beandip

You will find Steve to be a great person and is vary helpful. In my opinion if you are driving a Z with SUs you should know how to tune them your self. They are simple , simple , simple. You cant find a better source than ZT and Steve. Do contact him first though , don't just show up. If you just go to the Shop and he has taken the day off. You have just waisted the trip. Gary

you just need to check the space between the blades and the radiator . I am running a ZX fan and clutch on my '73 with no problem. There are different fan clutches and not all will work, so just make sure you allow room. Gary

I sort of skimmed over all the posts , but all it takes to make the engine run . Is air , fuel and spark. That's it. So if there is gas getting to the carbs , and air , a given then ignition is the question. What ignition is being used here ? If by chance a ZX electronic look to the module. you are correct that if there was a problem with crud in the gas , it would show up slowly not like this. I wonder over ignition. Gary

I agree with the hi out put units. I did however pulled a alt. from a '84 Maxima and the pulley and all was a direct fit. It is a 90 amp. and like Arne said no need for any more . You still need to make the changes from a 240 external to a internal regulator. $30.00 at the bone yard. Gary

At first start up pull the choke to full on. As soon as the engine fires you can move the choke lever forward to maybe 50% , depending on the temp out side. Also when you first pull away from a stop if the engine is still cold it might , as you said buck. This is simply because the engine is not up to driving temp. So just add some more choke until it drives correctly. As the engine continues to warm up to the proper temp. you can move the choke lever forward. It takes about 10 min. for the engine to be up to temp. Even on a warm day. I think from your description that you simply have been using too much choke and then too little as the engine is still not up to temp. The temp gage will show the water is warming a long time before the engine is actually warmed to driving temp. Hope this helps . Gary:rambo: Some times drivers coming from computerized injected cars have this same problem until they become accustomed to this old way of doing things.

With your temp in the area 104* or so was the engine overheating when this was happening? This could be a factor. Gazza

I used POR on all bear metal on my Z when I had her all apart. I did not use it on the outside metal like the finished side of the fenders or doors . Only on the floors both inside the car and under the car, Inside the frame rails and inside the rear fenders and doors. Basically every where the car was not to be finished with the color and clear. Where I did use the POR on door jams and in the engine bay that was going to be painted with color and clear, I covered the Por paint with there tycoat primer first. Then when the car was ready for finish , shot it with the PPG products , regular finishing products. One thing , POR paint is SO hard when cured that if you get ANY in a threaded hole. Use a tap first , don't even try to run a bolt in the threads. I used POR on my gas tank and front suspension also. It flows out like it was sprayed on. Do not buy cans larger than 1 QT because it effected by the moisture in the air and will start setting up in the can. Clean it off your skin with lacquer thinner but do not thin the paint with it. POR has there own thinner if you think you need it. ALWAYS prep the metal with POR marine clean and there Metal ready following instructions. If you try to short cut the process it paint vary likely will just peal off in short order. I did my car 5 years ago and have had zero failure so far and I have put about 15,000 miles on the car. One additional thing , once POR is cured . Nothing I know of will touch it let alone remove it , other that a body grinder. Gary

Yah Will is unrecogizable when he is loaded. Not even a face a mother could love. Gazza

What ever floats your boat. If you don't care do it. Rat Rods have a following too. I personally think the engine bay should be the same as the body paint. But if you keep the hood down , what the hell. Why are you painting it in the first place if you don't care about the quality of the paint job?

If you are going into this with the idea that you will make some money. Stop and find another way to spend your money. You will put more into the car than you can recover when selling it. Now having said this , where can you go out on the used car market and own a superb sports car , that looks great , handles great and is so fun to drive , for less than $10,000.00? As time goes on the value of these cars will catch up. It has come up plenty in the past 8 year that I have owned mine. If you love to work on your Z and even though some times you may become discouraged you persevere and continue because you want to . Not have to. Then the journey will be worth the effort. I truly enjoy just driving my 240 on a clear sunny day more than anything else. She took just over 3 years to redo , but I enjoyed all of the time. because I chose to do it and all was done at home in my garage. Gary

I guess I won't modify it then. I was going to cut it so it would clear my 280 radiator that extends past the support about 2". thanks I can do something else. Canby was a great show . I had to leave at noon , being home for Father's day is more important for me. A bunch of us from this web site gathered at a Rest area on the highway ,11 240 Zs and one 350. And we all cruised in together and parked together. Lot's of Roadsters and early Zs both stock and modified. Gary

