Av8ferg

Which engine would you get? The F54 for $100 or the N42 from salvage yard for $300. It seems people like the N42 from my research. The savage yard is only changing me $300 because of the labor to remove the engine. I can call and ask the, if the engine is locked up or not. One more thing, should I just replace the oil pump while it’s out? An new one is $31 with the gasket? Seems reasonable and maybe worth changing while I’m doing the work anyway.

Thanks for all the good advice. I’m coming up on a timeline to get this car on the road. It’s in Memphis at a temp location. I have limited access to tools there. The hope was to get it running an then bring it to NC where I could really begin a proper restoration. My goal was to get the engine running to determine if it was a engine worth keeping or weather to rebuild it. The great thing about this car is the body. Spending a lifetime in CA and getting a full undercoat early in its life have saved it from the fate of many of these cars...rust. It’s obvious to me the POs knew little about the mechanical and electrical workings of these cars and at some point abandoned the goal of putting back on the road. I feel their frustration....some days I have considered just selling it and buying a running one. What I’ve learned in life is the journey is better than the destination in my endouvers. This is no exception. I enjoy a challenge, love to work with mechanical things and seeing the fruits on my labor. I’ve been scouring the internet looking for replacement L28 engines. It begs this questions. Should I keep the current engine and just rebuild it, buy a fully rebuilt one or buy a used running engine? Seems like a fully rebuild engine runs around $2,500 to $2,900. I’ve found used engines from $150 to $750. What is the cost to rebuild my engine? Do matching engine s matter in the Z world? A salvage yard near me has an L28 in a car that they want $300 for engine, tranny and all misc engine parts. It’s from a 1975 with an N42 Head.....engine status unknown. There is also a guy selling a 1978 engine on Craigslist for $100 about 3 hrs from me. https://nashville.craigslist.org/pts/d/nissan-6cyl-engine/6529413934.html what do you guys think?

Thanks for all the advice. I got called out for work but willl hit the ground running on all these recommendations when I get back a report my findings. 1. I’ll get more photos of my dirty head. 2. Clean the oil spray bars. 3. Pull the oil pump and reset the spindle position. 4. Check slack on timing chain using a wrench and see it it effects timing markings when tight on drivers side. I guess I need to buy some jack stands to do the oil pump. My oil pan area is nasty and caked oil crud everywhere under the engine. They company that rebuilt my alternator said the oil probably killed it. I don’t want to keep investing in this engine only to discover it’s trashed. Is it hard to pull the pan and replace the gasket on jack stands. I’m sure it’s easy on an engine stand. Im starting to think finding a rebuilt engine might be a good idea. Gas tank is done and will install that too. Of note my fuel sending unit looked like crap when I pulled the gas tank. Totally covered with rust, but still moved. Companies online wanted around $200 to rebuild it, so I did it myself. Check out the before and after photos. I checked the resistance and it went from around 17 to 85 ohms from empty to full. I let it sit is a bath of muriatic acid mixed 5 to 1 with water for about 30 mins. Then hit it with WD-40 and plastic brush. Looks great now.

I found this on the Zcar forum. Seems to pertain to my issue. Sounds like I need to pull the oil pump and make some alignment adjustments. Not sure how to do this but I’m looking now how in the FSM. http://www.zcar.com/forum/10-70-83-tech-discussion-forum/285669-distributor-rotation-timing.html

I’ve been researching this issue. I found a link on this forum that shows the proper position off here the distributor connects tone oil pump shaft. See attached. Mine is off for sure. I don’t know if this means I need to pull the oil pump and adjust this or of that’s even possible. Still looking into that. See attached pics. Clean photo is how it’s supposed to look and the dirty as hell one is mine looks. You cannot mount the distributor wrong because the where the shaft connects has to half moon shapes (one smaller than the other) but the slot is offset allowing it to engage only one way.

I’m trying to understand this. I’m at TDC and my rotor is pointing to 5 o’clock instead of 8. This is probably why it’s not starting. Even if I adjusted the sprocket on the cam that won’t solve the rotor alignment problem? By the way I don’t have a shinny chain link on my timing chain to see if it’s on 1,2 or 3 markings which I’ve read is used to adjust for chain stretch. So, the question I think is how do I get the rotor to point to 8 o’clock? I’m considering removing the distributor and taking a closer look at it. As far as I know if could be an the wrong one...broken or who knows what’s been done to this car over the past 41 years. I feel like a detective solving one mystery after another. Recap....bad ignition switch, bad fuel pump, wrong ECU, blown fusible links, battery fuse link on negative battery post vice positive, clogged fuel tank. I couldn’t have solved any of this without your help here. Thank!!! Beers on me if we ever meet at a Z car show.

