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dashpot

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  1. rturbo930 - Yeah that's a good point. I actually had a 2+2 prior to this that started giving me all kinds of rust surprised I didn't see coming. I saw this one and DID see the slight rust on the paint around the window frame, but I didn't think it was this bad. At least I prepared for things to not necessarily go as planned. Thanks for the tip on the structural elements - I will give it a closer look tonight and reach out to a fabricator that has some interest in this project. Neverdone - I like the way you think. I actually have an almost identical spreadsheet as you describe. Even started plugging in websites today because I know I'll forget where I found parts. I'm not ready to plug in the "Total" SUM equation yet with the 1.5x multiplier. haha
  2. I've got the interior about 95% gutted and have run into the first significant rust. I could tell by the condition of the paint around the quarter-panel windows that there was some level of rust along the C-pillar (?). Got the windows out and wow... worse than I thought, especially passenger side (see pic). Of course I cut my palm open on it while removing some weatherstripping. I'll probably have to get someone with a bit more fabrication experience than myself to tackle this rust area. As much as I'd like to try, I can't afford to screw up this area. Besides that, nothing too exciting yet to report. Pulling engine soon, then hoping to find a rotisserie to start butchering and inspecting the underside before sending off to have the whole car blasted. I'm 99% on board with the LS1 swap, but am not focusing too strongly on it, as I have a lot of body stuff to do, and figure out the depth of "while you're in there" stuff to splurge on. With the amount of threads I'm reading, I keep forgetting what I read from a couple days prior, so it's time to hang a whiteboard in the garage. Might have to start erasing prices from my planned parts list as well
  3. Thanks Neverdone! I did see this build thread when first entertaining the idea. My biggest worry is getting knee deep in that swap and saying to hell with it due to trying to figure that out on top of the scope of the rest of the project. Granted, if I could pull it off, I would prefer this swap! I have a good buddy that says you can take the guibo slip yoke out and run a 1pc shaft. ECU can be taken care of with an AEM harness. Being that I don't know what a guibo slip yoke is off the top of my head, I'm a little skeptical that I should be delving into that level of creativity. If there's anyone in the Denver area that would get their jollies from mentoring me into making the S54 swap happen... neverending beer would be in store, but I'm not gonna count on that
  4. Hey Everyone, After months and months of consideration, my 1976 280z is getting a new life. I've had this car for 2 or 3 years and have had it mostly running, but keeping finding small anomalies that turn into more and more fixes, and more questions about what the POs were trying to do with it. Well, my OCD has had enough and it's time for me to know every square inch of this car and have it the way I want it. I'd like to share this project no matter how it turns out, whether it helps someone else, or any of you all want to throw in your 2 cents - I would appreciate some veteran knowledge. Wants: 300+bhp, decent handling, decent brakes, keep it classy looking with exception to wide-body mostly for grip, mostly stock looking interior with sound deadening and added comfort, a much cleaner wiring layout that's color-blind friendly. To achieve all this, I was initially trying to decide between an S54(M3) or LS swap. After some research I'm definitely leaning towards LS with my skill level and budget. I know there's nothing original about it, but I have enough battles to fight - I'm going to keep this part easy. I'm still debating between the 280yz or Subtlez kit, and may likely do YZ rear and Subtlez front - I'm not sure I really want to be running 10-12" wheels square. Budget? I don't have a solid number, mainly because I will take my time to do this right. IF this were to creep over $20k, I'm doing something wrong basically. I know there will be "while you're in there" costs, like bushing kits etc. At the moment I'm just tearing it all down and organizing everything in a separate room with bags and labels. I have some unknowns at this point to digest until I get to them - how I want to remove the paint (grind, sandblast, etc), sound deadening (dry ice chisel, sandblast?), and any remaining adhesives/insulation (sandblast?, chemical?). I read sandblasting the exterior could cause some warping issues, but I haven't dug that deep on that specific subject yet. Anyway, I'll keep this updated, and hope to learn a lot and help anyone else doing this as well. Thanks
  5. Hey All, Was driving my freshly "put together" 76 280Z (w/ 77 motor) around and I saw my temp gauge die out of nowhere. I checked the bullet connector at the sender (it was connected still), cleaned it up and can't get the reading back to the gauge still. I've read from other threads that a bad voltage regulator can cause this and oil pressure gauge to not function. My oil pressure gauge works fine. The sender and sensor are new, and coolant level is high enough. I'm no electrical guru, but I turned the key on and checked the voltage on the sender wire and grounded it and I get these pulse voltages of around 10 volts every second on my meter (0 to 10 consistently). I don't know if this is a check from the ECU. With not knowing what to make of the readings off the sender wire, I thought about the sensor or sender being bad. My idle at cold start is around 1200rpm, and as I drive the car around it slowly climbs up to 1800-1900rpm. Does this correlate with a faulty coolant system - heat -> resistance -> increase idle? I may be jumping to conclusions from this gauge going out but I'm pretty new to this and trying to understand related systems before yanking stuff and replacing new (my previous and expensive habit). If there are any tests anyone can recommend, I would appreciate it. Thanks!
