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I am planning to fully restore the body, repaint and preform upgrades but I was hoping to al least enjoy the car a few seasons and to take it at a slower pace. If it is in any way possible I would like to keep the car for as long as I can. The S30 Z’s have and always will be THE dream car for me and now I’ve driven it for a bit the bug has only bit me harder. I would love to just throw a bunch of money at the car as I do have some reserves but those are supposed to help me at least the next 50 years. For a bit of background, I’m only 25 and my right leg got crush in a motorcycle accident about 3 years ago. I’m doing good now and am walking on both legs again but the question is for how long that will be the case.

Oh, that is so unfortunate -- sorry to hear about the rust and structural damage. I hope you are successful in the legal claims against the seller and auction company. Sadly, that is all too common on these old cars....it's quite rare to find one without those types of issues, especially in climates like yours. This project suddenly got a lot bigger; but it sounds like you are up to the challenge!

As to keep the technical stuff a bit separate I decided to post the next bit as a separate comment. Last Tuesday I temporarily insured the car and drove it over the highway to S2 Classic Cars in Hengelo (The Netherlands) as they are a highly rated classic car restauration shop in the area with a beautiful showroom to booth. There I had the car thoroughly inspected in preparation for the APK (something like state inspection, MOT or TÜV). This gave me some good and also very bad news. The good news, my work on the engine paid off as the car drove great with good AFR readings while driving and an CO emissions gas reading of 2,4% of the 4,5% allowed for this model year. The inspector also noted that judging by the other reading the engine was very healthy and in great condition. The bad news on the other hand reviled that the chassis of the car was is much less of a condition. Both left and right frame rails are rusted thru which they tried to cover up at some point with underseal. They where also both dented badly in the front by improper jack usage and the passenger side frame rail had a big rust hole in it. To add on top of that the inspector noticed the rear axle was crooked. This caused the drivers side rear wheel to stick out more with an toe out and the passenger rear wheel to have way more negative camber. The inspector couldn’t find anything at this time underneath and suspects the chassis might be slightly twisted or crooked. To know for sure I will need to find a shop that has the proper equipment and reference measurements to measure to chassis. I’m quit mad about both these things as they will cost me a lot to fix (at least they are fixable so thank god). More over the car was advertised and sold to me as “…without rust and free from structural damage.” by both the seller and the auction company. The auction company even inspected the car before it got accepted into the auction and wrote the advertisement texts for the car. Because of this fact, and the surprise bill for thousands of euro’s, I’ll be taking legal steps to try and claim at least some of the costs of the repairs on the seller and auction company.

O boy has this been a productive month for me! Shortly after buying the car the engine started to turn over slower and slower and losing all power even though the battery voltage was good and hooked up to a trickle charger. So I decided to replace both the starter and the battery. It turned out to be just the battery but the starter was pretty cheap so I didn’t mind. Next up I borrowed my dad’s borescope to look inside the cylinders. The cylinder walls looked great but the pistons did have some carbon buildup. This can be explained by the car running rich for a long time and not having been driven a lot the last few years. I did see oil running down the cylinder walls on four of the cylinders but I’ll be replacing the head- and valve cover gaskets once those come in. I also tested the compression again and this time it came back to a stable 125 psi on all six cylinders. After this I dicided to put my focus back the rich idle problem. A more detailed story of that journey can be found in the two threads linked below. The thread on the Classic Zcars forum has a bunch of information about the (working of) Datsun/Bosch AFM’s and replacement units for them. https://forums.hybridz.org/topic/139136-77-280z-running-rich-at-idle/#comment-1251600 https://www.classiczcars.com/forums/topic/69530-77-280z-running-rich-at-idle-afm-screw-doesnt-work/#comments In short I found out one of my problems was that my AFM was bad. As the original Datsun 7 pin units are none existent in Europe and I can’t find anybody that can rebuild the circuit board on one I decided to head down a massive rabbit hole that is the undocumented world of Bosch L-Tronic AFM’s. During my research, documented above, I came across a 2011 Australian forum post that mentioned an Toyota AFM. The part number (F201 13 210 (197100-3420)) came back over here as from a 1988-1992 2.2i GT Turbo 12V Ford (USA) Probe (Mazda 626) for €25,- from a junkyard. So I ordered it immediately to try and test this theory out. The Ford/Mazda/Toyota AFM is larger than the Datsun unit but can be installed by stretching the factory rubbers slightly. The pinout and internals are practically the same and don’t require modification (even the electrical plug was plug-and-play!). The resistance values are different than the Datsun AFM but the output voltage values to the ECU are the same. By tightening the spring (gear) inside (clockwise) the car started and ran perfectly. During this process I also replaced my Bosch spark plugs for NGK BR6ES with a 1,05mm gap and the ignition coil for a 0,6 Ohm Flamethrower 2 unit just to be sure. I also replaced the fuel pressure regulator for a new one and cleaned the injectors using an ultrasonic cleaner and spraying high pressure brake cleaner through them. The car did run a lot better and more stable after all of this even though my idle was still very rich and the idle air screw didn’t seems to effect the idle AFR much. This lead me to a leaking and faulty AAR valve which I blocked off on both sides. My vacuum was good and the fuel pressure was slightly low at 28 psi on my cheap Chinees gauge. I suspect the injectors are just bad and will need to be replaced ad some point but for now the car runs pretty good.

