So, let the real fun begin now?

 

If by "real fun" you mean "finally tying up all the loose ends I've let dangle for two years", then yeah, bring it on.
Monday, Sigfrid's wife unit and I go to the DMV and get plates.

There is a growing list of things I'd like to do before really driving her around much...little things like installing seatbelts and hooking up the heater controls.
I haven't even seen the seatbelts in 2 1/2 years, it's probably gonna be a bitch to find them in the attic.
The hood release handle broke and I need to figure that out so I can fully close the hood.
Probably more to come that I don't realize yet.

Meanwhile, poor Sigfrid, stranded out in California, was appalled by the 115 rwhp the engine made on the dyno (not sure if Mustang or Dynojet) and started prowling the forums to see how we compared.
Right on the money, as it happens.
Apparently, built/cammed/ported/Webered NA motors are good for @ 140-150 rwhp at sea level, so our setup is really not far off, all things considered.

I have little patience with numbers games anyway...this is a street car after all.
Always loved the Rolls-Royce approach:
Customer: "How much power does the Silver Shadow make?"
RR rep: "A sufficient amount".

Almost immediately after leaving the tuners I had to get on I-70 and had absolutely no problem keeping up with/surpassing traffic, Ratchet seemed quite lively.
I hope to weigh her this week (not sure if my junkyard still allows this...) but I'd guess our current weight is somewhere around 2100lbs., so it's not like we have a lot of mass to deal with.

Besides, the stripped interior is a hellish place to be- I see no point in worrying about speed until she's comfortable enough to deal with it.

The engine seems to finally be fluid tight and the e-fan setup is working perfectly (at least far as I can tell with no gauge), so I'm pleased about that. Even the radiator recovery tank system functions.

America! **** yeah!

 

Ratchet went on a pilgrimage to honor the memory of her ancestors:


She sits on the certified truck scale at my junkyard, where I paid $10 to discover that she weighs 2440lbs.

About 300lbs more than I'd hoped.

Oh well, at least we have that stonking 115rwhp to move us along.

Ignoring for the nonce the wretched ergonomics, she drives very nicely.
Steering is tight and tracks straight. The suspension is quiet and fairly supple- although let's be honest...this is a suspension design barely removed from the Conestoga wagon, so what it's really like is a well sorted MGB.

I'm reliving in reverse the shock of moving from the 240Z to the FC...the FC felt like a bloody Cadillac in comparison. After the FC, this Z feels ancient...charmingly so, granted, but ancient nonetheless.
And this is not a bad thing necessarily; I spent 20 years driving nothing but British convertibles, so I have a fondness.

T'was nearly 70° today, tonight we could get up to 6" of snow.
I consider this a good thing as I'll get to confirm again our weather integrity...good to verify before I start layering in the interior.

 

The fat guy had his foot on the scale.

 

Don't forget the weight of my shadow.

 

How long was the gravel road? That thing needs a bath and some tire shine.

 

The road to the yard really is gravel- heavily rutted to boot, which is why it, along with Monaco Blvd., is a prime suspension test spot.
With rain/snow/slop in the forecast, I'm not too concerned with dust at the moment...consider it part of the overall plebian ethos.

 

I was getting at the fact you can now drive it. But, yeah, those loose ends creep up on you.

 

His loose ends on that car likely weren't as loose as the steering and suspension on the '70 240Z I just traded away. Tracked straight 'n' true until you started moving.

 

Chassis damage or just worn out?

Well, if you wanna be a street car, you play it as it lays:


This is actually perfect as the snow allows me to check out how watertight the cabin is (completely dry as it turned out), how the wipers work (all functions present, wiper sweep smooth and strong) and if the heater does anything (yes, it does).

The roads were wet and slushy but not particularly treacherous and I felt totally comfortable with the car.
Gotta get to the brakes soon though.

 

Very worn out. It had sat for ~20 years before I got it. Outdoors under barn owl droppings might I add.

When you get to the brakes, do you plan on doing a Toyota rotor/caliper conversion? I didn't get around to doing them myself but from what I've read its nearly a no brainer.
Glad to see you're watertight! Now you can make an Amphicar out of it.

 

The brakes are all new, just need some bleeding.

Those Toyo 4-piston calipers are boat anchors and we're not in a position to do anything about the rear drums (yet, if ever), so no, I won't be swapping.
Z brakes are not as easy as they seem...basically, I'd begin at the rear by ditching the drums.
Unfortunately, the simplest path to that involves swapping to 5-lug hubs, so then you need matching hubs for the front and now the wheels don't fit.
And so it goes...