  6. Hey All, Still working out numerous kinks as a noob on my 76 280z (w/ 77 motor). Latest project has been to wipe the bottom clean and watch for drips and fix so my garage doesn't always smell like fuel/oil. Among a couple various leaks, one that really has me scratching my head is a leak at the oil pump - where the gold color bolt is in line with the regulator spring (from what I understand from diagrams). Most forums related talk about leaks at the gasket/seal; I looked and looked and its dry above this bolt. There's always a drop of oil hanging off of that bolt, and apparently it has leaked for so long that it has coated most of the front end and drips down near my passenger wheel. I've cleaned this area up twice now and checked it the next morning and sure enough the front end it wet with oil and there's a drip hanging off that bolt. See the pic for the drop and you can see it drips down onto the front end below. Has anyone experienced this? It is a new oil pump installed 80 miles ago, and from my knowledge that bolt never gets messed with (I haven't at least). I think too much time has passed to get any help from the manufacturer on this. Being new to working on cars, if anyone can think of a no-brainer that I could be missing to resolve this I would appreciate it. I don't want to replace the oil pump again, especially with it in the car (wouldn't know where to start). Just for supporting info, the car runs and drives (has little quirks that still need fixing like climbing idle as it warms, etc), but oil pressure seems fine. Thanks in advance!
  7. Tony I think you're on point. I unfortunately had already butchered these and rebuilt them before I got any clear pictures (stupid on my part). I used better clamps than what they had on and am keeping a super close eye on things and so far so good. I got a few responses from the mfg that their engineers were looking into it and that they would send me replacements but they eventually went silent on it. It doesn't help that this aftermarket rail has slightly larger bars that after reassembly led to tapering my injector hoses again - but not nearly as bad. That's what I get for snaggin an aluminum fuel rail on ebay on a whim. Thanks guys!
  8. It is the brand of injectors I purchased from RockAuto (AIRTEX/WELLS Part # 4G1017) They come with a ~2" EFI hose that is crimped to the injector. I have them clamped to an aftermarket fuel rail. The hose failed at the clamp connecting it to the fuel rail by forming a tear next to the clamp. The tear is slightly diagonal from the edge of the clamp. The fuel rail has slightly bigger barbs than the stock rail but the hose still fits on the aftermarket rail fine and can still be clamped with the same size clamps used on the stock rail. I contacted RockAuto to see if they've had folks report similar issues with this injector and am waiting for a response from them.
  9. Hello All, I had a frightening moment with my '77 280Z after replacing old fuel hoses. I started it up and one of the injectors with the factory crimped hoses tore and started spraying fuel down on my headers. Luckily there was no fire and I had an extinguisher in hand. What has me really disturbed about this is that I purchased these injectors last year and they've only been running on the car for a total of maybe 2 hours at most. My fuel pressure doesn't exceed 40psi (have a mounted gauge). I replaced the hose on this injector, which is described in other threads on this topic. I don't have a concern with replacing the other 5 injector hoses, but I would rather trust that the manufacturer of the injectors knew what they were doing and there's something I should be aware of to prevent risk of a future fire. The tear happened just below the hose clamp (flat banded clamp). The clamp was pretty tight but didn't seem extreme. When looking at the 5 remaining hoses, they appear to get skinny in the middle like they're under serious vacuum. The outsides look in perfect shape but I'm a little concerned with the shape is all. I purchased all injectors at the same time so I can assume I would experience this issue at any point with the others. Has anyone else had a similar experience to this? I would typically replace and test on most things but I don't want to repeat my last experience. Thanks
  10. Thanks guys, The shifter bushings look good. There's a fair amount of play in the stick but I expected that (not knowing how much is normal from a 40 year old car). Once I get time I will check for the plate on top as mentioned by Six_Shooter. I did, however, have a moment to run out and snap a picture of the speedo cable area as mentioned by NewZed. If that indeed is a 100% way to tell the trans apart, mine matches the pic on the left (4 speed). Now that I feel like the ultimate moron, I will try lookin for that top plate to verify, as well as contacting the PO to try and figure out what happened. I don't know how that was missed, but I can't argue with what it is. At least with swapping the motor (goal all along) it was easier to leave the trans attached (working on all the explanations for my buddies that helped me with this project.. hahaha). I'll post up any other evidence I find that verifies for sure what trans this is. Thanks again.
