Zedyone_kenobi

actually I have the full video, and meant to post it. HOWEVER, flickr only lets me post 1 minute and 30 seconds of video, and as luck would have it, that was right before the engine fired up. I have no idea how to post the full video to the internet. Everything cuts me off.

We at NASA are very excited about this. And also anxious. Talk about a million things that can go wrong, but if it works will be as significant as Hubble was. Truly amazing engineering!!! We need something to inspire kids these days as NASA has been neutered by the white house. If this does not inspire a generation of kids, there is nothing left to show them for another 10 years.

Forgive me for this Update. I posted this in my transmission VERY stiff thread, but I wanted to give closer here. The other one should be deleted. I did something very simple. I removed the console, and both shifter boots. Then I applied some grease to the rod that the plastic cup on the end of the shift lever rests. That rod was dry. I put the transmission in first gear, and the applied grease. This way when I put it in reverse , it would twist and push the grease into the housing. The first application made a huge difference. IT felt like it was finally able to move smoothly. The gritty and sticky feeling was going and it dropped into and out of all the gears like a brand new car. I also double checked my clutch engagement. It was a bit off. A few more turns on the adjustment screw gave me a more mid pedal clutch engagement, which feels far more normal and ensures full engagement of the clutch as well. It is raining now, so I will get the console back in tonight and give it a drive when it is over, but for the most part, it feels 100% fixed right now. I think I was just being a bit of a hypochondriac with this one. Leon, I had several Speilburg moments planned to video, but nothing until the rain stops, and nothing really sensational until after I get her broken in. But for now, here is a tease!

Update. I did something very simple. I removed the console, and shifter boots. Then I applied some grease to the rod that the plastic cup on the end of the shift lever rests. That rod was dry. I put the transmission in first gear, and the applied grease. This way when I put it in reverse , it would twist and push the grease into the housing. The first application made a huge difference. IT felt like it was finally able to move smoothly. The gritty feeling was going and it dropped into and out of all the gears like a brand new car. I also double checked my clutch engagement. It was a bit off. A few more turns on the adjustment screw gave me a more mid pedal clutch engagement, which feels far more normal. It is raining now, so I will get the console back in tonight and give it a drive when it is over, but for the most part, it feels 100% fixed right now. I think I was just being a bit of a hypochondriac with this one.

Well the baby fired up today. Temp is rock solid at 180 F, oil pressure is higher than my last engine, but do not ask me what it is, as I have no idea due to the wonderful amount of information displayed on the OEM gage! Now how did it go? Well at first she would only spit and sputter and run off of the fuel the accelerator pump put out. Meaning, I was not getting enough gas. (Keep in mind I am running a 55F8 idle jets in the webers) So I opened up the idle mixture screws until she would start which happened at 2 turns out. But she was running very lean 15.1 AFR's. I continued to turn the idle mixture screws until I had a smooth idle and ended up with about 2.7 turns out from fully seated, running 12.5:1 at idle and 1050 rpm. So so far so good. I let her idle as Eiji recommends and did some driving. Engine sounds FANTASTIC. I cannot really comment on performance as I have to keep it under 2500 rpm for a while per my break in instructions. But at slow rolling through the neighborhood in all gears, the AFR is about 15.8:1 just cruising around. So it will be obvious I will need to so some work on the carb tuning from my OEM L24 to my modified L28. NO big surprise there though...Looking forward to it actually. Now on to something far more disconcerting. My transmission shift lever is extremely stiff. I can put it in any gear, but it is hard as the ****ens trying to move it OUT OF 1st gear. From 2nd to 3rd and in and out of any other gear it is easy. But trying to move it out of 1st is extremely hard. Same thing happens for trying to move it out of Reverse. NO idea if this is normal for a newly rebuilt transmission. I will post a video of the completed engine running soon. She starts up immediately, settles to a great idle very well. NO smoke, no issues at all. Feels very torquey, but obviously needs tuning. But the engine install part of this thread is done. Pics coming !!!!! As for what I am going to do for the carbs, well that is going to be a new thread in the Carburetor section.

