TBone028

Wish I had heard about this a little sooner! If they do anything like this in the future, let us know. There's a good amount of S30 owners who live in the Chantilly area, this dealership is only 5 minutes from my house!

Can someone help point me to a full-write up of how to install the R/T mount? I've tried searching but couldnt find anything that was a "step-by-step" outline or guide. I will most likely be going with the bumpstop method if that helps. Dave, what is the lead-time on these? I'm assuming you need to wait for 50 confirmed orders?

If it is indeed the crankcase vent, then it should be on the bottom left of the engine block on the picture you posted above. The purpose of those little breather filters is to look pretty and get dirty really quickly with blow-by gas from the crankcase! If you are annoyed or tired of seeing those little wisps of smoke, you can run the hose from your crankcase to an oil-catch can. Think of it as another shiny part to match your polished valve cover, intake manifold, and heat shield. And in case you didnt already know, in a stock engine (at least in a 240Z/260Z, I'm not familiar with the emissions plumbing in a 280Z) the crankcase hose attaches to the PCV valve on the intake manifold, where vacuum is used to help pull the blow-by gas from the crankcase into the combustion chamber to get burned off. Also, the valve cover vent would normally suck clean air to help flow through the crankcase in most light throttle conditions. I see your valve cover vent is routed somewhere with a hose. There should be a filter on the end of that hose. In some engines with excessive blow-by (sadly like mine) blow-by gas comes out of both the crankcase and valve cover vent in all conditions. Most people that put those little breather filters complain about them getting dirty/clogged very quickly with the oil/water/gas that is in blow-by gas. Some people choose to run an oil-catch can instead of venting the blow-by gas directly to atmosphere. It helps keep the engine bay cleaner, and I think some race classes require them. On my stroker, I have excessive blow-by so I have blow-by gas coming out of both my crankcase and valve cover vent. In my set-up, I'm running the crankcase to a PCV valve on my intake manifold (I'm running SU's with SM needles), and have my valve cover vent fitted with a breather filter. I'm looking into an oil-catch can set-up. Using a homemade oil catch can, after 20 miles of driving I had about 1.5 ounces of blow-by mixture at the bottom of my catch-can! I would rather not have that going back into my combustion chamber! I didnt like the way it looked though and I went back to the set-up I just described.

From your description and pictures, that hose appears to be coming from you crankcase, and would normally be routed to the PCV on your intake manifold. A replacement PCV valve can be found at your local parts store for like $5. If you have blocked off the PCV on your intake manifold, you can replace that hose with a breather filter like the ones MSA sells. http://www.thezstore.com/page/TZS/PROD/CP/10-2093

If you havent read it, head over to hybridZ and check out a sticky post in the L6 engine section. Title of thread: "NA 3.1L=>head & camshaft questions. No shortcuts, max". Shooting for a horsepower goal is usually suggested when planning mods, but sometimes, you end up disappointed until you spend even more and more money. Initial dyno after the stroker build for that member was in the 170 whp range!!! I think he is around 260 now, but that was after serious $$$ having his head built by rebello (I think it was rebello). Regardless, I have not dynoed my stroker...but I do know it has enough power to snap 2 u-joints (driveshaft and halfshaft) on the starting line at the local dragstrip and it puts the biggest sh!t eating grin on my face when I drop the hammer. Thats good enough for me.

About how much $$$ are we talking about here? I assume I'm in for one...I have some clunking in between shifts that I cant locate.

Over here on the east coast, a relatively rust free, solid running Z would go for about $5000 - $6000. I think you have a very fair price and it would be a solid deal for anyone looking for a Z.

HAHAHAHA I should have died at least 10 times when I was 16.

Interesting...learn something new everyday! HA I dont feel so bad breaking one of mine then.

Also, those two screws used to have an extension on them that allowed them to be removed. They are fairly delicate. If you overtighten them, they snap right off (I know this from experience after installing my parking light relay and using one of those bolts as a grounding point). Looks like that is what happened to yours. They snapped off at one point or another. You will have to drill them out. Regarding the little ball bearing...that is why I dismantle delicate things on a large table with nothing else on it. I also keep all of my little components in a cup after they are removed...they cant just disappear that way. Sometimes you got to get creative. I'm sure you can find something like a BB or something similar to serve the original purpose.

I can answer one of those questions, you need at least 12 beers. It sounds like a 12 hour job in the garage at a casual pace.

Like I said, with the factory style weather strippiing, I had to SLAM my doors. The mcmaster carr option allows me to close my doors with a light push and it closes like a brand new car. Driver side window has no leaks whatsoever, passenger side has a few small water drops at the top of the window after washing my car. Nothing extreme and not a problem for me since my car is a weekend only, no rain driver. For only $45, it was a fantastic purchase. One thing I did have to do, with the mcmaster carr stripping it has the pinch seam integrated into the rubber. You will not need the factory u-cap/finisher. On some areas, like the headliner, the pinch seam is a tighter fit due to the extra material, and takes some patience to make sure the pinch seem laps over the headliner. A little coaxing with a small flat head screwdriver, and snugging it up with the heel of your hand is required. In other areas, where there is only the metal edge, like the back side of the door near the striker, the pinch seam is a little loose. I solved this with a couple of layers of black electrical tape to thicken the edge for a better secure fit. I had the two ends meet at the bottoms of my door.

