madkaw

I hear you about the little stuff. Probably put everything I took off back on. And speaking about put everything back on, the engine is going back together now. Picked up the head yesterday at 9am and had the head on by lunch time. Everything went pretty smoothly until I started the process of degreeing the cam. My piston stop actually snapped off in the bore. I was able to get the pieces out, but I had to make another one. I had found TDC with the head off, but I think my degree wheel moved so I had to verify TDC again- PITA. THEN I HAD TO GO TO WORK:(

It reminds me of when I rebuilt my 1980 Kawasaki 1000 motor. No gaskets between the casing halves. When I asked Schnitz Racing about it, the mechanic said he uses nail polish sometimes. I just kind of looked dumb at him. He said it's Japanese precision, doesn't need gaskets. They might put a thin layer of that stuff you have Cliff, and that's it.

I'm not going to sweat it. No gasket. I definetly don't want to use this half gasket in the kit. Don't know if it was meant to be that way or defective. Thanks for the input guys

Don't ever remember using a gasket there before. Last rebuild I didn't use one. The ' how to rebuild' book says don't forget it! It is 2 machined surfaces so it probably seals okay without it. This gasket I have seems incomplete, so I don't want to use it. Dilemma!

This is the only gasket in my 2 kits. Look right?

Some great threads on Hybridz about zg flare installations

Just got off the phone with the machinist and I need to correct the last post. The new Nissan valves went in fine and the wipe patterns look good on both ends of the rocker. I guess i didn't notice but it was the exhaust side we were messing with when I was in there. After I left he did the intakes and they all came out great. There are 2 exhaust valves where the lash pad(valve side) are not wiping all the way across the pad at 100%. Since we swapped as many parts as possible( rocker, lash pad, retainer), the problem must lie in the guide itself being slightly off, or maybe a cam lobe issue. I mentioned that it was curious that all the intakes came out great considering that he had to enlarge or ream the guides to make that work, since the Nissan valves have a larger stem diameter than the SS valves that were in there previously . So did this secondary ream take out any minor deflection that was in the guide? I think yes. I told him to put it together and let's roll, I'm running out of time to put this engine together.

If you see my car, you will see me

So I stop by the machine shop because he wants me to check the wipe patterns. He nailed it on the cam side , but the lash pad doesn't show a wipe all the way across the pad. Sorry no pics since I was on the way to work. I had him swap out lash pads from another valve that swiped good and no difference. We swapped out the rocker , then swapped out the retainer; none seem to alter the wipe pattern. It seems that the rocker is applying more pressure to one side of the lash pad , though you can see a faint line all the way across. All this was done with a light test spring if that makes a difference. The problem valves are the intakes that we just got. So if it's not the rocker, lash pad, or retainer, what could be off? I think he did just barely skim the top of the valves. Curiously enough it seems I am right back where I started with uneven wear on the lash pad surface . I've been searching everywhere but the conversations always pertain to centering the cam side

I'm with Dizeased here. Seats are a bit of a job, but brass seats are soft enough to get out easy. Usually most people go bigger so it's a matter of over sizing the hole . Hardened seats are another story. I also agree that cold and hot tolerances shouldn't make a big difference in the noise department.

I remember reading your thread and was confused by the build. You say that replacing seats would be too costly but than a few lines down you said you replaced with new seats. Maybe you meant guides. If you didn't replace seats then you probably will continue to have issues. Should have spent the money for steel seats , sorry to say. Those original seats are probably about ready to fall out- mine were. Sorry to hear this news. Hope you figure it out.

I'm hoping for a cool spell. Don't know if I can hack it if it is 100 everyday.

Can't imagine putting in Manley valves and not doing the seats. There's a good thread on Hybridz about noisy valve trains and lash pads that don't allow the rockers to seat properly. My rockers were noisy because my rockers were not seating on the lash square.

