Ownallday

Well, whatever method they use to clean blocks I want to have done. The original place I called TopEndPerformance actually led me to another shop but the guy I talked to said he wants to bore then hone too. They have reman engines still? Where? Not without doing measurements, I got the bearings out. It won't let me post the pictures with my phone but the main bearings are down to the copper while the connecting rod bearings look good. Almost no scoring on the crankshaft, very very minor a polish will clean it up nicely by the looks of it. Tomorrow I'm going to get thrust measurements before removing crank. The engine won't be sitting, either it'll get the work done with or without the bore unless I get lucky soon with another engine. That is for L24 and L26 I believe though as they don't show for 280z. I did contact MSA and they said they don't have anything. I'll try zcardepot next week. That's not too bad of an idea, just would be scared on how much material can be removed from the top of the flattops and that would make the pistons weaker?

He does not, but he can source them or I can bring it to a machine shop, either way I want to get the engine into a hot tank so it's going to a machine shop one way or another.

Yeah I made sure pistons are which were my main concern are available. TopEndPerformance has 87mm forged pistons that can be made and rings are included. Main problem is forged pistons are overkill in my opinion and making the cost more than 1k. I went ahead and contacted three engines I see for sale, the blocks don't look promising though. After seeing everyone point it out, I see it better now, I though it was oil dripping. my nails are not able to dig into these lines however and feel very smooth. I am not exactly sure what it is either. It feels smooth to the touch. thanks for the heads up, I will remove the pistons and crank next week. My co worker said he wants to hone it and see what the results are. I did do that, all the parts that I need not including new pistons is easily obtainable and not expensive. Once we add the pistons, it gets up there for me as $1000+ for pistons is a lot. All the engines for sale around me the outsides of the blocks do not look promising. The pistons seem to be the main thing holding me back from wanting to do a bore. You have a good point actually, I contacted one shop that does Z engines but they said they only build race engines. I have the same feeling that will be the same with Rebello which is actually out of reach for me anyways. They might as well be in another state with how far they are haha. I will contact Z car garage see if they can give me any insight if they are willing to.

Okay, I will go ahead and see if my co worker is capable of doing that otherwise I will see what other machine shops can provide in terms of measuring. My fingernail does not catch any of it at all. I do believe it is a high mileage engine just unsure how many miles. I will call around some more and see if I can find someone who can do the measurements if my co worker doesn't have the proper tools to do it. I think they just mentioned thats what they want to do, not sure why or how. That was a typo, I meant dished pistons my bad. So more compression won't make any change power wise if I cant adjust afr?

Compression is something I wish I had the luxury of knowing but I bought the engine used and previous owner never got any readings. The only information I have based on the engine is it ran good. I wasn't able to find any info on people just doing a hone and getting good results so to hear that gives me some positive news. I posted some pictures hopefully they are good enough to get some insight on the walls conditions. They are perfectly 86mm btw according to the gauge at the top of the walls. Yeah I know I'm very limited since Im staying stock, there isn't really any information on how these engines perform with more compression, port, etc etc with stock EFI. The only thing I know I'd be able to tinker with is the afm, timing and could possibly get an adjustable fuel pressure regulator but that's about it. I already have shorter gearing trans and lightened flywheel and electric fans etc.. My bad that was a typo, dished is what I meant. For the most part I know the first guy only does work if he does everything according to my friend mainly because he is known for making good builds but I doubt he has touched an L series. For the most part a polish on the crank is what I had in mind but the shops I believe they only want to grind and not just polish but I have yet to see the condition of the crank. I know these blocks are very strong as I've almost never heard of one of someone running into serious major issues on a stock build at least. I supplied some pictures of the walls. If I could find 87mm pistons for less than $800 maybe I'd be willing to take the extra steps

Hello, basically what I'm fearing. What I thought would be a $500 job is turning into thousands 😔. To my eye it looks very slightly glazed. I know the engine was running prior as I bought the engine off a YouTuber and he had video of this engine running good. I will provide some pictures maybe you can give some insight based on the pictures. Have yet to remove the pistons so the measuring will have to wait another week or two depending on what happens. I have not done a compression test based on the fact that I recently bought the engine from someone but I just know it was running good based on what the guy showed me.

