New To the 720 crowd..

[DaveZilla]

All Z22s got the cast rocker covers even the ones in the S110. (200sx) The Z20 and Z24s in the 720 got the stamped steel covers. Interchangeable but the bolts are specific to the cover used.

 

That's good to know, I've really not paid a lot of attention to the Z series engines until I got one in my 720... I pretty much thought all the truck engines came with the stamped steel covers and the cars came with the cast aluminum. I may have to visit the pick and pulls a little more often and see if I can get the aluminum one for mine... Even tho I'm also thinking about putting a KA head on the Z block eventually, maybe at overhaul time.

[nismo24096]

One step closer.. got the truck tax, tagged, and titled today...and got my pretty blue antique tag for it...lol 

[nismo24096]

Well today I spent a little time cleaning up the engine bay, mainly just removing all the now unhooked and unnecessary vacuum lines. and emissions crap, I polished up the copper radiator and I love the look of it bare metal..so cool looking. I was also looking at where and how Im going to lengthen and tuck all the engine bay wires. and maybe rerun the break hard lines also. with just the one vac line off the carb hooked to the distributor advance port, I reset the carb and it idles smooth at around 800 now. and she runs good.  I do however need to get a new center carrier bearing for the drive shaft as mine is toast..and im sure me slamming through the gears today didn't help it out either..but this is turning out to be such a fun little project truck... I will post some pictures later on since it got dark on me today..

[DaveZilla]

Sounds good... I wanna see some pics tho.. polishing the radiator top is an easy way to improve the looks under the hood as well as tucking the wires, and running the brake and clutch lines behind the firewall will definitely clean up the under hood scene. Glad to hear your truck is running nice and smooth with the Weber too. This would also be a good time to put in a one piece driveshaft if you can get one made or have yours welded up by a driveshaft shop to eliminate the carrier bearing.  My 300zx blew the carrier bearing and it still took off smooth and all but had this weird resonance I could hear and feel when cruising at speed, luckily the carrier bearing bracket acted like a safety loop until I got a one piece for it, but it was quite toasted when I took it out.

 

I got my new clutch installed last week and it works silky smooth (it also had the wrong slave cylinder installed and I found that out when I was putting it back on and CRACK!!! one of the mounting ears broke off while torquing it, then the clutch line was also wrong but I was able to borrow the one off my 300zx until I can get the right one for the truck) but hadn't had the chance to really try it out because right when I was gonna test drive it and put it thru it's paces I notice a small puddle of water on the ground and found the water pump to be leaking out the weep hole, I got a new water pump yesterday but didn't have the time to put it on so hopefully tonight.

[nismo24096]

Ok so here is what it looked like before I started working on it today.

 

 

Then I pulled the engine bay harness out and started to get it sorted out.

 

 

all the blue  you see is painters tape with the label of what it goes to and which side..lol trying to plan ahead on this...

 

removing all the nasty brown crap that was all over the fenders and back wall.  as well as some of the worst rust on the battery tray.

 

also took the cover off to start cleaning it up more and getting it ready for paint.  supprised at how clean this thing is on the inside. shes got over 170,000 on her.

 

the cover..I will fill whats left of the screw holes on the top. ground them down for a smoother look.

 

and this is where I called it a day...just shot some primer on what I could.. I plan on taking the brake booster out to detail it and that area. as well as taking all the belts and accessories off the motor to detail and paint them.  I have a pretty good plan on how I am going to route all the wires to tuck them from view.

 

 

Shes coming along slowly but surely....

[DaveZilla]

That makes a huge difference... it'll look way better after painted of course, but it's off to a great start.

have you decided where to route the wiring in order to get it all out of sight yet?

[nismo24096]

Yeah i got a pretty good idea on how i want to run everything..i will be picking up some wire sleeves in a few days...And extra wiring in case i have to extend anything. Big question is what color to paint the bay and valve cover.

