Leaderboard

all part of the fun... but you don't have to live with electrical gremlins! it just means replacing, cleaning, re-working the electrical system - a pita yes, but once it's done it's done (for another couple decades). mine is a DD so it has to start & run each day or i miss work. for this reason i started at the battery and replaced the entire primary system with all new marine grade wire. brought the feed into the cabin with 4 ga. and installed a maxi fuse block, getting rid of the fusible links. moved all the relays inside as well, mounting on a bar on the firewall just below the fan. the next step in reliability was to yard out the entire efi system, harness, ecu - the whole steaming heap - and replace w/a set of su's. there's no more wiring in the engine bay other than the ignition system, lights and the dash gauge sensors. i used up my AAA towing allowance in the first year of ownership due to that miserable efi system - it was literally a roll of the dice as to whether i'd get to work and back under my own power. now i pull the lovely choke lever, twist the key and off we go. that's the joy of classic car ownership!

I want to start by saying thank you to everyone who helped. The suggestion of checking the AFM was spot on. There's a long story that belongs in its own thread. But basically, I evaluated the car enough to convince myself of its condition, and that the engine was likely in good condition (i.e. test starting, verifying oil pressure, etc.). I didn't attempt to further diagnose the issue. Instead, I bought the car at a low price, since it wasn't running, and trailered it home. When I got it home, we removed the air cleaner, and pushed open the AFM flap with a piece of wire. The engine started and idled smoothly. I was able to get it to run well enough to back it off the trailer and into my workshop. I'll get to work cleaning the AFM and go from there. I'm excited to finally be a Z owner (see pic), and glad to have found you guys. Thanks again.

Well hello and welcome back. As foretold in the previous updates I plan on starting up the second year of the Datsun rebuild. Looking at where I left off I’m starting to think I bit off more than I can chew with the build expecting to take three years with just the winters being the active time on the project. I know I said I would poke here and there on the Datsun in the summer, fortunately and unfortunately I did not do anything with the Z except for take parts from on location and place them in another location no cleaning of parts nor wrenches on the vehicle were accomplished during the spring summer months of 2015. Where I left off with the Datsun was the dash removal. That went relatively well all one piece and no did not take instruments out like I thought I would this summer. With the dash out the next step of my plan is to continue removing all interior pieces . What’s remaining? The duct work , heater box/AC, interior vinyl coverings, pedals, steering column, gas tank odds and ends, wiring/conduit, and glass. Sounds like a lot looks like a lot less than that. After that then the next phase is body work. What this should initial, should be the purchasing of all replacement panels and materials for the cars welding and patching needs. The end goal for this stage is to have the car cleaned up inside and out , rust removed and stopped, patchwork welded and muddled, primer sprayed and ready for paint come spring 2016. Wow right, I am bugging out a little because I don’t want to include the drive-train and suspension in this phase but I have to remove it to be able to clean and clear the under-body of the Z. Comments would be helpful with this but either I am too cheap to get a paid blog or you folks who have subscribed don’t care to give advice, In either case comments and advise are welcomed good or bad. My thought is to go ahead with the suspension and drive-train removal but, when it comes to replacing parts keep that at minimum. The only reason this is any concern is due to the need to have a way to get the body to the paint shop, I don’t have a frame dolly with wheels to bring it on a flat bed. Although I could make one, but then I would be forcing work during the summer which may not agree with my family? I could maybe bust arse a little and try and get both drive-train and suspension done after getting the car ready for paint then putting the car for paint as soon as I am done, maybe get what is necessary completed on the drive-train with the knowledge that I will have to take off some of the parts again to add exchange or repair. For example I don’t need to mess with the brakes, but I plan on doing the Toyota forerunner conversion to the rear wheels to upgrade to disc brakes so everything on the spindle would have to go, also I am going to swap for a 200LSD vs. the current 180LSD but that doesn’t have to come off too roll the car into a paint booth. In any case this will give me something to rant about next update on the blog. The body in paint will free up room for prep for the last phase, the rebuild with new engine. If the body is in paint then I will have a open stall for a donor car with the engine or a engine and transmission separate. Then when the painted car is complete I can store it outside covered over a make shift outdoor covering or at another location for a short time to get the donor car emptied or move it back if I just have the engine and transmission to deal with I will be working on building a Car rotisserie for the Z in hopes to have it on the stand in November. I will need to modify the two stands with a piece of square stock steel and weld into place. I intend on continue to strip the interior and catalog the parts and remove the suspensions both front and rear in preparation for the rotisserie. A lot has to be done so wish me luck. After countless hours of looking at multiples setups and years of dreaming , watching and reading manga cartoons about racing and JDM cars, I have decided on a plan or direction for the Z. I am looking to slowly build the car in stages with the ultimate stage having very similar things as the devil Z with a 3.1 liter displacement and twin turbo, should be able to claim at least 600hp in a car that ways less than 2300lbs is pretty sick. That's the idea for the performance aspect. Since I don't foresee a Ferrari in my future, I plan on capitalizing on the Italian design cues the 240Z has already captured. I ma not going to go overboard with it, I feel that would make the car tacky. I do however am going to attempt to do this tastefully and efficiently as possible. My next update will be in a months time with pictures of the remaining deconstruction and current status, till then thanks for reading.

