zKars

Well thanks to you-all I have the solution. Just your virtual presence was enough. Actually I just had to write that out to get my thoughts in order. There are two oil gallery plugs, one in the back (I put that one in), and one in the front; which I didn't put back in.... Funny how that causes a short circuit for the oil pump right back to the pan. Easy enough to fix. I'll pretend I'm happy that it was the front one and not the back...... Much messier. And now we also get to find out just how good that Lubri-plate engine break in stuff is that I used....

Gang: Time to call on the engine building experts Finally got to the stage of starting the L28 in a very long term restoration project today. 71 240. Well it runs great, but with just about no oil pressure. oh god, what have i done.... So, the facts: Engine Fresh rebuild, top and bottom. Fresh everything. Including new oil pump. L28 flat tops, F54 block. E31 head, larger valves, stage 3'ish cam, nothing radical. Engine was assembled on stand 15 months ago, and oil pump run with drill and shaft to confirm prime and oil to the head. Everything is great. Engine put in car, but never started until today. Problem: Runs great, but oil pressure on stock gauge was observed just above 0. Changed sender. Same thing. Screwed mechanical gauge in engine port. Same.... Barely moves if at all. Think.. What did you do idiot... Change out new oil pump for used oil pump. Same problem. Oil pump full of oil when removed. It is primed. Remove cam cover, remove dizzy drive and use drill with shaft into oil pump. CCW rotation, 400 rpm drill. Cam is seeing oil at all holes (internal oiled cam, towers have block off plates), but its just dribbling out of the holes. Pump is turning real easy... Oil filter is full. oil dribbles out of engine port when I remove the sender or mech. gauge. Did compression test, 150 psi across the board. Engine ran all of 5 minutes initially before decided to shut it off due to the oil pressure. Block history. F54 block was taken from junkyard zx to machine shop (7+ years ago). Everything was bad. Crank crooked, bores crooked. All was fixed, bored 040 I think, new pistons, rings, crank turned down some, rods sized, undersized bearings supplied. Everything sat disassembled waiting for a car to put it in. I assembled engine 15 months ago for this project car. Checked ring gaps, and a couple of bearing main and rod clearances with plasti-gauge. What I checked looked great. No I didn't check all the bearings, maybe I should have... My bad. So, other than the first thing that comes to mind, like HUGE bearing clearances, what other stuff may I have forgotten that would cause this type of issue? Ideas please!

Spray glue some 120 grit sandpaper to a flat wooden stick, about 3/4" square by about 8 inch long. Use this to remove the gasket material and to keep the surfaces flat as you do it. Do each section between the alignment pins. Only use sandpaper for the last very thin bits, use a single edge razor blade for the rest. Aluminum nicks easy. Go slow. Patience grasshopper.

Clearly its not the pump if the switch made no change. Sorry for jumping to conclusions. Very suspicious that it stays at perfect 70.

Suspect the pres. regulator in the oil pump. Take it apart and clean/inspect.

"The rod is at the machine shop being shortened..." Lose your hacksaw? or did you decide to shorten the end with the clevis?

If it ; Looks like a duck; That “we all fell in love with it the first time we saw it” look, the face with little or no makeup, long lovely body lines and unmistakable rear end.. Smells like a duck; Subtle “odour” of exhaust, and/or raw gas, that blast of Japanese plastic when you first get in... Quacks like a duck; The sweet song of the in-line 6 from behind, and if you’re lucky, triples breathing from the front at the same time... Then it’s a duck...

Comparing the electrical sections of two FSM's will yield more accurate comparisons I think. xenons30.com reference section will help with that. The Fuel injection schematics for the 78 show three separate relays instead of the "pair" that Zedhead refers to that exist in the earlier 280's. There is an EFI relay, a Fuel pump relay and a Fuel pump control relay on a 78, all related to the loss of the AFM fuel pump contacts replaced by an oil pressure switch system. The FP control Relay and FP relay are in the engine bay on the bracket with all teh other relays and V. Reg instead under the dash. Long story short, there may be some "challenges" in putting a 78 harness in your 77....

Aha! Details do matter indeed. Should add your car details to your sgnature. I have a couple of 77 doors by chance at the moment, I can check for spacers at the mounting points, but I don't remember any. new 1/4 window rubber is a real pain. See if the four 3mm bolts that attach it to the body window frame are extra long indicating the window is not sucked into its correct resting spot. There should one be about 1/8" max (or less) between the tab the bolt threads into on the window and the body tab the bolt passes through. If its tight, then its in the right spot and the frame is out of whack. Door games and the hardware are all fresh in my memory from several door related assembly and adjustment chores I've had to do this year. I no longer fear removing and replacing the glass for example. I'll do it on a whim to get better access to swap door handles just for the fun of it now! Those 77-78 doors are SO much better than the early ones, though there are more adjustments....

