2ManyZs

Here's one on Ebay that is a very early 70 model. Needs quite a bit of work, but he has a bunch of parts to go with it. It's only 60 miles from me, so if needed I could look at it for you if you wanted. Beware, if I see it, I might buy it myself....:devious: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=6187&item=2403320521&rd=1

Everybody's prices are going up on some of the items that are getting harder to find, it's not just VB....:disappoin

If you have never taken one apart and don't have the proper tools such as a torque wrench and a press, I would advise against it. The rear pinion bearing is pressed on the pinion shaft, and the pre-loads need to be set correctly on the pinion shaft to get the proper contact at the ring gear. It does require some special tools, but you should be able to find someone to do it for you for a reasonable price. I haven't done one myself as I don't have all the tools to do one right. If you do some checking with a local Z club or some of the racers in your area, they should be able to tell you of someone that can do it for a reasonable cost. I believe you can get most of the bearings and seals from Victoria British out of their catalog. The only thing you might have to do is get the pinion shims from a Nissan dealer to set the preload on the pinion, if it requires shims other than the ones from the old diff.You should be able to get all the bearings and seals and shims you would need from someone like Courtesy Nissan, or perhaps even a local dealer. Of course, if all else fails, a Nissan dealer should be able to do the work, but it will likely cost a bit more.:disappoin It is possible it could be in the thrust washers in the carrier that is causing the noise, but then, that is also something best left to someone who knows what they are doing. Are you absolutely sure it is the diff that is causing the noise and not a U-joint or something else? Since you say there were not that many shavings in the diff, I'm wondering if it could have been caused by something other than the diff itself, like perhaps a U-joint, or a worn bushing causing excess movement in the diff mount or mustache bar?

There's only a couple things that could cause the howl, bearings or the ring and pinion itself. Best thing to do is to pull the rear cover and see what the ring and pinion look like. Hopefully it will just be one of the bearings that is going bad, and hasn't caused any permanent damage. Pull the drain plug from the bottom of the case and drain the oil, if you find a lot of metal shavings, pull the rear cover and take a good look to see if you can spot where the metal is coming from, if the ring gear has deep grooves in the faces of the teeth, you will be looking at a complete tear down. If there is no real deep gouging of the teeth, it may be just a bearing going bad which you might be able to replace without a total rebuild, of course, you'll then have to figure out which one it is.

I think it would be a good idea to pull the plugs and pour a bit of regular motor oil in each cylinder and then turn the engine over by hand to coat the cylinder walls. Mystery oil is too thin to stay on the cylinder walls for very long, it will just run down the walls and pool on the pistons and not protect the cylinder walls like a thicker viscosity oil would.

I hate giving people bad news like that, but with the problem of pushing the coolant out and now the sludge in the engine, it sounds like the problem is fairly serious. I think a compression test or leakdown test at this point is a waste of time. I'd say there is a definate problem in the head gasket or head itself. It could be the engine has gotten hot to the point the head has warped, and that has caused the head gasket to blow. Is there any coolant leaking around the base of the head on the outside of the block? This is usually an indication of a warped head/blown gasket. More than likely the damage is confined to the head so the next thing to do is to remove the head and have it checked for straightness and cracks if the head is not warped significantly. If you are lucky, it might only require a slight shaving of the head and a set of gaskets to re-install it. Of course, you should the valve seats checked out carefully and re-place them if needed while it is off.

If the sludge is a light brown it probably is oil in the coolant. This is the same engine that was forcing coolant out of the radiator right? I'd say that pretty much confirms my suspicions that you either have a blown head gasket or cracked head.:disappoin Before you do anything to the engine you should try to get as much of that out as you can. Using an old garden hose, cut off one end and put it on the transfer tube on the passengers side of the engine and block off the end you unhooked and flush out the block and head as well as you can. You could use the "Y" where the line goes to the intake and just turn on the water pressure and let it run for a while until the water looks fairly clean. Then I'd say it is time to pull the head and find out if it's a head gasket blown, or if the head might be cracked or warped. I'd have the head checked for straightness at a machine shop and if it is OK, and the gasket looks good, then have the head checked for a crack. Either way, I think you will need to do at least a top end rebuild. When you get the engine back together, I would use a commercial engine flush to make sure the block and radiator are clean. The sludge you found is probably clogging the tubes in the radiator and will cause a lot of problems later....