Jesus, the seats look pristine from those pictures.

So after I replaced the PCV valve, I'm still seeing smoking from the valve cover breather. I know that it should be sucking air from the air cleaner housing, not venting blow-by gas into the air cleaner housing. The FSM says that engines with excessive blow-by will experience this type of venting in all throttle conditions. All of the other emission control equipment has been previously removed. My question is, would improper valve adjustment be part of the excessive blow-by? When I picked up the car, he told me it was something I should do in the near future. Also, the previous owner told me the motor was rebuilt about 5000 miles ago. I would think that the rings would be fine...any ideas or suggestions? All the lines are clear and unobstructed. Not sure why all the blow by is occurring.

You probably could use a copper washer, or maybe even thread with some teflon tape...but, if you have a new part on order from courtesy, then I'm sure you can always "fix" it properly at a later date.

That is really weird Zedyone...I ordered from RockAuto and installed Beck Arnley slave cylinder, part # 0721258 just last week. One thing I did have to do was to re-use the old slave cylinder push rod. The push rod that came with the new slave was just like you said, too long and the hemisphere was too large. I ordered a new hose as well, but did not install it. I had no problems at all with the new slave, it bled perfectly, and I have zero leaks. Shifting is effortless now and very smooth with good clutch feel. What is the condition of your old hose? Are the ends the same as your new hose? I'm wondering if your old hose might work with the beck arnley slave cylinder.

This is why I love classiczcars.com. Thanks Beandip! I will check it out later this evening/week.

False alarm, the smoke was coming from the crankcase hose being vented back into the stock 240Z air filter housing...I'm pretty surprised that I had that much smoke coming out of it. Should I see that much smoke coming from the crankcase?!? Its very visible light white colored smoke. What is considered "normal"?

I also second Dave's relay upgrades...completely plug and play. I know you said you are more of a DIY guy...but for the price and the quality, it cant be beat.

Slave cylinder has been replaced! I had to re-use the old push rod as the new one was too long. Even after buying a new 17 mm flare wrench, I still had to use locking pliers to break free the clutch hose. I have a clutch hose in the mail just in case I need it in the future.

Installing the weather stripping...yes, you will have to remove the plastic "U" cap/finisher. It is what holds the weather-stripping to your car. I believe it is made out of metal and coated in vinyl. It pinches over the weather-stripping and holds it in place. On the bottom of the door, the scuff-plate with three screws kind of holds the weather-stripping in place. I cant recall if there was a flap on the weatherstripping that secured under the scuff plate with 3 screws...there might have been. It was a while ago. You should not need to apply any sort of RTV or weatherstripping adhesive. The U-trim should hold it all in place. It's pretty self-explanatory once you have it in front of you. It took me a total of 30-40 minutes to replace both sides.

As far as flat-top pistons causing a fire...I would say no, they do not make it more likely to catch fire...unless by fire, you mean detonation/knocking. With flat-top pistons, you would generally have a higher compression ratio then an equal engine with something like dished-pistons. A simple example would be flat-top pistons have a 9:1 compression ratio, dished have 8:1. If you were to have a high-compression engine with flat-top pistons, and were to have a lean condition or low octane that caused knocking, then yes, it could eventually lead to damage to your engine. Simple fix? Run higher octane like premium gas. If that still doesnt work, then you could retard your timing. Flat-top carbs or Round-top carbs seem to be a term that is specific to SU carbs and Datsuns. They refer to the edge of the piston chamber of the carbs. The more gentle, rounded curve are the Round-top SU carbs found on 70-72 240Zs. Flat-tops are from 73, and some 74 260Z's. Detailed info here: http://www.zparts.com/zptech/tech_tips/izccposts/su_differences.htm Sorry if this was an overly basic post, it seemed like you had some confusion.

HA! Reading that first sentence was definitely raising my eyebrows! If my stroker ever blows-up, I'll be going V8 as well.

Also search McMaster-Carr. They worked great for me.

Drain the gas tank. Change the fuel filter. Change the oil and filter. Consider flush/fill of your coolant system. Make sure you are getting gas to the float bowls, check for spark, grab a can of starter fluid and try cranking her over. If it only runs on starter fluid (dont go crazy with the starter fluid, just a little will do), then you know there is something wrong with either your fuel pump/gas lines/carbs. Regarding the clutch, check your fluid and bleed them along with inspecting your brakes and bleeding them too. You may have a leaking clutch master/slave cylinder or air bubbles. Replace the clutch master/slave cylinder if bleeding doesnt work. Search for the downloadable FSM. Its free. Regarding parts, zcarparts.com or any number of different z suppliers. The Search function is your friend.