Pharaohabq

if it's in that good a shape, but no engine, then jump on it, engines are cheap and easy to get, a good body is the hard part! so buy it. a perfect dash is worth almost the sales price... now where is it? Phar

look at this thread http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=133571 I'm not saying that'll fix your problem, but iit's possible. it shows the 3rd terminal to be the timing pole, so maybe verify yours is connected that way.

sorry for the doublepost... We can help you to see if the Z is worth trying to fix. There's a lot of Stickies on where to look for rust would be a good starting point. But hey if the price is right... Phar

Really, there's no way to check that, since Nissan never kept records of the VIN's sold other than how many. There's no record saying your car was sold in what date. 8/75 could be still sold as a 75', it depends on when the paperwork came through. There's nothing out there that even says what VIN # originally went to what car either, so by VIN there's no exact cutoff saying S30-XXX vin = 74-260s and after that they were all 280z's there was a little overlap. Model years aren't exactly set in stone, at least back then they weren't. Phar Check out this thread on VIN numbers: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=147218 you should double check all your #'s

Heh, That's the right 'tude Daeron, It's YOUR car. don't let nobody tell you what to do.. I think it's awesome you want to preserve her life, just just watch how many layers of makeup you put on, makeup doesn't fix what's underneath. sometimes "plastic" surgery is required... hehe

Right, okay, AC am runs the Dash, that makes sense. You had the Engine bay harness, engine harness, and dash harness. Did you grab the IPC -intelligent power control do-hickey under the hood too? I'm not sure I need that. I got my engine harness on, but I guess it's the engine bay harness that connects the dash and engine harneses together. (my Engine harness only has 2 connectors into the ECU, leaving 1 open) My Dash harness has the BCM connectors, but no connection to the ECU or engine harness. I am not planning on pulling out any wires until I have the engine running happily in the car. then I'll look at pulling unused systems. If you guys have extra unused sensors/modules, I might be interrested Phar

Well, you have a new starter there in that 280Z. it might even be a Gear reduction starter. it should fit in the 240 just fine, and it's an easy swap, 2 big bolts and the solenoid connectors. It's possible the engine may be seized, and that would be unfortunate, but since you're replacing it anyway... It would be nice to have it working till you got to that point tho... Oh and for the brakes, you might read the stickies on here about the Reaction Disks. It's super common. I got your Email, I'm working on getting more members before doing anything else w/ that website, I was thinking I might be able to get the Albuquerque Club to Help, by renaming, and then expanding again to all of NM. That way I wouldn't have to work so hard for members, and they really really need a better webpage, so it's a 2 birds 1 stone thing... I think the bolt on the front is a 24MM if I remember correctly. but actually, pushing it backward in reverse, then popping the clutch should be plenty to turn it over. forward in 1st is just as good, both are low gears, reverse being lowest of course. if it's siezed you might be able to spray a bunch of WD40 in the cylinders and let it sit overnight, then try cranking it again. it's amazing how much just a little washing does to clean it up. I found a company here in abq that does media blasting, n they said they'd take the whole car to bare metal guaranteed no rust/paint for $1400. I know it's not cheap, but on a rotisserie that included the tar gunk undercoating removal. I'd have to remove things like the windows and dash, tailights etc, but I'm really considering it. as compared to my doing the work w/ the sander... dunno tho, it's a lot of $ and my labor is free... hmm... Phar

Yeah, unfortunately, we do in Bernalillo county, NM.. THo, I was reading, and I might be able to get an emissions exemption for the engine swap. Gotta get it swapped first... UPDATE: So, I did a little work, I installed the wiring harness onto the engine. It took a little figuring, but it really only goes on one direction. oh and I found I'll have to zip tie one of my TB's plugs, cuz the connector is broken, hopefully that won't be an issue. I was reading and looking at the harnesses I have, I found that I actually have the engine harness, and the Main Body(dash) harness. Which it good, I was thinking I'd have to locate a dash harness, but not I just need the dash sub harness and the engine compartment harnesses along with the Fuse block, relay block, ACAmp and IPC module. guh. (If anyone is contimplating a VQ swap. I highly recommend pulling your parts yourself, or finding the engine/tranny as a COMPLETE SWAP including all harnesses, ECU,BCM etc etc because running down parts is a pita! save yourself time and $$$ and just buy it as a unit.) Phar

well hey, sounds like you've got a plan. I know the Z31 engines are troopers, mine got hit by a semi and still starts.. sputers a little tho, but it runs. I think it's on 5 cyl right now. I'm gonna part it out tho. ... Someday... You'll need some of the other sensors from the Z31, maybe MAP, and temp sensors. I don't remember if the Z31 used a MAP sensor... Phar