I have one of the cross members you show in post #1. Its yours for $10 + shipping. Drop me a line to z240@shaw.ca. Glad to get rid of it. The auto/manual labelling on that shot is incorrect. The series 1 z's have a different trans body mount system, where you put the cross member in with two 8mm vertical bolts (which requires the style in-correctly labelled as Auto and the style in post #1), all other s30's use the type with pair of 12mm horizontal bolts, using the crossmember style labelled as manual. I've always wondered about the mount in post #1, ie which came first, it or the one mis-labelled as auto, and if so, what is the VIN break point for their use? Is it an A vs B type trans mount selection for early cars, ie some kind of cross over point where the trans went to the B type, by the trans x-member mounts on the car were still the vertical bolt type? I'm sure someone will chime in with details.

Carl Can't resist a good hunt. http://www.kyb.com/service/installationtips/installationtip08.php "When installing a KYB strut cartridge do not put any water, oil or any other liquids inside of the strut housing. Any existing fluid should be removed from the housing before installing the new cartridge. KYB cartridges are designed and engineered to operate without any additional liquids." Dang, I was planning on smuggling scotch inside my strut tubes... So much for that plan....

Remember that most of what the rebuilder charges for is work you CANNOT do at home. High precision measuring to determine what NEEDS to be done, then if needed, boring, sizing, straightening, etc. Yes you can re-assemble it instead of the shop to save money, but that's not much % of the total cost. You cannot not just replace rings and bearings with stock sizes, run a hone in it, and clean things up to re-assemble and cross your fingers. Waste of time and energy. The engine is in better shape than that right now probably. You MUST pay the shop to at least evaluate things and let you know what NEEDS to be done. Then you can decide what to do from there. The disappointment of the loss of your friends help cannot overshadow the reality of the what it costs to do the motor right. just trying to keep you from a bigger disappointment of the risk of your rebuild turning out worse than it was before for the sake of a few $$. Just keeping it real.

Coming for ZCON then doing the Datsun Classic on the way home! What could be better! Thanks! "Dear Boss: Remember that vacation I booked for Sept 18-23? Well tack on a couple of weeks please. Won't be back until middle of October! Zee ya! "

Wrong link! Nice truck but not 127! http://vancouver.en.craigslist.ca/rds/cto/3126216840.html

1) For 240 and 280 to end of 76, the sash is held to the door by eight 6mmx1.0 bolts, all about 15-20mm long with a trapped flat washer. There are three at the back edge of the door (exposed), one top rear corner (under door panel just behind the lock pull button)), two front under the door panel, and two more on the angled exposed door edge in front of the window. The 240 and 280 sashes are very similiar, but are not the same, and are difficult to bolt up to each others doors. 280 sashes are easy to spot as they have the groove in the top to hold a piece of weatherstrip. The groove thing I believe didn't start with the first 280's. I've tried to use a 280 sash on my 240 doors to take avantage of that weatherstrip as another wind seal, but no luck getting it to fit. So close... The 77-78 sashes are totally different again. 2) No spacers. 3) It had a break. It was under the tin black vinyl covered rub strip at the bottom of the door. The Kia WS have a natural bend at one spot that I position at the 90deg corner of our doors, then let the break fall where it may. Somewhere near the pin switch I think. Never had a problem with water encroachment. Ain't doors fun?

You have been fooled by a common problem. The 280 rack has a wider spacing on the drivers side bushing flanges, and requires a wider bushing. the poly kits are different for 280 and 240, and the only difference (just about) is that one bushing. Seems like you got the 240 bush in a 280 rack. I see Chuck beat me to it, Thanks!

I have some spares. Drop me a note to z240@shaw.ca and we'll take it from there. The turbo AFM has larger inlet and outlet diameters, your 280 boots wouldn't fit.

looks like the O2 sensor wire.

I feel your pain. Support the diff with a jack and remove the front diff cross member. One 14 mm nut in the center (diff insulator), then four 14 mm bolts that hold the crossmember to the car. The suspension/control arms that it traps will be fine. Hopefully the exhaust lets you have room to wiggle the x-member out. Then it gets easy (er) to get to those drive shaft bolts. The drive shaft bolts have a flat spot on the head that sit in the driveshaft side of the ujoint body, that prevents them turning and must in inserted as you see them, ie nuts to the rear. Good luck. If on the other hand, you are doing this as part of a engine/trans removal, just leave the drive shaft in place and pull the trans/engine out. It will slip right off. I started doing it that way after I got sick of fighting with these drive shaft bolts too.... I just guide the DS back in to the trans as I put the engine/trans back in too. Not that hard.

