DJZ's 280ZX

[classicdat]

Keep the faith, stay straight.

[DylPhil7]

Dude theres nothing tame about an rb26! Be proud to rep that!

[85_Z31]

It's going to be awesome !

Can we see pics of the rest of the car ?

I love the old 280's I wanted one before i got my Z31

[DJZ]

The best photos of it at probably the ones in this album from the NZ Hondas track day
http://www.flickr.com/photos/56977529@N ... 588316764/

I don't think I mentioned that it looked like the motor had been apart before, there was heaps of red silicon sealant everywhere, oil pump, sump, rear main seal holder thing, on the threads for the oil pressure sensor, around the rocker covers etc when we rolled the motor over to take the sump off a suspicous looking washer fell out of the head, I thought hmm that looks like a head bolt washer. Pulled the head off today and some dick has put one of the headbolts back in without a washer on it and left the washer floating around in the head.

Looks like it's been run hot/low on oil, there are detonation marks on the pistons and head on cylinders 1, 2 & 3, those bores are also rooted but I've found some 2nd hand 87mm JE forged pistons & Tomei poncams for $1200 so I'll probably end up buying those.

[Bartman]

If you really want to beat on this motor, you should seriously consider a nitto oil pump for it. The oil pump/oil pump drive is the weakest part of an RB. Steer clear of the N1 pumps, I've read all sorts of horror stories about them.

[DJZ]

I've done a bit of research on oil pumps, it looks like most people seem to think the Tomei pump is the best, but anything other than an N1 jumps up hugely in price and I can't justify spending more than the price of the motor on an oil pump, some of them are $2500+!

I won't be thrashing the crap out of it too much.

[Bartman]

I understand completely. In that regard a VQ is probably a better choice. (After all, an engine is only as strong as it's weakest link) I just thought that seeing as how your motor had suffered oiling problems in the past, it might be prudent not to take any chances. The nitto ones are around $1200aud. I digested a huge thread at skylines australia, and the nitto seemed to be the best of the "cheaper" oil pumps.

[DJZ]

I'll be staying off the limiter which will be lower than stock as the tach in the Z only goes up to 7 grand (for the moment). It looks like I'm going to have to stick with the stock twins if I buy these forged pistons anyway so it won't be making huge power. I'm fairly certain it will be fine.

[DJZ]

Block is ready to be bored, head is completely stripped ready to be surfaced and I'll probably try a little porting as well. Where they mill cut in from the combustion chamber for the valve seats is a really rough transition so I'm going to smooth that out a bit.

Acquired this week:
Tomei type B Poncams
JE forged pistons
Linished & shotpeened factory rods
Factory fuel rail fitted with a Nismo adjustable FPR
RB26 crank fitted with a Jun oil pump drive, grub screwed, enlarged oil galleries
Got some new rings on the way from the States

And another complete inlet side minus injectors for my mate, he is planning on fitting an RB25 into his C110 with RB26 throttles, it'll be in the distant future though.

[DJZ]

Dropped the motor off today to get bored, took the crank down too to get polished & measured, the rod journals are 0.25 under according to the bearings that were in the rods but I don't know about the main journals.

I've done a bit of work on the head hopefully I haven't made it any worse, these aren't my pictures but you can see where the problems are



Got an OE Nissan full gasket set off Trademe for about $150 less than what Nissan sell them for, probably just going to run a standard head gasket for the moment.

I also got some R30 front lower arms and some S14 5 stud hubs and uprights, by the looks of it it won't be too hard to swap it to S13/14 coil overs and the R33 brakes that I've got. I can get some custom ball joints made that have the S14 taper on them and I can also get them made a bit longer so I won't need to use roll center adjusters.