Oddmanout84 Posted March 27, 2010 Author Share Posted March 27, 2010 Been running the car for over a week now since the install. The clunking sound is still present during warmup, but the rough running is gone and the car idles normally. The AFR gauge, though, seems to be dead for some reason. It constantly blinks the first red light of lean, no changes. Odd. I really want to figure out what the clunk is though. Its not like any other clunk I've heard an engine make, because its not regular. I can't begin to describe the sound, somewhere between a percolating coffee pot and turning a cement mixer that's filled with large irregular pieces of wood. A very deep sound, but hard to hear sometimes. What is this sound and why is it there... it doesn't make sense... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oddmanout84 Posted March 29, 2010 Author Share Posted March 29, 2010 Oh, and the car has a new hood, non-vented, lifted off of an early Z. Also installed the spare hinges I had kicking around, replacing my old bent ones. Now the entire thing is flush. Also, last shot of the dash before I take it out again and replace all the gauges. I'll do a little cleanup as well, and hopefully reattach the wheel well vinyl. Maybe I'll even get around to getting the stereo to work again, but its still hard to imagine cutting holes into the nice black door cards I have... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rturbo 930 Posted March 29, 2010 Share Posted March 29, 2010 Instead of the door cards, why not the little panel in front of the doors? I've seen them mounted there. Don't know if it'll get in the way of your feet, but just thought I'd throw the idea out there. And I agree, don't cut your nice black door cards. I do not like the speakers-in-the-door mod AT ALL. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cygnusx1 Posted March 29, 2010 Share Posted March 29, 2010 (edited) Â Looking great. Â I feel that you can achieve a good sound system these days without doing any cutting of any interior. Â Add a mid and sub cabinet in a clever hiding spot like the tail light area or right behind the seats down low. Â The get your imaging from micro sized tweeters placed up near the headliner, seat backs, or around the dash area with double face tape. Â Tuck the wires neatly and you have a good system with no "interior invasion". Â Edited March 29, 2010 by cygnusx1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PR280z Posted March 29, 2010 Share Posted March 29, 2010 (edited) Try putting the boost gauge in the hole nearest to the steering wheel when reinstalling gauges. It`ll be a lot easier to read. You also have to do something about that front grill. I`ll be combining two early style 240z grills to cover the whole front opening on my 78Z. Edited March 29, 2010 by PR280z Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yetterben Posted March 29, 2010 Share Posted March 29, 2010 What happned to your drivers head light bucket paint chips Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ModernS30 Posted March 29, 2010 Share Posted March 29, 2010 I will sell you some brown door cards so you don't cut up those nice black once. Get the 9x6 box setup by your tail lights there if not. Cutting up nice door cards like those is illegal these days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oddmanout84 Posted March 29, 2010 Author Share Posted March 29, 2010 (edited) Try putting the boost gauge in the hole nearest to the steering wheel when reinstalling gauges. It`ll be a lot easier to read. You also have to do something about that front grill. I`ll be combining two early style 240z grills to cover the whole front opening on my 78Z. Oh, I will be. Boost gauge going right above the AFR, or in its place, along with the oil pressure all in the pillar cluster. The only reason the boost gauge is there now is because that's the only place it would fit, and it was better than nothing. Lol, the grill. That was just an experiment to see what a full grill would look like, all I did was bolt on the top and zip tie a smaller 280 grill to the bottom. Not sure if I like it, may be going with a mesh 432 type grill. That experiment has been going on for over 6 months, I've been too lazy to remove it. What happned to your drivers head light bucket paint chips GOOD EYE. The whole reason I got the 240z hood from my friend is because of a little mishap. I was parked at my uncles house behind his van for a day. When he got up to go to work the next morning he forgot the car was there and backed straight into it. Crushed the hood, bent the grill, chipped the paint on both buckets and slightly bent them as well. He was pretty upset, and made himself half a day late to work just to help me bend and fix the hood to a somewhat more "straight" state. It still looked like ass but was fine until I got the new hood. I still have to repaint though... which is going to happen anyway. Those T-Tops need to go bye-bye. However, all this cosmetic crap is probably going to take a back seat to the possible BHG that I may have. Still running tests for diagnosis, but it doesn't look good. Car running hot at idle, bubbles in the radiator when revved, slightly OILY bubbles sometimes... #2 spark plug mysteriously clean... The only thing that doesn't fit is the lack of white smoke. Still have not figured out what the "mystery noise" is but it could be exhaust gasses being forced into the coolant/oil lines. Hard to see why I'd have a BHG. The car has not been pushed hard, I've used only premium fuel, and its always shown nearly full rich on the AFR while under load. Never heard a ping either... Edited March 29, 2010 by Oddmanout84 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rturbo 930 Posted March 30, 2010 Share Posted March 30, 2010 FWIW, I never cared for the mesh fairlady grill, especially for the price. I think two 240z grills looks pretty good, or a custom grill like HLS30-08077 has. BTW, do you need a roof skin? I have one that I really don't see myself using, but you're a little far for local pickup. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oddmanout84 Posted March 30, 2010 Author Share Posted March 30, 2010 FWIW, I never cared for the mesh fairlady grill, especially for the price. I think two 240z grills looks pretty good, or a custom grill like HLS30-08077 has. BTW, do you need a roof skin? I have one that I really don't see myself using, but you're a little far for local pickup. Fairlady grill: Wasn't keen on the price either, which is why I was planning to take measurements and fab my own. I bought two pieces of aluminum mesh when I had my 3000GT years back but never used them. Good thing. I have a '73 roof that's *mostly* rust free (just a small patch mid windshield) that I'll be using. Even has a decent black headliner. We cut it at the bottom ends of each pillar, so I was considering welding it on at those points. Don't know if that idea is better than just welding it at the top of each on my existing pillars... um, hopefully that was clear enough. Compression check: 1. 140 (145 w/ 30w) 2. 148 3. 149 4. 148 5. 148 6. 149 Looks good enough to me. Tomorrow: burping the coolant again, this time with a better overflow tank installed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oddmanout84 Posted May 13, 2010 Author Share Posted May 13, 2010 Started out as an intermittent rattle. Found a crank pulley bolt that had backed off, cracked and worn crank pulley, worn woodruff keyway, timing chain guide worn to the metal, combustion chambers covered in hard and flaky deposits. I've had this motor for less than a year, and its a very low-time motor (>6000 miles). Life is pain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oddmanout84 Posted December 14, 2010 Author Share Posted December 14, 2010 (edited) Down, but far from out, my 280z remains. A lot has happened since early summer, but to sum it up quickly the machine shop took forever to work on the motor. So long, that I completely got out of habit of working on the car. Some other work was done while I was bored, as long as it didn't cost and measurable amount of money (the aero and tail lights were free). The engine came back from the machine shop cleanly bored and decked moths later, the entire rotating assembly balanced together.... and went straight to the back of the garage. And so it sat. I sold my beloved Harley Davidson to buy a reliable daily driven Mazda, and have only recently begun collecting the rest of the parts I need to rebuild the L28. Clevite bearings in standard size were remarkably hard to find from one of my usual suppliers, so they were eventually found on ebay. And so now it begins, the rebuild. And now I'm not so sure about the L28... some better deals may have come along... Edited December 14, 2010 by Oddmanout84 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oddmanout84 Posted January 31, 2011 Author Share Posted January 31, 2011 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theguppies Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 how did you do the tail light conversion? did it require and fab? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oddmanout84 Posted February 1, 2011 Author Share Posted February 1, 2011 how did you do the tail light conversion? did it require and fab? Very easy. Just a few cuts and some new holes drilled. And of course a lot of mocking up the pieces to make sure they were straight. Now that I have a welder, I might go and patch up the reverse light hole that's still there, but its not an absolute priority. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oddmanout84 Posted February 9, 2011 Author Share Posted February 9, 2011 I smell the smelly smell of impending progress.... ... and a full set of new ARP hardware. The rod bolts and main studs had been held up in the midwest for quite some time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MazterDizazter Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 Very nice! My progress comes in the form of ARP head studs and a new timing set, and unfortunately that's it Still need to buy a fuel cell and an AZC billet aluminum diff. mount and mustache bar for the R200 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oddmanout84 Posted February 9, 2011 Author Share Posted February 9, 2011 (edited) Very nice! My progress comes in the form of ARP head studs and a new timing set, and unfortunately that's it Still need to buy a fuel cell and an AZC billet aluminum diff. mount and mustache bar for the R200 Yeah, I hear you. This is only enough for me to complete the block. I still want/need to get fuel lines, big front brake kit, LSD, and do a bunch of welding among other things. Progress is still slow... Edited February 9, 2011 by Oddmanout84 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oddmanout84 Posted February 10, 2011 Author Share Posted February 10, 2011 I didn't get much done today, but I did make progress. I've cleaned this block about 5 times now to make sure there's no contaminants or bits of metal and cloth. Clevite 77 main bearings are in. Plastigauged all the mains and everything is within specs. I hate removing and installing the main caps over and over again. The Datsun rebuild book I've been following says to wet everything with oil, but I figured I'd do it one step better. The Clevite engine assembly lube I'm using is the color and consistency of strawberry jam. Very thick, very sticky and gooey. It doesn't taste like strawberries though. Dropping the crank in was nearly a panic attack scenario. Rear main seal was smeared with molybdenum and put on the crank first. After laying the bead of RTV in the groves of the rear main, I had to rush to get the crank into the block and torque it down... along with several other things in between. Its also really hard to do seeing as I can barely squeeze fingers between the back of the block and engine stand. Though that assembly lube is great, its so thick that I could barely tell if the crank was moving back and forth when I aligned the thrust faces of the bearings. After everything was cinched down to final torque the crank spins freely... as freely as one can imagine something spinning in a jar of fruit preserves. Tomorrow if all goes well I'll be sizing the piston rings and installing the rest of the internal rotating assembly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dunlop Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 Why did you put ketchup on your main bearings? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.