FastWoman

I'm in the camp of replacing all hardware whenever possible. If you don't, then it will continue to rust/corrode/fossilize in place, and a stud that is merely difficult to remove now may be impossible to remove later -- at least without drilling, helicoiling, or whatever. MSA sells a stud/bolt/nut set that worked quite well for me. I also used whatever gasket it was that they sell. I sprayed with Copper spray and rimmed the intake and exhaust holes with a tiny bit of Permatex sealant, per ZTrain's suggestion. So far everything is tight and happy. It's been about a year now. If you do decide to extract and replace studs, you'll probably need to blow-torch the more stubborn ones, spray with PB Blaster as they cool, and then turn them out CAREFULLY with either two nuts jammed on the stud or with a SHARP/NEW pair of vice grips. It's essential that you take your time. Chase out all the threads with a tap. Use Nickel Antisieze on the new hardware. You might also pull off your thermostat housing while you're doing work there. When chasing out threads, beware that the forward thermo housing bolt screws into the timing chain area just beneath the backside of a timing chain guide. You shouldn't chase out those threads unless you've got the valve cover removed and are watching the backside of that hole. You don't want to bend that guide! Also, when chasing out the threads, remove the tap frequently to clean it. Take your time. You don't want a jammed tap because you were too lazy to pull the tap out frequently enough! Oh, finally, you need to know that 1 day soaking with PB Blaster isn't enough. You probably need to be soaking that stuff for a week or more. Also I've seen some test results, and Kroil is a much better penetrant. The BEST penetrant seems to be the home brew of 50% acetone and 50% ATF. I've never used it, but the test results I saw were very persuasive. It's a heck of a job to do, but if you take your time, you can do it. :-)

Dennis, yes, a flex fan ate my Mustang's radiator! It started out with a faint "ting........ ting......" and then all hell broke loose before I could pull off to the shoulder to investigate. Steve, I can't remember how the fan was spaced, but I am an instruction-reader/follower sort of person.

^^^ I agree with Oiluj. If not stock, I'd go electric. FAIW, I recently replaced my leaking OEM clutch with a lifetime-warranted AutoZone TorqFlo clutch. It seems to work fine. $40, as I recall.

Nice idea, Esprist!

If you get paint on the harness, just re-wrap it. Black electrical tape. Go crazy!

Ah, OK, now I'm getting it. I thought you were talking about an insulator on the ENGINE side of the firewall. :embarrass: I know this sounds goofy, but how about layering up some roofing felt and quilting material -- maybe 4 or 5 layers, alternating between the two materials? That would create lots of transitions between high and low acoustic impedance. Each layer of felt would knock quite a few dB out of the sound, and the quilting material would prevent direct physical transfer of vibrations from one layer to the next, AND it would insulate a bit. Bind it all together around all the edges by punching holes and hand-stitching. I don't know whether that would be stiff enough, but I think it would provide you lots of acoustic and thermal insulation. If you need more stiffness, find a place where workmen are doing vinyl siding, with aluminum wrapping. You might be able to pick up some scrap aluminum.

DON'T!! They can be more flexible than you might think. I had one chew into the radiator on my '66 Mustang.

Blue, thanks for the graphic! What I'm wanting to know is how the layers are put together. Is it a masonite panel against the firewall, with insulation on top of it? Or is it flipped the other way around? The masonite could serve as a dense, acoustically dead sound reflecting layer. Some of the best acoustic materials use rigid, mass-loaded panels, alternated with soft, sound-absorbing panels. For instance, I believe Lexus was experimenting with body skins made of layers of aluminum sandwiching a thin layer of balsa wood.

How about covering your insulating material with a thick layer of pickup truck bed liner?

^^^ That's what I'd do. It wouldn't make sense for you to have to pay reg fees for all those years the car was sitting. It's true it's CA, but I'd still be surprised.

Are you suggesting it's free to a good home? Good grief, I live on the wrong side of the country to be interested in Z cars. Seriously, please don't give it to a junk yard! Someone there will take pity on it and turn it back into a nice sportscar. They'll probably even pay you something for it.

I'd do what Jim (zKars) suggested. It should be easy to see the runout if there is any.

Do you think a skinny self-adhesive strip like that will stay stuck?

