A musician's therapist (The $300 Z)

[jpndave]

4 hours ago, BJSZED said:

Omar,

 

Do you think the coolant leak is coming from the NPT threads into the head ? What did you seal those threads with ? I'm about to do the coolant mod and am trying to figure what's best to seal the threads. I was considering just using blue silicone as I've used that before to seal badly damaged threads or using blue locktite.

 

Do NOT use silicone on NPT threads. Teflon tape, paste or both. Get something decent if you don't have it already. On the tape, wrap opposite of what you would think initially so it lays it down rather than bunching up when threaded together. Thicker higher quality tape does work better and there are stainless specific formulas when needed. 

[Zetsaz]

On 7/22/2023 at 9:44 PM, jpndave said:

Do NOT use silicone on NPT threads. Teflon tape, paste or both. Get something decent if you don't have it already. On the tape, wrap opposite of what you would think initially so it lays it down rather than bunching up when threaded together. Thicker higher quality tape does work better and there are stainless specific formulas when needed. 

 

I'm with Dave here. Don't use silicone on threads. The white thread sealant I've been using has been great. I use the liquid one and make sure it's slightly tacky before threading like the instructions say.

I really think it's just that npt to an adapter not being tightened enough. The problem was it was only leaking once it got really hot on the long drives once the coolant gets really hot and thinner, so I hadn't noticed it on my shorter test drives.

Edited September 18, 2023 by Zetsaz

[Zetsaz]

Assorted small purchases over the past month or two as we slowly prepare for winter work:

 

OEM Rear main seals - might not manage these over the winter but they'll at least be available.

OEM oil pan gasket

Horn pad retaining ring (see recent post for details, mine's been cracked and the horn button falls between legs on hard bumps)

Differential axle clip - realized my right side is missing. Not sure if it stuck to the half shaft and I didn't notice unlike the other one which stayed in the diff, but needed new one.
Pinion Seal for diff - splattering fluid all over my nice stainless exhaust and gunking up the underside of the tunnel

 

Skillard shim kit - includes door latch striker shims,  inspection cover shims (actually necessary for me), door hing shims, rear hatch shims (super grateful for these because the actual oem ones seem integrated and I've just had the hinges right over the gaskets).

 

Skillard rear speaker brackets - kept trying to find an original to copy, but for the prices people were selling it wasn't worth it. Glad skillard made good aluminum reproductions for both sides. Still debating on which receiver to use and whether or not to bother creating a 3D printed bracket for a single or double din to replace the original.

 

Skillard door handle backers - I very very carefully pull down and out every single time I use my door handles to get in because the small amounts of flex are enough to get the top of the handle to rub the paint when I'm opening the door. I need to open up the back to slightly bend and fix the passenger side lock rod anyway, so i figured I'd get these along with the batch of new parts. 
 

No oil cap gasket yet. Still debating if I buy the cheap seal, or use this as an excuse to get some more bling for the engine bay with an all new oil cap. At some point I need to powder coat the valve cover soon. 

[Zetsaz]

Didn't do a whole lot while I was home for Christmas like I was hoping. Since the weather was so unusually warm and no much snow (and consequently not much salt on the roads) I couldn't pass up the opportunity to take the car out for some cruising. Here are just a few of the updates

 

Found the mats I thought were missing!

 

DID replaced the horn retaining ring, but not sure how I feel about how tight it is. Don't want to glue the horn pad to it just yet in case something chips. Already has some small bits if it flake off when removing the original ring,  but at least now it doesn't fall every time I hit a bump. 

 

Installed only a small handful of shims. Realized most of them are still good. I think if I visit this spring the big work will be finally fixing the seals on the hatch and adjusting it properly. Right now it tends to pull back on the seal. Ugly and makes it inconvenient to use since I have to tuck it back.

 

Also broke my IAC valve running it through test mode in tunerstudio somehow... woops haha. Blew the end off. Put it back together but now it won't go in or out. 

 

Also bought a proper reproduction windshield washer bottle

 

Biggest mishap... found out one side of the bumper hasn't been hanging on to the brackets at all. Probably broke early on. It's just a few tacks holding it on  Gonna fix with epoxy when I get back. 

