Drug this home today

[esmit208]

Well congrats Arnie but unless you plan to restore it I would have left it for the crusher. Happy Hunting!

[Walter Moore]

Being technically a 77, wouldn't you have to make it meet U.S. emissions requirements to be able to register it in some jurisdictions? I guess if it has the same fuel injection system as the U.S. spec cars that may not be too hard. (At least for a 49 state model)

Interesting that it has the fuel injector cooling fan over the top of the valve cover. Was that standard on all of the FI cars? I had been told by someone that it was a ZX addition, at least here in the states. With the heaver and generally slower daytime traffic in Tokyo they may have needed it worse than we did.

[sblake01]

The injector fans are actually emissions equipment (look it up) so I don't get the comment about the Japan market cars needing them more. They were not on the US 280Zs. The showed up here on the 280ZX. They might have been added to this car at some point as this car has been in the US for a while. I also notice a ZX steering wheel on this car which is different from what Alan's scans show.

Edited July 22, 2010 by sblake01

[Inf]

Nissan sure made the 2+2 back seat look amazingly spacious in their advertisements!

[ArnieTX]

Maybe after I get done with my orignal project my skillsets will be good enough to tackle this monster. It is kind of cool. I had a hard time finding any for sale on craigslist nationwide. It's unique.

This is the second one I've ever seen in person. The first was in 1988 when I was getting my first Z, a 78 280Z. I was a military kid and was always on base for this or that. I saw 2 Z's one day while driving on the base and I stopped to talk to a guy working in the yard of the duplex the cars were in front of. I asked him about them and he said his was the 78 and the other belonged to a different person that lived in the complex. The other was a white fairlady 2 seater that looked like a 240Z. He told me that one came over with his neighbor from Japan and that dude loved his car. The 78 was for sale though and I bought it for $1500.

Haven't seen another fairlady since and this is a big military town so I know there has to be a few hiding somewhere.

I kind of had some wood in my shorts to try to build a hot rod after my Z. I know where a lot of model A and model T stuff is hiding. I'm still working on car #3 when I get time. Hopefully I can post an update this weekend. I'm about to replace my first piece of sheet metal on it after much study.

Who knows what will happen to it? It's in a better place today than it was yesterday. Maybe another Z can be saved...... Or maybe parts of it anyway.

[ajmcforester]

Being technically a 77, wouldn't you have to make it meet U.S. emissions requirements to be able to register it in some jurisdictions? I guess if it has the same fuel injection system as the U.S. spec cars that may not be too hard. (At least for a 49 state model)

Interesting that it has the fuel injector cooling fan over the top of the valve cover. Was that standard on all of the FI cars? I had been told by someone that it was a ZX addition, at least here in the states. With the heaver and generally slower daytime traffic in Tokyo they may have needed it worse than we did.

Actually someone might have added the required emissions. I have "The Z-series DATSUNS" by Ray Hutton, in the book their is two pictures of the 280ZX engine compartment one from Europe and one from the US to show how much emissions equipment was required (sorry I would scan the page, but it might damage the book the spine is very stiff). When you compare to Arnie's Fairlady picture you see most of the emission equipment found on the US version and it doesn't look like the European version.

Some of the emissions parts, looking in the book on the car I can only find on the 280ZX. I don't know what that means, but I'm curious why.

Arnie,

If your going to let it sit for a while (knowing a little about your current project not a bad idea) make sure to put a good rust blocker on, and remove anything that is very rusty. Just remember rust never sleeps. This company might help, since you might want something that would last longer than WD-40 http://www.daubertcromwell.com

Also consider cleaning the interior panels very well and using a long lasting protectant

[HS30-H]

The injector fans are actually emissions equipment (look it up) so I don't get the comment about the Japan market cars needing them more. They were not on the US 280Zs. The showed up here on the 280ZX. They might have been added to this car at some point as this car has been in the US for a while. I also notice a ZX steering wheel on this car which is different from what Alan's scans show.

Good points. In fact, when a car like this ends up 'out of market' it is not all that surprising that it starts moving away from its factory specification. Oftentimes this will be due to a make-do-and-mend scenario, or just lack of data.

As I mentioned in a previous post, the 1976-on S31 model range had to comply with a new set of Japanese emissions and safety standards. The engines used NAPS ( Nissan Anti Pollution System ) along with TCS ( Transmission Controlled Spark ) on the manual trans, and there were some updates for 1977 & 1978 for which I don't have data to hand. I'm certainly no expert on the later injected Nissan L-series engines, so I'm afraid I can't tell you what's different between the market models.

This particular car - as evidenced by the extra bells and whistles such as the electric windows, remote control mirrors and the eyeball interior lamp - appears to be a Z-L or Z-T model ( not the plain vanilla 'Z' standard model ) and therefore would have had a 4.375:1 diff ratio. With an 8.6:1 compression ratio peak power was 130ps at 6,000rpm and peak torque was 17kg-m at 4,400 rpm. It would have felt reasonably lively for the period. Perhaps not quite the slug you might expect, and the 2 litre engines always like to rev and should be fairly smooth.

Here's a scan of a factory engine bay pic ( note that this is the 1976 at-launch spec, so a 1977 build car may have moved on from this ) and some graphs illustrating gearing and power etc:

Alan T.

[MikeW]

Good points. In fact, when a car like this ends up 'out of market' it is not all that surprising that it starts moving away from its factory specification.

No one responded to Arnie's question in post #12 about the speedometer not being in kilometers. Is it likely that the speedometer was replaced with an mph version after it moved 'out of market'?

[sblake01]

In a way, Alan T. did respond to that in his first paragraph. I do recall that the two S31s I've seen had 'KM/H' speedometers.

Edited July 22, 2010 by sblake01

[sblake01]

Actually someone might have added the required emissions.

Like I said whether required or not, the fans weren't on the 280Z models in the US. If this car is a 77 and has/had to meet the 77 requirements, those fans would not be a part of those requirements. Some people are of the impression that the injector fan setup does something for performance. I've seen a few 75-78 280Zs that people have added those fans to. I actually helped someone put that setup on his 280Z. To this day we've seen no difference in performance, mileage, etc. Also, only the 79-83 ZX had those fans. The other L series engined US market cars (810-RWD Maxima) did not have them.

[HS30-H]

Yes, this car would originally have had a 180km/h speedometer. I would guess that this was swapped out when the car went to the USA.

You can see what the km/h speedo looked like if you blow up the brochure shot of the dash from my first post.

[Gary in NJ]

It would be interesting to know how a Fairlady Z found itself in the US. Who imported it and who neglected or gave-up on it? Considering the hassle to import this car to the US, and its uniqueness here, I'm surprised to see it in that condition.

Every car has a history. How is it that such a rare car has been reduced to a basket case.