cozye

Just FYI, it could be the oil pan gasket as well. It's common for the back corner of the oil pan to leak, and it will run down the front of the transmission off that back corner.

i keep coming back just to look at the pics of those sweet looking bumpers..

Super. Thanks

I'm missing some heater duct, the "slinky" type hose that runs under the days. Does anyone have any suggestion for replacements? I need to dig into it a little more and make sure its only the hose that I'm missing, but I'm pretty sure thats all I need.

What was the results of the tests and suggestions we made in your previous thread ? A bunch of suggestions were made and results of specific questions were never posted ? http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40507

I don't remember what brand it was from MSA. The thing about MSA is that they usually wont sell stuff that sucks. All of the parts I've purchased from them have been either Nissan, or high quality japanese replacements. Since they know Z's well and cater to the Z community, I believe they will only offer good quality stuff. I wouldn't put too much thought into the brand, just buy something. Don't over think it. It's just 10 or 15$ The reason why your idle moves around when adjusting how much fuel you give it, is that the air fuel mixture is off. If it's running lean, and you ad more fuel the idle will come up. If it's running rich and you add more fuel, the idle will come down. Basing your tuning off the idle mixture is not a good idea though, it's much more accurate to base the tune off the way it runs at speed. You are taking in much more air and fuel at speed. At idle there are other factors that do not relate to how the car runs at higher RPM, such as the idle mixture screw, small vacuum leak, dirty air filter, "idle enrichment" algorithm on ECU, etc.. So I guess I'm saying it's ok to kind of try and get it to idle good, get good vacuum etc.. while at idle, but it could be that you may end up with it a little rich at idle but it may run perfectly when driving. That's kind of the nature of the rudementry fuel injetion on this car. It's just not tuneable over a wide range. You kind of have to aim for a good compromise in some cases if you are going to fool the ECU with water temp circuit adjustments or AFM flap adjustments. I really think you need to throw the tune up parts on, and do the valve adjustment. After that, put the AFM back to stock settings and put some resistance inline with the water temp sensor.

I tried a cheap cap and rotor at first, it worked ok but I inadvertently put the cap on crooked one day and the rotor destroyed it. I then ordered one from MSA and was pleased with the quality of both. They were definitely higher quality. I'm sure if you get one from Rock Auto they will be fine. You need to do the valve adjust. It's a regular maintenance item, and if the valves aren't in spec it can cause problems. It's not difficult. Just go for it and don't worry about it. If you can measure and tighten a nut you are qualified.

Well hopefully you can clean it up and get some por or similar on it. I'm sure it will be fine

I'm pretty sure the chrome shops specify that you must paint the back sides once completed. That's not part of the process.

I installed the moog parts. They are top quality. NO issues.

Not to take anything away from Denver plate as I know a lot of guys have been very pleased with their work. I have found a place up north though that has given me a very good quote and includes shipping. I'm going to try them out. They send you a prepaid UPS label and arrange for pickup at their cost. They quoted me for $225 each bumper and include weld filling holes. I did specify it as daily driver quality and they guarantee the work. http://www.nu-chrome.com/

It won't read different. Just quicker to put on and take off. IMO, I think you should keep at it until you get at least 17-17.5"

They look great! I'm close to sending mine in as well in the next couple of weeks.

I purchased master, slave and new rubber hose from Rock Auto myself. Price was great, had the parts in 3 days. Installed them all this weekend. Fit was perfect.

Very nice

Yeah, I second Dobbers suggestion. I missed the torque comment. It's definitely very high risk to use a torque wrench on plugs. You loose the feel, they have way too much leverage, and they can be inaccurate at low readings. Many have stripped out aluminum heads and oil pans with torque wrenches. The method I use is the "3 finger" method. I hand tighten the plug, then with my ratchet, I grip the ratchet with one finger in front of the extension and the other 3 behind it, very close to the head of the ratchet and then just "snug". This limits the amount of strength I can get on it and provides good feel for just snugging them up. The worst thing that can happen from having a plug a little loose is that you will hear the air leaking and get a little miss. It has to be pretty loose to do that.

new plugs and valve adjust would be next in my mind. Also, if you have a T fitting for vacuum line, the FPR vacuum connection is a good place to pop on a gauge in 5 seconds. I use that location a lot.