Yeah, I'm going to use the cats for a few reasons: 1. I don't want to have trouble with the CEL due to O2 sensor differences, since I'll likely be fighting CEL's from the systems I'm not swapping over. 2. Emissions. I don't want any trouble with not passing inspection. not that I'm expecting any trouble. for a 78' 280Z in NM they allow up to 5 points on all emissions stats. 3. I don't want a super loud car. the Cats along with mid pipe muffler and a large endpipe muffler should quiet it down a little. I know I'll lose a little HP due to restriction, but no more than the stock pipes I would think. Phar

Any Luck, Austin?

Okay, so I've been looking at the wiring harnesses. If I'm looking at this right, there are TWO Fuse boxes right? One for just Fuses, and one with fused AND relays in it, right? It looks like you used BOTH these boxes. Also, It looks like you used a few other boxes tied to your harness. I saw the BCM, on your tranny tunnel, What does the ACAMP do? Is that a required part? Your ECU is mounted under your Passenger seat next to the relays, right? What other Sensors did you leave in the system? I know you cut out a lot of wire from your harness, what are some of the systems that you're not using? Does your ECU throw CEL due to the missing systems? I would also be interrested to hear what Austin did with his Harness' too. (n also he said his buddy was working on an aftermarket harness for swaps?) Thanks Phar

+1 Impact wrench... The coat hanger idea works too, I was thinking to use the wedge of wood to stop the flywheel from turning, since the wood wouldn't damage the teeth on the flywheel. Oh and replace your rear oil seal while you have the flywheel out, it's cheap, and easy to do.

Did you get this figured out? Is it possible you could be 180 degrees off. Have you checked to see if you have compression? I would guess your dizzy is not firing at the right time. You should pull off your rocker cover, align your crank to cyl1 TDC, then verify your Cam timing marks are correct. then look at your dist. Is the rotor pointing at Cyl 1 as it's supposed to? I don't remember exactly, I'd have to look at my dizzy, but I thought Cyl 1 was more like 7 oclock on my dist. If you can find one, you should replace your Dizzy with an electronic Ign. version out of a S130 (82/83) which will give you much more accurate spark, and no points to gap.

I wouldn't try only using 4. you'll have troubles. I think you might have to pull the flywheel and drill out the bad bolts. you might get lucky with an easy out bit. What do you mean the front of the crank broke loose? you can take a wooden wedge to prevent your crank from turning to get your flywheel bolts off. Phar

YEah +1 to the Comments at the start. esp to what Daeron was saying. It looks to me that the Car has a ton of surface rust. the Batman air freshener should have saved it tho. So I expect the interior to be tight really though, It doesn't look that bad, How good are you with a welder? I can tell there's some real trouble areas I would expect to be bad. The rear deck almost certainly will need metalwork, along with the panels below the door. So, assuming the frame rails are okay. I'd be looking for: New hatch New right fender New left headlight bucket New Windshield MAYBE new hood. DOC MAYBE left fender DOC The rest is hard to say, but the doors look decent. the rust on the Roof looks like all surface. The floor might be okay, looknig at the interior. the seats are torn but doesn't look too bad on the wear side. That dash is pretty cracked, but I'd be willing to try that "great stuff" Dash repair on it. Who knows on the Engine at this point, but it's replaceable/rebuildable for cheap. The part that concerns me most is the tail end. The rust on the hatch is nothing, esp if you replace the hatch. if you don't you might get lucky with just surface rust. Y said replace those panels, because it'd likely be cheaper to replace than to fix those, esp te bucket and the holy fender. I'm most worried about the rust on the lower edge of the tailight panels, and the right rear seam. The only time I've seen rust like that is when the deck was way rusted through and allowed the wheelwell and the back panel to rust out. but hey, it could just be surface rust right? If you take this on, you'll need to invest a bit in a lot of liquid wrench or other penetrating oil. Guaranteed, most all the bolts are rusted. likely some will snap off and need to be drilled out. so I'd spray a lot of the bolts you'll need to take off every couple days for a week or so just to be sure they're well lubed, make your life easy that way. But hey, Free Z right? Can't beat that. More picts! more Picts! esp the floorboards, and the area behind the front wheels maybe tap on things with a hammer. also open the hatch and show us inside under the carpet. If your dad has a rack at that shop, have him put it up on there and take a lot of picts of the frame rails. So far not too bad, not cheap to fix, but not too bad. It would be a fun project. Phar