 

Well, my "total immersion" Z experience ended yesterday as I returned Ratchet to Sigfrid's and retrieved the FC.
I tried to approach this not as my project baby's field test and more like just a regular car...so she got to go to Walmart and Costco, with a few trips to the yard tossed in.
She got to sit in traffic as well as run on the freeway.
I intentionally did not pop the hood or fettle the car at all, just like a daily driver, I 'd hop in and simply expect her to work.
Which she did.
By Thursday night, it all seemed completely normal.

I'd grown accustomed to the clutch feel and the four speed tranny. The steering and suspension felt perfectly acceptable. She feels quite small in traffic, more so than the FC which is low but mostly normal sized. The Z feels very narrow in comparison.
The interior is sized more like the FD than the FC...the FC has such expansive glass and is much more open, the Z has a high beltline (I can barely hang my arm out and when I do, the door lock impales my armpit) and more closely coupled seating. It feels much more claustrophobic...or perhaps "cosseting" is a better word.

All things considered, I was pleased.
All fluid levels were fine and nary a drop spilled on the driveway.

Then I got in the FC to drive home and boy howdy, was that weird.
The Mazda was so quiet, so smooth, so...soft.
Felt like a Cadillac.

I'm sure that the interior will make a big difference but even so, I think the Z will always be a more immediate/visceral driving experience...it's just from an earlier generation and will feel cruder and more demanding, no matter what.

They are both fun, but in different ways.

Be interesting to see what Sigfrid thinks (he flies in today)...he drives a big Audi A8, so the contrast will be even more extreme.
Probably seem like the Z is actively trying to kill him.

 

neat. i have a P port 1st gen and an Rx8, and the butt dyno (it also does lateral G, and GPS!) says performance is pretty similar. however the 1st gen is like your datsun, its immediate, and exciting. the Rx8 comparatively is like a really long couch. the 1st gen is crude, although its about as complex as a rock, so its not demanding at all, its even easy to drive.

part of what makes different cars fun

 

And to stretch the boundaries of space utilization, my '67 VW Beetle makes the Z feel like the pinnacle of luxury. The horsehair-filled bucket seats which have *maybe* 3-4 inches between them. And to think I can fit three people in the backseat or fold everything down into a bed...

 

Sigfrid returns Wednesday night for the long Thanksgiving weekend and we'll huddle up (literally, it's 15° right now...) and begin to plan the interior.
There's not much we can really do as the first step will be sound mitigation and he can't afford Dynamat right now and even if he could, it's too damn cold to install it.

What we need first is to finalize the seats anyway.
All the ergonomics/touch points key off seat position, so until they are in place, stuff like the center console and door cards (primarily the armrest location) cannot be determined.

We'll see how it goes.

Meanwhile, stuffs might be happening to my FC.
Sprocket has had low compression and low oil pressure since Day One, I've basically been waiting for her to fail for eight years...but she won't. She gobbles oil and smokes excessively at start up but once warm, runs quite well. Oddly, fuel consumption is getting better...I can't figure that out at all.

The knowledge that my engine was a ticking bomb lead to investigating engine swaps, which lead me to Sigfrid and the v-8 FD project and now, six years later, here I am.
I like swapped cars, have no moral qualms about "ripping the soul" from my Mazda but having done it to the FD, realize the financial/labor investment involved. Which is substantial, if you didn't know.

Also, having now driven the Z, with it's humble 115 rwhp (and I suspect the FC is making even less), I think that for a DD street car power is not all that big of a consideration.
Sprocket's recent 3000 mile trip proved that whatever her pathetic power output is, it's sufficient.
If I wasn't concerned about a catastrophic (and inconvenient) failure, I wouldn't touch her.

So I've been looking- admittedly not very hard- for a replacement NA rotary engine; one to just drop in and run.
Such a creature may have just popped up (semi) locally (it's about 90 miles away) and I'm in negotiations right now. If it works out, I can spend some time cleaning it up and then see if the current engine will make it to the warm weather of spring or if I'll be freezing my skinny, flat *** off in the garage in January.

So, for a change I'm more focused on the FC than the Z.

She deserves it.

 

a couple of truisms.

it ran the best the day before it blew up...

and then if you have a spare engine, then you may be in for a long wait, these things only fail when you can't fix them. once you're ready to rebuild/replace the engine, the one in the car will never die, see murphy; fire extinguishers

 

Another truism:
Cars never fail in the summer, when it's sunny and warm.