I have seen the EBay prices go out of sight a few years ago and have stopped even going there. I was given two '72 radios and have one in my Z. This whole thing I have seen coming for the past 7+ years. As the parts become harder to find the prices will continue to climb. It is simply supply and demand. Just 7 years back the clear head light covers with he chrome rim were $150.00 on EBay and I bought new water valve for my 240 for $16.00 in the Nissan box. I went through this same thing when building my first Hot Rod , a '32 Ford 3 window. All of a sudden there were no parts to be found. This is the reason so many of us are buying parts cars. In two or three years you wont be able to find many of the parts now available. Just as soon as the demand causes the prices high enough to warrant someone to make some of this stuff , more after market parts will become available. A year ago there were no needles or nozzles for our SUs at Nissan any where in the U S A . Some are available now for who knows how long. Non tinted glass for the early 240s cannot be found at Nissan, now all are tinted. Just to name a few things. I have seen to many items sold on EBay that were still available at the Nissan Dealer for a lot less money. Gary Mat I have a splash shield for a '73 that I was thinking of cutting to make it fit a different application. What is it worth?

Just a reminder The Canby Show is tomorrow . This is in Canby Oregon and it is a all Datsun and Z show. I thought someone from the Club putting on the show would have posted the information as a reminder . But since they haven't Come one Come all if you are in the area . It's going to be a vary good show. As it has been the past three years. Gary

Remove a spark plug and reattach the plug wire and lay the plug on top of the valve cover and then try and start the engine and watch the plug and see if there is a blue spark. This will tell you if the ignition is firing or not. No spark then it could be in the Dist. In there is a set of points and a condenser , a silver cylindrical thing about 1 1/4'' long with one wire coming out of one end. If you check the points , separate where they come together, see if there is any indication of them being burnt. If they have a growth of metal sticking up from either surface , that is what mean by being burnt. Replace the points and the condenser at the same time. If the condenser is bad you will have zero spark. Both of these parts are cheep. Look inside the Dist. cap and look at the 6 contacts around the top of it. Scrape any crud off the contacts with a knife , it should just flake off. Give this all a shot. Gary

Are you getting power to the coil? By the way , What ignition are we talking about here. Stock with points?

What did you set the valve clearance at? Is this an engine that has been running all along , or one that has been setting for a couple of years? Just wondering if maybe a valve stuck open and was struck by the piston. This could account for the lash pad to coming off and if the valve is bent the cylinder could appear to not be firing . But is just leaking compression . If you have a old spark plug , connect it to the wire to the suspect cylinder and just lay it on the valve cover to ground it and start the engine and see if it is getting spark. Gary

When you ever pull or check fuses , check them for continuity. Don't just rely on what you see in the glass tube. They can be bad but look good. This could save you hours of time and frustration. First place to check is both the plus and neg connections on the main battery connections on the starter. Then go from there . If the battery cables are at all suspect , replace them. They can fail inside the insulation you cannot see the corrosion, and they can be unable to carry the load to start the engine. Keep us in loop . Gary

Bring your Aunt to the Show. I bet she has never been to one before. Gary

When you adjust the valves there are two nuts on the same threaded shaft. One acts as a lock against the other. It's called a jamb nut. So you check the clearance with a feeler gage between the cam and he rocker arm. If it needs to be adjusted, loosen the nuts adjust the clearance then with one wrench on one nut and another one on the jamb nut tighten them without changing the setting . Check the clearance again to be sure it's correct , if so go on to the next one. You only adjust the valve when the cam lobe is point up. Good luck. Gary

Thomas, You have set the bar rather low with the rat rod scenario. First off If you have about 3K for a budget to start with. This should be enough to have the car safe , figuring you payed $300.00 for he car, and then repairs on the engine. The wiring in the engine bay. Just find a whole harness from a 260Z . the '73s and '75s are different. Personally I recommend finding a better candidate that at least has a running engine to begin with. I have never heard of a seller guaranteeing the car is safe or not. You buy he Z and it's yours , good or Bad. If all you have ended up with is a parts car , you may be able to retrieve your money back selling the parts. Good luck with this project. Gary

For some reason I thought he had pulled the engine and tranny to do the detailing and paint.

Did you change the oil in the tranny by chance? If you over filled it this could cause a leak .

Jordan, Thanks for clearing this up once and for all. This what we have needed. Gary