beandip

Rusted floor and Z cars are vary common together. I had to replace the floorpan on the passanger side and I was able to repair the drivers side. I think part of the trouble was there had been a leak in the heater and water had been allowed to stand in the passenger side foot well. That or a leaking door seal. Either way t he factory supplied jute base for the carpet holds water like a sponge. I bought floor pannels from Zed findings. They are first rate , really. If you want pictures I can send them to ya I just need an e address. I dont know how to shrink them for the gallery. I cut out the rusted sheet metal with a saws-all and removed the seat supports with a spot weld cutter. I was going to be painting the whole car so I stripped out the entire enterior, and sand blasted the floor before the cutting. This is how I really found out how bad the rust was. My friend and I fitted the new pan in the space after the cutting and removing of the bad sheet metal. We held the new floor in place with self tapping sheet metal screws . They ended up being about 4" apart all around the perimeter of the floor. Some minor cuts were made in the new pan to form and fit the space. This was then tig-welded by a welder and the holes filled as the screws were removed. Dont cut any metal away untill you have the replacement in hand so you can see what to leave.

You are all over the place here. You have a bunch of things going on that you are tinkering with so now you cant tell which is doing what. First have you touched the valves to adjust them yet ? If no leave them alone , for now. Check the ignition for timing and advance both vacume and cent. advance. If this is good then go to what ever you are running for carbs and get them right. If you know of a defect in this area fix this first then ballance and adjust for mixture. From here go to the valves and adjust them if needed. Valves out of adjustment will NOT cause what is bothering the running you described . When an engine is running reletively good and all of a sudden turns sour , unless a major thing happened to the valve train like a broken rocker or spring or something like that , valve adjustment is not the cause. First thing , is to check the plugs , and timing . Are you running a dist. with points ? Unless you have been having trouble with the carbs. then go there , do the carbs each have there seperate filters? What is going on in the float chambers, has a float sprung a lead and sunk? What are you running for a fuel pump that you need a pressure regulater ? If only one choke is working , what's up with that ? Hope I have helped. The best to ya. Gary

Sounds like the battery is some what discharged. How far do you generally drive the car when you start her up? I ask how far , because it takes a bit to replace the charge in the battery after start up. If after start up if the lights are turned on and or the heater fan , or any other electrical draw , it will take that much longer to replenish the charge in the batt. . If your regulater is adjustable it could require being set to a higher rate. If you have a charger , charge the batt and then when you start the engine after it is fully charged you should see the lights dim only slightly at idle . How old is the batt. it may be at the end of it's useful life, especially in this cold weather. One more thing check the posts connections on the battery if AT ALL corodded disassemble and clean . This alone could be the cause . Also, clean the top of the batt of any dirt and or oil . It is a good thing to rince the whole batt. and area with soda water solution to remove any acid from the sheet metal on the inner fender and frame rail below the batt. . If rust is noted in the area of the batt it is from the acid . best of luck Gary:classic:

I hope you have a new gasket !

I think you should ! With 2 1/2" pipes , just dont drive anywhere by my house. :sick:

Great that you found a good car , always good to hear of another one on the road . Why are you dumping the radiator it should work just fine if it is in good cond. . Unless you plan on a concors restoration the Griffith is not a distraction to the value of the car. By the way phred has a stock rad for sale , if needed . He races maybe there is a trade here ? Again congrats. .:classic:

I have a question here , I have been reading all the posts on this. What is wrong with electric fuel pumps ? Even the '70z was wired for one. I know OEM pumps are spendy but you can buy a RX-7 pump at a bone yard for $15.00 . Put a switch in the line and you are there . Connect the wires to the rear window defogger switch , almost all of us have cars that they don't work any way. That or mount a switch under the ash tray, there are plenty of places to hide one that is easy to access for daily use. If you want a push button switch to start the car , mount one in the cigar lighter so when you push in the lighter it inturn pushes the button and the engine turns over. You still will need the key switch but it will only activate the ignition and not activate the starter. Removing the rotor or coil wire works but this is not a practical solution for me. Every time I get out of the car to go into the store I don't want to go through the trouble. I am sure we all knew of this option but how many are bothering to do it. Mearly disabeling the power to the ignition is easy to get by . All that is need is 4ft of wire with clips on each end and a screwdriver to short the starter and you are on the way down the road. Just connect a wire to the hot side of a head light and turn it on and bridge the starter and the engine will rum , any 12v source connected to the hot side of the coil . If a manual trans just bump start it. No fuel the engine wont run, simple.