If acquiring a backup engine tricks Sprocket into lasting through the cold, I'd be thrilled.

 

every time i do an engine its some record high temperature week.

 

Years of thought & planning have gone into this, a project I'm finally ready to unveil....


Sprocket is becoming radically mid-engined.
Now that I've taken the initial steps, I can see some issues to overcome- for instance, passenger seating will be somewhat compromised, but I'm sure I'll prevail.

Follow along for future updates on what will certainly be an interesting journey.

 

i've heard of having a spare engine just in case, but that is taking it to the next level!

 

I'd like to say that my extreme "Be Prepared" ethos resulted from being an Eagle Scout but since I never made it out of Webelos, well, I really can't.

 

Awesome score!

 

So far it would seem so.

I've spent some time stripping it to the bare keg, waterpump & housing are still on, as is the clutch/flywheel assy.
It was absolutely complete and unfucked with, I got an intact- and relatively non-crispy- engine harness, all the vac/fuel hoses were pliant (not that I'll be reusing them)...even the OMP hoses were good (not using them, either).

I'll most likely be using my complete current intake, it's already clean and painted and everything works but at least now I can send out the spare injectors for servicing, thus eliminating downtime.

I don't pretend to be a rotary expert (never cracked a keg), so I have no way to evaluate the innards short of peering into the exhaust ports with a flashlight.
It's black.
Occasionally an apex seal comes by and chuffs enthusiastically but there's so much MMO in there I can't see much.
Looks legit to me.

I figure a couple hundred bucks in parts (and injector service) oughta do it.

We have one more day before snow/rain and I hope to begin the cleaning process tomorrow. At least get the major crap off.

Now that I have a Plan B for the FC and the Z is running/legal, there's no real pressure to do this. Which is good because money, as always, will need amassing.
Be nice to wait till spring but Sprocket will ultimately have her way and I'll acquiesce.

Bitch.

 

Prep on the block (keg?...whatever) continues, albeit at a holiday hobbled pace.

I'm using the rolling base of a Craftsman shopvac as a workstand, engine sitting the clutch/flywheel, so the keg spins freely. If it wasn't at floor level, it'd be pretty sweet.
The first goal is to strip off as much externally as possible, leaving the oil pan and front cover in place (although the waterpump housing is gone). I've also removed all the studs to make block sanding flanges easier.
The idea is to make the engine as watertight as possible and the first step was to cut appropriately shaped closed cell foam blocks and stuff all the major openings. That's probably pretty fluid safe but the main purpose is to keep anything from falling in. Next I'll be cutting gasket shaped blanks from 1/8" ABS and GOOPing them over the foam filled holes. This is the primary water/solvent barrier.
I love GOOP by the way.

So far there haven't been any rust/corrosion issues, it's dirty but not degraded, so it'll be interesting to see what lies beneath the grime. Probably start with paper towels to get the heavier, wet deposits, followed by mineral spirits, Purple Power, hot, soapy water and a rinse.
Then we shall see.

We'll do the usual chasing all the threads routine and then see about paint.
I'm not averse to painting a (basically) assembled motor but I hate painted over hardware. This actually only an issue with the front cover and I could just paint it and then replace the bolts with new. It depends on what the bare metal looks like.

Despite my best efforts I broke an OMP line but was going to use the braided set I got from Ben anyway (they've been on the current engine for two years now) but am once again faced with the fact that I actively hate the system.
Not the concept as much as the execution.
It just strikes me as an incredibly halfassed afterthought.

My super high mileage engine precludes me from bitching about how the OMP performs but those flimsy, exposed external lines that meander all over the place just drive me crazy.
Which naturally leads me to considering pre-mixing or at the very least, coming up with a nicer hose alternative. Maybe something like the vacuum spider?

The mind does tend to wander when performing repetitive tasks.

I've also started the parts lists, separated into the things I absolutely need (gaskets, filters, etc) and the stuff I might like (oil pan stud/girdle kit?). I'll begin, as money allows, to amass the required parts and then the longer the current motor lasts, the more extravagant I can be.
Maybe.

I kinda have to decide whether this is a more permanent commitment to the FC or if this engine swap is just a "cross your fingers, keep me going" deal. If the former, I'd really like to try some of the things I considered two years ago when the '91 engine got swapped into the '90 chassis.
Like headers and a lightened flywheel, for instance.

Dunno.