HuD 91gt

Siteunseen, you are correct. Spent the better day of Friday pulling the motor from the junkyard myself. Grabbed what i could off the motor and made my way to a safe place to disassemble what and I needed, and dispose of the rest (That was tough). The motor was completely seized (Which worked out for the best), and was in rough shape. No hood on the vehicle, cold side of the turbo was open to the air. Cam was rusted, thermostat housing was taken off allowing who knows what to go inside (Including water). When I first contacted the wrecker last year they wanted $1500 for the engine. A month ago it was $700. I negotiated $500. When we found out it was seized (He swore it was good two months back) I got it for $250 if I did the labour. As I started disconnecting things, I was regretting it badly as I learned how bad of condition everything really was in. But I'm a man of my word. When I finally disconnected everything, the JY got the car up on the loader and I took my first look underneath. Oil pan was completely crushed. Ah man, That was one of the reasons I wanted it. Pulled the engine out and took it to where my car is currently parked and started disassembly. Got to the point of removing the head, and 2 head bolts snapped in the block. Good thing I don't plan on using the block. With the broken studs, I ended up having to hang the engine upside down and gently tap the head off little by little to remove it. A second set of hands caught it as it finally broke loose. What I ended up with.... A P90 head, unmolested but very very ugly to look at. It looks as though my little niece was emptying her diapers in cylinder 5. But I'm very positive the head itself is useable. I'de say the valve train is good for scraps, but I have spares. During disassembly, I realized someone had previously tried to remove the manifold. 2 studs are broken off in the head. I don't know if I want to attempt to remove these or let the machine shop do it. It'll cost me i'm sure. Turbo manifold is great. Turbo - Hot side feels great, cold side spins with no play but is rough. Lots of corrosion from water. I guess I'lll learn how to rebuild one of these. Intake Manifold - Needs some cleanup, but not a whole lot can go wrong with it. TB - I'd say its pretty much junk Oil Cooler Sandwich Plate - If I ever plan to use a oil cooler this should come in handy. Oil Pan - Managed to salvage this I think. Cut out the baffle, and hammered it out. Learned how to weld again. I went with a Mig welder and welded the baffle back on. Anyone see anything wrong with doing this? I'll post some pictures in a few days to see what you guys thinks.

Ok my prices seem reasonable then. Especially in Canadian funds. A little more then you quote but within the ballpark. You are completely right on the higher compression topic. It is generally not done, but with proper intake cooling and proper tuning the car "should" be a great all around runner. I will never get 400hp out of it, but that isn't the plan. The higher compression will give it a little more low end oomph, and still be safe with the right tuning. It has been done in the past many times, it's just not the norm. Cheers

Well good news is I just got off the phone with the machine shop. He says the bores look good, pistons are good. The bad is the price he quoted. I basically asked to get the engine checked out, polish the crank, magna fluxing etc. Total price was around $7-800. Having never rebuilt an engine this seems a little out there. I also asked about balancing the bottom end. He quoted $275. Now I asked if this is balancing the rods weight individually, and I believe he said that is balancing it all as one piece (rods, crank, flywheel etc). That is not what I want correct? I want the rods to be of similar weight, with a balanced crank it should all be balanced correct? I was out on a walk, and will be getting another call back so I can write down all the prices indivually. Edit: I feel much better about the price breakdown after hearing from him again. Looking forward seeing the end progress.

As for which head I have. I was originally planning to run my N47 head (I also have an E88 on my L24). After a lot of thought, price comparison and end goals it just made sense to go the turbo route. Replacing the cam to take advantage of the N47, and buying a header add's up quick especially in Canadian funds these days and I can't guarantee my DIY porting work will equate to much success. The turbo route seems to the be the more expensive, but hopefully way more fun route. Not to mention i've always wanted to try fuel injecting a vehicle via megasquirt as i've been reading about them for 10 years. Buying the JY motor includes basically everything required to do so, so it just makes sense. It will be a little different from the route most go, being it will be a turbo charged flattop motor, but I hope to have fun experimenting, and hopefully not pull my hair out in frustration. I may have to borrow some workshop room this winter at a family members at the rate this is going.

I do indeed. The motor is advertised as an '81 so it should be a p90 (Which is what i'd like). Honestly I haven't even seen the motor yet but money has not been exchanged. I will be travelling over on friday to make the final deal. He says the motor turned over and offers a guarantee if it's not good. I am not planning on using the ECU at all, as I will continue to use my carbs for the time being, and 280zx distributor until stage II (Megasquirt) comes along for EFI and custom ignition. I do live in an apartment which is why I am doing this in steps. I have room for one more motor in my storage. My girlfriend is going to love it.

