Zed Head

I'm not sure that all 1977 N47 heads have both a spray bar and holed cam lobes. My 1978 N47 head has only the holed cam lobes, no spray bar. The holes are easy to see though, so it will be apparent. I've spun a ZX engine with a gear reduction starter and got the bubbling crude through the holes. The early starters aren't gear reduction and I think that they might spin a little faster, depending on battery size and charge. With a spray bar you only have to worry about oil flinging from the spinning lobes, not squirting outward. Most of the oil spillage is over the edge of the head, down the side of the block.

I was imagining one of the old original 4Runners with the removable back half. I wouldn't try to put a complete engine in an SUV. Transmissions are easy, engines too bulky and heavy. Odds are in your favor on the engine that's in there. They are very durable, except for if the cam lobes run dry or they get overheated. You could build a table top to set on the $100 engine as a disguise. Picnic table maybe.

I've often used a come-along and the rafters in the garage. Not a single rafter though, place a 4x4 across 4 of 5 rafters to distribute the load. I bought a chain hoist to make it easier when I decided to swap engines. site was on target with "spare parts collection". I almost feel like we should be warning you...

I was going to suggest getting a used engine over a rebuilt one but assumed that they would be hard to find. Finding two right away is kind of unicornish. The CL engine looks very clean and original. The one downside I see is that it looks like cylinder 6 is at 125 and the others at 150. But testing pressure on a dry cold engine might be the cause for that. It will have lots of swappable parts like the oil pump, water pump, cam shaft and rocker arms (in case you find that yours are damaged), fuel rail (it's the one piece design, better than 75-77 three piece), injectors (they last a long time if they're fed good fuel), manifolds (although they are ZX parts and will take minor mods to work in a 280Z), etc. For $100 it's a nice solid package of parts at the worst. See if he has the flywheel, they're getting hard to find too. The distributor is out but he might have that too. For the costs and availability I'd consider getting them both. Look over the 75 engine and car. If the car is crashed but the engine maintained that's a clue. As is if the car is nice but the engine is trashed. You never know, I used to see both types around here but haven't seen a Z or ZX in the yards for about 2-3 years. There used to be 1-3 around at all times right after I got my car, 9 years ago. No more. Actually I'd do the $100 engine right away, then take your time on the wrecking yard engine. Edit - the transmission in the 75 car is probably a 4 speed. Don't take it, let them have it and see if they'll drop $50 to 100. It's not worth much and will just take up space. Unless you anticipate problems with yours. People can't give them away. If it's an automatic, there's no way you want to take it.

Maybe the rubber guy, nix240z, could look at making some. Make a mold, pour around some bracketry. It's a lot of rubber but there's not much to it. It just sits there. The're almost all rotten or sagging. Big market if they were priced right. @nix240z

Plus this. A valve might be bent or hanging in the guide, closing slowly. Or lash might be too tight, leaving it partly open. There's a time factor involved when you measure cylinder pressure, the speed of the piston generates the pressure. If it moved real slow all of the pressure leaks past the rings. And the pressure gauges have a valve on them to hold the highest pressure, so you can't tell how well the cylinder is really sealing. A good battery and a fast starter probably gives a higher number than a slow starter.

I built a piston stop from an old spark plug. Checked my mark once, for fun, the engine already ran fine. It was on. Considering all, and how close it seems to be, I'd spent some extra time with the valve cover off, setting lash, confirming cam timing, confirming TDC, cleaning up the spray bar, etc. It would be a shame to get it running then blow it up. It seems like the PO might have just thrown parts together, or tried to fix a few things, and didn't do the greatest job.

Lots of rounded bolt head edges on that head, and the cam lobes look painfully dry and crudded up. The valve seals and stems can't be better. wouldn't be a surprise if a valve was sticking a little, delayed closing maybe. Or a cam lobe is on its way out. A picture of the whole head would be interesting and some close ups of the other cam lobes.

I was thinking of that this morning but my brain was locking up on it. You're right, that could be the cam timing problem, why the notch and groove are off. The way to tighten the chain, to check, would be to put a wrench on the timing chain sprocket and turn it back (counterclockwise, standing in front of the car) until the chain is tight on the driver's side, but not far enough to move the timing mark on the pulley. Try to move the notch back under the groove. Don't worry about the bright marks on the chain, they are only for the first installation. The notch and groove are all that matter now. I would confirm that the chain is tight on the driver's side, and see where the marks are, before worrying about resetting the sprocket. Captain Obvious @Captain Obvious wrote up a simple way to get the pump and dist shaft right, using a method to hold the distributor drive shaft up in the hole so that you only have to match it with the oil pump. I think that there were rubber bands involved. I've used the small skinny nose Vise-Grips before. Your plug wires were set to match the oil pump being in the wrong spot. Seems like the PO might have mis-adjusted a lot of things. Since you're in there, and there's so much gunk under the valve cover, I would remove the spray bar and clean it out with carb cleaner. Make sure that all of the holes are clear. One for each lobe. Maybe turn the engine over and make sure oil comes out of the supply hole. Cover it with a rag first. With the plugs out and the motor spinning you should get plenty of oil. When you have the pump off to adjust the shaft, check condition of the pump parts. You don't want to ruin a cam lobe because of low oil flow. Sorry, if you're not a wrench now, you soon will be. Checking the cam timing, wiggling the rocker arms, cleaning the spray bar, and dropping the oil pump and resetting the distributor shaft aren't that hard. You have the right pictures of the tang. Notice how it's not 180 off? More like 115 or 120. Somebody goofed up when they reinstalled the oil pump.

