January 27th, 2009
Washed the GTS tonight. It was very dirty. Have had the 300ZXT running. Drove it to work a couple of times last week. Brakes need bleeding, and engine needs a tune up. I'll see if I can get that done on the weekend.
I have been cooped up in the one room of the house with air conditioning due to the hot weather, so not much has been happening in car department.
Saw a nice silver 240Z out on the road this afternoon.
Posted
by Craig
in:
Fairlady 300ZX Turbo,
General,
Skyline HR31 GTS-X,
November 30th, 2008
I've finally got the engine back together and running. Now I have to fix a leaking brake master cylinder before I can take it for a drive.... which involves removing it from the car, disassembling it, fitting new seals ($140), putting it back in the car, and lots of crawling around under the car bleeding the brakes.
Will be a while longer before I get to drive it again.
Posted
by Craig
in:
Fairlady 300ZX Turbo,
November 5th, 2008
Most of the engine is back together. Just got the exhaust manifold back on. I had to remove the front three studs to get it back on, then replace the studs with the manifold in place. Theres not enough room with the studs in place because of the oil cooler pipes.
Fixing a Z31 engine with it still in the car is not an easy job. But then removing the entire engine is also a big hassle, and one I didn't want. The guy that sold me the car said the air conditioning worked, which is why I left the engine in the car. He better not have been lying to me.
Whats left? Well now I need to put the intake plenum back on and work out where the spaghetti of vacuum tubes and wiring is supposed to go. I took pictures with my digital camera as I was pulling things apart, so hopefully I should be able to wok out where everything goes.
Seems to me that car manufacturers went crazy with vacuum controlled engine gizmos in the 80's. 70's cars didn't really need them as most of them were carburetted. 90's cars don't seem to have as much either, probably due to better engine management computers. After 20 years, perished and leaking vacuum hoses and cracked plastic parts, its no wonder most 80's cars don't run so well.
Oh yeah, I think I mentioned it before, the brake system has decided to leak everywhere. So once its running, I'll have to get that looked at.
Posted
by Craig
in:
Fairlady 300ZX Turbo,
September 29th, 2008
Got the 240K sedan running again on the weekend. Moved it out of the carport and got the coupe under cover.
Really need to get the Z31 going and out of the shed. Spent a bit of time putting bits of the engine back together.
Also went to 2008 Z Day on the 21st of September. It was a cold and rainy day, not as many S30's there as previous years. I think the weather had something to do with that.
I took some photos which are up at the
wazcars website.
Posted
by Craig
in:
Fairlady 300ZX Turbo,
General,
Skyline C110 Sedan,
August 28th, 2008
Not getting as much done as I had hoped (lots of holiday distractions), but I did get the new timing belt and tensioner fitted. Also replaced the snapped exhaust studs that caused the whole tear down in the first place.
That was probably a blessing in disguise. If I didn't need to remove the head to replace the studs, I'd probably never have checked the timing belt. Lucky I did, as it had no tension on it at all! It had about an inch movement up and down between the cam gears. I'm surprised it never jumped a few teeth and bent valves.
The tensioner wasn't doing anything, and wasn't fitted correctly - the spring wasn't how it should be. I guess the belt had stretched and/or worn too.
So, I've aligned the crank with the notch in the housing that marks TDC. Pre-fitted the tensioner correctly. For placing the belt, you have to hook the spring up and wind the tensioner clockwise and lock it in a position where its not applying too much force to the belt, otherwise you'll never be able to get the belt on.
Fitted the belt and lined up the belt markings with the markings on the sprockets. The right cam seems a little off when compared with the marking on the back-plate, but I'm not too concerned. If the crank is set right, and the cams match the markings then it should all be good. It might align better when I set the correct tension on the belt anyway.
It's always a good idea to crank the engine over with a socket wrench to make sure it spins freely.
Posted
by Craig
in:
Fairlady 300ZX Turbo,
