Weasel73240Z

They are protecting the caskets based on the "sacrificial anode" theory, like when you install zinc on a boat's rudder or outdrive. Sacrificial anodes are being used alot in concrete applications, they tie an anode to the metal rebars prior to pouring concrete, to halt corrorsion of the rebar. The anode degrades, but the materials you're trying to protect, doesn't. It has to do with electron transfer, and a bunch of other stuff that gives me a popsicle headache just thinking about it. Way to in-depth to try and explain how it works in a short post, and I'm not sure I'm capable of explaining how it works, even if I wanted to, . I think the problem in an automotive application is that you would likely need many anodes, because some of the body panels are not attached in a way that they are "electrically connected". Although being unibody, maybe they are? With concrete, all of the rebar is tied together; in a boat, the entire boat is sitting in an electrolyte (water). I think (but sure as hell don't know) that the fact that a car sits on rubber, and is technically not "grounded", would keep the anodes from working properly. The other problem is that, by nature, sacrificial anodes are "sacrificed", meaning if they work right, they need to be replaced regularly. I sure do love a good "could this work" discussion. Dissenting opinions always encouraged. Peace, Weasel

If you can, look behind the fenders at the front portion of the rocker panel. The cowl drains into that space, and my "rust free" 73 had pretty extensive rust in there. Fixed now, but it took about 20 hrs. of welding/fabrication to fix it. Hope it works out for you. It took me until I was 38 yrs. old to finally find my Z. I would've loved to have one at 15.

I'm no expert on this, but I think most people on here would agree that running a Holley 4bbl probably doesn't improve power or performance with an L24 engine. You would probably make better (and more efficient) power with the original twin SU's.

A St. Christopher Medal (I'm agnostic, don't know what he's the Patron St. of, Travelers, maybe?), various change, cigarettes, pens, and a FULL can of Coca-Cola with a pull tab, had to be at least 20 - 25 years old. When is the last time Coca-Cola had a pull tab?

The photo of the open drivers side door is scary. Look at the rot at the bottom right corner. What do you think that looks like close-up? However, this one looks like a pretty damn nice Z, especially for New England. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1973-Datsun-240Z_W0QQitemZ110202666900QQihZ001QQcategoryZ6187QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem Unfortunately, no pics of the floor, frame rails, etc. but if someone around here is looking, this may be a great car. If it is as good as advertised, it'll probably sell for pretty good money. Good Z's are getting impossible to find out here.

I just removed the bodyside mouldings from my 73. What a major improvement, they really did detract from the lines, at least in my opinion. I won't be putting them back on the car after paint, however, I imagine someone doing a factory quality restore may want them. I have the complete set, and all of the parts are in good shape (they were riveted on). Are these worth anything, or should I just store them with the rest of the extra stuff?

Thanks, I was planning to reroute the cowl drain out, before closing it up. I need to get some pics of the rust behind the dogleg and post them. I don't think I've lost much steel to rust, probably only an inch of so at the very back of the channel, I'm just not sure.

Still looking for pics if anyone has some.

As I was working on my 73, I found an area of rust that I hadn't noticed before. Its right behind the doglegs on both sides. It rusted through the inner fender well at the very back of the rocker area. I already knew about some rust at the front of the rocker, behind the front fender (who ever thought the cowl should drain into that area was really out of it). The rocker panel is in good shape, this is the reinforcing channel (with the punched holes) behind the rocker panel. The channel is solid in the middle, but I found rust at the very ends. Some was just surface rust, but some had rusted through also, and I guess I'll have to fabricate new metal, then treat everything with POR-15. I think its fairly minor, but I'm nut sure how much metal has been lost to rust. Does anyone have photos of the front and rear of the channel with the rockers removed so that I can see how the channel looks in good condition. That way I'll be able to rebuild the channel correctly. Also, any tips from folks who've dealt with this would be greatly appreciated. I'm learning that a "rust free" Z in Massachusetts is too much to expect. But I want to catch this early and fix it right. Mr email is sidneydal@comcast.net

We've got a couple guys like 280ZX10 on my softball league website. Snipers...sitting back throwing in the 2 cents, just to stir the pot. Seems like a lonely existence.

Since I just bought mine, and haven't driven it yet, I don't know how people on the street will react. But I can tell you, I never, I mean never, see any S30 Z's around here. I drive alot for work, all around Boston, RI, CT and I bet I haven't seen an S30 on the road in 10 years. Not too many of them survive the New England winters. Fortunately, mine was a garaged, nice-weather only car, and survived just fine. I did get comments from 2 different drivers when I trailered the car home. The ride was about an hour, in bumper-to-bumper Boston commuter traffic, and a older guy in a semi asked if it was for sale, and a young guy in a VW asked what it was, he'd never seen one before. And every friend around my age (38) who comes into my garage, can't believe their eyes. No doubt, these cars turn heads, even standing still.

