(continued from pg8)
When I returned home from the transmission gear oil change test drive, I pulled up in a CLOUD of oil smoke.
Like a'is something on fire?' level of smoke.
Immediately, I popped the hood, and found that crankcase pressure had forced the oil dipstick out.
TB had the rear main seal replaced when the car got a new clutch.
After that it was still leaking occasionally.
Tonight let me know that the rear main seal might still be good, and that my PCV valves and PCV limit orifices are probably gummed up or blocked.
The actual valves and the front hoses where the orifices live are OEM.
All together that just reinforces my plan to pull the upper intake off and check everything and reseal it all.
I might get lucky and cure a drivability issue or two at the same time.
Do seals, spark plugs, oil and temp senders... stuff like that.
Moving from the mechanical and wiring repair stuff, we thought that since we had the cabin torn apart we might go ahead and return the interior to 100% stock-ish.
We installed an early 2000's sony single din radio and a new Nissan shift knob. The Nissan shift knob is heavy and adds the right feel back to the shifter.
tb
Dork
3/18/25 8:05 a.m.
Nice work, looks great! Definitely nice to see you guys sort her out and fix her up. I miss being able to tinker but feel happy that I am not hoarding or ruining stuff.
I'm mostly set to make it to the Challenge so I hope to see you guys then!
Well we've gotten her pretty clean...
I'd say she's about a days worth of clay bar and machine buffing from being swirl free and at max gloss...
...not sure when that's gonna happen... so close. Lol
tb
Dork
3/19/25 5:12 p.m.
Looks good! Some previous owner of great taste and unchallenged virtue did the right thing with that oem hood ornament.
I think i still have the "bra" that came with the car if you ever want to make it look worse for some reason...
I seriously hope that the A/C still does something come summer.
In reply to tb :
The A/C is still chillin the most!
I just ran a basic review of the ecu inputs and the ecu coolant sensor reads 80c at all times.
The sensor looks pretty old and crusty so I'm going to skip diagnostic confirmation and go straight to parts flinging....
z1 is like Amazon... but for Nissans lol
Turns out that 80c is a dummy value that the ECU assumes when the ecu coolant temp sensor circuit is open.
The data stream still displays 80c as a value, but the ECU reports an ECU temp sensor open circuit error.
This should fix a LOT of wierdness... because the connection was coming and going due to corroded contacts at the sensor connector.
Another symptom is that the cooling fans run constantly when the ecu coolant temp circuit is open.
Love this build and wish one of my kids cared at all about a car. Z1 pops up whenever I'm looking for Armada parts, good luck with them so far.
tb said:
Some previous owner of great taste and unchallenged virtue did the right thing with that oem hood ornament.
This inspired me to give the back of the car the same oem treatment.
tb
Dork
3/20/25 1:40 p.m.
akylekoz said:
Love this build and wish one of my kids cared at all about a car. Z1 pops up whenever I'm looking for Armada parts, good luck with them so far.
I honestly thought i would keep this one another decade till my daughter could have it but it didn't work out that way. Totally cool that it is still a family project and I'm so glad I didn't park it and abandon it.
I will say that Z1 was always great to deal with; seem like good car people.
tb
Dork
3/20/25 1:45 p.m.
In reply to a_florida_man :
I found those decals in my garage not long ago... guess I never got around to putting them on... getting the gold metallic pin stripe tape off was my biggest priority iirc
Great minds think alike? Better off in your hands, though!
tb said:
In reply to a_florida_man :
I found those decals in my garage not long ago... guess I never got around to putting them on... getting the gold metallic pin stripe tape off was my biggest priority iirc
Great minds think alike? Better off in your hands, though!
Without the old wheels the gold pinstripe would have been odd. I'm happy you saved me from having to do that... lol
We have new parts for the oil pressure gauge. Like the temperature sensor, it commonly starts to send bad readings at this age.
Sometimes we have pressure on the gauge sometimes we don't. We are betting this will do the job.
And on a side note, since the transmission shifting is solved with the switch to MT90 gl4 gear oil... Jack has been driving it every day to school!