Blue, a combination of masonite and foam sounds like possibly an excellent design strategy, acoustically speaking. Do you have any photographs of the original insulator? Maybe just a conceptual drawing. I've never seen one. I don't think I even saw the one on my '75 that I owned back in the 80's. Have you considered aluminum for the hard material? Maybe bond insulating material to the aluminum with polyurethane foam -- e.g. "Great Stuff". If that's not strong enough, Gorilla Glue is just a denser formulation of polyurethane foam. If the assembly produces a very dead-sounding "thunk" when you hit it with your knuckles, then you've got a good design.

Yeah, ouch!! I guess the manual steering doesn't help the situation either. Here's hoping you heal quickly and well. In the meantime, you can drive your Z vicariously through all of us!

100!

Bruce, a slight leak anywhere isn't going to keep your car from starting, but stray gas can be dangerous! You should fix the leak. There's any number of reasons your car might not be starting/running right. I'd start by just going over the entire engine bay, looking for vacuum leaks (e.g. bad vacuum lines) and bad electrical connections. Don't forget to see whether there are any cracks in the big rubber boots on the intake.

Bad float valve? Excessive fuel pressure? It goes without saying that you DON'T want your car to start when gas is spilling from the carbs! I once had one of those pretty aluminum billet fuel filters pop apart on my '66 Mustang when I started it in the garage, and the engine caught fire. The scariest part was that MY HOUSE WAS ALL AROUND IT! Be careful, eh?

Thanks for digging up that tidbit, Dave! I think that MIGHT be another mystery solved. Now I won't fret so much when my hot engine re-starts roughly. Maybe the solution lies in a different design of injector. BTW, I forget who mentioned Datsun's tidbit about goosing the throttle for a hot start, but I don't think that will help much. I've tried goosing the throttle AFTER starting, and the engine still runs roughly. It doesn't even out until I pull out of the driveway and head down the road.

Contributing further to the flash vaporization theory, any of you who cook know that you have to stir the spaghetti sauce carefully if it's been simmering for a while. As soon as your spoon rubs the bottom of the pot, superheated liquids can explode into steam, splattering sauce all over your clean clothes. I wonder whether the movement of the injector parts similarly results in the vaporization of superheated fuel.

Dave, your flash vaporization theory makes sense to me too. It's noteworthy that Nissan played around a bit with the injector insulator design. Of course the purpose of the insulators is not electrical, but rather thermal. Why are insulators necessary? Flash vaporization in a heat-soaked engine. Makes sense.

Rob, I've got an extra injector I could part with. However, you can replace that too-short hose easily enough. It would be better to use the injector you have (matched to the others?) if it works. Just get a razor knife, and carefully slice through the rubber around the injector's barb, so as not to nick the barb itself. Cut at a shallow angle, just deep enough to slit through the reinforcing layer. Then work the hose out of the end cup thingie, and pull it off at an angle. Remove the cup, and attach a new hose with a regular clamp. But if you're not able to do this, let me know, and I'll send you an injector.

I did a little experiment today. I had run an errand and parked my car in the shade. I didn't get the engine very hot at all, but I suppose it was hot enough. When I restarted after only a couple of minutes of sitting (literally), I had such a rough start that the engine died. Before turning the key again, I thought I'd try ZTrain's suggestion of holding my fuel pump priming switch for quite a long time. I let the pump run for maybe 1-2 min, and.... STILL A ROUGH START. I must have done a pretty thorough job of flushing fuel vapor from the rail and replacing it with cool fuel, but still no-go. I now suspect the injectors get hot enough to vaporize, fuel, which bubbles, rises and condenses in the fuel rail, while new bubbles form. Then when I start the engine, I have to inject small vapor pockets for a short while until the injectors are cooled by the incoming fuel, and until the intake manifold is cooled by the fresh air rushing through. If that's the case, I suspect there's no amount of insulating that could be done to completely resolve the problem. And again, I suspect this could relate to the formulation of gasoline -- luck of the pump, as it were. I'm having more problems with this last batch of gas than I usually do. I got it at a station that's not my usual place. I wonder whether I would be able to hear the fuel boil if I put a stethoscope to the injector after engine shutoff. Unfortunately I don't have a mechanic's stethoscope. Next time I'm at HF...

Controlled? Yes. Tightly (or well)? I very seriously doubt it. Remember, you can buy up to 30% ethanol gas at the pump, even when 10% is the maximum allowed by law. There's definitely a control problem, and the mechanics in my area have their hands full, trying to fix the consequences.

^^^ What they said! I'll only add one thing, in case it's not obvious: Running with that high a voltage can burn out the various components in your car. If my running voltage were 18V, I'd leave the car parked until I could fix the problem.