DJZ's 280ZX

[DJZ]

The Recaro rails are actually universal fit ones and don't have the brackets to bolt to the Z - this is the kind of thing you have to be careful of when buying things off Yahoo.

I finally did some work on this thing today and pulled the motor out. It's in an engine stand so I'll start disassembling it and get the bits down to MPL, I'll get the crank polished and the bores honed again then start figuring out what else I need to put one of the motors back together.

What I really want to do is put a 350Z 6 speed in and dry sump the motor but I think putting this back together fully is going to be a long way down the track, unless I really want to get it going again sooner. I miss working on it after mucking around with that 2+2 for so long.

[DJZ]

Motor is fully disassembled, crank looks fine, the pistons look fine and are still very clean, there are some scratches in the bores which I already knew were there.

The clutch looks okay, I was worried that I didn't have it adjusted properly or my terrible driving was wrecking it but it looks no worse than when it went in.

[Bartman]

Hone, wash, rering, and hunnitz?

[DJZ]

Hone, wash, rering, and hunnitz?

Nah, reassemble the motor that was in it with the other crank I have and then sell that motor and start on what will hopefully be the final motor for it.

I dropped the block and pistons off at MPL the other day, they're going to hone it and give everything a measure, I'm going to source the bearings and they are going to assemble the bottom end for me. They've actually bored the new block for it but haven't honed it yet. I want to put some proper rods in it so after the old motor is sold I'll start looking for some.

[Bartman]

Honest G, freash rebild..........

Sound like a good plan. Are you going to run it up in the black car first before you sell it?

[DJZ]

The original motor has been finished by MPL, just have to go and pick it up now. Still need to get head bolts and a head gasket for it. I was looking at reassembling the head the other day but noticed some concentric scratches in a couple of the inlet valve seats so I've dropped the head and the valves back off at Flemings and he is going to tidy them up for me.

I've started looking for rods for the new motor, I really want something Japanese but might have to settle for something available locally. I took the crank into MPL as well as I was worried about a couple of scratches and marks that it had but it's fine and measures in the middle of the specs on the big ends and mains.

I'm thinking of going back to coil on plug now as well, there are kits around to fit VR38 coils to RBs which is looking like a good/tidy option.

[Bartman]

skids on!

[DJZ]

Pulled one cam and one valve out of the good head so I could see how it's set up and start getting rid of some of the extra bits I've got, it's got standard buckets in it which is a little odd for a head with such big cams, looks to have a Tomei type B valve spring and retainer kit in it which is a good score. The shim on the valve that I pulled out is pretty thick which is probably how they get away with standard buckets.

Stock bits on the left.








Also I started mucking around with changing the rear subframe & control arm bushes but we've made an offer on a house which has been accepted so in the hopes that that all goes through I've started making the cars rollable again as none of the three were actually mobile.

[DJZ]

Ordered some rods, bearings and an ARP crank pulley bolt for this yesterday, need to sort out some rings and then the new bottom end can go together.

[Bartman]

What rods did you go with?