First time Z owner

[Slowpoke]

Hey

 

So i picked up a 73 240z, always wanted one of these cars. I was surfing criegslist and i saw a alright looking z for the right price. The previous owner told me he head gasket was blown and the car would start but it is undrivable. I figure myself handy guy and am need of a cheep project and it just so happened to be my bday. My girl friend ok'ed the purchace and this baby was towed to my driveway the next day:

 

 

 

I don't know to much about these cars and this one was kinda an impulse buy, but my goal is to get it running before it snows. The car started after i replaced the batery. It ran with the choke on and would stall as soon as i close it. Im sure he carbs are dirty, and the fuel smells old. Need to drain this asap. Spark plugs are pretty gross and fouled. I verified that the headgasket was blown. The previous owner had drained the coolant and kept fresh oil in it (thank you). I unfortunatly did not know this and topped up the coolant. When i went to change the plugs all was going well untill i pulled the 5th one from the front of the engine and coolant started pouring out. Head gasket is gone forsure, not sure if the head is likely to be cracked. Ive never seen a cylender fill up with coolant like that!

 

 

Leaky cylinder

 

 

 

Plan of action is to replace the HG, set valve lash, clean carbs and roll. So... im sure i'll have plenty of question for you guys, and feel free to give me any suggestions, advice.

Edited September 5, 2013 by Slowpoke

[rejracer]

Step 1:  Set a budget.

Step 2:  Decide what you want to do with the car.

Step 3:  Reconcile the difference between 1&2. 

 

On a serious note, I would do the following:

Repair the basics as needed.

Ditch the Weber DGV carbs in favor of some round top SU's. 

Give it a proper tune up. 

 

Read up in the sections on this forum to see what guys are doing, and what interests you.  You have time. 

 

Have fun. 

[Slowpoke]

Haha, my budget is low. I probably shouldn't have even bought the car....but i couldn't resist. I ordered the haynes manual, the How to Rebuild Your Nissan & Datsun OHC Engine, and downloaded the FSM today.  As far as what i want to do with the car goes, i mainly would just like it to be a weekend toy. Just needs to run and be kinda safe. A 4 speed would be nice, nothing fancy. If she treats me well i may consider putting a little more into her, but we'll see. I plan on doing as much of the work to get it running as i can to keep it cheap, and have something to do on the weekends.

 

Plan so far is to:

Wash her tomorrow, check for and note serious rust.

Order a HG kit.

Drain the rest of the coolant and flush the filled cylinder.

 

I aslo need to:

Identify the parts that are clearly not original to the car (i have a feeling someone modified/bootleged the ignition setup)

Find some info on the webers.

 

Not sure what to do about the carbs yet. From what i have read, the round tops are the way to go, but the webers are on there and i can start the car with them. So i might just leave them on till he HG is done and roll from there. If they seem really bad i'll just replace them. I have to do some research on the round tops the get a idea of how much a set up would cost over just cleaning what i have.

 

 

I'll probably keep posting my progress here so i can keep track of things and not get too ahead of myself.

 

Thanks for the advice and feel free to keep me in check. Also is there a spell check on this forum? I know my spelling and grammar is pretty bad, sorry.

[250z]

Congrats on the car, how much did you end up paying if you dont mind me asking.

looking forward to updates.

[Midri]

I did the same thing man, got a wild hair and checked craigslist trying to find a 240z,260z,280z  in my price range. Found one 4 hours away and drove out and drove it back -- crapped out in my driveway... But she's home and slowly being repaired.

[Pharaohabq]

Hey Congrats on the Z.  You're going to love it!   A few words: 

 

First, these cars are not so good on the snow, so keep that in mind. You're a detroit driver so you should be familiar with driving on snow, just be ready for the rear end to break loose.  

 

next since you're pulling off the head, it's a really good opportunity to change the timing chain. It's not required, but if the car had over 100K miles it would be a good idea.

 

Once you're on the road, take to to a shop, put it on a lift and spray a new layer of undercoating on the car. it'll be a cheap preventative to keep it from rusting out.