[1969honda]

Forget the epoxy, come use the metal glue gun when you get back in town. 

[Zetsaz]

On 1/27/2024 at 11:31 PM, 1969honda said:

Forget the epoxy, come use the metal glue gun when you get back in town. 

I will take you up on that!

 

Small update: Slowly purchasing little things here and there again. I'm not happy with my LS coils slowly going out and even less happy with my bracket. Granted the placement is better than most i've seen. I REALLY don't like how high up on the valve cover the Protunerz one is. Mine normally goes where one of the heater hoses is, but I'm retaining stock function and moved it.

Between those problems and having to buy new coils soon I chose to upgrade to Nissan coils. Got the bracket from @DuffyMahoney and ordered the Hitachi coils from RockAuto. In a few weeks I'll hopefully get a chance to work on it again.

[DuffyMahoney]

18 hours ago, Zetsaz said:

I will take you up on that!

 

Small update: Slowly purchasing little things here and there again. I'm not happy with my LS coils slowly going out and even less happy with my bracket. Granted the placement is better than most i've seen. I REALLY don't like how high up on the valve cover the Protunerz one is. Mine normally goes where one of the heater hoses is, but I'm retaining stock function and moved it.

Between those problems and having to buy new coils soon I chose to upgrade to Nissan coils. Got the bracket from @DuffyMahoney and ordered the Hitachi coils from RockAuto. In a few weeks I'll hopefully get a chance to work on it again.

Sweet! 

[Zetsaz]

Heading back home in just a couple days for easter and passover weeks. 

 

I... mostly... certain I have all the parts I need for the ignition upgrade and some new seals. 

 

As far as planning goes ITM flat tops are back in stock momentarily so I immediately snagged some from Rock Auto. MXN to USD exchange rate is very in my favor right now, the total shipped was about $240. Full $70 or so cheaper than just the list price from other vendors like Z Car Depot and waaaay cheaper than what some people are asking for on ebay or in facebook groups. 

 

Unfortunately swapping the pistons will probably require a full rebuild. Debating if I pull the engine my second week around and just go at it for a couple of 12+ hour days to get it done and back in or if I wait until summer. The other option is pulling the block before I leave and just dropping it off at a decent shop then just have a family member pick up the engine whenever they finish it so it's ready to drop in when I get back this summer.

 

We'll see... I was excited to just get at it until I remembered I'd also need to pull the timing cover and all that entails, it'll be better to just rebuild when everything is ready to go.

[1969honda]

HP Farms in Benson does really good work. They can get backed up and slow however, if you can pull it, drop it off, and pick up later in the summer/early spring it is worth it.

[Zetsaz]

First project now that I'm home is getting the new ignition coils in. Just had to swap out the stalks along with the new spring provided by Duffy. Taped the harness I got in two spots just to keep it a little tighter. I'm not the biggest fan of wiring that branches off in only one section, much prefer it to T off in multiple spots as it goes down the line, but I know that's a lot more time consuming. Regardless I'm actually really happy with the little subharness I got. 

 

A few pics included here show the shorter stalks, taped up, finished fitment and the before and after.

 

Already got the dwell times adjusted. Updated my megasquirt firmware for the first time in 4 years, and did some very mild adjustments. Feels like it's running much smoother than before - maybe that's full placebo effect happening, but even if the actual performance difference is negligible, I'm WAY happier with how much tidier and more serviceable this is than the previous setup.

 

 

Second mini project was just 30 seconds of adjusting the dampers on my coilovers. I softened them up after reading a post. I think I was overdampened for my spring rates, especially at the front and small but abrupt dips and other holes felt like they were pounding the whole car. Feels much smoother now. 

 

I think I'll be doing a lot of small projects again while I'm here, but I think within the next year I want to completely upgrade all my wiring, move to a nexus R3, switch to electric fans and reroute the hot side intercooler piping, and color match the engine bay to the exterior while the engine is out to rebuild with flat top pistons. 

 

In the meantime I'll cleanup major spots that need some attention and tidy up anthing from the transmission back that's causing little rattles or discomfort. 

