September 2, 2011

The Z has been parked outside under some trees. Today I washed it to get all of the tree junk off of it. We are going to put it in the shop soon. Also, I will be brushing rust converter onto the bottom of the car. I noticed a lot more rust after this summer

July 12, 2011

Dad tapped the new threads and put in the new bolt. Then we put back on the original exhaust manifold and put on the new intake manifold from the Maxima. Afterwards we noticed on the exhaust manifold, the Y-pipe that connects to it had an incorrect size bolt in it. This was definitely another place where the exhaust was leaking. Dad put in the correct size bolt and got it tight. Here's a link to see all of the pictures we took today. https://picasaweb.google.com/107049701433976725112/20110712?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCMT_0fn7wfvfPA&feat=directlink

This arrow points to the bolt that we needed to tap the threads for.

 This arrow points to the bolt we replaced and tightened.

July 4, 2011

Yesterday Dad and I got some parts from McAdam. He got them off of an old '80s Maxima at a U-Pull in the cities. The old Maxima has a lot of parts that are the same on my Z. We got everything that was on the head which includes a lot of sensors and the fuel injectors and the EGR parts. We got a starter, radiator, mass airflow sensor(not sure if it is compatible with my Z), and alternator. These parts will save me a lot. Today Dad and I stripped all the parts we need off of the head. Also, to update since the last post: Dad drilled out the bolt that was broken in the head. We will need to tap it to make new threads.

June 6, 2011

Today Dad stripped down the engine. He removed the intake and the exhaust manifolds. We found out the "lucky bolt" we found was actually the remaining piece of a bolt. The other part broke off and got stuck in the block. We also found out that all of the bolts were only finger tight, they were never torqued. Below are some pictures. You can see more at https://picasaweb.google.com/107049701433976725112/BenS6611?authkey=Gv1sRgCKP-0Nan5svXHA&feat=directlink

The engine stripped down.

The "lucky bolt" where the exhaust manifold bots into the block.

June 1, 2011

Today we removed the transmission from the block and we found out, because of the new soft plug, that my engine was rebuilt. We also found out that the clutch was slipping because of a bad seal that was leaking oil onto it. The gear on the starter was also pretty shredded. The best part of today was finding out about the exhaust leak. It turns out one of the bolts from the exhaust manifold was missing. We found it wedged by the air conditioning compressor. We think it they dropped it when they were doing the rebuild and it has been sitting there for years. You can see more pictures at https://picasaweb.google.com/107049701433976725112/6111?authkey=Gv1sRgCNXdrqLvvbL-Nw&feat=directlink

The new soft plug

The shredded clutch

The starter gear

May 31, 2011

Today we got the engine out. I got to do a lot of the work like cutting off the exhaust pipe and tapping the bolts out of the support that holds the transmission. Before we did this we had to drain the oil from the transmission. The plug is magnetic and there were many shreds of metal stuck to the plug and in the oil. This means that we need to replace the transmission. Below are pictures. You can see more of them at https://picasaweb.google.com/107049701433976725112/53111?authkey=Gv1sRgCNjN3aWj7uXLeQ&feat=directlink

 

 

Transmission drain plug covered with shreds of metal 

 

Carnage from the transmission 

May 30, 2011

Today I went under the car to remove the parts needed to get the engine out. Some of them were the clutch slave cylinder, transmission mounting bolts, driveshaft bolts, and the speedometer cable. You can see more pictures here https://picasaweb.google.com/107049701433976725112/BenS280zx53111?authkey=Gv1sRgCNPvq_P8gN2y_QE&feat=directlink