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I'm a bit stuck and not sure the best direction to move with my swap, hoping someone can help me figure out where my problem is. I've got a 2jz ge that im swapping into a 280z, im going the nat route with an aristo gte ecu. I reworked the wire harness and got the the point of startup, but it only cranks and doesn't fire. I wired a check engine light and got a "1..2.." code. So I checked the crank position plug and was getting continuity from the two terminals on the plug. Thought maybe I wired it wrong, so unplugged the ecu and checked the plug again, no continuity. Then I checked the ecu and was getting continuity with pin 4, 5, 6 and 7. 4 is a ground, 5,6 are cam position, and 7 is crank. So I thought maybe the capacitor that sits on those pins was bad, went to an electronics store that gave me a capacitor that "should" work, then had a place remove the old and put in the new. After all that, Im still in the same place as I started. Crank, no fire, code "12". Any thoughts as to a next step, other than another ecu (which i did but on ebay, waiting for it to show)? Any help would be awesome!

Hello everyone, maybe somebody can help me. My 1977 280z is running rich at idle and the idle mixture on the AFM doesn't seem to help. I spend the last few days cleaning the electrical connections and timing the ignition again as it was out of spec. The car runs way better but the AFR gauge still shows 11,5 at idle. I'd like to bring that down (or up depending how you look at it) to 14,7 as the car stinks of gas. The previous owner mentioned that that was the reason it didn't pass inspection (auction company didn't mention that). I tried messing with the idle air mixture screw but that didn't help. When turning clockwise a bunch the car did start to run richer but when turning anti clockwise it didn't get past 11,5 AFR. Does anybody have any tips or things I should look at? The AFR does seem to be working alright as far as I can tell. I did notice the ignition coil is a 1,5 ohm unit with a total resistance of 2 ohm with the external resistor. I believe it needs to be closer to 1 ohm total so I'll probably replace the coil.

I disconnected my throttle cable and lubed it up, now it moves freely with no drag, in doing so, I re-arranged some of the items attached to the carb thus cleaning it up. A short amount of time to work on stuff today and I'm happy I was able to get it done. Also was able to tighten the spring for the secondary butterflies which is basically required to keep them working right. My thermostat probe adapter that goes into the top radiator hose also arrived and snapped a few pics.

Its already fixed. I have these unusual gnose wide body panels i think are fairly aero efficient. So really the only decisions are if I want to run a cowl induction hood vs. standard no vents. And tall rear 7" spoiler vs whale tail. Input is welcome. Leaning standard hood and big spoiler. Working on mounting these NOW.

any updates? Would love to see where this went.

I was over in Orlando today for work and found a Z shop and picked up a used rear diff and axel. Was supposed to be 2 axels, but they stripped one getting it off an old Z. I’ll probably get the other one off eBay. I’ll be sending the diff to Z1 and getting it rebuilt with a wavetrac lsd and some new gears.

part number 80581-E4100 looking for a good little plastic block assembly that the RH door dovetail slides on when closing the door. Cant find any new ones

@jhm. I appreciate that, Ive been putting out feelers on a few Z car forums trying to locate one, I know its sort of an obscure and delicate piece but its worth a shot anyway

@GavinG, if you don't find one here; I would also check on ClassicZCars: https://www.classiczcars.com/

Agreed! It's looking great....can't wait to see what kind of wild bodywork you have planned for it.

Little safety work ongoing. Finished up the roll bar padding.

Im also looking for one!! if either of you guys know of where I can find one please let me know. Mine was broken before I even pulled the distributor out

I was able to squeeze in a little time today and build a brace to hold my carb and intake up. Heim joints and all thread.

Ah, that explains it. I was wondering if that was part of the reason....thanks for clarifying!

The model I mentioned is a 1-wire so it's just a large gauge wire from the + post to the battery, and the factory ground wire for good measure. Awhile back I swapped from the 260z ammeter to the 280z voltmeter but I haven't bothered wiring in the charge light, so the T plug just stays unplugged and tucked away.