I'm just going to get the 110, that's whats on the tag.

I spent 15 years touring with the Grateful Dead, so I can definitely relate to short-term memory loss, .

Thanks everyone. I think the tube being different diameters at the two ends is what confused me. I'll look through my boxes of old parts, I'm sure the hose I need is in there somewhere. Paul

It's definitely the crankcase breather (PCV) outlet. I wasn't sure if it went to the smog pump or the balancing tube. I thought it went to the smog pump, but I could be wrong. I marked just about everything when I took the engine apart, but I forgot to mark this one. I'll post a pic when I get home.

I thought my car was 908 Orange, but the paint tag says 110, which is persimmon. It looks orange to me. The pic shows the color pretty accurately, and you can see the engine bay pretty well. What do you think, orange or persimmon?

I removed the flat tops from my 73, and installed a set of 3 screw round tops. I also removed all of the smog stuff. Behind the distributor, there's an outlet tube (about 1" diameter) that comes from the crackcase, and used to go to the smog pump via a braided line. Is it okay to block the outlet off? Can the outlet tube be removed and plugged, it would look alot better without it? Thanks.

Yikes....I came on the board to help me decide what kind of exhaust I want to put on the 73, and I got a popsicle headache. I use the board alot for help, but I don't think I've ever read so many differing opinions on a Z subject. It seems there are a bunch of options for around $200 - $250 out there, which is about my exhaust budget. I'm most interested in performance, with sound a distant second. My 73 is very low miles, de-smogged with a rebuilt set of 71 roundtops. Otherwise everything is stock. I was thinking about the MSA twice pipes, or the Black Dragon Monza exhaust. Any other, better, options in that price range for my car? I can't wait to read the responses.

I just had a similar issue with my spray bar. I found that the point where the spray bar attaches to the rear cam tower was slightly out of alignment. This was causing the small reservoir in the back of the spray bar to open up, oil leaked out, and the spray bar didn't work right. I had the head checked at a shop, and the inside of the cam towers are perfectly in line. Don't know how the outer surface went out of line though. Rather than trying to "straighten" the cam tower by filing the outer surface, I slightly bent the spary bar to accomodate. I'll let you know how it works when I run the car in a few weeks, but it looked good going together.

I think I'm going to bypass the heater core in my 73. I know I'm in Massachusetts, but this is strictly going to be a sunny, Summer day car, so no need for heat. Plus I think the heater core may leak, so who needs it. I know this has sort of been covered, but I just want to make sure I don't screw anything up. So I'm just going to cap off the core lines coming through the firewall. Then I should just run a line from the back of the cylinder head to the radiator outlet on the passenger side of the block, right? I know a previous post that I found while searching talked about eliminating the outlet on the back of the cylinder head, but I can't see why I'd do that. Thanks in advance for the help. Oh yeah, and Go Sox!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just got the head back from the shop. It was thoroughly inspected and crack checked, nothing. So they took it apart, cleaned it up, new valve guides, polished the ports, put it back together, and adjusted all of the valve lash. It looks like its brand new. If anyone is in Southeastern Massachusetts and needs a good engine shop, the name of the shop is Precision Engine, in Dighton, MA. If anyone needs more info, email me, and I'll get you their phone number. They did an awesome job, at a very reasonable price (around $400 total, with a complete new engine gasket kit and a few other minor things). The coolest thing was the guy knew what the head was as soon as I opened up the bed of my truck, just by looking at it, and he talked for about a 1/2 hour about how much he regretted selling his 240Z when he "was a kid". I knew right then that he would take good care of me.

I need to replace my passsenger side floor pan, but the driver side is rock solid. Only the passenger side was rotted because the heater core was dripping. Does anyone sell individual floor pans? Every place I've found seems to only sell them in pairs. Thanks

I don't doubt I could eventually get them clean, but if they are readily available, I would just as soon replace them.

I bought a set of 3 screw round tops on eBay. The carbs cleaned up real well, but the drain plug was rusted, and ruined the fuel bowl assembly on both. Anybody know where I can get new fuel bowls?

Also, when I pulled the head off, I noticed that the 1, 2 and 3 pistons look like I would expect (minor black carbon build-up), but the 4, 5 and 6 looked clean. I suspect that this is because they were being "washed" with coolant. I realized that since the 4, 5 and 6 are fed by a separate manifold/carb set-up, that I may be barking up the wrong tree altogther. Maybe the leakage isn't coming from the head or block, maybe its coming from the rear carb/intake assembly. Has anybody had experience with coolant leakage from the carbs getting into the motor?