tommott77

Figured I'd try to piggy-back on this thread before starting a new one since I've been having similar issues. Quick recap. My car too has seemed to have been starving out of fuel with fuel still in the tank. It has no effect on running, one minute it is running the next minute it's off and out of fuel. In all honesty it has been somewhat difficult to track fuel usage as the gauge is inoperable and the car quite a bit of project. Hence it will be on the street for a couple weeks and then off again for a month or longer. In some of the notes that came with the car a previous owner also mentioned that he was having the same issue when the gauge was operable and he stated that the car would starve out with about a 1/2 tank reading on the gauge. There was a leak evident after topping off the tank which I though could be the culprit, but as I was pulling I found that that leak was emanating from a connection on a vent line at the very top of the tank, and was only leaking when the tank was overfilled. My second guess was that the pickup line in the tank may have rotted out, as this seems to be common issue with these cars. I just got the tank all the way out and some pics of the line in question and the innards of the tank itself are posted below. From my vantage point the pickup line looks more or less solid, though my view is somewhat compromised by the baffle in the tank. The tank itself also looks fairly clean. Not sure where to go at this point and am turning to the experts for guidance. Should I check to see if the are any other leaks in the tank itself? The exterior of the tank is quite rusty. If so how is the best approach at doing so; is it ok to put water in the tank? Or should I take the tank to a radiator shop even though it looks clean and everything appears to be in order in there. Perhaps somebody can pick something up from the pics that I missed.

Have a bit of an issue with fuel starvation with my '73 Z. The car is an older (done more than 20 years ago) 350 sbc swap, so we aren't talking about gobs of fuel pressure here. The car seems to be starving out of fuel before the tank empties. The car starved out yesterday (have a clear fuel filter before the carb which wasn't showing any fuel) and I put a couple of gallons in there and it seemed to be back to normal. I thought it was a bit odd as I had put in a good bit of fuel a month ago last time I drove it. Today I ran it a couple more miles (maybe 10 total miles max since putting 3 gallons in it yesterday) and the car stalled out again, thankfully while pulling out into my driveway. Checked the filter and again it wasn't showing any fuel. Note the the fuel gauge is currently inoperable, but after sticking some PEX piping down the filler tube there definitely is some fuel in the tank. At the very least enough to get me down the road if not substantially more. At first I thought I may have a tank issue or perhaps a leak. I did notice a leak once when I overfilled filling up that I attributed to some bad vent lines or perhaps the filler tube. Now seeing that there is indeed fuel in the tank I may be leaning towards a weak fuel pump on the motor. When I got the car there was some hand written notes that have been passed down from owner to owner over the years and one of the notes, which dates back quite some time, which indicated that the car has run out of fuel once it gets below a half a tank in the past. My question is should I start with the fuel pump which would be a trial and error proposition as the current pump is now functional but may struggle some as the fuel level drops, or should I go ahead and pull the tank out and go through everything on that side of the equation including the sending unit? Another option would be to add another electric fuel pump in line somewhere, though that may be overkill. I seem to recollect that stock Zs ran off an electric fuel pump, I don't see one still installed on the car anywhere. Any advice here would be greatly appreciated.

I have slowly been trying to get my recently purchased, though old, V8 conversion Z back on the road. I now have her running the best she has run yet, but have been dogged with brake issues since I took ownership of the car. The front calipers were seized day one when she rolled (or was actually pulled) off the trailer. Since then I have installed new front calipers, a new master cylinder, new brake lines, and now just recently a new rear wheel cylinder (which was leaking) w/ new shoes....and not to mention the millions of times that it has been bled. To this day however I still have an issue with brake pedal and the feel of the pedal. The pedal feels way too low. At this point the car feels like it is stopping as it should, it just feels like the pedal is not grabbing until it is almost on the floor. It really doesn't feel spongy or anything. As I stated almost everything involved in the hydraulic actuation of the brakes has been replaced, save perhaps for the regulator valve and the fail safe pressure switch. Perhaps there is some sort of adjustment in the pedal itself, or the master cylinder that I am missing? The feel of the pedal does not inspire confidence while driving, especially in a near 400hp 2000lb car. Now that the car is running fairly well the time has come to awaken the beast and drive the piss out of it. The only thing holding me back at this point is the brakes. Anybody have any ideas on how to remedy this situation?

