L28 Rebuild? Swap? Leave Alone?

[Ptero]

haha, yeah I wasn't actually planning on using the dipstick either.  It's just a comment I found elsewhere but I liked the idea of finding TDC using that method.

[rossiz]

A dial indicator and a degree wheel will get it right. It's surprising how much play there is at top of the stroke. You can do the "split the difference " method a lot more accurate with a hard stop - make one from an old plug and gently turn to contact in both directions then measure halfway btwn the marks

Edited March 12, 2015 by rossiz

[grannyknot]

I put a pencil in #1 spark plug hole and slowly moved the crank until the pencil didn't move up any further.  Super scientific!  I know!

I used this method for years until last year when 2" of the pencil broke off in the cylinder and of course it was the end with the metal band on it. I spent many hours trying to pull it out through the spark plug

hole but finally had to remove the head. Now I use a drinking straw the same as siteunseen.

[Captain Obvious]

Wow. That sucks that you had to pull the head just to get the pencil stub out. I've not done that, but I did drop a small bolt down the plug hole in one of my cars once. First attempt at retrieval was a magnet, but that wouldn't grab it because it kept getting stuck to everything else in there.

 

Second attempt was with a shop vac and a small diameter piece of tubing stuck down the hole. Taped the small tubing to the end of the large shop vac hose and went blind fishing. Worked like a charm. That would have worked on your pencil too if you could have gotten ahold of one of the ends instead of the middle somewhere.

 

 

[Zed Head]

Did you hear about the constipated mathematician?  He had to work it out with a pencil.  Har har, a joke from before calculators.

 

You probably could have worked that pencil out with some math though...

[Oiluj]

From Mike's post above:  "If I can do it, so can you. We here on this site can help keep your chin up when the going gets rough, all these things you contemplate have been done previously by our members here. It's not rocket science."

 

Mike said it well.  Rebuilding an engine is a great learning experience.  1st engine I rebuilt was a Pinto 2L.  Had very little idea what I was doing, just followed the instructions and pictures in a manual.   Engine ran fine and never leaked / burned a drop for the next three years.  Traded it in when I bought my 1st (previously owned) 240Z.  Saw the Z and just had to have it!

[Ptero]

Found TDC by using the method I mentioned above.  It's the middle marker of the 5 of the damper.  Once lined up on the middle marker, the cam timing marker was exactly matched as well.  I separated the engine from the transmission which was way, way, way, way easier than expected.  Now to clean it up and swap it with the one that's in the car now.  I'm making it sound way easier than it probably is.