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Today is a hard day, saying goodbye to my beautiful 12/70 blue on blue Zed. It's been a great journey together, reliving my youth! 12 years of fun and adventure, even reliving my days of auto cross in parking lots around Kelowna B.C. This beauty won her class 2 years ago auto crossing at Castrol Raceway! The best part of owning this car was finding this great group of Datsun enthusiasts who are so willing to help anyone who shows an interest. I'll still lurk around this site, I'll live vicariously through all the great ownership stories and historical background that abounds here. Farewell to Dabluz!

yes I will be 65 in august, and when I was working I all ways out work the kids. when a job had to be done right away the boss all ways put the older guy on it . it seemed most of the kids in my job had 1 speed!!! I spent almost 40 years in the line work field climbing in and out of bucket trucks and trenches and now I am paying for it. some days are good and others take a little time to get moving .but life goes on and I am not going to stop, I work through it . the good news is I can still get my leg over the harley !!!!!!!!!

Here's a nice little distributor wrench I found on kijiji, would be great for the onboard tool kit. https://www.kijiji.ca/v-other-auto-parts-and-accessories/ottawa/datsun-distributor-adjustment-tool-new-old-stock-12-point/1496172792

Update- First... wanted to say thanks again to all that replied!!! You steered me in the right direction! I decided to take it apart based on someone suggestion. It had a single contactor inside. I was able to clean the two contact points and seems to be working fine now. Dont you love 70's technology!!!!! Seriously, thanks again to all! Jeff

Post them again. I’ll take a third look.

Great input. Your findings with the WOT contacts are exactly what I meant with my #3 theory: 3) I think the WOT contacts close too early and the car runs too rich when they do. It's clear from studying the system that the WOT contacts close long before you are actually at WOT. And that's why I was theorizing they closed too soon. But when gas is cheap, emissions standards are loose, and you want to sell sporty cars, you would err on the side of burning some extra fuel instead of the opposite. So going up a hill on the highway closes the WOT contacts. So what? It's just a little more gas. Butterfly valves (like the throttle plate) are way way non-linear, so even though the plate isn't completely horizontal when the WOT contacts close, I was thinking that maybe you were pretty much there as far as max flow goes. But your A/F readings show that may not be the case. So what are the alternatives? First alternative I got is the simple one... "Do you really need it at all?" By that, I mean... Can you tune the rest of the system such that the idle looks good, cruise looks good, and WOT is rich enough even without ever closing the WOT contacts? If not, then the next alternative is what you already mentioned... Bend the WOT contacts as much as you can to delay the closing of the contacts. But as Blue mentioned, you can only do so much with that. Once the cam ramp is over, it's over. And bending beyond that will make it so the switch never closes at all. If there's still not enough adjustment there, you may want to play around with different cams. That part should be a breeze for someone with a 3-D printer to whip out. Small and not particularly accurate. You could make a custom cam with more rotation between idle and WOT.

Where is it going? Never realized how nice it looked, we all keep our cars secret. I sold mine last year but it didn't look anywhere near like yours. My brain is still full of Z stuff though so I have to hang around.

Thanks Brother! Amazingly it's going around me so far. Kinda scared to go to sleep without my helment on. Freaks my dog out too. I'll self medicate, maybe give the dog a couple of tall boys. Know your safe place!

@siteunseen When I was in high school, I was under a car welding up an exhaust system during shop class. While under there, I noticed a pair of high heels and some very nice long legs right next to the car. "Hmm", I says to myself. "Now, do I want to be under this here car, or do should I roll on out and see what's at the top of those legs?". How that time I realize I've managed to get the red hot brazing rod firmly embedded in the crook of my elbow - complete with the smell of bar-b-qued meat. Still wanting to see what was at the top of those legs, I slid on out out, slowly. You don't want to rush these things. I swear in that moment I felt absolutely no pain whatsoever. In fact, I could have stayed there looking up forever.

Well, my '78 was loaded today and is headed for Phoenix. I got the race car done and ready to sell, so I finally took a few pics of my cars together for the first time. As for the fate of the race car, I *might* have a plan that allows me to keep it. A fellow Z racer in Atlanta might be willing to take the car back to his place and race prep it. When I want to race, I'll fly in and race it with him. That way, I don't lose the car, but I don't have to take it with me where I have no space for it.

