Zed Head

Front tire. The whole car moves. If you use this method while adjusting valve lash you might crush your recycle bin by accident.

My method is to put the car in 5th gear and rotate the front tire until the damper mark is at Zero. That is TDC, assuming that the pulley and marker tab are correct. Then I put a wrench on the timing sprocket bolt and ease the sprocket backward to tighten the chain. The only reason to do that is to check the cam timing relative to the crankshaft and pistons, as rossiz described. Just saw your last post. Looks like the filament is glowing now...

I like this part. Doom looking in you in the face --- screw it, I'm getting one last ride in.

If I recall, you ported the other head that went to DP. That would probably give you more benefit than a slight bump in CR. If the top of the head was milled the measurement may not help you much since you don't how much was cut off of the bottom. The best way to calculate your CR is to fill a chamber with a known volume of fluid. I think that it's easier than it seems, the fancy plate is meant for super-precise work. Water with a little soap to remove the surface tension, fill a perfectly level chamber to the top. Should give a good number. Then do the math or plug it into a calculator. http://www.ozdat.com/ozdatonline/enginedesign/

It's a shame that DP is screwing up the good publicity opportunity. Rusty rocker arm pads, used bolts. Looks like a blend of rocker arms again also. Hope it checks out this time. Weird that he said he was rebuilding one for you but this one looks like it's been on a shelf for a little while. Maybe that big glob of goop is sealant from the core plug in the back of the head. It's all part of the challenge though. I can't be sure if I see one hole in the cam lobe for internal oiling. Check the back of the cam to be sure it's plugged. Maybe fill the passage with oil and make sure all of the holes are clear. It would be boring to just get parts that were perfect, and went on with no issues. Good luck with it.

So you're showing that the damper mark was off by 12 degrees. 34 - 22. Now you have to worry about the damper and if it's failing. Should last a while, but if the mark keeps moving that's a bad sign.

Your TDC location method is a little bit imprecise. There's play in the bearings and the piston barely moves at all as it goes over the top. The best way to locate it precisely is with a piston stop or a dial indicator with the head off. But it looks like the mark, and the crankshaft and the cam marks are all within a few degrees. Certainly not 20 degrees off. You can see by the distributor picture that the points of the reluctor are not close to aligned. When those two points pass each other that's when the spark happens. So your timing measure of 34 degrees seems in the ballpark. Still odd that so many parts are right but the timing is off. The one picture you don't have is of the #1 cam lobes, confirming that they're fully closed. It's a puzzle. You might put the sprocket back to number 1 hole, recheck everything and see how it runs then.

You mean timing challenged, right? Actually, your cam timing is advanced. The notch is on the cam sprocket and it is ahead of the groove, in the direction of rotation, which is clockwise in your picture. I don't even try to remember what's what on rotation direction, I just know that the straight side of the chain pulls on the sprocket. The straight side is to the right in your picture, so the chain has pulled the notch ahead of the groove. Opening and closing the valves earlier. So the pulley timing mark is at at zero now? The advanced cam timing might explain why 34 degrees runs better. The intake valve is closing early, Less charge in the chamber, which would need advanced timing to burn completely. Which plug wire is the distributor rotor pointing at, just to be sure #1 is #1.

There is a lot of spray there. It's even on the starter. The pattern looks like it's coming from the head but it would be worthwhile to double-check. You should be able to see it spraying at some condition, Maybe warmed up with the engine revving. Note that the cylinders, the coolant, and the oil all have different sealing systems, combined in to one gasket. The cylinders have steel compressible sealing rings, the oil passage has a copper ring, and the coolant uses the gasket material. Some people recommend smearing RTV around the coolant passages. In case you do have to change the gasket.

Send a message to borini63. He's been selling parts for years and seems very dependable. I haven't seen a complaint. http://www.classiczcars.com/user/14050-borini63/ But remember that there are several different "71B" shifters. The ZX's used 71B's, as did the later 240Z's. the 260Z's, and the 280Z's, But the ZX's shifters are differently shaped than the Z's. You probably want a 240Z or early 260Z shifter. You may still need to do some modifying.

site asked an interesting question about valve clearance. Wouldn't be your problem source but still interesting. The big bore heads can have problems on the small bore L24 engine. How did you check the head? You should have an actual number. I think that they tend to bow in the middle. There's a flatness spec., it's .002" max. for the N47 head. I think that the ARP site will tell you if the studs are multi-use or one stretch only. What kind of HG did you use? Some of the older ones recommend a retorque. And re-torquing the head bolts is actually a maintenance item in the early FSM's. Finally, although distasteful to many, some Bars Stop-Leak might do the job.

Aren't you still using the stock EFI engine management? 1978 computer, AFM, etc.? The stock EFI system runs off of a "programmed" fuel enrichment map after the AFM opens a certain amount or the throttle is wide open. The map doesn't work well with modified engines, apparently. I haven't seen a specific reason why, but I would guess that it can't be balanced for both high air flow (RPM) performance, and clean running elsewhere. It will be either gassy and rich most of the time, but fun when wide open, or run okay most of the time but down on expected power at WOT. Jeff G and Diseazd would know more. In short, most people say get your engine management right before modifying the engine too much. If you put the N42 head back on the N42 dished-piston engine, you can drive it while you build the other one. Some people say it's okay to use the square port header with a round port head. I've matched gaskets and it seems tight but if the exhaust port liners exit inside the edges of the square header flange, there shouldn't be any dramatic flow hindrance.

Seems like it would knock severely with 34 degrees at low RPM. Any gas at all while driving and it should be a knockarama.

