Reptoid Overlords

This didn't happen to my Z, but i thought you guys would find this amusing. I have a 1991 Mazda B2200 pickup, and about a week ago it started making an awful noise just as i was pulling up to my garage. I immediately shut the engine down. Upon inspection I noticed one of the nuts used to hold the air cleaner assy. to the carburetor was missing. Oh boy. I figured it thrashed an entire cylinder, piston/valves/cylinder walls etc. When I pulled the head I found it wedged between the valve seat and the #4 intake valve. It never entered the bottom end or made contact with the piston. When I removed the nut I put mineral spirits in the combustion chamber with the valves closed/head upside down and could see only a little bit of fluid escaping the seat of of the #4 intake runner. Still enough to call it a bad seal, but trivial compared to what could've happened. The other ones hold fluid for hours. I ordered a new intake valve,some valve seals, and new hydraulic lash adjusters while I have the rocker arms assy. off. I'll lap it in and hopefully it'll be ok. Guess I'll use LocTite on that air filter housing from now on.

I work for a company that makes the sort of hollow metal doors that you usually see as security doors on the sides of buildings or entrances to schools and such. We have a scrap metal dumpster behind the shop. When the time comes I can just bring bits in over time until it's gone.

I've harvested the brake lines and steering gear for my running car. Also pulled the fuel tank and put it in a dry place for possible future use. As parts get used the prospect of titling get further away.

So I know you're still working at verifying TDC due to the unknown accuracy of the damper, and I'm not trying to distract from that, but I couldn't find anything about whether you are running the stock cam or a bigger one. I saw aftermarket EFI, flat top pistons,F54 bottom/N42 head, but nothing else about how its built. More cam seems to typically equal more valve train noise. I questioned mine and asked the community here in this thread: https://www.classiczcars.com/forums/topic/67497-l28-normal-noise-excessive-valvetrain-noise-or-exhaust-leak-tick/

Our '92 Camry has a timing belt service interval of 60.000 miles. Miserable job too. These dampeners are notorious for having the rubber portion deteriorate over time causing all sorts of issues observing timing. You should be able to turn the engine over several times to get the zero mark on the dampener to line up with the cam sprocket markings and have the bright link set on whatever number(usually 1) and have the cam lobes pointing to the "bunny ear" position. A screwdriver or the oil dip stick lightly inserted in cyl. no. 1 will also give you a visual about TDC, just make sure it's on the compression stroke.

I did just loosen the pressure plate and re position the clutch disk. I believe I ended up putting the transmission in gear as stated above as well.

Made a delivery to the University District in Seattle, and parked in front of the Beta Theta Pi house was a pretty pristine ZX complete with iron cross wheels and silver hood. Something you don't see around here very much anymore are Z cars parked illegally on the sidewalk in frat row. I think mine is too low to make it onto a sidewalk.

I voted to join Holland

Again, I could be wrong about that, but this is the "bunny ear" position on cyl no.1 TDC compression stroke. I'm fairly certain cylinders 2-6 will do the same when they are at TDC on the compression stroke. Hopefully if I'm wrong, someone will chime in and say. Sorry my memory degrades as the beard gets whiter. Last time I checked valve lash I believe I just felt the compression as I turned the engine, but your leak down needs to be a bit more precise.

Some free 4cyl blocks, parts and head https://seattle.craigslist.org/sno/pts/d/lynnwood-free-datsun-nissan-motors/7535031653.html

You can put your finger or a rubber plug over the empty spark plug hole for the cylinder you're working on. As you turn the engine towards it's compression stroke you'll feel the pressure push against you. You should also be able to see the position of the valves for that cylinder. I might be wrong, because it's been awhile since I did a leak down test on mine, but the cam lobes possibly have the "bunny ears" look for all cylinders at TDC compression stroke just like when observe no.1 at TDC.

Looks like it's time to get into laser printing.

My ZX was bought at University Datsun in Seattle by a man who at least went to one Blizzard of Oz concert judging by the tickets found under one of the seats. He divorced his wife in 2003, she ended up with the car, commuted to her work at a local grocery store until the rear wheel bearings made too much racket. She then parked it in a garage, over time piling boxes and old VHS tapes on it. I found it when I worked for an appliance installation company when we replaced her garage freezer. She sold it to me for $200. I drove it home that day. It wasn't happy about it.

I removed the baffle plate off of a 91 Mazda B2200 valve cover to clean and recondition the PCV system. Those have screws and RTV. I used the urethane sealant and it's still holding up after 20k miles or so.

https://www.viczcar.com/forums/topic/17814-e88-efi-head/ Looks like maybe the Aussies got them in their Skylines too

Those were on my '80 ZX. When I went to prep for paint I removed them by drilling out the rivets. Wish I hadn't. I put Bondo in the holes and painted over it like that. The car has plenty of Bondo so I guess a bit more won't hurt.

If you don't have any luck, you can call this guy Oliver. I've personally been to his facility many times. The amount of whole cars and con ex boxes of parts is staggering. https://zspecialties.com/

I have T3 coilovers on my ZX. I like them a lot. They are also very communicative regarding the specs you want, how long it will take to build etc.

Since I'm on vacation from work with nothing better to do, I toyed around with some higher numbers. I seem to remember you working with these and assume you know more than me haha. You're right, I was missing out on a bit more power. A pretty noticeable difference. I'm not sure how I got that it was pinging once I 1st installed it over a year ago. The engine was still braking in and maybe i dialed it down to be on the safe side, and old age setting in made me forget to try more advance? Who knows. Anyway, for the sake of the OP's research, here are my new curve settings:

I want to say that around 35 degrees it starts pinging? I think I went with 28 as a safe number, but I can't recall my logic now to be honest.

You know you've got it right when you successfully use the Earth's gravitational field to sling yourself to Sirius.

I can second the instance where the clutch alignment tool supplied let the disc slip. I nearly beat the hell out of my engine and transmission before I figured it out haha. It was the tool that came with the Excedy kit currently installed on the car.

Last time I was in Pattaya City in Thailand, sometime in 2005, entire fleets of this generation of Nissan truck(2wd, SD diesel) we're being used as taxi trucks. Open seating in the bed, no restraints. Just you, some buddies, a few locals, and the Tiger Beer in your hand that you just walked out of the pub with.

Here is where mine is and it runs pretty smooth. It's kind of on the mild side. The engine is an F54/P79 mild cam(stage 2) shaved head with lightened pistons(Datsun Spirit stage 2)running FAST EFI. All we get here is 92 octane. It's right at 10:1 compression ratio. Seems to be a bit happier with non ethanol.

I'm wondering if that aftermarket air cleaner has something to do with it..but I run a similar setup and don't have that noise.