Hey guys, I have an L28 Engine, N42 block and N47 head. My goal was to rebuild the engine and make it a reliable engine that can last a long time. I want to avoid having to pull the engine anytime soon. Power is not my biggest concern however I would like to be above the stock power numbers minimum with this rebuild since it's going to gain a little weight with aftermarket AC. For the most part I will be sticking to the stock efi for smog reasons and would like whatever I do internally to not mess with my ability to pass smog. I have almost all refurbished or new parts for the intake manifold too which should be a big help. The condition of the block is the cylinder walls are polished, slightly glazed but overall look good with no major signs of scoring or anything. I got a couple of quotes from three machine shops in my area and not a single shop wants to do just a hone job. One shop quoted me $3500 because he wants to put all new parts in it and grind the crank (Which is insane if you ask me for a stock rebuild and does not sound necessary), the other shops quoted me closer to $600 with no parts. Every single shop wants to bore the block which means I need new pistons at 87mm (I think because of how old the car is or they trying to get more money out of me?). As most of you know, pistons are hard to come by for these cars especially domed pistons which I need because flattops will put me at a CR of 10.2 according to OZdat which is too high for California 91 and sounds too high for stock efi. The only 87mm domed pistons I see are forged (overkill) and will cost me more than $1500 (overkill). My question is can I just ball hone the cylinder walls myself (or one of my co workers with experience honing) and be okay or keep trying to find a shop that will do just a hone and not worry or is a Bore absolutely necessary? Also if possible can anyone chime in and let me know how the stock efi system will react to 9.1 compression ratio? Thinking of potentially decking the block just to raise it if it'll even be worth it? The N47 head has one exhaust liner missing and decided to just leave it as is since someone had one missing and didn't notice a performance decrease with it and without it. I didn't plan on doing anything to the head but I would like to ask would I see any benefit to porting the head and doing a port match with the intake manifold on the Stock EFI? The head and internals for the most part however look really good. Thank you!

Let me know overall how much and if Zelle or PayPal works I'd probably definitely consider it. Good point, didn't even think about checking the exhaust. I'll do that when I can. Unless one of the previous owners removed it in the past. I actually have a boring scope on hand.

That depends... I may consider it but how much and how much is shipping going to cost? I'm almost willing to just run the head I have how it is because I saw two people say their cars ran fine and they couldn't feel a difference with liners missing.

Exactly my point, don't wanna kill the compression and I remember how slow that setup was in the past. My cracked e88 head, n42 engine with a compression ratio of 100 and triple Weber's that weren't even tuned properly ran better than the combo with the P79 head. Not sure if it's worth it going through all that trouble but I'm going for mostly stock internals and stockish rebuild anyways. I believe they were in there, I'll post a picture sometime this weekend when I'm home. How would something like that be fixed?

Thanks for the explanation and breaking it down, I kept reading too many different responses to what these things are for etc. Hopefully the one missing liner does not get me into any trouble when I smog after the rebuild. I will leave it as is and run it with the missing liner. I did read one post someone ran their car like that and he said the car was very fast so shouldn't cause any big issues performance wise at least. I was considering a P79, but I would not want to loose the higher compression of the N47 since this is a mostly stock internals rebuild and I had a P79 in a previous build with an N42 block and it was definitely one of the slowest setups I've had. I already have an oil pump upgrade so hopefully 0 oil pressure won't be an issue because I had that in the past with my e88 head.

Would it be better to run the head as is with the one liner then? Basically LA county, 2500 and idle testing to my knowledge. Yes, I have two catalytic converters on hand to try, I'm also ordering a new EGR. No I do not have it. It was missing when me and my friend removed the manifold. Sorry bad wording.

Yeah the others seem pretty on there. I know people have ran without them and people have ran with some that are missing, however I haven't heard of anyone confirming if they can't pass smog or if the car runs better or worse with one or all of them gone. I can see the flow being ruined due to the shape of the ports without the liners so a lot of grinding would need to be done I know that much. Yeah, I did as much research as I could before posting but no one that has had them removed and ran their car with one missing or all of them missing have reported if it actually makes a difference to the way the car drives or if it'll effect smog etc... Trying to avoid getting another head as I haven't found any around me at the moment and money is tight.

Hello, I am rebuilding an L28. I have an N42 block with an N47 head that I bought a couple months ago. I noticed one of the exhaust liners on the head pretty much fell out. I am wondering if I will run into any issues if I go head and remove the rest of the exhaust liners and if that will effect passing smog in any way or if I will run into any issues with how the car performs.

Thank you for the response, I will look at my enkei wheels and see if I can find a similar issues. May just end up swapping with a friend see what changes in the coming month.

