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howdy y'all! new to the forum, i bought a 1983 280zx na with a 5spd, non running and had been sitting for 15+ years. my brother has an 80 with a 383 swap in his so this will definitely be in good hands! my current goal is to make the car ruin and drive with the i6, and then ill collect parts and stuff and ls swap it. we already have a 5.3 lm7 on a pallet ready for when the time comes. this thread will be used to keep track of what we do to the car over time. so far we got new injectors, fuel rail, fuel cell and fuel pump. we made it run by pouring some premix down the intake manifold (premix since it hasnt ran in so long the extra oil will keep the rings from siezing) so next objective is making a fuel system and having it run normally. after that we have a full set of pads and rotors as well as rebuild kits for the calipers and a new master cylinder and lines. we also have a new master and slave cylinder for the clutch. my brother has a set of rear shocks and springs and front springs so that we can lower the car soon after. ill upload pictures soon.

I don't have the stomach (or budget!) to take on big projects like audio or motor right now, so I'm keeping idle hands busy with some of the little things that have been bugging me for a while but never got around to fixing. Stripped the ratty paint off the wiper arms and hit them with some satin black and put on new blades that'll probably never be used. Someone commented on them this morning, so time well spent. On to the tail lights, which were really bringing the exterior down. Something had melted the right one, the chrome foil on the bezels was lifting and torn and the lenses (esp on the left) were rather faded. I also wasn't crazy about the graphite color I used on the panels -- too light, and too matte. So I ordered a new (used) tail light assembly from Z Car Source and was not too happy to find that the one piece of it that I really needed was also the only part of the new one that was damaged 🙄 Ended up cutting the broken end off the new one and then super glued on the end from my old one. I tied to match up the seam with the lens pattern and it's...good enough. Meguiar's polishing compound brought the lenses back to life. I used Duplicolor Perfect Match GM Iridium on the panels, which I'm much happier with. The bezels I'm still not sure about. I bought 3 different kinds of "chrome" paint, which are all just silver (here's a test of two -- Duplicolor and Krylon. Not chrome and not even close). Supposedly you can get better results applying it over gloss black, but it didn't matter. I thought about leaving them black, but it was a little too 1980s retro for my taste. I can live with them for now, but might try wrapping them in chrome vinyl one day. Still, I'm a lot happier with the view back here now.

I couldn't wait, even with the heat of the day pounding down on me. I had to do the test drive. I cleared out a path to back out of the garage, buttoned up the car, and set up the camera. This would be the first time since April 2010 that the car has moved under its own power. I backed it out of the garage and started recording. With a stock engine and suspension, it feels so different from the modified 260Z. I started down the road and noticed that the steering wheel is pointed toward 2 o'clock. I'll fix that tomorrow. There was also quite a tick from the valvetrain. I'll check the valve lash tomorrow, as well. You can hear it in the video when I pull back into the garage. The drive was uneventful. I just went down the road a couple of miles and drove it back home. It came up to temperature nicely, and the oil pressure was good. Of course, this description is no measure of my satisfaction of getting the car back on the road. Tomorrow I plan on washing the car, vacuuming out the interior, and tackling the tasks mentioned earlier. If I get done soon enough, I may also change the oil. It's been a few years since I last did that on this car. Then I have fix the gas gauge. Otherwise, I've VERY happy with where I am with this car.

I'm glad you asked. 😉 I checked the valve lash. By the way here's a chart I like to make before starting in order to keep track of what I have checked/adjusted. I just put an "X" for each one as I knock them out. So I adjusted the valves. I finally have done it enough that I can do it quickly. After that I went to adjust the timing, and I could still hear the tick. I used a mechanic's stethoscope on the valve cover, and all of the sounds were nice. I took a short video and sent it to a very good friend who taught me a lot about wrenching on Zs. He confirmed one of my possible causes. He believes it's an exhaust leak. At least I can check that, and I probably have at least one intake/exhaust gasket lying about.

Good luck finding a distributor. I just discovered excessive play in my distributor shaft in my '80ZX. I'll likely be going the 123 distributor route. I run FAST EFI from ZCarDepot. The engine is a F54 rebuilt/P79 with a .480 lift cam and shaved 0.80. FAST runs it just fine. There are a lot more tuning options with MegaSquirt or Haltech, but I'm not all that smart to use those haha.