Most of the suppliers have sold their molds and gotten out of the fiberglass business.:stupid: Just saw a set of molds on Ebay just a few weeks ago for stock front fenders, guess I should have bought them..... Try Doug Piner, if he can't supply them, he probably knows where you can get a set as he is racing in EP, so it's likely he has a set on his car, and has a supplier if he is not making them himself. http://www.piner.com/japco/

Jet-Hot, HPC, Airborne Coatings, there a quite a few on the market now and they are all pretty close to being the same thing.

See these links as they will explain everything. http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/competition/shaving.html http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/competition/heatcycletech.htm BTW, nearly any question you could have about a tire is covered on the Tire Racks web-site if you know where to look. Be ready to spend some time digesting it all as there is a lot of good info there on some of the more popular brands of racing tires.

Are the lights you are referring to the "Halo" lights EScanlon has on his car?

Maybe I should re-phrase that, as far as I know all the P-90A's used on ZX's were hydraulic lifters, now what else they might have used the head on is a good question. Perhaps the Maxima had one before it went to the V-6? I dunno much about the Maximas so I'm just guessing as there weren't all that many that used the L series besides the ZX and the early Maximas, here in the US that is...... Ok, found a little more info on the P90-A. http://www.geocities.com/row4navy/p-90.html I was wrong, they do have lifters available from Courtesy, but geesh, they are 42 bucks each and who knows what they might be now?:tapemouth

This another of your tests? As far as I know all the P90-A's had hydraulic lifters. And I don't know if replacement lifters are even available... I don't think I've ever seen them advertised anywhere now that I think about it....

I've never had a problem with the two headers from MSA that I have had. I would suggest one of two things, either get the header with the ceramic coating and don't use any tape on it at all. Or, use the header blanket instead of the wrapping tape. The tape absorbs moisture and holds it tight against the header, which does nothing more than promote the header rusting. The tubing is so thin on the header pipes that any rust will not take long to deteriorate it to the point at which the metal just blows out like yours did. The header blanket doesn't hold moisture directly against the metal, therefore any moisture that does get inside should evaporate. My money is on the ceramic coating, it helps seal the metal against rust, and it does help contain some of the heat inside the header, where it should be, going out the exhaust...... But since you already have the header, you should ask MSA what the difference is between the header "blanket" and the header "jacket" they show in their catalog... If you notice, the header wrap is not recommended for long-term use, or for street use.... because it holds moisture and promotes rust perhaps????

If you do get another set of wheels for the track, these are the tires that seem to be getting the highest praise for the prices. The Hoosiers may be stickier and faster on the track, but they are much higher priced and don't last nearly as well....:disappoin http://www.tirerack.com/tires/Sizes.jsp?make=Kumho&model=Ecsta+V700 You can get these tires shaved and heat cycled from the Tire Rack as well, if you are going to use them as a track only tire, shaving would be the way to go, heat cycling can be done on the track, as you probably won't be using them as often as someone who races on a steady basis.

Most manufacturers either have a really good track tire, or a really good street tire. Hard to find one that is both but here's a couple that looks pretty decent in 14 and 15 inch sizes. Luckily you are running 15's or your choices would be very slim.... You will notice there are not as many 60 series tires listed, I'd suggest going to a 205-225/ 50 instead as you will get better track preformance with the shorter sidewall, but a slightly stiffer street ride. http://www.tirerack.com/tires/Sizes.jsp?make=Goodyear&model=Eagle+HP http://www.tirerack.com/tires/Sizes.jsp?make=Kumho&model=ECSTA+Supra+712 http://www.tirerack.com/tires/Sizes.jsp?make=Yokohama&model=AVS+ES100 FWIW, these are just some of the ones I would consider, as the prices are quite reasonable, and I just picked them out at random. I didn't compare tread wear ratings and such, just went by the manufacturers and picked the ones that are the closest tread patterns to their race tires.

Well.... If you find another pic that is not so "anti-social" send it to me and I'll do the same as I did for that one. If you taught it to walk backwards you'd have a "cyclops"..... Just remember, you asked for it, you got it....

