Ben's Z

While were on the subject. When you ordered your spray can of OE paint for the engine bay, how many cans did you buy? Mind you I will be doing the fire walls and the radiator core support. Suggestions?

I have a little flash rust on the casting. A friend gave me some two part epoxy primer that I am going to lay down with the gun first and then paint with VHT satin black engine paint. I will post some before and after shots.

Called the machine shop, head has been true'd. Looking for 1 intake valve that was bad (interesting). Picking up my rings, bearings, and gasket kit on Thursday hopefully. ZCurves loaned me his "How to Rebuild your Nissan & Datsun OHC Engine" book, have been skimming through that. I am sure it is in there but can anyone tell me of the little notches on the tops of the piston go towards the front or the rear of the engine?

More bad news: Got my empty head from some guy in San Antonio. Called the machine shop, it was warped something fierce. They shaved it some but said it needs as much as .040 taken off. They were going to heat it up and bolt it down over the weekend to try to straighten it. Not sure what this would do to my C.R. trying to add boost with the stock Tandy 1000 ECU? Going to paint my block this week. Got rings, bearings, gaskets and seals and some other ancillaries on the way for the short block. The set backs are wearing me down financially but more so mentally.

Does anyone have any past experience painting a block? The block is degreased and all but there is some surface rust and of course the OE paint. I took a wire wheel on a drill and removed what flaking paint there was. I also got a lot of rust off the block, but naturally there is some left. The machine shop put in steel freeze plugs not brass so I am forced to paint them unfortunately. How crazy do I have to get on getting the block clean? Seems to me any OE paint that is in good shape should be left well enough alone and can be painted over? How about rust in the nooks and crannies? Should I POR 15 the block first maybe then paint it? Is POR 15 good with heat? Is this overkill? I bought VHT engine block paint. I THINK I might be able to get the block in my www.barrelblaster.com barrel blaster, but I am worried even using glass bead and even not directly hitting the cylinder walls or block deck I may affect sealing with the rings and head gasket. Thoughts?

Totally. The lowest speed on the Honda was better than the highest on the OE Datsun.

My 280z is not daily driven, however make sure all of your bushings and fuel lines are in good shape. Some dumbass put carb only fuel lines all over my engine bay, I had leaks everywhere for awhile.

Update: Head is toast. They tried to tig weld some corrosion from electrolysis but it was thin enough they poked a hole into a water jacket underneath a valve spring! Trying to source a bare P90 or P79 from some guys over on hybrid z. Meanwhile the block is good and only need a hone. Rods were good. Crank has been polished. They won't rebuild my shortblock because 1) they don't use customer supplied parts (understandable: however I am getting most all of my parts for free) 2) to warranty motors they insist on boring them, yet they say mine doesn't need to be bored, I found this odd. Regardless I will probably be taking to the short block myself. Big step in the automotive Jedi master world. Never have put an engine together. Zcurves has my Turbo harness and is installing new connectors for me. That is all for now!

While your at... renew your registration... 7/12 you rebel you!

Buddy, I gotta believe it will based off of my experience.

Regarding the brakes, make sure you get the rear caliper brackets at the very least. Great for a S30 rear disc swap.

Whoever eastwood buys it from had a bad batch of nozzles or propellent.

I will also make a recommendation on this tire once the motor swap is done!

The author also states the Z had non power brakes. What a tool.

I actually tried this before I asked and I didn't see somewhere to save it, but it does save?

How do I/Can I enter my car in to the registry?

Was on vacation back up in the Midwest and not much to report on. I did drop off my block, head, crank, rods, piston, intake, and exhaust manifolds to "Ted's Machine Shop" in Conroe, TX. Personally I am always a little leery of shops who do not see these motors too often as I suspect most don't. I did feel better when talking to them about putting in my good used cam and changing over from a hydraulic adjustment to a lash adjusted cam on the P90A head. I said I had an extra set of cam towers and the manager said this. "When they align bored those cam towes for the cam at the factory they were torqued to spec on the head at that point, it can some times be tough to get mismatched or cam towers from another head to work as well." All of what he said I know to be true and made me feel a hell of a lot better. Should hear back from the shop some time this week. I think they are only going to charge around $200 for a complete head job. I feel this is very fair. Stay tuned.

Got it! Just so happened to have a big machine screw that fit in the main cap. Drilled a hole in some 3/4x3/4 square tubing that was 3 feet long, one foot on the engine stand and out she came.

How does one remove the rear main seal main bearing cap! Beating on it with a rubber shot hammer will only wiggle it back and forth. Main cap between 3 and 4 holes was a PITA too but got it off. Please help with rear!

Should have stated OE Turbo ECU. Looking to run about 11 PSI of boost. Factory was 7.

I am going to chronicle my start to finish engine rebuild, engine bay refresh, engine swap and finally performance in this thread. I am pulling out my NA 280Z motor for a 280ZXT motor swap. Bought a 1983 280zx Turbo parts car with hydraulic cam. Goal: 250-270 rwhp on OE ECU with mechanical fuel and boost enhancements. Walbro 255 Fuel Pump Manual Boost Adjuster FMIC Bell Engineering Rising Rate Fuel Pressure Regulator 3" Exhaust I was having a friend of mine rebuild the 165k 280zx engine in Austin, but the engine just sat there since March. He had some family issues come up so I hauled it back to Houston Wednesday. I put it on the stand last night and took a few hours creating a mess of my garage. I removed the head. I spun the block around took off the oil pan and removed all the rods caps and pushed out the pistons and rods. I am going to try to rebuild this engine myself. I feel this puts me in the upper echelon of "shade tree" mechanic, all while working in the confines of my not so shade tree air conditioned garage here in southeast Texas. Here is what I found after getting oily last night. Rod journals look flawless. Still have some cross hatching in the cylinder bores, Not sure I will get away with just a hone. I am doing a swap from the hard to find hydraulic lifter set up to the traditional lash adjuster style. I am going to have the machine shop handle the head work. I hope to minimize milling on the head as not to distort tolerances between the good used stock cam I am using and the lash pads etc. Here are some random pictures. Rented a balancer puller and plan on taking the timing cover, chain and crank out tonight. Will be working with Andrew "ZCurves" shortly to put all new EFI and engine harness connectors on the turbo harness.

Before Lost one set of lugs had to switch back to the 280z wheels. I pretty much bought that set of 280zx wheels in rough shape, but sanded them down and polished them out and repainted them myself.

Is this done?

You can only align the toe on the front. I lowered my car and had it aligned, but it does not change anything. I am thinking about going back to my stock springs. The Eibachs lower it about 3/4" too much in the front IMHO.

Well taken. When I took my current N/A motor's exhaust manifold in to be true'd up I asked the shop what a head job would cost on the "6", he said right around $250. Not sure if that includes getting the for wipe pattern within tolerances. I am not trying to avoid all the costs, I know the machine work is the money heavy part, those guys have thousands tied up in their equipment.