Tick Tick Boom - Rocker Arms needed Spokane

[NWT240zed]

Well folks, thought I had my ticking sound licked with a valve adjustment. On the road trip back through Washington, the tick came back with a vengence. Something was hammering pretty hard under the valve cover and it was loud. Also noticed some excessive oil consumption. Oddly no visable leaks and no visable smoke, but there is some soot in the tailpipe.

Pulled into Spokane with the 72 240Z. Found a mechanic with some experience on old Zcars. Pulled the valve cover, and I expected to see something as prominent as the noise. Nothing too obvious was there. Valves were adjusted again. Still very loud ticking. Eventually it was determined that four of the rocker arms had some excessive wear. Unfortunately only two replacements are readily available by the mechanic.

Does anyone know where to find a couple more near Spokane. Hopefully replacing the two worst offenders will allow enough relief. I know that a top engine rebuild is in the cards. To my thinking if the top is being done, might as well do the bottom too. With luck, however, I can manage to get the car home first. Only 2K to go :-).

If anyone has some rocker arms near Spokane please let me know where.

Ahh the joys of road-tripping in old cars.

Cheers,

Martin.

[240dkw]

Martin: If you have no luck in Spokane, and you are still limping home when you pass Red Deer let me know and we can pull a couple off one of the spare motors I have.

Dan

[NWT240zed]

Thanks Dan. If I'm still limping when near Red Deer, I will take you up on your kind offer.

Cheers,

Martin

[Carl Beck]

Hi Martin:

You can rebuilt the top end about three times before you need work on the bottom end - if the engine has had any care at all.

If the rockers are worn - then you might as well plan on replacing everything with a new cam kit and be done with it. The cam to rocker interface will never be as quite as it should be with mix and match cam lobes and rockers..

Did you stop by Jaremko Nissan in the Valley? Paul and his son still race a roadster, and the Parts Manager used to own a 240Z - {don't know if he sold it or not}... at any rate they might be able to come up with something for you... If you do stop in, tell Paul I said hello...

FWIW,

Carl B.

[NWT240zed]

Hi Carl,

I phoned Jaremko this morning. Unfortunately, nothing in stock but they are available special order. I'm hoping to be back on the highway sooner. The people in Spokane sure are friendly though. It's definately not a bad place to be laid up.

Good advice on rebuilding the top end. The compression test numbers are not too bad for the bottom. They are a little inconsistent though. 130-185. I suspect the P.O. took pretty good care of the engine, but realistically there's no way of really knowing if it has 141k of light Sunday driving or 241K of light Sunday drives and hard Friday and Saturday stunting.

I do appreciate your advice on the bottom, and it's good to know that after paying some attention to the top the bottom may not need attention for some time. The mechanic in Spokane stuck a scope down the plug holes and nothing appeared to be out of order or otherwise alarming. Although it may not be necessary at this point, for piece of mind on the next road trip (and for the learning experience), I may yet tackle the bottom. Winters are long in Yellowknife and I may need a project :-). I also need an excuse to give the wife on why we need a new place with a shop/garage.

The current plan is to try and address the knocking with new rocker arms as a bandaid to get it home. The working theory at this point is that there are a couple of loose valves (I hope this explains the excessive oil consumption) so a more complete rebuild to the top will be done in short order back home.

Cheers,

Martin