[DuffyMahoney]

Man that looks good! Glad you are happy! You are the first to get the coils up and running outside of myself

[Zetsaz]

Lots of work this week. Moving from rear end forward:

 

-Replaced some rear parts with the T3 front diff mount, as well as their fancy rear caps to add their braces. Took forever because I had to chase a couple of the threads and add washers to get clearance. I don't know if my front mount from them was just a bad item or if the fitment is that poor. Diff was touching the center piece that bolts to the crossmember when I first tried to tighten it up, mean it might as well have been hard mounted. Washers helped so I'm moving for now, but I'll report back with what T3 says. 

 

-Had to go without the driver side brace for now due to exhaust clearance. My exhaust is already just okay, so I think sometime soon it'll finally be time to have it professionally adjusted with better mounting.

 

-Replaced the transmission mount with a Kameari reinforced mount. Feels mostly noticeable at higher RPM or when taking off faster. The old one was in good shape so it's probably the only time it was flexing more.

 

-Took off the old oil pump and went ahead and replaced it with the new Kameari pump. Gasket had failed. I figured if I'm replacing the gasket I might as well throw on the new pump instead of waiting for when I rebuild the engine.

 

-Finally bothered to figure out my IAC. Turns out my old Jeep stepper required different wiring than the GM. Megamanual shows two different wirings depending on if the center pins have ~50ohms resistance or infinite - sure enough, I had the wiring wrong. Tweaked my settings a bit after confirming it worked and now I have a very steady idle in the low 800s, and starting up with no issues and with no need to press the gas pedal. 

 

-I also degreased a lot of the underside which had gotten caked in grime from the oil pump gasket leak. My rear main seal is still leaking but at least that's more of a drip and not a mist across the entire underside while I'm cruising like the oil pump was causing. 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 1 by Zetsaz

[Zetsaz]

Couple of small things coming up as I prep the car for summer

 

-Still super unhappy with the fitment on the exhaust, especially after the rear bracing was added. Have gotten in touch with some folks that do stainless about some adjustments.

 

-New vinyl trim for the rear arrived. Won't be tearing anymore and won't have the holes on top of the strut towers. Should finally be able to start buttoning up the interior. 

 

-Purchased a new valve cover. This one came up and seller accepted my offer. Red might have been better, but it was sold. The bronze will sort of match the interior and right now I think it's a good homage to the original brown paint on the first shell I had that was unfortunately beyond saving. I think I'll eventually modify mine to relocate the breather, and shave some of the bits with threaded holes are for the old spark plug cable holders and make it red with polished lettering like the one on the right.

 

 

- Also had a friend help with a better design on the distributor cover. The original was just a very plain 3d printed cover. Friend has a nicer printer that can do much smoother work with carbon and started making a better design when I sent him the old one and he didn't like it haha. Should be a fun change. 

The plan is to print it in black and maybe fill the Z logo with enamel

 

[Jboogsthethug]

Man I would love to learn 3D printing, that would be awesome! Those T3 Parts are so sweet man!

[calZ]

5 hours ago, Jboogsthethug said:

Man I would love to learn 3D printing, that would be awesome! Those T3 Parts are so sweet man!

 

The latest generation of printers has made it pretty dang easy. They're basically as easy to use as paper printers at this point. Learn some basic modeling skills from YouTube and you're off to the races. 

[Zetsaz]

16 hours ago, Jboogsthethug said:

Man I would love to learn 3D printing, that would be awesome! Those T3 Parts are so sweet man!

 

I honestly haven't done too much. Most of what I've printed so far have been things others have made and made freely available. Usually my cousin or a friend have printed things for me. T3 parts ARE nice. Fitment has occasionally been JUUUUST a bit off but it's almost always when I have to chase some threads or because I have mismatched parts from such a broad range of dates on my stuff. That rear brace on the driver side is unfortunately gonna hit my exhaust so I have a guy that does stainless work checking out the car at some point soon and hopefully redoing some of it to correct things and get better clearances everywhere. 

 

11 hours ago, calZ said:

 

The latest generation of printers has made it pretty dang easy. They're basically as easy to use as paper printers at this point. Learn some basic modeling skills from YouTube and you're off to the races. 