Well a little update. Awaiting reply from machine shop on what needs work. In the mean time i've negotiated a deal for the L28et motor at the wreckers. I'm going to help them pull it friday. It's also in unknown condition. I'm just hoping the head is still good/repairable. I plan to toss it onto my rebuilt flattop bottom end with SU's first (Anyone have any advice on installing studs for the SU's on this head?) for the time being while I plan out a megasquirt plan for the future turbo. This is getting exciting! And expensive! Also, I contacted Courtesy Nissan and they no longer sell pistons. It seems the only piston options are from ITM, which include rings and seem to be getting good reviews. My options for bearings are Clevitt 77, ITM, or Nissan. Are some particularly better then others? I see ITM also has a timing kit, gasket kits and other odds an ends. Is there any reason I should no going ITM all the way? Or some parts I should stick to the name brands? ARP studs and rod bolts are expensive but I believe they are reusable, correct?

I've had damaged goods on arrival. One of my exhaust tubes was dented on arrival. It had to be hit HARD to dent one of those. No packaging whatsoever besides the box. I also had one package arrive completely reeking of Marijuana. The box, it's contents including the receipts were so strong it could be smelled from many many feet away. Being in Canada, and usually shipping to the USA; I drive to a shipping depot, pick up my items and then drive back across the border. The scenario started with the man at the shipping depot stating "This one smells interesting." After emptying the contents, and searching the package I felt it was "safe" to cross the border. Long story short, i'm surprised I wasn't on an episodes of "Border guards", as I got the full search. Luckily my profession is fairly respected and requires many border crossings daily. They went a little easier on me, but it wasn't a pleasant experience when your career rides on crossing international lines daily. I sent them an email or called on each occasion, and received nothing back. I don't expect them to admit anything about illegal narcotics, but some sort of customer service would be nice. I never posted this last year when it occurred as I was going to give them the benefit of the doubt, but after receiving my dented exhaust with no reply i'm a bit fed up. Buyer Beware. Maybe one day they will care. I try and source my parts elsewhere when able.

You guys make some good points. Finished up with he block yesterday. Removed oil galley/coolant plugs and chased all the threads. Ready to be dropped off in the morning.

Well I've decided to hold off the turbo motor for the time being, or at least wait until I bring my bottom end to the machine shop to get a diagnosis. Here are a couple pictures of what I'm dealing with. What I'm concerned most about is the discolouring of the crank where it was clearly getting quite warm. What do you think?

It's running lean when cold. Normal.

Well I completely disassembled the bottom end on my F54 block. It's about ready to head to the machine shop. I have some decisions to make before hand, and I need to find out my goals. After adding everything up, a rebuild is not going to be cheap. No matter how you stack the cards. There is also a L28et engine in the junkyard very close by. Decisions.

All questions I was going to ask myself! I'm thinking of doing the same, but I don't know if I trust my accuracy!

Hey. Doesn't bother me. Bumps it back to the top where more people may have input. Ha

It's not longer made, except for the UK company sold under a different brand. Your best bet in the US is the used mArket. Ebay would be the goto.

That's the one! I'm going to order one myself. Having never done anything other then a valve adjust and not completely understanding how it works in there; the first one took me about 2 hours. By the time I got to the end it was about 10-20 minutes for two valves. It's a pretty neat little device.

Chickenman was nice enough to lend me his spring compressor and give me some advice for last minute parts in the local area. This weekend I decided to put in one last attempt with the motor before I go and pull it back out. I replaced all the valve seals, and over the week, had a friend put "seafoam" directly into the cylinders, and let it sit overnight, turn the engine with the plugs out and then squirt some more in. I also replace the PCV valve. These were all fairly inexpensive things to do before I tore it all apart. Sad to say, it did not have much effect. We pulled the engine (In about 2 hours this time around), and I loaded it up on the trailer to take back home. While we were at it, we took the head off to take a peak inside. The pictures are pretty self explanatory. I think the engine sat around a bit outside. A couple cylinders look great, good cross hatching and clean. A majority of them not so much. There is even some pitting at the top of #3. Not sure what that is from. I guess I will start the tear down shortly, and bring it to a machine shop and see what they have to say. I'm hoping I can keep the pistons, and avoid an overbore, but the pitting scares me a bit. Sorry about the photo's. My iPhone can't figure out which way is up. The first three are what we found when we took the head off. The fourth is "Crush's new home for the next while. lonely. The last, is the journey home with the other "tow rig". City Slicker style.

The engine is fairly unknown. The owner purchased the N47 head, went over it and did a valve grind, with new valve seals. I don't have any experience with this stuff so I don't exactly know. But I have been in contact with him recently, and he was quite certain it should run no problem. The bottom end was used by him in the past, but certainly had some miles on it. Eurodat, I certainly get smoke in that scenario (Coast, then throttle). I'd say most of it is in that scenario but I also get it during hard throttle. The plumbs of smoke come on deceleration though. If it is torn valve seals from my oil mishap, will this be visible to the eye? As for the PCV system. I just disconnected what I had on the old motor, and connected to this one. Honestly i'd have to do some more reading to know what the PCV system even is. I can assume it is the pipe running from the block, which connects into the intake/vacuum system?

