Grandad Posted December 29, 2013 Posted December 29, 2013 Hi nizmOzed I think New Years Day is totally appropriate to fire the engine given the magnitude of the project and it just happens to be my birthday. I had been thinking that a vid of the start up would be appropriate but as I don't want to get banned I guess it's a must do. Only three more sleeps. Cheers Dad Quote
Whittie Posted December 29, 2013 Author Posted December 29, 2013 Looks like I'll finally get to use that go pro I bought a year ago! Quote
peter t Posted December 30, 2013 Posted December 30, 2013 Hi you can get new side indicator lights on e bay cheap. Just wondering how long the Kiwi finish lasts. Two days max on my boots. Quote
Grandad Posted December 30, 2013 Posted December 30, 2013 Hi you can get new side indicator lights on e bay cheap. Just wondering how long the Kiwi finish lasts. Two days max on my boots. Hi peter This job is so far over budget that I didn't even give new indicator lights a thought but thanks for the heads up, clearly I'm a shoe polish devotee but will say that if it didn't work I wouldn't waste my time applying it, if you want to test it yourself do your tyre side walls it will take a bit of time to do properly but after you've done it once (time permitting) you won't go back to crappy silicon tyre gloss. Hi All, Today was a bit of a run around day trying to source new head lamps, we've have HIDs wired in but after years of competition the old lights just aren't up to the job, I found what I need on the net from the US but don't want to take the risk of getting LHD lights so discounted that option then it was back to pre internet days of taking a sample with me and doing the rounds of parts suppliers and on my fourth stop I struck gold. When I got home I decided to test one just to make sure they work as they should and all was good so the globes are now fitted to the lights and stored out of harms way. Here's the old light and the new ones for comparison. Not wanting to achieve nothing at all on the car today I refitted the cut out switch and put grommets on the cables where they go through the fire wall. Only two more sleeps. :) Cheers Dad Quote
Whittie Posted December 30, 2013 Author Posted December 30, 2013 Fuck that looks good!! If I do say so myself..... Quote
Grandad Posted December 31, 2013 Posted December 31, 2013 Hi All Another day and a bit more progress, today was about preparing for tomorrow so I set about connecting some fuel and heater hoses which included polishing and lacquering a brass union. I fitted that and connected the hose but I need to get some new clamps to finish the job tomorrow, I decided to fill the engine with oil and started with the Zinc additive then the breaking in oil, I filled the engine to about 5mm above the full marker on the dip stick to allow for empty oil galleys and the filter. The engine has increased compression with the re-build and even with the oil additives I've been a bit concerned about potential damage occurring at initial dry start up then the other day it occurred to me that I could fill the engine with oil, disable the ignition and fuel pump, remove the spark plugs and run oil through the engine turning it on the starter motor without compression or fuel. I am seriously glad I did this because even without compression the starter appeared to be laboring for about 30 seconds then sped up to what I had been expecting and soon after I had oil pressure. Time to stop and wait for tomorrow, interestingly as I said earlier, I started with the oil 5mm above the full mark on the dipstick then when I re-checked it some time after the exercise it read 5mm below the full mark, I knowingly over filled the engine allowing for the filter and oil galleys but the have required more than I expected. Happy New Year All, I hope 2014 delivers everything you wish and hope for. Only one more sleep. :) Cheers Dad Quote
MaygZ Posted January 1, 2014 Posted January 1, 2014 WELL ......... Come on! It's nearly 9.00 am. Start this beauty already!!!!!! waiting ...... waiting ....... Quote
Whittie Posted January 1, 2014 Author Posted January 1, 2014 About 5pm wst is when it'll happen. Quote
Grandad Posted January 1, 2014 Posted January 1, 2014 Hi All This has been another frustrating day and I can't even blame the Irish. While waiting for Whittie to arrive I connected the remaining fuel and water hoses then connected the fuel pump to check for leaks and found a couple of clamps that needed to be tightened I then filled the cooling system and finally got to use the bottle of coolant we won at NDSOC 2007 for greatest distance traveled and as expected I found some coolant leaks which I'll get to later. Finally the time to fire the old girl up had arrived, vid camera in hand our first attempt achieved nothing, just waiting for the carbies to fill I guess, second attempt resulted in some spitting so we removed the filters to protect them from any further flame which occurred big time on our next attempt so with that I decided that the timing must be set incorrectly so turned the motor to no1 tdc compression stroke and as expected the timing was way out, I removed the distributor and sure enough it looks like the disi drive has been installed incorrectly which is no big deal to fix but not starting until 5.00pm we have run out of time for today, so my bedtime reading tonight will be the 260Z workshop manual and I'll seek further advice on it tomorrow. Whittie and I did share a beer but it was without the celebration we had been expecting, we received notification late today that the test and tune day we want the car ready for is tentatively booked for 13 Jan so the pressure is on. Cheers Dad Quote
