Six_Shooter

Cool. I just wish it wasn't done with a camera in front of a TV.

Those are sweet, because they retain the stock lines of the car. IIRC those were custom made by the builder of that car.

I've read about people doing that, but haven't seen any pictures that show the differences, do you have any?

I don't see a problem with that really. It just means that the bumper will be spaced away from the body. I haven't been able to set the bumper in position yet, as I didn't have enough time to remove the brackets and then needed to put the bumper back on in the stock position, as the car is being kept at work for now, until I get my truck back together, and open the space, or I sell my Malibu, which even comes first.

I pulled the front bumper off my '73 tonight, looking to see what it's going to take to move it back the 2 or so inches it should be. I noticed that the outer mount holes almost line up with a hole in the bumper itself, so I'm thinking about cutting off the round piece that is welded to the bupper bracket, and then cut out the bumper bracket that os welded to the bumper. I'm not real fond of this idea. I'm also thinking instead to take the bumper mounts off, and cut about 2" (or whatever the actual measurement is) out of the mount and then use this to move the bumper back. This is a more likely scenario. What I'd like to see is the differences between the '70 to '72 bumper and brackets and the '73 parts, since so many people mention there are differences here. I haven't been able to find any pictures of the differences. Show whatcha got!

Normally I don't any humour in things like this, but that is effing hilarious!

I know about rachet shifters, but where did that come from to begin with? Yeah I know the shift pattern, same as all other 5-speeds I've owned. The only ones that I've driven that were different was VW, reverse to the right and forward, basically beside 1st. The tranny that I bought should have been a 5-speed, as I was told the 280 that it came from was a later one, IIRC he said '78.

I've been trying to figure this out, I don't get it. Anyway, it seems that the engine has flat tops, so it is a 280ZX N/A engine, F54 block, P90 head, with the '73 induction. It looks like the 280ZX exhaust manifold has been retained though, as I noticed tonight that the exhaust manifold has pipe plugs in each "primary", that I could only see being used for AIR injection, which the '73 didn't have. I also pulled out the choke cables tonight, one was broke before I pulled it out, the other was fatigued and then broke when I was putting it in the parts box. It needs a tune up desperatly, I'll probably change the oil tomorrow night, take a look at the plugs and check the timing if I can get my hands on a timing light. The tranny fluid is red and looks great. So if I drive on the auto for a bit I have no worries about it. It seems that the manual tranny I bought with the car may be a 4 speed, since I can't seem to find a 5th gear when shifting through the gears. I let it get to operating temp tonight and adjusted the carbs some, it's running better, but the gas is old, I can smell that, may even be 10 years old, as that's the last time it was registered. I'll be putting some fresh fuel in soon with some octane booster, as good measure. I can't wait for some other parts to get here, I have a turbo manifold on the way that I hope to have installed before summer, just depends on how my other projects go along.

Doing some searching on the manual trannies to night, since I may have a 4 speed to go in my car instead of a 5 speed. The reason I say this is because I was going through the gears with the tranny sitting on the floor and could not find a 5th gear, I thought I did, once, but every time after that, I could only find 4 gears. Is there anyway to tell? I could not find any markings, or numbers on the tranny case to identify it. I also see on THIS page that the 280Z, not ZX could also come with a 5-speed. I know this tranny came out of a 280Z, and was pretty sure I was told it was a 1978, that would, according to that page mean that it should be a 5-speed. Any insight into this?

I pulled a plug tonight and from what I could see it looks like it has flat tops, which is what I really expected being used in N/A form. It wouldn't make much sense to use a turbo version for this application.

I haven't pulled a plug yet, but it looks like the Datsun L6 uses a fat plug. That will make it easier to see in. I'm not too worried, either way, I'm throwing a turbo on it, flat top or dished, I'm kinda hoping that it has flat tops for a bit more compression, which is a bit low IMO, if what I read is correct that the flat top pistons with the P90 head results in about 8.8:1 SCR.

I just checked, yes the casting number is to the right of the driver side (passenger side for the RHD guys ), and my block casting is an F54. I hope you're correct TR, in other engines that I work with the plugs are usually far too shrouded to look in through the spark plug hole and see with any certainty what the pistons would be.

I like the two tone break up, using the flowing lines. I was just about to ask about the headlight buckets, that's the only part I don't like, how the black just ends at a body seam. Just continuing the pinstripe across and around the black on the top of the candy scoop would finish it off nicely.

So what did they taste like? Seriously though looks good. I don't like smoked taillights on just any car, but looks good on yours. With that carbon fibre wing, I think the carbon fibre tail light panel would look good together.

