Captain Obvious

That's what I'm going to have when I'm done except I'm going to reuse my original hatch lock at least for the time being. I suspect the reason the doors and ignition work more smoothly is because of the internal design. All the springs (in all of the locks) push the tumblers in the same direction, and this causes some issues. Seems the hatch lock doesn't seem to do as well of a job centering the key in the tumblers as the doors and ignition and because of this, it can be finicky. So if you don't mind me asking... What $$ did they get you for a NOS hatch lock? :bandit: Also, did you remember to get your glove compartment lock keyed to the rest of the car?

No hurry on the pics. I believe you. It's just that I've been relying on the documentation for some of my conclusions and analysis, and now come to find out that all of my documentation sources are probably wrong and I've been making assumptions that might not be correct. Making matters worse is that all of my info sources agree, and they're still wrong? When you take the pics, would you please lay the needles along a ruler or something so I can get an idea of how long both the SM and your N27 is? I've got N27's here, but who knows... Maybe they changed them somewhere along the line? That would be cruel, but who knows? :ogre:

Yeah, that would be good. To each his own, and it's not that I don't like loud music from time to time, but all day long? thump... thump... thump... thump... thump... thump... Where's thump... my thump... thump... aspirin??? :dead: So what's the bottom line? This thread seems to have drawn very little interest... Is anyone from the forum actually going? Is anyone actually taking a Z? I like to get to one Carlisle event per year, but lately it's been the GM National. I'd like to see Z's, but are there going to even be any there? Are any of the local clubs organizing a showing? I won't have a road legal S30, but I could bring my Z32.

Sorry guys. I did not know that. I'm at the mercy of documentation, and apparently there's a problem. I was going by this catalog: It lists the SM as having fourteen stations: Being as how the stations are 1/8 inch apart and number one is right where the non-tapered mounting portion of the needle starts, the overall length (of the tapered section) of a fourteen station needle would be very close to 1 5/8". So you're saying that the tapered section of the SM's are not 1 5/8 inch, but are in fact shorter than that?

Not from what I've found. I've not seen SM's with my own two beady little eyes, but the SU literature says they are the same length as the N27's. Of course, it wouldn't be the first time for documentation to be wrong! Have you verified that yourself? Because if you have, then that means the SM's are completely out of the nozzle at WOT and there's absolutely no amount of knob diddling that will have any effect on ratio at that point!! :eek:

The SM needles flatten out as you get towards the tips. The rate of change between stations at the hilt of the SM's is twice the rate of change between stations at the tip. The last half inch or so by the tip is the most gradual changing area of the entire SM needle. So I'm sure you already saw this coming, but that means that 1.5 turns at the hilt has much more impact than 1.5 turns at the tip. I'm curious as to what kind of numbers you would get with the 27's as well. Interesting about your numbers though... I suspect ZT wouldn't be thrilled with the results. I don't have the url in hand, but I remember someone else had their car on a dyno with ZT carbs including SM needles, and they were pretty much perfect across the entire operating range. I don't remember the details of the motor, but I'll see if I can dig up that other thread. No. Kidding.

Good point on the direction of rotation. I forgot to mention that the correct way to spin the shaft is counterclockwise when looking down at the distributor. And yes, I'll give you an amen on checking the cam oiling. I don't have spray bar on my 280, but I did verify that I had oil coming out of all the lobe holes. It didn't really "spray" while I was priming it, but it was better than an "ooze". Kinda in between. I had to put my drill on the lower speed (higher torque) setting to spin the priming shaft, and I have no idea what RPM that was.

If I did the analysis correctly, depending on nozzle adjustment, you should be running between stations 12 and 13 when the piston has maxed out upwards at WOT high RPM. That means that depending on how many turns down you set your nozzle: The N27 round tops max out at a needle diameter between 0.0710 and 0.0690 While the SM's max out at a needle diameter between 0.0670 and 0.0650. So I'm not surprised with the results. If you started the day at a full three turns down, the SM's would still be four thousandths richer than stock even if you were to run those nozzles all the way up to dead zero flush with the bridge floor. It doesn't sound like much, but four thousandths is a lot when you look at it in percentages.

Thanks FastWoman. Seems unanimous I'm particular as well. Not big $$ particular, but particular if I can afford it. So you got ebay locks too, huh? I bought more than I needed from ebay and used the extra tumblers to rekey everything to match. So I've got a pile of Great More keys as well, but I'm not going to use any of them. I need to go back and update that lock rebuilding thread I started a while ago. I've got one more door to do, but I've got a lot of info to share. Problem is, as goofy as it sounds, I can't do that last door until I solve my oil pressure problems.

