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Hi , today I would like to show you this , a NOS trim panel for my car . Thanks @SteveE, I appreciate your great help . This piece is now very hard to see in this condition, not only for the early car style ( non-access panel type ) , also this is a blue panel ! I can confirm the real color when blue cars left from the factory . Next time I do some work for my new blue 240Z , I will show you the difference of color between two of them , old and new . I need to work for the car as it deserves this beautiful piece. It will be a long way . Or I will put this on my -2156 until -2146 becomes beautiful. Kats

Yeah that sounds about right. You put the RTV between the cover and the gasket so you can remove it all as one part when you need to service the valves. Black RTV and a black wrinkle finished cover is the correct choice. 😉

I'm in the NO RTV club. I worked on a guy's 280ZX turbo about a year ago. I was setting the valve lash for him. After that I was removing bits of RTV from the camshaft. Heaven knows how much got down into oil passages. Before putting on a new valve cover gasket, I thoroughly cleaned the mating surface on the head and valve cover gasket and sprayed out the valve cover to get more little bits of RTV out. Get a Nissan valve cover gasket. Line it up carefully. Don't over-torque the bolts when you put it on. Done.

The fuel injected heads have holes drilled and tapped for both carb intake manifolds and FI intake manifolds. What you're seeing there is the peeking out of one of the FI intake manifold mounting holes. Here's a (hoovered) shot of the side of a FI head where you can see all of the holes: So to answer the question about what pitch to use... I believe it is M10 x 1.25. If you can't get that to thread in, maybe the threads are mess up inside the head.

Hey! 39 / 11 = 3.54. That's what all of the 280Z R200's are. I went through the whole thing of trying to take out only the parts I was working on when I first did my diff, prying and torqueing bits and pieces. It was a pain. If I recall correctly, I ended up later just removing the mustache bar end nuts and the front crossmember and dropping all three pieces down as an assembly. The mustache bar makes a good handle for balancing and you can just drop everything straight down. It works for assembly too.

Some time this year, I want to replace the struts and springs on the 240Z. I have the struts, but I need to decide whether to use the Chevette springs I have on hand or go with the ZCarSource springs. Anyway, I have used the tongue & groove pliers (aka Channel Locks) on the 260Z gland nuts in the past, and I noticed that ZCarDepot came out with a gland nut wrench. However, me being me, I wanted to see what else I could find. I tried to find an octagonal socket, but no one seems to have a 2 inch octagonal socket. They are either much too large or much too small. Then I was doing some other tool searching and came across a 2" crow's foot. It was only about $20, so I pulled the trigger. The crow's foot looks like it could work. It certainly goes around the gland nut.

I recently started watching a TV show called "Engine Masters" and I really enjoy it. Granted... Most of their work and findings are primarily applicable to WOT drag racing kinda stuff, but I really like when they get into theory and concepts. I also like the friendly banter back and forth between the three guys on the show. Could easily be me and two buddies. I've got the DVR set up to pick it up. If you've got time to relax and want something "light", I recommend it.

I liked it when Dulcich said that he turned away because he just couldn't watch. And when Freiburger was talking about tipping them into a dumpster. Getting them to teeter juuuuussst right on the lip before giving the final push.

I'm watching it on the Motortrend channel on cable TV. Probably depends on if your cable provider carries that channel and what's included in your subscription. I also assume that you can "stream it on demand" as well. Whatever that means.

@Reptoid Overlords You are 100% correct that the plug was carbon fouled to a rich mixture. When I originally noticed the motor was running rough, it was behaving exactly like the motor did when it was running super lean across all cylinders. So I probably did exactly what you shouldn't do, but I richened the idle mixture screw on the AFM to see if it made a positive difference. It didn't, just choked out the motor. I since corrected the AFM back to normal and the plugs all look good again besides #1. However, right after running the motor super rich is where I decided to get smart and see if every cylinder was firing. That was when I made the discovery that #1 wasn't. Super easy to tell with the carbon fouled plug, and then other from #1.

I went back and watched the slant-six thing again where Dulcich was talking about the head gasket. "I actually agonized over the head gasket. There's only four fasteners per cylinder and they are puny 7/16 bolts, so not very good clamping. I was gonna use a little secret sauce on it. And do a little this and that on it. And then, you know, it was late at night. And it says 'USE NO SEALER' right on the gasket. So I'm just gonna slap it on there." What I want to know is... What is his secret sauce, and can I have some more details about what is involved with "this and that".

