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So all this talk about electrical problems and wiring diagrams and switch rebuilding... The problem was the check valve between the manifold and the vacuum bottle?? That's awesome!! Glad it was that easy!! (And cheap!) Awesome! I can picture you in your car in the garage tonight, moving your lever back and forth. Back and forth. Back and forth. Go ahead...

I've been tangled with all the homework...... Anyway. The museum. When you first walk in you are greeted with a bunch of Toyopets. There's also some little beans like this 500 The lighting in there isn't good, but it's a great place filled with tasteful selections. There's a section where you can walk outside. And that's when I found a Z432. What a beast. I don't have too much pictures. My hands were not steady. I guess I need some coffee. They have a restoration shop built into the museum. Nice to see the neat stuff they got in there. If you are lucky enough you can take a ride on this machine. It was exciting just seeing it. Well that's about it with the museum. When I walked outside, I saw some people over at a parking lot. I knew something was happening. And sure enough. More coming up! Sent from my iPhone using Classic Zcar Club mobile

City bus drivers make 20% more than us.... not sure who gets shot at more though

There was a kit for sale I think. I want one. Maybe not in fire season

How about a difference in the receiver tube length that is mounted in the block? Might this account for the apparent different dip stick lengths? i can hardly wait to get home and peruse my dip stick collection. Why I have a dipstick collection is another question with no answer. ..

It's "Fronkenschteen". One piece at a time, my friend. One piece at a time!

I've always pictured a Dr Frankenstein type basement with a 280 chucked up on a lathe.

Hope you have a great time with the Z! Sent from my iPhone using Classic Zcar Club mobile

Waaaayyy too many opportunites to segue straight to the gutter here and since I don't need much of a lead... I shall refrain..... and just to be clear, I'm not a prolific lever flipper. It either works or it dosen't in my general operating procedure. I followed your advice here and after I moved the vacuum source tube around I finally bypassed everything, Mag valve bracket and the vacuum bottle. It turns out that the check valve was bad. Apparently it was leaking slowly and wouldn't hold any pressure. I've never heard of one of those to go bad before, but I learn something new everyday. Fortunately I have a whole bracket from a parts car. The mag valves were toast on that one but I never throw anything away and still had it in my stash! I was able to use the check valve from that one with success. Now there is glorious heat on demand! A whole new season of driving is now an option. So Thanks Cap'n!

Photobucket sucks!!! Just thought I would add that here... squirrel!!!!

Reminds me of a warning that I remember in a heavy machinery operation manual. "Any primary adjustment (singular) will be followed by secondary adjustments (plural) to compensate for the primary adjustment." That tidbit of info turned out to be the most helpful sentence in the whole manual. I, of course, had to find out why.

Great life experiences that incorporate your Z in so many ways. Wonderful read. I always regretted selling my 77 after 4 years of wonderful ownership and 30,000 miles of experiences that drove me to want another Z in recurrent dreams for many years until I found my '78 a few years ago. Thanks for sharing and allowing me to imagine all that I missed. Keep racking up stories for the 50th anniversary! Take care Goose. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G925A using Classic Zcar Club mobile

Listen good to the advice you are getting NMcKe97. You'll live with the engine for a long time. The P79 chambers are large....piston contact is not a problem, and even with the flat tops, you will still have a very low compression engine. 1 mm (.040 inches) overbore is the minimum I would bore....ITM Pistons have worked well for me. Nissan used flat tops in the 82 ZX's NA engines.....still was a very, very low compression engine.

I have some partial panels from Charlie laying around. When you figure out what you need to fix it, let me know and I will see if I have that section...

my 2 cents... Don't get distracted by the turbo, if you savings account is shallow, then turbo is not the way to go. It takes money to go this route... I would go flat top for sure and don't be lazy! Use some of the good online engine calculators to figure out what you will have when you're finished. Figure out what compression you want to run and how to get there. You are gonna have to spend some money to build the motor and if your dollars are as limited as mine then it would be a shame to spend that money and not end up with what you want...especially for just a little home work. Read some of the engine build threads for Diseazd he has built a number of engines...

Rebelloracing.com would have them most likely, if you're in a hurry. I have seen tens of adds on ebay at a time for a small oversize ITM piston to fit a slightly cut cylinder bore. Zed Head has a great idea, search .5mm. Or go balls out like Dizeazed and have it cut to .030 & shave the head as much as possible without shimming the cam towers. Good luck, hopefully this won't be a big deal bump in the road for you.

These guys might be able to help. Looks like they have either side of what you need. You might try looking for 0.5 mm over, instead of .020" over also. Who knows if the people you are talking to are dong the conversion for you. Confirm your bore size also, just to be sure that the machine shop got it right. You never know. Might find the right pistons but then find the bore size is off. http://datsunspirit.com/shop/86mm-bore-flat-top-pistons/

P79 head originally came with flat top pistons and was used for NA ZX cars. I personally would never build a P79 head with anything but flat top pistons. And, most folks who build the P79 head follow a process where they shave the head far more than you have. Guy can speak to this more.... @Diseazd

Cleaned up the fronts. Good gap.

Thanks for the compliments, I appreciate it. The wife is gone today so got a lot done. I got the wheel hubs cleaned up and repacked the bearing before installation. Cleaned up the calipers, I wire wheeled those and then hit them with a clear gloss coat. Cleaned up and re-packed the steering rack, also put in new rubber bushings. Detailed the engine bay by painting the harness tabs black. Also added undercoating to the area that was already undercoated. Pics are below. The before and after caliper pic looks funny. Yes they are the same size, cleaned up one is in the background.

Row two, outside.

Does the door rattle or the door glass? It's probably the glass. Some new window felt and channel along with the door glass roller should fix it. MSA has that stuff. Black Dragon probably does too. Chuck

Just thought I would let everyone know who is still having "hard to close" door issues, that I gave the "glued" rubber method a shot last sunday when I was pulling my hair out trying to adjust my latches and not having any luck. Works like a charm! I happened to have a small section of 1/4 inch fuel line laying on the garage floor while searching the forums Sunday for a fix for the latch, and thought what the hell, lets try using a small section of this fuel line....couldnt hurt to try it right? I grabbed my wire cutter , eyeballed the size I needed...about 3/16 ish, sniped off a piece of the fuel line, then cut it so I could slide it over the lobe of the latch and presto! the door closes so easy now!! so give it a try if you have the problem....