cozye

I did not replace the side seals. I've got some, looked at them and opted not to disturb them. This rear main seal wasn't leaking until I proactively replaced it during my clutch install a few months back. If I'm looking at it correctly, I don't think the cap is leaking on the seems that I would presume the side seals to seal. Once I got the fly wheel off, it was very obvious that the rear main is the culprit. On the crank, you can't feel any wear, but I can see a dull area that i presume is where the seal was riding. Another thing. On the last seal install I didn't think to smear a bit of oil around the inside of the seal that rides on the crank. I wondered if a little friction on it on first start up caused any issue? Again, there is no visible indication on the new seal for why it was leaking.

It's an easy job really. For me the hardest part is getting the drive shaft loose. Sway bar and rear differential mount is kind of in the way and the nuts are tough to get too. The 240 might be a little easier, I don't know. You will need a clutch alignment tool.

no, the seal isn't in. The pic is for reference of the slight lip on the cap surface.

That is the hole in the block where the seal drives in. the top third blurry part of the photo is the end of the crank. The bottom third is the bottom end cap, and thats where the very slight ridge is just before the back stop (what the light is reflecting) where the seal should sit I reckon. It was hard to get the camera up in there and get it to focus on that ridge. The other half (the upper block side) doesn't have that machine ridge in it. It's like the part is cast, then machined out for the surface where the seal drives in. I'm thinking maybe just not drive the seal in that far. But I want to be sure.

Ok, So here is the final prognosis. the oil pan gasket is not leaking so far. I put about 100 miles on the car and it seems to be holding up good. That brings us to the other side of the story. My leak at the back corner is still there. So with the oil pan gasket no longer seeping oil, that only left one thing. I quit whining about it and pulled the tranny tonight. Only took me an hour and 10 minutes. The verdict is that the rear main seal was leaking. I don't know why however. I inspected it on the car, definitely leaking slightly, oil was all gathered up around the bottom of it and was the source of the oil dripping from behind the aluminum bell housing cover. I pulled it out carefully and inspected it some more. I don't see any nicks in it, cuts, nothing to indicate any reason for a leak. I also inspected the inside of the block and crank. No nicks or groves that I can feel. This bothers me. I don't know why it was leaking. The only thing I can come up with is that perhaps I drove it on a bit too hard, and that maybe the back edge of it rolled up on this slight ridge/machine line on the bottom crank cap. Pic below. It's either that or the gasket MSA sent me "made in japan" is faulty. The new one I have is a felpro and seems to be more solid metal with slight rubber coating. The other one had a metal sleeve, but thicker plastic/rubber molded around it. Any tips to make sure I do this with success would be appreciated. I'm thinking of trying the sealer around the outside of it like previously suggested, but then I wonder if I have to do it again that the dried sealer will be a pain to clean up. notice slight edge on bottom before the back stop

which resistance values were out of spec? I missed that part.

Kind of late now, but why the lacquer? Modern base/clear coats are so easy to paint with, more durable, and are glossy as hell right out of the gun. If you spray it right you don't even need to buff? Seems like I see a lot of guys painting these cars with either enamel or lacquers. Is it the expense of a 2 stage that turns guys off ?

What happens when you adjust the idle to 800 or 850 ? Typically I would say that if you add fuel and it makes it idle faster, you are either running lean or you have a vacuum/intake leak. that doesn't necessarily apply though. Why is your car idling so high? Are you sure that your air regulator is closing all the way after the car is warm? If the air regulator is for sure closing all the way, adjust your idle down to 800-850 after its hot. Then put the tune up parts on, then go drive it for like 30 minutes at least, maybe even on the highway for a bit. then bring it home and see how it idles, where the timing is, play with the AFM a little if you want. I think you need to start paying attention to how it actually drives, rather than how it idles. tuning for idle can be misleading. Sure you want it to idle good, but get a good idea on how it's running the rest of the time. It's more data. A car can run great, and idle poorly due to a simple problem like a bad distributor cap, or plug wire, or leaking injector for example.

That hood and fender could be saved. Use a body hammer and it would be ready for plastic filler within an hours work. Good plan on the mig welder. Do yourself a favor and watch a bunch of youtube video's. Use gas shielding for sure. Practice on some 22 gauge sheet metal for an hour and you will be off and running. The frame rails are 16 gauge and much easier to weld. I did a bunch of research on small mig welders and came up with this one. Check out the tons of reviews I got the one with cart and auto darkening helmet http://www.eastwood.com/mig-135-welder-cart-helmet-kit.html The stand alone unit has more reviews, but it's the same welder. http://www.eastwood.com/mig-welder-110vac-135a-output.html I love that welder. My favorite tool for sure..

Well it could be that it's reading 17" because you are at 1100 rpm. At 2000 rpm it's probably reading 20 or 21. If you are going to read the vacuum gauge, do so at 800 rpm (idle) only after the car is completely hot and the air bypass (fast idle) is definitely closed. By the look of one of those plugs I'm guessing you have a slight miss. All of this could boil down to the cap/rotor and plugs. The fix could be that easy. valve adjust 16,000 miles ago is new information (or I missed it). Have you done a compression test that I forgot about ? If you have, where the cylinders all close to each other in the results ? If so, you can skip the valve adjust for now. Get those tune up parts on there and drive it. I agree with Sarah.

