Reverend

I put chain sprocket to nr.2 position, its not that loose yet but what the heck. The grooves now match perfectly at TDC.

Yea, im gonna get new tires for this season. Ye olde ones are 10 years old, starting to get quite stiff + road noise is "awesome".. I'll have to consider that DIY freezer as there seems to be no other options available

Well.. too bad none available right now. Not THAT common car, nor part around these latitudes :/ Taking the head to machine shop today, hope to hear some good news soon. I've took the head off so many times now that i can do it with eyes closed.

That banjo has very thin washers, but they make the difference. Mine squirted fuel like fountain without them.

it was (and new one as well) MSA gasket.

Figured out reason for low pressure, exhaust valve leaks like he**. Must be bent valve? Cause lash is set by the book. Luckily i have set of new exhaust valves, thanks to Arne But im taking it to machine shop, they can do it better. Still doesnt explain why the oil was mixed with coolant... :/

Well my mechanic friend confirmed that it "should" leak a little from every cylinder, pressurised air gets trough from pretty small places. But still no resolution to cyl 2 and 3 behavior.

Well I have new gasket on place so faulty gasket won't explain symptoms. I loaned a leakdown tester and results were confusing. I can hear loud hiss coming from below timing chain (oil sump) IN EVERY CYLINDER. Has the head cracked or what? I did test twice, second time after i retorqued bolts. No change to results.

Got the tensioner and sprocket on place. After that i shortly believed everything is going well. Except its not. I did pressure test again, just to see that cyl 2 gives same readings + extra bonus: now number 3 gives as low numbers as well!!! Have i lost 2 piston rings in one week??! ARGH.

Misfortune continues, most likely my cam tensioner has slipped as i cannot lift sprocket back on place..i even tried to align it with engine jack but the whole front end rises.. I have engine @tdc and front pulley is tight on place.. How the heck I remove it if I want to get timing cover off..?

Its all up to you, i spent all my savings to Z back when i bought it, had no extra money for repairs, so i had to learn them meself. Nobody to show me what to do, only source i had was THIS particular site. It is a HAVEN of information. Everything you ever need to know about Z's, are stored in the vaults of CZCC.COM. All you need is bunch of cheap tools and some extra time.

I removed the head the other day and i noticed that the little groove on the end of camshaft did not match one on cam sprocket. It was eeny weeny to the right, less than half inch. So i wonder should i install the sprocket so that the both grooves match perfectly? Or is it just the chain that has loosened over time?

I just had this stupid idea, that it would be awesome to have tire shaped cooler inside my spare tire well, as i am not using it ( i have one of those insta-inflation bottles) Does these kind of gizmos even exit and where can i get one? It would be so nice to have "hidden" cooler where you could pop a nice cold beer after long drive.

I cannot figure any other reason than loose bolts. They were tight but i suppose not tight enough, even they were torqued to factory specs. Head was okay and so were the valves, according to machine shop. As mentioned before, head was machined less than 2 years ago and i have drive with no problems.

Yea they have survived, most of them are still in original place, inside car Its free to try! IMHO it does not ruin the classic value of car, if you put 70's 5 speed. I have 77 280z 5 speed and it does look similar to 4 speed externally. Only different guts. You could try to find Roadster 5 speeds, cause thats what Euro Z's have in them if i remember correctly.

Well... if you are lucky and i mean REAL lucky, you could find one. But i think it's not likely. You have much better chances to find nice 5 speeder from Usa. There is plenty of options and prices are low. All the euro Z's were equipped with 5 speed gearbox, so if someone has scrapped or totaled one, that might be your only option. Maybe you could just settle with euro/jdm shifter knob?

I guess everything is possible, but i dont see clear signs of corrosion in neither. Its a CA car, so it has very little corrosion anywhere. Im taking head to machine shop, just to make sure its solid one. Im out of ideas so i just put new head gasket and hope for the best.

Well i removed the head, not a biggie (thanks to you guys) and i still dont understand. My head gasket looks okay but there is small amount of coolant/oil in every cylinder. Could this good looking gasket fail be that utterly bad? Please help, i want to get my babe on the road... weather is getting warmer and warmer as we speak....

I dont have chance to get my hands on pressure tester, but there is small chance that my friend has a leak down tester. That would pinpoint excactly where the problem is, right?

I used only standard sized bolts. Im taking the head off tomorrow to see if there is any damage in head gasket. Have to rule that out too.. *sigh*

Adjusted valves, they were quite tight. Compression still extremely low on cyl 2. Bypass test led me to believe that its a valve failure.. I have no idea can you change valves with head on plus is there any sense to change valves to just one cylinder?

CRAP! Im getting weird compression readings from cyl nro 2. It is now way less than 100 when others are 150. Have i destroyed piston rings? Im starting to lose hope here :'(

Ran when parked. Classic.

No bolts were cracked or damaged. I did found ONE difference between old and "new" valve cover. The lower part of the cover (one that mates with oil sump) was way thinner in "new". Still it does seem to fit engine same way as does the old, there must be few millimeters of difference somewhere, where it has leaked all the coolant. Im a bit confused right now but hopefully putting old one back solves this.

I'd prefer Vintage Rubber kits. They cost a lot but are very good quality.