Haha! Thanks guys! Sell them??? Haha! I'm hoping that after my oil pressure issues are solved, I won't never ever never ever need it again, right? Ever. Right? I could cut it down a little to make shipping easier and offer it up to make the rounds for the tool loaner program! :laugh: Now that you mention it though... How about a shorter version that would fit into your standard 1/4 hex drive extension? Something with a 1/4 male hex on one end that would fit into the extension and the other end machined to fit the oil pump. Would only have to be long enough to stick up out of the distributor hole. Maybe 12 inches long overall or so? Either stick the drill down in there (if it will fit), or buy an extension if there's too much stuff in the way. Rev II. :bulb: Let's hope I don't need it!

Haha. I was thinking about this a little more last night, and I believe with some custom fixturing I should be able hog out a key blank with the machines I have. I couldn't do the stampings on the head or the plating, but I bet I could do the basic blank. Not stamped, mind you, but machined out of sheet brass. I'll give it a try when the rest of the projects are done!!

Something else I did a little different was my pump installation procedure. After I was done with the priming process, I pulled the pump out, dumped most of the oil out of it, and while it was mostly empty, put the drive shaft into the pump, aligned the shaft punch mark with the oil hole, stuffed the shaft and pump up into the engine, used one bolt to hold it loosely in place, and verified that the distributor drive tab was where it belonged. So far, other than putting the pump in mostly empty, everything is by the book: And then here's where I veered a little from tradition. I clipped a small pair of vice-grips onto the distributor end of the drive shaft and used some masking tape to hold them temporarily into place. This allowed me to pull the pump back out without the drive shaft coming with it: Why? Two reasons. 1) Because the pump alone without the shaft is smaller and easier to handle. Less risk of dumping out my priming oil, and 2) Because now I could put a little gasket sealer on the pump gaskets and not have to mess with getting the distributor shaft in the right orientation. I didn't want to smoosh the gasket sealer, only to find that I had to pull the pump out again because the dist drive wasn't in the right spot. So I pulled the pump again after the vice-grips, gooped it, primed it, stuffed it back up for the final time, in and tightened all the bolts. Only other detail to keep in mind is that you cannot rotate the pump internals during this process or the tab on the driveshaft won't line up with the pump slot. Just pour oil into both sides of the pump, but don't rotate the internal gear and rotor. One last thing I forgot to explain why the first thing I did was take the pump apart, and it goes like this... I did a little searching for Melling pump topics on the Z forums, and there are threads on both zcar.com and hybridz that indicated it would be a good idea to check the pump end clearances before installation. Members jeffp, Pyro, WangsMan seem to be the ones most involved, and here are some of the threads I found: http://www.zcar.com/70-83_tech_discussion_forum/cast_iron_oil_pump_689487.msg1279920.html http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php/topic/88729-truth-on-l6-oil-pumps http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php/topic/61680-kameari-high-performance-oil-pump-worth-it So anyway, I took the pump apart, deburred all the razor sharp machined corners (pet peeve), lapped the mating surfaces to check for high spots, and checked the end clearance. Lapping the mating surfaces highlighted that there was some metal upset when Melling pressed in the two locator pins, and once that was ground flat, the rest of surfaces were good. And for the end play, I measured .002 cold, so I think I should be OK. Also for posterity, the thickness of the Melling gasket, and came up with .006 thickness. Then I measured the Datsun gasket from my old worn out pump, and it is .004 thick.

A market? I suspect there's a small market for concourse restorations that would be willing to pay dearly for one or two. Other than that, I doubt it. I'm not that interested. If I can find one NOS on ebay or in some dealers dusty back room stock, then I'd like a few assuming I can pick them up at a non-buttreaming price. But there's no way I'm going to pursue having them made from scratch if they don't already exist. This isn't a prospective product offering for me... It's an anecdote. :classic:

So my oil pump arrived. Step one... Install it? Heck no!!! Take it apart : I chose the Melling M152 and here's my reasons: a) It's a cast iron pump body instead of the more typical aluminum body. My thinking here is that the whole thing will expand and contract at the same rate and might do a better job of maintaining pressure once hot. I haven't seen anything about this in print, but after seeing how the pump works, and the fact that the OEM pumps are a steel rotor inside an aluminum body, I could be convinced that the mismatch of materials would result in increased gaps when hot which would cause internal losses of pressure. The Melling should be immune to this. There are three options listed for Melling. The direct replacement is an M90, the ZX turbo manual trans calls for the M152, and the ZX turbo auto trans calls for a M111. On paper, the only difference between the M152 and the M111 is the pressure at which they operate. I don't need the extra pressure required for the auto trans oil cooler, so I picked the M152. Interestingly enough, the body casting for M152 has "M111" cast into it. Lends credence to the theory that the only difference is the pressure which is adjusted with a different pressure regulating spring. Everything else is the same except for the "M152" stamping on the spring retainer plug: c) The M152 is a higher volume pump than the stock pump. Here's a pic of the internals and you can see the length difference between the two. I measured them, and the M152 is about 14% longer than stock, which means it pumps, ummm... let's see, this would be volume not just length, so ummm.... it pumps "more". I put the pump in, sans drive shaft, primed the system with my 88 Magnum: Took the pump back out again, installed the drive shaft and pump for the (hopefully) final time. Next on the agenda is to put everything else back together and see if all is good!