Yeah, my car was really solid as well with the exception of the bottom of two front fenders, the hatch sill, and a frame rail that rusted due to being crushed with a jack. One thing I have discovered though is that you will still find a few small areas of rust that aren't obvious at first that will turn into 5 hour repairs. I'm still glad I got the car I have, the floors are very sold and not even any surface rust. The car has never been painted, wrecked, or repaired, so I know exactly what I've got. The majority of the car is very solid. I rescued it in time I think.. For me, I purchased a mig welder because I've always wanted one, and this car gave me an excuse. It's already paid for itself 4 times over I'm sure. It really hasn't been that big of a deal to cut out and weld in some new metal. Sure, when I've found a spot that turned into a metal repair, I wasn't too happy but after a few hours of work I'm past it and admire the progress.

you can rule out running lean, because looking at those plugs that's not your issue. I definitely would not put a coil in the car. I really doubt that your coil is bad. Not sure on your distributor issues, if the shaft has play, and your vacuum advance is still broken you may want to just replace that. I can tell you that I dumped the pickup coil style ignition and went with a crane setup that uses an optical trigger. It is much more precise and phased properly, it did smooth the car out a little and now my distributor has much more "room" to advance since 10' is right about where the center mark is. I don't think this will help you, and it's kind of a pain to install too. I just mentioned it basically because my distributor would max out around 15' too prior to replacing the ignition. fix the vacuum advance and like zed head says, go drive it some. You still need to do the valve adjust if you have put that many miles on it and never done it. I think the service interval for valves is like 30,000. Another thing I experienced, I had a small exhaust leak somewhere that caused a little gargling at the tail pipe too, although it didn't really affect how it ran. More reason for you go go drive it some.

That's good news for sure.

Well put

. Thanks guys. Not going to make them for sale though. These are one off, and my time is more valuable than a fair asking price. They are easy enough to make though, that's why I posted pics for other to see my design.

The nay sayers aren't giving the car a fair shake. If the only rust spots are the ones he posted, it's about 15 hours worth of work and $30 worth of sheet metal tops. Like Darrel said. It deserves closer inspection. Take a screw driver with you and poke on anything that looks bubbled up or loose. Check wheel wells behind tire, look in hatch area, see if upper frame rails are solid so that all you have to do is patch bottom, make sure floor boards are solid. If you find any rust thats not going to be easy to cut out and weld new metal in, then pass on it.

Thanks! I'll be sure to post pics and report back on the chrome job for sure..

Yes, as long as there isn't significant rot other than the areas you pointed out. If you can weld, or are willing to learn to weld, you can fix those areas easily. I just welded a new frame rail on mine last weekend. Cost me $7 for a piece of 16ga steel long enough to patch it. Mechanical stuff is not a big deal, but significant rust can be a major undertaking. I've got other photos in that album of rust repair if you want to take a look.

I emailed pics to Nu Chrome again today after carl mentioned his quote. I explained that I did not want to pay much more than the rough original quote and wanted him to look over to pics to see if they thought it would still be close to that amount. Keep in mind I'm not doing the guards or accessory bars etc.. Just the plain bumper. the reply "Yes, the cost should be in the $225 range for a bumper in good condition. Let us know when you ready to proceed so we can schedule a pick-up. Once we get the bumper and inspect the condition to determine the labor content, we can provide a quotation for the service. The rust arears that you mention should heve no cost impact, as we routinely grind/polish the steel to a mirror finish." Now I'm sure it's going to cost more than $225, as I wouldn't call my bumpers "good condition". But even if they will do them for $325, and pay shipping. I'd still be willing to do it. Shipping these bumpers will cost at least $50-60 each way. Nu Chrome is going to pay for shipping just to get the bumpers and give me a solid quote. I'm going to give it a shot and report back, since there really isn't any risk to me. Denver bumper has solid work and I know lots of fellow Z owners have been happy. I'll be the guinea pig on the east coast guys and see how it goes.

I've finished my rear bumper brackets. I did the fronts a while back and posted pics, so I figured I'd share the rear ones I fabricated. Will be sending my bumpers off to get straightened and chromed this week now that my brackets are done. I haven't drilled the hole in the quarter panel yet as I wanted to wait until they were restored just in case it moves the mounting home spot a slight amount after straightening. For the main bracket I have about 1/2" adjustability from right to left so they should be good to go.

Here is what Nu-Chome sent me.. "Hi The cost would be in the $225 range per bumper. This would include filling in the holes. If you elect to proceed, let us know so we can schedule a no-cost UPS pick-up. Don" I asked about straightening and filling holes "Yes, staightening is part of our procedure and is included in our pricing. All you need to do is inicate via magic marker the holes that require filling and we will do the rest."

ouch!! Did you send pics or anything? I hadn't sent my bumpers to them yet, this was just an email quote based on my description. I may have to send mine to Denver as well. I'm not going to pay that much either.

use some duct tape to wrap the boot in the groves and patch the hole in the mean time if you want to see if thats your issue. If you do have a leak between AFM and TB, it will definitely cause it to not run right.

I've been racing motorcycles for a few years and have had a ton of track time. It can be a lot of fun. Beware though, it's highly addictive and you will tear stuff up on a regular basis. After a while the big rush starts to wear off, the costs start to go up. My favorite saying is that the "fun per dollar" ratio starts to flip on you. If you can maintain the attitude of just taking it easy and not trying to "go faster", you can keep the costs down and tear less stuff up.

Just FYI, it could be the oil pan gasket as well. It's common for the back corner of the oil pan to leak, and it will run down the front of the transmission off that back corner.