Zed Head

You said that you lost lash on one valve. Maybe the valve seat wasn't seated in the head and it dropped in as the engine ran. Not good, but not disastrous unless you burned the valve when you had no lash. Just a thought. I know also, that valve lash is lost over time in general as valve seats and valve faces wear. I'd imagine that some tightening of lash is normal during break-in. Would depend on what wears more, valve and seat or the cam lobs and rocker wear pads.

That's life. Most people have to pay for past actions, mistakes or not. If you want to be proactive, reply to the members here who had problems and show that those errors are gone. There are at least two. And by the way, there are at least two engine build vendors that get good reviews on this forum on a fairly regular basis. So it is possible to build a good reputation. Good luck.

There should be a plate on the driver's side door jamb that has a date stamped, like 1/76. That's a clue, plus each year has some small differences. If you post a picture, it could probably be figured out. Or look at pictures of 280Z's on Google or on this site.

I was joking, sort of. Purpose determines value. For your stated purpose though, that car looks like an excellent choice. If it's been maintained and driven, it's probably dependable. It's the "ran when parked " cars that sat for 10 years that have the problems.

It looks in great shape. You could start a completely new forum on "worth". It could be a philosophy forum. Or a money forum. Or a time plus skill forum. An emotion forum. Family forum. The transmission swap isn't that hard. If you have the time and skill. And the extra money. And it makes you feel good, and your family is okay with you spending time away, on the car. Some would say it's not right to change an original car, but that can be debated.

I must have read this before the edit because I saw the part about "last I checked". So the question would be do the points look fine, and are they gapped correctly, now. The part about somehow the points got off makes you wonder how they did that. The first, basic, thing that most people would do is to check for spark. You can do that with a spark plug wire and a bolt, or by removing the main wire from the distributor cap. You don't even need any tools. By turning the engine or by opening and closing the points by hand. You can also check for power to the coil with the key on, if you have a meter, to be sure that you haven't been misdirected by the points. It might not be the points at all.

He was just pointing out a potential problem. Probably depends on if you use a thick wall or thin wall socket. Fairly easy concept to understand though, the socket won't fit in the bolt head well if it's too big. Apparently your isn't.

This isn't really a drifting site. Not even many, if any, 300ZX owning members. Send a PM to the Zociety guy or post in his thread, or on his web site. Might get some recommendations there. http://www.classiczcars.com/topic/51665-zociety/

Depends on which part it is. I've seen the plastic gears on the removable assembly be screwed up. But the gear in the transmission tail shaft housing is plastic also, I believe. It is replaceable but requires removing the transmission. $14.85. Part #65. http://www.carpartsmanual.com/datsunS30/DatsunZIndex/PowerTrain/TransmissionGears/5Speed/tabid/1708/Default.aspx http://www.courtesyparts.com/gear-speed-p-344016.html Make sure they know what they're doing. If your gear assembly (part #59, talked about in Post #6 above) wasn't clocked correctly, the gears could lose contact. It would look broken but just require a slight rotation. If they just watch to see if things rotate from the outside they may not understand about the offset of the gear shaft.

I would build some rollers for the back wheels, pipe the exhaust system outside, and use it as a driving simulator. Win, win, win.

Common to any old fuel tank. Small amounts of moisture will find their way in even with good sealing. The light volatile portion of the fuel finds its way out. You're left with goo and rust. You'll probably have to drop the tank to get it fixed right. Lots of people try to get it done on the car but they usually have recurring fuel supply problems.

Buy a can of Fogging Spray and do the intake system and cylinders. It prevent surface rust on cylinder walls and valve/valve seat surfaces. http://www.autozone.com/fuel-and-engine-cleaners-additives/fogging-oil-and-fuel-stabilizer/sta-bil-fogging-oil/94416_0_0/

Tire size has an effect also. You can tell if it's an offset or a ratio problem by the numbers. If it's the same number off over a wide range, like 3 mph at all speeds, then moelk's fix will work. If it's off more the faster you go then it's a ratio problem and you'll need a different gear. Might have to live with it since the gear ratio choices are limited.