Okay, I’m totally confused. What do I need to do now? I guess I really don’t understand what you guys are talking about. I’m confident the #1 piston is at TDC. The lobes are up around 45 deg but the distributor rotor is not where the plug for cylinder one is on the cap. Of note....when I initially questioned the spark plug order on the distributor cap they were in a totally different location . Not sure why the previous owner had it wrong, but he told me he never had it running and lost interest. ZH, I agree it’s pretty dirty up there. This engine hasn’t started in almost 18 years. I don’t think oil is getting up there because there’s no oil pressure to the spray bars when you just crank the engine....or is there? I considered cleaning but figured I just dislodge sludge and get it in the engine. What do you guys suggest I do next?

Gents, I’m back in Memphis working on the Z. Mission was to figure out the timing issue. Still waiting on the fuel tank to be finished. So I pulled the valve cover and using the Atlanticz’s tech tips I think I have found TDC for cylinder one. See attached pics. I rotated the engine by hand with the spark plugs out until the mark on the crank pulley was on the zero tick mark on the indicator. I then checked the position of the cam pulley and flashed a light in cylinder 1 to see if it was all the to the top. All looked good until I pulled the distributor cap. According to the tech tips my rotor is pointing 180 deg off where it should be. Can you all look at the pics and validate my findings. I don’t want to start screwing around until I’m confident my finding are accurate.

I need to buy some and will try when I get back.

I may have pulled it when I removed the fuel rail to clean it. Thanks for the info. When I pulled a spark plug and attached the spark wire to it and had my buddy crank the car I was getting a spark across the plug.

My car had a CA title when I bought it. Title was from 1998. Maybe it’s an original California car and those had that vacuum delay valve.

Cliff, I didn’t know vacuum leaks could make such a difference. I’ll get those sealed up. Since we’re on the topic of vacuum leaks, any idea where this hose with the little dohickie attached goes? I’ve cirecled it in green on the pic.

ZH, I’ll check all that and see what I find. The sound almost leads me to think a intake valve might not be on the closing and on the compression stroke th I’m getting blow back. Is this possible? I guess the fact that my compression checks were good other that #4 @ 145 Psi. If a valve were stuck i guess it would be close to zero.

Gents, I’m back working on the Z today. I’ve made some progress but I’m not there yet. Fuel tank is currently off get boiled and relined and painted ($350)...ouch. I installed the new fuel relay and also the other ECU I had in my parts bin. (It was the one from a 78). If you recall you guys let me know that the one I had in was for a automatic car and mine is a manual. This swap seems to have fixed some of my issues. So now when I turn the key to start the fuel pump is finally operating normally. I also put a noid light on each injector wite and they all checked good. I hooked a bucket and fuel can to take the place of my fuel tank and tried to start the car. No luck. Fuel pressure hit around 35 psi but no turn over. It’s odd, I’m getting what appears to be some back flow through the hose coming off the valve cover and get a hiss sound from the engine when this happens about once every revolution or so. It also has a slight burnt smell. I don’t know what it could be? I can’t figure out why the car is not getting ignition either. I’ve tested the coil and the spark at the plugs. All that seems to be working. The only thing I can think of is the timing is way off. Here is a link to a video I just posted. I’d love you hear everyone’s opinion. Thanks

Thank you. It will be awhile until I can work on he car again but with the help of everyone on his forum I feel I have a solid path forward. I think I’m getting close and I’ve leared a heck of a lot in this process. Thanks again.

ThIs ECU test I need to do I think also. I’m fairly confident that since my relay tested good, wiring is lookig good, drop resistors look okay that this test might tell me a lot, Where do I get one of the light testers for the injector wire.

ZH, would you recommend using my other ECU off the 78 since I have it on hand. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Looking through forums I’m getting mixed information on ECU compatibility. This one states you cannot put an automatic ECU on a manual car but that you can put a manual ECU on an automatic car. ? http://www.zcar.com/forum/10-70-83-tech-discussion-forum/3738-needed-ecu-76-280z-manual-trans.html

Cliff thanks...I’m looking forward to ZH’s reposnse. Could this be my smoking gun.

Huh...my car is a 5 speed. The one with the pink sticker came out of my car. I don’t know the history of this car; anything could have happened over the past 40yrs. I know someone parked it in 1999 after it was repossessed and it hasn’t been registered or titled since. Something stopped this car from running and no one put the time in to figure it out. It’s my mystery now. Everyday Carbs sounds good, but I’m committed to figuring out this problem. I wish I had more time but life is busy.

ECU question while I wait for my new relay. I have a box of parts that came off a 78. One of the extra parts is an ECU. Can you put a 78 ECU on a 77? I have to dig more in the FSM to confirm my findings once the new relay is in but I’m becoming suspicious of the ECU. Here are pics of the ECU part numbers. Green parts label is from the 78.

Awesome you just saved me about $50 ?

Well, I think I’ve got another stopping point since I kinda trashed the Fuel Pump Injector Relay. When I plugs the wires back in to relay the fuel pump started pumping with the key off and thats with the ECU disconnected. The dropping resistors looked fine. Just looked like a couple connectors. They seemed properly attached.

Yeah, those wire jobs on the grounds are on my fix it list That was there when I got the car.

These links are all brand new. I also cleaned the terminals with a wire brush before installing.