wasoncebroken

never mind we traced it to 5 pin a relay at the fuse box....

Mike, Your expertise on these vehicles is invaluable and if you were local, you and your lady would be having dinner on me. Alright, we've started it up and discovered we have no power going to both, the choke thermostat and obviously the idle control valve since they're both on the same circuit and I don't have a wiring diagram to trace it - is there a relay or perhaps a thermo-time switch? Joe

Alright gents.We removed the intake and exhaust valves on the old head and all of the faces and seats are in remarkably good shape with no evidence of pounding and/or receding - also the guides and valve stems were in equally good shape with negligible radial wobble when inserted as little as 15-20mm into the guides from below so I've dropped it off to be checked for cracks and resurfaced requesting the absolute minimum of material to be removed - just enough to clean up any warp which might exist . We've removed the timing cover, preparing the surfaces and are now awaiting the shops call after which we'll seat the valves (though probably unnecessary) here at home with valve grinding compound and a hand dowel with suction cups. I DO have a factory shop manual which I purchased on eBay and unfortunately I just discovered its well used with many of the related pages heavily greased and unreadable. Can someone please guide me to an appropriate site showing cam timing marks as well as Ignition distributor clocking and corresponding firing order plug wire orientation. I didn't bother taking notes as I figured (incorrectly) I'd be able to use the shop manual. again, and with profound thanks - Joe

Considering these are emission compliant powerplants fitted with both EGR as well as pulse air, combined with a system calibrated carburetor (I have a new OEM carb in the box I'd like to employ as well) - I tend to agree with Mike. I'm incapable of out-engineering Nissan and if they utilized a close loop system with ignition control on the higher compression variant then I believe any adjustments of the current components for satisfactory overall performance - regardless of fuel used would be an effort in futility. However, I certainly do appreciate your input and did give it some thought flatcat19. Thank you both. best, Joe

I just sent the seller a message citing the information you've provided and yes indeed you're absolutely correct - the seller specifically listed the head as: "Nissan Datsun Truck Z22 D21 720 rebuilt cylinder head 2.2 2.2L 80-93" Price was $174.95 with $35 for shipping. It was obviously incorrectly listed, however I purchased it March 31st but haven't had a chance to do the R&R until now and the seller notes: "30 days money back - buyer pays return shipping" I'll see how they handle this, hopefully and particularly because it was incorrectly listed they'll resolve the issue without conflict. best Joe

uh-oh. Not good news. This head was purchased off of eBay and there are no returns. I looked around for quite some time and couldn't locate a z22 head until this one showed up. I suppose I'll have to have my old head checked for cracks, warpage, and then a valve job. Thank you, as always - for this valuable info! best, Joe

Alright gentlemen, we've removed the head to find, as suspected - a blown out head gasket (fire ring) at the #1 cylinder with the accompanying steam cleaned piston crown and combustion chamber. The bores still have a reasonable cross hatch and I can't feel any significant ridge using the fingernail test. The piston tops have a large '2' followed by a small consecutive '3' up near the front reference notch so I don't know if it's been overbored or not - I'm certain one of you will know. I do have another, more pressing question though. We compared the old and reman head side by side and found a couple of significant differences. The head we removed looks almost identical to the reman except for - what appears to be some kind of unused, threaded sensor boss at the #1 cylinder exhaust side sparkplug access window, whereas the reman head has no such boss. Secondly and most importantly - The combustion chamber volume is significantly different between the two in that the reman head has virtually no ledge or step from the deck to the valve seat. The old head has a good .040+ (if not more) Then we realized the casting numbers are different which obviously indicates a different, perhaps earlier/later z22 application? Our old head has casting code T83 whereas the reman is a W04. Now, I'm no mechanical engineer but DO know if the W04 head was surfaced to the point of eliminating that ledge then a tensioner issue is imminent, unless of course a head gasket shim is available to offset the difference? We're once again turning to your collective expertise for clarification and much valued advice. a most appreciative thank you in advance. Joe

Excellent info as expected and very much appreciated, thank you!