likely the Vin is just too old to be in the system. no record is a good thing. You'll need to talk to the DMV and see how they want to handle it. likely you'll have to get a Vin inspection. since the car was out of state, you'd probably need one anyway. Unfortunately you don't have a title that matches the Chassis VIN. It might be a better idea to see if you can get your $ back. Either way, you have a legal case against the seller for non-disclosure. but just be nice. you'll get a lot furthor in negotiating with sugar than with salt. The Vins coulda been swapped just for the new interior. there's tons of reasons they coulda been swapped, tho, getting it sorted out is a good idea. in the very least you should get a discount from the seller for having to deal w/ a questionable title.

if you're getting oil to the cam, I'd say it's a safe bet the pump is getting oil. But yeah, you should get it started and heat it up then check your compression. I think you'll see a difference. It's probably one at 190 psi cold. mine is 170 cold. and runs okay. You should check your injector plugs for corrosion. it always seems that's a big culpret when the L28 isn't starting. Phar

how goes this restore?

depends on your wheel wells. you're probably going to have some rubbing if you don't have flares. Also, what to you drive your Z for? just everyday, or club events, I'd match all the tires for rotational and swapping reasons. though if you're going to be racing, the additional width is traction, and that helps. So what kind of driver are you, and what is your usage? I'd recommend matching all 4 to the same size. I think there's a discussion on here already about tire size, you might search. Phar

Yeah, and make sure your insurance covers you on sanctioned autocross events.. oh and be sure your brake fluid is filled. I won't get into that story, just know it's good to check, just like setting your parking brake when the veh is parked...

so I'd take it then that your Chassis # and your Vin's don't match?

Hmm So you're using two keys then? That would make sense. I wonder how hard one of those bluetooth fob systems would be to integrate into this. I was reading in the FSM a bit last night. And from what I can tell the NATS ant really has no smarts to it, it's just relaying the code from the key to the BCM. That's good and bad, in that if I had an alternate antenna like a bluetooth, it could likely read it, but the bad is interfacing, and then ensuing the bluetooth Fob is a compatible code. I'd have to get a couple NATS antenna to tear apart and see how the guts work. they're ~75 bucks at the dealer. Oh on my list I forgot: 2.00 Nissan, O2 sensors, , I have 2 upstream, but need the downstream. 1.00 Nissan, Fusebox, , My harness is missing the fusebox(s) Phar

hmm Maybe flatter oval shaped intake tubes. or perhaps even a dual intake setup like on the HR. though that makes supercharging difficult. or at least more expensive. A Front intake plenum for the VQ would be so much nicer to have, as far as installing it into other vehicles. 240z/sx etc

Yep, Flatbeds are tough to beat.. hehe you can chain your car to a tree, but a good alarm is a good way to deter thieves. Exterior video and DVR is also a good method. but all in all, you can get a GPS lowjack type system pretty darn cheap these days. Make sure your alarm has a fuel pump cutoff relay. that's a good one. Now beating a 9 second nova isn't impossible, but would be really tough on a small budget. Guaranteed he's spent about 10 times what you will on your Z tho. So keep track of that when he says he's faster. For easy power, the cheapest swap is the 280ZX turbo engine swap. it's good for adding a bit of power without a lot of cost or modifications. Read through all the stickies and use the search button. You'll learn tons. but your budget is your biggest limiting factor. Cheap Fast quality pick any 2... Phar