 

Don't worry about upgrading carbs or anything until you've got the car running on what you have, or you find that what you have isn't going to work.  If you swap out carbs, you can buy a set of SU's and get a rebuild kit for them pretty cheap. If you're not handy, then you can go with the Z therapy carbs, they're already setup. 

Beyond that, Going EFI with megasquirt is always an option.

[Slowpoke]

Paid $650 for it.

 

Cleaned it up a little today. Need to get a vaccum in it. The carpet was fried but the vinyls not too bad, all the interior parts are there and pretty clean except for a cracked dash. I love the look of the guages, especially the clock, Classic!

 

 

Also, drained the coolant and ordered the felpro HG kit. The kit should be here tomorrow. 

 

Midri, Damn you craigslist! but I don't regret it yet. What happend with your girl?

[norbert]

looks clean! i payed more for mine and i have no floors lol, your interior looks great!

[Pharaohabq]

ook! wow Auto...   No biggie, you can get a 5 speed out of a 280Z or a 79-82 280Zx and it'll bolt right up, don't forget to get the crossmember and driveshaft. (I don't know if it's the same Driveshaft for Auto and manual. I expect it is so you may not need it)  Your interior looks pretty decent.

[Slowpoke]

Still waiting on the HG kit... My goal is to repair it on wednesday. I have been reading the How to Rebuild Your Nissan & Datsun OHC Engine, FSM, and Chilton manuals. So i feel pretty ready to attack her. I feel like i should to some other maintenence while im in there but i don't want to put a bunch of money and time into this engine if there might be other serious problem. So just the HG kit for now.

 

Don't really plan on driving this in the winter. I had an e30 as a dd before this (sold it to buy a house) and she was a handfull in the winter. But i think the underbody spray is a good idea. I think someone did spray her a few years ago. The topside definatly has more rust than the bottom.

 

Yeah, the auto is going to have to go, as soon as i can make her drive and stop properly. I'm kinda leaning to a 4 speed to keep it OG, but im might only be able to find the 5 speed locally.

 

Thanks for the coments guys, make me feel a lot better about picking her up!

[Pharaohabq]

You'll be a lot happier with a 5 speed.  At the same time if there's a 2.8L availible with it, you can swap your carbs and all over and have a few more horses availible.  You can keep the same valve cover so it'll look stock. The idea here is your pleasure driving.  I know when I hit about 80 on a 4 speed I REALLY want to shift... maybe that's just me.

[Slowpoke]

Pharaobq,you sold me on the five speed. The 2.8 id FI, right? So, its pretty easy to just pull of the FI stuff and bolt of the intake/carb setup? Something like this, should swap right in without aditional parts (assuming nothing is broken): http://cleveland.craigslist.org/pts/3980697281.html http://cleveland.craigslist.org/pts/3980672064.html ? Car came with an extra set of manual pedals.

[Pharaohabq]

Yup, just like that, Your L24 intake should bolt right up to it, then all you need is the 5 speed.  91K miles isn't a lot at all for these engines. Since it's been sitting,  I'd still pull the plugs and load up the cylinders with WD-40 before trying to turn it over, and change the oil, you'll do that w/ the pan seal.  The pan seal is EASY with the engine out.   get a drill w/ a 10mm socket head and zip zip zip, you'd have it changed in half an hour. including time to flatten the pan holes.  Cork gaskets have always worked really well for me.  

 

The L28 externally should be the same as your L24, so You shouldn't have any issue. The L28 may even come with electronic ignition which is so much better than points. 
$300 isn't bad for it.

[Pharaohabq]

SeattleJester has a motor and 5 speed tranny he just pulled out for sale, you might look at his, tho shipping might be a killer.

