My Engine Build

[Ben's Z]

I am going to chronicle my start to finish engine rebuild, engine bay refresh, engine swap and finally performance in this thread.

I am pulling out my NA 280Z motor for a 280ZXT motor swap.

Bought a 1983 280zx Turbo parts car with hydraulic cam.

Goal: 250-270 rwhp on OE ECU with mechanical fuel and boost enhancements.

Walbro 255 Fuel Pump

Manual Boost Adjuster

FMIC

Bell Engineering Rising Rate Fuel Pressure Regulator

3" Exhaust

I was having a friend of mine rebuild the 165k 280zx engine in Austin, but the engine just sat there since March. He had some family issues come up so I hauled it back to Houston Wednesday. I put it on the stand last night and took a few hours creating a mess of my garage. I removed the head. I spun the block around took off the oil pan and removed all the rods caps and pushed out the pistons and rods.

I am going to try to rebuild this engine myself. I feel this puts me in the upper echelon of "shade tree" mechanic, all while working in the confines of my not so shade tree air conditioned garage here in southeast Texas.

Here is what I found after getting oily last night.

Rod journals look flawless.

Still have some cross hatching in the cylinder bores, Not sure I will get away with just a hone.

I am doing a swap from the hard to find hydraulic lifter set up to the traditional lash adjuster style. I am going to have the machine shop handle the head work. I hope to minimize milling on the head as not to distort tolerances between the good used stock cam I am using and the lash pads etc. Here are some random pictures.

Rented a balancer puller and plan on taking the timing cover, chain and crank out tonight.

Will be working with Andrew "ZCurves" shortly to put all new EFI and engine harness connectors on the turbo harness.

[Zed Head]

Good luck with the manual boost controller and the RRFPR. I've still not seen anyone report that this method gave a civilized upgrade. Boost can be increased without blowing up the engine, but there always seems to be other problems that crop up. Interested in how it turns out.

When you say "OE ECU", do you mean OE NA 1977, or OE turbo 83?

[Ben's Z]

Should have stated OE Turbo ECU. Looking to run about 11 PSI of boost. Factory was 7.

Good luck with the manual boost controller and the RRFPR. I've still not seen anyone report that this method gave a civilized upgrade. Boost can be increased without blowing up the engine, but there always seems to be other problems that crop up. Interested in how it turns out.

When you say "OE ECU", do you mean OE NA 1977, or OE turbo 83?

[Ben's Z]

How does one remove the rear main seal main bearing cap! Beating on it with a rubber shot hammer will only wiggle it back and forth. Main cap between 3 and 4 holes was a PITA too but got it off. Please help with rear!

[Zed Head]

Monroe's "How To Rebuild..." book says to put a bolt in the threaded hole in the cap, lay a 2x4 on the block, then put a pry bar under the bolt head and pry it up and out.

It's a good book to get, if you don't already have it.

[siteunseen]

I second that book and the nice folks on this forum. I rebuilt a whole motor reading that book and asking opinions on here. I sat that book on the towel rack in front of the toilet so it was always fresh, it's step by step and unlike most books he doesn't ever say "Do the reverse of step # so and so". It's $20 at amazon.com.

[Ben's Z]

Got it! Just so happened to have a big machine screw that fit in the main cap. Drilled a hole in some 3/4x3/4 square tubing that was 3 feet long, one foot on the engine stand and out she came.

Monroe's "How To Rebuild..." book says to put a bolt in the threaded hole in the cap, lay a 2x4 on the block, then put a pry bar under the bolt head and pry it up and out.

It's a good book to get, if you don't already have it.

[Zedyone_kenobi]

YOu rock man! Keep it up!!

[Ben's Z]

Was on vacation back up in the Midwest and not much to report on. I did drop off my block, head, crank, rods, piston, intake, and exhaust manifolds to "Ted's Machine Shop" in Conroe, TX. Personally I am always a little leery of shops who do not see these motors too often as I suspect most don't. I did feel better when talking to them about putting in my good used cam and changing over from a hydraulic adjustment to a lash adjusted cam on the P90A head. I said I had an extra set of cam towers and the manager said this. "When they align bored those cam towes for the cam at the factory they were torqued to spec on the head at that point, it can some times be tough to get mismatched or cam towers from another head to work as well." All of what he said I know to be true and made me feel a hell of a lot better. Should hear back from the shop some time this week. I think they are only going to charge around $200 for a complete head job. I feel this is very fair. Stay tuned.

[Ben's Z]

Update: Head is toast. They tried to tig weld some corrosion from electrolysis but it was thin enough they poked a hole into a water jacket underneath a valve spring! Trying to source a bare P90 or P79 from some guys over on hybrid z. Meanwhile the block is good and only need a hone. Rods were good. Crank has been polished. They won't rebuild my shortblock because 1) they don't use customer supplied parts (understandable: however I am getting most all of my parts for free) 2) to warranty motors they insist on boring them, yet they say mine doesn't need to be bored, I found this odd.

Regardless I will probably be taking to the short block myself. Big step in the automotive Jedi master world. Never have put an engine together.

Zcurves has my Turbo harness and is installing new connectors for me. That is all for now!

[GingerTurtle]

Ben, are you part of the Houston Z club? I work in Spring and live in Conroe if you need an extra hand with your rebuild.

[Ben's Z]

Does anyone have any past experience painting a block? The block is degreased and all but there is some surface rust and of course the OE paint. I took a wire wheel on a drill and removed what flaking paint there was. I also got a lot of rust off the block, but naturally there is some left. The machine shop put in steel freeze plugs not brass so I am forced to paint them unfortunately. How crazy do I have to get on getting the block clean? Seems to me any OE paint that is in good shape should be left well enough alone and can be painted over? How about rust in the nooks and crannies? Should I POR 15 the block first maybe then paint it? Is POR 15 good with heat? Is this overkill? I bought VHT engine block paint.

I THINK I might be able to get the block in my www.barrelblaster.com barrel blaster, but I am worried even using glass bead and even not directly hitting the cylinder walls or block deck I may affect sealing with the rings and head gasket. Thoughts?