Where would I find the engine casting number on a Datsun L6? I'm trying to determine exactly what my engine is. So far I know that it is indeed an L28 (I know where the engine build number is), and that it has a P90 head. So from this I would think that the engine is from an '81 to '82 280ZX. I have come to this conclusion based on the information I have found about the P90 head, that it was only a turbo head, apparently a somewhat desirable head for performance, and that the engine is an L28. I have not found however how to identify the casting number, other than I would think that it should be an F54, based on the other known information. Thank You. *EDIT* After doing some more searching it seems that the combination I have, the P90 on a probable F54, could have either flat tops of dished pistons, and that would be the difference between the turbo and N/A version of this engine. Short of pulling the head (not going to happen) or using micro cameras (also not going to happen), is there any way to determine what pistons might be in the engine from external markings? *EDIT 2* More research, I have read that the N42 has it's casting number to the right of the driver side engine mount. Since my car is currently at work, I'll have to check that tomorrow to see if I find a casting number here. If this info isn't correct anywhere else that I could find it?

S30.

Hmmm, what to do?.... Well you could pull the head and see if it is just a matter of replacing the head gasket, if it is, and you want to drive it with the L28 for a bit, then a new headgasket at that point would be cheap to have some fun with. If you find that the head is bad or block, or something more than a gasket, I would then just start the V8 swap.

Repost! I do think it's a tad much on the price too, and even though I dislike the 3.8/3800, that is a pretty cool install.

I have thought about making 'glass candy scoops, and may do that to find what looks best, but in the end I will form new metal candy scoops, that keep the original look, but with the new headlights, what ever I end up using.

Nope, no extra shift knobs, just the one attached to the 280 5-speed in the hatch that is being swapped in place of the automatic.

Yeah, that is the one. And yes it does twist apart. I have a spare if you want it. I didn't think it was anything real special, I just thought it was interesting, I've never noticed one before. Challenger; I want to retro fit some other headlights in, something more modern and sleek, and would like to use those scoops that I got from you, that BTW also arrived today, to make new scoops. TR; Yeah it's been a while waiting (im) paitiently for it to get here. Once I got the call from the driver last night, I knew I was going to have a hard time sleeping, and I did.

Well I finally took delivery of my 1973 240Z this morning. It arrived at work at about 11 AM. Here it is coming off the truck, all covered in road dirt and snow. After this I took a look at a few things on the car, that I didn't notice previously. It has an under hood light, I don't know if this is common or not, but it has it and it works. I also had one in the hatch, that the seller must have thrown in. There was actually quite a few extra parts in the hatch that I didn't expect, like the 280 dash, while in poor condition is kinda neat to have. I only really paid for the gauges, since I wanted spares, and to convert the Amp gauge to a volt meter and the tach from voltage triggered to points triggered. As a bonus, the 280 Speedo has exactly what I was going to do to a 260 speedo I recently received from another member here, metric graduations! I don't recall this ever being mentioned that from the factory that the 280 has Metric graduations for speed on the speedo. I'll just swap that face in, instead of screwing around with the other speedos. Another VERY nice discovery is that that the engine is not the original engine, I know, you're scoffing right now. "But that's not a good thing, the numbers don't match....." Yep, it's an L28, with a P90 head. From what I've been able to find out, that's an L28 from an '81 to '82 280ZX, turbo. That's perfect, because I have a turbo exhaust manifold coming for it, I think this was meant to be. The L28 in 1973 L24 trim: The interior is rough, but I plan to update that quite a bit anyway, so as long as I have the basic parts, that's all that matters. Ugly interior: Passenger side (yeah it's still dirty, at least I cleaned the windows.) : Driver side: And some spare parts that came with it (yes, that is a 280 5-speed):

You'd be correct if he was running SCCA, but according to the post a couple up, the car is intended more for drag racing. NHRA or IHRA don't require a diagonal bar, and it's well into the single digits before any bracing accross the main hoop in a similar fashion is needed. Most roll bars that are mandated in NHRA and IHRA require the lower strut bars to be different. They usually attach to the junction where the belt bar meets the main hoop, and then attaches through the floor to the frame connectors. I don't believe you'd have a problem in NHRA or IHRA with that main hoop, but maybe not as just a roll bar. My uncle built a tube frame Fiat Topolino "replica" with a multipoint cage, that also had peaked main hoop and winsheild bar to gain more head room. It is or was an NHRA certified chassis. The only reason I say "was" is because the guy that recently bought it is planning to change the door bars to swing out which won't pass cert, in this car. As a roll bar the peak may cause you problems. Most tracks don't check the roll bar much unless you are into the single digits. Most tracks that I've been to, or I have read about just make sure you have a bar below 12.99.

Here's what I would do: Remove head. Repair head (replace intake valve) Set cam to TDC #1. Before replacing head rotate crank to TDC of cylinder #1 Re-assemble as normal.