madkaw

C'mon Ryan, where's your sense of adventure? Throw the new engine in and go! Actually, I understand. I remember driving to Zcon 2010 on a fresh resto with new engine and all, it was dam nerve racking, and I only had a 4 hour drive. 20 hours is a looonnnngggg time. The crazy part is that it is happening all over again for me-well almost. if I get my sh!t together and make it - it will be on a fresh motor and trans.

Well I really thought I would have a head in my hands this weekend, but not yet. Last I spoke to the machinist he was shaving the head for 39cc chambers. At that time we talked again about valve guide seals and the importance of getting them on right. With the high lift cam I use the Ford seals on the guides and they are very finicky. After that conversation I didn't hear from the guy the rest of the weekend, so I'm thinking the seals became an issue. Maybe Monday

If you had a lift, that definetly would be an option

I plan on mounting the trans in its mount before the engine is installed, then there isn't much back time . The trans mount will be all bolted up with the front of the trans sitting on its trans jack. I will then make sure the input shaft is level and measure it's height. When I drop the engine in I will get it level with the trans. I will pre- measure the height the engine needs to be to match up with the trans and mark that on my jack. All this to get it as close as possible and then hopefully it's just pushing the engine on to the trans. Very little work under the car and I don't need as much room to swing the engine. I also don't have to tilt the engine so no chains or straps to swing in to my carbs

As I get older my eyes stray less from the Z. I would like to have a 911 turbo pretty bad. Not an old one either. I had a lot of cool muscle cars when I was younger, but don't really yearn for them again. don't think I ever want a big car again. I bought my daughter a 2007 Subby WRX wagon which is pretty cool. Very nice performance oriented family wagon. It is small and very quick and I like the way it handles. I've never been able to afford the high end stuff, so I don't dream about it too much. Pretty damn happy to own a Z!!

Some progress! I did wind up making a puller using an old main cap and some head bolts. Nothing fancy but it worked. I studied the "how to.." book and read some posts and redid the rear main seal. Thanks Jeff(dizeased) for all your helpful hints. I realize that previous installs were not quite right , so maybe thats why I was always fighting rear main leak. One thing that didn't done right before was getting the stakes all the way down. I made sure that happened this time. My head should be done today, so this last week i have been prepping for it. I realized that I wasn't as organized as I thought. I started going thru all my hardware and next thing I know its 8 hours later . I want the head install to go smoothly and not stopped every hour to find a particular bolt. I now have all accounted for and cleaned. I have my loctite standing by and my torque wrench. Everything is assembled as far as I can go with many bolts just screwed in place until final assembly. I am running out of time. The intake valves came from Courtesy. MSA also had them but almost 50% more expensive. But 14$ a valve for Nissan is still not bad. I will say MSA got some valves to me in 2 days to Indiana! MSA didn't even realize they had the valves until I called. The guy went to the warehouse to check since the web site said they were out. They infact had 25 valves on hand. Strange to run a business that way. The machinist is supposedly fitting the intakes and should have lash pad numbers for me to order-ASAP. I will at least get the head back to start assembly-I hope. I assembled my Mikuni's and mounted them on my spare L28 motor. I plan to assemble the motor as complete as possible and then drop it in. I think I'm going to set the trans in place on a trans jack and just drop the motor by itself. I would really like to mount everything on this motor without leaning over a fender, that's the plan-subject to change

I was actually trying to be funny about worrying about using a torque wrench on the trans in a pinch.. Tight will get you there. Not saying you shouldn't use one if you can.

Torque wrench? Transmission bolt torque value= tight!

Sorry guys but that project derailed for several reasons. One big reason was a good enough dash for a mold. I do have that now, next obstacle is money. Probably 1500$ to get the first one made. I started this thread before my daughters wedding- bad idea. Now my son is starting college , so I will see how that goes this fall

Don't know about anyone else, but I use standard American thread bolts for my engine stand. They go in nice and easy. But I do use the metric for assembly

So while you have the degree wheel mounted your not going to degree the cam?

You could have used a .010 set and filed them. That's about the limit, don't ask me how I know that. Glad they are sending the right ones

You guys are a hoot. Hope I get to meet you all

I like that idea - simple and fast. Thanks

3pm is about normal. I actually called someone about buying a 83zx. I thought I would drive it down there and maybe sell it. I could say I drove my Datsun.

seems kinda weird anyway. Well that sums it up for me too

If I knew I would make the show I would offer up a meet at my car or maybe someone else could use their car. I thought at one of the shows we had name tags and you would/could put your inner Web name on there too.

Well haven't much got further. Did have a very interesting talk/argument /verbal fight with my machinist. There shouldn't be this much drama in an engine build. Without detail I will say that I guestioned his work and business skills and his lack of effort to learn about this motor. He admitted to not swiping the valve side of the rocker during initial build of my motor. I am 99% sure he overbored my engine and probably didn't get the guide seals right either. Lesson learned, if going with a performance build , find a knowledgeable builder. Also, read up and ask questions .moving on.... Went with genuine Nissan valves for the intakes. These are getting harder to come by and Courtesy went back order. Valves are not here yet , so making Zcon is looking dim. I did order the rebuild book and it is a good reference. I think I will redo my side seals . I guess it's time to make a puller . I also found it interesting what the book said about polishing the crank in the area of the rear main seal- don't do it or it will leak. Had my crank polished , but don't know if the rear was polished or not. Now I will worry about it now. Never read about anyone else dealing with that issue. Just not a good year for the Z

Cliff, I use something like that , but sparingly. All the work on this head will probably be accomplished with sand paper type bits. Those carbide bits can grab a lot material if your not careful. I did use something like that for cleaning up my mikuni intake-bad castings. The "teeth" were clogged up with aluminum which was actually a good thing, so it wouldn' t gouge the project. I'm figuring I'm down to 38cc right now, but there is room to open up around the valve curtain. that should gain me back some. might wind up grinding reliefs in the pistons which will get me a little more. I am very happy the way it cleaned up. The only signs of rust are barely seen on the pivot bushings. I will be getting a burret set-up shortly. i've noticed if you stay away from the auto-performance vendors, you can order a pretty cheap set-up from a science lab web site. You can get a 50cc burret, stand, clamp for 50$ and go find a piece of plexiglass

Finally got my MN47 back from the machine shop. Didn't expect the guy to tell me he took .012 off-eek! The CR is going up as we speak. Looks like I need to get that burret on order and start taking measurements. I want to know exactly where I'm at on this. The really good news was that everything cleaned up nicely. The one exhaust valve that was bent didn't ruin the guide! Now rusty looks better than warpy. I had the warped head tanked so I could play around with a clean head. I still plan on trying to straightening it.

Oughta be a runner!

I feel your pain of pulling a head off of a good motor:) Hopefully your issue is simple. As far as HGs, it's hard to take anyone's word except for actual engine builders. Too many variables put there. Nice build and good documentation.

100$ sure! I'm with Charles though, tear it down and check everything

Thanks Charles! That's what I have read about exhaust options, so I will stick with my square port header.

I couldn't put it together with those pistons - especially when flat tops are pretty cheap. If that motor didn't detonate before, it probably will from all the hot spots created by those pits.