steve91tt

Wow! Big difference. thanks for sharing.

Those seats are beautiful! Do you have photos of the msa seats to compare?

I am considering redoing the seats in my 1973 240Z in leather. I have been looking at both the MSA and classic Datsun leather kits but I have been unable to find much on the forum from folks that have used either kit. Anyone have any experience with leather in a Z?

Oldhemi, I very much appreciate your offer and I might just take you up on it. The car is up on jack stands at the moment and the fuel system is in pieces. I will be trouble shooting this weekend and coating the tank. If all goes well I hope to have it together for the next round of testing next weekend. I plan to use an IR thermometer to track where the heat is going in the cooling system and use that data to figure out where to look next.

Jan, thanks for the feedback. I believe that my system is plumbed the way you describe and the way it is described in previous posts(sorry for the poor photo). The flow comes out of the rad where it forks. Part of the flow goes to the block in the front of the engine and part goes to the upper heater hose. It comes back from the heater and into an inlet in the back of the block.

I plan to take all the lines and filters off and blow them down or replace as necessary while I wait for the POR15 to get here. Before I removed the tank I confirmed that I have return flow by pulling the return line from the tank and running it into a gas can. With the ignition on (car not started) fuel trickled from the return so I know the electric pump is working and the return system is not 100% blocked.

I dropped the tank tonight and found more gunk in the tank than I had expected. The inside surface looks 99% good but there are a few rust spots which I assume is the source of the black bits floating in the bottom of the tank. I have a can of POR15 on order so hopefully after I coat the tank and replace the filters my fuel problem will be solved. Fingers crossed.:classic:

Could I have a coolant line routing issue? The PO made a few "modifications" to the routing. He capped off the line at the back of the engine on the spark plug side... And he capped off all of the water lines on the intake side. Does this look right?

Well, that didn't seem to fix the issue. It's 70F today. If I drive for a couple of blocks I get a solid 700 RPM idle and the gauge sits a little over half way. However, after a few minutes idling the gauge goes to about 3/4 and the engine starts to cut out. It will even stall if I don't give it gas. I'm going to take apart the fuel system tonight to trouble shoot that end but I'm pretty sure I still have a cooling issue. New rad, pump, thermostat, hoses, fan, clutch, shroud...What's left?:disappoin

Update: I installed a new thermostat, water pump, rad and heater hoses. I also added a MSA fan shroud. Observations: 1. The fan shroud is a bit more of a challenge to install than I thought it would be. It did not fit as shipped but with a little modification all is well. Here is a link to a good post on the topic. http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30889&highlight=shroud+fit 2. The old thermostat was a 160F unit. I replaced it with a 180F unit. I tested both side by side in hot water and both opened when they should. 3. The old water pump looked good inside and out. However, the impeller on the new pump was iron where the old pump was aluminum. I'm not sure if it matters.:paranoid: The old pump was stamped "AC delco" 4. I dunked a magnet in the old coolant and found a couple of grams of metal shavings. I'm not sure where these came from as the old water pump showed no signs of wear. 5. The car runs fine. No leaks. The temperature gauge runs a little higher than it used to. About a needle width past half where the old thermostat would run about a needle width below half. I ran it around town and let it idle for 10 minutes. No overheating. However, it's only about 55F here today so the real test will have to wait for the sun to come out.

Good tip, bolts on order.

I took the car out at lunch today, more observations: 1. While idling, waiting at the drive through (5min?), 70°F outside, AC off, the temperature gauge moved up slightly (half way?). The car started to idle a little rough and stumbled slightly as I pulled away. After 1 block of 40 mph, all was good again. Stable idle, temperature gauge down. 2. The fuel pump is loud some times times and other times it is quiet. Theory: 1. Fuel pickup issue is causing the fuel pump to intermittently make noise because of air in the system. 2. Unexplained cooling issue(s). Plan: 1. Replace thermostat and water pump. Both are inexpensive and current parts of of unknown origin. 2. Install fan shroud 3. Drop tank and check pickup/fittings more carefully.

Beandip, I am running two in-line filters (one before each pump). I will check the fuel rail and t-stat tonight and get back to you. Thanks very much for the feedback.

Oldhemi, thanks for the feedback. To answer your questions... I currently have only seen overheating when idling (3 min.?) with AC on. The temperature gauge The temperature goes back down as soon as the car starts moving. The rad hose gets somewhat hard when hot but not harder than other cars I have worked on. I will check for wet water pump tonight.

This is my first carb'ed vehicle. Is it typical to have to richen the mixture when the weather gets hot? I was very happy with the mixture in cooler conditions. Great idle, excellent tip in, no pinging and nice consistent plugs. It's easy to fatten it up a click or two and see what happens. Something else for the trouble shooting list!

