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28DZ


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Bought (rescued, lol) this car from my younger brother back in March. He acquired it in near showcar condition 5 or so years ago and used it as a daily driver before enough maintenance issues piled up that it was undriveable and left to sit. I wanted something fun to wrench on so I offered to take it off his hands for $3k.

 

The following pics show what it looked like in 2007 (found these on conceptcarz.com):

 

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...and here are the (admittedly poor) cellphone pics I took the night we brought it home:

 

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Had to recharge the battery and change the oil (it wasn't even reading on the stick) just to get it home. The clutch was slipping and would let itself out, so the first weekend I flushed the system, replaced the clutch master and slave cylinders, and refilled it with new Dot 3 fluid.

My brother said that he was having overheating problems before he put the car away, so I also replaced the water pump and reinstalled the thermostat (he had removed it as a "fix" for his overheating problems. This must have repressurized the system, because then the upper radiator hose developed a leak and needed to be replaced. Now that the car was heating up properly it was also blowing the dreaded blue smoke that always leads to head work.

So within the first week of owning the car, I found myself purchasing a replacement rebuilt n42 head from datsunpartsllc (figured with the abuse there was good chance that the head was going to be cracked or have some other irreparable damage and this way I would have one less delay after I started tearing it down).

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Before tearing into the engine, I decided that I needed to replace the inop tach. It's a bit hard to tell if things are running right if there is no way to tell how hard the engine is working at various speeds, you know? :P

After it was replaced, I realized that judging by the engine sound I was severely short shifting it prior.

 

Bought a used (but working) tach off of eBay that had dust and dirt under the lens. Easy fix:

 

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While waiting for my rebuilt head to arrive, I also eliminated those god-awful diving board bumpers. They are large, made from steel, attached by heavy shock absorbers, and trimmed in thick black rubber. Serious weight reduction, and from the outer edges of the car.

 

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Unfortunately, getting to the bolts for the passenger side rear shock requires the gas tank to be removed:

 

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...so while it was out, I blasted the rust from the tank and sent it out to a friend of mine's paint shop to be resprayed:

 

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Also removed the lower air dam in the front as it looked like it had seen it's share of parking blocks and without the giant bumpers concealing it, looked like a mangled mess.

 

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Replaced with a Xenon air dam (will have to remove and paint it later):

 

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$154.54 shipped from autoaccessories4less, much much less than what MSA charges for the same airdam.

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The Z crammed into our little garage starting the tear down for head work.

 

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Yeah, that doesn't look good...

 

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The valve cover before cleaning and a light polish.

 

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The intake and fuel rail prior to being torn apart for cleaning and painting.

 

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Intake, fuel rail and throttle body cleaned, painted and reassembled.

 

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See the wire sticking out of the timing chain? That's attached to the end of the hardwood stake I drove into the beast's heart to keep it immobile while I removed it's head.

 

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The old N42 head and exhaust manifold. Both bolts holding the thermostat housing on were corrosion-locked and snapped off when I tried backing them out. The thermostat housing itself seems to be attached with some kind of JB Weld-like adhesive, I'm not seeing any evidence of a gasket at all and couldn't get the housing to free itself by either rubber mallet or chisel (at risk of damaging both aluminum surfaces).

 

Luckily enough, I just happened to meet a guy in town that had an L28 thermostat housing he let me have (said it was just sitting in a pile of aluminum destined for the scrap yard). What are the odds? lol

 

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Exhaust manifold was lightly ported, bead blasted and sprayed with 1200 degree matte black engine paint.

 

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The block after the manifolds and head have been removed, before scraping the deck.

 

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Deck scraped and cleaned with headgasket finally in place.

 

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New head is on. For a bit there I thought I was never going to get that timing chain sprocket back on without pulling the timing cover, felt like the chain tensioner had popped out down inside, but I managed to work it back in with a long screwdriver.

 

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I also removed all parts of the non-working air conditioning system. May replace at some point, but is just unnecessary weight and clutter in the engine bay (which I'm trying to clean up) right now...

 

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Currently waiting for new manifold studs to arrive from MSA, so after work I've been cleaning other things up.

 

Resprayed the airbox and dropped in a filter that is in slightly better condition than the last.

 

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Last night I sprayed the engine compartment in front of the radiator, reinstalled the horns, airbox, overflow tank, grill and bumper (which needs to be adjusted yet).

It's starting to look like a car again. :D

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

The car sounded like an airplane taking off because the fan was locked up and would spin as fast as the engine. I took the stuck fan clutch apart, hoping the problem was just the 35 year old oil drying up, but the part itself had seized.

 

I ended up replacing it with a new one from NAPA and the car runs much quieter now.

 

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  • 9 months later...

Left the car parked in the street in front of the house for one night last fall, and someone broke off the driver's side mirror and put a scratch on the front fender. >.< 

These are the replacement "racing style" mirrors from MSA, which is what the holes in the doors of my car had been drilled for. Nice looking mirrors, but the design of the passenger mirror prevents it from being turned far enough in to be pointing where I would like it... these seem to be more of a generic mirror rather than one designed for the Z. Ah well, they will get me by for the time being.
 
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The torn inner shift boot. Fumes kept entering the car through here, so it needed to be replaced.
 
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The new inner shift boot that I had bought off of eBay.
 
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The shift lever had quite a bit of play in it because the stock bushing had worn down to nothing. So while I had the inner rubber boot off, I decided that it was time to fix this also. Replaced with brass bushings which had to be pressed in. Shifter movement is nice and tight now.

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New shift boot installed. The center console had to be loosened and moved to get to all of the screws holding the boot in place.



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The shifter all back together. 

 

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The old large NAPA battery died over the winter, so I replaced it with the ETX14 motorcycle battery (O'Reilly's relabel of a Deka/Braille). Removed the plastic battery tray to strap this down and found a rusty shelf (never ends, eh?). Ignore the cables and strap, which are temporary and cobbled together with what I had on hand.

 

The ETX starts the car surprisingly well. Being light and sealed, it should be easy to disconnect and take inside when it gets cold or during other long periods where the car may not see use.


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Had an exhaust custom made from the manifold back. 2.250" tube with a glasspack in the center tunnel and a small 1in 2out Magnaflow out back with packed vertical slash tips by Hedman's Hedders.

 

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  • 1 year later...

Updated the front brakes. Replaced the stock Sumitomo 2 piston calipers...
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...with a Toyota 4 piston S12 8 set. Brushed them red with the Duplicolor caliper paint kit (more for rust prevention than any kind of style as they are nearly completely hidden behind my Shelby basketweaves. The Toyota brakes are a direct bolt on and I just replaced the old discs with what I was running stock. I think I may add some braided lines soon and while the pedal feel isn't terrible it does engage slightly lower than before, a master cylinder upgrade may be in order.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Excellent documentation of bringing a Z back to life.  You obviously know your stuff.  I'm sure the original owner would be happy to know the car is being so well cared for. After you get everything fixed you'll find the car to be a joy to drive and also be very reliable with a minimum of attention.  Enjoy!

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