2ManyZs

I saw a Z with a triple SU set up in the old Z car magazine. Looked pretty good, except for the fact the manifold had to be fabricted form scratch, luckily the guy that did it had a father who owned a shop that was capable of melting down scrap aluminum and cast him a new one. The car was up for sale on Ebay not long ago, but don't know if it sold or not. it really was a sweet car. If I remember right he had used a 240 crank in a 280 block for a really short stroke, high revving engine. I'll look for the mag when I get home and try to post a little more info.

Had a good looking blonde pass me on the Interstate just after I bought my new Ram, not that I was checking her out or anything. Then I noticed her tag said CULKN2! She was right!

Well George, I still have the tag but let it expire since the DMV sends out a surprise every once in a while that you have to send to your insurance company for proof of insurance. You know what my car looks like right now, so not much sense in having insurance and tags on a car that is 3 feet off the ground. BTW, it was in the newspaper recently about a girl in VA that had her tags revoked by the DMV for being offensive. It wasn't offensive to me but you know how some people are. Her tag read 3M TA3. Imagine seeing it in your rear view mirror:love: :devious: Or just write it on a slip of paper and view it from the back.

Since you say it sat for a year the first thing that comes to my mind is something has probably gotten into the fuel filter. May have been some gunk form the tank or maybe you had a little condensation in the tank. First thing i would do is to replace the fuel filter, if that doesn't help you might want to look at the old filter to see if there is a lot of garbage in it. If there is you might want to drain the fuel tank. You might also need to replace or clean the fuel pump if you are using the stock mechanical pump. It is also possible the fuel pump diaphram may have gone bad while it was sitting. There is a good start on what may be causing your problem, if that doesn't help, let us know and we can all join in with other ideas.

Depends on how many letters you get to use in Florida. Why not (your initials) 76 280Z? My last personalized tag was 71 Z CARR since my last name is Carr. Got a lot of comments on the supposed "misspelling".

Unfortunately the one hand gesture you see here on the east coast has nothing to do with being "friendly". Guess the gene pool got polluted somewhere along the line. :stupid:

IMO the Haynes is a bit better than the Chilton, but by far the best is the Factory Service Manual or FSM. They can be hard to find and they are a bit expensive, but if you need one, they are hard to beat.

Never did it before, but by the diagram in the old service manual the only thing that could be stopping it from coming out is the stopper bolt on the bottom behind the rear reservoir. If this is out I guess the only way to get the piston out to a point you can get a hold of it would be to use a little air pressure in one of the front ports. Good luck. Quite a bit cheaper to re-build the early master than buying one isn't it? I saw the price of a new one and just about :tapemouth

It will work if you have a couple thousand dollars for machine work to keep it from self-destruction. There is so much machine work to be done to the diesel crank to lighten it and balance it it is my opinion you are asking for more trouble than it is worth. A much better alternative would be to use an F-54 block with the flat top pistons with the parts you have and save yourself a lot of time, money and aggravation. You will gain quite a bit of displacement by going to the L-28 Zx block, this will cost you about half what it would cost to modify the diesel crank. If you want a good street engine don't bother with the diesel crank unless you have at least 3-5 thousand dollars to do the job right. If it isn't done right, you will end up with a very expensive conversation piece sitting in the corner of your garage.

I'm not an "engine guru" in any way, shape or form. If you do a good valve adjustment, run it a couple weeks and take the valve cover off again and check the wear again on the cam lobes. If it still looks odd and not even across the cam lobes, that will be a good indication that the lash pads are bad. They can be ground at a good machine shop to give them a nice flat contact surface, unless there is too much wear. If they are worn beyond a certain point they will need to be replaced as they won't be thick enough, and will be in danger of failure.

Anything under 10.5:1 would be reasonable for a street engine, although if you go over 10:1 you may need to use 93 octane to keep it from detonating. I'd say 9.6 would be just about as good as you could ask for. You could possibly even use 91 octane gas and not have to worry about detonation at all.

Before you take any more material out of the head, have you checked out the compression ratio and such with a different head gasket? There are the 1mm and 2mm headgaskets as well as the stock thickness available. This might make up the difference you are looking for. Just thought I'd ask in case you haven't thought about it yet.

