Zed Head

Is it just my old Z, so degraded by the sun, that is really hard to keep a clean windshield? I i get a a light haze within a couple of weeks of cleaning that is really hard to remove. For a while I thought it might duck(t) tape that I had on the seats releasing plasticizer, but it's gone now. Then I thought it was a small coolant leak, depositing antifreeze stuff, but that's fixed now. Whatever it is is difficult to remove. Windex and paper towels, Windex and shop towels, clean damp wash cloths from the house, newspapers, etc. none of the cleaning tricks work. The only thing I've found that works for a while is a new OCELO sponge, straight from the wrapper. No cleaner, just the sponge, as a last step after the bulk of the residue is removed. Even other brands of sponges won't work. Anyone have any unusual cleaning tricks. Does everyone's windshield dirty up fast or is it just mine. p.s. I also have Home Depot outdoor carpet in my back panel with might be releasing plasticizer in to the air, redepositing on the windshield. Might be time to change that out just to see, but still wondering if it's just old plastic degrading in general. p.s. 2 - I've probably cleaned the windshield on my Pathfinder twice since I bought it new in 1994. It just doesn't get dirty on the inside.

I think that it is switched on when the key is on (pretty sure it's the under hood click I hear when I turn the key on) but it switches off above 10 mph. Checking for voltage above below 10 mph is part of the testing protocol. Emission Control chapter. If your car had AC but doesn't now, the AC compressor wire is in the vicinity. They get mixed up occasionally. You might also short or bypass the amplifier in the cabin.

The term "coilovers" is commonly used to describe adjustable spring perches, and shortened struts. Shortened struts to lower the car, and spring perches for adjusting ride height. The springs used and the shock absorbers determine suspension behavior. If you're going to lower the car, and want the ability to fine tune ride height, maybe frequently, then "coilovers" would be the way to go. If you're only going to lower the car 1 - 1.5" then lowering springs and good shocks would be the inexpensive way to go. People often get the lowering part confused and end up with shocks that are at the extreme end of travel, either too compressed and bouncing off of the bump stops or shock internals, or cut the struts too much and end up topped out. Just adding some detail. Lots of ways to go wrong with "coilovers" if you don't define what you're really trying to do and have a good plan. The cars already have "coil over strut" or "coil over shock" (pick your term) suspension.

I've never raced, but it seems like a fuel pump kill switch would be a track requirement. Is this not the case everywhere or does it vary?

Just for general discussion, but have you driven a Z car? Any of them 240 to 280? Hard to see how you can decide on these things without experiencing the car. You don't have a reference point. Both Rossiz and myself bought our cars thinking that we would pull the small L28 engines, and replace them with big powerful small block chevy V8's. Neither of us did after driving the cars, and Rossi is even going backward in technology to carbs, from EFI. As for dismantling the car, why? And how far? Again, just curious. If you're going down to bare metal on a stripped body, you might consider welding in some reinforcement while it's clean. The 240 body is not as stiff as the 280 body, and there are some things that you can do while it's stripped that will be much easier than when it's together. But you'll still need a concept in mind for what the final product will be. Anyway, good luck. Hope it doesn't end up as just many boxes of parts.

Then he'll want to read this thread - http://forums.hybridz.org/topic/50208-the-ultimate-l28et-guidewhat-you-need-for-350whp/ Even trying to stay cheap, stock and NA, I easily went over $3000 spent to get mine in good running condition within about a year (I drove it anyway in bad condition for that year). The nickels and dimes just add up: master cylinders (brake and clutch), slave cylinder, wheel cylinder, calipers, booster, brake lines, tires, lug nuts, fuel pump, exhaust manifold resurface, gaskets, clutch set, injectors, more gaskets, shocks, etc. These engines are so durable that, unless the camshaft has gone flat, you can almost always get them running. If he goes out and buys a turbo engine thinking he'll drop it in and be driving, his budget's probably shot before it can even power itself out of the driveway. Edit - sorry, just feeling blunt. Nothing wrong with getting information for a plan...

Might be easiest to build your own. It will have some leverage at the junction so you'll want a good tight fit on to the existing shifter, and some thickness for rigidity. You might also be able to find a truck shifter that's longer and cut it down.

High performance cams also do this but the 274 seems like a fairly mild grind.

Hybridz would be good for you once you decide. But those guys tend to know what they want - more power, more speed, better handling - so maybe not be much help deciding. Restore here, modify extensively there. You won't find much stance or drift over there except for how to go faster low, or how to make more power for drifting. There's a thread on swapping a stock turbo n to early Z's, well read since most people have problems with it. Just saying, it's not like a transmission or diff swap. http://forums.hybridz.org/topic/38461-240z-260z-280z-turbo-swap-guide/

This is a better clue. You're saying that the idle speed fluctuates, like up-down-up-down-up-down. That's different than just idle speed decreasing. I'm not a carb expert, let alone Z carbs, but this sounds like a carb issue.

I was more concerned about driving high in nighties... Anyway. Back on topic.

Please...even though there is a Boobs thread, this is generally not that kind of forum.

Oops. I read it backwards. Or sideways. The L28ET will take a lot of money-dumping also. I'll stick with the basics then, drive the car first with whatever inexpensive engine that can be found. You just can't make an informed decision until you've driven the car. He might decide he doesn't like straight sixes at all and go V8. And you can't even find a used turbo engine these days for less than $600, probably $1200 or more. Then you have to do engine management, wiring, exhaust system, new drive shaft if he goes T5, etc. It's a big big project. That second big is not a typo.

