Walter Moore

Actually, I don't know if you trust Wikipedia, but according to this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_850 The 840 wasn't actually a later model than the 850. Apparently the 8 series was available with both motors until the end of production.

Wow! Looks like I struck a nerve! Did you have a bad personal experience with the model in question? I always liked the styling, and always wanted a V12... But I have no experience, with the 8 series, and am unlikely to ever plunk down the cost of one. Considering what a pain my son's 3 series was to repair, I have reservations about ever messing with another BMW period.

Where will you go? I admit however that I didn't throw the points distributors away when I went to electronic ignition... I could always put one back on the car if I HAD to.

I haven't seen this posted anywhere else, and though it was depressing. I downloaded the final U.S. Cash for Clunkers trade-in list and sorted it by make and model. (In its download form it is sorted by the new vehicle purchased for some reason...) Our beloved government PAID to have 363 completely operational Nissan 300ZXs destroyed. (And 318 Toyota Supra's were "recycled" as well.) Hope no one here wanted one of those for their collection. (I will not discuss the BMW 850i total... )

Depending upon how full the tank is, get a big container to hold it. Oh, and if it has been sitting for five years or more, it will be closer to furniture polish than gasoline.

Welcome! I will answer the questions that I can: 1. The tach reading high is pretty typical, particularly if the ignition has been upgraded. 2. Bleeding the brakes is just like any other older car. 3. I have no idea, but I am sure someone else around here does.

It appears to be a relay with a rubber boot to protect the terminals. I will defer to the 280Z experts on its purpose, but I suspect all you need is a new boot, assuming that everything on your car works.

It was probably what he found or had laying around. But the 280Z head does breath better, so it might not be a bad combination.

Is it as ugly as this?

Hey, I think I recognize that car... Welcome to the site. Will you be at the Indy Z car club meeting Thursday? See you around.

The points distributor that came on the 240Z was an early attempt at emissions control, so it has a funky advance curve. The other issue is that points distributors always end up eating the bearings because of the side load produced by the points themselves. I ended up with two points distributors, neither of which had a working vacuum advance, so I went the ZX upgrade path, and I suspect that the complexities you mention may relate to some of my posts trying to sort it out. What I do know is that after I got it working the car runs WAY better than it did before. It spins better at high RPM and pulls way better at low RPM. How much of that is just due to having a working vacuum advance, and good bearings versus the re-curving work that I did on the distributor I cannot possibly say. My expectation is that the whole distributor upgrade concept is going to have more effect on an early 240Z than it would on a late 280Z. But I will not criticize anyone for the choices they make on their restoration/upgrade path. I just published my results to help others has so many on this site have helped me.

Looking at the FSM for a 79 (different car, I know...) it looks like the EFI computer was originally hooked to the - terminal of the ignition coil. The FSM states in almost so many words that the EFI computer counts three pulses then fires all six fuel injectors at the same time. (Count to three then fire all guns. Seems crude to me, but without a crank sensor I guess that was the best they could do.) Anyway, that might explain the flooding. The MSD sends multiple pulses to the coil for each plug fire event. So if it was sending say 6 pulses each time, then the EFI computer would have fired the injectors twice for every plug fire event, which would put something like SIX TIMES as much fuel into the intake as the engine could burn.:eek: I have one suggestion. If you have access to an oscilloscope, take a look at the signal that is present on the negative side of the coil with the the car running on the stock ignition system. That should give you a hint of what you need to duplicate. Good Luck.

On an old distributor the thing that wears out on the points is the plastic cam follower. Once the bearings are shot the distributor will eat points like mad. I ended up going with a ZX distributor and the E12-80 module, but I agree with Steve that the GM module is a lot cheaper and would work just as well. The big issue on the ZX distributors is the vacuum advance curve. (Search my posts on that subject for more information.) I also agree that the cheapest approach might very well be to buy a new "Euro" distributor and a Pertronix. It also completely bypasses the entire issue with re-curving the vacuum advance.

On my car the headlight aiming is complicated by the fact that the adjusters were broken. I bought aftermarket replacements at a local auto parts store (in the help section) but they don't secure to the moving part of the housing correctly. I had to remove the headlight buckets and use over-sized washers to trap the light frames and hold them at the correct angle. I have serious doubts about whether it will work over the long haul.

I think that the issue was only a perception within Nissan. I am willing to bet that for most of the past 30 years most Americans wouldn't have been able to correctly name the six different "makes" of cars and trucks that were built by General Motors. (Who never used the actual company name on anything except trucks, sort of... Today the trucks are just GMC, no name, just initials.) I guess Daimler sells trucks by that name in Europe, but they have never renamed the Mercedes Benz cars to the company name. (At least not in this market.) Oh, and Nissan has never been as large, either in global market share or total capitalization as Toyota, so why should their president be treated the same way?

I had to resort to Ebay to find mine.

Between the exhaust note, and the stereo trying to keep up I can barely hear any squeaks... But then I have nearly 30 years in and out of industrial plants of various sorts. My hearing isn't what it once was. :classic:

The white plug is an expansion reservoir. Opinions vary (use the search function) as to the usefulness of this object. It would be great to find a period correct replacement. Many people apparently plug the hole when it breaks off. See the attached picture for my solution.

Yes, 84 was the first year of the 300ZX, which uses a 3.0L V6 for both the turbo and NA motor.

Where is the "All of the above" choice?

Here is a hint, typically the #1 plug socket on the distributor should point directly forward. If you still have points make sure that they are actually opening far enough. The coil is a transformer, it couldn't care less about polarity, but if the wires are hooked up wrong you may not be sufficient current to create a good spark. Getting a car with unknown timing issues started can be hard for people who know what they are doing. Learning on the job is really frustrating. Hang in there. Oh and here where I live we have "blight" laws about "junk cars" sitting outside as well. Typically if the car is properly plated and looks like it might run they will leave it alone, but it remains illegal to "store" non-running cars outdoors in most cities. The city can actually tow the car to impound if you don't get it out of site. If is stored inside a building they can't say anything. Don't feel uniquely persecuted. Use the search function to look for more tips on "timing" and Distributor setup.

On the American cars that I have owned the bumpers usually popped back out on their own a few days after a minor collision. I suspect that you could carefully pound on the back side of the bumper with a hammer (using a wood block to protect the bumper) and the damper would eventually return to its original length. (Allowing the bumper to return to the stock location.) A bottle jack should work as well.

People block off the carb heater lines because they are not needed if the car is ONLY driven in WARM weather, and like all hoses eventually the ones to the carbs rot and burst. So after they start leaking naturally some owners will just block off the lines rather than buy the expensive molded hoses to replace them. If you are only going to drive the car, or run the engine in warm weather I suppose they are not necessary. But then what passes for "warm" weather in CT (or Indiana) is different than Southern California or Texas. Personally, I bought the hoses and hooked them up. As for the flat tops, I have never even seen them so I have no personal knowledge. Sblake01 has stated in the past that they can be made to work properly. But support for them is very lacking. Most people seem to scrap them and install round tops. Good luck with your project.

I think your initial priorities are correct. God's speed.

Ferraris are rare to start with, Zs only become rare with age. There is within the demographic that is spending ridiculous amounts on old muscle cars a very strong, but mostly unstated bias against Japanese cars. The big block U.S. iron reminds them of the "good old days" when gas was cheap and displacement was power. In most of the U.S., Japanese cars became popular only after the oil crisis and emissions controls choked the life out of the big three. There may be exceptions but most of the muscle car crowd judges cars by cubic inches, with 327 being the minimum acceptable number. The 146 to 170 of a Z car just doesn't make the grade.