I think there must have been some "cost cutting" measures in the interior design. I never minded the e-brake being on the right side of the tunnel as I am 6'1" with long arms. But, I have seen a lot of shorter people who have to "reach" for it and for them it is a bit awkward to use, especially if the brake has been drawn up tight. With that being said, I'm glad that I'm not driving a RHD with a short reach. Case in point? The heater controls, specifically the fan switch would be a bit of a reach on a RHD car, where in a LHD car it falls easily in hand for most anyone. The choke control also falls easily in hand in a LHD car whereas in a RHD it could be a bit awkward to use if the car is parked and the e-brake is on, you would have to reach over the handle to use the choke when the e-brake is engaged. I guess what you RHD owners would consider to be awkward to use in a LHD car, we would also consider some things as being awkward to reach in a RHD car. Mostly it's just a matter of what we have become accustomed to. I did notice there seems to be very little room for your foot between the "dead pedal" and the clutch pedal. While on the LHD there is plenty or room to move your foot around. You get room on one side while we get room on the opposite side.... I recently saw some pics of a Jeep Grand Cherokee, the new Diesel model in Europe, and having seen this, it seems they still do a lot of cost cutting measure when manufacturers decide to export a vehicle. In the US, the gear shift selector is on the left side of the tunnel and the e-brake is on the right side almost directly beside the gear selector. I consider this to be a bit awkward in the first place myself as I would prefer them to be separated instead of being side-by-side. Yet in the pics of a RHD Grand Cherokee, the console arrangement is exactly the same, which means you have to reach over the e-brake handle to reach the gear shift. I think we can all agree on one thing, with the success of Nissan North America thanks to Mr. K's guidance, and the Z being one of the first "ground up" designs to come out of Nissan after the establishment of Nissan USA, it was always intended to be a "world car".

Hey Gary, that dog just keeps getting uglier and uglier..... I've used a couple types of gaskets on headers and have had the best luck with the gaskets that are completely covered with the "dimpled foil". You can sometimes find these in a gasket set but I can't remember which manufacturer that had them.... I've used the ones with the metal inserts as well, but you need to make sure the mating surface of the header is flat and you torque the mounting bolts. With the metal inserts, you really need to re-torque the mounting bolts after a few heat cycles, as the expansion and contraction of the metal insert against the aluminum head will often times cause the header to loosen up and then you get a leak. For the money you can't hardly go wrong with the MSA gasket, but I have no experience with theirs. No matter which one you use, make sure the header has no welding slag and the ports are flat and most importantly, re-torque the header mounting bolts after a few heat cycles of the engine....

Cap pressure sounds OK, but you did say it looks original so I am assuming it has not been changed in a while? I'd get a new one just to be sure the old one isn't the problem. They will go bad over time so for 10 bucks (more or less)a new one isn't a bad idea.... You should be able to get a shop to do the radiator pressure check and leakdown test for a small charge if you don't have the tools to do it. You can usually pick up the tools needed at most any good auto parts store, however, buying tools to diagnose one problem and then never having a use for them is a waste of money. The tools for the leakdown test are usually fairly reasonably priced, but you will need and air compressor or a large air tank to do it and the radiator tester is fairly high priced.

A Quaife is a differential that uses gears instead of springs and clutch packs. It is similar to the Torson diff in that is uses helical gears to provide lockup instead of relying on the friction in the clutch type limited slips units. It is more similar to the Detroit Locker in that it provides solid engagement instead of having some amount of slippage, but the Quaife and the Torson are variable lock-up where the Detroit Lockers are either locked or unlocked. http://www.quaifeusa.com/

First off, have you tried a new radiator cap? It might be building up too much pressure and forcing the coolant out. Make sure it is a 12-14lb cap, if it is higher that may be your problem right there. Second thing that comes to mind is a leaking head gasket that is causing the pressure to build up. What to do first? Try a new cap, if that fails have the radiator pressure tested, if it loses pressure, you possibly have a leaking headgasket (barring any other leaks, but they wouldn't cause the coolant to be forced out). You could also do a cylinder leakdown test to find out for sure if the headgasket is leaking. If you find a cylinder that is losing pressure, turn the engine over until it is starting up on the compression stroke(both valve closed) and then pressurize the cylinder, if the gasket is leaking you will see bubbles in the radiator. While you are at it, you can also check your valve seat to see if they are leaking, if you have to pull the head for a gasket, it's a good time for a valve job while it's off. There is a third possibility, but hopefully it won't be a cracked head... If the engine has been overheated, it is a possibility.:disappoin