RogerZ

probably want to plug all the holes

jap usually use bsp threads for that sort of stuff.

Oh yeah forgot to ask. What is your oil consumption? if not burning oil (say quart in 800 mile)then datsunride has a good point on head gasket leking. Another indicator of valve seals is oil consumption high around town stop/go but out on hte highway goes away.

Yes the air trick will work unless your air hose blows out. Another method more time consuming is to feed cotton clothesline in thru the spark plug hole while the piston is part way down. Then rotate to tdc (by hand). If you put enough clothesline in there the valves won't fall down into the rabbit hole. Use cotton cause anything left in there will just burn off. Nylon etc probably not so good. obviously after the valve seal exchange you pull the rope out. You can do two cylinders at a time because they go up in pairs.

I have found that the Trico teflon blades work very well. Live in the northwest rains a lot.

If your cables got hot means you got a major ground someplace. or the starter is shot and was just running current through it. If you got power to the dizzy and the starter she should fire. it is what we used to call hot wiring when I was a kid. you got electric or mechanical fuel pump?? I think mechanical. pour a tablespoon of gas down the carberutor get started quicker.

yep drop the oil pump and index one tooth in the proper direction and you will have spark able to adjust in correct range. I use a 5 inch m8 bolt with the head cut off as a guide pin. Makes the job less frustrating. Or if you have help grab the shaft with visegrips and extra set of hands. drop oil pump move shaft to correct location put oil pump back. Either way a long bolt to keep from juggling everything is a cheap aid.

Well it be fairly simple if you a good wrench. First pressure wash the wheel wells (this will prevent the eye full of dirt you will inevitable get) Need jack and jack stands or a lift to get it up in the air. High as you can or hard to get tranny out. Pull front wheels. Then drop the exhaust and tin under the car what be in the way. Drive shaft has four bolts at the diffy. drop and pull out of tranny. Now you need a tranny jack. take off starter and clutch slave cylinder. There are two mounting bolts at the back of the tranny need to be out. There are 6-8 bolts around the periphery of the bell housing that need to come out. about 2.5 to 3 foot extension and a universal will help here. You can get to them all from underneath. If you got extra hands above to put socket on the head so much the better. Once all the bolts are out of the bell housing just wiggle and pull. You will have a tranny sitting on your tranny jack. tranny jack at harbor freight is like $80 works great. Usually the ones they try to rent you are made for mack trucks not Z. (of course if you have a friend with arms the size of my leg you won't need the tranny jack.) while you are in there might put in a clutch, throwout beariang and rear engine seal unless you know all that stuff has been done recently. bunch of z guys around here. I live on whidbey. check out our club zccw.org

good point about the unreliability of the readings for the stock gages.

NO. look up at the car you see a thingy above the sway bar with four bolts (12mm head) holding it there. That is the oil pump. i never had much luck lining up the marks on the spindle to put it in. Put the engine at #1 tdc before you change it. Pull dizzy cap and mark where the rotor is. Then pull the oil pump. I use a 8mm bolt with head cut off about 5 inches long as a guide pin put the oil pump in one bolt by hand. check rotor position on the dizzy to see where you are then repeat until back where it was.

You probably have a couple wires melted together in a harness somewhere. That is a b**** to find. Since the fuse box melted I would start looking at a the first foot of the harness pull off the cover or whatever is holding it together and start separating wires. other wise start checking out the brake light circuit. Good luck. My daughter toyota melted acouple wires together in the A/C system. Got lucky and found it after a couple hours pulling wires and consoles apart.

the red wire could be the switch that tells the buzzer for lights etc. that the key is in the lock. This is true of zx. Not familiar with z

You must be double jointed I couldn't see any way to get the manifolds off that my hands would fit in there but maybe I didn't try hard enough. Had to change the head gasket so !!!!!!!! plus like I said you bust a stud you are probably pulling the head anyway.

I think it might be easier to pull the head. You have to take off just about as much stuff as if you are changing gaskets. If you bust a stud probably take the head off anyway. Just did my head gasket etc on 83zxt. Son and I were able to take off the head with manifold and turbo in place using a 4x4 cantilivered off the loft in my garage. One person can move but probably want two to move any distance. Get a complete head gasket set you get the gaskets plus the oil seals for the vavles which if you haven't done that might as well saves oil.

there is a place in Tennesee called Z barn. He claims to have 500 z's on site and be close to you so you might could go look there for panels etc. He's got a website and email zbarnparts@thelifeline.net

yeah if it really would make you feel better loosen all bolts, remove then retorque to proper spec. but I think leave if you won't lie awake nights worrying. Also when you torque down did all the bolts go in easily by hand. Torque spec is for a free lubricated bolt. When I did my 81 I had two or three bolts that were hard to turn in. Wire brushed them and then shot cleaner down the bolt hole. relubed them and they went in easily. you should be able to bottom them on the head just using your fingers. If you torque down bolts that are hard to get in anyway you are not getting the proper tension on that bolt and could cause gasket failure at that point. Too bad we can't use hydraulically tensioned bolts like they have on large marine Diesels. That system is too slick.

Seems like everyone refers to the 1972 240 as the best around and I was wondering what prompts that attitude. Why different than 73 or 71?

well what is not overly tight. if you aren't getting enough belt tension it would do what you are describing. lights throw extra load on the alternator and belt squealing like stuck pig is what you get. You don't want to play high C when you pluck the belt but if you can push down with your finger more than 1/4 inch she be toooooo loose.

I did a 81zxt. so you should be good with four jackstands. a small mechanical tranny jack or friend with arm the size of my leg will work. mostly need three foot extension for the ratchet to get at bell housing bolts. it was pretty straight forward. biggest mistake I made was renting a hydraulic tranny jack way too much. bought a small mechanical from Harbor Freight less than a hundred worked fine. I replaced a slush box with a 5 speed and did the clutch same time.

if you are near seattle I've got one from an 81zxt that was working when i replaced it with a 5spd. probably bolt to the block ok but drive shaft might be a problem. freebie krs@whidbey.com

got one out of 81zxt that was working fine when I put the 5spd in. You can have it if you are near seattle.believe it would bolt up to your block. driveshaft might be the problem.

answered my own question. gavea it one last try before giving up and wiggled it just right and she fell out in my hand.

Anyone know if you can remove the hydraulic lines between the pump and the steering head without taking half the car apart. I've got everything loose but can't work the lines out. seems like the a/c compressor at least needs to be out of there. If you got a trick please let me know.

I'm trying to get the idle speed up. Neither of my 83's has what is in the illustratiion. The n/a engine has the idle air speed screw shown in the manual I have but not the turbo unit nor does it have the screw shown in the illustration. But thanks for the reply

Manula I have says use the idle air set screw but I can't find anything remotely resembling the illustration. Also remember a post about using the AFM but can't seem to locate anything.