Barefootdan's 280z Build

[Captain Obvious]

Looks cool, but I'm having a little trouble reconciling this:

5 hours ago, Barefootdan said:

I’ll toy around with trying to get a finish for the black to blend in better.

I think you're way beyond having it "blend".      I mean. c'mon... Fancy laser cut script lettering with a flashy gold background. With LED readout and a row of shiny chrome switches. And you're wanting it to blend?   Hahaha!!

[Barefootdan]

4 minutes ago, Captain Obvious said:

Looks cool, but I'm having a little trouble reconciling this:

I think you're way beyond having it "blend".      I mean. c'mon... Fancy laser cut script lettering with a flashy gold background. With LED readout and a row of shiny chrome switches. And you're wanting it to blend?   Hahaha!!

Haha touché! I just hate my paint work and its a good excuse to use some texture finish! Easier to get a consistent finish and it may just match the original plastic texture better as well.

[Captain Obvious]

Haha!!

I've seen wrinkle finish, and hammered finish. And I think I've also seen something that looks like it has sand in it... Like a traction finish for stair treads or something? Good luck with the experiments and hope you come up with something you like.   

What's on there now? Semi-gloss?

[Barefootdan]

Thank you! I had a couple cut out so I can experiment without having any downtime in the car. Yep, right now it’s a Satin finish. 

[Captain Obvious]

One additional thought... How about making it the same accent color as the rear taillight panels and the grill, etc?

That wouldn't directly blend with the color and texture of the console plastic, but it would tie in well with the other accents around the car.

[Barefootdan]

Definitely a good idea, I’ll test one to see how it looks. 

[Barefootdan]

I bet you didn't expect to see that! 

Strange times are going on. I have been battling a smoking issue the past couple of days and believe I finally found what happened. But some background on how we got here. I was wrapping up my carburetor settings with new jets, timing, and fuel pressure. Everything was going well when my carb #1 (feeding Cyl 1 and 2) flooded. And I mean FLOODED, as gas was pouring out the throats of the carb. I was lucky the car was cold and no fire started from the header. Some diagnosis lead me to my needle valve intermittently getting stuck. I swapped in a new valve of the same spec and reinstalled the carb. In a rush, I forgot to attach the linkage to this carb. Started the car and it ran rough, I gave it some throttle to see if it would clear with no luck. It was obviously running only on 4 cylinders when above idle looking back. Less than a minute later, I turned it off and inspected.

I saw my issue and the Z started fine, drove in to the garage, but was smoking white smoke now. This time I thought I set my float level too high and was flooding enough for the cylinder to just get soaked. Inspecting my plugs, #2 was wet enough that it was no longer sparking. I was worried it was the head gasket, so I threw on a compression test. All cylinders were 190-200. Hmmm, I also did a block test with the blue fluid with no reaction. Double Hmmm. I kept going back to flooding at this point or faulty ignition. I was getting spark and swapping wires and plugs showed no effect. I then swapped carb 1 and 3 to see if the wet plug followed. To my dismay, it did not follow. #2 was still soaked, still smoking, and #6 was dry as a bone. Between all of these tests, I started to notice the car would stop smoking once warm.

So, I my feeling is that the gasket was leaking just enough to allow it to seal back up due to thermal expansion. Lucky to us, the L series is a friendly motor and an hour later the head was off. I believe I found my culprit as well. When taking the ARP head studs off, the nuts were torqued correctly (None were loose), but once cracked loose, I could tell a handful near the front of my block were loose. They could rock in their seats and I could get a couple turns in by hand. 

My first thought was breaking the nut loose will obviously loosen the stud a bit, but from the middle block to the back, all were still seated nicely and required the aid of an allen wrench to loosen. Note, they were not torqued in at all, but I could not finger loosen.

So in the end I blame myself for faulty install of the ARP studs! Reading into it, it seems air can get trapped down there and waiting a bit, reseating, then proceeding with the head, is the preferred method. My gasket was not blown out in any obvious spot, but there was water (I am not running coolant yet) between the surfaces and in cylinder #2...cant you tell how clean that one is 🙂 

New gaskets are on order and I will chase my threads again for safety. I will add some coolant this time for easier diagnosis in the future...well I hope I dont need to diagnosis it! But it will also help with the oxidation of the water too, I know you spotted those orange water jackets!

Oh and the car has been stripped of most of its paint in preparation for future body work and paint. I am digging the look of it too! I want to hit it with some 320 grit to see how it cleans up 🙂  

[Zed Head]

Does your theory fit?  The nuts are still torqued on to the studs, pulling up on the threads, providing clamping force.  Doesn't really matter if the studs aren't seated all the way to the bottom of the hole.  Has the head been resurfaced?  Is the deck flat?  Seems more likely that the problem has a different source.

[Barefootdan]

My thought was they are loosening causing the head to lift. The nuts weren’t finger loose but say they were able to reduce their torque spec to a lower value? In my head the harsh vibrations of running on 4 cylinders shook them loose a bit. But I could totally be wrong. Maybe it was a coincidence the front studs were loose and that’s where my leak was. Both the head and block were resurfaced. 

Edited March 23, 2022 by Barefootdan

[Zed Head]

Just offering a different view.  ARP's instructions are not the clearest but it looks like they want 60 ft-lbs if you use their lubricant.  Did you use their stuff?

https://tech.arp-bolts.com/instructions/202-4202.pdf

[Barefootdan]

Sorry if my response came off rude, I appreciate all insight! Their instructions are very vague I agree. I did use lube, but mistakenly on both ends of the stud. I read mixed opinions on this, but looking back again at ARP they don’t say to lube with their moly on the block side, just motor oil or some loctite. 

[Zed Head]

It shouldn't really matter.  Unless you screwed and unscrewed the nuts a few time while you were working on it and the studs backed out.  Might be that you didn't have full thread engagement, or maybe the block threads are damaged.  Since you have the head off it's probably a good time to really look at how well the studs engage the head.

Just more thoughts.  The ARP system is smart but the old school head bolts seem to work well on the Datsun engines.  Good luck.