datsunlover

Holy crap...

I'll speak up in favor of the SU carbs. My 75 280z had a 'gone for a CRAP' FI system on it, and I could have easily spent thousands of dollars and countless hours trying to fix it. Instead, I bought some SU's w/ manifold and a 280zx distrubutor fairly cheep, and basicaly 'slapped' them on. (spent a few hours disasembling and cleaning them up, a few gaskets and they're ready to go!) I love the SU's in part because they are so easy to set up and tune.. they are much simpler than the arcaic mid 70's FI system. I'm not running a meckanical pump though; I just got an aftermarket fuel pump intended for 1980's chev P/U trucks w/carb motors. It pushes 4 - 5 psi and I havn't had a problem yet (going on 2 years like this now) mind you it cost me $60 for the pump..

Cool project man, I'm wanting to build one to! Actually, I was just going to use the whole bike (unknown doner as of now..) from the forks/bars back. Basicaly, attach a set of wheels/brakes and a seat w/steering wheel pedels, ect to the front of it... just run cables or linkages ahead for throttle/brakes and clutch/gears. Wonder if I could licence it as a 'modified motorcycle' to drive on the street.. muhahaha..

I drove my 75 280z all last summer on 14" 6 spoke 'Z' rims. Originally, these rims were on my 81 280zx I had about 7 years ago.. so you should have no problem. In case this turbo zx has diferent rims though, you might want to bring the lug nuts that go with the rims from your 77. (some lugs are flat with washers, some are angled/chamfered. Never know what's on this 280zx.. Don't mix+match or wheels can fall of. trust me..)

Heheh.. cool! A post I started got made a sticky! I feel all warm and fuzy inside.. Oh.. that might be the beer though.. Glad I could help out!

Looks good man! Brings back memorys of puting mine back together.. *shudder* Gona be a nice solid ride!

Ha ha.. HELL NO!! Tonite was a little chilly and I was wishing for some heat.. even the pathetic heat my Z has would have been nice! He has an AWD astro van for daily/winter driving, with GREAT heat. For those chilly fall nights I figure a power invertor and little 'space' heater will do (under the dash somewhere, close to the front firewall) The nice thing is it's a 12 volt system, with an alternator so accesorys/ect will be easy to add on. Oh and the pedles.. OMG!! hinged on the floor.. gas is like 4" lower than the brake/clutch.. weird, and quite a chalenge to heel toe...

Heheh.. My yonger brother just picked up a 1974 VW beetle.. but I had to drive it home cause' he's not too good with a 4 gear yet. I'll teach him as soon as I re-learn. Has anyone here ever driven a bug? If so, you know how grabby the clutch can be.. I stalled the thing about 4 times and it was only a 40 minit drive home with it! Nice little car though.. 1600cc, single weber 2bbl (electric choke), electronic distributor, and aftermarket header/mufler. (they're a little rotted though, may need to replace) Not a power house, but I was impresed with how well it got up to speed considering the what.. 65 horse it may have? AND it's lowered with the 'sport bug' 15" rims, big bumpers are gone, replaced with 'cal look' thin round bumpers and one piece door glass (no silly triangle window/bar in there) I'll try to get some pics tomorow.. it's really kinda cool looking.. I want one now! Over all, it's in decent shape and only need's rear tires from what I can tell.. We'll also have to er... 'adjust' the drivers seat/shifter/steering wheel a bit for him to drive it comfortably. You see, my 'little' brother (2 years younger) is pushing 375 pounds and stands at LEAST 6'6". yup, thats right. Smaller wheel, lower seats and a slight 'bend' of the shifter should do it. Gona have to raise it back up a bit too, and get a few more ponies out of the ol' boxer engine, but he didn't buy it for speed.. We're thinking of some wider rims/tires, new paint (has chips/minor rust/ect) and probly dual carbs/better exhast. Should be a fun summer project!