Hahahahaha! Oh man, there are better things to do than that for sure! Welp, it seems with our little sample of three, that there were... "variations" 😜 In case anyone cares, here is what Nissan has in stock - the part number changed again by the way:

I've sold many Z cars over the years. This one will probably change hands at my estate sale 😊

yes I put the cam cover back on, cleaned the gasket and head where the gasket meets and torqued down to 84" pounds. when the cover was off I felt around the back of the head and it was dry. unless it is a slow drip above the #6 header pipe in the rear corner that is all I can think of. it is hard to see as my oil never turns black I all ways try to keep the oil pretty clean. so later this week when the weather clears up I'll take it for a run and see what happens . if it is still leaking I order a new cam cover gasket and change it. that would be blessing if that was it but for some reason I have my doubts.

You would have a blast with a programmable ECU compared to this old Bosch ! When you get the numbers where you want and have recorded your AFR’s - make a valve timing change and see what that does to power and AFR’s . I’d also say you would be safe to go as lean as 13.2 at WOT if that gives you more adjustment somewhere else .

Let the exhaustive discussion begin on which one is right for what year range. GO! Actually I have no clue. I just looked in the valve cover bolt bin and pulled out four unique examples. There may be more.... That one on the right might not be a valve cover bolt at all...

Well, another idea... I have not looked into any of the details about the actual circuit that performs the WOT or idle enrichment. The rest of the ECU is a black box of analog voodoo magic, and there's no reason to believe the enrichment circuits are anything other than more of the same. And because of that, there exists the possibility the amount of enrichment may actually be able to be adjusted by controlling the amount of resistance between the contacts. In other words... The system normally works using two different resistance values - zero and infinite. Zero when the switch contacts are closed, and infinite at all other times. But what happens if you use a different value for when the switch is closed. Say 1K Ohms and infinite instead of zero and infinite? If you put a resistor in series with the WOT contacts maybe it will still actuate the WOT enrichment, but not by as much as when it sees 0 Ohms? You could try that at idle to see what happens. Compare what the A/F numbers do with 1) the WOT switch open, 2) switch closed, and 3) switch closed with some resistance in series. Just a thought if you wanted to give it a try.

You can comfort yourself then with the thought that it's going to a good home.. but it IS a sad thing always to let go of such a beaut..

Those don't look right. The valve cover should have all flange bolts, not separate lock and flat washers.

@Dr. 240Z & I were cruising on the highway at 60mph just on the idle circuit of his triple webers (no main jets installed). I think you may find the Bosch idle enrichment on the TVS is engaged at cruise as the throttle is opened very little at cruise. You may wish to attack your optimization this way: 1. Configure: Close AFM idle screw, disable TPS 2. Set Cruise A/F: Adjust AFM spring to get your cruise at desired A/F ratio 2. Set Idle Enrichment Window: Enable TPS and adjust it so that it is not enriching at cruise. Disable WOT enrichment with tape on its contact as it will now come in earlier. 3. Set Idle A/F: Use AFM idle air screw to get desired idle A/F ratio You now have optimized 90% of your driving. Next focus on the WOT (this is "under the rug" where you have swept any challenges from the above first two optimizations). Perhaps modifying the TPS so that WOT enrichment comes in later is all that will need to be done. Good luck on this final adjustment.

Nah. Lately most everyone is younger than me, so they are a bunch of “kids”. There is only one guy my age on the crew I am currently working with at The Big Shed, everyone else is in their 40’s or younger. What gets me is when one of the younger guys whines that he is getting too old for this work. I point out I’m old enough to be his dad (or grandpa), and I outwork him every day.

To echo some of the comments above - on my modified L28 with north of 240 bhp, I run fidanza fly wheel on exedy clutch (240mm) rated for a 280zx 2+2 turbo. I wanted a relatively light pedal but a clutch that could take the additional power. The pedal feel is great - not too light or at all heavy. If you want or keep your existing pedal feel, then just replace the clutch disc. The pressure plate is what gives you that heavy / light feeling. As for the flywheel and drivability, it’s sooooo much happier revving now and a joy to drive. Sure, on the very slow stuff it can be a tiny bit jerkier than the stock set up but never any drivability issues in town or stop/start traffic. You do have to dial in 300-500 more rpm every now and then but that’s it! Oh and slightly quicker gear changes. I can still drive mine at 1200-1500 rpm without issues. I have never looked back since going lighter fly!!! Interestingly, I found my AP1 S2000 didn’t like pulling out of junctions below 2000rpm! But boy was it worth the 9krpm redline engine note!!!