Hi all: Like the title says, I just bought a Z! From the time I was in high school (early '80s), I've wanted one. At the time, I drove a hand-me-down '77 Celica (not a bad car, either). But I really wanted a Z. I bought a Sunbeam Tiger project back in the early '90s, and had been slowly restoring it. But I finally got tired of sinking the time and money into the car. I never did finish it. I sold it in December, and started looking around for something else, determined to buy something that was already drivable, and not in need of bodywork. My wife was adamant that I not buy another car that would sit in the shop for 20+ years like the Sunbeam did! While searching, I came across a few Zs on Ebay, that rekindled my long-dormant desire for one. So I watched and waited for the right one. There always seemed to be something wrong: rust, swapped engine, ugly body kit, ugly color, too far away, too expensive, etc. I wasn't looking for a perfect car. But most were trashed pretty badly. Then I came across a Craigslist ad for a '77 about an hour away from me that looked appealing. It appeared to be in good shape. The price was a little high, I thought. But I decided to call the seller anyway. He described the car as complete and original with no rust, factory AC that worked, etc. After a long talk, he revealed that he couldn't get the car started, and he'd knock $3500 off the price if I'd just come get it. I knew I couldn't go see it until the following weekend, so I offered to send him a deposit if he'd hold it. He said he'd hold it for free. That was the longest week of my life. I spent that time researching what could have kept it from running, including seeking help on this forum. The seller had convinced himself that the fuel system needed to be restored, which is why he dropped the price so much. I hoped for something far easier. But first, I had to see if the overall condition of the car was good enough. Finally, Saturday came. I rented a car trailer, and took a friend. I took a bunch of tools and diagnostic stuff, thinking I'd try to figure out the problem with the car. But on the way, I realized that if I fixed the car, the price might go back up. So when I arrived, I decided to evaluate the car, and take a chance if it looked promising. Boy was I nervous! The car was in a metal barn, behind a dead golf cart and a big air compressor. The seller restored old tractors, and had quite a collection. Finally, I got my first look at the car. As soon as I saw it in person, I was impressed by the overall condition. The light blue paint looked nearly new. The seller (second owner) said it had been painted. But the only way I could tell was from a small amount of overspray on the underbody coating beneath the floor. There were a couple of pea-sized bubbles in the paint. But otherwise, no significant rust that I could find. The interior appeared to be completely original and intact. The dash (probably cracked) had a cover on it. The power antenna and clock were broken. But everything else worked. The seats looked new. The carpet was pretty good, except for a little fading in the back. The car was essentially a time capsule, complete with spare, toolkit, everything. Probably the biggest negative for me was the aftermarket sunroof someone had installed (as was common in that time period). But everything else about the car was so good! I tried starting it. It started immediately. But it would die a few seconds later. Still, it built oil pressure and sounded good. It was so hard to contain my excitement at this point. We talked about how much work it would be to clear a path to push the car out of the barn. We also talked about how much trouble it would be to get the title work done, due to the notary he knew being 15 miles away. I must have looked annoyed, because he dropped the price some more. Then I decided to buy it, and we shook hands. After getting the paperwork done and loading the car up, I could see the seller was pretty sad. I think he had seller's remorse. I promised to keep in touch with him, and let him know what happened with the car. He offered to buy it back from me if I ever wanted to sell it. We stopped on the way home and put a dose of Star Tron in the tank, along with a fill-up of premium fuel. While at the gas station, several bystanders commented on the car. That was fun. When we pulled up at my house, my friend talked me into trying to get it running, so I could drive it off the trailer. After posting here, I'd learned that the likely culprit was a dirty AFM. So we removed the air cleaner and used a piece of wire to push the AFM flap up a little. I started the car, and it ran, and it kept running! I brought the engine up to temp; no smoke, no odd noises, no leaks, just the smooth burble of that lovely straight six. With a little fiddling, we could get the wire to stay put well enough to drive the car off the trailer and into my shop. I felt like the luckiest guy on the planet. So I've ordered various manuals and books already. I've got a set of tires ordered. And I'm about to start cleaning the AFM. I've started my "must do", "should do" and "want to do" lists. I'll update this as I go. And I'm sure I'll run into issues. But I'm pretty happy with my decision. I can't wait to drive it. Here are some photos.

I don't know if you've read this yet but it's pretty well written and informative. Babalouie, about post #4 I've got a set but way too intimidating right now, I'm just getting comfortable with the simplistic SUs.

Don't know if this will help or not -

The stock EFI Engine: Engine out of the car: New Engine out of the Car: New Engine in the Car (Pardon the mess from the oily hands!):