So little update and probably the end of this thread. Although feel free to revive it if somebody has any questions and I’ll try to help out. First off, good news!! The Ford/Mazda/Toyota and so on AFM actually works and giving of the correct signal! I my opinion this is a huge win for everybody that wants to keep these cars alive. My intake both and the rubber booth between the AFM and TB where both flexible enough to stretch over the larger AFM unit without trouble. The new AFM unit unfortunately doesn’t have bolt holes in the bottom like the Datsun unit but mounting can be fixed by a custom 3D printed or metal bracket. I just left mine loos as I just needed to test it for now and drive to the inspection. Opening the new AFM was a bit more difficult as they used a ton of silicon sealant and plugged the idle air screw from factory. The sealant can be carefully removed with a knife and the plug can be drilled out. The new AFM was also way easier to dial in as you can rotate the spring gear with a flathead screwdriver and a bit of finagling. In my case I had to tighten the spring tension a lot but I do have more problems concerning the car running rich. Even though I just cleaned and rebuild them I think my injectors are bad. I had the car inspected yesterday and the CO gas values where down to 2,4% (4,5% allowed) and all other values where good so I’m happy. Although the car ended up failing due to rusted thru frame rails and a crooked rear axle probably caused by a twisted chassis. I started a legal dispute with the auction company and previous owner as the both sold the car as “without rust and free from structural damage” but that is something for another thread.

I’m shooting to have it ready by about this time next year, 2 years from when I bought it, so the 240Z won’t be ready. But I am planning to do Sebring a few times January through April, probably in my 370Z (I’ve taken my Tesla there a few times too). I’ve never done an SCCA track day, I’ve always gone there with Chin. Let me know if you sign up, I’ll look into it. I would love to see your car and get some ideas tips to finishing mine.

When are you hoping to get this car on track? I'm hoping to do an SCCA track day at Sebring in February. It would be nice to see you guys there.

Thanks, will do. I’m hoping to get a good amount done this weekend, and my apex rear suspension kit should be coming in soon.

Good point, we’ll see when I get it together on fitment, looks like a good option if this doesn’t work.

Wow, that's like something out of a Rube Goldberg cartoon! Great progress you're making....keep the updates coming!! 👍

I like the external slave cylinder. You may have to clearance the driveshaft tunnel a bit, and it will create another obstacle to routing headers. I'm using a Tilton hydraulic throw-out bearing. Works great and doesn't take up space in the driveshaft tunnel. The downside is that if it leaks then you have to remove the transmission to fix it...

Got a few goodies today, first I found a cool bracket that can allow me to use a hydraulic set up for the clutch, it’ll let me get rid of the weird mechanical set up someone rigged up. Second was an impulse buy, while getting the turn signal/light switch and relay they had this emergency power stop button and solenoid.

More work on the 4200 today. cleaned up the rest of the block and head, and then pulled the oil pan and cam cover. NO SLUDGE. very clean inside. I got the outside of the cam cover clean enough to at least get started on the modifications I will do to it (add an alloy oil fill to the back, add a breather port, shave off 2 original ports, cut off unnecessary brackets, weld up the original oil fill hole and probably lower it a bit as it is very tall . To fit under a Z car hood it has to be chopped about an inch......although a small rectangular hole in the hood with the polished cover sticking up can be made to look really cool. Yeah I had an adaptor snap on me, the crank bolt is SO tight, I will probably need heat and PB blaster and smack it a few times to shock the treads to get it off. I need to clean behind it and it needs to be cleaned up and painted.......I wonder if the heat will ruin it? Before I called it a day, my AR5 transmission arrived.....in need of a rebuild, the pilot shaft has wiggle room. pics follow:

on Youtube, you can see the 280Z a guy is building right now. actually fits very well! (3) Red Hot Channel - YouTube

Very nice. will be cool to see how tight it is in the engine bay!

The vacuum log from has reappeared ! I added back the lines I took off before ZCON. 2 x .250 lines merging into a 3/8 line to a remote stepper valve . Kind of got it working today . The biggest must is to have it close all the way . You can’t afford to loose any vacuum with the ITBS .

Is there any pictures showing the 1979 to 1986 Jeep CJ7 master cylinder with swapped pushrod from the Datsun 240Z clutch master cylinder installed in a Datsun 240Z? https://x.com/i/grok/share/CZVSqy9yUiQEwFV9TZpEACANa

Got the complete rear end dropped today.

Ford trucks with the 400 engine would be a good source also.

My turbo header from Forever Fabrication for my 4200 build came in today. Top notch craftsmanship as expected:

09-27-2025 More 4200 stuff. I stripped off all the unnecessary junk and was able to get one side of the engine cleaned up. I didn't worry about the oil pan as it is going to junk pile soon. Progress....sometime slow but moving forward. Pics show the cleaning in stages on that side. I got the springs into the external wastegate, and it shows a crack pressure of 8 psi and wide open at 12 psi. Not too bad.

Good evening Picked up my shaft Wednesday. Out of the garage for the first time in two years. First test run was very gentle as there are a lot of things to keep track of, not only engine. Today i have driven the car and made some log with HPTuners and it is a bit rich. Cheers Christian

oil pan:

So I went ahead and bought one off of eBay and it showed up the other day. It is a 2006, which is the 2nd of 3 variants. It has larger ports and larger valves than the 2002-2005 models. I have ordered a few of the high dollar pieces needed so far, my T shaped oil pan made by Forever Fabrication has arrived and I have it in silver engine enamel, within a few days my turbo header from the same shop will be here and I am awaiting the intake flange, runners from DMZ and plenum from eBay I will use to put together and have welded, then have the welds sanded smooth and either polished or powder coated. I picked up another S30 engine crossmember which I will use, strapped tot eh bottom of the engine and measured from my Z car to fashion the motor mounts. An Aisin AR5 5 speed is also on the way, and my Turbo is here, I ordered a T76 with T4 flange off of eBay, along with a Tial knockoff external wastegate. A chromoly 17.1 lbs flywheel from Atlas Industries is on order. Cool stuff!

My custom made 3d printed aero hood latches are mounted.