AH yes, the old 280 passenger side rats nest connector corrosion problem. Likely the result of past coolant leaks and maybe water seapage from above (windshield and cowl) that have soaked them resulting in your "current" mess. (sorry for the pun) Sadly, the round pin 280 connector styles do not seem to have a replacement source. vintageconnections.com has many of the earlier 240 style connectors and pins, but for 280's you best bet may be a new new(er) wiring harness. Put an advert in here for someone wrecking a same-year car that has these harnesses in better shape. Each year has its little differences, you generally can't swap around. Using any other style of connector (thyere are many, Weatherpac, Deutch etc) is tedious as you have to splice every wire and keep track of everything. Do-able, but not by everyone. If its a say 10-20 wires, I might be tempted to do a slightly better job of exactly what you've done and do a careful cut/solder/shrink splice new wire to "jumper" out the bad connections altogether. Do them one at time for ease and safety. Clean the rest as best you can. Products like "DeOxit" are much better at removing corrosion than the run of the mill alcohol based electrical connector cleaners you can get at Radio shack and those sort of place. Good luck

That's a nice shot if you're trying to INSTALL the gland nut Blue. Stop confusing the poor guy!! They can be a real pain in the you-know. Clean the area, pore the penetrating fluid to it, (not WD 40) and wait a day or two. Keep it wet with fluid. Try not to bugger up the skinny hex lip of the gland nut. I've had to weld a 1x1 box bar to the nut and put the whole thing in a very large vise and use a very long breaker bar to get them apart. Don't use too much heat, shocks like to explode when you do that for some reason.... Mind you it will get it apart....

While I hate the argument that goes "well I've been doing it that way for years and its worked just fine" due to the obvious "one off" bad statistical implication, but I gotta say, I've never used these fancy self locking nuts on any manifold I've ever had the pleasure to fondle, just regular nuts and split locks, and never ever had one come loose, maybe just need re-torquing after the first run/heat cycle. While it is a good idea to use self locking nuts, and may in fact be the Nissan intended "right" way, I'de hardly suggest that going with regular hardware as being any significant risk. Maybe my engines run with less vibration than some of you-all's ... Maybe my opinions are clouded by the fact that taking these self locking nuts on and off requires a wrench the entire way for every single one, and since some of them are hard to get to for an old man, ones that spin on and off easy are my preference. Maybe also the frequency with which I do this to my and other cars also has a bearing on my opinion and the statistical chance that they have enough time in place in vibrate loose....

The 78 AFM does NOT have the fuel pump contacts inside. Pins 39 and 36 should be either absent on the AFM connector or not hooked up internally if there. Now, your wiring harness that plugs into the AFM may not have the mating pins since there is no wiring in the car that uses these pins, which is actually the good news, since ANY late 74-78 AFM will work on a 78 since your 78 wiring will ignore the fuel switch if its in the AFM. The opposite is of course not true, you CANNOT use a 78 AFM on late 74-77 since they REQUIRE the fuel cut switch. And yes all AFM's are counter weighted....

I have a solution for your mis-aligned cannon mounting holes. Remove the rod ends. Mount a 1/2" thick by 3/4" wide aluminum bar to the the manifold using those holes with bolts. Drill and tap new holes in the bar to mount the rod ends. Plan the layout of the rods, linkage etc carefully. Aside from solving the mis-alignment issue, it makes it possible to remove the linkage bar without having to pull the manifold, since normally the rod can only be inserted with the manifold above the engine bay. I've done this on my car and the latest one I'm working on, pictures attached. Makes servicing and playing different actuation games simple. (note my snazzy cable throttle). You can always weld up the one mis-aligned manifold hole and re-drill and tap it in the right place too. Relax, enjoy the break. Go see a good movie.

2+2 clutch friction surfaces are 240mm, all others are 225mm. Do not intermix flywheel and clutches naturally. 240mm plates have 9 bolts, 225 have only 6. If you get a complete kit, flywheel and clutch, they will fit any z, no matter the size. Spines are the same, crank bolts and pilot bushing are the same. Beware of different installed pressure plate finger heights though! The finger height off the pressure plate (where throw out bearing touches) + throwout bearing thickness + throwout bearing collar height must be a constant, so a fatter clutch pack than what you have with the same sleeve will leave less room for motion and may not release. With all the different manufactures out there, be careful! Best to stick with your stock size if you don't have access to different collars to "play".. There are many posts about the various collars that are out there and which trans/clutch flywheel that match, but I have yet to hear or see (or measure myself, lazy...) the magic total height that the pair must add up to. All the A, and B Nissan trans require the same total height, its just a matter of which clutch + which collar adds up to that height, within some tolerance You may also find 240mm clutches have a heavier pedal. Again, depends on the manufacturer and the state of your hydraulics! But yeah, cheap is right. I'm betting those "new" flywheels may not be sourced from Nissan.... Just a guess.