I figured somebody would! I'm currently piecing together a feasible turbo setup for mine to be installed next year hopefully. Not into the 600's to start with but hopefully work my way into it eventually. I'm swapping out transmissions though. Unless I get a good deal on another z then I'll just build it and keep this one the same.

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Well I was suspiciously followed into a gas station after work by a police officer for a few miles... (I wasn't exactly driving miss daisy) He got out 1 pump over and came straight to my car and started asking all about it haha! One thing led to another and he's gonna charge my ac for free!!!

 

Win win! He had a couple camaro's/firebirds and had a non numbers matching one he wanted to swap an ls into so we talked cars for a half hour at the gas pumps and I got his info then left lol.

 

He's charging my ac tomorrow and I can't wait! Made 2 trips to advance auto parts. Measured 71" for the serpentine belt and drove home to be too small. Drove back and bought a 72" for $10 cheaper go figure lol. Should work pretty smooth, I blew the soot out of it today from 3rd-5th gears up in the 5k rpm range so it runs better with no carbon buildup slowing me down! Pics with temp gauge to be posted shortly I hope!

 

Also tried out this 0-60 time thing on my gps speedo the past few weeks and if I could get traction that'd be great. Pulled off 5.7, 5.8, and today dumping 2nd in the 3500 rpm range I roasted the tires and got a 6.25 second 0-60 time. All averaging 280-320 feet from 0-60. I just need room to test out this 1/4 mile mode... Fun none the less, I'm happy with the gauge setup by speed hut.

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That's awesome! I figured somebody would! I'm currently piecing together a feasible turbo setup for mine to be installed next year hopefully. Not into the 600's to start with but hopefully work my way into it eventually. I'm swapping out transmissions though. Unless I get a good deal on another z then I'll just build it and keep this one the same.

I wouldn't worry about the Trans too much. I know you have a tr6060, but it's basically the same thing as a t56. Quite a few people out here are putting down 650-700rwtq to a stock internal tranny and they're still holding up in a 3500lb car. Obviously they dont have the stock flywheel or clutch. May have missed it, but doesn't the tr6060 have oil cooling lines? What'd you do with those?
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That's awesome! I figured somebody would! I'm currently piecing together a feasible turbo setup for mine to be installed next year hopefully. Not into the 600's to start with but hopefully work my way into it eventually. I'm swapping out transmissions though. Unless I get a good deal on another z then I'll just build it and keep this one the same.

I wouldn't worry about the Trans too much. I know you have a tr6060, but it's basically the same thing as a t56. Quite a few people out here are putting down 650-700rwtq to a stock internal tranny and they're still holding up in a 3500lb car. Obviously they dont have the stock flywheel or clutch. May have missed it, but doesn't the tr6060 have oil cooling lines? What'd you do with those?
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Yeah it's supposed to hold it and I really don't want to get rid of the stick but if I went turbo I'd have to build the rear more than the 300zxt axles/flanges I've got (not looking forward to it). Plus I've already gotta rebuild the Trans due to bad synchros in 2nd, 3rd and part of 5th, also the mainshaft is an early model and needs to be upgraded (thanks tremec for not heat treating it properly). Totaling $1900 to ship it to tick for a fresh rebuild and that's not including needing gears. I could buy a built 4l80e for the price of selling my Trans + the rebuild it needs to hold that power. And it would hold 1000ftlbs.

 

On the cooling lines, I just looped them over for now and it's working great. If I start to track it I'd run it to my radiator which has a built in Trans cooler in it.

 

Keith I may like to try that tire setup someday. I've been launching it a little here lately from second and the clutch puts it all down (no slip) so I think I could do a couple passes even with the Trans not in 100% shape. My 1-2 shift is the worst due to synchros.

 

In the end I'm gonna part/piece together a turbo setup and 4l80e then look for a roller z hopefully to build. Right now the serp belt is in the routing of the drivers manifold if I was to turbo this one. I'd probably just reroute the serp belt with a pulley because I'm still unsure on how much my alternator is currently charging with this routing lol

post-18996-0-07081600-1408104729_thumb.jpg

Edited by EastTnZ
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Pretty sure the heater control valve is bad or the solenoid to it is bad because it's stuck wide open. Other than that we clamped the inlet heater hose and it cooled down to the low low 30's out of the vents!!! I'll take it! Felt great today driving with ac!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well a few small updates... I'd been noticing a little hesitation around a half tank of fuel from my fuel cell after I have stopped at redlights on a downhill slope. Decided that after 4500 miles I'd check my cleanable fuel filter. The picture attached shows the foam particles that have disintegrated and sucked down the fuel line. So I installed a new 8an fuel line and Russell fuel filter and it has seemed to run a little better :) I also thought that part of the hesitation was that the fuel filter was so massive that it may aerate the fuel under heavy acceleration, so I got a smaller filter hoping for no air.

 

Also my a/c isn't working. The compressor wouldn't kick on, so I checked the layout and the 180* fitting I used and had crimped looked like it wasn't quite on all the way but the guy said it should do. Needless to say it leaked out all the freon and I'm without air. No big deal but a new hose and some fittings and I'll be back on the road with air again.

 

Lastly I put on my 240z front bumper last night and I think it looks pretty good. Made some aluminum brackets and bought the 10mm x 1.25 nuts (plus washers and lock washers) that the built in studs require. Worked like a charm.

post-18996-0-27938800-1409079772_thumb.jpg

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  • 2 months later...

post-18996-0-94860500-1414451115_thumb.jpgpost-18996-0-46903400-1414451132_thumb.jpg

 

Well I was recommended to a local performance shop to get my car dyno'd before I install a cam in the next few months and will go back there to see the gains.

 

I should've cleaned the soot out before going but the ole 5.3 didn't do too bad. 3 pulls for $60. Considering its a stock factory rated 285hp at the crank that's ok for a baseline pull. Longtubes may help a few horses but not worth the headache to me for the price. If I can find one I'm thinking LS6 intake.

 

Stock 5.3 - LS1 Intake - Tunedbyfrost Mail Order Tune 93 Octane

 

Pull 1 - 5200 rpm (259/287)

Pull 2 - 5200 rpm (263/291)

Pull 3 - 6000 rpm (274/302)

 

(Hp/tq)

 

TSP Torquer V2 might be happening in the future... 232/234 .595/.598 112LSA

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