A musician's therapist (The $300 Z)

[AydinZ71]

5 hours ago, rossman said:

Great progress and the car is looking really good!  I may be one of the few people that think that the front crossmember/diff mount actually doubles as a stiffener for suspension loads.  I also have the RT style mount but also still have the crossmember there as a stiffener.  Anyway, it's just my $0.02...

it does add stiffness. Whether it is necessary is the big grey area.
 

The RT mount is really beefy up top (with the vertical flange, but the mounting point is cantilevered and can flex. I had to hit mine with a 2lb sledge a few times to move the tabs in on my car. 
 

given the relatively light weight of the crossmember, I plan to use it again with my mount. If I had the time, it would certainly be lighter in tube steel. It’s experiencing mostly tension and compression. Not much bending since the ends are bolted down. A thin-wall tube could do the trick. 

[Zetsaz]

Road trip down the entire western US  a success! 

 

Review so far: most of the Pacific coast highway along Oregon isn't worth cruise. And I literally mean all but like 15 minutes of it unless you're heading to a specific camping spot. 

 

Going to hit Big Sur and Hearst Castle if it's open on the way back but not much else I want to see this time around. Pro tip - when you don't slam your car you can go more fun places

[calZ]

Big Sur is a great choice for a stop. I haven't been there in a few years, but Julia Pfeiffer State Park is right on PCH and has some nice little hikes if you're into that.

 

You might also be able to catch some elephant seal stragglers on the beaches near Hearst Castle.

[Zetsaz]

On 4/5/2021 at 8:14 PM, calZ said:

Big Sur is a great choice for a stop. I haven't been there in a few years, but Julia Pfeiffer State Park is right on PCH and has some nice little hikes if you're into that.

 

You might also be able to catch some elephant seal stragglers on the beaches near Hearst Castle.

I'll keep that in mind!

Updates:

 

CV Bolts: Now at my brother's place in North Hollywood and got to check on some stuff. some of the bolts from the CVs to the adapters came loose. Strangely, I don't think it's just that they came loose, I think they were never totally flush to begin with. The plate on the end of them made it near impossible to properly tighten and I think as they've settled in, the 1/8" or so they might have been off on one end showed up. Was getting some oscillating noise from the back, but only under load. Everything is tightened up now, but I'm going to reinstall the bolts one at a time with loctite now that they're settled and flush when I'm back home.

Speedo issues: Speedometer cable stopped working somewhere before San Francisco and I thought maybe it was my gauge. My volt/fuel was already not working, so I figured it was the gauge since I had a new cable. Nope..... turns out the cable tore a few inches up from the speedo cog at the transmission. Have done the math on gearing enough times that I mostly know how fast I'm going, and in 5th I know exactly how fast I'm going just off the tach. Not sure if I wanna just buy a new cable or make it an excuse to replace the rest of my gauges already. Pricey, but now that I have my daily car completely paid and made some money from a small investment deal with my brother it might be worth it.

[rossman]

7 hours ago, Zetsaz said:

Everything is tightened up now, but I'm going to reinstall the bolts one at a time with loctite now that they're settled and flush when I'm back home.

Yes, exactly.  Torque is primarily what prevents fasteners from backing out.  Loctite is a decent secondary back out prevention.

 

7 hours ago, Zetsaz said:

Not sure if I wanna just buy a new cable or make it an excuse to replace the rest of my gauges already.

Love my Speedhut GPS speedo gauge.  Definitely pricey though.

[Zetsaz]

On 4/7/2021 at 5:59 PM, rossman said:

Love my Speedhut GPS speedo gauge.  Definitely pricey though.

Tough choice but I feel like I should just commit to the gauges. If I sell my Infiniti I'd have the money for an engine swap and gauges or a solid L series build already, and in a swap especially, I'd need the new gauges anyway unless I start messing with sensor thread adapters or resistors. 

Second casualty from the drive: the bumper brackets from Skillard are fairly well designed, but I think the extra weight of the metal bumper instead of fiberglass is creating a bit of a spring effect and the bumper seems to be moving enough on really harsh bumps to rub on the headlight buckets. I was careful to provide clearance when I installed it so it wasn't too close, but it looks like it's moving enough to rub and has rubbed through the paint on some small spots  Going to put some masking tape on it for the drive back, but I think it's time to experiment with more clearance or some clever custom rubber bump stops or rubber strips I can attach.

[Zetsaz]

Front control arms arrived with the accompanying tension control rods. Won't have weird issue with the stock ones affecting my spring rate now and will finally correct the front passenger caster. 

Steering rack has some issues, I think I may inspect and replace bearing (if I can even find the right parts) and regrease, since I have to realign now anyway.

There's a chance I've come across a basically free turbo engine too... we'll see what I can use off it. Not sure I even want to run it, but at worst it's spare parts I can part out and make some money. Main concern is still my transmission not being able to hold much, but the trans costs are the issue with literally any option I go with 😕 Basically flywheel back is my biggest cost no matter what I do with my power options, and no one choice is notably cheaper than another. 

