BRE-240Z

I have no connection to them whatsoever, but ZSpecialties in Washington has 105 and 120 amp alternators for the Z. Might be worth looking into....as I understand it, they're plug and play. http://www.datsunstore.com/product_info.php/products_id/1 If you let them know that you're a Z club member, they'll give you a $10 discount.

On the Z car purchase, my advice would be to stay as patient as you possibly can. The right car will come along! Keep plugging away, and when you find one for sale do your homework, ask for photos of problem areas, and if you get an answer that you don't like drop that one like a hand grenade and look for the next car. My car will be very nice eventually - I'm most of the way there - but for the amount of money that I've sunk into this baby I could have bought a very nice west coast car and saved myself some aggravation.

I agree. I spent a lot of time at ZCar.com initially, and soon found myself very frustrated at all the bad advice, stupid opinions, superiority complexes, and juvenile responses that I found there. Just as a total aside, there must be a heck of a lot of sixteen year olds running around with ZX cars, because the board there is full of them.... At any rate, it's a much more mature group here, with mostly well-thought out responses to questions and good advice. Makes me want to be a long-term member and hopefully a good contributor.

Even with it needing paint, the yellow car would bring $4K or better in this part of the country. I paid close to that for my 240Z, and it was mostly original, and in pretty good shape....but it needed paint, and some battery tray work and floor pan repair.

That car would go for a pretty penny on this side of the Mississippi.

They're tough to find here in the East. Matter of fact, if Arne ever goes nuts and decides to sell his red car, Mally will have to get behind me in the line to buy it!

Heater hoses...I'm getting ready to play that game myself. Good luck with the brakes!

Bleed screws should be on the top. They can be installed the wrong way.

I was guessing #4...... Nice article, by the way.

Fantastic! The photos look very good. I'll be waiting anxiously for your article!

Another thing that's good to do is to put the wheels under the car. I do it even when I've got the car up on jack stands....that way, if things go south in a hurry, at least i won't be crushed under the car. I've had a car slip off the jack, a minute or so after I came out from under the car, and that is scary stuff.... PB Blaster is good stuff, by the way. I keep it around at all times now. Not sure how often you get over to Asheville, but the South Asheville Wal-Mart sells it in their automotive department.

I have....I'm actually a repeat customer. The guy's name is Jim Banner, and the parts come from Wendle Motors in Washington. Ships via UPS, and everything is as advertised.

I'm happy to help. I have K&N air cleaners on each carb, like the ones in the photos. I also have a small filter on top of the valve cover, so if you have one in that location it should be fine, as well. You should pull that filter off of the block, though. Connect that to PCV with a proper hose, and you'll at least have *that* part of your car working right.

In the dead center of this photo, there is a braided hose. That's the PCV hose that I'm talking about.

The PCV valve comes off of the balance tube, and is designed so that it will suck blow-by gases that are expelled from the crankcase back into the intake (and burn them, reducing emissions). There should be a hose connecting the PCV valve and the block. It sounds like yours is missing. Do you have a factory service manual? If not, you should definitely pick one up and start getting familiar with it.

What kind of Z is this? Assuming that this is an early, carbureted car......where the breather is on the block, that's supposed to be connected to your balance tube's PCV port. If it's open to the environment, that's just puking fumes into your engine bay.

Is this what you're looking for? http://tinyurl.com/yz2r5j

I sold a 510 on eBay. A couple of months later, my images and a dummy description showed up on eBay, with a zero feedback seller and the car supposedly located in Hawaii. Same setup as this, more or less. Definite scam. I notified eBay and they killed the auction, or at least in my case they did....

Bling! Bling! Bling!

The guy definitely should have mentioned the rusty floors, and now you know that next time that should be the first question to ask.... Stinks, though, to get that far into a deal and then realize that you've got a much larger project on your hands than you ever anticipated. The only positive, I guess, is that - if the guy was being truthful in the ad - a lot of the restoration stuff has been done....if you get those floors taken care of, you should have a nice solid car. Good luck with it, and let us know how it goes.

For a straight hose, I think it would be fantastic. The problem with the hoses on the 240Z is that there are a lot of relatively complex bends. I don't know how well that stuff would work for most of the stock hoses....I mean, wouldn't it kink and bend and look funny?

Gray? Heck, mine turned white!

I am doing the same thing with my car. The braided hoses are still intact, but I am in the process of replacing all of them. NOS braided hoses still show up on eBay from time to time, but you'll pay for them.....I've chosen to go with new Nissan molded replacements instead.

Boiling out a radiator will help if it's really gunked up inside. I had one done not too long ago, and it cost me $25.

On the drive to work this morning, I was thinking that maybe I should look into replacing the various dash bulbs on my '71 with LED's. I know other people have done this modification, and wondered if anyone could tell me how many bulbs I will need, and what type. Also, does anyone know what type of bulb the map light uses? Not looking for anything ricey. I am thinking white bulbs, or possibly green for the gauges, hopefully in an inverse pattern. I'm at work this AM and don't have my FSM handy.... I've already converted most of the exterior bulbs to LED's and that has worked out very well.... Thanks for any tips!