Doesn't look you're getting much oil spray up there either. Things look kind of dry. I usually have enough oil on the edge that it starts leaking over the side. Oil everywhere.

I think that his is already on a higher number. It's way beyond "after adjustment" and adjustment is to higher numbers.

There is not really a "180 off". There is off though. It could be any number of degrees. But it doesn't matter much if you can get the plug wires in to holes that allow them to spark at the right time. Which I think that you had, because you measured timing with a timing light. On the other hand, there is rotor positioning. If the rotor is on the right electrode but late or early you could get spark jumping to the wrong electrode. But it does look your cam timing is pretty far advanced. Somebody has moved the sprocket to the #2 or #3 hole. If you don't want to set lash or measure it at least grab each rocker arm and see if it's loose.

You probably remember from when you had it apart that there was a short rod that connected the key portion to the electrical switch. I had to add some twist to that short rod to get it to turn the electrical part far enough to work. The click that you hear might be the Accessory relay opening, as it does when the key is turned to Start, to give full power to the starting effort. You could turn the electrical portion with a screwdriver if you wanted to, as a test. You can also get a feel for it by how far you have to turn the key when it does Start. If you have to turn the key as far as possible before the starter engages then you're on that edge.

The whole switch, with new key? Or just the electrical part? You really need to write more words before you "Submit Reply".

The ignition switch can cause problems and kind of fits what you're describing. Either the mechanical part or the electrical part. Sometimes the rod inside the switch does not turn the electrical portion far enough. Or, sometimes the terminals on the electrical part are loose. You have to take it off to examine it. If it's never been off before, you'll have to remove the theft-prevention screws by grinding, filing, or drilling.

Found it. You need to tell us where the "click" noise is happening. And what other things are doing like the voltmeter needle. How long do you wait before trying a second time. Just need more details.

I don't have a "great" on my tach? Is there a conversion to a number? You've kind of changed the problem description. Now you're saying that sometimes when cold it runs fine. You didn't say which way or how far you're turning the key. The BCDD clicks when you turn it to On, from Off. And vice versa.

Not building anything, just curious about these "recent dyno results". Are they published somewhere? Is there a link? Check out the invisible ad that showed up when I copied some text to delete it.

You know, after watching the two episodes, he actually seems like he knows what he's doing and the car does look great. Everybody needs a sponsor if they're going to go big-time. Seems like the Discovery Channel/Gas Monkey crew tied him in to the short time frame and it didn't really work for him. There are some problems with the build, like the turbo next to the master cylinder, and the intake pipe that's laying on the fender well. But he did go with a reputable Z parts manufacturer, in Arizona Z Cars, instead of California Datsun, like SpeedHunters. So, I'd say he's more knowledgeable than the SpeedHunters crew. The Discovery Channel/Gas Monkey crew probably made him cut some corners. Might be why he dissociated himself from the project. A good idea, probably, in the long run. Fast N' Loud has jumped the shark. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumping_the_shark

What are the engine RPM? If RPM are low you might get some missing and stumbling. The AAR is designed to keep RPM up during the first 30 s to 1 m. When you say 5 to 10 minutes do you really mean 1 to 2 minutes? Time feels longer when things are bad. Einstein's alternative law of relativity.

Normally I'd say not a big deal, the materials will handle a small imperfection. But, considering the amount of force that the axle nut alone puts on the races and spacer assembly, and the loads during driving, a replacement seems in order. The races are flexible, only at much higher loads than you'd see in your hand. You could get abnormal wear on the balls. Is there a B on it? Sounds like zKars has you covered.

The point of the article is that somebody died because the machine failed to do what Uber said it would do. In a very clear and simple situation. The car did not brake at all. It was a complete failure, meaning that it could just as well have failed when the dead women was being completely sensible and law-abiding. Blaming the victim is a distraction.

No, injector #1 shot only half, at most, of what it was supposed to. Assuming that #3 was close to spec. The injectors rarely shoot more, since clogging is the problem, not flow path enlargement. If #3 was under spec, then #1 was even leaner. And lean seems to be your problem. And, at idle, since all injectors squirt at the same time, most of them on to closed valves, and the throttle blade is closed so there is very low air flow, there is backflow of fuel vapor in to the main plenum of the manifold. That could be why you don't see an effect from pulling an injector wire. There's fuel from the other cylinders available.

There were lasers. The autonomous car is supposed to better than humans. "“catastrophic failure” by Uber’s technology" https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/mar/22/self-driving-car-uber-death-woman-failure-fatal-crash-arizona

That makes sense. They did the same thing with transmission countershaft bearing shims. Only one size available. Manufacturing practices keep advancing, probably to where they only make one size and it's always in spec. Thank you Edward.