New 73 Z owner - the project begins

[dladow]

Hello, everyone. My first post, as a new owner of a 1973 240Z automatic,; bought it three weeks ago for $850. It runs, and the only significant visible rust is a 3 x 5 patch on bottom of the driver’s door and a similar size patch on the passenger rear wheel well. The rest just looks like surface rust here and there. It is orange, and the paint is in sad shape. The interior, however, is in pretty good shape – it still has the original radio and single speaker – no holes in the doors and the headliner is perfect! The center console is broken where the choke attaches. The driver's seat is trashed, but I want to put some nice aftermarket seats in it anyway. Up here in Western Washington, a big problem is moisture turning a car into a fungus farm. Fortunately, this car was stored under an apartment building, out of the weather but still able to breathe.

 

The first thing I did was strip the interior (except the dash) looking for rust, and found none, thank goodness. I put rustproofing on the floors and sills, and added some Edead sound deadener, and will replace the carpet and put in new weatherstripping. Next it’s off to the muffler shop for a new muffler and exhaust pipe, which are trashed and put more CO in the cockpit than in the atmosphere.

 

I plan to pull the drivetrain and replace with an SBC and 700R4 using the JTR mounts. While I am waiting for my donor car(s) to show up at the auctions, I will start to upgrade the brakes and suspension in anticipation of all that torque and hp. In the meantime, I can drive it around and see what else needs fixing or replacing.

 

I’ve always loved the early Z’s (I’m a fifty something boomer, and had my chance to get one in the 70’s and didn’t) and when I found this site, it inspired me to tackle doing a hybrid Z. I think I got really lucky with the car, and in my case, it is definitely better to be lucky than good (I’m not much past righty tighty, lefty loosey in the mechanical knowledge department). So, with the help of this forum (and a good friend who is a mechanic and owns a Subaru salvage yard) I hope to end up with one hell of a car for a modest investment of money and lots of elbow grease.

 

Cheers,

David

[Tim240z]

Welcome David!!

Sounds like you have a good plan in the works. Good luck!

 

Tim

[Guest bastaad525]

Next it’s off to the muffler shop for a new muffler and exhaust pipe' date=' which are trashed and put more CO in the cockpit than in the atmosphere.

 

[/quote']

 

Actually it's possible and even likely that your exhaust system itself may be just fine. Exhaust smell inside the car is a VERY common problem on first gen Z's, and even after you install a full new exhaust you will probably not be rid of the odor. The way the car is shaped, aerodynamically, causes a low pressure area to be created behind the car, which traps the exhaust and pulls it along after you, and will pull it back inside of the car. Even when brand new 30 years ago Z's were known to have some smell in the car, but now the problem is just agravated to the extreme by the fact that all the weather strip rubber on that car is old and either falling apart or gone entirely. First thing you'll want or even need to do is replace the rear hatch weather seal, and also the tail light seals, these items are the top of the list to fix and if you replace them you should notice the smell to be almost completely gone. If it's still bad enough to bother you, then you have to go on a hunt (this will be easier if your interior is still all stripped out) and find every and I mean EVERY hole or opening where air can get inside the car from outside, particularly all around the rear of the car, and also around the firewall in the front. Many just go around with a silicone caulk and seal every single hole they find. After all that you should be rid of the smell 100% with the windows rolled up, maybe you will still have a little with the windows down... again, if only because the car will pull any exhaust along with it... so every time you come to a stop, especially say, coming off the freeway, some of it will find it's way back up into the car thru open windows. By the way, rolling the windows up is a great way in general to cut down on the smell when driving even when your weatherstripping is toast. Since I"m sure it's not too warm in WA right now this shouldn't be too much of an issue for you

[vashonz]

If you're interested I know of a boxy caprice with a sbc (305 or 350) thats being sold for $400. Its local to seattle. I can post the info if you want. Check out fairlady motors http://www.fairladymotors.com if you need help. Doug knows alot about z cars and has better prices than the dealer.

