AkRev

Got about an hour to work on it today. Spent the weekend working on my in-laws turbo BMW E30. http://s1305.photobucket.com/user/eduTek81/media/Mobile%20Uploads/mtf_sRfFg_122_zpsutja5gx2.jpg.html I decided to test a spare set of rims on my car. I think I will use these for the z. The rims are 17x10 in the back and 17x9 up front. Front tire clearance to the springs and perch. Well, back to striping paint. Found out on the back passenger side quarter panel will need a little more work. Has a few spots that stretched and got pounded most of the way out. I will work to shape and shrink it back into form. Few shallow rust spots showed up above the front window. Most of this week will be spent with work at the office. I am looking to try and keep striping more paint off the shell and get a better idea of how to tackle the body work to cover the wider tires. (thinking of reforming the rear flares and rolling the front fenders)

First off, Welcome. I have seen many people do the floor DIY. Here is an example of a build that did it http://forums.hybridz.org/topic/41372-1971-datsun-240z-restoproject-vidspics/ The most import things are planing and tools. If you got those covered you can accomplish a lot of great things. Good luck

How about that, razor blade method does work. I had my doubts with how many layers this car had. I am still unpacking and have no idea where my cheap heat gun is. This is what I accomplished in about an hour worth of work with just the razor blade alone. I actually got a little bit of an arm workout from this too. This process does not strip to bare metal and the blade wore out about half way through (kept going so I did not waste all of my time looking for more blades.) A nice thing about this is you do get slight feedback on low and high spots. Hard to see in the picture but I have them marked with pencil. Found a few surface rust spots around the hatch hinges. One drawback, it was really hard for me to use this method on convex curves. I will try and find my heat gun and pick up some more blades tomorrow. Next chance I will get to work on it will be Monday. Just a note, I still plan on running over it with a large dual action or a block so I confirm the high and low spots for body work. Thanks for the tip tamo3. I had heard of people using this method, but I did not have faith that it would get through the base/clear layer like it did.

Tested out a paint stripper today. This is one that I has been kicking around for some time. I picked it up from Home Depot (got it for a house project that never happened.) So I thought I would give it a try on the Z. It came with a small plastic spray bottle that was more harm than good. The stripper is not a full on gel but about half way between gel and a liquid. So in the process of trying to spray, the spray bottle leaks out of the pump and onto your finger(s) on the trigger. After you spray somewhat thick coat on to the paint you wait about 15 min. With about 5 min. of scraping paint with a flimsy putty knife, this is the result. Notice the paper towel stuck to the trigger of the spray bottle. Yep that thing started to leak after the third squeeze. The paint stripper had a really hard time eating its way through the base/clear layer that was done back in 2001. Once it got through the blue paint it did make short work of the white layer and the factory gray color. Tested a small spot on the dog leg. As expected the product is not very effective on the side of the car. It is too hard to get the product on the car as thick as it needs to be. What I learned. The good. This will work well in the places I will not be able to use my pneumatic sander. It is quiet and I can use it in the evening. Its not too bad in terms of smell. Dust is not over everything in my garage. The bad. Have to use a good amount to get penetration. Small window of time, ready in 15 min. but starts to dry at about 20 min. Air sander is quicker and does a cleaner job on flat areas.

Small update, Did not have Presidents Day off of work, but still got some wrench time in. Started off working on the side skirts. Got frustrated trying to find all of the rivets in the kick plate area. So I decided to work in some easier places. Pulled the passenger seat, rear seat and quarter windows. After that I turned my attention to the rear tail light section. As I pulled off the driver's side, a large chunk of fiberglass came off showing a nasty section of rust. I finished up the day by removing the front turn signals, grill, and hood springs. Looking to test out different paint strippers next time to see what will work and allow me to start some rust repair. If you got any tips let me know, I got a lot of paint to remove. Found out that the car was white from the factory, then painted silver in the late 80's, then changed to blue using base and clear in 2001, and then finally primed black over all of that in 2005.

Nice job finding a RHD 2+2 fairlady in the states. What are your plans and goals for the car?

