i think those seats are later NA Miata seats, 96-97. they do look totally at home in there.

 

What kind of weight on the Miata seats, if by chance you checked.

 

Sorry, we did not.
They are noticeably lighter than the Prelude seats we removed, but that doesn't really help you.

 

I was just curious how they might stack up to my stock FC seats - I'm looking for weight reduction, since I had to replace my aluminum hood with a steel one after it got pounded by hail last summer. I'm allowed lighter seats but have to be a minimum of 25lbs (including mounting hardware/tracks), and might get comparable weight reduction via seats as finding an aluminum hood, at much lower cost (once the cost of painting is figured in.
Of course, I need to weigh one of the FC seats to find out where I'm starting from. They don't seem particularly heavy, though not particularly light either, from what I recall.

 

The Miata seats may be slightly smaller than the FCs but are generally built the same so I can't see a major (or even significant) weight savings.
If it matters, the Miata seat base is basically flat (at least the mount points) and you'd have the typical hassle making it fit the passenger side hump.

 

I went over to Sigfrid's yesterday and we mowed through the (rather small) honeydo list he'd prepared.

My contribution was on The Great Emergency Hatch Release Dilemma and I'm pleased to say it was solved quickly and easily. For obvious reasons I'll not be too specific, but it's now possible to open the hatch even if the battery or solenoid go dead and we were able to leave the regular hatch release intact and functional.

Next up was a simple solder repair on the drivers door Infinity speaker. Terrible piece of industrial design but it works again, so...YAY?

Last, and most time consuming was to install the short shifter.
It's the one we ran on the four speed trans but discovered it wasn't right for the five speed, so it's been sitting for a while and S. wanted it back if possible.
The Z setup is much cruder than the FC's and even if the parts are "right", it's still a finicky beast to install...our two main parts were "wrong" and required a lot of massaging to fit. Like an hour and a half of beltsander, dremel, hacksaw type massage.
We only managed a short test drive, so it's unknown how he likes it. I found it quite clunky compared to the FC's silky smooth operation but the standard shifter is clunky too and has a long throw, so pick your poison.
It works fine actually and I suspect it's the kind of thing you adapt to quickly with use. Unfortunately, he'll be jumping from the Z to the RX8 and the Z will always suffer in comparison, I fear.
We'll see this week how it goes.

Ratchet still runs beautifully, everything works and nothing has fallen off, so I'm a happy camper.

 

Little update on both cars:

The FC continues to run well and I'm still surprised how well she starts in the cold with the thermowax deleted. Absolutely no problem at all.
Impressed that the eight year old Optima still cranks well, too.

I must get emission tested in March, so it's time to get the new cat and change the oil.

Sigfrid has been driving the Z on a fairly regular basis and we've been making little tweaks and adjustments but nothing major demands our attention. We still have stuff to do (like doorpanels) but nothing that can't wait for warmer weather.

We're now at the stage where he can see the car for what it is and decide if that's what he wants.
Of course, "what he wants" is as nebulous as ever...hell, we spent time talking about building a Factory5 electric car.
Which I would be all for.

Anyway, my little stable of cars is wintering well.

 

 

i drove my FC to work today, and its in early stage 2. stage one was just to assemble the thing, and get it registered. stage 2 is where we turn it into a real car. stage 3 is re-re-repaint, with body work this time, polish some stuff, etc etc.

so today, my car is pretty terrible, but its FUN. it turns out that the combo of teeny stock turbo + afm + cat + aggressive boost control = a power band that is really laggy, but when boost hits, it hits HARD. since its the stock turbo, it basically has a 3-5k Rpm power band. its terrible, and not that fast, but it happens at the rpm you're driving at, so its really accessible, and its not fast, so your not going 10,000miles an hour when boost comes on.

so its actually perfect. plan was to try a few different turbos, but those will have a normal power delivery, so it might be faster, but less fun.

i do want to look at some giant turbo when i open the hood though...