I've seen engines dropped with the cross member. Considering how light our cars are I wonder if wouldn't be easier to lift the car and slide the engine and cross member underneath.

I have a 76 with factory AC. When I got it the temperature control cable (or rod, that's how I think of it since it's solid) was kinked from somebody forcing it in the past. So it didn't move the full range. The kink was behind the panel so you couldn't see it until the panel was removed. After fixing that I'm pretty sure it moved the full range. In other words, it seemed to work right. But I've modified it since then. My thermostatic control capillary was dead so the system went from no heat to full heat within about 1/8 of the lever's range. I installed a Honda control valve (CO wrote a thread on it - thanks!) which works great except that it also only need a small (tiny) amount of movement to flow lots of hot coolant. Way more than needed. Had to redrill some holes and fabricate some new actuators to get more fine control. My AC cooling doesn't work either, the system needs maintenance. Somebody needs to find a modern system that can be plumbed in to our cars, with heated conditioned air for the windshield and through the top vents, like today's cars do. There's got to be something out there.

Rossi seemed to come out okay once it was clear that there was a problem. The question is whether the new products, produced now, are correct and properly checked before sale, or if the same problems are being shipped and only fixed if there's a complaint. Proactive versus reactive. There's a member out there right now with an issue. Let's see how it turns out.

Do you have a list of what was replaced, and what they were replaced with? Factory bushings or aftermarket? There are a lot of bushings on the car. And, why did you have the bushings replaced? Is the car worse, the same, or better but still not good, now?

Actually, this thread is for your benefit, Al. Glad you decided to respond. Some of the feedback that's out there suggested that you were in denial about the poor assembly of some of your parts, so this is a spot to collect that information and share it, with you, and with classizcars.com members. Now you can go to your engine builder with solid facts and get things right. Good luck. Seriously. It would be great to have a good solid vendor for this market. You're one of the few, so you can milk it until it dies or build it up strong.

The links in the first post don't work anymore and I can't edit them. Seems to be the https portion. http://www.californiadatsun.com/ http://www.californiadatsun.com/testimonials/ http://www.californiadatsun.com/contact-owner-al-allen-of-california-datsun-inc.html

Adding a couple of thread links about this company for any future searchers. http://www.classiczcars.com/topic/51681-oil-pressure-uneven/ http://www.classiczcars.com/topic/50485-rocker-geometry-woes/page-1

This won't make you feel better or help your problem directly, but it might help you if you find problems. Better check your wipe patterns n the rocker arms. And Datsun Parts LLC is now California Datsun. Give him a call. http://www.classiczcars.com/topic/50485-rocker-geometry-woes/page-1 http://www.classiczcars.com/topic/51455-datsun-parts-llc-gone-to-the-dark-side/

Your tachometer behavior is common. Typically, the sticking happens when it's hot in the car, like on a hot day. Disturbing that you had a "few blown fuses". That means shorts. Fuses should never blow. Many people have factory original fuses. Sounds like your ignition relay (not module) might be bad. Mine was bypassed also. Does your radio work with the key in the Acc. position? It should.

Yes, the plug was used in 1978. I think it was also used in 1974, on the 260Z (maybe not the same wiring, but still a plug). But in between, the screw terminal block was used. With a wiring diagram you can make any of them work. I used 1978 module in my 76 for a little while. Note though, that some modules have two ignition circuits, one to advance the timing while cold. It's not super important, the engine will run fine once warmed up with any of them, but idle speed will drop for a short while between cold and warmed up if you don't have the advance feature (see Chickenman's recent posting on dual pickup phasing). Barely noticeable if you lose it, but nice if you can keep it.

Same thing.

It's right next to your left leg when you're sitting in the driver's seat. Behind the black plastic kick panel. Three screws.