Wow, the month of Aug has certainly blown by. Just got back from CO and Z-Con. Lots of very nice cars, and I met some great folks. Absolutely will be planning the Birmingham trip next year. Maybe next time I'll register for the closing banquet. 🙄 There was one car in particular that I was drawn to because the (original) owner, Robin Bolz, had taken so much care to build his car in a way I don't think I've ever seen before. The build team found some great hardware and made some interesting changes that turned out really well. I love how modifications were made primarily to clean up unused mounting points, hide/mask certain elements that he didn't want to see, and to use design elements to draw the observer's eye. I think I spent about two hours talking with him and his "general contractor" on the build - both really friendly and helpful. The top of the valve cover was cut out and a flat piece was welded in. The "L28 Turbo" and grooves were machined in by CNC. Note the oil filler. The cap has an o-ring seal on its mating face with the welded-in plate. He modified the OEM cap to make it a tool for operating the new one: Nice firewall bulkhead: Custom-made injector retainers: The heater supply hose was changed to a rigid pipe that was routed behind the coil mounting plate. This required a custom fitting for the lower radiator hose: With few exceptions, every hose/tube clamp used these fittings. According to Robin, when they found them, the company was going out of business, so he bought all they had. I plan to reach out to him to see if he'd temporarily part with one so I can utilize "prior art" to make some more. He wanted the fuel rail to run parallel with the valve cover, but the intake body runs at an angle to it which he thought detracted from his design intent. So they made a cover for the entire intake to mask its "angle" then mounted the fuel rail on top of it. Note the battery cable treatment: No one could recall if the new location for the valve cover vent hose was baffled internally as the work was completed about 10 years ago. The consensus was that it was not - since there's no room for anything behind the last cam tower. The hose runs to a catch can and there's no way to determine the can's fluid volume, so they just open a drain valve periodically. The car is NOT a daily driver - big surprise there, right?

Japdays 2021 at Mantorp Park. Rain rain and rain all day long…but lots of jdm cars showed up.

Here is some info on those pieces for you.

I remember that post making the rounds and thinking it was a neat look. Different and distinctive without being garish. Thumbs up on taking it out of the turn signal circuit, too.

What are the issues? Might just be the module. You can wire in a GM HEI module for about $25. Or buy a ZX module for $134 (ouch). The HEI module will work as well or better. You could also convert to a 280Z distributor if you happen to find one. https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/nissan,1981,280zx,2.8l+l6,1209338,ignition,ignition+control+module+(icm),7172 Here's a detailed, make-it-look-right example, but you can also just extend the wires out to the fenderwell.

I hear ya' on the chart. What got me doing it was 2 at a time come up so the chart cuts my time in half. Great when it's hot.

Which is exactly why teachers should be under a vaccination mandate.

So on the flip side, I converted the 260Z to TBI with a GM ECU. I would do it again tomorrow. Heck, I'm tempted to do it to the 240Z, but I would also get headers for it if I went that way to better accommodate installing an O2 sensor.

Yeah I can totally see the merit in going away from electrics. We are about to do triple Webers on my friends '77 280Z. Same story. . Butchered EFI parts. Best of luck. You'll get it sorted.@AK260 can tell you all about the 123 distributor.

Thanks for the comments Reptoid , Im thinking getting away from anything electronic , just too much of a pain chasing down all the old issues . I think a 390 would be good option at this point and maybe a 123 ( although I dont know much about them yet ) but heck those two upgrades are close to $2k . not sure if i want to take that much money away from the other restoration . Thanks again

thanks. found a replacement on ebay...just needs holes punched https://www.ebay.com/itm/224553119269

First bath in a LONG time.

Not as fun as driving it, but I had a blast from the passenger seat!

I'll try to take some pictures when I wash the 240Z this morning. The belts are from a different company, but the mounting looks the same.

As you may have figured out, there are some anomalies in the wiring diagrams. Some of them can be resolved with the proper application of a multimeter. For instance, I would expect that the blue/red wire for the reverse switch actually ties into the blue/red wire coming off of the fuse box. That could also be going to the wiper. I'm not sure the interlock relay made it into the 75. It depends upon when Nissan was able to react to the change in the requirement for that monstrosity. The other questions would take studying the wiring diagram in detail. I hope you won't be offended if I say that working on my own projects has a higher priority (as does getting some sleep). The challenge for me is that I don't have a 75 that I can confirm your findings with.

I saw those at Techno Tuning but I think mine are good. I understand what your saying about COVID lockdowns delaying things but you can still answer emails or calls when locked down. I’ve contested the charge with PayPay so hopefully he either responds to their request with an explanation or they refund my money. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

At a monthly car meet hosted by Gateway Classic Cars. It was time to pay some attention to the 260Z.

Leaking slave cylinder replaced so now i have a clutch again, and finally found the time to paint a valve cover I’ve had laying on the shelf for years. Japdays at Mantorp Park coming up this weekend so need to get some things sorted during this week. IMG_2111.MOV