Camshaft oil sprayer

[tigertacos]

Recently on my '74 near bone stock 260z I discovered a slight pinging noise from near cylinder 5 or 6.  Opened the valve cover and found that the oil sprayer had recently been through some trauma and one of the major lines was bent and all 4 section's joints had failed, so I'm sure it wasn't even spraying oil properly anymore and the obvious worry is still there that a joint will give out entirely and I'll find out quickly how well a cylinder head can stand up to flying metal.  Anyway, my question is, does anyone know of fabricating their own sprayer because all the ones online are 150+ dollars which is a bit much.  Or should I start looking at internally drilled aftermarket cams and all the valve train upgrades needed for those (something I was considering in the future anyway)?

Thanks

[siteunseen]

You should be able to buy one from a member here. I may have an extra but I'll need to put my hands on it. Two different styles, the early ones have the big phillips head screws. I'm guessing yours does not.

Good thing you caught that. Could've been a disaster.

[Patcon]

You probably can't fabricate a quality replacement for a lot less than $100 and 4 or 5 hours of time. The $50 difference seems to be a deal, considering

[tigertacos]

1 hour ago, siteunseen said:

You should be able to buy one from a member here. I may have an extra but I'll need to put my hands on it. Two different styles, the early ones have the big phillips head screws. I'm guessing yours does not.

Good thing you caught that. Could've been a disaster.

Mine is actually an early 260z with the large phillips head screws

[jonathanrussell]

The link below is for the newer style Nissan oil spray bar. I know I have seen it on 75 and 76 280Zs. Not sure when it first appeared. I have seen it cheaper but like anything you may need to wait to find it cheaper. In my experience it is the early spray bar that is prone to failure.

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F173949822218

 

[scotta]

I have  two types, can someone confirm. 

The top one is older style, bottom is newer style? Or is one type an aftermarket version?

 

[siteunseen]

Your top one is what's on my 2/72.  Bottom is what was on my 9/76. 

The one with Phillips screws is earlier. 

[scotta]

Mine is a 9/72 JDM FZ-L it had the top one on it. However it was broken, one of the pipes connected was loose. The the car came with a spare but it was also broken.

The casting quality on the junction sections is quite poor, I ended up machining the faces flat (with a router and a jig). I tried to resolder the pieces. Reasonable / workable job. However someone gave me one of the lower ones. May use that instead. 

[jonathanrussell]

The symptom you are describing is consistent with the flaw I have seen with the older one. The soldered joints become loose and then the pipes move around, fall off, etc.

I would use the newer one.

[siteunseen]

Agree with Jonathan, newer is better.  I made a mistake above, my '72 came with the Phillips head screw type.  It has a newer style that I pulled off a junkyard '75 280Z now.

And when you put it back on I would suggest making gaskets for the oiler cam towers.  I used some gasket material and tapped it out around the cam tower's opening.  I have some old cam towers that I used.  @Mark Maras used an old cereal box for his with good results.  The ones from the factory are like paper.  Another suggestion is to use Loctite thread locker on the small bolts that hold the spray bar on.

 

Edited July 31, 2019 by siteunseen

[Mark Maras]

 When making gaskets a paper punch is the best tool for punching out the bolt holes.

[Dave WM]

I used a reg hole punch like used in an office, its a little large for the oil hole, but I prefer that, less likely to block. Perfect for the bolt hole. I used some oil resistant gasket material I picked up at auto zone,

hmmm looking at the video it seems I used a brass tube sharpened to make the oil hole. I think it pretty important to use some tacking agent to make sure the gasket does not move. just make sure its no where near the oil hole and only a very light tack. I mention that in the video

You can buy brass tube at most hobby shops (used in making fuel  tanks). You place it on the material and spin the tube to cut. I am sure there are tools just for this but its what I had handy.

 

Edited July 31, 2019 by Dave WM