1982 Datsun Pickup Z22s engine Extra Cab automatic

[danarello]

Hello Datsun Enthusiasts,

I'm new to this forum. My brother-in-law just bought a 1982 Datsun Pickup. We knew the engine had an unknown issue. Upon further inspection, we believe the engine needs to be replaced. It recently had the head removed, and the timing chain was very loose. It makes lots of racket when driven above 50 mph. We checked the valve lash and adjusted all to 0.012 (hot engine). Very difficult to turn over engine by hand. Something is not right internally. Does anyone know where we can acquire a new or used engine, long block that will fit in that vehicle? It could be a Z22s engine or a newer version that would work. Thank you.

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

Down in SoCal you shouldn't have a hard time finding a machine shop that can rebuild it.

 

There are a few things that might make it hard to turn over by hand. Not many of them good. New rings can make it very tight. When you had the head off, did you look down the bores? How did they look?

 

BTW, there is a 720 section for these later trucks.

[Charlie69]

Check that the hydrauilc chain tensioner is positioned correctly and also the top chain guide is slotted and might need to be adjusted to take slack out of the chain.

 

You might be able to replace the timing gears, chain, chain guides, and tensoiner to fix the problem.

Here is a picture of al the parts you will want to replace.

 

[datzenmike]

Loose timing chain? before or after the head was changed? If after then whoever did the work didn't know what they were doing and let the tensioner slip out. This is quite possibly what's wrong under the timing cover...

 

 

If the timing chain below the cam sprocket on the passenger side is loose and floppy then it's out.  Buy a quality timing set and take it back and tell them to fix it with new parts. Cheaper to do this than an unknown engine with it's own problems.