MaygZ Posted January 1, 2014 Posted January 1, 2014 How very exciting How very disappointing :'( How very exciting Quote
peter t Posted January 1, 2014 Posted January 1, 2014 My dizzy drive is opposite to what it should be. Just rearrange your leads to suit. Works fine with mine. Quote
Whittie Posted January 1, 2014 Author Posted January 1, 2014 Hey Peter, We certainly tried that, but she still wouldn't start. We confirmed fuel and spark, but still no love, so will be correcting the dizzy drive. It's not 180 out, it's a few splines, we even remove the adjustment nuts to rotate the dizzy around and still couldn't get it to start. It was close, but just wouldn't stay alive. We will try this and then next step is to strip the carbies and rebuild them again. Quote
Moderators PB260Z Posted January 1, 2014 Moderators Posted January 1, 2014 As Simon said how very disappointing for you guys. Ah well reset the dizzy then try again, It will be worth the wait Quote
Grandad Posted January 1, 2014 Posted January 1, 2014 Hi All Thanks for your interest and concern, we did try moving the plug leads without success so it's more than that, in my reading of the manual last night I see that the distributor driving spindle has marks for lining it up and they must bet set one notch apart so that's were I'll look first. I did promise vids and while they don't have the result we wanted they do show what happened. Clicking on the pic will open the photobucket link. Cheers Dad Quote
Mike260LW Posted January 2, 2014 Posted January 2, 2014 Guys, I'm new to the forum and stumbled over this great build blog yesterday. Spent New Years Day reading it from start to finish. Picked up lots of tricks, tips and traps! Good luck with the initial fire-up. Quote
Grandad Posted January 2, 2014 Posted January 2, 2014 Hi Mike260LW Welcome to the Forum, you'll find lots of friendly, helpful like minded people here. Our blog is getting pretty lengthy now because it's been going on so long so kudos to you for sticking with reading it all the way through, I'm extremely happy with the way the car has come together but we have had considerable outside help, I'm in awe of some of the re-builds you'll find on here that people have done almost single handed in their garage. Hi All I once heard someone say, "there's no better day than a good day" but I'm going to challenge that because today has been better than simply a good day. I started by removing the distributor and found the drive was 90 deg off where it should be, the right side of the shaft is currently at 10 past 8 when it should be at 25 past 11. I then removed our new low pressure hi-flow oil pump which required removal of the front sway bar. The good book talks about two marks on the drive shaft that should be lined up and then moved forward one cog. So with the engine set on no1 TDC compression stroke I carefully refitted the pump and as if by magic (not really, the Nissan engineers do actually know what there doing) the spindle was in the correct position at 25 past 11 and the rotor looks to be where it should for firing no1. Ahh the Mitsubishi Logo is a bit of a give away but yes we are running a pointless disi, it was fitted by the previous owner. With the pump and disi in place I once again tried to fire it up with no luck so as they say in the classics, if an engine won't run it's either a fuel or electrical problem, so with all I've done on the electrics side I tested it again then ruled it out as the main cause of the engine not starting. I then turned to the carbies and to cut a long story short after taking the tops off the carbies I realized that when I took the carbies off the manifold I refitted them incorrectly so the linkages were not in sinc and the accelerator pumps were not being actuated so I removed and re-fitted the rear carbie making sure the linkages fitted correctly. So now with electric and fuel issues sorted it should start. (click on the pic to find out) We generally run loose valve clearance so are used to overhead noise but even though I was happy to have the engine going, I was not comfortable with the level of overhead noise I was hearing even allowing for an enclosed environment I considered it excessive so shut the engine down and went looking for the cause, on removal of the cam cover I could see that the rockers had been re-surfaced which was ok but knowing that this is a critical area of these engines, I decided to remove them and I found worn rockers that had been machined way past the case hardening and were sufficiently pitted that they should never have been used. Fortunately we have Martin our local Zed used parts specialist to turn to so in almost no time I had a good set of used rockers with plenty of life left in them ready to fit. All fitted with accurate clearance and what looks like correct rocker angle, just need to re-fit the oil line. Here it is good to go my confidence is so high I've even re fitted the filters, it's been a big day and it's a bit late to fire it up now and annoy the neighbors so bring on tomorrow. Cheers Dad Quote
