Dave WM

the 280z steering wheel is no where near as durable, I have a very nice one, its the molded cushion foam, but you can tell its starting to get a bit loose in one area, and will puff up if exposes to sun. I think later ones had leather but the 75 was by far the most fragile. I found myself turning it by using the spokes when slow moving (high steering force required). Going to the 240z with no fear of grabbing the rim was like going to power steering. A very good mod indeed. I like my 75 bumpers, think the 76 were good too. offers a little protection with out the over the top found in the 78 and maybe the 77. Only down side is the rubber parts if bad are extremely hard to find. I got lucky, mine are in great shape.

they clean up nicely. Good work.

Its all back together now, just have to find my gasket making material to replace the oil spray bar gasket (one of them failed when removed it cracked off). Manifolds back on, everything hooked up but the radiator. New crank front main seal sine the old one looked like crap. I did NOT bother to replace all the timing cover gaskets. It came off pretty clean, and frankly I just want to see if the test kit still shows exhaust gas in the rad. I can handle some oil leaks. I did replace the water pump gasket since it cracked in have on removal. I did the FSM 3 stage torque setup. The head is still filthy as seen on the video, but the bottom sealing surface looked very good. I will prob be able to fire it off something this weekend. Have to do some other stuff so the engine does not take ALL my spare time.

shamefully joined the club of not securing the timing chain jam tool, despite being warned by my buddy Jeff. So hours later after removing the timing chain cover its nearly all back together. I was careful to mark orientation of dizzy drive. just have to reinstall oil pump, water pump, damper, torque head, reinstall the cam gear (more carefully with tool now, which by the way a home made wood one is better IMH, the plastic thing does not fit well and is prone to slipping).

no smoking gun, head gasket looked fine, I could see no evidence of a problem. I did see about a teaspoon of coolant in 3 of the cylinders.. I don't see how that could have gotten there, I had drained the coolant before loosening any of the bolts. Anyway a new gasket is next. oh and I could see no cracks and the head had no detectable warp (I could not get a .003 in any where along the head in multiple tries). So even though the gasket looked fine I see no other option but to replace it with a new one and try again. I have scraped the block down and will get some gasket remover and plastic razors to work the head. The gasket came off leaving very little residue, fully intact.

progress. the head was indeed loose (see the end of the video) I have since then removed that Tstat housing and the manifolds, and have the chain tool (came in the mail later) install. All that is left is to remove the gear and pull off the head.

went out to shoot some video, noticed the head was already lifting up (weight of manifolds I presume) so looks like its going to go easy, Just waiting on the jam tool now. will go a head and remove the manifolds while waiting. I was concerned about all the horror stories of stuck heads.

will do, will post up some videos as I go. did notice my spray bar had a partial failure of one of the gaskets when I removed it, so they need to be redone as well. I did not notice any significant wear on the lobes, but the was a lot of sludge build up, esp in the head bolts, guess that is typical.

after my post I did some googling, seems like has to do with if the threads are involved or not in the stake section. I am guessing the axle is treaded all the way to the end? When I was working on the transmission I found the stake did not need to be undone. It just bent back up. The stake part was pretty thin. I don't recall the thread issue (to end or not). Perhaps just how the staking was done would matter (cut and curled up or just dented down). I cant see the harm in at least using a tool to get under the stake and at least getting it started on the way up if not removing it altogether.

This morning I pulled up the one "sticky" head bolt (long one center cam tower) all loaded up with black carboned up goo around the threads. Maybe the head leak area? The ones I pulled from the MN47 head were nearly perfectly clean looking, and prob what I will use, unless someone tells me they should not be reused. I can see I will need to get a flat bottom clean out tap.

I am surprised the peened part even needs to be addressed. With a larger breaker I would have guessed it just pushes out of the way. I assumed it was there to keep the nut from loosening from vibration, not the blunt force of a breaker bar.

Test the start switch for intermittent contact with a continuity test (tone) in the start position. That mechanical switch is old and seen a lot of use.

if I had to machine it flat I would have them do both sides. I have a head saver shim kit ready to go. IIRC read that shimming (as in your case .001 shims on far ends to pull the bow down in the middle) followed up with a heat cycle was something that was mentioned. Need a oven to heat it up, again cant recall the exact temps 250f maybe? hold it there for hours then let cool off. Something about even SKILLFUL use of a gas torch with a flame spreader to gently heat the entire head. Seem like the oven would be better for long term setting (hours then a cool down). Agree with not liking the idea of skimming and shimming etc... Fingers crossed I don't have to cross that bridge.

yep, that sound like what I paid for the OE stuff. My rears were fine (the fronts too for that matter) just seemed like a good idea, maybe get a better ride if the rubber is new and more pliable. I think the failure mode is the rubber tears away, prob due to having the suspension "hang" with wheels on and the car lifted. I always remove the tire and or put something under the wheels to take the weight off the insulators.

can you elaborate on that re flatten? I presume you put spacer of some kind on the and then bolt pressure to reverse bend? I have shim stock handy if that would work.

