datsunlover

I'll second that. I love this place!

Well, I've got a Haynes Manual for the 79-83 280zx, and I'll have a look throught the trouble shooting section for you. But for starters, does the engine rotate/crank at a high enough speed? A low charg in the battery would do this. Also, if the alternator is going, it wont charge the battery properly, and then the battery will die slowly (or vice versa; battery not holding charge will kill alternator from constatly charging/running the engine) If there is good battery charge, the starter rotates the engine proberly, and the alternator is good, check the fuse panel for anything burnt out, and under hood in the relay box (plastic cover with 6 or 7 relays in it if I remember corectly..) for any obvious problems.. I'll let you know what I can find in the manual.

Well, it looks better than it actually is.. well, was. After I tore into it this past summer, I found holes all through the front unibody (around the top of the strut towers right back to the floor/firewall), the front of the floors were shot, rockers are made of mud, both rear quarters were full (And I mean 1/2" think) of BONDO! and rotted up to the floor hight inside and out... holes in rear floor, both door bottoms are glass/bondo, top panel over tail lights was disintigrating, hatch rough.. BUT: If I put on the 300zx fenders, I will join them with my own 'custom' rocker panel, and weld evrything solid again. Im gona put a frame in just for good measure too. Yes, I have my work cut out for me. I like a challenge though! Thanks for the well wishes guys, Im gona need it!

Boy oh boy.. time for my $.02: My first car was an 81 280zx, and I loved that car. I ended up having two more after that, and after selling my last one (LOADED: power evryting, T-tops, Black on black, front air dam, sweet looking/driving car!) I was left longing for another Datsun. That was 5 years ago, but now I have a 75 280z. I like the overall look of the Z a little more than the ZX, but I miss the 4 wheel disk. Man that zx stoped good! Mind you, the e-brake NEVER worked, because of the silly set up on the rear calipers. Read; seized and left that way! I don't think anything that was said was ment to be a shot at the ZX, its just a 'not so good' system to swap into a diferent car (earlier Z) And as for the 'mythical' Maxima rear disks, would those not be similar to 300ZX?

I have scaned my FSM and photoshoped a pic together with all the AFM info on one file. I have had at least 3 ppl from this board ask me for it, and I figured I might as well just post it in my album for all who may need it! Its a little blury, but any program with a good zoom shoud get you in far enough to see the numbers/words. P.S. Didn't know if this was a good forum to put this it, but if it's not, could a mod move it please? Thanks. Hope this helps.. anyone!

well.. -everything Nic said, -Check timing again, -Check plugs/wires/cap/rotor.. actually, probly just replace them all right now...cant hurt anything -check oil, and maybe change it if it's really black or smells like gas -Make sure that the gas in the tank/lines/fi system or carb is good and has not gone stale/gummy -make sure the air filter/intake plumbing is not cloged/blocked -Make sure throttle linkages and cables move freely and dont stick/bind -check for obvious vacume line/wiring breaks and conections -have a fire extingiusher handy -> My Z almost caught fire the day I went to buy it: one of the FI rubber hoses on the fuel rail bubbled out and started leaking/dripping and pooling on the intake, and spilling over onto the exhast manifold. My buddy noticed some smoke and screamed at me (I was in the car reving it at like 3500 rpm!) "HOLY $H!T SHUT HER DOWN!!!! GAS LEAK!!!!". VERY SCARRY -Pray to god/satan (your choice ) and turn that key! .... nothing like that moment of tooth...

Thanks guys! And thanks 240hybrid, for having a great pic to start from! (as you can see, my car is uh.. less then perfect!) I was thinking about the wheels too, I just moved the front out a bit with cut/paste so there wasnt a HUGE fender overhang, but it would need wider and taller (15" at least) wheels to complete the look. As for the rear, it didn't turn out quite as I wanted because I had to use/copy the front fender again (the 300zx pic was cut off too close to the rear fender), but hey.. it's just photo shop right?. I am confident I can do it in the "real world" now, and mold it in better than it looks here. I was thining of buying a 300zx for some other parts too (brakes, diff, c/v's, tail lights, ect) and I'll probly just hack off the rear fenders with a sawzall. There are a few 300's around my area going cheep (ones an 87 turbo! heh heh.. sorry, wrong thread for this one..) so I'll have to start wheeling and dealing! I'll make sure to post pics when I start the work, but it may be a little while. ( money is tight, and Xmass is coming... crap.) Anyway, thanks for the feed back guys!

ok, last one for the night.. I put the 300zx tails in it too... it's 4:30 AM now.. think I will pass out.

This one actually started out with MY car.. which explains why it looks like poo.. There was no air dam in this pic, so I smudged one on quick to get a basic idea..

The first attempt... also my first attempt at using photoshop. (I am used to using corel draw..Photo shop is strange to me because evrything is BACKWARDS! oh well..) What do you guys think? BTW, the original image is from 240hybrid's album, and the 300zx fenders were off cardomain..cant remember who.. sorry

heh heh.. actually, I'm already trying to find some 300zx pics (that have the same angle as my pics or someon elses 280z) and will attempt to photoshop them together. I'll have to get someone to explain how to post them on here when I'm done. I dont have my own site to link pics from, except cardomain.. and I am kinda stumped with the whole internet/posting pics/linking stuf... uh.. yah. As you can see, Im not really a computer guy.... can anyone help me? Oh yah.. thanks for the positive feed back guys!