Well, it would probably be more of a "ticking" noise if the valves are to loose, which I suspect they are by the looks of the cam. It might be a good idea to take the lash pads out for a "look-see" too. It may be the main problem is worn out lash pads, and this is what is causing the worst of the problem, the wear pattern on the cam isn't what it should be. You might be looking at more than just a valve adjustment, you might need lash pads replaced before you can get the adjustment right. If you notice the one cam lobe seems to be showing most of its wear on the very tip of the lobe, which indicates to me that the valve adjustment is so far off it is barely touching the lash pad and the valve therefore is not opening as soon or as much as it should. I think it might be in your best interest to remove the head and take it to a competant machine shop for a thorough check over. It might be a good idea to replace the valve stem seals, and perhaps the valve seats (if you don't already have hardened seats) and have them check the lash pads to see if they need to be ground or replaced. If it has run like this for a long period of time, the cam has probably worn the lash pad in such a way that it will be impossible to get a correct valve adjustment without replacing or at least grinding the lash pad. Sorry, but the more I look at the pics, the more I suspect there may be some damage done that needs to be addressed soon. Wait a day and see what other opinions you get here, mine aren't always right.

They may be stock, but they look to have been re-covered at one time or another. The covering doesn't look to be all original, nor does the extra trim. I don't think any Z door panels had mor than the single trim piece running across the top. The U shaped trim piece looks to have been added on.

Impossible to identify a cam by just looking at it. You would have to either have some sort of markings on it if it is an aftermarket cam or you would have to measure the cam lobes. As far as the difference in the wear patterns on the cam lobes, it looks to me like you have valves that are too loose. The wear patterns look pretty good on a few, but you definately need a good valve adjustment done on the ones that show little wear. If the valve adjustments were within spec they should all look nearly the same. Either that or the cam followers are shot on a couple valves, leaving you with too much valve lash.

First thing to do would be to take off the filler cap while it is running to make sure you have oil flow at all. Second thing to do would be to verify the oil level. Third thing is to get a new oil pressure sending unit. Hopefully it will be one of these things, that is if the engine isn't knocking like crazy. If it is, well, you should know the rest of that story.:tapemouth

Why does someone want to see my reply? I have no ideas! I will say I think Royce probably covered nearly everything that is possibly wrong, now it's just a matter of finding out which one out of the list may be the culprit. I suspect the control arm bushings may have something to do with it, either they were in bad shape when you put the tires on, and have since left you for someone else, or there is a serious suspension failure somewhere. That would contribute to the tire rubbing problem. As far as the sudden loss of "altitude"? You live near the Snake river? Or does Evel Knievel live in your neighborhood? To be honest, I have no idea. Unless the spring perches were so rusted from all the accumulated road garbage that lays in them and they have fallen off, I'd have to say this may have been a more progressive sort of thing that you didn't really notice.

82 200sx had the same also, not sure how long they had the same bolt pattern.

Hmm, know we know why that is a "touchy" subject huh? :devious: :stupid: Sorry Steve, couldn't resist just a little one.:tapemouth

And people have told me I have a sick sense of humor. BTW Steve, it doesn't say it has to be a man does it? But then, most women love little kittens don't they?

Well, I'm no expert but the obvious question to ask next is this. Have you checked to see if you have a spark? Take one plug out, and lay it on the top of the valve cover and turn it over. If you have no spark then the problem could be internal to the distributor, or you might have a loose or corroded connection somewhere either in the coil or distributor wiring. Of course the odd cause could be an ignition switch that has failed. If you are getting gas into the cylinders (wet plugs) then the problem has to be electrical (ignition somewhere) so don't give up yet. It may be something really simple, could you have forgotten a wire connection? Or possibly it is loose? Don't shoot it whatever you do. I sold one of mine, so I have room for another one.:cheeky: :devious: Take your time, sit back and just look at, sometimes the answer will come to you when you aren't concentrating so hard on all the possibilities. Well, it's obvious I'm a slower typist than Mike is.:tapemouth

So Mike, you conned her into it huh? Bet they won't be the type of pics you were thinking about will they? :devious:

There is no outer sleeve with the poly bushings. Ths stock ones only have one because they are made that way. The rubber is bonded to the outer and inner sleeves on the stock bushings. They are a one piece bushing, unlike the urethane replacements. Just be sure to clean up the mounting area so there isn't any corrosion or nicks in the metal, and grease the outside of the bushing well. I greased the bushings inside and out, plus I greased the sleeve for the mounting bolt inside and out so there is less chance for any squeaking of the bushings.

Just as an FYI. There are quite a few SCCA regions that are now hosting road rally events. These are merely timed events on public roads in street cars. No speeding, no modified full out race cars, everything is done in a street legal car. It might be one way to find out just how tough a timed event really is and how well you can work as a team. Just take your every day driver out and go for a nice Sunday drive. With a stop watch of course. Kinda like a Track Day at your local road course, no real racing, just a way to get a feel for the type of event in a safe and controlled environment. The SCCA does hold numerous rally events, but these are not historic events, these are usually Pro series events. All the best new vehicles against one another, I don't think they have any classes that a modified Z would fit into.

Now Jeremiah, you know darn well anyone that could lose their way around the Glen with all that blue guardrail to keep them on the track, needs something more than GPS. Won't say what that might be.................:stupid: