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everyone, thanks for the insight on this. I took apart 3 L heads this weekend and I discovered why my 260's original E88 head sounded so loud before I transplanted in the L28...the very first valve was bent! I have enough heads laying around to make something work. I'm kinda looking forward to getting some street idle back too. But now I need to investigate this lack of oil problem.

Thanks for the input, and sorry about the picture quality - my camera is next to worthless for anything close up and the colors are terrible, hence the black and white. I definitely plan on doing this right now. The head had to be corrected when I took it in, but they said the amount shaved wasn't an issue. Regarding overheating, the vehicle did overheat between the rebuild and current situation. Perhaps that is partially to blame as well. I wasn't entirely comfortable taking the head to this shop since it's not something they normally work on (ie. not a Ford or Chevy), but I had little choice since I had virtually no experience at that point.

Background Info: I have a '74 260Z that I transplanted the block and head from a '81 280ZX into a few years back. Regarding the head, I took a new ISKY stage II cam (with matching springs and lash pads) down to my local NAPA machine shop, and had them clean and rebuild it. They said the rockers were in good condition, and there was no reason to get new ones.. After the first 1 or 2K miles, my head started making alot of noise, so I thought I should check the valve clearances. Cold and hot everything was fine. Then it starts gettting really loud. So loud that I don't even want to drive the car anymore, so I think maybe there's a stuck valve. I was in the process of rebuilding a MN47 to replace my P90, and got to a point where I could remove the live head. When I did so, and took off the cam towers, the wear on the rockers jumped out at me. The pattern is really pronouced on the rear cylinders, and almost vanishes towards the front. The lobes on my cam near the back are very sharp, whereas they are more rounded at the front. I'm guessing the rockers and cam are trashed now. Ideas or suggestions?

I took my car to 2 shops for estimates, but have yet to receive anything 1 week later. I didn't tell the shops that I already got a quote from the insurance agency either, hoping to get some kind of honest opinion from them. 1 flat out never got back to me. The other has been OK with the service, but called the insurance co and found out I already got a quote from them. Apparently, they have to go off of that one. This seems like a bad deal to me. Talking over the repairs with those guys, they're not going to repaint my entire hood, rather blend across the whole thing - same with my door / fender. Infact, they weren't going to replace the fender, rather fix/fill it. Seems like I'm at a dead end here.

Well, my Z got smacked the other day when it was parked on the street. Luckily, the driver STOPPED and notified me. The damage isn't too bad, basically the driver side fender was hit from the front, and slid back into my door. So the fender and the headlight bucket need to be replaced, and my hood and door will need some paint. I went to the other guy's insurance for a claim, and they checked out my car in their garage. After doing an itemized report on the damages, they handed me a check for $2,200. The quoted part prices seemed pretty spot on, so I think it seems reasonable. Now, I also can drop the car off at any one of their approved body places, and say "fix it" and they will pay for it. I just have to give the shop the claim number, and even if the bill is higher for some reason, it will get covered. So I went by 2 of the most expensive and better known shops in town for a quote, and they were scratching their heads looking at my car because it's so old ('74). I'm waiting on a call from one, and have an appointment with another tomorrow. They seemed hesitant about the deal, saying that parts might be a really big problem for them. My main concern here is on the blending of paint, since my car doesn't have an exactly stock color and was repainted within the last 10 years, and how bad the blending will look. I'm leaning towards keeping the check, and getting the car in workable shape for now, with intent of stripping it out and doing a REAL paint job this summer. Reason I say that, is there are little rust bubbles under the paint on certain parts of the body now - corner on the passenger door, one on a rocker panel, and maybe another one or two. So I know that they need to be fixed already. Any suggestions or advice here?

I emailed courtesy with the details of my setup and they said this: "The highest tooth count we have is offered is 19, 18, 17, 16 no 21 though."

I thought the 720's may have had it, but the dealership was telling me those ones came in a sleeve of sorts, and had some funky setup that involved a bolt running through the side of them? they could only find a 20 then either... but I'll check on those other models, thanks!

I do have a ZX 5 speed in there, and I'm having a hard time locating that speedo gear. Apparently my nissan dealer can only find up to a 19 tooth, which in all fairness I understand since that was the highest they really came with. anyone know of a place to get these? The 21 tooth gear that is.

Hello, I had a u-joint go bad in the rear, so in the process of replacing all of them, I came across 2 ring & pinion sets (3.54 & 4.375) for an insanely cheap amount. (one was less than $10!) I finally just got everything back together last night, w/ the 4.375, and took it for a spin. What a difference jumping from my 260z's stock 3.38 made!!! Staying with the r180 over the r200 option also saved me a ton of $$$, since there are none to be found in a junkyard within a 400mile radius, and I'd have to do alot of buying/shipping. One question I do have is, when I had the car up on jack stands, it seemed that only one tire was spinning under load while the other kinda just hung out - not spinning as fast as the other. On the road, I don't feel anything wierd like this...so is this just something that happens with an open diff?

just a note of caution, The cam I put into my L28 motor with Mikuni 44's was an ISKY Stage II cam. Now the motor has to rev up past 2000 rpm before it can get any real power. Although this could be a product of my diff ration beeing stock still... Keep this in mind if you are going to drive it on the street. The stock cams are better suited for the stop and go action of the streets.

I purchased the MSA 2 1/2" aluminum exhaust package, that includes a dynomax turbo muffler, to go with their 6-1 header and I was VERY disappointed with it. Even on my L28 motor, it sounds terrible. The ricer-rony drone had me wanting to pull my hair out every time I hit the acceleration a bit. I ended up taking it to a local shop, and he cut out a chunk of the mid and welded me in a resonator, which took the "drone" noise out in 2-3500 rpm range. I would go even smaller next time with 2 1/4" and a resonator. The HP tradeoff ( negligible ), is worthwhile if you drive the car alot. But there's no way I'd put the stock system back on, since the cast iron header was cracked and worthless. I'd say the 2.5" system is easily 2-3X louder than stock.

well just a little update, the driveshaft did crap out on me at school. Trying to leave at 12AM, and thunk. Not a good thing to happen, but luckily for me it was at 5mph. I got a ride back to my place, got a jack and some bolts, and by 1:30 was back at home with it in the garage for a real fix. I could only find one bolt stub where it broke, don't know when or where the other ones went...

I just recently got my 260 started after a long engine transplant, and its engine revs great to 5.5K, runs smooth. However, when I get it on the road and up to around 45, it starts to feel like by back end is going to vibrate apart the faster I try to go. I have new suspension all around as well as bushings. I've had an alignment on the wheels too. I also have a new exhaust too, which I'm suspecting could be the cause, since it seems to clang and hit the mid section when the idle is low, but that stops after the engine is over 1K rpm. Is there something else I should suspect or look into? I did swap the transmission to a 81ZX 5spd on the same driveshaft from before. The diff is still the same orignal one too.

alright, that wasn't that hard. Now the header has PLENTY of room, not too mention my carbs actually fit in the bay. I'm exicted, I'm actually gonna get this thing done...soon

ok, I'm retarded. The two brackets are different indeed. I just need the weather to get above freezing so I can try and fix it!!!

I thought the engine mounts and the brackets looked the same as far as left and right goes, I must be wrong. The motor really doesn't even look like it's leaning, it's actually more straight up looking, but if it did lean to the spark plug side, that would solve the problem with the header on the bracket. I'll be heading over to work on the car tomorrow, so I'll snap some pics of what's going on.

Hello, I' started an engine translplant last...July? for my 260, and I rebuilt the motor and tranny, and finally got it in place. I've got a problem though, I think the motor is crooked? I tried putting the motor into the bay with the original L26 brackets that go from the block to the bodyside mount(which I replaced), but they were too long it seemed, and I couldn't get it to work with the tranny. So, I switched in the 81ZX's shorter brackets, and now have the motor secured. I noticed a problem when I installed my MSA header. It doesn't fit worth a damn. I got it on, but it's sitting firmly on the mounting arm/bracket and the steering rod, and that can't be a good thing. I have a tripple dellorto setup, and can't fit it in there. I tried my old N36 manifold, that fits, but no way in I can even get the carbs in there. It's like the motor is leaned to the drivers side or something. Has anybody ever had this problem, or have any suggestions? The car is pretty far from stock now, so taking it to a mechanic isn't an option.

they did the same thing for me to, the card and the speedy shipping, free mind you because it was over 500. But I am still without those rings even today!!! I called them again, and they said I should get them FRIDAY!?!?! what in the heck?

