phearless

Gotcha. When a rotary pops enough seals to expose the water jacket to combustion, the chambers go cold, and you end up with calcium deposit-looking stains on everything. Sorry about the accidental mis-info.

When I pulled my engine apart, I found the #3 cylinder had some wierd stuff going on. The white stains I assumed to be from coolant in the cylinder. But, then again, I am a recovering rotary addict, so maybe I need to re-learn a lot of my recip knowledge.

ash? you mean whitish stains? Pull your exhaust mani.... if those ports are stained white, too, you might have an exposed water jacket. White stains are tell-tale signs of coolant in the cylinders.

One more quick question, since I never bothered to learn this. Our engines are "wasted spark" ignition, right?

Is that old man Shinohara's "Devil"?

Thanks for the helpful/reassuring replies, Skib. If I make it out to the shop, this weekend, I'll have lots of pics and an update to sate your piclust.

Near as I can recall, that's how it ended up. Doesn't hurt to doublecheck, one more time, though.

If you're not a DIY type, I can build it for you. If you weren't all the way out in Cali, I'd just quote you a price and have you bring it to my "shop". My setup is pretty baller. I'll put a pic up, in a few.

The info was correct, though, right? Cylinder 1 @ TDC/both valves closed, is how most petrol engines go back together, but I know there are the occasional oddball procedures....

I will, however, add that if you haven't noticed, by now.... Ratsun is full of picwhores. Better have a camera handy, for this.... they will get out the pitchforks and torches if you don't sate their demands for megapixels.

Dude, we're all noobs, at some point. I rebuilt my first L6, when I was 12... the old L24 that my car came from the factory with, and now I'm getting my ass kicked by the L28ET I have in it, now. So, even experienced guys have to ask questions. You never stop learning. There are all sorts of fuel pumps out there. But I can't help you on that one, because I've got an aluminum fuel cell in my Zed, and I'm not sure what to do with an electronic pump on a stock gas tank. If you want to spend the money on that kind of setup (trust me.... worth it), I can tell you exactly how to do it, and even give you dimensions for building the mount (hope you can weld). As for the gasket... eBay it up, or toss out a Parts WTB ad, in the classifieds. Someone will have what you need. Go double-thick, or use a strong fuel-resistant sealant. You could also modify your exhaust mani so that there's a way to apply needed pressure to the bottom of the Cannon intake. If I sprink another intake leak, I'll probably go that route, and I'll be happy to post a walkthrough for how I did it.

Since the dizzy isn't run on points, that's my first suspicion, here. Darril's link gave me a good reference for how the shaft needs to be positioned. I'll give that a go, this weekend. If that doesn't work, does anyone have a good, clear pic of exactly what the valve positions need to be? I went off the simple info from the AllData document, and it seemed to coincide with the reference card for my Schneider cam... but just to be on the safe side, a good visual of how it needs to look would be much obliged. Bear in mind, this car ran like a dream, when I had stock 240Z SU carbs plugged into the engine.

The NA setup is temporary. I want to step up to a blow-through turbo, but I've never done that before, and I want to make sure I have everything right, before I attempt it.

Skib: basics are re-hashed. Fuel is flowing to all three carbs, all six plugs have been checked for spark. I went over every single bolt on the engine, multiple times to check torque, in phases so I was sure I wouldn't leave one just barely snugged. Every part went back on in reverse-order from my notes. I missed nothing. Darrel: No ECU, at all, except for what the dizzy requires. I went to NA with triple carbs, and ditched the fuel injection. And it was running just fine with 240Z carbs, before I got took the engine apart for a refresh, clean-out, and a P&P/valvetrain replacement, and waited on the new upgraded cam and carb rack. And the closest thing I could find to a factory service manual was the pathetic 15-page scanned document I pulled from AllData.

That's a relief to hear. Anyhow, it's an '83 L28ET. For the other question... yes, it cranks fine, but won't actually start. I'll take a video or something, so you guys can hear what it's doing. Unless, of course, re-doing the dizzy shaft fixes the issues.