[Zetsaz]

Front control arms still aren't done because I've been slightly burned out on car work. Finishing them up this weekend and ordering remaining AC parts though. 

 

Also...

 

That hardbody I picked up years ago is a champ. Picked up this "free to me" engine last night in exchange for some spare parts. Guy seems to have changed directions and mostly just wanted it out of the way. 

 

Some pieces seem questionable, but a lot of it looks pretty good and it already has the common head cooling mod for cylinders 5 and 6.

 

Since mine is running okay aside from some oil burning, I'll be building this really slowly and properly. Spending my money on finishing the AC and a trans upgrade before this goes in. Now I won't have to put the car out for a long time, just whatever it takes to swap in the two blocks. 

[Zetsaz]

Well folks... I think I might have scored with the engine I got. 

 

Managed to get in touch with the original owner and got a build spreadsheet. Lots done. 

 

-Reground cam, roughly 480 lift (will have to pull up specs when I'm home) 

-Dual heavy duty valve springs

-Port matched and smoothed intake ports

-OEM solid lifters

-New rings, rehoned block (checked honing marks with a borescope to ensure no damage) 

-Cylinder head cooling mod on 5 and 6 already done

-New timing kit from Japan 

-Other refresh work, and I'm assuming a valve job at one point. 

 

Sadly, the turbo needs to be replaced or rebuilt and I'll still need boost control and intercooler, so the expensive stuff will still add up, BUT since my engine is burning excessive oil, I'm tempted to just pay up for turbo/intercooler stuff and get this thing in already and run it gently and do the transmission later

[AydinZ71]

Score dude! These are getting rare and people are asking for a premium. 

[Jboogsthethug]

dude that is awesome!! What a good find!

[ETI2K]

On 5/13/2021 at 5:50 PM, Zetsaz said:

 it already has the common head cooling mod for cylinders 5 and 6.

What is that modification?

[calZ]

33 minutes ago, ETI2K said:

What is that modification?

 

[Zetsaz]

3 hours ago, ETI2K said:

What is that modification?

 

Cylinders 5 and 6 tended to run hotter than the rest. Poor coolant flow through the head. The head cooling mod taps into 5 and 6 above the intake runners and feeds them coolant from the thermostat housing where it's coldest. There are a variety of ways to do it that you can read about. The new JeffP head gasket made by Cometic that you can buy from Zcardepot now is also supposed to help. 

[ETI2K]

Lots to read.  Thanks for the info.

I haven't finished reading it, so please forgive for asking now, but are there any good pics of the modification?  The thread I started reading is so old that the images have been deleted.

[calZ]

There are working pictures later in the thread, but this should do the trick

 

[ETI2K]

Yes!  Very helpful. Thank you. 

[Zetsaz]

AC compressor and bracket arrived. Picked these up from (EDIT: Nostalgic Air, not Vintage Air). Their prices are going up and I'm hoping they start offering just the bracket but honestly I think if you have even mild fabrication abilities you can make the bracket for less money. I'm a bit burned out though so I wanted something "off the shelf" and just chopped a bit of the top off that's normally for bolting on the 240z smog pump. 

 

Currently it's on the turbo engine. Big debate right now is rebuilding the T3/T04e turbo I have with it, or running it NA temporarily while I wait on manifold mods for an external wastegate to be done. Only reason I'm not considering just waiting is I'll be traveling with the car to be with family most of the summer and I can't get the parts done before I leave... But my current engine, despite running great is burning a lot of oil. Might need new rings

 

Currently leaning towards just dealing with the lower compression and slight sluggishness so it's at least in the bay. Exhaust manifold and intercooler are easy enough to swap in later. 

Edited May 28, 2021 by Zetsaz

[rossman]

9 hours ago, Zetsaz said:

Picked these up from Vintage air.

I didn't realize the VA made brackets for the mighty L6.  Good to know though!

 

Given your constraints seems it would make sense to just swap your turbo long block into your current NA setup.  It's almost inevitable that something unforeseen will pop up when converting to turbo.

[Zetsaz]

2 hours ago, rossman said:

I didn't realize the VA made brackets for the mighty L6.  Good to know though!

 

Given your constraints seems it would make sense to just swap your turbo long block into your current NA setup.  It's almost inevitable that something unforeseen will pop up when converting to turbo.

 

... I thought you knew, you were the one who directed me to them haha. They're the only ones that make a bolt in, and for the L24 guys it has provisions for the smog pump and bracket. Unfortunately that means the included belts are too short and the other is too long.

 

Yeah, I'm kinda pinned between putting the fresh block in and dealing with sluggishness while turbo stuff gets done, or just dealing with like half a quart of oil every few hundred miles and running my engine for the rest of the summer. Both aren't fun despite being completely usable as a cruiser.