rundwark

Sorry to resurrect an ancient thread, but I'm faced with the same problem. Have 11mm steering arms, need to fit them on 14mm ball joints and can't find a used set for the 14mm ball joints. Reese, did you follow through with reaming the tapered holes and did it work? TIA!

haha, that's me :) small world!

Ran into a very clean red 4-door 510 with historic plates on US 101 north today, I was driving my silver gray 240Z. See pics, clearly he got me on camera too:

Hey all, a quick update: I have the engine back. Like I wrote earlier, the seller offered me a full refund right away, but I asked him to check out the engine and see if it's worth fixing instead. If it is, he still has an engine he wants to sell and it's still an engine I want to buy. He tore the block down and it turned out to be a problem with the #3 rod bearing. The whole idea was: if we can rebuild it at a reasonable cost, we'd do it at his expense, and if not, he'd give me my money back. After getting quotes from the machine shop, we decided to move forward with the rebuild. He had the crank and that one rod reconditioned, honed the cylinders, and reassembled the engine with new pistons rings and new rod and main bearings. Along the way, we exchanged lots of pics and ideas over email, and learned that the crank's knife-edged and the Ross forged pistons have a bit of a dome to them, giving us more confidence the engine's worth saving. I installed it yesterday (with a fresh oil pump), put on all the ancillaries today, and fired it up tonight:

Thanks Hainz! I left them both on but it sure is tight getting the engine out, or worse, back in. Especially the water pump. I don't think I could've pulled it off without the leveler on the hoist for the tiniest little adjustments to get those extra needed millimeters on each side.

Totally agree. He's a stand-up guy. I'll keep you all posted on the progress, thanks for all the advice so far. I'll definitely ask him to take pictures of everything.

Alright, all loaded up again. Upside, the second engine pull took me only 3 hours and change to do, instead of an eternity like the first time :)

Just got off the phone with seller and we've worked out something great. Instead of taking him up on the offer to nullify the sale, I'm going to have him take a look at the engine first. If it can be fixed for reasonable cost, he'll fix it at his expense, and if not he'll still give me a full refund.

Seller has contacted me and offered to let me return the engine plus all ancillaries for a full refund.

I bought the engine from another member here and I'm absolutely positive he didn't sell me the engine knowing it had this problem. That said, it's still a real bummer. The old engine has a snapped cam, and the bottom end seems to have coolant flow issues and is just overall tired, but no serious mechanical problems so far. The new engine was built by Rebello, has an A87 peanut head with a higher lift cam, stiffer valve springs and a spray bar setup. Maybe I can get the old bottom end rebuilt and put the new head on it..

Based on some googling, apparently when a rod bearing goes bad, the extra play can be enough to let the piston "kiss" the head, and the plug on its way there.. I had a serious WTF moment too when I pulled that plug and saw it was all mangled.

Thanks Mike. Definitely not driving it while it sounds like this. Is replacing the bearing simply a matter of dropping the oil pan, taking off the cap for the #3 rod and replacing the bearing shells, lubing them up and reattaching everything? Or am I missing something complicated that'll require me to tear the entire engine down?

I just found out cyl 3 is the problem. The piston seems to be hitting the spark plug, to the point that it closed the plug gap?!

https://youtu.be/UXSmWmSGa3E Maybe this will work

I just installed a different engine in my 510, but sadly it makes a terrible noise when I run it. Primed the oil circuit before starting and started it up. Check out the video to hear what it sounds like. Not what I was hoping for. Does anyone here recognize the noise? https://youtu.be/UXSmWmSGa3 Details: - makes no noise when just cranking with disabled spark, but noise is very loud when running - doesn't go away with engine warming up, it does seem to get a little less at low RPMs when warm - doesn't seem to change with any one spark lead disconnected - I adjusted the valves - the engine hasn't run for many years prior to installing it