Appreciate the responses. Going to pick up a used 750 double pumper tomorrow to give a try. We'll see how it goes. Also found out that a buddy of mine supposedly has 4 Weber DCOEs laying around. There is a pretty good deal on Ebay for a SBC crossflow manifold at the present time ($275). If he does have them, and cuts me a deal, I could be piecing together a quad Weber setup in the next couple weeks.

The worn out 600 CFM Holley is just not cutting it and I am in need of a new carb and am trying to figure out; A) what size carb I need? What kind of max RPM I should be running (this is a factor in terms of how many cfms my carb should be pushing)? C) What kind of power/power curve do you think I would be getting out of this thing? I am a complete novice to small block chevys and have not owned an American V8 with a carb since I was 16 years old and had a Mustang. Here are the specs taken from the receipts and notes that came with the car. - LT1 4 bolt 350 block (3970010) - Trickflow G2 Aluminum heads. Compression is either 10:1 or 12.5:1. - 350/350hp cam, hydraulic lifter - Keith Black Pistons (again either 10 or 12.5:1 compress) - 6" H beam race rods - Polished Steel crank - Edelbrock intake - Headers - Flowmaster - Stock ignition - (And again) currently Holley 600cfm w/ KN air filter Brought it by a shop that does some work on old Chevys and the owner recommended a 700-750 dual feed. That seems a bit large to me, but again I'm a novice when it comes American V8s and Holleys. My experience lies with Euro cars and Weber carbs. I would love to, and the ultimate goal is to, put 4 pairs of dual barrel Webers on there IF I can come across a kit for less than what I paid for the car, haha! The car itself weighs around 2200lbs, and I want to say has a 373 rear end, so perhaps us Z owners may be able to get away with something a little more aggressive than the graphs/formulas suggest. The car will see mixed driving on the street, auto-xing, and some track days. So....? Any suggestions on carbs,.....ballpark what I should rev this thing to (5000,5500,6000,6500), nallpark ideas on how ponies this thing may be turning (250hp, 300,hp, 350hp, 400hp)?

Well, I just reserved the one pictured online to have it sent to to my local store, also went all the way to the point where I all had to do was hit confirm to have it purchased and shipped to my home. It seems that if it was not in stock it would have not let me progress to that point, but I guess we will soon find out. I had already went ahead and ordered a stock '73 MC this morning. I was thinking that it would be rather difficult to procore the 280zx MC, and was also worried about getting the 280zx piece to mount up with the booster, it seems that many folks ended up purchasing a 280zx booster as well.

Wow, great stuff! Thanks so much for the reponses. The rear brakes just trickle fluid when trying to bleed them. I'll hold off for the braided lines for now. A quick search at NAPA seems to indicate that they carry the 280Zx master. https://www.napaonline.com/Catalog/CatalogItemDetail.aspx?A=NMBP2388_0306739581&An=599001+101979+50018+2018016 Is this not the right MC? ***upon closer inspection it appears that that is not the correct MC.

Trying to get my project Z to go down the road safely. The brakes are somewhat marginal at this point. Already replaced the frozen front calipers. The problem I'm running into is that the rears are not bleeding correctly. At this point I would like to swap out the brake lines for stainless steel and install a new master cylinder, just to get her going. The issue I am running into is that I do plan on upgrading both the front and rear brakes down the road. I plan on going with the vented 4x4 Toyota setup in the front and the Modern Motorsports 240sx rear disc setup. The general consensus out there seems to be that I need to upgrade to the larger 280zx master cylinder (even though some folks think you can still get away with the stock master). It also appears that I need special brake lines in the rear with a banjo fitting for the MM 240sx swap. My question is can I/should I install the 280zx master cylinder now with the stock 2 piston calipers in anticipation of going with the 4 piston swap down the road? Obviously I would rather avoid having to purchase a second master cylinder. Same type of question with the stainless steel brake lines. Is it possible to purchase the stainless steel lines now that work with the stock drums, and then swap on a banjo fitting when it comes time for the rear disc swap? If not I would assume to just get the cheaper stock lines now and then just purchase the SS lines when I start the swap as opposed to shelling out twice for two different sets of the SS lines. Any help/guidance would be appreciated.

Awesome! I'll give this a try. Thanks.

First I wanted to thanks everybody for the help. Got the correct starter and got her installed. Still having problems though and would like to see if anybody could get me pointed in the right direction. The car still does not start sometimes, both when cold and warm. Car now obviously has a new starter (high torque), and a new Optima battery with 980 CCA. The issue seems to be completely random, and it either turns over as normal or you just hear the solenoid click, all or nothing and you never hear the starter struggle to turn. Whenever the issue arises typically I just through on a battery box and it starts right up, however today the battery box did not work and I had to leave the car over at my buddy's shop. The battery seems to be holding charge, and the alternator is charging. Cleaned the grounds. Any ideas?

