[*New* Z project!]

Mystery Component B: used to be mounted on the engine block and draped over the valve cover. Looks like some sort of blower fan, did not find it in any of my 240-280 documentation, but I have seen it on later 280zx models

 

MC B mount. The engine block used to be blue! As with a few other mystery components and other "uneeded" components, its wiring was cut when I bought the car by the previous owners

 

Image shows the sorry state of the shock boots... All of them are dryrotted like this one. Rear shocks completely bottom out when going over small bumps, causing the tire to rub on the wheel well.

 

Spare tire well. This is AFTER I cleaned out the rats nests and assorted junk in there. Anyone ever had to use that tire? Its junk... mine fell apart during the 3/4 of a mile to the gas station. Note the white mystery wire.

[*New* Z project!]

In the garage finally after pushing it out of the yard

 

 

 

The Engine needs a little love (read: money) to get back up to step

 

Fusable Links... broken. I plan to replace them with a Maxi Fuse unit

 

Air Flow Meter: The flap is stuck halfway and requires a little push to go the rest... so THAT'S why it wouldn't rev above 2500 last year..

 

Mystery componant A: left side of the engine compartment, single wire going to it is cut by previous owner/mechanics. If you can tell me what it is, you're a better man than I

[*New* Z project!]

Oh yeah, and I severely SEVERELY regret not getting the engine for it while I was in Okinawa... I had connections and everything! I could have saved tons worth of shipping costs from what I'll now likely spend.

[*New* Z project!]

Ok, here's a somewhat better description...

4 years ago I picked this car up in california. I didn't care about the somewhat ratty appearance and poo brown color, the price was right and I wanted to own a Z! The interior was a little worn, there was a lot of dry rotting and sun damage, but the exterior had no rust on it at all.

About a month later my "friend" wanted to borrow the car to look at apartments out in town. 25 minutes later he plowed into the back of a brand new '03 impala. The impala was totaled, but my Z survived with a cracked radiator and a slightly bent bumper. I guess those ugly things are good for something! I had to drive this thing with a few gallons of water in the trunk for a couple months until I could find time out of my job to get the radiator fixed. After she had the new radiator dropped in, I got orders to Okinawa where I was to be stationed for 2 years. So I drove the car across the states to Connecticut so I could store in my parents' yard while I was away. Well, that 2 years turned into about 4 years away. I was lucky to come home once a year where I would unwrap it and fire it up. Even after all the sitting, she always started.

 

Flash forward to a few weeks ago, I'm out of the military and I'm taking a vacation to work on the car... vacation is the nice way to say temporarily unemployed... The car has since accumulated very little surface rust, which is suprising, but it does have a couple spots of cancer that have developed. I still have my floor pans though! Also, this time it didn't start. It cranked for all it was worth, but not even starting fluid could get it to fire up. So ended up having to push i to the garage where it sits on jacks today.

 

Most likely the engine won't start due to aged and clogged fuel injectors or a bad control unit. The pump still makes pressure, as i found out when i tried to remove the old fuel filter (which looks like its been there since '78) and residual pressure exploded in my face. When I removed the sparkplugs and looked in the holes I saw nothing but black oily crud all over the pistons, so I'm going to take it out and rebuild it myself. The engine has anywhere from 68000 to 168000 to 268000 miles on it with what looks like no real maintenance done (i can't tell... the odometer doesn't go above 5 digits). But I'm not concerning myself with that until I fully refurbish the brake and suspension system. I'm also not going to have anything professionally done that I can easily do with available tools (although I'd really like to strip the whole car down and dip it in a acid bath/ then paint it).

 

Future goals:

I want to have this car both comfortable to drive on the street, as well as the autocross. Maybe eventually get it on the Limerock track a few times. I'd like to drop an RB20DET engine into it, and gradually squeeze more performance out of it as my budget allows. I'm more concerned with handling than absolute power though, so I may use an SR20DET engine instead. 350 hp would be the max i realistically plan to get, with a top speed of 150mph that I rarely expect I'll be at.

 

The new struts drop the ride height about an inch, or so they advertise... I don't really need to go much lower, if at all. As for the rest of the suspension, I will replace things as time goes on, but for now all that is planned is some strut bars and maybe some stronger swaybars. Brakes will stay stock until I get to the point where i'm pushing more power out of my engine and I will buy higher performance units for the front. I'd also like the car to shed a few pounds, but until it fits in my budget I'll have to do with removing the seats and other unecessary equiptment.

 

More updates soon...

[*New* Z project!]

With photo documentation, so you can see my failures!