DJZ's 280ZX

[DJZ]

Only way to strip anodising is dipping in a hot caustic bath til the anodising fizzes off, well that's the only way I know as that's how we do it at work.

Cool, I'll pull it all the way apart and bring the bits in. If the anodizing isn't going to stick I might just paint it or give it a quick polish and a coat of wax or something.

I took the wastegate apart to take the spring out, bolted it up to the manifold then used some valve grinding paste and an air drill to seat the valve, I had to get out the coarse paste as it was pretty rough but after a couple of goes it's come up pretty well. I think the wastegate exit pipe is going to have to go forwards and then loop back under the wastegate, this is the only hope I have of the downpipe fitting past it, really need to see it in the car.

[DJZ]

Brought the cylinder head home to try and get it finished while I'm off work, don't have too much more to do to it hopefully, mostly finishing off the exhaust ports. I tried one of the cams in it and I won't have to grind much out for them to clear which is good!

Found a slightly used (apparently, it looks new to me) older Momo Prototipo on eBay so I put a bid on it and ended up winning. It's from 2009 by the looks of it and it doesn't actually have Prototipo on the front like the new ones do, it's coming from France so hopefully isn't infected with Peugeot or Citroen when it gets here.



Other than that I've just been tinkering. I bought yet another RB26 crankshaft for a whopping $85, will get it checked to see if it's any good and might put the other RB26 back together, it came out of a motor that had run a bearing as well but doesn't look too bad and it's already had a crank collar fitted. I just bought a crank collar for exactly the same price as the whole RB26 crank which I'll get put on the RB30 crankshaft.

I've still got lots of little bits and pieces to buy for the RB26 but I'm running out of money so probably won't get the Z back together any time soon, maybe in time for Nationals but we'll see what happens.

[DJZ]

Found a slight problem with the cams, while doing a bit of research for the specs I found out they've got a reduced base circle which is how they get a lot of lift out of them, this means that I'm going to probably need to replace the lifter buckets with some thicker ones which you can buy from Tomei or Supertech, problem is they are quite expensive, and I would need to change some if not all of the adjustment shims. There is another idea that I've been researching that might work as well which is using Toyota lifters which are actually shimless, I'm not sure if they range they come in is going to be thick enough to work though. Will have to wait till I can actually get one of the cams in the head so I can have a measure up of the clearance.

Here's a picture that shows the common types of lifter, shim on bucket (VQ30s have these), shim under bucket (RB26) and the 1ZZ/2ZZ shimless ones on the right. These are good because they are apparently lighter than either of the other two and nothing can pop out under high revs.

[2 doors]

Found a slight problem with the cams, while doing a bit of research for the specs I found out they've got a reduced base circle which is how they get a lot of lift out of them, this means that I'm going to probably need to replace the lifter buckets with some thicker ones which you can buy from Tomei or Supertech, problem is they are quite expensive, and I would need to change some if not all of the adjustment shims. There is another idea that I've been researching that might work as well which is using Toyota lifters which are actually shimless, I'm not sure if they range they come in is going to be thick enough to work though. Will have to wait till I can actually get one of the cams in the head so I can have a measure up of the clearance.

Here's a picture that shows the common types of lifter, shim on bucket (VQ30s have these), shim under bucket (RB26) and the 1ZZ/2ZZ shimless ones on the right. These are good because they are apparently lighter than either of the other two and nothing can pop out under high revs.

Im always impressed by how much research you do for your builds, good work.

[DJZ]

Got one of these Nismo oil/air seperators, not sure if I'm going to use it though. There's not much to them for what they cost brand new! Mine is missing a few bits so I got it cheap.



When installed in a GTR they look something like the picture below. You cut the U bend between the two rocker covers and put a tee in there, then you take off the turbo oil return and attach another tee piece thing in there, then the last fitting goes to the rear turbo inlet. I'd plumb mine up pretty much the same, not too sure how effective it would be.

[DJZ]

Thought I'd start work on the head again as I haven't touched it since I brought it home. These are what the inlet ports look like at the moment, they're about 90% done I need to go over them again with the 120 grit rolls. I really need to move the valve guides back to be able to get the area around them but I'm not sure I can be bothered, might just try and finish around them by hand.

[broke]

Are you on some kind of amazing diet supplement or what? Where does all this energy come from?

Seriously though, awesome work, wish I had your level of motivation and ability.

[nick_m]

im with him, do you exist on energy drinks and 4 hours sleep a night. I cant get that much work done!!

[Bartman]

Dan is the RB26 of working on his cars!

[DJZ]

All the P that I do helps!