Seems like a lot of people have this problem with these cars yet there are those who can't find a solution and others that have completely different fixes. Let us know please what you find.

Thanks for the insight, sounds like you got lucky with fixing your wheel shake, sadly for me I had upgraded to a big brake kit, I had my wheel shaking before and after the brake upgrade. During my engine build process I may decide to throw in the ttt steering rack and look into possibly swapping steering columns.

Back when I first posted, that was one of the first things I did but there was no change to the shaking. Definitely wouldn't rule it out for other people though.

Sadly no, everything I wrote up in this post is what I've done to try an decrease the shake, for me it seems the struts may have made the biggest difference for me. I haven't had time to work on the car and dig into the problem but hoping that changes in a month or two after my engine build is done. The only possible things left that I can do is try different wheels, change the driveshaft, axles, replace the rear wheels bearings (not sure when they were last replaced), and possibly trying a different steering rack (technotoytuning rack looks nice) and possibly a new steering column as my steering wheel can be moved around very slightly with the vehicle not running, not sure if that is normal or not. If you find whatever solves your shake, please let me know.

I would start with trying different lug nuts and different wheels in your situation and see if you continue having any shake

Thanks, might seem like it may not work or even be worth trying to get it to work with the MSD. I already have the MSD box which is why I asked. Really? isn't the intake somewhat restrictive on airflow? I only know of one person who went ahead and ported his intake and he apparently got a faster 0-60 time. This was however on a 280zx NA. I am not sure if there are any major differences between the 78 280z intake compared to the zx intake. Honestly never knew they made an adjustable cam pulley. More than likely will snag it for the build, Thanks! I understand. I did a lot of research and couldn't find answers to most of these things I posted. I am actually trying to avoid breaking the law. So long as the car can pass emissions without removing any emission components, no laws to my knowledge are being broken which is my goal. I use to have a stock engine in my 75 before I swapped to webers but the engine was low on compression and consuming oil like no tomorrow for the time I drove it so I have some indication of stock, just not a stock rebuilt one. Also limited on space and my motor is already apart and would like to avoid having to take it apart again for another 10 years. I have a lightweight flywheel already but unsure on the gearing of my trans and diff.

Looks like a 123 distributor will be added to the list of things I can do then. You are right, being able to adjust the ignition curve at different RPMS could be useful. I may have to ask a smog tech if a distributor will fail any visual but to me seems like a distributor is not considered a smog component. Would the MSD 6AL Ignition system work with the 123 dizzy? I think one of the things I decided to add to my list of things I could have done too is porting the stock intake manifold. The AFM would have to be adjusted more than likely. Not sure what kind of power gains could be seen from that. Noted, does that have any drawback for smog? I could always just install the cam on 1 then increase to 2 or 3 after the move if necessary.

Thanks for the heads up. Planned on getting a pre test as I am actually unsure if the stock cat that was on the car originally is good or not so don't wanna take that risk. The move will probably be around 2 years so either before I right after I will have to go in for another test. Wish I could throw two catalytic converters on to increase my chances but I am sure that will fail visual instantly.

I've been getting too many mixed responses on that response but it seems to me that the case would make it harder to pass, question is how much added compression is too much? I am sure just a thinner head gasket should cause no harm. Starting to sound like it. Yea I believe its three test visual I am not worried about as all stock components will be in the car and anything that can be visually inspected I can hold off on. Just trying to avoid taking apart the motor again but a Cam is not that hard and can be done inside the engine bay. I believe I have a new AFM or rebuilt AFM so hopefully that gives me no problems as I always had AFM problems in the past on my last car. It seems to me I will have to do just a stock rebuild for now aside from the thinner head gasket and port and polish and just do the extra work when the time comes. At least it'll give me an opportunity to see how stock power really feels like and see if I can feel any improvements from there as I do all the mods in the future.

Would a bump in compression though make it easier to fail the sniffer test though? I didn't want to exactly bump compression up too much as I would like to run 87 octane still or max 91. I already have another Z that has a nicely build motor with triple webers and she pulls hard, I use it mostly for track driving, this new build is mostly for daily driving occasions and spirited mountain driving. Good to know, does Arizona have any smog laws? Does your Z pass with all the modifications you've done? I figured even a slightly bigger cam would hinder the low end a little but would pull in the higher end. By the sounds of how much had to be changed to the afm and advancing timing sounds like it may not pass here in California which is a bummer. Cam is easy and I suppose I can always upgrade after the move. Does the 123 have any advantage power wise or just the adjustment to timing and pin lockout?