sideshowbob

Well, this is disturbing, to say the least. I now have two cars with flat tappet cams and certainly don't want to swap out cams that often. So GTX, which has always been a wonderfully clean oil, is now going to destroy my cam shafts?

So what's with the mismatched plates(359) and firewall stamp(357)?

Go to you local junkyard and yank the six connectors of a mid nineties buick or oldsmobile (I used the ones from the Olds 88 Royale, since I have one of these). Nice, spring loaded connectors similar to those volvo/audi/other recommended here somewhere. Bonus: They're not bare copper and won't corrode.

That could explain it. I'll get it clarified when I take the Z's engine in. I'm going to call the local Z club before I do it and see who the members usually use when it's time.

Well, it's just about done. Here's hoping I didn't forget anything :dead: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ironlizard/430982483/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/153/430982483_70eee3fb53_b.jpg" width="640" height="480" alt="Engine 3 010" /></a>

Ok, I'm just freaking then. There's just been a few too many irregularities in this whole experience. (Like the adjustable non-adjustable lifters that are supposed to be hydraulic but aren't.)

Another odd problem has surfaced. The head gasket is missing several cooling holes.

Ok, maybe I'm just paranoid. Did they also paint the inside of your ports?

Having some difficulty with attachment.php (bats&!tinsane opening of new tabs after selecting for firefox to open php files by default, odd). I put them on flickr (top four photos): http://www.flickr.com/photos/ironlizard/

I think I got taken for a bit of a ride here. I didn't look in the coolant passages of this little motor until I got it home and when I did, there's still scale all over them. Last time I did this (~10 years) I remember getting back a nice clean block and not something that looks like it's been left in the rain. (I'll get a couple of pics when the batteries cool down, and I've already wire brushed it a bit). Tell me, don't they also put some sort of coating on the block? And why the hell did they paint my aluminum head instead of the block??

That doesn't always work out so well. Personal experience here. Sounds like your keepers stopped keeping and the valve dropped into the chamber, causing all sorts of havoc. It's not too hard to imagine the oil carrying aluminum head chunks throughout the rest of the motor. The fact that they were in the other cylinders, however, points to a seriously bad valve job all across.

Sometimes you just have to cut your losses, kudos for keeping at it as long as you have.

It didn't strike me at the time, but I think even the hoses are only rated for 90psi?

Well, I would suggest checking the hoses carefully. It might be sucking in air through a leak before the pump and allowing vapor to escape the same way. This sounds like a dangerous situation due to the vapors, IMHO. Also: the pressure should be fine as long as it's 36 after the regulator, since the FPR is just allowing the excess to go straight back to the tank. Edit: have you reconditioned the tank yet?

Well, to be honest I picked up a white fender a while back with some very thick, hard paint on it. It was very rough, super bad orange peel. On a whim, I wet sanded with a scrap of 1500, 2000 then used a bit of rubbing compound. To my amazement the little patch I worked turned out to be a very nice white pearl. I wouldn't try this on a part I'd painted myself (not knowing how any other pearl/metallic would react) unless it was so bad as to require a respray anyway. The only way to be sure is to try it on a small patch that isn't normally visible.