I placed an order with VB back in July for my 81ZX to 74 260 project. Well, it's really turned out to be a nightmare. The pistons were for .40 over, but one in the set weighed 70 grams more than the others. Called them up, and they sent me out 1 to replace it via UPS ground. Get it in, and that one too is 70 grams heavier than the others. Now I have to call them again, and they send another one after some checking to make sure it is right, again ups ground. So I've wasted plenty of good time here already. Well, fast forward and the block has been bored, pins pressed in, and it's time to start assembling the block. I go to put the plugs in, and there's 6 plugs total. What the hell? I don't want to even bother calling them up, so I just goto NAPA, no biggie there I guess. Well, I find that one of the rings is broken too now. I try to find something locally so I don't have to resort to calling them, and it'd be like $160 just for a ring set, plus 4 days from the nissan dealership I call them and BEG to get them mailed air express here sameday, I'll pay whatever it costs. It's been 4 shipping days, so I'm pretty sure they lied and it went ground. I thought in the mean time I would just put the other rings on the pistons while I wait for the replacements... and I find that there is no ring that is the same friggin size. I have 3 different oil rings, 2 dif types of 2nd compression rings, 2 dif sizes of the top, and 2 dif sizes of the bottom rails. Some are soo mucher bigger they hang off the pistons freely, while some are so much smaller they actually don't come around all the way when in the groove. am I going too far when I say this really sucks? and I'm never going to order from them again??? I've had no problems what so ever ordering from other places for this project, Jegs, Tire Rack, MSA, ISKY, Fidanza.... anybody else have any issues?

well, I'm new at this myself, but think it sounds like the motor wasn't balanced correctly. I broke the original harmonic balancer and bought the NISMO euro damper single groove replacement. I also scored a sweet Fidanza 10.5lb Flywheel for cost. With these alterations, the machine shop said the best money I could spend would be on balancing all the rotating mass. They gave me all of these horror stories, and told me their own personal blunders with not doing so especially when running higher RPMs. Chevy heads may tell you its a waste, but talk to a stock car racing chevy guy, and he'll even say it's a must when running RPMs.

I'm assuming that's the orange air cleaner rig. That's all there: old carbs, cleaner, air pump, etc.

I'm in the process of doing an 81ZX conversion to my early 74 260z. I'd rather like to see somebody take the whole motor/tranny mated beast, but will consider parting it out if there is a demand. Everything worked when I drove it into the garage for upgrades, no smoke, leaks, flames, etc. It has the original SU setup and a Weber DGV setup on the N36 intake right now.

had the same situtation happen to me, although the stereo was removed which caused all my problems. FIX IT NOW, NOT LATER! I say that because I drove around with dim lights thinking they were just that way 30 years ago, and then it just started dying on me, and I couldn't start it at all! So, a voltage regulator, battery, and alternator later, I was still not going anywhere! I threw out a whole weekend just sitting in the car ripping all the panels out to find wires. This sucked, it was a frankenstein job done by the guy before. I must have pulled a groccery bag full of garbage out when doing this. I then put in my own stereo wires and ran the power straight to the battery, cleaned all the wired I could find in general, especially the grounds, and put in a deck. This pic is of what the center area looked like before I went in.

I'd say no all the way. Unless you got mad bling bling, it's a bad idea. I just broke the break lines on mine trying to do the springs/shocks, and can't get any break lines in until 5 days from after it happened!!! Stuff like that will kill you unless you have another car to drive. You aren't going to really have any junkyard access, so anything and everything is going to cost alot more too. I bought mine when I was 18, and the car is trying to get me evicted by eating money left and right now. Also get ready to throw away weekends at a time with a multimeter trying to diagnose an electrical problem if that old wiring does what it probably will do.

as you can see, I've got a beastly helping of nasty in the garage. that's more rust than I've ever seen on anything! Compression on the Cylindars ~175-180 - surprised the hell out of me. The motor is so oily because the douche bags that junked it never bothered screwing on the valve cover ;O