Dont have a clue with the tripples sorry , only SUs . Have you checked the tec. section ?

If you are just playing with it and just want to get it started to hear it run and take it around the block , I can understand the frustration with the weather, and wanting to be driving her. Try giving it a shot of starting fluid in the air cleaner intake. This should get her to start right off, saving the starter and Batt. One reason it may becoming harder to start in this cold , is that if not sufficently warmed up when it is shut down that it may be getting loaded up. If it is repeted a few times .This will eventually foul the plugs. In order for the cold engine to be able to run in the first place it must have a richer mixture of fuel to air. This will leave the cylinder head wet with fuel untill the temp. is up and the engine runs good with out the choke. This might be the culprt.

we have a fantastic supply here in Portland . Parkrose Hardware they have the largest selection of metric that I have ever seen . some chrome plated and stainless. If you let me know what you need specificly by size and lingth and thread pitch I can get them for you if you just pay the cost and shipping. Now as for using the thinner insulater, remember what it is . A insulater If you live in the warmer areas of the country and or are running a header you may find that you will have vapor lock problems especially if you have disconnected the water to the intake manifold. Another sourse of bolts is Highschool Pharmacy they have Ace hardware in part of the store and some of them have a pritty good selection. When I go the Parkrose I always see the cycle guys there buying the chrome cap screws. I used stainless stove bolts on my 240 front bumpers to fill the holes left when I removed the black rubber. I polished them and they look just like chrome bumper bolts . Works for me I really rather not have the rubber .

There is nothing more complicated in the 280 block ! It's the same design . The only differences are in the last 3 or 4 yrs of the inline 6 block . The F-54 block, and this is just the way the casting was done around the cylinders. The difference from the L-24 to the L28 is the crank shaft , the stroke is longer on it and the L-26. Everything will exchange with the 240. Just use your 240 intake and carbs. The cost of rebuild and parts is the same infact if you wanted to buy a remanufactured engine 240 blocks are not acceptable as cores from what I have read. Now some of the 280s have dished pistons and some flat tops so if you are going to use the head from a early 240 check what compression you will end up with, you might be dissapointed or supprised. Check out this web site geocities.com/zgarage.2001 good information there. And yes indeed the 2 + 2 is heaver . When I say all will exchange I mean the outside parts not rods pistons and cranks. Be careful there. Gary

phred the head guru recommended to me to use a exhost gasket form Motorsport , the heavy duty one because they are thicker . This is what he uses on the race engines and he says that they work the best with headers and dont fall apart if the header needs to be removed after a race. I ordered two a long as I was at it. Gary:classic:

there is no need to cover a braded ground wire or protect it from water , you want it to ground the systime it is connected to. The main thing is to see that where it is connected the surface is clean and free of paint and rust. If concerned about crrosion spray with WD 40. Gary

If you have access to a bone yard find a RX-7 '79 or '80 and pull the electric fuel pump, there on the driver's side and just in front of the fuel tank. They work vary well and I bought mine for only $15.00 and are a smap to mount and are QUIET. If you are having vapor lock problems this should fix it. I would install an inline filter in between the pump and the tank. Have you changed the fuel filter on the fender in the engine bay? if not do it . These are cheep fixes and are most likely you will do them in the future anyway . On the pump just be sure it is from a carbed engine not injected.Gary:classic:

Gema, my first guess is the filler neck hose where it connects to the tank inlet. I think the hose is about $50.00. I just pulled my tank and in fact am painting it with POR today. I am going to eliminate the evap tank and all the hoses that cary the vapor and stink into the cabin area to the evap tank. There is a OEM hose for this . Cars that were not for the US market dident have this smelly systime. Gary:classic:

snoochee , midwestz is a sponsor here on our site. Check with Chloe . midwestz.com I just rebuilt my dist. and the braker plate was $45.53 . Personally I wouldent spend the money on a old dist with points. Mine is all electronic from a '79ZX and it is a great systime . Vary much worth the effort . The cost for your braker plate will be about the same I think . To answer the question on how hard it is to replace . Not hard at all , but you must pull the dist. . The thing is when it is rebuilt it will still have points and will still be running on 8volts and will require you to change points form time to time dipending on the miles driven. Ignitions with points are no longer used on any modern engines because they are just not as efficent.

I read a post awhile back that said that one from a earlier ford truck was a direct bolt in. Not sure if they were talking of the motor or the whole squirrl cage and motor. Gary

the lack of activity on this post is most likely due to the fact that it is in the wrong place. Try the Items for sale and or needed. Good luck