ZSaint

Here is the history of my new engine. The history on this engine is I started with a mild 'solid' camshaft that the guy in CA said would work. (There were also a couple of articles on the net about running solid cams in P90A heads) It did not work. It pumped up the lifters in about 5 minutes where the engine would stop and not restart. The valves would all be open. Makes sense to me that a hydraulic lifter will not work on a solid cam profile) I could not drive the car and we had to push the car back into the shop. I then put a stock turbo hydraulic cam in the car with stock lash pads. This drill ensured me that the engine was sound. The engine ran beautifully. It idled at 900 rpm and had excellent power to 5500. I drove the car for the first time putting 150 miles on the engine. I was told the Bull Frog Cams had a performance hydraulic grind. I called Mr. Gude about getting a mid-performance street hydraulic camshaft. He said he had a cam with .480 lift that he could grind for me for $350. I said, (gulp) OK. Mr. Gude sent me the cam with .160 lash pads. I installed the cam with it set up exactly as he stated: #2 hole/5`-6` advanced. (I checked the rocker sweep and it was perfect) I drove the car about 20 miles with the new Gude cam. The engine runs for about 15 minutes and looses compression. The valves are sticking open with pumped up lifters. I did a compression check hot and got a varied report. I got all the way from 30# to 110#. I barely got the engine to start to get it back into the shop. After letting the car set for 2days, I did a leakdown test w/o the rockers installed. I had 90+% in all cylinders. Compression check showed 170-180 psi. No leakage in the valves. What is causing these lifters to pump up? I realize I could put the stock turbo camshaft back in it and run it with no problem. I had this engine built to run higher rpm's and to produce more hp. It seemed like it needed a .450-.480 lift cam that would allow me to turn the engine up to 6800-7000 rpm. I was not happy with the 5500 cam out of the stock turbo. Mr. Bill Gude has been asked for his advice. I am now asking the forum for advice. What is going on with this Gude hydraulic camshaft? It is doing exactly what the solid cam did: It pumps up the lifters! I have run the car with the stock hydraulic cam with NO problem. How do I get this new hydraulic camshaft to work? I need help with this engine, please.

I guess the decision is simple: Do it Enigma's way or paint it. They both take the same amount of work. Heh. heh! Nice looking car and paint. All of your hard work paid off.

I know that the fans have different diameters. I bought a couple of them before I got one for my '71. I think the later Z's have a larger fan. Are you going to run a shroud? I think the shroud is the way to go if you have any heating problems. I bought one for a 280Z and it would not fit my 240 4-row rad. I bought one from a '72 but it did not have the bottom shroud piece. I am still looking.

Now do the wheels and the car will be complete. Shiney wheels will set this car off. BLING!

When I bought my '71 last year, it had 86K on. It had the stock metal fan. It seemed to be OK for 34 years. (The water pump was hurting with a LOT of bearing play, however!) I have a '68 Dart with a 6-bladed steel fan. It came stock on the 340 HiPro engine. It is very heavy compared to the Datsun fan. I guess they just had not perfected the plastics that well in the 60's and early 70's.

This is the area on my '71 where the horns mount. Can't help you! I want to buy a cooler but do not want to put it in front of the rad. I cut a hole in the front beside the rad and mounted my coolers when racing, years ago. I do not want to "cut up" my '71. Does anyone have a pic of the Turbo cooler mount? I have searched but cannot find. I know it fits in the wheel well but I would like to see how it is mounted.

My first job was in Seattle at Boeing. We had a payroll 'numbers' game that everyone played. They posted the winner's name the day after payday. I remember one of the winners was a guy named Thomas Hawk. One more... I had a counselee in St. Louis who's first name was TRASHIMA. Now what do you think her nickname was? Trashi! How can these parents do this to their kids? OK... That's enough of this nonsense!

OK, OK! Another true story... We had a guy that raced a sedan named Harold D**k. NO ONE dared to call him Harry. Did the NY guy ever post a pic of his cooler? I wonder where they mounted the cooler. I bet it was in front of the rad. Where do they mount the turbo coolers? In front of the rf tire but where? Anyone have a pic of this cooler? I am thinking of putting one on my '71. I would not like to have it in front of the rad. NE1 do one of these coolers?

I broke the rings when I tapped the pistons into the bores. I did not have a very good ring compressor. The ring would hang up on the top of the block and break! Very painful and expensive!

Subject: Re: Reply to post 'Total Seal Piston Rings' I feel you are correct in allowing the shop to install the bottom end. I have assembled many engines and decided to have my 3.0 assembled by the engine shop. They were very careful and the engine works just fine. They have the correct tools to make certain they do not break the rings. (They do it daily!) You are also correct in not worrying about the torque plate. If you do not take a lot in your "honing" your bores will remain round. It sounds like your bottom end needs to be freshened. No valve seals problem to resolve!