Ok now I can join the removed head bolts without breaking any club (already a member of the spindle pin removal club). I used my old hand powered impact tool working from the outside towards the center, to motivate them. They all succumb to a combo of that and a 1/2 breaker bar. I got the nice satisfying squeak on all but the center long. it was kinda stuck and did not release after one turn like the others. I presume some corrosion on that one, but it came out. I did remove the 2 small bolts that clamp to the timing chain cover. I will prob leave the exhaust manifold on to aid in unsticking the head. Waiting on the timing chain jam tool before removing the timing chain. I set it to TDC on #1 and noted the shinny chain link is right over the #3 mark on the gear. The slot is centered in the V on the viewing window. took pics so I can reassemble. I am reserving judgement on how far I want to go. I want to get the head off and examine for cracks/leaks/warps. I have a new head gasket on the way (felpro). IF all looks good I will prob just clean up the head and reinstall to see if that stops the exhaust gas in rad issue. I did another video (did not post) where you can clearly see the yellow tint in the test fluid. If the head not cracked but warped I will prob fully tear down the engine and take to a machine shop for hot tank and head work. Have them check the bores, of not bad, ball hone and new rings, bearings etc... I guess if the head is cracked I will do some research on my excellent looking MN47 head. IIRC dished pistions and maybe a 2 millimeter (double thick) head gasket to get the compression where I want it. I do not want to have to run premium fuel.

Must be too new, when I was in the market a year or so ago there was no such thing. My only concern is would not want something that is unknown quality attaching my suspension to the car.

you are right its a 280z thing on the rear. I figured there must have been a reason for going with more rubber, hence would prefer to not use the spacer.

too bad there is no tall rear ones made new.

Without opening it up, there is not much you could tell other than is shifts into all gears. Perhaps you could feel a problem by spinning it but I don't know that, just a guess. If you open it up you can examine the gears and check over the bearings. I think the area that would be the most important would be the actual teeth (don't know the correct term) that are on the hubs that actually lock the gears to the shaft. Its this that would most likely be damaged by abuse. Remember the gears are in constant mesh, its the hubs that lock them to the output shaft. If you look a new or undamaged hub and locking ring you could see the wear. the brass parts (anti balk rings IIRC) are easy to get, lots of rebuild kits for those parts. I had a heck of a time finding some of the needle bearing inner races (5th on mine) prob did not need it but was one of those while you are in there things. The tail shaft brass bush was badly worn, and can be sourced, you just need to the long one, most suppliers are a short version, think one company makes the long one and its very nice. the oil for the bush comes from a oil trough feed by a oil catcher that is easy to break off during disassembly, you must come straight up when separating from the adapter plate (the big think steel part in the middle). Rebuilding is not hard, easy really after you have done it once, but it helps a LOT if you have a hyd press. The FSM has lots of talk about fixtures, most of which you can improvise with various steel pipes from a hardware store. Most fiddly bits is the sync assy, the hub/springs/dogs/lock rings and come apart and need to go back the right way. This is compounded by some bad illustrations in some of the FSM's. Keeping all the gears and part in order helps if you decide to go that route, check my videos out at Dave WM. there is also a guy that goes by village land on you tube that shows a complete disassembly with NO press used. As ZH mentioned the biggest tell will be what is stuck to the magnet, if its just some fine metal, no big deal, of you have big chunks then its prob been abused. One of mine had that oil catcher completely intact stuck to the magnet. The output bush was trashed, presume from lack of oil. One last thing, sourcing the large output shaft nut can be a problem, again IIRC early 5 speeds had a conventional nut on the output shaft (CW tight CCW loose), later 5 speeds used a nut that is CCW tight CW to loose. You want to know what you have before trying to remove that, and you want the correct replacement as you should not reuse it.

One more thing, Maybe I should look at the valve guide seals for the oil in the cylinders. Most of the test running it idle, and this engine has a very high vacuum. I check it today at was 20in/Hg while idling. I suspect that could pull in a pretty good amount of oil on the intake valve seal.

more test, everything works fine with the engine, no oil noticed in coolant, no milk shake under oil cap, dipstick looks fine, engine runs well on test stand. compression looks good (165ish on all). however, I do seem to have a lot of oil build up on the plugs after short runs. Perhaps the oil control rings are not doing a good job. And I def failed the combustion gas in rad test (it will turn yellow after about 6-8 pumps. I tried it several times, flushed the rad etc... same result. So do I just put the engine aside and keep it as a spare (it would be fine I think as such) or do I do a partial rebuild (rings/head gasket)...

I have the 3.54 on the close ratio, and yes there is a bit more finesse required starting off. Not a lot but noticeable. living in flat land makes it a non issue, if you were in hill country and found yourself stopped on a uphill grade it may make it more of a problem. Up side is you can stay in 1st a bit longer. The CR trans I pulled was setup for a 3.7 based on the speedo gear that was in it. if you are in a lot of stop and go traffic it may be an issue. IMHO you should drive it as is for a while, you may find it not needed at all.

Garm, make sure you know the diff in the various ones, the 280z has final OD of like .83 iirc vs a .75 on a 280zx, it will matter as far as the diff you want. the key is a wide ratio vs a close ratio transmission.