I copied my thread from a local car forum so ignore anything that may not make sense (ie reference to people not on this board).

That's right, a week and half ago my car finally rolled out of the garage under it's own power. This is the first time it has moved under it's own power in over a year now. Some of you may remember when I posted the original thread after I bought the car but, here is some backround on it anyway.

The car is a 1979 Datsun 280zx 2+2 5-speed with 78,803 original miles on it. I bought it from a friend for an extremely low price because it had a blown headgasket and he was soon to go into the Marines. At the time I had my 1980 280zx so I wasn't in a rush to fix the car, instead I had planned on taking my time and saving enough money to have the head rebuilt, and purchase several new parts but, because of the wreck on 12.20.05 that totaled my Z I was forced to try and finish the car without doing it the proper way.

I'll be honest, 70% of the time I walked out to the garage and became discouraged just looking at the car so I might pull off one or two things and go back inside, before this I had never gone further into any motor than taking off my valve cover so, needless to say I had a general idea of what needed to be done but, no experience. There were several weekends when I actually made quite a bit of progress in short time but, still I was lazy regardless, the biggest break through was when Jared and a few other people had come over and we finally pulled the head off with both manifolds still attached. After removing the head I knew most of the work would be downhill but, it was a simple misunderstanding between a friend of mine that kept my car from running after everything had been put together.

See, I don't know how many engines are like this but, the L series motor has a cam gear that can be adjusted into three different positions (1,2,3) to adjust for chain stretch, 1 being stock, 2 being moderate, 3 being a decent amount of stretch. With a brand new chain, a cam gear adjust at either 2 or 3 can increase torque or horsepower depending on your wants.
Anyways, I had the cam gear itself set to the #1 position but, my friend bleach thought I had it set to #3 position so he told me to be sure that I lined up the bright link with the #3 on the exterior of the gear, not having done this before I didn't think anything of it and went along and did that. Basically, I the car would start once every twenty attempts and I was stumped, I went through everything but, it wasn't until I posted pictures on Zdriver and we got on the topic somehow of the gear position that we figured it out, valves not opening at the right time would keep a car from running?! who knew? haha.

By now Im sure nobody would be surprised that I had plenty of experience pulling parts off of the motor so in around 2.5 hours I had the cam cover off, fan, radiator, water pump, alternator, a/c compressor, p/s pump, spark plugs, wires, distributor, oil pump, shaft, crank pulley, and front cover off. Took my time the next day and put everything back together properly and VOILA starts on the first try and holds idle.

Now, Im working out of a few issues, setting the timing and some electrical issues, if i plug in the cold start valve or the head temperature sensor the car will stumble and eventually stall. Also, I have a small but annoying oil leak that I have to deal with but, other than that the car drives and runs great. In two months or so I might pull the head again (now that I have the experience) and send it off to be machined and taken care of properly.

The biggest future plan I have for the car is a V8 swap, I don't think Im patient enough to save up six months for a LS1 nor am I worthy of one, everyone seems to hate the LT1 now (that was my original plan) so, Im really not sure which direction to take, Im not looking for any extreme power, just enough to take care of C4's, Z28's, and GTs (I know I know, most of you guys think those cars are child's play but, for a car that had 132 hp stock, it's a pipe dream). Im hoping for some input from Dan, Paul, Ian or well, anyone else, since I know you guys have plenty of knowledge and experience with either of these motors.

Currently, my computer is taken down in another bedroom so I can't get to my pictures but, I will be updating with pictures of the car and progress

Okay so it turns out I had some on photobucket,

 

Timing is now set and the car runs and drives beautifully, I got on it a little bit around the neighborhood, nothing past 4k though and the engine feels about as torquey as it should be. I have new plugs to go in -thank you daniel- and plan on a few other things to get it in shape, ie adjust the valves but, one thing is worrying me, I have a black liquid like substance coming from the exhaust that hits the ground and turns to sut (sp) but it's only when I tapped the throttle kind of hard, I haven't confirmed if it still does it now that the timing is set though.

 

Congrats

 

Could be your catylitic convertor being shot. Also could contribute to you running rich. That is what I found out, when I was trying to dial my Z for emissions. By the way I have an '82 n/a

 

Thanks guys