After losing about a month of Z shop time due to the usual rush of the holiday season (not that I mind, it was a lot of fun, as always), I got to spend about 8 hours on engine teardown yesterday. I got the head, front cover, timing chain and associated pieces, freeze plugs, oil pan, and some other bits off. Just the pistons/rods and mains/crank to go, and the block goes off to the cleaners.

While removing the head, I noticed something interesting. I hadn't messed with a Datsun Z head in a while. The last motor I worked with was my 400 ci GM big block V8. A single iron head from the V8, with valvetrain, weighs substantially more (maybe double, just guess-timating) than the aluminum straight six Datsun head, even with the valve train, cam, and everything else on it. The emphasis on light weight of course makes sense given the purpose of the car and motor are for sports and GT driving with lots of turns, etc. as opposed to brute drag-race acceleration. But, it was one of those moments you get as you rebuild a car where you can really appreciate the massive amount of thinking and design that was put into the machine.

So, I was wondering: What's the heaviest or most awkward auto/truck piece you've worked with? I'm guessing someone will have a good story involving a diesel something-or-other...

Dave

 

I haven't had any huge machines... but I did have to swap a tranny w/ transfer case out of my lifted 4runner... nothing more fun than dropping 400lbs 3 feet down, then realizing ya gotta manually put it back up in a few minutes.

 

I work on these on a just about daily basis >

http://ohe.cat.com/cda/layout?m=85523&x=7

 

Now *that's* a motor! It's really amazing how much torque comes out of modern heavy diesels, and just how, well, heavy they are. Guess they kind of have to be to handle both the high compression and the high torque. How much does that head weigh? I'm guessing you have to use a hoist to remove it?
Dave

 

Well, so far my Z engine is the worst, but it's also the only engine I've actually taken apart. Quick question though, When you take off the front cover of an L28, Do you need to take out the oil pan? If so, how do you do this. I have to reset my tensioner and timing, so I need the front off.

 

Just did that last week. In theory, you might be able to get the front cover off without totally removing the oil pan. You will have to undo a few oil pan bolts, though, which do go into the bottom edge of the front cover, along with the obvious ones, and the two not-obvious ones that go down from the head into the top of the cover. There's no way mine would have come off this way, though. Some previous owner or would-be mechanic used a rubber pan gasket and enough sealer to pretty effectively glue the pan and cover together. Along with the two dowels for the cover, plus the head and head gasket, there just wasn't enough room to effectively fight the "stickiness" of the installation without risk of getting so aggressive as to damage something. In my case, it didn't matter as I had to completely strip the block for hot-tanking anyway. But in your case, it couldn't hurt to try. If you end up taking the pan off, it's not the worst thing in the world. It's kind of messy, but it's otherwise just a lot of bolts (don't mix up the long ones for the spreader plates and the short ones for the lengths of bare pan flange). Besides, it gives you a good chance to clean out the worst accumulations of sludge and nastiness that has surely accumulated in their over the years. Or to just buy the NISMO upgrade pan (it's only like $700 or something, right?) :-)
good luck,
Dave

 

the largest thing I've worked on was a 501ci GM out of a 70's cadillac. My friend is dropping it into his 58 biscayne, so we're building a hot rod

 

I saw you ask this same question on ClassicZcars.com, and I don't know if you read my long post, but here's the link in case you hadn't.

http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/s...1&postcount=31

For anyone who doesn't know about it, since I've had to tear into my Z engine over and over and over again, I wrote up a post describing in detail how to take the front cover off...etc...and how to put the head back on. It's a good read, trust me!

 

That's a great post, Jeremy! The pictures particularly. That's a nice looking motor (I like that block-off plate particularly). Glad to see yours came together after all the effort you had to put into it.
That caddy/biscayne swap reminds me of the old B52's song lyric about a Chrysler, "it's big as a whale, and it's about to set sail!" Big old cars a lot of fun. Any pics of it?
Dave

 

That's nice Jeremy! Does this mean your coming to NV to help decorate the pavement?

 

that's not my motor though...I just referenced the pictures. Good news is that the motor runs like a top now, with the new head and all. Bad news is that the oil control rings on the block I was given are bad, because it eats oil like crazy. I tried lucas additive, and the motor just ate through that as well. I was given $200 for Christmas from my dad to put towards my lower end rebuild (new rings, main and rod bearings, gaskets, etc) so I hope to have some money accumulated by this summer so that I can make her run.

 

I'll have to take pics of his biscayne sometime later. the car is two tone, white and baby blue, four door. I think it's pretty sexy the way it is now, but my friend wants to completely redo everything. But hey, it's his car, we'll make it bad *** reguardless of what we do!

 

The biggest thing I've ever worked on is my MCI 8 (its a tour bus). I bought it to convert to an RV and I've had to do some work on the engine. I hope I don't ever have to pull it out, since the engine's heavier (and bigger) than my entire 260! Its got a Detroit 8V71 supercharged engine in it. They weigh about 2400 lbs WITHOUT the transmission! Its got some big freakin' nuts on it! (no, really - lol)

 

How does 2,300 tons and 108,000 hp sound? No, I didn't work on it, but it's still a hoot:

http://www.bath.ac.uk/~ccsshb/12cyl/

 

Diesel's are too cool. My sympathies on working on the tour bus! When my friend decided to replace the stock dual fuel engine in his surplus deuce-and-a-half with a new Cat turbodiesel, he ended up renting a fork lift to use for half a day as an engine hoist. It does work very nicely, though!
I really like the ship motor... a crankcase with ladders for access. And I thought it was easy to get at all the parts on an S30!
I haven't yet seen a photo of the new diesel motor from Audi. Rumor was they were going to run a car with it at LeMans this year?
Dave

 

Found a link to the Audi motor, if anyone's interested.
http://www.audi.com/audi/com/en1/exp...sport/r10.html