Heh.. I thought that was ON3GO's car at first.. (it isn't is it? ) Foshizel...

Thanks, good to know.

Just a thought.. your oil burning might just be bad valve seals.. really bad, like mine were.. (they were brittle and cracked with slight finger presure) I thought i'd need rings too, but my bottom end was pretty much mint when I tore it down this past winter. I'd try some oil restore product of some sort and maybe a slightly heavier weight oil. (I had an oil burning/leaking 85 200sx some years ago that I ran DIESEL oil in just to help keep some in her! ) Don't get too down on the car yet.. Mine was EXTREAMLY rough when I got it, and as you can tell, I'm still in the process of getting it back to good. Definatly check that the diff mount and 'arrester strap' are in good shape before getting into the u-joints... they wont help a bit if the nose of the diff is lifting, and will probly wear prematurely if the diff'f floating around.

Thats actually a pretty good price for a 'kit' package.. I've got KYB GR2's in the rear, and planing the front instal this week (along with a brake upgrade, and hopefully some difrent springs) So far, I've got about $300 into JUST the struts.. and they're only KYB's! Oh well.. I'm happy with them anyway.. The rear feels a lot better and doesn't rattle around like last year. I'd ditch the rear sway bar, and try to find a bigger diameter front bar. I noticed a HUGE difrence in handeling when I instaled my 7/8" front bar.. If you have the cash flow, go with the poly bushings evrywhere too ... I'm Mr el-chepo so I re did all my bushings with regular old rubber (made my own from various diameters/sizes of rubber boat trailer rollers. Don't laugh to hard, it works!) I think you'll notice how worn the stock bushings are once you install new springs and sturts anyway, and want to change them.

Yah, looks like the same size (mine are 5 spokes) I have on my Z. Came off an acura integra. By the looks of them, the tires are probly a little thin, (low pro.. probly 40's) so your spedo would be off a bit but your acceleration would be slightly better.. I built 1" spacers myself for the fronts, and the rear fit without spacers. (cost me $70 material and about 2 hours of my time) I'm running 205/55/r16 all around, and have a 'slight' rub on the right front.. I'm going to do adjustalbe coil-overs.. or something. My stock springs are shot anyway. Something else to think aboot.. those rims (like mine...) will need special 'tuner' style lug nuts. Spline drive/special key, or something. (lug holes will be too small for regular lug nuts) AND... you'll have to switch wheel studs to longer ones with the more common M12X1.5 thread. (stock Z's are M12X1.25 I think.. If I screwed up those #'s, someone please tell me, I'll edit. )

Ok, so if you know what the door piece looks like (rotating cylinder with two bumps on it) you can figure out the first one hits the area marked in blue. This causes the cylinder to rotate, 'rolling' the second bump into the small radius, and latching the door closed. The yellow line points to the spot where mine was hitting, and causing that 'clunk' sound. This point was actually smashed really bad from years of abuse, and took a small amount of grinding to fix the peand/mushroomed metal. I then realized the root of the problem; The area marked in blue had been worn over the years and was not in the correct position anymore to allow full rotation of the door cylinder. (well, I guess the door piece could be slightly worn too.. seames to be stronger metal though..) So I used the dremel tool with a small grinding stone to grind back the area in red.. about 1/16" in the end. I just took a bit off at a time, blended it in to the original rad, and closed the door till I didn't hear/feel it hitting. I assume that the 3 or more body jobs this car had over the years didn't help, and a lot of folks probly tried to adjust the latch mechanism but did a poor job, or gave up and just slammed them. At one point I peared into the door while trying to close it and saw that even though it was hitting, you could still get the door to close.. it just took a lot of force, and would actually move the whole door UP as it scraped in to place, before finally latching. I feel like a fool for not realizing this sooner, but oh well.. live and learn. Hope this helps.

