Omega Owners Forum
Chat Area => General Car Chat => Topic started by: aaronjb on 12 October 2011, 14:22:31
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After 8 years off the road.
However, IMHO, it is now nothing more than a testament to how useless & crude the MOT is - the handling can only be described as lethal as the (secondhand) rear shocks are well past their best - either that or there's some very knackered bushes back there - the back end handles like a boat and large bumps make it swing out left or right.
Honestly I wouldn't feel safe driving it - yet it passed an MOT with no problems..
(And, for the record, before anyone chastises me for driving a dangerous vehicle - I don't intend to drive it as it stands.. I am very sad, however, as it's reached the point that I'm throwing good money after bad and will probably have to part with a vehicle I'm very emotionally attached to :( )
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Still, a ticket's a ticket - well done Aaron. :y
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Is it the twin turbo jobbie, Aaron?
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Fair point, that Den ;) At least the welding (of which there was a fair bit!) passed muster :) (probably because I didn't do it ;D)
And yup Opti, the 300ZX is finally alive again.. only 8 years after I took the cambelt off to look for an oil leak! :-[
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got any pics aaron?
also any particular reason youre so attached if you dont mind bear asking? :y
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No good pics ;D I'll take a couple next time it's out of the garage (at the weekend) though - it's in a bit of a state, really, but..
The attachment is just because I've had it so long (since 2001, I think), and I put a lot of effort into that car originally, swapping the engine in from my other 300ZX and rebuilding it at the same time.. and what with the dash layout and seating position, you do feel rather like a fighter pilot when you're driving one :)
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Good work Aaron. Look forward to the pics... :y
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All I have to do now (heh, 'all') is:
Swap the springs off the UK shocks on to the Jap rear shocks and see if that fixes the bouncy bouncy boingy boingy ARGHI'MGOINGTODIE handling, and..
Clean off, filler and paint the now slightly odd shaped sill where the outer sill repair was done (friend got a bit 'bash happy' with the ball peen..)
Oh and sell the MR2 so I can swap the insurance over..
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All I have to do now (heh, 'all') is:
Swap the springs off the UK shocks on to the Jap rear shocks and see if that fixes the bouncy bouncy boingy boingy ARGHI'MGOINGTODIE handling, and..
Clean off, filler and paint the now slightly odd shaped sill where the outer sill repair was done (friend got a bit 'bash happy' with the ball peen..)
Oh and sell the MR2 so I can swap the insurance over..
good luck sunshine. look forward to the pics :y :y :y
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I didn't actually move the car out today, so here's a really crappy picture - it needs to come out and get washed again, really.. maybe tomorrow:
(http://i54.tinypic.com/ng6mmb.jpg)
And since I never get tired of this picture, unrelated to the Nissan:
(http://i54.tinypic.com/2d7h946.jpg)
:D
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I'm actually quite fond of old Datsun's ::) ::) like the 300 ZX. Always lusted after a 240Z as a kid. ;)
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I would love a nice 240Z (though I'd quite like to drop a more modern lump in, like an LS series V8) - but finding one that isn't a complete basket case in this country is nigh on impossible, unless you want to pay over £25k for one..
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Mmmm, not a bad garage that. :y
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You're welcome here any time Chris, if you need a space to work on the car ;)
Having a pit in the garage is a godsend, too - makes working under the centre of the car a breeze (oil changes, ATF changes etc) :) Although I still manage to end up covered in oil, somehow..
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And since I never get tired of this picture, unrelated to the Nissan:
(http://i54.tinypic.com/2d7h946.jpg)
:D
I think we all need to come over and offer up some sacrifices at that altar. :-*
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;) You're more than welcome as well, Kevin.
Funnily enough I was out inspecting the crank this morning (you can just see it in the picture of the Nissan, sitting on the racking - it weighs a ton!).. the engine must have been built by a half blind hamfisted idiot.. and I suspect the 'real' reason the guy took it out of his car is that it blew up, not because it was too big (physically) to fit easily.
