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My first Z has a story, less about the car, and more about the guy I bought it from. First, the car. HLS3041924, build date 8/1/1971, originally red with black interior. In 1979 it began a life as a road race car, running ICSCC and SCCA events in the Pacific Northwest, with a Conference log book. It was in pretty sad shape when I got it, having 8 or 10 layers of paint, and 10 years of thrashing around road race courses in Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. It was lime green on the right side, bright blue on the left, and had an orange stripe down the middle. The guy I bought it from is the story. He had a reputation as a rolling chicane, never doing well with the car. Some time before he decided to sell the car he had gotten divorced. It was a pretty messy affair. His ex wife had been messing around with his best friend, who was also the mechanic for the race car. She got the house, and the kids, and was shacking up with the now ex best friend. Oh, and the house was next door to his parents house. Oh, and she had a restraining order against him, and wouldn't let his see his kids. So he couldn't see his kids, and couldn't visit his parents because they were too close to her. The day I looked at the car to see if a deal could be made, he was edgy. Wearing a windbreaker, I noticed one pocket hanging very low, as if it had something very heavy in it. Indeed, at some point during our conversation, he mentioned the ex wife, ex friend, parents, restraining order, and mumbled something about having a solution, and patting the extra heavy pocket on his jacket. We made a deal, I returned the next day, paid him, did paperwork, loaded the car up and went home. A day or two later I saw a news story about some guy in Puyallup that had gone to his ex wife's home, shot her, their kids, her boyfriend, and then himself. I was about to dismiss it as more of the crazy stuff that is always in the news in Pierce County when they mentioned his name. It was the guy I bought the race car from.

I believe its mainly to show the valves seating tightly. I wont google either just to add to the fun

Laser cut, welded, powder coated and ready to install! Clocking and bend is about perfect from stock. Stoked

I think you’re on the right track doing these things your self. As my post#79 I recommend a leak down test after you get accurate compression readings. We are here to help.

The only thing I can add is I remove the plugs and turn the engine over until I see oil pressure, then test. When I didn't start with oil pressure #1 would read low the first time and higher on the second test. Good luck.

So I noticed a post on Zcar.com asking about finding a shop in the Atlanta area. The owner bought a non-running 280Z, and the previous owner said the car ran fine and suddenly died one day. The PO fired the parts cannon and replaced the fuel pump to no avail. Isn't it funny how the parts cannon doesn't hit the target very often? Fortunately for this 280Z, the new owner is willing to listen to diagnostics and test. First was to see if the car would fire. Yes, it ran on starting fluid. Next establish that the fuel pump runs. Yes, it has fuel pressure, but it's a little low. Constricting the return will build the pressure though. After that check the injectors. Negative on the noid light. At this point I wanted him to check for voltage at the injectors, but he started moving through the fuel injection Bible. Okay, he found some issues, but not the one that was keeping the car from starting. I pushed him again to check the EFI fusible link, and he texted me about finding a loose wire near the battery positive. He reconnected the fusible link and a couple of minutes later he sent me a text of a running L28. This year is off to a good start for me. I hope there is a lot of that to go around this year.

Is this the correct way to carry out the compression test? Im done with these mechanics here in Panama:

Wrapped up the floor pan install with new seat mounting brackets and supports. I will say these weren't 100% a drop in where the factory mounts were previously, but very close. I would attribute that to possibly human error when they were originally placed, as the LH and RH sides were not aligned with each other. That and no aftermarket part will ever be a perfect match. Regardless, happy with the final outcome. All it lacks now is seam sealer and sound deadening before final paint.

Both dog legs on the Z needed the same rust/damage repair. Fortunately the Klassic Fab pieces were a very close fit to the existing metal, both for the inner structure and outer body panel. The panel itself had slightly longer flanges which worked out great for trimming them down to fit the car. I also had to replace a section of the inner wheel well in the process. Overall not a bad job to do. I need to finish up the "spot welds" around the perimeter to make them appear more authentic.

I can't top Racer X's story, but the 1977 we have is a recovered stolen car. The thief pulled all the VIN/ID plates, ground off the firewall VIN, repainted the persimmon red car maroon, and put generic Datsun wheel covers and 240z bumpers on it. Apparently his "disguise" wasn't enough to keep him from getting pinched.