M4, .7, thanks! I do have the JIS screwdriver, without it I would never have been able to budge them. But, as I was removing them they were very tight, and the heads seemed rather soft and began to deform. I cleaned and oiled the threads as much as possible. Just glad I got them out, but would like to put new ones in if I can find them. The search is on. Thanks again!

Something about that #2 plug looks like it's getting a rich mixture. Not sure if it's a clue or not but it sure looks too rich to me. I'm wondering if all of the plugs removed would reveal wildly uneven mixtures throughout all 6 cylinders. Perhaps that would tell us something? I haven't quite worked out what all that would mean if anything at all.

The key is getting the torque on the bolts correct. I think the FSM says the torque spec is "tighten it until it doesn't leak"

I'm not sure about the screw size/type, but I do suggest getting some JIS screwdrivers to reduce the chances of messing up the heads in future.

Ooooo not to throw a wrench in the process but I’ve done the gasket dry with no sealant and haven’t had issues yet. But @heyitsramahas an EXCELLENT point about taking it off easily. Mine is a PITA to align everytime I did the valves….might need to RTV next time 🙂 edit: just to clarify, not saying RTV is bad. But you shouldn’t have issues if you dont use RTV too!

I find Steve Brule simply amazing. I mean the other two guys are no slouches either, but Brule is phenomenal. So about that slant six episode... They popped the head gasket due to the high cylinder pressures* and Dulcich said it was his fault because he put it in dry with no sealer on it. Have you heard him talk about what sealer he WOULD use (if he were using one?) Did he mention that in another episode that you've seen? *running ten pounds of supercharger boost on a 1967 slant six! LOL!!!

Yeah, I really like the theory stuff. Pretty much none of it applies to "normally" driven cars, but it's great anyway. The cam timing one I think might be the most applicable to the way most of us drive our cars. I watched the slant-six power last night and really enjoyed it. I was alone watching TV and honestly laughed out loud at least three times!

As long as it isn't from a 2+2

Dan, you don’t want to do it like it did. It’s hazardous for sure. I’ll post some lessons learned later. So after cracking open my old differential i discovered it is also a 3.9. It seems to be in good condition like the ZX one I have. These differentials are not 100% identical. The one I removed from the car is has 39.11 stamped in the Ring Gear. The replacement differential I got from a 1982 ZX has 39.10 stamped on the ring gear . The ring gear of the old Differential is thinner that the one from the 82” ZX. 29 vs 32 mils. I haven’t decided which one I’ll use. Seems like the one from the 82 ZX has more lash where the half shafts mount the my old one. . Here is some pics of the differences. The 82 ZX Differential is in the left in the pic.

It does look more like injector alone. You can do a lot before swapping injectors. You can measure resistance across the pins. Should be about 2.5 ohms. You can connect a 9 volt battery across the terminals, with a fuel pressure gauge connected. You should hear it click and see pressure drop as the fuel is squirted in to the cylinder. You can put a noid light in the injector plug and see if it flashes while the engine is running. If you had a bad vacuum leak at the injector you might also get a lean misfire. You could check that by squirting starting fluid or carb cleaner at the injector gasket while the engine is running. Should get some fire then if there's a leak. That might explain why you're hearing the right noises and seeing sparks but not getting fire.

This is where a "color tune" plug would come in real handy, lets you see inside the combustion chamber while its running. If they were not so darn expensive I would have 6 and use them anytime I was diag a problem with fuel mix/spark. With one you can observe the problem cylinder then compare to a know good cylinder. Two would be easier just look at them and compare. All 6 is overkill but would be cool just to see if how the mix is on all at the same time.

Over 20 years ago a friend used some waterbased paint on a oldtimer.. then he did not want to drive it because the paint chipped easy due to little stones i guess.. the paint was very soft.. i don't know what the waterbased paint is these days but the colormatching should be no problem. I think the oilbased (what i used on my 280zx) is still the best way to go on the oldtimers. New cars are all waterbased paint i think? (Maybe that's why they are all like oranges!!) Paintwork these "robopainterdays" i find completely S .#%&^$#%^$$. H .^&%#$%^$$. I .&%##%^% T !!!

Here's an update on the paint removal process, using heat and razor blades. The exterior is basically done. I will leave last traces of primer for my body guy to deal with. It's only about 0.5 mil thick, plus or minus.