ehren

gas tank is out. bumper is off. Is there a write up anywhere for all those convoluted fuel hoses in the trunk area? like say i go with a carbed 302 and a low psi electric fuel pump.... what can i dispose of and what should i keep? is there a need for a return line? thanks

engine is out. now to drop the gas tank and clean it....

picking up an engine hoist today. yanking the engine this weekend. cant wait

word

trans is out. gas tank and rear bumper come off next. Then I have to decide what to do next. Do I start replacing all the suspension components that I have or do I start prepping for my engine swap? I'm pretty certain I'm gonna go with a 302 Ford so I'm going to fab all the mounts myself. I can weld and stuff so it's not a big deal. Just trying to figure out what do next...

engine and trans are ready to pull. its so freaking cold here right now. lol I'm gonna have to pull the gas tank out and clean it.

So.. It's just crazy what happens in life. I last updated this nearly 2 years ago. In the meantime My life has changed entirely. To make a long story short, I went through a divorce due to an unfaithful wife and moved to the other side of the country. I now live in Idaho and have a new job and a new wife. I am so glad to be away from NJ. That is the absolute worse place in the US to live. Trust me. In other news. I also have another Datsun! I decided to sell the green one after I realized I wasn't going to be staying on the east coast. The car still wasn't running and I didn't want to pay the cost of having it transported. I was pretty bummed when I got to Idaho and realized how hard it would be to find another Datsun. I love how sparsely populated this area (people are polite and things are more affordable) but it also means it's harder to find special interest cars. However the craziest things happen in life.... I was driving home from getting my taxes done in March last year and happened to drive by a piece of shabby looking property where two Z's were sitting out front. One had a for sale sign. I pulled in the driveway and checked out the car. He wanted 6k$ for it and that was out of my range. But as I walked toward the house and looked to my left, I literally could not believe my eyes. The dude that owns the property has been hording Z cars for like 25 years. He has approximately 200 Datsun Z's on his property in all manner of shape. Talk about serendipity. I spoke with him for about a half hour and bought a relatively rust free 77 280z for 1000$ on the spot. I felt like the Karma gods were finally giving me something back. There is no rust though anywhere on the frame or floor. I took it to a body shop and had them do a little repair work on the rockers and they knocked a dent out of the 1/4 panel. The interior is completely destroyed. I don't think there is a single usable panel anywhere. I already gutted it. The Idaho sun just wreaks havoc on old plastic and rubber. BUT I am so pleased to find so little rust on this car. I already stripped a lot of stuff out of the engine bay as well. Fortunately I held on to about 2000$ of suspension parts from my previous build and these will go in to this car. My plans are for a fox body 5.0 swap and ground control suspension. The car was repainted in the 80's with this terrible ZZ Top style paint job. I plan to repaint it the original pale metallic blue. I am so happy to have one of these cars back in my life after all the crap I've gone through in the last year and a half. I'll update with build pics soon. It feels good to be back.

this is great. you've given me a ton of inspiration. thanks for all the info.

First thing I would do is find an oil pressure gauge that works.

This is a good thread. Anything new?

Wow what a project man. Keep going! you're getting close!

I just ordered mine through msa. Hopefully will have them in a week.

Seriously, aside from konis do I have any options for shocks to mate with the ground control setup?? tokico is still having distribution issues???

FAIL. what are my shock options at the moment with the Ground Control coilover setup? Guess KYBs wont take a 2.5" drop? And the Tokicos are all held up with distribution problems and Konis are listed as temporarily unavailable at MSA?? options??

says it was discontinued and the link is dead. try contacting him?

Well its been a long winter. I have not turned a single wrench on the Z since my last post. But I've been saving my money and Ive decided its time to do the suspension. Warm weather is right around the corner thank god. Ive been making way through the FAQs and decided on a middle of the road setup. I'm gonna go with the GC coilovers and the camber adjustment bushings. I'm interested in the biscuit style camber plates that Z Car sells as well. Could anyone tell me if it will be necessary to used the Swivel bearing hats (TechnoToy) with this combo?

jesus christ dude. i really admire all your work. but i'm looking at this thread thinking, there is no way I'm ever gonna put a turbo in mine. yikes!

looks good. nice progress. Question for ya - that piece of sheet metal trim that goes over the rear bumper ... does it unbolt or did you have to drill out spot welds??

So I bolted up the intake, poured soem fuel in the carb and fired right up. Only ran for a few seconds, but long enough to see some decent oil pressure. At this point I'm gonna get the tank put back in, hook up my low pressure fuel pump, get the carb linkage sorted, install new clutch master/slave cylinder and drive the damn thing.

Been getting a few things done to the Z. Most of it is boring (cleaning gas tank yuck.) But I haven't run the car since I brought it home. I wanted to do a compression test before I started it. Kinda thinking that was a good idea now. It's the L28. I see 155 on all cylinders except ... Number 1!! I couldn't get more than 90 out of it. So I poured a little oil in the cylinder and it immediately jumped to 160. So what do I have ? A blown head gasket or a bad ring? Keep in mind this engine has not been started in god knows how long. Seriously I have no idea how long. Possibly over 5 years. Should I just start it and see how it runs?? Or should I just call JTR................

wow Nice!

i like this thread

cool. i kinda like that paint scheme. lol

white smoke seems odd. usually over rich conditions create black smoke.