Jump to content
HybridZ

Patjamas

Members
  • Posts

    3
  • Joined

  • Last visited

About Patjamas

  • Birthday 03/12/1987

Patjamas's Achievements

Newbie

Newbie (1/14)

10

Reputation

  1. Early this year I bought a 72 240z to be a project car. It was pretty far from top shape, which wasn't a problem for me because I hoped to use it to learn alot about gasoline engines. For a short period I was using it as a daily driver, in the fall. It never ran amazing, but it seemed to have good days and bad days, which I chalked up to weather conditions and the carb setup. One day I was heading home from work and it just died when I was rolling up to a stop sign. Previously that day it HAD been running noticably rough. So I get it towed back to the house and I start checking it out some. I can smell an unburnt gasoline smell in the exxhaust, so I am still assuming the carb's are working fine. I manage to get the car to stay running by holding the linkage that controls the fuel so that it is above whatever its set at for idle. While holding this, I check what I think is the next easiest problem to diagnose, spark. One-by-one I pull off a spark plug wire, listen for a change in how the engine is running, put the wire back on. Assuming from the nose of the car, the first 3 cylinders seem to be firing. when I pull off the last 3 wires I hear no change in the engine. So this leads me to believe compression or the valves to be the culprit. And I'm hoping an easy way can be suggested to determine if the valves are bad or not? I'm gonna find a compression gauge when I can and try that out as well, but in the mean time was wondering if theres some old mechanics trick to test the valves? Also, when I was fidling with the car I noticed the air cleaner (brand new BTW) was more dark on the side with the cylinders that seem to be not firing. And the car seemed to backfire, but more so when the engine was on the colder side when I was driving, but sometimes it would just randomly backfire at operating temp when going down the highway at steady RPM or in town as well. Thanks in advance.
  2. I found this 72 240z locally. I have been back and forth on a project car for awhile now, and i found this for 1700$ and it seemed too good to be true. I'm unsure exactly what I want to do in the end, but for now I can just enjoy the stock setup. The car is pretty rust free, 1 bad cancer spot on the driver front fender, and some surface stuff on the hatch, but its 36 years old so I can't complain. I've been visiting this page for awhile so this is mainly an introduction sort of thing, and I'm glad i can get into the z community now. I'll post more pictures when i actually have the car here and can get in there good with my camera.
  3. Hi all, I have been scouring these forums for awhile doing some initial research. Found a TON of great info about v8 conversions and little z details I never knew about. So my tale so far is, I'm active duty military deploying to Iraq, stationed in Idaho. While deployed I will make considerably more money and wanted to treat myself to a nice ride when I got back. I am a mechanic in the Air Force (mainly diesel engines not airplanes) so I have a bit of experience pulling engines and replacing components, not to say this qualifies me to start converting z's but with my experience, the JTR manual, and a few of the guys I work with who actually have a long history of working on street cars, I think I can handle a lot of the work. The base supplies us with a place to work on cars and just about every tool under the sun (plus real auto mechanics who will help out for a fee) so I'm confident the actual bolting together of everything can be accomplished without paying someone else to do it for me. The predicament I face is the actual components I want to buy. I see other new guys posts that basically ask "tell me what I want" and i don't want to be that guy. I don't care so much which body style I get (as long as its a z, not as fond of the later ones) so one of the 70's cars, which I also believe are the ones the JTR deals with. I want to leave the body fairly open so I can concentrate on a good quality body rather than pass up some thing good because I'm stuck on just a 280 and not the other models. I want this car to be an everyday driver if it needs to be. I have a regular car now, but I know my wife likes having something to drive. So I'm not looking for something with ridiculous compression that I can only refuel at a track. I came across http://phoenixengine.com/Chevy-01.html http://phoenixengine.com/Chevy-02.html in my search for an engine. a 355 - 365 hp turnkey for 3400 - 3600$ seemed like it'd save me a lot of hassle initially. But, I don't know how reputable this company is. Any of you AZ guys ever dealt with them? The 350 seemed like it'd be able to provide me with decent street aspects (mileage, compression) but hopefully still smoke some guys who think their stock cobras and camaros are gods gift to speed. I would like to be able to run decent on a 1/4 mile but it wouldn't be something I'd do every weekend. Mostly just want to show some uppity punks whats up when their heads get too big. Next, I was looking at transmissions. Initially I had my eye on a th350 as I would prefer an auto/manual over a manual. But it has no OD which I'd like because I wanted to keep it street. So then I started looking at a 700r4 which sound to me like it'd have it all, lower gear than the 350 in 1st, plus an OD so I could hope for better than 10 MPG when I cruise around town in it. My concerns still with the 700r4 is HP. These companies do upgrade them with corvette parts and supposedly get them capable of 400 - 450 hp, though I have no direct experience with them so thats something I'm looking for advice on. I know the engine I have my eye on isn't nearly that much HP but I'd like to keep the turbo or supercharger option available for down the road. With this tranny I'm also concerned with clearance on the varying models, I know a 280 has a bigger tunnel, but how much bigger compared to a 240 or 260? I'm not an experienced welder so that type pf work I'd liek to keep to a minimum. Aside from those 2 big ticket items I'm looking for some advice on what kind of diff to use (was thinking a r200 would fit my style) and some good sources for the other odds and ends. http://www.thezstore.com/page/TZS/CTGY/PRC01 This store has drive shafts for different trannys and a lot of the same parts JTR sells. You guys know of a better source for these kind of parts? maybe a bit cheaper? Or if any of you are skilled metal workers and would fab them for less than these guys sell? Thanks Pat
×
×
  • Create New...