grannyknot

I use Amsoil 20w50 Z rod in my older BMW engines and it seems to be great, I broke in a rebuilt engine with their straight 30w break in oil which is not synthetic. A lot of engine builders recommend dinosaur 30w for break in because you actually want the new rings and cylinder walls to wear in together. Amsoil makes a 10w40 synthetic Z rod that would be perfect for our L24 - L28 engines.

Buy it! To me that's a rust free car, everything else that needs doing is easier than rust repair.

Zufelt, welcome to the forum. Looks like you have a pretty solid car but rust is everything on these cars, no matter what else you do get rid of the rust, cut it out, blast it out, whatever it takes. Just about everything is available for these cars one way or the other so it's all do-able. Yes, very easy to get that feeling "What have I got myself into" That is a dangerous place to be, many excellent projects have been abandoned at that point. So focus on one section or system at a time, sort of bite size jobs that you can complete and see your progress. When I'm tackling a big job like sanding the shell down to bare metal, I like to have 3-4 smaller jobs going as well so if I get fed up with striping paint I have a nice fun little project on the bench that I can complete in a short time. I have used POR15 a lot and unless you follow the instructions to the letter it will fail in a short time and even when your application of it is perfect it's really not better than 2k epoxy primer on bare metal. It's a different chemistry but necessarily a better and it's very easy to screw it up. So as the other guys have said make a list of the important things you want to do and let the rest slide. You can post a question on the forum for anything, you will get lots of good advice here.

A decent L28 is always worth money.

The only advantage I can think of is 4 spds are much cheaper than 5 spds and you could sell the 5 and make a few bucks. 4 th gear in both are 1:1, 5 th gear is better for gas mileage on the highway.

I have pretty much the same setup as you but using the rear mounted sway bar from Futofab, https://www.futofab.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=137:datsun-72-73-240z-orange-line-34q-rear-sway-bar-kit&catid=28:datsun-z-car-suspension&Itemid=86 No problems of any kind.

It sure sounds like you have some air bubbles hung up in the system, like JMortensen I've used a large syringe to push the fluid backwards and sometimes it is the only method that will work but mostly I use a hand held vacuum pump to put 20 in.HG of vacuum on the line then when your helper has the pedal pressed firmly crack the bleeder valve for 2 sec. (you don't want your helpers foot go all the way down) then repeat. You could also try tapping the caliper with a hammer while the bleeder valve is open to help dislodge the bubbles.

You need a HD wire wheel on a power drill or angle grinder, get it down to as much bare metal as possible, clean that all off and hit it with some 80 grit sand paper and work it to remove as much as possible then clean again. Coat the area with some self etching primer, then a top coat of paint. I assume you are going to run the car into the ground so that repair should last the rest of its life.

Damn, that sucks, hope their insurance was up to date.

Good for you, so easy to get caught up in "I have to get this done" mentality when in fact it is probably trivial. Hope you have time between Pina coladas to stop by the forums every now and then.

Congrats! That has been a few yrs since you had it going.

Tear it down again, the ball bearing can only go in one place.

I belive @wheee! has the silvermine.

What kind of a barrel would that be? I can't even picture that.

I can only speak for myself but I don't believe they are the same problems, in the last few posts we are talking about a brief time lag before the steering assist kicks in, your Z4 steering problem sounds like it would drive you crazy.

That is not surface rust, that started underneath where the foam padding holds water, there will be a 6" dia. rust patch on the P/S and D/S, you'll be able to see daylight through those holes plus the rust on the vents are just above the the fresh air chimney, a spot known to hold debris and standing water. The panel could be saved with work but the cowling is still a fairly inexpensive piece.

It has significant rust on the cowl panel, you'll need a replacement, and the rear deck under the hatch. That tells me you need to see under the car, floor pans, rockers, rear valance, battery tray and wheel wells. If he won't send you good pics of those areas, walk away. Lots of good 280z's out there.

Everything Neverdone said, exactly. $13k is probably a very good deal considering all the work that has been done.... if it is true. Need pics.

I have Bruno's turn knob controller on my Equinox steering assist, great little unit, but it too has that momentary lag before it kicks in. I don't know if that is due to the controller or the assist motor, just a small in conveniecne.

Ironhead, check out this stuff, Solar flux. I was burning through Argon as well until I found this, works well and one can will last you forever.

Now that you have no brake safety light on the dash, you could just disconnect the wire to the sensor and leave the unit in place. It is doing the job of directing the flow of your brake fluid and if the front or back brake lines ever crack or fail the shuttle inside will close off the half of the system that is leaking. If half of the braking system suddenly isn't functional you won't need a little red light to tell you that, you'll know it as soon as you put your foot on the pedal.

Same here, I was quite surprised.

Ok, just took the 77/280 off the rotisserie so had a chance to weigh it, this is just the shell, all paint was removed then 2 coats of epoxy primer were applied and 2 coats of undercoat, the only thing left on the car is the vinyl headliner and the 2 rear wheel arch vinyls. Now I'm not 100% on this method but I couldn't think of any other way to do it with what I had on hand. With the car level the rear measurement was taken with the car hanging from the rotisserie bar that bolts on where the tie down hooks usually are, then jacks were placed under the rear rotisserie bar and the front was weighed hanging from the front rotisserie bar that is bolted to where the bumper shocks attach just in front of the radiator support. I checked the accuracy of the crane scale by lifting my small anvil which I know is 118 lbs and it was bang on, I have to apologize, I forgot to take a pic of the rear measurement but it weighed 289 lb, front was 246 lbs 289lbs 246lbs 535lbs minus the 6lbs of the rotisserie bars, is 529 lbs Someone with better geometry skills than me will have to verify if the method I used is valid.

Yeah, that will work it's been done many times, just remember to get the rad attached in such away that it is not been used as a stressed member of the frame. Normally the rad is attached to the front plate and so just hangs, if it is firmly fixed on the both front rails that may introduce some twist and rads won't take a lot of flexing without springing some leaks.

That was 3 yrs ago and it looks like itball left after getting some advice. As I said in your first thread, take the car off of the jacks, check the gap if it is any different, if it is very different you could put the hydraulic jack under the floor pan right next to the rocker, put a 2-3 ft. 2x4" on the jack and pump it up slowly to see if that changes the gap. These cars can sag a bit when jacked up even with good rockers and floor pans.