Between working on house projects and unpacking, I took a few moments to work on the Z. Pulled the fenders, it was a task to get them to separate from the side skirts. They had been attached using fiberglass and rivets, the rivets had been countersunk and had been hard to find. After I pulled the fenders, I did the search for rust. Seems like POR-15 held up. I found some rust in two areas. One rust spot was on the pinch weld by the headlight bucket on the drives side. The other was welds/bolts used when the battery tray was replaced (in 2003 when the fire happened) Planing on removing the tail lights and side skirts next time. If I get low on time I will just pull the rear seats and passenger side seat. Last picture of the day.

Got a few things done today. Removed the hood, cowl, inspection lids, and hatch. To be able to pull off the fenders I need to remove the side skirts. Looks like it has fiberglass resin to smooth it to the fender. I also found a patch on the rear hatch area that I will want to take a closer look at.

With high HC you can retard the timing to bring it down. If you go to this website, they have a nice chart of how timing affected an engine for emissions (3/4 the way done the page) http://msextra.com/doc/ms2extra/MS2-Extra_Tuning_Manual.html Good luck

Well, its not a bolt in modification, you will need to fabricate all four subframe brackets. I have a S14 subframe on the back of my 78 280z 2+2. Due to the fact mine was a 2+2 the forward mounts for the subframe worked out under the back seat. The trailing two mounting points are about two inches back and three inches to the center from the mustache bar mounting points. The main got ya with this swap was getting the diff to line up and getting the traction rods mounted (they are in interference with the rear frame support) That is a great deal to get it for 10 bucks. I have had a chance to drive mine a bit, the main difference I can report on is that the S13/14 subframes have bump steer. Car feels very modern with respect of going around a corner. Mind you, it was a lot of work and the only reason I did it is because the previous owner started the process, hit some roadblocks and ran out of time to finish it. If you are set on doing this swap send me a pm and I will give you things that will help you out. Good luck

Wow time goes by too fast. Commuting to work for the past year and half ate up my free time. Finally, we just sold our old home and moved in close enough to bike to work. I was able to sell my TDI, so now I have some time and money to spend on the Z. Got the car up and driving so we could move it to our new home. Electrical system is working, but I need to go back and finalize how I run the wires. (worried about chassis flex eating the insulation over time) Plans going forward. Going to strip down the z and fix some small rust areas (hopefully they are as small as they look) Weld in some structural reinforcement. (Thanks Hybridz for the forums on that) Get car painted. Round up interior parts to make my car look good enough that my wife will want to ride in it. Rebuild and enjoy. As for now, here it is, almost ready for surgery. Just don't pay attention to all the stuff around. Still unpacking and have not had time to clean it up yet.

Here you go.

Also in looking at your timing map. I would have the high range in kpa at about 200. Also I am worried about the amount of advance that you are running at that high of boost. I would hope you have a knock sensor to protect you. Take to time to look over some of the timing maps of others. Here are some of the examples from that forum link I posted in my last post. http://dcer.smugmug.com/photos/172390692-M.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v472/X64v/TurboTiming.jpg http://forums.hybridz.org/uploads/1/0/1/8/4/spark.JPG http://forums.hybridz.org/uploads/1/6/0/9/1/ignition%20good2.JPG http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v472/X64v/SparkTable8-20-08.jpg Best of luck

Laxz6 Your Air Fuel Bins is just a static rich number. Take a look at this thread and look at some of the posts of the afr. http://forums.hybridz.org/topic/34536-megasquirt-map-information-sharing-all-code-versions/ Also read up on MS extra docs. This will help you a lot http://msextra.com/doc/ms2extra/MS2-Extra_Tuning_Manual.html. Unfortunately you just can not use someones proven map and expect it to be a plug and play. Every engine is different. But their map can help you get your car to a starting point. Best advise I can give you. Take your car to someone for dyno tuning. It will be well worth your money and time. Best of luck