 

I think we're about at the point with 3D printers, in terms of reliability, as home inkjet printers were when I was a kid. Still not quite as mainstream but getting there. I remember inkjet printers being good for getting my homework done when I was still using floppy disks to take my work between home and school, but they were pretty slow, and the ink ran out pretty fast.

 

I think within the next 10 years we'll be approaching where laser jet printers are now and we'll have reliability and speed in a mainstream consumer level printer. 

Edited May 10 by Zetsaz

[Zetsaz]

Small extra purchases recently to be installed before the annual Cache Cruise-In

 

-Lonely Driver Co. "Juliet" Oil cap

 

-New OEM dome lamp - these are unreasonably expensive from US vendors, managed to get one at nearly half price from a Japanese eBay vendor

 

-Reproduction 5 speed shift knob - I love wood shift knobs, and wanted something original but the datsun thread is smaller than the 240sx shifter, meaning it can't be adapted easily. Bought a reproduction that looks to be decent quality from a woodworker that makes them with your choice of thread. We'll see how it turns out.

 

Last thing I'm hoping to do before I head home for summer is get the original shifter bag remade in leather. Hopefully this weekend I  finally have the mental capacity and energy to go out to the downtown area and get some materials to hand over to an interior specialist at a customs shop near my apartment.

[Zetsaz]

Friend in Washington printed the new distributor cover for me yesterday. Way bigger than he expected haha. The turbo dizzy was a much bigger diameter than the NA one.

 

Here's hoping it fits! A mutual friend up there has a turbo Z we were hoping to test fit a cheap print with, but apparently he sold the turbo dizzy when he went with a OneSix CAS.

 

If this doesn't fit we'll be reprinting when I'm up in Washington this summer.

 

Still undecided if I want to do red or white enamel in the Z logo and smooth out the print

[Zetsaz]

Have spent probably 20 hours in the last few days working on details before this weekend's parade

 

Easy stuff first, got the new dizzy cap on and it fits beautifully. I love the look on this thing

 

New valve cover is a super nice piece too. I was slightly hesitant about the bronze but it ties in with the brown interior even better than j expected 

 

Next the interior vinyl was very long overdue for an update. The strut tower vinyl was ugly and tearing a bit, and had the holes on top since it was from a 76 when they started mounting the top of the seat belts there. The pieces that goes over the wheel arches were also splitting and I had never bothered to glue them so it was always annoying looking through the window at exposed sound deadening. Took a long time and put speakers in the stock locations while I was at it, but it was worth it. Also cleaned the flat piece behind the seats that goes up to the deck floor and installed that instead of the carpet that came with my carpet kit. 

 

Lastly I finally got the bumper back on. After looking through a variety of tests by independent YouTubers, I decided regular old high strength JB weld would be more than good enough for the job. I can't remember which specific metric they tested that convinced me, maybe it was against sheer forces? I went ahead and put some on the other bracket in the rear as a precaution. I don't trust the 6 tack welds holding the bent plate with the studs on the bumper by themselves anymore 

 

Regardless, I cut more of the bottom of the skillard grill and used different brackets. Older and simpler design that only required two bolts to the body, but didn't slit through the grill. I think it's a better design for serviceability anyway. The skillard grill combined with the front splitter made it nearly impossible to service anything up front - because the skillard brackets go through two of the grill pieces, there was no way to pull it off without also taking off the bumper. You could only access it from the side which gets annoying leaning over things and hoping your hands fit. Now I just remove 4 small bolts and the grill comes right off over the top of the bumper.

 

EDIT: Oh yeah, also finally put the rear sway bar on and it's a noticeable difference! I was sent the wrong bolts (again). T3 was right that they used to use a 3/8 thread back when I bought the drop mounts and have since switched to M10 (smart), but they sent me 3/8-24 instead of the regular thread 3/8-16.

 

For those who are a little slow with car stuff like me I did the math - a 3/8 bolt is 1/64" smaller diameter than an M10 and the -16 thread is nearly identical to an M10x1.25 - so a 3/8 bolt happily and comfortably goes into an M10 thread with hardly any play when you're using the thread checker at a hardware store, but an M10 bolt will frustratingly not go into a 3/8 thread despite seeming correct at first glance.

 

Edited July 3 by Zetsaz

[DuffyMahoney]

Coil bracket is looking mint!