Av8ferg

Gents, thanks for the info. I’ll grab all that stuff unless they charge me an arm and leg and if you want it I’ll get it to you. BTW when is ZCon next Atlanta. Working on my Z today. Installing the fuel tank that was refinished. Hopefully she’ll fire up.

I told the guy I thought it wasn’t a 75 but a 77. I didn’t look at the door placard but it has a N42 block and head and that would be correct for 75’. When I head back next week I’ll double check. He’s holding it for 2 weeks before it meets its ultimate fate. Like I said earlier without jacking it up I may not be able to get undercarriage stuff. It’s on gravel so it may not be safe

Unfortunately, I have no place to put the car and I my wife would lose her mind if I dragged it home. I’m going to take everything I reasonably can. What is JSM? If anyone needs something specific let me know. Everyone has been so helpful on this forum and I’m happy to pay it forward and just change what the yard charges me. They have no clue about this car and I told the owner not to crush it and he seemed like he didn’t care. Here’s a pic.

Not sure what a stub axle is, sounds a like a lot of work and would have to jack the car I assume. Unfortunately, I can’t take the whole car or I would.

Great, I’ll be on the look out and grab all I can that looks good. I guess I can sell what I don’t need. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I’ve been searching for salvage yards near me for 280z and found one where I picked up a few parts 2 months ago. I called the yard I went to and asked about the price for the N42 head. As some of you know I’m trying to bring my 1977 back to life and beginning to realize how hard and or expensive some parts can be. Anyway the guy told me he thinks the car was crushed. He then called me back and said it was in line to be crushed this week and I could have the head for $70 Two questions: 1) Is a N42 head worth $70? 2) what else should I grab off this car before it is finally put to death and transformed into a 2019 Kia or a Chinese bicycle. It’s sad to see these cars get crushed. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Well, all that’s left to do know is install the fuel tank. The shop that did the work on the tank was closed today so I couldn’t pick it up. Regarding the oil filters, I’ll grab a few at Napa and dump the STP. Will she run? I think I’ve done just about everything that I can think of to get it ready. I can’t get the tank until Tuesday because I fly to Boise tomorrow (yep Easter) for work and come back Tues.

Okay I spent the last 2 hrs cleaning the head and valve cover where it had caked oil everywhere. It’s not perfect but I got most of the debris that I feel confident nothing is going to get stuck in a valve or spring. Added assembly lube to the cam lobes. Spray bar is cleaned out and installed with homemade gaskets The dizzy is back and all hooked up. Whew....

Thanks. I’m going to buy fresh oil because the stuff I put in 6 weeks ago is already dark black just from cranking. I found hardened gunk in some of the flat areas of the the head. I’m going to clean them the best I can. The oil rail is clogged up. I’m off to Lowe’s to buy some PVC and thinner to let the puppy sit over night. Also I’m not seeing those tiny holes in my cam for oiling. I was thinking of putting some cam line to put on the lobes so it’s not cranking dry.

Here’s a better shot of the cam timing marks.

H ZH, I agree it’s not as visible. I looked at the scratches and markings around the groove and compared them in relation to the groove in both pics it apprears to be right on. So the new oil pump is primed and installed. The tang for the the dizzy looks perfect to me now. What do you think?

Okay, got in late last night and went ahead and worked on adjusting he can timing. I ended up rotating the cam sprocket back to position 1. It was a bit of a challenge but I think it’s right now. Here are the photos of the adjustment. Also when I puked the oil spray bar it appears to be gunked up .

Just landed in Savannah at 7am ?. Exhausted and time to get some sleep. Thanks again guys, can’t wait to get back to Memphistan and start working on all this stuff we’ve been chatting about.

Ha... Well you all have me worrying about my cam. I’ve never seen any holes in my cam but haven’t honestly looked. More to check out when I’m back in Memphis. I’ve.been reading about my cam timing issue. I agree, mine looks way advanced. It seems to be on hole two. If I move it back to hole #1 it might line up better per the FSM. The way I understand this is after loosening the cam bolt I will rotate the sprocket to the left..Counter Clockwise until hole number one is on the top. Do I need to mark the chain somewhere before do this?

On a side note. I was in Billings Montana last week and ran into the Z car guy in that area. Found an add on Craigslist. I went to his house and wow ? you would not believe the Z cars parts he had. He had a 240 and 260 for sale. Both 3k, but not running. Looked like rust free for the most part. He had a three car garage and a 20ft trailer full of parts. I saw about a dozen AFMs and ECUs at least 3 engines, and every little part you could imagine. Hatches, doors etc. He had a nice dash that he wanted 1k for. If you guys want his contact information let me know. He also had a 280 with. V8 not for sale.

Mine is an N47 head. It’s as dirty as hell. I’m going to try as clean it up but worry that crud may fall into the valves. Can you spray carb cleaner on the head and rockers etc with it installed on the engine without causing problems? I’ll take close up pics when I get home for you guys. I’m sitting in a hotel near Mexico City and won’t be back in Memphis until Friday?. Just hanging in my room researching getting the car rolling. Just order a timing chain tool on a Amazon so I can adjust the chain/sprocket. I also ordered a new oil pump from Partsology for $30.69 with gasket, zcar depot wanted $9 just for gasket. I’ll have about 12 hours to install the fuel tank and all the crap associated with it. Put a new oil pump in and set the spindle correctly, clean the oil spray bars, maybe the head and then adjust the chain timing.