So my new oil pump arrived, and even though I probably did not need to prime anything, I figured since I've never done it before, it would at least be a learning experience. Instead of using a long screwdriver, I machined a primer shaft that fits into the oil pump drive just like the normal drive shaft. Overkill? Yes. Did it work great? Yes. It's an 88 Magnum: Here's the end that fits into the oil pump: Here it is in position. Yes, it's a little longer than necessary, but what do you want for prototype #1? Trying to work the drill with one hand and the camera with the other:

Thanks for the confirmation with that. Hopefully knarfrabot will chime in if he's in touch with the forum. There was a website I was looking at a while back that talked a bunch about the evolution of the keys. I'll have to see if I can dig that one up again and take another look. As I remember though, it was mostly centered around the earlier keys.

Mums the word. Haha! I made a what was supposed to be a one time use die to cut out the large center hole for the carb to manifold gaskets. Well, I've made about eight gaskets using that die as a starting point, and it's still going strong. Would you like me to punch out a few for you guys just in case the gaskets pull apart when you do the swaps? I could have them to you before the end of the week...

Yes. steve91tt made that offer weeks ago. Take him up on it. :laugh: Steve, go to his place, lock him in his house, and put your carbs on his car. And if you've got a few extra minutes, put his carbs on your car and see what happens.

Thanks again for the pics. I'm not sure how much emphasis I put on the picture in the Owner's Manuals. The little research I've done indicates that they changed the key blank and lock cylinder designs in the later years (in 76? 77?) and I wouldn't be surprised if they just never updated the pictures in the Owner's Manual. In other words, if I had to guess, I would say that the key design shown in the Owner's Manual is for the earlier years and they just never changed the pic. That key of yours... It has the key code stamped into it, right? I think I see something stamped in it, but can't quite make out if it's lettering or not. If it has the key code in it, that would add credence to it being factory original. I'm not in the business, but I doubt anyone cutting a secondary key is going to go through the effort to stamp the key code into it.

Haha! Good point... I didn't even check the delta between warm and hot before I posted that. In my defense, the last engine I worked on in that depth was my lawnmower, and it behaved exactly as would support my understanding. No worries bud. No offense at my end at all. I understand that it would take even more money to invest in parts that may or may not fix the problem. We're all at the point of long shots here, right? All of the easy stuff has been taken care of pages ago!

I was looking at this thing in a little more depth yesterday, and something that's interesting is that the "contactor" contacts when the ignition pickup is about mid-spaced between reluctor teeth. In other words, the contactor does not hit the cam lobe at the same time the reluctor is passing over the pickup, but in fact contacts about 180 degrees off that. Makes me wonder if they were expecting the reluctor to be pulled ever so slightly towards the magnet inside the pickup when the gap is small, and they provided the contactor to produce the same effect when the gap is at it's largest. WAG... Yeah, and funny about the number of teeth on that reluctor. Neat little typo you caught there.

Thanks for that. I took a look through the FSM and couldn't find anything. You're talking Owner's Manual, not Service Manual, right?

I'd like to see a better pic, but I don't really need it. I can tell which key that is. So no hurry. Thanks again!

Everybody has something they would like to see you try, and mine is trying a points distributor and maybe even a stock coil. I know it shouldn't matter, but it's just another variable that you could eliminate.

I believe much more in setting the valves hot than I used to. I'm no expert, but as I understand it... Why are there valve clearances at all? Because the valve stem grows in length as it gets hot. Exhaust valves operate much hotter than intakes, and that's why the exhaust valve clearances are always larger than intakes. If a valve lengthens so much that the clearance is reduced to zero, not only will you lose compression, but you may burn a valve. Why? Because the valve conducts a lot of it's heat to the head while the valve is closed, and if it never closes, it never gets the chance to lose that heat. That's probably a simple layman's understanding, but it works for me, and because of that, I put much more importance on the hot settings than the cold. :classic: