Leaderboard

A good priority 👍

Sealing is the same for any engine that uses gaskets. Get high quality fiber based gaskets, not cork. Cork gaskets will leak before you even install them. For the oil pan, timing cover and rocker covers, be sure the flanges are straight, flat and true. No deformation around the bolt holes. Clean the mating surfaces with lacquer thinner using clean lint free rags, and wipe dry with another clean dry rag. This is important. The cleaning solvent must be wiped off before it dries, or any contamination will be left behind, and the sealer will not adhere properly. Apply a thin film of grey RTV (if there is squeeze out, you used too much), apply the gasket, apply more RTV to the other side, install the cover or pan and the bolts. Only run the bolts down finger tight (I use a 1/4 drive deep socket). Let it sit overnight. Pull the bolts out and add one drop of blue LocTite 242 to each one and reinstall. Then torque every bolt to the torque spec for the fastener size. Do not overtighten. For the intake manifold, again, don’t use cork gaskets. If I recall correctly, rubber gaskets come with the intake gasket set for the front and rear of the valley. A thin film of grey RTV on both sides, and an extra dab at the right and left ends where the surface transitions to the cylinder head (there was a GM service bulletin on this back in the day). The better quality gasket sets will have silicone sealer preapplied to the gaskets common to the head and intake manifold, so no additional sealer is needed there. If there is any squeeze out, you have too much sealer on. The excess can break off, get picked up by the oil pump and clog small oil passages in the crank, and valve train, resulting in lubrication failure. Like with the pan and covers, thread the bolts finger tight, wait overnight, then pull the bolts, add a drop of blue LocTite 242, and torque to spec. The distributor only needs a paper gasket, with no sealer. Again, do not use cork.

That is a beautiful car and you are deservedly proud of it. What you are attempting to communicate is laudable but likely impractical from a car show perspective. I have a 18" X 24" showboard that I cart around to car shows, propped up nicely on a good quality easel. This is my third pass at a workable showboard after learning that 1. less is more; 2. clarity is critical; 3. it must be readable from 3-4' away. The amount of info you are considering will require multiple boards to contain. Experience has shown me that anything that requires more than a couple of minutes to read will not get read. 99% of car show visitors do not have the patience to cover large amount of detail; you may encounter that one individual prepared to occupy you for an hour or more. You'll always find people that don't understand or appreciate the marque and probably never will. Focus on presenting YOUR car as effectively and succinctly as possible. ZCoT Showboard - Jim Arnett 3 PDF.pdf

Hi Guys, I have made this short clip, recorded this afternoon at the shop while they were doing the primer: video link Everything recorded and edited on iphone,, it feels amazing to think I might drive it before the heat arrives in the sand pit!

I'm the Wiz...I'm the Wiz.. Reserve not met, at $28,250.

I made a couple of faux 70's style posters for a friend.

It's time to test the mechanical pump for pressure (psi) and volume (gpm). The symptoms have the feel of a dying mechanical fuel pump. I remember a similar problem with my 71 back in the day.

There's a set for sale on here now for $250 and they look to be ready to go. That's cheap to me, the rebuild kits are $230. If it were me I would pay the $200 and keep them.

Can you look at the butterflys in the carbs? They should be closed. I think it's something in the linkage too if you've been working on that area. Here's something that I had out of order that caused high revs. This is a picture of the right way by the way. Oh yeah. Now my turn to play Captain Obvious. If you put a new ignition switch in maybe you got a wire in the wrong spot?

I spoke with Eiji....he said the factory recommends installing those bolts even without a crank fire wheel. I don’t know why, but above my pay grade to argue. FYI

It would have to be more than a quart low to have trouble picking up oil at idle (assuming the car is not moving). My first car was a 62 Impala with a 283. It leaked at the front and rear seals, the oil pan, and the rocker covers. It still ran great when I used that car up and sold it to the junk man, probably the only useful thing left. I was pretty hard on that car. My second car was a 64 Chevelle, 2 door post. I yanked the 6 banger out and dropped in a 327, and a 2 speed Powerglide out of a 65 Chevelle hardtop a buddy had that he totalled. It leaked oil, but not as bad as the 283 in the Impala. I sold that car and bought a 65 Comet Caliente, 289, 3 speed full syncro floor shift. It didn't leak oil, or burn any. Fun car. Fast car. My next car was a 66 Impala SS396, Turbo 400, posi rear end. The rear main leaked a little bit, but not enough to make me want to pull the tranny to fix it. Besides, I nearly went broke keeping tires in the rear wheels. After too many tickets I traded it straight across for a 66 VW Beetle. It didn't leak oil. It was a fun car to load up with beer and 3 buddies, then go up into the mountains where only 4x4's dare run. If we did run into a stretch that was impassable, we all got out, picked up the front of the car and swung it around. Otherwise we always had a good time watching the reactions from the 4x4s when we reached the top of a particulary difficult stretch of road. After that I bought a 72 Camaro. I did't leak oil. An old timer I apprenticed under showed me how to seal up Chevy engines. A while later I discovered Datsuns, started racing one, and bought a 73 GMC dually with a 396 to pull the race trailer. Using the secrets imparted by the sage mentioned earlier, I sealed it up. It was a good truck, and later replaced by a 75 Chevy 3500 dually with a 454. Again, leaking was addressed and that rig served me well. In 2001 I replaced it with a brand new Ram 3500, Cummins 5.9 24 valve and NVG 6 speed manual. I just gave it a 140,000 mile oil and filter change, rotated the tires and adjusted air pressures, and gave it a full inspection. I doesn't leak anything but torque. By the way, I like the color you shot the car with. What is it from? Looks a bit like the bright colors used on the Dodge and Plymouth muscle cars of the early 70's. Is a manual transmission coming? A 5 or a six speed would compliment the car well, especially on twisty roads, or the road course.