Hard to find good chrome bumpers and they are expensive. Black looks good but look better if all the trim was blacked out too-imho

We are all learning some valuable lessons here, so I don't mind the posts. The local guy to me is actually the better choice. He can't do anything fancy like replace valve seats, but he does seem to know how to do a valve job okay. Word on the street, which I wish I knew earlier, is that my problem is I am dealing with a kid with nice equipment. He doesn't know how to run a business and I think he has a pride issue. These Datsun motors require a little more work and someone that wants to deal with the geometry needs of a solid lifter cam. Next head will be a Rebello cam kit complete with proper lash pads and the experience of a Datsun engine builder. So done with my current 'builder' He did say that the head will be mine tomorrow. He bragged about fussing over the minor details of cleaning the head up. All I wanted was to have it DONE! I don't even want to think about the invoice. I might be telling him to sell on ebay

Found that in Philly?! Wow. Nice ride. Like the orange too.

I thought the same thing-head in my hands in a wrong way:) Hopefully today! Probably should have finished the Maxima head.

C'mon Ryan, where's your sense of adventure? Throw the new engine in and go! Actually, I understand. I remember driving to Zcon 2010 on a fresh resto with new engine and all, it was dam nerve racking, and I only had a 4 hour drive. 20 hours is a looonnnngggg time. The crazy part is that it is happening all over again for me-well almost. if I get my sh!t together and make it - it will be on a fresh motor and trans.

Well I really thought I would have a head in my hands this weekend, but not yet. Last I spoke to the machinist he was shaving the head for 39cc chambers. At that time we talked again about valve guide seals and the importance of getting them on right. With the high lift cam I use the Ford seals on the guides and they are very finicky. After that conversation I didn't hear from the guy the rest of the weekend, so I'm thinking the seals became an issue. Maybe Monday

If you had a lift, that definetly would be an option

I plan on mounting the trans in its mount before the engine is installed, then there isn't much back time . The trans mount will be all bolted up with the front of the trans sitting on its trans jack. I will then make sure the input shaft is level and measure it's height. When I drop the engine in I will get it level with the trans. I will pre- measure the height the engine needs to be to match up with the trans and mark that on my jack. All this to get it as close as possible and then hopefully it's just pushing the engine on to the trans. Very little work under the car and I don't need as much room to swing the engine. I also don't have to tilt the engine so no chains or straps to swing in to my carbs

As I get older my eyes stray less from the Z. I would like to have a 911 turbo pretty bad. Not an old one either. I had a lot of cool muscle cars when I was younger, but don't really yearn for them again. don't think I ever want a big car again. I bought my daughter a 2007 Subby WRX wagon which is pretty cool. Very nice performance oriented family wagon. It is small and very quick and I like the way it handles. I've never been able to afford the high end stuff, so I don't dream about it too much. Pretty damn happy to own a Z!!

Some progress! I did wind up making a puller using an old main cap and some head bolts. Nothing fancy but it worked. I studied the "how to.." book and read some posts and redid the rear main seal. Thanks Jeff(dizeased) for all your helpful hints. I realize that previous installs were not quite right , so maybe thats why I was always fighting rear main leak. One thing that didn't done right before was getting the stakes all the way down. I made sure that happened this time. My head should be done today, so this last week i have been prepping for it. I realized that I wasn't as organized as I thought. I started going thru all my hardware and next thing I know its 8 hours later . I want the head install to go smoothly and not stopped every hour to find a particular bolt. I now have all accounted for and cleaned. I have my loctite standing by and my torque wrench. Everything is assembled as far as I can go with many bolts just screwed in place until final assembly. I am running out of time. The intake valves came from Courtesy. MSA also had them but almost 50% more expensive. But 14$ a valve for Nissan is still not bad. I will say MSA got some valves to me in 2 days to Indiana! MSA didn't even realize they had the valves until I called. The guy went to the warehouse to check since the web site said they were out. They infact had 25 valves on hand. Strange to run a business that way. The machinist is supposedly fitting the intakes and should have lash pad numbers for me to order-ASAP. I will at least get the head back to start assembly-I hope. I assembled my Mikuni's and mounted them on my spare L28 motor. I plan to assemble the motor as complete as possible and then drop it in. I think I'm going to set the trans in place on a trans jack and just drop the motor by itself. I would really like to mount everything on this motor without leaning over a fender, that's the plan-subject to change

I was actually trying to be funny about worrying about using a torque wrench on the trans in a pinch.. Tight will get you there. Not saying you shouldn't use one if you can.

Torque wrench? Transmission bolt torque value= tight!