Jeff G 78

Listen to Mike. Go find a rust-free Z and use the rust-belt ones for parts. Been there, done that. Starting with a Z that has any visible rust will turn into a never ending disappointment. If you want though, post the pics and we can try to help value the car.

Hey Blue, Thanks for the diagram. I need to do this to my race car's flywheel over winter. Do you have any idea what the weight is of the one in the sketch? I assume that the pics in post #4 do not go with the sketch in post #3, so it would be nice to know how much is removed.

Looks great Rob!

That's the one! I couldn't remember which thread it was in and searching wasn't working either. Thanks Phillip!

Sometime in the last several months, there was a forum post detailing the design of a wood engine stand. Does anybody have the link? I searched, but couldn't find it. I need to build one today since I'm buying a F54 engine tomorrow from a forum member in Canada and I'm transporting it on a flatbed truck so I want it to be stable. I don't have an engine handy to take measurements.

Story of my life Guy. Being in Michigan with a Z car is a lonely place to be. There are three Z racers I talk to regularly online about engine and chassis setups. One is in Georgia, one in Texas, and one in Washington state. I'd love to be able to get all of our cars together on a track so we can really see what does and doesn't work, but we're just too far apart.

Hee hee... I have no idea how you do it now Guy.

So Guy, what color Z are you going to do next? (ducks and hides)

Very nice Guy!

The last alternator I bought came with sleeves wire-tied to the mounting ear.

The fact that you heard noise is bad. If the cam timing was off, you might have had piston to valve contact. If that's the case, you will have bent valves and damaged pistons. Hopefully, that's not the case.

Does it run right with the distributor turned into the position in the last pic? If so, the problem has to be the oil pump shaft. If the cam timing was off, the engine would make very good power. Everything *looks* right per the pics, but we haven't seen the distributor shaft. Can you pull the distributor out and take another picture with the engine at #1 TDC. We are looking for a good pic of the distributor end of the oil pump shaft. That will tell us if it's off a tooth or more. Did you change ANYTHING else other than the head gasket? When you pulled the head, did you set the #1 to TDC before you started? If so, was the #1 piston fully up when you pulled the head? I ask because the crank dampers are known to fail, making the timing marks useless after the two halves of the damper twist.

I'll put $20 on timing 180° off. Pull the cam cover when the dizzy points to #1 and check that the #1 cam lobes are both pointing up like rabbit ears.

OK Chris, your shaft is NOT at 11:25 when the rotor is facing at 9 o'clock. If you remove the oil pump and rotate the shaft until the orientation is correct, the distributor rotor will turn counterclockwise from where it is towards 7 o'clock which will be WORSE than it is now. I *think* you have the same distributor issue I had. Can you do one more test? With the distributor still off, turn the rotor until it points exactly at the reference per Blue's picture and then turn the distributor over and take a photo of the shaft slot. I want to compare it to my 260 dizzy that is off by 60°.

Chris, please set the rotor at the #1 firing position and take a picture of the distributor. Next, pull the distributor and take a picture of the shaft and post it. We can easily tell if your shaft is rotated or not.

No, in my case the distributor itself was not aligned "right". It had nothing to do with the mount. The relationship between the rotor and slot on the bottom of the distributor was off.

http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=56562&d=1348322302&thumb=1 Siteunseen - No, it would put #1 at ~7 o'clock. If you look at Blue's distributor pic, when my engine should be firing #1, the dizzy is pointing where #5 is shown in Blue's pic. From what I can tell, that's the same position as the OP's. I'm not saying we have the same issue, but it is a possibility, I guess. Most likely, his shaft is rotated, but if not, it could be like mine was with the L26 dizzy. Has ANYONE seen a dizzy orientation like mine? Like I said in the other post, the oil pump shaft orientation is correct. The dizzy itself is off. Wierd...

This is an interesting question because the (as far as I know) stock 74.5 distributor that came in my 260 had the same orientation as the original poster's. I thought the shaft was off a tooth, but when I pulled the distributor, the shaft was indeed in the right orientation. Rather than move the shaft, I reoriented the wires one step counterclockwise from the conventional position and all was fine. I then bought a 280ZX distributor and compared them side by side. Sure enough, my 260 distributor was different than the ZX or any other I've had. The distributor rotor and drive slot are locked into position via a pin, so nothing had moved or slipped. The distributor was simply different. I have never seen this before and I've never read about the issue before. It's *possible* that Chris' dizzy is off like my 74.5 dizzy. Chris, can you take a picture of the oil pump shaft when the distributor is pulled at #1 per Blue's picture? EDIT: My post might have been a bit confusing. When I got my 260, it was a basket case and did not run. I tore the engine down and replaced the plug wires and cap per the normal orientation. That's when I found the same issue as the OP and when I moved the wires to make it run.

Thanks for the update Frank. Sounds like it's worth the asking price then as long as the mods don't bother prospective buyers.

Nice looking car. There are a few things I don't care for, but it appears to be well done. Looks like a $15k car to me.

Foiled again!

Steve, do friend's cars count or does it have to be a Z in the wild? There are a few forum members in the area that might stop by my house someday.

For the record, you can drive a Z very easily with a bad slave. With the engine off, put it in gear and start it. Then just shift as normal without the clutch. If you drive easy and smoothly, your passenger can't tell that you are shifting without the clutch. To downshift, pull it into neutral and blip the throttle before downshifting. To stop, just pull it into neutral and repeat the process. I drove a '77 Z for over a week this way while I awaited my new slave to come in. You can do this with most manual cars, but some like it much more than others. I have yet to find a trans that shifts clutchless easier than a Z trans.

As far as I know, there is no exterior difference between the '77 and '78. If you looked in the back window, you could probably see the floor slope if it was a '77, but from the outside, they were the same AFAIK. The '75 - '76 can be differentiated by the seat belt anchor location. The '75 hangs from the roof while the '76 is on the strut tower. The overrider was a dealer or aftermarket add-on, so it means nothing.

Ask any old-timer Z owner about iridium plugs. We've all tried expensive plugs and we all go back to the $1.99 NGK copper for best results.