First time Z owner

[Slowpoke]

Got the radiator back. It was pretty mucked up. The guy who worked on it said it was blocked solid and was i basically running the car without a radiator. I took the block coolant plug out and gave it as good of a flush as i could. The clean radiator seems to have fixed my overheating issue. The temp gauge stays on  left side now and i can see when the thermostat opens!

 

So, now i have the lite smoke and low compression in cylinder 4.

 

Phar,

 

Wish i would have taken your advice and rebuilt from the start, but i was pretty excited and impatient and payed the price. I was pretty tapped out on funds too, so i figured checking the head myself would be just cost me my time and a $20 gasket. Well that didn't work. At least now I can do the head in a few hours now. I will most likely end up rebuilding, but i would like to hold off on it if at all possible.

 

Now i need to find out the head or the rings are the issue. I think finding someone to do a leak down test would be the next course of action. Let me know if you think it would be a waist of time/money.

[Pharaohabq]

Wow, well I'm glad that your heat issue was the radiator, though I wonder what gummed it up, they must have poured crap in there at some point.

 

I think that'd be a good choice, especially for the low cylinder, You said you squirted oil in there and it didn't make a difference. So that's not a good sign. But having someone else double check your work is probably worth it.  Next time you pull the head I'd really recommend replacing those head bolts. last thing you'd want to do is snap one of those.  The leakdown will tell you about the same info, but how fast it leaks will tell you top or bottom end. Either way you're pulling the head to fix it.

 

If you have to just pop out that one cylinder that's not too bad either, you can do it w/o removing the crank. Pull the head and the oil pan, then unbolt the rod on the bottom, the with a soft mallet and a piece of wood, just pop the piston out the top. Gap and replace the rings, hone that cylinder and pop it back in place. It's just as easy to replace the bearings and rings for all the cylinders if you're going to do one, but  be sure to use the plasitgauge stuff to make sure the bearings are good. N again don't mix them up between rods. best to replace stuff with new while you have the engine open. 

[Slowpoke]

Haha, me too. I bet if i fixed it before i swapped the motor i wouldn't be having these problems! I Drove her around a bit more and she stays below the halfway mark on the temp gauge. I checked the valve adjustment cold. Most of them were a bit tight. Seemed to even out the valve train noise a bit. Could be just in my head too. I am sure not that I'm no longer burning coolant. Its defiantly oil.

[Pharaohabq]

Well if it's Oil I'd suspect the head, though hopefully it's not a broken ring. If you take off the head, you can inspect the cylinder looking for anything carved out, or gouged in the walls, if there is, then it's the rings. if not then likely it's that head.  It's hard to say tho, w/o seeing it.  Also, if you have the head rebuild, use the ford Vitron valve seals, they're a bit better than the stock Datsun ones. There's a thread on here about them somewhere.

[Slowpoke]

So after figuring that i would have to spent alot more money and time to get the 240z where i wanted her, i figured i would be better off looking for a car in better shape. I sold her for a little less than i put into her.  I learned a ton about Z cars with the help of this forum. I also got a better idea of what is cost for fixing them up. I bought the Z on an impulse and i got a reality check shortly after. I was kind of sad to see her go, but i think the new owner had more time money and youthful energy than i have to give her...

 

...But this is not the end of my Datsun adventures!

 

After a 14 hour snow covered trip to the Upper Peninsula i brought home a much cleaner 76 280z. She has 120,000mi, is pretty much rust free, nice paint, super clean interior and runs and drives great.

 

 

 

I'm just going to be doing some of the basic maintenance stuff till after X-mas. Have already changed plugs, wires, dizzy cap and rotors, fuel filter and lash adjust. Going to work on the brakes, and cleaning/replacing injectors next.  So i guess I'm not a first time Z owner anymore, haha.

[Pharaohabq]

Welcome to the Multi- Z owner world.  Soon you'll be like me and have owned 10 Z's and currently have 3.  2 of which are major projects.

[clocker]

Where in the UP did you find a car that hadn't been converted to haul logs?

[Slowpoke]

Haha, I think the PO found a 240sx to haul logs with instead! It was actually pretty close to Green Bay. It was beautiful up there! I'll have to take a trip back when its not zero degrees out.

[clocker]

 It was beautiful up there! I'll have to take a trip back when its not zero degrees out.

That would be the first two weeks of August.

Then the glaciers move back in.

 

I have a friend who lives in L'Anse (was just up there in Sept.) and he has built a very stout Dodge Stealth.

Unfortunately, there's really no place to drive very fast up there in the woods.

[Pharaohabq]

it's especially hard to drive fast in the woods while hauling logs!  Who would haul logs with a Z?  heresy!

