DuoWing

I need a gas cap for my 76' 280Z. Was looking on motorsport and they seem pretty expensive and apparently there is 2 different types of caps for the late/early 260/280Zs and then one for the late 280Zs. So I need the early. Also I'm looking for a full set of lock barrels: Hatch, Ignition, and doors. My passenger door has had the lock pulled out, the ignition lock is different and the hatch lock barely works. I guess ignition doesn't even matter, but if anyone has a set for the doors let me know. Also looking for various parts: 240Z front and rear bumpers, the 240Z turn signals and I think that's all for now. Send me a PM, reply to this listing, or e-mail me at: duowing@gmail.com Thanks!

I'm looking for preferably a 1987 Non-turbo Z31 ECU. If anyone has one let me know.

So after I ended up not going with the late model 74' 260Z I had won off ebay. I shortly after found a guy even closer with a couple of Zs for sale. One of them was a 76' 280Z. It was a South Carolina car that was brought to Ohio and put in storage. It's been swapped to a 5-speed, needs a motor, and for the most part is in really good shape. Battery tray is there, the driver's side floor pan is in really good shape, the frame rails are in good shape, the rear deck tray or whatever you call it above the taillights is clean. The spare tire well is nice and clean. The worst is around the battery try and the passenger floor pan. Although from what I can tell so far the rust really isn't bad. This is going to be the body for my L28ET, so the needing an engine doesn't really bother me. Anyway the car has been in storage for years so it's going to need a wash as it's covered in layers of dust. Oh it's the brown/copper color. The interior needs some help, really the seats and the carpet are what are crappy. Anyway here's probably the worst of it. The passenger floor pan, but so far it seems like it's in really good shape. I was stabbing it with a small screwdriver. I wasn't puncturing the metal. I started pulling up that rubbery sound deadening/insulation whatever it is that people oh so hate. I started sanding and then covered with rust bullet. While sanding I was making my way through to shiny metal so that's always a good sign! I'm going to continue doing this, then paint them, then do it to the driver's side. One thing that makes it look worse is the dust from sanding, the fact that car is bronze/copper, and the fact that the old brown carpet apparently got soaked. Hence why it's torn out and the drain plug was pulled out. I was stabbing right around the edges of where that plug was and it was not going through!! So for the most part I'm quite happy with the purchase. Oh and these were in a box in the hatch:

One thing I forgot to ask. Should I go about trying to find the lower valence panels from a 240/260 with the turn signals in them? Or do you remove the valence panels anyway when installing the air dams? I don't have an air dam yet, I'm pllaning to go with the 240 style anyway, but I figured if the panels get removed when installing the air dam then I won't worry about trying to find the panels and just buy the air dam and focus on getting the turn signals.

Did your 74' that weighed 2300lbs have the large bumpers or the thin 240Z style bumpers? Either way I kinda believe the whole parts running out thing. Looks like a similar thing with my 280ZX. It from what I can tell was one of the last few and it kind of has a really rare setup. It's a factory turbo, but has the analog dash, the manual heater controls, doesn't have the full power setup, cloth lowback 2+2 seats. Just sorta seems like a combo you didn't normally find.

Guys I have one of the last 280ZXs around. At least as far as I can tell. Looking in the Black Dragon Auto Catalog they show that the 280ZX ends at 6/83 and the last 6 digits of the vin being 757691. My 280ZXT on the little door plate has a production date of 7/83 and the last 6 digits of my vin are: 758761

Or you can do this, run the stock setup at least to get the car going. If you're doing this on a budget I would say that would mean that there isn't a lot of money right now to go into a more expensive setup. The stock systems isn't going to cost any extra. Then should you want to down the line you can go one of two directions the Z31 or MS, there are others but for the point. The Z31 setup is really easy to do and will give you improved driveability for every day or just regular use. Then should you want you can later on decide to go MegaSquirt when you start wanting more power or the other alternative would be something like NIStune. It gives you similar to megasquirt control. You can't control spark, but you can make custom fuel maps, timing maps, cold start enrichment, set your designated idle speed etc. This also lets you log everything from Speed, RPM, Temperature, MAF voltage etc. Just another though and Nistune is just a board that goes in the Z31 ECU, so there's no extra adjustments needed to the harness and you're running a facotry image so you can just plug it in, drive, and tune later. Just another option, it seems like a lot of people don't know about Nistune.

Makes me think back to driving school when the guy gave us a gigantic list of things we should always have in our car for emergencies, repairs, etc. I bet he never thought anyone would carry a spare engine. Oh by the way I love your 260Z. I want to make a car that looks just like it.

I'm not sure. The best way would be to take measurements of the 240Zs back panel like the size of the lights and the locations of them and then map it out on the 280Z. I'm sure it's possible to make them fit. It'd probably require making a bracket out of sheet metal or something and possibly fiberglassing in the other open areas.

Ok, I know you guys have seen this enough. Anyway I was doing some searching and I just wanted to confirm. Basically I found that there are two ways to convert to the 240/early 260 style turn signals. One was to get a 240Z airdam and fit the taillights into it or I saw, and this is the part I wanted to make sure of, was that you can unbolt the lower valence panel the thing right below the headlight bucket and that you can bolt up one from a 240Z so that way you will have the signals in place. Then I was wondering if you did that route would you need special brackets for the 240Z front bumper? Or would you be able then to just mount up the 240Z bumper? I was curious about the bumper thing because I came across the thread where you could buy the brackets in the runs that azcarbum I think his name was had made up. I just wanted to know if you'd still need the brackets. If not then I could focuse on spending the money on the valence panels.