 

sounds like my car when i had to put the cats on to get it sniffed, cept the turbo didn't want to even really start working til 5k. it was like waiting for the punch line to really long joke.

 

Well, yesterday happened.
Another oddly beautiful winter day in Denver, a balmy 70° for Sigfrid and I to enjoy as we noodled around on the Z.

Over the past few (equally nice) weekends, we've been tweaking and fiddling with little stuff that has popped up as S. commutes in the car, nothing big or even interesting, but noticeable improvements nonetheless.

One niggling "issue" was the apparent low oil pressure when warm, something we've been wondering about for a few months. The engine runs beautifully, no smoke, no leaks and I suggested we get a cheap Sunpro mechanical gauge to verify our electric gauge readings.
We did just that and sadly, it showed only a weak 10psi at idle, so for lack of any other easy options, we decided to swap oil pumps with our original engine (which has been sitting in the garage for over a year now).
The oil pump is external and only takes about a half hour to swap and we were soon on the road again.
With worse pressure.

Oh well, we decided later as we sat on the patio, this is analogous to the situation I was in with my original engine...it had low compression and oil pressure for the 100k miles I put on it and was absolutely fine. We figured as long as she seemed OK, we'd just pretend she was.

To change the oil pump, the bellypan (metal, not plastic) and sway bar must be removed and we'd left them off for the second test drive. Sigfrid went to connect the sway bar as his wife and I chatted on.

Suddenly, we hear a crash, a bang and a very loud "****!"...the car had slipped off the floorjack and smashed the oil pan.
It didn't tear and leak but was definitely going to hit the crank and I began reliving the nightmare from when I replaced the pan in situ a year or so ago.

Sigfrid was having none of it though.
This was not a regrettable incident that would require a morning to repair (we have another oil pan and gasket on the shelf) oh no...this was a sign from above. He has long (baselessly, imo) believed that our original engine was "stronger" than the one we currently run, and this was his motivation to swap again.
No, I can't explain or defend this decision, really all I can do is help.

Of course, there is no budget to do much to the motor before install, it should get rebuilt first but that ain't happening. My feeling is that we have two sound but worn out engines and if we're not changing drivetrains altogether, we should tear down one of the Z blocks and build it right and be done.

He was not persuaded and began gathering parts for a quick-n-dirty swap next weekend.
Turns out you can get a complete rebuild gasket kit for a L28 engine for $50 (includes head gasket!), all the way down to valve guide seals.
Sigfrid was on a mission and although I was unable to dissuade him, I did manage to convince him that before we went to all the trouble, maybe it'd be a good idea to pull the head and take a look see.

This motor never really ran because we were still trying to use the original fuel injection and never succeeded, so I've never understood Sigfrid's faith in it. I'm mean it could be great but we don't know, whereas our installed engine is running so well that S. believes it's faster than his RX8.

So we stripped the head off the "spare" engine and began cleaning all the carbon and soot left from our defective injection system. It all looks OK, but who knows?
Today he is going to look at the head, at least check if the valves are sealing but beyond that there's not much to do. No budget, no machine work.

Next Saturday we swap engines.
Again.

Meanwhile, ole Sprocket is up for emissions this month, so it's time for a bit of a tune up and a new cat. I'm not even going to try the denatured alcohol trick this time...I'm pretty confident she cruise right through.

Pride goeth before the fail.

 

That's always a bummer. Too bad about the jack. Thankfully, neither of you were under the car (hopefully) when it happened. 10 psi is low, but 10 psi per 1000 rpm is a good rule-of-thumb, so it's not perfect, but it was enough to keep the bearings lubricated.

 

Do a shade tree bearing swap. I bet the rod bearings are worn. As long as the crank isn't scored, it's not a lot to lose. Forgive me but, it is OHC right? If not it could be cam bearings, though that would be rarer. On a straight six, the last on my list would be mains but, stranger things have happened.