I purchased a '73 Z with a pre-swapped Nordskog small block chevy V8. She's a bit of a project and even after changing batteries she is still a bit of bear to get started. Contacted the previous owner and he said that he felt that the starter was on the way out when he put the car in storage about 6 years ago. This is my first sbc experience. After doing some research and searching on this site it appears that some starters work with different flywheels (based off of tooth count) and some have different a bolt pattern. Unsure if these are two factors are mutually exclusive or not. Also not sure which flywheel is in the car. I was wondering if anybody could help identify which starter I need based off some pictures I took (see below) with the starter still in the car?

Really looking for an overall performance, as opposed to an all-season, tire as my car will see some auto-x action, and will make a couple trips up to the Tail Of The Dragon in Deals Gap a couple times a year. A bit curious about those tires though. I thought I have seen those tires listed as drag radials before. No mention of it on their website though. If it is a drag tire, I doubt that the sidewall would up to what I would put the tire though.

Thanks Comic. I tried finding a picture of a Z with Shakotans several times to no avail. You wouldn't happen to be able to come up with any more pictures of the same car by chance? It's funny, but I came to the conclusion that if I opted for larger wheels/flares (with 400hp this may become an inevitability) that I wanted Shakotans after finding some on ebay, loved the period correct look and the larger sizes available. Searched all around here, including going through the 68 page wheel thread page by page twice, and came up empty handed. Now a week later and there is a thread going on them. My biggest concern, as mentioned above, is tire choice. It seems that the widest tire you are going to find is a 225. Not sure what tires are on the Z pictured above, but they look awfully stretched, which is not really the look that I am going for, but with moving up to 16" though you really don't have that much better of a tire selection, you start to run out of nice looking vintage styled rim options, and you are on the verge of looking too big. At 17" your tire options really open, but you are now at the point were you going to have a non-period correct rim, and are starting to look like you are rolling on dubs. So 15" may be the lesser of all evils. Hopefully selling the JDM gold mesh Enkeis currently on my car will offset the cost a good bit if I decided to make the move. At 14" and running 205 tires I have a feeling that it is just not going to be enough tire once I get the car moving.

There is one melted slave cylinder in the trunk of the car. Undoubtedly a casualty of the pyrotechnic exhaust system. The seller confirmed that the line is indeed plugged, but didn't say what it used to be. I would have to say that it is some sort of brake line seeing that it runs parallel to the current rear brake line. The only thing I can think of is that somebody re-ran the rear brake line, but for some reason kept the old line in there.

So I get a new (old) Z V8 project. This car is appears to be a couple decade old Nordskog V8 conversion that has sat in storage for about 8 years. Spent a couple hours the last couple days sorting through some horribly 'rigged' up wiring to get her to run (almost blew up two batteries along the way), and then curing the car's attempted "Up in smoke" fire hazard of an impersonation due to several layers of ancient decrepit header wrap, tin foil, and aluminum held on with hose clamps on the headers and exhaust. Now please bear with as this is the first Z I have ever layed a wrench to...well that was a bit of a fib but you get the picture. Now I'm onto the brakes. Feels like I may have some seized calipers as the 2300lb car does not budge when I try to push her by hand. I'll jack her up tomorrow and go corner to corner to see what is free and try to solicit a friend to help do some bleeding. In the interim I started inspecting things from the top as I have not had a chance to get the car in the air as of yet. Found something quite alarming (illustrated in the first pic). Anybody have any idea what I have going on here? The second picture shows where the line runs (illustrated in red). It seems to run congruently with the line that goes to the back of the car. From comparing with some online pictures and the service manual that came with the car it seems that 'Z's only have one hard line running aft section of the car so I'm a bit confused. I am assuming that the line is plugged and/or capped as the car seems to be holding fluid and the pedal still has pressure. Also there are no signs/remnants of another end of the line where that one would mate up to. It also appears that for some reason I have two warning light switches. After the brake issue is resolved I will move on to finding where the line out of the clutch slave cylinder (in illustration 3) meets up with the T5 transmission. No signs of anything in the engine bay so it must be further back in/under the transmission tunnel, and then she should drive, and then, and then, and then...........