Typical Chevy engine, hemorrhaging oil from every possible place it can. You know it is time to add oil when it stops leaking, eh?

so i pulled the engine a lil while ago and tore it down, every rod bearing had some pretty nasty damage and i had detonation marks on two of the pistons. heads were fine so i sold them since i wouldn't be using them anymore. the block has been stripped and rotates in and out of the parts washer, the block isn't too heavy so i'm able to pick it up and put it in and out with relative ease, but it did damage the tray for the parts washer so i'm gonna build a new one. i plan on building it as a small cam big head type of motor so that i have room to grow later on. exhaust headers is the big hiccup i'm trying to sort out, i'm gonna try and make a set of lt1 longtube headers for like a 93-97 camaro fit, with 1 7/8" primaries they can take a little hammering around the steering gearbox if needed for clearance, since the motor pulls away from the gearbox they can be pretty close. i got a borla muffler specced specifically for a 383 so it'll sound really nice too. i'm also re doing a fair bit of wiring to clean things up, and i removed everything behind the dash except for like gauges and stuff so if anyone needs some ac parts let me know cause i don't have a use for them. i'm also removing whatever insulation stuff was there against the firewall because when i held a flame to it it created a bigger fire and i'm not very fireproof. i am also planning to do a cheap s13 coilover conversion in place of camber plates since the s13 coilovers have adjustable top hats already and id like a much stiffer springrate for the rear especially with the beefier engine. overall im very excited to continue building this car and making it faster. my build plan for the motor is as follows(let me know if something with this combo seems wildly off or something): promaxx 225cc IR aluminum heads with 2.02 valves, full 383 rotating assembly with flexplate and harmonic balancer matched to the rotating assembly, 1.5 roller tip rockers with grooved balls for better oiling, lunati barebones cam, 224/234 duration @ .050" 110LSA and 480/488 lift (int/exh), high volume normal pressure oil pump, aftermarket oil pan with windage tray and 7qt capacity, weiand single plane intake manifold(i might port it if it becomes a restriction), edelbrock 600cfm carb(only carb i have will upgrade to a 750cfm when the budget allows it) and lt1 headers if i can make them fit, 3in collectors into a 3in y for exhaust, valve springs are 115lbs closed pressure and 310lbs at .575" lift. im aiming for 9.5-10:1 compression ratio and a wider ring gap incase i decide to run boost or nitrous later on, arp bolts for everything important, 2 bolt main block but ive seen them make decent power when built properly, and the rpms wont exceed 6500 to help keep things together. the horsepower calculator estimates around 500hp for this setup, but with mechanical water pump and alternator and 600cfm carb i estimate closer to 450 ish, which will be more than enough for a street/strip/roll race car. torque converter has a 2500 stall speed so drag style launches wont be anywhere near enough power to really be breaking things, and if i do blow a diff i have another diff and axle set sitting on the shelf. i also have a full set of drilled and slotted rotors with semi metallic pads that will be going on the car very soon. im also trying to sort out a speedometer situation, i think ill end up using an 85mm gps speedometer with a 3d printed adapter to fit the hole so that i can know how much to slow down before the speed traps, theres a few spots where cops hide on back roads because theres lots of wineries and breweries so drunk drivers are frequent on the weekends so i don't drive much at night on the weekends anymore. i have a lot of ideas about the car and what i want to do with it and what direction i wanna go, i just gotta get there. its a beautiful car and its become truly my car and not just another z. i have a youtube channel that i'm gonna try and upload to more often, i have one video up from the top end disassembly (https://youtu.be/wzP2thSjRtQ). im also trying to change out the shifter to a gated shifter instead of the stock 3 speed auto shifter for the zx so that i can have better shift command, and so that i can keep the drivability it has on the street while also having the option of running it to 6500 if i so choose. if anyone has any questions feel free to ask or if someones got some advice i'm missing let me know. i have a rear strut bar that my seatbelts connect to and im gonna make a new front strut bar similar to the one apex engineered makes for the s30 to help up front as well, as even with stock struts and old tires i could feel the difference the previos one made on handling. IMG_2222.MOV

From previous posts by @Awk34, it does appear as though he is running carburetors. I remember a few years back at a car show, a young man was asking me about what ECU I was running in my car when I was still using SUs. He didn't understand for a while that the car did not need an ECU for fuel or spark. Perhaps @Awk34 is trying to put a digital gauge in the car to replace the stock water temp gauge. If that's the case, I wonder if he wants to keep the oil pressure gauge. Remember the old days when most of the signals we used were 4-20mA or 0-10VDC?

What do you mean by "digital" signal? You'll need some sort of converter to use a thermistor or thermocouple reading. That might determine the type of sensor you need which could determine where you put it.