[dladow]

Thanks for the advice on sealing holes and seams with silicon caulk - a great idea. I have already replaced the hatch seals and will do the doors too. Probably should do the tailights as well, didn't think of that. I won't be replacing the entire exhaust, just the three feet or so anterior of the muffler where it looks like swiss cheese. I hope to go ahead and get the muffler I ultimately want to end up with, so that I don't have to buy it twice. Once I can move the car around I have a place for it to live while I work on it, and will pull the dash and see what's back there, and have the heater core rebuilt. I'll be sure to make liberal use of the caulk gun at the firewall as well.

 

David

[dladow]

Vashonz - thanks for the link to FairladyZ - Tacoma is not too far from me. And I am interested in the Caprice if it has a 350. Many thanks.

 

David

[JKDGabe]

Welcome to the board!

[dladow]

There is joy in Z land - the Z car now starts at the turn of the key and self locomotes. I couldn't stand it anymore that I had to use copious quantities of starter fluid to fire it up, plus it ran super rich, and I determined that this weekend I would start with the carbs and work from there. First thing I found was that I got lucky again, and instead of the flat top tuna can SU carbs that the '73 is supposed to have and that almost everyone reviles, I have the '72 three bolt bell top carbs that a p.o. had put on. Probably no one here cares about the SU carbs much, and I wouldn't either if I did not plan on using this engine for awhile until I can build my 350. This engine has a big tactical advantage over the 350 in that it is already in the car.

 

So, I proceded to carefully remove the carbs and take apart the big parts and hose them down with carb cleaner. They were gross - no wonder the choke mechanism didn't work. I bought carb kits for both and used the stuff that was easily replaced. I did not take apart all the little throttle and other control mechanisms, which have 16 million little parts. (Way too scarey at this point, plus it ran well when it warmed up & wasn't leaking). Got them clean and all the moving parts working smoothly, and put them back on.

 

Then, discovered some genius had removed the fuel filter. So, back to the parts store for a glass inline filter.

 

With my fire extinguisher handy (in case I wasn't as smart as I thought I was) I cranked it up , and lo and behold, it started. And kept running. The Z car is now self powered again. This is a good thing. Next stop -- the muffler man.

 

I am also thinking about having the gas tank relined, since it is probably a rust bucket inside. I think the car has spent alot of time sitting in the past few years. Anyone have any experience in doing this?

[Guest bastaad525]

I love SU's had them on my N/A motor for over a year and really had no problems... very easy to figure out, tune, dis- and reassemble, etc. One thing you really should do if you havent already, even if you're only going to be running the stock motor for a short while, is get some silicone spray and liberally spray all of the linkage and moving parts on the side of the carbs. Once you've cleaned them off they have no more lubrication and can wear down fast or stick open. The spray will keep them moving smoothly. If you're going to keep that motor for a while I strongly suggest buying Ztherapy's "Just SU's" video, and follow all the tips for dis- and reassembly of the carbs, there are some small tricks you can do for stuff like making sure your fuel needles are perfectly lined up in the bores of the pistons, adjusting the floats and such... stuff like that, basically stuff that makes sure they are as close to factory spec as possible and more importantly to make sure they are running as even as possible between the two of them. Definately worth the $20 investment and the couple hours of fiddling if you're going to have that motor for any length of time and will be driving it.

 

For the gas tank I DEFINATELY recommend dropping it and having it cleaned and recoated or at least thoroughly cleaned... most people dont believe me when I tell them what happened to me. I had a rebuilt, very low mileage L28 motor in an '81 ZX, when I finally found the 240 that I am currently driving. I swapped the entire drivetrain from my ZX into the 240. This 240 had been sitting in this guys garage for like 13 years. My mechanic told me "just drain the fuel tank and fill it with fresh fuel, put a new filter and you'll be fine" yeah well I did that and a week later my valves started sticking open, lash pads started popping off the tops of the valves, one valve got bent and my 15,000 mile rebuilt head was fuffed. Pulled the head and found that all the valve stems were coated with this caramel looking junk that was making them stick... no one told me that old fuel turns to varnish even just the left over residue in the tank and lines was enough to do that, even after swapping thru three fresh fuel filters in the first two days... they looked more like coffee filters by the time I pulled them out. Well, at least pay very close attention to your new filter for the first few miles of driving and see how quickly it dirties up... if it dirties up really fast then you know the tank needs to be cleaned.