Yeah, was thinking of grabbing this engine while towing the back to NC but I won’t be able to get that sucker out of my 4runner easily. Wife is already unhappy with my car fetish and a spare engine lying around will only fuel her disdane. If she caught me putting a chain around our garage rafters I’d be sleeping outside for awhile. This might just be a bad idea. Maybe just focus on getting this engine in the car fixed and someday rebuild it.

Here’s pics of the car near me in Memphis with the N42. I have already pulled some parts off this car. It’s about 80 miles away. How hard will it be to lift and engine in and out the back of a 4Runner? https://cpprohomeky.car-part.com/image?seller=9277&partGUID=9277-1-187939&vehicleGUID=9277-1-V6236&display=1975 Nissan 280 Z Fender Assembly-Stock%23 N1774#

Cliff, towing home is my game plan. I have a 2008 V6 4runner to haul it home. Wife won’t be happy with a non-driving vehicle hanging around the garage. Getting a car on a full car trailer isn’t easy when it’s not running. I need to find 4 dudes to help me push it up. Sad....

Which engine would you get? The F54 for $100 or the N42 from salvage yard for $300. It seems people like the N42 from my research. The savage yard is only changing me $300 because of the labor to remove the engine. I can call and ask the, if the engine is locked up or not. One more thing, should I just replace the oil pump while it’s out? An new one is $31 with the gasket? Seems reasonable and maybe worth changing while I’m doing the work anyway.

Thanks for all the good advice. I’m coming up on a timeline to get this car on the road. It’s in Memphis at a temp location. I have limited access to tools there. The hope was to get it running an then bring it to NC where I could really begin a proper restoration. My goal was to get the engine running to determine if it was a engine worth keeping or weather to rebuild it. The great thing about this car is the body. Spending a lifetime in CA and getting a full undercoat early in its life have saved it from the fate of many of these cars...rust. It’s obvious to me the POs knew little about the mechanical and electrical workings of these cars and at some point abandoned the goal of putting back on the road. I feel their frustration....some days I have considered just selling it and buying a running one. What I’ve learned in life is the journey is better than the destination in my endouvers. This is no exception. I enjoy a challenge, love to work with mechanical things and seeing the fruits on my labor. I’ve been scouring the internet looking for replacement L28 engines. It begs this questions. Should I keep the current engine and just rebuild it, buy a fully rebuilt one or buy a used running engine? Seems like a fully rebuild engine runs around $2,500 to $2,900. I’ve found used engines from $150 to $750. What is the cost to rebuild my engine? Do matching engine s matter in the Z world? A salvage yard near me has an L28 in a car that they want $300 for engine, tranny and all misc engine parts. It’s from a 1975 with an N42 Head.....engine status unknown. There is also a guy selling a 1978 engine on Craigslist for $100 about 3 hrs from me. https://nashville.craigslist.org/pts/d/nissan-6cyl-engine/6529413934.html what do you guys think?

Thanks for all the advice. I got called out for work but willl hit the ground running on all these recommendations when I get back a report my findings. 1. I’ll get more photos of my dirty head. 2. Clean the oil spray bars. 3. Pull the oil pump and reset the spindle position. 4. Check slack on timing chain using a wrench and see it it effects timing markings when tight on drivers side. I guess I need to buy some jack stands to do the oil pump. My oil pan area is nasty and caked oil crud everywhere under the engine. They company that rebuilt my alternator said the oil probably killed it. I don’t want to keep investing in this engine only to discover it’s trashed. Is it hard to pull the pan and replace the gasket on jack stands. I’m sure it’s easy on an engine stand. Im starting to think finding a rebuilt engine might be a good idea. Gas tank is done and will install that too. Of note my fuel sending unit looked like crap when I pulled the gas tank. Totally covered with rust, but still moved. Companies online wanted around $200 to rebuild it, so I did it myself. Check out the before and after photos. I checked the resistance and it went from around 17 to 85 ohms from empty to full. I let it sit is a bath of muriatic acid mixed 5 to 1 with water for about 30 mins. Then hit it with WD-40 and plastic brush. Looks great now.

I found this on the Zcar forum. Seems to pertain to my issue. Sounds like I need to pull the oil pump and make some alignment adjustments. Not sure how to do this but I’m looking now how in the FSM. http://www.zcar.com/forum/10-70-83-tech-discussion-forum/285669-distributor-rotation-timing.html

I’ve been researching this issue. I found a link on this forum that shows the proper position off here the distributor connects tone oil pump shaft. See attached. Mine is off for sure. I don’t know if this means I need to pull the oil pump and adjust this or of that’s even possible. Still looking into that. See attached pics. Clean photo is how it’s supposed to look and the dirty as hell one is mine looks. You cannot mount the distributor wrong because the where the shaft connects has to half moon shapes (one smaller than the other) but the slot is offset allowing it to engage only one way.

I’m trying to understand this. I’m at TDC and my rotor is pointing to 5 o’clock instead of 8. This is probably why it’s not starting. Even if I adjusted the sprocket on the cam that won’t solve the rotor alignment problem? By the way I don’t have a shinny chain link on my timing chain to see if it’s on 1,2 or 3 markings which I’ve read is used to adjust for chain stretch. So, the question I think is how do I get the rotor to point to 8 o’clock? I’m considering removing the distributor and taking a closer look at it. As far as I know if could be an the wrong one...broken or who knows what’s been done to this car over the past 41 years. I feel like a detective solving one mystery after another. Recap....bad ignition switch, bad fuel pump, wrong ECU, blown fusible links, battery fuse link on negative battery post vice positive, clogged fuel tank. I couldn’t have solved any of this without your help here. Thank!!! Beers on me if we ever meet at a Z car show.