[Slowpoke]

Allright, so i had some fun  last night replacing the HG. All went pretty smoothly, no more coolant in the cylinder or in the oil. I changed the plugs and flushed the old gasoline as well. She starts up pretty easy (w/o starter spray now) with the choke lever pulled back, and will run like that for awhile, but as soon as i move the choke cable forward she sputers and dies. My guess is i have a vaccume leak somewhere. I tired to go by the manual's diagram for the vaccume lines but it seems as though some/all of the emissions junk is gone/blocked off. I dunno if this was nessary for the webers or someone thought they were doing me a favor. I tried sparing brake cleaner around the engine bay to see if the idle would increase, but it seems to have little effect or it also might be causing it to bring down the idle. Here is where im at:

 

 

There looks like there was a valve of some sort here:

 

No air box for this to plug into. When i cap it the engine stalls imediatly:

 

No where for this to go as well:

 

This one comes off the bottome end. when i cap it the engine stalls imediatly:

 

Hack job, Tacho and water temp don't work:

 

Cold start choke pulled back:

 

This is what happens when i push the choke forward while the engine is running:

 

After warm up, start with choke forward:

 

So yeah, fun times. Seem i have a couple of options:

1. Start replacing what vaccum lines are left. Make sure the unconnected stuff is irrellivent.

2. Pull appart the webers (dread this, i never seem to get them to go back together right) or maybe there is some adjustment thats not right?

3. Compression test (should do this anyways)

4. Find some SU carbs (i really want to wait on this option, as i am low on funds atm)

5. ??? If you guys have any ideas, id appreciate em. I feel like im close to having her roll!

[Slowpoke]

Chipping away....

 

1. Changed the fuel filter.

2. Vaccum lines, there wern't that many vaccum lines in there. It apears most of the emission stuff is gone. I replaced what i could find, then sprayed around with carb cleaner. Couldn't find anything.

3. During the vaccum line clean up i knoticed the distributor was not locked down and the timing adjustment was not set...

4. Compression seemed fine.

 

Should this lock down somehow?

 

Any advice on how to proceed from this point would be greatly apreciated. Im kinda lost on what order to attack things.

Edited September 13, 2013 by Slowpoke

[Slowpoke]

Got it to run off the choke! I cleaned the idle jets and that did it. Now When i stab the gas, it backfires out the carbs and try to stall. Just cleaned the carbs tonight. Hopefully that clears it up.

[Slowpoke]

Success! Idles and runs solid now. Cleaning the carbs wasn't nearly as bad as i thought it was going to be. Rolled it out of the garage on its own power for the first time....then found out the brakes are gone. Fun times ahead!

 

Next:

 

1. Brake pads/shoes

2. Bleed brakes

3. Check for leaks in the brake system

4. Figure out why the tach is not working

5. Replace tach

6. Replace or fix coolant temp guage

7. Set valve lash

8 Adjust timing

9. Go for a spin???

[Pharaohabq]

Hehe, Grats on getting it running!   That's always a happy thing.  Now the brakes.  The stock brakes are plenty good for regular driving assuming the system is working well.  If it's not, then you may want to investigate the toyota brake swap/ S130 rear disc swap.  The parts for the from brakes are about the same cost and usually a lot easier to obtain than the stock S30 brakes.  Look up the Toyota brake swap, there's a few ways to do it.  

 

Valve lash, a little valve ticking noise while running is normal on an S30 engine. You probably don't need to mess with it.  Timing is a good idea, but sort out your vaccuum issues first.

[NewZed]

.

3. During the vaccum line clean up i knoticed the distributor was not locked down and the timing adjustment was not set...

 

 

Should this lock down somehow?

 

 

Looks like your distributor is in backwards.  The hole that would take the screw that went through the slot on the other side of the distributor base is covered.  There are several ways that this could happen.  I've heard that some people have been able to force the distributor in 180 degrees off, or your oil pump is installed incorrectly, or someone took the distributor apart and put it back together backward, etc.

 

It does need to be locked down though.  There are workarounds you could try or you can run through the oil pump and distributor installation procedures in the FSM to see what's off.  Put the timing mark on zero and see where the distributor drive tang is oriented first (take the distributor out and look down the hole).

Edited September 17, 2013 by NewZed