Racer X

Did you nickname it Caesar?

There are a number of options. There is a guy in Oregon who rebuilds damper pulleys, send it to him, he rebuilds it and sends it back. Ollie Naugle in Snohomish, Washington had a ton of S30 parts and sells dampers. Rebello in California has a line of aftermarket pulleys, all new with no core required,

Saw this car before. The car may have a low number, numbers matching, blue upholstery, blah, blah, blah . . . . but it will take as much, or more to restore it, and that, combined with the seller's high asking price, and a person would only want to buy it if they want to have way more into i that it will be worth.

Pretty much how I have always done it. And yes, the only time to use the screwdriver trick on the cam is when tightening or removing the cam bolt. And always assemble cam and crank bolts with clean, dry threads, with blue Loctite. No antiseize, no oil, no grease, no dirt. Torque with a good torque wrench, not from Harbor Freight. Proto torque wrenches are very good for the money, much lower cost than SnapOff, MAC, etc. Buy a cheap tool, cuss it everytime you use it. Buy a higher priced tool, cuss it once when it cuts into your beer budget.

Use a cheater bar on your breaker bar, put two flywheel bolts in the crank hub and use one of these (the big one) to hold the crank from turning:

You can try to shock the threads loose. Place a large brass drift on the center of the bolt head, and smack it sharply with a 3 pound drill hammer. Sometimes two or three raps may be needed. Then hit it with the impact gun.

Another towel bar car. This is the same color as my 72, but a previous owner dyed the interior of mine black. Too bad the doorjamb plate has the glare on it where the month and day of manufacture are, it would be nice to know that. Do one of you have an account at BAT? Maybe someone could ask the seller that info? Never mind, I see Lonetreesteve did this. I have always disliked the side moldings added by the dealerships or whoever. They do nothing to enhance the lines of the car, and present another avenue for corrosion. Still, a decent car, in reasonably good condition considering it is from Colorado.

Just went through the pictures. This car has been repainted at least twice. It looks real nice, presents well, but after reviewing the pictures, (no decent pictures of the underside) it is like lipstick on a, um, well I better be nice, so I won't say it. I do like the red though.

Like many things on Japanese cars, it is a copy of another manufacturers part. A Ford transmission I believe, but I don't recall which model. Like anything the Japanese copied, they improved it some. They really are good transmissions, I just don't care for slushboxes in sports or performance cars. Or any cars. Makes people lazy drivers. I never owned anything but manual shifted vehicles up until a couple years ago. I had surgery on my right foot, and couldn't quite coordinate braking and accelerating with my left foot, and operate the clutch by hand with a stick that can clamp to the pedal quickly by depressing a button in the handle (I did this a few years earlier when I had similar surgery on my left foot). So I was forced to get a vehicle with an automatic. Bought the oldest grandson's 95 Eddie Bauer F150. Drove it with my left foot for six months. Now it is my beater shop truck and makes the occasional dump run. If I had any say, no one would get a driver's license unless they are able to drive a stick shift.

Those park/turn signal lights from a pickup camper kill it for me. And I like red cars.

Automatic. Kills the value.

Not quite sure what you mean by below zero oil pressure. The lubrication system isn't capable of producing negative pressure. The stock gauge uses a pressure transducer (the sending unit) to vary the voltage to the gauge. Even when the sender and gauge are in perfect working order, it is not very accurate. Tee in a mechanical gauge, 0 to 100 psi, and compare the reading to the electric gauge. Ten pounds of oil pressure for every 1,000 RPM is the rule of thumb for adequate oil pressure in any engine. So at idle, 10 to 15 PSI is adequate. Older engines with loose bearing clearances will run a little low at idle, but there should still be pressure as described above. Does your engine have a turbo oil pump? The turbocharged L series engines had a higher volume pump that produced a bit more pressure, and the relief spring can be changed, or shimmed, to bump the pressure up a bit. A direct swap for non turbo engines.

The outer 4 ports in the picture look pretty round to me. Compare it to the ports on your header.

Classic Tube makes all the brake and fuel lines for S30 Z cars I believe.

These days all I get is an elbow in the ribs.

Interesting how the one flange looks flush where the tubing comes through, rather than protruding and then ground to make a flat ridge around the port (which aids sealing). Sure, you could pay a competent machinist to repair it, and spend more money, but is it really worth it? I see it has emissions bungs, that are not being used. Getting a header that doesn't have them makes more sense if you aren't using the AIR system. Having tubular exhaust is all about maximizing air flow through the engine, and the flow past the unused bungs will be disrupted some. As for what header, consider the engine as a whole, and choose accordingly. Personally I am considering a full stainless steel system from that guy in France. His systems look nicely done, and can be tailored to the engine build and intended use. I just need to save the cash.

There are a couple of guys who rebuild harmonic balancers, here in the US. Also aftermarket balancers are available.

RIP Stevie

For Mrs. Racer.

Now I get why you wanted to know how to get the crank out like that. In this case the easiest is to buy the engine, take it home and remove what you want and sell the rest. Too bad it got away. I saw one of these engines on a pallet for sale online recently, for a few hundred bucks. It was gone by the time I inquired about it.

OK, break time is over, back to my chores.

Worked 6 days in a row, so today is Saturday/Sunday. Chilling, puttering around fixing this, working on that, getting ready for the coming week, got Radio Paradise on the iPod, plugged into the Harman/Kardon HK3700 in my shop. The tunes I share here come from what is streamed from there. I discovered Radio Paradise a few years ago. Commercial free, listener supported. The main stream is eclectic, and there are a few other streams, I usually choose the rock mix. The content they play has introduced me to music I never knew, as well as playing familiar favorites. Check them out at radioparadise.com