75 280z manifolds

[Dave WM]

ok new gasket on the way, lets hope it is the correct one. Manifold is at a local shop (Revmaster) in Orlando to LASER out the remaining broken stud, hopefully will get that back tomorrow.  I am also thinking going with some grade 12.9 hex sockets bolts for 1st/last exhaust manifold bolts of the correct length while I am at it with anti seize. Hopefully that will put an end to what ever is causing those to break. 

while I had thermostat housing off I noticed the non OE temp sensor was loose, the two prong plastic part was no longer solidly attached to the brass body. I figure that would be a fail point at some time since the internal connetions likely are getting a lot of vibration. Dug thru my stash and found an OE sensor that test well so that will be addressed as well.

I also found some EV-1 injector boots to finish up the remaining connectors (air bypass heater, CSV, thermotime and temp sensor. All of those needed new boots. I asked the vendor to be sure and box the gasket, I don't want some UPS person to fold up a package and bend it all up. Paid a bit extra but glad to do it for the added insurance of getting the gasket.

[Zed Head]

My Pathfinder breaks studs also.  My theory is that it's metal fatigue, from thousands of small back and forth bending motions as the manifold heats and cools.  Or as the head heats and cools underneath it.  Aluminum moves a lot farther than steel and faster so the stud gets bent back and forth as the aluminum head overshoots the steel manifold, both ways.  Metal fatigue doesn't require going beyond the metals yield points either.  It's its own thing.

Believing that I should go out and replace the end studs now, before they break.  The back one is easy but the front one not so much.  Might be a good reason to use a bolt instead of a stud on the ends, so that you can replace it as a maintenance item.

[Dave WM]

yep new annual thing, easy to get at no reason not to do it.

[Dave WM]

Got the wrong gasket again, this time is was for a 260, so I finally gave up on the exact match gasket and got the fel-pro from a local part store. Fits fine, not perfect but I am sure it will seal. All back together and running well, will re torque all the fasteners after I take it for a test drive. Getting lots of smoke from the engine after is warms up, pretty sure its from all the penetrating oil and waxes used in the various attempts to remove the frozen studs on the down pipe part of the manifold. I hope it will burn off and that will be it, again waiting for daylight for the test drive. After checking the fasteners I will replace the heat shield. Now at last I can remove the exhaust pipe when time to do the trans swap. Before I do that I will be working on the struts. I noticed a lot of oil leaking around the weep hole of the spring cup on the bottom of the strut. Car does not seem to have excessive bounce when pushing down the front, but I figure it cant be right to be leaking oil, unless maybe there is a strut cart and the oil is not actually damping oil but oil that was poured in at the time of the cartridge. that may explain why is still seems to be working. No matter I will check it out. After that I will finally get back to the trans swap, as I have done just about everything else I had planned.