brownclee

I think the reason your radio doesn't fit is that it is much larger than the factory radio. With the factory evaporator housing, there is little room left for a radio....especially an aftermarket one.

The cowl drains are to the out board ends of the cowl area. They acutally drain through rubber hoses (about 1.25" dia.) that pass from the bottom of the lower cowl pan, through the passenger compartment and out through the a-post structure ahead and above the upper door hinges and inside the rear of the fender. They are also the culprit for causing lower rear fender rust as any debris that passes through them collects inside the fender rearward of the wheel opening. Datsn, made a big error in that design. They should have routed the drains all the way down to prevent moisture collection inside the fenders. The moral to the story is to check the drains periodically for function. Water stayed into cowl vents at the base of the windshield should quickly make it's way to the ground behind the front wheels. If not, you have an issue that requires immediate attention. You should also, flush the area behind the front wheels each time you wash the car to remove any debris that will collect there.

You mentioned that the only rust issue you've found are in the floor board areas. It's very likely that you have a leak in the cowl area and the water found it's way down the inside of the firewall and under the sound deadening material. This is a very common problem. The cowl drains clog and water stands in the cowl area and gets into the passenger compartment via some areas inside the cowl that didn't get sealed well from the factory. I would check this soon if I were you. You could have some serious rust issues in the floor board/foot well area that have only just begun to present themselves. Great car. Good luck.

Sorry you have more rust than you originally thought. But, from the looks of it, these are very typical of the rust issues most of us classic Z owners have faced. From the pics, it looks like your floor pan rust is from the inside out. Which means that moistrue got into the floor pan and stayed there long enough to find the smallest area of exposed metal and started its destruction. I would suggest that you remove the front seats and carpet to get a better look. And you will most likely find the need to remove most or all of the sound deadening mat as rust loves to hide under it. You may find that water has leaked into the foot wells from the cowl area. This will be hard to confirm unless you remove the dash or at the very least, stand on you head and look up under the dash. Many Zs have this same issue as it seems the cowl area seam sealer was not applied thoroughly at the factory in the cowl area (especially around the wiper motor mount and fresh air intake duct). If the cowl drains clog up, water will build up in the cowl and leak through the seam and directly into the foot wells...the passenger side is most often the worst. But consider yourself lucky, not only did I have this issue, I had rust throuh on the fresh air duct also and the firewall had a hole big enough to stick my fist through as a result of a severe battery area rust issue. Good luck and I look forward to seeing your progress.

Actually, the outer bearing is not technically a sealed bearing. A sealed bearing is sealed on both sides and comes pre-lubed. Sorry to appear to be a know-it-all. The outer bearing is sealed on one side and still must be filled with greased prior to installation.

I just picked up a 240sx throttle body yesterday to swap out on my 280z at my local u-pick-it salvage yard. I have searched the fourms in vain looking for what boot to use between the new, larger TB and the AFM. Does anyone have any suggestions?

So far so good. I finished making the shims today. I was careful to make sure that they matched the exact profile of the cam towers and debured all edges. Overall, it was a much less difficult job than I had anticipated. The most difficult part was making sure the holes lined up. Like Derek, I am not concerned with crushing the shims. They are pretty thick and 7075 is one of the highest stregth alloys you can buy. Besides, I could not have made them from stainless in my shop. Stainless is very hard and much to difficult to machine with the simple tools I have. To test my handy work, I thoroughly cleaned everything, chased the bolt holses with a tap and installed the towers and camshaft. I coated all the cam journals with assembly lube and had the cam in place before installing the bolts. I sungged all the towers starting at the middle and working out in several steps. Then torqued all the bolts to a relatively light torqe (8 ft lb). The cam turns perfectly with no binding....horay!!! The head is not on the block but I don't anticipate there being issues after the head bolts are installed. I'm going to replace the tower bolts with ones that are 5-10mm longer. There is very little thread engagement without the shims and 2mm less with them. I have checked and there is plenty of depth for the longer bolts. I'm not sure why there is so little thread engagement with the factory bolts. Without the shims, there appears to be only 6-8 mm thread engagement. The rule of thumb for alluminum threads is at least 2 x diameter....in this case 16 mm. My longer bolts should be better than factory but not quite the 16mm goal. I am very pleased with the results. I only have $30 in the shims and now my cam will be in the correct position relative to my crank.

Derek, Thanks for the for the pointers. I think I'll have about $40 and 6 hrs. in the shims. Cost was a big driver behind my doing it myself. However, I'm sure they will not look nearly as nice and the CNC ones you make. But once the valve cover is on, who's going to see them. I too used 7075 because the thickness tolerance is so low. I don't foresee any issues with the cam shaft alignment. I'll keep you posted.

I'm is the beginning stages of building a new L28 engine for my Z-car project. I've decided to do the "0.080" mod (as described by http://datsunzgarage.com/p79/) to raise the compression to 10:1. I'm using a P90 head shaved 0.075" (to reduce combustion chamber volume and raise compression) on the bottom and 0.005" on the top (to ensure the cam tower mounting faces are all flat). After searching in vain for a suitable means of shiming the cam towers, I decided to make my own. I searched for and found aluminum sheet stock that is 0.080" thick. My biggest concern was the tolerance of the thickness of the plate. I found plate that is +/-0.0015". It is 7075 T6 aerospace grade (http://www.onlinemetals.com/merchant.cfm?pid=12661&step=4&showunits=inches&id=916&top_cat=60). I ordered a 12"x12" sheet which is plenty plus some extra for screw ups....which will happen. I used my digital caliper to measure the plate and it measures between 0.079" and 0.080"....outstanding! Then I set out to cut the shims out. I decided to drill holes in the sheet first and then cut the shim out. As a guide, I traced the base of the cam tower in the sheet with a permanant marker. Nest, I used a used a drill bit that is slightly smaller than the tower mounting bolt hole to use a marking guide for the first hole....tapping it lightly with a hammer then turning it about 90 degrees and tapping it again. The leaves and "x" mark on the sheet than can be used as a guide for and good center punch mark after moving the tower out of the way. After punching the plate I used a drill bit that is just slightly larger than the tower dowel. Using a drill press and a piece of wood as a backer, I drilled the first hole. Then using the dowel in the tower to reposition the tower back on the plate and and used the fist bit used above to mark the other mounting hole center. Again, marking it with an "x" and punching it I drilled it with the second bit. This did not create a perfect fit but with very little filing, I managed to slightly enlarge the second hole and the the tower with dowels fits perfectly to the plate. I then used yet another drill bit to mark the larger hole for the head mounting bolt that is also in the tower and drilled the plate. I was amazed at how nicely all three holes aligned with the tower with minimal filing. I then used a nail that fits into the oil hole to mark the plate for the oil passage and drilled the plate. Using the outline of the tower previously marked on the plate, I used a band saw (equiped with a metal cutting blade) I roughly cut the shim out of the plate and used my bench sander and files to clean up the shim. A utility knife with a light touch can easily clean any burrs at the edges of the holes. I have only competed on shim so far and it took me about an hour. I'm sure the next four will take less time. I will post more info as I learn more.

The bushing saddles are not parallel and the weld nuts are not in a straight line. There is doubt that it's bent. You should also check to see if this caused any damage to the mating components.

For me, patience is key. Soaking and waiting always pays off. I used a whole can of PB blaster when I disassembled my Z car. It took me a week to remove a broken head bold. Each day, for a week, I sprayed it down and tapped it with a hammer a few times. On the seventh day, I clamped a pair of vice grips on the 1/4" long stub, it backed right out with little effort. Patience is key, trust me.