Paz8

Or if your into junk yard parts pick up a throttle cable from a carbed Camaro, your ZX gas pedal will need to be bent up so the pedal travels farther before hitting the floor, you also need to make a small bracket to fasten the cable at the top of the pedal assy. A small square peice of sheet metal with a square hole in the center holds the cable steady from the engine side and blocks the hole that your stock throttle linkage went through.

What makes you say it "can't be the spark plugs", on the cyl. not firing are the plugs dry or wet? If the plugs are the wrong heat range (cold) they will foul easy.

I think every type of off the self header has been tried, if you can't have custom made headers, try an exhaust manifold off of a Chevy Capric, or mid 80's Camaro, it points striaght down between cyl. 5 and 7 and may clear your steering box.

I know when I did my SBC swap I looked into the same issue of weight. I ended up trying to put as much weight to the rear of the ZX as possible, engine mounted as far back as possible, mounted battery in spare tire well. Up front, light alum. rad., alum. intake, headers, no A/C. The front shock absorbing bumper with mounts weighs 32 pounds and hangs over the front wheels a distance, I removed the bumper cover and drilled two inch holes in the steel bumper to lighten it a bit then replaced the cover. My 83' with SBC 350 and 700r4 trans with T tops and full interior with 300ZX power seats weighs 2880 pounds with about 10 gals. of gas in the tank. The old saying goes "it's cheaper to add horsepower than to lighten the car".

1982 & 83 have power rack type steering (no gear box on the frame), you could find one at a junk yard and swap it into your ZX, then use headers from JTR for the ZX, off the self headers may still have a problem with the drivers side and the steering shaft to the rack. Or, keep your gear box steering and have a modified header made, no magic fix with this problem.

The info that I have says that 77-78 Z's had 3.54 rear gears, the manual trans cars had R-200 rears and the autos had R-180 rears both 3.54 ratio, that's providing no one swapped it out in the past.

The contacts in the ign. switch are seperate for crank, ign, and assy. You can run a jumper under the hood from the battery to the ign. coil, I think the wire color on the coil is black/white stripe, not sure, that would power up both the coil and the dist.

I also have seen ign. switches go bad, work sometimes, sometimes not.

If there is any noise in the engine you will hear it, crank the engine a few times with the distributor disconnected so you build up some oil pressure, then start it. You have the right idea about setting timing, idle speed etc. Stick a vac. gauge on it and set the carb idle mixture, once everything is set you can adj. the idle speed down and it's not that loud. You can check everything for leaks, antifreeze and oil. Much better to have it setup and leak checked before installing the exhaust, you will have to go over your idle and carb adj. after the pipes are installed. Your not going to hurt the engine, unless it was put together wrong.

I spray all my plug in connections with electrical contact cleaner then plug and unplug them a few times, I seen too many that look corroded. Back to your problem, the EFI computer does NOT control the spark, power from the battery goes through a FUSE LINK under the hood to the ign. switch and the coil and dizzy. You mentioned that the injectors are not firing, the EFI computer is also powered through a different FUSE LINK. Could be that you have a +12 volt problem instead of a bad ground.

I have a buddy that rolled a ZX, T tops popped out but roof held up, rolled three times ended up upside down, no injury had seat belts on, he told me while trying to get the seat belt off while upside down the voice warning system was saying " your lights are on".

Before digging into the carb I would check the vacuum at idle and around 2000 rpm, I'd say anything above 10 in. at idle would be OK, around 18 or 20 above 2000 rpm, you may have a vac leak somewhere. Put a timing light on and check your ign. timing at idle, start at around 10 deg., when you get the engine to rev OK then you can bump up the timing. Also check your throttle linkage to see if it goes WOT with the trans kick down connected.

The roof section on a T Top ZX is probably much stronger, ridgid, than a Z roof. The openings for the tops is formed into channels, the center section is multiple pieces of sheet metal sandwhiched together, all that formed and stamped steel is much stronger than just a flat section of roof. I think most of the strength in a S30 or S130 chassis is in the inner and outer rocker panels and the trans tunnel.

The gasless welders are usually called "wire feed welders", I'm using a Miller MM135 and it makes the other small migs look like toys. The difference between welding with gas and self flux wire is like night and day. But we all have to use what we got and make it work, it's part of the fun.

Jump start the thing with another car to see if the battery is dead. The vacuum issue is not the cause.

There are 2 fuse links that feed the EFI computer, the computer turns on the fuel pump, pump relay is on pass. side above kick panel. The links are in a small plastic box near the battery. Before you go into checking for an electrical problem, jack up the car and take off the rear pass. side wheel so you can see the fuel pump, have someone crank the engine while you feel the pump to see if it's running. If it feels like it's running then check the fuel filter or you gas tank gauge to make sure you have gas in the tank.

No, not for thin metal.

If you do the doit yourself route get a mig welder with a gas bottle, the self flux wire migs aren't that good with thin sheet metal. Get a 4.5 in angle grinder and thin cutoff wheels to cut out the old floor from INSIDE the car, the idea is to do almost all the welding of the pans from inside the car, makes it alot easier. It's not hard to do but it is time consuming work if you want it done right. There is a thread somewhere that documents some guys doing floor pans, I think it was called " rust free Z car" not sure.

Ok, thanks for the info guys.

I know that the JTR headers for the first gen SBC are manufactured by Sanderson, very good quaility stuff, Sanderson has been in the business a very long time.

Anyone using a sand blaster from Harbor Frieght, if so which model and how does it work. Looking to get one for suspension and drive line parts clean up for my next project car.

I did my own floors in a ZX, used Jed Findings floor pans and support rails, the pans aren't the only thing you will need to replace, you need to tie in the floor with the front subframe, alot of hand fabrication work. I think the floor pans and rails are close to $500 shipped to the US from Canada, so to do it correctly $2000 isn't that bad, it's not a job for someone not handy with a cut off wheel and Mig welder. As stated before DO NOT cut the floors out without having new pans to measure from.

You failed to mention the ignition system specs, spark timing plays a part in setting up the mixture on the carb. Just thinking out loud here.

By the system quits do you mean the blower motor stops working? If so it's probably not the heater cock, there is a temp. switch in the heater line under the hood attached to the engine on the pass. side that senses if the water temp. is high enough to run the blower motor, this is so you don't blow cold air when first starting the car up on a cold day. It's a brass "T" fitting with two wires connected, disconnect and jumper the two wires together and see if that's the problem.

TwoEightyThreeZ, why don't ya get a large car carrier and bring back to Pa some of those "rust free" Z cars that are laying around all over Calif. like eveyone tells us. Just messing with ya, PM me when your back home.