Just took the Z for its first drive since installing the new engine/rebuilt transmission. THe shifter is incredibly stiff when I try to take it out of first gear. If I just putt around barely revving it, when I go from first to second it is hard to get it to come out of gear. If I rev it up and then try to go from first to second, it is VERY hard to get it out of first gear. All other gears are getting better as I drive it. The whole transmission was very hard to shift at first. But seems to be loosening up the more I drive it. I am assuming that this is normal for a new transmission. I have a thought that this may just be a clutch adjustment. I just ball parked the clutch adjustment on my slave. It is all the way lose right now.

My gosh I love me some panasports! I simply love your car. It is classic.

YOu rock man! Keep it up!!

I am very sorry to hear about your situation. Engineering in Houston is booming, but coming from SF to Houston, is like being taken from cold water to boiling. The culture shock may kill you! HAHA.. but if politics are not an issue, then I promise you can find a job here in Houston. IN the mean time, take care. No situation is as bad as it seems at first glance ( and no situation is as good as it seems at first glance for that matter) Hang in there, and if any of us can help, let us know.

Totally agree there is much left on the table to learn about but going in too deep becomes a parametric discussion on too many variables I just wanted to give people a brief description of what happens when you decide to turn the Air Corrector knob up or down. I find emulsion tubes fascinating, and I bet they were derived more from experiment than calculations Every little bit of knowledge helps us. It is important to get the high level theory right first Happy tuning

That is a head gasket. I have seen that coffee creme color before on two different V8's I have owned. Start planning a new head gasket install and also decide what you want to upgrade while you are in there.

The main jet, emulsion tube and Air corrector all must hold hands in order for the main circuit of the car to act as it should and when it should. Understanding the function of each part is critical to being able to tune the car. Blue has done so many great explanations of carbs, interiors, etc that I thought I would try to add to some of the core knowledge on the board. I am by no means an expert, but at times, I have been told I can explain things in a very easy to understand manner. So lets talk about the air corrector on Webers (or Mikuni's I guess as well). The air corrector allows air to come into contact with the fuel coming form the main jet and then enter the primary circuit to feed the engine along with the idle circuit. You can see the air as shown by the little white arrow coming in through the Air corrector, and then into the Emulsion Tube where it is mixed with the fuel that is pulled up (via engine vacuum) through the main jet. The air and the fuel are mixed together in the E-tube. That is a whole other science in itself, and I will not attempt to explain which E tube is best for you. There are books written on that alone! So back to the Air corrector. It sees atmospheric pressure. So how can I relate the function of the Air correcter? Well how about this. Ever try to drink a beverage with a straw that is cracked? Lets break it down even more. You are the engine. You suck on the straw providing vacuum to the straw Normally, if the straw was solid (Air corrector of Zero) you would raise the beverage to your mouth (primary circuit) with ease - However this is a highly undesirable situation to dump raw fuel into the engine. The job of the carburetor is to mix fuel and air, not dump a stream of gasoline into the intake manifold. So Same situation: You are the engine You suck on the straw providing vacuum to the straw This time the straw has a crack in it right below your lips. So the constant engine vacuum still pulls on the liquid surface but you lose some through the crack. You can raise the liquid level to your lips but is harder to raise it to that level. And when the liquid gets to the crack in the straw you entrain some air into the liquid stream so you get mixture of liquid and air. A air correcter is born. The size of the crack is the air corrector. The larger the number on your Air corrector (the larger the crack), the more air comes in and less fuel, AND the harder it is to raise the fuel in the straw. This can lead to a lean air fuel mixture Lets look at it again with this diagram: Again, the engine is providing a fixed amount of vacuum. The main jet is busy acting as an orifice controlling the flowrate into the Emulsion tube. The Air corrector acts as a vacuum bleed of sorts. The larger the AC, the more air you will get and the harder it will be to raise the liquid level up the E tube. (This is also why it is so critical to get the float level right, as if the fuel level is low, then the engine has to raise the level more before it gets any gas) Hope this helps explain in a very basic manner how the Air correcter works. IF there are any errors, please point them out and we can get some more great info on this website.