[nismo24096]

Ok not a lot of new progress but some, things I did today are as follows, pulled and flushed the radiator, it needed it..next I will do the motor, pulled the fan off to clean it and cleaned the pullies I will be taking them off later to paint them..pulled the fenders back off to clean up some more and confirm the routing for my wires. next is to get wire looms and push clips to mount them.if all goes well the only two wires that you will be able to see are the two wires that actually hook to the battery itself. all the transmission and starter wiring will be run low in the bay near the  frame rails and will not be seen. the wires for the wiper motor will actually be routed through the cowl and come out  right beside the motor. which will get a custom cover to hide this. coil wires will also come in low and below the headlights and will not be seen.I have found a few old emissions  wireing stuff that were vacuum  related that will be deleted since the new carb does not utilize them.  and I have about three wires that have to be  lengthened a great deal to reroute them since I am running a large portion of the harness out the side fender. and the rest out near the transmission and they are joined by these three wires...also on some of the ground wires they all seem to tie into one main ground. my question is can I reground them to different locations on the frame and have them separated from each other..I plan on added more grounds through out the truck to make it better anyways... anyways on to the pics.

 

 

ps im still trying to figure out what color to paint my engine bay.. most likely black will be what I do..

[datzenmike]

It's not the carrier bearing that goes bad it's the rubber surround or isolator that splits or rots away. The rubber supports the driveshaft sleeve that has a bearing in it. The bearing has next to to load on it. When the rubber goes bad the driveshaft can go off center under load and it will groan or vibrate because this affects the u joint angles.

[nismo24096]

Yeah, but the bearings are sold with the rubber attached right. or can you just buy the rubber surround and press the old bearing into it.. seems easier to just buy the whole thing and replace it at one time.

[datzenmike]

Well if it comes with the bearing you may as well change it but it's usually the rubber that rotten.

[Demian720]

U gotta send me a how to on the wire tuck Lee lol looks great Sir keep up the good work ;-)

[nismo24096]

Small update, used some stainless steel stock I had at work to make the last of my egr block off plates,  fits like a glove and should work just fine...had to grind down some bolts to fit. but all is done and good.

[DaveZilla]

Nice job on the blockoff plate... I plan on doing the same thing with mine but I'll get mine back on the road first... Decided to do the fan clutch delete to my new water pump and go with an electric fan first since I needed to put a new water pump on mine before putting it back on the road. I'll take pics when I put everything back together... as well as a few other minor mods I've done while it's down.

[DaveZilla]

Color suggestion for the engine bay... Black always works, but what color do you plan on painting your truck when you get to that point? the reason I'm asking is because lighter colors work really good in the engine bay and you could even paint it all silver and be able to match just about any body color. I'm doing mine with the silver Rustoleum since it matches the factory silver so well, but I'll most likely be painting mine lime green and blacking out all the chrome on the exterior. I'm doing my interior in dark gray as well so it'll match any color I paint the outside, even if I change my mind later on, the interior and engine bay will still match.

[Mont]

Very cool truck man

[nismo24096]

Thanks Mont, been slacking lately and not had time to work on it..but I should be able to get some work done on it tomorrow...maybe.. :rolleyes: unless something comes up..mainly just want to get the wire tuck done so I can cross that off my list.

[Kins720]

Been checking this post since I joined the forums nismo, thanks for all the pics. I'm doing pretty much the same thing, although not as extensive as the wire tuck as of now. Can't wait to see how the end product turns out.

[nismo24096]

Ok made a little progress yesterday.. so I guess I need to update here..

 

First off. No more wires going through this hole. I will plug it prior to paint.

 

Ok so I seperated all the wires some more and cleaned them up.. there is a check plug which has a blue wire. blue and white striped wire, and a brown and a black wiire coming out of it.. this is over behind the drivers headlight area normally. you can remove all this excess and  put the plug inside the cab....mine will be mounted to the inner fender well so you can plug into it from the engine bay..also all the grounds run into one main ground..but they connect at really weird points and lenghts..so I cut them all free for the time being to straighten out the harness. I will then once everything is in place run one gound back connecting them all in again..but cleanly and with no slop..

dont mind the untapped wires..they will get a wire loom on them before finalizing it..still might need to extend some..so its exposed for that reason. any hoot. this is where I decided to exit the cab to the fender..just cut a little off the cover.. also the tapped wires you see going up into the cowl area is for the wiper motor controls. they will come out right at the plug and the whole motor will be covered with a beauty panel so you will see nothing.