Good friend of mine who helped put the ITB,S on it jumped at the chance to buy it! He's a great mechanic and is absolutely thrilled to own it!

Update on the heater core. Unit has been reassembled and just about ready for install. Blower unit is lacking the heating element to complete the rebuild.

Most 40s are just moving out of mom and dads place around here but with an ex and 2 kids they won't pay for. "The world breaks people, the ones that don't break it kills".

I'll bet you still think "old idot" when you read about some 40 year old crashing his vehicle. I do. But I shouldn't.

well racer x, I am 64 years young or old sometimes in the morning ps thanks for the help with the download !! I did get that far but it would not open so as you suggest I click the save to desk top and that was it big thanks

Off topic for a moment but watch out for the severe weather in your area tonight Cliff. NWS tornado watch. Tried to send you a pm earlier but you have that disabled. Stay safe. back to regularly scheduled programming ...

And how old is old?

I wouldn’t go any further than checking for loose head bolts. If none move at the low range of the max torque, they aren’t loose. By the way, you can download the FSM here for free, just click the download button and change the save to to your desktop. It is a PDF, so all you need to do after it is downloaded is click it to open. Easy as opening a book, Click This Link, Then Click The Download Button

Sorry. I jumped the gun with a quick google search. My man Jim has the right info it looks like. I check in all out through the day with my phone. That's good and bad. I'm thankful these guys cover my arse.

Uh my crack is straight up and down. My hair is curly.

no ,I just saw that also in the photo after you said that and I wiped it down with Windex and it is gone I almost crap in my pants going to the garage!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

While waiting to get the flywheel back from resurfacing, the heater core was next to reassemble. The core itself was sent off and rebuilt, the housing media blasted and painted, new seals, foam, OEM valve, and the blower motor updated to a Kia Sportage unit for improved air flow. I’ll follow up with the completed assembly.

For the past several years, I've chased a random fuel starvation issue. My 73 with round tops would randomly sputter and die. It might happen when barely warmed up, or when ran for a long time. It might happen after being driven for a while and then parked for a bit and then restarted. It would happen under load or not under load. Heck, it died while coasting down a long hill. Ambient temperature didn't matter. Would happen on a cold day after barely warming up. Just totally random. Always eventually restarted after several cranks and then might run fine, might randomly do it again. I tried replacing the filter, then the mechanical fuel pump (no electric). I dropped the tank and had it boiled/cleaned and I resealed it with POR15. Painted the outside and made it look pretty. All new soft fuel lines and then replaced the vapor tank lines(cause it stank a bit). Blowing through the lines indicated no blockage. I then started chasing vapor lock, even replacing the radiator (it was old anyway) and then went to electric fans. I tuned it to within an inch of it's life, tinkering with the carbs and checking the fuel level in the float bowls via those little sight glass things you can buy from ztherapy. Ugh! I learned a lot about tuning a Z. Finally, one day I pulled the float bowl lids and blew through the fuel line nipple on the top of them, while playing with the float. Raising, then lowering it. Trying to see when it engaged and disengaged the shutoff valve. Weellllll! Turns out the valve would randomly stick closed on the rear carb. I had another set of carbs, so I just swapped out the rear carb float bowl lid and whooooo hooooo, problem solved! Meanwhile, I have a Z with perfectly adjusted valves, a perfect fuel system, great cooling and perfectly adjusted carbs. Just Ugh. Thought I'd pass this along in case someone else is chasing a similar issue. Check and recheck and recheck your float valve functionality. Make sure that thing opens when the float drops. That is all.

Remembers me of a drive we had in the carclub ones.. someone had a leak and what could be done... haha the solution is a ripe banana! You can stop a radiator leak with a ripe banana.. You just have to peel it and stuff the banana into the spot where the leak is! It wil get dry and hard and stops the leak, fill up and finish your drive.. Haha later on, weeks later.. i heard he still drove around with a banana in his radiator!! 🤣