[Slowpoke]

So, I was randomly looking back through my old posts and stumble back on my intro for HBZ. 5 years ago I got hooked on Datsuns. I stopped posting to focus on reading and learning more. Because of the overwhelming amount of information available about these cars I didn’t find it necessary to ask many questions. I stopped updating my introduction after i bought the 76 280z. The 280z has come along way since then!

 

In the past 5 years it’s seen a lot of redoing. Iv’e changed wheels, flares, engines, ECUs, a few times. Although not the most efficient way to modify a car, it is allowing me to learn, improve and keeps me interested in the process. My only underlying goal with modifying it is to keep pushing toward the car having a “special” feeling to it. I can’t define a “special” feeling exactly but it’s a feeling i would like to have when i look at the car in the garage, sit in it, show it off, and while driving.

 

A few years ago I swapped the l28 for a l28et. My first engine swap. It went pretty well and the experience was a huge confidence booster. It made the car feel way better on the highway and the exhaust note was awesome! The next year i decided to hop up the power a little and add Injectors, FP, larger turbo, IC, 3in exhaust and MegaSquirt. I had some help tuning and was able to learn a bunch about wiring and street tuning. The power gain was pretty substantial. Although I did not get a change to dyno it, my guess is it made around 300hp with a lot of torque. I really felt like this was the sweet spot for the car. Enough power to feel “fast” compared to a modern car, but not too crazy.

 

 

 

A few months later I decided to start liking the Gnose. The Gnose really transformed the look of the car. I took the car to Gridlife Midwest and it won Best JNC classic! A proud moment for me as it was my first car show and i honestly didn’t build it with the intent of entering or winning any.

 

 

Last winter the Z got some greatly needed upgraded wheels, and a RB25 fell into my lap. I wanted to keep the white blue contrast going and had some Wantanabe RS8s custom built for the Z. The wheel size and width are totally for athletic purposes and I’m fine with that.

 

 

 

I had been wanting to do a RB swap since before i did the l28et swap, they where just too pricey at the time. That winter I stumble across a cheap local RB25 for sale locally, and decided to take the plunge. I refreshed all of the accessories on the RB and installed an upgraded turbo, turbo manifold, ECU Masters EMU Black, custom wiring harness, 1000cc injectors, even larger FP, fuel rail, and open dump external waist gate. I also took the opportunity to clean up and paint the engine bay. People would always ask me to see the turbo swap and with how messy the bay was before i was kinda embarrassed to. I learned so much during the first swap the RB swap came out so much cleaner and came together much more easily than i would have thought. This time I did all of the initial tuning myself and took it to the dyno to get it fine tuned under boost. Made 400hp on 93. The RB25 make the car feel much more modern and refined when not in boost. On boost its pretty intense! It kinda feels like having a loaded gun on you. I was missing with the idea of tuning it on e85 but i think I am good with the power it has for now. I’m also still using the u-joints in the rear, so I am planning to upgrade the whole rear end soon.

 

 

 

 

Also happened to win a showcase award at Clean Culture MI!

 

 

In all, I've been humbled by how much other people enjoy the car. I've met interesting people, made good friends from people just starting conversations about it. HBZ has been a constant resource for me throughout this project. Thank you all for the quality info and keeping the forum alive!

 

 

[Whitley_280z_2+2]

This is awesome! Great to see someone take it all the way. The results can be amazing when you're willing to learn. 

[seattlejester]

Dang, power leveling that car!

[ARiskyCvt]

Who made the G nose? fitmint looks a bit off. 

[Slowpoke]

20 hours ago, ARiskyCvt said:

Who made the G nose? fitmint looks a bit off. 

 

Yeah, it's far from perfect. Its the Arita Speed five piece kit. I was unable to find one locally and ended up ordering one from Japan. The Shipping cost more than the parts! I cleaned it up, painted and installed it myself. The buckets are uneven, the lip makes a gap in the middle, and it has various other small issues. I enjoy it for now and when it bothers me enough I will go back and fix it. Really just about everything on the car is a "bit off" lol. A lot of it could be improved upon. 99% of the work on this car has been done by me in my garage as a first time experience. Not sure if I am applying the term correctly, but i like to think of the project as "kaizen", the concept of continuous improvement. Luckily, i always have the opportunity to learn from my mistakes improve techniques and try again.

[ARiskyCvt]

Yeah the Arita kit needs a lot of work the only kit I have gotten that is perfect is marugen and it’s OEM spec. Keep up the work!

[Slowpoke]

On 12/25/2019 at 12:25 PM, ARiskyCvt said:

Yeah the Arita kit needs a lot of work the only kit I have gotten that is perfect is marugen and it’s OEM spec. Keep up the work!

 

I have the Marugen wing i have yet to install. The difference in the fiberglass work and mounting hardware is miles above Arita, and so is the price lol!

[DPG]

Great work man, keep it up!