EF10 has the picture diagram of the air temp sensor enrichment. It's a simple line graph with one line. The other one is the total enrichment of the system and is more confusing.

I used a Fel-Pro gasket I ordered last month from Rock Auto. Manual calls for gasket cement, but usually that is more of a function of keeping the gasket in place when installing than it is for sealing. I ended up just putting it on dry, very carefully, and only after cleaning all surfaces very thoroughly and wiping down with a grease remover solvent. If I have to do it again with cement, it wont be a big deal. My theory is that gaskets work better when the surface is super clean and dry anyway. It went in so easily, that the gasket was not disturbed. I just went around and loosely started the pan bolts to make sure the gasket was centered in several sections. Then I threaded all bolts finger tight. Then I torqued gradually around a couple times until I got proper torque. It should be fine.

well just a follow up to this thread. I've had the car up on jack stands for about a month doing some other repairs, removing rear bumper, some bodywork, frame rail repairs, etc.. I was not convinced it was a rear main seal, so what I did was remove the two bolts to the aluminum shield thats between the block and the bell housing. I used some brake cleaner and cleaned it all down real good, got up in the seams with a putty knife, got all the oil out of the seams, etc.. I could use a putty knife and a screw driver to slightly pry the shield away from the block enough to see the bottom of the metal flange where the rear seal drives in. It was bone dry, there is no oil dripping down from the rear main seal. I did not clean this area, so it has been dry all along. I pried the shield away from the bell housing where the weep hole is, and shined my light up in there from that side and it was still dry. So now I have to ask myself how oil was getting up into the seams around this aluminum bell housing shield? I suppose it was blowing up in the seems and they were holding the oil. But when the car sat it was definitely dripping from the back lower corner of where the block meets the shield. Initially I thought it was running from behind the shield and dripping off that corner. So what I did was I left a putty knife jammed in between the shield and the block for like a week, after I dried everything off. This way I could observe while I did other repairs. When the shield was away from the block, the flow of oil changed and started dripping off the back corner of the oil pan. I believe what was happening was that the oil was seeping from the oil pan gasket and sucking up to that seam on the shield since it's only like 1mm away and dripping off that back corner. A little surface tension and capillary action in play here I believe. I replaced the oil pan gasket last night. Relatively easy job. Took about an hour and a half to do it, clean everything etc.. And for anyone wondering or searching in the future, you don't have to raise the motor to get the oil pan off. It will come off with ease without doing anything. When I took it off, #1 cylinder was towards the bottom, and the oil pan snagged just a little. When I put it back on I turned the motor just a little so that the rod wasn't hanging down and it went back on real easy. Time will tell if it solved my leak. I hear the oil pans are a bit finicky

Thanks guys. I got a lot done on the car this weekend. It's just about ready to pull of the jack stands for now.. She needs a break ..

What fast woman said, but if you look on page EF-10 of the factory service manual, there is a very clear description and a picture graph of what is going on, a picture is worth a 1000 words

Well the bad thing about having a mig welder is that you cant help but pick and pry at any loose undercoating or paint. This started as a dime size loose piece of undercoat that I took a scraper too. Within 5 minutes I knew I had a major repair. This photo is after I wire brushed all the under coat off to expose the damage. Not quite sure what Nissan had in mind when they tack welded a piece of thin sheet metal on top of another. It's obvious that water got sandwiched between the two. The good thing about having a mig welder is that you can fix it.. Since this is in the wheel well, I'm not to worried about grinding the welds down and smoothing it out. I'll just prime and undercoat over it.

Looks real good!

see post 4 for explanation. also the fsm ef section gives good detail on how it operates