Didn't realize you were planning to sell the car already. So the real question is "will this car be worth more with a turbo engine or with the L24 that's in it?". From what I've seen, the only modified Z cars that make a profit are those that are very well-done, by a professional shop. Otherwise, it's always just some guy trying to sell his own personal vision of what modifications he thought were worth doing. The ads always say spent lots of money so the car is worth lots of money. But they never get it. The other side of the spectrum is people who want to modify and drive their own personal vision. They like to start with an unmodified car. So, your best path to making a profit is probably to just clean up what you have, fix the PO's mistakes (his vision, like the bondo roof), make it more presentable, and sell it. Maybe get it running with as little money spent as possible. Basically, flip it quick like one of the car shows on TV. Edit - forgot to say, the "turbo swap" is nowhere near as easy to do as the internet makes it sound. After your budget gets nickel and dimed to a huge number, you'll probably have an engine that almost runs okay. The forums are full of turbo swap problems.

That plug doesn't look bad. The ground strap is getting hot and burning off deposits like it should and the center ceramic looks clean even though it has some color. Why don't you describe a typical situation where the idle starts to drop. "Stuck in traffic" doesn't have any detail. Are you driving down the road just fine, then hit a stop light, and the idle drops immediately? Or does it take 5 minutes of slow driving before the idle drops? Does the engine temperature increase as the idle starts to change,or is it steady, and the idle changes just from sitting? Tell a story about driving in to traffic and what happens, with lots of detail. Don't tell what you've done to the engine, just what the engine does from your view, inside.

Overall - more power, different sound, different on-throttle behavior. The second part is on you. Everything's a bolt-on, except the T5, which only takes minor modification to install. And the T5 is generally thought to be over-rated. Good intentions, not well-executed by Nissan. The 71B has does fine for numerous high-power engines. You could even convert your L24 to hydraulic lifters if you wanted, but nobody ever does that. Most go the other way with the turbo engines. Many have said it already, but you should really get what you have running, drive it, then decide what you want.

Did the PO tell you there was a layer of body filler or have you started sanding? It's pretty common, I think, to lay a thin layer down on most large surface areas to fill any small dings and defects. Because they'll stand out otherwise, after painting.

Looks like Nissan depended on the mechanical to start the engine. The engine has to be running to get power there. Looks like the correct plug though.

Might be that the it's not the AFM work that's fixing the problem, but the ignition module cooling down. What happens if the car sits for the same amount of time that it takes to diddle with the AFM? Does it start normally and then have the same problem? What is the tachometer needle dong when the problem happens, does it start jumping around or is it steady and normal? If the tach needle acts weird and doesn't seem to follow RPM, and the engine doesn't run right, might be module. The key for you now is to make good observations about what's happening and only small changes so that you're always able to start the engine.

Without knowing what fooling around with things means, it has all of the symptoms of a bad battery connection. The connection will pass low current, to light the charge light (which is correct, with the engine not running and the key on), and beep the seat belt beeper. The high current draw of the starter when you try to Start causes the bad connection to heat up and open and everything goes dead. Check the connections at the battery posts, and the cable itself if you have the clamped-on "fixed" cables. They have to be cleaned with a battery terminal cleaner to be sure, and clamped tightly. No screwdriver-scraping and press-on-and-twist operations.

There's a conversation going on about modifying old Z cars. Made me think of this Gas Monkey Garage car that got hacked up, probably because the show is running out of ideas (Tequila and a hamburger anyone?). Sorry, there's an ad to suffer through first - Take a collectible classic and cut it up so bad that it can never be restored. Also just saw an article about putting batteries in old cars. They'll probably do that next. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt. http://www.bbc.com/autos/story/20150521-vintage-gas-guzzlers-ripe-for-a-battery-powered-reboot

Have you measured anything? Fuel pressure, timing, engine temperature (there's a gauge in the dash, with numbers), resistance values at the ECU? The bogging out could be a clogged fuel system, maybe in the fuel tank. Leaving a pressure gauge hooked up until the problem happens is the best way to see that. When you say "shut off while driving" do you mean at idle, while going 50 mph, while accelerating, dies then restarts, loses power like it's about to die, makes dying noises? See the problem? Those are all "shut off" but there are different possible reasons for each one. If it happens while driving it could be the ignition module. I've solved a lot of problems just by trying to figure out how to tell someone else what the problem is. You need to do more work on the description. "Die", "shut off", and "bog" are not enough. Sorry, that's just the way it is. All we have out here are the words you write and the pictures. You've only posted three numbers, one was the year of car, and the other two were RPM. Did the car sit for a long time before you got it (how long) or was someone driving it?

You're way ahead of many in that your car runs. And that it used to run well before you "cleaned up" the intake manifold. But you'll need to get in to the fine details to get it back to where it was before. Even that little vacuum port will change the air-fuel ratio a small amount. Add up several like that and it's a big effect. Good luck.

EFI just requires more accuracy and precision than this. Seriously. "Random" and "need for air" just won't get it done, you have to get numbers. It seems difficult but once you make some progress you'll see the value. The EFI system just can't be beat on like old carb systems can. Here's a case study on how to go from bad to good - http://www.classiczcars.com/topic/51367-project-boondoggle-or-so-i-went-and-bought-a-z/ http://www.classiczcars.com/topic/51531-sanity-check-on-280z-fi-tests/

Nice. Even when the things that should work, do work, it's still a surprise. Those are low numbers. Consider the coolant circuit potentiometer tweak for adding a little bit of fuel, if it's lean. Many of us use it,