The crank is almost certainly going to need a regrind, sadly, thanks to things like this:
(http://www.mind-design.co.uk/pics/engine/assembly_damage.jpg)
(You can clearly see where a foreign object came out of the oilway and got trapped between the crank & bearing)
(http://www.mind-design.co.uk/pics/engine/dent.jpg)
(Looks like someone attacked the crank .. or whacked it putting the rods & pistons in, more likely)
(http://www.mind-design.co.uk/pics/engine/pickup.jpg)
(I'm guessing it spun a bearing - that looks like the outline of the oiling groove in a full-groove bearing, to me)
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Yikes! The pictures are a tad large.. ;D I ought to resize those..
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Mmm. Yep, that doesn't look too healthy. :(
Either been built by a Neanderthal or it's been spinning in a soup of bits of rod, IMHO. Still, it'll come good after a grind, I'm sure.
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Fortunately you can get bearings for up to +0.050 undersize cranks.. which reminds me I meant to get the vernier callipers out and see if it's already been reground. Would be good if I could remember where I put the verniers.. ;D
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Thanks aaron, sorry to see tue damage. :(
Hope it gets sorted. :y
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Cheers Chris - I'm sure it will.. either a regrind or swap to a steel crank from Scat or Eagle (~£400).. the more I survey the more I find bits missing that I'll have to replace, anyway.. like the fact that the seller only gave me 13 lifters instead of 16 ;D
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Cheers Chris - I'm sure it will.. either a regrind or swap to a steel crank from Scat or Eagle (~£400).. the more I survey the more I find bits missing that I'll have to replace, anyway.. like the fact that the seller only gave me 13 lifters instead of 16 ;D
That's the spirit! Enforced upgrades. ;D
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;D ;D I can see me ending up with just the block & heads in use from this engine and everything else new.. still, even if that's the case, it should build into a stonking engine ;)
I already know I need new lifters, at which point I could swap to a roller cam & lifters.. that would necessitate new valve springs too, of course.. and I already need to rebuild the rocker arms as they're incorrectly shimmed and missing bits (hopefully PRW will sell spares for their kit)..
It's all downhill from here, isn't it ;D
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I have seen worse cranks than that reused to be honest.
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I posted pictures of the crank up on the Cobra forum where one of the few people with serious knowledge of the FE engines happens to post occasionally (Mike Huddart of Huddart Engines up in Crewe); his opinion (like yours) is that those marks are nothing to worry about, but..
The work that's been done to 'balance' the crank is worrying - the 428 crank is externally balanced and this one appears to have had an attempt at being internally balanced.. there's been a lot of weld added to the front & rear of the crank and then ground back, as well as having one of the rod journal areas (not the journal itself, obviously) lightened.. to him that looks very odd indeed. In fact, here's what he said:
The last pic and the balancing photos are the most worrying, look at the front counterweight, that looks like welding that has been ground down, as though a balancing hole has been filled in and welded. Not withstanding the implications of weld that has been ground off and the likelyhood of said plug dissapearing through the crankcase you have to wonder why somebody has had to ADD weight to the counterweight in the first place, I presume you havn't got Carrillo (heavier ) rods or somesutch.
Couple that with photo 5 from the first set where you can see grinding ( lightening ) arround the rod journal, the complete opposite to the front counterweight and you start wondering what the heck is going on.
You CANNOT neutral balance a 428 crank by simple drilling or grinding, you have to add a considerable amount of heavy metal to the rear counterweight, if this is not obviously present then all you have told about balance is nonsense.
Forget about dinges and rust, potentially the most destructive problem you have is balance............. or lack of it !
And the accompanying pictures:
(http://www.mind-design.co.uk/pics/engine/fw_end_balance.jpg)
(flywheel end)
(http://www.mind-design.co.uk/pics/engine/nose_end_balance.jpg)
(nose end)
(http://www.mind-design.co.uk/pics/engine/hamfisted_oiling_work.jpg)
(journal work opposite the flywheel balance end)
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You would think it had been thrown out a top floor window :(