Moderators PB260Z Posted January 2, 2014 Moderators Posted January 2, 2014 Awesome, well done. I like like Quote
Grandad Posted January 3, 2014 Posted January 3, 2014 Hi peter You've read my mind, the engine builder has a reputation for building strong race motors he did ours last time and it lasted almost five years which is very good considering it spends most of its time at or near the rev limit and is double entered and was still making good power when we decided to freshen it up so while I'm going to bring it to his attention I'm also giving him the benefit of the doubt as the two areas that tripped him up are exclusive to Zed motors which he won't see often and there's been no harm done. Cheers Dad Quote
Grandad Posted January 3, 2014 Posted January 3, 2014 Hi All. Here's a first run, sadly I cant rev it over 3k but with the light flywheel it gets there fast. Click to view. Cheers Dad Quote
Grandad Posted January 3, 2014 Posted January 3, 2014 Hi All I mentioned the other day that I have a few small coolant leaks that I'm not concerned about because I'm convinced they're caused by using a high concentration of glycol which is particularly wet and slippery so when I topped up the coolant this morning I added some Bars Leaks minus the pellets. I started the engine for its initial break in and ran it for 20 minutes fluctuating the revs between 2,500 and 3,500 constantly monitoring the instruments and they read beautifully and the thermo fans cut in on que. After 20 minutes of running, the coolant leaks were sealed. With the initial break in done I'll now change the oil and filter then it's ready for part two of the break in which will involve driving it. When I installed the gear lever I just plunked it in not thinking it could go in two ways so when Whittie was here for the false start he said " hey Dill, ah I mean Dad (I'm sure he meant Dill) you know you put the gear lever in back to front don't you?" Ahh, Umm, Err, Oops :-[ so today I attempted to restore my standing with Whittie by rectifying that little issue. This is the lever in the neutral position. With the motor running I discovered a couple of little electrical issues, firstly the alternator is not charging but a quick google search reveals that I need to splice a couple of wires that went to the old voltage regulator and the tacho isn't working, not sure if that's regulator related or not so will correct the regulator first. The track day on the 13th has been confirmed and we're entered so no pressure I just need to have it going in a week. Cheers Dad Quote
Whittie Posted January 3, 2014 Author Posted January 3, 2014 That is f'ing amazing!! I had a good chat with the photographer today and he's ready at the drop of a hat to get the shoot done. Could be Sunday... Quote
Mike260LW Posted January 3, 2014 Posted January 3, 2014 Hi TT Aero and Whittie. Just caught up on your latest postings! I was looking at the photos of the timing issues and saw the ATI harmonic dampener and had what could be a prophetic thought when I read your later comment about the alternator not seeming to be charging. If this problem continues and all electrical solutions have been exhausted, look at the balancer. We run the same unit on our Tarmac Rally car. The first time we ran it at a very hot Classic Adelaide we had all sorts of dramas. We run electric fans and an electric water pump and we were getting no or little alternator charge. Drop in volts slowed the pump, dragged in the fans, slowed the pump more, and it spiralled into the ground. We diagnosed the problem as being the pulley diameter on the balancer. It is too small. Fine for race engines which constantly run at high end revs, but road/rally cars running at constant lower revs it doesn't spin the alternator fast enough. I believe you can opt for the pulley diameter when purchasing. We ended up having a larger pulley machined up. Unfortunately, the machinist didn't think to register the key way to degrees on the balancer, thus negating their benefit. Hope this helps if all else fails. Mike Quote
Whittie Posted January 4, 2014 Author Posted January 4, 2014 Hi Mike, That had crossed our mind actually, not good to hear there is precedence! When I ordered it about 4 Years ago I don't recall there being an option. The other option would be a smaller wheel on the alternator, but we'll let you know! Quote
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