Figured as much. Thank you

Hello distinguished, knowledgeable, Nissan enthusiast's, It's been quite a while since I last visited and an issue requiring your expertise has once again surfaced, though I believe I know the answer - Please bear with me as I submit an rather lengthy explanation of the situation: I've finally decided to R&R the cylinder head on my '82 720 (Z22 w/3 speed automatic - California smog) which has been sitting in storage for a couple of years. Prior to storage I'd accumulated about 6k miles since inheriting the truck and would notice a plume of white smoke emanating from the tailpipe, now - this wasn't a daily nor mileage dependent occurrence. It was totally random. I never bothered pressure testing the cooling system to check for pressure bleed down or pulling plugs while cranking in search of coolant vapor/mist. I didn't have any evidence of chocolate milk-like emulsified oil when I pulled the valve cover for a valve adjustment, though another telltale symptom was intermittent hitting on 3 cylinders - but - this didn't coincide with the white smoke. It would randomly run on 3 cylinders for only a few seconds then revert back to running normally on all 4. New Cap and Rotor with new NGK plugs and wires so its highly unlikely for the ignition to be the culprit. Also, I never noticed the temp gauge show it as running hot. I also entertained the thought of a failed/failing transmission vacuum modulator as the odor didn't have any coolant sweetness to it, nor did it smell like motor oil. If anything, it smelled more like ATF than anything else. Anyhow, I chalked it up to a failing head gasket, perhaps not a catastrophic failure but one on its way out be it due to electrolysis or perhaps an unbeknownst to me prior overheat incident. So, the truck was parked while I looked around for a replacement, remanufactured, cylinder head just in case mine came back from the shop as being cracked. I also found a new (not rebuilt) OEM carburetor and slowly acquired the necessary parts, gaskets, hoses, etc. for the R&R. I figured this would be a creative, instructive project to undertake with my 15 year old son so yesterday, we started getting everything stripped down ready to finally remove the head and finally - here is the question I believe I know the answer to. I specifically instructed Bill (my son) to wedge a wooden V block I'd made, in place down in the timing cover cavity before pulling the cam gear with all marks lined up and crank at '0' - anyhow, while I was busy answering a phone call he didn't properly wedge the block in place and now, obviously, the tensioner is at its end of travel. Now, the timing cover, all associated components (oil pan, etc) are covered in 34 years worth of caked on grime. Is there any way to get the tensioner to bleed down enough to reinstall the cam gear once we R&R the head or do we now have to pull everything apart, i.e. remove timing cover, tensioner, etc? As I mentioned, I believe I know the answer but perhaps there's a better way? Thank you in advance for your valued responses. Joe

Hello folks - First off, thank you kindly in advance for providing the know-how and guidance for these vehicles. I've recently been gifted with a Datsun 720 kingcab. It's fitted with the Nap-Z 2.2 liter carbureted motor behind a three speed (what appears to be a Borg Warner) automatic transmission. It runs good, however, the three speed makes for a high revver at highway speeds. I've fitted 16 inch Toyota P/U wheels with 205/65 tires and that certainly helped quite a bit but its still not all comfortable cruising at 70+ highway speeds which are so common these days, so here's my question. Ultimately, I'd prefer a complete motor/trans conversion to a later model but want to keep any associated hassles in doing so to an absolute minimum. If, for example, a viable option included a later F.I.'d 2.4 or even V6 Nissan powertrain. I could handle that without issue as long as it was simple and didn't require a month of Sundays rewiring everything. Another thought was installing a later 4 speed auto (it must remain an automatic) with lock-up converter which would lower the revs, increase comfortable highway cruising speeds and fuel mileage simultaneously. Can I just swap in a later trans as a bolt-in? I'm in California so smog legality is imperative. A decade plus ago I helped a friend convert his '77 chevy luv pickup to a complete buick/olds 231 V6 and as long as ALL smog components (Including cat converter) were in place (and the powerplant was from a later model year) - it was no problem. He still drives it on a daily basis and its accumulated well over 160k miles over the years. In my case - I prefer keeping it Nissan. Again, thank you for your knowledgeable opinions and advice. regards, Joe