I am thinking about putting one of these on my 3.0. I missed one on eBay a few months ago. I guess I can buy a new one but they are expensive. Did the fellow ever put pics up of his cooler?

I use only the best in my 240. I built it to last a lifetime or two. I cannot think of anything that will give you better bang for your buck then spending the dollars to use Total Seal Rings. I do not know if anyone in your area has a torque plate. I had one built in the 70's and it really paid off. I was gone for nearly 20 years and when I came back I went out to the engine/machine shop and the new owners still had and used my torque plate. That is why I had them build my engine. I would still use these rings even if you cannot find a plate. They will work better than a normal ring. If you do not bore it, the bores will be true from the factory. Are you certain your oil burning is not valve stem seals? That is what normally goes bad in these old engines. I have the original 240 engine with 86K on it and it needs new seals. The rings do not show much wear at all. FYI

Come on guys... Can't we all just be friends?

We used them on our 280 CP race engines. They are very fragile rings. We broke a couple of them during installation when we first started using them. We had a torque plate built for the L6 engine to make certain the bores were perfectly round with the head torqued onto the block. These rings would get about 2-3% leakage. We made some serious hp when we started using the torque plate and these rings. I think they were 1 mm (.040) thickness. We ran 12.5:1 cr and ran .630 lift on our cams. We wanted to keep all of those cc's going out the header vs. going into the block!

I had a '70 that I bought in 1970 that had been wrecked. A guy had hit a post with the driver side rear Q panel and tore it up real bad. He was driving it with about 1 1/2" of rear toe-in. He was going to lose it to the bank so I bought it from him for $1000. I paid off his loan at the bank for $1100. I put a new Q panel on the car and straightened out the A-arm and the car looked like a new one. Now to your question... Yes! It had 50`cold, 40` oil pressure warm when driving and 10-15`when idling. A buddy of mine bought the Z and still has it. He put a 5-speed and a 280 engine in it.

What's 3 months in a life time. Who cares!

On my '71 the water for the manifold came from the steel bypass y-pipe alongside the engine. I used a long pipe to transfer the water to the heater hose. I removed the pipes from the manifold and plugged the holes. It makes a clean engine compartment. I wonder if you could put cold water through this manifold to increase hp for autocrossing or at the strip. You could use a small pump and put a small cooler full of ice on the passengers side. I wonder how this would work? NE1 tried this?

I understand your usage of materials. I would have loved to use lead on some of my body areas. It seals up and does not rust. Oh well, I will just have to trust the modern plastics. I think you are doing the correct thing in using all of the materials available. It will be a nice car when finished.

Will you use lead throughout the car? Will you not use a bondo-type substance anywhere? I had a '32 Ford 3-window coupe that we used lead on in 1959. It worked great! They have perfected the 'plastics' so well that no one uses lead anymore. Interesting that this is what your boys are using. Fascinating!

Kurt: I lived for 19 years in St. Louis. I fear for what you will find when you take the fenders off and look under the battery and look at the floorboards. Can you say "Mull"? They do not plow the roads in St. Louis... They just salt the roads. I had a 510 racer that was rusted so badly we had to use aluminum for the wheel wells to cover the rust. You did get a great price on the car. I hope it is worth the trouble you are putting into it. I will watch for your reaction when you see the car up close in your shop! (I thought so about the battery box! Wait until you start taking parts off the car. Whooha!)

A '71 Blue One!

I have a blue '71.

I have a question from a friend. He wanted to know where he could get a set of shocks for his 300ZX. It is a 1985 300 ZX turbo with ECVSA (Electronic controlled variable shock absorbers). Do they make these? Where can you buy these shocks? Can you have them rebuilt? Thanks for the help. I am trying to help this guy out.

It looks like you will have about 9.6 cr with a .040 cut. I have 9.2 and experience no problem using premium fuel. I have HP340 Dodge Dart with 9.5 cr and have had all kinds of detonation problems with it. With the aluminum head on the Z, I do not see any problems with this compression ratio. I think you can get the shims for the head from Motorsports, etc. Are you flattops notched for the valves? With .025 notch you have 8.7 and a .050 valve relief will give you 8.51. I don't know if you have this factored in or not. Maybe the .050 shim will work if you have valve reliefs in your pistons.

I too have the original 240 engine for my '71 Z. It is stored on an engine stand. I did all of the things stated. I also turn the engine over every once in a while to make certain different valve springs are compressed. I think pulling the valve cover off every 6 months and lubing/greasing the camshaft is good. that is where these things rust up after long periods of 'sitting'.