ZXR_KiD

yea I read # 6, everything checked out. I dropped the tank this afternoon and drained the seafoam ooze out of it, (Its all purdy lookin inside now) and put it back together and she runs just fine, if not better than the 280ZXR ever did *even with a hot cam and full exhaust* my little test run today entailed a surprise ignition of both rears from a throttle punch from 5-10mph *WITHOUT CLUTCH DUMPING* and shocked the crap out of me and my passenger. (COULD very well be paired with REALLY old crappy/dry rotting tires currently on the car) in all honesty I think she's pretty much good to go. MAY even be brave and bring her out to the Auto-X this weekend (if I get my good tires mounted before then)

checked EVERY vaccume hose I could find and have no apparent leaks. but after letting the tank sit with a bottle of SeaFoam over night I now have the ability to start it and run it for 30 min without even a stumble or mis fire. once the pipes cool off again I'll hang the exhaust back up and try driving it.... keep your fingers crossed for me

sorry I hadn't posted back in a couple days, computer issues. I've just discovered today that my fuel pressure gauge is flawed so it could yet be a fuel issue (needle sticks in the position of what ever it was reading untill you disconnect it, fails to indicate pressure drops, guess thats what I get for buyin a cheapie) I've tried the coil and chts to no avail so I think we can call it down to fuel for sure, unless someone else has another idea. even went as far as dropping the exhaust to check for a clog in the pipeing (never know on junkyard cars) but wasn't the case. I guess when the weather dries up I'll check the tank and pickup on another note with the exhaust off it sounds like it may have a mild cam installed... seems to have more lope than I recall out of the stock '79

I've got a gauge hooked up on the engine side of the filter, also temporarily a 4" section of clear hose into the fuel rail just to visually watch for issues. when I first start it if I act quickly and start driving the car I can make it all the way up then back down my street, if I let it sit and run for a couple it does this issue before it gets back to the house, sp yea it is about 3 min run time when its running normally you can do anything you want with the throttle and it reacts normally, no hesitation or stumbling, altho it does backfire @ 3500 on the way back down if you rev it up to 5500 and let off completly. when it starts its shut down process it will catch a short occaisional burst where it will rev to maybe 2200, but as it goes on longer it gets less and less responsive, but will not stall out if you crack it, just dies on its own at the end of its spat. I havn't checked the injectors yet, the fact that it runs smoothly for the few minutes that it does I didn't think it would be an injector problem

yea I forgot about the defroster switch, the connector is quite a bit different, the defrost never worked in ours so we didn't mess with it

picked up the '78 about 2 weeks ago, needed a fuel pump then ran great. after puting about 5 miles on it total,spread out with quick runs up and down the street (barely getting any temp into it) without any issues. It stopped wanting to accelerate then begin doing nothing but idleing; very rough at that. then shut off completly. ever since then I can fire it and run it for maybe 3 minutes; runs just fine, can rev all the way up without issue. then goes back to rough idle wich will continue for aprox 60 seconds or so then die, after a minute it will fire and idle rough again for a few seconds then die again. then won't do anything for about half hour. then the process is the same. I've checked the fuel pump and filters, have good fuel pressure and flow all the way untill it dies completly*causes fuel pump cutoff* only thing I can figure out is that the EGR was somewhat clogged up *been fixed and still has issue* and perhaps the cat is clogged? anyone have any ideas?

we swaped a digital into an analog car with just the dash harness, didn't swap anything elese and everything worked just fine, I don't think theres a problem doing it without swapping the other components.

Pics as promised

OK sorry I haven't got the pics yet, finally found the charger for the camera... after some tinkering my suspisions where correct and it was a fuel pump issue, replaced the pump and she started right up... it is indeed a '78 car a dealer sticker in the glove box indicates its originally an arizona car and has been Ziebarted wich explains the solidness of the car. the bottoms of the fenders are rusted to junk tho, the bottoms of the dorrs could use some work and the bottoms of both quarterpanels are a little crunchy, Nearly no rust on the underside at all, and even the battery tray BARELY shows surface rust. interior is in REALLY good shape aside from the rotted carpet, and someone has already installed a dash cover (one of the good ones that you almost don't realize is a cover) and the clock even works. its a 5spd A/C car but havn't tested the A/C yet I'll admit I did pay more than I wanted too for it... but with the fact that all it needed was a fuel pump, and as solid as the car actually is (for being in these parts) I'm pleased with my purchase... now that the batteries are charging I'll get pics up tomarrow.