I bought KF's float level checking tool. It has a line that is 25mm up from either side. You probably already know all about this, heck you are probably the one who told me about it. I do not think which L series would have any baring on what the level should be, the CARBS dictate that you should have 25mm. If you are 29mm from the top of the surface where the main Emulsion tube screws in you are 4mm too low, which would make your transition really bad to the main circuit. You are making the engine work extra hard to pull the liquid up the Emulsion Tube. Adjusting the floats was the biggest thing I ever did to my Webers in their brief time on my L24. I also went down from the 170 Air Corrector that came with my 151 to 160, which also helped tremendously in the mixture upper RPM in the higher gears.

My most sincere thanks! Tonight was a tale of two stories. I set out tonight and told my lovely wife to expect some noise out of the garage tonight!! Well I finished installing the exhaust, tightened up all hangers, then wired up the dizzy, and went to wire up the O2 sensor. Well Murphy struck again. It would see that since I refused to cut a hole in my new shifter boot, I was left stuck looking for another 'orifice' to stick the ridiculously short O2 sensor through. You see in Innovative's eternal wisdom they decided to make the O2 sensor as big around as a quarter and the plug on the other end of the wires as big around as a shoebox (mild exaggeration). So I decided to cut all the wires and make a long jumper with bullet connectors for future removal. I also decide to run them through the old choke cable grommet on the firewall. As my luck is consistent, I ran completely out of my last connector. So now I am not making smoke and fire because of a dumb 2 dollar electrical connector. I only hope the O2 sensor is not calibrated for a certain length of wire. There is a calibration technique called out in the owners manual for the O2 sensor, so I may do that again.

Gosh I love the Gnose on that thing! Some day... GnoseZ, how was the fit of the MSA kit?

Blue, had the same issue, as well as the rod with the clevis being bent right out of the box. When I rolled it, it would wobble. Ended up ditching the OEM push pull Rod linkage (which I hated to do since it was so darn perfect feeling) and going with a cable. I did not throw any of my OEM stuff away though, as someday I will pick up another clevis rod and try the pushrods. I am still not thrilled about how the LOKAR cable feels. To me nothing is as precise as those rods that Datsun chose. When they are fresh and functioning perfectly, they are so sweet and positive feeling to the feet. Let me know how your shortened rod turns out as I always wanted to try that. I think it is the proper way to do things. Also let us know if your rod ends that screw into your manifold line up perfectly, mine are not, and if I use all three, I get binding in the rod and it is very hard to turn. Caused the throttle to not return to closed at times. I solved this by only using two rod ends, and using a hardended steel precision 5/16" driveshaft (mcmastercarr). Deflections are minimal and almost non existent.

The trick is to keep the lifting connection to the stud tight, and not just a chain on a bolt. Put large washers on the head side and keep the chain tightly wedged with another washer and nut. siteunseen, if you would like a set of OEM lifting loops to borrow you are welcome to my spare set.

Topby go to ebay motors and search for Universal Aluminum Fuel Rail they sell it in different lengths, finishes, sizes, etc. You will have to buy fittings, hoses, and many drills and taps, but if you take your time, it is super easy to make one. Plan fit and then cut.

And the heavens brought down upon us a collector pipe laden with Jet Hot, And Zedy saw that it was good, and clock can begin to tick again for the sound of L6 thunder

I think I am with Arne, the heart and soul of any sports car is the engine. Songs were not written about flares, or tires, or spoilers, but many were written about the engine. The L series is the pure core of the Z. Just like if you put a SBC and turbo 350 transmission in an early Jaguar, it really is not much of a jag an more. It is much much less.

Blue that is just amazing! Looking forward to your 151 setup. Keep those pics coming. Can you tell us what method you used when you first started your engine during break in?

Yes, that is in the plan. Just have not done it yet. I have a place set aside for this, but have not instituted it yet.

I wish the rest of the car was as pretty Guy.

You know, it is tough to find the anodized ones that stick inside the carb body like mine. My stacks slide between the venturi and carb body about 1.5 inches. From what I have read, you need to use those type stacks with this kind of carb. If I could find any I would certainly purchase them.

As promised, here is my attempt at polishing off the lettering on my valve cover. Problem is when I did this I inadvertently hit the bars that run the length of the valve cover, so I had to polish them... and then it goes on and on... But I am happy with the results!