Well, before I pull the engine out, I will put a table spoon or two of sea foam in each cylinder and let it sit for the evening. The next morning I will crank it over a few times with the spark plugs removed. Then give her a few good rips up the road. If it isn't any better i'll start pulling the engine. I can't really think of anything else to do. Unfortunately the car is a 1.5 hour ferry ride away now, and a 1.5hr drive ontop of that, so it's a bit of an inconvienece to do troubleshooting. If something doesn't correct it self quickly, i'd rather put the old engine in and get the car home.

I don't know how long the motor was sitting, but if say at least a year. I ran it hard for the small amount I drove it.

It was smoking a huge amount. I burned halfway down between the full and minimum mark on the dipstick in about 40-50 miles. The plan was to swap in the old L24, and then work on the F54. The valve seals were brand new. They should not need a break in, should they? The smoke was during deceleration and during hard throttle after decel. It smoked throughout the rpm range but a ton during decel. Compression check showed 150-158psi across the board which was consistent but I think low for the head/block combo. Edit: A friend just reminded me this also which may have affected it, I honestly forgot about it. When I put in the oil pump, I never primed it. When we started the engine, the gauge did move, but very little. I've had sticky needle issues with the gauge before so I assumed I had some oil pressure. Well, the car idled for 5 minutes without oil pressure. Could this tear brand new valve seals? We poured oil onto the cam prior to, thank god.

Thanks for the replies. Looks like I have a majority of the tools required already. With the purchase of a 240z, my tool collections has grown tremendously. A few of the engine specific tools will have to be purchased. I just purchased the how to rebuild book, so i'm sure i'll have some more questions after going through that one. Your replies will certainly get me started. Siteunseen, good to know about the valve seals. I don't think the cam will be that aggressive, but it certainly will be something to keep an eye out for. Not only that, those ford seals seem extremely cheap!

Thanks. Your right. I was excited. A little more waiting, a little more tea search and the outcome should be that much better. I'm excited for the rest of the years progress!

I thought I'd make my own thread as I seem to make a new one every week or so for this weeks issues. Long story short if you haven't been following, or can't keep up. I purchased a 240z south of the border (yup I'm in Canada), last spring. Over the last year and a half I've managed to bring it back to life (stored for 10 years), get it passed inspection here in BC, and have finally started to have some fun with it. The first day I insured "Crush" Having done little to vehicles in the past, minus some lowering springs on my first vehicle, some minor wiring and a bunch of oil changes I'm new. So far on the Z, I've replace all front end bushings, new tie rods, adjusted and refreshed the steering. Formed new brake lines, rebuilt the SU's and lastly swapped from an automatic transmission to a 260z 4 speed. A lot of headaches, but in the end success. Last weekend I attempted my first engine swap. A generally unknown condition F54 flattop/N47 combo engine. With help and research she went in quite smooth. Minus a faulty electric fuel pump (see other thread). With the stock cam, I was quite impressed with the increase in torque. Unfortunately the engine is tired, and burns more oil then I can afford (jokingly of course, but I've got clouds of blue behind me). The motor - At least it looked nice Loaded up for the trip to Vancouver Island where I did the swap at a friends before swap (sorry iPhone can't figure out which way is up) Empty bay Dropping her in The new engine I am going to put in the old L24 for the time being to get the most out of summer. My current plan is to certainly rebuild the bottom end. I'd like some suggestions on what to do with it. I have the "how to modify" book, and will order the rebuild book in short order. After going over a few threads, I see there are many options on rebuilding/refreshing a motor. The engine needs to be re-ringed. I believe at this time id like to use my current head. I will be picking up a rebello cam kit. An aggressive street cam will be part of the order. One for the power, 2 to help with detonation on the high compression combination. To get the most out of this cam being able to rev the engine freely is the plan of action. (Were not talking 9,000 rpm, but safely to 7,000 would be great, a little higher if possible). With budget in mind, how do I go about doing this? Balance individual pieces at home as per the how to modify book. Use the old pistons and re-ring (can you hone the block and use the old pistons). I see some rebuild kits online. Some include everything, some are a refresh kit. Which do you guys suggest? What do I really need? I know the original datsun parts are better then most of the aftermarket pieces, so is a refresh all I really need to do? I'll finish off with my favourite photo of the car.

Haha thanks. Well I think this goal has gone down the drain. The motor needs a complete refresh. Time to toss the L24 back in. Chalk that one up to a good learning experience.

Siteunseen, just because I'm in canada doesn't mean we always have heaters going. My igloo car garage stays warm enough as it is haha. The picture is upside down so I think that is just the reflection from my orange paint on the cam. I polished the bay up when the engine was out