I suspect the stock alternator on my ’77 280z is dying as the car runs a bit rough on low rpm and the voltage needle bounces around. The battery also won’t charge properly so I bought a new battery to see if this will help but if not I’ll need to replace my alternator as well. Can you make an detailed explanation as to how you wired the new GM style alternator? I found a bunch of information on the mounting of the GM 1 (or 3) wire alternators but not much on the wiring.

I'm looking for a T3 ultimate steering rack or 240z quick ratio steering rack for sale. Let me know !

I got in a little bit of time on the EFI project today. re-ran my water meth lines....the way I had them was problematic.....kept trying to pinch the lines. Also figured out how to run a brace from the engine to the carb intake. I have some heim joints and 3/8" all thread....will come off of one of the 10mm smog pump holes in the block and then up to the bolts in the back of the intake. Small steps.

Small update: Completed reverse engineering of the Cortex spindle, nice design and less tall than I anticipated. Unsure how I feel about the ~1.5-2" drop design but it will have to do for now until I can get everything articulating nice. Next step is designing a 17" wheel as it seems like all the models I'm getting off GrabCAD are not to spec. For the inboard UCA pickups, I'm at the point where I'm just trying to choose an angle for the UCA, the consensus is ~7° though I've seen some guys on the Locost forums go up to 10-15°. From my conversation with Maier, I remember him mentioning anywhere in the 15° range is too high for these kinds of cars. Anyway, back to the books for me.

Funny how the same text (from me) fits this & the other thread (about airdam wanted)... Datsun Z Fiberglass Body Parts for S30 S130 Not sure if they have what the OP needed, but posted for reference for everyone. Not affiliated in any way. BTW I made this airdam to fit my wide flares. I have the mold & can make them.

Datsun Z Fiberglass Body Parts for S30 S130 Not sure if they have what the OP needed, but posted for reference for everyone. Not affiliated in any way. BTW I made this airdam to fit my wide flares. I have the mold & can make them.

For the track attack upper control arm plate the carriage bolts are a must because of their plate design, it completely covers the bolts, so no way to tighten. But some of the others are iffy. The two I broke, didn’t need to be carriage bolts, but it would have tight if they weren’t, and the tension rod bracket was probably needed for clearance to the bushing. Their brackets could have been designed to use regular bolts if they made them a little bigger, but that’s what they went with. Over all I’m pretty happy with it and how’s it’s coming together, but there are still some improvements they could make for easier installation.

Apex's choice of carriage bolts is unusual....can't say I've ever seen really seen them used in custom suspension builds before. Do you think they were chosen for convenience, with the self-locking features in the mounting brackets? Great progress.....really enjoying your updates! Keep 'em coming!! 👍👍

Had a busy weekend working on my girlfriends car (brakes, oil, alternator, water pump and timing belts) but yesterday I had some time left to work on the Z. The car was running rich so I ordered a cheap AFR gauge to measure the air-fuel ratio of the car. I installed the gauge in the engine bay for now with the power wires just clamped to the battery as I can’t drive the car till I get my inspection done. I read some threads about the EFI Z’s running rich or running rough in general so I cleaned the contacts on all the electrical plugs and readjusted the throttle position sensor. The contacts of the AFM and the cold start valve where actually pretty corroded but cleaned up nicely. For good measure I also decided to change the spark plugs and do a compression test. O boy was I glad I did that. The spark plug in the number 1 cylinder turned out to be a different one without a manufacturer name. It was also heavily cracked and the spark plug wire wasn’t even attached! (am I glad I ordered new once). The compression was pretty consistent from what I could tell but my battery and probably also the alternator are dying, only to be caped alive by my battery charger. The engine cracks very slow with the sparkplugs in (even only one) and when dialing back the idle the engine can’t keep a consistent rpm. It even died after a while. I the end I just jumped the battery with my girlfriends car witch helped a lot. After the cleaning the car also ran much better with an AFR of 11.2 and after warming up for a bit it changed to about 13. When revving the car to about 4000rpm the AFR changed to about 15. I’m not very familiar with AFR ratios but 13 at idle (after warmup) seems pretty good to me and hopefully lets me pass inspection. But for that I still need to wait for some backorder parts from Z-Services.