I think that was something mentioned in one thread. Even though the 280Z is a bit heavier in the chassis itself it's not all bad it does come with advantages. The fact that the longer/thicker frame rails and floor pans help to stiffen the body a bit more and just provide a nicer overall ride. Really as it's been mentioned they are the same chassis it's just that the 280Z chassis weighs more. So your 280Z will be just as sporty as a 240Z. If you really want you can then remove the bumpers and the turn signals from the grill. Replace the little lower valence panels with the 240/260Z panels so you have the turn signals below the bumpers and you'll then have a car that more closely resembles a 240Z. If you really want to go all the way then with fab work you can change the rear taillights to 240Z lights. At that point exterior wise it would be hard to tell the difference.

So the 240Z does sit lower than the 280Z? I always thought that it seemed smaller or something. Go to the chassis and suspension board I think it is and look for the thread Z car weights and read through that. You'll see that there isn't really a huge difference in the overall weight differences and that even later 280Zs can be made to be really light.

Interior was in pretty good shape. Anyway it doesn't matter now, the owner and I came to an agreement and I ended up not buying the car. I lost money on having to pay the listing fees, but it was better off in the end. I know it's probably not a terribly hard thing to fix, but I don't have a welder or know how to weld. I'm sure I could get the mechanic I know to do it, but it's more money into something that I'd like to not have to worry about right away. Auction ended at $2500.

What doesn't help is my camera. It was dark so I had the flash along with a different color setting, so it adds more shadow so it's harder to tell. I'll be going to go pickup the car Friday so I'll be able to get a better look at it.

Alright, I figured you guys have seen it all. I bid on a late 260Z on ebay really close to me. I put a bid on it before I saw it. Surprisingly it was a winning bid. Anyway I went and looked at the car, haven't picked it up yet. In the next day or so I'm going to go tow it back. Anyway looking at it the car seems like it's in great shape. The current owner got it from North Carolina. The spare tire well was super clean, the inner and lower edges of the quarter panels were all in great shape, bottoms of doors were all really good, the frame rails at least in the engine bay looked good. The battery tray was ridiculously clean. Just a tad of surface rust. That area around the back hatch that is usually never in great shape was really clean, and the whole area around the taillights was good. I didn't pull up the floor mats to check the pans. The driver's rocker had a little bit of rust, but it wasn't bad. Anyway I looked under the car and I couldn't tell if the driver's rail was in bad shape or if it just looked bad because of the old undercoating flaking away. I grabbed two pics real quick that could have come out better. Oh also the car is the original bronze color which makes it harder to tell. What do you guys think? It's hard to say, but seeing as the rest of the car was in such great shape it seems like this really shouldn't be too bad of condition.

Thanks for the info. I'll have to find out.

Ok, I'm not sure exactly where to post this. Maybe I missed it in my search. I was doing a local search and came across a Z that I want to look into. It's described that it's basically a rolling chassis, but the guy says that he had it running a small block Chevy and a 4-speed. Ad says he ended up pulling the motor/tranny for another car. So I figured before I even go check the car out I'd try and find out what is needed to mount the L-engine in the Z? I know nothing about the V8 swap mind you, so maybe that would have answered my questions?

While we're on it can someone point out what the diesel engine oils are? As far as I know then the best oils to go with would be the Valvoline VR-1 series as they have a good bit more zddp content or the diesel oils.

How do you guys feel about Royal Purple? I know it's synthetic, and I've seen it mentioned a few times by people running it with no issues. I see it's SL classed oil so it has the Zinc additives. I'm planning on changing my oil to Royal Purple next oil change. What do you guys think? I have an 83' L28ET and it's not even at 98k miles yet.

I'm located in Cleveland, Ohio so I don't know if anyone has anything near me, but I'm not opposed to using a car carrier should I need to. Basically I'm looking for any year S30, preferably up to early 280Zs, but I'll take a late 280Z. Just want a good clean body is the main condition, preferably running or at least drivable so I can transport it to the garage for storage and then to where I would eventually swap my L28ET into. If anyone has anything let me know.

It's possible. Also though I'm planning on swapping the turbo motor to an S30 come this summer anyway. So I figured things like the lifter conversion and so on would be things I'd like to do as I get a chance. Sort of get the motor ready to go so I can just focus on a swap and then have a motor putting out a bit more power in a lighter weight car.

Cool, thanks again!

I'm going with an internally oiled A cam. So I don't have to worry about swapping the cam towers. I mean as far as I can tell, unless the info is wrong that the 280Z had an internally oiled A cam. So this may be easier to use, my car for the most part is stock, although I'm running NIStune on an 86' Z31 setup, 10psi, etc. I'm going to get my Zeitronix hooked up eventually so I can do A/F logs and upgrade to the Mustang SVO injectors and a better pump.

Ordered the Time Serts, and found a person who can supply me with the cam, and lifters. When I ordered the inserts they kept asking if I had the kit to install them. I just said I did. It looked like you didn't need them because you basically used the solid lifter to thread the insert in, right?

Thanks for the info! To keep it simple and so I don't have to remove the cam towers I decided I'll go with an internally oiled cam. I was originally planning to try and get a cam from a P90 for my conversion, but it was mentioned that using an N/A cam seems to do nicely when looking to go for more power. My setup isn't much right now, I'm slowly working it parts at a time. Anyway I figured what the heck, throw an N/A cam in as they're easier to come by and then have something that will be there to give a little bit better performance.