Growing up my father had a '76 and a pair of '77s and I've always LOVED the S-30 body over any other so naturally I've always wanted one. I've lucked out on a couple S-130s in the past including a junkyard gem of a '79 ZXR. but its just not the same... I stumbled today on a 77/78 5spd car in a junkyard in fair to good shape and brought it home with me the yard was not sure of its actuall year so I need help on that to get the title worked. its build date is 8/77 and I'm not sure when Datsun actually changed their model year, so if anyone can help it'd be greatly appriciated. I'll post pics tomarrow when I have daylight to post them. all indications thus far point to a bad fuel pump as the only reason it fails to run, but I'll know more soon.

sounds like automakers forgot how to form the metal smooth enough to polish right.... or didn't take care of it after the fact... I've been looking for pictures of the old polished racecars but can't come across any decent ones, I know there is a VERY nicely done Mercedes on display in the Indianapolis 500 speedway museum, the only blemish on it was battle damage from a recent Historic race, and the museum guys say they can fix it perfectly when the next workbay is free'd up

wonder how hard it'd be to make a chrome-like paint look like the old GP cars (Birdcages, silver arrows) where the bodies where all polished to a shine... chrome paint is not illegal in Ky and the neons can not be visible from the front of the vehicle... other than that all goes here.

a former aquaintence had an 81 and he took basic after market mirrors from Auto Zone ($16 a peice* and mounted them a little closer to the outer edge of the fender and it worked out fairly nicely, I'll have to look for a pic if I have one.

same as the above... I LOVE that airdam and have been on board from the begining... unfortunatly the funding is going into mechanical work at the moment... but thats almost complete

the 280ZX nose is around 5" or so wider than a 280Z. you'd have to find a way to widen the bumper to make it work. I'm in progress of widening a 240Z airdam to fit the ZX but I'm keeping my bumper... if your looking to ditch the black and chrome, I'd sugguest finding a set of '83 bumpers. they're more modernized plastic type covered bumpers painted body color. its a cleaner look than the early ZX bumpers, but it still doesn't create a gap between the bumper and hood.

I beleive I've got the exact project you speak of in progress at the moment, I'll get some pics l8r

mine's got the N47

it was a total expiriment thing... we where taking it to a cruise in show and the JB was REALLY close to the color of the rest of the truck so we tried it... we used so little of it that no one noticed untill we pointed it out to a few people *kindof the "You'd never beleive this" type thing* it has yet to have fallen out (3 years later) but has actually turned rusty (never got coated after applied) ... so I don't see why it wouldn't work for small things like that aslong as it was properly primmed afterward.

I seem to recall seeing it in MSA and also maybe JC whitney YEARS ago... but not sure... havn't been able to find any listings for it anywhere

I've used JB weld as a body filler but only filling emblem holes on a ghetto rod projet truck... did ok but I really wouldn't know how anything similar would work as a dent filler...

I'm in progress on building my ZXR, currenltly building a high compression (estimated 11.5:1) tracking down a tri-webber manifold, sorcing '88turbo LSD conversion and T-5 trans (or figuring out what needs to be done for a T65 to work) planned coil overs w/camber plates OR even possibly a full custom indy car style multi-rod A-arm style suspension (all 4 corners) unfortunatly I'm on a roller coaster budget and never know when I'm gonna have a good paycheck to do anything with... not to mention trying to get my DD International Scout back on the road so I can stop hitchiking (parts are hard to find and not cheap)

there was a company that made an after market peice that linked the tailights like the Z31's even had 280ZX or 280ZX TURBO printed on it. the part required moving the plate to the bumper instead of its mount.. I don't know who made it or if its still availible but I find it on junkyard cars all the time.

actually IMHO the larger lights look better than the smaller vette lights most people are using... just need mounted with better treatments *ie frenched in or something*

'79 ZXR '79 2+2 (sold) '79 turbo swapped (scrapped) '81 2+2 (scrapped parts car) '83 n/a (scrapped parts car) looking for a fairly straight bodied 2+2 to actually build a roadster out of (yes a roadster 2+2

like I said I cammed it and ran un-restricted exhaust aswell as smog delete to hit 14.2, I know the heads an N-47 head I'll have to look at the block but I'll get back to you