Brodie900

Yes, the head has been re-torqued. I'm thinking I'll just do the valve seals using the nylon rope method and see what happens next

Hi guys, just thought I'd share this as I'm a little confused about whats going on here. I recently blew a head gasket in my 81 280ZX, evident by water in the oil and compression leaking into the cooling system. So, I pulled the head off and had it sent to a specialist to get resurfaced and crack tested. I came back all good with a full gasket kit ready to install. The bores looked ok, no scoring or cracks that I could see. I reinstalled the head with ARP studs and torqued everything in sequence as per the FSM. I drove the car about 500k's before really giving it full throttle and winding it out but that was when I noticed the cloud of blue smoke in my mirror! it seems anything under around 5000 rpm is totally fine but over that and a noticeable amount of smoke is coming out and its killed my top end performance completely. The motor used to rev out quite happily before I took the head off but now it only pulls hard up to 5k then just gives up. Also this is the first time I've noticed any smoke at all my first thought was the rings have given up so I checked compression, I found 160psi across all cylinders with a cold engine then i realised I needed to test it hot so I drove it down the road and back then repeated the test. This time I got around 185psi on all cylinders. both of those numbers seem to be within spec for a good engine right? So now i'm thinking its valve stem seals, I'm not sure if they were replaced when the head was done or not but I assumed they had been done. the fact that there was a full set still in the gasket kit that came back with the head suggests the old ones might still be in there tho. what do you guys think? is it possible I haven't run the reco head in properly and ruined the valve seals? or are my oil rings giving in while the compression rings are still holding?

dattocam i actually didn't really think about the height at all, i think they came wound all the way up and i just put them in and wound them all the way down haha!

seats installed

cut this bracket off

re drilled seat rail

So I spend a day in the workshop yesterday stuffing about with these mx5 seats i got for $120 and after hours of trial and error i finally got them in! I think they do sit a tad higher but im only 165cm tall so for me they are actually perfect. you can probably forget about them being legal but it all feels pretty solid to me. feel free to point out anything you think is unsafe with the design! The main trick with these seats is to offset them towards the middle of the car, using the stock 280zx rails, I re drilled the inside rail to suit the mx5 seat and ran a bar across the seat that extends out past the seat mounting point to the rail on the other side. on the back of the seat the bucket shape of the seat got in the way so i just made a small tab bolted to the seat and out to the rail. there is allot of "reshaping" underneath the seats so they will accept the datsun rails. The adjustment mechanism on the datsun rails will foul on the bottom of the seat so more room is needed under the seats.... i did this with a big hammer and it worked out fine. Also the driver's seat is wider so in order to bolt the tab on and the bar that extends out past the mazda seat mount I had to cut small notches out of the base of the seat that accommodate the bolt going through and the nut on the other side. I had to cut the bracket on the passenger seat rail that holds the cable ends for the levers that flip the seat forward too

Ok mate thanks for the reply, i came across some mx5 seats in good condition for 120 bucks not long ago and couldn't pass them up! Maybe sitting up higher wont be so bad as im not the tallest bloke around haha Ill have a go see what happens, if it doesn't work im sure i can pass the seats on for more cash

Hey mate the seats in my 280 are completely shot so id be keen on seeing how you got the mx5 seats in there

Cost was $953 delivered, and if I didn't need to replace the bearings and brake rotors they would have probly taken just one afternoon to install

some more pics showing the drilling and end result

Ok, so I spent two days in the work shop fitting my new coil overs this week and the results so far are fantastic! these are the ready made "bolt on" coilovers from techno toy tuning with 250lb spring rate and adjustable tokico shocks. The car feels fantastic on the road, handles well and doesnt feel harsh at all on bumpy country roads. I also re drilled the rear strut towers and fitted some second hand cusco coil overs from an s13. the only modification required to fit the suspension was the tops of the old front strut tower required drilling out with a 15mm bit so the new shocks could be bolted through. Then with some parts off the old strut tower including the bearing and some well placed washers that were supplied, the complete unit could be bolted together on the car.

What can i say MaygZ im a country boy at heart, I need me ute!

Thanks for welcoming me guys!

the front spring rate is 250lb, thats what the guy at techno suggested as its quite firm but still ok for road use. I cant tell you anything els at the moment because the car is in a friends workshop and i wont be getting back to it till next week but i will do my best to remember to measure them for you Simon. They are the Techno Toy kit but i had them made and finished at their shop to save me the work.... Lazy!