Has anyone thought of using 87-89 300zx front fenders to make flares out of? This just poped into my head last night and I think it would work.. If you look at the front fenders from an 87-89 300zx, they have a nice smooth flare from the front bumper, out to the wheel opening and then back in to the door.. sort of a subtle 'wide body' look (IMO) so i thought; cut the top off the fender (where it rolls over to the hood) and trim the sides to match (roughly) onto my 280z's fenders. Then weld them on, and smoth it all out with glass and a bit of filler... Any thoughts guys?

Ok.. I didn't realize what year your car was (pardon my stupidity for not seeng '240' and making the conection! ).. but what are you running for a carb(s)? If your runing a bit rich, that might make the emisions high... But I don't know much aout carbs besides the basics, and don't know what to tell you about the dizzy so I think it's time to bow out of this conversation.. good luck!

If it only smokes at high RPM's, I would think it is something to do with the valves/seals... if the rings were shot, I'd think it would smoke from idle and up.. not just high revs.. Like jeff said, do a compresion test.. maybe a leakdown test too. Because, those numbers are WAY wrong.. a stock Geo storm has more HP! (my buddy has one.. hes sooo impressed that his Geo has 132 HP! )

You could just attach/bolt it on to where the stock hatch goes. Hey... get another hatch to take the window out of, and build off it for the "pantera/Ferarri" treatment. That way you could switch between the two easily. Like the late 80's Pulsar: it had a hatch that could be removed easily, and there was an option (aftermarket I guess..) that attached in the same place a the hatch, but kind of looked like a Pick up truck cap. Sort of turned the car into a two door staiton wagon... anyway, I wanted to do this to my 85 200SX, but sold the car before I could rip into it..

Um.. yah... thats kinda... ugly IMO. Looks like front fenders from a smaler/squared off car.. like a ford escort or something! Sorry.. I don't like.

Um, if the emisions are too high, I would suspect the catalytic converter is dead. If the ignition/timing was out enough to fail an e-test that bad, the car would run like crap. IMO.

Hey man, sounds cool! I was thinking of this weekend, or the next. punch him in the face eh? I guess he's pissed off a lot of ppl over the years.. oh well.. um.. if you wanted to meet there, what would be good for you? Oh wow.. would you be driving your Z up? I'd love to see it! Let me know what day/time woud be good for you and get back to me here or e-mail. Datsunlover@hotmeil. Talk later man!

Darn.. I knew I should have grabbed it.. About 8 months ago I went to look at a 75(I think..?) Datsun 810. 4 door sedan, complete and running. It kind of looked like an old domestic car, but smaller! Needed some rust repair (of course!) but was pretty solid overall. Started up and drove around this guys field and it ran perfect! I was thinking of a V6 turbo (300zxt) or even a V8 swap... but I could have drove it home like it was for $250. Man... what can ya do...

Yes I to have a sick liking for Volvos.. and want to V8 and 80s 2 door 'gt'. The bragging rights alone would be worth the time/effort. "Heh.. I just smoked your 5.0 'Stang in an 83 Volvo!" Oh ya, and a V8 swap in a P1800 volvo is cool but TIGHT. Rear 2 plugs have to be changed from access panels inside car. Yech.. no thanks!

Firing order is 1 5 3 6 2 4., rotation is counter clockwise. Came from A haynes manual for the 280zx 79-83. Hope this helps.

Ok, I'll try to get those scans off to you tonite man. As for that thread David posted there, my car ran the same. And all the others who had the dredded "poping and sputering problem" had problems around 2500 RPM: The factory set 'cut off' for the limp mode I mentioned earlier. The AFM is usually the culprit, next is the TPS. If those two check out, its ignition or wiring. (I was told this by an older Nissan mechanic who remembers working on these cars when they were 3-5 years old!) Anyway, I'm out for now. i'll email you later on.

Ok.. I used to know this.. hmm... a few years ago, I was thinking of buying a mid to late 80's Buick lesabre T-type. These cars had the 3800 motor in them (FWD) but if I remember corectly, the block still retained the rear drive mounts up to 88 or 89. (I think) As for the tranny, Im not sure but I know there has to be something out there. I friend of mine had a late 80s monty carlo with a 3.8 and it was an older RWD Monty. I think it was a 4 speed OD. ( 700r4 or 200r4 ?? ) Hope this helps a bit...

Hey guys, just wondering if these are decent prices for panels. This is a quote from 'Showcars.com' BTW. BUT: I only live an hour away, so I will drive down to see them, and check them over before I buy. Here is the list: Rear quarters - $150 Can. Door skins (fiberglass) - $125 Can. Front fenders (fiberglass) - $200 Can. Really, I'd prefer to have steel doors, but I don't know if I could rebuild mine/find good ones in my area. Anyway, whay to you folks think about these prices?

Yup. All you folks in the southern states have no idea what we call a "good" example of a Z car up here in canada. That is bad, but repairable. And good shells are becoming VERY scarce around here, nevermind a 'rust free' one (YA RIGHT!!! ). well,.. my area anyway. I say fix it man. Go for it!