ITB DBW update. Installed, feels and looks like stock! I had the stock pedal pad copied, then laser cut. Then welded onto the 350z pedal rod. I also had the pad bent to match my stock pedal and also clocked to match. After that I got it all powder coated to match. Should work great! I can tell it’s not attached to linkage, but it still feels somewhat stock. I like how I can’t really tell it’s not stock without looking hard. IMG_3890.MOV

In stock form, the FICD is controlled by a solenoid valve - Nissan calls it a "Magnet Valve". The solenoid is mounted near the vacuum bottle (one of two) and serves to control the vacuum applied to the FICD. I think nearly every ECU has a pin tied to the A/C clutch. In the swap into my 260Z I didn't use any of that (vacuum bottles, magnet valves, FICD) and: A. The ECCS ECU didn't seem to care 2. My A/C worked fine and the turbo engine has enough torque that it doesn't seem to mind the extra load of the A/C compressor at idle. c. The stock ECCS kinda sucks and I moved to a different ECU (not nearly as soon as I should have) cuz the stock harness REALLY sucks after all these years. I my opinion the 1983 FSM is MUCH more difficult to navigate than the 1982 FSM and there are only minor changes between the years. I normally refer to the '82 manual much more often.

Well, after all that, I got out the arm that was still in the car and looked at it, comparing it with the pictures in this thread and... ...it isn't even a wiper from a 280Z. When I bought the car it had a bunch of parts in the trunk, mostly its own. There were a handful of parts form other cars in there. I guess this is another one. So I guess I'm looking for the set. Thanks for your help guys.

Don't know if this is related, but at the same time you posted about this AI stuff, clicking through to view member profiles results inthis: [[Template core/front/profile/profile is throwing an error. This theme may be out of date. Run the support tool in the AdminCP to restore the default theme.]]

You vented the refrigerant to the atmosphere? Watch out, the air police will get you. The system should have a specified amount of refrigerant required, the documentation that came with it should tell you how much. It can only be charged using a refrigeration machine made for automotive air conditioning systems. A vacuum must be drawn on the system, and then the correct amount of refrigerant is added. By messing with the system using the $20 refill can with a gauge you haven't fixed anything, and potentially have made things worse. The system has two ports, for each side of the loop, the high pressure side, and the low pressure side. Using a proper dual gauge setup for checking and diagnosing air conditioning systems is the only way to check system pressures. Take the car to a qualified mechanic who has the proper gauges and refrigerant recovery/charging equipment. You don't need a Z expert.

To each his own, I guess. It reminds me of the Excalibur from the sixties.

This just popped up on BAT. https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1985-nissan-300zx-27/ Built on a 1985 300ZX 2+2. Who owns and drives something as gaudy as this?

Ha, I wish I was that quick! To date I’m a year into this build. Playing catch up on updates.

Passenger floor and frame rail final fitment before welding in. I’ve yet to use one of these Klassic Fab panels that wasn’t a top notch piece. Now the Bad Dog parts, that’s a different story. The rails and extensions needed a lot of work to get them to fit. So much so I feel making my own would have been easier. Was really surprised how bad they were (no pun intended). You can see above how off they were from the rear floor supports. This was the best fitting part of the set. Fortunately I was able to salvage them and wrap up the floor pan job.

The other thing is what does suspension rebuild involve? If they torqued the bushings with the suspension hanging instead of loaded that will increase your ride height.

Haha funny stories.. My 240z once had 7-8 owners in half a year!! (or so.. if I.R.C. ) This was back in the early nineties, in the States.. haha it had a terrible floor and a lot of people fell for the nice red color of this turd! I got some paperwork that came with it and on it are A LOT of names! After that it was bought by a firm overhere in the Netherlands for peanuts i guess and someone bought it but never repaired it, then in 1998 i bought it and in 2000 i got it a licence plate and drove it, now for about 30000km or so..

Who is looking for some wall art? https://www.sportscarart.com/product/datsun-240z/ https://www.sportscarart.com/product/bre-datsun-240z/ For the BRE design, the artist consulted with Ron Carter, Randy Jaffe, Peter Brock, and John Morton, so there was quite an effort to get the details right.