 

This picture shows the U shaped cutout i made for the wire loom to run through at the end of the fender...

 

then the wires will travel under the front through this channel. right below where they went from the factory..now they will be hidden.

 

this is all the wires that connect to the transmission harness and engine harness. they will go behind the carpet and exit down near the heater core drain.

here

you can see the yellow wires from the engine harness and the trans plug in the pic..these will be routed below the fuel lines next to the frame rail. and covered in wire loom..you will not see them once done.

here is how i left it yesterday.. still debating on if I want to repair the ac...or just delete it.. and most likely I will leave the windshield washer tank out..as I never use the damn thing in any car I own..lol we shall see though.. brake lines are unattached at the moment so I can move them off the wall and paint it later.. still have to remove the brake booster and sand and repaint it...lots of work still to do.

and engine bay color is looking like a dark gray maybe with metallic in it..not sure. truck will more than likely end up white. 

as you can see the only two wires you will see besides the spark plug ones is the two for the battery. and I might relocate that to the bed or the extended cab with an external vent tube..not sure yet..

[DaveZilla]

Looking good!! Man it's amazing how much room is on top of the inner fenders once everything is removed...

That's gonna really look nice once finished

[Nissan_Boy85]

Just delete the A/C. It's not worth the fuss ;) Wire tuck and clean up looks amazing! Makes me want to do mine.

[nismo24096]

Well deleting it is still an option...but living in florida i might find myself regreting it later..but then again its not in working order right now so. I will either fix it or it goes bye bye..maybe just remove it all right now and Save the good parts then if i want to add it back later i can...

[DaveZilla]

The AC is not that difficult to fix... about 90% of them that aren't working just need a new expansion valve and reciever drier... Just be sure that nothing leaks and the compressor is in good shape, you can have it working with less than $100 in parts and freon.  I got a new expansion valve for like $17 and a new dryer for close to the same price, but I purged my system and converted it to R134 so I could still service it myself and it definitely makes summer driving much more tolerable

[nismo24096]

DaveZilla

 as far as the AC goes,  the hose to the dryer was broken off. and some other parts missing, pretty sure the compressor is good but it needs alot of tlc to get going again. as I stated before might just remove it all now. collect the parts needed and reinstall it later..after the truck is back going again. anyways here is what I got done today..

 

Remember the rust problem at the end of the bed where it meets the cab...

 

well guess whats gone...lol

 

cut out the whole section..after unbolting it from the top brace.

and ground  out all the welds.

 

the plan is simple. get some sheet metal bend the ends and top ..drill out the holes for these bolts and the ones from the top brace to bolt to and weld the bottom. if you look you can see there is just enough space between the bed bottom and the end for the metal to rest..

 

 

 

Like so..this is some spare stainless steel I had ..I will use regular sheet metal to do the finished product. I plan on using sheet metal on the insides of the bed also creating a double walled bed and putting a wood floor in it....I will lose some space but this is not going to be a heavy hauler anyways.. actually thinking of doing a blow thru truck box since Im half way there..lol and sealing the bed to the cab. and making the bed cover start about where the wheel wells start..and basically using 1/4 of the bed up front for a nice speaker box.. that way I keep all my inside the cab space....Damn I thinking of too much shit to do to this little truck...it may never get out of the in construction stage....lol 

[wayno]

This would be my opinion, but I would not connect the box to the cab unless you are ready to do a overkill connection job, you see the frame flexes as you drive your truck around on the roads, if you watch very closely while going over a speed bump or big pot hole, you will see the box moving independently of the cab, this happens all the time, if you weld a piece of metal between the cab and box on both sides, when you drive around it will flex, crack, and bend, you have to literally connect the outside, inside, bottom and top of the box to the cab to even have a chance of it working.

I reality, you should be able to lift the whole back of the truck from the frame from the back without any flex at all(see photo below).