 

+1, i'd do bearings too. at least the rods. its a piston engine, briefly, they suck.

 

Just a heads up, I helped a friend rebuild the engine in his 1980 Corolla. He ordered all new bearings that should have been the proper thickness and such. Turned out that 3/4 the journals were one size and one journal was slightly smaller/larger. Can't remember, but we used plasti-gauge as it was all we had in the beer garage. The clearance was proper, but torquing the cap locked up the crank.

We ended up matching bearing shells and getting the proper tolerances, but out of the box they were not perfect. The Z might be the same way. If you do a shady tree bearing job, make sure the crank spins after EVERY rod cap is installed. We had the engine buttoned up and ready to dump in when we found out. (It was 2am and we were tired.)

 

I don't know about the old Datsun motor but Honda stamps the bearing sizes on the block, both mains and rods, to show undersized bearings if used. Check for a grade scale or chart stamped on the block when you get the pan off.

 

Thanks for the info guys, but I'm/we're not doing any of that.
I don't know what mystical connection Sigfrid has to that engine but it doesn't extend far enough to changing rod bearings on the floor.

Considering the fact that we don't have to do this swap at all, I see this more as a time killer as S. tries to figure out what to do with her. He's getting uncomfortably close to liking the car despite it's inherent shortcomings and I think it's confusing.

 

It's only 18 bucks for the whole set of rod bearings.

Sealed Power 467230CP25MM: Connecting Rod Bearing Set for Nissan | JEGS


While you're in there, just replace the lower main bearing one cap at a time.

Go ahead and flame me for this but, rule of thumb when it comes to piston engine bearing wear: Most wear will be on the lower main because the crank is constantly being pushed down by the power stroke and compression, connecting rod bearing wear will be more on the top one because of the force of the power stroke and compression.

I edited to say don't do it on the floor, you do this with it in the car. It's kinda the whole point of the fix. And it does work. You just have to get the pan off.

 

I totally agree. Hell, the Top Fuel dragsters only get lower main bearings after a run. They push 10k WHP and wipe out the bottom bearing from compression. The top one looks new. I know, because I have seen bearings in person at Pacific Raceways. The only time I have ever seen a top bearing worn out is from spinning the bearing or lack of oil, but that is a different issue entirely.

 

Before even picking up a wrench or swapping the oil pump I would have first tried a heavier weight motor oil such as 10w-40 or even 20w-50 and seen if that helped with the low oil pressure readings. Then I would have tried possibly a shim on the oil pump pressure relief spring. But yes most likely warn rod bearings are the culprit.

 

10 psi @ idle really isn't that bad, i'd just run the damn thing

But we know how stubborn S is

 

We were running 20/50.

That's what I say too.
The engine was/is running quite well, without a gauge to obsess over, we'd never have bothered worrying at all.

 

Not sure if you saw this tread or not, but it is interesting reading;

Oil pump help - how to Increase pressure? - Engine - Auszcar

 

Well, after a few days of back and forth, here's where we stand.

Recall that this "original" engine that we're about to reinstall never really ran because of our FI/ignition issues, so we have no idea of the condition of the shortblock.
I know we checked compression and it was good enough to rule that out as a problem but oil pressure/consumption is a mystery.

The heart of our dilemma is that Sigfrid can't decide where to go with the car from here or if he wants to keep it at all. Obviously, we've discussed every available option for the L28 engine and after every talk decided it just wasn't worth it.
Until this last Saturday, when suddenly, he was really excited about her and thought maybe just a cam and a FI throttle body would do the trick...yeah, it's hard to keep up.

We're going to perform the bare minimum necessary to get the engine ready and see what happens.
Basically, we're just killing time as S. figures out what to do.
After she's running again (a rather major assumption) I'm going to lobby for bringing her home and redoing the electrical system. It won't be very expensive since we already have all the components and it's a nice upgrade if we decide to sell.

But who knows.