Threehz

I thought it was related to the EGR, but had trouble finding any information on the actual pipe piece. Will deleting it cause any performance changes? Thanks for the quick help guys!

Attempting to reconnect this pipe from exhaust mani to intake mani and I cracked it thinking I could just turn it a little to re-align it. Can I easily (cheaply) replace this, can I weld it, what's the deal with this pipe?

You made my day! Knuckle is still busted up from wrestling that coupler...

Just got my front suspension all back on and finally got the steering coupler and rod to steering rack to mate up. But, to my disappointment I discovered that the steering wheel is a quarter turn or so off center now. My question is, can I simply unbolt the steering wheel and correct it there? Or is the steering wheel centered with the column requiring me to reconnect the steering coupler correctly? Thanks.

Well I got down there tonight and removed the nuts and other hardware from the passenger side, and the bushings actually look perfect. All the spindle pin hardware looks really nice and shiny and rust free, but I've decided I'm not even going to bother. Just doing springs and struts and leaving all the rear end bushings alone for now. I gave the pin a light pull just to test, not that easy, but it appears they won't be the worst ones around.

Well, then let's just get into it and see how things look. It's at least exciting to throw the front suspension back on today!

Just finishing my front suspension and now moving to the rear. Going to put in new poly bushings, springs, and struts. If I drop the entire rear suspension can I avoid doing the spindle pins? Thanks!

Thank you all for the good advice. One of my big fears is opening it up and finding a mess. This isn't a problem in the long-run, but I don't want to have to move with the engine half torn down. Even if I were to open it up and things looked good, I would still want to do some work while I'm there. Anyhow, choosing to clean her up and throw her back in, and see what she thinks after an 11-year nap. Worst case I pull the engine and rebuild post-move.

I'm thinking about digging into my engine, but I will be moving soon and don't want to get into a sticky situation. Can anyone chime in on the time it takes to do the jobs listed below? I know times vary significantly between people and engine, but any estimates are appreciated. Engine is out of car on a stand with exhaust and intake manifolds removed. I want to know how long it may take to 1. remove the head and check it and the pistons/rings 2. re-ring the pistons 3. rebuild the head 4. refresh timing components 5. full rebuild. Thank you!

Is there an easy way to do that without connecting the starter up to the regular wiring? For instance, could I just connect the starter up to a 12V battery?

Yep, put a break bar on that big bolt and cranked her until pressure stopped building. I've looked up her skirt and down her shirt (oil pan and valve cover) and the internals look great for an engine with 177K. Nothing looked odd or out of place or overly worn to my admittedly novice eyes. I can say that the first two cylinders took a good amount of strength to push through, the middle two were pretty easy until I squirted fresh oil in, and the last two took all of my might. I believe the engine is stock, never rebuilt, but I don't know for sure. The high readings on the last two cylinders are probably from being recently oiled.

Finally got around to compression testing my engine. Did the compression test manually (engine is out of car on stand). Squirted some gear oil in the spark plugs holes a few days ago. Here are the results: 1 - 125 > 90 2 - 132 > 90 3 - 10 > 30 > 125 (squirted oil in) 4 - 67 > 65 > 150 (squirted oil in) 5 - 215 6 - 210 The > sign just means I redid the test on that cylinder. Anyways, it doesn't look good. My friend says that the improvement after adding oil means it's likely the rings, pistons, or block and not the valves or head that has an issue. Makes sense to me. Car had sat 8 years when I got her, engine has been out another 3 years since then. I was planning to have everything put back together in the next month or so and see if I can get her to start. Where should I go from here? Tear into the engine while it's out? Put it back in and see if I can loosen stuck rings?

What are the best ways to maximize the value of a Z car? I feel like the most valuable Z cars are those in concours condition, or extremely clean, unmodified cars. So in restoring my own Z, I've been careful to keep every single original part and the modifications I'm performing are reversible and tasteful (in my opinion of course). So, what type of modifications do the least to hurt the value of a Z, or maybe even increase the value? For instance, I'm upgrading springs (Eibachs), shocks (Tokico HP), and bushings (urethane kit). I would think on a super low mileage beauty these upgrades may actually hurt value slightly, but on my 177k '77 I imagine these can only make it more appealing than the 10 to 37 year old parts she had. Thanks, Kai

Well, it appears that site does have them, but they are pretty much the same price as MSA. Good to know about another Z suspension supplier though.

I agree, don't sticky this thread, but make a thread with some frequently asked/highly valuable information stickied.