"If you want to drop CHTS temperature, look at the cooling thread in FAQ stickies at the top of the forum. You can take that plug that used to go to the heater core, and run a 3/8" hardline around the back of the head, connecting it to the lower thermostat housing. That should drop your indicated CHTS by at least 5 if not 10 degrees F! You start a flow path from that 'dead spot' in the cooling system and get coolant flowing through there once the thermostat opens, making for considerably better temperature stabilization even on a stock engine." Tony, First of all, thanks for the peace of mind. Got a small follow up question. If I run a line off of the back of the head to the expansion tank (mostly so I can bleed the system) then run the return line from the expansion tank to the lower thermostat housing. Would the cap on the radiator still function as normal, or would I need to put a high pressure cap on the radiator to allow the expansion tank to handle the system at that point? Worse case, I could be a guinea pig and see what happens. Thanks for your time.

Few updates, pulley sizes are stock. I ended up hooking up the Volkswagen expansion tank to the thermostat bypass. I was amazed at how much the system bleed out, the temperature was solid but its 30 degrees out today. I am going to figure out a way to mount this and test it once the weather heats up in a few months. I will update as I go along. Thanks again

Beermanpete, The timing cover is in good condition. Great point about the pulley size, I will look at that when I get home. Thanks for your insight.

Can you post your msq and a datalog. Follow up questions; is the high idle the only symptom? is the engine running rough? I had a similar issue, turned out I spaced the VR sensor wrong and it wasn't reading teeth right.

I will ask the previous owner about the stop leak. That's a good point.

The pusher fan is the same fan as the puller, I just took the shroud off and reversed the blades. I don't think it is an airflow problem. For example, if I drive at 30 mph, in 4th, it will try and overheat. If I drive in second, no issue. Has anyone used an expansion tank or a swirl tank by chance? I have tried a few ways to bleed the system and there still seems to always be a bit that I can not get out. (found this out by using clear hose on the thermostat bypass.) Also note, car does have large overlap cam, AFR are 14.1 at idle. Compression is good on all cylinders.

In rereading my post, it looks like I left some notes out. Airflow was my first idea. The radiator is really thick and was shrouded with the puller setup. From my past, I was always told that pushers work better (for daily drivers) with thick radiators. Right or wrong I tried it out. it helped. After I moved to the pusher setup, I started leaning to a water flow issue. If I drive in higher rpm's even at low speeds it does not run hot. (I forgot to mention this in the first post) I replaced the water pump, no change. Thanks for the ideas, it always is nice to have someone to help me to think through the process. I still am looking at this as air inside the cooling system causing the problem.

P.S. Temp readings are from a CHTS not at the thermostat housing.

Looking to improve the cooling system. (not my strong suit) Information on my car; I have a Ron Davis radiator installed from the previous owner of my car. The way it was installed, the cap is lower than the thermostat on the engine. Previous owner also removed the heater core and blocked the heater core lines at the back of the head and on the lower coolant pick up. The issue I am experiencing is high temps at idle and light speeds. In attempts to help this out I have tried a few things. The two that have helped out the most have been to retard the timing and moving the cooling fans from a puller to a pusher configuration. But the car will still heat up to over 200 degrees at idle on a 80 degree day. Correct me if I am wrong, I think a large problem I am encountering is with air in the cooling system. I have two ideas, the one I am leaning toward is a swirl tank. (similar to this design http://www.britishracecar.com/BernardBradpiece-Merlyn-11A/BernardBradpiece-Merlyn-11A-BC.jpg) The other thought I had, I have a spare Volkswagen Jetta pressurized reservoir (expansion tank if I remember my terms correctly.) Could I use this? My thought process is that the radiator cap on the radiator would still function as normal. The stock atmospheric reservoir would handle most of the expansion and the pressurized reservoir would act like a swirl tank and collect air there instead of hindering the cooling process of the engine and the radiator. Like I said before, this is not my strong suit. Please let me know of any critical flaws in my ideas or any basics that I have just overlooked. In advance, I appreciate the help. Thank you.

Love this build, was very sad when I found the last video on Mongo's youtube channel. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5xL2ui8iRE

Sorry I should add that had to add wires due to the fact I only had 4 of them as grounds and my MS2 is running a few other options that I did not have on MS1. Hope this helps