Ahh yes, BUT, just to see, I pulled the weather striping OFF at one point, and it closed a bit better, but still not properly. I was worried about shatering my glass too, as it rattles around a bit to begin with.. Looks really bad to when you're leaving a car show and you have to 'take a run' with the door wide open, and wail it shut. And it STILL doesn't close! I'll go get the digicam right now..

Nice! I'm kicking myself now... I had the chance to pick up one a few years ago, just before I found my 280Z for $300!! The thing had been sitting for about 5 years at a farm behind a barn. We threw some gas down her and it fired right up! Just needed some floor patches and a paint job.. I had thoughts of droping a turbo V6 driveline/suspension/brakes into it.. Oh well.. Maybe I'll find one again someday. Nice job man.. enjoy it!

Just something I've noticed in every Z, there is ALWAYS a slight issue with driveline slack. I've talked to a few people who had these cars brand new, and it was common for the rear to make a bit of noise/klunking right from the factory. I have to do the driveshaft ujoints in my 75 actually.. Sometime next week hopefully, and I can take a few pics while I'm at it if you like.

Well, that sucks man. I assume the block is on a stand right now? I'd say find another machine shop, explain your situation and get them to fix the three holes that are crooked. Maybe find someone who has a milling machine in their garage even.. If it were me, I'd set it up on a mill, and 'drill' out the helicoil with an endmill (to keep it square to the block) and then drill out to the size required for another helicoil.

I don't think I would have even given that warning Dan... I came back to this topic to post a thought I'd had after my last response. I saw that coment and actually laughed out loud.. I'm suprised his post count here has got as high as it is considering the mind set evident in that reply.. I had thought about maybe going to a 4 barrel carb/intake setup as it might flow more fuel than the su's and wouldn't have to deal with 'syncronising issues' of twin or tripple carbs. Only reason I havnt is that like I said, I have working knowlege of SUs now, and figure I'll go as far as I can with them rather than start freash on adifferent carb(s) setup. I say go with wat you know... if you're versed in holly/domestic carberation, go that route... unless you WANT to try something new of course..

I'm sure most of you guys know the pain of having to SLAM THE HELL out of your doors to get them to close.. Well, I do. Lots of time spent adjusting the striker's and door hinges.. still, had to really bash the doors to make them shut. (ussualy the first one would catch, but it wasn't compleatly latched and the doors would rattle around over bumps and such) I thought I was just really bad at aligning things, or the whetherstriping was to thick... Well, today I had a closer look and made some modifications to the latch on the body. Hard to describe, but if you look at the door on your Z you'll understand. The door has a little round cylinder with two 'bumps' on it, about 90* apart. The lower one (pointing towards the ground) hits first on the body latch, causing the cylinder to rotate and pushing the second 'bump' around/into the latch on the body. Seams to me that the past 30 years of closing the door had worn down the metal so much that the second 'bump' wasn't rolling into it's proper spot, as it was hitting the 'point' where the cutout starts. I simply ground back the little radius with a dremel and WOW! The doors close like a new car! I don't know if this is any help to anyone, but I thought it was worth posting anyway.. I'll try to get a pic to describe what I've done..

First off, I'd be calling the machine shop and explaining to them that they screwed up and SHOULD make it right. If they tell you to piss off again, inform them you will be spreading the word to EVERYONE you come across that they do horible work and should not be trusted with even the simplest jobs.. like TOUCHING a motor with anything resembling a tool of any kind. If the studs are off kilter that much, I'll bet they put the thing on a drill press and did it. Hell, even if a mill was horribly out of square that could do it to but you'd THINK a proper machine shop would be checking their equipment from time to time.. and understand that the threads/helicoil MUST be square and such... Quick fix... I supose you could.. ah.. bend the studs a bit so the head will drop on.. it'll probly torque down ok assuming you are only talking a few of them, and not too much of an angle.. I'd locktight the studs in the block and make them real tight before bending..

That was frigin awesome! Guy can drive too... Looks like that Subaru gave him a little trouble in the corners but once he caught him on the straight.. holy crap!