Zed Head

I missed the fact that he was missing the door plate. My misstake. There's a list of VIN's out there somewhere. His slot in the table might tell.

The build date might mean something.

The P90 head was usually, but not always, used on the turbo engines. If you see a P90 head you expect dished pistons in the block. The P79 head was the 280ZX NA head. Somebody might have swapped a turbo engine in to an NA car. All they'd have to do is remove the turbo parts. So it would end up as a low compression ratio NA engine. Your EFI stuff will work. It will work best if you keep everything factory stock. You said it would be nice to have more power. One other consideration is the "lifter", actually the rocker arm pivots. Most P90 heads used hydraulic rocker arm pivots. You can swap them to mechanical using Timesert thread inserts. Just one more mechanical thing to do of the hydraulics don't work right. They do wear out eventually. I'm not going to vote. No idea what you enjoy. My method is to go stare at the engines and poke around. You might find some show stoppers that just leave one. Look through the spark plug holes, and the oil filler cap. Take the valve cover off if he lets you. If they all have dished pistons then only the 76 engine will give the CR that you probably want for an NA engine. And, from what I've been reading over the last year or two, pistons are getting harder to find. The old days of getting cylinders bored and a set of oversize pistons might be gone. This guy posted a lot of interesting stuff. People don't always agree with everything he says but it's still informative. http://datsunzgarage.us/p90/ Don't overlook that your 77 engine's head can be used on any of those engines. You could pick the best short block of the P90 head engines to be sure that the pistons are reusable.

Of course, this is just a fun distraction, right? Not really worried about function. There's a ton of other ways to get filtered fuel to the carbs.

That's all? What did you do? How did it run? Did it idle?

p.s. if you get the turbo manifold you can make any NA engine a turbo engine, using Megasquirt. When examining the engines don't forget the little stuff like injectors, broken bolts/studs, water pump quality. The nickel and dime stuff.

Wow, that's some pressure. I'm not really the turbo guy though, I just read a lot. I always recommend picking the project that has what you like to do in it. To do a turbo engine right you really need to enjoy working on engine management, the wring, computer, AFM, associated turbo parts like the blow-off valve, etc. You need to be very techy. If you're not going to get the extra 1982 parts, like the computer, wiring harness and AFM from the ZX, then you'll need to choose an engine management system. 1982 engine management is pretty primitive though. Most guys end up with Megasquirt, for example. If you go that route then you'll need to tune it, using a computer and adjusting various tuning values. Very computery. @cgsheen1 has some definite views on turbo engine swaps, he's done a few. His view, as I recall, is that you'll learn a lot trying to use the 82 ZX engine management but in the end you'll want Megasquirt or a later model Nissan system. If you want to add power to an NA engine you'll probably need Megasquirt, again. The stock EFI system isn't tunable. Hard to get them running well after power mods, like a cam, apparently. The opposite is carbs of course. Then all of the old school stuff applies. If you're going to have the engine rebuilt anyway, the choice kind of boils down to carbs or computers. Which makes you feel best? By the way, the P90 head engine non-turbo might be a low compression dished piston engine. A turbo engine with no turbo. So it might need new pistons if you want to get some pep out of it. If you can tell by examination which engine seems least abused, that might be the way to go. Less money to make it right. Alright, the coffee has worn off...

This guy has good selection of all parts Z. https://zcardepot.com/collections/cooling-heating

How about a piece of Brillo pad. Actually, McMaster Carr has some neat stuff. Just thinking outside the automotive box. https://www.mcmaster.com/mufflers https://www.mcmaster.com/breather-vents

I wonder if they mean oil from Alabama... Or oil that moves.

Stuff from the 72 FSM. Might be similar in your new manual.

I couldn't find any carb stuff in the 70 or 71 FSM's. But 72 might get you started. Those are round top SU's I believe. ZTherapy sells a CD that describes how to make them work too. https://www.classiczcars.com/files/category/11-240z/ Click the "Spotter's Guide" in this link - http://www.ztherapy.com/

This is from the 72 FSM. "Suction pistons". The early FSM's are sparse on details. I don't even know if yours has SU's. Didn't mean to stomp on 7tooZ's post. Coincidence.

Try pulling a plug and squirting directly in to the cylinder. But, maybe, be sure that the carbs are opening. The SU's are an odd carb, with a piston that rises to let air in based on intake vacuum. The SU guys will know more but I think it's possible that the carbs are stuck shut. So the starting fluid won't make it through. Just a guess.

This part might have been overlooked. It's a very nice looking car but it's unclear why it was parked. Also, after 15 years the cylinders can get pretty dry. If the ATF just ran to the bottom of the cylinder you might still have six dry bores. Squirt some some 30 weight in there all over the place, to get the rings to seal. I remember getting a free 1963 Bonneville if me and my friend could get it started. We spend half a day leaned over the engine bay when a farmer came by on his tractor. He said "try squirting some oil in the cylinders". We did and it fired right up. This was after getting towed down a country road at 50 mph because we had heard that even automatic transmissions will drive the engine if you go fast enough. Ridiculous, in retrospect. ("Retrospect"...who came up with that word?).

Here's some used ones. You probably want to confirm the shape of the plug though. There seems to be confusion out there. https://zcarsource.com/gauges-relays-motors/relays-sensors/ignition-relay It's just two relays in one box.

Out here, you can crack the window open for about half the year. I spent some time in Mississippi. I'm familiar.

Funny, I did the exact same thing, but haven't had it checked. I was lucky enough to find an old-timer, retired, who was selling off his old stock. He described how to get close on setting the air. Wish there were more videos out there about it but the burner guys probably don't want everybody eyeball-tuning their burners. I think I've watched all of Lavimoniere's videos. They're entertaining. I've used diesel in my tank when I got low. Heating oil is dyed red to show that it hasn't had the road tax applied. I think it might be illegal to use it in a vehicle. I'm sure that guys in the know do though.

Not to be negative, but what stops the engine from moving sideways? The bolts will have a large lever acting on them and there are no bolsters to keep it in place. If you crank the bolt down on the puck then you'll have a solid metal path from engine to body. You might find that you can get some movement just by hand if you grab the top of the engine and shake. If you examine the stock mounts, from front to back, you'll see that they all have a break in the metal path, and they all have a back stop of metal in case things move. Everything is floating on rubber. Something to consider. The transmission mount is considered the third engine mount by Nissan.

The one thing about heat pumps is that they're slow and they run almost all of the time because of it. Kind of noisy. My neighbor installed one a couple of years ago and now the silence of night is replaced by the hum of a motor.

Truck and a hose. I watch the spot price sometimes to try to save a few dollars.

Points are very simple (no offense) they close and current flows through them and to ground, they open, current stops, and spark happens. Make sure that the other side of the points has a good ground back to the battery/alternator, and that the points actually close to make the circuit, and that they fully open to break it. You have to make it and you have to break it. You can test both with a meter, under the distributor cap, with the key on. Everything is exposed and ready for poking. Not sure what "coil has spark" means either....

p.s. the 280ZX relays are the same except that they added a separate ground pin, instead of grounding through the mounting points.

The BE chapter has several schematics that should let you figure out what's what. I think that it's essentially just two 4 pin relays in the same box. I couldn't find a single picture that showed every pin, but here's one that shows one side. You other option is to just take the old one apart and copy it.

What do you guys burn up there? I'm still on oil. It's a dying technology around here I had to learn how to rebuild my own furnace.