I don't think that there is junk in the tank but I could be wrong. I dropped the tank recently and did not notice any corrosion when I poked a flashlight in. I am also running a prefilter before the electric pump. I believe the issue is temperature related as it seems repeatable. When I start the car it runs great but if I let it idle in the driveway with the AC on it starts to idle badly. I have not tried it with the AC off but I will give it a try tomorrow. I am running the stock return line. The tank is about 2/3 full currently but I will fill it up to see if this has an effect. I did not think about the thermostat. Could this be it?

I've got a stock 1973 240Z on which I have recently changed: 1. Z therapy carbs 2. plugs, wires, pertronix, coil, cap, roter 3. electric fuel pump (RX7) 4. fuel lines 5. aluminum radiator 6. fan and fan clutch 7. AC system The car runs great when it's 75°F or less outside but as soon as it gets into the 80's bad things happen. 1. The car idles rough and hesitates on acceleration. 2. The temperature gauge starts moving towards the red zone. 3. The reading on my fuel pressure gauge (installed inline just before the mechanical fuel pump) starts to pulsate and eventually goes to zero. I have a new fan shroud sitting on my bench, to be installed when I get some time next week so hopefully that will solve the overheating problem. I believe that the fuel pressure gauge may be a red herring because when I shut the car down and open the line to the gauge fuel sprays everywhere, even when it is reading zero. I'm thinking the gauge is not working. It feels like vapor lock to me but how so with both a mechanical and electric pump in the system? If this car won't run correctly at 80°F it's not going to like the summers time. Any thoughts?

Here are a few photos of the install. It's still a work in progress as I'm not 100% satisfied with routing of hoses or wires but it's all getting taken apart for paint soon anyways so it will do for now. Interior... Under the hood... Components...

Yes, it definitely puts a load on the engine. I don't notice it so much driving around but the car idles a couple of hundred RPM lower and the throttle response is not as good with the compressor engaged. I suspect that it's not as bad as the York as the newer compressor is more efficient but I don't have any data to back that up.

Can it be converted to 134a...yes. Is it worth the time and expense of converting...it depends. If the current system does not cool then there is something wrong with it and converting to 134a will most likely not fix the problem. If it leaks then you have to fix the leak. If the compressor won't spin then you have to fix the compressor. If on the other hand the system does work then you would have to flush the system with solvent to remove all the old oil and change the o-rings as the R12 o-rings will not stand up to the 134a oil. You might also look at "Freeze 12" as an o-ring compatible option. In my case, I did not want to jack with converting and trouble shooting a 40 year old system so I just scrapped it and started with a nice new compressor, evaporator and condenser. I currently use this car as a daily driver and in Texas I need a good AC system in a daily driver.

I would be interested to see how you routed your hose to the dryer under the hood. It looks to me like Courtesy and Nostalgic use the same system. The way I have it installed, the Nostalgic hose is a couple of feet too long from the evaporator to the dryer but I may not have them routed correctly as the photos in the instructions were impossible to decipher. It works the way it is but I plan to clean up the installation when I blow it apart for paint so any advice on routing would be great.

My car came with the original 1973 dealer installed AC unit. I removed it the day after I bought the car. It took me about 30 minutes to remove the entire system. Very straight forward. The Nostagic air system looks the same inside the car. Under the hood the old York compressor is replaced with a smaller, modern 134a unit that goes either below or instead of the smog pump. In other words, under the hood is a cleaner install, under the dash...not so much. I will say the system blows super cold and strong at the moment (35°F at the vent 70°F ambient) but I will reserve judgment until it is 100°F and 75% humidity here in Texas. I will get some photos uploaded soon.

Thanks, these cars are a dream to work on compared to the twin turbo Z that I spent the last 10 years wrenching. Everything on the twin turbo takes 5 times as long and costs 3 times as much! I'm trying to get the 240 to "daily driver" shape before the Texas summer hits and makes working in the garage/sauna a chore.

This form is great. With the help of you guys I have been restoring a very original, zero rust 1973 240Z with 60K miles on it. In the last few weeks I have. 1. New Z-therapy carbs 2. New bushings front and back 3. Honda blower mod 4. RX7 fuel pump mod 5. Dynomat in key places 6. New fuel vent hoses 7. No more exhaust fumes! 8. New exhaust from the factory down pipes back 9. new radiator, mechanical fan and clutch 10. New struts 11. Lots of other bits and pieces Yesterday's project was to replace the old York R12 AC system with a new unit from Nostalgic Air. Nice kit. It included everything I needed to do the job. Here is a photo of my previous system... The entire install took about 7 hours with breaks including evacuating and charging the system. It seems to work well. The vents blow hard and I am getting a vent temperature of about 35F. However, the proof will be how it works in the Texas summer. Next job...blow it all apart and off to paint!

Thanks Arne. I called Massey and it looks like they can hook me up!