i have a 1981 280ZX, an i am going to put a high performance cam in, an i was wondering if its hard to get to the cam in this car?

 

Is it hard to get to the cam in a 1981 280ZX {no turbo} to change it out for a high perfomrance cam??

 

Well,

First off, Welcome to ZDriver B-Rad!

Second, That was a question that should have been asked in the 280ZX Section and in the sub section for "Performance/Technical"

Anyway, The cam is fairly easy to get to. Removing it though is not exactly simple. First thing you need to do is buy a Haynes manual. It is a MUST have and will guide you through it.

Good Luck with the car!


Rod.

 

(moved to Tech)

 

you really need the book, but here it goes b-rad, cause your new. first remove accesory blower fan top, then the valve cover, then read the book, build the timing chain tool, then read the book, and find top dead center, line up the shiny links as described in the book, insert piece of wood, remove camshaft sproket,remove camshaft towers, remove rocker arms, so now you need the new cam, and without further adoo, you MUST use NEW rockers, no exceptions, they cost bout 300 from nissan, or you can buy a kit from msa. that being said, installation is reverse of removal. hope that helps, it should take someone with experiance bout 1.5 - 2.0 hours, including setting up the valves while done, cold first, then hot after the 25 minute cam break in period. read everything BEFORE starting, itll save the headache, and breakage of parts, and get all the tools you need first, you will require a torque wrench cause some of the bolts removed are the head bolts.

 

putting the cam back in is the fun part. Nothing like trying to balance an inline 6 bumpstick in a horizontally level position while trying to feed it through the journals in an engine compartment that just suddenly got a lot shorter now that you're trying to fit this 2.5 foot peice of metal back into its rightful home It helps to raise the front of the engine up a lil' bit to give you clearance with the radiator/core support.

 

my only tip for this is be carefull not to scratch the jurnals reall bad.