That's some good information. Copied and saved. I don't really have any experience with the R180's. Interesting that the 720 is snap-in. Can you swap yokes on the half-shaft? Put the 720 snap-in yoke on the 240Z half-shaft by separating the two at at the u-joints? Create a new hybrid half-shaft? Just an idea. if John C. was fabricating hybrid axles in the past, that's probably the best route.

That is my understanding. I'm positive it is for the 280Z, I have a set in the garage with 3038 stickers covered by 3012 and 3013 stickers. John Coffey stated the same in a past thread when he was in a sharing mood. I saved the statement, but may not be able to find the thread. There is one caveat though. I just saw a set of Z car Tokicos on eBay that did not have spacers. They looked old, even though they were selling as new, and one of them had lost its pressure. So it may be that the early Tokicos did not use spacers and the later ones do. They were black, not blue. So if that is the case, and you have old Tokicos, you may not have spacers to swap. You might not have a path forward until you take your old ones apart. Edit - here's the eBay ad, for as long as it lasts. They look old and blown, and they're black, and I know for a fact that my newer 3013's are blue and use a spacer. If you use the magnifyer you can see 3013 stamped in to the body, whereas the newer ones use a sticker. So the question for you would be "how old are my Tokicos"". http://www.ebay.com/itm/Datsun-280-Z-rear-strut-inserts-new-pair-/251775021713?pt=Vintage_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item3a9ef5f291&vxp=mtr

I wouldn't let the stubs float. They could get jammed if they get far enough out and cocked. You're not really saying if you have a 720 diff that uses snap-in axles but I'd guess that's what you have. The snap-in axles are fairly common. I'd find a set of those, if that's what you have. I've seen where people used a cutoff disc to grind a groove for the circlip. It doesn't see any repetitive work, it only holds the axle in one spot. If you get it in there, with a circlip on it, it shouldn't be a problem. All you need is the dimension to grind the groove.

Dang. I can see how it can be confusing. Rossiz is using "mechanical" to describe cam shaft timing. But many people use mechanical to mean centrifugal, or RPM-based, distributor timing. I tend to interchange the words, even though, technically, the vacuum advance mechanism is also mechanical. The three most descriptive common words would be cam-, vacuum-, and centrifugal-, timing (please nobody bring up the centripetal v. centrifugal thing). Regardless, all of the "timing" events are described in relation to the piston's position in the cylinder, which is described by degrees of crankshaft rotation before or after the very top (TDC) of the piston's travel in the bore. I would do what you planned and see where the cam timing is. It should be close to zero (within ~8 degrees, I think) with the sprocket and groove marks aligned. If it's not, then your damper has slipped or some other weird thing is happening.

The cam sprocket position won't affect the timing mark on the damper. The damper mark is tied to the crankshaft. But aligning the notch and groove should give a fair idea if the timing mark is even close to TDC. You could also build a piston stop and determine where TDC really is, then make a new zero mark. That would work for you since you have the dial-back light.

Pretty easy to take a string and get a measurement, The only specific needed is year of Sportage. Everything else is pretty obvious. Remove old seal, press on new seal. Trim excess. You could take a string or a tape measure out to a Sportage and generate some knowledge? Both the Z and the Sportage hatches are big. I think that Sportage hatch would have to be huge to do two doors and a hatch on a Z with two Sportage hatch seals. Plus, you won't have the 90 degree bend from the Sportage door seal that makes the whole thing so useful. I'm thinking that you'll need two doors and a hatch to do two doors and a hatch.

34 degrees at idle would be a high number. Many engines would be hard to start with that much advance. Is this a stock engine or could it have a mix of damper pulleys and timing tabs? Could be that TDC is not represented by the timing marks. New toys = new problems. Although, if you like the way it runs it's not really a problem.

The transmissions are all the same internally as far as the speedo gear. What matters after that is the tire diameter, not the wheel, and the diff ratio. Are you running low profile tires? A typical 205-70-14 tire is a little over 25" in diameter. That's what I have, with a 3.9 diff, and a white gear (I think. I had to search to find one). My speedometer is very accurate. http://tire-size-conversion.com/tire-size-calculator/ By the way, here's an archived file that used to be available on one of the Z sites. http://www.oocities.org/inlinestroker/ratio.html

I think that you just add the dial-back to whatever shows on the pointer or timing indicator. If you only have a zero then you just move the dial until you get the light to zero and the dial reading is your timing. But if you have the indicators then just move the dial until the light hits a mark, then add the two together. Very useful for seeing timing at full advance, when the light is typically off the pointer or timing tab. If you know that you have about 34 degrees full mechanical, for example, you would set the dial to 30, rev it up and should see around 4 on the engine's indicator (assuming no vacuum advance). You can experiment to verify. Set the dial to zero and see 10 on the normal indicators, set the dial to 10 and the indicators should show zero.

Good luck. I took another closer look at your first picture and it seems like everything is actually there, just dirty and hard to see. Many posts later, it looks like a non-issue. You just need a B-style shift lever, the nylon bushing that sits on the end of it, the pin that holds the lever in place and its clip, and the two nylon bushings that the pin slides through. If you posted a side picture, it would all be clear.

I just went out and took a picture of a spare transmission for comparison. It's the perspective that makes the hole look bigger. Can't be sure without the side picture but it looks like the "ears" are broken off of your shifter control arm, on the 5 speed. Do you actually have that 5 speed, the one in Post #1, or is that someone else's picture?

Actually, it's not clear what 5 speed you have there. The hole seems too big. Maybe a post-83 5 speed, a 71C.