  11. The lever doesn't go into 5th. So it's not like it's grinding or anything, more like hitting a "wall". The lever also takes about double the force to move to the right side (5th, R) than the left (1st, 2nd) if that means anything. I trust the guy I bought it from that it's a 5 speed and I'm pretty positive I ran it through the gears to verify at a stop (the car it came from was never really driveable). In other words I would be astonished if this was not a 5 speed, but I'd be lying if I said I hadn't missed something like this before - especially with this being so long ago. It didn't have a factory knob on it ever... some aftermarket hideous wooden ball. Are there any part numbers visible with it mounted to the car I can do a sanity check on (now that I'm paranoid)? If this is indeed a 5 speed, would you expect both 5th and reverse to work the same/not at all? Thank you
  12. Hey All, I've searched all over for this topic and can't quite find what I'm looking for. Part of it may be my being green in the drivetrain area. I took a 76 280z (CA) and put the motor and 5spd from a 77 280z (2+2) in. After getting everything in place, the car drives and goes through gears 1-4 okay. It won't go into 5th no matter what and has a little trouble with reverse. From what I've read this sounds like a shift fork replacement is in order. I don't see any interference issues with the shifter and tunnel. 1) Would you put your money on this needing a fork replacement? 2) If so, I assume this requires pulling the trans... I'm a little hesitant with my skill level to make any assumptions at this point and start dissecting 3) Any guides or advice on approaching this? Note: I do have the 4 speed I pulled out of the car if there is anything I can use from it. Sorry for the naivety... I'm dying to finally get some summer fun out of this thing. Thanks!
  13. Thanks for the response. I lubed up all the linkage bits and ran the car. I have the same symptoms. I did notice, like you said, if I pull back on the throttle pedal that it budges maybe 2-3mm and my revs drop around 100rpm. I don't think it's the main issue, but it's a good point and one I'll watch out for. I might bend that retracting spring behind the pedal a little bit out so it has more umph in restoring the pedal to the fully "up" position. Regarding the 800-900rpm idle - I should have mentioned I had my idle screw turned waaay in to compensate for the high idle while driving. With the idle screw turned out to 6 turns from fully in, my revs are around 1300rpm on start-up cold. I don't know if that's normal or not. This, in turn, means when the car was warm today and I was at a stop light, I was steady at 2k rpm idle and could only bring it down to maybe 1700-1800 by semi-stalling it. Some more background - I actually installed the engine with some help from a couple of friends. I pulled this engine from a 77 2+2 after confirming the motor was good and basic function was fine after replacing some old parts and cleaning out the fuel system. Since the body was rusted out I swapped it and a 5spd into this new body. I admit, the list of "what to consider next time" is pretty long, as this was my first project. I can say though that at this stage, I have had a lot of help from non-Z familiar folks to get the basics pretty nailed down on this car. The AAR is actually one of the few things left that I have not considered/researched. I have the original L28 from this car I could try pulling the AAR off of and swapping to see if anything improves. Would you recommend this before digging into the throttle body or BCDD? Thanks
  14. Hello, I have a 77 280z powering a 76 280z cali chassis. This is my real car project and I feel I'm getting close to having this thing as a reliable daily driver. My issues is this: When starting my car, it idles around 800-900rpm and once I get going it starts to float up around 1200rpm. Once the car is warm I can easily find myself at a stoplight idling at 2k rpm. Now, if I leave the car in gear and basically bog it down (let the clutch partway out with the brake on), I can bring the idle down to anywhere I want between 1k-2k rpm. It is strange that it stabilizes wherever I "set" it. Besides this, the car seems to have plenty of power and no other noticeable faults in engine function. This is what seems to set my issues apart (i think) from the hundreds of high idle thread most people are having. Is there something related to the heating up of the motor or FI system that is causing this? FYI - Car lives at 6k feet. The timing is set correctly. Proper AFM function (checked all resistance levels). I've looked over the vacuum lines to the best of my knowledge - my latest breakthrough was moving the vac advance line from intake mani to the throttle body which fixed numerous idle/power issues. Did a vacuum "delete" to just run the basics. Fuel and oil pressure are good. Does this sound like faulty BCDD function or faulty cold start (stuck open)? I have the FSM and FI Bible for those that suggest it - there just may be something I'm not getting. Thanks in advance. Rock the Dashpot
  15. Maybe not what you're looking to do, but I am in the Denver area and have a spare L28 laying around that I would be willing to get rid of for pretty cheap. The compression numbers aren't fantastic on it but it's fuel injected (1976) and I would be willing to help you troubleshoot your way through it if you are interested. I'm just learning myself and am a year in on my 77 280z. Best of luck!
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