siteunseen

Happy New Year everybody and thank you so much for all the help you all have given me. I'll try and pass on the info I've gathered here to the other folks. WATCH OUT!!!

I rebuilt mine with a book from Amazon.com. How to Rebuild your L series motor by Tom Monroe. A little under a $1000 for all new parts except pistons and rods, the crank and the block. Bought the best sounding exhaust and header from MSA, new polyurethane bushings, all new fuel injectors and on and on. Really an easy motor to work with and I learned a lot about my car, I'll keep it as long as I have working legs, it's a manual tranny. My rambling point is for less than $2000 I've got as new a '77 as anybody would want, needs painting though. Is that $.02 worth?

Maybe the radiator shop put coolant in itLOL

"Nice, real nice", that's what Gomer say's about Mary Grace. That's great! I just realized it's from '04.

Are you punishing him for some reason? '95 Taurus Wagon?

That's not too bad. Thanks for the info.

I used a lot of foam oven cleaner from walmart, their brand's cheaper, on the outside. My valve train looked like yours, an ashtray. I put a 1/2" piece of clear tubing in my shop vac hose and sucked up the loose stuff, found a broken off head bolt in that crap. Wait until you see inside your oil pan! Then oil changes, lot's of them. Maybe the easiest car ever for changing oil. And welcome to the club. We love to see pictures of other Z's. Cliff

You could widen the round metal end under the rubber cap on the coil wire, it has a split. Or buy a new set of NGK blue plug wires, there will be a coil wire in the set also. You need a fuel pressure gauge for sure. Install it in the fuel line after the filter and before the fuel rail in the engine bay. Get one that goes to at least 60psi and you'll have to buy the fittings to make a "T" for it. Many ways to test things with that. Clamp the fuel hose after the gauge and you can tell if your pump is good, should go up to about 50psi. Remove the vacuum hose off the FPR and it should raise the psi's if the FPR is functioning right. A very smart man on this forum told me to put my gauge on 5ft of hose and zip tie it to the drivers side wiper blade so you can read it while driving. Note the pressure when your accelerating, coasting, and any other situations. There's a lot to testing these old cars but it's all been done 1000 times and talked about on this forum to make it easier. Good luck over the Holidays. It's a good excuse to get out of the house. Could you just have someone sit in the car and watch the tach while you test vacuum readings?

That canister is the coil, if it doesn't fit snug it's probably not the original one, not a problem though. Standing at the drivers side front tire looking at the motor the Fuel Pressure Regulator will be in the center of the fuel rail, tube that goes to all the injectors, it's about the size of a 5oz cup with a small hose for vacuum and 2 or 3 fuel hoses connected to. In this picture it's about 10" down from the "C" on the valve cover. Small can looking thing with a lip around the center where it is joined together. Hope that's understandable, little fuzzy this morning. Yes that coil has to be plugged into the center of the distributor cap, very important. I've seen zip-ties around that connection to keep it on the coil. I got my vacuum gauge kit from walmart.com and would try and borrow a dwell meter, you want use it too much. I put a camera inside showing my tach gauge through a tv on top of my car.

Which struts did you use? That's next on my 10 page punch list then I can get some nice wheels and tires. Thanks

Vacuum gauge help http://atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/vacuum/. Search this forum for "yogurt cup test" for an easy way to find leaks by yourself.

I'm not a mechanic or a doctor but I would recommend an epidural for the job if your going to do it yourself.

Most likely.

I have one on my mower and one on our family boat, they came from Interstate Batteries and work great.

I was talking about the exhaust studs on #1 and #6. They were M8's originally, I confused them with the 4 intake M10's in the center, sorry. I found my recepit and I am wrong once again, they're M10x1.25 studs with M12 deformed nuts.

I had talked with a friend of his about some bumpers I hope to buy and hopefully see some of his cars. You Engineers!

I tapped my head into M12 on #1 & , they were M10 and threads worn over time. I found everything at Nissan dealer and could get you the part #'s if you want. Seems like they were for the truck motor but worked good and could tork them down really good without loctite or orther thread lockers, the heat is too high.

240SX club found the Z car.

A vacuum gauge reading could help out too with the blown head gasket. http://atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/vacuum/

I'm pretty sure the Moderator won't delete that!

That's something I forgot to mention. I spent $50 having the FSM & EFI Bible printed and bound at a local print shop, before I found the Tom Monroe book, and I never used it on the motor just the transmission and steering rack. You can just find the page you need on your computer and print it out, that big 3 ring binder of paper was a waste off money.

"How to Rebuild Your Nissan & Datsun OHC Engine". I've rebuilt boat motors and a couple of dirt bike engines so I sort of knew a few things already. Then I bought a '77 280Z and decided I wanted to keep it so I bought that book off amazon.com for $20. I've spent $2,000 on that car so far and that book, by far, is the BEST $20 I'll ever spend. Can't say enough on how simple Tom Monroe makes the rebuild. Simple to follow instructions and advice with lots of pictures. It's the best instruction manual I've read. Buy it and read cover to cover about 3 times then rebuild your motor. Oh and I almost forgot the wisdom and kindness of the people on this forum. This forum plus that book and you'll think your a Nissan mechanic.

Beauty is in the eye of the owner.

Mine next? Your doing a great job. It appears very thorough too. I'm ready to do the struts now myself- I did mine backwards from yours, engine 1st then all the bushings in front and the steering rack. I'm hoping to get some tips from your work, thanks.

If the car still runs then it must have been the ac belt that tore loose. There's only 2 on my '77, the main water pump, fan and alternator belt then the ac compressor belt. If that belt came loose it could have knocked some vacuum lines off around the distributor advance or BCDD. That could cause a bad running motor.